In the sermon 'Berean Believers,' Peter Allison discusses the characteristics of the Bereans from Acts 17, who were more open-minded than the Thessalonian Jews in their reception of the Gospel. Unlike the Thessalonians, who were envious and closed-minded, the Bereans received the word with readiness and searched the Scriptures daily to verify the teachings of Paul. This noble-mindedness, marked by humility, willingness to accept truth from any source, and openness to challenge one's own presuppositions, is emphasized as a model for understanding Biblical truth. Allison highlights the importance of being open-minded to the truth as revealed in Scripture and stresses that this openness is a work of the Holy Spirit, leading to saving faith. The Bereans' approach resulted in many believing, including prominent Greek women and men, showcasing the transformative power of the Gospel when received with an open heart.

The scripture reading for our message is Acts 17, beginning at verse 5. Beginning at verse 5 But the Jews who were not persuaded becoming envious took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar, and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some of the brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, these who have turned the world upside down have come here too. Jason has harbored them. And they are all acting contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying, there is another king, Jesus.

And they troubled the crowd in the rulers of the city when they heard these things. So when they had taken security from Jason and the rest, they let them go. Then the brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea. And when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more fair minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.

Therefore many of them believed and also not a few of the Greeks, prominent women as well as men. But when the Jehovah, may Jehovah give us understanding according to His word. Almighty Heavenly Father, please open our hearts to receive your word with meekness as the engrafted word which is able to save our souls. Please, Lord, transform us and renew our thinking through Your Word. And please sanctify my sinful lips that through this vessel of clay, the riches of Your grace might be proclaimed this morning in Jesus name amen.

Well, there's a rapid sequence of evangelistic labors in different cities here in this Macedonian area beginning with Philippi. And then they are forced to flee Philippi at the request of the city rulers, and they come to Thessalonica. They pass through some other cities to get down to Thessalonica, a synagogue of the Jews. And as Paul's customis, he went in and reasoned from the Scriptures there. And some believed, apparently not many, but some believed, but A lot of the God-fearing Greeks believed in Thessalonica, but the ones that didn't stirred up the crowds and brought these Charges that sound very similar to what happened at Philippi.

However, they actually storm a house looking for Paul and Silas, and they don't find them in God's providence, thankfully. But they seize the owner of the house and they bring him before the rulers and make charges that you know have a grain of truth but are false in their main. They have enough truth to make them believable. And Paul and Silas are again forced to flee. After just a few weeks or months here in Thessalonica, and they're sent away, They actually take a bond, a security bond from them.

And I think when Paul talks about him wanting to come back to Thessalonica on many occasions, but he says that Satan prevented them. And I think this is what he's referring to, is his bond that they would not appear in Thessalonica again, that Paul was not able to ever go back and visit this church that he planted. Apparently it's a healthy church from the letters that he wrote to it. It would seem to be a healthy church. There were a few things that they were needed instructed on, but it seems to have been a healthy church.

There were some of them that were worried about they'd missed a second coming, but he assured them they hadn't. And so they are then immediately bounced down to Berea. Paul and Silas are sent away by night and they come to this little city, Berea. Now we don't have any record of a letter to the church at Berea. We don't have a record of, in the New Testament, of the church there.

But there are some very commendable things that are said of these Jews at Berea. And that's what we want to look at this morning, is the characteristics of these Bereans to the Gospel and how it was very different from the Jews at Thessalonica and in other places where Paul has gone to preach in the synagogue, to preach to the Jews. He said, it says in verse 11, they went into this, or 10, they went into the synagogue of the Jews, just like he did in every city that he went that had a synagogue. Philippi apparently didn't have one, but where they did, that's where he went. And Luke writes that these Jewish people were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica.

They were more fair-minded. Some translations might have noble, noble-minded. This word denotes having a high status, one born into nobility. That's the denotation of a word. Someone having a high status, born into nobility.

Now in our thinking today, these are generally not your virtuous people. But Luke uses this word of high birth, but he uses it for its connotation, which is having a type of attitude or perspective that's ordinarily associated with well-bred persons, which is being open-minded or noble-minded. So he's using this word not to say that these, I don't think he's saying that these Bereans had, were nobility by their birth, but rather they had this open mind, this noble mind. And mind you, when he's comparing these Bereans with the Thessalonians, he's not comparing the believers in this city, but he's comparing the Jews that they found in the synagogues in Thessalonica and the Jews that they found in the synagogue in Berea. So what does it mean then to have a noble mind.

Or an open mind. Well, we'll go through several characteristics. But first, an open or a noble mind has the humility to accept truth from any source. Has the humility to accept truth from any source. These Berean Jews did not look down on Paul and despise him or his message because he was a former murderer or he was a latecomer as an apostle or because he'd been caned in Philippi and had to flee to Thessalonica or because he wasn't one of their local rabbis.

