Rick Hughes sheds light on the Upper Room discourse in this captivating episode. Explore the crucial teachings Jesus imparted in His last moments with the disciples, providing them—and us—with a blueprint for spiritual maturity. Learn about the practices of forgiveness, humility, and overcoming fear, intricately woven into the narrative to equip believers with peace and joy amidst trials. This episode promises not only inspiration but also a roadmap for living a life filled with faith, hope, and dedication to God’s Word.
welcome to the flatline with your host rick hughes for the next 30 minutes you’ll be inspired motivated educated but never manipulated now your host rick hughes good morning and welcome to the flatline i’m your host rick hughes and for the next few minutes stick with me it’ll be a short time just close to 30 minutes of motivation inspiration education and absolutely
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No manipulation because we don’t con people here. We’re not trying to raise money. We’re not trying to ask you for donations. We’re not trying to sell you anything. We have a lot of stuff to give you, but first and foremost is to give you the Word of God, hopefully helping you to orient and adjust to God’s plan. That’s my desire, and I hope you’ll be able to do that. The Flatline is heard every Sunday morning on this radio station. We’re going into show 945 Sundays that we’ve been on the air. Thank you for listening. Thank you for calling, and thank you for writing. Many of you have written and said the show has changed your life and helped you. And I’m glad to know that. I’m not a pastor. I’m an evangelist. But I’m trying to direct you where you can get under a well-qualified pastor and grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So thank you for paying attention. By the way, the new book, These Things, These Things, that new book is out. And we’ll be glad to send you a copy of it. And I’m going to rehearse some of that book for you today. so you’ll understand what we’re talking about. So as always, you can go to our website, rickhughesministries.org, and see the books that are available. And you can always call us at 800-831-0718 if you’d like to order one of those books or order it from the website. It’s up to you. So if you’re ready to get started, I’d love to give you this information while we have the time. Again, we recently printed a new book called These Things, and I found this when I was studying in the book of John, and it’s an amazing passage. These words are found in John 15, 11, where the Lord Jesus Christ instructed the disciples, I told you these things so that my joy would be in you and your joy would be full. And the question is, what did he tell them? What are these things referring to? That’s an antecedent referring to what? So this is where our Lord instructed the disciples to understand why he spent several hours the last night teaching them before he was crucified. So keep this in mind. Let me run through the timeline for you. Our Lord and his disciples had retired to what we know as the upper room for privacy and to celebrate the Passover. According to the later tradition that I studied and read about, the Last Supper took place in what is today called the Room of the Last Supper on Mount Zion. And that’s just outside the walls of the old city of Jerusalem. And it’s traditionally known as the Upper Room. So our Lord Jesus had instructed two disciples to go into the city and meet a man carrying a jar of water. This man would then lead them to a house where they would find a large upper room furnished and ready for the Passover. In this upper room, they prepared the Passover, the disciples did. Listen to Luke 28, eight through 13. Jesus sent Peter and John saying, quote, go and make preparation for us to eat the Passover. And they said, Where do you want us to prepare for it? They asked him. Verse 10 of Luke 22, he replied, As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters and say to the owner of the house, The teacher asked, Where is the guest room? Where may I eat the Passover with my disciples? and then he will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished, make your preparations there. They left, that’s Peter and John, and found these things just as Jesus told them, so they prepared the Passover. After the Passover supper was over, our Lord proceeded to give his farewell discourse. And it’s here that he introduced them and introduces us to what we now call the Eucharist or the communion table. So in Luke 22, 19, excuse me, and he took bread and he broke it and gave thanks. And he gave it to them saying, this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me. And likewise, he also took the cup after supper saying, this cup is the new covenant in my blood. which will be shed for you. After this communion celebration, our Lord began to teach a series of spiritual insights, things they would need to understand and apply in their life once he departed from them. And I think the reason he did this is he knew that Satan would now turn his full attention to the disciples once the Lord had been crucified. So keep this in mind. They’re in the upper room. They’ve had the last meal. They’ve had communion. And the Lord now has a few hours before he goes to the garden to pray and is arrested. And now he’s going to teach them an intense Bible study. That intense Bible study will go from John 13 to John 15, 11. And these things refers to everything in those passages. And I’m going to give you some highlights of them. And we, of course, go in depth to them in the book because I think it’s one of the most amazing passages in the New Testament. This is his last instructions to them. Keep that in mind. His farewell discourse. So, okay, you with me now? All right. In John 16, one through two, here’s what he said to them. These things I spoke to you that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogue. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think they’re offering God’s service. So he’s telling them, after he taught them what these things refers to in John 15, 11, he’s telling them why he told him these things. So let me back it up for you. John 15, 11, these things I spoke to you that my joy may remain in you and your joy may be full. In other words, I want you to have peace. I want you to have happiness. I want you to have joy. And I’m telling you this because they’re going to try to kill you when they kill me. So these words that I’m giving you in the title of this book, These Things, refers to a minimum, at minimum, 14 major issues they needed to understand between John 13 and John 15, 11. It’s amazing how much information is there. And he taught it in one, I’m going to assume, a four-hour Bible class from whatever time that this thing broke up their dinner and the communion until he washed their feet until the end of it. So this is an intense Bible class. Whatever length of time it is, it’s several hours. Nobody has a tape recorder. Nobody took any notes. As a matter of fact, the Lord Jesus Christ actually told them that the Holy Spirit would help them recall the information at a later date. And that is exactly how John was able to remember and record the events in the book of John. Listen to John 14, 26. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things I said to you. So he does the same thing for you. The Holy Spirit helps you recall scripture. If you learn it, if you store it in your frame of reference, if you store it in your memory center, when you need it, when you need to stand on the faith rest drill, the Holy Spirit will help you remember those scriptures and help you recall. That’s exactly what he did for John. Our new book that we’ve printed called These Things explains all these various doctrines that he taught them that night, but we go in much greater detail than I’m going to be able to give you here. But I want to try to summarize them for you. If you remember being a child and standing by a lake or a creek and having a flat rock and throwing it across the water and watching it skip, skip, skip, skip, skip before it sunk, that’s kind of what I’m going to do here. Just throw a rock across the water and skip across. That’s what these… Passages, I’m gonna go through them real quick and just skip across them, but if you wanna get the in-depth meaning, get the book, these things. So John 13 is where the instructions start. Listen carefully. John 13, two through five. And supper being ended, the devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray him, and Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, that he had come from god and he was going to god rose from supper laid aside his garments took a towel and girded himself and after that he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples feet and to wipe them with the towel which he was girded so here is the very first lesson he taught them the first lesson that he taught these things these things i’m telling you to make you full of joy this is it It was dealing with staying in fellowship by being cleansed from your sin. This lesson caught Peter off guard since he didn’t understand what the Lord was actually doing. And Peter was absolutely astounded that Jesus wanted to wash his feet, not knowing what the Lord was implying. Listen to John 13, six and seven. Then he came to Simon Peter and Peter said to the Lord, you’re not gonna wash my feet, right? And Jesus said to him, what I’m doing, you do not understand. There it is, right there. You don’t understand it now, but you will understand it later after this. And the lesson became clear when the Lord said to him in John 13, 10, Jesus said to him, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and you, Peter, are clean, but not all of you. Referring to Judas, obviously. So the Lord is telling Peter he’s already had a bath. You’ve already been saved. There are two different words used here by our Lord in this passage. The first Greek word, and I’ll give it to you if it means anything, the first Greek word is nipto, N-I-P-T-O. And that means a partial cleansing such as washing your hands. And the second Greek word is luo, L-O-U-O. And that implies a total bath. So our Lord had to explain to Peter, you’ve already had a total bath of salvation. And he actually, all he needed to do was have his feet washed, which illustrates what we do when we confess our known sin using the rebound technique of 1 John 1.9. That’s our first problem-solving device. So if you’ve ever wondered where we got it, we got it right here. 1 John 1.9 says if we confess our sin, he’s faithful and just to forgive us of our sin. and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We don’t need to be saved again. We don’t need to have a bath again. We already had been bathed in Christ Jesus. We just need our feet washed. And he was showing this lesson to the disciples about confessing their sin and getting their feet washed was the illustration he used to do it. And Peter, of course, had to learn the lesson. Now, our Lord explained that to him. Listen carefully. Our Lord explained to Peter that he had already had a bath of salvation, that he actually needed, all he needed was to have his feet cleansed. And that illustrates, as I said, 1 John 1, 9. So listen to John 13, 8 through 10. Peter said to him, you’re never gonna wash my feet. And Jesus said, if I don’t wash you, niptoe, then you have no part with me, okay? If I don’t wash you, you have no part with me. So if you’re out of fellowship, you can’t have any fellowship with him. And Peter said, well, then, if that’s the case, wash not only my feet, but also my hands and my head. And Jesus said, the one who is bathed needs only to wash his feet. If you’re bathed, luo, you’re saved, you already had a total bath, you just need your feet washed, niptoe. but it’s completely clean. So the one, he who is bathed needs only to wash his feet, but is completely clean, and you are clean, you’ve been saved. So the lesson our Lord taught, the first lesson they had to learn, and we obviously don’t practice foot washing today, it wasn’t