Being a Berean Christian - Life of Paul Part 46

Thanks for being here today. And if you brought a Bible, we would like you to open it to the book of Acts chapter 17. We're going to be continuing in our study of the life of the great man, the apostle Paul.

Acts chapter 17, if you would. As many of you know, I was a chemistry major in college, and I took over 60 hours of college chemistry, over 30 hours of physics and math. And in all of these courses, we were taught to use the scientific method. Now the scientific method, put very simply, is simply a way of evaluating new ideas and new theories that come along by subjecting them to a rigorous examination. And that examination is based on established scientific truth. The scientific method says it doesn't matter how attractive the idea is, it doesn't matter how passionate the person presenting it is, it doesn't matter how much political pressure people may put on us, the scientific method says we take those new ideas, we examine them based on existing truth, and if those ideas survive the examination, we accept them as true. If they don't survive the examination, we reject them as false. It's not about emotion. It's not about preconceived bias. It's all about the evidence.

It's all about truth. Now we're going to watch today as a group of Jewish people in the time of the apostle Paul use the scientific method. Now they're not going to use it to evaluate some new scientific theory. They're going to use it to evaluate and answer the question, is Jesus really the Messiah? And after we look at this, then of course we're going to say, well, what difference does this make to us?

So that's our plan. A little bit of background. Remember, the apostle Paul is on his second missionary journey. He has three friends along, Timothy, Silas, and Dr. Luke.

And let's show you where they've been. They have crossed over from modern northwest Turkey, the city of Troas, across the Aegean Sea to the northern Greek town of Philippi. Here at Philippi, Paul and his team spent several weeks sharing Christ, establishing a church, and then here Paul splits his team. He leaves Luke and Timothy here to work with this fledgling church, while he and Silas move 100 miles to the southwest down this yellow streak that you see, which is the ancient Roman road, the Ignatian Way. And here in Thessalonica, Paul spends six months sharing Christ, building a church, and as we've seen in the past, he also managed to get for himself the seething hatred of the unbelieving Jewish community in that town, and he eventually put a mob together and ran him out of town, and he then went on 45 miles to the southwest to the little town of Berea. And that's where we pick up the story today.

So let's look at Acts 17, verse 10. As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. Now, what do we know about this little town of Berea? Well, Berea actually was a major city in the empire of Alexander the Great. As a matter of fact, Philip of Macedon, who was Alexander the Great's father, and the ruler of the Macedonian empire before Alexander, Philip of Macedon, whose picture you see up on the screen, is actually buried in the town of Berea. This is where his tomb is. At the time of the Apostle Paul, several centuries later, Berea has become a very prosperous commercial center.

Let me show you why. Let's go back to the map. Remember the main east-west thoroughfare through Greece, the Roman road leading Ignatian Way, runs right through the town of Berea. And as a result of this, a lot of commerce, a lot of trade, a lot of money began going through this town. And the result of that is that a very sizable Jewish community grew up in the town of Berea. Hey, you know my people. You know what I'm saying.

All right. Well, there was a sizable Jewish community here. Now, in fact, just as an FYI, there continued to be a very sizable Jewish community in Berea for the next 19 centuries. That is, up until 1943, when the Nazis invaded Greece, they deported virtually every Jewish person out of the town of Berea to concentration camps. And today, if you go to the modern town, there is one Jewish family left in the town of Berea today.

One, but that isn't the way it used to be. It used to be a large center of Jewish population. Now, what happened in town? Verse 10 continues. On arriving there, Paul and Silas went into the Jewish synagogue.

Now, this is what we've seen all along. Whenever Paul came to a town, if there was a Jewish synagogue, if there was a community of Jewish people, that's the very first place that Paul went. And archaeologists have actually found the location of this ancient synagogue.

Let me show you. There is a mosaic here, a wonderful mosaic that is there with the Jewish people sitting and listening as the apostle Paul, standing on the steps, shares with them about Jesus Christ. And these actual marble steps that Paul stood on have been found.

