WWUTT 1103 Not All Who Claim to be Bereans are Bereans?

Berea and the Test of the Scriptures

Paul and Silas went to Berea and found some folks so devoted to the scriptures they tested all things according to the Word of God, but not everybody today who calls themselves Berean is actually a Berean when we understand the text.

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Now here's our host, Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the book of Acts. Lately we've been in chapter 17 reading about Paul's second missionary journey and today he goes from Thessalonica to a city named Berea.

This is verses 10 through 15. 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.

So this is a very famous stop, the name of a very famous Greek city called Berea and we still talk about Berea today. In fact you might even see the name of this city on the side of many independent Bible-believing autonomous churches.

It might be called Berean Bible Church or Berean Baptist Church or something to that degree. There's a Berean church not far from us, it's actually near to where my kid's doctor is. So whenever we take the kids to a doctor's visit we pass by this Berean church.

And my kids have asked a time or two, usually as some of my little kids are getting older and they're reading, they see the name of this church and they'll say, daddy what is a Berean Bible Church? And then I explained to them the story of the Bereans in Acts chapter 17.

These who were faithful to the scriptures. So as Paul comes into the synagogue and he's proclaiming the gospel, they search the scriptures to see if what he said was true. Now a lot of these churches that call themselves Berean Bible Churches or even some of these Berean ministries are not so Berean.

I'll explain that a little bit more as we go on. So we come back to verse 10 and kind of recapping from yesterday a little bit. The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. So remember they were persecuted at Thessalonica where they did not stay very long because the the Jewish leaders there hated what Paul and Silas were preaching.

Even though many came to the faith, Jews and Gentiles, the Jewish leaders from the synagogue managed to drive Paul and Silas out and they recruited some of the Greek leaders as well in their influence saying, hey these guys are proclaiming about a king, a different king than Caesar.

Now the Romans hated the idea of a king but gradually as the Roman Empire grew and became more powerful they of course became an empire and they started submitting to an autocrat who was Caesar. The Romans were originally trying to get away from the whole idea of a monarchy.

They didn't want there to be a king who thought of himself as either being a god or appointed by the gods and so therefore when he died his son would be the successor because it was just like this continuous reign of divinity that would be on the throne.

That's not the way the Romans wanted to think about their particular rule but eventually that is the way it ended up going. Caesar would proclaim himself to be a god and though it wouldn't be his son necessarily that would succeed to the throne, it wouldn't be Caesar's son, it was almost always a member of the same household.

They were almost always related. So they tried to get away from the whole monarchy thing and eventually they fell right back into it. They may not have called him a king but it was nevertheless an empire and an emperor who certainly assumed exactly that kind of role.

So it used to be the idea among the Romans that a king was just a bad idea and so whenever someone said king that left a bad taste in their mouth. So here the Jews are able to get the Greeks against Paul and Silas when they say hey they're proclaiming another king and his name is Jesus and so the Greeks get upset.

The authorities were disturbed when they heard these things and drove Paul and Silas out and they were driven out by night. This kind of explains the kind of persecution that was coming against them. In order to get out with their heads intact they had to escape by night.

The Noble Bereans and Testing Everything by Scripture

So verse 10 the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. Same as when Paul had gone into Thessalonica. He went first to the synagogue and preached there for he's preaching from the scriptures showing the people that Jesus is the fulfillment of the law and the prophets.

Verse 11 now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica. Now let me explain to you the way that I was first taught this whenever I you know as early as I can remember being taught acts in church.

I was taught that these Jews in Berea were more noble than the ones in Thessalonica as if it was being said the Jews in Thessalonica were noble but that's not the case. It was almost like there was this understanding that even the Thessalonians tested all things according to the scriptures though we know that wasn't true because they were actually quite lost in their understanding of the scriptures and how they pointed to Christ did not even want to hear Paul explain it to them but yet in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 Paul says to the Thessalonians to test everything this was 1st Thessalonians 521 test everything hold fast to what is good abstain from every form of evil.

So because Paul says that to the Thessalonians there is kind of this understanding that the Thessalonians were noble in seeking the scriptures but they weren't. Verse 11 says now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica that's to say that the ones in Thessalonica were not noble they were not seeking the scriptures they did not understand them but these Bereans did.

So when Paul comes in proclaiming the gospel of Christ and how all of the law and the prophets point to him they go to the scriptures and test Paul's words with what they had written down in their scrolls and parchments there in the in the synagogue.

They received the word with all eagerness examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. That's exactly the way that this should be done everyone should be tested according to the scriptures.

You know just on Sunday after I got done preaching I did my introduction to the book of Matthew and and then this coming Sunday I'm gonna be preaching on the genealogy of Christ in Matthew chapter 1. I had somebody come up to me after church somebody who's been in my church for a little while now and he asked me for my notes and one of the things that he said to me was I want to test you in what it is that you're saying and I said great that's the way that it should be.

I did not take that as a threat in any way at all. I thought that that was noble. That's exactly what we should do. We should be tested according to the scriptures. You should test your own pastor Sunday school teachers youth leader you know whoever it might happen to be the person leading your Bible study group all things should be tested according to the scriptures.

