The Noble Bereans

INTRODUCTION

When I was fourteen years old, I had been a Christian for about a week.

I was on vacation with my family and I was sitting down by the pool reading from the book of John out of my “Gift and Award” New Living Translation.

As I gathered my things and headed back up to the hotel room, I walked by an old shirtless man and he said, “Son—do you know what you have there?”

He pointed to my Bible. He said, “Those are the very words of God.”

I said, “Yes sir.”

I explained how my family had just come to faith and I felt called to ministry and probably gushed out a lot more words than he expected.

But I have never forgotten that moment.

There may have been times in my Christian walk where I have not been obedient.

There have been times where I was downright brutish and rebellious.

But the Lord has never let me forget that old man’s reminders—These are the very words of God.

CONTEXT

This morning, as Paul flees the persecution in Thessalonica and he arrives in Berea, we will find a people who have great regard for the very words of God.

We will find a people who Luke describes as noble because of the relationship that they have with the very words of God.

And as we study, we will see that this group stands out to Luke because of how they receive the Word.

They are desiring.

They are discerning.

They are diligent.

And in these qualities, we will see what we must be as those who are receiving the Word even now.

TEXT

Acts 17:10–15 ESV

The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Many of them therefore believed, with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also, they came there too, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then the brothers immediately sent Paul off on his way to the sea, but Silas and Timothy remained there. Those who conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens, and after receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they departed.

This is the Word of the Lord.

PRAY

RECEIVE THE WORD WITH DESIRE

As the text begins, we see Paul and Silas leaving Thessalonica and heading by night to Berea.

Berea was about 50 miles away.

Of course, they are leaving Thessalonica for the same reason they left Philippi—persecution.

Violence and threats have followed Paul everywhere he has gone--

And this is because Satan is seeking to oppress the church by suppressing the church.

He wants to muzzle her.

But all his attempts just seem to result in more spreading of the Gospel.

If you chase Paul out of one town, he will just start a church in another.

Because—every time Paul, or any other Christian, is chased out of a city, a country or even a family—they take the Gospel with them as they go.

Satan loves to try and scatter the church, but God is good to sovereignly use the scattering to spread the Gospel seed throughout the nations.

As Paul arrives in Berea, he does what he always does in a new town—he goes to a synagogue if he can find one and he starts his mission work.

This is what he did in Thessalonica for three weeks, as he was “reasoning with them from the Scriptures and explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to die and rise again.”

But Luke says there is something different about these Bereans, as compared to the Thessalonians.

The Jewish people in the Berean synagogue are called more noble because of how they interact with the Word of God (v. 11).

The word for noble in the Greek manuscripts is eugenes (ev-yen-ISE).

It means “high-born” or “well-born,” and it was mostly used to speak of people born into an elevated social class.

However, that wasn’t the only way that it was used in the 1st century.

Eugenes was also a word used to describe someone’s general disposition.

If someone was called “noble,” in the general sense, it meant they were “high-minded.”

They were open-minded to what others had to say. They were not prejudiced against it or closed off to it.

If Paul was right, they wanted to know about it.

They desired to receive the truth.

This desire is made obvious by their eagerness.

It is like when I make ice cream for my daughter for dessert. She stands and watches me. Sometimes it is just a couple of scoops.

But other times, I will get out the sprinkles.

Maybe even some Oreo’s and M and M’s for toppings.

And as I make her a big bowl of sugar, I can only describe the look in her eyes as eagerness.

This is a picture of the Bereans as they receive the Word from Paul.

1. We must desire to receive the truth of God’s Word.

Now, when we talk about the open-mindedness of the Bereans, let me be clear as to what Luke is celebrating.

This is not the sort of open-mindedness that is championed in our culture today.

In our culture, everyone does what they see fit in their own eyes—just like in Israel in the days of the Judges.

People have been taught that they have a “true self,” inside of them.

That self must be let out and expressed in order for them to be happy.

That self might do yoga and practice Eastern mystic meditation.

That self might identify as a gender opposite the natural biology of their body.

That self might decide they are going to quite their job and travel the world.

