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The Gospel of John: When Love Comes to Town, By Paul L. Metzger alt

The Gospel of John

When Love Comes to Town

Resonate Series

by Paul Louis Metzger
Afterword by Rick McKinley
Foreword by Leonard Sweet

The Gospel of John
Ebook
  • Length: 304 pages
  • Published: October 18, 2010
  • Imprint: IVP
  • ISBN: 9780830868261

The Resonate series recovers the ancient wisdom of Scripture and helps us understand how it resonates with our complex world. The stories and insights of each book of the Bible are brought into conversation with contemporary voices of hope and lament--the cultural messages we interact with on a daily basis. The Scriptures become a meeting ground where God speaks to the pressing concerns of our day, and we are confronted in turn with a fresh experience of God's truth.In this journey through the Gospel of John, Paul Louis Metzger wrestles with the question of what happens when God, who is love, comes to town and takes up residence among us. For some this new neighbor love is welcome; for others, unusual; for still others, suspect--even dangerous.We learn from John's Gospel what it means to be called friends and lovers of God, what it means to put love to death and what it means for love to rise again in our midst and in our lives.

REVIEWS

"Interpreting the Bible is the task of every Christian, and most of us get lost somewhere between what it meant then and what it means now. Both are necessary if our understanding of the text and our living out the text is to have any integrity. Dr. Paul Louis Metzger's Resonate volume on the Gospel of John helps us bridge this divide, taking us back to John's original meaning--and walking us forward to today so that we might live and be the light this dark world so desperately needs."Brett C. Blair, founder of www.Sermons.com and www.Seminary.com
"This combination of pop culture, social critique and serious evangelical theology would probably become a discordant mess in less skilled hands. But Paul Louis Metzger blends them into a highly readable harmony in this thought- and heart-provoking book."Tom Krattenmaker, USA Today Board of Contributors and author of Onward Christian Athletes
"By taking seriously distinct voices from contemporary culture and bringing them into conversation with John's Gospel, Paul Louis Metzger succeeds where so many fail, achieving relevance without sacrificing intellectual responsibility, and accessibility without sacrificing academic depth. Like all good conversations, this one brings new depth to our knowledge of the Other: not only does John cast its light on the needs of today's world, but fresh insights into the Fourth Gospel are gleaned as it is read in the context of contemporary culture."Dr. Grant MacAskill, lecturer in New Testament studies, School of Divinity, University of St. Andrews
"Paul Metzger's exposition of John's Gospel is the ideal resource for students or those who want to take a step deeper into the Gospel beyond reading the Bible itself. Easy to read, filled with popular examples, and accurate on cultural and historical detail, Metzger has offered a practical and beneficial tool for believers in the modern church."Gary M. Burge, professor of New Testament, Wheaton College
"In this book, Paul Louis Metzger has provided a fresh and yet profound look at one of the most beloved accounts of Jesus' time on earth. Metzger has rendered the oftentimes mysterious words of Jesus in the Gospel of John into a structured set of essays that explain and instruct just as the Savior intended. As he does this, he paints a very different picture of what it means to follow Jesus, the real Jesus--the One who 'comes to town,' looking for his to love."Seda Mansour, Stanford University
"InterVarsity Press is to be congratulated in sustaining and expanding their three series of Bible commentaries now into a fourth venture, called Resonate. Promoting biblical theology has been their consistent purpose. Dr. Metzger, the series coeditor of these new Resonate commentaries, 'vibrates' a thematic approach to John's Gospel, with contemporary culture, to effectively open 'the strange world' of John's profound Gospel to the modern reader, whether already versed in Scripture or not. Metzger's able scholarship and passionate evangelism conjoin to reach both the heart and mind of the reader. Its unique genre is controlled by the trinitarian mystery of God, in producing a reliable yet stimulating introduction to John's Gospel that many of us will want to share with our youth, Christian or non-Christian alike."James M. Houston, founding principal and Emeritus Professor of Spiritual Theology, Regent College, Vancouver
"Thank God! A charmingly written, culturally engaged, theologically informed and spiritually captivating book. This spiritual commentary on John's Gospel is for those who don't just want to know about the meaning of the text, but who want to encounter afresh the triune God to which it bears witness. Metzger draws readers in and opens up the text--but not so that we see only the text, but so that we see through the text to God, so that God speaks through the text to us. Theology for the church to the glory of God!"Robin Parry, author of Worshipping Trinity and Lamentations (The Two Horizons Old Testament Commentary)
"Here is a lively, modern mind colliding with a divine, ancient text. We know what a commentary is, and this book is not one (though it does explain and expound the text of John like conventional commentaries). We know what a sermon is, and this book is not one (though it does apply the Word of God to our lives and our culture like good sermons do). Nor is it a commentary with sermons spliced in; give up trying to fit it into existing categories. Metzger's take on John, as the initial offering in the Resonate series, is a genre-defying performance that provokes, interrogates and ponders, and invites the reader to join in the process."Fred Sanders, associate professor of theology, Torrey Honors Institute, Biola University
"The love of Jesus compels us to serve without reservation and to protect from harm the 'least of these,' including, in my experience, terminally ill children with HIV/AIDS. That love propels us to a compassionate offering of grace and truth. I'm grateful for this powerful new volume by my dear friend Dr. Paul Metzger. May this book shower you with the love of Jesus, creating in you the desire to convey his love in fresh, bold and courageous ways."Susan K. Slonaker, founder of REACH Ministries
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CONTENTS

