Teaching Summary: What Now? (Acts) The Bereans
Acts 17:10-34
In our text this week, Paul continues announcing to the Greeks the euangelion, the good news of a great victory: the crucified and risen Jesus, who died for our sins and rose again according to the Scriptures, has been enthroned as the one true King. Athens is one of the places Paul makes that announcement. Athens was the most famous intellectual city in the ancient world, the home of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, and the place Rome sent its sons to study philosophy. Its political glory days were behind it, but Rome still honored it as a free city because of its culture and learning. Philosophers debated in the marketplace, the Areopagus council weighed new ideas, and Luke tells us the city was full of idols (Acts 17:16). Pliny the Elder said Athens needed no further advertisement, because her celebrity was more than ample.
But Paul also announced that Jesus is Lord in another place, a place with no influencers. Cicero called it an out-of-the-way town. It had no famous schools and no celebrated philosophers. It was an ordinary working town called Berea.
These two places responded very differently to the message of Jesus. In Athens, some people sneered, some said they'd think about it later, and a few believed. But in Berea, the gospel took root. "As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men" (Acts 17:12). As far as we know, Paul never went back to Athens. So why did the good news take root in the small town and bounce off the great city?
Luke gives us one line about Athens that explains a great deal: "All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas" (Acts 17:21). Athens had brilliance, but it didn't have humility. When you believe you're already the smartest people in the world, the gospel sounds like one more idea to evaluate, something to talk about over dinner and then trade in for the next interesting thing. As Paul later wrote, "Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:22).
Paul preached before the Areopagus, the hill of Ares, home of the oldest and most prestigious court in Athens, where the finest minds sat in judgment of new ideas and new gods. Set that next to another hill. Golgotha, the place of the skull, stood outside the walls of Jerusalem, where Rome executed criminals. On the first hill, the wisest men in the world sat in judgment of Jesus' messenger. On the second, the rulers of Jerusalem sat in judgment of Jesus himself. And in both places, people sneered (Luke 23:35; Acts 17:32).
By human standards, the cross makes no sense. A crucified King and a Messiah who dies sound like contradictions. "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God" (1 Corinthians 1:18). God did his greatest work on the hill outside the city, and the man who was judged there is the one who will judge the world (Acts 17:31). Athens had been looking for wisdom for centuries, but when Wisdom stood right in front of them, they missed him. The wisdom of God is not ultimately a philosophy. It's a person. Jesus is "the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Corinthians 1:24).
Berea was different. "Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true" (Acts 17:11). Both cities examined Paul's message. But Athens measured it by its own wisdom, and Berea measured it by the Scriptures. The cross looks foolish until you open the Scriptures. Only there do you find a Messiah who had to suffer and rise. Athens sat over the word, but Berea sat under it.
Every one of us has a little Areopagus in our heads, a private seat where we judge what we hear on our own terms, by ourselves. But Berea searched the word as a community. Athens asked whether the message was interesting. Berea asked whether it was true, and what it meant for their lives. If we're honest, most of us are more like Athens than we'd like to admit. We hear the message, we nod, we go to lunch, and by Sunday night it's mostly gone.
Some of us are tired in a way sleep doesn't fix. Some of us are surrounded by people but feel that nobody really knows us. Some of us have faith that feels thinner than it should, or we're facing a decision, or we feel stuck. We reach for a book, a podcast, a new routine, or a little getaway. There's nothing wrong with those things. But nothing will do more for you than sitting with a handful of people around a table and an open Bible.
The research confirms it. Lifeway recently found that people who regularly study the Bible together in a small group have the highest discipleship scores of anyone surveyed, and the more often they gather, the higher those scores go. They're also the most likely to read the Bible on their own every day. Studying the Bible with others doesn't replace your time alone with God. It fuels it. If you're tired, you need people who can help carry you. If you feel unknown, you need people who will notice you. If you're stuck, you need people who can see what you can't. And if your faith feels thin, you need to see Jesus in the word through someone else's eyes.
Jesus said his kingdom is like a mustard seed that starts small and grows into a tree (Matthew 13:31-32). That's what happened in Berea. Years later, one of the men traveling with Paul to carry the gospel to the world was from that out-of-the-way town. The kingdom takes root where people open the word together, and then it spreads. What we give ourselves to, we carry with us everywhere we go.
We live on an island thirty miles out to sea. We are not Athens. We're Berea. And that is good news, because "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong" (1 Corinthians 1:27). Jesus is Lord over Athens and Berea, over Boston and Nantucket, and his reign takes root through people who regularly examine the Scriptures together.
So find your seat at Midweek. There is no substitute for reading and reasoning from the Scriptures together. Every Wednesday at 6pm, the doors are open downstairs. Bring your Bible, and bring your questions.
