And on the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee; and the mother of Jesus was there:
and Jesus also was bidden, and His disciples, to the marriage.
And when the wine failed, the mother of Jesus saith unto Him, They have no wine.
And Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.
His mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.
Now there were six waterpots of stone set there according to the Jews’ manner of purifying, containing two or three firkins apiece.
Jesus saith unto them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up to the brim.
And He saith unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the ruler of the feast. And they bare it.
And when the ruler of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and knew not whence it was, but the servants that had drawn the water knew, the ruler of the feast calleth the bridegroom,
and saith unto him, Every man setteth on first the good wine; and when men have drunk freely, then that which is worse: thou hast kept the good wine until now.
This beginning of His signs did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed on Him.
Now there were certain Greeks among those that went up to worship at the feast:
these therefore came to Philip, who was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Philip cometh and telleth Andrew: Andrew cometh, and Philip, and they tell Jesus.
And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.
If any man serve Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there shall also My servant be: if any man serve Me, him will the Father honour.
Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father, glorify Thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee for this privilege of coming to Thee with holy boldness, knowing that we can enter into the holiest of all without any fear or trembling. It is all because of Thy Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Father, as we are in Thy presence, we do expect Thee to reveal Thy mind to us and draw us into the very center of Thy purpose, that Thy Son, our Lord Jesus, may be glorified. We commit this time into Thy hands and trust Thy Holy Spirit to do His work. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.
Yesterday morning, we went through the Old Testament to prove what King Solomon says: there is a season for everything, a time for each purpose. And a wise man’s heart knows the time and manner. That is to say, a wise man knows when and what to do.
Now, this morning, we would like to continue into the New Testament. And of course, when we come to the New Testament, the first One upon whom we will focus our attention is none other than our Lord Jesus.
It is said in Galatians 4:4:
But when the fulness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law,
that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Four thousand years ago, in the Garden of Eden, after the fall of man, God gave man a wonderful promise, saying that the seed of the woman should crush the head of the serpent. Four thousand years had passed, but those years were not passed in vain. Why? Because God was working toward the time—the fullness of time—when He would send His beloved Son into this world to deliver us out of the curse of the law into sonship.
From the human standpoint, it seemed as if the time was not right for the coming of the Son. Why? Because it was the time of the Roman Empire. Caesar was upon the throne of the world empire; a Roman governor was in Jerusalem; and Herod, the Edomite, was king of the Jews.
Not only that, but even the Jewish people were really not ready for the coming of the Messiah. Even though it was their prayer through the years for the Messiah to come, their hearts were not ready for Him.
Every morning, after the temple was opened, there would be the morning prayer. The priest would enter into the holy place, burning incense at the altar, and there he would offer prayer for the whole nation. No doubt, the prayer of the whole nation was a prayer for the Messiah to come. Yet in reality, though the Jewish people prayed day after day for the coming of the Messiah, their hearts were not ready for Him.
Even though in men’s eyes the time was not right, God said it was the fullness of time. So God sent His Son into this world.
There were some people who were ready for the Messiah—a remnant, not many. We have Mary and Joseph; we have Zacharias and Elizabeth; we have Anna and Simeon; we have those temple shepherds; and we have those who became the disciples of John. These were the remnant among the Jewish people who were prepared in their hearts to receive the Messiah.
God looked upon these hearts, and God said, “The time is right to send My beloved Son into this world.”
As we look into the life of our Lord Jesus, we find that His life is characterized by one thing. We find that He has a watchword. The watchword of Christ, as you find especially in the Gospel according to John, is repeated again and again: “My hour,” “the time,” “My time.” These are the expressions of what was upon His heart.
Our Lord Jesus knew His time. He had not only the knowledge of the time, but He was ever conscious of His time. His whole life moved with the hour, with the time that God had assigned for that particular period.
The first time we find our Lord Jesus mentioning this watchword is in John 2. There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee. The mother of Jesus was there, and Jesus and His disciples were also invited.
