If someone called you a Berean, would you take it as a compliment? Friday 8th November 2024

AN UNPREACHED SERMON (201)

[Photograph of First Stevenston Boys' Brigade company from Ardeer Church. It's the nearest I could get to illustrate the references to the BBs in this blog. Sandy attended the Boys' Brigade in Glasgow and this is a more recent photograph. ]

It was as a teenager in the Boys’ Brigade that I first heard the phrase “Be a Berean”. The BB Captain used it

regularly when he was talking to us on Sunday mornings at the10am bible class. It intrigued me so much that I made up my mind to find out exactly what he meant. He told me to read Acts 17:10-15 and then come back to him with an explanation of why I thought the people of Berea were so special. Even as a 15-year-old it wasn’t hard to work out the answer.

The name Berean is forever associated with serious study of the scriptures. It cannot be by accident that the Christian church has been at its most effective in society when it has lived its life and conducted its activities under the authority of God’s Word. The great periods of outreach, growth and expansion have been when the Word was believed and proclaimed in the power of the Spirit. Today’s church needs more people of this calibre and the original Bereans can point the way.

THEY RECEIVED THE MESSAGE OPENLY.

When older versions describe them as “more noble” (v11), it doesn’t suggest nobility of birth.  We are not dealing here with rich lords and ladies of the upper classes. It is meant to convey the idea that they showed “the qualities which are expected in people so born” (F F Bruce). They weren’t necessarily better bred or highly educated, but more noble in their character and conduct; especially when compared to some of the people in Thessalonica where Paul and Silas had had to leave due to a riot breaking out. Moffatt’s translation strikes me as the best: they were “more amenable”. The Bereans were open-minded, generous in spirit and free from prejudice. They were prepared to give Paul’s message a fair hearing. What a contrast to so many today. G K Chesterton’s comment still holds true. “The message of Christianity hasn’t been tried and found wanting, it just hasn’t been tried”.

But these Bereans were open to the challenge of the Word and were willing to investigate things for themselves.  They refused to take Paul’s word for it, but determined to search out the truth of what he was saying for themselves.

THEY EXAMINED THE MESSAGE EAGERLY.

There is nothing done thoughtlessly or uncritically here. This is no mere emotional response, but one based on intellectual conviction. Says John Stott, “They combined receptivity with critical questioning”. As they set out to examine the accuracy of Paul’s message, it is described by the Greek word anakrino meaning a judicial enquiry. Determined to get to the truth of Paul’s Gospel, they put his message through the sieve of the Old Testament passages he referred them to. They made the scriptures the test of how those scriptures were to be interpreted, not just “the minister’s sermon”. The NT scholar Ralph Martin explains that “truth personally sought out and discovered by us, is always more vital and dear than thoughts which are handed to us on a plate”. This is exactly the strategy adopted by my BB Captain in relation to me all those years ago. It is also what lies behind discussion-type home Bible study groups.

THEY BELIEVED THE MESSAGE WILLINGLY.

Not only were the Bereans logical as they used their minds, but once clear in their minds they took the message to heart. We catch a glimpse of their eagerness to know the truth in that they “searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so”. Normal Jewish practice was to rest content with the weekly explanations of Scripture in the synagogue. Realistically, Acts tells us they didn’t all believe however. The turning to the Lord was not unanimous among the Bereans, especially when some Jews made the long trip of 60 miles from Thessalonica to stir up more trouble (17:12, 13).

We never hear about the Bereans again in the Bible, but at least one of them, Sopater, became both a believer and a worker with Paul (Acts 20:4). Neither do we ever hear of Paul doing any sightseeing in the many cities and places he travelled to; except perhaps when he arrived in Athens. But even then, he used what he had seen in the capital city as an illustration to put across his message (17:22, 23).