Through the Year with John Stott

John Stott

Description

Using the church as a framework, Through the Year with John Stott explores in 365 days the whole biblical story from creation to the end times. One of the most highly respected Bible teachers of our times, John Stott gets to the heart of each of the 365 carefully selected passages, covering every essential Christian teaching in a single volume. The readings are broken up into weekly themes. Each devotion is based on a key passage of Scripture, and includes biblical references for further exploration. This new edition of this much-loved classic devotional includes a new foreword from Old Testament Scholar Chris Wright.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie

Informations

• Publié par: Lion Hudson
• Date de parution: 20 mars 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780857219633
• Langue: English

Extrait

THROUGH THE YEAR WITH
JOHN STOTT
Dedicated to Frances Whitehead, who on 9th April 2006 completed fifty years as my omnicompetent and faithful secretary.

Text copyright 2020 John Stott s Literary Executors
This edition copyright 2020 Lion Hudson IP Limited
The right of John Stott to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Published by
Lion Hudson Limited
Wilkinson House, Jordan Hill Business Park, Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 8DR, England
www.lionhudson.com
Hardback ISBN 978 0 8572 1964 0
Paperback ISBN 978 0 8572 1962 6
e-ISBN 978 0 8572 1963 3
First edition published in 2006 as Through the Bible Through the Year
Acknowledgments
Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version (Anglicised) NIV . Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com
Scripture marked JB is taken from THE JERUSALEM BIBLE, copyright 1966 by Darton, Longman Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Scripture marked KJV is taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture marked NAB is taken from the New American Bible with Revised New Testament 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
Scripture marked NASB is taken from the New American Standard Bible , Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.
Scripture marked NJB is taken from THE NEW JERUSALEM BIBLE, copyright 1985 by Darton, Longman Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc. Reprinted by permission.
Scripture marked NRSV is taken from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture marked REB is taken from the Revised English Bible 1989 Oxford University Press and Cambridge University Press.
Scripture marked RSV is taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Cover image: Used by permission of Kieran Dodds.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
C ONTENTS

Foreword
Following the Christian Calendar: An Explanation
Acknowledgments
Part I: From Creation to Christ: An Overview of the Old Testament (The Life of Israel) September to December
Week 1 Creation
Week 2 The Institution of Work and Marriage
Week 3 The Fall
Week 4 Social Deterioration
Week 5 The Patriarchs
Week 6 Moses and the Exodus
Week 7 The Ten Commandments
Week 8 Joshua and the Judges
Week 9 The Monarchy
Week 10 The Wisdom Literature
Week 11 The Psalter
Week 12 The Prophet Isaiah
Week 13 The Prophet Jeremiah
Week 14 The Exilic Prophets
Week 15 Return and Restoration
Week 16 Images of the Messiah
Week 17 The Nativity
Part II: From Christmas to Pentecost: An Overview of the Gospels (The Life of Christ) January to April
Week 18 Responses to Christmas
Week 19 The Fourfold Gospel of Christ
Week 20 The Years of Preparation
Week 21 The Public Ministry
Week 22 Teaching in Parables
Week 23 The Sermon on the Mount
Week 24 The Lord s Prayer
Week 25 The Turning Point
Week 26 The Controversies of Jesus
Week 27 The Final Week
Week 28 The Upper Room
Week 29 The Ordeal Begins
Week 30 The End
Week 31 The Seven Words from the Cross
Week 32 The Meaning of the Cross
Week 33 The Resurrection Appearances
Week 34 The Significance of the Resurrection
Part III: From Pentecost to the Parousia: An Overview of the Acts, the Letters, and the Revelation (Life in the Spirit) May to August
Week 35 Preparing for Pentecost
Week 36 The First Christian Sermon
Week 37 The Church in Jerusalem
Week 38 Satanic Counter-attack
Week 39 Foundations for World Mission
Week 40 Paul s Missionary Journeys
Week 41 The Long Journey to Rome
Week 42 The Letters to the Galatians and the Thessalonians
Week 43 Paul s Letter to the Romans
Week 44 The Two Letters to Corinth
Week 45 The Three Prison Letters
Week 46 The Pastoral Letters
Week 47 The Letter to the Hebrews
Week 48 The General Letters
Week 49 Christ s Letters to Seven Churches
Week 50 The Heavenly Throne Room
Week 51 The Righteous Judgment of God
Week 52 The New Heaven and New Earth
F OREWORD

