The Gospel of John 16:1-23

So we're at John 16, 1 through 33. That takes us through the chapter in one swell foop. And from the end of chapter 14, Jesus says, you know, get up, let's go from here. And the reason for repeating the map is this chapters 15 and 16 appear to be while they're going from the upper room, where the Last Supper was held, towards the Garden of Gethsemane. And so you see there, excuse me, you see a pathway and there's a numbering system here labeled number one going up the Kidron Valley towards the Garden of Gethsemane. That's the likely path to the Garden of Gethsemane. Gethsemane, as we mentioned last week, is simply an olive press. That's the word for olive press. There's no guy named Gethsemane it's named after or some other name. So it's the Garden of Olive Press.

Let's take a look through the slides here, if I can get this thing to work. Okay. So this is the night of the Last Supper. They've left the upper room. And as you see on the map here, they had started from the upper room. That's the likely location. I would say almost certainly. And then Garden of Gethsemane over here. Here is a picture of the olive trees in the garden.

These are not the ones that were originally there. at the time Jesus was there, although some of these are quite old. There's another shot. This is a view from the Garden of Gethsemane into the Eastern or Golden Gate, which was open and was the access into the temple area during the time of Christ.

One of the things that's not included in today's handout but continues to be pivotal is the teaching of the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, show up again, sometimes within the same verse, at least within the same passage in chapters 14, 15, and 16. So with that, let's take a look through your handout.

And so this is the third of the three chapters, 14, 15, and 16, that build on one another, returning to the same theme at times, only to reinforce and expand upon the teaching with each return. So he keeps coming back to, and we'll point those out, keeps coming back to a theme. An example would be the Holy Spirit brought up in each of the chapters with some repetition as well as expansion of new information with each time the subject is covered again.

And let's ask this question, why would Jesus keep coming back to a subject? Why wouldn't he just kind of cover it and move on? Why would he keep coming back to it? What's the reason? Emphasis. Okay, yeah. You think about it, particularly among the Jews, the pattern for emphasizing something, and they weren't the only ones, the pattern for emphasizing something is to repeat it again. Repeat it again. And so Jesus does that again here. He also stops because he says, you guys are, you know, your dipstick says full. You know, your mental dipstick has hit the top. So let's look at John 16, 1-4 here.

So these things I have spoken to you so that you may be kept from stumbling. They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God. These things they will do because they have not known the Father or Me. But these things I have spoken to you so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them. These things I did not say to you at the beginning because I was with you. Now, what time frame is Jesus referring to when he's talking to them about? Is this time frame a few hours, a few days, a few weeks, a few months, a few years? First he's talking about hours because he's going to be crucified in hours.

But, for example, when he talks about making you outcast from the synagogue, what's he talking about? He's talking about the destruction of the temple, I suspect. Well, yeah, and let's think about that. Even after the destruction of the temple, could they be outcast from the synagogue? Yes, they could.

So, really what he's trying to do is address some near-term issues with them. And we'll see that. And then he's also addressing things that are longer term, when the church begins, starting in Acts 2. So he's trying to get them ready for both the near-term issues, and they're going to go through a crisis, a big one. And then he's also addressing things that are months and years out there. So he's addressing both of them. Why would he address things that are years out there right then?

Why would he do that right then? Yeah, Stan? Because it's predestined and they need to understand that so that they don't get all upset. Okay. One of the things we're going to see is Jesus is telling them things. He wants them to remember. And we're going to see a ministry of the Holy Spirit is to draw these things back to their memory. The things that you said. Okay? So he's telling them, not that they're going to remember automatically and naturally, but he's telling them because he does want them to remember and because then the Holy Spirit will bring those things to remembrance.

The world has hated him, and so they should not be surprised when the world hates them and the world is going to kill him. You stand for me, right? You stand for me, and as soon as you start talking about me, they are going to have the same reaction.

So let's take a look here. Jesus has been and is even now preparing his disciples for the assignment that he is going to give them. A key point of preparation is to have them be of the right mindset regarding persecution. He told them before, Now at the top of page 2, John 15, 20, If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. So if they persecute you, it's because they persecuted me. If they kept my word, those who are not persecutors, but are in fact believers and followers, then they're going to keep yours also. In this transition, whatever they did to me, they're going to do to you. However they treated me, that's how they're going to treat you. And so he's trying to get the mindset.

