Be A Noble Church (Acts 17:10-15)
The Bereans have a noble place in Christian circles. Because of the way they treated God’s Word in our text today, we still talk about them in this respect. They are called “more noble” because of their attitude toward God’s Word.
As a local church, we have some things in common with Berea. Cicero wrote about Berea. A Roman governor went to Thessalonica and had to flee for refuge in Berea. In “Against Piso”, Cicero tells us that this town was sort of out of the way. The town itself was a few miles away from the major highway. Like Victory Baptist Church, you don’t get there unless you’re intending to go there.
But we need to explore the thing that made the Bereans remembered today and honored by Luke in the Book of Acts. We need to explore their attitude toward God’s Word because we want to be a noble church, as the Bereans were.
Anytime you are reading your Bible and run across someone doing a thing that is exalted in the way the Bereans were today, then you need to take notice. And after you take notice, you need to apply that to your life if you can.
What does it take for us to be noble, as the Bereans were?
What does it take for our church to be declared noble, as the Berean church was?
In a day when the preaching and teaching of God’s Word is mostly shallow drivel, what does it take for us to be declared noble, as the Berean Church was?
We live in a day when Christian teaching is proliferated at an incredible rate! In one sense, it’s a great time to be alive. But, as anyone that has spent some time looking for Sunday School material, or something to use in a Bible Study will tell you, there’s not really a lot of good stuff out there. Much like other things in our day, there’s a lot of stuff but not much of it is good.
When we lived in Alma, I chose the Sunday School material for our children’s and youth ministries. I was combing far and wide for material that was biblically sound and applied that biblically sound teaching to our lives. I spent a lot of time digging through that stuff trying to figure it out. You’d be surprised at how bad a lot of the material out there is.
And I think that gets to the application of the text today to our lives. There really are two ways that we can get off track in listening to a sermon, sermon clips online, reading books, or blog posts. The two ways are to so hold on to our traditions or our own thoughts that we don’t give a hearing to the one purporting to proclaim God’s Word. And the other is to believe everything that we see.
The first group hears the preacher say something they don’t like, they don’t do much more than get angry about it and form a mob of disgruntled people. They don’t get the Scripture out and look at it. It’s very likely that they haven’t read much of the Scriptures in years. The Bible never changes them. The preached Word never changes them. And they often remain ignoble, immature believer until the day they die. They’re never challenged by the Word because they don’t listen to anything they didn’t already believe. They’re not formed by the Word. They’re too busy and pompous in their own ideas to do something like that.
As we will see, that is not who the Bereans were. They were completely willing for their lives to be completely upended by the gospel. If it was taught in God’s Word they were willing to be formed by it.
On the other side of things, the Bereans were unwilling to hear anything from Paul and the others that did not accord with God’s Word. They were willing to be challenged in their beliefs, but they were not willing to hear things that did not accord with God’s Word. They were too noble and wise for such things.
As we will see, that is not who the Berean’s were. They were willing to hear the preacher’s Words. And they tested everything he said according to the Scriptures.
How is it that we avoid these pitfalls? How is it that we exist as Christians, noble like the Bereans?
Love God’s Word, know it, let it transform you, and don’t stray from it.
Love God’s Word, Know It
Paul’s actions here are very similar to his actions in other towns. If there was a synagogue in the area, he went there and preached God’s Word. That is what we see happening in Berea.
The message he preached there is the same message that he has been preaching from town to town. He is preaching the gospel from the Old Testament Scriptures.
God created the world and everything in it. And He created it all good. But mankind rebelled against God and received God’s punishment. We were created upright, but now we have earned God’s wrath and justice. And God the Father sent His Son to save us. God the Son took on human flesh and dwelt among us. He lived a perfect life, He died on the cross, and He rose from the grave. He did all of this for our redemption. He lived the perfect life that we should have lived and for all those who trust in Him, His perfect life is credited to them. He died on the cross as the punishment for sins. He died in place of wicked sinners bearing God’s wrath in their place. He bore the wrath of all who would believe. And He rose from the grave, which accomplished our legal declaration of righteousness before God. He did all of this. And this is the message that was proclaimed by Paul in Berea.
