Pastor Josh Massaro delves into the significance of being like the Bereans from Acts 17, emphasizing their noble character in receiving and verifying the Word of God. He highlights that true faith involves not only an open mind but also a readiness to study the Scriptures daily and apply their teachings to life. The episode explores the importance of distinguishing between descriptive and prescriptive passages in the Bible, urging listeners to actively engage with Scripture rather than passively accept teachings. Pastor Josh encourages a culture of inquiry within the church, asserting that questioning and seeking deeper understanding of the Scriptures is vital for spiritual growth. As he reflects on the apostolic journey, he inspires the congregation to pursue a more profound relationship with God through diligent study of His Word.

Middletown Baptist Church's Sunday Evening Service for January 13, 2025, features Pastor Josh Massaro as he delves into the powerful narrative of Acts 17, focusing on the commendable example of the Bereans. The episode opens with Pastor Josh expressing gratitude for his listeners and setting the stage for a deep exploration of the Scriptures. He emphasizes the importance of being open-minded and receptive to God's Word, especially as exemplified by the Bereans, who eagerly accepted the message of Paul and diligently searched the Scriptures to verify its truth. This practice of critical engagement with the Word is portrayed as a vital aspect of spiritual growth and maturity.

Throughout the sermon, Pastor Josh draws a contrast between the Bereans and the Thessalonians, elucidating how the former’s noble character stemmed from their readiness to embrace the Word. He highlights that true growth in faith comes not just from passive listening but from an active pursuit of understanding, encouraging listeners to approach Scripture daily. The episode culminates in a call to action, urging the congregation to embody the Berean spirit by valuing their own study of Scripture and applying its truths in their lives. Pastor Josh’s engaging narrative invites listeners to reflect on their own practices and commitment to their faith, making it a thought-provoking and enriching experience.

The podcast episode is a rich tapestry of biblical teaching, practical application, and encouragement, resonating with the theme of seeking truth. Pastor Josh’s insights into the nature of prescriptive versus descriptive passages in Scripture serve to deepen the listener's understanding of how to approach biblical texts. He cautions against merely following examples without discerning their applicability, urging the congregation to develop a robust faith grounded in the Scriptures. The challenge to search the Scriptures is interwoven with personal anecdotes and relatable scenarios, making the message accessible and impactful. This sermon not only educates but also inspires listeners to cultivate a habit of diligent study and reflection, reinforcing the idea that faith is an active journey rather than a passive state.

As the sermon progresses, Pastor Josh emphasizes the necessity of community in the Christian journey, showcasing how the Bereans not only believed but also supported Paul amidst opposition. The narrative highlights the communal aspect of faith and the importance of discipleship, as Paul leaves Silas and Timothy to nurture the new believers in Berea. This decision underscores the responsibility that established believers have to guide and mentor others in their faith journey. Pastor Josh's passionate delivery and thoughtful insights make this episode a compelling call to embrace the Berean model of faith—one that is characterized by readiness to learn, commitment to personal study, and a dedication to helping others grow in their understanding of God's Word. For anyone seeking to deepen their walk with Christ, this podcast serves as a powerful resource, encouraging a proactive approach to faith and Scripture.

Takeaways:

• The Bereans exemplified the importance of receiving the Word with openness and readiness.
• Daily Scripture study is essential for verifying the truth of preached messages.
• Being open-minded and open-hearted towards God's Word leads to spiritual growth and understanding.
• We should not only agree with biblical truths but actively apply them in our lives.
• Scripture should always be our ultimate reference point when evaluating teachings and beliefs.
• True spiritual growth involves both receiving God's Word and diligently searching the Scriptures.

Thank you for joining our podcast. Visit our website at https://middletownbaptistchurch.org/

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This podcast is produced by Ralph Estep, Jr., host of the Ask Ralph Podcast, a daily podcast on Christian Finance you can find it at https://www.askralphpodcast.com/

Pastor Josh: 00:00:00

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:06

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:10

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:16

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:23

We're going to continue our study in the book of Acts.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:25

If you have your Bibles, turn there with me.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:26

Acts 17, Acts 17.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:29

We're going to start in verse number 10 here this evening and we're going to be looking at the folks in Berea and maybe you've even heard of some people saying, hey, we should be like the Bereans.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:41

And we're going to talk about what that means here this evening.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:43

I hope that this is a reminder for many people about what this passage is all about.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:48

Maybe for some this is a, a new look at a new story, but either way, you, you take it here this evening.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:55

There's a lot that we can learn from this passage of scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:00:58

You know, there are, are passages of scripture in the Bible that are, are what we call descriptive passages, meaning it's just describing something that happened.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:05

It doesn't necessarily mean that we need to follow it there.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:08

There are a lot of passages even in the Book of Acts that tell us things that people did.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:13

And, and we shouldn't follow that.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:14

I mean, if you look back at Thessalonica, they were basically, they chased Paul out of there.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:18

We shouldn't chase a good Bible believing preacher out of town.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:21

Okay, that's not a good thing.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:22

So the Bible will list things.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:24

We look at the Old Testament.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:25

I mean, guys, don't, don't follow David's example as a husband in many ways.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:30

Okay, don't do that.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:31

There's descriptive passages, but there's also prescriptive passages meaning passages of scripture that we take and we follow and, and we, we obey, we heed.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:40

And I think that this passage of scripture is a descriptive passage, historically speaking about what the Bereans did when Paul preached.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:46

But we do think, I believe that this is also a prescript of passage.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:51

We should be like the Bereans.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:53

We should receive the Word like these folks receive the Word here in this place.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:57

And so we're in Acts chapter 17.