Suppose you have the idea, and some Christians do by the way, that it's God's job to keep you from having any troubles. Is that going to run you into trouble? Yeah, big time, okay, because that's not God's job. As I put it, if that's God's job, He's doing a very, very poor job of it, right? If it's His job to keep me out of trouble and to make life smooth and make everything, you know, without any snags, then He's doing an awful job of it. But that's not His job.

And a part of what He's trying to get them to understand is to have a mindset that says, The persecution, Jesus told us it would come, and by the way, this is normal, right? He's trying to get them in that mindset, not, you know, boy, Jesus, you know, you didn't prepare us for this, or, you know, I don't understand what's going on. He wants them to understand what's going on, and actually, from those persecutions, say, yeah, the Lord told us that would happen.

Alright, so that's it. Let's take a look. I got a picture of Paul on the road to Damascus here, being an outcast in the synagogue in Israel, as was the man born blind in John chapter 9. Saw a couple places where he was threatened to be put out and then was put out of the synagogue. It wasn't just like simply being discharged from a church or disfellowshipped from a church. It made one lose the privileges of citizenship in Israel. Yeah, Tom?

Kind of like a church-state sort of thing brought up to that time. Yes, yeah. It's a matter of, you know, you had a birth. Where do you get the birth recorded? You go to the synagogue. The synagogues were the places where that was handled. You had some things to do at the temple as well, but you had to go to the synagogue. And then you're going to get married. Where do you do that? They had two different courts so you could choose, but if you got put out of the synagogue, you couldn't go to either one.

So it really made you almost kind of like an illegal alien in your own country, in the place where you were from. So that's, I think, important to look at. He's warning them, this kind of treatment is going to be normal. It's going to happen regularly.

So last part of verse 2 describes the mindset the Apostle Paul had prior to his conversion on the Damascus Road. Paul said in his testimony in Acts, he got up and said, whenever I had a chance, I voted for death. He was Maximum Paul, right? Where, boy, penalty ought to be just as much as you can possibly give these nasty, awful Christians. That was his mindset until he was saved. So it was very revealing. Those who persecute them will imagine they are serving God, as Paul did. That's what Paul thought.

But Jesus says that they do not know Him. It's interesting. They think they're serving Him, but they don't know Him. Key point there. So, John 14, 26 and 15, 20 both had brought up the importance of remembering. Now, 16, 4 returns to that theme. This remembering is going to be very important Why is remembering going to be so important for these apostles? Remembering what Jesus said.

Yeah, one is they shouldn't be surprised. And that's very key. And he really wanted to make sure that there wasn't any surprise. Why else? Yeah, these are the guys that are going to write the scriptures that we're studying this morning. So if they don't remember, We're going to be in trouble, right? So it would be very important as a ministry of the Holy Spirit to have these things brought to mind. Yeah, this will be a recollection for multiple purposes, including comfort. including not feeling alone, but instead having the knowledge the Lord is with me, and I know Him. Let's take a look at John 16, 5-11. It's in the middle of page 2.

But now I'm going to Him who sent me, and none of you ask me, where are you going? But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And he, when he comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me, and concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged.

Now, Thomas had come the closest back in chapter 14, the closest to asking, where are you going? But what he said instead was, Lord, we don't know where you're going, but he didn't ask where. He just said he didn't know. The disciples are noticeably sorrowful, and that would begin to change in a few days, but they were not expecting Jesus to be resurrected. in spite of all his telling them multiple times before. They weren't expecting that. Let's take a look at the bottom paragraph there.

Jesus tells them all again that the Holy Spirit will be sent by Christ after he leaves and come to conduct a ministry with the world. The verses about he when he comes will convict the world, is that a ministry to believers or unbelievers? to unbelievers. And that's something that Christians sometimes get confused. The convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit is to unbelievers. And about three things concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. So let's go, and this is page three, let's go and take a look at those. What about sin? Why is the Holy Spirit going to convict regarding sin? Yeah, think about it.

Here are the three enemies that we have on the planet, right? And they're not helping the unbelievers either, although they control them. It's the world, the flesh, and the devil. And when we say the flesh, that's the sin nature operating through this human body. So those are our three enemies.

