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Father, the hour is come
Jesus uses ‘Father’ as a relational approach to God, just like the trust which the boy Jesus surely must have had with Joseph, husband of His mother Mary, many times.

Yet what does this mean to a disciple of Jesus’ teaching to address the Lord God as Father?

Father, the hour has come

There’s a certain immediacy to saying, ‘the hour’ is come, or now is or has come. It is the precise time we have been awaiting – a time prepared long before now.

Our present focus of The Hour Is Come is Jesus’ prayer at the precise time after Judas left the room and prior to the Lord and the Eleven departing for Gethsemane where He is about to be betrayed.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, “Father, the hour has come;
glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.
John 17:1-2 ESV

Jesus begins His conversation in prayer by addressing the LORD God in a most intimate and relational way.

“Father,” the Son of Man so boldly addresses Almighty God in heaven. What a connection!

A Man Who IS more than a man — speaking directly to the LORD GOD, as if He Who IS the very Son of God would humbly address his papa on earth.

Trinity begins with the Father

The lesson and relationship learned from Jesus’ prayer is both mysterious and wonderful — glorious in a sense of worship and humbling in the light of an intimate relationship.

Later we will focus again on Jesus the Son of God, His connection through the Holy Spirit and a new covenant of grace for all who will follow Jesus as Lord. But for now we look up only to the Father, as did Jesus in His prayer..

πατήρ – patēr

Choose any of the three definitions you like, but realize that John and the Eleven are listening to the Son of Man, Jesus their Master and Teacher, pray directly to the LORD God in heaven, whose Voice they have heard previously.
1. generator or male ancestor
2. metaphor for:
  1. the authors of a family or society of persons animated by the same spirit as himself
  2. one who has infused his own spirit into others, who actuates and governs their minds
  3. one who stands in a father’s place and looks after another in a paternal way
  4. a title of honour
    teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received (We don’t really honor teachers in this way in these last days, but some give this authority to a priest leader of a flock.)
    the members of the Sanhedrin (As you know, Jesus had some issue with these ‘fathers of Israel’ as well & they will be the ones to clandestinely convict the Messiah of God our Father sent as our atoning Sacrifice to save a remnant of Abraham.)
3. God is called the Father (This applies is many ways you may read here, but above all ‘Father of spiritual beings and of all men.’)
By all Authority implied in Jesus’ opening of HIS High Priestly Prayer, it is highly significant that the Lord Jesus ‘lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father …’

And from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament the definition instructs us from the everyday Greek word used by Jesus and those in Jerusalem governed by Rome:

πατήρ : ‘from a root signifying “a nourisher, protector, upholder” (Lat., pater, Eng., “father,” are akin), is used

[God’s] “Fatherhood” in spiritual relationship through faith is the subject of NT revelation, and waited for the presence on earth of the Son. The spiritual relationship is not universal.
Vine’s Expository Dictionary of New Testament

[& an additional insight: Note: Whereas the everlasting power and divinity of God are manifest in creation, His “Fatherhood” in spiritual relationship through faith is the subject of NT revelation, and waited for the presence on earth of the Son, Mat 11:27; Jhn 17:25.

The spiritual relationship is not universal, Jhn 8:42, 44 (cp. Jhn 1:12; Gal 3:26).] [I will leave you to your own further revelation of the Father through your research of these scriptures. RH]

The ‘Father’ of Jesus’ prayer

With additional insight of bowing down to God the Father in our prayer to heaven, let us recall that Jesus had already taught the Disciples that which we know so well and do take for granted.

The Lord’s Prayer

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Matthew 6:9 KJV

‘Our,’ which precedes Father, in the Lord’s Prayer is a personal possessive pronoun, a possessive plural in corporate prayer.

So perhaps appropriate in a singular personal possessive sense in prayer, you or I might reasonably pray,

“My Father in heaven. Holy is your Name.”

(And recall that the Lord Jesus has declared: “I and the Father are One.” [John 10:30]

What glorious mystery for us to observe Jesus and the Father, who are One, in this, His most personal prayer prior to the Son’s sacrifice on a Cross for our sins.

The Disciples had been accustomed to Jesus praying to the Father at many times corporately before the multitudes, more privately among them and privately away from them at times.

Luke 11:

And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him,

‘Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.’

