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JOHN CHAPTER 16 KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel See previous page Jn 16,1-4 (28b) Gift of God >> God is our advocate >> God protects us through our faith – Jesus began telling secrets to His disciples that He had withheld from them throughout His ministry, telling them they will become martyrs, but so long as Jesus was with them He was protecting them. This must also be true with the Holy Spirit, since Jesus is the embodiment of Him. Now that He was going away, His disciples became vulnerable to their enemies, though the Holy Spirit was with them. Why didn’t the Holy Spirit protect the saints as Jesus did? The Bible says He will protect them even through death, for Jesus said in Lk 21,16-19, “Not a hair of your head will perish.” In other words, the Holy Spirit made them indestructible! Jesus said that the greatest enemies of His Church will be religious people, historically Catholics, and they will make a comeback in the last days regarding martyrdom of the saint, and Muslims will also have their day in the fast approaching prophesied period of tribulation. (152f) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Jesus is a prophet >> Jesus prophesies to the Church – Verse 4 said, “When their hour comes, you may remember that I told you of them.” This statement was important to His disciples and to the Church for the last 2000 years. Try to imagine what Christians of the first century and beyond would have thought had Jesus not told them this. They would have been decapitated, sawn in two, shoved through with a sword and crucified without expecting it. They would have thought they had done something wrong to bring this evil upon themselves, that if perhaps they had walked closer to the Lord this might not have happened, where in fact the truth is just the opposite; they were martyred for their faith. For the persecutors of the Church to believe they were doing service to a god by martyring the saints speaks volumes about their abject ignorance regarding the true God, suggesting they were religious people, not secular. The Romans served many pagan gods that Christianity offended, though the majority of Roman leaders didn’t especially believe in them, yet many saints fell to their hands, not so much for their religion, but for political reasons. Therefore, Jesus wasn’t directly implicating secular Rome when He said this, rather Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Church martyred thousands of saints over the centuries, and God has yet to forgive them for it. They would deny this, yet their own historical records testify against them. For them to martyr the saints proves they were serving Satan and obeying demonic forces that controlled their beliefs. (173f) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Catholicism >> Unholy sacrifice (Penance) >> Offering sacrifice without God’s approval >> Sacrifice against the word of God – It is a historical fact that the Catholic Church never read the Bible, dissociating itself from its teachings. We know that Catholic priests shun people who read the Bible to this day, claiming they are the only ones who can properly interpret it, yet not even they read it, making us wonder how they knew about Jesus. It is amazing that they have doctrines that resemble Christianity. They must have adopted them through the saints that preached the gospel to Rome in the first place and from the traditions of their earlier days. It is no wonder almost none of their doctrines correspond with the Scriptures. Jn 16,1-3 (21e) Sin >> Disobedience does not understand God (25e) Sin >> Poverty (Forms of fear) >> Murder >> Persecution to the death >> Kill your neighbor for God’s sake – All the things Jesus told His disciples were to keep them from stumbling; then He told them that many of them would be martyred, as though this would not cause them to stumble. They may have stumbled over His words, but when it came to sacrificing their lives it didn’t happen by surprise. Jesus told them in advance, because the world has a track record of killing people for believing in God. Complicating the matter, the Church today is teaching a pre-tribulation rapture theory, teaching people to believe it is not in the will of God that anyone should suffer, but that does not reflect the history of the Church, nor does it reflect the Scriptures. When the pre-tribulation rapture does not occur, and many are required to die for their faith, there will be those professing Christians who will fall away from the faith, because they didn’t expect to suffer. That is not what they were taught, and they will refuse to serve a God that would allow them to suffer, but they can’t say they weren’t warned. Just as the Scribes and Pharisees were mostly responsible for Jesus’ death, who were in charge of the word of God at the time, so those in charge of the word of God today will betray the saints, delivering them to tribulation, obviously referring to the current religious establishment. (175m) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Ignorant of God – Constantine came along and put his stamp of approval on the Church in Rome, but in reality it morphed into just another pagan religion. Such things as the Inquisition was conceived as a means of forcing true believers to recant their faith, and the Crusaders became their preferred method of evangelism, which was just masked imperialism, conquering nations in the name of God and taking their land and resources and forcing the residence to conform to Catholicism or else be killed. Once Catholicism was well entrenched in the world, it plunged man into the dark ages and martyred saints by the thousands between 500 to 1500 AD, all the while believing they were doing God a favor; Jesus said that they actually believed this. They distanced themselves from the truth of Scripture while believing they were the only authoritative Christian church, while committing genocide in the name of Christ against His saints as the height of self-deception. To actually believe they were doing the will of God was a level of spiritual ignorance that is incomprehensible. See also: Catholicism (Constantine); Jn 16-2,3; 242b / Act 20-30; 22l Jn 16-1 (2l) Responsibility >> Avoid offending God >> Get out of His way >> Do not stumble over Him (28f) Gift of God >> God is our advocate >> Protects us through our walk >> Wise conduct KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 16-2,3 (1i) Responsibility >> Avoid offending God >> False burden of serving God in ignorance (19f) Sin >> Having the mental disease of the world >> Incorrect thinking (79c) Thy kingdom come >> Renewing your mind >> Compromising your convictions – The great persecutions did not happen while Jesus was with them but after He left. The Catholic Church was formed in the third century and made outcasts of the saints from a religion dubbed as Christianity. It taught that anybody excommunicated from the Church would also be excommunicated from heaven, meaning that it was an automatic sentence of hell. This acted as a deterrent to keep people from leaving the Catholic Church, and Jesus forewarned His people that these things would happen, though He never went into much detail about it, in that persecution would take on many forms. The Christian Church morphed into Catholicism through the saint's distain for Roman persecution. The Church in Rome was being heatedly mistreated and sought remedy and found it in compromise, inducing a lean toward paganism. One shortcut led to another, one false doctrine to another, until the Catholic Church was born. By the time Catholicism received its identity as the one true Christian Church, it was no longer serving the Lord; thus it was rarely persecuted. See also: History of Catholicism (Martyring the saints); Rev 18,1-8; 172j (198d) Denying Christ >> Man exercises his will against God >> Ordained by man >> Men place themselves in positions of authority >> Men who have no business in the ministry (217i) Sovereignty >> God overrides the will of man >> God’s will over man >> I never knew you >> Because you never knew Him (223f) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Miss God >> Missing the point >> Miss the meaning of the truth – People tend to wander from the truth in a slow and methodical process that for individuals can take decades, and for societies and nations can take centuries. That is what happened to Israel and also to the Church in all the developed nations of the world over centuries of religion. They made tiny changes to their beliefs, and those changes were accepted into their doctrines, tweaking them just a little. Each generation did this, and religious culture slowly drifted from the truth, until now their religion and belief systems no longer resemble the Scriptures. It is amazing that people cannot compare Scripture that hasn’t changed over the millennia with the disinformation that people have read into it. Jesus said that anyone who obeys Him will know the truth, and the truth will set him free. Each person has the opportunity to know