Acts 17:10-15

Chapter 60

Prayer

Almighty God, this is resurrection-day; a time of upspringing and coming clear out into the light; a widening of the sky; a driving away of all rain-clouds from our joy; and the banner is full out upon the wind, and all the heaven and the earth are glad. Jesus Christ is risen today; he has consecrated the time; it is the Lord's day; day of light, day of victory, day of heaven; the day of the Son of man upon the earth, which makes all other days sacred by its holy fire. We have come to see the place where the Lord lay. He is not there. He is risen; but the place is dear to us; we love it because he who is our Lord once lay there. He has made all graves sacred; he has made every grave a door into heaven. So now we say to Death: "Where is thy sting?" and to the grave: "Where is thy victory?" and to all fear we address the challenge of almightiness. We are glad today. The church-gates are not wide enough for our entrance, and their opening is long delayed, for our hearts are in the haste of eager love to speak well of the name of the Lord, and to laud the Most High with noble psalm and anthem. We worship thee, O Son of God! Thou art Alpha and Omega the First and the Last. Thou didst die, but thou hast risen again, and thou wilt die no more. Jesus Christ ever liveth to make intercession for us. In thy death we die; in thy life we live; in thy prayer we pray. We are crucified with Christ: nevertheless we live; yet not we, but Christ liveth in us: and the life we now live in the flesh we live by faith of the Son of God, who loved us, and gave himself for us. Old things are passed away, all things have become new. No longer is there darkness or possibility of death. Life has sprung up and death is dead. These are thy great sweet words to us in Christ. They are words of strength and beauty; they fall upon us like the dew, yet sometimes they ring in our ears like trumpets telling of triumph wondrous words! beautiful syllables! messages from the hills of light! May we receive them every one and answer them with love. May our faith prove itself by our obedience, and may the joy of our heart lighten the toil of our life. We are come together again for sweet, bright Eastertide. The flowers are around about us; the earth is just forgetting winter and putting on its youth again for one more struggle, one more adorning, one more bright summer day. Help the earth, thou clement Heaven! shine upon her. She is guilty in very deed, and she has given herself up to be dug into graves and pits of death. Shame be on her! But thou dost love the earth, O Christ, and thou hast redeemed it; the earth is precious to thee amid the whole estate of the stars. May the families now before thee feel the joy of reunion; with the boys at home and the girls back again; with the old voices in the house and the old gladnesses all around about the buzz of gladness, the excitement of gratitude, the uproar that is harmonious. The Lord look upon our houses and make them dwelling-places of light, homes, indeed, where love lights every room, and where security binds every door in fastness. As for those who are heavy-laden still, whose hearts are being eaten by hungry care, and whose lives are being driven by unsleeping anxiety, surely for them also there is comfort this resurrection-day. The bereaved have forgotten their bereavement in the conscious immortality of those whom they have loved and lost. The graves are gardens today; there is a sound from heaven that tells of immortality, but the feast is waiting for the prodigal; we are all delayed because he has not arrived. O bring him swiftly home! The old man is here, and the white-haired mother, and all the children but one, and he is in a far country. Would God he might come home just now, quite suddenly, and break in upon us and take the vacant seat and make the circle of gladness whole. Lord, if thou canst not bring him, it is not in us to win a victory where thou dost sustain defeat. Be with the dear sick ones yonder in the great house and in the little cottage on the lonely hill-side and everywhere. Be with the widow and the orphan and the sad, with the sailor on the sea and the soldier, with the traveller, with our loved ones far away, and give us to feel that though separate in the body, we are one in the soul, bound together in the eternal union of common love to a common Saviour. Amen.

Act 17:10-15

10. And [G. "but," or "now"] the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berœa [27 miles west again along the Egnatian road to Pella, capital of the third Macedonian district; then south by branch route to Berœa]: who, when they were come thither, went into the synagogue of the Jews.

11. Now [as Act 17:10 ] these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, examining the Scriptures [O. T., Isa. 5:39] daily, whether these things were so.

12. Many of them [Jews], therefore, believed: also of the Greek women of honourable estate, and of men [Greeks] not a few.

13. But [as Act 17:10 ] when the Jews of Thessalonica had knowledge that the word of God was proclaimed [announced] of Paul at Berœa also, they came thither likewise, stirring up and troubling the multitudes [this the right word here. Berœa was not a "free city," having no demos ].

14. And then immediately the brethren sent forth Paul to go as far as to [G. "as (where he could embark) upon" ] the sea; and Silas and Timothy abode there still.

15. But they that conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a commandment unto Silas and Timothy that they should come to him with all speed [see Act 18:5 and 1 Thessalonians 3:1 . Luke seems not to have been aware of Paul's change of plan mentioned in this second text. Paul may have sent a second message from Athens, or may even now have instructed Timothy to revisit Thessalonica and then rejoin him "with all speed." Or, Paul may have sent Timothy back by sea to Thessalonica from Athens. For Luke's seven years at Philippi, see Act 18:1 and Act 20:5 ], they departed.

