Read: John 17:1-3

After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed: Father, the hour has come. John 17:1a

The hour has come. With these words Jesus looks forward with obvious anticipation to a time of boundless opportunity that lies before him. Surely these words, the hour has come, mean a good deal more than the phrase we employ when we face the end of life, My time has come. By that we mean we have come to the end of our rope, the end of life. Dr. J. Vernon McGee once told of a man who had been studying through the doctrine of predestination and had become so entranced by the idea of God’s sovereign protection of the believer under any and every circumstance that he said to Dr. McGee, You know, I am so convinced that God is keeping me no matter what I do, that I think that I could step right out into the midst of the busiest traffic at noontime and, if my time had not come, I would be perfectly safe. Dr. McGee said, very characteristically, Well, if you go down and stand in the middle of traffic at noontime, brother, your time has come!

To use a phrase like, my time has come is resignation, but this is not what Jesus does. What he is speaking of here is realization. He is speaking of the time he had been looking forward to all his life. Throughout His ministry, Jesus continually refers to this hour. In the beginning of John we have the story of the first miracle in Cana of Galilee when he turned the water into wine. There his mother came to him and said, Son, they have no wine, and his answer was, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come, (John 2:3-4 KJV). He meant that, though he would perform what his mother had suggested, it would not have the results that she anticipated, for the hour had not yet come, the time had not struck. Repeatedly he said to the disciples, My hour is not yet, (John 7:30, 8:20). He was awaiting a time when opportunity would abound, and now, as he comes to the cross, he lifts his eyes unto the heavens and says, Father, the hour has come. By that he meant the hour had come in which all that he had lived for would begin to be fulfilled.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – The Hour Has Come →

Read: John 14:12-17

And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. John 14:13-14

Whatever … anything … I will do it. We sense immediately that this is too wide. If we take this as absolutely unlimited, a sort of magical Aladdin’s lamp that we can rub and ask for any possible thing in the world, certainly we have missed the true point of this passage. It is too wide to take unreservedly. We sense also that it is too contradictory if taken without limit. We can see problems arising. What if a Christian athlete is praying for clear weather and a Christian farmer is praying for rain? Which one wins?

No, this promise cannot be limitless. There is a condition here. Our Lord means exactly what he says but we must understand what he says. This is a magnificent promise of vast scope, of tremendous encompassment, but what he says is if you ask in my name. This is the condition.

That certainly means a great deal more than a magical formula to tack on to the end of our prayers. There is nothing quite as pagan, or silly, as this meaningless phrase, this we ask in Jesus’ name, added to our prayers without any understanding if the prayer is actually being asked in Jesus’ name. We do this because it is traditionally acceptable, and we do not understand what in his name means. In Christ’s name means in his authority and on the basis of his character.

All of us are familiar with the phrase, In the name of the law. Policemen do their business in the name of the law. Suppose a policeman goes into a cheap slum area of the city at three o’clock in the afternoon. He is called there because of some murderous activity that is going on, and he comes up to the address that has been given him, and knocks at the door, and says, Open in the name of the law. No one opens the door, so after he knocks again and requests that it be opened in the name of the law and there still is no answer, he breaks it down and goes in. But what if that same policeman is drunk? He is out in a residential area and for some reason on his own, in his drunken stupor, he stumbles up the steps of a house, and knocks on the door, and says, Open in the name of the law. Those within hear the thick voice and recognize that it is a drunk and refuse to open. So the policeman breaks down the door, and when he does, he is arrested and taken to jail himself.

Continue reading Ray Stedman – In My name →