| Title | : | Lessons from the Upper Room: The Heart of the Savior |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1642893196 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781642893199 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 241 |
| Publication | : | Published June 24, 2021 |
Lessons from the Upper Room: The Heart of the Savior Reviews
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Omgeeee this was so edifying!! The way Sinclair Ferguson articulates scripture and how we should understand it is top tier for me. I listened to this one and HAVE to get a physical copy. There are so many things I would like to underline and annotate.
He takes the scriptures of John chapters 13-18 and deep dives into those last moments in the upper room during the last supper what Christ was really trying to instill in his disciples and how those last lessons he gave are ones we can also apply in our own walks of faith. All I have to say is the chapter about the vine took your girl out!!! The imagery he uses to explain that chapter and what Jesus is saying...whew...I needed that!
Highly Recommend! -
One of the most rich, pastoral, and encouraging books I have ever read. Sinclair delivers on what he set out to do. That is, immerse you in the atmosphere of the upper room, the night before Jesus crucifixion. The book magnified my view of Christ and deepened my understanding of his love for me. Highly recommend!
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My first read of the 2023 Shepherd’s Conference book giveaways. It is a good, devotional survey of John 13-17, and should help you grow in your love for Christ. I look forward to reading more of Sinclair Ferguson in the future.
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Ya know a books great when it makes you cry! This book breaks down everything that happened in the upper room. It explains Jesus's actions and helps you to understand the significance of everything He did. The last chapter talks about Jesus's prayer for us and I just lost it! So powerful!
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A book that stirred my affections for Christ as Ferguson pulls apart John 13-17. The weight of being invited into the intimate hours in the upper room with Christ, his disciples, and the one who was fore-known to betray him is heavy and but no less a gift. Beautifully written in a way that honors the text in unity with the rest of scripture!
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Never have I thought of the scene of the Upper Room in such a rich and profound way as is explained here by Ferguson. From explaining Christ’s exemplifying of His servanthood, to Christ’s speaking of His eternal glory, this book is beautiful. He was accurate in including in the title “The Heart of the Savior,” because truly, the Upper Room is a snapshot of the heart of our Lord. His humility, His gentleness, His knowledge, His care, His power, His connection with the Father, His glory, etc.. If one is looking to better understand who Jesus Christ is, particularly who He Himself said He is, this is an excellent read. Praise be to Jesus Christ of the Upper Room, the cross, the grave, and the throne. And much appreciation to Ferguson for writing this book in a way that is easy to understand, not too exhaustive in length, and yet greatly magnifying of the glory of this scene in the book of John.
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I am having a hard time writing a review of this. I think it is probably better than the 3 stars I marked it as but I don't feel I can give it more stars.
I think for me it was a writing style issue. I think I would have like it a lot more if this was a series of sermons or a class I was going to. I believe that is what it started as and then was put into writing. This did not flow well from verbal to written, in my opinion.
I do think that the teaching was good and it did make me look at the last supper and the teachings of Jesus in John 13-17 more closely, and hopefully I will be able to read that section in my Bible reading with new and fresh eyes. -
Intimate view into Jesus’ last night with His friends.
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In my top 10 favorite reads of all time.
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This book goes into intimate detail on the heart of Jesus, through the book of John 13-17. The book of John captures the heart of Jesus and Dr. Ferguson does a great job with the theology of the book of John as well as describing what it would have possibly been like to be one of Jesus’s apostles sitting in the upper room with Jesus, the night before Jesus’s crucifixion. From the washing of the disciple’s feet, to Jesus’s betrayal of Judas, Dr. Ferguson takes us through Jesus’s great teachings of The True Vine, Revealing the Father, Jesus Promises Another Helper and Jesus’s Prayer to The Father in the Garden of Gethsemane and much more. I was encouraged by remembering John’s writings about Jesus’s Gift of His Peace and His Love and Joy. Dr. Ferguson writes and explores the book of Acts and many of Paul’s epistles, but does a great job on always coming back to the upper room. This is a well written book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to know more about the power of The Holy Spirit and the heart and love of Our Father and Our Savior from the aspects of the upper room.
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In the way that only Sinclair Ferguson can do, his writing puts the reader directly into the upper room with Jesus and his disciples. You will spend the evening there with Jesus, hear Him teach and listen to His earnest prayer - the prayer which Ferguson rightly describes as the most important words Jesus uttered in all of the gospels.