From Thessalonica to Berea

PAUL and Silas were sent away "by night." That is the way to make the most of time. Travel by night and preach by day if you would live industriously and make the best of your opportunities. We sleep by night, and hardly get over the slumber all day. The Apostles found that there were four-and-twenty hours in a day, and he would have been a vigilant critic who noticed the neglect of any one of them by the zealous messengers of the Cross. It was a fifty miles' journey. Last week we saw the Apostles taking two journeys of about thirty miles each today we see Paul taking a fifty-mile walk, to get out of the road of the fury which had been excited in the lady metropolis. The enemy would say they had driven Paul off the ground Paul himself would say that he was going to make new ground, and that he would certainly come back again to the old place. There is a going away that means a coming back again with a stronger force than ev. Christ and his Apostles never left a place with the intention of visiting it no more. We have seen the tide go out, but we have seen it also return, and in the returning it seems to play at going back again; but the refluent wave increases in volume, and returns with enhanced force and grandeur. Paul will come back again personally, or by letter to Thessalonica, and we shall have, in c6nnection with his personal or written ministry, some of the boldest of his speculations and some of the noblest and tenderest of his pastoral appeals. He is fifty miles away, and yet he is not one inch off. He has taken with him in his heart all that he won at Thessalonica. To the Philippians he wrote: "I have you in my heart." Paul kept his friends in that safe house. When they are there they are no burden; the heart is omnipotent in strength. If our Christianity were in our heart, rather than in our head, we should be as bushes that burn and are not consumed.

When Paul came to Berea, he went into the synagogue of the Jews. How irrepressible he was! He seemed to look about eagerly for the synagogue. There are men who have a genius for closing their eyes when they come within visible distance of the church. If I rightly follow in my imagination the course of the Apostle Paul, I think I see him, weak-eyed, as he was, looking around anxiously for the synagogue. How was that? Surely he had suffered enough in connection with synagogues? Yet wherever he goes he looks out for the synagogue as a man might look out for home. It is one of two things with us all: either the inward conquers, or the outward the soul or the body, love of God or love of ease. Which is the greater quantity in your nature, your faith or your self-indulgence, your love or your fear? Human life is a continual battle between two forces, which we may term the Inward and the Outward. Man holds a dialogue with himself. In every one of us there are two. So it is not a monologue, but a dialogue converse between two speakers running thus: "Shall I go to the synagogue today and risk my life amongst those vagabonds? I think I will not go today; I will rest a while and get my breath again." Second speaker: "Go; time is short; this may be the last opportunity. Follow the Captain of thy salvation, O soul; he was made perfect through suffering, and if any man will not take up his cross and follow Christ, he is not worthy of him. Up, thou coward, and fear not!" First speaker: "I do not fear, I only rest; I will go to-morrow; I have no idea of abandoning the work. Give me forty-eight hours' rest, and you will find me back again." "No; in forty-eight hours you may be half-way across the universe. You cannot tell what will occur in two days' time NOW, instantly! 'Faint, yet pursuing' be that thy motto; start at once." "Well, I I will go!" The Inward has won; the soul has mastered the body. Had the dialogue gone otherwise, then the body would have been master; the soul would have been snubbed and humbled; the mind, which ought to be the regnant force in every nature, would have been ordered off; the body would have been at the front with its meanness, its self-seek-ing, and its self-idolatry. That is a fight which every man must fight out for himself.

"These were more noble than those in Thessalonica." The word "noble" means well-born in Paul's Epistle to the Corinthians; but in this verse it has a wider meaning. No reference is here made to mere birth or ancestry. The paraphrase might read: "These were nobler-natured people; freer from prejudice; more willing to receive new impressions; much more prepared to hear what men have to say upon difficult and perplexing subjects." How could they be more noble than those in Thessalonica? Thessalonica was a capital, a metropolis not of Macedonia prima, but of Macedonia secunda; still it was a capital; and Berea was an out-of-the-way place. It was not Pella, the beautiful city where was gaiety, where was well-dressed fashion, where was continual rioting and noise and self-glorying. Paul might have been taken to Pella, but they were wise men in apostolic days, so they took Paul to Berea, an out-of-the-way place; and of the Bereans we read, that they were "more noble" than metropolitans. That often happens. London is the largest place in England; it is not, therefore, the greatest. It is quite possible that there may be more reading of a solid and instructive kind in a little country town a western Berea than in the immeasurable Babylon. The metropolitan of course feels that he is entitled by some subtle and inexpressible authority to sneer at people who live in the "country." He has a gift of small sneering. But the Bereans were "more noble" than the metropolitans. When men do give themselves to reading in the country they have more time for it; their minds are not distracted and vexed by competing claims. They have not to get over the initial difficulty of being supremely proud of a city which is unaware of their existence. There can, however, be great ignorance even in Berea. Probably there is hardly a more ignorant man to be found on the face of the earth than an agricultural labourer who is determined not to read. You ought to turn your obscurity into an ally of your education. Coming from a little village or an obscure town where you say with a tone that has in it a good deal of dissatisfaction, "There is nothing to do" why, you ought to make such a town a very school of the prophets; no noise, no uproar, no call-off from prolonged and arduous inquiry into profound and useful subjects! Every locality has its advantage. In the metropolis we. have friction, continual motion, man sharpening man by daily collision, and in the country we have the opportunity of profound cultivation, because of the time which is at our disposal. Let us not complain of our circumstances, but rule them, sanctify them; and every sphere of life will afford an opportunity for intellectual and spiritual advancement.