Let me show you a picture of them. Here was the mosaic that we were looking at to the right. And here are these steps, the actual steps from the synagogue in the days of the apostle Paul. And I've actually had the privilege to stand on these steps and share the Word of God. I mean, you talk about a moving experience to stand where Paul stood 2,000 years ago sharing the Word of God.

It was an incredible experience. If you go sometime with me over there, we'll show you these steps. But anyway, why did Paul go to the synagogue first? Well, remember two reasons. Number one, out of respect for the Jewish people's position as God's chosen people. Number two, because their knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures, Paul believed, gave him a head start in the town. In other words, with the Jewish people, he didn't have to explain creation, monotheism, the fall of man, the promises of the Messiah. I mean, the Jewish people already knew all of this from the Old Testament. All he had to do with Jewish people is to show them how Jesus of Nazareth fulfilled every one of these Old Testament prophecies.

However, there was a problem, a problem that Paul found in virtually every synagogue he went to. And that is that so many of the Jewish people in these synagogues already had their mind made up. They weren't even interested in the facts Paul was bringing them. To put it bluntly, they were stubborn, they were obstinate, they were pig-headed. And no matter what Paul said, no matter how much agreement he could show them between the life of Jesus and the Old Testament, they flat just didn't want to know. It's like the old saying, my mind's made up, don't bother me with the facts. Now this pig-headedness among the Jewish people, friends, is not a new development for my race of people. You know what they say, where there's two Jews, there's three opinions.

You know what I'm saying. And what was the most common term that God used for us in the Old Testament? He called us stiff-necked. So this was not a new development, this pig-headedness. But the wonderful thing I want you to see is that here in Berea, Paul ran into a bunch of Jewish people that were radically different in a good way. Let's look, verse 11. Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than the Thessalonian Jews who had run Paul out of town. For they, in Berea, received Paul's message with great eagerness, and they examined the Old Testament scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.

The word here translated noble character literally means to have nobility of soul, to be well-mannered. And what the Bible is telling us is that these Jewish people in Berea, they were teachable. They were approachable. They were willing to consider Paul's claims about Jesus based on the merits of the case, not based upon preconceived biases and prejudices. And once Paul showed up with information about Jesus, would you look and notice these Jewish people in Berea exercised the scientific method.

Step one, look what the Bible says. It says they listened eagerly to Paul, meaning without emotion, without bias, they collected all the data that Paul was offering. Step number two, they examined the Old Testament scriptures to see if what Paul said was true. In other words, they took all this data to their established truth source, the Old Testament scriptures, to see if what Paul was saying squared up, to see if it stood up. And finally, step number three, the Bible says they did this every day. In other words, their examination of what Paul said was rigorous.

It was thorough. They weren't interested in Paul's persuasiveness. They didn't care about Paul's oratorical skill. Frankly, they weren't interested in what the Thessalonian Jews thought of Paul's message, nor did they care what the Thessalonian Jews might do to them if they believed Paul's message. The only thing these Berean Jewish people cared about was truth.

What does the Bible say about the Messiah and does Jesus meet up, period? That's all they cared about. Now, friends, this is the scientific method in all of its glory. And look what happened as a result. Verse 12, therefore, the Bible says, many of the Jews there in Berea believed. Now, what the Bible is telling us here is a truth of mammoth proportions. The Bible is telling us that any person, Jewish or Gentile, who will examine the Scriptures with an honest mind, an open mind, an unbiased mind, who will allow the facts to speak for themselves, any person who will do that, that person will end up believing Jesus is the Messiah.

It's the only place they can end up when they go to the Bible with an unbiased and open mind. Now, Jesus himself said this. He said, John, chapter 5, verse 39, You diligently study the Scriptures, he said to the Jewish leaders, because you think that by studying them you can get eternal life. And yet, Jesus said, it is these very Scriptures which testify of me. Jesus said, if you take off anywhere in the Bible with an open and honest mind, the only place you can land is believing that Jesus is who he claimed to be.

