on jesus's last night with his disciples passover night the night he is arrested john in his gospel gives us five chapters of jesus talking and teaching with two and with his disciples we know he knows this is last night so we know that the things that he has to say to his best friends to his closest disciples is really important that he's thought it out he has a reason for everything he's going to say that night And so we want to understand and dig into exactly what he was saying. And since we're just leaving this Easter season, let's take a little bit of time to look at what people call Jesus's upper room discourse. Hi, I'm Sam Hunter. This is 721 Live, the video arm of 721 Ministries. I'm glad you're with us. Thank you for joining us. By the way, before we get started, you can hit that subscribe button, and then you would get these videos as soon as they come out, typically weekly. Now, as I was going through the Easter week, what I typically do on Thursday night is read John chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, and 17. This is Jesus' last night, and I want to just recreate it on that last night, on that Thursday night of Easter weekend. I just read what Jesus was doing that night. And as I was reading it, I thought, well, you know, this is something we need to slow down and spend a little time talking about. And so with the 721 Ministries men's groups around the state of South Carolina, we started this week just looking at John chapter 14. And it is incredible the things that we can mine out of Jesus's words. Before we do that, I want to step back and just give a thought, give a question, give us something to think about. And I cannot take credit for this thought process. One of the men mentioned to me that he had heard this in a sermon. But you remember when Jesus is arrested, he's going through the trial, and Peter is in the courtyard with John, but Peter denies Jesus three times. We know that. It's a very familiar story. But what I want to get you to focus on, let's read this passage. Luke 22, Peter replied, man, I don't know what you're talking about. That's his third denial. Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed, the Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Now let's just pause for a minute and think about that look. What do you see that look of Jesus' looking like? and my friend told me that the sermon that he had heard, and he couldn't remember the preacher's name, said this, that the way you envision Jesus looking at Peter says a lot about the way you think he looks at you. So now let's just back up, because that is a very insightful, poignant thought. Jesus looked at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him. Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times. And he went outside and wept bitterly." Now, what do you think that look looked like? And I asked the various men's groups across the state this week. And you think about it for a moment. On the one hand, you could say, well, it was a look of disdain, of disgust, of disappointment, You got to be kidding me or you you think you're such a hot shot and you you're denied or I told you so How you think Jesus looked at Peter says a lot about the way you think he looked at you What do you think would that look like? You know, A.W. Tozer, who lived back in C.S. Lewis' times, you know, 1900 to 1960, right along in that time, he famously observed that what comes to your mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you. The most important thing about you is what comes to your mind when you think of God. And whether he's 100% right, there is a lot of truth in that. Think about it. What comes to your mind when you think of God is the most important thing about you. If you think of God, and in this sense, if you think of Jesus' look as a condemning look, as a withering look, as a look of disappointment, as a, you're a failure, I cannot believe you're that pathetic look. If you think of God as that assistant principal walking through the halls, making sure nobody's having any fun, if you think he's that type of Heavenly Father, well, really, you're not thinking of him as a Heavenly Father, you're thinking of him as a God. And who wants to get closer and closer to that image of a God? But if you think of him as a loving Heavenly Father, who is always wanting the best for you, and always compassionate and always aware of the details and loving you perfectly and always working to bring out anything that you do wrong for the better of yourself that kind of heavenly father you want to pursue you want to get closer to you want to dig in deep so Here's Peter. He gets the look. Let's look at a couple of examples of what might give us a clue as to how Jesus looked at Peter. Now, the Gospel of Mark This is the gospel of Mark. We know that Mark got his gospel from Peter. We are told by the church fathers that Mark got his gospel from Peter. He wrote down the things that Peter taught. So it's really interesting when you see in Mark's gospel something that you do not see in the other three gospels. This is the story the rich young ruler the rich young ruler comes up to Jesus says what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says keep the commandments. He says teacher He declared all these I've kept since I was a boy Jesus looked at him and loved him One thing you like he said go and sell everything you have what we know what he says neck there, but Jesus looked at him and loved him Luke doesn't include that detail. Matthew doesn't include that detail. But Mark does. And Mark got his information. He wrote down what Peter taught and preached. And I think this is a prime example of how Jesus looked at Peter. He loved him. Jesus knows this rich young ruler is blind, he's lost. He knows he's going to walk away, that he's going to reject Jesus, he's going to stiff-arm him. He knows that. And he looked at him with love and compassion. I think that tells us a lot. Let's keep going. There's another example. We talk about conviction not condemnation. This is Johnny This is the story of the young woman who was thrown in front of Jesus by the Pharisee. She was caught in adultery They say the law says to stone or