a ritual that was carried over. The lesson our Lord taught was that when we sin, we need to be cleansed from that sin by using rebound. It’s not necessary to be saved again since one time is enough. So when you sin and you will sin, I sin, when we sin, God expects us to name our sin quickly and get back in fellowship before we get under discipline. Romans 6, 12 warns us, do not let sin reign in your body so that you obey its lust. So when should you confess a known sin? Immediately. Do not make the mistake of waiting until you go to bed at night and reflecting back on your life and say, well, you know, Lord, this morning at 8.15, I got mad at my wife and said a dirty word. Lord, you know, this morning at nine o’clock, I lusted her. Lord, you know, this morning at 10 o’clock, I cheated her. Don’t wait until you go to bed at night. When you know you have sinned, confess it immediately. Why is that necessary? Because as soon as you sin, you break fellowship with God and you go under control of your sin nature. And it does not make any sense, it doesn’t make plain sense, good sense to live under control of your sin nature And then go to bed and get back in fellowship by confessing your sins and sleep in fellowship all night. Why would you want to do that? When you sin, if it’s 8 o’clock, 7 o’clock, 10 o’clock, stop right there and name the sin. If we name our sin, 1 John 1, 9, he is faithful and just to forgive us. And he expects you to do it immediately. So this lesson of foot washing was not taught as a ritual, wasn’t repeated in the church age. Get that in mind, that’s what he was teaching them, teaching them how to confess personal sin. The second lesson he taught the disciples that night was the importance of forgiveness. Listen to what he says now in John 13, 14 and 15. If I, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet for i have given you an example that you should do as i’ve done for you an example what’s he saying it’s not saying you need to watch each other’s feet he’s saying you have to learn to forgive each other you see in the early days of the ministry of the lord jesus christ these disciples were very competitive listen to luke 9 46 then a dispute arose among them as to which one of them would be the greatest I don’t know if you remember that James and John’s mother came to Jesus and said, when you get to heaven, can one of my sons sit on the right and the other on the left? I mean, that was kind of bold. So in the early days of Jesus, this competition went on among the disciples. And they had to learn humility and avoid being bitter at each other. They had to learn how to respond with forgiveness rather than reacting with revenge. that was very critical since satan would love to cause dissension and division and we discussed this much further in the new book these things so they had to learn not to hold a grudge against each other not to be mad against each other to forgive each other so the third thing he taught him in john 13 21 through 27 jesus had thus said he was troubled in spirit and testified Verily, verily, I say unto you that one of you shall betray me. And Jesus identified Judas as the betrayer. But listen to this, the disciples completely missed it. In John 13, 28, but no one at the table knew for what reason he said this to him. For some thought because Judas had the money box that Jesus had said to him, buy those things we need for the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. The lesson we have to learn here is pay attention when God’s word is being taught. These guys had just had their feet washed. They had just had a dinner, a Passover meal. I’m sure they were talking among themselves about what was going on and they didn’t pay attention when the Lord told them that one of you here is going to betray me. We have to learn to pay attention. Concentration is a developed skill required for paying attention. If you can’t concentrate more than 15 minutes, you’re never gonna learn the Word of God under a well-qualified pastor. You’re gonna have to be able to concentrate for an hour at a time when the pastor teaches you the Word of God. If I refer you to a well-qualified pastor that teaches the Word of God, it’s not 15 minutes, it will be an hour. 45 minutes to an hour, and that’s why I tell you, you need a notebook, a Bible, a cup of coffee, a glass of water, take notes, pay attention, concentrate. Because concentration is a skill that must be developed. And the disciples now were full from their meal and they were distracted and they missed the very thing Jesus was telling them. Here’s the next thing they had to learn. He taught them this, how to love one another. In John 13, 34, a new commandment I give to you that you now love one another as I loved you, that you also love one another. Verse 35, by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another. This is a key indicator that you’re a Christian, that you have impersonal love for other believers. We understand this to be impersonal love, and that’s a problem-solving device. We call it problem-solving device number eight, impersonal love for all of mankind. Impersonal love is critical. Listen to 1 John 4.21. 