Marriage was a happy occasion. Evidently, this young couple was very popular, because more people were at the wedding than they expected, and probably more people lingered there longer than they expected. So, after perhaps a day or two of feasting and happiness, the wine began to be exhausted.
It would be a most embarrassing situation for the young couple. At the very height of their happiness, sorrow would come in; shame would come in. Evidently, the mother of Jesus was a close friend of either the young man or the young woman. Therefore, she was drawn into the inner circle and knew about the situation. So she came to the Lord and said, “They have no wine.”
Now, why did Mary tell Jesus about that need? Humanly speaking, we would think naturally that she expected Jesus to do something about it. But to her surprise, the Lord Jesus said:
Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come.
In the English language, it seems a little harsh. But actually, in the original, it is very different. When the Lord Jesus said, “Woman,” it was not a harsh word. It was a word of affection.
Why did the Lord not say, “Mother,” but say, “Woman”? Probably the reason is that our Lord Jesus had now begun His ministry. When He was at home, He was under the authority of His parents. But when He was thirty years old, and came to John to be baptized, He stepped out into public life. That was the beginning of His public ministry.
As He entered into His public ministry, to be occupied with His Father’s business, He was in a different realm. He was not at home; He was in the work of God. And in the work of God, He was to be directed by none other than His heavenly Father.
Human relationships and natural relationships cannot enter into the work of God or interfere with God’s work. Probably it was for this reason that He did not address His mother as “Mother.” He said, “Woman.” There was affection in it; He loved His mother very much. But He said, “What have I to do with thee?”
Brother T. Austin-Sparks said that, in the original, this has the meaning: “What is there in common between you and Me?” You are thinking of one thing: they have no wine. But I am thinking of another thing. We are on two different wavelengths.
You are thinking that they have no wine, and that they need wine in order that this marriage may be a success. But this is not in My thought. I am thinking of something very different from what you think. I am thinking of another marriage—the marriage that God has had in His purpose from the very beginning.
I am thinking of that union typified by Adam and Eve. God said it was not good for man to be alone. God put Adam to sleep, and out of his side God took something. The Bible says a rib, but in the original it simply says that God took something out of Adam. God used that which came out of Adam to build a woman.
The word “build” is an architectural word. God built a woman with that which came out of the side of Adam. Then He led Eve to Adam. When Adam saw Eve, he said:
This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:
she shall be called Woman.
From that time on, they were united into one flesh. The Lord was, in effect, saying, “Little woman, you are thinking of this marriage in Cana of Galilee. It is important that this marriage should be a success, but I am thinking of a greater thing than that.”
“I am thinking of the marriage typified by Adam and Eve in the beginning of human history. I am thinking of the marriage between the Lamb and His Church. I am thinking of the union of God and man. I am thinking of that eternal marriage. Surely, I want to see that marriage be a success.”
Our Lord Jesus, when He was on earth, had a very clear and definite purpose. He was not walking upon this earth drifting, finding His way, merely fitting in with things. No. His whole life on earth was governed by an ultimate purpose, and that purpose is the marriage.
The whole Bible is centered upon this. In the book of Genesis, it begins with a marriage; and when you come to the end of the Word of God, you find in Revelation 21 and 22 another marriage—the marriage of the Lamb and the holy city, the New Jerusalem.
That is what the Lord had in mind. “What is there in common between you and Me? This is upon My heart.”
But in order to save the situation, the mother told the servants, “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” In other words, let the Lord be the Lord. Do not try to direct the Lord or even suggest to Him what He should do.
When she put the Lord in His rightful place, the Lord Jesus moved. He told the servants to fill the waterpots that stood at the door for purification, and fill these six waterpots to the brim. Then He said, “Draw out now, and carry it to the ruler of the feast.” When the ruler of the feast tasted it, he found that it was the best wine.
Brothers and sisters, when the Lord performed this miracle, He said it in conjunction with His hour: “Mine hour is not yet come.” What is His hour? He was very conscious of His time. What was that hour for which He was looking?
He was looking forward to that hour when He would pour forth His life, like the water drawn out of the waterpot, in order to quench the thirst of those who are thirsty and to make that marriage a success. This was the hour toward which our Lord Jesus was looking.
