Stott Quotes & Sayings

No acting, no production, could take the place of that moment when you come out in the dark on to the stage and the drummer plays four beats on the hi-hat and then lights and music. It just takes your breath away. No words can do what music can. — Ken Stott

The church is under orders. Evangelistic inactivity is disobedience. — John Stott

We may believe in the deity and the salvation of Christ, and acknowledge ourselves to be sinners in need of his salvation; but this does not make us Christians. We have to make a personal response to Jesus Chris, committing ourselves unreservedly to him as our Savior and Lord. — John R.W. Stott

God. Our highest destiny is to know God, to be in personal relationship with him. Our chief claim to nobility as human beings is that we were made in the image of God and are therefore capable of knowing him. — John R.W. Stott

It is impossible to read the New Testament without being impressed by the atmosphere of joyful confidence which pervades it, and which stands out in relief to the rather jejune religion that often passes for Christianity today. There was no defeatism about the early Christians; they spoke rather of victory. — John R.W. Stott

An actor has power, and their power is very simple: it's the power to say no. — Ken Stott

The overriding reason why we should take other people's cultures seriously is because God has taken ours seriously. — John R.W. Stott

If you Christians lived like Jesus Christ, India would be at your feet tomorrow. — John R.W. Stott

The Christian mind ... is not a mind which is thinking specifically about Christian or even religious topics, but a mind which is thinking about everything, however apparently 'secular', and doing so 'Christianly' or within a Christian frame of reference. It is not a mind stuffed full with pat answers to every question, all neatly filed as in the memory bank of a computer; it is rather a mind which has absorbed biblical truth and Christian presuppositions so thoroughly that it is able to view every issue from a Christian perspective and so reach a Christian judgment about it. — John R.W. Stott

Every time we look at the cross Christ seems to say to us, 'I am here because of you. It is your sin I am bearing, your curse I am suffering, your debt I am paying, your death I am dying.' Nothing in history or in the universe cuts us down to size like the cross. — 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

Whenever I see pointless use of special effects, I reach for something else. — Ken Stott

Jesus evidently thought that human beings still retained a residue of their former glory. — John R.W. Stott

The cross is not just a badge to identify us ... it is also the compass which gives us our bearings in a disoriented world. — John Stott

A Christian should resemble a fruit tree with real fruit, not a Christmas tree with decorations tied on — John Stott

When the Christian loses himself, he finds himself, he discovers his true identity. — John Stott

The spirit of our age is hostile toward people who state their opinions clearly and hold them strongly. — John R.W. Stott

The church lies at the very center of the eternal purpose of God. It is not a divine afterthought. — John Stott

I used to be under the impression that if a role wasn't difficult, then there was nothing happening. Then a director said to me: 'Ken, you've got to realise, acting can be fun, too.' — Ken Stott

The first thing that has to be said about the biblical gospel of reconciliation, however, is that it begins with reconciliation to God, and continues with a reconciled community in Christ. Reconciliation is not a term the Bible uses to describe 'coming to terms with oneself', although it does insist that it is only through losing ourselves in love for God and neighbour that we truly find ourselves. — John R.W. Stott

The modern world detests authority but worships relevance. Our Christian conviction is that the Bible has both authority and relevance, and that the secret of both is Jesus Christ — John Stott

Further, this human responsibility is in the first instance 'not...a task but a gift,...not law but grace'. It expresses itself in 'believing, responsive love' (p.98). So then, 'one who has understood the nature of responsibility has understood the nature of man. Responsibility is not an attribute, it is the "substance" of human existence. It contains everything..., [it is] that which distinguishes man from all other creatures....' (p.50). Therefore 'if responsibility be eliminated, the whole meaning of human existence disappears' (p.258). — John R.W. Stott

So Jesus confronts us with himself, sets before us a radical choice between obedience and disobedience, and calls us to an unconditional commitment of mind, will and life to his teaching. — John R.W. Stott

