Take Heart

On the night before his death, Jesus told his friends, "It is to your advantage that I go away." Then he told them the truth: in this world you will have trouble, but take heart. John 16 is the most honest chapter in the Bible about sorrow, and the most hopeful.

• Why Jesus said his leaving was good news
• The Helper: what the Holy Spirit does that Jesus in the flesh couldn't
• "A little while": the puzzle that confused the disciples
• The woman in labor: why Jesus uses pain and joy in the same picture
• "You will be scattered": why Jesus tells them they'll fail before it happens
• "I have overcome the world": the verse that closes the whole upper-room discourse