what do you say? And Jesus kneels down famously writes in the sand Then he stands up and looks up and says whoever's without sin throw the first rock and They all walk away. At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, I think that's a neat little detail, until only Jesus was left with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you? No, sir. No one, sir, she said. Then neither do I condemn you, Jesus declared. Go now and leave your life of sin. No condemnation. The Holy Spirit through Paul writes in Romans 8, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. No, there's no condemnation. There's conviction. See, Jesus didn't say, no, then I don't, neither do I condemn you. He didn't just leave it at that. He convicted her heart. Jesus declared, now go now and leave your life of sin. I can just hear him say, you can do better than this, sweetheart. You can do better than this, my young girl. You can do better, and I want you to do better, and I'll help you do better. That's conviction. That's not condemnation. When you hear condemnation, when you hear, oh, you failure, if people only knew what went on in your heart, if they only knew what you've just done, you're such a fake Christian. You'll never be a Christian. Jesus could not possibly love you. He surely could not like you. God has turned his back on you. When you hear those voices, and I've heard them, and I know you have too, let me assure you, That is not coming from your Heavenly Father. Jesus is never speaking to you that way. That's Satan. And what Satan wants you to do is move away from God. Move away from him as your Heavenly Father. Move away from Jesus. I've even heard Satan say, you need to let him cool off a little bit. You've really blown it this time. Perhaps you better stay away from him for a little while. And I know my Heavenly Father's saying, no, no. Now's the time I want you to come to me. like the prodigal father the story we we mistakenly call the prodigal son but it's really the prodigal father prodigal means wastefully extravagant to the point of being wasteful and what jesus's story is about the father who represents god who was wastefully extravagant with his grace so as peter tells the story in mark and now we pick up the story in john conviction not condemnation want to show you a slide that doesn't capture everything i'm trying to show you but let's just let's go to this I call this always above the line. Always above the line. Now you see this blue line going along. Let's just call that the line that separates being in the Father's favor or being out of the Father's favor. He's proud of you. He's disappointed in you. He's looking at you with love. He's looking at you with condemnation and what we think is that we move up and down that line We think we're up when we're doing well when we've had a good day. We didn't bust at our spouse We showed some patience. We had a good quiet time reading the scriptures. Our hearts are in the right place We think we're above the line and then of course it Typically doesn't take too long before we do something or say something or think something and now we're below the line So we think that we're like this But when you're born again, when the Holy Spirit indwells you, when you've surrendered your life to Jesus, you're always above the line. You're always in the Father's favor. He loves you perfectly. And I had one of the men ask if we could ever be separated from God's love. And of course, Paul says famously in Romans 8 that nothing can separate us. But he told the story of a man whose daughter had died, killed in a car accident. And that man said that God doesn't care about our feelings. Because he felt that. And I understand those feelings. So I mentioned to my friend that he could mention to his friend, when the timing is right, of course, all the times in the Older Testament where God Himself says, I am a God of compassion. He wants us to know, I am a God of compassion. I am a God of compassion. And if you break the word compassion down, C-O-M, from the Latin, always means with. When you see C-O-M in a word, it means with. Passion means suffering. When God tells us He is a compassionate God, full of compassion, He's telling us that He's with us in our suffering. that he feels our pain in his heart. So yes, he cares. And when we are not doing our best, and when we are sinning, when we are not where we want to be in any particular time during the day, we're still above the line. Now, in your mind, you may think that you've got a little bit of a sine wave going on, but you're always above the line. Satan is the only one who's going to tell you, you are below the line. Let me give you one more example of a passage that is peculiar, particular to Mark. Again, Jesus, excuse me, Peter, informed Mark, he wrote his gospel down from Peter. This is the angels to the women at the grave on Sunday morning. The angels say, don't be alarmed. He said, you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He is risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter. He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you. Go tell the disciples and Peter. Peter tells Mark that detail. He sought me out that Sunday morning. Think about the restoration that was going on with Jesus and Peter. I want you to think about that. Further proof, the story in Luke, after Luke interviews his eyewitnesses, he tells us the story of the two that were on their way to Emmaus. Jesus joined them. They invited him in for dinner and to spend the night with him. When he broke the bread, they recognized him. He disappeared. They rushed back to all the other disciples in Jerusalem, and they said, We've seen the risen Lord. There they found the eleven and those with them assembled together and saying, It is true. The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon. So now let's just think for a moment. It's Sunday morning. sobriety Peter has denied Jesus three times he has failed as badly as anybody could fail and I'm sure he made sure to for Mark to include these details so everyone would know exactly What restoration looks like Sunday morning? What did that? Meeting look like imagine that now Peter has been to