College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

John 16:12-24

THE SPIRIT WILL REVEAL LATER MANY THINGS WITHHELD

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come he shall guide you into all the truth: for he shall not speak from himself; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he speak: and he shall declare unto you the things that are to come.

He shall glorify me: for he shall take of mine, and shall declare it unto you.

All things whatsoever the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he taketh of mine, and shall declare it unto you.

A little while, and ye behold me no more; and again a little while, and ye shall see me.

Some of his disciples therefore said one to another, What is this that he saith unto us, A little while, and ye behold me not; and again a little while, and ye shall see me: and, Because I go to the Father?

They said therefore, What is this that he saith, A little while? We know not what he saith.

Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask him, and he said unto them, Do ye inquire among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold me not, and again a little while, and ye shall see me?

Verily, verily, I say unto you, that ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a man is born into the world.

And ye therefore now have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one taketh away from you.

And in that day ye shall ask me no question. Verily, verily, I say unto you, if ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you in my name.

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in my name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be made full.

Queries

Why could the disciples not bear other things which Jesus desired to speak to them?

How would He be seen by them again in a little while?

Paraphrase

How would their sorrow be turned into joy?

There are yet many things I need to say unto you concerning the work of the Spirit and the whole scheme of redemption but because the work of redemption is not yet completed and because of your spiritual immaturity you are not able to bear them just yet. But when the One I have spoken to you about comesthe Spirit of truthHe will guide you into all the truth. And He will not be all by Himself in this speaking but He will be speaking what the Father, Son and the Spirit communicate to one another. He will also give you a message of that which He hears is to come in the future. He will glorify Me because He will take from the Divine Mind all that pertains to Me in the redemptive work and declare it unto you in message form. All that which is Mine is the Father's and all that which the Father has is Mine. It is for this reasonthe perfect unity of possession and purpose between Father, Son and Spiritthat I said unto you the Spirit takes of Mine and gives it unto you. In a little while you will not see Me any longer and yet in a little while you will see Me! Some of the disciples, when they heard this, began to say among themselves, What is this riddle He is speaking nowA little while and you will not see Me and yet in a little while you will see MeandI am going to the Father? What is this Little While that He talks about? We simply cannot understand Him! Jesus, knowing they wanted to ask Him what He meant, said to them, Are you trying to find out from one another the things I said concerning, A little while and you will not see Me and yet in a little while you will see Me again? I tell you most solemnly that you are going to be so sorrowful that you will sob and wail and all the while the world will be rejoicing! Yes, you will be deeply distressed but your distress will be turned into joy! When a woman gives birth to a child she certainly knows pain when her hour to deliver has come. Yet as soon as she has given birth to the child she forgets her agony for the joy of bringing a man-child into the world. Now you are similarly going to go through a brief time of pain but I will see you again soon and your Little While of pain will be turned into rejoicing and this rejoicing no one shall ever be able to take away from you. In the day when I am seeing you again I will by the Spirit so teach you all things that you shall no longer be perplexed and wishing to ask Me questions. As regards the knowledge of the truth, asking will not be necessary for the Spirit of truth will attend to that. But as regards petitions of all kinds for all the necessities of life I say to you most truly, the Father will give them to you if you abide in My name. As of yet you have not asked anything in My name because all authority has not yet been associated with My name. You must keep on asking the Father, but in a little while you will ask by authority of My name in order that your joy may be completely fulfilled.

Summary

Jesus turns from His previous (John 16:1-11) discourse on the work of the Spirit in the world, to the specific work of the Spirit in relationship to the disciples as individuals. The Spirit will reveal to them all the truth and He will turn their sorrow into joy.

Comment

Jesus had spoken only a few things in the three years of His earthly ministry and for the most part the disciples were unable to comprehend and bear up under very little of it. Primarily it was because of their Jewish prejudices and presuppositions of a temporal Messiah and a temporal Messianic kingdom that they were unable to comprehend even the few teachings Jesus gave them concerning His work. They refused to accept the prediction of His death (cf. Matthew 16:21-23; cf. Luke 24:17-27;) and even as late as His ascension they were still wondering about the establishment of an earthly kingdom in Israel (cf. Acts 1:6-7).

Besides their spiritual immaturity making them incapable of bearing the immeasurable riches of all that Jesus wanted to sell them, the work of redemption had not yet been completed and the other things which Jesus had to tell them would have to await the coming of the Spirit.