That's the only place you can possibly come down. You know, people often ask me, Lon, who led you to Christ? And, you know, the answer is there was a man 32 years ago. His name was Bob Eckhart, who used to come to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where I was a student every Saturday in the winter of 1970, the spring of 1971. And he used to stand on the street corner and hand out religious material and try to talk to people about Christ. He did play a part in my coming to Christ. But he was not the one who led me to Christ. You know, after a two-hour conversation with him one Saturday, he said to me at the end, he said, Now, would you like to accept Jesus as your Messiah and give your life to him?

And I said, absolutely not. I said, I'm Jewish. Jewish people don't do this.

I mean, it was fun talking to you, but Jewish people don't do this. He said, Well, he said, Do you have a Bible? Now, at the time, friends, I was pushing drugs for a living. And I said to him, Look at me. I push drugs.

What drug pusher have you ever met who owns a Bible? I said to him. He said, Okay, fair enough. He said, Could I ask you a favor? I said, Well, I don't know.

Maybe. He said, If I give you a Bible, will you read it? I said, I don't know.

Why should I? He said, Well, you're a scientist, right? I said, Yes, I am. He said, Well, how in the world are you ever going to make a decision whether Jesus is who he said he is without employing the scientific method? He said to me, This is true. He said, You know, a scientist gathers the evidence, looks at the evidence against the truth source, and then makes an unbiased decision. I'm handing you the truth source. How in the world are you ever going to make a decision if you don't read it? I said, Okay, guilty as charged. I hear what you're saying.

You're right. He said, Okay, if I give you a Bible, will you read it? I said, Give me the Bible. Well, friends, right here I have today the Bible he gave me 32 years ago.

I'm using it this morning. This is the one he handed me out of the back of his truck. And he said, I want you to read it. I said, All right. So I took the Bible and I started reading it 15, 20 minutes every night. And he said, Now, here's a little prayer I want you to pray before you read it. And here's the prayer. God, he says, I want you to pray, God, I'm not sure what to believe, but I'm approaching the Bible with an open and unbiased attitude. If Jesus is really who he said he is, show me.

And I used to pray that little prayer. You say, Well, now at that time, did you believe that Jonah was swallowed by a big fish? No. Did you believe Noah's flood really happened? No. Did you believe God made the earth in six days? No. Did you believe fire came down from heaven on Sodom and Gomorrah?

No. I didn't believe any of that stuff. All I said was, God, I don't know what to believe, but my mind's open. Show me if Jesus is who he said.

I did that for a couple of months. And friends, the rest is history. I came to the same place the Berean Jewish people came to. I came to the place of believing that Jesus really was who he said he was.

And you know something? When people ask me who led you to Jesus Christ? Well, the answer is the Bible led me to Jesus Christ.

That's really what happened. Now, as followers of Christ, you know, we so often think that the secret to people coming to faith in Christ is our logic and our persuasiveness and our motivation. We try to figure out how to answer every one of their objections. We try to get them to read evidence that demands a verdict. And we try to figure out just the right track to give them, just the right tape to give them, just the right CD to give them.

And friends, there's nothing wrong with evidence that demands a verdict or tapes or tracks or CDs. But could I remind you that the power is in the Scripture, that the power is in the Word of God. And the best thing we could ever do for a person that's seeking is to do what Bob Eckhart did to me, to do what Paul did to these Jewish people in Berea, and that is to get people into direct contact with the Word of God, with the Scriptures.

If you're here today and you've never trusted Jesus in a real and personal way, may I issue you the same challenge that this man issued me 32 years ago in Chapel Hill? If you will get a Bible and simply with an unbiased and open mind begin reading about Jesus, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, the Gospel accounts about Jesus, I promise you if you approach it with an open mind, you're going to land exactly where I landed. You're going to land exactly where these Berean Jewish people landed. You're going to land believing in Jesus because it's the only place you can land. That's where the Bible points. It is the Scriptures that speak of Him.