Why is it that some Christians cross land and sea, continents and cultures, as missionaries? What on earth impels them? It is not in order to commend a civilization, an institution or an ideology, but rather a person, Jesus Christ, whom they believe to be unique. — John R.W. 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

Saving faith is resting faith, the trust which relies entirely on the Savior. — John Stott

For me, acting is a series of impressions rather than trying to find one line through to the end, which risks becoming more of a presentation. — Ken Stott

A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him. — John R.W. Stott

I wanted success, but I wanted it on my own terms. — Ken Stott

John Stott concludes, "It seems to have been Paul's deliberate policy to move purposefully from one strategic city-centre to the next."5 — Timothy J. Keller

Every Christian should be both conservative and radical; conservative in preserving the faith and radical in applying it. — John R.W. Stott

There is no Christianity without the cross. If the cross is not central to our religion, ours is not the religion of Jesus. — John Stott

No one will die if they don't know how old I am. — Ken Stott

In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? — John R.W. Stott

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

For the essence of sin is man substituting himself for God [Gen. 3:1-7], while the essence of salvation is God substituting himself for man [2 Cor. 5:21]. Man asserts himself against God and puts himself where only God deserves to be; God sacrifices himself for man and puts himself where only man deserves to be. — John Stott

What I believe to be one of the major tragedies in the Church today. Namely, that evangelicals are biblical, but not contemporary, while liberals are contemporary but not biblical, and almost nobody is building bridges and relating the biblical text to the modern context — John Stott

P. T. Forsyth's book Positive Preaching and the Modern Mind. These are its opening words: 'It is, perhaps, an overbold beginning, but I will venture to say that with its preaching Christianity stands or falls. — John R.W. Stott

I am wholeheartedly in favour of an independent Scotland. — Ken Stott

The most effective preaching comes from those who embody the things they are saying. They are their message ... Christians ... need to look like what they are talking about. It is people who communicate primarily, not words or ideas ... Authenticity ... gets across from deep down inside people ... A momentary insincerity can cast doubt on all that has made for communication up to that point ... What communicates now is basically personal authenticity.3 — John R.W. Stott

No man preaches his sermon well to others if he does not first preach it to his own heart. — John Stott

Here's how to determine God's will for your life: Go wherever your gifts will be exploited the most. — John Stott

Grace is love that cares and stoops and rescues. — John Stott

We need to repent of the haughty way in which we sometimes stand in judgment upon Scripture and must learn to sit humbly under its judgment instead. — John Stott

The Bible isn't about people trying to discover God, but about God reaching out to find us. — John R.W. Stott

The incentive to peacemaking is love, but it degenerates into appeasement whenever justice is ignored. To forgive and to ask for forgiveness are both costly exercises. All authentic Christian peacemaking exhibits the love and justice-and so the pain-of the cross. — John Stott

I am very aware of how warmly Scotland is regarded around the world, and a vote for self-determination would raise our international profile even further, with lots of benefits for Scottish arts and culture. — Ken Stott

The radical biblical perspective is to see death not as the termination of life but as the gateway to life. — John R.W. Stott

In fundamentals, faith is primary, and we may not appeal to love as an excuse to deny essential faith. In nonfundamentals, however, love is primary, and we may not appeal to zeal for the faith as an excuse for failures in love. — John R.W. Stott

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

There are many actors who'll make their living in other areas, and they'll say they don't like theatre. What they're saying is that they're afraid of theatre because they know it will separate those who can from those who can't. — Ken Stott

Moved by the perfection of His holy love, God in Christ substituted Himself for us sinners. That is the heart of the cross of Christ. — John Stott

Seldom if ever should we have to choose between satisfying physical hunger and spiritual hunger, or between healing bodies and saving souls, since an authentic love for our neighbour will lead us to serve him or her as a whole person. Nevertheless, if we must choose, then we have to say that the supreme and ultimate need of all humankind is the saving grace of Jesus Christ, and that therefore a person's eternal, spiritual salvation is of greater importance than his or her temporal and material well-being ... The choice, we believe, is largely conceptual. In practice, as in the public ministry of Jesus, the two are inseparable ... — John R.W. Stott

