Please turn in your Bibles, if you would, to the book of Acts chapter 17. Acts chapter 17. Today we will consider verses 10 through 15 under the title, Being Berean. I have enjoyed that title all week long. I think it's fun to say. Do you want to whisper it under your breath during the sermon? That's okay. Being Berean. It's not only fun to say, it fits the text before us today. The Bereans are well known in Christian circles. There are churches named Berean Church. There are Christian schools that bear the name Berean. Step into any so-called Christian store and you'll find coffee mugs and t-shirts and various tchotchkes that are emblazoned with some form of the name Berean. I think today as we consider this text and we learn what the scripture teaches us about the Bereans, we'll come to see that many in the broader evangelical world today know of the Bereans, but few truly know the Bereans. Today we will see how Bereans behave and how we should emulate their behavior Be a Berean Let's read God's Word together You'll follow along in your copy your Bible as I read aloud Acts chapter 17 verses 10 The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. Therefore, many of them believed, along with a number of prominent Greek women and men. But the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been proclaimed by Paul in Berea also. They came there as well, agitating and stirring up the crowds. Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out as far as the sea. and Silas and Timothy remained there. Now those who escorted Paul brought him as far as Athens and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning seeking your favor. Help us to focus our hearts and our minds attention on your word on the text that is before us. Help us, Lord, where we are harboring error. Show us today by your spirit the error that we hold and help us to abandon those errors and forgive us of the sin of believing something that is untrue. Open our eyes of faith to see your truth, your word, We ask that this morning you would sanctify the saints and draw sinners to Jesus Christ and hide this preacher behind the cross. Bless now the preaching of your word. Amen. Last time we saw Paul at Thessalonica and before that in Philippi, there has been a continued of Paul and the missionaries everywhere that Paul has been to preach the gospel. Paul was brutally beaten, if you remember, and run out of Philippi. In Thessalonica, they made a political move, a legal maneuver, to prevent Paul from returning to that city. Everywhere the apostles and the missionaries have gone before, the gospel has been rejected and there has been an uproar, a riot of some sort. And it came at Paul everywhere he turned, but there's one exception to this pattern, and it's Berea. At Berea, there was no local No local riot. Now we will see, we just read that there was trouble, but those people came in from out of town. Berea was an exception. Paul came here and he preached and there was no opposition to the gospel message. They heard the gospel and the text tells us that many believed. And this was without opposition until those at Thessalonica heard and traveled the 60 miles to come there and to make trouble. There's much for us to learn here about Paul's ministry, and we've seen some of these things, and we're gonna learn today about the Bereans, and they're the ones now who are hearing Paul's preaching, they're hearing the gospel. Verse 10 opens with this, the Bereans, I'm sorry, the brethren, immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night. And this links us back to the Thessalonica in the previous section. After the city authorities had collected a financial tax, if you will, a financial security from Jason and the others, they made it illegal for Paul to reenter the city. If you'll remember, he said in Thessalonians, Satan prevented us, and this is what he is speaking of. And Paul left, and immediately arrangements were made for them to go to this next town, Berea. Berea was a small town and mostly an insignificant city in southwest Macedonia. We remember at the beginning of chapter 16, Paul had seen a vision from a Macedonian man asking him, come over to Macedonia and help us. They needed help. And Paul has been, since that vision in chapter 16, ministering in Macedonia, giving the help that they needed. And what they needed was the gospel. Paul brought the gospel of Jesus Christ to Macedonia. And Berea would be the final city where Paul would preach in Macedonia here in this second missionary journey. As was Paul's habit, Paul and Silas went first to the synagogue. The Jews had the scriptures, the scriptures which promised the Messiah and prophesied so much about the one who was to come, the Savior that was to come. So it was a logical place to start to preach Jesus, the Anointed One, Jesus, the Promised Messiah. In verse 11, the author of Acts, Luke, who was just a few verses before us, you'll remember, a travel companion of Paul and Silas on this missionary journey, Luke gives and the Bereans were more noble. And noble is a word that we don't use super often. At least in America, we don't use the word. But we think we know what it means. I will admit that when I think of the word noble, when I think of a noble person, I get this image in my mind of someone who is dressed very well, someone who behaves in a respectable and proper manner. But clearly that's not at all what the Bereans were. That's not at all what is mentioned here, that the Bereans were noble. Now, our British friends may have a better idea of the word noble. Any fans of Dalton Abbey, you'll catch on with this too. The idea of noble or nobility has to do with birth, or at least we think that. in our normal day, in the normal use of the word, that's exactly what it means, being of noble birth. Someone who is of noble birth has a special place in social status or political status or royalty. They have a place of nobility. And this was