1 John 4.21, this commandment we have from him, that he who loves God, that’s personal love, must love his brother also, that’s impersonal love. The virtue love concept involves personal love for God, which is motivational virtue, and impersonal love for all other human beings, and that’s functional virtue. So virtue love response is what we call functional virtue. By means of the Holy Spirit empowering you, it is possible for you to love an unloving individual. This is not an emotional attachment. It’s not that at all. It’s an attitude of forgiveness and appreciation for what God has mandated. And it’s not based on the character of the individual. but on your character of your soul, which is developed by spiritual maturity and applying scripture. So once again, we cover all of this extensively in the new book, These Things. Impersonal love is critical for you as a believer because it means you don’t have to be upset, you don’t have to be frustrated, you don’t have to be angry, you don’t have to be bitter at anyone. There’s a better way to live. And think about it, this is what God did for you in John 3.16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. How did he love you? He loved you based on his character, not yours. You were not lovable. And this is what impersonal love is. You love other individuals based on your character, not theirs. That’s what God did for you until you became a member of the royal family of God. Now he loves you personally. So the next subject that Jesus taught them is, was their need for humility and not to have some crazy, unrealistic self-image. And poor Peter had to learn this one the hard way. In John 13, 36 through 38, Simon Peter said to the Lord, where are you going, Lord? And Jesus said, where I go, you cannot follow me now, but you will follow me afterwards. And then Peter, here he comes. Peter said to him, Lord, why can I not follow you? I would lay down my life for you. I’d die for you, Lord. Right, absolutely wrong. Jesus answered and said, will you lay down your life for my sake? I’m telling you this, in the morning before the rooster crows, you will have denied me three times already. wow what an unrealistic self-image peter had peter thought he was something that he was not peter was strong he was a fisherman he was a gill netter he had a crew his commercial fishing business i’m sure he was a type a personality along with james and john they called the sons of thunder i mean these were all strong individuals And Peter had to learn a lesson here. He said that I would never leave you. I’d even die for you. And that was, you know, some sort of braggadocious type statement. And it wasn’t true because the Lord looked into his heart and the Lord knew what would break him. And Peter had to learn a very valuable lesson here because he assured the Lord Jesus Christ that he would in fact lay down his life for him. But the Lord exposed this false bravado by telling him that before daylight comes, you will deny me three times. And he did. And the Bible says he went out and he wept bitterly. But the Lord forgave him in Luke 22, 60. The Lord looked at him when he brought him out of the interview with Caiaphas, the high priest. The Lord looked at him and forgave him. Peter wasn’t kicked out of the discipleship. He wasn’t kicked out of the program. But he did deny the Lord. This emotional statement that Peter made really had no merit at all. And I want you to learn this concept here. The Christian life is not fueled and not sustained by emotions. It’s based on the word of God resident in your soul, producing faith and confidence. I have a statement we often use that says winners execute and losers live by their emotions, or we say losers emote. Winners execute and losers emote. A winner believer, a mature believer, has to learn to execute the plan of God. He has to have some Bible doctrine resident in his frame of reference, in his memory center, and it will produce faith and confidence in God, and this claim by Peter that I would die for you was an arrogance-based claim since he was not the person that he thought he was. In Romans 12, three, we’re warned, for I say through the grace given to me to everyone who’s among you, don’t think of yourself more highly than you ought to think, but think soberly as God has dealt to each one of us a measure of faith. We explain all of this in detail in a new book called These Things. And it’s free, by the way, no charge ever for any of our material. In John 14, 11, another thing the Lord taught them that night, let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. The disciples now needed to learn how to overcome fear. You know they must have been shaken hearing there was a traitor in their group. And the Lord knew they needed to trust him just like they supposedly trusted God. And he let them know that they could trust him since he is in fact the son of God. In Psalm 56, 11, in God have I put my trust. I will not be afraid of what man can do to me. And in Jeremiah 29, 11, we find these words. For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, God said, thoughts of peace and not of evil, and to give you an expected end. So the disciples had to learn how to overcome fear. This was something they had to deal with. In Matthew 8, the disciples got in the boat with the Lord and tried to cross the Sea of Galilee to go to a place called Gadareah, and a terrible storm came up. And they actually thought they were going to die while Jesus was sleeping in the boat. They woke him up, said, Lord, save us, we’re perishing. And he got up and he called them short-time trusters. And he spoke one word. He looked out over the horizon of the ship and said, peace, be still, quiet, stop. And the ocean, the Sea of Galilee just got flat all of a sudden. and the disciples were blown away, they couldn’t believe it. This is exactly what they had to learn, do not fear death. And you and I have to learn that too. This leads me to another book we’re coming out with very shortly, hopefully by the end of October, you can have it. It’s called God’s Provisions for Aging People, God’s Grace Provisions for Aging People. As we draw closer to death, it’s inevitable we’re going to die. God has made all kind of provisions for us to sustain us, carry us through, and to empower us. And that’ll all be in this new book, God’s Grace in Aging. So keep a lookout for that book as well, or go ahead and get your name on the list, and we’ll send it to you once it’s published. So did you get that? I didn’t get all these doctrines covered. I got a few. I’ll have to come back next week and do more. But I hope you understand now what I’m talking about. Take your Bible and read from John 13 to John 15, 11, and you will see all these things the Lord taught the disciples that night in that Bible class. Until next week, this is your host, Rick Hughes, and I thank you for listening to The Flatline.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
