Acts 17:10-15

Our text today is Acts 17 verses 10 through 15. Let us pray. Father, as we open your word this morning, as we look into your word in the gospel of Christ, Father, would you buy your Holy Spirit, use that word to mold us and shape us, even as a craftsman would take a hammer to mold and shape and bring from raw material an instrument of vessel, glorious for your purpose. May your church and may each of us become that by the power of your Holy Spirit working in us. Father, we ask this that your name would be glorified, that your gospel would go forth and that your kingdom would come and your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. We ask all of this in the mighty name of Jesus and amen. Acts chapter 17, beginning in verse 10, through verse 15, then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica and that they received the word with all readiness and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. Therefore, many of them believed and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. But when the Jews from Thessalonica learned that the word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds, then immediately the brethren sent Paul away to go to the sea, but both Silas and Timothy remained there. So those who conducted Paul brought him to Athens and receiving a command for Silas and Timothy to come to him with all speed they departed. This is the word of the Lord. Today in our text we see and Luke tells us that when Paul got to the city of Berea after escaping Thessalonica, he found a people different than those in Thessalonica. My new King James translates their attitude or their mindset as being fair-minded and that is true. But the literal word there is noble. If you have a King James Bible, it will say those in Berea were more noble. The NASB says noble-minded. And that's what it means. But the word literally is noble. So today I want to talk to you and I want to remind you of our noble heritage. After their ordeal in Thessalonica, Paul and Silas went or sin away by night to Berea. And when they arrived they went into the synagogue of the Jews. The first thing they did was return to the synagogue and return to preaching the word of God to the Jews and to the God-fearing Gentiles who also assembled in the synagogue, proclaiming the gospel of the resurrected Christ, the Lord and Messiah. And in Berea they found a different audience. Luke writes, these were more noble or more fair-minded. In Berea unlike those in Thessalonica, the worshipers were more noble. That is literally the word. Not necessarily noble in their birth like they were born to nobility, but noble in their demeanor or specifically in the way they approached the word of God and the message of the gospel. Meaning they were more fair or open-minded, more noble-minded toward the message of the gospel. This is exactly the attitude that we ourselves are to have when approaching God's word, especially when His word does not agree with our own desired interpretation. People have a tendency to want to hang on to their traditions, even when their traditions fly in the face of God's word. They want to hang on to their sin and to their lifestyles and to their way of life and way of doing things even when that way is opposed to the teaching of Scripture and God's word. That is not being noble. That is not being fair-minded. That is being stubborn. Luke tells us exactly what is meant when he writes that these Bereans were more noble. They received the word with all readiness. This meant they received the word of God with eagerness. They were ready and eager to hear God's word. They were ready with an open mind and they did not prejudge the message but went to the Scripture to see if Paul was preaching truth. They actually went to the Word of God to test the message. They were not able to get the message fit their mold. Rather, they allowed the Word to mold them. When you assemble to worship, are you ready? Are you eager to hear God's word? That is a question that we should ask ourselves. You should be, yes, I will say that again, you should be eager and ready to hear God's word. If you are not, I would encourage you to cultivate your mind, cultivate your desires, guard your heart, guard your mind and curb your unholy appetites, be diligent to crucify your flesh and to press into a readiness and an eagerness to hear and partake of God's word. I would encourage you to do that weekly, in fact I would encourage you to do that daily. Cultivate a hunger for God's word. That hunger is a vital part of what it means to be a Christian. That hunger with a ready eagerness can be acquired and cultivated through prayer, coupled with a consistent and committed diligence in God's word. Don't just pray and wait for God to change you, pray and do the things necessary for change, pray and then do the change whether you feel like it or not. Pray and be obedient. Go to prayer and go to the word and keep going to both and you will soon find a hunger and a ready eagerness for his word. It was so for the Bereans. They searched the scriptures daily. For the Bereans, their ready eagerness resulted in a hunger for the word of God and that hunger motivated them to not only hear the word