John 16

John 16:1-33

The Gospel According to John John 16:1-33 John 16:1-33. Between chapters fifteen and sixteen there should be no break. It would seem that at the point which we reach in verse sixteen in chapter sixteen (John 16:16), the Lord paused, and the disciples are seen talking together, “They said one to another.” They were talking of their perplexity, perplexity concerning that which Jesus had just said. After that conversation, He, being aware of their difficulty, and what they were enquiring, resumed, and replied to that enquiry. Again the disciples spoke, this time not of perplexity, but affirming their confidence in Him, “Now speakest Thou plainly . . . now … we believe . . . Now we know.” To this the Lord replied in a very remarkable way. Not questioning their confidence, He indicated to them that however confident they were, they would break down; ending everything with that tremendous word, “I have overcome the world.” At that point His teaching ceased.

Let us begin with the sentences at the end of chapter fifteen:

“When the Comforter is come, Whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, He shall bear witness of Me; and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.” These words followed immediately upon what He had told them about the world’s hostility. They were going out into a hostile world, hostile because it was ignorant of God and of Himself. Therefore He had told them of the coming double witness in the world, which nevertheless would be one witness, and the only witness capable of bringing conviction to the world; the witness of the Spirit, and the witness of the Church. “He shall bear witness of Me; and ye also bear witness, because ye have been with Me from the beginning.” Now, in close connection He ran on, in these sixteen verses.

First, having spoken of the fact that in the hostile world this double witness would be borne by the Spirit and by the Church, He showed the relation between the world and the Spirit; verses one to eleven. The world was in His mind, the hostile world. God so loved the world that He had given this Son of His love. If the world was hostile to Him, He was not hostile to the world. He was about to die for it; and looking on to those days when these men would go out into the hostile world, He had told them that the Spirit would bear witness to the world, and they also.

He first shows that the world’s hostility will be very definite and very bitter. He said, The hour will come when they will think they are doing God service when they kill you. That was actually true in the case of these men, and of the early Church; the world thought it was serving God if the witnesses going forth were slain.

Then He showed that the reason for the hostility was still the world’s darkness, “Because they have not known the Father,” and because they know not Me. That is still the trouble with the world. The world is hostile to Christ. Why? Because it does not know God.

Then He showed them what their equipment would be for going out into that hostile world. It was here that He made that remarkable statement; “It is expedient for you that I go away.” Look at that little group of men. In a little while, they would all forsake Him, yet they were all loving Him, all loyal to Him. The one terror filling their heart was that of the apprehension of the future without Him. And now He said, “It is expedient for you that I go away.”

It is an arresting word, that word “expedient.” It is an interesting fact that it is the word Caiaphas had used about His going. That superbly brilliant and damnable politician had said to the Sanhedrim, “It is expedient . . . that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” Caiaphas said more than he knew, when he said, It is expedient that He die. Jesus was now close to the Cross, with Caiaphas in the background; and He now said to this group, “It is expedient for you that I go.” The high line of politics, said Caiaphas, is that we get rid of Him. The higher line of God’s policy, said Jesus, is that I go. Thus all the folly and wickedness of man is at last resolved into the harmony of the Divine government and the Divine authority. It is expedient, said the politician; it is expedient, said the King Redeemer.

Thus Jesus told these men that it was better, not only better, it was best, the only right thing, that He should go. But why? “If I go not . . . the Comforter will not come.” It is better that I am not here. My going is a gain. My going out of this relationship that I have borne to you is in order to progress. This physical intimacy is a poor thing compared to that which begins when the Comforter comes.

Then straightway He told them what that coming of the Spirit would mean for the world. “He when He is come, will convict the world,” not of in spite of the translations, but “in respect of,” that is about, or concerning. The witness of the Spirit in the world has to do with three things; sin, righteousness, judgment.

These are inter-related. Sin, the fact of failure all men know, whatever name they give it. Righteousness as an ideal is admitted if the fact of sin is recognized. If there is no such thing as righteousness, there is no such thing as sin. Judgment is the principle at work everywhere in human thinking, which differentiates between right and wrong.

