John 16 - CSB Disciple’s Study Bible

16:1-33 EVIL AND SUFFERING, Rejoicing—Disciples will suffer, but their sorrow will turn into joy. Christians can rejoice in the midst of suffering because Jesus overcame the world. Here “world” is a comprehensive term for all that opposes God. In this sense the world includes religious people who persecute true believers thinking they are defending God. At times disciples must suffer most at the hands of people who also claim to be disciples but really never have met God. The Holy Spirit gives Christ’s followers insight to understand and courage to endure. Thus, while suffering physically, we can rejoice knowing God’s love, peace, and final victory. See note on 1Jn 2:15-17.

16:5 JESUS CHRIST, Ascension—See note on 14:2. Jesus’s ascension led to another means of revelation able to reach all followers throughout the world. This was the giving of the Spirit (v. 7).

16:5-7 HOLY SPIRIT, The Twelve—The disciples benefited from Jesus’s departure. Jesus left the Paraclete, or Counselor, with them. See note on 14:15-21. The Spirit was and is able to guide them even more than the earthly Jesus. Disciples could fan out to the ends of the earth and still be guided and empowered by the Spirit (Mt 28:19-20; see note on Ac 1:8). The gift of the Spirit would help the disciples to overcome their sadness and anxiety about Jesus’s apparent absence. They would not be alone; Jesus would send the Spirit to be with them.

16:5-32 GOD, Trinity—The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit share a common life and do a common work. We see them separately, but they are so related to each other that they cannot be entirely separated from each other. See note on 15:26.

16:7-11 SIN, Unbelief—The Spirit makes a depraved world aware of its sin. He reveals our need to believe in the crucified and risen Lord, who can remove our guilt and set us right with God. A basic sin is failure to believe in Jesus as God’s Son. See note on Mt 12:31-32.

16:8-11 HOLY SPIRIT, Convicts—Jesus’s departure might appear as cause for alarm for the disciples left to face a hostile world. Actually, in leaving the world to return to the Father, Jesus gave the world reason for concern, for he sent the Spirit to judge the world. Such judgment exposed the world to truth and invited its population to decision for or against Jesus. The Spirit exposes the true nature in several ways: (1) of sin as refusal to have faith in Christ, (2) of righteousness as defined by Christ’s cross that provided salvation and opened the way to eternal life with God, and (3) of judgment as God’s judgment of Satan through Christ’s death on the cross. The judging exposure of the Spirit should lead the world to put their own faith in Christ through the disciples’ witness. See 17:20-21.

16:11 EVIL AND SUFFERING, Satan—Satan may rule the majority of lives and actions in this world. That does not mean he has control of the world. In the cross and resurrection God defeated Satan and all satanic purposes. See note on 14:30. This was not a defeat in one small skirmish. It was eternal judgment on Satan. The world does not know or understand this decision. The Holy Spirit reveals it to us as Christ’s followers. Satan’s eternal defeat is certain.

16:12-14 CREATION, Continuous—Until the crucifixion and resurrection there were many things the disciples could not understand. Until the very last minute, they did not even believe he was going to be killed. How could they be aware of atonement and justification? God still works creatively to make his truth known to us in Holy Scripture.

16:12-15 HOLY SPIRIT, Teaches—The Spirit of truth guides disciples into all truth. He reveals God’s truth even more fully than Jesus chose to do because Jesus did his teaching before the cross. The Spirit does his teaching after the cross and the resurrection, which is the fullest self-revelation of God. Jesus sometimes spoke in figurative language, but after the resurrection the truth could be expressed in clear language (16:25). The Spirit reveals the meaning of the cross and resurrection and brings glory to Christ.

16:13-14 DISCIPLESHIP, Holy Spirit—By the ministry of the Holy Spirit Jesus exercises his lordship over his disciples. Without the daily experience of the Spirit we cannot be disciples. See notes on Gl 5:16; Eph 3:16.

16:13-15 HOLY SCRIPTURE, Spirit—God, the Holy Spirit, is the ultimate Author of Scripture. He is also the only adequate Interpreter of Scripture. No human has full authority to interpret Scripture for another. Each person can rely on the Holy Spirit to guide into truth. That which we gain from the Spirit we should proclaim fervently and live out completely. We cannot force that belief on another, however, for as human interpreters under the Spirit, we remain open to misunderstanding. The Spirit seeks to bring glory to Jesus, so that all true interpretation of Scripture will glorify the Christ. Christ remains the ultimate revelation of God. See note on Lk 24:44-46.

16:13-15 EDUCATION, Spirit—The Holy Spirit is the Teacher in the lives of Christians. Under his guidance, the words of biblical revelation come alive as they did for the disciples on the road to Emmaus when Jesus “interpreted for them the things concerning himself in all the Scriptures” (Lk 24:27). See 14:16-17.

16:22,24 SALVATION, Joy—The world cannot give nor take away the joy Christ gives. Joy comes as we stay in communication with Christ through prayer.

16:23-24 PRAYER, In Jesus’s Name—See note on 14:13-14. The Christian’s joy depends on the exercise of prayer privileges. We exercise that privilege by praying to the Father through Christ. Previously, the disciples had relied on Jesus’s physical presence. The new experience of asking in the name of the ascended Christ brought new power and joy. Such power and joy remain available for believers.

16:26-27 GOD, Love—Love occupies the central place in the relationship of believers and God. The Father loves believers because they have loved Jesus. Jesus himself came as the expression of God’s love to the lost. See note on 3:16. The key NT teaching is the love of God the Father. His love is displayed to the lost, to believers, and to the Son who gave himself in sacrifice to save the lost. Love, in turn, becomes the foremost characteristic of Christians and is their badge of identification as the people of Jesus Christ. See note on 15:9-14.

16:26-27 PRAYER, Love of God—See note on 14:13-14. An answer is assured because of the love of God.

16:27 EVANGELISM, Results—To love and believe in Jesus Christ lets us experience the special love and grace of God.

16:28 JESUS CHRIST, Preexistent—See note on 6:33.

16:33 CREATION, Evil—The world after the fall (Gn 3) is so constituted that trouble and frustration will come to people who seek to follow God. Jesus has warned us troubles will come when we are faithful to him. God did not create the world’s troubles. He made us free to respond to him. In our freedom we choose evil or experience the consequences of the evil choices of others, bringing trouble and frustration to the world. Christ has overcome the troubled world.