the truth; the problem is that most people don’t care enough to think for themselves and come to their own conclusions about the word of God. Jesus came to the Jews in His time, and He taught the word of God in truth, and it was unrecognizable to their misinterpretation of the ancient manuscripts that they meticulously studied. Jesus had a well-rounded understanding of the Scriptures from Genesis to Malachi. He didn’t focus on a single verse at the expense of whole bodies of knowledge, but the Pharisees did; they focused on the Law of Moses, particularly the Sabbath, considering his writings to supercede the writings of the prophets. When the Pharisees clashed with Jesus and He rebuked them for not knowing the truth, it created a window for us to see into generations of tiny changes that collected over time, until the truth was completely lost to human reasoning. Although they had the Scriptures right in front of them and could read it for themselves, it didn’t help. The Church has done the same thing over 2000 years. Just as Israel focused on Moses, so the Church today has focused on the cross, and just as Moses was a great man and the Law was holy, righteous and good, yet the Law without the prophets was useless, so the Church has focused on the cross and renounced the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit to set us apart from the world. Instead, they try to do this by the flesh, which is like telling a starving person to make dinner without sampling the food. See also: Bible is the source of our knowledge of God; 1Cor 15,1-4; 106d (242b) Kingdom of God >> Opposition toward the Kingdom of God >> Persecuting the kingdom >> Persecution to the death >> Martyrs – Nowadays, Islam has taken over the duties of murdering Christians. When we look for a speck of faith in Muslims who murder people and terrorize the world, we find their hearts vacant. Those who murder their fellow man for a belief system don’t have an inkling of faith in God; in fact, the vast majority of them have lengthy criminal records. Probably the majority of those who fit themselves with bomb-vests are criminally insane, and the upper echelon of radical Islam regarding terrorism are psychopaths. They found their place in an inherently violent religion, using its rationale to kill people, having nothing to do with anything they believe; they are just murderers. This is what has happened for thousands of years; it is happening in Islam, and it happened in the dark ages with Catholicism. None of these people actually believed in God; they were just using their religion to justify their crimes. The same was true with the Pharisees who had Jesus murdered; they were just low-life criminals. They may have been zealous about a set of doctrines, but their murderous heart trumped their faith, and they obeyed their obsessions for bloodlust over their religious beliefs. We could say the same about the first and second century Roman pagans; in fact, the Roman Catholic Church was a product of Rome’s paganism. Roman Christians were tired of suffering under Rome’s persecution, and so they institutionalized Christianity through Constantine. Therefore, consolidation of Catholicism was the result of Roman Christianity unwilling to endure persecution, having the automatic effect of persecuting the saints who remained faithful to Christ, because they stood in testimony against them. See also: Constantine; Jn 16,1-3; 175m Jn 16-2 (116f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Through hardship -- This verse goes with verse 5 Jn 16-3 (209b) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Counterfeit relationship through religion >> Knowing about God, but not knowing God (253h) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Father and Son glorify each other >> Father and Son represent each other Jn 16-4 (239a) Kingdom of God >> Pursuing the kingdom >> Pursuing the knowledge of the kingdom >> Teachers >> Teachers "remind" their students >> Recalling the word of God – Jesus forewarned the Church that it would be persecuted, so when it happened His people would remember what He told them, and it would comfort them to know that He knew these days would come. When we look at the disciples and some of the things that happened to them, it was similar to what happened to the saints at the hands of Catholicism centuries later. In the very beginning the source of persecution was the Pharisees and religious leaders of Israel, but later the source was paganism. In verse 2 when Jesus said, “They will make you outcasts from the synagogue, but an hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God,” this initially referred to the Pharisees, and then to Catholicism, which most resembles them. The same will happen in the last days with the antichrist martyring the saints; those who assist him will think they are doing service to God, meaning that martyrdom will issue from a religious institution. Their sentence of hell will not be reduced because they thought they were serving the Lord; that is, the fact that they were deceived will make no difference to God. Pure evil led them to commit murder. They interacted with wickedness instead of with God, preferring the spirit of error over the Spirit of righteousness, holiness and truth, and for this reason God will judge them. Willingly deceived, they associated with wickedness and received the due penalty of their error. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 16-5,6 (41c) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Jesus presented Himself to God without sin for us – Jesus never committed a sin throughout His life, which seems impossible. In fact, it was His greatest miracle, the miracle that became the basis of all miracles. Jesus never questioned His Father’s acceptance of Him, because He knew He was without sin. Being sinless wasn’t the only cause of the Father’s acceptance of Jesus; the other reason was that He was walking in the plan of God that He had established before the beginning of creation. Jesus was never concerned about His Father raising Him from the dead, and we know by faith in the promise of eternal life that God too will raise us from the dead. The teachings that are written in the gospels that He taught His disciples about the resurrection, we know these things by faith, and we know that we will partake of the resurrection of the righteous, for we know in whom we have believed (2tim 1-12). (175g) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> Ignorance >> Dodging the issue (willful ignorance) >> Evading the heart of the matter – The disciples didn’t know what Jesus meant when He told them that He must return to “Him who sent Me,” yet the disciples were saddened by this statement, meaning that in their hearts they knew what He meant. They knew and didn’t know at the same time. That is an accurate description of the disciples’ understanding of everything Jesus said until Pentecost, and then everything changed. Until then, they had a yes/no relationship with Him. It bothered them that He said He was going away, but they didn’t ask any questions because they didn’t want to know the answers. They wanted Him to change the subject and talk about something else. They figured if they didn’t ask He wouldn’t tell, and if He didn’t tell, then maybe it won’t happen, but the truth doesn't work that way. Sorrow filled their hearts because they were about to lose the physical presence of their Lord, and He said not to worry, because He would send the Helper in His place, who was actually a greater help to them than Jesus in the flesh, and we have that same advantage. (188j) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Sorrow >> Grieving over your own loss >> Grieving over your loved ones -- These verses go with verses 20-22 Jn 16-5 (13b) Servant >> Jesus serves His Father >> Jesus is under His authority – This verse goes with verses 30-33 (116f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Through hardship -- This verse goes with verse 7 Jn 16,7-15 (30g) Gift of God >> God is our Father >> Favor with God through His Spirit Jn 16,7-11 (228c) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> Comforted >> We are comforted in the presence of God >> Holy Spirit is our comforter – No one has ever known Jesus in the flesh and enjoyed the power of the Holy Spirit at the same time, not even His disciples, except the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, and because of him the world was turned upside-down declaring Jesus to the nations (Act 17-6). In heaven we will have both Jesus and the Holy Spirit, and that is why it is called heaven and the power of the age to come (Heb 6-5). After Jesus ascended to the Father, He sent the Holy Spirit in His place to all who would believe in Him through their word. Jesus is a Spirit, and since the curse has essentially barred us from the spiritual realm, it takes faith to believe spirits even exist. Physically we are flesh and blood, and our essence is a spirit, yet this is not apparent. We only deduce it because flesh and blood alone cannot fully explain our existence. The