And he said unto them, ‘When ye pray, say,

Our Father which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done,
as in heaven, so in earth.
Luke 11:2b KJV

When your mortal ‘time is come’ will you able to approach your heavenly Father saying, ‘Thy will be done?’
Roger Harned – talkofJesus.com on Jesus’ prayer in John 17

So from this final prayer following the last supper of Jesus and the Disciples, John witnesses this high priestly prayer of their Master and Teacher Jesus, a beloved father to the Twelve for these past three years.

πατήρ – patēr – a title of honour – teachers, as those to whom pupils trace back the knowledge and training they have received

John 17:

… “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You…

5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself…

11 I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You.

Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me,

that they may be one even as We are.

One with the One Father

Do you think that it is important to the Apostles that Jesus again prays to the Father with words confirming that He and the Father are ONE?

שְׁמַ֖ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל יְהוָ֥ה אֱלֹהֵ֖ינוּ יְהוָ֥ה אֶחָֽד׃
“Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!
Deuteronomy 6:4 Masoretic Text, NASB

Jesus continues and prays just a short time later:

21 that they may all be one;

even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You,

that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

Relationship with our Father in heaven

Paul, Apostle to the gentiles, later writes to the church in Corinth:

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? … But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him… Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you
1 Corinthians 6:15-19 excerpt NASB

Again, the Apostle Paul and Jesus both point to the glorious mystery of the Trinity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit as ONE, as well as a personal relationship between the spirit of a redeemed man like you or me to the ONE GOD, Who IS Spirit and truth.

John 17:

Jesus continues His High Priestly Prayer as intercession for these disciples and those to follow:

24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am…

25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me…

What must the Disciple have thought following Jesus’ prayer to the Father?

What do you think of this prayer to the Holy Father in heaven by the Highest of High Priests praying for your soul?

“Lord,” they called Jesus — “the existing One” as more than a Son of Man, as the LORD GOD IS ONE!

אֱלֹהִים

‘elohiym – ʼĕlôhîym, el-o-heem’; plural of H433; gods in the ordinary sense; but specifically used (in the plural thus, especially with the article) of the supreme God

Our LORD is the ONE GOD — Trinity — the Son interceding by prayer and His own priestly Sacrifice for those who believe and would be saved.

When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the brook Kidron, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.
John 18:1 ESV
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To be continued...
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May 28, 2020
The Hour Is Come
These words spake Jesus

.. and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come…
The Gospel of John 17:1a KJV

The Gospel introduction to perhaps Jesus’ most pivotal prayer varies in other translations but agrees in the Lord’s focus on the moment:
- “Father, the time has come.
- “Father, the hour has come
The Lord Jesus spoke these four words to the Father of a specific time of fulfillment of God’s plan of grace – a plan from before time into a moment of completion on the Cross of Redemption.

Time and Eternity

First let us consider time itself.

We measure and divide our numbered days counting by millenia, century, year, season, month, week, day, night, hour, minute, second, instant even to a millisecond.

All time measured as a meter or mile, distinct with start and finish and definable to man, a creation of indefinite but comparable time on this earth.

Seasons and sundials only approximate time given to mortal man fading faintly into the shadow of death and disintegration.

We measure our mortal hours by digital devices, clocks ticking away, watches counting the seconds passing into that which will be long forgotten in generations to come.

Time

“Father, the time has come.
Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you— just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.
John 17:1a-2 NET

What does Jesus mean by this— the time or the hour has come?

The context is this: Jesus is with the Disciples alone, having just finished the Last Supper. Judas now departed and after this all will leave this night for Gethsemane.

Jesus has just encouraged them promising the Holy Spirit.

John 16:31 Jesus responded to them, “Do you now believe?

32 Indeed, an hour is coming, and has come, when each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone…

ὥρα – יוֹם – עֵת

Time – Specifically Hour from the Greek – a certain definite time or season fixed by natural law and returning with the revolving year.

Jesus points to this ‘certain definite time’ in a relational mortal sense. He may literally mean an ‘hour’ as this definite time, point of time, moment in which He and the Eleven must move on to His surrender to to sacrifice in Gethsemane. (It is now such and such an hour.)

Jesus, alone with the Father and the Eleven, knows that His time is come.

In a larger, immortal and timeless sense, His time has also come for completion of the redemption God planned for sinners before even the first sin of Adam.