of God preach each Sabbath when they assembled for worship, but they were searching the scriptures daily. Luke tells us they would daily partake of God's word consuming the scriptures with an eager readiness. And upon hearing the message of the gospel, they searched the scriptures daily. Why? To find out whether these things were so. In other words, they didn't just take Paul at his word. They went to the word of God to make sure that his words were true and I would encourage you to do the same. Make sure that what I'm teaching you, what I'm preaching, what Caleb is teaching you and preaching to you, what anyone is teaching you and preaching to you, make sure that it aligns with God's word. For the Bereans, their daily search of the scriptures was to find out whether the things that Paul preached were so. And in their noble pursuit of truth, they did not assume they went on a search of the scripture. In other words, they didn't assume what Paul was saying was true. They actually searched the scripture to find out if what he was saying was true. And they searched to know whether the message of grace through faith in the resurrected Christ was actually in the scripture. And they searched to know if Jesus was truly the promised Christ, the Messiah. And they searched the scripture daily to find out whether these things were so. In verse 12, Luke tells us the result of Paul's preaching and the result of their searching was that many of them believed. That is, many of the Jews and also not a few Greeks and prominent men and prominent women. Therefore, many of them believed because the Word of God was preached in specifically the gospel of Christ, which is the power of God's salvation for everyone who believes, many came to faith in Christ. And here in Berea, as was becoming common in all places that Paul went, there were Jews who believed, but more and more Gentiles were coming to faith. This was the case in Berea. Thus, many Jews and Gentiles came to believe. And among these were prominent men and women, Luke specifically tells us that. In other words, God saves all kinds because it takes all kinds to advance the kingdom of God. And that is why we should never make an assumption about people. We should never look at a person and say, oh, they look like they would receive the gospel. Or they would never hear and receive the gospel. I'm not even going to bother talking to them. Don't do that. Don't make assumptions about people. Just give them the gospel because it's not your words that will save anyone. It is the gospel. The gospel is the power of God's salvation. Not your charisma, not your knowledge, not your ability to efficiently and effectively communicate God's Word. You might say, I don't even know how to present the gospel. So it doesn't do me any good to do that. No, that's not true. You have a testimony. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and the Word of their testimony. The amount of Bible knowledge you have, God is not dependent upon the amount of Bible knowledge you have. Testified to the gospel and God can take the most base and simple thing and he can use it to change your life. But you have to be willing and obedient to open your mouth to take that step of faith. If you don't have that Bible knowledge, well then go to the Word and search the scripture daily and put that Bible in your heart. In your heart, hide it in your heart. You say, well, yeah, but Pastor Jeff, when I read the Bible, I don't understand what it's saying. Don't worry about whether you understand it. If you'll put it in your heart, the Holy Spirit in you knows how to pull it out of your heart and make it come alive and make it make sense. Not only to you, but he will use it to powerfully save those that you deliver it to. So don't worry about what you understand and don't understand. Just keep putting the Word in your heart. If you keep filling your heart with the Word of God in time, the Spirit of God in you will bring to you the understanding you need. But if you don't put it in there, it's not there for God to use. Let me say that one more time. Put the Word in your heart. Don't worry about what's happening here. Just put it here and this will take care of itself. God will see to it. Amen. So we don't want to make an assumption about people. We want to give them the gospel and trust God and His power to save them. And through the power of the gospel, the nations were beginning to turn to Christ. And whenever Paul went or wherever Paul went, he preached the gospel of Christ to all. He knew the gospel was the power of God to salvation for both Jew and Gentile alike. And if the gospel is not preached, men will not be saved. That's the bottom line. Men are not saved apart from the gospel. If the modern church thinks it can save the world through a social gospel or through a personal self-help gospel or some form of men. The form of mysticism with the Christian label slapped on it. The lie has indeed taken root. We must return to the purity of the gospel. When you look at what is happening across the landscape in particular across our nation, you must wonder what is being preached from the place of our churches across the land. What are churches preaching today? Are