"I Am Here"

John 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

Jesus said to the woman, "the hour cometh, and now is." Then He dismissed the whole system that had existed up to that time. It was the whole system of Judaism according to the Old Testament. In one sentence, He dismissed the whole dispensation. And He introduced an altogether new order of things.

What did He mean? Because when He said the hour cometh, and now is, He did not mean literally just an hour and so many minutes. He meant that it was the first hour of the new day. With this hour an altogether new day has come. 

What is the new day? If you would have asked Jesus to put it into a short sentence, He would have said, "Well, I am here."

The hour is not just a matter of time but a matter of PERSON.

The new dispensation is the dispensation of Jesus Christ. Christ is the new dispensation.

I am here, He said. You go through that Gospel of John. He is centering everything in Himself. I am the Way; I am the Truth; I am the Life; I am the Shepherd; I am the Vine; I am the Resurrection. It is a Person. 

It is that which lies behind everything. Christianity is Christ. Christ is Christianity. That is where it all begins and it never departs from HIM.

The development of the Christian life is only the development of Jesus Christ in the life.

~T. Austin Sparks~