Acts 17:10-15
February 9, 2003
The Well-bred Christian
In a desperate effort to civilize me as a ten year old, my parents signed me up for Junior Assembly. This weekly gathering of awkward preteens was designed to inculcate culture despite the kids’ best efforts to be kids. Each week I would go with a group of friends, dressed in coats and ties and learn how a gentleman is to speak to a refined young lady. I was taught how to dance properly, not the crazed dances of the Woodstock generation, but the fox trot and the waltz. With sweaty palms we would walk across the dance floor to find an equally ungainly girl, who wanted to be there as little as did my friends and I. The highlight of my time there came when Mike Heimenz slipped the fly-in-the-ice cube into the dance instructor’s drink, reminding one and all that no matter how much civilization one seeks to instill the raw material of any ten year old boy remains unmovable.
Our parents’ desire (while I include both parents, but I suspect it was the neighborhood mothers who banded together to hatch this evil scheme) was not that we become little princes, but that they no longer would be embarrassed by belching contests in church or the hand swipe across the mouth instead of a napkin dab. For those of you who have survived the teenage years, you may have given up on producing the perfect gentlemen and settled for producing an acceptable adult.
While we may long for the refinement of an Edwardian tea party, our pop culture despises the prim and proper social rank of the well bred, upper-crust sorts. Upper-crust people are just crumbs like you and I, held together by their dough. We pride ourselves on ignoring social rank and pooh-pooh talk of status. While we may dream of being a part of European nobility, as we envisage caviar, champagne and a fox hunt with the hounds, we do enjoy Milwaukee’s beer, brats and bowling.
We may know how a well-bred person acts, but what would be the standards for a well-bred Christian?
We don’t have academies to train our young people in how to properly slip in an arcane quote by Luther nor do we prize the ability to give a pithy quote from the third stanza of a Watts’ hymn. There are no handbooks on how to issue forth in flowery prayer nor elocutionary lessons on how to properly pronounce the divine name with proper flare, drawing out the vowels, so to say … Gaawwd.
Such pretension has nothing to do with being a well bred Christian, our passage this morning gives us some needed insight as to what God prizes in a person of nobility. What are the primary attributes which you and I should engender which speak well of God’s grace in us? Turn to Acts 17:10-15 as we look at the Christians in Berea to see why Luke refers to them as noble, well-bred.
Up to this point Paul and Silas, along with Luke and Timothy, sought to plant new churches in Greece, having had numerous opportunities close to them in Asia Minor. In Philippi Lydia and the jailer responded with faith as did some in Thessalonica. Yet many others responded not with faith, but anger. As Paul and Silas once again flee the angry mobs, they move sixty miles to the south, stepping off the main thoroughfare, the Via Egnatia, into a city that the great orator Cicero once called a backwater town – Berea. This city was not on the main trade route, but it was far from being Hicksville. Like Philippi and Thessalonica, Berea was an key city in that region of Macedonia. There Paul and Silas followed their common pattern of seeking the Jews in the synagogue. What they found in Berea has become the maxim of well bred believers ever since. In v11 Paul calls them noble.
As a contrast with the rioting crowds of Philippi and Thessalonica, the Jews in Berea are said to be noble, eugenesis, literally those of good birth, those with good genes, if you will. We get our name Eugene form this Greek word and while it originally meant those of aristocratic ancestry, it came to refer to those who are open-minded, not prejudice, hostile or suspicious of others.
This is certainly a quality that was prized then as today. Most of us have points in our lives when we may be open to new ideas, but we quickly become entrenched in our thinking. We fear that if we are too open minded our brains may fall out, so we quote the great guru of guarding thinking, Archie Bunker, and say: Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up!
The Berean’s nobility is illustrated by how they react when God’s Word is presented to them. So that by looking at them we may better know: What does the well-bred Christian look like?
The Well-bred Christian Receives God’s Word
The first quality of these noble people is the way in which they received the Word of God.
Their reception of God’s Word is not a polite tip of the hat, but implies a welcoming, a warm embrace.
The verb receive is dechomai, the same word is in Luke 2:27 where Simeon, the old man who was awaiting to see the Messiah, took Jesus in his arms and blessed him. Simeon’s excitement to finally hold the one of whom the prophets spoke caused him to break forth in praise. The reception of the Living Word is measured by our reception of the written Word. You can’t have one without the other.
What does reception look like?
Their reception of God’s Word was with eagerness.