But the bottom line is that our culture teaches that true freedom is letting your true self out, fulfilling every desire that your true self has.

And our culture says that you must be their ally and support whatever version of their true self they present, otherwise—you have committed the ultimate sin in 2024...

You are close-minded. You are the oppressor.

Therefore, open-mindedness has become, “Accept what someone else says and does, no matter what.”

Unless that “no matter what” is orthodox, biblical Christianity, of course!

This is not the open-minded nobility that is found in Berea.

Instead, their legitimate desire to know the truth, and drop any prejudices, and truly listen to Paul as he interprets the Word of God to them and proclaims Christ.

They do not have a standard-less open-mindedness about any and all things.

They have an open-mindedness toward God’s Word, wanting to grow in knowledge, receive more of the truth and believe right things.

There is a big difference.

When I was in college, I remember a time in which I was not so open-minded. I had been reading through the New Testament and I was wrestling with the issue of predestination.

I came to one of my pastors, Jeff Beard, and I said, “Alright—I think I figured out this predestination stuff.”

I explained my position to Jeff, which was, “God chose me because He knows that I would choose Him.”

Jeff said, “That means His choice is based on yours. Is that really grace?”

I said, “So what then?”

He proceeded to make a case, using the Scriptures, for the theology of the Protestant Reformation—better known as “Reformed Theology,” and my reaction was not noble.

I was angry.

He said, “I can see you are mad. Let me give you an RC Sproul book and then we can talk in a few weeks when you have cooled down.

I don’t even share that story to make a case for a Calvinistic theology regarding salvation this morning.

I am aware that not everyone in our church is in agreement on that and that is okay. That’s a different sermon and a different Scripture passage.

Instead, I share that story to illustrate what it looks like when someone is not open-minded.

I had my preconceived theological notion and I was adamant that my opinion would be found in the Scriptures, not formed by the Scriptures.

I was not prepped to be open to the truth of God’s Word. Instead I was prepped to be angry if someone dared tell me I was wrong about God’s Word.

We all come from various backgrounds and we have been taught various things.

Some of you were raised in theologically liberal churches. Some of you were raised in fundamentalism.

Some of you were raised in low church situations. Some of you in high church situations. Some of you in no church situations.

Some of you have only gone to primarily Anglo churches your whole lives. Some of you grew up in a more diverse local church.

Furthermore, we have our opinions and our objections that are based on our preferences.

In one sense, those things make us who we are. They make us unique.

But experiences and opinions and preferences cannot be allowed to become hurdles that would keep us from seeing the truth about God’s Word.

We must receive the Word as those who recognize that God gets the final say.

If through devoted study and learning and listening, we realize our position is wrong, we should be eager to change and align ourselves with God’s Word.

So what is your attitude as you approach God’s Word?

Do you show up and say, “I know what this means already. I just need to cover the ground again,” or do you say, “Your Word is the truth. Thank you for everything I have learned. Teach me more. And transform me as I teach”?

The open-minded believer, who comes to the Word ready to learn, desires that any wrong belief or behavior in them would be corrected by the Word.

The close-minded believer, who is unlike these Bereans, comes to God’s Word and denies that they really have anything to be taught.

They think, “I’ve figured it all out. I’m just sharpening things up now.”

That is actually a dull way to live.

Open-mindedness doesn’t mean that we lack conviction and we never plant a doctrinal flag anywhere and say, “This is what I believe.”

Instead, it means that as we plant the flag, we look up to Jesus and we say, “If I’m wrong, I desire that you would teach me what is right.”

If you want to see a biblical example of why this approach to the Bible is so important, we have an example in Psalm 25:9

Psalm 25:9 ESV

He leads the humble in what is right, and teaches the humble his way.

Commending on this verse, Jonathan Edwards said:

Pride is a very great obstacle to the entering of divine light, yea, and such an obstacle as will eternally prevent it, till it be mortified.

Jonathan Edwards

We all know hard how it is to an old dog new tricks.

But it is even harder to teach a proud dog new tricks.

