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1 Jesus kept on talking to his followers. He said, “I told you all this so that you will keep on trusting me.
2 After I go away, the Jewish leaders will not let you into their meeting houses to pray to God with them. And a time is coming when people will kill you, and they will think that God wants them to do that.
3 They will do those bad things, because they never knew me, or my father.
4 I am telling you this now, so that when those bad things happen, you will remember that I told you about them. You didn’t need to know about them before, because I was with you. But now I am going away, so I have to tell you about them.”
This is what the Holy Spirit does
5 Jesus told his followers, “I am going to leave you and go back to my father. He is the one that sent me here. And none of you asked me, ‘Where are you going?’
6 I know my words made you very sad.
7 But listen, this is the true story. After I leave you and go to my father, I will send the Holy Spirit to you, and he will help you. You see, if I don’t go, the Holy Spirit will not come to you. But I will go away, and it will be good for you, because the Holy Spirit will come to you.
8 After he comes, he will show people in the world that they go against God and do bad things. And he will show people that they don’t live the right way. And he will show people that one day God will judge everyone.
9 You see, the people that belong to this world don’t believe in me, so they are going against God.
10 And I am going back to the father, and you will not see me any more. I will not be here, so the Holy Spirit will show people the right way to live.
11 And the Holy Spirit will show people that God will judge everyone. You see, God already judged the devil. He is the boss over the bad spirits, and he is the boss over this world too, but God said that he is guilty.
12 I have a lot more to tell you, but it’s too much for you right now.
13 After the Holy Spirit comes, he will tell you what is true. He will teach you everything that is true about God. He will not say his own words, but only the words he heard from God. He will also tell you about things that will happen later on.
14 He will tell you the message that I give him. When he does that, he will show you that I am great and good.
15 You see, everything my father has is mine too. So my father’s true message is my message too. That is the reason why I said that I will give my message to the Holy Spirit, and he will tell it to you.”
Jesus’s followers were going to be sad for a while
16 Jesus said to his followers, “I will go away soon, and you will not see me. But then after a little while, you will see me again.”
17-18 Some of his followers didn’t understand what Jesus was saying. They asked each other, “Why did he say, ‘Soon, you will not see me. But then after a little while, you will see me again’? And why did he say, ‘I am going back to the father’? What does he mean?”
19 Jesus knew they wanted to ask him what he was talking about, so he said to them, “Are you asking each other what I mean by saying, ‘Soon, you will not see me. But then after a little while, you will see me again’?
20 Listen to this, it’s true. Soon the people of this world will be happy about what is happening to me. But you will be very sad, and you will cry. Yes, you will be sad for a while, but later on, you will be really happy.
21 You know, while a baby is being born, the mother has a lot of pain. But when she holds her new baby, she forgets about that pain, because she’s so happy that a new baby was born into the world.
22 And just like that, you are really sad now, and it feels like pain to you, but later I will come back and see you again, and you will be really happy, and nobody can stop you from being happy.
23 At that time, you will not need to ask me for anything. Listen, I’m telling you straight, you can ask the father for anything that I say is good, and he will give it to you.
24 You haven’t asked God for that sort of thing before, so ask him, and you will get whatever you ask for. Then you will be really happy.”
Stay happy
25 Then Jesus said, “I have been telling you stories that are pictures, to teach you things. But the time is coming when I will not use picture stories. I will tell you clearly about my father.
26 Then you will ask the father for things that I say are good. I will not have to ask my father for you. You can ask him yourself.
27 You see, he loves you too. He loves you because you love me, and because you believe that I came from him.
28 Yes, I came from my father, and I came into the world. But now I am going to leave the world and go back to my father.”
29 Jesus’s followers said to him, “Now you are telling us clearly. You are not telling us picture stories.
30 Now we understand that you know everything. We don’t need to ask you anything, because you already know what we want to know. So we believe that you came from God.”
31 Jesus said, “You reckon you believe now,
32 but listen, very soon, all of you will run away and hide in your own homes. Yes, you will leave me alone, but I will not really be alone, because my father is with me.
33 I told you all these things now, so that you can always feel happy and quiet inside yourselves. You are going to get trouble in this world, and you are going to feel sad. But don’t be frightened. I am stronger than the world. I finished up the power of this world. So be strong and brave.”