Large Christian library. Gospel of John
1–33. The end of Christ's farewell conversation with the apostles: about the coming persecution; the removal of Christ to the Father; activity of the Holy Spirit; the happy outcome of the trials to which the apostles will be subjected; hearing their prayers; the dispersion of Christ's disciples.
In the first 11 verses, which represent the end of the second consolatory speech, Christ warns the apostles about the persecution awaiting them from the Jews and then, again announcing His departure to the Father, He promises that in the event of His departure, the Comforter will come to the apostles, Who will will expose the world that is hostile to Christ and the apostles.
John 16:1. I told you these things so that you would not be tempted.
“This”, i.e. about the persecution awaiting the apostles (John 15 et seq.).
“So that you are not tempted.” It is useful to know about future suffering, since the expected does not surprise us as much as the unexpected.
John 16:2. They will drive you out of the synagogues; the time even comes when everyone who kills you will think that he is serving God.
“They will drive you out of the synagogues” - see comments on John. 9:22, 34. In the eyes of the Jews, the apostles will appear as apostates from their fatherly faith.
"Whoever kills you." From this it is clear that the apostles will be outlawed, so that anyone who meets them will have the right to kill them. Subsequently, in the Jewish Talmud it was directly established (tractate Bemidbar Rabba, reference in Holtzman - 329, 1) that whoever kills an unrighteous person thereby makes a sacrifice to God (cf. Acts 12:3, 23 et seq.).
John 16:3. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or Me.
Christ repeats (cf. John 15:21) that the reason for such a hostile attitude of the Jews towards the apostles will be that they, the Jews, did not know as they should either the Father or Christ.
John 16:4. But I told you this so that when that time comes, you will remember what I told you about it; I didn’t tell you this at first, because I was with you.
The Lord did not tell them about the suffering awaiting the apostles at the beginning of their following Christ. The reason for this was that He Himself was constantly with them. In case of any troubles that could befall the apostles from the Jews, Christ could always calm them down. Yes, such troubles had never happened to them before. But now He is moving away from the apostles, and they must know everything that awaits them.
From here there is reason to conclude that the Evangelist Matthew, in the speech of Christ spoken to the apostles when sending them to preach (Matthew 10:16-31), placed predictions to the disciples about the suffering awaiting them, not because the Lord had already acquainted the disciples with the fate awaiting them, but simply because I wanted to combine in one section all the instructions of Christ to the disciples as preachers of the Gospel.
John 16:5. And now I go to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me: Where are you going?
John 16:6. But because I told you this, your heart was filled with sorrow.
The Lord’s words about His removal deeply struck the disciples, but first of all they felt sorry for themselves, and not for the Teacher. They thought about what would become of them, but about what fate awaited Christ, they did not ask themselves and Him. They now seemed to have forgotten about Thomas’ question, overwhelmed by grief at the removal of Christ (cf. John 14:5).
John 16:7. But I tell you the truth: it is better for you that I go; for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; and if I go, I will send Him to you,
John 16:8. and He, having come, will convict the world about sin and about righteousness and about judgment:
The Lord condescends to this state of the disciples and wants to dispel their depressing sorrow. “It is better for you,” He tells them, “that I now leave you: in that case, the Comforter will appear to you.” This Comforter, whose activity in relation to the apostles and other believers Christ spoke above (John 14:16, 15:26), is now depicted in its meaning for the unbelieving world. However, interpreters disagree on the question of to whom the Holy Spirit will appear as an accuser or witness of Christ: before the world or only before believers. Some say that here the Lord is saying that thanks to the activity of the Holy Spirit, the truth of Christ and the unrighteousness of the world will become clear only to the consciousness of believers. “The whole sin of the world will be revealed to them, all its unrighteousness and the destruction to which it is condemned... And what could the Spirit reveal to the deaf and spiritually blind, what could He tell the dead? But He could indicate them to those who could perceive Him” (Silchenkov). We cannot agree with such an interpretation, because, firstly, the Lord above (John 15:26) has already said that the Spirit will testify about Christ to the world, and secondly, it would be strange to assume that the world, which was so beloved Father (John 3:16-17) and for whose salvation the Son of God came (John 1:29, 4:42), was deprived of the influence of the Holy Spirit. If some point out that the world did not heed the reproof, which is noted here, however, as an accomplished fact, as having come to fruition (“reprove”, verse 8), then it must be said that the Greek verb used here is ἐλέγχειν (“reprove” ") does not mean "bring a person to full consciousness his guilt,” but only “to present strong evidence, which, however, may not be taken into account by the majority of listeners” (cf. John 8:46, 3:20, 7:7). In view of what has been said, it is better to adhere to the opinion that we are talking here mainly about the attitude of the Comforter to the unbelieving and hostile world towards Christ, before which the Comforter will act as a witness.
What will the Comforter convict or testify of? About sin in general, about truth in general, about judgment in general (all the Greek nouns standing here - ἀμαρτία, δικαιοσύνη, κρίσις - are without an article and, therefore, denote something abstract). The world does not understand these three things as it should. He does evil and, however, is sure that this is not evil, but good, that he is not sinning. He confuses good with evil and considers immorality to be a natural phenomenon, showing by this that he has no concept of truth or righteousness at all, and does not even believe in its existence. Finally, he does not believe in the divine court, at which the fate of everyone must be decided in accordance with his deeds. It is these truths, alien to the understanding of the world, that the Comforter Spirit must clarify to the world and prove that sin, truth, and judgment exist.
John 16:9. about sin, that they do not believe in Me;
How will the Spirit explain all this to the world? The existence of sin can be clarified by the example of the unbelief that the world has discovered in relation to Christ (instead of “that they do not believe,” it is more correct to translate “because they do not believe,” the particle ὁτι, in the context of speech, here has the meaning of cause). In nothing was sin so clearly revealed as in the world’s unbelief in Christ (cf. John 3:20, 15:22). The world hated Christ not because there was anything worthy of hatred in Christ, but because the sinfulness that possessed people forced them to reject the high demands with which Christ addressed people (cf. John 5:44).
John 16:10. about the truth that I go to My Father, and you will no longer see Me;
The Holy Spirit will also testify to the existence of truth, again also in relation to the fate of Christ. The fact that Christ, moving away from His disciples, goes to the Father, clearly proves that righteousness exists both as a property of God, who rewards great deeds with exaltation, and as a property or work of Christ, Who by His exaltation will prove that He is righteous and holy ( 1 John 2:1, 29; Acts 3:14, 7:52; 1 Pet. 3:18), although according to the Jews He was a sinner (John 9:24). The Holy Spirit, mainly through preachers about Christ, will reveal this meaning of Christ’s removal from the eyes of even those close to Him, the apostles, who now themselves attribute a sad rather than a joyful meaning to this removal. After the Comforter Spirit descends on them, they will begin to explain the true meaning of this removal of Christ as proof of the existence of truth in general. First of all, the Apostle Peter spoke to the Jews with such explanations (Acts 2:36, 3:15).
John 16:11. about judgment, that the prince of this world is condemned.
Finally, the existence of judgment in general will be explained to the world by the Holy Spirit using the example of the trial of the author of Christ’s death (John 13:2, 27) - the devil, the prince of this sinful world. Since the Lord considers His death as already accomplished, so does the condemnation of the devil, which was pronounced by Divine truth over him for this bloody and unrighteous deed (he killed the One Whom he had no right to take life as a sinner, cf. Rom. 6:23 ), He also talks about existing fact(“convicted”) It is very likely that such a condemnation of the devil was revealed in the primal Church in those cases of casting out demons that took place in the activities of the apostles, who performed these miracles by the power of the Holy Spirit. In addition, in the Apostolic Epistles the devil is depicted as having been cast out from the society of people who have believed in Christ: he only walks around the Church, like a roaring hungry lion (1 Pet. 5:8), again placing his nets outside the Church to catch believers who might leave the boundaries of the Church (1 Tim. 3:7). In a word, the condemnation of the devil, the victory over him was an accomplished fact for the consciousness of believers, and they convinced the whole world of this.