Bible claims that God is Spirit, and we believe that He lives in us and empowers us to be witnesses of Jesus. Jn 16-7 (35g) Gift of God >> God gives Himself to us >> Jesus sends the Holy Spirit -- This verse goes with verses 13-15. For Jesus to say it is to our advantage that He goes away in order to make room for the Holy Spirit, He was saying that the Holy Spirit has a better ministry than Him. Where is the ministry that is better than Jesus in the world today? It is not God’s fault that the Church is floundering; nor is it the Holy Spirit’s fault; it is our fault who refuse to walk in Him. The Church today is willing to accept certain doctrines about His death and resurrection, but that is about as far as it goes. When it comes to the Holy Spirit, the Church suddenly becomes like the disciples when Jesus talked to them about going away; they didn’t want to hear it. Nevertheless, the Holy Spirit is to our advantage, but we don’t see it that way. We want to choose how we live, and all we can see is what we stand to lose by following Him. With an attitude like that we cannot walk in the Spirit, which is a matter of surrendering our will to God and letting Him lead us into the truth, which always contradicts the ways of the world, the flesh and the devil. (68e) Authority >> Jesus Delegates the Holy Spirit >> Sent from heaven – To have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us is better than having Jesus Christ standing beside us. He said that it was to our advantage that He went away. He is more help to us than Jesus was to His disciples. Many Christians would prefer to follow flesh and blood, but if Jesus were here, He would only instruct us to follow the Spirit, minimizing His ministry in the flesh. The only advantage there was to Jesus in the flesh was that He controlled many of the circumstances, and for this reason the disciples expected Him to materialize the Kingdom of God (Lk 19-11), but they were ahead of God’s schedule by 2,000 years. Once He rose from the dead, and ascended to the Father, they no longer had His coming kingdom in their immediate future, but set as their top priority to manifest His spiritual kingdom by preaching and teaching the gospel. (116f) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Through hardship -- This verse goes with verse 2 KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 16,8-11 (68g) Authority >> We have been given authority to be the children of God – Jesus said the Holy Spirit’s main purpose is to convict the world concerning sin, righteousness and judgment. “Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me,” defines the very concept of sin as simply unbelief. All other sins that people commit are the result of this one. So when people sin they are doing it from a state of unbelief. The second form of conviction is “Concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer behold me.” This defines belief. The apostle Paul spoke extensively in the book of Romans about the righteousness of faith (see: 41f). When Jesus walked the earth with His disciples, He perfectly reflected the Father and was the embodiment of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, God recognizes those who believe through their word. The third form of conviction is “Concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.” Jesus is not saying that the devil should be convicted since he has no conscience, but that the Church should live under the conviction that our enemy has been neutralized by Jesus' death on the cross and by our faith in His blood sacrifice to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now we are the alpha predator in the spiritual realm. The devil is powerless against the Church, but we have to realize this, and the Holy Spirit convicts us of this truth, so we can rise above him and our temptations. (89j) Conviction (Key verse) (89k) Thy kingdom come >> God convicts us of sin >> Conviction makes us conscious of sin (149c) Witness >> Validity of Jesus Christ >> Works of the Church bear witness to Jesus >> Evangelism >> Three key messages in evangelism >> Righteousness, judgment and self-control Jn 16-8,9 (19l) Unbelief (Key verse) – This is the definition of sin: "unbelief". It is the root cause of disobedience. This is reiterated in Heb 3,16-19. (19m) Sin >> Nature of sin >> Unwilling to believe >> Spirit of unbelief Jn 16-9 (223e) Kingdom of God >> The elusive Kingdom of Heaven >> Conceit >> Conceited toward God Jn 16-10 (205j) Salvation >> Salvation is based on God’s promises >> Faith versus works >> The faith of God versus the faith of men >> Faith is the law of righteousness – The righteousness of God is defined as faith in Jesus, believing that He is the Son of God, having come in the flesh, and that He died for the sins of mankind, rose the third day and ascended to the Father… the Apostle’s Creed. Paul did an excellent job describing the Christian faith, often using Old Testament passages such as that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Gal 3-6; taken from Genesis 15-6). We can use the disciples to understand the meaning of faith in that Jesus was drawing a distinction in His disciples' faith between the time He was with them to the time after He ascended to heaven and sent the Holy Spirit in His place. When they believed in Jesus through the Holy Spirit, their faith was catapulted to a much higher gear to the true meaning of Christian faith. Therefore, faith involves the Holy Spirit, but how do most people define faith today? Some people might quote Heb 11-1, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen,” yet most people in the Church today treat faith as merely affirming certain doctrines to be true. Where is the Holy Spirit in that? Thank God for the Apostle’s Creed that mentions the Holy Spirit, and Jesus mentioned Him too in regard to faith. Jn 16-11 (39i) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Jesus defeated Satan’s authority >> Jesus defeated Satan on the cross – The Holy Spirit places the conviction in us that Satan has already been judged—past tense! So what does this mean for us? Jesus said in Rev 1-18, “I have the keys of death and of Hades.” It is no longer in the devil’s power that man should go to hell. It is not even in his power that man should die, for Christ doesn't acknowledge the death of his loved ones, not when there is a resurrection, and not when we get to live in heaven awaiting our new bodies. At the cross Jesus opened heaven to everyone who would believe in Him for eternal life and escape the sentence of death and hell. That means we can be saved and Satan can do nothing about it, which cracks a window slightly open to the true nature of the relationship between God and the devil. He deals with him from a legal standpoint as from a court of law. When the devil has a point, God legally grants him his request (See Job chapters 1&2), and when Jesus legally snatched the keys of death and hell from the him through His own death on the cross, the Father's gavel pronounced it into law. (48d) Judgment >> God judges the world >> Eternal judgment >> Satan is under God’s eternal judgment – The cross of Christ judged Satan. Jesus' death, burial and resurrection judged Satan and his minions. Whenever we think of judgment we think about ourselves or other people in relation to God, but the judgment of the cross did not pertain to man but to the devil, whom Jesus came to judge. The cross was not meant to judge mankind, but if man will not receive His blood sacrifice for sin, he will fall headlong into judgment with the devil and his angels, and man will be sent to the same hell. (119j) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Curse of sin is broken >> Bondage of Satan is broken – God can impart an anointing to His people and endow them with His power to accomplish His will, and Satan can do nothing about it, because the ruler of this world has been judged. He no longer rules those who believe in Jesus but retains his rule over unbelievers. Prior to the cross, there was no door made in the wall of sin and death that separated man from God that he could walk through and be saved. There are many so-called Christians who live no different from the world. These nominal Christians do not live victoriously over sin, and so Satan still holds them in his control. He still retains the ability to impart his wisdom and knowledge to lead people away from God and into the teachings of the world, being under his spell. The heavenly angels are working to set them free, fighting for their faith and freedom to choose righteousness, their eternal life hanging in the balance. See also: Spiritual warfare (God is at war with the devil, and man is in the middle); Act 2-23,24; 220c (154a) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> God bears witness against the world >> No excuse >> There is no excuse for rejecting Christ Jn 16,12-15 (109j) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit the teacher >> Spirit of truth is our teacher – There were many more things Jesus wanted to tell His disciples, but they could not bear His