the idea that most of the Jews had. They thought because of their birth that they were all noble because they were born as physical descendants of father Abraham. So they were noble. But these Bereans were Jews and the Jews of Thessalonica were Jews. So why were the Bereans noble, more noble? It has nothing to do with their appearance. And it has nothing to do with social or political status. Luke compares the Jews of these two cities, Thessalonica and Berea, and Luke says the Bereans were more noble, and he means by this that they were people of personal character. They were people principled and full of virtue. This is why we can say, if that's what is meant, that the Bereans were noble That's why it's good to say we are being Berean. It's a good thing. Being Berean means to be noble-minded, principled, full of virtue. And the text gives us even more when we look at the specifics of how they behave, the specific characteristics that come forth in the text, which earned them this high reputation. So we note these Bereans character and the characteristics, and then we'll see some indicators when we are not being Berean. The first characteristic that we will look at of the Bereans, firstly, note that they received the word. The text tells us they received the word. They listened to the preaching of Paul. They listened to the apostles preaching. They were attentive. Like some of you today, they were attentive. They listened, the scripture tells us, with great eagerness. They received the word with eagerness. And this indicates that they were anticipating. They had not forgotten or decided that God didn't really mean what he said in his word when he promised a Messiah. They didn't write it off and say, well, it's probably just a messianic age. They were expecting a Messiah. They were anticipating the promise of God. They were, as it were, on the edge of their seat. fulfillment of God's promise. Listening how Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Messiah, the anointed one of God. The first characteristic of being Berean is that they received the word of this characteristic being Berean. Secondly, the Bereans displayed the characteristic of examining the scripture. It says they received the word, but it says they examined the scripture. They didn't just hear a well-written homily and hear something that tickled their ears. They didn't receive the preacher like a cult of personality, they received word and they examine the scripture. Now we may wonder about this. I mean, the one preaching to them is the apostle Paul and what we have of the apostles writings is the word of God. So we don't have to search the scripture. When you're reading in Galatians, you don't have to search the scripture to see if these things are true. It's the word of God. It is true. So we don't have to search the scripture in this way. Were the Bereans different? Did they have to search the scripture or did the gospel that Paul preached, was it true and believable? Well, technically they didn't have to search the scripture. It was true and believable. They could have believed it as it was presented to them, but they were not wrong and they are noble for searching the scripture. They wanted to verify for themselves what Paul was preaching, this new thing. And let me just say here, I wrote that in my notes. This new thing they were hearing, they wanted to verify that it was in agreement with the Old Testament scriptures, but the thing they were hearing wasn't really new. It really was an old thing, but they were hearing it in a different way, and their understanding of the old thing was being corrected. and it was being enhanced. How many of us know that experience when we say, this is new? So many people have come to our church and they've said, this is new, and we are not teaching anything new. The day we start teaching new stuff, it's time to quit. We're teaching old stuff. But they heard this thing, and in their ears it was new, and they wanted to verify that it was in agreement with the Scriptures. They received the Word, but they examined the Scriptures. At that time, the Scriptures were the books of the Old Testament. The New Testament had not been written yet. This is a reminder to us that the Old Testament Scriptures were useful to Paul as he preached. He didn't have to say, well, no, that was the old thing. Have you been to churches? Have you heard that today? People say that, oh, we don't do the Old Testament. We're New Testament Christians. We are New Testament Christians. And the Old Testament prophesies of the New Testament. This is a reminder to us that the Old Testament Scriptures are about Jesus. Jesus Christ is the subject of the Old Testament. All of the types and shadows and covenants found from Genesis to Malachi in the Old Testament, they all point to the coming Messiah and the new covenant that he would bring. Jesus is the Messiah. Jesus is the Christ. They examined the scriptures. The text tells us, if you'll look, they examined the scriptures daily. So this is not, a cursory glance. This is not what so many of us do today. Well, I don't remember anything in the Bible that contradicts that. If we just have to go on what I remember, we're in trouble. They search the scriptures daily, and this indicates a consistency, a continual returning to the scrolls, trusting in God's word as the final arbiter. the final authority, the final judge. They examined the scriptures daily to see if these things were so, to see if these things were true. They were listening to this preacher named Paul. And remember, Paul had an amazing education. Paul had an impressive resume. I never know what to say when we have guest preachers. Doctor so and so, graduate of this, president of that. I don't want you to be impressed by their resume. So generally what I say is, this is the man that I know to be faithful to the word of God. That's important. But they had Paul here, Paul has this resume, Paul has this