“Have You Checked?”
[Acts 17:10-15]
August 22, 2010 Second Reformed Church
Do not assume that the pastor in the pulpit is a Christian. Do not assume that the pastor in the pulpit is telling you the truth. Do not assume that the pastor has understood God’s Word correctly. Having a seminary degree does not make a person a Christian, nor does it make a person wise enough to understand and apply the Scripture. Having a pulpit to preach from and people who listen each week does not make a person right. Having a book or an article published does not mean a person is right.
It is the duty and the privilege of every Christian to check to make sure what the pastor has preached is actually what is in the Bible – what is actually God’s Word. And in this country, we have the added privilege of being able to own a Bible. Some of us have many Bibles. The Bible is the best selling book in the United States. Yet – inexplicably – most of these Bibles are never opened. They are on shelves and coffee tables, covered with dust.
Most people who don’t read their Bible have told me that they don’t because they don’t understand it. Understanding anything takes time and commitment. Do you read your Bible and ask God to help you understand? Do you have a version in which the language is readable to you? Do you take advantage of Bible study, small groups, asking the pastor or others who have spent more time in the Bible, looking to good Christian books?
After the attack on the house of Jason in Thessalonica, the disciples sent Paul and Silas and their friends to Berea – about fifty miles southwest of Thessalonica. And again, Paul went to preach that Jesus is the Promised Savior – the Christ – the Only Way to Salvation.
And Luke tells us that the people of Berea were “more noble than those in Thessalonica.” We know from what follows that Luke did not mean that the people of Berea were all of a higher rank or class than the Thessalonians. Luke says that the Bereans were more noble in two ways: they received the Word of God eagerly, and they examined the Word of God daily to see if these things were so.
The Bereans were candid, impartial, just, devoted to the Truth, unprejudiced, frank – they heard Paul preach and they studied the Word of God to make sure that what he was saying was really true. They didn’t just accept his word because he was Paul, and they didn’t dismiss him out of hand for saying that the Savior had come. No, they listened to the Word of God, and studied it daily, as was their custom, and they examined what Paul said – comparing it to what was written in the Scripture, and they came to a conclusion about whether or not what he was telling them about Jesus was true.
And Luke tells us that many of the Jews believed and many Greeks, including women and men of high standing, also believed. They were acquainted with the Word of God – they knew the Scripture – and when they compared what Paul said to what the Scripture said, they found that he was speaking the truth. What he said was in line with the Law and the Prophets, and the Holy Spirit caused them to believe savingly in Jesus.
Word got back to Thessalonica that many in Berea were believing Paul, so the Jews came after him – they came to cause trouble – to stir the crowds against him. So, the disciples, concerned for Paul’s safety, put him on a ship and sent him to Athens, while Silas and Timothy stayed behind to debate the Jews.
But Paul soon realized he needed help in Athens, so he sent for Silas and Timothy to come as soon as possible, and they did.
We learn at least three things in this text:
First, Scripture demands immediate assent. The Bereans believed the Scripture – as the Word of God. They checked Paul and other preachers against the Word of God – which has no errors and cannot err, since it is God’s Word – even though it was written down by men.
Paul wrote to Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work” (II Timothy 3:16-17, ESV).
If the Bible is the Word of the Holy and Unchangeable God, then we ought to submit to it and it’s authority immediately – seeing it as the bar to which all of reality must measure up. If you believe the Bible is just human writing – that it is full of errors – what are you doing here? If any part of the text is wrong, then what reason would we have for believing any of it, much less submitting to it as the Word of God?
Second, the doctrine – teaching – of humans, even if it based on the Scripture, needs to be carefully and cautiously examined. The Bereans checked to see if what Paul was saying was in accord with the Scripture. Paul had a pretty good handle on the Scripture – he was one of the best educated Pharisees in the world, and he had been taught by Jesus, as well. If there was anyone you could just assume was right, it would have been Paul, but the Bereans did not assume that he was right just because of his training and reputation. They understood that every mere human being is capable of error – “innocent” error, sinful error, even purposeful evil twisting of the Scripture – so they checked.