Time from the Hebrew is: time (of an event), time (usual). experiences, fortunes, occurrence, occasion; however it can also point beyond the measurable timeline of history to perpetuity, for ever, continuing future, as well as ancient (of past time), for ever (of future time). Time may refer eternally of continuous existence and for ever (of God’s existence).

From נָצַח (H5329) – נֶצַח

From a root meaning preeminent, perpetual, an overseer; the Hebrew understanding of eternal time suggests:

eminence, perpetuity, strength, victory, enduring, everlastingness
- eminence
- enduring of life
- endurance in time, perpetual, continual, unto the end
- everlastingness, ever
From this, a prophecy known to the Jews, including Jesus’ disciples:

O LORD, You are my God

Isaiah 25:
```
O LORD, You are my God;
I will exalt You, I will give thanks to Your name;
For You have worked wonders,
Plans formed long ago, with perfect faithfulness.
```
```
The LORD of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all
 peoples on this mountain; 
A banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow, 
And refined, aged wine.
```
And on this mountain He will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples,
Even the veil which is stretched over all nations.

He will swallow up death for all time,
And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away from all faces,
And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.

וְאָמַר֙ בַּיֹּ֣ום הַה֔וּא הִנֵּ֨ה אֱלֹהֵ֥ינוּ זֶ֛ה קִוִּ֥ינוּ לֹ֖ו וְיֹֽושִׁיעֵ֑נוּ זֶ֤ה יְהוָה֙ קִוִּ֣ינוּ לֹ֔ו נָגִ֥ילָה וְנִשְׂמְחָ֖ה בִּישׁוּעָתֹֽו׃
Isaiah 25:9 Masoretic Text

And it will be said in that day,
“Behold, this is our God for whom we have waited that He might save us.
This is the LORD for whom we have waited;
Let us rejoice and be glad in His salvation.”
Isaiah 25:9 NASB

“And it will be said IN THAT DAY…

this is ‘elohiym qavah yasha – יָשַׁע

GOD’S long-awaited SAVIOUR!

Isaiah 63: KJV

8 For he said,

Surely they are my people, children that will not lie:

so he was their Saviour.

9 In all their affliction he was afflicted,

and the angel of his presence saved them:

in his love and in his pity he redeemed them;

and he bare them,

and carried them all the days of old.

The Gospel of John 17:

When Jesus had finished saying these things, he looked upward to heaven and said,

“Father, the time has come.

Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you— 2 just as you have given him authority over all humanity, so that he may give eternal life to everyone you have given him.
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To be continued... Lord willing...
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May 21, 2020
He will give you another Helper – the Holy Spirit
“But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
John 4:23-24 NASB

The Messiah Jesus has been with His Apostles for three years. Now only John and ten others remain in the room after Judas left to betray the Lord.

Are the very lives of the Disciples not also at great risk in the Jerusalem which hates righteousness? How will they survive once Jesus is killed?

The Apostles must have wondered, ‘where will we find HELP after our Lord goes to His mortal death?’ It would be literally the day after tomorrow.

The Three Helpers

He will give you another Helper sets the scene from John 12 of Jesus and the Disciples returning to Jerusalem for Jesus’ triumphal entry.

After Judas left

Only the eleven chosen remain in the room with Jesus as the Lord reassures them concerning what must now take place to fulfill all righteousness.

Perhaps the comfort of Psalm 38 came to mind as Jesus tells them He will no longer be with them.

Psalm 38:
```
And those who repay evil for good,
They oppose me, because I follow what is good.
Do not forsake me, O LORD;
O my God, do not be far from me!
Make haste to help me,
O Lord, my salvation!
```
38:22 ח֥וּשָׁה לְעֶזְרָתִ֑י אֲ֝דֹנָ֗י תְּשׁוּעָתִֽי׃

The Lord God, from whom Jesus received all Authority and power is God the Father.

Because of the Lord Jesus, the Disciples now have a new relationship through their Master and Teacher to God the Father.

We continued with the scene of the Last Supper in He will give you another Helper – Jesus’ promise, observing how Jesus promised that He Himself, the Messiah of the Lord God, would return to HELP the Disciples.

Now we return to this same scene so full of promise. Listen closely as Jesus promises that the Holy Spirit will help them.