Pastor Josh: 00:01:59

Just to remind you, we're on Paul's second missionary journey.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:02

He had a first missionary journey and there was great success.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:06

And now he's launched back out on a second missionary journey and he's a few stops in.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:10

And he's had some success and he's had some difficulties.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:13

He's had some persecution.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:15

Specifically at his last place there in Thessalonica, he preached.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:18

And as you can see, they came and they persecuted Jason, who was housing Paul and Silas and those other folks on the missionary team.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:26

And eventually Jason and the rest of these guys send Paul and Silas out in the middle of the night to go to Berea.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:33

And so God directs Paul and Silas to a different place.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:36

And.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:36

And that's a theme in Paul's ministry.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:39

Closed doors, open doors, God redirecting.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:43

And if you remember back even a few passages ago, when we were talking about Paul desiring to go to one place and God directed him to go to another place, sometimes that looks like a failure, that looks like a.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:53

A roadblock.

Pastor Josh: 00:02:54

But we know that God had a purpose and a plan for Paul to go to Philippi, and that was to lead Lydia to Christ, to lead the Philippian jailer to Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:02

And so God has a plan for our life.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:04

Sometimes he'll close the door.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:05

Sometimes he'll have us face persecution in Thessalonica.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:08

I don't know about you, but anytime we feel pushback, anytime we feel any pressure, we feel like maybe God isn't happy with me.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:16

But sometimes that might just be where God wants us to be.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:18

He might want us to be feeling some pressure.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:20

He might want us to be growing and changing.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:23

Sometimes I tell my kids, part of growing is there's going to be pain in that.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:27

There's going to be difficulties in that.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:28

Life isn't always easy, and we're going to see that here with Paul.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:31

But nonetheless, Paul is going to preach.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:33

He's going to stay faithful.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:34

So let's look at verse 10.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:35

It says in the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:40

And so they're rushed out to a new place.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:43

And then it says, who coming thither, went into the synagogue of the Jews.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:46

And so Paul and Silas go and do their thing.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:48

They go and preach first to the Jews.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:50

They go and appeal to the people that have religion.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:53

They know about the Scriptures.

Pastor Josh: 00:03:55

Now, the truth is, is that though they knew about the Scriptures, many of them were misunderstanding the Scriptures or at least incompletely seeing the Scriptures for what they should be.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:03

And we know that what Paul's message really is is, hey, everything that you've seen in Scriptures points to Jesus.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:09

Paul's preaching the Gospel.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:10

He's preaching Jesus alone.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:12

He's preaching salvation by faith and not by works.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:14

He's preaching salvation by Faith through the grace of God, not through the law of the people, not the tradition of man.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:22

And so the people in Thessalonica, many believe.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:25

But if you remember, who was the most upset in Thessalonica, it was the Jews.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:28

It was the devout men that had a system going on there.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:32

And when Paul preached the message, it turned that system on its head.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:35

And they said, these are the men that are turning the world upside down.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:38

And, and I think that's a good thing, right?

Pastor Josh: 00:04:40

It's a good thing.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:41

Christians should be turning the world's culture upside down.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:44

What the world says is the most important, we should say is the least important.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:48

What the world says is the least important, we should say is the most important.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:51

What.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:51

What do people say?

Pastor Josh: 00:04:52

You know, don't bring up religion around people.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:54

That's not a good thing.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:55

That's just only going to cause issues, folks.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:57

The, the number one thing we should bring up is our faith.

Pastor Josh: 00:04:59

And, and what the world says is, what you should talk about is money and, and, and, and, you know, Hollywood and, and fame and all of these things.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:07

And that's the last thing that we should care about when it comes to our Christian life.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:10

And so we get to verse number 11, and we see that the Bereans are going to be distinct.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:14

They're going to be different than those that other people have talked about here in these passages here.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:20

The.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:21

The author, Luke, he's talked about different people, he's talking about different groups, but he says the Bereans are different.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:26

Verse 11.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:27

These were more noble than those in Thessalonica.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:30

So specifically, he's comparing the Bereans to the Thessalonicans, the people of the Thessalonians, the people from Thessalonica says in the Berean, the Bereans were different.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:39

They were more noble.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:41

Why?

Pastor Josh: 00:05:42

He gives a couple of reasons why they were more noble.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:45

Two things.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:45

First, they earned this compliment because they received the Word with all readiness of mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:53

With all readiness of mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:54

They're open to hear the Word.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:56

This is important.

Pastor Josh: 00:05:57

Now, we're going to see here in a few moments that they didn't receive it blindly.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:00

We're going to see that they definitely had their mind set on checking the Word, but they received the Word with readiness of mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:07

They're open to the word.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:09

Folks, I think that we should be like the Bereans in the fact that we should be open to hearing and studying and receiving the Word of God when someone stands up and preaches the truth of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:20

And we should be ready to Hear that.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:22

We should be open to hear that.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:23

I know for me, sometimes it was easy for me to hear preaching and receive it when I agreed with everything that they were saying, when it, when it matched everything that my life was all about.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:34

So if a preacher got up and said things that I agree with and he didn't touch on any of the sins that I struggled with, I was happy with him.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:40

I might even say amen.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:42

But the moment where that preacher started crossing the line and stepping on my toes, my natural fleshly reaction was, I'm gonna put a barrier up there.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:51

I'm just gonna close off.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:52

I'm gonna start thinking about the ball game.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:53

I'm gonna start thinking about what's happening tomorrow.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:56

We all know what it can be like.

Pastor Josh: 00:06:57

We could be in a pew, but we could be a thousand miles away.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:00

And what we can see here is distinct about the Marines is that they receive the Word with all readiness of mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:07

This is a really neat thing to see.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:08

They.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:08

They received the Word, but then it didn't stop with just them receiving the Word says and search the Scriptures daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:17

So, so it didn't stop with them hearing preaching and hearing teaching.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:21

They went further.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:22

Daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:23

They searched the Scriptures.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:24

This talks about Bible study.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:26

They checked what was being preached to them.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:29

And so they searched the Scriptures daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:31

Whether those things were so and so of all the people that they could trust, we would say, hey, they could at least trust Paul.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:39

I mean, if you think about who Paul is, this is a fellow that is known to be the most famous apostle.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:46

We could even argue the most famous theologian of all time, the human author of many books in The New Testament, 13 New Testament books, I believe.

