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Session 16 of 21Book of John

The Advocate Comes

Chapter 16; A grief that turns to joy, and a Spirit who convicts the world

Where this chapter sits

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Right now: Crucifixion and Resurrection (AD 30)

Setting: Jerusalem (Upper Room)

By Bea Zalel

John 16

Read in NIV →
  1. I have told you these things so that you will not fall away.
  2. They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God.
  3. They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me.
  4. But I have told you these things so that when their hour comes, you will remember that I told you about them. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you.
  5. Now, however, I am going to Him who sent Me; yet none of you asks Me, 'Where are You going?'
  6. Instead, your hearts are filled with sorrow because I have told you these things.
  7. But I tell you the truth, it is for your benefit 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. And when He comes, He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment:
  9. in regard to sin, because they do not believe in Me;
  10. in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me;
  11. and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world has been condemned.
  12. I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it.
  13. However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come.
  14. He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you.
  15. Everything that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will take from what is Mine and disclose it to you.
  16. In a little while you will see Me no more, and then after a little while you will see Me.
  17. Then some of His disciples asked one another, "Why is He telling us, 'In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me' and 'Because I am going to the Father'?"
  18. They kept asking, "Why is He saying, 'a little while'? We do not understand what He is saying."
  19. Aware that they wanted to question Him, Jesus said to them, "Are you asking one another why I said, 'In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me'?
  20. Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy.
  21. A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world.
  22. So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.
  23. In that day you will no longer ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you.
  24. Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
  25. I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you this way, but will tell you plainly about the Father.
  26. In that day you will ask in My name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf.
  27. For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God.
  28. I came from the Father and entered the world. In turn, I will leave the world and go to the Father.
  29. His disciples said, "See, now You are speaking plainly and without figures of speech.
  30. Now we understand that You know all things and that You have no need for anyone to question You. Because of this, we believe that You came from God."
  31. "Do you finally believe?" Jesus replied.
  32. "Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.
  33. I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!"

Inline text: Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain. Compare with the John 16 chapter in your preferred translation via the link above.

Theme

In verse 7 Jesus says, "It is to your advantage that I go away." The line is worth pausing on because it sounds backwards to the disciples. In 1st-century Jewish culture the ideal student wanted the bodily presence of his rabbi. He walked with the teacher every day, ate at his table and learned by watching him up close. The Greek and Roman schools worked the same way. Stoics gathered around Epictetus. Epicureans built their identity around their founder. The school traveled in the body of the master. Jesus flips that entire model in one sentence. My leaving is your gain, he says, because the Spirit will be with all of you instead of standing next to one of you. The shift is from rabbi-mentorship to Spirit-indwelling. Neither a Jewish nor a Greek listener that night could have pictured what he meant. Carson notes the wording does not just offer comfort. It claims a real upgrade. The line only makes sense if the coming of the Spirit is the next chapter of the story rather than a backup plan.

Verses 8 through 11 say the Spirit will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. The Greek verb is "elenxei" (convict, expose, prosecute, a forensic verb). It is courtroom language. In Roman civil and criminal courts the word meant to cross-examine a witness, to expose his testimony as false or to prosecute him outright. The Spirit acts as prosecutor in the world's courtroom. That role reverses everyone's place at the table. The world thought it was the court trying Jesus through Annas, Caiaphas and Pilate. The Spirit puts the world itself on trial. The three charges are ordered. Sin, because the world does not believe in him. Righteousness, because Jesus goes to the Father and that vindicates the cause his enemies wanted buried. Judgment, because the ruler of this world has already been judged. Brown notes the whole passage assumes the cosmic-courtroom imagery of Daniel 7 and the Servant Songs of Isaiah, where the nations are put on trial and the suffering servant is publicly cleared. The Paraclete is not a warm feeling. He is counsel for the prosecution.

Verse 21 gives one of John's most striking pastoral pictures. "When a woman gives birth, she has sorrow because her hour has come, but when she has delivered the baby, she no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world." In the 1st century childbirth was a leading cause of death for young women. Maternal mortality was high enough that mothers commonly wrote their wills before going into labor. A modern reader has to rebuild that weight to feel what Jesus is saying. The promise is not that the disciples' grief at his leaving will be erased or forgotten. It is that the grief itself will be transformed into a joy of a kind that looks back and makes sense of the cost. Wright notes this is one of the very few biblical similes that uses childbirth without sliding into images of disaster or judgment. Here the labor is real and the joy is the whole point. A woman in the original audience would not have heard this as a tidy metaphor. She would have heard her own body's reality lifted up as the picture of resurrection.

Supporting cross-references

Daniel 7:9-14 →Isaiah 26:17-19 →Hebrews 12:11 →Romans 8:18-23 →

Discussion questions

  1. Jesus tells the disciples his absence is to their advantage because the Spirit will be with all of them rather than standing next to one of them. Where in your own faith have you wished for Jesus's bodily presence the way a 1st-century disciple wanted to walk beside his rabbi? What changes when you treat the Spirit's indwelling as the next chapter rather than a backup plan?
  2. The Spirit arrives as prosecutor and puts the world on trial on three counts: sin, righteousness and judgment. Where have you assumed you were the one weighing Jesus on his merits? How would it reshape your reading of the gospel to picture the Spirit cross-examining you instead? Which of the three counts lands closest to home?
  3. Jesus uses a woman in labor as his picture of grief turning to joy in a culture where childbirth often killed the mother. What pain in your own story would you most like erased? What would it ask of you to let that pain be transformed into a joy that looks back and makes sense of the cost? Where is the labor still in progress?

Further reading

  • The Gospel According to John, Vol. 2 (Anchor Bible)— Raymond E. BrownBrown's exegesis of the Paraclete sayings is the standard reference. Especially strong on the forensic background of "elenxei" and the Daniel 7 / Isaiah cosmic-courtroom resonances behind John 16:8-11.
  • John for Everyone, Part 2— N. T. WrightAccessible chapter-by-chapter commentary. Wright is good on the woman-in-labor image and on the way 1st-century lived conditions sharpen the figure of grief turning to joy.
  • Bible Project: Holy Spirit seriesShort videos walking through the biblical theology of the Spirit from Genesis through John and Acts. Free. Helpful for situating the Paraclete language of John 14-16 within the wider canon.
  • The Gospel According to John (Pillar New Testament Commentary)— D. A. CarsonCarson's treatment of the Paraclete passages is precise on the Greek and careful about the categorical claim in v7. Useful counterweight to more devotional readings.
  • The Gospel According to Saint John (Black's New Testament Commentary)— Andrew T. LincolnLincoln reads John 16 as the climax of the farewell discourse's trial motif. Good on the social and theological force of "the ruler of this world has been judged."