Let us read together from the
Holy Word of God, reading from the hymn sheets, the Acts of
the Apostles chapter 17, and we'll read the first 15 verses. Acts chapter 17 and the first
15 verses. Now when they had passed through
Philopolis and Apollyona, they came to Thessalonica, where was
a synagogue of the Jews. And Paul, as his manner was,
went in unto them, and three sabbath days reasoned with them
out of the Scriptures, opening and alleging that Christ must
needs have suffered, and risen again from the dead, and that
this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ. And some of them believed, and
consorted with Paul and Silas, and of the devout Greeks a great
multitude, and of the chief women not a few. Then the Jews, which
believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows
of the basest sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city
on an uproar, and assaulted the house of Jason, and sought to
bring them out to the people. And when they found them not,
they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city,
crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come
hither also, whom Jason hath received. And these all do contrary
to the decrees of Caesar, saying that there is another king, one
Jesus. and they troubled the people
and the rulers of the city when they heard these things. And when they had taken security
of Jason and of the other, they let them go. And the brethren
immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who
coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews. These
were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received
the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures
daily, whether those things were so. Therefore many of them believed,
also of honourable women which were Greeks, and of men not a
few. But when the Jews of Thessalonica
had knowledge that the word of God was preached of Paul at Berea,
they came thither also, and stirred up the people. Then immediately
the brethren sent away Paul to go, as it were, to the sea, but
Silas and Timotheus abode there still. They that conducted Paul
brought him unto Athens, and receiving a commandment unto
Silas and Timotheus, for to come to him with all speed, they departed. Now the word that I want to speak
to you on this morning briefly is on the front page there from
verse 11. They received the word with all
readiness of mind. This is the Bereans from verse
11. They were more noble than those
in Thessalonica in that they received the word with all readiness
of mind and search the scriptures daily whether those things were
so and the thought that i have and what i want to bring before
you is really the the miracle and the wonder of receiving the
Word of God there is a comparison here between those of the Jews
of Thessalonica and those that were of Berea the ones of Berea
more noble that is not by birth but by the fact that they received
the Word and with that readiness of mind that is where they are
spoken of as being more noble we know from Paul's letters to
those of Thessalonica, that they also received the Word, not as
the Word of man, but as it is in truth the Word of God, and
also they received it in much affliction. So they did later
on receive it. Well, even before in this account,
those that received it, they suffered persecution of their
own countrymen. Yes, the apostles moved on but
those that believed were left among a people that were very
adverse to the word. And yet here is singled out one
specific aspect that the Bereans were more noble or more praiseworthy
more to be noticed really and commended in how they received
the word and so it is in that way and i want to really think
of the wonder of it is if you think of something that is wondrous
it is something that's marvelous we look at it a feeling of amazement
of adoration and there is much in the gospel and things that
we've especially if we've been brought up under the sound of
the truth we cease to see the amazement and wonder of it so
there's four things in the word receiving the word i want to
just briefly bring before you the first is the word given the
word given really is in three ways and yet all interwoven together
the first is of christ he is the incarnate word he is the
word in the beginning was the word and the word was with god
Well, if you were to ask Solomon, he would say, well, looking forward,
heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house
that I builded, and will God in very deed dwell on the earth?
Well, we know he has. Now, that would be an amazement
to Solomon. He'd say, now I can see. If he
saw then what we see and what we know, this solves that mystery. I can see how it is and how it's
happened. And Job, he says, how can a clean
thing come out of an unclean? It was to be the seed of the
woman, but all mankind are fallen. Every baby that is born is born
in sin. How can there be a clean thing
brought? And we know from the overshadowing
of the Holy Ghost how it was so. So, may we not lose sight
of the wonder, the great mystery of godliness, God being manifest
in the flesh itself, the giving of the Word there. And then there's
the beautiful Gospel facts. Our Lord's death, His sufferings,
His sin-atoning sacrifices, rising from the dead. his perfect life
of obedience being imputed or put to the believer's account.
Those things should fill us with wonder and admiration that the
Son of God hath come and hath fulfilled the Scriptures as it
is said again and again. And then we have the Bible, the
inspired Word of God that is recording these events that has
happened. how often do we read it and not
think here is a miracle over 1600 years over 40 authors there
is a volume that is the word of god and that is given to us
that we have received this word of god so is the word given May
the Lord break through all of that apathy or just taking for
granted and not seeing the wonder and beauty of it, to see afresh
the wonder of the Word given. well the second point is the
wonder of the word being sent now our lord he commissioned
the disciples to go out into all the world preach the gospel
to every creature he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved
he that believeth not shall be damned he commissioned them to
go and tell the world world and to spread the word the good news
of the Gospel. It has the authority of heaven.
