Becoming Bereans*

We will be continuing in a series of messages that began with last week's message, "Search the Scriptures". Jesus told His listeners: "Search the Scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me." (Jn. 5:39). Jesus is the Word of God who came in the flesh, and the scriptures continually illustrate the Savior, the Messiah, to whoever searches them. When the Apostle Paul travelled to Thessalonica, he preached for three Sabbaths in the synagogue there. He reasoned with them out of the scriptures, opening the Word of God, and showing in them that the Messiah (Christ) must suffer and be raised from the dead (Acts 17:1-3). Some believed after hearing Paul, including some Gentiles, but others reacted with envy. Those envious hearers joined with a rough element and created an uproar in the city, and converged upon Jason's house, one of the believers in Christ. The mob took Jason and other brethren to the city elders and accused them saying: "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also...and these all do contrary to the decrees of Cesar, saying that there is another king, one Jesus." (v. 6-7). Even though this outcry against Jason and the believers of Thessalonica began with the envious Jews in the synagogue, who should have been worshippers of God and followers of His Word, they used the worldly kingship of Cesar, and his decrees, to accuse the believers. They let Jason and the others go after they received money from them (v. 9). Money, rather than the revealed scriptures, is the interest of the world and those who reject God's Word. The believers in Thessalonica were accused of "turning the world upside down". Are we, the church, also turning the world upside down as believers in Christ? Many "megachurches", with vast resources, are not even having an effect on their own communities. Our weapons of warfare are not carnal but spiritual, and mighty through prayer in the pulling down of strongholds. Is the church praying? The believers of Thessalonica sent Paul and Silas to Berea, where the Jews in the synagogue there: "...received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so." (Acts 17:10-11). As a result, many in Berea believed, including again, Gentile men and women (v. 11). Because of the readiness to receive the Gospel, and the diligence they showed in confirming all that they heard by searching the scriptures, the Bereans were recorded in scripture as being "more noble than those in Thessalonica". The resentful Jews from Thessalonica then came to Berea to try to stir up the people there against the Gospel. The Bereans, however, sent Paul on to Athens, while Silas stayed with them (v. 13-15). Upon arrival in Athens, Paul began delivering the Gospel there, disputing with the Jews in the synagogue, and meeting with others in the marketplace. Finally, those of the Stoic and Epicurean philosophies met Paul, and at first, thought of him as being a "babbler" when he preached to them of Jesus, and the resurrection (v. 16-18). Paul soon used the example of an altar that he had seen on Mars Hill which had the inscription: TO THE UNKNOWN GOD. Paul then taught them about the God Who had been "unknown" to them, but was now making Himself known. Paul told them about the God who made the world and all things within it, the Lord of heaven and earth. This God does not inhabit temples made with human hands, Paul told them, because God does not need anything, but gives life to all, gives breath, and all things to us. This God made all men of one blood, "...that they should seek the Lord...feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being..." (v. 23-27). Paul revealed that God was not found in gold, silver or stone, like an idol, and God had ordained that it was time that man repented of this idea, because there is appointed a day of judgment. All the world will be judged in the righteousness of that Man whom God ordained and sent, and God had given men assurance in the resurrection of that Man from the dead (v. 29-32). Some Greek hearers mocked this idea, but othere believed and joined with Paul (v. 32-34). We can see that the hostile and envious Jews of Thessalonica had only caused the Gospel that they so hated and persecuted to be spread successfully to other cities, even Athens, the stronghold of the worship of mythology and men's philosophies. One powerful truth in the scriptures that Paul taught above is that all men were made from one blood. The divisions between Jews and Gentiles, and among various labels of men's philosophies could not overcome that truth. All men have one Creator, one God, and are of one blood, and are also saved by one Blood, the Blood of Jesus, the Son of God. Any Christian organizations that try to divide men along racial or ethnic lines are not speaking the Word of God, because God has said that His Kingdom is made out of every nation, tribe and tongue. Search the scriptures for yourself, like a noble Berean, and see. Paul wrote to his faithful assistant Timothy about the importance of the Word of God: "If any man teach otherwise, and consent not...even to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; he is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself. But godliness with contentment is great gain," (1 Tim. 6:3-6). Pul wrote that one of the great temptations and snares for believers and all men is the desire to obtain riches. There is no contentment to be found in that trap, but rather destruction and perdition: "For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows." (v. 9-10). Paul encouraged Timothy to fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which he was called and of which Timothy has professed before many witnesses. Jesus professed the Word of truth before Pontius Pilate, and Timothy is to keep this commandment "without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ...keep that which is committed to thy trust, avoiding profane and vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some professing have erred concerning the faith. Grace be with thee. Amen.". (v. 12-21, excerpt). The temptation to seek the false knowledge and love of riches offered by the world and by men, rather than receiving and searching the Word of God, is always with us. Even the priests of the LORD fell into the temptation for riches and lusts. Eli the priest was warned by a prophet that because he would not restrain his greedy sons who oppressed the people of God, his priesthood and his house would be cut off. Eli ignored that Word, and his young trainee, Samuel, had to deliver to Eli the final Word from the LORD that the time of the prophesied judgment had come (1 Sam. 2 and 3). God's people, who are His priests, are expected not only to seem godly, but to be godly, and to be led by His Word, so they may live. The Prophet Hosea called God's people to return to Him, and in doing so, Hosea's prophecy testified of Jesus Christ: "Come and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth." (Hos. 6:1-3). The prophet wrote that God's people had fallen into iniquity, treachery, lewdness, whoredom, murder, pollution, and defilement, but God has set a harvest for them in their return from captivity (v. 4-11). Search the scriptures for the knowledge of God and return to Him, and for the scriptures' testimony of the Son's third day resurrection, that you may live in His sight. *Based on Dr. Kenneth E. Stevenson's 9/4/2022 message to the church. To contact us, submit a prayer request, give a praise report, or to support this ministry: P.O. Box 154221, Waco, TX, 76705 OR Everlastingcovenant@ymail.com. You can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, theshroudofturin.org, and endtimeschool, also on Facebook.