As we come to the word, we have to come with a humble desire to learn—open to the reality that our presuppositions and notions about God could be wrong and must be corrected in order to be in line with God’s instruction.

RECEIVE THE WORD WITH DISCERNMENT

Now, the question is—which voices do we listen to?

A lot of people say a lot of things about God’s Word.

Can’t an open-mindedness result in us starting to believe some crazy things being said about crazy people.

This leads us to our second point this morning:

2. We must receive the Word with discernment.

Notice what Luke says about the way the Bereans react to the teaching of Paul:

He says they examine the Scriptures…to see if these things were so.

So there is a tension in play here, is there not?

On one hand, we should desire for God to teach us and change our minds in the place where we are wrong or out of step with Him.

But on the other hand, that desire cannot mean that we just accept every message that comes to us.

Instead, we must be discerning.

There are many calls for this in the Scriptures. One of them is found in 1 John 4:

1 John 4:1 ESV

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.

There are many people int he world teaching false doctrine—scratching itching ears in order to gain income and influence for themselves.

It may be a prosperity message that proclaims God as a sort of spiritual vending machine to name and claim what you want.

This is a brand of teaching that scratches the itch of coveting ears.

It may be a message that is tailored for the itching ears of our postmodern sensibilities—accepting all of the new, twisted sexual ethics of the age.

This is a brand of teaching that scratches adulterous ears.

It may be a message that says there is more than one way to heaven.

This is a brand of teaching that scratches ears that count the opinion of man to be worth more than the revealed words of God.

John’s warnings about these false teachers echoes the warning of Christ:

Matthew 7:15 ESV

“Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves.

It is clear that not everyone who comes to us saying things about the Bible can be believed.

There is a discernment that must be practiced.

THE STANDARD IN DISCERNING

But we have to notice the source material for the Bereans as they are attempting to be discerning.

They do not examine ancient philosophers to see if what Paul is saying is true.

They do not consult their own opinions to see if what Paul is saying holds water.

They do not spend time pondering whether or not Paul’s words fit in with the beliefs of the culture and times.

They have one standard that they use to determine truth and falsehood—The Scriptures.

And do you know why they set the Scriptures aside to be the standard in determining what is true and what is not? Because they had a certain belief about it.

They believed the same thing as the old man by the pool—that Scripture are the very words of God.

And since God is the highest authority in existence, He gets the final say on right and wrong and truth and error.

Here is what Sam Waldron says about the authority of God’s Word in our lives:

Since Scripture is divine, it is, so to speak, the transcript of God’s divine decree.

Sam Waldron

If you were a college student in a class and you missed the class because you were sick, you might ask for a transcript of the professor’s lecture.

Why? Because you want to know what he said.

And if you get it from the professor, you know that it comes from the highest authority in the classroom.

You are confident that they are providing everything you need to know with their words.

In the same way, if we want to know what God says, there is only one place to go.

You don’t go to the natural world.

It displays God’s glory in a common sense, but the leaves of the trees or the ocean do not contain the the necessary information for salvation and godliness.

You don’t look within to your own heart and find your truth.

Your heart is an idol factory that is desperately sick and wicked. You cannot trust it to tell you the truth about things, apart from a work of grace.

You don’t look to the musings and meandering opinions of mere men.

Instead, we turn to the transcript of God’s divine decree.

We turn to the Scriptures.

And we do not stand over it, imposing our viewpoints and our desires on it...

Instead, we sit under its authority, rejoicing that the Word is sufficient to take our viewpoints and desires and bring them in line with that which the God of the Universe has spoken.

Believing the Word has this authority, the Bereans turned to the Scriptures themselves to determine if Paul was correct.

And this is what we must do.

As those who believe in the authority of the words of Scripture, we must let it have the final say on what is true.

THE CONNECTION TO HOLY LIVING

I believe a failure in discernment is directly related to why so many Christians struggle to live holy.

They are handing over authority in their lives to people and voices that are not the Word of God.

They let the advice and suggestions of their friends hold just as much water, if not more water than the Word of God.

They let what their favorite podcaster has to say about God and culture and politics move the needle for them just as much as the Bible.