Paul wrote, “Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good” (I Thessalonians 5:20-21, ESV). Don’t throw a person’s preaching out out of hand, but don’t accept it without being sure it is what is actually said in the Scripture. And it is not an insult to ask, “I didn’t understand how you got that from the Scripture – would you show me?”
Thirdly, don’t believe in the infallibility of the pastor. Whether we call him pastor, minister, brother, Father, or Pope, all humans, including those in the ministry make mistakes. That’s one of the reasons God appointed elders – to have a specific group of people charged with making sure that what the pastor is preaching and teaching is what the Scripture teaches.
How then shall we live?
Let us spend time every day reading the Bible – God’s Word. If the language is too difficult in the Bible you have, ask me, and I will find one that is good for you. Read one chapter each morning or evening. Or, if you would like a reading plan, ask me, and I will get you one that works for you.
We ought to read our Bibles because this is what God has said to us. The same God and Father Who sent His Son to live and die and rise and ascend for us gave us His Word that we would know everything we need to know for life and faith. This is the Word of the Holy and Unchangeable God, Who cannot err, and worked through humans to record all that we have in these sixty-six books.
And to the best of our ability – and our ability will grow as we spend time in God’s Word and receive help and instruction from God the Holy Spirit – let us check to make sure what we are told by any pastor or teacher is in line with what the Scripture actually says. Look up the text. Look at commentaries and other good Christian books. Talk with other Christians and see if you agree with the pastor’s explanation. Question the pastor for further explanation. We don’t want to be confused about what God has said.
I wonder – and I’m not going to ask you to respond, because I am afraid of what some of you would answer – I wonder if some of us would not miss the Bible if it were gone – if we no longer had access to it. Would you miss not being able to look to your Bible to see what God has said?
In the book of Kings we have the history of the kings of Judah and Israel – and they were, for the most part, bad. They allowed the people to worship false gods and to set up idols in the Temple. And they allowed the Temple to fall into disrepair. We are even told that the Word of God had been misplaced – they didn’t remember what they had done with the scrolls of the Word of the Lord.
When King Josiah of Judah was twenty-six years old, he decided it would be good to repair the Temple. And the king turned over the money of the Temple treasury so the workers could do the work necessary to repair the Temple.
While the workmen were cleaning up and making repairs, Hilkiah, the high priest told Stephen the secretary that he had found the book of the Law – which would have been, at least, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Hilkiah read the book and then Stephen read the book. And Stephen took the book to King Josiah and told him that it had been found in the Temple.
King Josiah asked Stephen to read it to him, and as he read the Word of God, Josiah tore his clothes and said, “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found. For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do all that is written concerning us” (II Kings 22:13, ESV).
So the priests went to God and asked of Him and God said, “Tell the man who sent you to me, Thus says that Lord, behold, I will bring disaster upon this place and upon its inhabitants, all the words of the book that the king of Judah has read. Because they have forsaken me and have made offerings to other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the work of their hands, therefore my wrath will be kindled against this place, and it will not be quenched. But to the king of Judah, who sent you to inquire of the Lord, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Regarding the words that you have heard, because your heart was penitent and you humbled yourself before the Lord, when you heard how I spoke against the inhabitants, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and you have torn your clothes and wept before me, I also have heard you, declares the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will gather you to your fathers, and you shall be gathered to your grave in peace, and your eyes shall not see all the disaster that I will bring upon this place” (II Kings 22:15-20a, ESV).
After King Josiah heard this, he called all of the inhabitants of Judah together and read then entire book of the Law to them. And then he commanded that all of the idols be removed from the Temple, and the right worship of the Lord God of Israel be restored.
Josiah was in love with God, and when the Word of God was restored, he checked what it said.
The Bereans were in love with God, and they checked the Word of God to make sure that what they were being told by the preacher was actually what the Word of God said.
How might we show our love for God?
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for giving us Your Word through the Prophets and Apostles. We thank You for working through humans that we might understand Your Word, yet protected it from error through the superintendence of God the Holy Spirit. Increase our love for You. Let us desire to know You and Your Salvation above all things. Cause us to spend the effort to read Your Word and to seek to understand it, and we ask that You would reward our efforts with Your Joy. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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