they preaching the pure, unadulterated gospel with a call for repentance of sin and faith in Jesus? That's what's needed. That's what's needed. And that is what is commanded by God in His Word. Men have itching ears. And there are too many men and unfortunately women willing to scratch that itch with a message less than the truth. There must be a return to a biblical standard with the scriptures being preached across our land in uncompromising fashion. Not only the parts of God's counsel we can stomach or that affirm what we want it to affirm, but the whole council of God. That means a call to repent of sin and return to holiness. That means calling out social norms that are rooted in sin, no matter how popular or socially acceptable they have come. That goes for those norms that are accepted inside and outside the church. And that certainly does not exclude Christ fellowship when the spirit convicts you, don't ignore it. Obey it. All did we need shepherds who uncompromisingly allow the scripture to guide their preaching. The message of the church must conform to the Word of God and the gospel of Christ. I fear too many preachers are twisting or ignoring the scripture to make the Word of God conform to what their people want instead of what they need. And when we fear men more than we fear God we have a problem and I would say we have a problem right now across our nation. When we become more concerned with the way people and the culture view us rather than how God views us we have a real problem that will produce real and destructive consequences. This is what has happened to our nation. It hasn't happened overnight but it has happened. And we're not going to get out of this overnight but if we don't begin to return to a biblical standard, if we don't begin to return to the preaching of the gospel, if we don't begin to return to a fear of God rather than a fear of man it's going to get worse. I'm not a doomsayer. I'm just a person realistic because I can read the Bible and I can see what God has done and how he has worked across history and it is no different today. We serve a God who does not change. He is the same yesterday, today and forever. And we must not assume that God is going to treat us differently in our sin than he treated any other nation or any other people. He will not. Men who are more concerned with conforming to a particular culture or norm rather than conforming to the scripture almost always pervert the image and the character of God to match their own perverted views. At a minimum, such men ignore the admonitions in the scripture to call out sin and to call men up to a higher standard of holiness. We are not called to conform God to his and his message to the image of man. God doesn't conform to us. Man is to be conformed to the image of God. Man is created in the image of God and we are called to conform to the image of Christ. God is holy. Therefore we are to be holy. Praise God for his grace, for our holiness comes by the blood of Jesus. It doesn't come by your work. It comes by his blood. That truth does not negate the fact that God calls us to walk in holiness or to walk in the light as he is in the light. Just as Jesus commands us to love one another as he has loved us. And that love and that holiness begins with the blood of Christ applied and the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. From his love poured out, we are to love God with all of our heart, with all of our mind, with all of our soul and with all of our strength. And when we love God with our all, we will find ourselves desiring to be conformed to his image and seeking to immerse ourselves in his word and walk in his ways. Our preaching and teaching and daily searching of the Scripture should result in you and I being changed and conformed to the image of Christ. In fact, the Bible teaches that it is your destiny to be conformed to Christ. If you love God and are the called according to his purpose, that is your destiny and rest assured if you love God, you are the call according to his purpose. Listen to God's amazing promise given to you from Romans chapter 8, verses 28 and 29. Paul writes, and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the call according to his purpose, for whom he for new, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Being conformed to the image of Christ is your destiny. In Christ it is not only your destiny but you were predestined before the foundation of the world to be conformed to the image of Christ. God does not conform to us but we are being conformed to Him. Even when Christ humbled Himself and put on human flesh, conforming to our humanity and submitting to death on the cross, He did so for our salvation. We are not called to make God acceptable to man. We are commanded to command men to become acceptable to God through faith in Jesus Christ. Christ is the command of the Great Commission. Christ descended so that we could ascend. Christ descended so that we could be brought up and ascend out of the mire of our sin and death. Now in Christ we no longer have to continue being conformed to this world. Now you may be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Now in Christ by the power of His Holy Spirit, you