They fill their ears with man-made wisdom and then are bewildered at the lack of divine transformation in their lives.

They listen to entertaining preachers who read their opinions into the Scriptures and totally forsake what God is actually saying in His Word.

This is disastrous, because what we see in the Scriptures is a very close connection between discerning truth from error and holy living.

Consider what Paul says to the Romans after 11 chapters of deep theology and Gospel preaching:

Romans 12:2 ESV

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Too many Christians are conforming to the world because their minds are not being renewed by the Word of God.

Without the standard of God’s truth filling up their minds, they lack the ability to discern God’s will.

They lack the ability to discern good, acceptable and perfect things from bad, unacceptable and imperfect things.

When Thomas Watson wrote about this in his commentary on the Westminster Confession, he compared the Christian who does not discern truth from error with the word like a carpenter who keeps his ruler in his back pocket.

What is a carpenter the better for his rule about him, if he sticks it at his back, and never makes use of it for measuring and squaring his work? So, what are we the better for the rule of the Word, if we do not make use of it, and regulate our lives by it? How many swerve and deviate from the rule!

Thomas Watson

So what this does then is it leaves the Christian open to lies.

Outright lies and Subtle lies. Full falsehoods, as well as Half-truths.

And before you know it, the believer is being conformed to the world.

They are looking more like Judas than Jesus.

More like the world and less like the church.

It doesn’t have to be this way.

When the Word is our standard for determining right from wrong and truth from error, we are not conformed to the world, but transformed by the renewal of our minds.

As God Word shows us the truth and we are submissive to it, we gain the ability to separate acceptable from unacceptable and we begin to walk in the light and cast off the works of darkness.

There is never a time in which we do not need to be discerning. There is never a time in which we do not need God’s Word as our standard.

Until the transformation is complete and life on earth is done, we must be a discerning, non-conforming people, who see the world through the lens of God’s divine decree.

RECEIVE THE WORD WITH DILIGENCE

So we know that:

We must receive the Word with desire.

We must receive the Word with discernment.

3. We must receive the Word with diligence.

You will notice that as the Bereans hear what Paul says, there is no laziness or dragging of their feet when it comes to examining the Scriptures.

Luke says that they are examining the Scriptures daily.

There is a diligence in their relationship with the Word of God.

We are diligent about many things.

We are diligent about eating food.

Unless you are trying to lose weight or on doctor’s orders, we don’t miss many meals, do we?

We are diligent about watching our favorite sports teams.

We are diligent about spending time with people we care about.

We are diligent about scrolling on our favorite social media app.

We are diligent about keeping up with the latest happenings in the election cycle.

We are diligent about going to our workplaces and earning paychecks.

We are diligent about our favorite hobbies and cutting out time for them.

We are diligent about beating a video game that has captured our attention.

We are diligent about finishing the book we just can’t put down.

We are diligent about serving in our favorite ministry at church.

And yet, how many of us are guilty of forsaking daily time in God’s Word?

How many of us open our Bibles on Sundays and when you come to the Bible the next Sunday, your ribbon is in the same spot it was because you haven’t opened the Word all week?

How many of us will walk around saying we want to hear from God and know God’s will, but we keep the book of His speech closed?

Unless you are here and you cannot read or you cannot see, you really have no excuse for neglecting the Bible in this way.

And frankly, in an age of free audio Bibles at your fingertips, I am not sure we could even make that exception.

Any reason I have ever come up with in my life for why I have not been reading my Bible are as flimsy as balsa wood.

What is it that I am doing that is so important, God just can’t be heard from?

If we will watch three hour football games, but we can’t give thirty minutes to God in His Word, we should re-evaluate our whole value system.

If we can listen to the same guys on the same podcasts talking about the same politicians for ten hours a week, but we don’t have time to read our Bibles, then it is time to shut off the news for a little bit. You’ve lost the plot.

If we can go weeks and months and have no regard for the fact that we are neglecting our Bibles, there is a hardness of heart existing in us that should cause the loudest of alarms to go off.

I don’t say these things to beat on you this morning or make you feel guilty.