The Bible says this was the first sign that He did to manifest His glory. In the Gospel according to John, all the miracles and wonders performed by our Lord Jesus are called signs.
These miracles are wonder-works, no doubt about that. But in the Gospel of John, these wonder-works are called signs because they are not merely works of wonder. They point to something. There is something deeper than merely performing a miracle. This miracle ought to lead us to something more—to see the ultimate purpose of God.
Through the working of these wonders, we are to be shown the eternal purpose of God, and that is to manifest His glory. How does the Lord Jesus manifest His glory? He does not manifest His glory merely by turning water into wine.
To us, that is glorious enough. But to the Lord, that cannot be considered the fullness of glory. To manifest His glory, He had to perform something much more. Through that sign, He was telling us that He was going to pour out His life, and by pouring out His life, He would obtain for Himself a bride.
There would be a marriage; that marriage would be successful; and that marriage would be eternal. Dear brothers and sisters, this is His glory. This is the hour toward which He was looking.
The second mention of the time or hour in the Gospel of John is found in John 4. Our Lord Jesus was leaving Judea because there was some murmuring that He made and baptized more disciples than John.
There was some suspicion and some unpleasant feeling. Our Lord Jesus was so gentlemanly that He would not allow such things to happen. There was no competition between Him and John the Baptist. So when He heard about it, He decided to leave Judea and go back to Galilee.
The Bible says, “He must needs pass through Samaria.” Geographically, Judea is in the southern part of Palestine, Galilee is in the northern part, and Samaria is in between. But according to the custom of the Jews at that time, because of their hostility toward the Samaritans, the Jews would not enter into the land of the Samaritans.
When they wanted to go from Judea to Galilee, they would rather cross the River Jordan to the eastern side, travel through Perea, bypass Samaria, and then cross the Jordan again into Galilee. That was the way the Jewish people traveled in the days of Christ.
But here the Bible says that He must go through Samaria. The “must” there was not according to tradition; it was a spiritual must. Our Lord Jesus knew that there was a woman there who needed Him. For that reason, He broke the tradition of the Jews.
Because our Lord Jesus broke so many traditions of the fathers, He incurred their wrath, and eventually they crucified Him. They did not want Him because He did not follow their tradition. But the Lord Jesus said that they held to the traditions of the fathers and even violated the commandment of God.
This is not something new; we find it even today. But our Lord Jesus broke traditions in order to meet that Samaritan woman.
He went to Samaria, and He was weary from His journey because He had been walking. When they came to Jacob’s well, He rested there. His disciples went into the city to buy food, because they were hungry and thirsty.
At that time, a Samaritan woman came out of the city to draw water. This was most unusual. According to the custom of the time, women usually came out either in the morning or toward evening, because it was not so hot then. They usually came out in groups, in company, because they liked to talk.
I remember when I was in Israel, I still saw the same thing going on. The women came out in groups to draw water. In those days they may have had a pitcher upon their heads; now, you find a gasoline can upon their heads. That was the difference.
But this woman did not come in the morning, nor in the evening, nor with the other women. She came alone, and at noontime. Why? Evidently, she wanted to avoid people. She did not want anything to do with people because she was well known in the city as a bad woman.
Nobody would keep company with her. When they saw her, probably they would curse her. So she became very hostile to the whole world. Yet she was thirsty, and so she came at noontime to draw water. She thought there would be nobody there.
To her surprise, she found a man sitting by the well. More than that, the man began to talk with her. Now, that man was a Jew. By His garment, one could know that He was a Jew. There was no dealing between the Jews and the Samaritans, yet a Jewish man talked with her and said, “Give Me to drink.”
That was most strange. A Jewish man asking a Samaritan woman for water was not done. But our Lord Jesus, in order to contact that woman, was willing to humble Himself and ask that Samaritan woman to give Him water to drink. That is the humility of our Lord Jesus.
But the woman did not respond. She said, “How is it that Thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, which am a Samaritan woman?”