So close was Christ's connection with God that he equated a man's attitude to himself with the man's attitude to God. — John Stott

The chief occupational hazard of leadership is pride. — John Stott

If the first mark of a true and living church is love, the second is
suffering. The one is naturally consequent on the other. A
willingness to suffer proves the genuineness of love. — John Stott

The astonishing paradox of Christ's teaching and of Christian experience is this: if we lose ourselves in following Christ, we actually find ourselves. True self-denial is self-discovery. To live for ourselves is insanity and suicide; to live for God and for man is wisdom and life indeed. We do not begin to find ourselves until we have become willing to lose ourselves in the service of Christ and of our fellows. — John R.W. Stott

The establishment is a dirty, dangerous beast, and the BBC is a mouthpiece for that. — Ken Stott

The church has a double responsibility in relation to the world around us. On the one hand we are to live, serve and witness in the world. On the other hand we are to avoid becoming contaminated by the world. So we are neither to seek to preserve our holiness by escaping from the world nor to sacrifice our holiness by conforming to the world — John R.W. Stott

For our sake, he made him sin who knew no sin, so that in him we may become righteousness of God ...
As we look at the cross, we begin to understand the terrible implication of these words. At twelve noon, 'there was darkness over the whole land' which continued for three hours until Jesus died. With the darkness came silence, for no eye should see, and no lips could tell, the agony of the soul which the spotless Lamb of God now endured. The accumulated sins of all human history were laid upon him. Voluntarily he bore them in his own body. He made them his own. He shouldered full responsibility for them. — John R.W. Stott

The Christian life is not just our own private affair. If we have been born again into God's family, not only has he become our Father but every other Christian believer in the world, whatever his nation or denomination, has become our brother or sister in Christ. But it is no good supposing that membership of the universal Church of Christ is enough; we must belong to some local branch of it. Every Christian's place is in a local church. sharing in its worship, its fellowship, and its witness. — John Stott

The good news is the gospel of God, about Christ, according to Scripture, for the nations, unto the obedience of faith, and for the sake of the Name. — John Stott

I didn't like crab. Not at all. My stepmother had tricked my into eating a crab sandwich once in a cafe in Cromer, told me it was tuna. I'd never forgiven her. — Rebecca Stott

Looking back over my own life I here declare without apology that it is the study of God's Word, year after year, close communion with Christ, and great books that have nourished my soul in wondrous ways. Such authors as Fenelon, Henry Drummond, F. B. Meyer, G. Campbell Morgan, Martyn Lloyd Jones, A. W. Tozer, Hannah Whitehall Smith Oswald Chambers, Andrew Murray and John Stott have each, with their own special insights, enriched my life beyond measure. — W. Phillip Keller

we are to 'hunger and thirst for righteousness'. For what is the use of confessing and lamenting our sin, of acknowledging the truth about ourselves to both God and men, if we leave it there? Confession of sin must lead to hunger for righteousness. — John R.W. Stott

Never use a gallon of words to express a spoonful of thought. Our unadorned word should be enough. — John Stott

When Jesus is truly our Lord, He directs our lives and we gladly obey Him. Indeed, we bring every part of our lives under His lordship - our home and family, our sexuality and marriage, our job or unemployment, our money and possessions, our ambitions and recreations. — John Stott

There is something inherently inappropriate about cherishing small ambitions for God. — 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 R.W. Stott

Theology is a serious quest for the true knowledge of God, undertaken in response to His self-revelation, illumined by Christian tradition, manifesting a rational inner coherence, issuing in ethical conduct, resonating with the contemporary world and concerned for the greater glory of God. — John Stott

Grace is God loving, God stooping, God coming to the rescue, God giving himself generously in and through Jesus Christ. — John Stott