There is an enthusiasm and zeal about God’s Word. Like a famishing man ravenously devouring a meal, they dove into God’s Word. But remember, these were not people who had never read the Scriptures, but Jews in the synagogue who all their lives had read and studied.
But this time they read the Scriptures differently than they had before. As we pointed out last week it was Paul’s pattern to explain and prove that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and rise from the dead. Paul opened God’s Word to them in a way they had never seen, in a way that got them excited. For the first time they saw the over-arching theme of Scripture is Christ.
This is the key which unlocks God’s Word. With seeing Christ on every page of God’s Word, it quickly becomes a dry history full of moralisms and antiquated rules. When Scriptures are read without the lens of Jesus Christ, we do so at our peril.
In John 5:37-40 Jesus speaks to those who spent their lives wanting to know God, but refused to receive Jesus. Notice what Jesus says (read). The Father bore witness of Jesus, but they never heard his voice for they do not have his word in them, they do not believe the one whom he has sent. But v39 is frightening, for they search the Scriptures, looking for eternal life…but they don’t have eternal life. It is not enough that someone reads God’s Word, not enough that they spend their lives devoted to knowing God, for unless they are willing to see Christ, receive Christ, their search is in vain.
Don’t study the Bible as a handbook on how to live a better life. Don’t read it as a tool to uncover some ancient mystery or to analyze contemporary events. It is not a secret code to help you have a better marriage, nor is it a key to unlock your personal fortune.
While people use God’s Word for a variety of mistaken purposes, it is like trying to drive a nail with a screw driver, you’ve got the wrong tool. Scripture points us to Christ and what he has done for us, not what we should do for ourselves.
We must not have a superstitious attitude to Bible reading, thinking it has some magical power. There is no magic in the Bible or in the mechanical reading of the Bible. No, the written Word points to the Living Word and says to us, "Go to Jesus. " If we do not go to the Jesus to whom it points, we miss the whole purpose of Bible reading. When we elevate the written Word but neglect the Living Word, we are bibliolaters, we worship the Bible when we should worship the Christ of the Bible.
This eager reception should be seen in excited expectation.
When we come together we should have the anticipation that God is going to speak this morning. This expectancy can be engendered or it can be hindered. If you come with a few hours of sleep, if you come having just had a shouting match with your spouse or kids … it may be very hard to see God at work in his Word, pointing you to Christ. If you come feeling confident, self assured that you need just a little pick-me-up, but you don’t need a Savior … you won’t find much benefit from God’s Word.
Before worship, spend time in prayer, whether that be before you leave home or in the moments before we begin to sing. During the days before our worship, you can also prepare yourself to hear God’s Word by reading ahead, getting the music we will sing that Sunday and meditating on the words.
But if you come with a “I dare you to entertain me” attitude, there will be little benefit. Rather ask God to make you hungry for his Word, to come here and throughout the week, become eager to receive God’s Word.
The Well-bred Christian Researches God’s Word
The well-bred Christian researches critically
Next Luke praises the Bereans as to how they expressed their eager reception of God’s Word, they examined it daily. The word used for examine is anakrino, a legal term used to examine the evidence to determine the truth in a given situation. The Bereans epitomized the famous Ronald Reagan statement regarding the old Soviet’s disarmament: “Trust but verify!”
Their nobility is seen in that they willingly received God’s Word, but they did not naively accept it. There is an important difference. As Jews they had a confidence in God’s Word, but as fallen men they had a healthy distrust of God’s preachers. What is taught from God’s Word must be tested by God’s Word. A noble person has an open mind but also a cautious heart. We must distinguish between enthusiasm and gullibility. The doctrine of Christ does not fear scrutiny.
The open-mind must never be afraid to ask questions, hard questions.
At times during the church’s history, leaders have patronized the laity, telling them that an implicit faith is sufficient, that is, believing not the content of the gospel, but just trusting that the church is looking out for you is all that was needed.
This was a point of contention between Luther and Rome as the Roman teaching that faith in the church is all that is necessary. But that same trouble remains in Protestant churches where the person in the pew says, “I don’t know what my church believes, but I trust my pastor.” Whatever you do…don’t trust me. Please, weigh what I say by God’s Word.