He was this guy out of town, or any other reason that they might have made up. And because of that, because they were willing to listen to the truth as Paul proclaimed it to them, Luke says that they had a noble mind. It's a fool that despises wisdom and instruction according to Proverbs 1.7. It is a closed mind that despises wisdom because of the source of that wisdom. Ecclesiastes 9 describes this exact situation with this little parable.

So in Ecclesiastes 9-14, there was a little city with a few men in it. A great king came against it and besieged it and built great snares around it, traps. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered the same poor man. Because he was just a poor man.

He wasn't a great man in that city. And so nobody remembered him, even though it was his wisdom that delivered their city from these traps and snares. And so the preacher goes on to say, then I said wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless, this poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard. Words of the wise spoken quietly should be heard rather than the shout of a ruler of fools.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner, one sinner destroys much good." That's exactly what the preacher is talking about. It's despising wisdom, despising truth because it comes from a lowly source. Or it doesn't come from somebody that we respect or that we look to or that we consider a source of authority in our lives. And a noble mind is the humility to accept the truth from any source. The closed-minded Thessalonian Jews destroyed much good in driving Paul out and keeping him from ever returning.

Secondly, to have an open mind is not to become envious of someone who knows something that we don't. The Thessalonian Jews became envious of Paul because he was teaching a right understanding of the Old Testament and how it pointed forward to the Messiah. And he was Doing so with such skill that people were being persuaded of what he was saying. We saw that last week. And see, it's closed-minded to become envious of someone who has an understanding or knowledge of something that we don't.

It could have been these leaders in the synagogue who didn't like the fact that Paul was an out of town rabbi who understood something that they had missed in the Old Testament and didn't recognize that Jesus was the Messiah. Ecclesiastes 4 says, Again I saw that for all toil and every skillful work, a man is envied by his neighbor. It's a closed mind that becomes envious of someone else's skill, and someone else's knowledge in an area where Maybe we were wrong or missed something. So these Bereans had an open mind, a noble mind. To have an open mind is to recognize that We are fallible and don't even begin to know everything, even about the things that we are supposedly experts.

That's one of the marks of an open mind. So we are willing to listen to others. Proverbs describes a closed-minded man who doesn't want to listen to the ideas of others. In Proverbs 18 it says, A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire. He rages against all wise judgment.

See, only God is wise knowing all things. Only God knows all things and never changes. That's why Paul could exclaim in Romans 11, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out for who has known the mind of God or who has become His counselor. That's why when confronted by God's questions, Joe put his hand over his mouth, remember, and said, I have spoken too soon. Spoken too soon.

This aspect of being open-minded was really pressed home to me several decades ago in a brief conversation I had with a fellow naval nuclear engineer. And I had just completed my qualifications as a naval engineer and had gone to my next duty station as an instructor in college. And he was, This gentleman was, I didn't know him, but we both had the same background. And he was explaining some ideas for design changes in nuclear reactors, and I gave him, I just remember giving him a bunch of reasons why it wouldn't work. But after he moved on, a few hours later, it dawned on me that I was acting just like the medical experts.

The things I knew applied in a very, very narrow area, narrow application, very specific fuel enrichment and very specific type of reactor. What did I really know about some of the things that he was talking about? And so it was a reminder to me that to have an open mind is to be willing to recognize that we're fallible. We don't know. We don't know what we don't know.

Only God knows everything. And so to be open-minded is to be willing to listen to those who might know something we don't. Fourthly, to have an open mind is to be able to actively listen to someone else without trying to interrupt them or correct them. See, to have an open mind is to be able to be slow to speak, but quick to hear. James 1 tells us, So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow, slow to speak.

And that's a sign of an open mind, a noble mind, a high mind, that we are able to listen to others until they're done. We don't have to interrupt them with our ideas. Fifthly, to have an open mind is to not be threatened by something that is different from what you have been taught and maybe currently believe. A closed mind that is challenged becomes angry. Becomes angry because there's a loss of control.

An open mind doesn't become angry when something different from what we believe is being espoused. It's a closed mind because you're losing control of the narrative. You're losing control of what people believe. And this is what we see around us. Often in our political landscape, people are angry.

They can't stand to listen to what somebody else has to say. James says, we are not only to be swift to hear and slow to speak, but slow to wrath. Let everyone be slow to wrath, for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. If you find yourself becoming angry when you're hearing something, maybe ask, why? Why am I getting angry?

Am I being threatened by something different from what I currently believe. I find often in my case, in my situation, it's because maybe I don't have a good answer and I'm not well versed in that. And so I simply don't want to hear what somebody else has to say. Even if what I believe might be right. To have an open mind is not to be threatened by something that is different from what we've been taught.

