John Stott died yesterday. He was a theologian, a writer, and a pastor. He served All Souls Church, Langham Place, in London for practically his entire life. I heard him preach about fifteen years ago at Falls Church Episcopal in Washington, DC. He spoke the truth of the Bible clearly and powerfully.
In 2005, Time Magazine selected him as one of the most influential people in the world. He has certainly influenced me! I return again and again to a few of his many books including Men with a Message, a New Testament overview, Understanding the Bible, Men Made New, an exposition of Romans 5-8, Between Two Worlds, a book on preaching, and The Cross of Christ.
Stott remained single his entire life, a life devoted to preaching and teaching. He served without fanfare--something noted in his obituaries.
Tim Stafford of Christianity Today wrote that "Stott exemplified how extraordinary plain, ordinary Christianity can be." He preached Scripture in such a way that people walked away from the text asking the question, "Why didn't I see that myself?" In other words, they walked away from the sermon thinking about the text, not about Stott. This is the way it should be. Stafford described Stott's visits to countries we call the Third World, but that Stott dubbed, The Majority World: "He traveled without entourage, sometimes preaching in cathedrals one day and under a tree the next, meeting the mighty and the lowly and staying in their homes." David Wells, a prominent Christian thinker, came to know Christ at a mission Stott held in South Africa in 1959. Later he lived with Stott. Wells observed, "He was known all over the world, but when you met him he was a devout, humble Christian man. His private life was no different from his public life. It was the same person. That's another way to say that he had integrity. There was no posing."
Wolfgang Saxon of the New York Times was struck by Stott's humility: "For all his fame on several continents, Mr. Stott's travels and appearances were remarkably devoid of pomp, befitting his simple message of reason and faith and his unassuming demeanor." Saxon quotes Stott directly on the danger of pride, "Pride is without doubt the greatest temptation of Christian leaders and I'm very well aware of the dangers of being feted and don't enjoy it and don't think one should enjoy it."
Without seeking to draw attention to himself, the Lord has used Stott to draw more than one generation to pay attention to God and to His Word. Stott was not flashy. Neither was his prose. Notice his simple but clear explanation of justification by faith. Commenting upon Ephesians 2:8-9, Galatians 2:16, and Titus 3:5, Stott wrote:
We cannot avoid the stark alternative which such texts put before us. Not works, but grace. Not law, but faith. Not our righteous deeds but his mercy. There is no co-operation here between God and us, only a choice between two mutually exclusive ways, his and ours. Moreover, the faith which justifies is emphatically not another work. No, to say 'justification by faith' is merely another way of saying 'justification by Christ'. Faith has absolutely no value in itself; its value lies solely in its object. Faith is the eye that looks to Christ, the hand that lays hold of him, the mouth that drinks the water of life. And the more clearly we see the absolute adequacy of Jesus Christ's divine-human person and sin-bearing death, the more incongruous does it appear that anybody could suppose that we have anything to offer (Cross of Christ, 187).
There it is, one of thousands upon thousands of paragraphs with simple but piercing prose pointing to the glory of Jesus Christ.
Stott is to be remembered for his faithfulness. He leaves behind him no children, but many pastors and believers who see Christ with a greater degree of clarity because of Stott's influence. Pray your leaders would be so unassuming and, yet, so effective.