John 16:16-22
Jesus Is Leaving
We need to remember that this has been one long night for the
disciples. It started in John 13, the upper room. After Jesus took
care of some preliminary issues, He dropped what must have been a
bombshell on the disciples.
John 13:33 Little children, yet a little while
I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said
unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so
now I say to you.
Of course Jesus had been telling the disciples that He was going to
be killed for some time, but I suppose this was the first time He had
put this truth in the form of a departure. That news grabbed their
attention in a way the prophecies of His death had not.
John 13:36 Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither
I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou
shalt follow me afterwards.
As a result, Jesus had spoken about leaving throughout the evening.
1. \\#John 14:2\\ Jesus told the disciples that He would prepare
a place for them.
2. \\#John 14:3\\ Jesus told them that He would return to get
them.
3. \\#John 14:18\\ Jesus told them that He would not leave them
comfortless.
In this section, Jesus returned to that topic in this section.
John 16:28 I came forth from the Father, and am
come into the world: again, I leave the world,
and go to the Father.
Of course one of the reasons Jesus wanted so to meet with the
disciples was to prepare them for His departure. They are upset and
concerned so Jesus shares with them some things they could expect
once He leave.
I. Before that, Jesus told them some things that were in their near
future.
A. \\#20-21\\ They shall have weeping and lamentations.
1. This was a reference to what the disciples would be doing
for the three nights and two days that Jesus’ body lay in
the tomb.
2. Words are a poor conduit of expression.
a. No matter how selective we are in choosing them or how
gifted we in writing them, they cannot express the
fullness of emotion.
b. We do not find any language in the death of Jesus that
expresses how the disciples felt and what they went
through during those hours save these.
c. They would weep and lament. They would be in anguish.
B. \\#32\\ They will be scattered from Jesus.
1. "scattered"
a. Jesus did not say they would flee but that they would
be scattered.
b. The word means forced to flee, driven from Jesus.
2. What drove them"
a. Fear drove them.
(1) No man likes to see cowardness in himself.
(2) When you think about the sorrow that the
disciples went through during those three days
and nights, multiply it exponentially by regret
they would fell!
b. Broken faith drove them.
Luke 24:21 But we TRUSTED that it had been he
which should have redeemed Israel….
(1) Trusted is past tense.
(2) It implies no longer, broken expectations,
discarded dreams, former confidences.
(3) This was not just the condition of these two men.
All of the disciples must have been feeling it.
c. Betrayal and abandonment of their Friend drove them.
(1) How these men must have regretted LEAVING
their best Friend to die ALONE!
(2) Even if they doubted that Jesus was the Messiah
during those days, He would still have been
their best Friend.
C. What was Jesus doing that evening?
1. He was comforting the disciples over actions they had
not committed yet and feelings they had not felt yet!
a. He was telling them what was going to happen in the
next few hours and explaining that it was all right.
b. What a God!
c. Jesus was a few hours from the crucifixion and He is
comforting them about leaving Him alone!
2. As for the regret of leaving Him alone, Jesus said, "I am
not alone! The Father is with Me!"
a. Notice, Jesus used the present tense.
b. He did not say that He WOULD not be alone. He said
I AM not alone.
c. The Father was always with Jesus!
3. As for the sorrow and anguish, Jesus said, "It will be
short lived!"
1. \\#20\\ For it will all be turned to JOY!!
2. Jesus was speaking of what they would feel AFTER the
resurrection.
3. Like a mother bearing a child, the anguish would have
an end for their faith would be renewed!
II. What were the disciples going to experience a little but father
into the future? Jesus was leaving. They were shocked and
hurt. Jesus revealed what His departure would mean for them in
the future.
A. \\#23-24, 26\\ They shall have unfettered power in prayer.
1. Consider here that Jesus was speaking with His disciples,
those who were to be the apostles, concerning their
future after His departure.
a. Many want to relegate everything that Jesus said to
being a promise JUST to the disciples.
b. I don’t think God would have bothered writing the
gospels if none of Jesus’ words were for us too.
c. However, the Apostles were unique.
(1) They had a unique call, to be apostles.
(2) They had a unique training, personally by
Jesus.
(3) They had unique authority, over all churches as
well as demons and sickness.
d. And I do believe they had unique power, power that I
have not seen given to others.
e. Here is one of them.