John 16:12. I still have a lot to tell you; but now you cannot contain it.
From verse 12 to verse 33 comes the third consoling speech of Christ. Here He speaks to the apostles, on the one hand, about the future sending down of the Holy Spirit to them, who will enlighten them regarding all truth, and on the other hand, about His coming or return to the apostles after His resurrection, when they will learn much from Him that they did not know before . If they now feel quite strong in faith thanks to what they have already heard from Christ, then this strength of faith in them is not yet so great as to save them from fear at the sight of what will happen to their Teacher. Christ ends His speech by calling his disciples to courageously endure the coming trial.
Christ now cannot tell the disciples everything that he had to tell them. While, in their present state, it is difficult for them to perceive this “much” that Christ has in store. It is very likely that this “much” included what the Lord revealed to the disciples during His appearances within forty days after the resurrection (Acts 1:3) and which later formed a fundamental part of Christian Tradition.
John 16:13. When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth: for He will not speak from Himself, but He will speak what He hears, and He will tell you the future.
Above, Christ spoke about the activity of the Holy Spirit for the world. Now He talks about the meaning of the Spirit for personal life disciples of Christ. Here the activity of the Spirit will give so much that it will abundantly satisfy that thirst for knowledge of the truth, which it became impossible for the disciples to satisfy with the removal of the Teacher from them. The Holy Spirit, as the Spirit of truth (see John 14:17, 15:26), will give them complete knowledge of all truth, or, more precisely, all (πᾶσα) truth, which was previously communicated to them by Christ in only general outlines. However, these words do not mean that the disciples will actually master the entire content of the teaching about God, that there will be absolutely no defects in their knowledge. Christ only says that the Spirit will give it to them, and whether they will accept everything that is offered to them, it will still depend on how much they surrender to the leadership of the Spirit. The Spirit will be their guide when studying the realm of truth (instead of ὁδηγήσει, some ancient codes read ὁδηγός ἔσται).
“For He will not speak from Himself.” The property of the Spirit, by virtue of which He is the source of revelation, is based on the fact that He, just as little as Christ (John 7:17, 14:10), will speak “from Himself”, i.e. start something new in teaching the disciples the truth, and will, like Christ (John 3:32, 8:26, 12:49), say only what he has perceived or “hears” (ἀκούει in Tischendorf, 8th ed.) from the Father (in our Russian translation - “will hear”, future tense).
“And the future will tell you.” The special activity of the Spirit will be to reveal eschatological doctrines. The disciples of Christ could sometimes fall into a dejected state under the influence of those victories that were often held back by evil in the world, and in this case the Spirit opened the veil of the future before them and encouraged them, painting before their spiritual gaze pictures of the future final victory of good.
John 16:14. He will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and proclaim it to you.
Christ again repeats that the Spirit will not found some new Church, but will only “glorify Christ,” i.e. to bring to the desired revelation that which, after the removal of Christ, remained undisclosed and incomplete in the Church of Christ.
From this it is clear that all the talk of secular Russian theologians (for example, D.S. Merezhkovsky) about the possibility of the imminent discovery of some kind of new Church or the Kingdom of the Spirit, which should take the place of the Kingdom of the Son or Church of Christ, deprived of any support in Holy Scripture(N. Rozanov. On the new religious consciousness. M., 1908).
John 16:15. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that he will take from Mine and tell it to you.
Since verse 13 says that the Spirit will proclaim what He hears from the Father, and verse 14 says that He will take from the Son (“from Mine,” i.e., what I have), then In order to eliminate this apparent contradiction, Christ notes that everything that belongs to the Father also belongs to the Son (John 17:10; cf. Luke 15:31).
Isn’t the dignity of the Holy Spirit diminished, however, when it is said that the Spirit proclaims only what it hears from God the Father and God the Son? Hearing the speech of other Persons of the Holy Trinity does not exclude the Spirit’s own participation in the Divine Council. Moreover, the fact that the Spirit will proclaim the complete truth gives the right to conclude that He is one in essence with the Father and the Son (Silchenkov). Moreover, is there not a hint in the words “all that the Father has is Mine” that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son in the same way as He proceeds from the Father? No, Christ could not mean the procession of the Spirit from the Father here, because in this entire section from verse 7 He speaks about the activity of the Spirit, and not about His personal Property as a divine Hypostasis; He does not mean the relationship of the Persons of the Holy Trinity between themselves, and Their attitude to the cause of saving humanity.
John 16:16. Soon you will not see Me, and again soon you will see Me, for I am going to the Father.
Turning now again to the question of His departure from the Father, which so frightened the apostles, Christ tells them to console them that they will soon see Him again, because He is going to the Father. As in In. 14:18-19, here we speak about the appearance of the Lord to the apostles after the resurrection.
If the verse is read in the volume that it has in the Russian text, then for clarity it is better to surround the middle sentence, as an introductory one, with dashes and read everything like this: “soon you will not see Me” - “and again” (i.e. “ “yet” or “although”) “soon you will see Me, for I am going to the Father.”
John 16:17. Then some of His disciples said to one another, “What is it that He says to us: Soon you will not see Me, and again soon you will see Me, and: I am going to the Father?”
John 16:18. So they said, “What is it that He says, “soon”? We don't know what he says.
The disciples could not reconcile in their minds all the sayings of Christ about His future meeting with them. Either He said that a lot of time would pass before He would see them, that before that they would have to go through a path of various sufferings (John 16:2), then He said that He would soon come to them, as soon as He prepared abodes for them in heaven (John 14:3), so that they could believe that the separation would last only a few hours. Thus, the apostles were already confused by this expression “soon.” Then they were confused by the words of the Lord: “I am going to the Father.” Some were probably inclined to see in these words an allusion to the glorious departure of Christ to heaven, similar to that which the prophet Elijah was honored with, during whose departure from the earth “a chariot of fire and horses of fire” appeared from heaven (2 Kings 2:11). With such an assumption, it seemed incomprehensible what kind of imminent return Christ was talking about. Will His stay in heaven be short? But this was contradicted by what the Lord said to the apostles earlier (John 13:36-14:3). They could still imagine that Christ would appear to them at His last coming, when He came to judge the world (Matthew 19:28). But this “soon” confused all their previously formed ideas.
John 16:19. Jesus, realizing that they wanted to ask Him, said to them: Are you asking one another about this, that I said: A little while later you will not see Me, and again a short time later you will see Me?
John 16:20. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
John 16:21. When a woman gives birth, she suffers sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to a baby, she no longer remembers the sorrow for joy, because a man was born into the world.
John 16:22. So now you also have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you;
Regarding the bewilderment expressed by the disciples about the meaning of Christ’s saying “soon you will not see Me, and again soon you will see Me,” the Lord again repeats that sadness and weeping for His death (in verse 20 the verb θρηνεῖν means weeping for the dead, cf. Matt. 2:18) will quickly be replaced by rejoicing among the disciples - due, of course, to the resurrection of Christ from the dead. The world will rejoice, thinking that it has won victory over Christ, and this joy of the world will even more sadden the disciples of Christ, who were already struck by the death of the Teacher. But both will be very short-lived. The revolution will take place quickly and unexpectedly. So a woman unexpectedly, sometimes among those feasting or being busy with some kind of work, feels the onset of painful labor attacks! But Christ wants to depict not only the surprise of His resurrection for the disciples, but also its especially joyful character. The joy of the disciples when they see the risen Christ can be compared with the fullness of joy that a woman who has just been safely delivered from her burden feels. She immediately forgets about all the torment she suffered during childbirth, and is completely filled with joy from seeing her child. Some interpreters continue the comparison begun by the Savior further. They compare Him to a newborn child, as one who entered new life after the resurrection, as the new Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). But one cannot agree with such an expansion of the image taken by Christ, because even if Christ can be called the Newborn, then the disciples in no case can have anything to do with the new birth of Christ: they least of all, as having abandoned their Teacher, took part in His birth into a new life.
John 16:23. and on that day you will not ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.
