John 16:4

John 16:4 says, But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye will remember that I told you of them.  And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.  Jesus wanted His disciples to be prepared for what was to happen, not just to Him, but to those who followed Him.  We today have the history of the persecution of the church to look back on and realize the truth of Jesus's words.  Jesus had not told them before because He was the One they hated, but soon He would be gone, and the hatred would be directed toward His disciples.  This was not just true of those disciples in Jesus's day, but of all since.  Those who are His followers will always be at odds with the world.  We may want to look, dress and talk like the rest of the world, but we are called to be a peculiar people.  I know we probably don't like the word peculiar, but it really just means different. We are not to conform to the world, but we are to transform the world into what God wants it to be.  Verse five adds, But now I go my way to him that sent me; and none of you asketh me, Whether goest thou?  Jesus had told them He was going away, but none of the disciples asked with any courage where He was going.  This was the time for them to seek the comfort that Jesus could offer, but they did not ask for it.  We may often be left without comfort in our relationship with Christ, not because He doesn't have the answer, but because we do not seek it.  Though the religious leaders were now starting to actively pursue Jesus to kill Him, so far the disciples had suffered very little.  Jesus was telling them things were about to go bad.  When we are going through life with few problems, following Christ may be easy.  We need to be warned that things will not always go well and be prepared to follow even closer to God when they don't.  Verse six continues, But because I have said these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your heart.  They should not have been sorrowful, because Jesus was going to do what He came to do.  We should not be sorrowful because trouble may come to us as His followers, but we should rejoice that He has prepared us for it and will be with us through it.  We are His, and nothing can separate us from Him, except our own lack of faith.  That does not mean that we no longer are His, but that lack of faith can leave us sorrowful in this world.