The Bible Tells Me So

In the seventeenth chapter of the book of Acts we find Paul’s ministry to the people of Berea. In verses 11 and 12 we read, “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures daily to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.”

We live at a time when the vast majority of people in our country seem to revel in filth. A recent television interview describing the details of a high-level adulterous relationship attracted over seventy million viewers during prime time. One of the most celebrated journalists in the country is a man who made his fortune peddling smut, but no one seems concerned about that.

In America today evil is good and good is evil. In Ephesians 5:12 the apostle Paul wrote, “It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret,” but Americans today do everything in the open; thus, we find filth openly displayed on television, radio, in the print media, and on the Internet. As a nation we have no sense of shame.

Luke said the Bereans were more noble than the Thessalonians, and I would say they were also more noble than the vast majority of Americans and most people in the western world. Rather than reveling in filth, they filled their minds with things that are right, pure, lovely, excellent, and praiseworthy. They loved God and his truth and sought to put the Scriptures into practice in their daily lives. The noble Bereans have served as examples worthy of Christians throughout history to emulate.

What does it mean to be noble? The Greek word used by Luke is eugenesteroi, which comes from the word eugenes, from which we have the name Eugene. Originally the word meant well-born and spoke about nobility. Later on this word also came to mean people of generous spirit, those who are open-minded toward truth, not prejudiced, hostile or suspicious of others, but who give to others a fair hearing.

The Bereans, therefore, were called noble because they listened to the preaching of the gospel with open hearts as they pursued God and his truth. What a contrast to the people of today, who are hostile to the gospel, but ever ready to give a hearing to filth of every kind!

Paul Preaches the Message of Salvation

After Paul had preached in Thessalonica for three Sabbath days, some unbelieving Thessalonian Jews began to persecute the apostles and believers. Paul, Silas and Timothy left at night and traveled to Berea (modern Verria) also in Macedonia. Berea was located fifty miles southwest of Thessalonica, on the foothills of the Olympian range, away from the military road called the Egnatian Way.

When he reached Berea, Paul, as was his custom, went to the synagogue and began to preach the gospel. As he had done in Thessalonica he opened the Scriptures, meaning the Old Testament, and began to reason with the Bereans, demonstrating to them that what the Scriptures had promised about the Messiah was fulfilled in Jesus of Nazareth. Paul declared that Jesus died and rose according to the Scriptures and was seen, not only by the apostles, but by five hundred people at one time, most of whom were still living at the time. I am sure Paul said this so that if anyone wanted to, he could check with these people who were eyewitnesses of the risen Christ.

Paul also declared that Jesus had ascended into the heavens and was now seated on the right hand of the Father. He said that Jesus is coming again with great power and glory to judge the living and the dead.

The Savior promised in the Old Testament is Jesus, Paul told the people of Berea. He is the only one who can forgive sins and give his perfect righteousness to his people. No one else was crucified, died, was buried and rose from the dead. No one else is Lord of all. Then Paul concluded his preaching by asking his listeners to repent and believe on the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Jesus himself had preached these things, as we read several places in the gospels. In the synagogue of Nazareth he stood up once on a Sabbath and read from Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Rolling up the scroll, he sat down and declared, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:16-21). Jesus was declaring, “This Anointed One spoken of by the prophet Isaiah–the Messiah, the one anointed to be the Savior, Deliverer, King and Lord–is sitting right here before you.”

Jesus said the same thing to the Samaritan woman. In John 4:25-26 we read, “The woman said, ‘I know that Messiah’ (called Christ) is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.’ Then Jesus declared, ‘I who speak to you am he.'”

Response to the Message of Salvation: Welcoming

This was the message of salvation Paul preached and it is still the message of salvation for us today. Jesus Christ alone forgives our sins, removes our guilt and sets us free. What do we have to do? Welcome his message by repenting and believing on him.

After Paul finished preaching, we are told that the Bereans welcomed his message. Whenever the gospel is preached, those who are listening have to make a choice either to receive it or reject it. The vast majority of people whose hearts are hard and closed and whose eyes are blinded by Satan will reject the gospel of Christ. As we read in John 1:10-11, Jesus came to the world he had made and to his own people, but he was not recognized or received as the Creator and Redeemer. But some people, upon hearing of Jesus Christ, will receive him as their Lord and Savior. Jesus spoke of such people in Matthew 10:40-41: “He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me,” meaning God the Father.

