John Chapter 16 Series

John Chapter 16

This chapter begins with Jesus still talking about the hatred of the world!

Read verse 1

“These things I have spoken to you” are the things Jesus talked about in chapter 15.

Read verses 2,3

Jesus didn’t want the disciples to be offended at the things that would happen to them.

He said if we are going to follow Him, we must take up our cross, not His cross, but our own cross, and follow Him.

If we suffer with Christ here on earth, we will reign with Him in heaven.

To be “put away from the synagogue” is to be excommunicated from the synagogue.

That was the worst thing that could happen to a Jew in Jesus’ day.

To be a member of the local synagogue was to be a part of what was happening socially in the community.

That’s what it would cost these men to stand boldly for Jesus.

The religious Jews cast them out(excommunicated them), and we saw in the last part of the 1st century, a parting of the ways between Judaism and Christianity.

Today, if you’re standing for Christ, it’s going to cost you something.

That’s what He means by taking up or bearing your own cross for Christ.

Read verses 4-7

Jesus is letting us know what is coming.

He is preparing us.

These men were letting the fact that Jesus was going to leave them absolutely overwhelm them with sorrow.

Many Christians today let one experience or another in life embitter them.

They experience some disappointment in an individual, or in a church, and they are overwhelmed by sorrow, and they turn from God.

Some people won’t enter into the door of a church today because they are bitter over some incident that happened to them in the past.

Jesus is telling us we’re not to be overcome by some sorrow.

“…it is expedient for you that I should go away…” (verse 7), tells us Jesus’ purpose for coming to our world: to die.

Mark 10:45 says, “…the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give the life a ransom…(Greek).

Jesus actually limited Himself by becoming a man.

In heaven, before Christ was born in Bethlehem, Jesus was omnipresent, but in our world, with His human body, He couldn’t be here where I am, and with you where you are at the same time.

Therefore, He tells His disciples that He will send the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit will be in all places.

He is right here with me right now, and He’s with you wherever you are.

The Holy Spirit, the Paraclete, will come to us and dwell in us.

Read verses 8-11

The Holy Spirit is come.

He will convict the world of three things:

1. sin.

2. righteousness.

3. judgment.

Folks, that’s a sermon in itself!

The present ministry of the Holy Spirit in our world today is to convict the world of three things: sin, righteousness and judgment.

Read verses 12-15

We are to keep growing in grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Just reading the Bible is not the complete answer.

The Holy Spirit must be our Teacher as we read.

He will guide you into all truth.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth!

Here, in verse 15, Jesus is making Himself equal with God the Father.

Whatever God the Father has, Jesus has.

“…All things which has the Father are mine…” Jesus said.

Read verses 16-33

“…a little while…and again a little while you will see me…” means that Jesus was going to be crucified and buried.

He would be absent a little while and they wouldn’t see Him.

On the third day He would come back, so in a little while they would see Him.

That was the 3 days.

Then, there was to come another “little while” because Jesus would go to the Father; and it’s been 2,000 years now, and after that “little while” we will see Him again.

Jesus promised not to leave us comfortless; He would be with us in the person of the Holy Spirit.

Look again at verses 23,24.

We are to pray in His name.

Remember that the disciples never prayed to the Father in the name of Jesus.

You and I today pray differently from the disciples.

We pray to God the Father in Jesus name because Jesus is in heaven today acting as our Great Intercessor, praying for us.

That’s the reason we should always pray to God the Father in Jesus name.

Look at verse 28: “I came forth out of the Father, and have come into the world; again I leave the world and go to the Father” (Greek).

That’s a key verse in the Gospel of John.

Remember, the Gospel of John is written that you may believe! (John 20:31).