Spirit, Learning and Life
Forming character through the insights of literature, contemporary culture and Scripture.
Sermon on the Mount
John is so unique among the four gospels of the New Testament that a commentator once gave it the nickname “maverick”. All tell the same basic story of Jesus, but the fourth one is distinct in tone and content. John is all about Jesus explaining his nature and purpose in the world. Jesus was God in human form, a king who looks like anything but as he washes his students’ feet as though he were a common servant. He said he did it as a symbol of his entire life’s purpose — to reveal God’s true self-giving nature.
Our nearly two years of studying it together touched our lives deeply, and kept inviting us into a deeper relationship with Jesus. Who exactly is Jesus in our 21st century, post-Christendom world? Just as it did for the 1st century readers, the book of John taught us that Jesus is alive and real and can change your life forever.
Resources
Videos
The Bible Project has excellent free videos and other resources on John and many other books of the Bible — thebibleproject.com
Articles
“How John Tells a Story” by Craig Koester
“Characters in John” by Craig Koester
Books
Glen H. Stassen. Living the Sermon on the Mount: A Practical Hope for Grace and Deliverance
Optional Reading
Dale C. Allison. The Sermon on the Mount: Inspiring the Moral Imagination.
James L. Bailey. Contrast Community: Practising the Sermon on The Mount.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The Cost of Discipleship.
Warren Carter. What are They Saying About Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount?
Oswald Chambers. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount.
Jeffrey P. Greenman, Timothy Larsen, and Stephen R. Spencer. eds. The Sermon on the Mount Through the Ages: From Early Church to John Paul II.
R. T. Kendall. Sermon on the Mount: A Verse by Verse Look at the Greatest Teachings of Jesus.
Scot McKnight. Sermon on the Mount: The Story of God Bible Commentary.
Michael Smith & Rami Shapiro. Mount and Mountain: A Reverend and a Rabbi Talk About the Sermon on the Mount.
John C. Stott. The Message of the Sermon on the Mount.
Charles Talbert. Reading the Sermon on the Mount: Character Formation and Decision Making in Matthew 5-7.