The Lord said, “If thou knewest Who it is that speaketh with thee, thou wouldest have asked of Him, and He would have given thee living water”—water which would become a fountain within her, and she would never be thirsty again.
Of course, when that Samaritan woman heard about this, she wanted that water. She did not understand, so she said, “Sir, Thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. How canst Thou draw water without a vessel? Art Thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well?”
Then the Lord said, “Go, call thy husband.” In other words, the Lord pointed out to her her sins. When the Lord said that, she realized that she had met a prophet, and her conscience was awakened.
When a person’s conscience is awakened, the first thing is worship. Worship is something built into human beings. When we were dead in sins and transgressions, we forgot to worship God. But once our conscience is awakened, the first question is, “How can I worship God? Where can I worship Him? How do I worship Him?”
This woman had been living in sin. She was not thinking of worshiping God at all. But suddenly her conscience was awakened, and immediately the question of worship became the supreme question.
She asked the Lord, “Where should I worship? You Jewish people say that if one wants to worship God, one must worship in Jerusalem, in the temple. But we Samaritans say we worship God in this mountain, Mount Gerizim, because there they built a temple. Which is the right place to worship?”
The Lord Jesus said to that woman:
Woman, believe Me, the hour cometh, when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem, shall ye worship the Father.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth:
for such doth the Father seek to be His worshippers.
Our Lord Jesus was ever conscious of His hour. He was not only the Man of the hour, doing everything according to the time that God assigned for Him; with His coming, He brought in an hour, a new era, a new time.
He is the One who, in a sense, terminated the old time and brought in a new time. With the coming of the Lord Jesus, the hour changed. It changed from the time of the law into the time of grace.
In the time of the law, worshiping God was an external thing. Worship was limited by time and space. There was a place where you went to worship God. To the Jews, it was Jerusalem; to the Samaritans, it was Mount Gerizim.
Under the law, there was also a time for worship. The Jews had to go to Jerusalem three times a year to worship God. Under the law, nothing was perfect. Everything was outward and external. God was far above and beyond the approach of man. Man could only worship Him from afar, with fear and trembling.
But with the coming of the Lord Jesus, the Lord said, “The hour cometh, and now is.” With His coming, everything changed. We are delivered out of the time under the law into the time of grace.
The very nature of worship has changed. We do not worship God externally anymore; we worship God in spirit and in truth. Why? Because with the coming of the Lord Jesus, this is made possible.
Before His coming, man’s spirit was dead in sins and transgressions. God is Spirit, and if we want to worship Him, we must worship Him in spirit. But our spirit was dead, so the only way man tried to worship Him was with his body or even with his soul. Yet with body and soul, one can never really touch Him.
That is external; that is imperfect; that is never complete. But thank God, with the coming of our Lord Jesus, the time has changed. He came to quicken our dead spirit and make it a new spirit.
With a new spirit, and with the Holy Spirit dwelling in our spirit, we are led into true worship. We can contact God, worship God, please God, and commune with God. Today, it is not a matter of external worship; worship is inward. We worship in spirit and in truth.
The truth there is not only a matter of teaching or true doctrine. The Jews, in a sense, had the truth, because God commanded that there should be a place where He would put His name. But to them the truth was merely objective truth, outward truth, truth in letter.
Thank God, with the coming of the Lord Jesus, truth has become living. It has become reality. The Lord said, “I am the truth.” There is a reality coming in, and today we can worship Him in spirit and in truth.
The hour has changed. He has changed the hour. Dear brothers and sisters, if today people are still worshiping God externally, they are out of God’s time. If you act out of God’s time, then you are out of God’s purpose.
If you are out of God’s purpose, you do not accomplish anything, and God does not gain anything. It is vanity. But with the coming of the Lord Jesus, the hour has changed. Now we can worship God in spirit and in truth. Only such worship is worshiping in God’s time, fulfilling God’s purpose, and being in tune with God.
The third mention of the hour is found in John 5:25. After our Lord Jesus healed the man who had been infirm for thirty-eight years, He said:
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour cometh, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God; and they that hear shall live.