Are any of those going to help the unbeliever? No. So the unbelievers, without the ministry of the Holy Spirit, are just going to stay stuck in the mode that they're operating in. Right? They're going to stay stuck. So the Holy Spirit comes along and does a work of convicting the unbeliever regarding sin. Why do they need that conviction regarding sin? What happens if the unbeliever is not convicted regarding sin? Is the unbeliever inclined to be all mindful about sin and focus on it? Do you think his heart becomes hardened because the Holy Spirit maybe continually tries to convince him and rejects him?

And we looked earlier at passages where that, in fact, did happen. Yes? If you don't realize you're lost, you don't have any desire for a Savior. Yeah, and that's the thing is for people to say, you know, I have a sin problem, and that sin has made a separation between me and God. And if they don't see that as a problem, then they can't go to the next step.

What do I need Jesus for? A number of unbelievers will have some kind of a regard for Jesus. I looked at an email from a fellow that I know that's in that position. They'll have a regard or a respect for Jesus as a good example. Is that going to get you saved? Is that dealing with the sin issue? No, it's not. And so the unbelievers who will have a regard for and a respect for Jesus' life and look at that as, boy, that's something I want to emulate, will not be dealing with the sin issue. And so therefore, here's the convicting ministry of the Holy Spirit to bring them to a point of recognition, oh, I've got a sin problem, it's a big one, and it's right in the way. Yeah?

It's the same question that all the schools always ask kids, is man inherently good or inherently bad? And as an individual and reflective, you would say man is inherently good because you don't want to accept the fact that he's bad. So there is no sin issue as far as most people are concerned. Man is inherently good compared to what? Or compared to who? Compared to the next guy, I'm just about the same amount of mud. I say that again?

Yes, that's right. You leave your door open all the time, right? Yeah, that's a tough one. Now, convicting about sin and righteousness and judgment, why do they need conviction about righteousness? Jesus is a walking example. Yeah. And He's gone. That's right. He's going to be gone in a very short period of time. It's only through remembrance and what He said. Here is the standard of righteousness is walking on the earth. He's going to be removed.

And so what message do you have to people to convey what's righteousness? So the Holy Spirit then is going to convict regarding righteousness because that's the standard of righteousness lived out in Jesus Christ. And without that, without Jesus' presence or without the Holy Spirit's ministry, people would not only not have any understanding of what sin is and the recognition I have a sin problem, but also no understanding of what righteousness is and that they fall short. And those two go together. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And judgment.

A lot of unbelievers don't believe there will be a judgment. Yeah, and this is a problem. As a matter of fact, one of the things that I would say contributes I call it these mass shootings, like the one we had in Aurora, but that's only one example, it keeps happening. You think about it, a lot of people who do such things will go out and shoot a bunch of people, and unlike the shooter in Aurora, they'll just shoot a bunch of people and then shoot themselves.

And for them, there's no perspective, you know, hey, moments away, I'm going to stand before a holy God, and there will be consequences for what I'm doing. And that perspective is not there. It's certainly not taught in the schools, right? And so what happens, we've got a bunch of people walking around thinking that there's no consequence.

I go and shoot several dozen people and then put a bullet in my head, it'll all be over, right? Oh no, it just begun. It's just begun. So that perspective is cursing our culture. It's cursing our culture and the reality is you can try to control guns or anything else and it's still not going to fix it.

Yes? I think part of that comes from the fact that there's not a lot of repercussion and discipline in the family structure or in the schools, there's no consequences. You might get your hands cuffed or something, but consequences are not... threats are made, consequences are not. Yeah.

Both in society, in families, the messages are not conveyed. Think about it, if I'm just a highly evolved animal, and when all this biochemical and biophysical process is done, I'm done. If I'm ticked off now and I go shoot a bunch of people, it won't matter just as soon as I put a bullet through my own head. So that mindset, we're not going to have a cure for it.

Yes? When I first heard about zero tolerance policy, I always wondered, where in the world did that come from? Well, that's what God's saying. Yeah. God's got a zero tolerance And that's why every single sin had to be paid for on the cross. No exceptions. Yes. Yes. And let's think about that. As I look at that, the prince of this world has been judged. Why does that matter to you? We can't escape. He didn't escape. Really, if you look at, okay, here's the God of this world, the Prince of the Power of the Air, right? And he isn't going to get away with anything. He's not going to get away with anything. Is anybody else?