“In Lessons from the Upper Room, Dr Sinclair Ferguson draws us into these intimate hours from the night when Jesus was betrayed. This vivid picture of Christ’s ministry, from His washing the disciples feet to His High Priestly Prayer, shows us the heart of Jesus. Discover His deepest desires for His people and take delight in the suffering Savior who has overcome the world.”
Truly an encouraging and edifying read. -
Not a book that can be raced through and mostly forgotten. Slowly savored; realizing the profound love and grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. A whole new understanding of glory and mercy, through His words in the upper room and His prayer in the garden.
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Absolutely incredible! Every page was thought provoking and beautifully written.
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Very helpful.
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I listed to an audio version of this that was a recorded set of lectures Dr Ferguson taught in England. I enjoyed his engaging sense of humor and attention to detail as he progressed throughout the text. It explanations were sound and as he mentioned toward the end, he was merely just scratching the surface of the Upper Room Discourse. I enjoyed the book and thought it well written.
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This book takes us deeper into John 13-17 and gives great insight and understanding of these wonderful chapters.
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Sweet read. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
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Sinclair Ferguson is one of the best preachers, teacher, and theologians out there today. Lessons From The Upper Room is a wonderful exposition of John 14-17. Ferguson does an amazing job of understanding the depth and scope of Jesus final few hours with His disciples before He goes to the cross. This book is top shelf and I highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to know our Lord and Savior through the study of his Word, walk, and works.
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A few great points I enjoyed, but pretty hard to get through as it was pretty dry.
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This book is absolutely terrific!!! Definitely a favorite. It so beautifully shines a light on God's love for His children.
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A wonderful study of Christ's last hours with His disciples in the upper room. The book studies His instructions to His disciples and His prayer for them (and for us).
"It is rare today to see a Christian book, hear a sermon, or attend a conference with the word sacrifice in the title. By contrast, we are inundated with teaching about how the gospel improves our lives or solves our problems, not how it calls us to sacrifice and turns us into bondservants. Many Christian youngsters are led to believe that they are being trained to be 'tomorrow's leaders'. In fact, the word leader rarely appears in the New Testament. We have lost sight of the Teacher whose gospel trains us to be 'today's bondservants'" (p.31). -
Although this was the first book I have read from Sinclair Ferguson, it will certainly not be the last. In Lessons from the Upper Room, Dr. Ferguson performs a wonderful exposition of the upper room discourse found in the gospel of John, and the time I spent reading and studying these chapters through this book was very beneficial. It is clear from how the book is written that Dr. Ferguson is not only an expert scholar and theologian, but a man who has pastored many over the course of his years in ministry.
Prior to reading this book, I hadn’t yet studied the contents of John chapters 13-17 in depth. Upon my completion of this book, I can comfortably say however that I learned a great deal (about a broad variety of topics) from this section of Scripture and would recommend that you take some time to do the same – whether that be by reading this book, or simply reading through this section of John with a commentary. The content is very rich, with learnings from our Lord Jesus that are convicting, encouraging, and comforting.
I’ll spend a few moments highlighting some sections of Lessons from the Upper Room that stood out to me, the first of which relates to Jesus washing the feet of His disciples in John chapter 13. I had always seen this interaction as an act of humility from Christ, and an example for how we as His followers are to serve others. Dr. Ferguson went on to show the parallels between this passage and what the Apostle Paul taught about Jesus in Philippians 2 (the sections in quotes are from John 13 and the sections in parentheses are from Philippians 2). ‘Jesus…knowing…he had come from God’ (Though he was in the form of God); ‘rose from supper’ ([He] did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped); ‘laid aside his outer garments’ (but emptied himself); ‘and taking a towel’ (taking the form of a servant); ‘poured water into a basin’ (he humbled himself); ‘and began to wash the disciples’ feet’ (becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross); ‘he…put on his outer garments and resumed his place’ (God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name). There were countless other profound insights like this throughout the book, and the fact that this example was presented as early as page 10 made me realize the rest of the book would be a great read.
Dr. Ferguson reinforced that the Word of God must be central in the life of the Christian and explained that if we want to gain more understanding into the things of God and grow in holiness, these things only come through letting Christ’s Word abide in us. The book finished with the last few chapters looking into Christ’s ‘high priestly prayer’ in John 17. Ferguson taps into his years of experience shepherding various flocks as a lead pastor, as he emphasized the encouragement we find in Christ’s praying to the Father for His followers, which includes us today.
