Acts 17.6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, “These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.”
10 Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. When they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 These were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so. 12 Therefore many of them believed, and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. 13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica we learned that the Word of God was preached by Paul at Berea, they came there also and stirred up the crowds. 14 Then immediately the brethren sent Paul away, to go to the sea; but both Silas and Timothy remained there.
Would that they could say about the church in America of us, “These who have turned the world upside down...” or in Haiti with all its corruption in the government, ““These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.” The world is being turned upside down or should we say right side up in many places today. China, Korea, Africa, South America, ... take Brazil. 60 years ago we had 12 people gather to form the Church of the Nazarene. Today Brazil has 190,00 members in 600 churches!
Here in America , we desperately need a fresh move of God’s Spirit.
That is our greatest need in our poor nation.
To the nation of Israel, God speaking through the Prophet Isaiah said:
Isaiah 5 New International Version (NIV)
The Song of the Vineyard
5 I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside.
2
He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit.
3
“Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between Me and My vineyard.
4
What more could have been done for My vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad?
5
Now I will tell you what I am going to do to My vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled.
6
I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.”
7
The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines He delighted in. And He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.
The Word of God and His Spirit moving on the hearts of His people in response to prayer brings renewal and a revival. The Word of God has been central to any move of God... The Bereans are an example of what we need in this day of people mishandling the Word of God.
It is on the Bereans I wish to focus this morning...
1. They had Noble Character.
Students of the Word
II Timothy 2.15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.
They were rich in the things of God.
They were mature.
“Let us move onto maturity::” Hebrews 6.1
They were not falling for nonsense or accepting things without testing the spirits.
I John 4.1
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Paul wrote the Ephesians:
Ephesians 4. 11 So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, 12 to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
14 Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. 15 Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. 16 From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
2. They were Eager to Receive the Word.
Blessedness are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness
They had a love for the Word of God.
Psalm 119.97 O how love I thy law! it is my meditations all the day.
You can study the scriptures without love for them and without really knowing them.
Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. Matthew 22.29
The Sadducees
In High School they offered an English Mini Course entitled, The Bible As Literature.
In the course description it was stated that theology or doctrince would not be discussed just the study of the literary aspects of the Bible.
They were not going to treat it as the Word of God. I thought about it and knew I would be very frustrated taking it.
Hebrews 4.12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
We need a hunger for the Word of God!
We have a famine for hearing the Word of God today.
Amos 8.11
"The days are coming," declares the Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land-- not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
LORD, put a hunger and thirst in Your people in America we pray.
3. They Searched the Scriptures.
to investigate, examine, enquire into, scrutinise, sift, question
specifically in a forensic sense of a judge to hold an investigation
to interrogate, examine the accused or witnesses
They did not take Paul’s word for it, they searched God’s Word.
They questioned it.
They investigated.
I John 4.1 Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
Be on your guard.
I Corinthians 16.13 Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith
Acts 20.28 Keep watch over yourselves and all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which he bought with his own blood. 29 I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them.31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
The men who turned the world upside down.
The Bereans who were of noble character.
Let’s pray for both of them in our day!
Habakkuk 1.5 Look at the nations and watch be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe even if you were told.
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