Before that hour came, nothing of this nature could ever happen. How could the dead hear the voice of the Son of God? Of course, the dead here do not refer to the physically dead. The dead here refer to the spiritually dead.
The spiritually dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and when they hear it, they shall live. Before our Lord Jesus came, those who were dead in sins and transgressions were just dead. They could not hear the voice of the Son of God.
But the Son of God has now come, and when He speaks, even the dead shall hear. When the dead hear Him, they will live. This is what has been happening from the coming of the Lord up to the present time.
Then, if you read John 5:28-29:
Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice,
and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.
Here our Lord mentions another hour. These are two different hours. In verse 25, He refers to the hour in which the Son of God is upon the earth, speaking to the spiritually dead, and those who hear will live.
But in verses 28 and 29, He mentions another hour, an hour in the future, when those who are in the tombs shall hear His voice. The Lord does not merely say “the dead,” because people may think He means the spiritually dead. He says, “Those who are in the tombs.” These are the physically dead.
One day, when that hour shall come, they shall hear the voice of the Son of God. When they hear His voice, they shall all be raised from the dead.
Those who have practiced good will be raised unto the resurrection of life. Now, “practiced good” does not mean that one simply lived a life doing good things. The good in the Bible is not the good we usually think of.
You remember the young ruler who came to the Lord and said, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” The Lord said, “Why callest thou Me good? There is none good but God.”
In other words, the good in Scripture simply means that God is good. To do the will of God is good. If it is not the will of God, no matter how good it appears to the world, it is no good.
So those who practice good simply means those who practice the will of God. And what is the will of God? The will of God is that we should believe in Him whom God has sent. Those who practice good will have resurrection unto life.
Even those who have done evil will come forth to the resurrection of judgment. Evil is not merely what the world calls evil. There are many things that the world calls good which God calls evil. Evil simply means not knowing the will of God, not doing the will of God, and doing things against God.
These two resurrections are a thousand years apart. The resurrection of the just is before the millennium, and the resurrection of the evil is after the millennium. In Revelation 20, all the dead will be raised and appear before the judgment of the great white throne.
Again, here you find that the Lord Jesus was ever conscious of the hour. There is an hour. You need to know the hour, discern the purpose of the hour, and act accordingly. There is an hour now, and there will be an hour in the future.
Another mention of the time or the hour is in John 7:6. At that time, there was opposition to the Lord Jesus, and He was in Galilee because the Jews sought to kill Him in Judea. The Feast of Tabernacles had come, and during that feast the Jewish people would go to Jerusalem, to the temple, to worship God.
The brethren of the Lord Jesus—that is, His brethren according to the flesh—did not believe in Him. After Mary gave birth to the Lord Jesus, she gave birth through natural means to other sons and daughters. These were the brothers according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus.
They said to Him:
Depart hence, and go into Judaea, that Thy disciples also may behold Thy works which Thou doest.
For no man doeth anything in secret, and himself seeketh to be known openly.
If Thou doest these things, manifest Thyself to the world.
Here you find the natural mind. The natural mind says that if a person wants to seek fame for himself, if he is ambitious, then he must go where the people are, present himself to them, and draw them to himself. That is the way the world thinks one becomes a success.
But they did not know that our Lord Jesus was not ambitious in the human way. He was not trying to seek fame for Himself. He was on earth to do the Father’s will and to glorify the Father. That was His ambition, and nothing else.
His brethren could not understand Him. They tried to provoke Him and said, “Go to Judea. Show Yourself, and then You will become a success and gain fame.” But Jesus said:
My time is not yet come; but your time is always ready.
The world cannot hate you; but Me it hateth, because I testify of it, that its works are evil.
Go ye up unto the feast: I go not up unto this feast; because My time is not yet fulfilled.
After His brethren had gone up, He Himself also went up to the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret. Here you find how the life of our Lord Jesus was governed by the hour.
He knew His time. It was the time of the Father. Before the Father spoke, He would never move. He would never move before the time, nor would He lag behind the time. Our Lord Jesus always moved exactly on time.
