John 16:16-23

EXPLANATORY AND CRITICAL NOTES

John 16:16. See John 14:19. A little while.—The last clause omitted by, B, D, L, etc.

John 16:17. Then said His disciples, etc.—They did not, could not, comprehend yet what He meant. No doubt the words, “Again a little while, and ye shall see Me,” may refer to His post-resurrection appearances here, and to the descent of the Spirit. But it has a wider reference to all God’s people. As “one day is with the Lord as a thousand years,” it will be but a little while in the measure of eternity until He comes again: “He is coming quickly” (Revelation 22:20). He was going to the Father—not to death then, but to the heavenly life.

John 16:20. Verily, verily, etc.—A most cheering promise. First, to the disciples. How soon would their despair and sorrow be turned into the joyful acclaim, The Lord is risen indeed! And how should they then, filled with the Spirit, rejoice even to suffer with Christ (Colossians 1:24)! Second, to the Church. Persecutions have fallen on the Church in all ages; and in this promise the people of God have joyfully endured. In the last ages it would seem there will be a recrudescence of persecution (2 Timothy 3; Revelation 12), and then this promise will bring joy in the midst of trouble; for those days of darkness will show that the Son of man is at hand (Matthew 24:29). See Wordsworth’s Greek Testament, in loc.

John 16:23. Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father, He will give it you in My name.—See also John 14:13; John 15:16. The name of Jesus is not only the medium through which we are to come, so that coming thus we ask in accordance with His will, but the answer to our prayers is also in virtue of His name (see Watkins, in loc.).

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH— John 16:16

Wherefore can and ought Christians to be confident and even joyful in trouble?—I. Because it is for their good.—That this is so is evident when it is considered—

1. From whom trouble comes.—All the sorrow which was to overtake the disciples in the near future came upon them in accordance with the Lord’s knowledge and His will. It is not otherwise with us.

2. Who knows all about it.—The Lord told the disciples that they would “not see Him”—that they would weep and lament.

3. Whereunto it serves.—The Lord said to the disciples that their sorrow would be turned into joy. From the pain of the cross springs the joy of the Resurrection; from the pains of travail, the joy of welcoming a newborn life.

II. Because it passeth away so speedily.—

1. Consider the greatness of the consolation.—Seven times the phrase “a little while” is repeated in the passage.

2. Lay hold of this comfort in your hearts.—Guard yourselves against murmuring and despondency; shelter yourselves against all disturbing conceptions and phantoms of fear behind the word, “yet a little while.” Give heed to the smallest beginnings of consolation and indications of help at hand. The first tears on account of sin prelude the first ray of the rising Sun of grace.

3. Do not embitter and cloud this joy.—This men do when, after being delivered from pain and sorrow, they begin to hanker after the pleasures and joys of the world.

III. Because its end is so blessed.—The sorrows of believers end—

1. In an assured joy.—“I will see you again.”

2. In a blessed rejoicing.—“Your heart shall rejoice.”

3. In an eternal joy.—“Your joy shall no man take from you.”—Appuhn in J. L. Sommer.

John 16:16. The Lord is the helper of His people in sorrow.—This passage directs our thoughts to the departure of Jesus from the world and the sorrow of the disciples, the seeing of the Lord again by the disciples and their joy in consequence, the tribulation and sorrow of the disciples as a source of joy which cannot be taken away, and generally the prospects of true disciples of Jesus. The Lord declared that the disciples would have sorrow, when He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and the mortal stroke was inflicted on Him. But it must needs be so; sorrow was necessary if they were to remain and grow up in Him. The noble scion by which the wild plant is to be ennobled must be wounded; for it must be cut off from the noble tree. But the sharp knife must also wound the wild plant and make an incision in it, if the noble scion is to be grafted into it, so that they may grow together. Thus, too, must the subjects of God’s kingdom have sorrow if they are to ripen and bring forth good fruit. They need not, however, be afraid that sorrow will destroy them; for they have the Lord for their comfort and strength. We learn that Jesus helps His disciples in sorrow when we see:—

I. How the Lord prepares them for sorrow.—

1. Jesus told His disciples beforehand that in a little while they would not see Him, that through the malignity of the world they would have increased sorrow, so that they might not be surprised at this malignity, but might arm, prepare, themselves in view of it.
2. He explained the meaning of His words in such fashion that He brought their hearts into the true condition in which they would remain ready to meet affliction.

II. How the Lord strengthens them in sorrow.—

1. In the figure of the woman with child (John 16:21) Jesus showed the disciples how sorrow may be the source of true joy, how His cross is the condition of their salvation, and their sorrow in fellowship with Him the basis of their joy together with Him.

2. Jesus instructed the disciples as to how their prospect of true joy would be fulfilled, not alone in some far future time, but speedily; how their hope is not placed on what is unattainable, but will experience full and near fulfilment.