Although John 16:12 has specific reference to the apostles and the forthcoming miraculous revelation of the Spirit the principle holds true for us today. The principle is that revelation of the nature and work of Christ is measured by the moral and spiritual capacities of men to receive it. Paul the apostle had to speak to the Corinthians as babes because they were spiritually and morally incapable of being spoken to as spiritual grownups. They were carnal. They still thought of Christ and the church as fleshly and worldly. The more we know intellectually and experientially of the Person of Christ from His Word, the Bible, the more we will grow to be like Him and the more prepared we will be to bear the profound and sublime riches of His Word. The more we abstain from the worldly the better prepared we are to receive His revelation of the spiritual.

Jesus lovingly and wisely withholds what can most beneficently be revealed by the Spirit. When the redemptive work is finished, the Spirit will come to them and lead them into all the truth. This promise of Jesus to the apostles concerning all the truth is most important! There have been theologians, church councils, latter day prophets in all ages rise up and challenge this promise. Even in our day some who claim to be conservative, Bible-believing people have taught that the Holy Spirit has more truth than that which was delivered to the apostles to give to men and that He is giving new truth even today. If human language means anything at all, we believe the Bible teaches that what the apostles recorded was all the truth the Holy Spirit was to deliver to mankind for man's redemption and for man's temporal existence. In other words, the Bible itself claims that it is sufficient to lead man to saving relationship to Jesus Christ and is sufficient to guide man in all his relationship to living in this world. Compare the following scriptures with what is taught by those today who claim the Holy Spirit has new truth to reveal:

Many things which Jesus did and said were not recorded but enough was recorded to bring men unto saving faith in Him (John 20:30-31)

The miraculous gifts of the Spirit prophecy, etc. in revealing Christ's Word to the early church (before they had the completed New Testament in writing) were to be done away when that which (neuter gender in the Greek and cannot refer to Christ's second coming) is perfect (completed written word) came (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:8-13).

No Word of Christ was to be preached (not even by latter day angels) other than that which the apostles delivered and wrote upon the penalty of being accursed from Christ (cf. Galatians 1:6-10).

The scriptures are capable of making the man of God complete and no other revelation is needed (cf. 2 Timothy 3:14-17).

The Word which brings us into a new birth abides forever and this eternal word is that which was preached by the apostles (1 Peter 1:23-25).

He has granted unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Christ and that knowledge comes through the promises of Christ contained in the apostolic truth (2 Peter 1:1-4; 2 Peter 1:16-21).

The apostles are of God and those that know God do so by hearing the apostles. Those that do not know God do not listen to the apostles. AND BY LISTENING TO THE APOSTLES IS THE ONLY WAY WE KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TRUTH AND ERROR! (cf. 1 John 4:1-6).

Who ever goes beyond the teaching of the Christ in the apostolic writings does not have God and those who go beyond the apostolic doctrine are not to be received as brethren in Christ (2 John 1:9-11).

The faith (the complete body of doctrine necessary for salvation and Christian living) was once for all time delivered unto the saints in the apostolic books of the New Testament (Jude 1:3) and that certainly means the apostles were led into all the truth the Holy Spirit deemed necessary for all time!

The book of Revelation was the last book of the New Testament to be written. The last warning and the last invitation is given in this book. The admonition of this book is that nothing shall be added or taken away from what has been written by the apostles lest the judgment of God come upon the usurper.

Christians are commanded to judge between true and false doctrines for many false teachers are constantly teaching false doctrines in the world (1 John 4:1). THE ONLY DIVINE CRITERIA BY WHICH JUDGMENT BETWEEN TRUE AND FALSE DOCTRINE MAY BE MADE IS THE FINAL AND COMPLETE REVELATION OF CHRIST MADE IN THE WRITTEN DOCUMENTS OF THE APOSTLES, INSPIRED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT, WHICH WE KNOW AS THE NEW TESTAMENT!

Furthermore, what the Spirit shall teach the disciples will not be something completely different from what Christ has taught and will teach when He finishes His work. What the Spirit will do is take all that the Incarnate Word accomplished and make it plain and give it in specific commandments in order that men may understand and obey it. In bringing Christ to dwell in the hearts of men by faith the Spirit would cause them to apprehend what is the breadth and length and height and depth and to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge and be filled with all the fulness of God (cf. Ephesians 3:14-19). In so doing the Spirit would glorify the Son and the Father. Thus the Acts and the Epistles become divine commentaries on the Gospels.