words. He told them that when the Holy Spirit comes, He will guide them into all the truth. Jesus could tell them what the Holy Spirit would tell them later, but it would have been a waste of time. The things Jesus wanted to say to them were not facts they could learn in a university college where they go to understand various disciplines of science and mathematics, or in seminary school to learn theology; what Jesus wanted them to know was spiritual in nature. This is a whole different dimension of learning. It would do no good for Jesus to mention these things; instead, He had to wait for the Holy Spirit to come and reveal them, because that is His ministry, to guide the Church into all the truth. Jesus could not do this. His ministry was to come and give His life in obedience to the Father, to become the door through which we enter and receive forgiveness of sin by faith in the cross, but it was the Holy Spirit’s ministry to reveal the truth behind the cross. See also: Ministry of the Holy Spirit; Jn 16,13-15; 68f Jn 16-12 (99aa) Thy kingdom come >> Endurance (Thorn in the flesh) >> Enduring the will of God >> Enduring the word of God >> Endure Hearing the word of God KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 16,13-15 (14a) Servant >> Servants of God’s word – Jesus was saying that once He ascended back to the Father and sent His Holy Spirit in His place, we develop a relationship with the Father through Christ. The Holy Spirit does not have a will of His own, but is like the angels and only obeys. Christ has a will, yet He also is subservient to the Father, and we emulate Christ. We are subservient to the Father through Christ by the Spirit, and it is through our service that we relate to Him. When we do what God tells us, this is how God expects us to live. We sacrifice our will to do His. Many people think they can do both His will and their own; this is called riding the fence. They have an agenda of their own, and they try to fit it into God's will, but these two wills constantly oppose each other. Paul made this clear in Rom 7,14-16. We cannot do what we want; we must die to our agenda and take on His. (33l) Gift of God >> Believers are special to God >> He has given us all things (34f) Gift of God >> Believer owns everything >> True knowledge belongs to us (35g) Gift of God >> God gives Himself to us >> Jesus sends the Holy Spirit -- These verses go with verse 15. One of many differences between Jesus and us is that His soul is the Holy Spirit, and in that sense Jesus did not need to be saved, because He was born with the Holy Spirit already in Him. He is the only person who can say that. (66g) Authority >> Jesus’ authority >> He owns everything from the father (67e) Jesus Delegates Authority (Key verse) (68f) Authority >> Jesus Delegates the Holy Spirit to us >> He guides you into all truth – This is one of the most amazing verses of the Bible, being the very crux of the gospel; it shows a direct connection between the Holy Spirit and the word of God. They are truly one and the same in that the Holy Spirit is the power of God’s word, while Scripture is the message of His power. We must have both. If we just have one, say the Bible alone, which unbelievers have on their shelves in nearly every home in America, it does them no good; then there are other people who seek God apart from the Bible without any direction. With both, though, working symbiotically in a believer’s heart, giving both power and direction, God can teach us everything we need to know about Him. Jesus spoke very plainly about these things, yet it is something the Church hardly understands. We cannot know the truth without the Holy Spirit. We could read the Bible until we are blue in the face, but we will never know the truth until the Holy Spirit reveals it to us. See also: Ministry of the Holy Spirit; Jn 16,12-15; 109j (72h) Authority >> Hierarchy of authority >> More Authority The More Responsibility >> Closer we get to Jesus the more authority we have – The Holy Spirit does not come by His own authority and tell us what He wants us to know, but comes by the authority of Christ with His message to bear. The Holy Spirit is a member of the trinity in the position of a servant more-so than Christ. That is, He only does what He is told, making Christ the one who actually ministers to us through the Spirit. Jesus is glorified in heaven, seated at the right hand of His Father and knows every situation and every circumstance of every person in the whole world, in that the Holy Spirit reports these things to Him, and Christ imparts wisdom, knowledge and truth into millions of His children at any given time through the Holy Spirit. The Father is the final authority of all things, and Jesus is under His authority, while the Holy Spirit is under the authority of Christ, and we are under the authority of the Holy Spirit, and the Church extends this hierarchical structure to the world, making disciples of all nations. Until we understand how the Father, Son and Holy Spirit interact and how their interaction affects us, we will never understand God. Structure is established within the body of Christ based on submission as a function of authority that resembles our heavenly Kingdom. That is, we cannot have authority without submission. (107g) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Hearing from God >> (114ha) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Jesus does God’s work >> All his works are done through the father >> Jesus gives voice to His Father – Jesus builds the bridge back to God, saying, “All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore, I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.” This means Jesus doesn’t have anything that He didn’t receive from His Father, and the Holy Spirit doesn’t have anything that He didn’t receive from Christ, and we don’t have anything that we didn’t receive from the Holy Spirit. "What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" (1Cor 4-7). If anyone thinks He possesses anything that he didn't receive from God, he has in improper understanding of himself, of God and of His kingdom, for there are some who think they are Christians without even being born-again. There is nothing natural about God’s Kingdom; it is a spiritual kingdom, and we receive the things of that kingdom by the Spirit. (152i) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> Witnesses of the father >> Prophets >> The Church holds the position of a prophet >> Church operates under a prophetic anointing >> Receiving a prophetic word from God – Jesus said that we all drink from the same Spirit of prophecy. That is, the Holy Spirit will disclose to us what is to come, suggesting that all of God’s children have a God-given awareness of Christ’s second coming, and whatever else that entails. Jesus said to all His people, regardless of their position in the Church, He will disclose to us what is to come, meaning that we all possess some level of authority as prophets. God is willing to reveal to us what is to come that we might relay our knowledge to the others in the body of Christ, that God may inform His Church about what He is doing. What makes this ironic is that God is stingy about time, though He has an infinite amount of time, and the only reason He reveals the future is to glorify His name and to strengthen our faith and to help us realize that He is ultimately in control of everything. The more the world falls apart, the more God is in position to take over the controls and steer the world into God’s pre-designed purpose, but the more man is in control, the less opportunities God has to intervene. When darkness comes and envelops the world, we think God has left us, but the truth is just the opposite; it actually becomes the greatest opportunity for God to demonstrate His power. (227h) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> God working in you >> Depending on Jesus to impart His gifts into us >> He gives us what we give to each other (229g) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Kingdom grows by itself >> Kingdom assumes the mind of Christ >> Kingdom grows through knowledge (253i) Trinity >> Relationship between Father and Son >> Father and Son glorify each other >> Son glorifies the Father in all things given to Him – Jesus and the Holy Spirit are part of the triune God in that they were never created; they have always been with the Father. in Jn 4-24 Jesus said “God is Spirit,” so if God (the Father) is Spirit, then the Holy Spirit has always been with the Father, who has always existed. If the Holy Spirit has always existed and Jesus is the exact representation of the Father (Heb 1-3), being also identical with the Holy Spirit (Act 16-7), then Jesus is the third member of the trinity (Heb 7-3). Jesus would need to be God in order for Him to have a position at the right hand of the power of God. In heaven there is a river of life that flows from Father and Son (Rev 22-1,2), meandering throughout His kingdom without mention of an end. It never pools into a lake; it just runs forever and ever. The father is