Jesus proceeded to review things that He had just told His disciples, but He now gave them more information. Particularly the ministry of the Holy Spirit is the subject of this section of the discourse, though Jesus also clarified other matters about which He had spoken.
Jesus' method of teaching in the Upper Room Discourse was not to give a thorough explanation of one subject, then a thorough explanation of another subject, and so on. It was rather to introduce several subjects initially, then return to them and give a little more information, then return again and give even more information. This is, of course, excellent teaching methodology.
Jesus introduced this teaching by explaining further why He was telling His disciples these things.
16:1 The phrase "These things I have spoken to you"(Gr. tauta lelaleka hymin) brackets this subsection of the discourse and highlights a reason for it (cf. 14:25; 16:25, 33; 17:1). Jesus did not want His disciples to stumble (Gr. skandalethron, be caught unaware) in their discipleship after His departure because the events that would follow took them completely by surprise (cf. Matt. 5:10-12). Even though they did not understand everything Jesus told them immediately, they would remember them and understand them more fully later (cf. 14:20, 25-26).
"The greatest danger the disciples will confront from the opposition of the world is not death but apostasy."500
16:2 Jesus announced that these disciples would experience excommunication from their Jewish synagogues (cf. 9:22, 34; Acts 18). The first strong opposition that the early Christians faced came from the Jews because most of them had been Jews (Acts 2:11, 14, 22).501Jesus also hinted that some of them would die as martyrs (cf. Acts 7:59; 9:1-4; 12:2). Church history indicates that all the Eleven did, though there is some division of opinion about the death of John. Moreover those who would kill the disciples would not do so believing themselves to be criminals for taking their lives but thinking that they were glorifying God by doing so (cf. 12:10; Acts 9:1-2; 22:5, 19; 26:9-11).
Jesus credited the Jews with good motives even though their actions were wrong (cf. Rom. 10:2). However, opposition that arises from religious conviction is often the most severe and brutal type. Ironically the Jews were opposing God by persecuting Jesus' disciples rather than serving Him (cf. Saul of Tarsus, Acts 9:1-2; 22:4-5; 26:9-11).
16:3 The opponents of the disciples would do these things because they had not come to know the Father or the Son. Theirs would be a sin of culpable ignorance.
16:4 "Their hour"(NASB) refers to the time when the disciples' persecutors would control their fate. Ironically their hour would appear to be the time of their greatest victory, but really it would be the time of their greatest defeat. Conversely Jesus' "hour,"His passion, would appear to be the time of this greatest defeat, but really it would be the time of His greatest victory.
The memory that Jesus had forewarned His disciples would enable them to realize that things were not out of control when they seemed to be. This remembrance would really strengthen their faith in Jesus rather than weakening it.
Jesus had not revealed the extent of opposition His disciples would face earlier because He was with them and He was the focus of unbelieving hostility. However now that He was preparing to depart from them they needed to be aware of what lay ahead for them.
16:5 Jesus again pointed out that the revelation of His departure had made the disciples sad rather than happy. They had little interest in where He was going. What concerned them was the sorrow that His departure produced for them. Peter and Thomas had asked Jesus where He was going (13:36; 14:5), but Jesus evidently did not regard those questions as expressing genuine interest in Himself but themselves. He apparently regarded them as superficial protests against His departure.502
16:6-7 The disciples were full of grief (Gr. lype, cf. vv. 20, 21, 22) because they did not realize how good it would be for them when the Holy Spirit came to indwell them. Really it was to the disciples' advantage (Gr. sympherei) that Jesus should leave them. Consequently Jesus proceeded to give them more information about what His coming would mean for them. Some of the benefits of the new covenant that Jesus ratified by His death, into which all believers entered at Pentecost, required the indwelling presence of God's Spirit (Jer. 31:33-34).
Some Christians wish that they could have lived during Jesus' earthly ministry and accompanied Him around Palestine hearing His teachings firsthand and beholding His miracles with their own eyes. This would have been a treat, but Jesus here clearly affirmed that believers would be better off after the Spirit's coming than they were before.
"It is important to note that the Spirit comes to the churchand not to the world. This means that He works in and through the church. The Holy Spirit does not minister in a vacuum. Just as the Son of God had to have a body in order to do His work on earth, so the Spirit of God needs a body to accomplish His ministries; and that body is the church. . . . The Spirit does not float' in some ghostly way up and down the rows of a church building, seeking to win the lost. The Holy Spirit works through the people in whom He lives."503
16:8 The Spirit's coming would result in heightened conviction among unbelievers concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment.504Before then, that conviction had come mainly from the Old Testament, John the Baptist, Jesus, and the disciples' personal influences.