Pastor Josh: 00:07:55

Yet they still search the Scriptures daily to see if Paul was telling them the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:00

That's so, so important because I think that what we need to understand is that it doesn't really matter how the person delivers the message.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:07

We always must check to see if that message is coming from Scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:11

We talked about this before.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:13

Sometimes there can be someone that gets up and is very entertaining.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:17

Someone can get up and they can even be very compelling in their analogies and their stories.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:21

And they might even pepper in Scripture to what they're saying.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:24

But folks, it's important for us to understand that we need to go back to see what is the message that they are really preaching, dive deeper.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:31

The book of Jude says to contend for the faith.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:33

The book of Jude tells us who, that if they're preaching anything outside the truth of who Jesus Christ is, they're not preaching the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:39

It might be helpful when it comes to my personal life.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:43

Like, they might give me some advice that might make things happen in my life, pragmatically speaking, work like, hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:08:49

If I just cut that person off, everything will be better in my life.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:52

And so at first, it might sound like a good idea, but we need to check what a person is preaching and match it to Scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:58

And that's what they did.

Pastor Josh: 00:08:59

They received the Word, but then they checked the Word.

Pastor Josh: 00:09:03

They received the Word, but they studied the Word.

Pastor Josh: 00:09:06

And I think that so many times in our society today, people want to hear, hey, what?

Pastor Josh: 00:09:11

Just tell us what to believe.

Pastor Josh: 00:09:13

Tell us what to do.

Pastor Josh: 00:09:14

Give me a list.

Pastor Josh: 00:09:16

Give, give, give me a, you know, a hundred steps to becoming a good Christian.

Pastor Josh: 00:09:21

And if you just do these a hundred steps, everything will be okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:09:23

But the problem is, is that's removing ourselves from digging to the, into the Scriptures ourselves, allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our lives and to convict us and to comfort us and to guide us.

Pastor Josh: 00:09:34

And so they search the Scriptures daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:09:36

Whether those things were.

Pastor Josh: 00:09:39

So I think the bigger question for us when we're hearing preaching is this, where, where is that speaker?

Pastor Josh: 00:09:47

Where is that teacher?

Pastor Josh: 00:09:48

Where is that, that evangelist?

Pastor Josh: 00:09:50

Where is that missionary getting his content from?

Pastor Josh: 00:09:53

Is the content from Scripture?

Pastor Josh: 00:09:55

Is the content from his own opinions now?

Pastor Josh: 00:09:57

Could he have some good opinions?

Pastor Josh: 00:09:59

Sure.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:00

But the truth is, is that our opinions can fail.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:03

My opinions, my inclinations, my desires are always going to be inadequate in comparison to the perfect word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:10

The Bible speaks of the Word of God being forever.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:13

Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the Word of God is going to be forever.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:16

The grass withereth and the flower fadeth with the Word of God is forever.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:19

The only true, objective truth that we have in this world is scripture and what it tells us about God.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:26

Everything else in the world is going to fade away.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:28

Everything else is going to change.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:29

And what we're going to see here in this passage of Scripture, that these Bereans received the Word and they searched the Word, and we're going to even see that they applied the Word.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:39

And so when the Bereans heard Paul teach, their reaction wasn't, well, he's a good speaker.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:46

Their reaction was, well, I don't like his delivery.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:50

They didn't say, well, he's got funny jokes.

Pastor Josh: 00:10:53

They, what did they do?

Pastor Josh: 00:10:55

They went to, what does this man teach about the truth?

Pastor Josh: 00:10:59

We must, we must search the Scriptures daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:03

And, and I would say it this way, many of you, I think probably most of you, hear preaching outside of the church.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:10

You all, I know, hear preaching when you're here, okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:11:13

I know that.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:13

I know that because I, I, I'm in somewhat of control of what's being preached from the pulpit.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:17

So I know you're hearing preaching when you come here.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:19

Check that preaching.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:21

I would say, first and foremost, check the preaching that, that I preach.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:23

Check the preaching that Pastor John preaches.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:25

Check all the teachers at Middletown Baptist Church.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:27

Folks, the moment we start to question people, when they question is the moment we have gotten into a bad place.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:34

Hey, what we have to do is we have to say this.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:36

Look, I'm going to preach to you the best that I possibly can, but I'm not afraid of you inspecting.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:40

Folks.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:41

If we are afraid of people inspecting what we teach and what we believe, we might not be be believing the right thing.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:47

Or maybe we're not solid in what we believe about the truth of Jesus Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:51

Folks, this, this word here can be scrutinized.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:54

Let, let's allow it to be scrutinized.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:57

You would say what?

Pastor Josh: 00:11:57

That's not fair.

Pastor Josh: 00:11:58

No, the truth is, is that we have something that cannot be torn away.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:03

We have a, a book here, the Word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:07

What does that mean, Word of God?

Pastor Josh: 00:12:08

It means all scripture is given by inspiration of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:11

It's breathed by God.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:13

Therefore, there's no contradictions.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:15

We don't have to worry about that.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:16

There's no failures.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:17

There's no inadequacies.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:19

And what we can say here this evening is that if a preacher is coming up and preaching from the word, hey, they're going to be okay with you asking questions.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:26

They're going to be okay with you checking them.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:29

The, the moment where, and maybe some of you have had this experience in your life where you go up to someone and say, why do we believe this?

Pastor Josh: 00:12:35

And they get upset about that and don't give you a solid answer.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:39

Or maybe say, well, you just can't understand why we do that.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:42

That's the moment where we say, that might be a false teacher.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:45

We need to, we need to separate ourselves from that.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:48

And if a person tells you, hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:12:49

This is the truth, make sure they are putting that in truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:53

Make sure they are grounding that in scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:55

You're listening to a YouTube video.