Yeah, and that's why the supplement that you have on the back, we won't likely have time to go through it all, but what that does is it lists, both in graphical form and in detail, all the judgments that the Bible describes. In the very back page, I believe it is, let me double check that, the very back page you have all of the judgments of all beings of all time. right there on the chart. And the ones that are highlighted in blue are those that apply to church-age believers.

Will we be judged? We will be judged. As a matter of fact, everybody will be judged. Every spiritual being will be judged. In our case, because we have believed on Christ's payment for our sins, it won't be a judgment of condemnation, it will be a judgment of rewards.

We won't have time to go into the detail there, but you certainly can on your own. The point being, though, of convicting about sin, sin that separates man from God and that must absolutely be dealt with, about righteousness, and Christ is the standard of righteousness lived out here on the planet, and of judgment, which starts with Satan, but it continues on with all those other judgments. And it's which side of the sword do you want to go? Do you want to go the grace side, or do you want to pay for your own? So that's the issue.

So the ministry of the Holy Spirit that's talked about here is the ministry to the world. There are close to two dozen other ministries of the Holy Spirit to the believer and that's not this. These ministries of the Holy Spirit to the world which will assist the disciples in their assigned task as apostles as they evangelize. So that's why Jesus is telling them When the Holy Spirit comes and you have the task of evangelizing, the other part of that is the Holy Spirit is going to be working in hearts so that your evangelism is fruitful. Otherwise, people would not respond. Okay, John 16, 12-15. I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.

But when He, the Spirit of Truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth, for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak and He will disclose it to you what is to come. He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you. All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you."

Okay, you got the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Which one of them does the disclosing, the revealing? Okay, is that all? Yeah, essentially what you have is the revelation is an effort cooperatively between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. They are all involved in revealing. Why does God reveal things to us? Why does He reveal anything to us? Yeah? Okay. And that's true, in other words, that's the end result he's looking for. But what motivates God to reveal things to us?

He wants us to know Him, and He loves us. Revelation says, I love you. He wants us to know Him. He loves us. One of the things that was really neat to revisit in Revelation chapter 1, is to look at it and to see that it says there, Jesus is constantly loving us. Okay? Present tense. He's constantly loving us.

And what that's expressing is His continuing revelation, and certainly the Holy Spirit and the Father are involved in that too, are done because of the love the Lord has for us. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all involved because God loves you, and loves you right now. That's why, as we study this, this is God expressing himself and saying, I love you. And all the revelation is there, even the stuff that's a little hard to hear. But all of it is there because he loves us.

OK. Now, what we see there in the last part, the Holy Spirit additionally takes on the role of guiding the apostles into all the truth that's to be revealed. Let's ask this, when we say all the truth, do we or did the apostles know everything exhaustively? Every possible truth, do we have answers for everything? No, we don't. So the Bible is not exhaustive truth, but the Bible is true truth and it is sufficient truth.

Are we going to be learning when we're done here on planet earth? Are we still going to be learning some more? Yes, and and one of the indications of that we've seen it in Ephesians 2 7 on into the rolling ages to come he's going to be Showing us that's the word it means to demonstrate visibly Showing us his grace We're still going to be going Aha!

Now I get it. Oh, no, no, no, you just barely scratched the surface. Ah, now I get it. No, no, you barely scratched the surface. Continuously having aha moments about the infinity of God's grace. If one reason we don't have exhaustive truth is because God is an infinite God, and there is much more to learn and to experience and to gain insight to. So we're just starting here. This is a getting ready kind of place. Alright, let's look at John 16, 16 through 18.

A little while and you will no longer see me and again a little while and you will see me. Some of his disciples then said to one another, what is this thing he is telling us? A little while and you will not see me and again a little while and you will see me because I go to the Father. So they're saying, what is this that he says a little while? We do not know what he's talking about. Do they have a clue? Not so much. Is that a problem that they don't understand? Not yet. Not yet. Will they have a problem in a matter of hours? They're going to be scattered. They're going to be very upset.

