A More Noble Way

A More Noble Way 2021 04 18

Acts 17:10 – 12

Just take my word for it, folks.  Buy my secret formula, and you can become rich overnight with no work, guaranteed.  Buy my special ring, and you will be able to fly like superman, guaranteed!  Send me a self-addressed, stamped envelope with a dollar, and I will send you my specially formulated potion that will let you climb walls like Spiderman…   Just trust me.  Just take my word for it.

 

Folks, I have something to tell you.  But hurry; save this video and share it everywhere, because it will probably be taken down shortly.  You won’t find this anywhere else.  I’ve done my research.  I have anonymous sources I can’t name but trust me – their credentials are impeccable.  This is information you won’t find anywhere else…

 

Is this foolish?  Should you believe everything I say, just because I say it?  Should you believe everything I say, just because I’m a pastor?

 

These are perilous times.  It’s no time for uncertainty!  We are standing on the knife-edge of major change.  We are at an hour in history when many things we have always taken for granted could suddenly be gone.  We may get our freedom back, or we may never truly be free again.  What will we do? How will we stand?  What if our freedom to openly worship God together is never returned?

 

Acts 17:10 – 12

Paul was an apostle, one of less than twenty people that Jesus Christ personally and visibly chose at the beginning of the Church Age to plant churches all over the known world in those days.  Paul’s training did not come from the other Apostles, nor from any other human source.  He began preaching at Damascus, almost immediately after his amazing conversion as he traveled with letters to arrest Christians in Damascus. Paul was miraculously trained by the Holy Spirit.  He was specially guided and directed to preach before the New Testament was written, and in fact, was used by God to write a large part of the New Testament.

 

But in spite of all that, here was a group of people to whom Paul and Silas preached who DIDN’T just take their word for it.  They checked up on him.  They searched the scriptures to see if what he said was true. Imagine!  Paul, one of the greatest missionaries of all time, perhaps the greatest after Jesus, was not simply taken at his word!  Note:

 

I  They Readily Received the Word

  1. These Bereans gave enthusiastic audience to Paul and Silas.
    1. The readily received the word. This means they paid careful attention to the preaching and listened with an open mind.  They were not afraid of having their minds changed.  They were ready to be corrected if they were wrong, but were not afraid to be challenged or to be corrected if they were wrong.

           

II  They Tested the Word

  1. They did not blindly believe Paul and Silas. You could not have sold these people a Superman ring!
    1. They searched the scriptures. They read their Bibles to see if what Paul and Silas were preaching was so.  They knew that if the Bible disagreed with the preaching, then the preaching wasn’t true.
    2. They also knew that if the Bible supported what Paul and Silas were preaching, then Paul and Silas were preaching the truth.

 

III  Paul Didn’t Get Angry

  1. We know from previous information in the Book of Acts that Paul had a temper. He and Barnabas had such an argument that they parted company and went separate ways.
    1. Yet in this case, when Paul was preaching his heart out, reaching out to the Bereans through tremendous difficulty, danger and discomfort. He sacrificed a great deal to bring the gospel to the Bereans.  Yet when they didn’t all come running up to him during the altar call, but instead went home to see if he was telling the truth, he didn’t get angry.

 

IV The Bereans were Commended

  1. Our passage tells us that they were more noble than the Thessalonians, in that they not only received the gospel, as did many in Thessalonica, but they checked their Bibles to see if what Paul was preaching really was true.
    1. Rather than being reprimanded for daring to examine what Paul preached to see if it was true, they were commended for it! These are words of praise.
    2. Rather than saying something like, “Who do you think you are to question the great Paul, the Apostle?” the Bible says, instead, what someone might say today as, “Good job, guys! Nice going!  You’re doing it right.”

 

V  Many Believed

  1. The results speak volumes. These people, both men and women, searched the scriptures to see if what Paul was preaching was so.
    1. Paul didn’t try to get anyone on the “Romans Road” or to “pray the prayer.” He preached the gospel, according to the scriptures.  In those days, the scriptures were what we now call the Old Testament.
    2. Because of this, the people were able to compare what he preached to what was written in the scriptures – in other words, to search the scriptures – to see if what he said was true.
    3. The results were, we read in verse 12, “Therefore many of them believed.”

 

 

VI  Don’t be a Blind Believer

  1. Don’t buy a Superman ring from me, believing you will fly. If I even had one, what do you think would happen if you wore it?  Absolutely nothing – unless it was brass or copper – then your finger would turn green.  Or you could try to fly, like my grandson once did – and broke his arm!
    1. Don’t believe anything blindly without checking the primary source. If there’s no such source, beware.  There is much deception in the world.  This is especially true in what is called “Christianity.”
  2. Test what you are told by the Word of God. Always read your Bible and always examine everything you’re told, no matter how trustworthy and godly the person telling you seems to be.
    1. We were never called to blind faith. We read in the Bible four times in the book of Acts that Paul reasoned with the people he was preaching to (Acts 17:2; 18:4; 18:19; 24:25).  That means that he didn’t expect them to blindly believe him, just because he was Paul, but he offered them reasonable proof out of the scriptures that proved that the gospel is true.
  3. If you don’t have a reasonable faith, you need to spend more time prayerfully reading the scriptures.
    1. If your faith is not a reasonable faith to you, it is a shaky faith at best. Blind faith cannot be properly defended but it can be attacked and lead to real doubts.
      1. The answers to ANY doubts you may have about ANYTHING from God is in the Bible. The way to test ANYTHING any preacher preaches in the name of God is to read your Bible.

 

Conclusion

Search the scriptures.  Read your Bible every day. Examine and test everything.  See if what you have heard is really true.  Never, ever be afraid to test anything.  Falsehood will fail.  The truth will withstand all scrutiny. This is a more noble way and will make you able to stand when the trials and testing comes.  We may lose our freedom to worship.  We may be persecuted for our faith.  But if our faith is sound, grounded in truth that we are absolutely confident in, nothing will be able to shake us. Today is the day to be certain about what you believe.  Search the scriptures to see if these things you say you believe really are so.  “Therefore many of them believed.”  Do you?