INTRODUCTION

No man has transformed and shaped the face of human history in the last two thousands years as Jesus has — it is by his birth that the world now dates its calendar.1 No one has touched and reshaped whole nations as he had done. No one continues to touch lives — restoring them where they were broken, comforting where there is only grief, healing where they are wounded, igniting and energizing them when they were lifeless and pointless, and empowering them once they have been grasped by the heavenly vision of God's continuing work in the world still.

"How can anyone have anything new to say about Jesus
without being a crank
or a maverick, or, worse,
making Jesus himself into one?"

So much has been written about Jesus the next ranking person is left "un-catch-up-ably" miles behind. Writing the preface to his book Jesus and the Victory of God, N. T. Wright, New Testament scholar and Bishop of Durham since 2003, says:

I am still sometimes embarrassed when people ask me what the present book is about, and I say, 'Jesus'. It seems pretentious. How can anyone have anything new to say about Jesus without being a crank or a maverick, or, worse, making Jesus himself into one?2

Wright goes on to write another 600 plus pages about Jesus in the book. Why? Because Jesus belongs to that unique class of persons in which there is only one qualifying candidate, who is inexhaustible in the thoughts he provokes, ineffable in the love he engenders, boundless in the devotion he inspires, and infinitely unpredictable in the transformation he induces. Wright again:

What you say about Jesus affects your entire worldview. If you see Jesus differently, everything changes. Turn this small rudder, and the whole ship will change tack."3

A similar thought was already expressed by John Newton in a hymn:

'What think ye of Christ' is the test
To try both your faith and your scheme;
You cannot be right in the rest,
Unless you think rightly of him.

We hope, therefore, that the resources here will help you dig deeper into your knowledge and love of Jesus, and prepare you to preach him with greater passion and effectiveness.

Jesus belongs to that unique class of persons
in which there is only one qualifying candidate,
who is inexhaustible
in the thoughts he provokes,
ineffable in the love he engenders,
boundless in the devotion he inspires,
and infinitely unpredictable
in the transformation he induces.