The other day I was reading The Amplified New Testament. (Does anyone use that 1958 version anymore?) Anyway, I was trying to catch the flavor of the various responses of those who heard Jesus preach.
Some were “astonished and overwhelmed with wonder.” That’s because His teaching was characterized as “fresh”and “with authority and ability and weight and power.”
Again, His hearers were “marveling and greatly amazed,” or they were “astonished beyond means,” “marveling” and even “stunned.”
I like those descriptions. My preaching has never elicited responses like these. My assumption is that yours probably hasn’t either.
In the New International Version, the word that’s used most often to describe the response of Christ’s hearers is“amazement.” Here’s Matthew 7:28-29:
When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.
I’ve been trying to think if there are any preachers I’ve heard lately who left me “stunned” or feeling I had heard someone speaking “with authority and ability and weight and power.”
I’ve actually come up with two names. And I’m making it a point to figure out why they are this way. I can learn from them. Maybe you can go through the same exercise and come up with a name or two of preachers who have something to teach you!
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