John 13:

31 When he [Judas Iscariot] had left, Jesus said,

“Now the Son of Man is glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.

“I give you a new command: Love one another. Just as I have loved you, you are also to love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
John 13:34-35 CSB – In case you missed it, Church..

John 14:

15 “If you love me, you will keep my commands.

And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth.

The world is unable to receive him because it doesn’t see him or know him. But you do know him, because he remains with you and will be in you.

Trinity – Father, Son and Holy Spirit

John has already witnessed the Power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus previously taught teachers of Israel about spirit (of man and living things) versus flesh, as well as of the Holy Spirit of the LORD.

We touched on this from early in John’s Gospel in Life in the Holy Spirit.

Although we could explore many mysteries of the Trinity in more detail our only purpose here is to introduce a NEW relationship of the Holy Spirit. J

Prior to His crucifixion, resurrection and later return to the Father, Jesus now assures the Disciples:

¹⁸“I will not leave you as orphans; I am coming to you.

Do you feel like an orphan isolated from your brothers and sisters of your local church?

(I do. But Jesus assures His disciples of good counsel.)

25 “I have spoken these things to you while I remain with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of everything I have told you.

He will remind you

Even though Jesus returned to the Disciples in the flesh after His resurrection, He gave the Holy Spirit of God to those who loved Him in spirit and in truth.

The Holy Spirit, Who IS with us, reminds disciples of everything the Son of God has taught us.

Helper, Counselor, Comforter

26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me…

‘When the Helper comes’ or ‘When the Counselor comes,’ or from the KJV, “Comforter” — παράκλητος parakletos, the ‘summoned’ One, Jesus assures, will be called to your side to plead your case.

All point to the Holy Spirit, from the greek “πνεῦμα” pneuma – the Spirit of truth, defending you in truth.

Pilate will soon ask rhetorically, “What is truth?”

Jesus has already told them:

“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.
John 14:6 – the words of Christ Jesus

Now the Lord Jesus guarantees this same comforting truth through the Holy Spirit.

—the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You also will testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.

16:1 “I have told you these things to keep you from stumbling.

1 John: Comfort to the Church

Later the Apostle John will confirm this in letters to the Church read by saints who like us had never seen Jesus in the flesh and Spirit.

4: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. (If true in the first century, certainly many more false prophets have gone into the world of the 21st century.)

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God;
1 John 2-3a

… this is the spirit of the antichrist, of which you have heard that it is coming, and now it is already in the world.

What comfort for Christians in the Spirit to have such help — discernment of truth to recognize antichrists and false prophets. By this the fellowship of believers lives in the love of the Lord Jesus Christ.

parakletos from the Father through the Lord Jesus.
παράκλητος, an intercessor, consoler:—advocate, comforter.

Help for the saints

John 16:

But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
John 16:7 NASB

8 And He [the Holy Spirit], when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment…

The saints of the church, having the Truth of the Spirit present, will know the Lord’s conviction of sin, failure to righteousness and judgment of transgression. (Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.)

9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak on his own, but he will speak whatever he hears. He will also declare to you what is to come.
John 16:13 CSB – the promise of Jesus to the believer

Behold, the hour cometh

One last encouragement from Jesus increasingly more comforting to a 21st century church.

32 Behold, an hour is coming, and has already come, for you to be scattered, each to his own home…

… each of you will be scattered to his own home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone…

Think of it: Jesus tells the Eleven that they will be separated from each other in their own homes AND that his Disciples will leave their Lord and Master Jesus alone.

The Lord Jesus, alone at His trials; alone in His punishments by the world — yet what does Jesus assure us?

“… and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.

Does it help to know by the Holy Spirit that the Father is in Him and He in the Father? Will the Holy Spirit sent to the one who believes not comfort, counsel and HELP you in your hour of need?

Jesus tells His disciples,

33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace.

Do you in Him?

You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous!

Do you suffer for Jesus

Courage, beloved brother; hold to your faith, dear sister.

OR do you just suffer?

“I have conquered the world,” Jesus assures the saint.

For the sinner in death has only suffering.

But the church joined to Jesus though separated to our own homes has eternal hope, eternal life and a Helper in Christ Jesus.

‘So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you.
The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 3:3 to the messenger of the church of…
May 14, 2020