John 16:16-33

In John 16:16-33, Jesus offers the disciples (and us) 3 things: joy, confidence in prayer, and peace in times of trouble.  John wanted his community to hear these words of encouragement as they faced resistance and rejection, and Jesus wants us to her these assurances as we face difficulties in our lives.

Read John 16:16-33 Jesus is leaving but will return

Joy

In verse 16, Jesus says that soon the disciples will no longer see him, and then they will see him again.  In verse 20, he describes what this will mean for them.  How will they feel, and how will the world feel?

In verses 21-22, Jesus offers an analogy of a woman in labor and how she feels after the child is born.  How does this analogy describe how the disciples felt when Jesus died and then when he rose back to life and interacted with them again?

In verses 20 and 22, Jesus uses the word “joy,” which he also used in 15:11.  How was joy an appropriate way for the disciples to respond to seeing Jesus alive again after his death?

In our own lives as Christians, why is joy an appropriate approach to life?

How can knowing that Jesus is alive help us face even times of difficulty with joy?

How can you more fully embrace a life of joy?

Confidence in prayer

In verses 23-24, Jesus says that if they ask the Father in his name, they will receive what they ask for.  In 14:13-14, he phrases it slightly differently, saying that if they ask anything of him, he (Jesus) will do it.  This is not a contradiction.  It does not matter whether we ask the Father or ask Jesus, since the Father and the Son are one.  But in both places Jesus tells the disciples to “ask in my name.”  What does it mean to ask for something “in Jesus’s name”?

To ask in someone’s name is to ask in a manner consistent with that person’s wishes.  In response, we hope to receive what Jesus asked for, but praying in Jesus’s name means praying for Jesus’s will, not our own.

Is the phrase “in Jesus’s name” like a magic word that automatically makes what you ask for happen?  Of course not.  And are our prayers nullified if we don’t end our prayer by asking in Jesus’s name?  How should we interpret these words of Jesus so that we don’t treat “in Jesus’s name” as a magic formula?

We know from personal experience and the lives of holy people from the beginning of Christianity until now that not everything we ask for is granted.  How can we make sense of these verses in light of actual experience?

Sometimes God does not do what we ask because it is not in our best interest, and then we are blessed that this is not a magic formula.  Sometimes, God chooses not to act in the way we might like because to give us what we want would require him to override the freedom of others, and he mostly does not override people’s free will.  When the unspoken answer is “Not now” or “Not yet,” God may be telling us to slow down and persist in prayer, until the time is right.  Sometimes the change that needs to happen is in us.  We need to grow spiritually before we are ready for our prayer to be answered, and then he can say, “Go.”  (Sometimes people summarize these possible answers from God as “No,” “Slow,” “Grow,” and “Go.”)

Picture living a life that seeks only what can be asked “in the name of Jesus.”  How can that kind of life give us joy?

When we try to trust God with our whole lives and do everything in accordance with “the name of Jesus,” we gain confidence that, whatever happens in our lives, Jesus is walking with us and living in us.  Jesus’s final words in the Gospel of Matthew are, “And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:20).  That can be a great source of joy.

In verse 25, Jesus says that he has been talking in “figures of speech” – i.e., parables, analogies, metaphors, etc. – but soon he will speak more plainly.  He is talking about the time after his death and resurrection when we will have a new relationship with the Father.  What will be different after his death and resurrection?

In verse 26, Jesus says that after his death and resurrection his followers will be able to approach the Father directly.  We won’t have to ask Jesus to persuade the Father to help us, as though the Father is uninterested in us.  In verse 27, he explains why.  Why can we approach the Father with confidence?

Jesus identifies 3 reasons: because the Father loves us, we love Jesus, and we believe Jesus came from the Father.

How might these words of Jesus increase your confidence that you can approach God in prayer and know that he cares?  How might it affect how you approach God in general?

Peace in times of trouble

In verse 28, Jesus says that he came into the world from the Father and is leaving the world and going back to the Father.  In response, the disciples say that now they “get it” – they understand what he is saying and believe that he came from God.  But there is a big difference between understanding something and successfully basing your life on it.  In verse 32, what does Jesus say is going to happen?

We also struggle with the gap between what we believe and how we act in the face of adversity.  How can we grow in our steadfastness, so that we consistently base our actions on what we believe?

In verse 32, Jesus says that even after the disciples leave him, the Father will still be with him.  The same thing is true for you and me: we are never alone; God is always with us.  How can we take this assurance to heart?

In verse 33, Jesus says that he has told us these things so that we may have peace in him, even amidst the troubles we have in the world.  What does it mean for you to have peace “in him”?   How do we receive peace in him?

At the end of verse 33, Jesus tells them to “take courage” or “take heart”.  Why?

What does it mean when Jesus says that he has overcome or conquered the world? 

How can you allow your life to be transformed by a greater confidence that Jesus has overcome the world?

This passage assures us of several things: joy (verses 20, 22, and 24), confidence in prayer (verses 24 and 26-27), and peace even in the midst of trials and trouble (verse 33).  Which of those assurances speaks most powerfully to you right now, and why?

Take a step back and consider this:

When Pope Francis was addressing a gathering of young people from Belgium in 2022, he noted that they experience “fear, difficulties, wounds, confrontations with your limits, crises.”  He offered some thoughts on how to deal with those challenges and then said:

I invite each one of you to ask yourself this question....  What is my contribution to a joyful and Christian community?  There must always be joy, because, you know, Christians who look like they are at a wake will not do, they are not Christians.  If you are Christian, you will have joy. (Pope Francis, “Address of His Holiness Pope Francis”)

I expect that he was saying this with a twinkle in his eye, not as a solemn judgment.  He was suggesting that if you’re not experiencing joy, you’re missing something that it central to the Christian life.

This doesn’t mean there won’t be times of sadness or sorrow.  Every life has that.  But for followers of Jesus, our internal thermostat is meant to be set for joy, not grimness.  Pope Francis spoke frequently of the power of a smile.  The default setting of a Christian’s face is meant to be a smile, not a frown.

How can living in the joy of Jesus strengthen your confidence in prayer?

How can embracing the default setting of joy that Jesus offers help you to remain in peace in times of trouble?

Although joy can’t be manufactured by brute force, it can be chosen.  What can you do to dwell more consistently in the joy that Jesus offers?