may choose to no longer be conformed to this world. You can choose to be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ day by day. Before Christ saved you, you had no choice in the matter. You were stuck in your sin and death and there was nothing you could do to get out of it. Now Christ has saved you, He has delivered you, He has set you on higher ground and now you can choose to no longer be conformed to this world. In fact, He commands you such. Now you can choose to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You might say, Pastor Jeff, how am I renewed? How am I transformed by the renewing of your mind? You can't put your Bible under your pillow and wash your mind. You are going to have to open your Bible up, you are going to have to read it, you are going to have to put that word in your heart. And as you put it in your heart, it is washing your mind, your soul, your very being, is being changed, renewed, transformed, conformed day by day. Our transformation is not a one and done, it is an ongoing, continuous process that is brought about by the work of God's Holy Spirit dwelling in us. The Spirit works through the Word of God as we wash our mind with the water of the Word as we renew our mind with the Word. We trust His Spirit to lead and guide us into all truth. It is the Holy Spirit who gives illumination to the truth of His Word. That's why I say don't worry about what you understand, just put it in there. It is the Holy Spirit that will illuminate that word in your heart. And if you never put it in your heart because you don't understand it, then there is nothing there for the Holy Spirit to illuminate. And we live in a culture where there are Bibles coming out our ears, literally. We have countless Bibles everywhere. There is not a drought of God's Word or a drought of the availability of God's Word. The drought is in us because we don't put the Word in our heart. So put it in your heart and the Holy Spirit will illuminate it. This is all done in His time and in His way. It is important to remember that as God brings about our transformation through the renewing of our mind in His Word, that we must be patient. We are growing up into Him in all things, but growing is a process very often. We want to know it all, we want to understand it all, and generally we want to be in control of it all. And we want it right now. Yet we must remember that God has a way of molding and shaping us in His way and in His time and that is very often very different from our own. His time is not our time, His way is not our way. His ways, in fact the Bible says, His ways are higher than our ways. His ways are perfect even if they do not seem so in the moment. We live for the moment, but God works across generations and we must remember that. Yes, God works in the moment, but God is much more concerned about the generations than He is the moment. He is concerned about the moment as it will impact the generations. We just live in the moment and we want the moment to meet our desires and our needs. And God says, no, that is not how it is going to work. I will meet you in the moment, but your moment is not for you and it is not for that moment. We do not know how many moments we live that will touch the generations to come, but God does. The more impatient we become, the more God will work in us to extract patience from us. And if we resist His will, that can become a painful process. People tell me all the time, pray for me, pray that I get patience. And I am like, you know what happens when you pray that, right? I mean, how are you going to know if you have patience unless you are given the opportunity to be impatient? We just think things magically happen. They do not magically happen. We work out our salvation with fear and trembling. That is how God works in us. It is a process. And this is one way the fruit of the Spirit has made manifest in our life. Long suffering or patience is a characteristic of that fruit. And the fruit of the Spirit is to be abundant in our life, but like so many things, producing fruit as a process that can be unpleasant and messy. And it often involves hard and difficult work. Just remember, His grace is sufficient and in the fruit, and the fruit is much, there is a much greater reward in the fruit than the pain or the suffering in the effort. In other words, the fruit is worth the effort. There is a much greater reward than the effort required. It is also worth remembering that there is love, joy, and peace that is also involved in this process. This process of making manifest the life of His Spirit in us is the process of growing up into Christ in all things. It is the process of ascending out of the depth of the ways of this world into the highest way who is Christ. And this is why Christ descended to us so that we could ascend to Him. And though many seem to try, God will never be conformed to our fallen image. It seems many tried to diminish the image of God in an effort to justify their own sin. But if we persist in that futile and sinful effort, we will eventually come, God will eventually come and He will strike our land with a curse. And this is, I fear, what is happening right now. And the only way to stay God's