Now, the Bereans looked into God’s Word and accepted this message whole heartedly. Is that different than the reception of the gospel in other towns?
Why yes! Absolutely it is.
What was different about the Berean Reception of the gospel compared to the reception in other towns?
Well, here they heard the Word, loved it, and received it with eagerness as they dug through the Scriptures to see if it was true. They knew God’s Word well enough that they could figure out whether what Paul was saying to them was true or not. And when they saw that it was, they received it with eagerness.
That’s not the reception the preaching of the gospel received in other places.
We live in a day when Christians have a dozen Bibles at home that they don’t read. And it is often the case that they go to church to be entertained rather than to hear God’s Word. On top of that, whatever small group material they are using for their church doesn’t really teach God’s Word.
In other words, we live in a time when it’s incredibly easy to get a copy of God’s Word. But people don’t want to read it or know what’s in it.
If a person says that they love God’s Word, but they don’t like sermons that are biblical, don’t like biblical studies, and don’t like to read God’s Word, are they telling the truth?
We don’t know a lot about this Church’s Bible reading habits. We don’t know anything about it really. But here is what we know. They loved God’s Word. They loved God’s Word and knew God’s Word. And when someone came to them preaching something new they were able to study the Scriptures and figure out the truthfulness of it.
A few years ago we began reading our Bibles together. And I believe it has been beneficial for the people that have been doing it.
When we began Sunday School a few years ago, we began using material that was deeply biblical. And I believe that it has been a benefit to our church. I believe it has benefitted everyone that has participated.
When I preach week after week, I am not attempting to give my thoughts on a particular topic. I want you to hear from God’s Word. My desire is for that to happen with tremendous clarity and for that to be applied to your life.
God’s Word is at the center of what we do here and that is on purpose. As we read it, study it, and hear it, my hope and prayer is that we love God’s Word and know it in deeper and deeper ways.
If you’d like to pick up on reading the Bible with us, the plan we’re in is on the back of the bulletin. If you use the YouVersion Bible App, then you can pick up on today’s date and use it. My hope is that you will be transformed by God’s Word as God the Holy Spirit works in you.
And it is my hope that it transforms us.
Love God’s Word, Let It Transform You
I want you to consider that these Bereans were just as Jewish as the Jews in every other town that Paul preached in. But there was a difference in these Jews.
These people were willing to let the Word of God transform them. The news preached to them was just as new to them as it was anyone else int eh Book of Acts. It seems that the difference was the attitude of the Bereans to God’s Word.
Notice that they didn’t just praise the Word and not know it. They knew it well enough that they were able to dig into it when confronted with this message of the Christ.
They praised the Word, knew the Word, and because of that they were open to hearing the gospel. They weren’t interested in just praising the Word of God. They wanted to be mastered by the Word of God. They wanted it to transform them.
I believe it was their attitude toward God’s Word that made them so much different than the other Jews that had heard this message. And that is something for us to consider for our own lives today.
What is your attitude when you hear God’s Word? What is your attitude when you hear something that you’ve never heard before?
I have known plenty of people that praise the Scriptures but don’t have anything to do with them. They don’t read the Word, or when they do, they don’t give any thought to what it means or how it applies to their life. If they do find something in it that opposes what they believe or how they live, they just write it off as something old that they don’t really have the obligation to deal with now.
Here is just where the Bereans differed from many people. They wanted to be mastered by the Word.
They were not saying what they wanted to see in the Word. They were not lord over the Word. They were mastered by the Word. The submitted their lives to what was in God’s Word. And that is too often not the case among God’s people today.