John 16:24. Until now you have asked nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
The Lord depicts the happy consequences of His coming to the disciples after the resurrection.
“On that day” (cf. John 14:20), i.e. during conversations with the risen Lord.
"You will not ask Me anything." We know that even after the resurrection, the disciples asked the Lord about what particularly interested them (for example, about the organization of the kingdom of Israel; Acts 1:6). Therefore, the expression οὐκ ἐρωτήσετε is better understood in the sense of “you will not constantly ask questions about every word of Mine that you do not understand, and even constantly repeat the same questions, as you did during this conversation of Mine with you” (verse 18). The position of the apostles at the present time - the position of inexperienced children who ask their elders about everything, will change after they see the risen Christ to the position of adults.
“Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.” Here is another sign of the new position that the apostles will occupy in relation to God after the resurrection of Christ. Previously, under the weight of thoughts about the fate of the Son of God, they felt some kind of fear before the right hand of the Lord punishing so threateningly - for the sins of mankind - the innocent Christ. Then they will look upon this right hand as containing within itself all kinds of mercies for those redeemed by the sufferings of Christ.
“Until now”, i.e. until Christ entered the Father and received eternal glorification according to humanity, they did not ask for anything in His name (see John 14:13), i.e. in their prayers they turned directly to the Lord, the God of their fathers, without relying on the “name” of their Teacher and Lord. Then, after the glorification of Christ, they will be especially joyful that in their prayers they will call on the name of Christ, who is so close to them, and in this closeness of Him to them they will find a guarantee that their prayers will not remain unfulfilled.
John 16:25. Hitherto I have spoken to you in parables; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but will tell you directly about the Father.
John 16:26. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you:
John 16:27. for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and believed that I came from God.
The Lord's speech comes to an end. The Lord says that all the sayings He had previously spoken during the farewell conversation (for example, John 13:32, 14, etc.) had the character of a parable, i.e. were similar to parables, after hearing which, the disciples usually turned to Christ with a request to explain these parables (cf. Matthew 13:36). The time will soon come, however, when the Lord will “directly” tell the apostles what they need to know, so that Christ will not need to accompany His speech with special explanations. What time, however, does Christ mean here? Is it that relatively short period that passed from His resurrection to His ascension into heaven, or the entire period of His Church’s existence on earth? Since this speech refers primarily to the apostles - after all, they first had to learn everything under some additional cover - it is better to see in Christ’s promise an indication only of His personal treatment of the apostles after His resurrection, when He “opened their minds to understand the Scriptures” (Luke 24:45).
“I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you.” This does not mean that Christ’s intercession for the apostles will cease: love, as the apostle says, never ceases (1 Cor. 13:8) and always continues to intercede for loved ones. But the Lord wants to say by this that the apostles themselves will become in a new close relationship with God, for their love for Christ and faith in Him they will be awarded love from the Father.
John 16:28. I came from the Father and came into the world; and again I leave the world and go to the Father.
John 16:29. His disciples said to Him: Behold, now You speak plainly, and do not speak any parables.
John 16:30. Now we see that You know everything and have no need for anyone to question You. Therefore we believe that You came from God.
In order to finally understand to the disciples the purpose of His removal from them, the Lord repeats once again that, just as He came from the Father, so He must return to Him. The disciples were completely satisfied with this statement from their Teacher, because the Lord correctly determined their real mood: it was precisely such a brief and precise statement on His part that they now felt the need for. This ability of Christ to penetrate into the very secret places human heart encourages the disciples to now confess once again their faith that He truly came from God and, therefore, has divine knowledge. He does not need to wait for questions to find out who needs to know what from Him.
John 16:31. Jesus answered them: Do you believe now?
John 16:32. Behold, the hour is coming, and has already come, that you will scatter, each in his own direction, and leave Me alone; but I am not alone, for the Father is with Me.
In response to this confession, the Lord accepts their faith as a fact (instead of “do you now believe?” it is better to translate “yes, now you believe”), but says that this faith in the apostles will soon weaken so much that they will leave Christ (cf. Mk. 14:27, 50). “However,” Christ notes, as if in order to reassure the apostles for the future, when they will consider the entire work of Christ lost, “I will not remain alone, the Father is always with Me.”
John 16:33. I have spoken these things to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart: I have overcome the world.
Here is the conclusion to the discourses of chapters 15 and 16 (chapter 14 has its own special conclusion in its 31st verse). This is why the Lord kept the additional speeches placed in chapters 15–16, so that the apostles would have “peace in Him,” i.e. the peace that He has, with which He goes into suffering (cf. John 14:27). And this world, even among the apostles, must have its foundation in the same thing in which it has support in Christ, namely, Christ is confident in His victory over the world hostile to Him, which, one might say, now lies at His feet as defeated (cf. John 13:31). Likewise, the disciples should, in the thought of the victory won by their Teacher, draw strength to endure the coming sorrows (cf. verse 21).
Some of the newest interpreters They consider the 15th and 16th chapters to be an insertion made by a later writer. The main basis for this opinion is the fact that in John. 14The Lord invites the apostles to “get up and go” from the upper room, thus recognizing the farewell conversation as over. But critics needlessly be embarrassed by this circumstance. As was said above (see comments on John 15:31), the Lord could continue His conversation with the disciples, seeing that they were directly unable to follow His invitation, could not, so to speak, rise from their seats due to great grief. In the same way, the other basis cited by critics who do not recognize the authenticity of these chapters has little force. Namely, they say that these chapters partly repeat what is already known from John. 13:31-14 (Heitmüller). But is it surprising if the Lord, comforting His disciples, sometimes repeats the same thoughts? It is obvious that they needed such repetition that they did not understand something else clearly enough the first time...
Synodal translation. The chapter is voiced by role by the studio “Light in the East”.
1. I told you these things so that you would not be tempted.
2. They will drive you out of the synagogues; the time even comes when everyone who kills you will think that he is serving God.
3. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or Me.
4. But I have told you this so that when that time comes, you will remember what I told you about this; I didn’t tell you this at first, because I was with you.
5. And now I go to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me: “Where are you going?”
6. But because I told you this, your heart was filled with sorrow.
7. But I tell you the truth: it is better for you that I go; for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you; and if I go, I will send Him to you,
8. And He, having come, will convict the world about sin and about righteousness and about judgment:
9. about sin, that they do not believe in Me;
10. about the truth, that I go to My Father, and you will no longer see Me;
11. About judgment, that the prince of this world is condemned.
12. I still have much to tell you; but now you cannot contain it.
13. When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth; for he will not speak from himself, but he will speak what he hears, and he will tell you the future.
14. He will glorify Me, because He will take of Mine and proclaim it to you.
15. All that the Father has is Mine; therefore I said that he will take from Mine and tell it to you.
16. Soon you will not see Me, and again soon you will see Me, for I go to the Father.
17. Then some of His disciples said to one another: What is it that He says to us: “In a little while you will not see Me, and again in a little while you will see Me,” and: “I am going to the Father”?
18. So they said, “What is it that He says, “soon”? We don't know what he says.
19. Jesus, realizing that they wanted to ask Him, said to them: Are you asking one another about this, that I said: “In a little while you will not see Me, and again in a little while you will see Me”?
20. Truly, truly, I say to you, you will mourn and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
21. When a woman gives birth, she suffers sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to a baby, she no longer remembers the sorrow for joy, because a man was born into the world.
22. So now you also have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you;
23 And on that day you will not ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.
24 Until now you have asked nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
25 Hitherto I have spoken to you in parables; but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but will tell you directly about the Father.
26. In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you:
27. For the Father Himself loves you, because you loved Me and believed that I came from God.
28. I came from the Father and came into the world; and again I leave the world and go to the Father.
29. His disciples said to Him: Behold, now You speak plainly and do not speak any parables.
30. Now we see that You know everything and have no need for anyone to question You. Therefore we believe that You came from God.
31 Jesus answered them, Do you believe now?
32. Behold, the hour is coming, and has already come, that you will scatter, each in his own direction, and leave Me alone; but I am not alone, for the Father is with Me.