hand of judgment is to return to the gospel, to humble ourselves, to pray, to seek His face, to turn from our wicked ways, and so a sin out of the mire of our sin. We are going to do that very thing today when we go to the park and we pray and we humble ourselves before God and we ask God to heal our land. He is a jealous God and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding. If we walk in His Spirit, if we walk in His Word, we will walk in the fear of the Lord. But we will never walk fearful of the Lord. Walk in the fear of God, but don't fear God. If you're walking in His Spirit, if you're walking in His Word, if you're walking in His ways, there is no reason to fear Him. His love for us is perfect and complete and His perfect love cast out all fear. May we humble ourselves before Him so that He may lift us up and may we descend in the humility in order to ascend to Him. There is salvation and no other. Think about this. We currently live in a day and time in which artificial intelligence and technology seem to be fast becoming the new gods of our time. Many seem convinced that technology will save us. Others are still looking for the state and some political savior as the answer to solve our problems. And if we could just get into office the people with the right letters before or after their name, or if we could correctly cultivate and develop AI, we could save humanity, we could save the world. Sadly, many inside and outside the church seem to believe these lies. Jesus does not need our AI. He does not need our politics. He does not even need us. Yet He is Lord over all, including AI politics and us. I have no doubt God gave us AI and that artificial intelligence will ultimately result in the greatest advancement of God's kingdom and even greater glory for His name. I have no doubt in that. I also have no doubt God gave us our current political system and accompanying freedoms in our constitutional republic. It didn't happen by accident. It wasn't man's good idea. It was God's providence. I have no doubt all of those gifts of God's grace given to us as a people and a nation. Those gifts are the direct result of the gospel of Christ that brought about the liberty and the freedom and the advancement that have been, that we have been blessed to see and blessed to enjoy. And having acknowledged that, I also firmly and adamantly acknowledge that salvation is of the Lord. We are not saved by a political system. We are not going to be saved by intelligence, whether it's artificial or organic. Our salvation comes from the Lord alone. Jesus only is the way, the truth and the life. There is no other way to the Father except through Him and there is no salvation apart from God's grace in Jesus Christ. Yet God in His sovereignty has chosen to work through human agents just like ourselves, just like you and just like me. And just like those who believed in Berea, all who believed today are saved by God's grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone. There is no other way and no other name under heaven by which man may be saved. Yet men must hear the name. They must hear His gospel to know His salvation. And God certainly does not need us, but He certainly has chosen to use us for His glory. You have only Jesus in which to put your trust. Trust placed in any other name and any other thing will never save you. In Christ alone we find our refuge in our peace knowing He has already conquered sin and death and He has risen and ascended on high to rule and reign over all and for all eternity. Paul knew the futility of placing trust in any other name than Christ and he knew the eternal destiny of humanity rested in faith in Jesus Christ. A rejection of Jesus dooms men to eternal separation from God. Thus Paul knew the preaching of the gospel was absolutely vital to the salvation of men. And this is why short of death no man could stop Paul from preaching the gospel of Christ. For he knew it to be the power of God's salvation for everyone who believed. To many reject this truth today inside and outside the church. In many churches the lie that all paths lead to God has become standard fair from their pulpits. Or that God is nothing more than a moral or philosophical construct but certainly not real and in no way able to save us from anything. Such men teach we must save ourselves. As an example of this we have a gentleman by can call him that running for the Senate for the state of Texas the US Senate James Talleriko running for US Senate in Texas sits under a pastor in a church in Austin who does not believe Jesus was even a real person. And that the word of God is nothing more than a bunch of moral tales that don't even have good morality much of the time and that God is non-binary whoever they may be if they even exist. The name on such churches may be Christian a politician may call himself a Christian any man any woman can call themselves whatever they want to call themselves but everything these wolves and sheep's clothing preach and teach and stand for and profess is anything but Christian. And at the least such men and women support the murder and the mutilation of children openly promoting it legislating for it. A man's mild manner demeanor