By the way, why did they not get it? How come these guys, it seems like they didn't get it? Even later on, here's all the rest of the disciples, all ten of them, telling Thomas, he really did resurrect. And Thomas says, eh-eh. What's going on? Why is it these guys don't get it? Jesus has told them repeatedly, look, I'm going to get crucified, I'm going to get buried, I'm going to resurrect. And it doesn't sink in. Why? They really didn't believe him. But why is that? Why didn't they believe him? One is how do I extend this? This is human experience. Think about that. There's human experience and that's one thing. There's no way to make this make sense. No Holy Spirit is another reason. The Holy Spirit will come, but hasn't yet. Good.

Yeah, Ruth? What they're thinking of is, okay, you're going to have this seven year tribulation period, and then the Messiah is going to come, and here's Jesus the Messiah, right? Here he is. Even in Acts chapter 1, they're asking, is now the time you're going to establish a kingdom for Israel? So yeah, it's the mindset that they've been taught all their lives. Essentially, it's what we would call the second coming. They're looking for it right then. And that mindset has got them looking for the wrong thing.

I think one of the biggest things is the fact that people said they believed in the resurrection, but it had never happened. I mean, Elijah left supposedly in the Old Testament in the stories, but this is really the first resurrection that actually happened. I mean, it's yet into the future. How are they going to grasp this? I mean, it's really going to happen.

There is nothing in their experience or their training or background cultural upbringing, nothing in there to prepare them for what's about to happen, beginning in hours. Nothing's going to get them ready for this. So Jesus would tell them they didn't have the Holy Spirit to enlighten them, nothing in their background made that make any sense. Nothing made that make any sense. the disciples and I suppose people before them.

Were they actually born again yet with the life of Christ? What's interesting, what you see is they had faith and believed and people of all times are saved by faith. all the way back to the time of Adam, all the way on into the future to the time of the last person born during the millennium. So all people are saved by faith. The problem was that they needed to have the Holy Spirit, to have the insights that they needed to have here. So I would say that except for Judas, yes they were saved, The difficulty being they weren't church-age saints, and that's frankly what Jesus was trying to prepare them for.

So you can imagine, here's the disciples, they don't have the Holy Spirit yet, they don't understand what's going on. Even after Jesus is resurrected, they're still reeling, trying to figure out how this all fits in. They still don't understand. It is only after the Holy Spirit is given that things start to make sense. And if you read through the New Testament and plot things out on a timeline throughout the book of Acts, which is about three decades, about three decades is the book of Acts, and you look at it, how long after these events did they figure out that the gospel is for the Gentiles too? It was about ten years. So here's Peter, and the Lord's saying, hey, Peter, eat this stuff. Uh-uh! I don't do that. Right? Peter, eat this stuff. No, I don't do that. Peter, eat it! No! Okay, alright. So he doesn't get it. And then finally, ding!

Peter figures out he needs to give the Gospel to the house of Cornelius. But guess what? When he goes back to Jerusalem, The rest of the leaders of the church say, Peter, you've got some explaining to do, right? And so Peter gets challenged on this thing, and was it true all along that the gospel was for the Gentiles?

Yeah, it took them a decade to get it. Now, still, here you have about 49 AD. You start getting the initial Revelations, that we have any record of, that we were identified with Christ. Galatians, you've been crucified with Christ. It wasn't, that's 49, so around 50, it wasn't until about 12 years later that Paul wrote, you've been seated with Christ. You have a heavenly citizenship.

So if you think of it, these guys are going through decades, several decades of aha moments. They're continuing to learn, continuing to get insight into what's going on. So when it says the Holy Spirit will guide you into all the truth, it wasn't a snap of the fingers. It was, over time, you're going to understand this better and better.

You can imagine, Paul wrote Romans before this time of Acts was done. A marvelous book, 16 chapters, the flagship of the epistles, It still leaves the believer on the ground. No heavenly citizenship, no heavenly seating. So here is this phenomenal book, but it still doesn't have that insight. So here's even the Apostle Paul, I can't imagine that he withheld a truth that he knew.

Even he had things he had to learn. So we look back on it, and people tend to look at the whole Bible as kind of flat. But instead, what you find is even the apostles were having progressive revelation throughout the decades of their ministry as apostles. See that? So these guys, they're barely getting it. I think they were saved by faith, but there was so much they had yet to know and learn and understand.