33. These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart: I have overcome the world.
I told you this so that you would not be tempted. They will drive you out of the synagogues; even the time will come when everyone who kills you will think that he is serving God. They will do this because they have not known either the Father or Me.
But I told you this so that when that time comes, you will remember that I told you about this, but I did not tell you this at first, because I was with you.
By the time this Gospel was written, some believers had fallen away from the faith because persecution had already begun. The Book of Revelation condemns all those of little faith and fearfulness (Rev. 21:8). When Pliny, the proconsul of Bithynia, checked the people to find out whether there were Christians among them, he wrote a letter to the Emperor Trojan in which he said: “Some admitted that they were Christians, but ceased to be them many years ago, some for twenty years.” Even among the heroics of the early Church there were people whose faith was not strong enough to withstand persecution.
Jesus foresaw this and warned about it in advance. He didn't want anyone to say later that he didn't know anything about persecution when he accepted Christianity. When Tyndale began to be pursued by his enemies and were ready to kill him because he wanted to give the Bible to the English people for his native language, he replied: “I didn’t expect anything else.” Jesus offered people glory, but also the cross.
Jesus spoke of two types of persecution that would come upon His disciples. They will be excommunicated from the synagogues, and this meant for the Jew great importance. The synagogue, the house of God, played a role in the life of the Jew important role. Some rabbis said that a prayer said outside the synagogue cannot count on success. But there was more to it than that. It may very well be that a great scientist or theologian can do without the company of people. He can live alone, immersed in his work and thoughts. But the students were simple people and needed communication. They needed the synagogue and its services. It would be difficult for them to cope with excommunication and complete deprivation of communication with other people. But sometimes it’s useful for people to taste what Jeanne D. Arc said: “It’s better to be alone with God.” Sometimes the price of communication with God is loneliness among people. Jesus also said that people would think they were serving God when they persecuted His disciples. The word used here latreia, which means the service of a priest at the altar in the Temple of God, and in general this is a common word for any religious service. One of the tragedies of religion was that people often thought they were serving God by persecuting those they considered heretics. No one was more confident in serving God than Paul when he tried to erase the name of Jesus from the pages of history and destroy His Church (Acts 26:9-11). The torturers and judges of the Spanish Inquisition left a bad reputation, but in their time they were quite confident that they were doing the right thing and serving God by tormenting heretics and torturing them into accepting what they considered the true faith. In their opinion, they were saving them from hell. This is because, as Jesus put it, “they did not know God.” The tragedy of the Church is that many people try to proclaim yours understanding of religion, assuring that They owners of Divine truth and grace. The scary thing is that all this is still happening today and is the greatest obstacle to the unification of all churches. There will always be persecution. Not necessarily with murder and torture, but with excommunication from the house of God, if only people continue to think that only they have the path to God.
Jesus knew how to treat people. He seemed to be telling them: “I offer you the most difficult task in the world, which will wound your body and tear your soul. Are you courageous enough to accept it?”
Jesus offered then and today offers not easy way but the path of glory. He desires that those who are ready to answer His call will come forth boldly for His name's sake.
John 16.5-11 Action of the Holy Spirit
And now I go to Him who sent Me, and none of you asks Me, “Where are you going?”
But because I told you this, your heart was filled with sorrow.
But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go, for if I do not go, the Comforter will not come to you, but if I go, I will send Him to you,
And he will come and convict the world about sin and about righteousness and about judgment about sin, that they do not believe in Me,
About the truth, that I am going to My Father, and you will no longer see Me, About judgment, that the prince of this world is condemned.
The disciples were thrown into confusion and sadness. All they realized was that they were losing Jesus. But He told them that all this was for the best, because when he left, the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, would replace Him. Being in the body, He could not be with them everywhere and they constantly met and then said goodbye. Being in the body, He could not instruct the minds and hearts and speak to the conscience of people everywhere, but was limited by place and time. The Holy Spirit has no limitations and His coming will be the fulfillment of the promise: “Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:20). The Spirit will bring uninterrupted fellowship forever and will empower the Christian preacher so that the result will be different wherever he preaches.
Here we have almost full list actions of the Holy Spirit. John uses the word eleghein, which in Russian translation means expose, and in other translations it means convince. The trouble is that there is no word that would convey its meaning satisfactorily. It is used when cross-examining witnesses. The Greeks sometimes use this word to describe the influence of conscience on the mind and heart of a person. It is clear that such cross-examination may have double action, he can expose a person for a crime he has committed, or convince him in the weakness of his position, which he defends. In this passage we need both values: will convict and convince. The Holy Spirit will both convict and convince—this is His double ministry. Let's see what Jesus says about the work of the Holy Spirit.
1. Holy Spirit will convict the world of sin. When the Jews handed Jesus over to be crucified, they did not think that they were sinning, but thought that they were serving God. But when later the news of the Crucifixion of Christ reached them through preaching, they were touched in their hearts (Acts 2:37). They were suddenly convinced that the Crucifixion was the most terrible crime in history and that it was their sin that committed it. What is it that leads a person to the feeling and consciousness of sin? What humbles him before the Cross? In an Indian village, a missionary once showed slides using a projector on the whitewashed wall of a village hut. When a cross with Christ on it appeared on the wall, one Indian jumped up and shouted: “Come down! I should be hanging there, not You! Why does the sight of a man crucified almost 2,000 years ago in Palestine evoke such a heartbreaking reaction in the hearts of people throughout the centuries? This is the action of the Holy Spirit.
2. The Holy Spirit will convict the world of the truth. The meaning of these words becomes clear to us when we see what exactly about the truth of Christ the person must be convicted. Jesus was crucified as a criminal. He was tried, and although he was not found guilty, at the request of the Jews, who considered Him a malicious heretic, the Romans sentenced Him to death penalty, which only the most terrible criminals were worthy of. What changed this view of him? What made people see that He is the crucified Son of God, as the Roman centurion saw at the Cross (Matthew 27.54), and Paul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9:1-9)1 Is it not surprising that people put their hope forever in a crucified Jewish criminal? This is the action of the Holy Spirit. It was He who convinced people of the absolute truth and righteousness of Christ, confirmed by His Resurrection and Ascension to the Father.
3. The Holy Spirit convicts people about judgment. On the Cross, evil is condemned and defeated. What convinces a person that he is awaiting trial? This is the action of the Holy Spirit. It is He who gives us the unmistakable inner conviction that we will stand before the judgment seat of God.
4. There remains one more thing that is not mentioned in this place. When we are convicted of our own sin, of Christ's righteousness, and of judgment, what gives us the assurance that in Christ is our salvation, that in Him is our forgiveness and deliverance from the judgment to come? Also the action of the Holy Spirit. It is He who convinces us that in the Crucified One we will find our Savior and Lord. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin and convinces us that we have a Savior.
John 16:12-15 Spirit of truth
I still have a lot to tell you, but now you can’t contain it.
When He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all truth, for He will not speak from Himself, but He will speak what He hears, and He will tell you the future. He will glorify Me, because He will take from Mine and tell it to you. Everything that the Father has is Mine, therefore I said that he will take of Mine and tell it to you.
Here Jesus called the Holy Spirit the Spirit of truth, who is to communicate the truth of God to people. We have a special word with which we express this proclamation of the truth of God to people. We call it revelation and no other place of Scripture tells us more clearly than this, that this is the proper name for this action.
