John 16

Part of The Upper Room and Farewell Discourse📖 John introduction

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¹“I have told you these things so that you will not fall away. ✦ ²They will put you out of the synagogues. In fact, a time is coming when anyone who kills you will think he is offering a service to God. ✦ ³They will do these things because they have not known the Father or Me. ✦ ⁴But I have told you these things so that when their hour comes, you will remember that I told you about them. I did not tell you these things from the beginning, because I was with you. ✦ ⁵Now, however, I am going to Him who sent Me; yet none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’ ✦ ⁶Instead, your hearts are filled with sorrow because I have told you these things. ✦ ⁷But I tell you the truth, it is for your benefit that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. ✦ ⁸And when He comes, He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: ✦ ⁹in regard to sin, because they do not believe in Me; ✦ ¹⁰in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see Me; ✦ ¹¹and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world has been condemned. ✦ ¹²I still have much to tell you, but you cannot yet bear to hear it. ✦ ¹³However, when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own, but He will speak what He hears, and He will declare to you what is to come. ✦ ¹⁴He will glorify Me by taking from what is Mine and disclosing it to you. ✦ ¹⁵Everything that belongs to the Father is Mine. That is why I said that the Spirit will take from what is Mine and disclose it to you. ✦ ¹⁶In a little while you will see Me no more, and then after a little while you will see Me.” ✦ ¹⁷Then some of His disciples asked one another, “Why is He telling us, ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me’ and ‘Because I am going to the Father’?” ✦ ¹⁸They kept asking, “Why is He saying, ‘a little while’? We do not understand what He is saying.” ✦ ¹⁹Aware that they wanted to question Him, Jesus said to them, “Are you asking one another why I said, ‘In a little while you will not see Me, and then after a little while you will see Me’? ✦ ²⁰Truly, truly, I tell you, you will weep and wail while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. ✦ ²¹A woman has pain in childbirth because her time has come; but when she brings forth her child, she forgets her anguish because of her joy that a child has been born into the world. ✦ ²²So also you have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy. ✦ ²³In that day you will no longer ask Me anything. Truly, truly, I tell you, whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you. ✦ ²⁴Until now you have not asked for anything in My name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. ✦ ²⁵I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you this way, but will tell you plainly about the Father. ✦ ²⁶In that day you will ask in My name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. ✦ ²⁷For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came from God. ✦ ²⁸I came from the Father and entered the world. In turn, I will leave the world and go to the Father.” ✦ ²⁹His disciples said, “See, now You are speaking plainly and without figures of speech. ✦ ³⁰Now we understand that You know all things and that You have no need for anyone to question You. Because of this, we believe that You came from God.” ✦ ³¹“Do you finally believe?” Jesus replied. ✦ ³²“Look, an hour is coming and has already come when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and you will leave Me all alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. ✦ ³³I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take courage; I have overcome the world!” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

In this chapter

Concept The Spirit of Truth

Where this chapter connects

John 16 ·40 John 14 ·31 John 17 ·19 John 15 ·13 John 8 ·12 John 13 ·11 Acts 2 ·9 John 12 ·8

Christ at the center

John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.

How John 16 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereDocumentaryFollowing the MessiahAppian Media · Free · evangelical
A free, beautifully shot 10-part series walking the lands of Jesus' life — Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, and more.
★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
DocumentaryHolyLandSiteHolyLandSite · Free · evangelical
Free on-location videos tying biblical events to the actual sites in Israel — the Temple Mount, Galilee, Capernaum, and more.
ApologeticsCold-Case Christianity (J. Warner Wallace)J. Warner Wallace · Free · evangelical
A cold-case homicide detective examines the Gospels' reliability — forensic faith for skeptics and seekers.

Pastoral

★ Start hereSermonMLJ Trust — Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermonsMartyn Lloyd-Jones · Free · reformed
1,600+ free sermons from "the Doctor," including landmark verse-by-verse series (Romans, John, Ephesians, Acts) — a gold standard of expository preaching.
SermonGrace to You — John MacArthurJohn MacArthur · Free · reformed
Decades of careful verse-by-verse expository sermons, especially through the New Testament. (MacArthur, d. 2025; archive remains free.)
SermonGospel in Life — Tim KellerTim Keller · Free · reformed
Tim Keller's gospel-centered preaching — sermons stream free (the complete downloadable archive is paid).
ArticleRecommended NT commentaries (9Marks / Schreiner)Thomas R. Schreiner · Free · reformed
A trusted pastor-oriented guide to the best commentary on each New Testament book.
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.
VideoVerse By Verse Ministry InternationalVerse By Verse Ministry Int'l · Free · evangelical
In-depth, verse-by-verse expository teaching book-by-book — strong for working straight through a whole New Testament book.
VideoLook at the Book — John PiperJohn Piper · Free · reformed
Watch Piper trace the logic of a passage phrase by phrase on screen — a model of close reading.

Seminary

★ Start hereApologeticsGary Habermas — the resurrectionGary Habermas · Free · evangelical
130+ free videos and lectures from the scholar behind the "minimal facts" method — the start-here on the historical evidence for the resurrection. (Only his books are paid.)
★ Start hereCommentaryThe Gospel According to John (Pillar NT Commentary)D. A. Carson · ~720 pp · Paid · reformed
The go-to mid-level exegetical commentary on John — rigorous and readable.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on John 16YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — John 16David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — John 16Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

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