Jesus had used the word church, but they just figure on some kind of synagogue thing. and really didn't understand. The last half of Matthew, we went through that chiasm in Matthew. The last half of Matthew, he talks about church things. Here in the Gospel of John, Jesus is hours from being crucified, and what does he do? He talks about church things.

They're not going to understand much of what he's saying for a while. And it's not just a few weeks and you'll understand, not even just once you see him resurrected you'll understand. A lot of it took a while to sink in. Notice he's not talking about Jews and Gentiles anymore. See that? The world, the world, the world. They don't get it that this is a whole different ministry he's calling them to. Before he told them don't go even on a road that leads to the Gentiles. Go only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Stan?

I think the same attitude that the Pharisees had It's a Jewish attitude, and the disciples had that as well, because they were special. God selected them. They were the chosen race, which is true, and Paul writes that in Romans. However, Paul constantly also writes, do not boast, do not boast, do not boast. And why does he reiterate that all the time? Because he has learned that everything good, as it says in James, comes from God and man should not boast.

We're all on the same level plane. You look at Islam today, what's the thing that they teach? Islam is saved with Allah and all the rest of the world are infidels. So here they're elevating themselves again. God's people were there to accept Christ and be saved. Everyone has that same opportunity. No one's special. Okay, let's take a look here. So John 16, 19-22, Jesus knew that they wished to question Him, and He said to them, Are you deliberating together about this, that I said a little while and you will not see Me, and again a little while you will see Me?

Truly I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will grieve, but your grief will be turned to joy. Whenever a woman is in labor, she has pain because her hour has come. But when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that the child has been born into the world. Therefore, you too have a grief now, but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you."

Tell him, you guys are going to weep and lament. It's going to happen. It's going to happen, but there will be a time when that will turn to joy, and then you'll forget all the weeping and lamenting. So he uses the analogy of childbirth to get that point across here. He has talked previously about joy, and he's going to talk about it again. Here's 16, 23-24, towards the top of page 4.

In that day you will not question me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in my name, He will give it to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be full."

He has told them before to ask, right? So here's the returning to a theme. He's told them before to ask. You know, ask. And by the way, ask. And just so you know, ask. Right? And be sure you ask. So he's done that. He's also mentioned joy before and tells them to ask in his name that their joy may be full. Previously we saw in chapter 14, abide in me that your joy may be full. Now he's saying ask that your joy may be full. Why does he keep returning to the joy may be full issue?

Why does that matter? I think when our joy is full, we're content. We're not struggling with God, questioning why this, why that, why not this other thing. Let's ask this question. Is the joy full because the circumstances are optimum? The two ways in these chapters that he's talked about joy being full is one is abide in me, and the other is ask. So those are the two ways that he says your joy may be full. Neither of those are circumstantial.

When I get the right circumstances, then I'll be joyous. Up until then, I'm going to be troubled. What do you say about, don't be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. If you want to end your being troubled, circumstances and trying to get those straightened around isn't going to fix anything. The joy comes from abiding. The joy comes out of relationship with the Lord. I'm not getting the circumstances all fixed. Okay.

So now, John 16, 25 and 28, These things I have spoken to you in figurative language, and hours coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly of the Father. In that day you will ask in my name, here's the asking again, And I do not say to you that I will request of the Father on your behalf. For the Father himself loves you because you have loved me and have believed that I come forth from the Father. I came forth from the Father and have come into the world. I am leaving the world again and going to the Father."

And of course they all understand what that's all about, right? They do not understand. And for the reasons we've talked about before. Think about this, it's been brought up earlier that nothing in the teaching pattern was anything that they had any ability to project into what was about to happen. Let's ask about one more thing.

In Israel there was a system of rabbis and there was a system of disciples. And with that system of rabbis and disciples there were a number of traditions. that were carried on and guided, and some of those come out in the Gospels, and Jesus even says some things that are like all the other rabbis used to say. But, it's the things that were different from any other rabbi through the disciples. And think about this, in the usual arrangement of rabbi and disciple, if a rabbi is going to die, what happens to the rabbi-disciple relationship.