1. Revelation must necessarily be a constant process. There was much that Jesus could not say to His disciples at that time, because they were not yet able to accept and accommodate everything. A person can only be told what he is able to understand and accommodate. We do not start teaching algebra to children with Newton's binomial, but we gradually lead to it. We do not start with complex theorems when we undertake to teach geometry to children, but we approach them gradually. Teaching Greek language and Latin, we do not start with complex phrases, but start with simple and understandable words. In the same way, God reveals His truths to people. He gives them what they are able to accept and assimilate. This important fact has certain consequences.
a) Explanations of parts of the Old Testament sometimes bother and torment us. While only a limited amount of God's truth was comprehensible to man. Let us give at least this simple illustration: in Old Testament there are many places that talk about the destruction of all inhabitants of enemy cities upon capture. Behind such a command lies the idea that Israel cannot risk losing the purity of its people and allow even the slightest admixture of paganism with its pagan religion. To avoid such a risk, all those who did not worship the true God had to be destroyed. This means that the Jews that stage their histories understood that the purity of their religion must be jealously preserved, and they preserved it by destruction pagans. When Jesus came, people realized that the only way to maintain the purity of religion is by appeals pagans into it. People of Old Testament times comprehended the great truth, but only one side of it. This is how revelation should be: God can only reveal what man is capable of perceiving.
b) This fact also confirms that Divine revelation has no end. Some people make a mistake when they limit Divine revelation only what is written in the Bible. In this case, we must conclude that after the year 100, when the last book of the New Testament was written, God stopped speaking. But the Spirit of God constantly acts and constantly reveals Himself to people. It is true that His highest and unsurpassed revelation came in Jesus, but Jesus is not a book character, but a living person through whom Divine revelation continues constantly. God is still leading us to a higher knowledge of Jesus. He didn't stop talking at 100. He is still revealing His truth to people.
2. God's revelation to man is revelation all truth. It is quite wrong to think that it is limited to what we are accustomed to call “theological truth.” It is not only theologians and preachers who receive inspiration. A poet is inspired when he conveys eternal words to people in poetic form. When H. F. Light wrote the words of the hymn "Abide with Me" he did not have the feeling that he composed them, but that he took dictation. Great composers wrote from inspiration. Handel tells how he wrote his famous chorus of Hallelujah: “I saw heaven open and the majestic, snow-white God enthroned.” When a scientist discovers something that benefits all mankind, when a surgeon invents new trick, which will save people's lives and ease pain, when someone finds a medicine that brings hope of healing to suffering humanity, this is the inspiration of God. Any truth is Divine truth, and revelation any truth is the work of the Holy Spirit.
3. Revelation comes from God. He is the Possessor and Giver of all truth. Truth is not invented by man. She is a gift from God. It is not something that we can create, but something that already exists and needs to be revealed. Behind all truth is God.
4. Revelation is the revelation to us of the meaning of all that Jesus has done and is. The greatness of Jesus lies in His inexhaustibility. No one has yet known or comprehended all that He came to say and do. None of the people has fully developed the meaning of His teachings for our life and faith, for individuals and the whole world, for society and all people. Revelation is the ongoing discovery of the meaning of Jesus.
And here is the crux of the matter: revelation does not come to us from a book or description, but from a living Person. The more we become like Jesus, the more He will be able to tell us. In order to possess His revelations, one must accept Him as Master.
John 16:16-24 Sadness turned joy
Soon you will not see Me, and soon you will see Me again; for I go to the Father.
Then some of His disciples said to one another: What is He saying to us: “You will not see Me in a short time; and again
you will soon see Me,” and: “I am going to the Father”?
So they said, “What is it that He says, “soon”? We don’t know what he’s saying.
Jesus, realizing that they wanted to ask Him, said to them: Are you asking one another about this, that I said: “In a little while you will not see Me, and again in a little while you will see Me”?
Truly, truly, I say to you, you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sad, but your sorrow will turn into joy.
When a woman gives birth, she suffers sorrow, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to a baby, she no longer remembers the sorrow for joy, because a man was born into the world.
So now you also have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one will take your joy from you.
And on that day you will not ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give it to you.
Until now you have asked nothing in My name; ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.
Here Jesus is looking beyond the present time. In doing so, He uses a concept that is deeply rooted in Jewish thinking. The Jews believed that time was divided into two centuries: the present and the future. The present age is completely corrupt and under a curse, and the future age will be the Golden Age of God. Between these two centuries, preceding the appearance of the Messiah, who is to usher in a new age, lies the Day of the Lord. This Day of the Lord was a terrible day in which the world would be destroyed before the coming of the Golden Age. The Jews used to call this transitional period “the birth pangs of the days of the Messiah.”
The Bible is full of images of this terrible period of time. “Behold, the day of the Lord comes, fierce, with wrath and burning fury, to make the earth desolate and to destroy its sinners from it.” (Is.13:9).“Blow the trumpet in Zion and sound the alarm in My holy mountain; Let all the inhabitants of the earth tremble, for the day of the Lord is coming, for it is at hand—a day of darkness and darkness, a day of clouds and fog.” (Joel 2:1.2).“The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, and then the heavens will pass away with a noise, and the elements will be destroyed with burning fire, and the earth and all the works on it will be burned up.” (2 Pet. 3:10). This was the picture of the birth pangs of the days of the Messiah.
Jesus also used this picture when he told his disciples: “I am leaving you, but I will come again. The day will come when My Kingdom on earth will begin, but before this comes true, you will have to go through difficult trials that will be sudden, like the pangs of birth that befall a woman in labor. But if you remain faithful to Me to the end, the blessings will be very precious to you.” Having said this, Jesus proceeded to list all the things that await the faithful.
1. Sadness will turn into joy for them. At times it seems that Christianity brings nothing but sadness, but worldly life gives only joy, but the day will come when the roles will change: the carefree joy of the world will turn into sadness for him, and the visible sadness of a Christian will turn into joy for him. The Christian, when faith comes at a cost, must always remember that this is not the end of everything, and that sadness will give way to joy.
2. The joy of a Christian will have two precious qualities.
a) No one will take it away from him. It will not depend on chance and changes in the world. The fact is that at all times, people who suffered a lot testified to their wondrous communication with Jesus precisely during their suffering. The joy that the world gives is in the power of the world, but the joy that Christ gives does not depend on anything in this world.
b) The Christian's joy will be complete. In the greatest joy of earth there is always something missing. There may be regret about something, or a cloud the size of a palm hangs over it and darkens it, and the memory that it is short-lived. Christian joy, which comes from the presence of Christ in a person’s life, has no shadow of imperfection. She is perfect and complete.
3. In the joy of a Christian, previous pain is forgotten. A mother forgets the pain when she sees her newborn baby. The martyr forgets his torment when he enters the glory of heaven. When loyalty costs a person a lot, he will forget its cost in the joy of eternal abiding with Christ.
4. Completeness of knowledge will come. “On that day you will not ask Me anything,” Christ tells the disciples, “you will not need to ask questions.” In this life there are always unanswered questions and unresolved problems. Ultimately we need to move by faith, not by sight, and accept what we do not understand. We comprehend only fragments of the truth and see God only in part, but in the next age in the presence of Christ we will have the fullness of knowledge.
5. We will have a different relationship with the Father. When we truly and truly know God, we are able to go to Him and ask for whatever we want. We know that the door is open, that His name is Father, and that His heart is love. We are like children who are always sure that their parents are pleased to see them and talk about anything. Jesus says that when we have this kind of relationship with God, we can ask Him for anything and He will give it to us. But let's think about it with human point vision. When a child loves and trusts his father, he knows very well that sometimes the father must tell him “no,” because the wisdom and love of the father knows better what the child needs. We can become so close to God that we will be able to offer everything to Him in prayer, but at the end of it it should always be: “Thy will be done.”
6. This new relationship with God is only possible in Jesus. They exist in His name. Only thanks to Jesus, our joy is indestructible and perfect, we have complete knowledge and the path to the heart of God is open to us. Everything we have comes to us from Jesus and because of Him. In His name we ask and receive, we come and are received.
John 16:25-28 Direct access
Hitherto I have spoken to you in parables, but the time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but will tell you directly about the Father.
In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not tell you that I will ask the Father for you
For the Father Himself loves you, because you loved Me and believed that I came from God.
I came from the Father and came into the world; and again I leave the world and go to the Father.