education, but even Paul, standing before them, he had to pass the scrutiny of Scripture. Paul's message was tested, held up to, and compared to scripture, testing the preacher's message against the scripture to see if these things were so. Now Paul was not offended by this. He would value this characteristic of the Bereans. Later he would write to the Galatians, though we, or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than that which we have preached, let him be a curse. Paul said, if I come and preach something different that doesn't line up with the text of scripture, I will be a curse. And he continues, as we said before, I say now again, if any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which you have received, let him be a curse. So they were checking Paul out. And Paul would have been all for that. Listen to John Dix commenting on this text. To yield up our judgment in religious matters to any individual or to any church is to invest that individual or that church with the attribute of infallibility. You can have no certainty that any doctrine which you hold is true unless you have seen it with your own eyes from scripture. Brothers and sisters, even if the doctrines that we hold are true, if we come to them and if we receive them based on an undue respect for men and a neglect for the truth of God's word, then in our mind, Even that true thing is not on solid ground. It's not grounded in our hearts and minds. We would do well to emulate the Bereans. They received the word with great eagerness, examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were true. God was pleased to bless Paul and Silas' ministry here and the noble-minded response of the Bereans. So in verse 12, we read that many believed. Paul and Silas had seen gospel ministry. Some had believed, but here in Berea, many believed. Now there's a question, how many is many? We don't know how many many is, but we do know that this is a great blessing for those many Bereans who believed. And this is a great encouragement for the gospel preachers who preach that many believe. Notice also in verse 12, who were the ones who were saved? It says many of them, many of them. Now this is speaking of the Jews who were there in the synagogue, many of them, but it also tells us of Gentiles, particularly prominent Greek women. and men, but women's. First of all, women is here. And secondly, it's listed first. They're not only mentioned, but women are mentioned first. Other religions either have no place for women, or women are relegated to a second class place. Even in Judaism, women were in a place outside How close, you might ask, how close to God could women be under Judaism? Well, they were outside the Holy of Holies. They were outside the court of priests. The Holy of Holies, then the court of priests. Then they were outside the court of Israelite men, and then you had the women. So the women were outside. Ladies and gentlemen. Only in Jesus Christ are women elevated to a place of equality. If you didn't hear this, let me say it plainly. Feminism is a lie. Only in Christ is there gender equality. In Christ, there is no preference for male or female. While we're on the subject, Gentiles were outside. One layer further out than the women was the court of the Gentiles. But now, in Christ, you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, slave nor free. We are all one in Christ. Not sameness, but equality. So we've looked at these characteristics of the Bereans, characteristics that are worth emulating. But it's important that we also recognize those indicators when we are not being Berean. So what are some things that may indicate in our lives when we are not being Berean? I have three indicators that we are not being Berean. The first indicator is when we don't prioritize the hearing of the word of God. Now the preaching of God's word is an ordinary means of grace. What we mean by that when we say it's an ordinary means of grace is that God has ordained to bless his people through this channel, through the preached word. What a shame it is when we who claim to be God's people don't make the ordinary means of grace a priority in our lives. When we let any excuse, by the way, But at the end of your life, will they be good excuses or will they just be that thing that you let come in the place of being in the house of the Lord with the Lord's people, hearing the Lord's word? What a shame when we don't make the ordinary means of grace a priority. When we don't prioritize the hearing God's Word, it indicates that we're not being bereaved. Beloved, if you want to look after the well-being of your eternal soul, prioritize the preached Word of God. Another indicator of not being bereaved is to accept a message without searching the Scriptures. To accept something preached without searching the Scriptures. Today in the broader evangelical landscape, this is too often the case, that a ministry rests on a man's personality. Sometimes that's done on purpose, and sometimes it's done kind of by accident. But too often it's the case a cult of personality. There are those personalities who mislead so many people, and most of you will recognize these as frauds. Names like Osteen, Jakes, Myers, White, Hinn, I'm gonna stop, but the list could go on and on and on. As we know, those that follow after such charlatans bring danger to their own souls, and they should search the scripture and not follow after a big name. Paul warned of this when he wrote to Timothy. He said this, the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, sound teaching. The time will come. And can we say here in 2022 almost, the time has come. when they will not endure sound doctrine. But instead, they, after their own lusts, gather to themselves teachers. You know what happened there? They won't endure teaching, they gather to themselves teachers. They won't endure the doctrine, but they bring in personality. Does this not sound like