Welcoming the message of salvation means welcoming Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Savior, the Lord. The classic example of this is found in Luke 2, which speaks about Jesus being brought by his parents to the temple and welcomed by Simeon. In Luke 2:25-32 we read,

Now there was a man in Jerusalem called Simeon, who was righteous and devout. He was waiting for the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit was upon him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not die before he had seen the Lord’s Christ. Moved by the Spirit, he went into the temple courts. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to do for him what the custom of the law required, Simeon took him in his arms and praised God, saying, “Sovereign Lord, as you have promised, you now dismiss your servant in peace. For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people, a light for revelation to the Gentiles and for glory to your people Israel.”

The Greek verb used here for “took” is dechomai, which means Simeon welcomed, received and embraced the infant Jesus. Whenever we are confronted with Jesus Christ through the preaching of the gospel, we have to make a decision either to receive him or reject him. But we never will receive him unless the Spirit of God is working in us. If the Spirit is working in us, we will receive Christ the Messiah as the Lord and Savior who alone can set us free.

Despite the unbelief the apostles encountered in Thessalonica, some people in Thessalonica had welcomed the gospel in this way, as we read in 1 Thessalonians 1:6, “You became imitators of us and of the Lord; in spite of severe suffering, you welcomed the message with the joy given by the Holy Spirit.” As I said, the vast majority of people will reject Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit is not working in them. This is a mystery, but I know that if the Holy Spirit is working in a person’s heart, he will receive the gospel in spite of persecution, hardship, and trouble. He will do so with great joy, knowing his sins are forgiven and his burden is removed.

In 1 Thessalonians 2:13 we read, “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as it actually is, the word of God.” And in Acts 10:33 Cornelius told the apostle Peter, “So I sent for you immediately, and it was good for you to come. Now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.” The Holy Spirit prepares his people to welcome the message of salvation.

Daily Welcoming the Gospel

The Bereans listened to Paul’s preaching and welcomed it, and we are told that they did so daily. Just as the Israelites had to gather manna daily, it is the duty of Christians to study the word of God daily. It was the duty of the king to read the Bible daily so that he would know how to govern for the glory of the Great King (Deut. 17:19) and it is our duty also, as we read in Deuteronomy 11.

The Bereans examined the Scriptures, not once in a great while, but daily. There are some people who go to church once a year–on Easter or Christmas–and that is the only time they expose themselves to the Bible. But these Bereans read, examined, and studied the word of God daily. Don’t you think that would help their minds to dwell on, delight in and think upon what is true, lovely, praiseworthy, and excellent?

Eagerly Welcoming the Gospel

Not only did the Bereans study the word daily, but they also did so with all eagerness. The Greek word is prothumos, meaning they looked into the Scriptures with enthusiasm, eagerness, and zeal, like a ravenously hungry man who is given some food or an extremely thirsty man who is finally given something to drink. The Bereans were full of enthusiasm, full of readiness, and full of zeal for God’s word. They were like the blessed man of Psalm 1 whose “delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.”

We find a picture of such eagerness in Luke 10:38-42, where we read, “[Martha] had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’ ‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'”

This is the type of enthusiasm, readiness, zeal, delight, preoccupation, and devotion demonstrated by the Bereans for the word of God. Only thing is necessary for salvation: knowledge of God.

What about you? Do you welcome the message of the gospel as the Bereans did? Do you study it daily, with passion, enthusiasm, zeal, delight, and hunger? (PGM) Let me say it again: only one thing is needed for salvation–the knowledge of God–and that is found only in the word of God. Jesus himself said, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Serious Study of the Scriptures

The Bereans “examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true” (Acts 17:11). The Bereans were serious students of Scripture who would compare what Paul preached with the Scriptures to see if what he was teaching was true.

Those who sit under gospel preaching should do so in an intelligent manner. As the preacher speaks, they should open their Bibles and follow along. If the preacher’s message aligns with the Scriptures, they must receive it and obey it.

