the present hour

Devotions from Jefferson Vann # 2397

John 5:24-27

Joh 5:24 “I am honestly telling you, anyone who hears my word and believes the one who sent me has permanent life and will not go into judgment but has departed from the death to the life.
Joh 5:25 “I am honestly telling you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and the ones hearing will live.
Joh 5:26 Because just as the Father has life in himself, so also he has allowed the Son to have life in himself.
Joh 5:27 And he has allowed him the right to make judgment, because he is the Son of Man.

the present hour

The healing at the porticoes becomes the living illustration behind Jesus’ teaching about two “hours”—a present one and a future one. The moment He spoke to the crippled man and restored him was not only an act of compassion; it was a sign pointing to something far greater. That man had no strength, no strategy, and no ability to help himself. His restoration came entirely from the authoritative word of Christ. In that sense, the miracle becomes a window into the deeper realities Jesus unfolds in His discourse.

Jesus speaks first of an hour that “is coming and is now here.” In His earthly ministry, Jesus would raise the dead physically—Jairus’s daughter, the widow’s son, Lazarus. Each of these moments revealed His authority to give life where death had already taken hold. The crippled man’s healing fits within that same pattern: total dependence met by total divine sufficiency.

But Jesus also speaks of another hour—one that is still future. A day will come when all who lie in their graves will hear His voice. The same voice that restored a broken body beside the pool will call the dead of all ages to rise. The present hour offers forgiveness, renewal, and the hope of permanent life. The future hour will bring the full realization of that hope when resurrection becomes a universal reality. The miracle at Bethesda thus becomes both a sign of what Christ does now and a preview of what He will do then.

Today, the voice of Christ still speaks through the gospel, offering forgiveness and the promise of life that death cannot undo. Those who hear and believe enter into that present hour of resurrection, awaiting the day when the final call will summon them from the grave.

LORD, draw many to yourself and to your forgiveness in this hour, while the voice of life is still calling.