Let us leave for now the remainder of chapter fifteen and read from chapter sixteen. Verses 5 through 7a say, “But now I am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, Where are You going? But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Comforter will not come to you.” The Lord’s meaning was, “If I do not go, I cannot be transfigured to enter into you. My going is expedient for you. If I do not go, I can be only among you but cannot enter into you.” Verses 7b-13a continue, “But if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin and concerning righteousness and concerning judgment: Concerning sin, because they do not believe into Me; and concerning righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you no longer behold Me; and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged. I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes, He will guide you into all the reality.” The Spirit of reality is the Lord’s transfiguration. He does not guide us into doctrines but into all the truth, all the reality. What is all the reality? It is, “I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you” (14:20). This is for man to fully enjoy everything that is in God, which is also to enter into reality.
John 16:13b-15 says, “For He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming. He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you. All that the Father has is Mine; for this reason I have said that He receives of Mine and will declare it to you.” This is a very great word, but I cannot go into its details at this time. The Lord Jesus was saying, “All that the Father is and has is Mine. When the Spirit of reality comes, He will guide you into all the reality, into all the fullness of the Godhead, so that you may enjoy all that is in the fullness.”
Verse 16 says, “A little while and you no longer behold Me, and again a little while and you will see Me.” Brothers and sisters, I believe you know that when the Lord said this He was about to die. Therefore, He said, “A little while and you no longer behold Me” because He would be killed and buried. He also said, “And again a little while and you will see Me” because He would be resurrected as the Spirit to come into the midst of the disciples and also to enter into them.
Verses 17 and 18 continue, “Some of His disciples then said to one another, What is this that He says to us, A little while and you do not behold Me, and again a little while and you will see Me; and, Because I am going to the Father? Therefore they said, What is this that He says, A little while? We do not know what He is talking about.” The Lord said, “I am going to the Father”; this still refers to that mysterious event, and that was why the disciples did not understand it.
Verses 19 and 20 say, “Jesus knew that they wanted to ask Him and He said to them, Are you inquiring among yourselves concerning this, that I said, A little while and you do not behold Me, and again a little while and you will see Me? Truly, truly, I say to you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice; you will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned into joy.” This refers to the period of time when the Lord was crucified and buried. During that time the Lord’s followers would weep and be sorrowful, but the world that crucified the Lord would rejoice. Yet after the Lord’s resurrection, the disciples would see the Lord and be joyful.
Verse 21 says, “A woman, when she gives birth, has sorrow because her hour has come; but when she brings forth the little child, she no longer remembers the affliction because of the joy that a man has been born into the world.” The time the Lord Jesus went to die was the time the disciples would suffer birth pangs. Likewise, the time the Lord Jesus resurrected from death was the time the disciples would rejoice.
Verse 22 continues, “Therefore you also now have sorrow; but I will see you again and your heart will rejoice, and no one takes your joy away from you.” The Lord’s seeing the disciples again is not at the time of His second coming but in the day of His resurrection.
John 20:19 says, “When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and while the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be to you.” This took place on the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection. The doors were shut, yet Jesus came in; how He came, we do not know. Verse 20 continues, “And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples therefore rejoiced at seeing the Lord.” He did not come to the disciples merely as a soul or as a spirit; He came with a physical body that still bore the marks and wounds of crucifixion. Here you can see that the words in chapter sixteen are fulfilled in chapter twenty. In chapter sixteen the Lord said that He was going to die and the disciples would be sorrowful, but that would be only temporary, for when He would be resurrected and would see them again, they would be joyful. Then in the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection, the Lord did come into the midst of the disciples, and the disciples saw Him and rejoiced.
I point out these verses to prove that coming in John 14 through 16 does not refer to the Lord’s second coming in the future but refers to the Lord’s coming into the midst of the disciples after His resurrection. Likewise going in these three chapters also refers not to the Lord’s leaving the earth to ascend to heaven but to His death. His going refers to His death; His coming refers to His resurrection.
Let us continue by reading 16:22-25: “No one takes your joy away from you. And in that day [that is, the day of the Lord’s resurrection] you will ask Me nothing. Truly, truly, I say to you, Whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give to you. Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be made full. These things I have spoken to you in parables; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in parables, but I will report to you plainly concerning the Father.” Please take note that the Lord reported to us plainly not concerning heaven but concerning the Father.
Verses 26 through 28 continue, “In that day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I will ask the Father concerning you, for the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth out from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.” Here He is saying that He came forth from God and now was going back to God. All who read the Greek New Testament know that world in verse 28 is the same as world, that is, the people of the world, in 3:16. Here, therefore, into the world can be translated as “to the people of the world.” He came forth out from the Father to the people of the world; this means that He came from God to man. Then He left the people of the world and went to the Father. This means that He went from man to God.
Verses 29 and 30 say, “His disciples said, Behold, now You are speaking plainly and not saying any parable. Now we know that You know all things and have no need that anyone ask You; by this we believe that You came forth from God.” What a pity! The disciples had not believed until now that the Lord came forth from God; they had believed too late. Now it was not a matter of His coming forth from God but of His going back into God. Even now they had understood only the first part but not the second part. We need to keep in mind that the first section of John is about God coming into man, and the second is about man entering into God. When the Lord said these words, the disciples did not understand. Only until the evening of the day of the Lord’s resurrection did they understand. Likewise, today if we do not see the fact, we cannot understand. Only when we see the fact can we understand. Now the disciples understood that the Lord came forth from the Father, yet they still did not understand how the Lord was going back to the Father.
Verses 31 through 33 conclude, “Jesus answered them, Do you now believe? Behold, an hour is coming, and has come, that you will be scattered each to his own place and will leave Me alone; yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me. These things I have spoken to you that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have affliction, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
We will end our reading here. Now let us speak a concluding word. John 14, 15, and 16 speak about the Lord’s coming by going, and this coming by going is His death and resurrection. Please remember that in this book, the Gospel of John, the first section speaks of the Lord’s incarnation, and the second section speaks of the Lord’s death and resurrection. In His incarnation He came forth from the Father into man; in His death and resurrection He went forth from man into the Father. In other words, through incarnation He brought God into man, and through death and resurrection He brought man into God. Through incarnation He brought God into a union with man, while through death and resurrection He brought man into the mingling with God. Therefore, from chapter one to chapter thirteen He could only say, “I am in your midst” and could not say, “You are in Me and in the Father.” He could not say this word at that time because He had not brought man into God. Between God and man there were still barriers, distance, problems, and difficulties. These problems were sin, the world, the flesh, and Satan. Up until that time, the door for man to enter into God had not been opened. The way had not been paved, and there was not a way for man to abide in God.
Therefore, He had to go and die. He had to solve the problems between God and man through death. He had to pave a way and open up a way for man to reach God and abide in God. This was His going to prepare a place for man. He did not go to prepare a heavenly mansion for man to live in. Rather, He went through death to solve the problems between God and man, to open a way that man may have access to God and abide in God.
After His resurrection, the Lord as the Spirit imparted His life to man. That was His entering into man. At the same time, in His resurrection He brought the man He had put on into God. This fulfilled the word of the Lord that where He is those who belong to Him also may be. He is in the Father, and those who belong to Him are also in the Father. In this way God and man are mingled and united to become a spiritual building as the mutual abode of God and man, which is the house of God, the temple of God. This is accomplished through His resurrection. This also fulfills His word: “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up” (2:19). Today He is still building this temple in resurrection. He has been doing this building work in us with His resurrection life that we may enter more into God and deeper into God. This is the building work shown in the Gospel of John.