A minister of the gospel must preach from the Scriptures, and his sermon must be open to careful examination. The Greek word is anakrinô, which means to examine carefully, as in a legal process. Whenever we sit under the preaching of the gospel, we must examine what is preached in the light of the Holy Scriptures. We must make a constant, careful, and assiduous examination to see whether the message conforms to or is counter to the Holy Scriptures. Why? Because the touchstone of truth is not human psychology, science, philosophy, culture, or tradition. The touchstone of truth is Scripture alone. If a word is based squarely on the Scriptures, we must receive it, welcome it and obey it, but if it is not, we must reject it.

Evangelicalism today is characterized by a confused mindset in which anything goes. Much of modern Christianity has become mindless, based more on emotions than on the word of God. But Christians should not be gullible, thoughtless, or uncritical, or merely emotional. Tears are not the touchstone of truth. In my work as a counselor and preacher, I have seen many people crying, but most of these tears had nothing to do with the work of the Holy Spirit.

The responsibility of examining the Scriptures intelligently, carefully and critically is not just for experts and scholars, but for every individual Christian. That is the blessing of Reformation. Before the Reformation, only the experts, meaning theologians, knew how to read it. But we believe in the perspicuity, or clarity, of the Scriptures. The Reformation taught us that ordinary human beings can read the Bible and, by the power of the Spirit of God, be led to truth. As we fulfill our responsibility to read and study the Bible, God will open our minds to understand what we are reading. That is the work of the Holy Spirit.

In 1 Peter 1:10 we read, “Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care.” We should read the Scriptures with the same carefulness that we read a contract or a mortgage note or a will. We must examine the Scriptures as diligently as the Pharisees did, and even more so because we know Jesus Christ to whom they testify.

In this church we read through the Bible every year and receive great benefit. It is said that in his lifetime George Müller read through the Scriptures two hundred times. Serious study of the Scriptures can only benefit us; therefore, I urge you to study the Scriptures! Where do you think Martin Luther got the boldness to declare, “Here I stand”? He studied and understood the Scriptures.

The Authority of the Scriptures

The Bereans studied the Scriptures so diligently because they believed in the authority of the Bible. Second Timothy 3:16 tells us all Scripture is God-breathed, meaning it is the creative product of God himself. Just as God created the universe, so also he created the Scriptures. In 2 Peter 2:21 Peter writes, “Prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.” In other words, as the prophets were controlled by God, they spoke what God wanted them to speak and wrote what God wanted them to write. The Scriptures are the very word of God. They are the test and the court.

Jesus Christ believed in the authority of Scripture. When he responded to each temptation of the devil in Matthew 4, he would reply, “It is written. . . .” meaning the Scripture was the final authority. Then he would give a reason from Scripture why he would not give in to the devil’s temptation. And in Matthew 5 Jesus said he did not come to abolish the Scripture, but to fulfill it, again demonstrating his belief in the absolute authority of the Scripture.

Not only did Jesus believe in the authority of the Scripture, but the Jews and the apostles also believed. In fact, Satan himself believes in the authority of Scripture, as we read in Matthew 4:6.

We are living in a time when human words, like Mount Everest, are heaped up in great quantities in print, on the radio, on television, and on the Internet. But despite the superabundance of words around us, none of them can save us. Only the words of one book, the Bible, will give us knowledge of God. It is my hope and prayer that we will devote ourselves to examining, reading, and studying the Bible, and then doing what it says, because only the Bible is perfect and can speak authoritatively into our lives.

In Psalm 19 we read this about the Bible:

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.

The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.

The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.

The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.

The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.

By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward. (Psalm 19:7-11)

This is why we ought to be studying, examining, listening to, obeying, and believing the word of God. Sola scriptura, the great principle of the Reformation, means that Scripture alone is our text and court, not tradition or a man’s words. If a minister does not preach according to the Scriptures, he is a fraud and you should not believe in him.

The Bereans subscribed to the principle of sola scriptura. They believed that the Scriptures are the sole authority and that by searching the Scriptures they would find life. The Bereans were open-minded, but Bible-centered. They were like the fourth soil in the parable of the sower. The first three soils did not understand God’s word at all, nor did they care for it or pay attention to it. But the Bereans heard the word, understood it, retained it, persevered in it, and brought forth fruit from it.