John 16:14-15 are to remind the disciples again of the oneness of Father, Son and Spirit. The Jewish mind tended to separate the work of the Father from the Son and both from the work of the Spirit.

And now, in John 16:16-24, we hear Jesus speak to His disciples a riddle concerning His return that was made plain only after the Spirit came at Pentecost. The disciples were completely perplexed as to the meaning. To them it sounded as if Jesus were talking in circlescontradicting Himself. Soon they will not see Him any more, yet soon they would see Him again. What does He mean? There are a number of things to be considered in interpreting His meaning: (a) the contextthe close connection in what He is saying to what He has said before about the coming of the Spirit; (b) Jesus uses two different words for see theoreite and hopsesthe which may indicate two different manners of vision (physical vs. Spiritual); (c) all believers in Christ are to be the ultimate recipients of the full joy promised first to the disciples; (d) their second vision of Christ was to remain with them. The Christ who should return to their vision after His going away no doubt began with the resurrected Christ (but even then He was difficult for some to see, (cf. Luke 24:17-27), but was primarily the Christ who returned to them in the Spirit. The Christ who filled them with joy is the same Christ seen by all believers todaythe Christ of the Spirit who shows Himself to men through His Word.

Jesus can make it no plainer than he does. But the disciples will not know what He means until He is resurrected, ascended and returns in all the power and truth of the Spirit. They will fall into the depths of sorrow but will be lifted to the heights of joy. Could their faith rest solely in His promises they would not sorrow but rejoice knowing that the cross was not the end. But their faith was not that complete (and ours neither, had we been there, I-'m sure). Nevertheless, when He should return in a little while from the tomb and in power on Pentecost, their sorrow would be turned to joy.
The parable Jesus gives to describe the complete change that will take place in their lives is beautifully descriptive. One has only to be a parent, and especially a mother, to know it. The disciples will come from the agony of pain to the sublimity of joy. This is all the parable is intended to teachthe contrast between sorrow and joy of the disciples. One need only see the contrast between the disciples at the crucifixion and the resurrection and Pentecost to see the fulfillment of Jesus-' prediction.

John 16:23 shows that this whole discourse concerns the coming of the Spirit. In the day that Christ comes to them again all their questions will be answered. There were many questions they had concerning all that Jesus had taught and done while they companied with Him. Their minds were undoubtedly filled with questions. After His victory over the tomb and the coming of the Spirit the meaning of all they had seen and heard would become clear. They would then see that in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Colossians 2:3) and that in Him God chose to consummate all things and fulfill all things prophesied and typified in the Old Testament. They would see that in Him all of historyevery question of mankind finds its answer. They would see that by faith in Him who conquered all there would be no more questions to askno more answers needed.

In John 16:23 we have the promise stated again that every prayer for help in the exigencies of life asked according to the will and name of Christ will be granted (cf. our comments on John 14:13-14; John 15:7; John 15:16). John 16:24 is a veiled statement (veiled to the apostles before the resurrection and pouring forth of the Spirit on Pentecost) that soon He will bring in a New covenant and henceforward all requests to the Father must be made according to the will and by the authority of the name of Jesus. Those who expect to gain the Father's ear henceforward must abide in the teaching of the Son. Before Pentecost, of course, the disciples prayed to the Father under the Mosaic dispensation and gained the Father's ear as they, by faith, abode in the Mosaic teachings. But after Pentecost the Christian dispensation, the fulfillment of all the promisesthe reality of all that had before been only shadowwould make their joy full. Christ would be able to do for them exceeding abundantly above all they ask or think.

May this section be an admonition to us that the Christ we have seen by the Spirit in the Word is more to be desired than the Christ seen with the physical eye. The Christ of the Spirit is the Christ who brings joy unspeakable and full of glory, because He is the Christ in us, the hope of our glory (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:12-18; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18; Colossians 1:27, etc.).

Quiz

Why could the disciples not bear what Jesus had to say later in the Spirit?

Is what the apostles taught and wrote (the New Testament) all the truth which the Spirit reveals concerning salvation? Prove your answer!

Would the Spirit teach anything newanything other than what Christ had already taught? If not, what would He teach?

How would their sorrow be turned to joy?

Why would they ask no questions after the coming of the Spirit?

What lesson is there in this discourse for believers today?

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