A More Noble Way Acts 17

A More Noble Way  2020 11 15

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.

Isn’t this foolish? Should you believe everything I say, just because I say it?

Should you believe everything I say, just because I’m the pastor?

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. He was specially guided and directed to preach before the New Testament was written. Paul began preaching the gospel without any human training, yet it proved, when he finally met with the apostles in Jerusalem, to be exactly the same gospel they preached!

God the Holy Spirit personally taught Paul the doctrine of salvation. In fact, God used him to write a large part of the New Testament.

Yet here we find a group of Jews worshiping in a synagogue. When Paul and Silas went in and preached the gospel to them, they DIDN’T just take their word for it. Imagine! Paul, himself, probably the greatest missionary of all time, was not simply taken at his word! Notice:

I They Readily Received the Word

  1. These Bereans were Jews who 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.
      1. They already had some kind of beliefs, as they were in a synagogue.
      2. They were not afraid of having their minds changed.
      3. 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 the Old Testament scriptures to see if what Paul and Silas were preaching was so. They knew that if the scriptures disagreed with the preaching, then the preaching wasn’t true.
    2. They also knew that if the scriptures supported what Paul and Silas were preaching, then Paul and Silas were preaching the truth. We can and should embrace their example and study those same scriptures! “For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.” Romans 15:4
    3. Again, the Old Testament was the scriptures they searched. The gospel is in the Old Testament everywhere, if you look for it! The entire gospel is in Isaiah, alone.
      1. That’s the book the Ethiopian eunuch was reading when Philip explained it and the man was saved. “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.” Acts 8:35
    4. Today, we also have the New Testament. When we search both the Old and New Testament, the Word of God has even greater power in our lives, and our faith is increased greatly.
    5. Searching the scriptures keeps you from falling into error. The Bible expressly tells us in the New Testament, that the history we read in the Old Testament is not simply a boring record of Israel, but was recorded for our benefit! “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.” 1 Corinthians 10:11, 12

     

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 (Acts 15:2).
        1. Yet in this case, 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.
          1. 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 searched the scriptures 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!
          1. 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. Notice the word, “therefore?” “Therefore many of them believed.”
    1. Many of the people believed, because they heard the gospel AND they read the scriptures to see if it was so.
    2. They discovered it was so, and then believed! Always be ready to give someone a Bible! That is how our friend Richard was saved! He read the Bible and discovered that it was so!

 

VI Don’t be a Blind Believer

  1. Don’t buy a Superman ring from me, believing you will fly.
    1. Even if I 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.
  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.
      1. 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, the Old Testament, that proved that the gospel is true.
      2. Today, we have both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
  3. If you don’t have a reasonable faith, you need to spend more time prayerfully reading the scriptures.
    1. The answers to ANY doubts you may have about ANYTHING from God is in the Bible.
    2. The way to test ANYTHING any preacher preaches in the name of God is to read your Bible.
    3. Read your Bible, examine and test everything, every day. This is a more noble way and will make you able to stand when the trials and testing comes.