John 16 - Preacher's Commentary

16:1-4

Preparation for Persecution

In the face of this humiliation and persecution, the disciples will be in the world as witnesses to Jesus. Their intimate companionship with Him “from the beginning” is the ground for their witness (v. 27). However, their authority does not rest simply on the memories of what He has done. For the hatred of the world will be countered by the strong witness of the Paraclete who is coming to dwell with the disciples. He is the Spirit of truth and can only declare the truth that is in Jesus. He does not have an independent witness of His own, but “conducts Christ’s case for Him before the world.”⁸ The Paraclete is under the authority of Jesus and will only magnify the truth that is in Him. The Spirit is grieved and offended when anyone claims that in their experience the Spirit has led them into new truth “beyond Jesus.”

So the Paraclete will enlighten the meaning of the teaching and works of Jesus which the disciples have heard and seen as His companions. Every disciple is called to be faithful and sensitive in making his witness to Jesus. The word he speaks for Jesus will always have the unique stamp of his personality on it. But it is the Spirit who guides and empowers him so that the witness to Jesus is true!

Jesus is saying these things to prepare His disciples for their time of persecution. He will not be with them in the flesh when they are cast out of the synagogues and even put to death. And how humiliating and confusing that will be, for those who hate and kill them will be utterly convinced they are doing the work of God (v. 21). How important then that these disciples remember Jesus’ words of preparation so they will not stumble when the darkness of persecution comes.

Once again John is giving a powerful word of encouragement to fellow believers who are being cast out of synagogues by their own family and friends in the name of devotion to God and who are increasingly facing death at the hands of the Caesars, so jealous of their own power. And in our day, the suffering church in Uganda, Ethiopia, communist states, and in Islamic republics has been heartened and renewed by those strong words of Jesus given us through John.

16:5-15

The Helper and Victim: The Work of the Helper

As the disciples become increasingly aware of the nearness of Jesus’ leaving, that His physical presence will no longer be with them, they are overwhelmed with sorrow. It fills their hearts. But they do not ask where Jesus is going. If they knew the purpose of His leaving, the goal of His journey, they would not grieve.

So Jesus attempts to say things to them now which earlier they could not hear or grasp. If He stayed on with these disciples in the flesh the Paraclete would not come (v. 7). He is the One who will be the indwelling Presence, uniting them with Jesus in His glory. But this Helper can only come to the disciples when Jesus has finished His atoning work and returned to the Father. His leaving these men is to their advantage.

The Paraclete will come to actively “convict” the world through the witness of these men (v. 8). He will expose the sin of the world. It is the rejection of Jesus which is at the root of all the world’s sin. If there is no faith in Jesus, self-centeredness, hatred, and immorality, all concrete signs of unbelief, will take over.

This Advocate will also bring to light the righteousness of Jesus while He unmasks the unrighteousness, the false justice, of the world. In crucifying Jesus the world judges Jesus, this innocent One, guilty. But the Father vindicates Him, declares Him the righteous One, by raising Him from the dead. His return to the Father rebukes the unrighteousness of the world. So the world is convicted of righteousness when Jesus is lifted up by the Spirit.

And the Paraclete will make it clear that the prince of this world is judged, for Jesus will meet the devil at the Cross and dethrone him through His Resurrection. While the evil one continues to thrash around and the struggle goes on, his power has been destroyed. In the power of the Spirit the apostles will go forth to boldly announce that Jesus is Lord and that the devil has been overthrown.

But there are other things Jesus cannot say to these disciples now, for they cannot “bear them” (v. 12). They are spiritually unprepared to handle them. Furthermore, these are truths which can only be grasped and understood after Jesus’ Crucifixion and Resurrection. Then the Paraclete will come as the Teacher to illuminate all of Jesus’ teachings. He will share only the truth He hears from Jesus, for the Spirit is under His authority.

The Paraclete comes to each humble and seeking disciple eager to teach all that is in Christ. What a gift! And as each one submits to this Spirit of truth, he grows in spiritual wisdom and is increasingly conformed to the image of Christ. Over and over again, particularly in small, informal Bible study groups, I have listened in gratitude as a “technically untrained” person has excitedly shared some deep spiritual truth which was obviously the word of the Lord, guided and taught by this One who has come to interpret Jesus!