2. They got all of their prayers answered.
a. "whatsoever" - That means anything.
b. That would mean that these men were the most powerful
men, outside of Jesus, to ever walk on this earth!
c. They could have parted oceans,
renovated the physical land of Israel,
raised the dead as fast as they were dying.
d. They could have made Moses, Elijah, and Elisha’s
miracles seem small in comparison to theirs.
e. Yet, they did not. Why? Because they had learned at
the feet of Jesus that miracles do not change
people—only the gospel can.
f. So they performed miracles like Jesus did, sparingly,
to demonstrate God’s power, but not to change men’s
hearts.
g. Christ came to…
(1) heal men’s souls not their bodies.
(2) feed men’s spirits not their bellies.
(3) to prepare a home in heaven not on earth.
3. Jesus does reveal the chain of authority in the disciples
prayers.
a. They would talk straight to the Father \\#23\\, but He
would answer only because the request was in Jesus’
name.
(1) \\#26\\ In fact, Jesus made it clear that He
would not be taking their request to the Father.
(2) Because of the love of these men for the Son,
God was granting them direct access with their
requests to the Father.
b. The phrase, "in Jesus’ name" means more than just a
prayer ending with those words.
c. It means that it would have to be a prayer that Jesus
Himself would pray.
(1) Their time with the Savior had taught the
disciples many important lessons about prayer,
but two were very important.
(a) They learned what Jesus would ask for.
(b) They also learned what Jesus would NOT ask
for.
(2) When Jesus was making what appears to be His
final journey toward Jerusalem, an event
occurred.
Luke 9:51 And it came to pass, when the time
was come that he should be received up, he
stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
52 And sent messengers before his face: and
they went, and entered into a village of the
Samaritans, to make ready for him.
53 And they did not receive him, because his
face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
54 And when his disciples James and John saw
this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we
command fire to come down from heaven, and
consume them, even as Elias did?
55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said,
Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy
men’s lives, but to save them. And they went
to another village.
(3) Power in prayer such as was given to these men
was not to be taken lightly.
(4) Chances are that we will never be granted great
power in prayer until we not only learn what to
pray FOR but also what NOT to pray for!
B. \\#25\\ They shall have plain understanding.
1. One of the things that must have been frustrating was the
proverbs and parables that Jesus used to teach.
2. He not only used them with the multitudes but He used also
used them with the disciples.
a. Both \\#Matt 13:34\\ and \\#Mark 4:34\\ tell us that
Jesus did ALL of His teaching through parables.
b. The disciples asked Him on one occasion why He spoke
in parables. \\#Matt 13:3\\
c. The disciple often went back to ask Jesus to explain
the parables.
(1) \\#Mark 4:10\\
(2) \\#John 16:18\\ EVEN IN THIS TEXT.
(3) Notice that after Jesus explained what He meant,
the disciples thought they understood it…
John 16:29 His disciples said unto him, Lo, now
speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb.
…but they really did not.
d. I suppose it is possible that one of the reasons the
disciples did not understand the death and
resurrection of Jesus was because they supposed what
He said about them was another parable.
3. To be truthful, I don’t imagine the disciples really cared
for the parables any more than the public did.
4. Jesus is promising the disciples that once He left, they
would not be taught by parables but in plain language.
C. \\#33\\ They shall have peace in the worst circumstances.
1. All of the things that we are looking at right now are
things that the disciples will have after Jesus’
departure.
2. Unfettered prayer power, understanding, and peace.
3. Interestingly, the phrase "might have" is actually present
tense indicating that this peace was available to the
disciples right then; however, the fact that Jesus also
told them of the anguish that they were to experience
indicates that they were not going to make use of it
in the near future.
4. But after Jesus had departed and the Holy Spirit came,
the peace that God has provided and intended for every
human being will be theirs.
5. It will be peace that would take them through the
remainder of their lives, ministries, persecutions, and
martyrdom deaths.
6. They would weep again. They would sorrow again; but they
would never know what it is to be in that forsaken place
they abode in for two nights and three days.
Tonight, the peace that was available to the disciples is available
to you. In comes through Jesus Christ and a surrendered life.
<OutlineIndex> <Close Window>
