Bible Study series: John 16:25-33. “I have spoken these things to you so that in me you may have peace.”
Friendly greetings and a warm welcome to this Bible study! I write to learn, so let’s learn together how to apply these truths to our lives.
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For the Greek text, click here:
At that link, I provide a lot more commentary.
In this post, links are provided for further study.
Let’s begin.
Scripture: John 16:25-33
25 “I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming that I will no longer speak to you in illustrations, but instead I will plainly declare the Father to you. 26 In that day, you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father for you, 27 for he himself loves you because you love me and have believed that I have come from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world. Again I leave the world and go to the Father.” 29 His disciples said, “See, now you speak plainly, and you speak in no figure of speech. 30 Now we know that you know all things and have no need that anyone should question you. By this we believe that you came from God.” 31 Jesus replied to them, “Now do you believe? 32 See! The hour comes—and has come—that each one will scatter to his own home and abandon me on my own. Yet I am not alone because my Father is with me. 33 I have spoken these things to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation. But cheer up! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:25-33)
Comments:
25:
This verse parallels the truth in Mark’s Gospel:
33 He was speaking the word to them in many such parables, as they were able to understand. 34 Without the parable form he did not speak to them, but privately he explained everything to his own disciples. (Mark 4:33-34)
In the synoptic Gospels, Jesus used the Greek noun parable, here he says “figure of speech” or “figurative language.” Here in the upper room discourse, Jesus had used the vine metaphor (15:1-8) and the analogy of a woman in childbirth (v. 21), and of course he spoke in all sorts of other figures of speech, like the bread of life, the light of life, the good shepherd, the door or gate, and so on. From now own he will speak plainly about the Father. There is not much time, but in his great High Priestly prayer in John 17, he will teach them while he is praying. When he says, in addition, that he will speak plainly, he also means through the Spirit. Recall v. 7 and the Paraclete, and notably John 15:26-27:
26 When the Paraclete comes, whom I will send to you from my Father, the Spirit of truth who goes from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 You also will testify because you have been with me from the beginning. (John 15:26-27)
The Spirit will reveal more revelation about Jesus in plain language. As a matter of fact, the wonderful truths in the next three verses are very clear.
26-28:
I like how we ask the Father in Jesus’s name, and he does not have to whisper in the Father’s ear, as he sits next to the Father on his throne. The Father himself will hear their request, particularly when they ask in Jesus’s name. God has a new path to the throne, and it goes through the Son, his fullest revelation of who he is. In the OT, the Son of God was hinted at, but now the plan has come to earth and is being implemented. The disciples now have an intimate relationship with the disciples because they have come to love Jesus, his Son, and to love his Son is to cause God to sit up and take notice. The Father loves the disciples, therefore. Now they can approach him without fear because the Father loves them. They can pray directly to the Father, in his Son’s name. Jesus not needing to take our prayers to the Father does not contradict the truth that he is our intercessor (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25). The two verses in the epistles have to do with our standing, while here it has to do with his role in intercessory prayer (Mounce, comments on v. 26-27). When v. 27 says that the Father loves us because we love his Son, this does not mean our love initiates the very beginning of the process. It just means the relationship involves our active involvement (Mounce, ibid.).
For more comments on the name, please scroll back up to v. 23.
Jesus again plainly proclaims that he came from the Father and entered the world. He is returning to the Father because he has fulfilled his mission.
“Jesus then clarifies and explains that this process is not a bureaucracy that distances the disciples from God, but rather this process magnifies his presence. That is, the mediation of Christ has so restored fellowship between the Father and the children that the Christian may access the Father directly ‘in Jesus’ name’ (Klink, comment v. 26).
On the Father loving the disciples, Klink writes, “This remarkable statement personalizes the love of God for the world (3:16) and shows the fruit of its expression. The love of God is not abstract or theoretical but relational and inviting. This life in God—eternal life—is the result of God’s originating love, a love that propelled him to send his Son to the cross” (Klink, comment on v. 27).
Recall the meaning of “world” in the Fourth Gospel:
“world”: The Greek noun is kosmos (pronounced koss-moss). It could refer to the physical universe (17:5; 21:25). Or it could refer to humanity as a group. What we call humanity or humankind is, in John, the world. This is why God invades the kosmos. “The ‘world’ is the place or realm where God is at work, the place that is the main focus of God’s attention. God’s saving light invades the dark world. Jesus came to the dark world to save as many as those who believe in him and in his name. In sum, “it appears that the personification of the ‘world’ in John is the portrait of a class of people.” It is the dimension of a relational encounter between God and people (Klink, comment on 1:10, pp. 100-01).
Borchert summarizes v. 28 perfectly:
This verse draws the incarnational picture into a unified whole and summarizes in a brief span the mission of Jesus. Thus (1) it encapsulates his coming as the incarnate representative of the Father (1:1, 9, 14) and (2) his entering the world to serve as the unique agent of God in communicating God’s message to humans (5:19–30). In addition, (3) it highlights the traumatic departure of Jesus in the arrival of that fateful but purposeful hour of the crucifixion/death of Jesus (12:23–24, 27; 19:30), and (4) it culminates in his victorious going back to the Father and preparing a place for his followers (14:2).
Here are posts about the Incarnation:
3. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Was God Incarnate
4. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Took the Form of a Servant
5. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Came Down from Heaven
6. Do I Really Know Jesus? Why Did He Become a Man?
7. Do I Really Know Jesus? Thirty Truths about His Life
The seventh part has an easy-to-read, helpful list.
11. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Was Resurrected from the Dead
15. Do I Really Know Jesus? He Ascended into Heaven
29-30:
It seems that they accused Jesus of not speaking plainly before, but now he is. However, he has been telling them for a long time that he has come from the Father and is returning to him. Now it dawns on them. They have no need to pose questions to him. In v. 23, the verb probably means the same thing: pose questions. “The belief in him as revealer whom God has sent has been confirmed because he not only answers their questions with convincing authority; he even anticipates their questions. There may be an allusion to the unvoiced uncertainties which could only with difficulty be framed as articulate questions: Jesus shows the ability to read them and answer them without their having first to be put into words” (Bruce, comments on vv. 29-30).
31-32:
Verse 31 is translated as a question “Now do you believe?” but it could be translated as a statement: “At last you believe!”
Their love for Jesus was real and sincere and genuine. But their love was about to be tested beyond what they could imagine. They are about to abandon them, so they must know that they love Jesus and therefore the Farther loves them. Starting with the love of the Father, just before a great trial fortified their belief. No doubt they remembered his words. Peter had already been forewarned that his resolute mind would collapse (John 13:38), but all of them would soon collapse.
These verses allude to Zech. 13:7:
7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd,
against the man who is close to me!”
declares the Lord Almighty.
“Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
and I will turn my hand against the little ones. (Zech. 13:7, NIV)
Recall v. 1, above: “I have spoken these things to you so that you may not fall away” (John 16:1). In that context, he was talking about the near future when Jews would put the disciples out of the synagogue. These eleven disciples would remain firm then. Right now, before he breathed the Spirit on them (20:22), they were about to scatter, when their lives and reputation were on the line. However, he would not really be alone or by himself, because the Father would be with him. Great promise for us too, when we feel abandoned.
33:
“these things” refer to all the promises in the preceding chapters (Mounce, comment on v. 33). Perfect.
We can have peace only in him. Yes, the world offers a certain kind of peace, but it fluctuates from one circumstance to the next, form one geo-political event to the next. But when we are in connection to the vine, then our peace will remain. In the world the disciples (and now us) have tribulation and hardship; but in him we have peace.
“world”: see vv. 26-26 for more comments. Jesus has conquered the world. It tried to slow him down and even stop him from accomplishing his mission. The world enticed him to not go to the cross. The world told him he was crazy and demonized. But he conquered the world because he is about to go through the death of the cross, which seems like defeat, but then he will be resurrected and go back to his Father.
We too will go through tribulation. But we too should take courage or cheer up because we are in right relationship to him and in his conquest of the dark world, he too gives us his peace. Recall what peace means in the comment on 14:27, as I wrote then:
Let’s explore more generally the peace that God brings.
It speaks of more than just the absence of war. It can mean prosperity and wellbeing. It can mean peace in your heart and peace with your neighbor. Best of all, it means peace with God, because he reconciled us to him.
This word in Hebrew is shalom and means wellbeing, both in the soul and in circumstances, and it means, yes, prosperity, because the farm in an agricultural society would experience wellbeing and harmony and growth. The crops would not fail and the livestock would reproduce. Society and the individual would live in peace and contentment and harmony. Deut. 28:1-14 describes the blessings for obedience, a man and his family and business enjoying divine goodness and benefits and material benefits. Peace is a major reality of the messianic kingdom anticipated in the OT (Num. 6:26; Ps. 29:11; Is. 9:6-7; 52:7; 54:13; 57:19; Ezek. 37:26; Hg. 2:9) and partly fulfilled or alluded to in the NT (Acts 10:36; Rom. 1:7; 5:1; 14:17).
With that background, let’s explore the Greek word, which overlaps with shalom. It is the noun eirēnē (pronounced ay-ray-nay, used 92 times, and we get the name Irene from it). One specialist defines it: “Peace is a state of being that lacks nothing and has no fear of being troubled in its tranquility; it is euphoria coupled with security. … This peace is God’s favor bestowed on his people.” (Mounce, p. 503).
BDAG, a thick Greek lexicon, has this definition for the noun: (2) It is “a state of well-being, peace.” Through salvation we have peace with God (Rom. 5:1). We have peace that has been brought through Christ (Col. 3:15). We are to run towards the goal of peace (2 Pet. 3:14; Rom. 8:6). It is the essential characteristic of the Messianic Age (Acts 10:36; Rom. 10:15). An angel greeted and promised the shepherds peace on earth for those in whom God is well pleased, at the birth of the Messiah (Luke 2:29).
Do I Really Know God? He Is the God of Peace
Don’t let our hearts be troubled or frightened or fearful or even cowardly—that’s the range of the Greek verb. During your time of worst distress, you can have deep peace.
This verse reminds me of these two verses in the Epistle to the Philippians.
6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:6-7)
So how do we get and maintain peace? We pray.
What Is Biblical Intercession?
And we allow the Spirit to grow it in us.
GrowApp for John 16:25-33
1. When you remain in the vine—in him—you have peace. How has he brought you peace?
2. Has the world ever tried to take you down and out but you gathered up your courage and in Christ conquered the world’s attack? Describe your story.
RELATED
14. Similarities among John’s Gospel and the Synoptic Gospels
12. Eyewitness Testimony in John’s Gospel
4. Church Fathers and John’s Gospel
3. Archaeology and John’s Gospel
SOURCES
For the bibliography, click on this link and scroll down to the very bottom:
Dr. Jim's Essential Bible Teaching 