B Y C HRIS W RIGHT, INTERNATIONAL MINISTRIES DIRECTOR, L ANGHAM P ARTNERSHIP
Abrahamic and Apostolic
John Stott often spoke of his longing for balanced biblical Christianity ( BBC , as he called it), so I will balance the Old and New Testament in this brief assessment of his legacy. I suggest that in the global context of his ministry, the scale and scope of John Stott s stature was both Abrahamic and apostolic.
Stott was Abrahamic in two ways, the first being the most obvious. God called Abraham to be the vehicle of God s blessing to the nations. Paul says that the gospel announced in advance to Abraham was that all nations would be blessed through him (Gal. 3:8; Gen. 12:1-3). And, of course, that promise will ultimately be fulfilled through Christ and the mission of God s people in Christ: believing Jews and Gentiles. Stott, however, was Abrahamic in a more limited but significant way, in that right from the earlier stages of his ministry he reached out to the world. He had made fifteen international trips even before the 1966 Berlin Congress on World Evangelization, and in the years after the Lausanne Congress with Billy Graham in 1974 his influence within global evangelicalism spread even more extensively.
But Stott was no evangelical tourist . He was passionate about bringing a truly global dimension to Christian mission and theology. Of course, he became well known in North America and Australia, for example, but his heart warmed to the sisters and brothers of the majority world of the global South, and their hearts warmed to him. He listened, he learned, he adapted, and he articulated a mission theology that was contextually sensitive and holistically integrated, while sustaining and deepening the lifelong roots of his biblical and evangelical convictions.
This Abrahamic dimension can be measured by the towering role he played in many different global affiliations and ministries; sometimes as an entrepreneurial initiator, and sometimes as a passionate advocate and ambassador. We could name the Lausanne Movement, the World Evangelical Fellowship, the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, Scripture Union, The Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion, Tearfund, and, of course, his own Langham Partnership.
The second way in which Stott was Abrahamic was not just in the scope of his ministry, but also in the substance of his personal life, which manifested all that Paul must have meant by his phrase the obedience of faith. We read that, By faith Abraham obeyed (Heb. 11:8). God s promise to Abraham came with the demand that he should walk in the way of the Lord, and teach his own household and descendants after him to do the same in righteousness and justice (Gen. 18:19). God s people were to be a blessing by living among the nations in a way that was clearly and ethically distinctive: a holy people in order to be a priestly people. Or, as Jesus put it (in one of Stott s favourite texts), we are called to be salt in a corrupt world and light in a dark world. That is, we are to be distinct from, but deeply engaged with, the world around us.
Stott was passionate about the engagement and penetration of society with the gospel by Christians in their everyday lives and locations, including the workplace. This was as important to him as the truth of the gospel itself. Indeed, he would argue that the truth of the gospel has not truly been grasped until the demands, as well as the promises of, the gospel were understood and being lived out in the world by what he called integrated Christians: Christians whose lives were consistent with their faith. The gospel must penetrate every area of life, including the professions, culture, politics, family, and sexual ethics. Bearing witness to this dimension of Stott s thought and influence are the title of his book on the Sermon on the Mount, Christian Counter-Culture , his exploration of Issues Facing Christians Today, and his founding of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.
Stott was also apostolic in two senses: in evangelism and in teaching. The commission of the New Testament apostles was, first of all, to bear witness to Christ by proclaiming the good news that Jesus of Nazareth was Lord, King and Saviour; that in him the one true God of Israel had inaugurated his reign, had acted to save the world through the death and resurrection of his Son, and was calling people to receive the salvation God offers through repentance, faith, baptism, and obedience. Stott was an evangelist at heart, from his conversion as a teenager at Rugby School until his last days in the care home at St Barnabas. As a student he was involved in leading evangelistic camps for schoolboys. He conducted some fifty university missions in five continents between 1952 and 1977. As rector of All Souls C