Pastor Josh: 00:12:56

Some of you might say, pastor, I appreciate your preaching, but I got to hear more preaching throughout the week.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:01

Fantastic.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:02

I hope you do.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:03

But the question is, is who are you listening to and what are they preaching?

Pastor Josh: 00:13:07

Always check that preaching with the word.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:09

Search the scriptures daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:11

And we see that it's daily we see that it's something that they regularly did.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:15

And so their research wasn't, you know, just casual like, well, I think there's a verse in Scripture about that.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:20

So I'm okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:21

He used the word Jesus, so that's okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:23

We know that someone can use the word Jesus but not be talking about our Jesus.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:27

We know someone can use the word gospel and not be talking about our gospel.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:30

Someone can use the word Bible but not be talking about our Bible.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:34

There's a lot of people that believe that, hey, this is a good book, Jesus was a good man, Christianity is a good thing.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:41

But they're preaching an incomplete gospel, they're preaching a false gospel.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:46

And so what they did is they checked him with the scriptures.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:50

They searched the scriptures.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:53

They saw value in that.

Pastor Josh: 00:13:55

So of us don't search our scriptures because we don't see value in that.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:00

We see value in maybe allowing someone else to search it for us.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:04

You know, there's something rewarding about receiving a truth from a preacher, but there's something even more rewarding when I find that truth for myself in scripture, when I understand that and believe it and apply it to my life.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:15

And so they saw value in searching the Scriptures.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:17

They, they, they saw the value in taking some time to look into it and dig deeper.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:24

The Bible speaks of something called meditation.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:27

Now, actually, meditation is talked about a lot in our society today.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:32

People that are atheists will say there's a benefit to meditation.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:35

If you go to somebody that doesn't believe in God, they'll say, hey, you need to meditate.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:39

But it's a different type of meditation.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:41

The meditation that the world speaks of is clearing your mind and having an empty mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:46

The Bible actually says that meditation is the opposite.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:48

It's filling our minds with the truth of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:51

It's filling our minds with the Word and then dwelling on that, living in that, chewing on it, grabbing every nutrient that we can from the scriptures.

Pastor Josh: 00:14:59

And so they searched the scriptures to find out the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:02

They received the Word and they believed the Word when they searched it and matched it with the truth of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:09

So they had diligent searching.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:10

They were concerned for the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:14

They didn't nest.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:15

They didn't become skeptical.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:17

But all they did was they matched up the truth of the preaching with the truth of Scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:22

So we go back to the passage there, and it says, therefore, what was the result of this?

Pastor Josh: 00:15:28

Therefore, many of them believed faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:36

We want to see more people believe in the Truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:38

We need to proclaim the truth more, Proclaim the Word more.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:42

We're going to see revival in our midst when the Word of God is celebrated, when the Word of God is embraced, when the Word of God is lived out.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:51

We see people growing in their faith.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:53

When the Word of God is clearly explained and meditated upon and searched in daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:15:58

Folks, you want to see spiritual growth in your life, be open to hearing preaching, but then search the scriptures daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:06

You have questions, ask if you're confused, it's okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:11

Let me tell you a little secret.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:13

Everyone that searches the scriptures gets confused here and there.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:16

We're human.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:18

We're flawed.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:19

The Bible says that if we lack wisdom, James tells us this, right?

Pastor Josh: 00:16:23

James says, if we lack wisdom, what do we do?

Pastor Josh: 00:16:25

We just give up.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:26

We ask of God, and he gives it to us liberally.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:30

He doesn't hold it against us.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:32

So, folks, if there's a.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:34

I've heard a lot of people say, well, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:16:35

I try to read the Bible and I just get lost.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:37

I.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:37

I just.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:37

I.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:38

I understand, I understand.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:41

I've been there.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:41

I've read scripture, and my eyes begin to cross, and I go, I'm not sure what this is talking about right here.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:47

But the truth is that we search, we dig deeper, we go further, we take a step of saying, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:16:54

I'm willing to dig deeper because I see value in this.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:57

Don't give up.

Pastor Josh: 00:16:58

Don't give up on it.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:00

Continue to pursue the truth of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:03

And I would say for us, you know, we're willing.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:05

And I'm going to say this in love here this evening.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:08

You guys know that I love you, right?

Pastor Josh: 00:17:09

We're willing to sit down and watch something for three, four hours if it's entertaining us, right?

Pastor Josh: 00:17:16

None of us would say, like, it's really hard to sit down and watch my favorite movie or sit down and watch my favorite team.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:21

I mean, we're on every.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:23

We're.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:23

We're hanging on every little thing.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:25

But sometimes when we look at scripture, we say, well, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:17:28

I just.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:28

I just Scripture and I don't click.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:31

I understand, I understand that, that different people read and retain differently, okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:17:39

But the beauty of what God has given us within our culture is that there's ways that you can listen to scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:45

There's ways that you can have scripture dictated to you, dramatized.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:50

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:17:50

There's.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:50

There's all different ways that you can intake Scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:52

And so what I would tell you to do is find a way that works for you and say, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:17:56

I'm going to meditate upon scripture here today.

Pastor Josh: 00:17:59

That's great that we heard a sermon, but how many of us.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:03

And I want you to.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:04

Don't raise your hand right now, but I want you to do this.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:06

How many of you have said, I'm going to go back and read that passage of scripture that pastor read today and preached today and see if he was making sense.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:14

Like, was he really making sense about that?

Pastor Josh: 00:18:16

That's why, that's why you hear me say, every single time I get up and preach.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:19

Maybe not every single time, but I'll say, open your Bibles too, because I want you to be looking, I want you to be checking, because I might say something wrong.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:27

I.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:27

I will say something wrong.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:29

I will mess up.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:29

Okay, so make sure.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:31

I mean, for example, I've been.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:32

One time I was preaching, I was preaching on one side of the page and, And I have my notes over here.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:38

And, And I had.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:40

And I.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:40

And I looked back and I started preaching from a whole other passage of scripture, like three columns over.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:46

And I'm like, I'm trying to make sense of this.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:47

And I'm going, I'm totally lost right now.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:49

Where was I going with this?

