Welcome to Books of the Book.
I hope you have been joining us
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in our study of the book of
Acts here as we've been studying
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along. My name is Pastor
Mark Howard and I'm here with my
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co-host, my brother, Jim Howard,
who is also a pastor by the way.
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We have been going through the
book of Acts. In our last time
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together we were studying the
book of Acts chapter 16 and the
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Macedonian call and how the Holy
Spirit had actually said no.
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I think that was the title that
we used in When the Holy Spirit
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Says No. Because the Holy Spirit
said no to Paul when he wanted
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to go in certain other places
and we found out why because
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there was a need in Macedonia.
When Paul took the call to
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Macedonia, he and his team,
the Lord really blessed them by
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establishing a Christian church
at Philippi. So we're coming
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through that into Acts. In fact,
we're going to start in verse 40
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of chapter 16 and we're going to
carry right through to chapter
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17. But before we do we're going
to ask God to bless our time in
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his word. So I'd invite
you to bow your heads with me.
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Father in heaven, we thank
you for the privilege we have of
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studying your word. We thank you
for the Spirit of Truth that you
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have given us to lead us into
all truth and, Lord, to bring
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conviction and to bring power
into our lives to follow through
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in our Christian endeavors. Now
we ask, Lord, as we study that
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you would continue to guide us
today. In Jesus' name we pray.
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Amen. Now in
Acts, as I said, 16 and
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verse 40, we're finishing
up with the previous chapter.
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It says, They went out of the
prison and entered the house of
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Lydia, who was this convert
there. Her whole household
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in Philippi, and when they
had seen the brethren, they
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encouraged them and they
departed. Now they came on to
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Thessalonica. We find in chapter
17, They passed through, verse 1
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Now when they had passed through
Amphipolis and Apollonia, they
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came to Thessalonica where
there was a synagogue of the
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Jews. Then Paul, as his custom
was, went into them and for
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three Sabbaths reasoned
with them from the scriptures
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explaining and demonstrating
that the Christ had to suffer
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and rise again from the dead and
saying this Jesus whom I preach
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to you is the Christ. And some
of them were persuaded and a
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great multitude of the devout
Greeks and not a few of the
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leading women joined Paul
and Silas. Now there are a few
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things, Jim, here that really
are important to us. First of
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all, we've touched on this
before, Paul, as his custom was,
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went into the synagogue on the
Sabbath day and reasoned with
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them out of the scriptures.
The first thing that grabs my
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attention again is that we find
that it was Paul's custom to
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worship on the Sabbath, whether
in the synagogue, whether by the
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riverside, this was a custom
that he followed. Secondly, it
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was a custom of his to reason
out of the scriptures about
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Christ. This may come as a
surprise to some of our viewers
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who maybe haven't given thought
to this yet, but there are many
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people who look at Christ and
the gospel as a New Testament
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thing and don't realize that the
only scripture the apostle had
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here was the Old Testament. It
was not the New Testament that
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he was preaching Christ from.
But it was the Old Testament
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scriptures that he customarily,
on a regular basis, preached
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Christ from. We need to remember
and realize and recognize that
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the Old Testament scriptures are
full of gospel imagery. But we
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need to have the Holy Spirit
open our understanding so that
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we can see that gospel imagery.
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And we know that Jesus opened
the understanding of the early
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apostles and that was a big
part of... Of course, Paul was
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trained and he understood those
Old Testament scriptures, but
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when he connected with the
early church there was also the
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blessing of getting all that
benefit from when Jesus, in Luke
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24, opened to their
understanding all the things
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about him in Law and in
the prophets and in the Psalms.
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That's right. We would do
well to continue to study the
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scripture, Old and New
Testaments, and continually ask
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God for new revelations of
Christ in the word. Now it's
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interesting. Again in verse
4 it says, Some of them were
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persuaded, that is in
the synagogue, but the great
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multitude of devout Greeks and
not a few of the leading women
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joined Paul and Silas. So we see
that he preaches Christ from the
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word and the church grows.
