Review of Sinclair Ferguson, Lessons From the Upper Room, Sanford: Ligonier Ministries, 2021.
“But this dedication is for others to read: These are private words addressed to you in public” - (T. S. Eliot, A Dedication to my Wife) These poetic lines capture the essence of Jesus’ Upper Room Discourse in John 13-17. In these chapters, Jesus unveils his heart, speaking tenderly to reassure his apostles of his love for them. We’ve been given the privilege of overhearing the innermost concerns of Jesus’ heart toward his closest friends. We have an echo, a glimpse of Jesus’ mind as he dedicates these private words to be read publicly all around the world. To put it another way, Thomas Goodwin called John 13-17 a “window into Christ’s heart”, an idea that Sinclair Ferguson himself borrowed in his book, Lessons from the Upper Room: The Heart of the Saviour . As the subtitle suggests, Ferguson guides our gaze toward Jesus’ heart, providing a heartfelt comfort amid all the tumult in the world around us. In an age of rapid technological changes, growing cultural hostility against