Our Bible translation says Jesus told the disciples parables, in Greek paroimia, and whenever the parables of Jesus are mentioned, this word is used. It means a saying whose meaning is veiled, and in order for it to become clear, you need to think carefully. It can, for example, be applied to the meaningful sayings of the wise with their meaningful brevity, which must be comprehended by the mind, or to a riddle, the meaning of which a person must find. Jesus says: “Until now I have spoken in hints and images, giving you the truth in a veiled form, so that you yourself had to guess and think through what I said. Now I will tell you the naked truth with complete clarity.” And then he begins to tell them that He came from God and is coming to Him again. This is the greatest revelation that He is none other than the Son of God, and that the Cross for Him is not the execution of a criminal, but the path of return to God.
Then Jesus says something that we must never forget. He says that His followers can turn to God because He loves them. He will no longer need to convey their requests to God and ask for them, but they themselves will be able to directly address their requests to God. We often tend to imagine God as formidable and Jesus as gentle and merciful. What Jesus did is sometimes understood to mean that He changed God's attitude towards people and turned a judgmental God into a loving God. This conclusion is incorrect because here Jesus says, “The Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and believed that I came from God.” He says this to the Cross. He did not die so that God could become love, but to show us that God is love. He came not because God hated the world so much, but because God so loved the world. He brought the love of God into the world, revealing to it loving heart Father.
Jesus then says that His work is finished. He came from the Father and now goes back to the Father along the path of the Cross. The path to God is now open to every person. Jesus no longer needs to take their prayers to God; they can pray to Him themselves. He who loves Christ is loved by God.
John 16:29-33 Christ and His gifts
His disciples said to Him: Now You speak plainly and do not speak any parables;
Now we see that You know everything and have no need for anyone to question You; Therefore we believe that You came from God.
Jesus answered them: Do you believe now?
Behold, the hour is coming, and has already come, that you will scatter, each in his own direction, and leave Me alone; but I am not alone, for the Father is with Me.
I have spoken these things to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but take heart: I have overcome the world.
A strange light is shed here on how the disciples finally surrendered to Jesus. They suddenly believed completely when they realized that Jesus did not need to ask anything from others. What did they mean? We saw how in 16,17.18 they were puzzled by Jesus' words. At first 16,19 Jesus begins to answer their question, without asking them what it is. In other words, He could read their thoughts like an open book. And that’s why they believed in Him. An old traveler in Scotland described two preachers whom he heard. Of one he said, “He showed me the glory of God,” and of the other, “He showed me my heart to the bottom.” Jesus could do both. It was this knowledge of God and the human heart that convinced the disciples that He was truly the Son of God.
But Jesus was a realist, and therefore told them that, despite their faith, the time would come and had already come when they would leave Him. And this is one of the extraordinary things about Jesus. He knew about the weakness of the disciples, knew their shortcomings, knew that they would leave Him in the most glaring need, and still continued to love them, and what is especially wonderful - He continued to trust them. It is very easy to forgive a person and at the same time let him know that he can no longer be trusted. But Jesus said, “I know your weaknesses, I know that you will forsake Me, and yet I know that you will be overcomers.” Never in the history of the world have forgiveness and trust been so closely linked. What a powerful lesson here for us! Christ teaches us how to forgive and how to then trust someone who is capable of making mistakes and is guilty before us.
There are four things in this passage that Jesus says very clearly.
1. The Loneliness of Jesus. He had to be abandoned by people, but He was never completely alone, because God was always with Him. No one ever stands alone for the truth, because God is always with such a person. The righteous person is never completely abandoned, because God is with him.
2. Forgiveness of Jesus. We have already mentioned it. Jesus knew that His friends would leave Him, but He did not reproach them now, and He did not show it to them later. He loved people with all their weaknesses, saw them and loved them as they were. Love must be clairvoyant. When we idealize people and imagine them as sinless, we set ourselves up for disappointment. We must love people for who they are.
3. Sympathy of Jesus. One verse of this passage seems out of place at first glance: “I have spoken these things to you, that in Me you may have peace.” The fact is that if Jesus had not predicted the weakness of the disciples, they would have fallen into complete despair when they later realized how much they had failed Him. But He seems to say to them: “I know this will happen. Do not think that your betrayal took Me by surprise, I knew about it in advance and this does not change My love for you. When this bothers you later, don’t be discouraged or despair.” Here we see Divine compassion and forgiveness. Jesus did not think about how man's sin would harm Him, but how it would harm man. Sometimes a lot would change if we thought not so much about how much we were offended, but how much this offense affected the offender and how much it caused regret and sorrow in his soul.
4. Gift of Jesus - courage and victory. Very soon something will be proven beyond doubt to the disciples: they will see that the world can do the most terrible harm to Jesus and still not defeat Him. And He says: “My victory will be your victory. The world treated Me terribly, but I came out victorious. The courage and victory of the Cross can belong to you too.”
The Lord said to the Jews who came to Him: Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, even now, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and having heard it, they will live. For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He gave also to the Son to have life in Himself, and gave Him power and judgment to create, because He is the Son of Man. Do not be surprised at this, because the hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear the voice of the Son of God and will come out: those who have done good - to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil - to the resurrection of judgment. I cannot do anything on My own: as I hear, I judge, and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My will, but the will of the Father who sent Me (John 5:24 - 30).
That is, the Lord does not want to knock us off our feet, deprive us of hope, plunge us into the abyss of sorrows and observe a social experiment; He wants to reap a worthy harvest for the life of the next century. He loves us and is waiting and looking for us. Everyone. A speck of dust is not indifferent to the Creator of the Universe. He has a vested interest in her. If this does not console you, then... No, there are no options. Absolutely. And glory to our God!
X x x
based on the works of M. Aldashin
I was born in heaven
Under the whisper of dusty trees,
To the singing of the quiet wind
And the cough of rare cars.
Here you can sit on the ground,
Overgrown with fragrant grass
And listen to the passage of time
To eternity...
I lived a long time
In the province's space
I will overcome the alien
It didn't break into pieces
Like a rapids river.
I was born in heaven
To discordant singing in the temple
Illiterate grandmothers
Smoothly gone into eternity.
And God gave this quiet place
Your grace; long summer day
Solitude...
I don't need another one anymore.
After all, poetry is the lot of lonely people.
PALM SUNDAY
Do not enter the temple. We ascend as usual to the city of Jerusalem.
Stones inside us, stones outside, the eternal sky above.
Somewhere enemies are hiding and plotting, around - let there be friends.
The heart sings, realizing painfully that it is impossible to fake it here.
Today we hear “Hosanna! Hosanna!”, and tomorrow - an iron clang.
The willows will be taken out with the garbage and arranged, as usual, near the Cross
mad dance.
And all that remains for us is to wander to Golgotha, dragging as hard as we can
Look, let's crawl in the direction of the miracle - hell is destroyed, Christ
ZERO - ABOUT THE CROSS
How does Church remind me of a laundromat? Gargling functions for the brain and soul. The brains are rinsed at the sermon, the soul at confession. Both are gifts of God. Priceless and irrevocable.
One day, maybe two months ago, I stood in the Catherine Church and listened to Father Andrei about the baptism of a modern Christian. He commented on the words of the Savior: “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me” (Matthew 16:24). When we listen attentively to these words, the association arises “humble yourself before the sorrows of everyday life” and the questions “how to take it?” where to get? What exactly should I take?” Father Andrei linked these words with the parable of the talents, which has a lot of different interpretations. Ask anyone: “What does it mean to bury your talent in the ground?” He will immediately answer you: “This means, instead of developing natural talent and serving people with them, lying on the couch and watching TV. Oh, I’m lying, drink beer and torture your laptop.” However, we are not talking about everyday life, not about the visible world, from which not even ashes will remain, but about the talent of faith.
The Lord did not speak about decay. He did not speak about the world below in isolation, but only as an example for perceiving the world above. Christ was not touched by career growth, or standard of living, or anything else, about which we sob sobbingly, composing personal petitionary litanies, which, in the words, in my opinion, of St. Isaac the Syrian, are reminiscent of the cries of petition for the pus of a beggar - to the king . That is, here are all the conditions, all the possibilities - ask for treasures! No, I want a more satisfying dump. Since time is also a scarce gift of God, let’s immediately summarize: faith must be increased through bearing the cross, that is, living according to the Gospel.
