Jesus promises the Helper. To be without help is not what Jesus planned for His disciples. These whom He loved, shepherded, and guarded throughout His ministry years will not be left alone to fend for themselves. The Lord has been and continues to be their good shepherd. There are implications for us as to how Jesus has dealt with His disciples. He cares for us the same way. He sees our sorrows and He ensures that no suffering is for naught. He has sent His Holy Spirit (the “Alongsider”) to give us all that we need to fulfill the will of God for us in this age. This study kicks off another study on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit.

The main idea of John 16 is best captured in the identity of Jesus as our Guardian. This idea is seen in vv 1-15 in that Jesus guards us from stumbling (vv 1-4a), from helplessness (vv 4b-11), and from ignorance (vv 12-15). In this first installment of our studies from John 16, we see how Jesus guards His disciples with His prescience (or foreknowledge) of their future persecution. Moreover, we see how Jesus also foretold us of the more general trials of life for His people (“tribulation” or “affliction” of 16:33). Amid all the trials of life, Jesus guards us from the greatest danger, the danger of falling away. He preserves His own to the very and He does so through means.

We serve the triune God. Even as Jesus teaches on the topic of persecution, the trinitarian nature of God comes up. This is because the true and living God is indeed triune. When the world rejects the preaching of Christ, they do not merely reject the preachers, or Christ, or even the Father, they reject the Holy Spirit who has made Christ known in this age. Woe to the man who rejects His message! There are implications to this. Furthermore, Jesus assures us that we ought not to be surprised at persecution, for nothing befalls Christ of His people apart from the plan and the purpose of our sovereign God.

Jesus explains in this passage that the world’s hatred of Christians and their Lord is actually a deeper hatred directed against God the Father. Their hatred is actually against the holy Trinity, for they reject the testimony of the Holy Spirit also (vv. 26-27). What Jesus shows us once again is that no one can have the Father apart from the Son, that to reject Jesus is to reject the only true and living God. What this shows us is the importantance of knowing the true Christ and to believe and follow Him for who He truly is. In knowing the true Christ of Scripture we know the Father also. May the Holy Spirit evermore direct our hearts and minds to cling onto Him and earnestly live out our faith in Him.

Christians have a definite identity. Jesus in this passage reveals at least three marks of the disciple of Christ and how he is differentiated from this world in terms of his belonging, his master, and his message. May the Lord keep us daily refreshed in our identity in Christ and shine brightly His light in this dark and dying world.

Out of His great love for His people, Jesus prepares us for persecution. He teaches us that there are only two camps in this world: there are those that belong to the world (“of the world”), and there are those who belong to Christ (“not of the world” and “I chose you out of the world”). Jesus assures us that the wrold’s hatred toward us stems from its hatred toward Him. Why does the world hate Christ and in what ways does the world persecute the people of God? Listen to learn more.

The love of Christ is a gracious love. The Lord has chosen individuals unto salvation in eternity past based on pure grace, apart from any meritorious works. This is the grace of the Lord toward His elect. And it is based on His election that He orchestrates all things so that they would hear the gospel, believe and repent, and bear fruit for the glory of God and be glorified when they enter into glory. This is the stunning love of Christ toward His people. May the Lord give us wisdom to drink deeply from His grace each day and know therefore how to extend that same kind of grace toward one another, for this is what He commands and desires to see among His people, a love like His to permeate His community, the church.

The love of Christ is an uplifting love. The Lord has taken us who were lowly slaves and elevated our status to that of the friends of God. While we still relate to Him as obedient worshippers before God the Son, we are welcomed to Him as His friends. What’s more? The Lord has given us privileged knowledge of His will, purpose, plan, and mission on earth. In this life, we get to join Him in His glorious works on earth. This is the way the Lord has loved and served us, and His command is that we extend the same kind of uplifting love toward others. May the Holy Spirit evermore teach us love one another even as the Lord has so deeply loved us.