What is the test of "nobleness" according to the eleventh verse? Good listening is one trait of nobleness. The Bereans wanted to hear. The hearer makes the preacher. When congregations fasten their attention on the preacher he must preach. Expectation becomes inspiration. The Bereans drew out of the Apostle all that was in him, and thus gave him more. Such was the double action in continual process as between great Paul and the listening Bereans. They heard every word who does that now? They wanted to hear every syllable; they were hushed in silence till the last cadence died upon the air. Paul calls that nobleness loyalty to truth, freedom from prejudice, mental excellence, spiritual aristocracy.

To good listening was added patient examination. The Bereans "searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so." What is the model congregation? A congregation well provided with Bibles; with large-print Bibles; with Bibles with ample margins; with Bibles that open easily; a congregation that has the text before it, and that looks from the sermon to the text; from the text to the sermon; from the text to the context; and that binds the speaking man to keep within the sacred brief which God has given to him. That would be a congregation that would compel sublime preaching! The Bereans "searched the Scriptures." Paul was not talking about something which he had himself cunningly invented. Paul did not say: "I have had a dream, and I will relate it to you, and you can pass your opinion upon it." Paul only told the Bereans what God had told him. You must not look upon the preacher as a man who has found out something, made a wonderful discovery, or performed a juggler's trick with his mother tongue. The preacher preaches what he has been told to preach "Go, stand and preach the preaching that I bid thee." You have lost your status as hearers! Where are your Bibles? The preacher could quote fifty things that are not in the Bible, and if he quoted them in old English, he could make many people believe that they really were in the Bible. If he said "saith" instead of "says," there is hardly a man in the congregation that would be able to affirm that what he said was not in the Bible. There is a Bible-tone, an old-English way of uttering words, and if words so uttered are uttered as if they were in the Bible, the Bible is not at hand whereby either to confirm or contradict the amazing statement How much Bible did you read last week? Some can answer that they read a great deal to them I am not addressing my inquiry; but to others I think I may fairly say, How much Bible did you read? How much Bible can you quote? Do not shirk the question; do not suppose that you could quote a good deal if you had time to collect your wits. Do not let yourself easily off; always be terrifically hard upon yourself, and then you will be gentle to other people. I will therefore probe myself with the inquiry, "How much of Paul's writing could you replace if the Pauline Epistles were lost?" If we would be "noble" in the estimation of Heaven, we must acquaint ourselves deeply and accurately with Heaven's own Word. One thing would follow from the Biblical examination we should destroy the priest. The priest is a curse wherever he is. The priest is a magician who lives upon the credulity of the simple. The priest is at the bottom of nearly all the unrest of nations. He can dry his lips and say, "Behold, I knew it not"; but the priest is a liar. How is his influence to be broken? By the Bible; by the people knowing the Bible; by the people committing it to memory not the memory of the intellect, but the memory of the heart, and letting the word of Christ dwell in them richly. It is not by wit, by genius, by skill, or learning, but by deep and sympathetic acquaintance with the Word of God, that all priestism is to be put down and destroyed. The sermon ought only to be a paraphrase of the text. If it is not a collection of Bible phrases, it ought to be a poem instinct with the Bible spirit. Call for Bible preaching; value most the preaching that has most Bible in it, and you, as hearers, will revolutionize the whole scheme of human preaching.

There is a logical term in the twelfth verse "Therefore." With that logical form comes the happy announcement, "Many of them believed." That is the true rationalism. Why did you believe? "Because the speaker fascinated me; because he laid a spell upon my imagination; because he charmed me with subtle music; because he got around about me in a completely overmastering manner." You will one day escape from those poor chains they are not chains of iron, they are little bands of straw. Why did you believe? "Because it was shown to me by the Living Word that this is the only conclusion that can be established; because beginning at Moses and the prophets and the Psalms, I was shown in all the Scriptures the things concerning Christ, and I found that if I accepted any one page in the Bible, I must accept the whole volume. I wanted to be an eclectic, and to take a page here and a page there; but I was shown that the Book was one, and that if I accepted the first chapter of Genesis and the first verse, I was bound to accept the entire apocalypse away to its last grand Amen!" You will stand like a rock amid troubled waves!