Said Jesus, When the Spirit is come, these are the things He is going to deal with in the world, the things which constitute the cardinal consciousness of every human being, when that human being gives attention to its spiritual nature. Then He told them what the Spirit would have to say concerning those things. “Of sin, because they believe not on Me.” Jesus said in effect, My being in the world has created a new center of sin, and given a new meaning to sin; and the Spirit is coming to show the world that sin now, is rejection of Me. Sins are symptoms. Sin is a malady. Because of the coming of Jesus into the world, the sin which blights and blasts and may damn, is rejection of Him. All sins can be dealt with if men believe on Him.

The Spirit would also witness concerning righteousness. “Of righteousness, because I go unto the Father.” Righteousness would now have a new interpretation, and a new potentiality, because He was going back to the Father. There was the Cross. That is the way He was going. It was in His mind all through these intimate conversations and discourses. He was going that way, and because of that, because He was going through to the Father, victorious, righteousness would be made possible.

And of judgment. The Spirit was coming to show to the world that this principle of discrimination had its central manifestation in the fact that the prince of this world was judged and condemned. In Me, said Jesus, there is the power that deals with sin. If men reject that, that is sin. In Me, said Jesus, is the power that enables for righteousness. I am going to the Father, and through Me righteousness has been set forth before the world. In Me, said Jesus, the fact of the condemnation of evil and the glorification of righteousness is seen.

At this point our Lord made this revealing statement,

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.”

It was something said, as it were, in passing. He looked at them; He had told them these things. He knew how frail they were, how faulty they were, how they were failing to apprehend His teaching. He understood it all, and yet with great tenderness He said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” A little earlier He had said, “They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you, shall think that he offereth service unto God. These things will they do, because they have not known the Father nor Me. But these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.” There were things Jesus did not tell them at first.

He did not tell them of the hostility that would come. He never told them about His own Cross until He had been with them three years. And now He was going, and He said, “I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.” A wonderful principle is revealed there, namely that He tells us things, reveals things to us, as we are able to bear the revelation. I look back over my life. Thank God that He did not tell me all about it at the beginning. He teaches us, as we are able to bear. Yes, but that is not all. “Howbeit.” There are many things that I have to say to you which at the moment you are quite unable to bear. “Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth is come, He shall guide you into all the truth; for He shall not speak from Himself; but what things soever He shall hear, these shall He speak; and He shall declare unto you the things that are to come.”

Do not exhaust that phrase, “the things that are to come,” by making it a prophetic reference only. It is that, but it is far more. Look at that group of men. When He left them, they had very little idea how to proceed, except that they must do so in the power of the Holy Spirit. All subsequent unveilings to the Church of God as to methods of work and service, have come by the growing interpretation of the Spirit. “He shall show you things to come.” In that word of Jesus we find warrant for many things the Church of God, in the line of true authority, and under the guidance of the Spirit, has had to do in the running centuries, for which we have no instructions in the words of Jesus.

He will guide you. A guide always means a pilgrimage, and a guide always means a process. The whole Church of God to-day has a fuller apprehension of truth than had those twelve men. The Spirit has been guiding us into the truth.

Finally in this regard, the whole mission of the Spirit is to glorify Me, said Jesus, by interpretation of the things of the Father which are all Mine. The world is hostile, but God so loved it that He gave His Son. The world is hostile because of its ignorance of God, and of His Son. Out into the world He sent His own, in partnership with the Spirit of God; and the ministry of the Spirit in the world is to deal with the cardinal elements of spiritual consciousness; sin, righteousness, and judgment, and relate them to Him. And about the disciples? The Spirit needs them.

It is through them the work must be done, and in order that they may do it, Jesus went as to bodily presence. The Spirit came to guide them into truth, to show them, all the way, things that are to come; and that, in order that the Christ may be glorified; and in the glorification of the Christ, the things which are the things of God, be revealed to the world. So the great allegory of the vine ended.

Then He said to them something that puzzled them, and what wonder. He said, “A little while, and ye behold Me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me.” “Behold” and “see” are two different words in the Greek New Testament, as in ours. Ours do not quite convey the force of the difference. “A little while,” and you will not be looking at Me as you are looking at Me now. That is what you are frightened at. In a little while I will be gone out of sight. That is your trouble. “Yet a little while . . . and ye shall see Me.” If you are going to lose sight of Me in the way you have been accustomed to look at Me, you will see Me in a new way.

It is expedient for you that I go, and in a very little while it will be so, I will not be here with you, to meet you on the shores of Galilee. You will not behold Me; but in a little while you will see Me, see Me as you have never seen Me before.

