The Hour is Come

God has a plan in relation to all things, and nothing falls outside of his control in executing that plan. Here in John 17 the hour had come within the plan of God for Christ's crucifiction, the laying down of his life for his people in executing the whole plan of salvation.

1. The significance of this phrase.
2. What it meant for Christ. The culmination of his mission on earth.
3. What it means to believers: its salvific importance; its experimental importance.
   Application: 1 The reason we are involved in conflict. 2 Because of the plan of salvation, God has in interest in you. 3. Our faith and knowledge is unsufficient if we fail to go back in our thinking into eternity, to the decrees of God. Our testimony starts with the decrees of God and ends with the glory of God. 4 Because of "this hour" there is nothing uncertain about salvation.