John Stott Quotes

63 Sourced Quotes

In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it?

John Stott
The chief reason why the Christian believes in the divine origin of the Bible is that Jesus Christ Himself taught it.

John Stott
The gospel creates the church, which spreads the gospel, which creates more churches, which in turn spread the gospel further ad infinitum.

John Stott
Nobody can call himself a Christian who does not worship Jesus.

John Stott
Christian people should surely have been in the vanguard of the movement for environmental responsibility, because of our doctrines of creation and stewardship. Did God make the world? Does he sustain it? Has he committed its resources to our care? His personal concern for his own creation should be sufficient to inspire us to be equally concerned.

John Stott
The symbol of the religion of Jesus is the cross, not the scales.

John Stott
God does not love us because Christ died for us; Christ died for us because God loved us.

John Stott
The law requires works of human achievement; the gospel requires faith in Christ's achievement. The law makes demands and bids us obey; the gospel brings promises and bids us believe.

John Stott
The major mark of justified believers is joy, especially joy in God himself. We should be the most positive people in the world. For the new community of Jesus Christ is characterized not by a self-centered triumphalism but by a God-centered worship.

John Stott
At the cross in holy love God through Christ paid the full penalty of our disobedience himself. He bore the judgment we deserve in order to bring us the forgiveness we do not deserve. On the cross divine mercy and justice were equally expressed and eternally reconciled. God's holy love was 'satisfied.'

John Stott
No theology is genuinely Christian which does not arise from and focus on the cross.

John Stott
There is something inherently inappropriate about cherishing small ambitions for God.

John Stott
Do not be content with a static Christian life. Determine rather to grow in faith and love, in knowledge and holiness.

John Stott
God must speak to us before we have any liberty to speak to him. He must disclose to us who he is before we can offer him what we are in acceptable worship. The worship of God is always a response to the Word of God. Scripture wonderfully directs and enriches our worship.

John Stott
The authority by which the Christian leader leads is not power but love, not force but example, not coercion but reasoned persuasion. Leaders have power, but power is safe only in the hands of those who humble themselves to serve.

John Stott
Persecution is simply the clash between two irreconcilable value-systems.

John Stott
Faith is a reasoning trust, a trust which reckons thoughtfully and confidently upon the trustworthiness of God.

John Stott
Nothing is more important for mature Christian discipleship than a fresh, clear, true vision of the authentic Jesus.

John Stott
Our love grows soft if it is not strengthened by truth, and our truth grows hard if it is not softened by love.

John Stott
Envy is the reverse side of a coin called vanity - Nobody is ever envious of others who is not first proud of himself.

John Stott
Circumcision stands for a religion of human achievement, of what man can do by his own good works; Christ stands for a religion of divine achievement, of what God has done through the finished work of Christ.

John Stott
Baptism with water is the sign and seal of baptism with the Spirit, as much as it is of the forgiveness of sins. Water-baptism is the initiatory Christian rite, because Spirit-baptism is the initiatory Christian experience.

John Stott
We are sent into the world, like Jesus, to serve. For this is the natural expression of our love for our neighbors. We love. We go. We serve.

John Stott
Word and worship belong indissolubly to each other. All worship is an intelligent and loving response to the revelation of God, because it is the adoration of His name. Therefore, acceptable worship is impossible without preaching. For preaching is making known the name of the Lord, and worship is praising the name of the Lord made known.

John Stott
The other gods were strong; but thou wast weak; they rode, but thou didst stumble to a throne; But to our wounds only God's wounds can speak, And not a god has wounds, but thou alone.

John Stott