It ends. My rabbi's dead. I guess I'm not his disciple, at least not in an ongoing mode anymore. He's dead. I can't learn from him except for what I have left from the past. So here's Jesus saying, I'm going to leave you and it's going to be even better. Have they got any basis to understand what that's going to be like? There is not one example of any of the rabbis, there's nothing in any of the traditions that said that this is going to get better once the rabbi dies. Once the rabbi leaves, right? So this is highly disruptive, highly disturbing stuff. Let's talk about the figurative language.

What does he mean by that? Kind of like simple parables, you could explain things, but they didn't fully understand because they weren't clearly explained. Yeah, well let's take a look at the start of John 15. What did he do? He says, I'm the vine, you're the branches, you know, father's the vine dresser. And they're saying, well good, now he's giving us vineyard lessons, you know. So you have this situation where he's using word pictures. He says, for a little while I'll be gone, then I'll come back, you know. They're not soaking any of this up.

Do they understand later? Do they understand a lot later? Do they? Yeah. As time goes on, they begin to understand more of what he was saying. At this moment, they don't. The word pictures that Jesus used, the parables, the illustrations, All those things were things that were kind of scratching their heads. Okay, we'll memorize this stuff and we'll think about it because we're disciples and that's what disciples are supposed to do. Whoa, what's he talking about?

And they had no idea. They had no idea until later, later on, as a ministry of the Holy Spirit. So he tells them, I'm leaving the world again and going to the Father. He came because the Father sent him. I'm going back to the Father. That's what's happening.

And not only do they not understand, it just doesn't sound good to them. And in spite of the fact, he's telling them, look, this is even better than it is now. They don't get it. They have no basis on which to project into that kind of a future. So why do you think he did that? I mean, why couldn't he just come out and made it clear and talk to him like one person to another person? What's interesting is that at times he did, but that didn't get through either. And that's why I talked about what are the reasons why they wouldn't understand. They were still, at this point in time, stuck in a mode where they couldn't comprehend, they couldn't soak it up. Have you ever had anybody say anything that just, it's like, there's no way to, you know, take that in?

I remember when I was a little kid, you know, we used to be able to go to a movie theater and see actually two movies and maybe some cartoons or something for about 25 cents. Good luck doing that now. So anyway, I remember one time we came out of the theater expecting our mom to pick us up, and instead a neighbor lady came and picked us up. And we said, how come you're here instead of mom?

Well, it's because your house is on fire. So, no, we didn't believe until we turned on the street and there's all the fire trucks and all the neighbors gathering around watching the smoke come out. Our house was on fire, and she was right, but we didn't believe her all the way going down the street. We used to say, no, you're kidding me. No, your house is really on fire.

And we just didn't believe her until we actually saw it. And I think that's kind of the mindset. It's like he's been telling us, but we have no way to relate to that or conceive of it, so we just reject it. Just dismiss it. Let's take a look at 1629-33 and then we'll wrap it up here.

His disciples said, Lo, now you are speaking plainly and are not using a figure of speech. Now we know that you know all things and have no need for anyone to question you. By this we believe that you came from God. Jesus answered them, Do you now believe?

Behold, an hour is coming and has already come for you to be scattered, each to his own home, to leave me alone. And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. These things I have spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take courage. I have overcome the world. In the world you will have tribulation, so believing in a pre-tribulation rapture is not to get you out of tribulation. So promised, it's a promise, you're going to have trouble. You won't be a part of the tribulation, but you will have tribulation. It's a certainty. But then the other part here, I have overcome the world.

And because we believe, we have the notes there at the bottom, because we believe, 1 John 5, 4 and 5, we're overcomers. And each of the seven churches has a promise to the overcomer, which are all fulfilled in chapters 19 through 22 of Revelation. And then finally it ends up in Revelation 21, 7, that all those who overcome receive these things. It's abundantly made clear in John's writings who the overcomers are.

Let's pray, because we've run out of time, and we'll continue on to John 17, the high priestly prayer, which is, I think, fortuitous to have that come along with our studying Hebrews and Christ, our great high priest. They go together very well. So anyway, let's pray. Lord, we do thank you for the time in your Word. We thank you for the insights that you've given us because you love us and care for us. Lord, you are constantly loving us, and you care for us greatly and deeply, and you've revealed these truths because you love us and care for us. And Lord, just like the disciples, there are things that we don't understand, and yet you will make it clear. one time or another. And thank you for that clarity, which is also from your love. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.