<p>16:23 <em>And in that day, you shall ask me no questions- </em>As noted on :22, the experience of abiding joy and seeing the Lord is all Kingdom language, in that the Comforter enables us to live the eternal life, the Kingdom life, right now. This explains why &quot;that day&quot; is a phrase commonly used to refer to the last day (2 Tim. 1:12,18 etc.). &quot;That day&quot; in essence comes to all who receive the Comforter, and thereby have the Lord's permanent presence. In 1 Jn. 2:18 John speaks as if the believers are right now in the last day / hour; not only in that they are expecting the second coming at any minute, but in that the last day is in essence being experienced by them.</p><p>&quot;Ask me no questions&quot; can be translated &quot;ask me nothing&quot;. The idea is that His relationship with the Father will be ours; we will relate directly to the Father as He did and does, because we are &quot;in my name&quot;, possessing the Comforter which is sent in His name. If we insist on the sense of 'ask me no questions', the idea could be that because we know the Father and Son through having relation with them, we will not be full of questions (1 Jn. 2:20). Our base experience of relationship with them will mean that 'hard questions' are of no particular angst to us. We know the things of our salvation (15:14,15), and that is enough. Any other questions are of far secondary importance. All struggles about apologetics, questions about the conflict between current science and the Bible, all become utterly subsumed beneath the reality of knowing the Father and Son in the sense of having ongoing relationship with them. The questions in the immediate context concerned the Lord's going away and coming again. The Comforter would explain those questions; and we note that the meaning of the Lord's death, resurrection and gift of the Holy Spirit were not understood by the disciples until after His resurrection and their receipt of the Holy Spirit Comforter. The Comforter works likewise with us, unpacking the meaning of these things- for the Lord was far from the only man to die through crucifixion. The personal import of <em>His</em> death and resurrection and gift of His Spirit has to be personally experienced; theology can only go so far. And that is the work of the Comforter.</p><p>We recall that towards the end of His ministry, the Jews ceased asking the Lord questions (Mt. 22:46). This was because things had come to such a pitch that the Lord had answered everything and presented Himself without doubt as their Saviour and God's Son. The choices left were to believe in Him, or turn against Him blinded by a bad conscience. The Lord seems to be alluding to that position, saying that the disciples were also going to be in a position where they totally believed in Him and needed answers to no more questions, for the answer was already clear.</p><p><em>Truly, truly, I say to you: If you shall ask anything of the Father, He will give it you in my name</em>- The intimacy of relationship between Father and Son is to be experienced by us on account of the Comforter. We will sense His will and pray accordingly, and receive. &quot;In my name&quot; is another way of saying that because we are in Christ and He in us, we shall directly dialogue with the Father just as He did and does. He will no longer be a mediator, in that sense. The language of His intercession which we encounter later in the New Testament is all concerning His attainment of salvation for us (Rom. 8:34; Heb. 7:25), and the contexts do not refer to some kind of mechanical transaction being performed between Son and Father every time we pray for some request. We who were enemies have now been reconciled to God in Christ, as Romans 5 teaches. The Lord's work of mediating between God and man is therefore for those who have yet to be reconciled; for us it is done, we already live as reconciled to God.</p><p>Moses reached something of that intimacy; he cried to Yahweh to take away the frogs, &quot;and Yahweh did according to the word of Moses&quot; (Ex. 8:12,13); the requests of prayer become almost a command to God; by His grace, we will ask what we will and He will do it for us (Jn. 16:23). W.E. Vine makes the point that the Greek here implies a superior asking an inferior to do something. Not only is this an essay in the humility of God's self-revelation, but it surely shows how if we seriously believe in the power of prayer, what we request really will be given. &quot;Thou shalt also decree a thing (in prayer) and it shall be established unto thee&quot; (Job 22:28). Rev. 9:13 portrays prayer as a command to the Angels. The prayer of command is to be found in the well known words of Ps. 122. &ldquo;Pray for the peace of Jerusalem&rdquo;, David exhorts. And the response made so much clearer when the Psalm is sung: &ldquo;Peace be within thy walls&hellip; I will now say, Peace be within thee&rdquo; (Ps. 122:6-8). The way peace is &lsquo;commanded&rsquo; to be in Jerusalem by those who pray is because they so believe that the answer will surely come.</p><p>The wonder of the resurrection would totally affect our attitude to asking for things, the Lord taught in Jn. 16:23,26. &ldquo;In that day of marvelling in the resurrected Lord, ye shall ask me nothing&hellip; if ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will give it you RV&hellip; in that day you shall ask in my name&hellip;&rdquo;. What are we to make of all this talk of asking and not asking, in the &lsquo;day&rsquo; of the resurrected Lord Jesus? My synthesis of it all is this: Due to the sheer wonder of the resurrection of the Lord, we will not feel the need to ask for anything for ourselves. The gift of freedom from sin is enough. Because if God gave us His Son and raised Him from the dead, we will serve for nothing, for no extra &lsquo;perks&rsquo; in this life; and yet, wonder of wonders, <em>if</em> we shall ask, in His Name, we will receive. But we must ask whether the implications and wonder of the fact of the Lord&rsquo;s resurrection have had such an effect upon us&hellip;?</p>