Pastor Josh: 00:18:50

And I realized I.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:51

And I had to go back and correct all that.

Pastor Josh: 00:18:53

But the truth is, is like, there's going to be times where it's very tempting to say, well, I'm sure they're going to throw the scripture up on the screen.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:00

And trust me, I don't care if it's.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:03

I mean, some people prefer the paper, some people prefer the phone or the laptop or whatever.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:08

But bring scripture out when someone is speaking, check them on that, and we see the result is this faith.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:16

We see that they are coming to Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:18

They believe also of honorable women, which were Greeks and of men, not a few, meaning there was a lot of men and women getting saved.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:26

It wasn't just one group of people.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:27

They received it with readiness of mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:29

They checked the scriptures.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:31

And many believed Paul had nothing to fear by preaching.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:35

But Paul had nothing to fear by them searching the scriptures either.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:38

If they were really seeking God in his word, they would find out that Paul was preaching the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:44

And any preacher worth his weight and salt.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:47

I've heard that phrase before, and I've had to look up what that meant.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:49

But, but, but any, any preacher that's a good preacher will be willing for someone to inspect their preaching.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:57

And we have to see that here.

Pastor Josh: 00:19:58

Paul says, hey, we have nothing to hide.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:02

Not every single preacher in the world will.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:04

Will say that.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:06

There are some religions, dare I say cults, that will not want you to look into certain areas.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:15

They will avoid that.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:16

They won't shine light in that corner of their belief system.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:20

There will be people that say you have to pay X amount of dollars to get to the next level.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:24

And if you're not at that level, you can't understand this next level of truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:28

Folks, Christianity should be the opposite.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:30

The truths of God are obtainable by people that are billionaires and people that have not one cent of their name because it's the truth of God to all people.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:39

And so the moment that someone doesn't want you, hey, well, all you got to do is buy my three step plan and now you can know more about Jesus.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:46

That's, that's a false preacher, that's a false teacher.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:49

The word of God should not be monetized.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:52

It should not be a place where we can profit off of the person who is seeking.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:56

Now can do.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:58

People have to cover their cost and make a living.

Pastor Josh: 00:20:59

I understand that, but you understand people have made the gospel basically a avenue to abuse.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:08

People that are searching and they mislead them.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:11

And there were many people that were doing that in that society and there's many people that are doing that in this society today.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:16

We're going to see that there were a lot of intellectuals in Paul's time that were preaching something that was contradictory to the gospel.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:23

Next week we're going to look at Paul in Athens and man, that's a really interesting study.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:27

And we're going to get there here in a little bit.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:29

But let's go back.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:30

So, so many people believed the women, the men.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:34

And the reason being is that they were searching the scriptures and they were realizing that Paul's message was aligning with the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:42

And so this is exactly what's happening there with the Bereans.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:45

They search, they see the truth and they believe.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:49

You know what, we have a world today that's searching for God.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:53

We really do.

Pastor Josh: 00:21:55

If you look at the national news, you look at the Internet, you look at podcasts, there's a lot of religion out there right now.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:04

People are seeking after the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:06

Now they're off.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:07

Many of them are off.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:08

But they're looking for some truth and they're looking for a voice that can preach the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:14

And what I could tell you here today is that we need to utilize this opportunity.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:18

If people are seeking, we need to show them the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:20

We need to preach the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:21

We don't need to be afraid of preaching or teaching the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:23

And so that's what Paul was doing here.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:25

He was saying, hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:22:26

They're searching, so let's preach to them.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:28

Let's preach to them the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:30

So let's look at verse 13.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:31

It says, but when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea, these were the same guys that just chased Paul out.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:42

These were the ones that got upset.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:44

Why?

Pastor Josh: 00:22:44

Because Paul and his cohorts were turning their world upside down.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:49

They get mad and they actually pursue Paul and go to Berea.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:54

So the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was preached at of Paul at Berea.

Pastor Josh: 00:22:59

They came thither also and stirred up the people.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:02

Anytime the word of God is preached, people will be upset.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:08

There will be opposition.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:10

There always will be opposition to the preaching of the Word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:13

At least I can look in Scripture and see that every time the word of God was preached, there's going to be people that are naysayers.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:20

And in the sad case, it's the religious people.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:22

In this case it's the Jewish people.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:24

It's the ones who had a way of doing things.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:26

And they were like, well, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:23:28

If this grace is preached, if this Jesus is preached, we're not going to be able to have the control like we had before our.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:35

Our way of doing things.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:36

Our tradition is going to be flipped on its head.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:39

And so many times that's what we see in our world today, that we value tradition and man made religion more than a relationship with Jesus Christ and the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:49

And so what we can see here is that the Jews of Thessalonica are going to cause some issues.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:55

But obviously the word of God is more powerful than naysayers.

Pastor Josh: 00:23:59

The word of God is more powerful than any opposition that is faced.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:02

And so they were not satisfied to chase Paul out.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:05

They wanted to go after Paul even when he went to another place.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:09

And so this same thing of stirring up the crowd happened in many places in Paul's ministry.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:15

And what happens here is, is God directing them somewhere else.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:19

Verse 14.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:20

And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:27

So a lot of people stop at the Bereans being, you know, more noble because of them receiving the Scriptures with readiness of mind and because they search the Scriptures daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:39

But I think you could take it a little bit further.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:41

They're no, they're noble because they believed, and they're noble because they protect Paul.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:45

Here they say, paul, you have a message that you need to preach, we need to protect you, we need to get you away from here.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:50

And they do.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:52

God preserves Paul.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:54

But this is interesting.