III. How the Lord rejoices their hearts after sorrow.—

1. Jesus sees His disciples again, and shows Himself alive to them. He dedicates to them the fruits of His victory, and thereby makes them partakers of a joy which remains firm amid all conflicts within or without.
2. In the light of the Resurrection Jesus’ disciples clearly discerned their way, and also clearly saw how their way, as pointed out by Him, led to their salvation and eternal joy.—J. L. Sommer.

John 16:16. “A little while.”—In our Lord’s last conversation with His disciples before His betrayal and crucifixion, He said to them, “A little while, and ye shall not see Me; and again a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go unto the Father.” Before them was the bloody tragedy on Calvary, and forty days after that His ascension through the vernal air to heaven. They should see Him no more in earthly form. But in another little while—in fifty days thereafter—He should come again by His Holy Spirit in the wondrous baptism of power at Pentecost. He was then to be glorified by the Holy Spirit in the hearts of His disciples. Jesus Christ is with His people now; for did He not promise, “Lo, I am with you always”? Those sweet, tender words, “a little while,” have deep thoughts in them, like the still ocean at the twilight—thoughts too deep for our fathoming. They breathe some precious consolations to those whose burdens are heavy, either of care or poverty or sickness. If the prosperous can enjoy their prosperity only for a little while, neither shall the mourner weep much longer, nor God’s poor children carry much longer the pains or privations of poverty. The daily toil to earn the daily bread, the carking care to keep the barrel from running low and the scanty “cruse” from wasting, will soon be over. Cheer up, my brother! “In a little while, and ye shall see Me,” says your blessed Master; “for I go to prepare a place for you.” Oh the infinite sweep of the glorious transition! A few years here in a lowly dwelling, whose rent it was hard to pay, and then infinite ages in the palace of the King of kings. Here a scanty table and coarse raiment soon outworn, yonder a robe of resplendent light at the marriage supper of the Lamb. Let this blissful thought put new courage into thy soul and fresh sunshine into thy countenance. I sometimes go into a sick-chamber where the “prisoners of Jesus Christ” are suffering with no prospect of recovery. Perhaps the eyes of some of those chronic invalids may fall upon [these words]. My dear friends, put under your pillows these sweet words of Jesus, “A little while.” It is only for a little while that you are to serve your Master by patient submission to His holy will. That chronic suffering will soon be over. That disease which no earthly physician can cure will soon be cured by your divine Physician, who by the touch of His Messenger will cure you in an instant into the perfect health of heaven! You will exchange this weary bed of pain for that crystal air in which none shall say, “I am sick,” neither shall there be any more pain. Not only to the sick and to the poverty-stricken child of God do these tender words of our Redeemer bring solace. Let these words, “A little while,” bring a healing balm to hearts that are smarting under unkindness, or wounded by neglect, or pining under privations, or bleeding under sharp bereavements. I offer them as a sedative to sorrows and a solace under sharp afflictions. “A little while, and ye shall see Me,” and the sight of Him shall in an instant wipe out all the memories of the darkest hours through which you made your way into the everlasting rest.

“A few more struggles here,
A few more conflicts o’er;

A little while of toils and tears,

And we shall weep no more.”

These words of the Master are also a trumpet-call to duty. In a little while my post in the pulpit shall be empty: what manner of minister ought I to be in fidelity to dying souls? Sabbath-school teacher, in a little while you shall meet the young immortals in your class for the last time! Are you winning them to Christ? The time is short. Whatever your hands find to do for the Master, do it. Do it, Aquila and Priscilla, in the Sunday school! Do it, Lydia, in the home! Do it, Dorcas, with thy needle, and Mary in the room of sickness and sorrow! Do it, Tertius, with thy pen, and Apollos with thy tongue! Do it, praying Hannab, with thy children, and make for them the “little coat” of Christian character, which they shall wear when you have gone home to a mother’s heavenly reward. Only think, too, how much may be achieved in a little while. The atonement for a world of perishing sinners was accomplished between the sixth hour and the ninth hour on darkened Calvary. That flash of divine electricity from the Holy Spirit which struck Saul of Tarsus to the ground was the work of an instant; but the great electric burner of the converted Paul has blazed over all the world for centuries. A half-hour’s faithful preaching of Jesus by a poor itinerant Methodist exhorter at Colchester brought the boy Spurgeon to a decision, and launched the mightiest ministry of modern times. Lady Henry Somerset tells us that a few minutes of solemn reflection in her garden decided her to exchange a life of fashionable frivolity for a life of consecrated philanthropy. Why cite any more cases when every Christian can testify that the best decisions and deeds of his or her life turned on the pivot of a few minutes? In the United States Mint they coin eagles out of the sweepings of gold dust from the floor. Brethren, we ought to be misers of our minutes! If on a dying-bed they are so precious, why not in the fuller days of our healthful energies? Said General Mitchell, the great astronomer, to an officer who apologised for being only a few minutes behind time, “Sir, I have been in the habit of calculating the tenth part of a second!” Our whole eternity will hinge on the “little while” of probation here. Only an inch of time to choose between an eternity of glory or the endless woes of hell! And as a convert exclaimed in a prayer meeting, “It was only a moment’s work with me when I was in earnest!” May God help us all to be faithful only for a little while; and then comes the unfading crown.

