John 16 - Hope

In John 16, we read Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples while in his earthly body. It won’t necessarily be the last teaching directly from Jesus but any other teaching will come after the resurrection in his new resurrection body – his perfect, imperishable, immortal body.

And as is typical for you and I, since Jesus knows that this is his last words prior to everything changing, he wants to make sure that these are the most important and impactful words he can say. Have you ever said goodbye to someone who you knew you would either never see again or if you will see them again, you know that everything will be completely different than it used to be? Remember how you wanted to say those last things that made the most impact, that was the most important? This is what Jesus is doing in John 16.

So what is it that Jesus wants his disciples, and through His Word, everyone else, to know? If we take a close look at the chapter, we find that there are several warnings.

The first is right up front in v2-3. Jesus warns that there will be persecution. He even recognizes that there will be those who persecute us while claiming to do it for God. We see this exact thing happen with Jesus and his crucifixion. The Jewish leaders had no qualms having Jesus crucified because in their minds, they were doing it for God. We have seen horrible things in the past of the church – the crusades, the inquisition, the persecution of those who would translate the Bible – all done in the name of God. Jesus warns us that we will be persecuted for following him. We should be careful not to be satisfied to just follow the ways of the church. The religious leaders of the past have always found a way to alter what God really wants so that it fits what they really want. If we don’t think we are being persecuted, maybe we need to wonder about that.

Jesus also warns about his impending death in v16a and v28. He tells the disciples that he is leaving the world and going back to the Father and that they will not see him in a little while. This is first of all unsettling for the disciples and it is also confusing to them. It is unsettling to them because they have been led by Jesus over the past three years. He has become their life. Everything they have done over the past three years has been at his say. Now they will not have that guidance. They will not have someone to tell them what to do. What will they do next? How will they live? It is confusing because they have heard Jesus speak of being the son of God and reigning with the Father. They see him as the Messiah who would bring the world to their knees in homage to him and that he would rule from the throne in Jerusalem. Now he says he’s going away. How can he do all these things if he is going away? How can he be Messiah if he is not around?

Finally, Jesus warns them that they will lose faith in v32. He tells them that they will all scatter and leave Jesus because of the persecution. They will lose their faith. It is probably a combination of everything that is happening. It is rarely a single thing that makes one lose faith. It usually is a combination of things. If one thing happens, our faith can usually overcome that. It is when many things happen. If I lose a loved one, it is sad and I grieve. But I am able to overcome that with my faith: “They are in a better place now. No one lives forever. They are with God.” But when several things happen at the same time – I lose a loved one, I lose my job, I have financial problems, I get sick or injured. Now I start to come at these things differently – why are all these bad things happening to me, why is God making me suffer so much, there can’t be a loving God who would allow me to go through all this. The disciples were told earlier that they would fall away and they said they would stick with Jesus to the end, even to death. But when several things happened at the same time – the last supper, the betrayal, the denial, the trial and crucifixion – it was too much for them and they found themselves hiding in the upper room, trying to figure out what they would do next. We know they lost their faith because later, when Jesus is risen, we will see that they have to be convinced that Jesus is alive. They will not believe Mary Magdalene, they will not believe the disciples from Emmaus, Thomas will not even believe the other disciples.

But with all of these warnings, Jesus doesn’t leave us there. He doesn’t say, “All these things will happen to you – good luck with that…” He gives them a solution to each one.

Directly after telling them that they will be persecuted, he tells them that he will send the Holy Spirit to advocate and counsel them. The word used here in the Greek is Paraclete. It means advocate, counselor, helper, one who intercedes, one who consoles. What a great word. In English, we have all these words for Him. In Greek, we have Paraclete. He is the one who does ALL these things for us. He advocates for us as Satan accuses us. He counsels us as we try to figure out what we should do next. He helps us when we fail as we try to do things on our own. He intercedes for us when we need Him to step in and take over. He consoles us when we are feeling sorrowful or defeated. The Holy Spirit does all these things for us and he does these things so that we can have hope when we go through the persecution. As we are being persecuted, either by the church, by the world or by unbelievers, who may or may not be working with Satan to shut us up, we have the Holy Spirit to turn to so that we can continue to be faithful witnesses to God.

In fact, here are the things that Jesus mentions that the Holy Spirit will do for us:

• convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment - v8
• guide us in all truth – v13
• glorify Jesus and teach us about him – v14

In other words, as we go through difficult times, our hope is that we have the Holy Spirit to help us through it. Otherwise, we would not be able to bear it.

When it comes to Jesus’ death, he doesn’t leave them without hope. In fact, he tells them that he will come again. V16b, 20, 22. He tells them that they will grieve when he dies, but that he will return and that they will have a joy that is so great that nothing will be able to take it away. What Jesus is saying here is that after he dies, he will be resurrected. However, this isn’t your typical resurrection. We’ve seen the typical resurrections before. The person dies, some man of God, or even Jesus himself, brings them back to life again and they continue in their lives as it was before. But Jesus’ resurrection is different. This time, Jesus will be the firstborn of all the resurrected. He will show them that there is coming a time when we will ALL have new bodies. That Jesus is not actually dead anymore, but that he has overcome death. What started with sadness – that Jesus died – has turned into hope – that death has no hold on Jesus. That hope is for all of us. Jesus was not saying, “I am the only one who will ever experience this, so worship me because I am God.” He is saying, “I am the first one who has experienced this and so you should have hope in all things knowing that one day, you also will have overcome death and will live just as I do. Worship me because I am God and because I love you so much that I have given you this amazing gift of everlasting life. Not because of anything you have done, so you don’t have to worry that you didn’t get it right – it is all because of what I have done and since I have overcome death, you can know that you have also.”

Finally, he doesn’t leave them with the thought that their faith isn’t strong enough and that they will lose it, but that they should realize that Jesus has the Father and so their faith is not in vain but instead, that they should live in the hope that we can have the Peace of God through Jesus – v33. Jesus gives us his peace, not as the world gives it. His peace is one that only he can give. It overcomes all kinds of disappointment, all kinds of anger, all kinds of sorrow. His peace comes from knowing that Jesus broke through the visible, materialistic world that we see and touch and understand and moved into the Spiritual realm where eternity is real, where we can come face to face with the Father and we have all the promises of being with God. If we truly believe and we truly understand the hope that Jesus was trying to teach his disciples in this last teaching of his, we will recognize that there is nothing that we can go through in this world, nothing that can happen to us in this life, that is so important as to even blemish or spot our eternal destination. If we really understand that we are on this earth for an extremely short period of time and that eternity is so much greater than the short time of our lives here, we will recognize that the things that happen to us here are similar to those times when we thought our lives were over because we broke something, lost something, forgot something many years ago. If we can forget those times, how much more can we forget the troubles we have now, when we realize that we will live in eternity with God.

When we recognize this, we have the peace of Jesus guarding our hearts and minds.

These were the last words that Jesus taught his disciples, that he thought was the most important thing he could say:

• there will be difficulties, but you have my Holy Spirit
• there will be sorrow, but I have risen and overcome death so that you know that you will also
• there will be faith-trying times, but I have overcome the world and you can have my peace

In other words, stuff will happen, but I give you hope. Hold on to that hope through all you experience.

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Last modified: March 15, 2009