the world that we live in today? Famous names. Brothers and sisters, Reformed Baptists. This is a warning for us. Examine the scriptures. Trust the scriptures. Check out the man. Check out the, and by the way, this man included. We need to hear this. Let me say this. When a man has a long track record of faithfulness to the word of God, that should mean something, shouldn't it? That should carry some weight. There should be gravity there and it should lead us to listen. But we still must search. The scriptures, we still must examine the scriptures. I can say to you, I don't know of a single theologian from modernity or history that I don't know of something that I think they got wrong in the scripture. One of us is wrong. We must search the scripture. I worry, I'm not talking about those people out there, I'm talking about us here. I worry about some of you who seem to follow your favorite preacher like a rock star. Now, I'm glad you're not following the rock star, but you're following your favorite preacher like a rock star. Names like R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Votie Baldwin, They've been faithful to the word for decades, and they deserve a hearing, but they must be tested against scripture. To get more local, to get down where we live, names like Renahan, Barcellas, Dolezal, these men, we know to be faithful to the word of God, But brothers and sisters, don't trust a man. When we hear their messages, listen, but we are then obligated to examine the scriptures to see if these things are true. When we accept a man and his message without examining the scriptures, we are not being bereaved. The final indicator. when we're not being Berean is when we hear the word, we receive the word and we search the scriptures, but we do it in isolation. This final indicator is one that is rampant. It's taken many in unaware. The thing that makes it such a pitfall is that it's got some good things. Hearing and receiving the word, that's good. Examining the scripture, that's good. But this error comes in when we don't see what's in the scripture before us. To help us understand this, just take a moment and look at your Bible. Some of you have a Bible. I like my Bible. Some of you have a Bible that is hardback. Some of you have a Bible that is this kind of leather, that kind of leather. Some of you have a Bible, if you wanna call it a Bible. Some of you are reading the Bible on a digital device. I'm not gonna fuss at you. I don't like it, but I'm not gonna fuss at you. We have so many Bibles. I was thinking about my first Bible. My parents are here today. I don't remember my first, I mean, it may have been my first Bible. I remember having my personal, not my daddy's Bible, my mama, my Bible, when I had to be five or six years old. And that's just the earliest memories that I have. I may have had a Bible before that, but I've owned my own personal Bible for as long as I have had memories. And I have so many Bibles, I couldn't tell you how many. I have a lot of Bibles. If you want a Bible, I mean, you could go to a store and purchase a Bible. You can go on something like Amazon and get a Bible delivered tomorrow. We can get Bibles easily. We can go online to a web browser to websites like Bible Gateway. That's one of my favorites to use. and we can read the Bible online. But the Bereans didn't have BibleGateway.com. And they didn't have the nice leather-bound Bibles that we have. They didn't have a Mardell or a Lifeway store. The Bereans didn't have those things. So what does it mean that they searched The scripture. There was a copy of the scripture. There wasn't even a copy of the scripture in every household. There was a copy of the scripture at the synagogue. That's where the Bible was. A copy at the synagogue. The text says, they received the word with eagerness. Now, where was that? That was in the assembly. while Paul preached in the congregation. And then they examined the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. Well, where was that? That was in the congregation. That was in the assembly. This was not done in isolation. It was at the house of worship where others who were searching the scriptures daily to see if these things were true were also there doing the same thing. Brothers and sisters, the prevailing idea in our day is search the scriptures to see if these things are true, but do so home alone with your Bible. There's there's more focus today on private Bible study on my lifetime, on my private devotions than on anything else. And I'm going to tell you, That's not biblical. Hear me say this. Some of you just tuned out, so come back. Hear me say this. Personal, devotional Bible reading and Bible study is a good thing. Some of you are gonna go out of here and say, he said personal Bible study wasn't biblical, don't do it. No, it's a good thing, do it. But it is not so good It is not so important that God gave the gift of personal private Bible study to the centuries of saints who came before us. The Bereans did not have it. Did God withhold something from them? No. They had what they needed to grow in Christ. Bibles were not available as personal possessions at all to the Reformation. I say at all, to the uber wealthy, super wealthy. And every family having a Bible, the idea, some of you have heard this, and some of you may not have ever even heard the term, the family Bible. The idea of every family having a Bible in their home, that was not widespread until the 1800s. So personal devotions were not the primary or even the secondary way for a believer to nourish their souls. Up to the 1800s, that could not have been true. So do your personal private Bible reading and Bible study, but don't say, this is the most important thing. That's what Big Eva, greater evangelical world tells us. In your prayer closet, that's the most important thing, and then you go to church as a supplement. No, that's backwards and upside down. The preaching of the