Then the perplexed disciples talked to each other. They were very serious. What is this He is talking about: A little while, you will not behold Me, and a little while and you shall see Me. “We know not what He saith.”

Then He told them explicitly what He meant. “A little while” was the little while of darkness into which they then were passing. “Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament.” He was looking at the Cross, their weeping and lamenting, while the world would be rejoicing. The world will think when they have put Me on the Cross they have gotten rid of Me, and so will it seem to you. You will be weeping and sorrowful; and the world will be glad.

Then the high, wondrous, beauteous declaration: “Ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.” Not after your sorrow you will obtain joy. No, the very sorrow, the very thing causing your sorrow will be transmuted into joy. The joy will come out of the sorrow. “Your sorrow shall be turned into joy.”

In that connection He employed that fine, tender, exquisite illustration of a woman in travail, to interpret the sorrow in the hour to which they were going, and in the hour to which He was going. In effect He said; Your sorrows will be birth-pangs, leading to life. A little while that you will not see Me, the little while of your darkness, and pain, and tears; but that is going to be turned into your joy. He was telling them beforehand. I do not think they understood Him at the time, but I am sure they came to understand Him by and by.

Running on, in verses twenty-three to twenty-seven (John 16:23-27), we find these wonderful words; “In that day ye shall ask Me nothing.” In this paragraph we have two Greek words both rendered “ask.” This one means, In that day you shall ask Me no question. Why not? Because the Paraclete will be there, guiding you into truth. I think there was an application here to the things that had been happening. They had been asking questions. Peter, “Whither goest Thou?” Thomas, “We don’t know where You are going, how can we know the way?” Philip, “Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us.” Jude, “What is come to pass that You are revealing Yourself to us, and not to the world?” And now, what does He mean by a little while?

We do not know. He now said, When that day comes, the day that dawns with the coming of the Spirit, you will not ask Me questions. Why not? You will have the Interpreter, the Spirit guiding you, leading you, teaching you. You will ask Me no question, because of the interpreting Paraclete.

In that day, moreover, you will find you have a new relationship with the Father. He said, I am not saying that I will ask the Father to do things for you, for you will ask Him yourselves. Notice two things here. You will ask in My name; and the Father will give in My name.

Then in verse twenty-eight (John 16:28), completing everything, we have His summary of His whole mission, the mission of which they were to bear witness, the mission of which the Spirit will bear witness, the mission concerning which the world will gain the truth in the united witness of the Spirit and the Church.

Listen to the majesty of it. “I came out from the Father,” Nativity and Incarnation; “and am come into the world,” all His mission, His teaching, His ministry; “again, I leave the world,” by the way of the passion, the Cross; “and go unto the Father,” the ascension and the return to the glory. “I came out from the Father,” the Virgin Birth and Incarnation. I “am come into the world,” His identification with humanity in its limitation, by His teaching, and mighty works, “He went about doing good.” “I leave the world,” I am going by the way of the Cross. I am going “to the Father,” assurance of victory, and the ascension foreshadowed.

Then they said to Him, “Lo, now speakest Thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. Now know we that Thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask Thee, by this we believe that Thou earnest forth from God.” It was a great word. Two things they said, Now we know, and now we believe; and they were perfectly sincere; and our Lord did not question their sincerity. He said, “Do ye now believe?” The “now” there is different from their “now.” The Greek word indicates a crisis. He was not denying what they affirmed, but He was saying to the whole of them what He had said to Peter in the conversations in the upper room. He said to them in effect, Have you arrived so far? You will break down in spite of it. The knowledge that you have, and the belief that you have so far, will not be enough to hold you. “Do ye now believe?” He knew their coming failure. “The hour cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered every man to his own,” his own house, his own home, his own pursuits, his own affairs, anything you like; “and shall leave Me alone.” “Do ye now believe?” Is that so? That is not enough to hold you; the hour is coming and it is right here, when you will all be scattered; you will go to your own, you will leave Me alone; and if I had none to depend on save you, I would be desolate. Yet I am not alone, the Father is with Me.

Then the final words. “These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye may have peace.” I have spoken these things to you, things of comfort, and things of terror; and the last thing is that you will all forsake Me. These things I have told you, “that…ye may have peace.” Peace? Yes, peace. There is no peace so fine to the human soul as the sense of realizing that He knows me, even the worst that is in me.

And then the great final word, “Be of good courage, I have overcome the world.”