Sermon by Pastor Robert Green, Fifth Sunday of Easter, April 20, 2008, Yr. 3A, No. 678, Ascension Evangelical Lutheran Church, W.E.L.S., Harrisburg, PA, based on Acts 17:1-12
Today’s reading from the Book of Acts, which is a history of the Acts of the Apostles, takes us to Paul’s missionary work to establish congregations in Thessalonica and then in Berea. Of these congregations, Luke tells us the Christians in Berea had the more noble Christian character. Paul also had such a character. There are times I stand in awe of the character of Paul, for he had a noble character which means, among other things, to have an exalted, moral character, to have a sense of excellence in character. Paul’s character was noble for he knew what he believed and followed it. He boldly preached wherever he went and did not water down or back down from a single Word. Just before coming to Berea he had been in Philippi. Philippi was a Roman colony and was one of the largest colonial cities of its time. Paul met serious opposition in Philippi after he freed a slave girl, who was possessed by a demon who could foretell the future, from that demon. Her owners were very upset that she lost the ability to foretell the future for that was how they made money.
Luke, the author of Acts, tells us, girl’s owners, brought Paul and Silas“before the magistrates and said, “These men are Jews, and are throwing our city into an uproar 21 by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.” 22 The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten.” The magistrates put Paul and Silas in jail and that night, by the power of an earthquake, the cell doors opened. But Paul and Silas did not flee, rather they stayed and taught the jailor who came to faith. He and his whole household were baptized.
When the city officials found out Paul and Silas were Roman citizens, they became afraid for it was illegal to flog a Roman citizen. The rulers asked Paul and Silas to leave the city. This is where the reading for today comes in. In this reading, God encourages every believer to seek a more noble character as a Christian, like that of Paul who in truth opened the Scriptures to others; like the Bereans who searched the Scriptures daily to find the truth!
Seek a more noble character as Christian
- like that of Paul who in truth opened the Scriptures to others;
After leaving Philippi, Luke tells us, in the reading for today, “When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. 2 As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ,” he said.”Notice how Paul and Silas who had just been stripped, flogged and thrown into prison, essentially for preaching and teaching the Word, stood firm and courageous to continue the work. The two simply went on to the next opportunity. They had a noble character, a Christian character, which trusted in the very message they preached.Paul followed his custom of going to the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. The word “Christ” means the “Anointed One,” the one anointed by God to be the offspring of Eve who would come and crush the head of Satan. The Anointed One would fulfill all the prophecies of the one who was to come as the Christ, the Savior.
The Jewish believers knew the Old Testament, but not the New Testament, which was not yet written. Paul reasoned with them meaning he discussed or argued about differences of opinion. But Paul did not reason or argue according to his human reason, apart from the Word, but used the Word as the source of his what he believed. The way Paul reasoned was to explain and prove or more literally to opened the Scriptures by laying alongside or side by side the prophecies and the fulfillment. Essentially what Paul did was to open the Scriptures to his listeners by citing the prophecies dealing with Christ and laying beside them the fulfillment of each of the prophecies in Jesus. By showing the fulfillment of the prophecies in the life, work, suffering and death, Paul proved from the Word that Jesus is the Christ.We do not know which Scriptures Paul used to reason from; what we know is that he proclaimed Christ from the building blocks of faith, the prophecies and fulfillment.
Luke records the blessing of the Holy Spirit using Paul’s proclamation of the Gospel, saying,“Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.” The conversion of some of the Jews and the large number of Greeks, did not sit well with some of the Jews. Luke tells us, “But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason’s house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: “These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, 7 and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar’s decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus.” 8 When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. 9 Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.”
The intent of these Jews was to cause enough trouble to force Paul and the others to leave. They used evil men from the market place to stir up opposition. But when they did not find Paul and Silas they dragged Jason and some of the brothers to the city ruler shouting that these were the ones stirring up the inhabited earth and they were here. Their calculated actions led to an uproar within the city so that even the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Do you see the power of the Word of God and thus the importance of using it to share the Gospel message? Already, within about 30 years of the death and resurrection of Jesus, the Christian faith, the Gospel, was making a huge impact on the known world.
What about you and me, can we have such a noble Christian character as Paul’s? Of course we can, for Paul was no different from you or me in the sense that he believed what God said. He knew the Scriptures from reading them, marking them in his mind and digesting them so that he could argue not from what man says, but from what God says. We do not have to confront whole communities to have such a noble character, all we have to do is to know what we believe and why we believe it and have the courage of conviction to take our stand speaking up for Jesus.
- like the Bereans who searched the Scriptures daily!
Luke tells us that, “As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. 12 Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” The word in the Greek for having a noble character means to have “a willingness to learn and evaluate something fairly, to open-minded, to be noble-minded.” The Bereans were true believers who had not been told of the coming of Jesus as the Christ, the Messiah.
The Bereans were far more willing to listen and learn, to evaluate fairly, and to be open-minded to what the Scriptures taught, than the Thessalonians. Yet their noble Christian character demanded that whatever was said be tested against the Scriptures, as the standard of truth.Thus, the Bereans searched the Scriptures daily to see if they contained what Paul said. They examined what Paul said about Jesus and compared the same to the prophecies. The Holy Spirit is the author of faith and he uses the Means of Grace, the Word and sacraments, to bring a person to faith. Here we see the Holy Spirit bringing the Bereans to faith in Jesus using Paul’s teaching of the Old Testament and its fulfillment in Christ.
The Bereans received the message of Paul, not as some burdensome thing, but with great eagerness. This is the picture of someone who has found something really good and wants to have as much of it as possible. This is like someone who found a stream with gold in it and puts in all his or her energy into finding as much gold as possible. These Bereans were not ashamed of the Scripture, but accepted all of it. They did not look to some parts and not others, but these fellow believers were of such noble character they searched all the Scriptures, being confident that in the Word of God they held the absolute truth about God.
The word for they “examined” the Scriptures, meaning they examined with great care. This shows their noble Christian character for they had to have already known the Scriptures to be able to so examine them. They had to have a high regard for the Scriptures to make such an effort. They had to have a deep trust that the Scriptures would not mislead them at all. They also had to have great faith for while they were willing to listen to this new comer, Paul, they knew that no man had the key to truth from himself, but it would be found only in the Scriptures.
What does all this mean for you, dear Christian? Isn’t a call to have a more noble character, the character of Paul and of the Bereans? You can have such a noble character for the Holy Spirit has brought you to faith. You too can learn to search the Scriptures daily to test and see if what is being said about the Christian faith, about God and Christ, is true or not. Of course, each one of has to admit that she or he has not always had or lived with such a noble character. But that is why Jesus came, to forgive us even for not having a Christian noble character. This gives all the more reason to seek such a character.
Dear Christian, you can give no greater compliment to your pastor than to be a Berean testing all that he teaches you against the Scriptures, for then you have and display the more noble Christian character. What pastor would not rejoice over such a character? When Christians have the noble character, then heresy, false doctrine, does not stand a chance to destroy the truth. When Christians do not have the noble character, then what would ever check the advancement of false teaching leading to the destruction of the Christian church?
It is interesting to note that while Paul says the Bereans were of a more noble character than the Thessalonians, that later Paul calls the Thessalonica congregation a model congregation. Paul tells us the Thessalonians became imitators of Paul and the other Christians and of the Lord. This imitation no doubt developed a more noble character. Dear friends, seek and imitate the Apostles, the Thessalonians and the Bereans, then you will have the noble character, the character of a Christian! To God be all glory, amen!