The Night He Was Betrayed: Jesus, 12 Disciples, and Life-Changing Lessons from the Upper Room

By Brad Goad

Journey through a Fateful Evening to Prepare for the Grandest Celebration

 

There's a gap in our lives. The world may prepare well for Christmas, but Easter is different. We rarely dedicate a long period of time to prepare for Easter.

 

The Night He Was Betrayed fulfills that gap. The g

• Language: English
• Publisher: R8 Ministries
• Release date: Mar 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798985653519

Brad Goad

Brad Goad is the author of the Easter Devotional Series named as one of Gary Thomas' top ten "Favorite Reads of 2022." Brad was born in Fort Worth, Texas. He graduated from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, before venturing into ministry. After receiving a degree in Bible and Speech Communication, Brad served as a campus minister in New London, Connecticut, at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and Connecticut College. He then moved to Calgary, Alberta, Canada, to lead the Winter Games Ministry for Creative Arts for the 1988 Winter Olympics. The ministries in both Connecticut and Canada were with the North American Mission Board. In 1989, Brad moved to Louisville, Kentucky, to attend seminary and then moved to Nashville, Tennessee, to work at LifeWay Christian Resources. While in Nashville, Brad received a master of business degree from Trevecca Nazarene University. Brad worked with speakers and authors such as Beth Moore, Henry Blackaby, Calvin Miller, John Trent, and Anne Graham Lotz. In 2004, Brad was called to serve at Second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas. He is pastor of the ministry for adults ages sixty and up on the Woodway Campus. Brad is married to Rainy, and they have a beautiful daughter, Kamryn, who lives and works in Houston.

Book preview

Part 1: The Location

Introduction

Sometimes picking a place to eat can be difficult. There are times when a simple conversation about where to eat turns into a complex discussion of prices, menus, preferences, and wait time.

It usually starts with an unassuming question: Where do you want to eat?

When asked by a wife, her husband may respond quickly with, It doesn’t matter. This is not always the best answer for a husband to give his wife, even when it does not really matter.

But unless you are a foodie, it usually does not matter the kind of food or even the place. Food is primarily sustenance. It is a necessity that, so as long as the person is able to eat somewhere, is going to be acceptable. No harm, no foul.

There are, however, those occasions when the significance of the moment is such that where you choose to eat does matter. The occasion could be a birthday, anniversary, graduation, or holiday celebration. The food matters. The ambiance matters. The lighting matters. The music, or lack thereof, matters.

When those occasions occur, thought goes into the selection of a place to eat. Similar to the law of real estate, it’s about location, location, location. For a special, significant, benchmark occasion, the place where you eat not only matters but will also be remembered.

And so it was for thirteen men in a large, furnished room upstairs on the night a celebration turned into a betrayal.

— Chapter 1 —

The Question

The night Jesus was betrayed began with a meal. It started with a seemingly simple question, Where do you want to eat? But in reality, it was not a simple question.

The answer to the question would set the stage for a life-changing meal. A life-changing moment. A life-changing example.

A life-changing lesson.

Matthew recorded it like this:

Matthew 26:17-19 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked, Where do You want us to prepare for You to eat the Passover? And He said, Go into the city to a certain man, and say to him, ‘The Teacher says, My time is near; I am keeping the Passover at your house with My disciples.’" The disciples did as Jesus had directed them; and they prepared the Passover.

It was a simple question that had probably been asked or heard countless times over their three years together: Jesus, where do you want to eat? The disciples asked a very general question that could have easily been answered, "It doesn’t