The Hour Is Coming, And Now Is

But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
[John 4:23 NKJV]
Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.
[John 5:25 NKJV]
Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
[John 16:32 NKJV]

This is an aside to our study of John’s Gospel, but I feel is very relevant to what He is saying ‘in this hour’. John uses the phrase ‘the hour is coming’ five times, and in the form we see here ‘... and now is’ or ‘... has now come’, three times.

The import of the phrase is clearly ‘now is the hour’, with the emphasis on ‘now’.; this moment; immediately. And what happens now?

• true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth
• the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God;,and those who hear will live.
• that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave me alone.

These are prophetic utterances, each given in full understanding, knowing whose we are. Jesus knows who are true worshipers; who will hear Him, but also that we will be scattered. In other words, He has no illusions about us. He knows that we are fallible and will most likely — in this moment — abandon Him when it comes to the crunch. Are we so easily lost? Jesus goes on to say, in chapter 17:

“Now they have known that all things which You have given Me are from You. For I have given to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came forth from You; and they have believed that You sent Me.
“I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. And all Mine are Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are.
While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I come to You, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.
[John 17:7-14 NKJV]

What becomes clear after reading John 17, is that when Jesus talks of being alone, He is meaning His disciples then and now. There will be times when we leave Him alone, but He will not be downcast because He has kept us in Your name. We will want to leave Him alone, but He knows who will repent and return and none of them is lost except the son of perdition.

We are to Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage. [Galatians 5:1 NKJV]

We can be eternally free now, when we choose Him.

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See also “The Hour Is Now Come”

Written by Dan Ricciardelli

The great characteristic of the supernatural grace of God in a life is put by Jesus on the line of forgiveness. Forgiveness is the supernatural manifestation of a miracle in you and me.

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