A Word in Season: A Berean Spirit (Acts 17:11–12)

Media Gratiae

Subscribe

Download

Share

00

00:00

I hope you've heard of the Bereans, and I hope you appreciate their spirit. They're described for us in Acts and chapter 17.

00:08

In the context, Paul has just been preaching in Thessalonica. He had, as his pattern was, gone into the synagogue there and proclaimed the

00:18

Lord Jesus Christ. And in Thessalonica, not only Jews, but a great multitude of Greeks were also converted.

00:27

And this enraged some of the Jewish Thessalonians, and they stirred up persecution against the

00:34

Apostle, and the disciples there in Thessalonica immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea.

00:43

There, Paul and Silas did exactly the same thing as they had done in Thessalonica, and they preached in the synagogue of the

00:50

Jews. They were more fair -minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

01:02

Therefore, many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

01:11

The Bereans are sometimes claimed by angry or suspicious

01:16

Christians. You sometimes hear people who are disposed against their pastors or preachers saying, well, we're

01:26

Bereans and we're searching the scriptures to see whether or not these things are so.

01:32

There's almost an assault element to it. But that is to completely misunderstand the

01:38

Berean spirit, because the Berean spirit is not suspicious and resentful, but rather humble and thoughtful.

01:46

They are genuinely noble -minded, fair -minded. You often hear people today claim to be very open -minded, perhaps especially people who want nothing to do with Christianity.

02:00

They're so open -minded that they've already concluded that there can possibly be no truth in anything that a

02:08

Christian has to say with regard to the Bible. Not so these Berean men and women.

02:14

They have a noble mind, and it's shown first of all in their humble receiving of the word of God and then their thoughtful searching of the word of God.

02:27

First of all, they received the word with all readiness. They were eager to hear what these men had to say, whether it was something in their bearing, something in their reasoning, how much of that had to do with the operations of the

02:42

Holy Spirit, we're not sure. But there was a nobleness about their thinking, there was a dignity in their minds, so that they were ready to consider what was carefully and helpfully and clearly brought to them by these men who had come to preach the word of God.

03:01

And having received that word readily, having considered what they heard, they then engaged in this thoughtful scrutiny.

03:09

Because while the Bereans were not suspicious, neither were they mindless.

03:15

They didn't just assume that this latest thing that they were hearing was true. They went away and compared what they had heard with the word of God.

03:26

And taking it to heart and seeing that it measured up to and married up with everything that was spoken in the scriptures, they took it to their hearts.

03:37

They believed the word, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men.

03:45

What a sweet spirit this was. It's just the spirit that a sinner needs when we hear the gospel.

03:53

Too often our resentment against the truth darkens and clouds our minds.

04:00

If we want to know God, then we need to hear what is being said to us and search the scriptures.

04:07

A Christian is not afraid of scrutiny. A believer does not shy away from exposing what they believe and know to anybody who asks.

04:18

And we're quite happy for everybody to go to the Bible and to see whether or not what we say is a proper and accurate reflection of what

04:28

God has made known. If you want to know the truth and you're not yet a Christian, open your

04:34

Bible. And if you are a believer, then this is the spirit that we need to go on cultivating, that when the word of God comes to us by competent, equipped, proven men, when there are truths being spoken, then we need a heart that is ready to receive them and a mind that is ready to consider them so that we may prove truly noble -minded, opening our

05:00

Bibles, not just that we might first know God in Christ, but might go on diving into the depths of all his glorious revelation of himself.