I was in a conversation one day with a man that had a problem with a lot of people. He always had an issue with someone. I had meeting after meeting with him before I realized that he was the real problem. I showed him in the Bible that small offenses are to be covered over with love. I read from 1 Peter 4:8 and Proverbs 10:12.
Do you know what his response was?
“That’s just your interpretation.”
He claimed to love God’s Word. He claimed to uphold it in his life. But his response is so characteristic of the person who believes their self to be master of the Word rather than being mastered by the Word. And I’ll never forget it.
“That’s just your interpretation.”…What? Are you serious? How do I interpret that text in any other way. What does it mean other than if you love someone then you’ll let love cover over those offenses?
And he continued for the next few months to bring up minor offense after minor offense. There was no big wrong done to him. But it continued. Why? Because he was not mastered by the Word. He thought he knew better and so, he never repented.
These people heard the gospel and knew God’s Word. And when they saw that this was what God’s Word had said would happen, they let the Word master them. And they trusted in Jesus Christ as Savior.
Begin with the message that they heard that day?—the gospel—submit to Christ, He now runs your life. You are His servant; He is your King.
You have heard the Word of Life. Have you trusted in Him?
Love God’s Word, Don’t Stray From It
The major concern for the Bereans was that they not stray from God’s Word. That is quite evident form their response to hearing the preaching of the gospel.
They heard the message and would not move toward the message one inch unless it was found in God’s Word.
How different is that from where we are today?
There are people all around that seek to move us away from God’s Word. They seek to move us out of faithfulness to the Lord and His Word.
The “pastor” of a church will be on tv claiming that the Word of God is not completely accurate. They will claim that what the Bible calls sexual sin is actually okay and that God isn’t really like that. What are those people doing?
They are leading people away from God’s Word, and so leading people away from God.
These same people will often argue that Jesus did not really rise from the grave, but that He rises from the grave in our hearts. What are they other than those who teach in the spirit of antichrist?
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.” (1 John 4:1-3 ESV)
We are told that,
“…many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.” (2 John 1:7 ESV)
Jesus tells us that “false prophets” will come to us who are inwardly “ravenous wolves” (Matthew 7:15).
We are told that
“…in later times some will depart from the faith by devoting themselves to deceitful spirits and teachings of demons,…” (1 Timothy 4:1 ESV)
How are we to be able to distinguish between one and the other? How are we to be able to distinguish between what is of God and what is not of God?
Social Media has revealed to me how much more of the Berean spirit we need today.
“Pastors” that are themselves “deceivers” and “wolves” are popular on Social Media. Christians without the Berean spirit jump right on board with what these people are saying. They’ll share a video clip of the wolf and not realize they’ve shared something horrific.
Why?
It’s a combination of things. But I would argue that they do not love God’s Word like the Bereans loved God’s Word. They don’t spend time in it to know it. They are not formed by God’s Word and mastered by it. And they don’t seek to make sure that everything they believe is in conformity with God’s Word.
Conclusion
The challenge from the Bereans is a simple one. It is a call to love God’s Word, read it, hear it preached, taught, be mastered by it, and to let it govern what we believe. It is a call to be noble like the Bereans.
In essence, it is a call to live our lives in the spirit of Psalm 119, the longest chapter in the Bible. Here is just an excerpt of the passage.
“Teach me, O LORD, the way of Your statutes;
And I will keep it to the end.
Give me understanding, that I may keep Your law
And observe it with my whole heart.
Lead me in the path of Your commandments,
For I delight in it.
Incline my heart to Your testimonies,
And not to selfish gain!
Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things;
And give me life in Your ways.
Confirm to Your servant Your promise,
That You may be feared.
Turn away the reproach that I dread,
For Your rules are good.
Behold, I long for Your precepts;
In Your righteousness give me life!
(Psalm 119:33-40 ESV)
Let us be a people that love God’s Word, not in word only but in truth. Let us be a people that honor the Word of the Lord as the Bereans did. Let us be a noble church.