22 "Therefore you too have grief now ; but I will see you again , and your heart will rejoice , and no one will take your joy away from you.
23 " In that day you will not question Me about anything . Truly , truly , I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name , He will give it to you. 24 " Until now you have asked for nothing in My name ; ask and you will receive , so that your joy may be made full .
25 "These things I have spoken to you in figurative language ; an hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language , but will tell you plainly of the Father .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on John 16:22-25
Commentary on John 16:16-22
(Read John 16:16-22)
It is good to consider how near our seasons of grace are to an end, that we may be quickened to improve them. But the sorrows of the disciples would soon be turned into joy; as those of a mother, at the sight of her infant. The Holy Spirit would be their Comforter, and neither men nor devils, neither sufferings in life nor in death, would ever deprive them of their joy. Believers have joy or sorrow, according to their sight of Christ, and the tokens of his presence. Sorrow is coming on the ungodly, which nothing can lessen; the believer is an heir to joy which no one can take away. Where now is the joy of the murderers of our Lord, and the sorrow of his friends?
Commentary on John 16:23-27
(Read John 16:23-27)
Asking of the Father shows a sense of spiritual wants, and a desire of spiritual blessings, with conviction that they are to be had from God only. Asking in Christ's name, is acknowledging our unworthiness to receive any favours from God, and shows full dependence upon Christ as the Lord our Righteousness. Our Lord had hitherto spoken in short and weighty sentences, or in parables, the import of which the disciples did not fully understand, but after his resurrection he intended plainly to teach them such things as related to the Father and the way to him, through his intercession. And the frequency with which our Lord enforces offering up petitions in his name, shows that the great end of the mediation of Christ is to impress us with a deep sense of our sinfulness, and of the merit and power of his death, whereby we have access to God. And let us ever remember, that to address the Father in the name of Christ, or to address the Son as God dwelling in human nature, and reconciling the world to himself, are the same, as the Father and Son are one.