John 16–17

Persecution of Disciples Predicted

16“I have said these things to you so that you will not fall away. ²They will expel you from the synagogue,^a but an hour is coming that everyone who kills you will think they are offering service to God. ³And they will do these things because they do not know the Father or me. ⁴But I have said these things to you so that when their hour comes, you may remember that I told you about them.

Jesus’ Departure and the Coming of the Holy Spirit

“And I have not said these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. ⁵But now I am going away to the one who sent me, and none of you is asking me, ‘Where are you going?’ ⁶But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your hearts. ⁷But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go away. For if I do not 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 concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment: ⁹concerning sin, because they do not believe in me, ¹⁰and concerning righteousness, because I am going away to the Father and you will see me no more, ¹¹and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.

¹²I still have many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them^* now. ¹³But when he—the Spirit of truth—comes, he will guide you into all the truth. For he will not speak from himself, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will proclaim to you the things to come. ¹⁴He will glorify me, because he will take from what is mine and will proclaim it^* to you. ¹⁵Everything that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he takes from what is mine and will proclaim it^* to you.

Jesus Predicts His Return to the Disciples

¹⁶“A little while and you will see me no more, and again a little while and you will see me. ¹⁷So some of his disciples said to one another, “What is this that he is saying to us, ‘A little while and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me,’ and ‘Because I am going away to the Father’?” ¹⁸So they kept on saying, “What is this that he is saying, ‘A little while’? We do not understand what he is speaking about!”

¹⁹Jesus knew that they were wanting to ask him, and he said to them, “Are you deliberating with one another about this—that I said, ‘A little while, and you will not see me, and again a little while and you will see me’? ²⁰Truly, truly I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will become sorrowful, but your sorrow will change to joy. ²¹A woman, when she gives birth, experiences pain because her hour has come. But when her^* child is born, she no longer remembers the affliction, on account of the joy that a human being has been born into the world. ²²So you also are experiencing sorrow now, but I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy from you. ²³And on that day you will ask me nothing. Truly, truly I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name, he will give you. ²⁴Until now you have asked nothing in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete.

Jesus’ Victory Over the World

²⁵“I have said these things to you in figurative sayings. An hour is coming when I will speak to you in figurative sayings no longer, but I will tell you plainly about the Father. ²⁶On that day you will ask in my name, and I do not say to you 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 have gone out from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.”

²⁹His disciples said, “Behold, now you are speaking plainly^b and are telling us^* no figurative saying! ³⁰Now we know that you know everything and do not need for^c anyone to ask you questions.^* By this we believe that you have come from God.”

³¹Jesus replied to them, “Now do you believe? ³²Behold, an hour is coming—and has come—that you will be scattered each one to his own home,^d and you will leave me alone. And I am not alone, because the Father is with me. ³³I have said these things to you so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but have courage! I have conquered the world.”

Jesus Prays to be Glorified

17Jesus said these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven he said, “Father, the hour has come! Glorify your Son, in order that your Son may glorify you—²just as you have given him authority over all flesh, in order that he would give eternal life to them—everyone whom you have given him. ³Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. ⁴I have glorified you on earth by^* completing the work that you have given me to do.^{a 5}And now, Father, you glorify me at your side^b with the glory that I had at your side^c before the world existed.

Jesus Prays for His Disciples

⁶“I have revealed your name to the men whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours, and you have given them to me, and they have kept your word. ⁷Now they understand that all the things that^d you have given me are from you, ⁸because the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they received them^* and know truly that I have come from you, and they have believed that you have sent me. ⁹I am asking on behalf of them. I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you have given me, because they are yours, ¹⁰and all my things are yours, and your things are mine, and I have been glorified in^e them. ¹¹And I am no longer in the world, and they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given to me, so that they may be one, just as we are. ¹²When I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given to me, and guarded them,^* and none of them has perished except the son of destruction, in order that the scripture would be fulfilled. ¹³And now I am coming to you, and I am saying these things in the world so that they may have my joy completed in themselves. ¹⁴I have given them your word, and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you protect them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth—your word is truth. ¹⁸Just as you sent me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for them I sanctify myself, so that they themselves also may be sanctified in the truth.

Jesus Prays for the Unity of Believers

²⁰“And I do not ask on behalf of these only, but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, ²¹that they all may be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you, that they also may be in us, in order that the world may believe that you sent me. ²²And the glory that you have given to me, I have given to them, in order that they may be one, just as we are one—²³I in them, and you in me, in order that they may be completed in one, so that the world may know that you sent me, and you have loved them just as you have loved me.

²⁴“Father, those whom you have given to me—I want that those also may be with me where I am, in order that they may see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. ²⁵Righteous Father, although the world does not know you, yet I have known you, and these men have come to know that you sent me. ²⁶And I made known to them your name, and will make it^* known, in order that the love with which you loved me may be in them, and I may be in them.”