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That's right. Now if you look
at verse 5 it picks up with a
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common theme that we've seen
before. It says, But the Jews,
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but the Jews, who were not
persuaded, in another place it
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says the unbelieving
Jews, becoming envious...
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So it's important for us to note
again for our viewers a lot of
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times the New Testament uses
this language about the Jews and
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their anger. But we know that it
wasn't all the Jews. Paul was a
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Jew, many of his colleagues were
Jews and many of the Jews did
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believe. Of course, Jesus is a
Jew in his humanity. So it's not
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(we're not disparaging the Jews)
but it's commenting here that
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because of their preconceived
ideas as a people, as a nation,
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we find them fighting
against the gospel of Christ.
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That's right. And not accepting
him as their Messiah. So these
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Jews were ones who were not
persuaded that Jesus was the
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Messiah. And it says, Becoming
envious, took some of the evil
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men from the market place and
gathering a mob set all the city
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in an uproar and attacked
the house of Jason and sought to
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bring them out to the people.
Now I'm going to stop there for
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just a moment. Fascinating, a
couple of things. First of all
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it says, Took some of the
evil men from the market place.
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Well I suppose that that's from
the perspective of Luke, the
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divinely inspired author.
If they were to say they would
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probably say they were well-
esteemed men. But these were
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evil men if the truth be known
and we also see into the heart
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of these Jews who were not
persuaded where he reveals once
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again, we've seen this before
as well, that they were envious.
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That was really at the heart
of what they were doing. They
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were seeing these people
listening and giving heed and
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accepting the words of Paul and
his team. So we see that there
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was a sense of reputation that
was in the way here for these
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Jews who didn't believe.
They were upset about what was
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happening. But you'll
notice that that's not how they
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portray it as we continue.
But I want to point out too...
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Yeah, we don't find them saying
hey we're mad because he's
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getting more
attention than we are.
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They're not going to say that.
We'll find out what they say.
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But it's notable too that they
again gather these evil men from
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the market place to create this
uproar. I mean, envy will lead
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you to do a lot of awful
things. And they may have been
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justifying themselves,
rationalizing that it wasn't
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envy, but at the end of the day
they were joining forces with
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people that they knew very well
were not in harmony with the
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will of God as expressed to them
and as they knew it from the
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oracles of God. Anyway, in verse
6 it says, But when they did not
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find them, they dragged Jason
and some brethren to the rulers
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of the city crying out,
These who have turned the world
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upside down have come here
too. Jason has harbored them and
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these are all acting contrary
to the decrees of Caesar saying
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there is another king, Jesus,
and it troubled the crowd and
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the rulers of the city when they
heard these things. So when they
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had taken security from Jason
and the rest they let them go.
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So here's the picture. They say
these men who have turned the
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world upside down. Can you
think of a better compliment
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than that they turned the world
upside down. Praise the Lord.
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That shows the effectiveness
that was happening and the way
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the word was spreading
from city to city even in these
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Gentile cities. And then it says
they are acting contrary to the
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decrees of Caesar. Now comes
out their facade. That's right.
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Their concern for Caesar and the
fact that there was not enough
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respect. Nothing about envy.
Only their lack of respect for
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Caesar was their reason, but
the Bible reveals that it was
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actually envy. So then they
can't really do much more so
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take... That's not
the first time we've
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heard about concern for Caesar.
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That's right. You go back to the
trial of Jesus and they said we
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have no king but Caesar and
certainly made it appear that
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Jesus was an enemy of Caesar.
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Yeah. Pilate, if you go through
with this you're not Caesar's
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friend. Exactly.
