Do They See What They Hear?

I was thinking about the words and teachings of Jesus today, nothing specific but more about the entire breadth and power of his words. These are words I read, memorize, try to live by and even quote as a regular part of my life. So a random thought popped in my head today, "So what makes the words of Jesus powerful". I know this might seem like a silly or even easy question but I had the thought and then a simple answer that kind of hit me right in the face.

  The words and teachings of Jesus had the power they did because his life matched them completely. Jesus never taught a message he was not already living out. His great teaching, even great "sermons", as some might call them, flowed out of a life that lived out each word he said. Ok, I know some of you might be thinking "well duh". And yes you might be right, but then that very idea caused me to say, so if I am not living them, will they have power when I say them?

  I taught on Zacchaeus a few Sundays back and the main point I saw in the text is that it was not a deep intense teaching or sermon of Jesus that led Zacchaeus to repent, rather it was the life that Jesus lived that accompanied his teachings and led Zacchaeus to a life changing encounter with God. Zacchaeus knew the teaching of Jesus, but in that moment, what led him to repent were the actions of Jesus. He could see that Jesus’ actions matched His teachings, and in that moment, Christ SHOWED him the very love of God that He taught. 

  So maybe you might have said "duh" when I first mentioned my thoughts but what about it. Do our lives give better sermons then our mouths? If they don't then no matter how much scripture we know or how many great teachings of the Bible we can quote, unless our lives match our words the teachings will hold little power to the world around us.

  My encouragement would be to take some time to focus our lives on living out the words before we say them. Because it’s easy to give someone a Bible verse that shows them a truth or the error of their ways but the power of that Truth becomes real when they see it in us more then they hear it from us.