What did Jesus mean when He said the Spirit would "convict"(Gr. elenxei) the world? This Greek verb occurs 18 times in the New Testament (Matt. 18:15; Luke 3:19; John 3:20; 8:46; 16:8; 1 Cor. 14:24; Eph. 5:11, 13; 1 Tim. 5:20; 2 Tim. 4:2; Titus 1:9, 13; 2:15; Heb. 12:5; James 2:9; Jude 15, 22; Rev. 3:19). In each case it involves showing someone his or her sin with a view to securing repentance.505
"In John 16:8 the Holy Spirit is involved in pointing out sin in order to bring about repentance. The legal idea suggested by some506seems to have been derived from the use of the term in extrabiblical literature, whereas the biblical writers used elenxoprimarily to describe correction, not prosecution or conviction."507
Wherever the Greek preposition peri("concerning"or "in regard to") occurs after elenxei("convict"), as here, some evil or source of evil follows (cf. 8:46; Luke 3:19; Jude 15). The Spirit would not just accuse people of sin, but would bring an inescapable sense of guilt before God upon them (cf. 2 Sam. 12:7; Ps. 51:4).508This sense of guilt is an indispensable prerequisite for salvation.
The title paraclete(i.e., one called along side to help, cf. 15:26) is an appropriate one for the Spirit. He acts as a prosecuting attorney by demonstrating the guilt of those whom Jesus accused with His teaching. Earlier Jesus had spoken of the Paraclete as the defender of believing disciples (14:16-18), but now the Eleven learned that He is also the prosecutor of unbelieving sinners. Believers are witnesses, the Holy Spirit is the prosecuting attorney, and the lost are guilty sinners.
16:9 There is some question about the correct interpretation of "because"or "in regard to"(Gr. hoti) in these verses. Was Jesus identifying the causefor the conviction in each case, as "because"suggests (e.g., NASB), or was He identifying the specific subjectof conviction, as "in regard to"suggests (e.g., NIV)? Normally hotiintroduces a causal clause, and that is evidently what Jesus intended here. However, He could have meant both things. This may be another instance of double meaning, which is quite common in this Gospel.
Failure to believe on Jesus after He had come is the great damning sin (3:18, 36). If people believed Jesus, they would believe what He said about their guilt, and they would turn to Him in repentance. In spite of their unbelief the Spirit graciously convicts unbelievers of their sinfulness so they will believe on Jesus. He may convict them of the individual sins they have committed, but a person can clean up his life and still go to hell. It is the sin of unbelief in Jesus Christ that condemns people.
"A court can convict a man of murder, but only the Spirit can convict him of unbelief."509
16:10 The Spirit would also convict the world of righteousness. Normally righteousness (Gr. dikaiosyne, which occurs only here in John's Gospel) refers to truly righteous conduct and standing before God. The world does not have that. It also refers to the righteousness that people profess to have that is far inferior to the righteousness that they need for acceptance with God (Matt. 5:20; Rom. 10:3; Phil. 3:6-9; Titus 3:5). This self-righteousness, which Isaiah compared to a mentruous cloth (Isa. 64:5), is apparently the negative side of what Jesus had in mind. The Spirit would convict the world of the inadequacy of its righteousness and move the unsaved to seek the true righteousness that only Jesus Christ provides.
The Spirit would convict the world of its lack of righteousness because Jesus was going to the Father with the result that His disciples would see Him no longer. Jesus had convicted those He contacted of their inadequate righteousness during His earthly ministry, but that source of conviction was about to depart. The Spirit would continue this ministry.
Jesus' reference to the disciples' inability to see Him implies the need for them to become the instruments through whom the Spirit would exercise this ministry. Moreover Jesus' ascension testified that His righteousness is the standard for divine acceptance (cf. Acts 3:14-15; 1 John 3:5).
16:11 Third, the Spirit would convict the world of judgment coming on it for its sins that culminated in the rejection of Jesus. The Jews of Jesus' day generally judged Him to be a false pretender to Messiah's throne. That judgment was wrong, and the Spirit would convict many of them of the error of their judgment. The Cross and the Resurrection would be compelling proofs that would change the minds of many.
The Spirit would do this because God had judged Satan (cf. 12:31). The resurrection of Jesus constituted a condemnation of the devil (cf. Col. 2:15). Since the ruler of the world stands condemned, his children can expect the same treatment unless they believe in Jesus (cf. 14:30).
"When a lost sinner is truly under conviction, he will see the folly and evil of unbelief; he will confess that he does not measure up to the righteousness of Christ; and he will realize that he is under condemnation because he belongs to the world and the devil (Eph. 2:1-3). . . . There can be no conversion without conviction, and there can be no conviction apart from the Spirit of God using the Word of God and the witness of the child of God."510
16:12-13 These verses begin the fifth and final paracletepassage in the Upper Room Discourse (14:16-17, 26; 15:26-27; 16:7-11, 12-15). The passage focuses on the completion of the revelation that Jesus brought from the Father (cf. 1:1, 14; Col. 1:15; Heb. 1:1-4). The New Testament consistently views the revelation that Jesus gave the apostles through the Spirit following His ascension as a continuation of Jesus' revelation.
Jesus never acted on His own initiative but only in obedience to the Father. The Spirit who would reveal the truth would do the same. This description implies the Spirit's complete equality with Jesus in the Godhead. The Spirit would not give revelation that conflicted with what Jesus had taught. The source of both the Son's and the Spirit's teaching was the Father.