Every one of us that speaks in the name of the Lord, we have
the authority of heaven. We are given this by the Lord,
and we must, we cannot, says the Apostles, but speak of the
things that we have seen and have heard, and that is to the
honour and glory of God. we think of just a few chapters
before in chapter 13 and verse 26 we read of the apostles that
they say men and brethren children of the stock of abraham and whoever
among you feareth god to you is the word of this salvation
sent May that be a wonder to us, the Word sent to us. There are many nations that as
yet do not have the Word of God, but we have it, and it is sent
to us. May we see afresh the wonder
that it was so, and you may be able to look back many years
in your pilgrimage and see how the Lord personally sent the
Word to you. that you had it preached to you,
you had the inspired Word of God, you had the revelation of
the Gospel, you had this sent to you. It may be you were not
brought up under the truth, and someone gave you a Bible, or
you picked up a free copy, and in some ways it has been a remarkable
way how that Word came to you, and you see God's providence
in bringing that about. Well, may again afresh that wonder
be with us. Then the third thing is the wonder
of it being received. Why would anyone receive the
Word of God? You know, the Word of God tells
us we're sinners. It tells us we're under condemnation. It tells us our danger. One of
our hymns says, nor are men willing to have the truth told. The sight
is too killing for pride to behold. sometimes we wonder why so few
people do receive the word and so few people say but could we
put it the other way around maybe wonder that anyone receives it
anyone believes it anyone embraces it The apostles going forth to
heathens, to idolaters. We go to a nation that's full
of materialistic things, lovers of pleasure, more than lovers
of God. Everyone that receives the Word,
that actually hears it and receives it, doesn't reject it and say,
I don't want to hear that. I'm not going to accept that
about me. I'm not a bad person like that.
They don't receive it. But those that receive it, if
we have received it, maybe we've had many years in our lives,
we haven't received it, we wouldn't receive it, but then the time
has come that we have, and may we view the wonder of that. that
we have actually embraced that word, received the word, taken
on board the message of it, the warnings of it, the proclamation
of the gospel itself. You know, when we think of a
letter, we might send a letter to Australia, say, we sit down
here, we get a piece of paper, we write on it, and then we put
an envelope and we put an address on it, now if that address is
not a right address the person we've intended it to won't receive
it but what a miracle that they do receive it goes all those
miles and they receive it get it through their letterbox they
they open it up and they think they're a week or so ago my friend
or whoever sent this they sat down with this paper they were
looking at the paper i'm looking at now they wrote it with a pen
their ideas that what they wanted to convey to me was put on this
paper and now i am receiving that word that they have written
to me and just because it is two thousand years ago may it
still be a wonder to us even greater wonder that that has
actually come through all of that period of time and has come
to us and we've received it and we've accepted that word and
heard that word but then we think as well not only the receiving
of it but what effect did it have we're told of that with
the Bereans The effect was that it made them search the Scriptures
daily. Now, earlier on in this chapter,
we have the Apostles only coming at a time on the Sabbath days. That's when they were speaking
to the people. but the Bereans every single day they were searching
it and may we be like that it's a great privilege we can meet
together and have your daily devotions but dear friends don't
leave it there may we be from what word is brought here this
morning you've got something to search, something to look
through the Scriptures, a starting point for your meditation for
the day, and that'd be a wonder to us. The Bereans, they had
this privilege, they had the Old Testament Scriptures, and
they were comparing what the Apostle Paul was preaching with
what they read in the Old Testament Scriptures. And we read, because
of that, many of them believed. Many of them believed. We should
always think of that. Now when the preacher has stopped
preaching on the Lord's Day, that's not the end of the matter.
Or it shouldn't be. We should go home, we should
then meditate upon that Word, go over that Word, profit of
it. All of the clean beasts, they
chewed the cud, that is, they ate the grass, they had it first
as they ate it and then later on they brought that back up
from one stomach to another chewed it over again chewing the card
and got a second benefit from it and if we are of the clean
or of God's dear people that's what we should do with the Word
of God as well. Well I did really want to leave
with you the wonder the wonder of receiving the Word of God
And you might say, why was I made to hear the voice of the Lord? Why was I brought to receive
the Word? And you might go back 40 or 50
years to when you first heard it, first received it, first
were baptized, when it was first so precious and beautiful to
you. And if this morning can be used
to revitalize some of the wonder and beauty and amazement at what
the Lord has done in the Gospel, in giving the Word, sending it
forth and the way it is received, and all by His grace that He
should make it to be received, prepare the ground And that word
enters into prepared hearts and brings forth fruit to the Lord's
honour and glory. May these thoughts then be a
help to you today. And may you look over the sheets
again. They receive the word with all
readiness of mind. And to be able to say that we
receive the word with all readiness of mind.