It took me longer than I would have liked to finish this book. Looking back, it would be very beneficial to start and finish the book in a shorter timeframe to gain a more cohesive picture of what was being explained as Dr. Ferguson walked through these chapters in John. That aside, I greatly enjoyed learning from Christ and His interactions with the disciples on the night before His death. It is now very clear to me that the opening verse of the upper room discourse is trustworthy: “Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.” -
In this book, respected theologian Sinclair Ferguson takes us through chapters 13 through 17 of John’s gospel, John’s description of events in the upper room on the evening before Jesus’ crucifixion. In five chapters, 155 verses, and less than four thousand words we are given what the Puritan writer Thomas Goodwin called “a window into Christ’s heart.” Ferguson tells us that in some ways, chapters 13–17 are a gospel within the gospel; in fact, they reflect the shape of the whole.
I had previously benefitted from Ferguson’s twelve message teaching series “Lessons from the Upper Room” that was released by Ligonier Ministries in 2014. This book contains significantly more content than the original teaching series, though Ferguson tells us that the book is by no means a complete exposition of John 13–17.
Ferguson invites us to climb the stairs leading to an upper room on a house in Jerusalem. Here we can eavesdrop on what transpired during the late afternoon and evening of the day before the crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth. He tells us that thirteen men have come together for a Passover meal. One will leave early on a mission of betrayal. The remaining twelve will later make their way to the garden of Gethsemane. From there they will be scattered. One will be taken by force on a nightmare journey. By this time tomorrow, Friday, the lifeless body of Jesus of Nazareth will be carried to a garden tomb.
But this is not the end, just the end of the beginning. For early on Sunday morning, He will rise again from the dead. He now lives forever as a Prince and Savior.
Ferguson writes that as Christians, we are no longer what we once were by nature, but we know we have not yet become what Christ has called us to be. We want to know, trust, and love Him better. These chapters help us do that by moving Him to the center of our vision and showing us His grace.
As a word of caution, Ferguson tells us that we inevitably read these verses from within our own context. But we also need to learn to read these chapters within their own context. We cannot assume that everything our Lord said applies to us in the same way it applied to the Apostles.
In less than twenty-four hours, the Savior will be dead—crucified. Well aware that this is His certain destiny, He wants to show His disciples that He loves them to the end.
My wife and I enjoyed reading and discussing this book together, and I highly recommend it to you.
Below are 20 of my favorite quotes from the book:
• The foot-washing is a picture of what Jesus does for our cleansing and justification.
• The message of the acted parable of the foot-washing was that the Lord of glory became the servant of sinners, took our shame, and now is Lord of all, exalted at the right hand of the Father.
• There are no exceptions to the feet we are called to wash. We should never forget that the Lord Jesus was willing to wash the heel that was lifted up to crush Him.
• He is going to be humiliated and crucified. But He is laying down His life voluntarily, and He will take it up again sovereignly and return to His place of eternal honor.
• Our calling, shared with every Christian, is to see how and where and to whom we can serve as bondservants.
• Accepting God’s grace is an indication that you realize there is nothing you can do to compensate. With Him it is not a matter of doing better but of acknowledging our helplessness and asking for His saving grace. That is humbling.
• If we follow the logic of John’s gospel, we see the crucifixion of Jesus not as an event that evokes a sentimental sadness but as the beginning of His glorification.
• We are His Father’s reward to Him for all that He has done for us.
• There is glory in the cross. He is not the victim there, but the Victor.
• Here, then, is a fundamental principle of Bible study: we reflect first on what the words communicated to those who heard them; then we work out, with the help of the Spirit, how they apply to us.
• This is an amazing promise. The disciples fear that if Jesus leaves them, their relationship with Him will come to an end. But the reverse is the case. When He leaves and the Spirit comes, they will mutually indwell each other.
• This—our union with Christ—is the heartbeat of the Christian life, and here, in John 15, Jesus is helping His disciples to understand what it means.
• To have the Holy Spirit indwelling us is the equivalent of having Jesus Himself indwelling us.
• The Word of Christ is the instrument of Christ, used by the Spirit of Christ, to nurture union with Christ and to transform us into the image of Christ.
• Growth in holiness involves our doing what God’s Word tells us. But more fundamental than our doing God’s Word is what God’s Word is doing to us!
• When the gospel bears fruit, there will always be opposition to its fruitfulness.