“What a simple and clear idea! - Kalacheva rejoiced. - But what does the cross have to do with it? After all, living according to the Gospel is more joyful than, say, living according to the Criminal Code.” Our Lord is quick to answer. Where is Google? Therefore, an aunt with two young children sat wide in front of me. Moreover, she came to the beginning of the service, but since our liturgical chants, stretched out over time, do not suit three-year-olds at all, the children began to be loudly indignant, and the aunt, accordingly, traveled with them around the temple. Well, she found her penultimate refuge right under my feet. The children are screaming loudly, the mother is actively instructing them in hesychasm, nervously surprised that she did not give birth. Sergius and Seraphim, and simpler guys. For about fifteen minutes they were there, according to the aunt, “praying” so that the floor shook and the candles went out. Then the candle holder showed them the true path to the street before Communion. Mom, glaring menacingly at her and her stupid, prayerless children, rushed to the indicated address. And it dawned on me what the cross was buried in.
Based on my truth, I can’t stand these bad mothers, to whom my friend told me that if you want Fedechka not to get sick, drag him to church, and don’t be left behind there either. And so the black Sunday days begin for Fedya of toddler age, nullifying his entire psychology and physiology. “Get up! Shut up! Be baptized! Do not chat! Sing! Be equal! Attention! And with your nose to the floor at the words “Holy to the holy!” The head is clearly fixed with a stern mother’s palm, so that without any blasphemous liberties. For me, this is a form of Orthodox fascism that requires severe condemnation. Was.
It’s just that the cross is not about choosing a memorable label for a phenomenon out of bad justice, which, in general, is not a problem, but about doing it according to the Gospel! - endure all this and pray: 1. For mom, who has reached her limit. Why was she drawn to the temple? Vestimo. There is no support, no love, no life. last hope on God. What if it helps? If anyone has ever communicated with terminally ill patients, the psychology is the same. And from the street to mature age A priori terminally ill people come to the Church, as soon as the soul is enlightened by the X-ray of Christ’s commandments. 2. For the child, so that “along with all sorts of nonsense” the craving for the holy, inherent in him from the cradle, is not knocked out of him. Children leave the church, among other things, because they are taken away from there by broken adults with their anti-Christian behavior. 3. For myself, because I have been in the Church for a hundred years, but there was still no love in my heart. Continuous nuclear test site.
This is the reasoning of zero about the cross.
John 16:1-2. Why does Jesus tell them so much about the world's hatred of them and the persecution that awaits them? Anticipating the bewilderment of the disciples, the Lord answers the question that was not expressed by them: so that you are not tempted; for awareness of the coming trials will help them stay on the path pleasing to God. (He repeats this idea in verse 4.) The disciples will be in danger of being thrown out of their familiar environment; martyrdom will become a realistic prospect for them. But they will remember that Christ was subjected to ostracism and suffering, and that He predicted the same fate for His apostles. And this will help them endure - to remain faithful.
The first Christians were Jews (Acts 2:11,14,22), but the Church quickly grew and spread and soon (around the year 90) broke out of the synagogues. However, already in the early days of the Church’s existence, Stephen (Acts 7:59), James (Acts 12:2) and others (Acts 9:1-4) paid with their lives for loyalty to Christ. Unfortunately, throughout the history of the Church, there have been people driven by blind “zeal for God,” who persecuted other believers, thinking that by doing so they were serving God (Rom. 10:2).
John 16:3-4. Jesus warned the apostles that the persecutors of Christians would do this because they knew neither the Father nor Him. When applied to the Jews, His words should be understood to mean that they did not recognize the will of the Father in the words and deeds of Jesus. The Jews, of course, had a certain idea of God from the Law, however, their knowledge was not saving, and about the bearers of this non-saving knowledge God said: “they are a people who err in heart: they have not known My ways” (Ps. 94:10).
So, Jesus warned the disciples about what lay ahead in order to strengthen their faith. Having subsequently realized that He knew the future, they will be confirmed in their trust in Him. Before, He did not tell them about this because the hatred of the world was directed at Him, and He was, as it were, a shield for them; however, they now remained on earth as His “body” (Eph. 1:22-23).
3. The work of the Holy Spirit (16:5-15)
John 16:5-6. The knowledge that Jesus would soon leave them deeply saddened the apostles. They were depressed by the thought that He, so alive and close, would no longer be near them. If they could really understand why He leaves them and to whom He goes, they would rejoice, but during the life of the Teacher the apostles understood this vaguely. Later (verse 22) Jesus predicts to them that their sorrow will suddenly turn into great joy.
Jesus' statement: And now I go to Him who sent Me, it would seem, should have raised the same question among the disciples: “Where are you going?”, but this time even Thomas (compare 14:5) did not ask it. Preoccupied with the oppressive and unclear things that were approaching them, they were not aware of the full significance of what was now coming and the events that it brought (His death, burial, resurrection and ascension).
John 16:7. The departure of Jesus was necessary, no matter how difficult and painful it was for the disciples. It was aimed at the good of the world. For without the “departure” of Christ, which began with His death and ended with His Ascension, the Gospel would not have been preached to the world. In order to save those who came to Him (Matt. 1:21), Jesus had to atone for the sin of the world.
Moreover, if He had not “left,” then the Comforter would not have descended to people from the glorified Lord. (Greek, the word parakletos, translated as “Comforter”, is taken from the legal dictionary of those times; this was the name of the person who represented the interests of the defendant (defendant) in court; it is translated into English as “Counselor”.) It's about about the Holy Spirit promised to people, Who came into the world after the ascension of Christ, on the day of Pentecost, declaring Himself in a completely new way.
John 16:8. One of the new ministries of the Holy Spirit was the conviction of the world about sin and about righteousness and judgment. To reprove does not mean to convert, but the second is impossible without the first. The word elenksei is translated into Russian as “convict... of sin,” meaning “to present facts testifying to the truth.” The Holy Spirit, influencing the minds of unsaved people, reveals to them the truth of God as it is. But, as a rule, this process takes place with the participation of believers, with their “help” (15:26-27).
John 16:9. Sin is rebellion against God, and highest point in its development it reached the moment of the crucifixion of Jesus. The greatest sin in our time is not believing in Jesus Christ (3:18; 15:22,24). Most people are not at all aware of their “guilt of sin.” They are ready to admit the presence of weaknesses, shortcomings, even the fact of committing a crime - just not that. But sin is an ongoing rebellion against God, and people - "rebels" - invariably "suppress the truth through unrighteousness" (Rom. 1:18,21,25,28). The powerful action of the Holy Spirit is necessary to “convict” humanity and convince it of the deplorability of its condition.
John 16:10. Here the word translated "righteousness" also means "righteousness."
By crucifying Jesus, the Jews demonstrated to the world that they considered Him unrighteous, for they understood the corresponding passage in the Scriptures (Deut. 21:23; Gal. 3:13) to mean that only an unrighteous person could be “hanged on a tree” and thus fall under God’s curse . However, the subsequent resurrection and ascension proved that Jesus was God's righteous Servant (Acts 3:14-15; Isa. 53:11).
In essence, the very fact of Christ’s removal from the sinful world testified to the existence of God’s truth and righteousness. The Holy Spirit, who descended on earth in His place, convicts people of their erroneous attitude towards Jesus Christ when they hear the Good News, in which the main emphasis is on the fact of His resurrection (1 Cor. 15:3-4).
John 16:11. The third area in which the Holy Spirit carries out His convicting work is judgment. The death and resurrection of Jesus proclaimed a condemnation of Satan (12:31; Col. 2:15) - the prince of this world (John 14:30). By His death, Jesus defeated the one who has “the power of death” (Heb. 2:14). It was Satan, not the Lord, who was defeated on the cross, but despite his defeat, he continues to be active in the world (1 Pet. 5:8); however, as a criminal who has already been convicted, he “cannot escape” from the execution of the sentence imposed (Rev. 20:2, 7-10).