Pastor Josh: 00:24:57

Paul did not leave Silas and Timotheus or Timothy with the folks there in Thessalonica.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:03

But he does leave Silas and Timothy there in this case.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:07

And so Paul leaves.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:09

They sent Paul away.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:11

But at the end of verse 14, we see that Silas and Timothy stay there for a while.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:17

And Paul, I think Paul saw the need for discipleship there.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:21

Paul wanted to leave them behind to teach and to take care of these new Christians.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:25

And so God moved in the heart of Paul to disciple these young Christians there at Berea.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:31

Verse 15.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:31

And they that conducted Paul brought him unto Athens.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:35

And receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timotheus for to come to him with all speed, they departed.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:40

So we do know at some point Silas and Timothy stayed there.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:45

And this shows that Paul had a passion not just to evangelize, but to plant churches.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:52

We should have a passion for converts, but it should be more than just converts.

Pastor Josh: 00:25:58

We should have a passion for building disciples.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:01

We should have a passion for building followers.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:03

And that's why he left Silas and Timothy there.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:06

It showed that Paul didn't believe that he alone can do the work of converting.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:12

He needed people like Silas and Timothy to help him and to teach.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:15

And not one person can be the sole person when it comes to preaching the gospel and teaching people.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:22

We, we need other folks to step up and to help.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:25

And that's exactly what we see here in the case of, of Paul, Silas and Timothy.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:31

So you would say, what else can we learn from the Bereans?

Pastor Josh: 00:26:34

I, I think one thing is this.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:36

They, they received the Word with readiness of mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:40

I like that phrase, readiness of mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:41

They were ready to receive.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:42

They had an open heart and they had an open mind to the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:47

Open heart and open mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:49

There, there are some people that are, are open hearted to the truth, but they're not open minded to the truth.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:54

What do I mean by that?

Pastor Josh: 00:26:56

They're not.

Pastor Josh: 00:26:56

They, they want to receive the Word with their heart and their emotions, but they don't want to receive it with their intellect.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:02

And I think that's important to notice because we have some people that will be just stirred by emotional preaching, but yet they don't think about the implications of what this means in accordance to scripture for their life.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:14

It's a very flash in the pan kind of reception of the Word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:17

There are other people who receive the Word of God, who, with all intellect but no emotion in their hearts.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:22

So theoretically, this all works.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:24

But I don't need to put it to practice.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:25

This all makes sense to me.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:27

And I'll even Amen.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:28

And I'll even agree that, yes, we should live this way, but it all stops there.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:33

And I.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:33

I think what the Bereans did that's unique is that they received it with an openness of mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:39

They searched the Scriptures daily, they checked it, but then they received it with an openness of heart to apply it to their lives.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:45

And so many times you can hear someone get up and preach the truth and go, yeah, they're good preachers.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:50

I agree, Amen.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:52

But we don't really receive it with our hearts to live it out in our lives.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:57

The.

Pastor Josh: 00:27:57

The decision that we make stays in that pew or our agree, you know, because, by the way, let me just tell you this.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:03

Agreeing with a speaker is not enough.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:07

Okay, Let me say I got up here tonight and I said something egregiously unbiblical anti God.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:14

You would say, I don't agree with that.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:16

And that's good.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:18

But in practice, basically agreeing with a biblical truth but not doing anything about it is basically the same thing, right?

Pastor Josh: 00:28:26

It's basically that, like, okay, love your neighbor as yourself.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:31

Amen.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:31

But if I don't go love my neighbor as myself, I'm just basically agreeing to the fact that, hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:28:35

Loving my neighbor isn't important.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:38

Study the Scriptures.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:40

Amen.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:40

I don't go study my Scriptures.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:41

I didn't really believe that to be true.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:43

I believe it intellectually.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:46

But what do they say?

Pastor Josh: 00:28:47

There's.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:47

That there was a track years ago.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:49

I'm sure that it's still around today, like 18 inches from heaven.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:52

Like the.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:53

The distance from your brain and from your heart is like 18 inches.

Pastor Josh: 00:28:56

And they say, you know, it's one thing to believe in your mind, but to believe it in your heart and apply it to your life is another thing.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:01

And I think that's the difference of the Bereans.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:03

They.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:03

They received it with readiness of mind, but they were open to studying it daily and open it to applying to the life.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:09

You say, how do you know they applied it to their lives?

Pastor Josh: 00:29:10

Well, we know that there was a church that grew there in Berea, but even so, we know that there was an individual that left Berea and actually went with Paul on one of his trips.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:20

And so if you go to Acts, chapter 20.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:24

Acts, chapter 20, verse 4, Paul visits Macedonia and Greece, and we see that there, accompanying him into Asia is so potter of Berea.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:39

And so we know that there was an individual that was saved at some point there in Berea, discipled there in Berea, and then went out and started serving with Paul.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:48

So we know that there was some element of health happening and growth happening there in Berea, and that's how it should be.

Pastor Josh: 00:29:55

You know, if someone came to this church today and visited this church and they saw the snapshot of who we were, and they came back in 10 years and everybody was the same, except we all just were a little bit older, maybe a little bit grayer, but all of us were at the same place in our life when it came to our spiritual side, or maybe we've even regressed.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:20

You know, that would be a shame.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:22

The truth is, is that every element of the church should be pushing forward to growth, should be pushing forward to discipleship, should be pushing forward to being a church that's searching the scriptures daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:33

Folks.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:33

We should be a church.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:34

We.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:34

We don't have to be.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:36

We don't have to be the church that has a bunch of PhD people in it.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:40

You don't have to read, you know, big commentaries every single day.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:44

But we should be a church that emphasizes the study of the word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:50

We should be a church that emphasizes that.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:53

That we can actually think biblically about things.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:56

What.

Pastor Josh: 00:30:56

What if someone came up to you and said, why do you believe what you believe?

Pastor Josh: 00:31:00

Would you be able to explain that to somebody?

Pastor Josh: 00:31:04

Brother Bob, how you're teaching in your class.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:06

How can we trust this thing right here?