So James goes on to say, The wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore, lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. Notice this connection here between being open-minded, being able to receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save our souls. And that's exactly what we're going to see in this passage as well. The open-mindedness of the Jews in Berea led to this exact same thing.

Sixthly, to have an open mind is to be willing to challenge our own presuppositions. We all have presuppositions. It's impossible not to have them. The question is are they the right presuppositions? Are they true presuppositions?

Are they biblical presuppositions? An open-minded person is willing to have their presuppositions examined in the light of Scripture. They're willing to examine their own presuppositions in the light of Scripture. Paul said to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 13, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.

There we're called to examine our own, examine our faith. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you unless indeed you are disqualified? He goes on to say, I know you aren't disqualified. Now to have an open mind is to have the forbearance not to reject something before having heard it and investigated it. Proverbs 18.13 says, He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him.

This is one of the characteristics of a noble mind. That we don't simply reject out of hand something that we haven't thoroughly heard and investigated. Now what is the difference? What determines whether one has this closed mind or an open mind? Luke said that these Berean Christians had noble or open mind.

Well, idols are the epitome of a closed mind. You can't teach an idol anything. It can't even hear, much less understand anything. There's no cognition, there's no life of whatsoever, of any sort, in an idol, it is completely done. It's completely dead, in every respect.

So that's the epitome of a closed mind, utterly incapable of receiving anything. They can't even hear. It's not even alive. Those who worship idols, the Bible says, become like them. Those who worship idols become like them.

Both Psalm 115 and 135 say of idols, they have ears, but they do not hear. Closed mind. Nor is there any breath in their mouths. Those who make them are like them. So is everyone who trusts in them.

So those who trust in idols become closed minded, just like the idol they trust in. Isaiah says of those who worship idols in Isaiah 44, They do not know nor understand, for He has shut their eyes so that they cannot see, and their hearts so they cannot understand." Paul described a similar closed mind in His second letter to the Corinthians. 2 Corinthians 4. But even if our Gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe. Lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

That's a closed mind. A mind that's veiled. It's in darkness. It cannot receive light. Now in the Bible, open-minded is we've seen closely tied to the truth.

It's strong, the Bible very strongly connects having an open mind with those who come to understand the truth leading to salvation. And it connects having a closed mind with those who are blind to the truth and perish in their sins. These two things, it's one or the other. We either worship the true Lord and know the truth, or we are trusting in idols and have a closed mind that is close to the truth. Paul goes on to say in 2 Corinthians 4, For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bond-servants, for Jesus' sake.

For it is God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. So an open mind is the work of the Holy Spirit to remove the veil and to make us willing and able to hear and to receive the truth of God's Word. Now what is the results of these Bereans being open-minded? Luke tells us that as a result of them being more open-minded and noble minded than Thessalonians Jews, there are three things that occurred. First, they occurred.

First, they received the word with all readiness. Now those whose minds are close to the truth define being open-minded as tolerant of other ideas without regard to the truth. If you're accepting of their sin, they will find you open-minded, but if you confront their sin, well then you're closed-minded, intolerant, bigot. But the open mind is not mere tolerance of all ideas, as if they were all equal or equivalent, but it is an openness to the truth as it is revealed in the Scriptures. You see, these Bereans received the Word with all readiness.

The Word of truth. The Gospel. Being open-minded doesn't mean that we receive and accept the morals and ideas of sinners and the wicked without question. Being open-minded means that we receive the word with all readiness. Readiness, that's another interesting word.

To receive the word with readiness is to be eager to hear the word. It is to lean forward, as it were, in our seats, so as not to miss any part of the word as it comes to us. And you know that while we use that word figuratively, there's also an element of reality in that. That when we are really interested in something, we do tend to literally lean forward, physically lean forward in our seats so we don't miss anything. And so these Bereans then are receiving the Word with readiness.

They're not listening to find fault with the word or to catch the preacher in some error, though it's not wrong to point out if you do find the catch the preacher in an error. They were listening to hear the truth. They were receiving. Receiving with all readiness is to put the most charitable construction on what is being said. To ask how it can apply, not how it doesn't apply.

Now this readiness requires preparation, requires a mental preparation so that our minds are not prone to wander. Because by nature, our minds are prone to wander. And when they do, we are not able to receive the Word with all readiness. We are to serve God in truth, Samuel said, with all of our heart, considering what great things He has done for us. But what truth is there if while we appear to be serving Him and hearing Him, our minds are engaged in completely different thoughts.

And so there needs to be a mental preparation so that we can, for us to be ready to receive the word, or for us to receive the word with all readiness. Richard Steele wrote an entire book on this topic called A Remedy for Wandering Thoughts in Worship, which I recommend if this is something you battle. He wrote that in 1637, but there's modern copies available. A remedy for wandering thoughts in worship. Because wandering thoughts are the enemy of receiving the Word with readiness.

