The Message of the Sermon on the Mount (The Bible Speaks Today | BST)

by John Stott

Publisher:

IVP

, 1978

Overview

"The followers of Jesus are to be different," writes John Stott, "different from both the nominal church and the secular world, different from both the religious and the irreligious. The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counter-culture. Here is a Christian value-system, ethical standard, religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, lifestyle, and network of relationships—all of which are totally at variance with those in the non-Christian world. And this Christian counter-culture is the life of the kingdom of God, a fully human life indeed but lived out under the divine rule."

In this careful exposition of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, John R.W. Stott accurately expounds the biblical text and relates it to life today. Above all, the author says, he wants to let Christ speak this sermon again, this time to the modern world.

Contents

Top Highlights

“Thus the followers of Jesus are to be different—different from both the nominal church and the secular world, different from both the religious and the irreligious. The Sermon on the Mount is the most complete delineation anywhere in the New Testament of the Christian counter-culture. Here is a Christian value-system, ethical standard, religious devotion, attitude to money, ambition, life-style and network of relationships—all of which are totally at variance with those of the non-Christian world. And this Christian counter-culture is the life of the kingdom of God, a fully human life indeed but lived out under the divine rule.” (Page 19)

“They are rather eight qualities of the same group who at one and the same time are meek and merciful, poor in spirit and pure in heart, mourning and hungry, peacemakers and persecuted.” (Page 31)

“Nevertheless, it is seriously misleading to render makarios ‘happy’. For happiness is a subjective state, whereas Jesus is making an objective judgment about these people. He is declaring not what they may feel like (‘happy’), but what God thinks of them and what on that account they are: they are ‘blessed’.” (Page 33)

“First, it shows the non-Christian that he cannot please God by himself (because he cannot obey the law) and so directs him to Christ to be justified. Secondly, it shows the Christian who has been to Christ for justification how to live so as to please God. More simply, as both the Reformers and the Puritans used to summarize it, the law sends us to Christ to be justified, and Christ sends us back to the law to be sanctified.” (Page 36)

Product Details

• Title: The Message of the Sermon on the Mount
• Author: John Stott
• Series: The Bible Speaks Today
• Publisher: IVP
• Print Publication Date: 1978
• Logos Release Date: 2007
• Pages: 238
• Era: era:contemporary
• Language: English
• Resources: 1
• Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
• Subjects: Bible. N.T. Matthew 5:1-7:29 › Commentaries; Sermon on the Mount
• Resource ID: LLS:BSTUSSRMNMT
• Resource Type: Bible Commentary
• Metadata Last Updated: 2024-09-24T16:19:15Z

About John Stott

John Stott CBE (1921 – 2011) was a Christian leader and Anglican clergyman who is noted as a leader of the worldwide evangelical movement. He is famous as one of the principal authors of the Lausanne Covenant in 1974. John Stott was ordained into the ministry of the Church of England in 1945 and has served the same church ever since. He was assistant pastor of All Souls for 5 years, the senior pastor (Rector) for 25, and Rector Emeritus since 1975. During the last quarter century he had been set free (under the auspices of the Langham Partnership) to travel the world, especially for ministry to pastors and students. He has been a Chaplain to the Queen since 1959. He was President of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.