Luther's Works: The American Edition, published by Concordia and Fortress Press between 1955 and 1986, comprises fifty-five volumes. These are a selection representing only about a third of Luther's works in the Latin and German of the standard Weimar Edition, not including the German Bible.

The sermons contained in this volume show how masterfully Luther employed the cardinal principles of effective preaching. The Gospel According to St. John was close to Luther's heart. To him this book was a never-failing source of edification, wisdom, and strength. In his preface to the sermons he delivered on the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of Saint John's Gospel he states that he is "resolved to interpret these chapters for the common man, but especially to defend and preserve the true and pure doctrine of Christ and of the Christian faith against the vile mobs of the devil, whether present or future." The Reformer commends the words written by the evangelist "to pious Christians as their highest and most precious treasure and consolation."