the grave. He's seen as empty. He's he's walking off by himself He's pondering what is going on and Jesus appears to him. What do you think that looked like? And we cannot know. But I think that the first thing Jesus did was give Peter a big hug and squeeze him and not let go. Hold him in that hug, that loving hug for as long as it took for Peter, who was probably sobbing, racking his body, racking with sorrow and tears. And Jesus saying, it's okay, Peter. It's okay. It's okay. I love you. It's okay. I know what you did. It's okay. I love you now Peter now that we've gotten that out of the way Let's move forward Let's move forward. I just love the fact that that we know that that Jesus sought Peter out first to do that reconciliation Now I have one more point before we get to John 14. And let me back up for just a moment and ask you this question. And I asked the men this over these meetings. We're two weeks out from Easter. I said, how long does it take for Easter to sort of slide out of your focus? To slide out of the focus of your attention? And I ask you that question. How long does it typically take for you to kind of move away from Easter? You know, the Easter egg hunts, and the communion, and the wonderful service, and the kids dressed up, and the great lunch on Easter Sunday. And most of the men, and even those who really are digging deep in their relationship with Jesus, the best they gave it was a week. Some were honest enough to say pretty much after lunch. Some said a day. Well, that's not good enough, is it? That's one of the reasons why I wanna stay on this, and we're gonna stay on this for as long as it takes for us to walk through what Jesus is saying on that last night. There's one other point I wanna make, and it comes up in John 13, and it is, of course, when Jesus gets ready to wash the disciples' feet. But I want you to notice how the Holy Spirit communicates this through John. And I call this is safe to be a servant. John 13 Jesus knew that the father had put all things under his power and That and I inserted he knew he had come from God and was returning to God now. Let's just stop Jesus knows That the father has put all things under his power. He knows that he's living with Holy Spirit power He knows that his heavenly father is in total control of everything. I And he knows that he has come from God and he was returning to God. With that knowledge, with that understanding, with that sense of confidence and awareness of his heavenly father's perfect love and perfect presence and perfect power, he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. I call this his safe to be a servant. Why do we not Turn the other cheek. Why do we not power down instead of powering up? Why do we not want to humble ourselves, especially when somebody else is wrong? I mean, Jesus should not have been the one to wash the disciples' feet. Peter should. He was sitting in the servant's seat. Go back two or three videos to look at that. You'll want to see that. We call it the triclinium last supper table, the triclinium table. You'll want to go back and see that for a great explanation. But why don't we? Well, pride certainly is part of it. We don't want them to get the upper hand. We don't want them to think that they beat us out. We don't want them to do it again. We don't want to be a doormat. All these things are reasons why we won't turn the other cheek. We won't humble ourselves. We won't power down instead of powering up. And Jesus gives us the example, if we knew Not just believed it in our head, but believed it in our heart that our Heavenly Father was in control of everything. That He was all-powerful. That He loved us perfectly. It would be safe to turn the other cheek. It would be safe to humble myself as a servant. Now let's go to John 14. Don't you just love this? Isn't this just wonderful to think about these things? Jesus says, do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house, and the Hebrew word there is Bet-Av. It's Father's house, it's the Father's compound. in my father's house has many rooms. If that were not so, would I have told you that I'm going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will be coming back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I'm going." Now, there's a lot of richness in this. First off, this is marriage language. when a groom was set up with his bride, his fiance, when the contract was signed, so to speak, and the money was exchanged, he would say to the bride, I go to prepare a place for you, and I will come back and get you and take you to where I am. And what the groom would do is go back to his father's compound, his family compound, his bet ab. And he would prepare the place where they were going to live within the compound. Because you didn't leave. Everyone stayed in the family compound. And so then he would come back. Just like he said, I go to prepare a place for you. This is marriage language. This would have been so familiar to his disciples. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me. And that's when the groom comes typically about a year later. And if there's a parable you can think of that gives us a living example of this, it's the parable of the 10 virgins. The 10 bridesmaids, where only five had their lamps, with enough oil for their lamps. Jesus is giving them a very real example a bet of a family compound. He's not talking about Clouds in the sky and castles in the sky or anything like that He wants them to know he's serious about his father's bet on that This is a real place that they will spend eternity together and he wants you to know that too And he says I'm coming back Now Jesus saying I'm coming back should either, well it should engender incredible excitement in our hearts. He's coming back. He hasn't left us. He's coming back. If you don't know him, it might throw in some fear. It might throw in some, uh-oh, he's coming back. So check your heart on that. You know the way to the place where I'm going. Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way? Jesus answered, I am the way and the truth, and I am the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus sets this up for us like this. We're sinful man, perfect God. You're not getting into the presence of a perfectly holy God unless you go through Jesus. Jesus is, in some sense, like a filter. Your sins have to be washed off. They have to be caught and washed off of you before you can be in the presence of a perfectly holy God. And your Heavenly Father, because He loves you so much, made it available. He made it available to everyone. No works involved, just surrender your life. but we're going through Jesus. And by the way, and this is a whole nother sermon, but I'll just throw it out there. There's a theme that you see throughout scripture, and it's called the light given, the light given. And the idea is that everyone, we'll start off with Romans, everyone knows there's a God. Everyone knows there's a God. And even if someone's in the deepest, darkest of the Amazons, the deepest, darkest of Africa, and they've never heard the name Jesus, Jesus says, or the scriptures say throughout, if you respond to the light given, I'll give you more light, and I'll give you more light, and I will draw you to me through Jesus. Jesus says, I am the light, the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father except through me. Verse seven, if you really know me, you will know my father as well. From now on, you do know him and you have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the father and that will be enough for us. Now, Philip, really? I hope it would be enough for us. You could see God Almighty. Yeah, would that be enough? Well, on the one hand, we can laugh and say, yes, I hope that would be enough, Philip. But on the other hand, would it be enough? They spent three years with Jesus, maybe three and a half. Apparently, that's not enough, so maybe it wouldn't be enough. Jesus answered, don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Philip has been with Jesus three and a half years. Jesus is saying, you still don't know me. So let's just pause and think, why wouldn't Philip know Jesus? Intimately, in the biblical way of knowing. from the heart. But one, he doesn't have the Holy Spirit yet, so we really cannot know him. But maybe if we pull this to a modern day setting, Jesus may say to someone who's been sitting in church for way more than three and a half years, and say, don't you know me yet? You don't know me after all this time? The reasons we would think that it would be obvious as to why they don't it's because one they're distracted. They're not paying attention Then they're not hearing it in church as a general rule. Most churches are not giving the true gospel They're not they're not bringing the thunder But even if they are, they can't hear it. They're too distracted. They're too busy. There's too many other things going on in their life on Sunday morning. So Jesus says, you don't even know me? We've been together all this time. You've been in church all your life, and you really do not know me? And it takes us to the namesake of 721 Ministries, Matthew 7, 21, 22, and 23, where Jesus says, many will say to me on that day, did we not drive out demons and perform any miracles? And I will say to them, away from me, you evil doers. I don't know you. The modern day translation being, Jesus, here's my resume. Look at all the things I've done. I worked at the church. I helped raise money. I taught Sunday school. I did the kids thing. I cooked Wednesday night suppers. I did the men's breakfast, the women's auxiliary, all those things. And Jesus says, no, you did those things because they made you look good or feel good, or they satisfied your checklist sense of religion, maybe. But we don't know each other. You never took the time to get to know me. I don't want to hear those words. I'm not going to hear those words. There will be no resumes on Judgment Day. Peter asks Jesus, Jesus asks, excuse me, Philip, don't you even know me after all this time? And Philip can only say, I don't. We don't want to be that person. And then finally, let's finish with this. Verse 12, very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me, whoever has surrendered their life to me, whoever has put their entire trust and reliance on me, will do the works I have been doing and they will do even greater things than these because I'm going to the Father. Now I want to conclude with that. Jesus says that we'll do even greater things than he has done. That we'll do what he's been doing and we'll do even greater things. Now, when we come back next week, we're going to pick up here. But I want you to think about what it is that we could be doing that would be greater than Jesus. The things that Jesus did. And then the follow-up question is, am I doing any of those things? Does my life look anything like Jesus? Now, a couple of thoughts on this. Jesus had a, you know, he had a three-and-a-half-year public ministry. We have our whole lives. And throughout the Scripture, you see the admonition to persevere, to persevere, to persevere. And when you get to Revelation, those first seven churches, he says, blessed are those who persevere, who persevere, who persevere. And it occurred to me not just too long ago where I thought, well, the reason Throughout the scripture we see blessed as a person who perseveres perseveres is because it's so hard to it's so hard to persevere So just persevering in the faith is one thing that may put us in that category The fact that we bring people to Jesus that we can help people meet Jesus We can't save them, but we can certainly plant seeds. We can water seeds. We can be a witness We can be someone that people see Jesus through Apparently Jesus would say those are greater things So Jesus tells us you can do even greater things than I'm doing And we want to ask ourselves. Does my life look anything like that? You don't have to be a preacher to 5,000 people on Sunday. That's not what we're talking about. It's your individual life. Ask yourself that question, and we'll come back next week, and we'll pick it up, and we'll talk more about this. There are plenty more little gems to mine out of the Upper Room Discourse, and I always say, you know, there's more. There's more. There's so much more. You know it. You know it. Come and follow Jesus and find it.