“And He will tell you things to come” (v. 13). This is far more than a blueprint or schedule of “last things,” but a spirit of wisdom and discernment for every new opportunity. There is no way these disciples can know the strange and demanding situations into which Jesus’ mission will take them in the years ahead. But the Spirit will give them understanding and illuminate the truth about Jesus in each of these situations. Philip was later to meet a seeking Ethiopian on a desert road who was reading from Isaiah but could not understand it (Acts 8:26–38). The eunuch said, “How can I [understand it], unless someone guides me?” “Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him.” And the eunuch believed and was baptized. This is the constant work of guidance and discernment of the Spirit within the obedient disciple. And Peter, who was so Jewish in every way, is cast into utterly new and uncomfortable circumstances, almost being forced by the Spirit to witness to Cornelius, the Roman centurion, and his entire family. And the Lord, through the guidance of His Spirit of truth, opened a great door to the Gentile world and enlarged Peter’s vision mightily. The primitive church in Jerusalem could never remain a Jewish sect after that (Acts 10–11:18).

This is true in our day. Our ministry here with “internationals” has been an amazing illustration of this “guiding ministry” of the Spirit. Who would have thought that fifteen thousand Southeast Asians, most of them refugees, would end up here in Wichita in the heart of America? And when we were called by a National Ministries staff member in Valley Forge asking on short notice if we could help resettle one family from a refugee camp in Thailand we nervously agreed to do our best. So in a week we tried to get ready to accept Bounchop and Douangmala Vilaythong and their three children, hurrying about to find housing, work, and furniture. Little did we realize that God was opening a door into a fascinating new ministry. But the Holy Spirit did!

That was the first of twenty-five families totaling 131 people coming from Laos, Cambodia, and Viet Nam that our church helped sponsor. Everyone seemed to have an aunt or a mother or a cousin that wanted to come to the U.S. At first there were a handful of volunteers in our church who appropriately called themselves the “No Longer Strangers Task Force,” working out all the arrangements. Then a simple Sunday school was launched with fourteen or fifteen of our people becoming teachers. None of us will ever forget the enthusiastic, almost raucous, singing of “Hallelujah, Praise the Lord,” in Chinese, Thai, and English lifted up to God by these people in those beginning days. Heavenly music!

Then we suddenly became aware that right in our midst was a gifted, compassionate Thai couple, San and Sineerat Jittawait, whom God had prepared in a very remarkable way to lead out and pastor this spiritually hungry group of people. Then worship services three Sundays a month were started, and a Saturday night Bible study and prayer time. Now almost every week we are hearing stories of life-changing conversions as these people are coming out of the old superstitions and bondage into Christ’s new way. We had no manual or organization chart that would fit this unexpected situation. Only the guidance of the Spirit who gave wisdom to His people.

It is the Father who takes all things that are the Son’s—wisdom and truth for all His people—and pours them out through the Paraclete that Jesus may be glorified. Here again we see the eternal, living intimacy within God through His ministry.

16:16-22

Sorrow Becomes Joy

When Jesus speaks of a “little while” and these disciples will not see Him, and a “little while”and they will see Him, there is a confused wondering among them. What does He mean by this “little while”?

Jesus is not speaking of linear time, the measurement of hours or days or weeks, but of crisis time, kairos, time that is heavy with decision, judgment, and opportunity.

A week ago the phone rang and when I answered our oldest son greeted me jubilantly, “Good morning, Grandpa.” The weeks of waiting were over, for a seven-pound son had been born to Elaine and Randy. So “Grandma Ruth” came on and we wept and laughed together with the new father, celebrating the coming of Joel Stephen.

But a week earlier when they called, they had reported that, after visiting the doctor, the baby might come a week or two later than expected. So there was a mounting concern, an added “little while.” Elaine is quite a small person and was even then having some difficulty walking. But then the time came, and the pain of the night became the joy of the morning!