So we recognize that
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when really someone who's driven
by envy and greed wants to
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accomplish something they will
often times resort to things
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that lower their dignity
and their honesty and maybe they
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rationalized that what they were
doing was really true but the
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truth is there was envy lurking
in the heart and that can
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produce some pretty wicked
things and that's what we see
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here. Well we go
on in verse 10 to
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find out of course they found
Jason but they couldn't find
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the apostles. Verse 10 says, The
brethren immediately sent Paul
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and Silas away by night to Berea
so they're trying to whisk them
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away and protect them. When
they arrived they went into the
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synagogue of the Jews. Now
in verse 11 there's something
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interesting. These were
more fair-minded than those of
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Thessalonica in that they
received the word with all
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readiness and searched the
scriptures daily to find out
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whether these things were so.
Therefore many of them believed
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and also not a few of the Greeks
prominent women as well as men.
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Now a couple of things here that
are important. First of all,
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it says that they were
more fair-minded in that they
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received the word and searched
the scriptures. These were the
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people of Berea and even today
in Christianity, in fact I think
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there's a whole chain of
Christian book stores called
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Berean book stores. There's a
publisher called Berean Books.
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Berean is a word that's used
in Christianity today as people
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who study. They don't just take
what they hear. They were good
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Bereans, they searched
the scriptures. But what's
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interesting to me is this, Jim.
I've run into a number of people
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that think they're good Bereans
because they're skeptics. When
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you try to share something
ah it's like well I don't know
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about that and they question
and they're skeptical about
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everything. That's not how
these people were because they
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received the word with readiness
of mind. In other words, they
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were open to it. They weren't
hesitant and skeptical. Now they
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were still going to go and
search the scriptures to confirm
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it, but they had an openness
about them. Sometimes I've
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seen people who cover their
skepticism in this air of I'm
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just going to study it out
and be faithful to God but often
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times it's not an attempt or
desire to be faithful to God but
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to hold onto their own views and
so they're going to be skeptical
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of anything that
they don't think.
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That's not being a good Berean.
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That's not being a good Berean.
That is not what we're finding
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here. Because they were
fair- minded and open-minded and
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received the word with
readiness. They still searched
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searched the scriptures to find
out whether these things were
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so. I get the
sense when they say
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readiness that it's like giving
somebody the benefit of the
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benefit of the doubt. Instead of
starting from the premise that
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I'm going to critically examine
this and point out what's wrong
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you give someone the benefit
of the doubt and listen with an
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open mind and then after
receiving then you can go back
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and confirm or deny. But I agree
with you. There are many people
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who take that approach where
they have a critical view of
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things and then pride themselves
in that because they don't take
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any man's say so and they only
take the word but the reality is
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that they're not
really being like the Bereans.
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No they're not taking the word.
So it's interesting that you
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bring that up about being,
how did you say that? Giving the
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benefit of the doubt. Because
where mine says in the New King
00:12:23.94\00:12:27.01
James, these were more fair-
minded, my marginal reading,
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and some translations word it
this way, They were more noble.
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You think of that, being noble,
being fair to people and that's
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where the fair-minded... giving
people the benefit of the doubt.
00:12:35.96\00:12:39.07
So we go on here, There were
many who believe but, verse 13
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gives us a picture we've seen
before, But when the Jews from
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Thessalonica learned that the
word of God was preached by Paul
00:12:47.40\00:12:51.11
at Berea, they came there
also and refuted him from the
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scriptures. Nope, never. They
stirred up the crowd. You know,
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they never go to scripture. They
stirred up the crowds and then
00:12:58.23\00:13:01.58
immediately the brethren sent
Paul away to go to the sea, but
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both Silas and Timothy remained
there. So those who conducted
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Paul brought him to Athens and
received a command for Silas and
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Timothy to come to him with all
speed, and they departed. So he
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moves on again to another place.
Why? Because they stirred up the
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crowds against him. So we're
going to move on to Athens but
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first we need to take a break.
So we're going to break and I
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hope you stick with us and come
back in just a few moments as
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we see Paul as he goes on to
Athens and what mighty things
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God does there.
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