"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." In the Sermon on the Mount, the "nearest thing to a manifesto" that Jesus ever ...

As Passover approaches, the city of Jerusalem is a political tinderbox. Judah, a resistance leader, plots to overthrow the Roman occupation. Eleazar and his father, the high priest Caiaphas, seek peace in the city at all costs. Pilate, the Roman governor, maneuvers to keep order (and his own hold on power). Caleb, a shopkeeper, is reluctantly caught up in the intrigue. When rumors ...

In gospel proclamation today, the critical New Testament element of repentance can be far too often ignored, minimalized, or dismissed. Yet John the Baptist, Jesus himself, and those he commissioned to spread his gospel all spoke of the urgent need to repent. Michael Ovey was convinced that a gospel without repentance quickly distorts our view of God, ourselves, and each other by undermining grace ...

Matthew's Gospel is the first—and perhaps the most important—single document of the New Testament. In it you will find the fullest and most systematic account of the birth, life, teaching, death, and resurrection of the founder of Christianity, Jesus the Messiah. In this Bible Speaks Today volume, Michael Green shows how this very Jewish Gospel portrays the power and purpose of ...

Christianity Today Book Award
The Gospel Coalition Book Award

"I believe he descended to the dead."

The descent of Jesus Christ to the dead has been a fundamental tenet of the Christian faith, as indicated by its inclusion in both the Apostles' and Athanasian Creeds. Falling between remembrance of Christ's death on Good Friday and of ...

Patronage governs many relationships in Majority World cultures. But regrettably, Western theologians and missionaries rarely notice this prominent cultural reality. Patronage—a reciprocal relationship between social unequals—is a central part of global cultures and the biblical story of God's mission.

Misunderstanding patronage creates problems not only for Westerners ministering ...

The Gospel of John was beloved by the early church, much as it is today, for its spiritual insight and clear declaration of Jesus' divinity. Clement of Alexandria indeed declared it the "spiritual Gospel." Early disputers with heretics such as Cerinthus and the Ebionites drew on the Gospel of John to refute their heretical notions and uphold the full deity of Christ, and this Gospel ...

The Gospel of John was beloved by the early church, much as it is today, for its spiritual insight and clear declaration of Jesus' divinity. Clement of Alexandria indeed declared it the "spiritual Gospel." Early disputers with heretics such as Cerinthus and the Ebionites drew on the Gospel of John to refute their heretical notions and uphold the full deity of Christ, and this Gospel ...