I say these things because we have to see our excuses for what they are—all together insufficient.

And we must repent and see God’s Word for what it is—totally sufficient.

We must match the Bereans in their daily diligence and we must receive the Word at a rapid frequency.

Man does not live on bread alone—your soul needs the very words of God.

In 1662, the King of England helped oversee a political chess move that saw over 2,000 Puritan preachers kicked out of the Church of England.

Throughout July and August of that year, 2,000 men stood before their congregations and preached their final sermons.

In the coming months they would be barred from even being in the same city as their former congregations.

They knew this would be their final chance to address their people as their pastor.

What would they say?

Well here is what John Whitlock said to his people:

Oh, let not any of the truths of God slip out of your minds or be as water spilt upon the ground. Minister must die, but let not the truths of God die your hearts. Ministers may be forcibly parted from you and have their mouths stopped, as ours and many others are and are likely to be; yet let not the Word of truth depart out of your minds when we are gone. Let the Word of God, even that Word of his that we have spoken to you in his name, abide with you forever. Let it live with you, and let it die with you, also. Oh, let truth be written on your hearts, as with the point of a diamond, never to be erased. A stony heart is a grievous plague, but an iron memory is a great mercy. Oh, therefore remember what you have heard in point of doctrine, and remember also the counsels and directions you have had given to you, as to the performance of public, family, secret and relative duties.

John Whitlock

Before we look at what is happening in the narrative of Acts and we wrap up, I want to make sure you understand that what Whitlock was calling his church to and what I am calling you to this morning, is not a habit od drudgery.

Understand that God waits to meet you in His Word with the words of Life and the fullness of joy.

Understand that God wants to speak to you.

The Bible itself is proof of that.

He has spoken and He wants you to hear what He has said.

And as you hear what He has said, He is eager to pour out His grace upon you.

I have concern that many Christians are living their life like they are a Ponytail Palm.

The Ponytail Palm is a houseplant that needs no water.

That is not us friends.

We are not plants who don’t need water.

We are actually like poplar trees.

The poplar will suck up 50 gallons a day if you let it.

If a poplar doesn’t get water, you will find dry, broken branches lying around the base of the tree.

The leaves will begin to dry up and die and fall off.

The roots will begin to deteriorate.

Are you dry this morning?

Are you broken and falling apart?

Does everything feel like the end of the world?

Do you feel your prayers are cold?

It is because the roots of your soul are crying out for water. They are crying out for the sweet nourishment of the Word.

The Lord wants you to experience having His grace poured out on you through His Word.

So when you go and try to find wisdom and hope and truth in other places and you ignore His very words, He will withhold His grace from you.

He will let you feel your dryness.

He will let you feel your brokenness.

Why? So that you will realize that you need the gracious water of the Word.

So that you will come back and drink deeply again and be like the righteous man of Psalm 1...

Psalm 1:3 ESV

He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.

THE RESULTS

When the Word is received this way, we see the results in this passage.

God’s Word does God’s work.

In this case, many of the Bereans become Christians and much like in Thessalonica, there are people of high-standing in society who are following Christ.

God-fearing Gentile women and men who are prominent repent along with the other Bereans at the synagogue.

However, it is not long before the Jews who caused the riot in Thessalonica, hear about what is taking place and they come and try to rinse and repeat the events that we saw taking place in Acts 17:1-9...

Paul goes to Athens by way of sea travel.

Timothy and Silas stay in Berea and they will meet up with Paul as soon as they can.

We will pick it up there next week, Lord willing, in verse 16.

CONCLUSION

But as we wrap up this morning, I want to ask you the same question that the old man asked me 25 years ago.

As you hold your Bibles in your laps and you scroll through the Scripture text on your phone, let me ask— “Do you know what you have there?”

Yes?

Then do not neglect them. Be transformed by them.

Desire them.

Learn discernment from them.

Be diligent with them.

They are alive and active, sharper than any two-edged sword.

They are God-breathed, useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.

They are a lamp to our feet and a light to our path.

And blessed are those who hear the Word, keep it and obey it.

For these are the very words of God.