People who rebel against God should reflect on the fact of the defeat of Satan and fear God, who has the power and authority to judge the world. In light of the proclamation of the coming judgment (over Satan and over humanity), the Holy Spirit convicts people and thus prepares those of them who recognize their need for it to accept salvation (Acts 17:30-31).
John 16:12-13. At that time, the disciples were simply unable to perceive new spiritual revelations. Their hearts were still “hardened” and their minds were still busy with dreams of an earthly kingdom in which each of them wanted to occupy a “special” position; and therefore they did not see any “necessity” in the death of Jesus.
Sadness at the thought that He had to leave them, sorrowful bewilderment at the words of Christ that one of them was a traitor, and finally, His joyless predictions regarding their own future - all this did not dispose the disciples to perceive spiritual truths. Well aware of this, Jesus says that when, after His departure, He, the Spirit of truth, comes (compare 15:26), He will instruct them regarding the meaning and purpose of the ministry of their Master.
The Holy Spirit, Jesus explains, will not speak from Himself (that is, not on its own initiative), but will say what it hears from the Father. This and subsequent verses again focus on the interaction of the three Persons of the Godhead. The Father will tell the Spirit what and how to teach the apostles about the Son.
Moreover, the Holy Spirit will tell them the future. This phrase seems to serve as a “key” to the promise: ... will guide you into all truth. That is, Jesus promised the apostles that their partial understanding of His Person and activity as the Messiah would be supplemented by the Holy Spirit, who would give them the ability to penetrate into the depths of such spiritual mysteries as the Cross and Resurrection, and the return of Jesus Christ to earth in the future (1 Cor. 2:10). The New Testament books fulfilled this promise of guidance by the Spirit.
John 16:14-15. The Spirit of Truth glorified Jesus by revealing to His disciples the previously hidden secrets of the Person and ministry of the Logos (He will take from Mine and tell you), giving them the ability not only to perceive and understand the highest spiritual truths about the Savior, but also to convey them to other people.
I. Prediction of change (16:16-33)
From future work Spirit, Jesus moves in His instruction to the disciples to what awaits them in the near future. The day will come when Jesus returns to earth, but before that His followers will go through many trials, and their lot will be sadness, pain, and spiritual decline. However, they are also destined for consolation in prayer, joy and peace, which will eventually replace various sufferings.
John 16:16. The word, repeated twice, soon sounded mysterious to the apostles (and, perhaps, to the first readers of the Gospel of John). Just like the phrase you will see Me. Was Jesus referring to a) the coming of the Holy Spirit, or 6) His second coming, or c) His brief forty-day ministry on earth between His resurrection and ascension? He most likely meant the latter.
John 16:17-18. What puzzled the students most of all were these “time intervals.” None of them could answer the questions they asked each other. Only the death of the Master, His resurrection and subsequent ministry, and then the ascension to the Father, shed light on these amazing statements: “soon you will not see Me” and “soon you will see Me again” and “I go to the Father.”
John 16:19-20. Jesus, a very special Teacher, understood, of course, the perplexity of His disciples. At that moment, however, He did not explain anything to them, because He knew that over time and through the work of the Holy Spirit (verses 12-13) everything would fall into place. His “Verily, verily, I say unto you,” as always, serves as an introduction to a solemn declaration, this time about the coming sorrow, which, however, will be replaced by joy.
His death will be the most difficult experience for them, but the world will rejoice at it. However, this very event - the death of the Messiah, which will make the disciples "weep and lament", will subsequently turn out to be a joy to them. For His resurrection and the expository work of the Holy Spirit will enable them to understand that He had to die for the forgiveness of their sins. Later, His Church will rejoice at the death of Jesus (1 Cor. 1:23; 2:2).
John 16:21-22. Jesus compares the sorrow that comes to the disciples, and the joy that will replace it, with the sorrow (pain) that a woman endures in giving birth, and with her joy when a man is born into the world. When the disciples saw the risen Jesus, their joy knew no bounds, and it does not end throughout the centuries - in the hearts of Christ's followers, realizing that He once died for the sins of the world and now lives forever (Rom. 6:9-10; Luke 24: 33-52; Hebrews 7:24-25).
John 16:23-24. Enlightened and wise by the very fact of His resurrection, the disciples will stop asking Him their endless questions.
After “Truly, truly, I say to you,” comes the Lord’s solemn declaration again. Now the disciples will turn to Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus - as His authorized representatives on earth, having the right to ask God for everything that contributes to the fulfillment of His will. And these very words “in my name” seem to link the request with the work of the Son to fulfill the will of the Father (compare with “in my name” in 14:13-14; 15:16; 16:24,26). Until that moment, the disciples had not prayed in the name of Jesus. And now they had to do this, because with the departure of Jesus and the descent of the Holy Spirit into the world, a new Christian era began, “within the framework” of which the followers of Christ became executors of God’s new program.
Prayers answered by God become a source of perfect joy for believers (compare 15:11; 16:22) because they recognize that the Heavenly Father Himself is working through them.
John 16:25. Although Jesus was the Perfect Teacher and taught His followers in word and deed for three years, their understanding of His revelations about the Father remained limited (14:9; 2:22; 6:60; 13:7,15-17) . Often the speech of Jesus sounded completely mysterious to them (hitherto I spoke to you in parables), but now He promises to directly tell them about the Father. Obviously, this was realized in His conversations with them after His resurrection (Acts 1:3), and also when the Holy Spirit descended on them (John 14:25-26).
John 16:26-27. The coming new day (the age of the Church) will bring the disciples a special closeness with the Father. They will enter into direct communication with Him in the name of Jesus Christ, that is, through Him. Jesus will no longer need to ask for them, for it will be given to them to ask for themselves. This does not make the intercessory mission of Christ unnecessary, the purpose of which is to help believers day after day in overcoming sin (Rom. 8:34; 1 John 2:1-2). Yet because of what Jesus did, believers gained personal access to the Father on the basis of love and faith. Such access is the privilege of children (Rom. 5:2).
John 16:28. Jesus sums up His ministry in three phrases: I came from the Father, that is, I became incarnate; and came into the world, that is, suffered humiliation; and again I leave the world and go to the Father; in the last phrase He speaks of His resurrection, ascension and glorification. All this the disciples should have believed.
John 16:29-30. It is clear from the disciples' response that they understood and believed Jesus' words. In confirmation, they confessed the omniscience of their Teacher (You know everything and His Divine nature (You came from God.
John 16:31-32. Although the disciples' confession at this point was honest and sincere, Jesus recognized the limitations of their spiritual "potential" far more than they realized it themselves (compare with 2:24-25). Do you believe his words now? They express both His understanding that they really believe, and the consciousness of the incompleteness of their faith until His resurrection and then the descent of the Holy Spirit on them.
In the “dispersion” of the disciples, which Christ speaks of here, the prophecy of Zechariah about the Shepherd (Messiah), “smitten” by the Lord of hosts, was to be fulfilled, as a result of which the Shepherd’s sheep would be “scattered” (Zech. 13:7). Despite the disciples' devotion to Jesus, their faith and love, they were soon to "leave Him alone"; this was literally fulfilled when the Master was captured (Matt. 26:56), and when Peter denied Him (John 18:17,25-26). But the Heavenly Father did not leave Him (I am not alone, because the Father is with Me - John 8:29; Ps. 22:4; 72:25-26); here, however, it is necessary to make a reservation that for a short time the Father also left Jesus - when He was on the cross (Matt. 27:46).
John 16:33. Jesus' instruction concerning "this" (I have spoken to you; referring to John in chapters 14-16) was given to support the disciples in the coming trials and to give them inner world in him. After all, the existence of believers occurs simultaneously in two spheres: in Christ and in this world. In Christ they find peace, but the hostile environment around them never ceases to put pressure on them.
The entire worldly system is opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ (1:5,10; 7:7) and the ministry of His messengers. And yet Jesus conquered the world - precisely as a system operating under the leadership of Satan. He is the “Strongest” One, Who overcame the “strongest”, defeated him. Jesus wanted the disciples to always remember this, drawing courage, peace and joy from this circumstance.