The Cross is the blazing fire at which the flame of our love is kindled, but we have to get near enough for its sparks to fall on us. — John Stott

Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you. — John Stott

This book is dedicated to adversity. Thanks for the great story. — Shane Stott

I always leave room for serendipity and chance. — Ken Stott

The cup from which he shrank was something different. It symbolized neither the physical pain of being flogged and crucified, nor the mental distress of being despised and rejected even by his own people, but rather the spiritual agony of bearing the sins of the world, in other words, of enduring the divine judgment which those sins deserved. — John R.W. Stott

Don't neglect your critical faculties. Remember that God is a rational God, who has made us in His own image. God invites and expects us to explore His double revelation, in nature and Scripture, with the minds He has given us, and to go on in the development of a Christian mind to apply His marvellous revealed truth to every aspect of the modern and post-modern world. — John Stott

Mission arises from the heart of God Himself and is communicated from His heart to ours. Mission is the global outreach of the global people of a global God. — 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

Every time we allow our mind to harbour a grudge, nurse a grievance, entertain an impure fantasy, or wallow in self-pity, we are sowing to the flesh. — John R.W. Stott

We cannot be content with an evangelism which does not lead to the drawing of converts into the church, nor with a church order whose principle of cohesion is a superficial social camaraderie instead of a spiritual fellowship with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. — John Stott

I find it very heartening that of the women I have questioned lately about their feelings towards their mother, all the ones whose faces light up and who say, 'She's wonderful' have been daughters of women who work outside the home. — Mary Stott

Beyond this point on the river Cambridge became a kind of miniature Venice, its river water lapping up against the ancient stone of college walls, here mottled and reddened brick, there white stone. Stained, lichened, softened by water light. Here the river became a great north-south tunnel, a gothic castle from the river, flanked by locked iron gates, steps leading nowhere, labyrinths, trapdoors, landing stages where barges had unloaded their freight: crates of fine wines, flour, oats, candles, fine meats carried into the damp darkness of college cellars. — Rebecca Stott

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

It is a great comfort to know that our judge will be none other than our savior. — John Stott

We do not need to wait for the Holy Spirit to come: he came on the day of Pentecost. He has never left the church. — John Stott

The Christian's chief occupational hazards are depression and discouragement. — John Stott

Every powerful movement has had its philosophy which has gripped the mind, fired the imagination and captured the devotion of its adherents. — John Stott

We must be global Christians with a global vision because our God is a global God. — John R.W. 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

Sin and the child of God are incompatible. They may occasionally meet; they cannot live together in harmony — John Stott

Inspector Rebus is a great character, so when the opportunity came up to revive the role for 'BBC Children in Need,' and really have a bit of fun with it, I was happy to take part. — Ken Stott

Instead of inflicting upon us the judgment we deserved, God in Christ endured it in our place. — John Stott

Simplicity is the first cousin of contentment. — John Stott

God continues to speak through what He has spoken. — John Stott

Thomas Cranmer in his 'Homily of Salvation' explained that three things had to go together in our justification: on God's part 'his great mercy and grace', on Christ's part 'the satisfaction of God's justice', and on our part 'true and lively faith'. He concluded the first part of the homily: 'It pleased our heavenly Father, of his infinite mercy, without any our desert or deserving, to prepare for us the most precious jewels of Christ's body and blood, whereby our ransom might be fully paid, the law fulfilled, and his justice fully satisfied.'15 — John R.W. Stott

110. When I enter the pulpit with the Bible in my hands and in my heart, my blood begins to flow and my eyes to sparkle for the sheer glory of having God's Word to expound. — John R.W. Stott

Probably the greatest tragedy of the church throughout its long and chequered history has been its constant tendency to conform to the prevailing culture instead of developing a Christian counter-culture. — John R.W. Stott

If God speaks to us about himself and his own glorious greatness, we respond by humbling ourselves before him in worship ... If He speaks to us about His commandments, we determine to obey them. — John Stott