John 16:2-22

2 They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God.
3 They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me.
4 I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them. I did not tell you this from the beginning because I was with you,
5 but now I am going to him who sent me. None of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’
6 Rather, you are filled with grief because I have said these things.
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
8 When he comes, he will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment:
9 about sin, because people do not believe in me;
10 about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer;
11 and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
12 “I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear.
13 But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
14 He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you.
15 All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.”

The Disciples’ Grief Will Turn to Joy

16 Jesus went on to say, “In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me.”
17 At this, some of his disciples said to one another, “What does he mean by saying, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?”
18 They kept asking, “What does he mean by ‘a little while’? We don’t understand what he is saying.”
19 Jesus saw that they wanted to ask him about this, so he said to them, “Are you asking one another what I meant when I said, ‘In a little while you will see me no more, and then after a little while you will see me’?
20 Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
21 A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world.
22 So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.

Cross References 28

  • 1. John 9:22; John 12:42
  • 2. Isaiah 66:5; Acts 26:9,10; Revelation 6:9
  • 3. John 15:21; John 17:25; 1 John 3:1
  • 4. John 13:19; John 14:29
  • 5. John 15:27
  • 6. ver 10,17,28; John 7:33
  • 7. John 13:36; John 14:5
  • 8. ver 22
  • 9. John 14:16,26; John 15:26
  • 10. John 7:39; John 14:26
  • 11. John 15:22
  • 12. Acts 3:14; Acts 7:52; Romans 1:17; Romans 3:21,22; 1 Peter 3:18
  • 13. S ver 5
  • 14. S John 12:31
  • 15. Mark 4:33; 1 Corinthians 3:2
  • 16. S John 14:17
  • 17. Psalms 25:5; John 14:26
  • 18. John 17:10
  • 19. S John 7:33
  • 20. ver 22; John 14:18-24
  • 21. ver 16
  • 22. ver 5
  • 23. Mark 16:10; Luke 23:27
  • 24. John 20:20
  • 25. Isaiah 13:8; Isaiah 21:3; Isaiah 26:17; Micah 4:9; 1 Thessalonians 5:3
  • 26. ver 6
  • 27. ver 16
  • 28. ver 20; Jeremiah 31:12
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