Specifically the Spirit would reveal things still future. While this revelation would include yet unknown facts about the future (i.e., eschatology), the expression covers all that would be ahead for the disciples following Jesus' separation from them. This would include the full significance of Jesus' passion (cf. 14:26) as well as all the revelation now contained in the New Testament.
16:14-15 The Spirit would glorify the Son by expounding Him, as the Son had glorified the Father by expounding Him. The Spirit would really be taking what the Father had given the Son and explaining its significance to the disciples. The Eleven are particularly in view. They were the individuals who were presently unable to understand further revelations, and they had been with Jesus since the beginning of His ministry (v. 12; cf. 14:26; 15:27).
"The Spirit worked in the apostles' minds so that they could perceive, understand, and teach about the Savior."511
Notice that it is not the Spirit's function to attract attention to Himself or to promote Himself. As John the Baptist, His purpose is to make Jesus increase in prominence. This fact should make suspect any human attempt to glorify the Spirit above the Son. Such an emphasis is not in harmony with the Spirit's purpose.
Jesus revealed that the Spirit would have a threefold ministry when He came. He would convict the world (vv. 8-11), enlighten the disciples (vv. 12-13), and glorify Jesus (vv. 14-15).
Jesus next turned the disciples' attention from the Spirit's future ministries to His own reappearance.
16:16 As the following verses show, Jesus was referring here to His imminent departure in death and His return to the disciples shortly after His resurrection. The first "little while"was only a few hours in duration, and the second "little while"was only a few days. Other returns that Jesus had mentioned in this discourse included His return in the person of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost and His bodily return at the Rapture.
16:17-19 This announcement prompted the disciples to voice their confusion again (cf. 13:36; 14:5, 8, 22), though this time they kept quizzing (Gr. imperfect tense) one another rather than Jesus. They still did not understand what He meant by His departure (cf. v. 12). Evidently they did grasp that Jesus had been talking about returning to His Father (14:28), but how could He do that and then reappear in a little while?
Jesus' references to "a little while"especially perplexed them (v. 18). The fact that John recorded the repetition of "a little while"five times in these three verses shows that he regarded it as very significant.
16:20 Again Jesus did not answer the disciples' question directly because they would not have been able to understand Him if He had (v. 12). What He did say was very important, however, as His introductory asseveration indicated.
Jesus' departure would mean great sorrow for His disciples but great joy for the world. This was the condition when Jesus died on the cross. Later the disciples' sorrow would turn to joy. This was the result of Jesus' resurrection (20:20). Some commentators viewed the second part of this verse as referring to the Lord's return at the end of the age. However what Jesus said about the disciples being essentially joyful during the inter-advent period argues against this view (15:11).
16:21 Jesus compared how the disciples would feel to the feelings of a pregnant woman at her delivery. This was an Old Testament illustration of how God's people would feel when Messiah appeared (cf. Isa. 22:2-3; 26:16-21; 66:7-14; Jer. 13:21; Mic. 4:9-10). Jesus again used the word "hour"(Gr. hora, 2:4; et al.) to focus the critical time of both painful experiences, His death and the woman's delivery. What issues from the painful experience is so wonderful, in both cases, that the resulting joy replaces the former sorrow.
16:22 Jesus applied the illustration to His disciples. Their sorrow had already begun with the news of His departure. Yet He would return to them. Jesus again stressed that the initiative rested with Him. The joy that that reunion would kindle within them would remain in them in spite of the persecution that Jesus had predicted they would encounter (cf. Isa. 66:14).
16:23 The context indicates that the day in view is the time when the disciples' joy would have become full. That would be after Jesus' resurrection and ascension. The disciples would ask Him no questions then because He would be bodily absent from them. They would have to request answers to their questions from the Father in prayer.
Jesus encouraged the disciples to ask the Father for whatever they needed, however. He did this by repeating His promise that the Father would grant petitions that they would offer "in Jesus' name"(cf. 14:13-14; 15:16).
Some commentators made much of the two different Greek words for asking in this verse. The first one that occurs, erotao, usually means to ask a question, whereas the second one, aiteo, means to ask for something. However, John often used erotaoto describe asking for something (4:31, 40, 47; 14:16; 16:26; 17:9). Consequently we should probably not make too much of this difference. John frequently used synonyms.
16:24 The disciples had not appealed to the Father in Jesus' name before now. As Old Testament believers, they had undoubtedly grounded their petitions on God's promises in the Old Testament. However the entrance that Jesus now gave them with the Father would assure an even warmer response to their prayers than Old Testament saints received.
Jesus urged His disciples again to ask the Father. The verb in the Greek text is a present imperative (aiteite, from aiteo). He also gave them assurance that they would receive what they requested "in His name"(cf. 1 John 5:14-15). The consequence of answered prayer would be fullness of joy for them (cf. 15:11; 16:22).
Jesus brought many of the themes of chapter 15 together in this concluding promise: loving obedience, asking, receiving, joy, and fruit-bearing.
