It is important that those who make disciples are students of the Word of God. Healthy discipleship and evangelism is grounded in a solid faith in Christ and that means a solid understanding of His Word. In the Great Commission at the end of Matthew, Jesus ties making disciples to teaching them to obey all He commanded (Matthew 28:19-20). The same is true at the end of the sermon on the mount where he connects knowledge with obedience to His teaching.
We need to be in the Word to learn and live the Word. We also need to be in the Word to share the Word with others. Like Paul wrote in Romans 10:14-15, “How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can anyone preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
We need to be people who understand the gospel, have faith in Christ, are living out our faith and sharing it with others. That means Bible study is going to be very important to our lives.
I do a lot of my study out of Logos Bible software and they are kind enough to periodically have me do some reviews here on the bog. So I went looking through the sales to find the ones that I thought best fit this audience and are at a hefty discount in April (2025).
Three Library Expansion Packages to Help you live life on mission
I found three packages that are a great combination for understanding the gospels, Jesus, the New Testament and Evangelism/Mission. What a great combo!
These packages of books come in three sizes to better fit most budgets: Small, Medium and Large. Here is what you can expect price/approximate number of books in the three sizes (each package is different):
- Small is regularly $100 and is now 25% off at $75 (20 books = $3.75/book). If bought separately around $250
- Medium is regularly $300 and is now 30% off at $210 (55 books = $3.81/book). If bought separately around $800
- Large is regularly $500 and is now 35% off at $325 (90 books = $3.61/book). If bought separately around $1700
Further discounts:
Logos discounts your price if you are a subscriber (5% off) and if you already own any of the books in the packages so you don’t pay twice for the same thing. There are also periodic coupon codes that you can find in the Logos Discounts facebook group (which I run and I encourage you to join).
Buying strategy:
I realize money can be tight and budgets are limited. Here is one thing to consider. Everything in Small is also in Medium and everything in Small and Medium are in Large. You can also buy a smaller package while on sale now and upgrade to a larger package some day in the future when they go on sale again and get dynamic pricing discount.
Evangelism and Missions Library Expansion (Large) – Review
This is the first package that caught my eye because it has an emphasis on evangelism and discipleship. This is my focus in ministry at this time and maybe it is for you as well. If so, then this package is truly exciting. Get all the details and buy it here.
Second, there are some notable scholars who I follow who have books in this collection:
- J.I. Packer
- Kostenberger
- Christopher J.H. Wright
- John Stott
- Leslie Newbigin
- And many more
Third, this is one of the most practical collections Logos has to offer, at least that I am aware of. This is not for people who want a lot of theory. This is practical.
If you want to learn evangelism, discipleship, disciple making, world missions and more…this is the collection for you with titles like:
- Sharing Jesus Without Freaking Out
- Telling the Gospel Through Story
- The Art of Personal Evangelism
- Study of Evangelism: Exploring the Missional Practice of the Church
You will also get info on apologetics, the history of missions and world religions with books on Islam, Mormonism, the Atlas of World Religions and books by Lesslie Newbigin.
Want to know the history of missions in Africa? This set has you covered. Want to be more effective in sharing your faith? You will find it here. Want to engage a friend but first want to understand their religious heritage better? This set has you covered.
Jesus and the Gospels Library Expansion (Large) – Review
There is no good news to share or disciples to be made without Jesus. Jesus told us to go and make disciples by baptizing and teaching people to obey everything He commanded. Studying Jesus is essential to mission and disciple making. Get all the details and buy it here.
This set has a lot of standouts that have helped me over the years like:
- Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels 2nd ed (IVP – amazing book)
- Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Bauckham
- Jesus and the Land by Burge (Burge is a NT scholar who spent many years living in the Holy Land)
- Jesus is the Christ by Leon Morris
- Jesus Through Middle Eastern Eyes by Bailey (a book many are familiar with)
- 10 volumes from the exceptional library of New testament studies
- Gospel Code by Witherington
- Historical Jesus of the Gospels by Keener
- Oral Gospel Tradition by James Dunn
- Resurrection of Jesus by Licona
- Jesus and Dead Sea Scrolls (in Anchor Bible reference library)
- 2 volumes by Craig Evans
- Jesus and the Gospels, 3rd ed by Blomberg (one of my very favorites)
- 4 volumes from the New Studies in Biblical Theology Series including Contagious Holiness by Blomberg
- Jesus: the Final Days by Craig Evans and N.T. Wright!
- Who Was Jesus by N.T. Wright
This list has an all star lineup of some of the best Jesus/Gospels scholars around. Many of these have been a blessing to me and have helped me grow in my understanding of Jesus over the years. So many of these people have a fairly conservative approach to the scriptures and are not theologically progressive.
I don’t know of a better collection on Jesus and the gospels and at $175 off!
New Testament Studies (Large) – Review
This set is focused on the New Testament as a whole, then on the letters (with emphasis on Paul) and then the gospels (which are the primary focus of the set above).
You are going to find in this set a lot of material devoted to the New Testament as a whole with multiple introductions to the NT, the world of the New Testament, New Testament history, genre/rhetoric and the text of the NT. Get all the details and buy it here.
Here are some of the standout volumes in this set that are worth the price of the whole thing:
- Approaches to NT Study by Stanley Porter
- Bethlehem to Patmos – the NT Story by Barnett
- Cities of Paul by Koester
- Defending First Century Faith by F.F. Bruce
- Genre and Narrative Coherence in the Acts of the Apostles (Library of NT Studies)
- The Earliest Christian Meeting Places (a great book on house churches and other meeting places by Adams)
- NT Foundations (2 vols) by Ralph Martin
- NT History – F.F. Bruce
- NT Rhetoric by Witherington (who is an absolute expert on Paul and rhetoric)
- Paul: Apostle of the Free Spirit by F.F. Bruce
- 2 volumes by C.K. Barrett that are worthwhile but getting dated
- Historical Reliability of the NT by Blomberg – great book!
- Jewish World around the NT by Richard Bauckham
- The Living Paul by Thiselton
- Books on the New Perspective on Paul
- More by F.F. Bruce
- Several volumes on New Testament World
- NT Backgrounds by Evans and Porter
- Introducing the NT by Joel Green and a few other great scholars
- NT Theology by Julius Scott
- Who is Jesus of Nazareth by Blomberg
- The list could go on and on…
We don’t have to be a scholar to evangelize or understand every nuance of the New Perspective on Paul but I do find that I get to know Jesus the more I study the whole New Testament by scholars who have a heart for God and who take His Word very seriously.
If you want a video walk through of these three packages you can get that here!