Well, let's close this out. Verse 12, what ends up happening? Not only did a lot of Jewish people believe in Jesus, the Bible said, but also a number of Gentile men and prominent Gentile women believed as well. We see here that Paul established, he was here for two or three months in Berea. He established a vibrant local church that we're going to hear more about in the future of the book of Acts. And then, as we're going to see next week, he's going to leave Berea now and head off to the intellectual and philosophical capital of the world, the city of Athens. When was Paul here?

Paul was in Berea in the spring and early summer of 51 A.D. 51 A.D. Now, that's as far as we want to go in our passage because it's time for our question. And you all know our question, so is everybody ready? Yep. Okay, ready? Here we go. Nice and loud.

One, two, three. So what? Ah, yes.

So what? You say, Lon, this is wonderful. I always wanted to see the steps in Berea.

Thank you very much for showing them to me. But what difference does this make in my life? I'm going to try to make that connection for you right now. Years ago when I was a very young follower of Christ, I had this wonderful older woman in the Lord come up to me one day and she pointed her finger at me and she said, Lon, she said, make it your goal to be a Berean Christian. Now, I didn't have the slightest idea in the world what she was talking about, but I went, okay, I will. And it was years later before I figured out what this lady was actually trying to tell me. It was when I was in seminary studying the book of Acts that I finally got it.

And I thought, oh, I know now what this lady was trying to say. She was trying to say, Lon, be a serious student of the Word of God the way these Jewish people in Berea were. Lon, be a man who saturates himself with the Scripture the way these Jewish people in Berea did. Lon, be a man who rigorously examines the Bible before you make a decision on something the way these people in Berea did.

And was this lady right on? I'm telling you. Friends, if you're here and you're a follower of Jesus Christ, God wants you and me both to be Berean Christians. He wants us to diligently and daily and thoroughly examine the Word of God. He wants us to take every ism and every ology that may come along. He wants us to take every new idea that people may throw at us. He wants us to take every crazy spiritual phenomenon that might happen in our world. He wants us to take every moral choice that people call upon us to make and he wants us to decide about all of these things based on the written Word of God. He wants us to see every one of these issues through the lens of the written Word of God.

And you know, it's amazing to me how many billions of dollars are spent. Here, here in the United States of America, people looking to try to hit on the formula for successful living. I mean, we have infomercials, astrology, self-help books, pop psychology books, billions of dollars. But listen to what God told Joshua.

He said, Joshua, do not let this book I've given you depart from your mouth. Meditate on it daily so that you may be careful to do everything written in it, for then you will be prosperous and then you will have success wherever you go. Friends, the truth is that the formula for successful living is available in the nightstand drawer of every hotel room in the United States of America.

It's the B-I-B-L-E. But to access this successful formula for living, we've got to do more than have one of these that we keep on our bookshelves. We've got to be a Berean Christian. We've got to thoroughly and daily and rigorously be in the Word of God, pulling out the information that is central to successful living if we're going to be able to do that. Now, I want to end today by talking to us about some of the ways in which the Bible is the basis for healthy, successful living in our world today. What are some of the things the Bible brings to us that enables us to live that kind of life?

I have five, and there are more, but I've got five I want to suggest to you. And my goal today is to motivate us and challenge us to be Berean Christians, to challenge us to be serious students of the Word of God, daily, thoroughly investigating the Word of God, because that's where the successful formula for living is. What does the Bible do for us? Number one, it serves as a spiritual flashlight on the pathway of life. Listen to what Psalm 119 says.

It says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. I got up not too long ago in the middle of the night to go use the bathroom, and it's completely dark in my room, and I was coming back to bed, and I stubbed my pinky toe on the chair. Now, I didn't say a bad word or anything, but I mean to tell you that hurt. I sat down, and I'm in the dark feeling to see if the toe's still even on my foot. You know that feeling?