Pastor Josh: 00:31:11

Why do we trust the 66 books?

Pastor Josh: 00:31:14

Why don't we trust that this.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:15

Why don't we trust this book, Right?

Pastor Josh: 00:31:17

Have you ever had someone ask you that?

Pastor Josh: 00:31:18

Why don't you read the Book of Enoch?

Pastor Josh: 00:31:20

Why don't you read the Book of Barnabas or the Gospel of Barnabas?

Pastor Josh: 00:31:23

And if you.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:23

You're like, I don't know.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:25

Well, you know, I'm not saying all of you need to understand those things, but we do need to have a set of understanding of these things.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:32

When we come to people that are going to ask us questions, then you say, well, Pastor, that's your job.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:36

Yes, I understand that.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:38

I understand.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:39

I'm doing everything that I possibly can to intake knowledge so that I can apply that in my teaching and my preaching and my counseling.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:45

But all of us have responsibility to search the scriptures daily, to be articulate, to be fluent in what the Bible says.

Pastor Josh: 00:31:56

How many of us, let's be honest with ourselves here tonight.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:01

How many of us would be nervous if a child came up and started asking us Bible questions about their Sunday school class.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:08

You'd say, well, I wouldn't be nervous.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:10

I know the story of Jonah.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:11

I know the story of Moses.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:12

Well, what if they were learning about something that maybe you weren't familiar with?

Pastor Josh: 00:32:15

And you would say, I.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:16

I don't know, maybe.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:17

Well, instead of being shamed about it, say, hey, let's study it together.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:20

Let's look at this together.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:22

I've had that happen.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:23

I've had Alicia's like, hey, what do you know about this in scripture?

Pastor Josh: 00:32:26

And I'm like, man, I don't know.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:28

I haven't tuned up on that one in a while.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:29

Let's look at.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:30

I'll have to check that one later.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:31

I don't know everything about scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:33

You could read the Bible every day of your life for 50 years and still not know everything about Scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:39

And.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:39

And that's the beauty of being a berean, is that we're growing every single day.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:44

So if someone came back in 10, 20, 50 years, some of you are like, I don't know if I'll be here in 10, 20, 50 years.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:50

50 years.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:50

I don't know.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:51

I don't know if I'll be here in 50 years.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:52

Oh, man, that's pretty sobering thought.

Pastor Josh: 00:32:54

Anyway, either way you think about it, if someone came back in a long time, would I be at a further step of being closer to the Lord when they checked in on me again?

Pastor Josh: 00:33:03

And my encouragement for you here this evening is to be a Berean, to receive the Word with readiness of mind as a.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:14

As a.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:15

You know, when I tell you one of the things that I would do is a.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:17

As a.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:17

As a person.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:18

So I'm going to give you a little snapshot into my life.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:21

Pastors aren't perfect, and I wasn't even a pastor at this point.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:24

I was in.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:24

I was doing my master's degree, and I was, you know, doing classes, and I thought I really knew a lot about scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:34

Like, I thought I was like the man in that area.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:37

And so I would hear preachers come up and, you know, instead of me going, what is that preacher preaching about the truth of God?

Pastor Josh: 00:33:44

I would sit there and want to critique.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:46

Okay, so what is he.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:47

Okay, so what is he going to preach?

Pastor Josh: 00:33:49

How is he going to exposit this passage here?

Pastor Josh: 00:33:51

Did he reference that Greek thing?

Pastor Josh: 00:33:53

I would have put a point there instead, you know, And I was thinking.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:55

I was like, I knew what I was doing.

Pastor Josh: 00:33:57

And in that whole process of trying to critique that preacher, I didn't even take any spiritual Truth with me.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:04

And he was giving good spiritual truths out.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:06

And so you would say, well, I'm not tempted to do that, Pastor.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:09

But you know what you are tempted to do?

Pastor Josh: 00:34:11

Maybe to say, well, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:34:15

I got tomorrow at work, okay, I got a lot on my plate.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:18

Walking into the office on Monday morning, started letting your mind drift, right?

Pastor Josh: 00:34:21

To receive the Word with readiness of mind to not allow ourselves to be distracted, to not allow ourselves to, to take ourselves to a place where we are not engaged in the preaching of the Word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:33

And there's preachers are different.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:35

I mean, some preachers are going to hold your attention better than others.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:38

Some preachers you're going to click with other preachers you're going to say, man, you know, it's a little bit more difficult.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:43

We have a missionary come in and, and maybe they're, they're preaching certain different ways or another speaker coming in.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:49

I would always encourage you to say, hey, if he is preaching the word of God, there's something there for me tonight.

Pastor Josh: 00:34:55

And I've always told people this, and I know that this is a difficult thing to swallow because I don't think you should get up and just read.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:01

But if someone just got up and read scripture for 20 minutes, that's beneficial to us when it comes.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:07

No scripture is, is going to return void.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:10

Right.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:11

Now I do believe that there's a challenge for us as preachers to exposit and to teach the passage.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:17

But, but I would encourage you to think about it from this perspective.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:20

Even if it's not my favorite story, even if it's not my favorite preacher, even if it's not my favorite style, if he is preaching the truth of God, there's something there for me.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:29

So to receive the Word with readiness of mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:33

Lord willing, in a few years we're going to have some of our men, our young men, our teens coming up here and preaching.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:38

Guys, be patient with them.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:40

It's not so easy to get up here and to talk for X amount of time and keep your focus on the Word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:45

And there might be a fellow that gets up here and he's stumbling all over himself, but he's going to give you a truth to the Word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:51

Hey, make sure you say Amen.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:53

Make sure you hear that and let them know that you're thankful for them Preaching the Word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:35:58

So receive the Word.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:00

But it's more than that.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:02

It's, it's studying the Word.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:04

If you know, we, we watch.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:07

Well, I'll say it this way, my My son is getting into sports.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:11

Micah, he likes sports.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:12

Silas likes sports, too, but he's not able to kind of articulate himself yet.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:16

But Mike is like, dad, he watches these guys on tv, and he watches how these football guys catch the ball and run.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:24

He's like, dad, I think I want to be.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:26

I want to play.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:27

Am I going to.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:27

I think he said, am I going to play college football, Dad?

