Book Review: The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus by D.A. Carson

John 14-17 is the account of Jesus teaching and being with His disciples before He was crucified. He taught many things to them including praying for them and future believers. These passages have been preached from years. Some have been preached expositionally while others topically.

D.A. Carson is one that preached these verses faithfully through expositional preaching. These sermons are record in a book, which was first published in 1980, called, The Farewell Discourse and Final Prayer of Jesus. Carson begins with the background of where we are in the gospel of John. Jesus just washed His disciples' feet, predicted that someone would betray him, told his disciples to love one another, and predicted that Peter would deny Him three times.

From there, we get into the meat of the book. Carson takes us Jesus final time with the disciples before His crucifixion. Most would think this book is a commentary which can be taken that way, but it is not a commentary. This book is a recording of sermons from a gifted pastor and teacher for the church. The way the chapters are written is as if you are looking at Carson's manuscript for these sermons.

Carson does a marvelous job in faithful exposing the text to the reader. You can tell some of them have been rewritten in a 21st century context. This may not be a commentary to the gospel of John, but this is an excellent resource to use for Bible Study or sermon reference.

Thanks Baker Books for letting me review this book.