Even Paul who was an apostle was tested by these Bereans with the very thing he was teaching from he's teaching from the scriptures. So the Bereans are going yeah we're gonna check you on that we're gonna go to the scriptures and we're gonna test what it is that you're saying.

Paul would have stood there and said fantastic do it because that's exactly what the Thessalonians did not do. They were not testing Paul according to the scriptures which was why he was prompted to say to them in first Thessalonians 5 21 test everything.

Not because they were known for testing everything but exactly because they didn't test everything. Now the Christian certainly would have been better about this than the Jews in the synagogue would have been.

But it doesn't mean that that's the Thessalonians in general had a reputation for testing. The Bereans did but the Thessalonians did not. Now you'll find a lot of ministries today as I said from the beginning you'll find a lot of ministries called Berean like the Berean review some sort of Berean publication.

You've got Berean churches. It's kind of sad though that many of them if not most of them don't actually imitate what we see here among the Bereans rather than going to the scriptures and testing what's being said to them.

They probably have a system in place and they're going to test everything according to that system preconceived ideas. So what they do is actually is a Jesus not exegesis. Isa Jesus is imposing your own thoughts on to the text.

Exegesis is gleaning from the text exactly what the Spirit means to say to us from this text. But there are a lot of those who proclaim themselves to be Bereans and what instead they're doing is their is a cheating the text.

They are imposing a preconceived view on to the things that they are reading. Do not automatically assume that when somebody calls themselves Berean when they name their ministry Berean when they call their church Berean when they write a book with Berean in the title.

Do not just automatically assume ah that's a noble person who tests all things according to the scriptures. No you need to test even their use of the word Berean to see if they're actually being good Bereans.

The Bereans tested all things according to the scriptures. That's exactly what it is that we should do. Everything must be tested with the Bible the Word of God. We look at everything through a lens of God's Word.

When the world is throwing some kind of idea philosophy or thing at us we need to test it with scripture. Now it used to be that in my own denomination I've mentioned that I'm a Southern Baptist. We used to have a very noble denomination that was committed to this after the conservative resurgence that happened in the late 70s early 80s there was this return to the scriptures and an understanding of them as being inerrant.

And we should test all things according to this. In the mid 90s the Southern Baptist Church was like the most conservative denomination in the country. And anytime the world was impressing some kind of idea it was the Southern Baptist denomination that was going whoa.

No we're not going to take any part in that. In fact the denomination itself might even release some sort of statement of a boycott. We're not going to have anything to do with this as a denomination.

We're not associating with that. But now the denomination is very much trying to pander to worldliness the world's ways. JD Greer the president of the Southern Baptist denomination recently saying that the Bible whispers about sexual sin.

That was in a sermon that he preached from Romans 1. Of all places back at the at the start of the year in January when he gave his president's address at the Southern Baptist Convention in Alabama this past June he gave a definition of the gospel that wasn't the gospel that the core of the gospel was God's commitment to help the marginalized.

That's not the gospel. That's that's works. The gospel is that we are saved by grace through faith in Christ alone and let no one ever add works to that or it becomes a different gospel. Paul proclaimed that quite plainly in Galatians chapter 1 that if you start saying works or the gospel you believe a different gospel.

And then JD Greer just recently saying that that we need to defend the rights of the LGBTQ agenda. And when somebody comes into his church demanding that they be referred to by certain pronouns he's going to refer to them by those pronouns.

A man comes into his church saying that he wants to be called a woman. JD Greer is has said he's going to use the preferred pronouns. Now you can go back to that same interview and you can say well he said that he wasn't going to.

I know he talks out of both sides of his face he says one answer and says a completely different answers. Or which one is it. JD the. But the point being that he is trying to appease worldliness rather than defending the truth of the gospel and standing on the true word of Christ.

If he was not ashamed of this word he would not be in these situations where he ends up talking out of both sides of his head. He would be firm on what the scripture says about this and we must follow this.

We would be good Bereans about anything that comes our way anything the world tries to throw at us anything even a denomination tries to throw at us if it is not according to God it's evil. And so we understand the command that Paul gave to the Thessalonians first.

Thessalonians 521 once again test everything hold fast. What is good. Hold fast to it. Don't let it go cherish. Those things abstain from every form of evil. I want to come back to a statement that I made yesterday when we were reading about Paul and Silas in Thessalonica.

Do you want to change the world. Preach the gospel. How we will change the world is through the preaching of the gospel. Now I want to address another issue that has been coming into evangelicalism lately as well a worldly idea that is being impressed upon us.

The Gospel Changes People, Not Charitable Works

So we continue on here with let's see. They were examining the scriptures daily to see if these things were so. This is verse 12. Many of them therefore believed with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

I said that I was going to address this point today because yesterday we read that the Thessalonians had incited some of the leading women even against Paul and Silas. And this had happened before when Paul was in Antioch that some of the leading Greek women were incited against him there as well.

What's the significance of this. Why is this being said. Well it's very common. It was very common actually for women to hold positions of power in the Greco-Roman world. Now you probably don't hear that very often.