“A little while for patient vigil keeping

To face the stern, to wrestle with the strong,

A little while to sow the seed with weeping,

Then bind the sheaves and sing the harvest song.

“A little while to keep the oil from failing,

A little while faith’s flickering lamp to trim,

And then the Bridegroom’s coming footsteps hailing,

We’ll haste to meet Him with the bridal hymn.”

Dr. Theo. L. Cuyler, in “The Christian.”

HOMILETIC NOTES

John 16:16. Would Christians know how it will go with them in the world?—Here it tells them. Joy and sorrow will alternate. For a little time they shall have sorrow, and again for a little time they shall have joy.—From J. J. Weigel.

John 16:16. Ends served by Christ’s departure from the world.—Let it not seem extraordinary that the heavenly Bridegroom should hide Himself for a little from His bride. He does so in order—

1. To chasten her.
2. To humble her.
3. So that she may learn truly to prize His comforting presence.
4. In order that she may seek Him more earnestly.—Idem.

John 16:18. It is well to realise our ignorance of spiritual things.—

1. He who is aware of this, and purposes to learn, is on the way to Wisdom
2. He who knows not what he ought to know, let him ask of the Lord. But the Lord, through the Spirit, has given His servants who minister in holy things a mouth and wisdom.—Idem.

John 16:20. Weeping universal.—It is related of Crassus that he was never known to have laughed; but it could not be said of any man who has seen the light of the sun that he never wept. If the sun’s light should be withdrawn but a single day, how miserable would all living creatures be! Thus the hearts of disciples are sad when Jesus does not let the light of His countenance shine on them. In trial the best medicine is the herb patientia (patience).—Idem.

John 16:20. The prospect of Jesus, disciples.—I. Sorrow stood before them.—

1. Those they loved would separate themselves from them.
2. The Lord would not be seen by them.

II. They would have comfort in their sorrow.—

1. They knew that the Lord had sent it.
2. After a little while the trouble would cease.

III. Joy would come to them out of their sorrow.—

1. It would come more fully than before.
2. Body and soul would rejoice.
3. This coming joy no man could take from them.—J. L. Sommer.

John 16:21. The preciousness of the cross.—Without the cross (tribulation, etc., etc.) the old man cannot be crucified nor the new man quickened. The cross is the seed of all virtues. It is the seed of devotion, of supplication, of humility, and of repentance.

John 16:21. “A woman,” etc.—ἡ γυνή, the woman in her womanhood and in its peculiar sorrow (Genesis 3:16). This verse, like the two preceding ones, has a double sense.

1. As applicable to Christ. His resurrection was a birth from death to life everlasting—a birth which is the source of all other births, from the death of sin to newness of life, from the death of the grave to immortality (through resurrection) for body and soul in the life beyond. The Apostolic Church (i.e. the Church of the apostles personally) went through the throes of parturition until the day of the Resurrection, when the Second Adam came forth from the womb of the grave; and then they no longer remembered their sorrow for joy that a man, the man Christ Jesus, the first begotten from the dead (Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:18), was born. And all humanity was born into the world with Him: “for as in Adam all die, so in Christ all are made alive” (1 Corinthians 15:22).

2. In a wider sense the Church in the world is the woman in travail (Revelation 12:2; Galatians 4:19). She is in travail with souls for the new birth to grace and glory. She groans in the pangs of parturition even till the great day of regeneration, the day of the glorious reappearing of Christ, and the general resurrection and new birth to immortality (Romans 8:22). Then, indeed, “a Man will be born into this world.” Humanity will cast off its grave-clothes, and be glorified for ever in Christ. As Augustine says, “The Church may be compared to this woman, because she brings forth children to God. Now is her time of travail; but when that time is over and her hour is come, then she will rejoice in the birth of a faithful progeny to life eternal. She is now in travail in looking for Christ. She will then be delivered when she sees Him.”—Wordsworth’s “Greek Testament.”

John 16:21. The joy of God’s children.

I. Its origin.—It springs from holy sorrow.

II. Its foundation.—It rests itself on the living Saviour alone.

III. Its nature.—It consists in fellowship of life and love with the Lord.

IV. Its extent.—It is perfect and complete.

V. Its duration.—It is everlasting.—Dr. v. Biarowsky.

John 16:22. The demeanour of believers in sorrow which “fills their hearts.”—We ask:—

I. What causes them sorrow?—Their not seeing Jesus, and the want of His gracious presence.

II. How do they look on this sorrow?—As necessary for their sanctification and confirmation as the spring of, and passage to, true joy.

III. How do they bear their sorrow?—With resignation and in hope, unmoved by the world.

IV. What gain do they derive from their sorrow?—Imperishable joy, knowledge of God’s ways, praise of God (1 Corinthians 4:5).—J. L. Sommer.