The Conclusion of the Bereans

The Bereans heard Paul’s message, welcomed it, and studied it daily, sifting through it as in a legal process and examining it very diligently, with the greatest care. What was their conclusion? “What Paul is saying is true,” they said. “The Christ of the Old Testament is Jesus. We want to serve him as our Savior and Lord.” In contrast to the Thessalonians, many, not few, Bereans, believed.

Romans 10:17 tells us “faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.” The word of God came to the Bereans in word, in power, in the Holy Spirit and with much conviction. By their own intellectual examination of the preaching as well as the Scripture they came to this conclusion: “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so.”

Jesus declared in the synagogue of Nazareth: “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your ears.” What was the response of the people of Nazareth to this truth? They wanted to kill him. But the response of the Bereans was different.

Why is it that when the gospel is preached, some people believe in Christ while others reject him? Not everyone is appointed to eternal life. In Acts 13:46 we read, “Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: ‘We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles.'” And in verse 48 we read, “When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and honored the word of the Lord; and all who were appointed for eternal life believed.”

That is why I do not push people to believe in Christ. My calling is to preach the gospel, and if you are ordained to eternal life, you will believe in Christ and receive him. You will come to Christ in full repentance and humility, saying, “I believe in the Bible! I believe that the Messiah of the Old Testament is Jesus Christ, who was crucified and buried, but, according to the Scriptures, rose from the dead on the third day and was seen by many, ascended into the heavens, and is seated on the right hand of God the Father. I believe that God has made all things subject to him and that he has received all authority in heaven and on earth. I believe that he is the Savior of all who receives sinners. I know I am a sinner; thus, I will come to Jesus Christ and he will receive me.”

God’s Grace to the Bereans

The salvation of the Bereans, and the salvation of any Christian, is a work of God’s grace. In Acts 18:27 we read, “On arriving, [Apollos] was a great help to those who by grace had believed.” No one will believe unless he is ordained to eternal life. The Spirit of God must open a man’s heart, regenerate him and make him alive. This is the work of God’s grace.

God’s grace worked mightily among the people of Berea. In Acts 17:12 we read that many Bereans–Jews, Gentiles, noble women–believed and became members of the church. Later in the book of Acts we read about a man from Berea, Sopater son of Pyrrhus, who accompanied Paul on the way back from his third missionary journey (Acts 20:4).

The church of Berea became a large church where people worshiped and praised God. How did this all come about? It was a work of God’s grace. I want to emphasize this because without grace no one will believe. In 1 Corinthians 2:12 Paul wrote, “We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.” No one can understand the gospel unless the Spirit of God enables him. The Spirit of God must work in the preacher and in the listeners. The same Spirit of God who authored the Bible also anoints the preacher and works in the hearts of those who are ordained to eternal life.

First Corinthians 2:14 says, “The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” But, again, let me assure you, everyone who is ordained to eternal life will receive grace to believe and will be saved.

Are You a Berean Christian?

If you asked a Berean Christian why he was singing, “Jesus loves me, this I know,” he would answer, “for the Bible tells me so.” The Bereans’ love of and devotion to the Scriptures resulted in great assurance of salvation based on the promises of the Bible.

Do you see the importance of exercising our God-given minds in hearing the preaching of the gospel and studying the Scriptures? To know and understand the word of God should be the primary use of our minds. Rather than checking our minds outside the church, we ought always to come in praying, “O God, open my heart, open my mind to understand your word this day. May I not sleep in the church! Help me to exercise my mind, because I know that only one thing is needful, and I must have that one thing, which is the knowledge of God.” And we cannot have true knowledge of God without the knowledge of his Son, Jesus Christ, who came to reveal the Father to us and tell us of the Father’s love for us. “God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Jesus Christ is the Messiah upon whom the Spirit of God rests. God has anointed him to set the captives free, and he will set you free from bondage to sin and death. He invites you, saying, “Come to me; I will give you rest.” He alone is able to lift that iron girder of guilt that rests upon your soul. No psychiatrist , no sociologist, no politician can remove it. Only Jesus Christ can truly set us free.

May God help us to be like the Berean Christians–lovers of God’s word, intelligent Christians–not gullible, uncritical, and thoughtless, but those who diligently examine the Scriptures. And as they were convicted by the Spirit of God of the truth of the message of salvation, they believed in Christ and were saved. May God save each one this day and enable us to bow in adoration of Jesus Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords! Amen.