To do that you must be examining Scriptures daily. Unfortunately, people are reading God’s Word less and less today. Less than 50% of Americans open the Bible in a given week. According to a Barna Research Group survey, 82% thinks "God helps those who help themselves" is directly from the Bible; 63% cannot name the four Gospels; 58% cannot name half or more of the Ten Commandments; 58% do not know that Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount; 52% do not know the book of Jonah is in the Bible; and 48% do not know the book of Thomas is not in the Bible. (J. D. Hoke, How to Hear God, 10/5/97)
Rather than checking your brain at the door, test what is said. Earlier we heard read 1 John 4 where the aged apostle reminded his readers of the necessity to test. Throughout his brief letter he offers an important two fold test: lip and life, orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Listen to what a person says and how he lives, he must confess Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is God.
This is not just the job for the professionals, but it is the responsibility of each one of us. While there will always be certain passages that are difficult, that may require a knowledge of the original languages and culture, in the critical areas of life, Scriptures are clear and everyone one of us should be diligent to study them. We have numerous opportunities here to learn, to be stretched. The span the gamut of topics and depth, so there should be something for every age group, every pertinent interest.
But our confidence is in God’s Word and in His Spirit, not in ourselves. If we cannot trust other men as being infallible, neither can we trust in our own interpretations as infallible (cf. 2 Peter 1:20-21). Thus, we must be aware of our own tendency to use the Scriptures to confirm and proof text our sinful inclinations and desires. This is why we need gifted teachers, like Paul and others, who will challenge us and our interpretations, who will make us uneasy, and urge us to go back to the Scriptures to test our own thinking and interpretation of Scripture.
There are two great tests for the Christian when it comes to the teaching of others. The first test is the test of teaching which challenges our own thinking, which indicates that we are wrong and need to change. It is a difficult thing to admit we are wrong, but the teaching of others should serve to change some of our own thinking and actions. But the second and even greater test for the Christian comes when the teaching of another confirms our own viewpoint, attitudes, doctrines and actions. Just because someone (or a great number of people) has the same view as we do does not prove we are right. The false teachers have great followings, not because they are right, but because they say what people want to hear, and they advocate what people want to do. (R. Deffinbaugh The Evangelization of Thessalonica and Berea Lesson 26)
The well bred Christian researches continually
Berean’s nobility was not just that they became excited about God’s Word during one sermon or at a weekend conference, nor as a Sabbath habit. Rather, they examined God’s Word daily.
Not one of us has graduated from having to reading and studying God’s Word. We are to be constant students of the Word. You may have been raised in a fine Christian home, taught God’s Word from little on up, but you are not done learning.
If you are the type of person who loves a plan, there are various plans which will take you through God’s Word in a year. Samuel Annesley, John Wesley's grandfather, as a child of five or six began to read twenty chapters a day and continued that throughout his life. Arthur Pink wrote to a friend: 'In my early years . . . I read through the entire Bible three times a year (eight chapters in the Old Testament and two in the New Testament daily). I steadily persevered in this for ten years in order to familiarize myself with its contents, which can only be done by consecutive reading'. (Letters of A. W. Pink p.23 Banner of Truth). Few Christians today have the stamina for such a scheme. (G. Thomas, The Sure Word of God Sermon 6 Searching the Scriptures)
The Well-bred Christian Responds to God’s Word
God is faithful to his Word. It is God who moved the Bereans to receive the Scriptures, to examine them daily, it is God who gave them the faith to believe.
What we see here in the Bereans should also be true in our lives. There is no value to receive the Word with eagerness, to research the Word daily unless we then respond to the Word with faith. As we master God’s Word, it will master us in turn.
There is a responsibility that rests with you as I bring you God’s Word week by week.
The hard work comes as you leave here and must ask yourself: “What will I do now in light of God’s Word.”
Some may wish for me to spell that out clearly week by week, but I can not know what God is doing in each of your lives week by week. The work of application rests on your shoulders, but I will challenge you: “How are you going to respond to God’s Word now?”
Not one of us are naturally bent to such a task. Like that room full of ten year olds being forced to behave, we want to break out and live our lives as we please. But we know, that despite our desires to the contrary, that just as ten year old boys must learn to behave, so also you and I must be conformed to the image of Christ and this will be done only as we encounter what Christ has done for us in the pages of Scripture.
We need to hear the Word, to study it, reflecting deeply on it - but finally the question is how we respond to it. The Anglican Book of Common Prayer states the need well in this prayer:
Blessed Lord, who hast caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning; grant that we may in such wise hear them, read, mark, learn, and inwardly digest them, that by patience, and comfort of thy holy Word, we may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed hope of everlasting life, which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ.
