JOHN 16:1 – 33
Bible Study Notes Rev. Betsy Perkins
Final Instructions
- Can you recall a time when you went through a period of grief and struggle, yet emerged to find joy once again? What gave you the strength and hope to endure?
The Work of the Holy Spirit (16:1-15)
- What is Jesus’ warning to the disciples? What is his purpose for sharing this warning?
- How will those persecuting Jesus’ followers justify it to themselves?
- Do people today ever justify harming others by claiming that it is in service to God?
- How is it that Jesus’ leaving would be for the disciples good?
- What does the Advocate (Spirit, Helper) prove to the world about sin? About righteousness/ justice? About judgment?
- What is the Sprit’s source of Truth?
Now at last we see how it is that ‘the Advocate’ is also ‘the Comforter’. Because the Holy Spirit will do all these things, those who suffer persecution and hatred for the name of Jesus can trust that the judge of all the earth will do what is right. But, at the same time, all this comes as a challenge. How will the Spirit do it? Will it not be, at least in part, through the people in whom ‘the Helper’ comes to live? Will it not, at least in part, be through their speaking out, under the Spirit’s guidance, on behalf of those suffering injustice and oppression? N.T. Wright
- How does the Spirit of Truth continue to work in the way Jesus describes in our lives today?
Grief and Joy (16:16-33):
- In hindsight, what do we know Jesus was talking about the crypt comment in verse 16?
- In what ways does the process of childbirth illustrate what the disciples are about to go through?
- Who has access to direct communication with the Father? Why is that so?
This passage is all about the fact that Jesus’ people have instant, immediate, direct and valued access into the very presence of the living God. Though Jesus, in John’s gospel and elsewhere, is spoken of as praying to the Father on behalf of his people, this doesn’t mean that his people can’t pray to God themselves, on their own account. On the contrary. The extraordinary and intimate union between Jesus and the Father, which is one of the main subjects of this whole book, means that those who belong to Jesus, the branches who belong in the vine, are granted the same immediate access to the Father that Jesus himself has. What is more, when they pray in Jesus’ name – which means, as we saw, when they pray conscious of the fact that they belong to him, and that what they are doing is for his glory – then the Father welcomes them instantly and gives them whatever they ask for. Whatever. There it is again (vs.23). N.T. Wright
- What do you think the disciples finally found in Jesus’ teaching that satisfied them?
- Is Jesus’ final message to the disciples (vs.33) one of warning or one of encouragement?
- How will they be able to have peace when they are about to experience the worst days of the lives?
In light of this passage and our discussion, what one truth about God and about yourself stand out as something to “take to heart” this week?
Are there steps you will take, by God’s grace, to more fully apply it to your life?
Resources: NIV Zondervan Study Bible, 2015
N.T. Wright, John for Everyone, 2002
Max Lucado, Life Lessons from John, 2018
Joe Boyd, Bible Experiment – Gospel of John (RightNowMedia), 2014
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