and lying words cannot save us nor can they save him or make him a Christian only Christ can. Unfortunately this is not as uncommon as we may hope it to be. And we have men and women like that on both sides of the aisle and on both sides of the issue. Someone's conserved at politics doesn't make them a Christian and may make their politics better but it doesn't make them a Christian. Anyone can call themselves a Christian but when Christ saves a man when Christ saves a woman when Christ saves anyone there is a change and Paul writes it this way. If any man be in Christ he is a new creation behold the old is passed away behold all things have become new and when Christ saves you there is a change for you have become a new creation. Furthermore the old is passed away all things are new to be born again is to be changed and that change must eventually manifest in your life and like fruit on a tree it must come out of your hands and feet and mouth it must come out of your very being in every way that you may express it. So that people may taste and see that the Lord is good this is the power of the gospel it is the power of a changed life the culmination of changed lives can change the course of the family the course of a church a city a county a state yes even a nation. It begins with you it begins with me but it cannot it must not stop there in your new birth you are changed inwardly and outwardly in spirit soul and eventually even in body your life as a new creation is to manifest the divine change brought about in you by God's grace through the power of his Holy Spirit and his word. That change must continue like a chain reaction throughout your home throughout your church throughout your work your city and as far and as wide and as to as many as God may ordain in his sovereign providence this is what Paul understood it is why he preached the gospel wherever he went to whomever would listen he did so by knowing he would face resistance ridicule and even bodily harm. Paul used godly wisdom in his approach to preach the gospel and he knew when to stand firm and he knew when it was time to depart and we see this during his time in Berea Luke recorded in verses 13 through 15. The Jews from Fessalonica heard of Paul's preaching in Berea and they decided they would not allow it and they came there to Berea and they stirred up the crowds and immediately the brethren sent Paul away and he sailed by sea to Athens and Silas and Timothy remained in Berea to help establish the believers there. But they were not there long for once Paul got to Athens and he witnessed the level of pagan idolatry in that influential city he commanded that Silas and Timothy come to him with all speed and they did. Next week we're going to look at Paul's time in Athens until then my challenge to you is to consider your own time in your own city among your own people inside and outside your church Christ has commanded you to make his gospel known in word and indeed we all have a part to play in the future of humanity. And do not despise the smallness of things for from the days of small beginnings has come all great things. You were conceived from a seed that has grown into you. Your life matters it is a gift from God live like it in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Let us prepare our hearts to come to the Lord's table. Amen. Here is your church church. What you and I need is the word of God the gospel of Christ and his kingdom the word of God is the hammer you need to mold and shape you. It is the instrument you need that is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow and his word is a discerner of the the thoughts and intents of your heart. That two-edged sword is also the cemeterre of the priest to part you and prepare you as a living sacrifice to be offered up to God. You ascend into his presence each week as a sweet smelling sacrifice. This occurs as you worship God Christ descended so that you could ascend to the Father in worship. He called you. He cleanses you. He consecrates you. He communes with you. And now he commissions you. Each time you are renewed and commissioned afresh go. Therefore your pastors and teachers can preach and teach but you alone can take the word of God and apply it to your life and walk in its truth. As Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians you once were darkness but now you are light in the Lord walk as children of light. You do that by walking in the truth of God's word and in the power of his Holy Spirit that dwells in you. Like Paul you must know the fruit of the gospel and the fruit of righteousness is worth the cost. Paul knew his work in the gospel would pay eternal dividends not only for him but for all humanity even to a thousand generations and you and I must know the same. It matters not who you are. It matters who your God is. He has placed you here for such a time as this. Do not underestimate what he may do in you and through you. In fact expect that he will do far above all that you may ask or think according to the power and work within you. Now to him be glory in the church through Christ Jesus throughout all ages world without him and I'm in.

Acts 17:10–15 Acts 17 · chapter mention Romans 8:28