word of God is the primary. That's what's been there all along that God has given to every Christian of all ages. God's ordinary means of grace are the primary soul-nourishing things, and they were for early Christians. And friends, God's ordinary means of grace are the primary soul-nourishing things today. means of grace, preaching being the chief one, is a corporate thing. It's a corporate thing. The Bereans searched the scripture, but they didn't walk away with their own private interpretation. They did this in the congregation. Beloved, we must follow the example of the Bereans. We must search the scriptures, but we must do so in the congregation, and yes, this means that we do so, as we look around the room, we do so with these people, with our local New Testament church. This is so important that we are churchmen. Jesus loved the church and gave himself for it. I have a friend, Earl Blackman, who wrote a book, Jesus Loved the Church and You Should Too. Because so many neglected, if Jesus loved the church, How do we neglect the church? How do we avoid the church, ignore the church, despise the church? We who love Jesus Christ must love the church of Jesus Christ. Beloved, we study the scripture in the congregation now and locally, but also in the congregation of the saints that has come before us through creeds and confessions from the history of the church. through writings of preachers and theologians, church councils and synods. Those things should be precious and valuable to us. Now these things do not come to the same level, to the same authority as scripture. Because God's word is inspired and these other things are not. but it doesn't mean that they're to be ignored. So many fall into one of two errors, either to take church history and the writings of church theologians and to elevate them to equal with scripture, or to completely ignore them and count them as valueless. We must hold these things in a proper place, subordinate to the scripture, but valuable. This final indicator that we are not being Berean is when we hear the word, receive the word, and we search the scripture to see if these things are true, and we do so in isolation. The acts of these noble-minded Bereans resulted in many being saved. Also as a direct result of these Bereans seeking scriptural answers, We know that many more Gentiles were saved even after this. The news of gospel success in Berea came to those hostile Jews in Thessalonica, and verse 13 tells us those troublemakers came here to Berea, agitating and stirring up the crowd, and that compelled Paul to withdraw once again to another place. We learn some things from this pattern of opposition and Paul moving from one place to the next. The first thing that we can learn is Paul had a commission and coming up against difficulties did not give him permission to abandon his duty, to abandon his commission. Church, we have a commission from our Lord Jesus Christ. We have a commission. And coming up against opposition does not give us permission to quit. Paul and Silas went from Philippi, where they were beaten and arrested. Then they went to Thessalonica, and there they ran into more trouble. They were run out of town. Then they arrived in Berea. Trouble came from out of town, and now they're going to another place. And we'll see that in the future, but they're going to another place. Here's the point. They're not running so that they might hide. They're moving so that they might continue the work of the gospel. that they might continue to persist in doing what God has called them to do. That's the first thing we learn here. Secondly, the reputation of the gospel is at least in part established by the reputation of those who oppose it. The gospel is not opposed by reasonable, humble, seekers of the truth, pious and holy men. Enemies of the gospel are prideful, covetousness, vain, and conceited. They will stoop to lies and trickery. They are not bound by honor in any way. And we've seen that throughout our study of Acts. That men of such low character wage war against it speaks to the fact that the gospel is from the throne of heaven. Thirdly, we are warned here against forming an opinion of any testimony based solely on the words of an enemy. How we judge a man, how we judge a church, how we judge a religion, really how we judge anything, how we judge cannot solely be based on the testimony of the detractors. If the Bereans had done that, they'd have heard The opposition, and they'd have said, oh, we can't receive this from Paul because they're our enemies. But they didn't just judge according to the testimony of the enemies, they heard and they compared it to scripture. Jesus said in John 7, 24, judge not according to appearances, judge righteous judgments. Judge not according to appearances, judge righteous judgments. Lastly, we learned that there is no argument between the Old and the New Testament. The Old and the New Testament are in perfect agreement. There is a distinction. There's a definite break between the Old and the New Testament, the Old and the New Covenant. They are different covenants. But the New Covenant is in the Old concealed. The New Covenant was prophesied and picture in the Old. The message of the Savior, the promised Messiah, was not a new concept. When the Bereans heard the gospel, they were able to see the truthfulness of the gospel and the validity of the gospel by searching the Old Testament. The Old and New Testament are not in conflict. We thank God the New Testament. We thank God for Acts chapter 17 and the Bereans who stand as an example for us. My prayer is that we would be being Berean. Let's bow. God, we thank you for the Old Testament, which finds its full who came and fulfilled the whole of your law, who brought with him the new covenant. We thank you for our savior. We thank you for his life and his death. And we pray that you would apply these truths that we've heard today from your word to our hearts.