Pastor Josh: 00:36:29

I said, son, I don't know.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:31

But I will tell you this.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:32

If.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:33

If you expect just to never play football and never practice football and then go out and play football at the highest level, it's probably not going to happen.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:40

Right?

Pastor Josh: 00:36:41

Got it.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:42

You got to put the work in.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:43

You got to practice.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:44

You got to do the daily grind.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:46

You got to do the things that are not easy.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:49

And a lot of times we'll say, like, well, I want to know the Word.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:51

I want to be able to live a godly life.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:53

But a lot of times we want to do that without searching the Scriptures daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:36:57

And so the challenge is, for many of us as Christians, is I think a lot of us, I think most of us would want to be those seasoned, mature Christians and say, you know, I just want to have a.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:06

A word from God to everyone when I come.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:09

When they come up to me and ask me a question.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:10

I want to use Scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:11

Folks, that doesn't come overnight.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:13

That doesn't just get implanted into your mind now by the power of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:17

He helps us.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:18

But what I would say is it takes the time and the effort to love and to grow in the word of God.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:24

It's a spiritual discipline to search the Scriptures daily whether those things were so.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:29

And I.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:30

And I'll tell you this, and we'll be done after this.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:34

If you see something in scripture that you're like, pastor, why'd you preach that?

Pastor Josh: 00:37:39

I'm gonna do my best to respond back to you with grace and try to be as.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:44

As humble as I can in my response, because, you know, every person in this room is valid in the concept of, hey, you know what?

Pastor Josh: 00:37:51

If you see something in scripture and you want to have a question about that, don't be afraid to come ask.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:55

See, I've always been taught this about, you know, I've heard that phrase a lot.

Pastor Josh: 00:37:59

I've always been taught this, but why do we believe this?

Pastor Josh: 00:38:03

It might be that, hey, that's not really in scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:05

It's just something that we've always done.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:07

You can still do that, but it's not in Scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:11

I.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:11

I miss.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:12

I.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:12

I said this this week with the.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:13

I was it this week or last week?

Pastor Josh: 00:38:15

I said it cleanly, guys.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:16

Cleanliness is next to godliness.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:18

I said that to our kids.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:19

And Alicia, Alicia caught me on that.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:21

She goes where I, she's like, where is that in scripture?

Pastor Josh: 00:38:23

I was like, it's not.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:24

Okay, it's not.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:25

But that's sometimes what happens.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:27

Sometimes we get these little phrases that are not scriptural, but we almost adhere to the fact that they are.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:33

And, and it's okay to say that.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:34

You, you can say like, hey, we should be clean, guys, but don't tell your children.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:38

That's in, in a passage of scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:40

It's not okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:41

God helps those who help themselves.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:44

That's not in Scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:45

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:38:46

So, so there, there are a lot of things that you'll hear in our vernacular, in our, in our culture that are not scriptural, but you would never know that unless you dug into scripture.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:54

Unless you go into scripture and say, okay, that's not there.

Pastor Josh: 00:38:57

Or that is there, and we should be preaching that.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:00

So never be ashamed.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:01

Like you could be 70 years old and maybe not have an understanding of what, why we believe what we believe.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:08

It's okay, it's okay.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:09

There's no shame in that.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:10

There's things that we're all learning day to day and, and I would encourage you to think about the why behind that.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:14

So be a berean.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:16

Be a berean.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:17

When it comes to receiving the word, searching the word, believing the word, and then protecting the word.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:25

Okay?

Pastor Josh: 00:39:25

Think about it that way.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:26

Receive the word, study the word, believe the word, protect the word.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:31

I think when we do it like that, we can be successful in our, in our walk with Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:36

Well, thank you so much for your attention.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:38

Next week, if you're interested, Paul is going to go to Athens.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:42

Very interesting story where it comes to, he's dealing with people like the Epicureans, the Stoics.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:48

This is maybe some stuff that you've heard in your history class.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:51

Yeah, this is history.

Pastor Josh: 00:39:53

So we're going to really see Paul interact with these folks here in this area and talk about philosophies of man.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:00

And I think that one of the things we're going to learn is that Paul actually uses certain elements of their culture to reach them for Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:07

And there's things that we can do within our world today, our culture, to reach people for Christ.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:12

And I think it'll be a really neat eye opening experience for us to grow and understand how we can share our faith with people around us.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:18

Well, let's go ahead and pray and then we'll be dismissed here this evening.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:22

Lord, I thank you for this time that you've given us.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:24

I thank you for the opportunity to study your Word this evening.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:26

We're thankful for the wonderful songs that we sang, the wonderful testimonies we had.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:31

Lord, we thank you for the example of the Bereans.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:33

We thank you for the fact that they received the Word there with readiness of mind.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:38

Lord, we're thankful that they search the Scriptures daily.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:40

We're thankful that they believed.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:41

We're thankful that they protected Paul as he was.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:44

I'm promoting the truth and and also as they grew in in the teaching of of Silas and Timothy.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:50

Lord, I pray that we can follow that same model within our midst.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:53

Lord, help us to grow.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:54

Help us to search.

Pastor Josh: 00:40:55

Help us to to be able to stand upon the truth that we believe.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:01

And so Lord, I pray that you keep us safe as we go our separate ways this evening and we ask all these things in Jesus name.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:06

Amen.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:07

Amen.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:08

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:12

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for for you.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:15

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:24

You can also email me directly at Josh Massaro Middletown BaptistChurch.com if you've enjoyed this podcast.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:32

Please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:37

Thank you so much.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:38

God Bless.

Pastor Josh: 00:41:39

Have a wonderful day.