the origin of this river, and it first runs through Christ who said, “All things that the Father has are Mine.” This river passes into us and through us and into others, meandering endlessly throughout the children of God wherever the wind blows. The river of life represents the Spirit of God. (255f) Trinity >> Father, Son and Holy Spirit >> The process of imparting the substance of God >> Father discloses the word by the Spirit – The Holy Spirit doesn’t just say what comes to mind, “but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.” So, a spirit of prophecy is intrinsic within all the children of God in any generation, who pay attention to the Spirit who dwells in them. The Holy Spirit speaks whatever He hears from Jesus, who confessed that the words He spoke were not His, but originated from His Father. So, we see a chain of command within the trinity evidenced by the word of God, and we are eternal witnesses of the Triune God, having received the divine nature as receptacles of His Spirit, who divulged the words of God to us. This defines the authority of the Church. If there is a chain of command within the trinity, then there ought to be a chain of command within the Church, and that chain ought to be unbroken, and how that chain is linked ought to be decided by God and not man. It should be based on people who love God and are committed to the faith, not based on polished speaking abilities, or on colorful personalities, or those who bully their way into leadership roles. Jn 16-13 (111c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Spirit and the word >> Spirit of truth – In verse 13 Jesus declared all His disciples to be prophets from the first century to the last. In the gospel of John chapters 14-17 Jesus spoke about things that were far greater than the Church has ever believed. Consequently, His will for us goes far deeper than any of us have gone, and his promises are far greater than any of us have imagined. If we obey Him, He will fulfill His promises in us and accomplish things through us that are far beyond our grasp without Him. He will use us in ways we never thought possible, and the first step in achieving His higher calling is to develop the hearing ear, which is the most valuable skill we can have in the last days. When we return to the gospels, we hear after many parables Jesus saying, “He who has an ear, let him hear.” In the book of Revelation chapters two and three He says the same thing. What this means then is that Jesus related His parables to endtime prophecy; that is, the majority of them, if not all, pertain to the last days. When we look at when Jesus said these things in the book of Revelation, we see that it is before prophecy began to unfold, meaning that now is the time to learn His voice before tribulation begins. If we try to learn His voice in the midst of tribulation, we will get lost in it, so that all the circumstances and events that are happening in the world we will not understand God’s purpose in any of it. The person with a hearing ear will be light-years ahead of those without it. See also: Hearing ear (God's plan of protection in the last days); Rev 3-10; 100a KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 16,16-18 (191b) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Baptism >> Baptism symbolizes death, burial and resurrection >> Baptism is a sign of obedience – Jesus would be taken from them for a short time in His death, and then given back to them at His resurrection, being an abbreviated version of His ascension and second coming. Jesus was happy to return to His Father in heaven, yet He will have far more joy at His second coming when He unites with His people who have lived and died over the millennia at the resurrection of the righteous. Jesus said at the last supper, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer; for I say to you, I shall never again eat it until it is fulfilled in the kingdom of God” (Lk 22-15,16). At the resurrection of the righteous there will be a celebration called the Marriage Supper of the Lamb in which the Father gives the Church to Christ in marriage, indicating that we primarily belong to the Father, and He will give us to His Son in marriage, the most intimate of relationships, and we will become the wife of the Lamb. Jn 16,19-22 (125e) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Joy is the result of partaking of the Holy Spirit >> Joy of the revelation of Jesus Christ – The book of Revelation talks about martyrs (Rev 6,9-11). The saints will be running for their lives; great difficulty and horrible circumstances will befall them and the world will rejoice at their death, especially when they kill the Two Witnesses (Rev 11,7-12). They celebrated and gave each other gifts, as though it were Christmas time. They thought they would create a new holiday and celebrate this day for centuries to come, but they didn't know that the end of the age had come upon them. The Two Witnesses rose from the dead, and with them all the people who died in faith since the beginning of time emerged from their graves and ascended to heaven. That is, the Two Witnesses rising from the dead mark the First Resurrection; they will be its first fruits (Rev 14-4). 1The 4-17 says, “We who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord,” referring to the Rapture. Jesus said that our sorrow will be turned to joy as when a woman is in travail and then gives birth to her child, she remembers her anguish no more for joy that a child has been born into the world. Jesus was talking to His disciples about what was about to happen to Him and them; watching their savior get crucified and then rise from the dead was like watching a woman in travail to give birth to a new life. This statement correlates with Revelation chapter twelve, where it talks about a woman in labor to describe the last days; the saints will mourn and weep, until their suffering gives way to the age of Millennium. See also: Woman in travail; Jn 16,20-22; 215d / Judgment during the Millennium; 1Pet 5-11; 213c (208k) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Being married to God >> Emotional relationship Jn 16-19,20 (18h) Sin >> Twisted thinking >> Can’t distinguish between good and evil >> Jesus is evil Jn 16,20-22 (24j) Sin >> Poverty (Forms of fear) >> World is envious of Jesus (140a) Temple >> Temple made without hands >> Hiding place >> The doorway (154e) Witness >> Validity of the Father >> God bears witness against the world >> Witness that the world is godless >> Witness that the world hates God (188j) Die to self (Process of substitution) >> Separation from the old man >> Sorrow >> Grieving over your own loss >> Grieving over your loved ones -- These verses go with verses 5&6 (209f) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Righteous saved with difficulty >> Righteous saved with hardship >> Righteous saved with grief – In a very short time the disciples would witness their savior being dragged to the whipping post and flogged to the end of His life, then crucified until dead at the insistence of the religious establishment. It was the bloodiest scene imaginable. Almost every drop of blood soaked the earth from deep wounds made by a merciless instrument of torture, a cat-o-nine tails. It is difficult to imagine His disciples witnessing such brutality against the person they so dearly loved, afraid for their own lives, some to point of being absent at His crucifixion. The Roman soldiers didn't arrest those present, because it was Jesus they wanted. The whole point of crucifixions was a public display of aggression meant to deter further rebellion against Roman authority. The Romans figured that if they killed the shepherd, the sheep would scatter, and this would have happened, except for one small detail: the resurrection! It placed the exclamation point on the movement He started, and it exponentially grew from there. Jesus couldn’t have raised a thousand people from the dead and had a greater impact on those who believed in Him, than by His own resurrection, because it proved that His Father was in charge. Signs, wonders and miracles that Jesus performed conveyed the message that He controlled the situation, but His resurrection conveyed that His Father was really in control, as Jesus to many times had told them. (215d) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> Fulfillment of God’s time >> Completion of a period of time – When Jesus said in Mat 24-21, “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will,” He was talking about the tribulation of the saints, not of the world. There is a principle integrated into almost all of Jesus’ teachings. They mostly pertained to two eras: the event of His first coming and the event of His second coming. This passage is no different, and both eras have something else in common, the resurrection from the dead. At His first coming the resurrection obviously pertained to His own, and at His second coming it will pertain to the resurrection of His people, or in the case of those who are still alive and remain, the Rapture. When we compare this passage to some of the passages in the eleventh and twelfth chapters of Revelation, the similarities are startling. When He said, “You will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice,” it is reminiscent of Rev 11,10-12, “And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days, the breath of life from God came into them, and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon those who were watching them. And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, ‘Come up here.’ Then they went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies watched them.” See also: Woman in travail; 225j (225j) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Parables >> Parables about nurturing the people of God >> Parables about a woman in labor giving birth to a child – Verse 21 is a popular analogy of Jesus' second coming. The analogy compares a woman’s pain in childbirth to Jesus’ death. He may have had sorrow for a season along with His disciples, but their sorrow was turned to joy at His resurrection. We Christians have been reborn spiritually, but Jesus was reborn physically. We see this very concept repeated in Revelation chapter 11, which has interesting implications. You can read about them in the following articles: The Great Endtime Revival and Fall of Satan. See also: Woman in travail; Jn 16,25-27; 140d Jn 16-20 (57e) Paradox >> Opposites >> World hates what God loves and God hates what the world loves (164i) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> The world is at enmity with God >> The world hates God KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 16,23-28 (30l) Gift of God >> God favors you through your prayers – Jesus said we need only ask to receive whatever we want; however, He doesn’t answer our prayers according to our interpretation of His word. Rather, He expects us to pray and seek His face and make request of Him according to what He said, not according to what we think He said. Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive.” We must interpret His world properly before He will answer our prayers. We can’t literally ask Jesus for anything we want and expect Him to give it; rather, He is waiting for us to adopt His heart. He is waiting for us to come into conformity with Him, so when we do make request, we will be asking for things He wants to give us. If we dedicated our lives to God’s interests, we could pray and God would give us our heart’s desire. He is not obligated to give us things He doesn’t want us to have or things that would hurt us. We are His beloved; He has a vested interest in leading us into conformity with His Son. (34b) Gift of God >> God’s generosity >> Believer owns everything >> Trinity belongs to us >> Father belongs to us – The disciples didn’t ask Jesus for a lot of material things, partly because they knew they would not get them; instead, they asked him questions about the word of God and the Kingdom that is to come. So when He told them that the Father would give them anything they asked in His name, Jesus knew the majority of their requests would be about His word. Jesus said in that day we won’t have to ask the Son for their needs, but could personally ask the Father. We might get a slightly different answer, like asking our mother a question and then asking our father the same question and getting two different answers. Sometimes those differences can be drastic, like faintly nudging a telescope while looking at a galaxy; we’ve just scooted thousands of light-years from our original position. Same thing with the answers between Jesus and His Father, they may be similar, yet slight deviations represent huge differences in scope. For example, we know what the Old Testament says, and we know what the New Testament says; similarly, we know what Jesus said to His disciples, but when the Holy Spirit speaks to us about the same things, it is not the same. The teaching of the Spirit is the revelation of God’s word, which is different from reading it off the page, being the difference between Jesus and the Holy Spirit (Mat 16,13-18). How different is the Father from Jesus and the Holy Spirit? When we get to heaven we will be able to actually talk to the Father Himself about these things, what an honor and a privilege! (68h) Authority >> We have been given authority through prayer (114k) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Working God’s grace through Christ >> Jesus is the way to the Father -- Jesus said that we can ask the Father for anything in His name and He will give it, for the simple reason that we are His children. However, Jesus was speaking to His disciples, suggesting that we must attain a certain level of maturity before we can personally hope to receive anything from the Father. That is, Jesus was not talking to nominal Christians. He taught that we should live this life as we will in heaven (Mat 6-10), where we will ask God for meaningful things; therefore, we should not ask God for a lot of dumb things in this life. Half the time we don’t get our prayers answered because we are praying against the will of God, which acts as a curse by the fact that we are denied, and it discourages our faith; but it is probably more accurate to say that remaining ignorant of God is the actual curse. ‘I want a new car; I want a bigger house; I want, I want, I want.’ Meanwhile, God has a will for us, and He won't sacrifice it to please us. The Bible teaches that we can expect God to answer our prayers. In heaven God intends to give us everything, for then we will not ask amiss (Jm 4-2,3). (224d) Kingdom of God >> Illustrating the kingdom >> Description of heaven >> Describing the kingdom after he makes all things new >> Children of God resemble their Father – There is a time coming when Jesus will speak to us plainly about the Father, and we Christians think that time has come for Jesus to tell us plainly about the Father, because we are mature and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. However, God is still not ready to tell us plainly about the Father, partly because of the fact that we are not ready, but mostly because that hour has not yet come. God is able to speak to us about the Father to a small degree, but a time is coming in heaven when Jesus will speak plainly about the Father whom we will see with our own eyes; then we will be ready to hear the word of God in earnest, but in this life and in the flesh we can go only so far in our understanding of Him, and then we simply run into a dead end. Our flesh is not able to comprehend the things of God; that is why He commands us to die to the flesh. God is eternal and He thinks in terms of eternity, this being the main reason people don’t want to serve Him, because they think in terms of the temporal mindset, and they are not interested in sacrificing this life for the sake of the Kingdom of God. We have a body that is destined to perish that keeps us from understanding God until we shed this carnal nature and take on an immortal body with a divine nature, but the Bible teaches that we already have the divine nature through the indwelling Holy Spirit (2Pet 1-4), but our flesh gets in the way of realizing all that the Spirit of God wants to teach us, so He is calling us to resist the evil passions and desires of our flesh to simulate having a body that doesn't contradict God on every level, instead agrees with Him, that we may glimpse heaven. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 16,23-27 (67k) Authority >> Jesus delegates authority >> Praying in Jesus’ name Jn 16-23,24 (83b) Thy kingdom come >> Receiving from God through prayer >> Ask and it shall be given – Jesus promised that if we ask the Father for anything in His name He will give it. In that sense we can ask the Father for whatever we need in full assurance that we will receive it, because our faith is perfected, having all our questions answered. Later, other questions will arise, knowing we can ask. This is a cyclical process. There are times in our lives when we don’t get our prayers answered because we have too many unanswered questions, and these unanswered questions translate to unanswered prayer. He wants to answer our questions so He can answer our prayers that our joy may be complete and that He may be glorified in it. (125f) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Joy is the result of partaking of the Holy Spirit >> Joy is the result of receiving from God – God has a pre-designated path for our feet that He arranged from eternity past, and He will not cancel it just because we are too immature to follow Him. The basic gospel is that God loves us because we love Jesus by keeping His commandments, which are to be born-again and love one another. Doing the works that God has prepared for us will purify our hearts and open our eyes to the vision that God has for our lives, but there is a catch-22. We must do the will of God for our eyes to be opened, though our eyes must be open to know the will of God. There are things we know, and we need to do them, which acts as an appeal to God to reveal what we don’t