And I'm rubbing that crazy little thing and going, ooh, ooh, ouch, ouch, ouch. And the thought occurred to me, you know, you're stupid. Why don't you just get a little flashlight and put it next to your bed? If you'd have had a flashlight, you wouldn't have done this to yourself. Well, that's true. Friends, may I say to you that walking through our world is a lot like walking through a dark room in the middle of the night, and we need a flashlight.

If we don't have one, we're going to not just stub our toe, but we're liable to completely kill ourselves doing it. And what does the Bible tell us? That it is our flashlight, it is a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths to walk through this world and not stub our toe or worse. Now, a Berean Christian understands that, he or she uses the Bible to be their flashlight through this world. Number two, the Bible, second of all, helps us obey God. Psalm 119, verse 11, I have hidden your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you.

When we hide the word of God in our heart, when we study it, meditate on it, memorize it, memorize it, one of the things it will do is it will help protect us from doing things, making choices that are disobedient to God and get us into trouble. You know, I live over in Fairfax near Prosperity Avenue. I don't know if any of you know that little road, but it's a little old two-lane road that just goes up and down and up and down and up and down. And the speed limit on this road is 30 miles an hour. Now, friends, there is nobody living in Washington, D.C. who drives 30 miles an hour. But every once in a while on this road, some boy scout will get on this road who wants to drive 30 miles an hour. And I was on the road not too long ago, and I was behind an Eagle Scout who was driving 18 miles an hour down Prosperity Avenue, I lie not. And I was so frustrated behind this guy.

I needed a cold shower, I'm telling you. And I thought, you know what, if I stay behind this guy, I'm going to be 75 years old before I get to where I need to go. So there's a little place in the road.

It's got a double yellow line down the whole road. But, you know, there's a little place in this road, I know this road, where I knew I could take this guy. And so I started thinking to myself, okay, if there's not a car coming at that moment, man, I'm just going to floor it and I'm taking this guy. I'm not going 18 miles an hour down this road. And I was just about to do it when all of a sudden, you know what came to my mind? 1 Peter chapter 2, keep your behavior excellent before unbelievers.

Obey every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. And I went, oh, shoot! Lord, doggone it, man, I was going to take this guy right here and now because of that I got to drive 18 miles an hour for the rest of this road. But you know what, I drove 18 miles an hour for the rest of the road.

And maybe I could have passed the guy and nothing would have happened. But the point I'm trying to make is because I had been in the Word of God, memorize those verses, put the Word of God in my heart. You know what, the Spirit of God brought him back and said, uh-uh, don't you do that. And you know what, friends, considering things that might be much more damaging to our lives than passing somebody across a double yellow line, if you have been a Berean Christian and put the Word of God in your heart, God will bring it back to you and help you not to make those choices do. Number three, the Word of God third gives us comfort and encouragement in the struggles of life. For Psalm 119, your promises preserve my life.

They are my comfort in suffering, the Bible says. 1 Thessalonians 4, 18, Paul says, therefore, encourage each other with God's Word. Hey, when you're as low as low can go, and some of us have been there, you know, when you're as low as low can go, all of the mealy-mouth kind of pseudo-encouragement this world dishes out doesn't help a bit, does it?

Not one bit. The only thing that helps when you're down at the bottom is what God says, the promises God makes, the encouragement God sends us in the Word of God. One of the wonderful things about the Word of God is, friends, you can't go so low, but that the Word of God can't reach down there and bring your heart back up and encourage it. 4 The Bible, 4, helps us identify spiritual error so we can stay away from it. Hey, listen to what Paul told Timothy.

He said, Timothy, evil men and imposters will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived, but you resist them by continuing in the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise. Paul says, Timothy, you know there are going to be all kinds of spiritual phenomenon flying around in the world. Some real and some not real. Some from God and some not from God. How are you going to know which ones are which?

