John‬ ‭5:25

“Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.” John‬ ‭5:25‬ ‭

When the LORD Jesus says, “Most assuredly, I say to you…” He is emphasizing that what He is about to say is absolute truth and will surely come to pass. The LORD Jesus is not offering an opinion. He is not suggesting a possibility. He is announcing a certainty.

Then HE says, “The hour is coming, and now is.” The LORD Jesus first says, “the hour.” That means an appointed time. A set time established by God. Nothing in His kingdom happens by accident. There is an appointed time for everything under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1). Even the scriptures tell us that we are living in the last hour (1 John 2:18). He draws our attention to something we often overlook. Why? Because time is the most precious thing in our lives.

Your hour. Your appointed portion under heaven (Ecclesiastes 3:1). It is the space God has entrusted to each one of us. And the question is not whether we have time, but how we spend it.

Where do you spend it?

What do you spend it on?

How do you spend it?

And with whom do you spend it?

Do you spend your hour with purpose? Or are you spending it on things that slowly harm you?

Money can be made again. If you lose it, you can earn it back. Talent can improve with practice and diligence. Skills can grow with discipline. But the time we spend can never return to us. Once an hour passes, it is gone from your hands forever.

I want to emphasize to you the importance of time. Your first breath was appointed. And so will your last. Every second, every minute, every hour you have is a gift from God. It is entrusted to you. The psalmist prayed, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12). He understood that wisdom begins when we realize our days are counted. This world will offer us many distractions. It will present pleasures that shine for a moment but later bring sorrow. It will invite us to spend our hours carelessly. But I sweetly remind you right now to pause and reflect. Think carefully about how you are spending the time that cannot be returned.

When Jesus says, “The hour is coming,” He is declaring both anticipation and fulfillment. The appointed time had arrived. Then He says, “and now is.” With this, He is declaring the Scriptures were being fulfilled. Scripture declares, “when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.” (Galatians‬ ‭4:4-5‬) The Messiah they had long awaited was standing among them. They were being fulfilled before their eyes. Yet, seeing, they did not see. Hearing, they did not hear. The fulfillment was present to all of them, but their hearts were closed. 

Then the LORD Jesus says, when the dead. He is speaking about our spiritual state or condition. All of us in every generation were physically alive yet spiritually dead. Anyone who has not yet believed and received Him remains in that condition. Why? Because the wages of our sin are death (Romans 6:23). And “Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—” (Romans 5:12). From Adam, death passed to all of us.

No one who is spiritually dead can live rightly before God. Why? Because God is the source of all goodness and life. So when sin separates us from Him (Isaiah 59:2), it cuts us off from the very source of life. To be cut off from His presence is to be cut off from life itself. That separation is what brought death to all of us. Death cannot produce righteousness. A dead branch cannot bear fruit (John 15:4-5). A corrupt tree cannot bring forth good fruit (Matthew 7:18). In our fallen state, we are hopeless in ourselves. A dead person cannot revive himself. We were trapped under the power of sin. Bound by it. Led by it. Left on our own, we are already under condemnation, walking a path that leads to the second death, the lake of fire. This is the reality of our condition without Him.

This also explains to all of us why the people around Jesus, even His own disciples, struggled to understand His words. Why did they struggle to believe fully? Why did they often misunderstand His teachings? Because a man cannot grasp the things of God without the Spirit of God dwelling within him. Scripture tells us,

“But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” – I Corinthians‬ ‭2:10-14‬ ‭

The Holy Spirit is our connection to God. He is the One who teaches, reveals, and gives understanding (John 14:26). He also guides us into all truth (John 16:13). He also is the One who will bring life in us. As it is written, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans‬ ‭8:11‬). But at that moment in John 5, the Spirit had not yet been given in fullness, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:39). Jesus had not yet gone to the cross. He had not yet shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins. He had not yet risen in victory.

But this is why the gospel is called good news.

Now we can fully understand what the LORD Jesus meant when He said, “the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.” This explains why people followed Jesus despite the truth that they did not fully understand Him. Our problem is not lack of intelligence, but spiritual death. When Jesus was speaking to them, He was speaking life. His words were not ordinary words. “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life (John 6:63). His words produce life within us. That is why, even without fully understanding, many were drawn to Him.

There is a void in every human heart. People try to fill it with the things of this world, yet nothing satisfies. That emptiness is the absence of the presence of God. So when Jesus stood before them, the very Life they were unknowingly searching for was present. Their spirits could sense something, even if their minds could not yet grasp it. Yet because we are spiritually dead without Him, we are not always aware of what is happening inside us.

This is why people were drawn to Him. Not because everything made sense to them. Not because they had all their questions answered. But because when Jesus showed up, life showed up.

He healed bodies broken by sin. The blind saw. The lame walked. The bleeding stopped. Those oppressed by evil spirits were delivered (Luke 4:18). Tormented minds found peace. Shackled souls were set free. Those crushed by society found dignity in His presence. The ones everyone else ignored, He noticed. The ones pushed aside, He welcomed. Women who were silenced were honored. Mary sat at His feet to learn, taking the place of a disciple, and when she was questioned, Jesus defended her. He said she had chosen the good part (Luke 10:39-42). To sit at His feet was to sit in the presence of God. And He protected her right to be there.

And there is so much more. But one thing is clear. Everything that comes out of the mouth of Jesus produces life in us. When the LORD Jesus speaks, things happen. Creation came by His word. Healing came by His word. Forgiveness came by His word. Authority flowed from His word. His words carry absolute authority. Even a Roman centurion understood this. He said, “Only speak a word, and my servant will be healed” (Matthew 8:8). He recognized that the power was not in physical touch but in the authority of Jesus’ voice. His word is superior. His word commands. His word restores. His word gives life.

But here is the sobering truth. Not everyone has ears to hear! In His own time, many heard Jesus, yet they did not believe in Him, and they all rejected Him. And it is the same today. The voice of Jesus, who gives life, is still speaking, yet many ignore and turn away.

That is why the gospel is called good news. Good news is announced. It is proclaimed. It is offered. The gospel is not something we push onto people by pressure. Jesus never forced anyone to follow Him. He called. He invited. He spoke. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15).

Every person who does not believe in Jesus will face condemnation before God and be thrown into the lake of fire, not because God is cruel, but because they rejected the eternal life that was offered to them. They rejected the voice of the Son of God, who called them to His marvelous light that they heard. They refused the invitation that was freely given. They are lost because they chose to ignore the only One who can save them. The tragedy is not that eternal life through Jesus was unavailable. The tragedy is that eternal life with God was rejected.

The issue has never been whether He is speaking. He is still calling the dead to rise! The real issue is this: do we have ears to hear? Do we have a heart willing to respond?

Because when the dead truly hear the voice of the Son of God (Jesus), they live.