know, and by that understand His plan and purpose for our lives. There is a general will of God that is true for all, and there is a specific will designated for each person, called the trail of good works. We need to get on that trail and stay on it, which God's vision. On that trail we can pray and God will answer our prayers, because we are praying according to His will. (206j) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Conditions to promises >> Conditions to getting your prayers answered – Here is one of those open promises seemingly free of conditions, but that is not the case, otherwise unbelievers could ask the Father for whatever they wanted and receive from Him too. If God does not listen to sinners (Psalm 109-7), then the condition of sainthood is appended to this promise. What does it take to tap into this promise? Must we be perfect? Not one is perfect; every saint sins; the evidence of sainthood is not perfection, but whether he grieves over his imperfections. Conversely, he might commit sin, but no saint practices sin. More specifically, there are plenty of saints who wrestle with bondage to certain sins and are desperately trying to overcome them, but there are no saints who revel in sin and are not remorseful of it. The first condition to tapping into this promise, then, is that we be Christians in the process of perfection, set apart from the world to do the Lord’s work. We must be striving to remain in a state of repentance steadily gaining victory over sin that so easily entangles us. We can never achieve perfection, so it is the striving for righteousness that God wants to see in us. This will influence our prayers so we will ask according to His will. (214h) Sovereignty >> God controls time >> God’s timing >> God’s time is soon >> Relatively soon – Jesus never put any time constraints on anything. Instead, He lived by the Lord’s Prayer, “Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” (Mat 6-10). God is never in a hurry, though He is cognizant of our temporal state; whatever we ask we will receive in due time. God wants us to be patient, because it is part of faith; God wants our faith to bear fruit and patience is one of those fruits. God has no greater joy than to see His people exercising their faith in Him. He didn’t say we would immediately receive our request, for being an eternal Spirit He said 2,000 years ago, “I am coming quickly” (Rev 3-11). Time is immaterial to Him, and He knows that we live in the realm of time, so He will hurry up and give us our request, still it might take Him 30 or 40 years. When we get to heaven, some of God’s plans for the near future will be fulfilled in their time, which could very easily be millions of years down the road; these are the ways of God; He is not in a hurry. We could put a fire under Him and tell Him to hurry-up, and maybe He will answer our prayers a little sooner. Instead of taking 20 or 30 years, it might take only 10 or 15. It all depends on what we are asking from Him. Jn 16-24 (44h) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Transformed >> Completely full KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 16,25-27 (119e) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Freedom >> Fences of freedom >> Freedom in Christ (140d) Temple >> Temple made without hands >> Hiding place >> Living in the spiritual revelation of the word – Although Jesus said He would stop speaking to His disciples in figurative language and start speaking to them plainly of the Father, that never happened. According to the Scriptures, Jesus never preached to them again after this dissertation in the gospel of John. Not even after He rose from the dead did He teach them much about God. Therefore, when Jesus said He was ready to speak to them plainly, He was referring to a time after Pentecost, when He would return to His disciples in the form of the Holy Spirit; then He would tell them plainly about the Father. Once we hit a certain state of maturity in the things of God, we will be able to petition the Father on our own, and the Father Himself will get involved in our lives. This is a point of maturity that few people have reached, including this writer. It is something He has prepared for His endtime saints in order to survive those days. It is an experience and a spiritual realm that is yet to come to the Church. In the last days it will be a realm that we will all be required to experience in order to become invisible to our enemies, for God plans to deliver us supernaturally right under their noses. The Bible says that we are all going to wear a mark on our foreheads; it won’t be the mark of the beast, but the mark of God (Rev 7-2,3) that we will receive through the 144,000 Jewish witnesses. God will mark us with the Holy Spirit, and that mark will represent our relationship with the Father. It will be a countenance showing that we know God. See also: Woman in travail; Jn 16,19-22; 125e / Great Endtime Revival (Two periods: first century and last century); Act 2,16-21; 50b Jn 16-26,27 (32h) Gift of God >> Father will honor you if you die to self >> Your obedience (33m) Gift of God >> Believers are special to God >> We are beloved of God – Imagine walking to the throne of God, and after getting off our face ask God any question and He will answer us, and for the most part we will comprehend His answer. We can’t even do that to “important” people in this life, because they are usually too high-minded to answer our questions. Our knowledge of God will continue to widen throughout eternity; some questions we can answer among ourselves, but the tough ones we can take to God. (83h) Thy kingdom come >> Jesus intercedes for us >> He represents us before the Father – For all eternity the Church will worship the Father through the Son, but we can also worship the Father directly. When we get to heaven, there will be many mysteries about the Father, and we will eventually understand most of them; but for now, the only way we know the Father is through Christ, and for that reason the only way we can worship the Father is through Christ. However, Jesus made an interesting statement in these verses as perhaps the only passage in the Bible teaching that we can directly request (worship) the Father, but this requires maturity. The infant of faith requests the Father through the Son by reading the Bible, believing all it says and living accordingly, but as we mature in the faith, we begin to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and as we listen, follow and obey the Spirit of God who dwells in us, the Spirit whom Jesus sent in His place being the Spirit of the Father, as we obey Him, will lead us to the Father, and we can directly request Him, and He will answer us, based on our love and obedience to Christ. Therefore, to obey the Holy Spirit is to worship the Father. This level of obedience is the highest form of worship, because it originates deep within a relationship of prayer (1Jn 2-13). (114b) Thy kingdom come >> Faith >> Working the grace of God >> Obeying the Holy Spirit >> Believing the Father by obeying the Son >> Obeying Jesus’ will – The word “believe” in the Bible is tantamount to obedience, but that doesn’t mean we can look up believe in a Bible dictionary and find the synonym obedience, for it is implicit within Scripture that believing and obedience are the same. To make this point Paul said that Abraham believed God and his faith was counted as righteousness, while James took it a step further and said that as a result of Abraham obeying the voice of God his faith was perfected (Jm 2-22). Abraham believed God well enough, but he also did what God told him. He believed with more than his mind; he also believed with his feet, and he went to a foreign land and did exactly what God said, and for this reason he is the father of our faith. When we look at this verse again, the Father loves us because we have patterned our lives around our belief that Jesus is the Son of God. (129i) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Unity >> love perfects unity >> God’s love (208g) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Personal relationship >> Being the friend of God >> Father & son relationship (230k) Kingdom of God >> God’s kingdom is a living organism >> Mystery of godliness >> Solving the mystery of godliness >> The love of Christ is the mystery of godliness (247a) Priorities >> God’s priorities >> God’s interests >> God is interested in His people >> God is interested in the Church Jn 16-27 (206a) Conditions To Promises (Key verse) (206e) Salvation >> God makes promises on His terms >> Conditions to promises >> Conditions to the love of God >> Conditions to the father’s love – Jesus said that the Father loves us because we love His Son. This concept is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture. That word “because” is a conditional term. Isn’t God’s love unconditional? Apparently not! God loves us because of a vision He has of us that we love His Son. His vision will remain so long as the sinner is alive in his flesh, but the moment he dies without ever