When His brethren were talking to Him, the Father had not yet revealed His mind to Him. So He said, “My time is not yet come. You go. You can do whatever you want. That is the way your life is, but that is not My life. My life is strictly governed by the time of My Father.”
Oh, for the disciplined life that is! Dear brothers and sisters, how about us? Is our time always in our own hands? Can we go anywhere we want to and do anything we like to?
As Oswald Chambers said, between birth and death, one can choose whatever one likes to do according to one’s disposition. One can make one’s time sorrowful or joyful. One can do whatever one likes. One makes one’s own time and does not care about God’s timing.
But the Lord Jesus was different. He waited upon the Father for the right time. When the right time came, He moved very quickly.
It may give the appearance that our Lord was a little subtle, but that was not the fact. If you really know what it means, you see that our Lord Jesus moved exactly on time. When the time came, even if there was danger, He was willing to face the danger.
In connection with that, John 7:30 says:
They sought therefore to take Him: and no man laid his hand on Him, because His hour was not yet come.
His time had come for Him to go to Judea. But the hour for accomplishing the work for which God had sent Him to this earth had not yet come. That hour refers to His crucifixion. Before that hour came, no man could lay his hand upon Him.
In other words, His life was secured. Dear brothers and sisters, there is security if you move according to God’s time. If you live your life in God’s time, then no matter how dangerous it is, no matter how people try to take you or do something to you, no one can lay his hand upon you before the hour is come.
Our Lord Jesus was not afraid of danger. He went to Judea, and people tried to get Him, but they could not do it because His hour had not yet come.
The same thing is found in John 8:20. Our Lord was in Jerusalem, teaching in the treasury of the temple. No one laid hands on Him, for His hour was not yet come.
The next mention is in John 12. Our Lord Jesus came into Jerusalem. That was His last week in Jerusalem. Not only did the multitudes run out of the city to welcome Him and say, “Hosanna: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” but certain Greeks also wanted to see Him.
Humanly speaking, this was His most glorious time upon this earth. Even the Gentiles wanted to see Jesus. How glorious that would be! But the sense of glory to the Lord is different from the sense of glory that man has.
When Philip and Andrew came to the Lord and said, “The Greeks want to see Thee,” Jesus answered:
The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but if it die, it beareth much fruit.
Do not make a mistake, thinking that the Lord was saying, “Now even the Gentiles are seeking after Me, so I am glorified.” Not at all. The hour in which He was to be glorified was not the hour in which the world was seeking after Him.
It was the hour in which He, being the grain of wheat that had fallen into the ground thirty-some years before, was now going to die. And in dying, He would bear much fruit. This is the hour to which He referred.
He said, “He that loveth his life loseth it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.” But was it an easy thing for Him to do? Listen to verse 27:
Now is My soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour.
Our Lord is a perfect Man. He is One who knew no sin. Not only had He not committed sin; He did not know sin, because His whole life pleased the Father, always doing the Father’s will. He was of such purity.
Yet He said, “What shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour.” The hour was coming when He, who knew no sin, was to be made sin for the world—not only to bear the sins of the world, but to be made sin for the world. Think of that.
One who knew no sin was not merely to be tainted with a thing or two, nor merely to bear the sins of the world; He was to be made sin itself. This troubled Him. Naturally, His pure soul recoiled from such pollution and defilement.
But immediately the Lord said:
But for this cause came I unto this hour.
Father, glorify Thy name.
How did the Father glorify His name? He crushed His only beloved Son on Calvary’s cross. Then there came a voice out of heaven:
I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.
This is the hour.
In John 13:1 we read:
Now before the feast of the passover, Jesus knowing that His hour was come that He should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved His own that were in the world, He loved them unto the end.
The Lord knew that His hour had come. After His death, He would be raised from the dead and ascend into heaven. He would go back to the glory that He had with the Father before the foundation of the world, in eternity past.
He knew that the hour was coming. And what did He do? He loved His own and loved them unto the uttermost. He washed the disciples’ feet.
Why? Because the hour was the hour of His glorification. His glorification was His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. That was His glorification.