In fact what you hear is exactly the opposite that in a Greco-Roman culture men were superior and women were inferior. But that was not always the case. Rachel held Evans used to say this a lot as a matter of fact especially when it came to contending with the instruction that we find in first Timothy chapter 2 verses 11 and 12 let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness.

I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man. Rather she is to remain quiet. And then Paul explains this instruction from the scriptures. For Adam was formed first then Eve and Adam was not deceived.

But the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet she will be saved through childbearing if they continue in faith and love and holiness with self control. And where Paul goes after this is the qualifications for an elder or a pastor that are given in first Timothy chapter 3 verses 1 through 7.

And all of these instructions are concerning a man. Only a man can be a pastor in a church. And this according to the Word of God it's the it's the way that God has set this up from the beginning from Genesis to Revelation he has appointed men to serve as leaders over his people.

But once again as I mentioned Rachel held Evans the way that she would contend against this instruction is she would say well Paul was writing according to the Greco-Roman mindset of his time. Well no he wasn't because he qualifies this from the scriptures.

Adam was formed first then Eve. It was God's ordination that a man should be the head of his household. So therefore working up even to the system that exists in the church a man is to step in the pulpit.

Men are to step up and lead in the home in the church and therefore in the community and in government as well. That's the way that God had designed for this to be. The Greco-Roman way was not that men were superior and women were inferior.

As a matter of fact the Greco-Roman culture exalted women to those positions of leadership. Which is why we see women leading. And the Jewish men having to call upon those women leaders to drive out these Christians.

This is demonstrating something that Isaiah mourned over in Isaiah 312. My people infants are their oppressors and women rule over them. Oh my people your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.

That's what Isaiah proclaims. And so you had these Jewish leaders having to submit to the Greco-Roman women in order to drive these Christians out. And it shows just how darkened in their hearts they are that women rule over them.

They can't do anything on their own. They're not submitting to God and his word. Rather they would submit to the women leaders who are over them. That was the Greco-Roman way. So when Rachel held Evans and other pseudo historians that would say something like Paul in 1st Timothy 2 was just speaking from the Greco-Roman influence of his day.

That's absolutely not true because the Greco-Roman influence would have put women in positions of leadership as well as men. So we have here in verse 12 many of them therefore believe with not a few Greek women of high standing as well as men.

And that's something that we haven't seen yet up to this point because usually it was the Greek women that were driving out the Apostles that were proclaiming the gospel here they're coming to belief in the gospel.

But when the Jews from Thessalonica here they come again verse 13 when they learned that the Word of God was proclaimed by Paul at Berea also they came there too agitating and stirring up the crowds. My friends the proclamation of the gospel will change people.

It will change men and women and the ways that we live our lives individually will change by the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. When we come into submission to the Word of God we will live the way that God calls us to live.

We will want to imitate our Savior Christ and we will want to follow his word. As Jesus had said to his disciples if you love me you will obey my commandments. John chapter 15. John repeats this again in his first epistle that we show our love for Christ when we obey what we what he has said to us.

And when we as people who make up communities and cities and states and nations when we as people are changed by the gospel. Well the world will be changed by this as well. Now there are certainly good charitable loving things that we can do for others even for unbelievers.

But may those charitable works be done to open a door to share the gospel always take the gospel with you no matter what it is that you're doing. You will not change a person's life by doing some kind act for them.

If the gospel isn't there in the charity and the work that you are doing then you're just giving a person a comfortable seat on their way to hell. But by sharing the gospel and their lives are transformed by the gospel.

Then you're giving them something that's not just a comfortable place to sit in this world. You are giving them a seat with Christ on his throne forever in the kingdom of God when they turn from their sin and believe in Christ and so live.

Jesus said to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3 those who endure I will give to you a place to sit with me on my throne. I do believe that where it is God's will the world will change through the declaration of the gospel.

But again our desire is not for this world. Our desire is for a kingdom that is not of this world and that is the kingdom of God and his righteousness. In the meantime while we're here while we're still on this planet change the world by preaching the gospel.

But don't depend on things to change for the better to give you a better living condition. Rather the possibility is going to be that you will be persecuted for the gospel that you proclaim. And that's what happened to Paul and Silas at Berea here they agitated the crowds they were stirred up against them.

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.

And that leads us to Paul in Athens where he's going to deliver the sermon at the Areopagus also known as Paul's sermon at Mars Hill. And we'll read about that in Acts chapter 17 next week. Let us conclude with prayer.

Our Heavenly Father we thank you for changing us by the hearing of the gospel of Christ turning from sin believing in Jesus and so having eternal life. May this change that happens in us by the hearing of the gospel continue.

We continue to grow in holiness and Christ likeness. And we preach the gospel to others that they may be changed by it and become Christians in this world looking for a kingdom that is not of this world but a kingdom above that is with God in glory.

Jesus himself said my kingdom is not of this world. So let us not be trying. Our aspiration is not to make better more comfortable seats here on planet earth but rather to guarantee a seat with Christ above in glory.

And we look forward to that promise in Jesus name.

Amen. For more about our ministry visit us online at www .tt .com.