coming to the love of Christ, God’s vision will die with Him, and that is the very meaning of hell. KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 16,28-32 (21c) Sin >> Disobedience >> Unfaithful – Jesus interrupted their moment of faith and told them they were about to scatter each to his own home, which represented plan B and a cul-de-sac of faith. If their hope of Christ fell apart, they would go home and continue with their old lives, so home in this context represented disbelief. The disciples were apostles, missionaries and evangelists; they didn’t spend a lot of time at home, but many slept in their beds that night. He was describing the kind of faith that God could use. They had faith that failed, though it was prophesied that they should do this, and for this reason it was expected of them. It was good that they fled, because then they were later able to regroup and do exploits for God that we read in the book of Acts. Had they stayed and supported Jesus, they may have been crucified with Him, along with the hope of the gospel spreading to the four corners of the globe. (53j) Paradox >> Opposites >> Contradicting your own standards >> Believing in something you don’t understand – This statement sounds like a pivotal moment when the disciples finally believed in Jesus, though Peter earlier spoke for the group and confessed Him to be the Son of God (Mat 16,13-20). Between His works and His words they believed in Him. If He never performed a miracle, yet claimed to have come from God, how could they have believed in Him, but after so many miracles, how could they not believe? (88c) Thy kingdom come >> Faith produces works >> Relationship between faith and works >> Faith without works is dead – This is a bit of a conundrum; they fulfilled God’s word apart from faith. It wasn’t unbelief that made them run; it was fear. They still believed that Jesus was the Son of God even while they were running, but fear overwhelmed them. The faith that God wants in His children is the kind that materializes, but if it doesn’t materialize, then it is incomplete, and incomplete faith does not believe in God. Fear causes doubts, and doubt leads to running from God, not to Him, and if we don't repent, eventually our faith will disintegrate, until all we have is a memory of once believing. Sometimes those memories are positive, and sometimes they are negative; if they are positive, we want to return to our faith, but if they are negative, we keep running the wrong way and into the reprobate mind, never to return. Fear destroys faith, and belief apart from materializing it is good for nothing. Jn 16,29-32 (176k) Works of the devil >> The religion of witchcraft >> False doctrine >> Extremes >> Truth is never found in your thinking on either extreme of any subject – The disciples got ahead of their faith and were speaking far greater than they believed (Rom 12,3-8). They loved and respected Him dearly, and they believed in Him, but they didn’t have the capacity to believe in Him on a spiritual level because the Holy Spirit hadn’t yet been sent. They spoke their words of faith to Him, saying they no longer felt the need to question Him. In other words, ‘You are no longer under our scrutiny,’ or ‘We no longer suspect you of falsifying the truth,’ as though they were finally putting their seal of approval on Him. This was not flattering to Jesus. Why didn’t they approve Him after He raised Lazarus from the dead, or after He fed 5,000 people with a couple fish and a few loaves of bread? Jn 16,30-33 (13b) Servant >> Jesus serves His Father >> Jesus is under His authority – These verses go with verse 5 KJV WEB / Parallel Gospel / Navigation Bar Jn 16-32 (255e) Trinity >> Holy Spirit’s relationship between Father and Son >> God’s word is Spirit >> God is Spirit Jn 16-33 (24a) Sin >> Poverty (Oppression) >> Fear of hardship (punishment) (39j) Judgment >> Jesus defeated death >> Jesus defeated this world system >> Jesus defeated Satan in the world – Jesus was careful to remind His disciples that it wasn’t going to be easy for them. They thought Jesus had come to deliver Israel from their physical enemies; instead He came to deliver them from their spiritual enemies. They held out hope for the realm of the flesh all the way to the cross. In contrast, Jesus tried to teach them to lay aside their dreams of this life and store up treasures in heaven. When He said to take courage because He had overcome the world, He wasn’t referring to overcoming human rulers such as Caesar but satanic rulers that governed those human rulers. Jesus came to deliver us, not just from wrong thinking, but from wrong living, ultimately from the consequences of sin. One day the world and all its tribulations will be removed, leaving only God’s peace, and for this reason He says, “Take courage.” We could use this verse as God’s explanation for why he allows suffering in the world, simply because it is temporary. Of course these temporary circumstances have so far lasted thousands of years, but a day is coming when He finally destroys this natural realm; then we will "look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells" (2Pet 3-13), that is, where tribulation and difficulty do not exist. It will be an eternal condition that we will enjoy forever, making the ages of man's terrible reign look like a dot on the proverbial timeline. See also: God allows suffering and evil to test us; Act 12,5-12; 88d (41d) Judgment >> Satan destroyed >> Be like Jesus >> Jesus overcame sin – It is important to God that we live without fear, because fear does not glorify God. One aspect of our peace in the midst of tribulation is that Jesus has overcome the world. His cross was a sure thing that He would certainly remain obedient to His Father and that men would certainly crucify Him. By the simple fact that Jesus died without sin, He overcame the world, breaking the law of sin and death, which required sin to be the cause of death. This was God's law that Satan had been using for his own purposes since he tempted Adam to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden against the command of God. Since then Satan possessed the keys of death and hell, representing control over man’s destiny, and Jesus took these keys from Satan as a result of the cross, and in this way overcame the ruler of the world. By this Jesus created a door in the law of sin and death for everyone who believes in Him to receive the promise of eternal life. See also: Adam wanted to be like God; Mat 10-28; 47d (69k) Authority >> Righteous judgment (outcome of discernment) >> Executing God’s judgment by His authority (126b) Thy kingdom come >> Manifestations of faith >> Peace >> God is at peace >> The Peace of God – There are two things simultaneously happening in the Christian’s life; we have the word of God giving us peace, and we have the world giving us tribulation. The world views Christians as people who believe in the Bible, and obviously we do, but it is more than that; we have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us and teaching us about His word, so our understanding comes from God, and so does His peace. We have asked the Holy Spirit to come and make His abode in us, and now when we read His word, the Holy Spirit deposits His truth in us that transcends knowledge. We possess something the world cannot receive, because it has rejected the peace of God in Jesus Christ. We possess a knowledge that is deeper and fuller than anything the world will ever know. It is knowledge that imparts peace in the believer, which is one of the fruits of the Spirit. There are drugs that manipulate certain hormones in the brain, such as serotonin, that gives a sense of harmony with the world, but the peace of God gives something more than a feeling. The person who uses drugs knows the derivation of his peace; it is coming from a pill, but the peace that passes all understanding is not a manipulation of molecules and hormones, but originates from heaven and flows from His throne. Our peace comes from the Spirit of peace, whom we have received as a pledge of our eternal inheritance. We can endure tribulation in the world if we have God’s peace abiding in us, because we possess something beyond our own power, giving us strength to accept our temporal circumstances. (165j) Works of the devil >> Manifestations of the devil >> Hardship >> Troubles of this life – There have been testimonies of people in prison or in some other chronic predicament where Jesus came to them and interjected His presence into their situation. When we experience God, it changes us forever, and the knowledge we possess from Him reveals that our suffering doesn’t really matter. The Bible speaks of angels riding on chariots of fire; their circumstances don’t matter to them, only the presence of God, who Himself dwells in an environment of smoke and fire, who will ensure those who trust in Him will be rewarded for their faithfulness. (209d) Salvation >> The salvation of God >> Righteous saved with difficulty >> Righteous saved with hardship >> Righteous saved with adversity See next page