Paul says you continue in the Scripture and they'll tell you which ones are from God and which ones aren't. You know, we had a lady a few years ago here who wanted to become a member of McLean Bible Church, a formal member, and when we were interviewing her, something kind of interesting came out. She informed us that she talks to dead people.

So everybody voted and thought this would be a good candidate for me to meet with. So I met with this lady and I said, so I understand you talk to dead people. And she said, that's right. And I said, well, what do they tell you? She said, oh, all kinds of interesting things.

I said, well, really, I don't think I want to know. But I said, ma'am, you cannot be a member of McLean Bible Church if you're talking to dead people. She said, why not? She said, I come to church.

I believe in Jesus. She said, I even pray to Jesus before I talk to these dead people. So she said, if this experience I'm having is not from God, then how in the world do you explain it? I said, well, ma'am, you know, can I be honest with you? I said, I don't have to explain it.

All I know, Deuteronomy 18, is that there shall not be found among you anyone who calls up the dead. And ma'am, I don't have to explain your spiritual experience. God never called on me to do that. All I have to do is compare it with the Word of God, and if it doesn't meet up, I reject it whether I can explain it or not. And friends, there are going to be people everywhere you go who are going to say to you, well, how do you explain this spiritual phenomenon and how do you explain that spiritual experience? Could I remind you, God never called on you to explain every spiritual thing that happens in this world. All he ever called on you and me to do is to know the Word of God thoroughly, and if something doesn't meet up, we reject it whether we can explain it or not. We don't have to explain it.

How are you going to know what to reject and what to keep? Well, friends, that's where being a Berean Christian makes all the difference, knowing the Word of God. Number five, and finally, and most importantly, the Bible helps us understand and know who God is. Luke 24, and beginning with Moses and all the prophets, that is, the whole Old Testament, Jesus explained to them what was said in the Scripture about himself. You see, friends, the highest, the grandest, the most exalted thing the Word of God does for us is that it teaches us about the nature, the character, the person, the power, the majesty, and the mercy of Almighty God.

And why is this important? Because successful living is based upon living by faith, trusting God instead of ourselves, and the more we understand who God is, the more we understand His awesomeness, His power, and His majesty, the easier it is to trust Him and then to walk by faith. Now, these are just some of the things that the Word of God does for us, but the point is that in every one of these cases, God calls us to be a Berean Christian. He calls us to have a thorough and deep understanding of the Word of God. Remember, God gave us the Bible to do a lot more than just get us into heaven. He gave us the Bible to be our gyroscope, our roadmap, our compass through life. A Berean Christian understands this, and a Berean Christian uses the Bible this way. Now, I want us to bow our heads, if you would, and close our eyes together, and I want to give us about 20 seconds here, if we need to, to do business with God.

And here's the kind of business I want to challenge you to do. If you don't have a time in your life that is deliberate, that is set aside for the study, the consistent and regular study of the Word of God, then, friends, you know as well as I do that no matter what our intentions are, the events of the day take over and this time just gets away from us. If you really want to be a Berean Christian, my friends, it means there's got to be that deliberate time in the Word of God every day. And if you don't have that, I want to give you 20 seconds to tell God that with His help, starting tomorrow, this is a new habit that you're going to establish in your life.

So if you need to do that, why don't you take a moment and do it right now. Lord Jesus, thanks for talking to us today about being a Berean Christian. Thanks for the wonderful example of these Jewish people who examined the Scriptures every day to see what was true. And, Father, my prayer is that you would motivate every one of us here who are followers of Christ to be Berean Christians, to have a deliberate, consistent time where we examine the Word of God thoroughly and where we use it to be the roadmap for life that you established it to be. God, help those people who prayed that prayer here today to have the discipline to implement it in their life beginning tomorrow. Lord, grant that we might be people who are people of the Book because that's how we live the kind of successful and fulfilling life that you want us to live. Change our lives because we were here today and study the Word of God, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.