John 16:5-22

But now that I’m about to leave you and go back to join the One who sent me, you need to be told. Yet, not one of you are asking me where I’m going. Instead your hearts are filled with sadness because I’ve told you these things. But here’s the truth: It’s to your advantage that I go away, for if I don’t go away the Divine Encourager will not be released to you. But after I depart, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will expose sin and prove that the world is wrong about God’s righteousness and his judgments. “ ‘Sin,’ because they refuse to believe in who I am. “God’s ‘righteousness,’ because I’m going back to join the Father and you’ll see me no longer. “And ‘judgment’ because the ruler of this dark world has already received his sentence. “There is so much more I would like to say to you, but it’s more than you can grasp at this moment. But when the truth-giving Spirit comes, he will unveil the reality of every truth within you. He won’t speak on his own, but only what he hears from the Father, and he will reveal prophetically to you what is to come. He will glorify me on the earth, for he will receive from me what is mine and reveal it to you. Everything that belongs to the Father belongs to me—that’s why I say that the Divine Encourager will receive what is mine and reveal it to you. Soon you won’t see me any longer, but then, after a little while, you will see me in a new way.” Some of the disciples asked each other, “What does he mean, ‘Soon you won’t see me,’ and, ‘A little while after that and you will see me in a new way’? And what does he mean, ‘Because I’m going to my Father’?” So they kept on repeating, “What’s the meaning of ‘a little while’? We have no clue what he’s talking about!” Jesus knew what they were thinking, and it was obvious that they were anxious to ask him what he had meant, so he spoke up and said, “Let me make it quite clear: You will weep and be overcome with grief over what happens to me. The unbelieving world will be happy, while you will be filled with sorrow. But know this, your sadness will turn into joy when you see me again! Just like a woman giving birth experiences intense labor pains in delivering her baby, yet after the child is born she quickly forgets what she went through because of the overwhelming joy of knowing that a new baby has been born into the world. “So will you also pass through a time of intense sorrow when I am taken from you, but you will see me again! And then your hearts will burst with joy, with no one being able to take it from you!