• He cleansed His disciples’ feet by pouring water over them; He cleansed their lives by pouring His word into them
• Through what the Spirit enabled them to write, He would continue to illumine darkened minds to recognize the face of Christ revealed in His written Word and enable deaf ears to hear His voice and come to trust in Him.
• Jesus is teaching His disciples that suffering becomes the raw materials in the Father’s hands, and from it He means to create glory. Sorrow will lead to joy.
• We are of eternal value to the Lord Jesus. Not because of our inherent worth—for we have none now—but because we are the Father’s love-gift to Him. -
Sinclair Ferguson always brings out the riches and depths and does so again here. What is most obvious is his care for the reader which comes out as a personal touch. This is not a dry academic discourse nor is it a shallow glossing of the text. It is a book that deserves taking your time to read as well as repeat readings.
UPDATE: The audio version is also good. -
A beautiful exposition of John 13-17, and one of the richest contemporary theological pieces I have ever read. Ferguson takes us into the Upper Room with Christ, showing us the heart of Christ in both His actions and teaching. Written with the prose of a pastor-theologian, remarkably clear and practically applicable, this is a highly recommended book for anyone desiring to delve into the depths of theology.
One particularly notable recollection from this book involve Ferguson's paralleling of Philippians 2:5-11 with Jesus' feet washing (i.e. rising from supper corresponds to not counting equality with God something to be grasped; laying aside His outer garments to emptying Himself; so on). Another would be the author's creative reflection that the "disciple whom Jesus loved" could be understood as the disciple who discovered how much Jesus loved Him. It is one of Ferguson's peculiarities that he provides ingenious illustrations (or at least connections that I have never heard of), most likely formed from years of reflection and reading, while not compromising Biblical fidelity. Yet another would be the musing that joy followed by suffering not only has a chronological relation, but a causal one. Ferguson provides a fresh look on certain doctrines, one that exalts the Triune God.
Simply marvelous. -
This is an eminently readable yet profound exposition of Jesus' teachings at the Last Supper (John 12-17). I used this as the basis for a Sunday school series in the spring of 2023.
Sinclair Ferguson covers many topics, including:
• Jesus' watching his disciples feet is more than just an example of service. It is a picture of how He will put down his life in order to perform the ultimate act of service, then pick His life back up again. At a slightly different perspective, it can also be seen as a picture of how He set aside his heavenly glory to humble Himself in the flesh, then assumes that glory again once His atonement is complete.
• The significance of Jesus' sending Judas out of the room after He washed his feet
• The eternal view from Daniel 7 this is put in motion in the upper room
• The many roles of the Holy Spirit (counselor, teacher, homemaker, intercessor)
• How Jesus' teachings on oppression tie into the mysteries of the Trinity and the Book of Revelation
• The fulfillment of prophecies that occurred during the life of John, who was the longest-lived of the original Twelve Apostles
Highly recommended for both personal study and as an aid for teaching. -
2.5/5 stars. I hate the fact that I had to rate this book so low, it’s not that it wasn’t theologically sound or that it wasn’t well written. The fact is that this book did not challenge me much, it also does not teach much more than one can learn from simply meditating on these verses for a few hours. This book did have some neat ideas and insights such as how Jesus’ final prayer in the upper room reflected that of the high priest on the day of atonement and how Jesus washing the disciples feet was a direct metaphor of him dying for all Christian’s, thus washing all our feet or how the mother in labour which Jesus speaks of is a great analogy for how our joy as Christian’s is derived from suffering. But beyond this there wasn’t much that intrigued me, there was nothing new or unique about this book. I don’t know if you will learn that much more about the discussion in the upper room if you read this book compared to if you simply just read the actual scripture in John and meditated on it for a while.
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Sinclair Ferguson describes these meditations as the equivalent of the "audio description" function on a television - a running commentary on John 13-17, highlighting some of the important details we need to notice if we want to make sense of Jesus's words. The book has its origins in a series of audio messages recorded for Ligonier, but they've been rewritten and expanded for print, so it does actually read as a book, with 13 short chapters offering self-contained reflections from "the heart of the Savior."
As you would expect from Sinclair Ferguson, this is clear, faithful, and soul-stirringly rich. Accessible, but with a depth that would repay more than one reading. Some sections are a bit odd, like the discussion of Schleiermacher, or the 1950s housewife stereotypes. But it's a book that would be a blessing to any Christian reader wanting to meditate more on these lessons from the Upper Room.