The “little while,” the time from birth pangs to the coming of life, is like the “leaving” and “returning” of Jesus. The separation of His death will “give birth” to the joy of His coming in the morning of His Resurrection. How beautifully Jesus likens His own passion to the pain and joy of childbirth. Again He has reached deep into the imagery of the Old Testament prophets and uses a picture with which His people were familiar. For the joy of the coming Messianic age and the promise of resurrection are like the birth of a child (Is. 26:17–21; 66:7–8, 13–14; Jer. 22:23; Hos. 13:13–15).

Jesus’ Crucifixion, His act of sacrifice, which brings such sorrow, will become the source of a joy which can never be taken away. With the coming of the Paraclete, Jesus will abide with all His disciples forever.

How different is this joy from the world which takes savage delight in putting Jesus to death but in the end is judged by that very death.

16:23-28

Revolution in Prayer

Jesus’ atoning death will revolutionize the praying of these disciples. All through Jesus’ earthly ministry they have asked all kinds of anxious, earthy questions to satisfy their curiosity or their needs, but they have not asked in His name. But when the Paraclete unites them with Jesus, they are to ask in Jesus’ name, not fearfully or anxiously, but confidently in love, for their whole status has been changed. “It is on the grounds of all that the Son is and does that these men receive gifts from the Father.”⁹ Jesus encourages the disciples to keep on asking, and as the Father shares all that the Son can give them, the joy of the Resurrection will fill them. They are now in the Father’s presence.

Repeatedly, the Jews have urged Jesus to speak plainly, and His disciples have not understood the meaning of the images He has used such as the Shepherd and the sheep, the Vine and the branches, and now the pain and joy of childbirth. This has been a figurative language, with hidden meanings. But how can One from above speak plainly to those who are earthbound? The mystery of Jesus’ hidden teaching will only begin to disappear when they are born from above. Then the Paraclete will bring enlightenment to all that Jesus has taught and make it plain.

It is in this knowing, this being taught by the Spirit, that the incredible reality of prayer is opened up for the disciple. Then the disciple knows he is loved as the Father loves Jesus. In this intimate relationship the disciple is in the presence of the Father. The Christian’s prayer now is Jesus’ prayer. As John Calvin puts it, “We have the heart of God as soon as we place before Him the name of the Son.”¹⁰

All this rests on what Jesus has done in becoming one with men and also His being one with the Father. So in a magnificent summarizing statement, Jesus says that in coming into the world He “has established a bond of union with His fellow men; leaving the world, He returns to reestablish in its fullness His union with the Father.”¹¹ It is only when His hour is completed, His journey of descent and ascent is finished, that the disciples can welcome the Paraclete and know complete union and joy with Jesus. Then Jesus will speak to them “plainly” about the Father and they can pray in His name.

16:29-33

Peace in Tribulation

The disciples rush ahead impetuously and boast that “the hour” has already been fulfilled and that they now hear Jesus speaking plainly. They no longer need to raise any further questions for they insist they now understand and believe that He is from God.

No wonder Jesus has earlier called them “little children” for their faith is incipient and immature. Thus He must deal with all of us. There is no way these disciples can know all they claim, for Jesus’ work is not completed and the Spirit of truth has not yet come.

So Jesus tells them how immature they are and what will take place. Under the impact and fury of the attack of the Jews, which is soon to come, these men will all be scattered, each running to his own place of hiding (v. 32). A sad word, for after spending these years of intimate life together they will leave Jesus alone when trouble comes. John, the beloved, who leaned on Jesus’ breast and will later stand with His mother at the Cross, honestly reports the cowardice and fear of all the disciples. But Jesus is not alone. His Father will be with Him, as He has been throughout all eternity as well as through His earthly ministry.

There is a word of triumphant hope at the conclusion of the discourse, a great sense of encouragement for those weak, needy men, and for all those who confront the hostile rejection of this world. In Jesus they will have peace, one of the fruits of salvation, even though in the world they will experience hatred and persecution. What a contrast! In Jesus there is peace; in the world, tribulation. That peace is only possible because in union with Jesus the disciples will share in His victory over the world.