What was the purpose of that hour? The purpose of that hour was that, by pouring out His life, He might purchase for Himself a Body. He would complete the Body by the washing of water with the Word, that this Body might grow up and become a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing—holy and without blemish.
This is the purpose of the hour. Why did our Lord Jesus die? Why was our Lord Jesus raised from the dead? Why did our Lord Jesus ascend to heaven? His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension were for one purpose only: to obtain for Himself a bride.
The Apostle John said that when the soldiers came to break the legs of those who had been crucified, they broke the legs of the two robbers. But when they came to Jesus, they found that He was already dead.
To make sure that He was really dead, a soldier took a spear and thrust it into His side. Out of it came blood and water. John said, “He that hath seen hath borne witness, and his witness is true.”
Why did John make such a great thing of that? Because in 1 John we read that there are three witnesses upon the earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood.
We know what the blood is. The blood is for the remission of our sins. Here the blood came out of the body of our Lord Jesus. This was the last drop of blood. They scourged Him before He was crucified, and blood came out. They put a thorny crown upon His head, beat His head with reeds, and blood came out. They nailed His hands and His feet, and blood came out.
Our Lord Jesus hung there; His blood flowed and flowed until He was dead, before the normal time of death by crucifixion. Then a Roman soldier put a spear into His side, evidently reaching His heart. Out came blood and water.
The blood was for the atonement of our sins, and the water speaks of life. Psalm 22 says, “I am poured out like water.” He poured out His life like water. With this life, with His blood, He built for Himself His Church.
“I will build My Church.” With what does He build His Church? With the blood and the water coming out of Himself.
After He has gained us, Ephesians 5 says that He purifies us and sanctifies us by the washing of water with the Word, that He may present us to Himself a glorious Church, without spot or wrinkle.
There you find our Lord Jesus washing the feet of the disciples with water. It is symbolic of how He will use the life that has been poured out, with the living Word, to purify and sanctify us and take away from us every spot and wrinkle.
A spot is something too much; a wrinkle is something that has grown old, no longer fresh. Dear brothers and sisters, the life of the Lord Jesus is continuously purifying His Church and sanctifying us by the washing of water with the living Word.
One day, all the spots and wrinkles will be taken away, and we will be presented to Himself as a glorious Church. That is what He is doing.
The next mention of the hour is in John 17:1:
These things spake Jesus; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, Father, the hour is come; glorify Thy Son, that the Son may glorify Thee:
even as Thou gavest Him authority over all flesh, that whatsoever Thou hast given Him, to them He should give eternal life.
The hour had come. After He had talked with His disciples, He turned His heart to the Father and said, “Father, the hour is come. Now glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son may glorify Thee.”
Out of such glorification come those people whom the Father has given to the Son as a gift, and to these people He gives eternal life.
Brothers and sisters, the whole life of our Lord Jesus was governed by the hour. He had the knowledge, and He was ever conscious of the time that the Father had assigned for Him. He came to do the will of the Father within that time and fulfill that purpose, until He was received into glory, waiting to come again to receive His bride unto Himself.
Finally, I would like to close by reading something from a little booklet written by T. Austin-Sparks. It is called The Watchword of the Son of Man.
“He, that is the Lord, went toward that ultimate purpose by stages, governed by a consciousness which found its expression in a familiar phrase: ‘Mine hour.’ That was the solemn watchword of our Lord’s life and progressive movement into His ultimate purpose.”
I will not read the whole thing, but I will give you the subtopics.
In all these things, you find that the Lord was governed by the hour until He reached the ultimate purpose.
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee for showing us how Thy beloved Son, while He was upon this earth, was governed throughout His life by that hour which Thou hadst assigned to Him.
We praise and thank Thee that the purpose of that hour was to bring in a bride for Himself. We praise and thank Thee that He was willing to lay down His life in order to fulfill the purpose that Thou hadst set for Him.
Father, we thank Thee because we are now in the good of all that He has done for us. We pray that, as He was governed by the hour, we too may know the time, the purpose, and the manner. In the name of our Lord Jesus, amen.