And there also should be physical preparation to be able to receive the word with all readiness. This requires sufficient rest and preparation of our bodies so our bodies don't become a distraction to the ready receiving of the word, either through sleepiness or other needs that we could have handled beforehand. Jay Adams recounts while he was preaching one Sunday evening, suddenly awakening to hear himself preaching, and having no idea what he had said or how to finish the sentence he was in the middle of. I don't think I've ever fallen asleep while I was preaching. I hope not.

But I have definitely awoken mid-sentence to find myself talking with no idea what I've been saying, other than some bemused expressions on the parts of my listeners. It's certainly a moment of panic. It's like waking up to find you're driving the car off the cliff. So the point is here, if the speaker can fall asleep, If a preacher can fall asleep while he's talking, then those who are just listening can certainly fall asleep without adequate preparation. We want to be those like the Bereans who are ready, receive the word with all readiness.

The second thing that happens as a result of their open-mindedness is that first they receive the Word with all readiness. The second thing that happens as a result of their open-mindedness is that first they receive the Word with all readiness. Secondly, they searched the Scriptures daily to see if those things were so. Having received the preaching of the Word with all readiness, they don't just stop and say, Amen, without any further thought. They don't say, well, Paul said it, that settles it, I believe it.

Paul even being an apostle. Rather, Luke says they went home and they searched the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul had said was true, to see if it was scriptural. So Paul talks for a couple hours on Sunday, and they spend the rest of the week studying the Scriptures to see if what he said was true. Now, do you think Paul was upset that they didn't take his word for it? Not at all.

Not at all. He said, you know, the scriptures alone are the standard of truth. There's no greater joy to any teacher and preacher of the Word that we should be studying the Word and comparing what they say to the Scriptures to see if those things are so. Because the Scriptures alone, not apostles and other things, The Scriptures alone are the standard of what is right and what is wrong, what is true and what is false. To the Word and to the testimony, if they're not according to those, there's no truth in them.

And Paul even said, If we or even an angel came with another gospel, let him be anathema. This word to search here is the word that means to examine in a judicial sense. To examine in a judicial sense. In other words, this is not just a casual checking to see whether this is true. This is a critical examination of what do the Scriptures teach on this topic.

Pilate told the Jews in Luke 23, You have brought this man to me, speaking of Jesus, as one who misleads the people, and indeed having examined him in your presence, I find no fault in this man concerning these things of which you accuse him." Having examined him judicially in a court of law, having examined the evidence that you presented, he says, I didn't find it so. That's the word that Luke uses to speak of what the Bereans did in searching the scriptures. They were examining the scriptures, critically examining them to see whether the things that Paul had taught them were in fact in accordance with the word of God. So it's going more in depth than what Paul would have done because it requires searching every day of the week to cover what Paul had disseminated in one Sabbath. Notice that this searching is on a daily basis.

The Bereans were hearing the scriptures being read, and they were reading the scriptures, and they were studying the scriptures, and they were memorizing the Scriptures, and they were meditating on the Scriptures. And they were doing this on a daily basis throughout the week. That's an example for us of what it means to receive the Word with readiness. And therefore Luke says in verse 12, Therefore, because of this, because these Bereans were open-minded, as a direct consequence of their open-minded and ready receiving of the word and searching of the scriptures every day, many of these Berean Jews believed, and not a few of the Greeks. Prominent women as well as men.

And notice these women didn't just take their husband's word for it The the women are also searching the scriptures These are These were prominent or leading women among the Greeks. These were probably God-fearing Greeks from what Luke says elsewhere, meaning that they didn't become Jews, but they weren't proselytites, but like Cornelius, they were worshipping God. They weren't saved, They weren't saved yet, but they were God-fearers. And as a result of this, many, many believed. And since this final result is saving faith, we can confidently say that the open-minded readiness to hear the Word of God and the diligent searching of the Scriptures were the work of the Holy Spirit.

It's the work of the Holy Spirit in them to prepare the soil of their heart for the Word. May the Lord prepare our hearts. And may We cry out to Him each week as we come to church that He would prepare our hearts like He prepared the Bereans to receive His Word with readiness that we too might Believe. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the powerful work of Your Holy Spirit that takes our rebel hearts and subdues them to Yourself, that captures them for you. That takes hearts that are at enmity against you.

And unwilling. And makes them willing. We thank you Lord that you do persuade, your Holy Spirit does persuade and enable us to embrace the Gospel and to embrace Jesus Christ. Lord where our hearts have grown distant or cold, we ask that you would enable us to draw near to you. For you have promised to draw near to those who draw near to you.

You have promised to come in fellowship with those who invite you in. And Lord, I also lift up to you this special need, our Brother David and his family at this time Lord may your the riches of your grace Bless them and may you provide work and income for this family in this time. We ask these things in Jesus name. Amen.