Foreward by Leonard Sweet
Series Introduction
Acknowledgments
The Resonate Editorial Team
Introduction
1 Incarnation and Reception -- John 1:1-18
That Sense of Touch (John 1:1-18)
Transition: The Egg-Headed God and the Gospel of Jesus
2 Initial Connections John -- 1:19--4:54
Celebrities and Saints (John 1:19-42)
Stairway to Heaven (John 1:43-51)
Trinket Shop (John 2:13-25)
My Own Personal Jesus (John 3:1-21)
Rock Star (John 3:22-36)
Unquenchable Thirst (John 4:1-42)
Last Resort (John 4:43-54)
Transition: Monkey Fist
3 Reactions and Rejection -- John 5:1--12:50
Missing the Forest, Missing the Trees (John 5:1-47)
Great Expectations (John 6:1-21)
Happy Meals (John 6:22-71)
A Failed Candidacy (John 7:1-44)
The Matrix (John 7:45-53)
Two to Tango (John 8:1-11)
False Redemption (John 8:12-59)
A New Hoover (John 9)
TV Preachers (John 10)
Revisiting Lazarus? Tomb in an Age of Pain (John 11)
Conspiracy Theory (John 12)
Transition: The Dark Side of the Force
4 Preparations -- John 13:1--17:26
Doormats and Red Carpet (John 13)
Changing He-Men Into Halflings (John 13)
Gran Torino Jesus (John 14)
Front Porch Light (John 14:1-11)
That Dirty Little Four-Letter Word (John 14:15, 21)
Burnout (John 15:1-8)
Vertigo (John 15:1-17)
Entitlement (John 15:18-27)
Birth Pangs (John 16)
Dr. Phil (John 16:7-11)
Death Row (John 17)
Transition: Fifteen Minutes of Fame and the Hour of Glory
5 Humiliation/Glorification -- John 18:1--20:23
Gimme Shelter (John 18:1-27)
The Inconvenient Truth (John 18--19)
Hurt (John 18--19)
Ground Zero (John 20:1-23)
Transition: Non-Members Only
6 Invitation -- John 20:24--21:25
Doubting Thomas (John 20:24-29)
Gone Fishing (John 21:1-23)
Bestseller (John21:24-25)
7 A Final Word About God's Word Made Flesh--Blown Away
Afterword by Rick McKinley
Notes

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ABOUT Paul Louis Metzger

Paul Louis Metzger

Paul Louis Metzger (PhD, King's College London) is professor of Christian theology and theology of culture at Multnomah University and Seminary and director of The Institute for Cultural Engagement: New Wine, New Wineskins. He is the author of numerous books, including Consuming Jesus: Beyond Race and Class Divisions in a Consumer Church and Connecting Christ: How to Discuss Jesus in a World of Diverse Paths, and coeditor of A World for All? Global Civil Society in Political Theory and Trinitarian Theology.

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