That was in the Old Testament.

In the New Testament we read about the landmark council in Jerusalem where it was decided that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised to be received into the church. And we read of Paul's miraculous deliverance from the Philippian jail, and how he also survived a lynching mob in Thessalonica, preached to the philosophers at Athens, and planted churches in Corinth and Ephesus.

But the story we want to dwell on is about the Gospel missionaries' reception in the northern Greek town of Berea.

Paul and Silas slipped out of Thessalonica under the cloak of darkness, traveled some 50 miles west to Berea, and preached the message of Christ crucified and risen at the local Jewish Synagogue. The statement that captivates our attention is found in Acts 17:11, 12:

"Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men."

Paul stayed in this town for a very short time because radical Jews who followed him from Thessalonica were successful in stirring up mob action against him, and once again, after a very short stay, Paul and Silas had to sneak out of town.

In this very brief description of the ministry in Berea, the author, Luke, is making a comparison between the people there and those who had been encountered in the previous city. Is that bad?

Perhaps it may come as a shock to you. Not all Christians are equal. Of course we've all heard it said that God has no favorites, or as we like to say, "The ground is level at the foot of the cross." Race or nationality doesn't matter, social standing or education doesn't impress or discourage God; color, age, gender - none of these things make any difference as to whether or not a person is accepted - as the Scripture clearly states, "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved."

However, we also remember that even though our US Constitution affirms that all men are created equal, that reality of equality does not linger. If truth be told, it's not long before inequities become obvious due to a number of factors including family make-up, treatment by birth parents, social and economic conditions, personal ambition, and any number of circumstances which provide, or don't provide, opportunities for growth and development.

If that is true of a person's first birth, it is also true for the second birth. This was at least hinted at by Jesus when He gave us the parable of the sower. All four types of soil, representing four types of people, received the word and responded to it, but they didn't all flourish or bear fruit to the same degree. The Apostle Paul agreed with this assessment when he wrote, in I Corinthians 3:12, 13: "If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work."

So Christians begin at the same point, but soon the similarities fade, and discernable differences emerge. Consequently, we end up with a wide range of Christian types. Here are a few:

Nominal Christians - those who wear the name like a label on a T-shirt or bumper sticker on a car.
Nominal Christians are like the man I was told about just this week - upon leaving the Sunday Morning Church Service, he yelled and waved a chosen finger at another driver as he drove down the street leading away from the church.

Political Christians - those who pretend to accept Christianity to win the favor of a group of people.

Social Christians - those who like to hang out with a certain group of people in order to feel accepted and have satisfied their own need to belong to a respectable group.

Carnal Christians - those who continue to do those things which gratify the flesh, but actually do harm to their spiritual life.

"Skin of the teeth" Christians - those who try to get by with the least amount of effort.

One sermon illustration I remember from my childhood is the story of the wealthy man who interviewed drivers who wanted to be hired as his chauffer. He asked each of them if they were familiar with the windy mountain road just outside of town, and then asked about their driving skill - how close could they drive to the edge of that road without being in danger of careening off the cliff? Obviously, the one getting the job was the one who said, "I’d stay as far from the edge as I possibly could.

By the way, did you know that the expression "the skin of my teeth" comes from the Bible? (If someone can find the verse before noon today, I promise to buy them a new tooth brush - Job 19:20)

Entitlement Christians - those who get into it for what they can get from it; their question is "What's in it for me?"

But there are also what we can call, "good and faithful servant" Christians - those who earnestly seek to understand and live by the principles given to us by Jesus Christ, the true disciples.

So it is true - not all Christians are equal, some are more sincere, more devout, more committed, or harder working.

So when Luke describes the people in Berea, he is making a favorable comparison. On the face of it, it may seem like he is contradicting what Paul taught, when he wrote, "We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise." (II Corinthians 10:12)

However, in the account given by Luke, it's not the Bereans who are comparing themselves, and doing so to make themselves look or feel better. Rather, it's the observer, Luke, who is noticing the differences.

In fact, Paul himself does the same thing when writing to the Philippians. This is what he wrote: "Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only." (Philippians 4:15)

And another apostle, John, writing to the seven churches of Asia, makes clear distinctions between them - some are distinguished because of their perseverance in the midst of persecution and for standing up against false teachings (Smyrna), some because they have shown progress (Thyatira), or patient endurance (Philadelphia); others are faulted because of their backsliding (Ephesus), compromising (Pergamum), being dead (Sardis) or lukewarm (Laodicea).

So the author of Acts is not out of line when he compares these two groups of Christians, noting that one group is made up of people with more noble character.

Yes, that's the word that is used, "noble," but please understand that the word "noble" has nothing to do with social status, it doesn't mean they came from a higher class, the "nobility." Indeed, that was the original meaning of the word, literally "one of good birth," and in fact the word is used that way in I Corinthians 1:26 when Paul observed that "not many noble are called." However, as with so many words, as time went on, this one also took on a broader meaning so as to refer to someone who acts in a such a way as to invite respect. So, for example, in Greek culture, a "generous" person would be considered "noble," regardless of his or her being born into a higher class family.

What Luke is saying is that in terms of their response to the message of the Gospel preached by Paul, these people were willing to listen; they were not prejudiced against his teaching just because it was new or different. They were "generous" with their interest and their time, giving ample opportunity for the Word of the Gospel to be explained and take root.

Those at Berea were distinguished and commended because of specific qualities that were observed in them, qualities we would do well to emulate. We will highlight these three qualities of Christian Nobility:

1. The Bereans had an eagerness to listen and be open to the truth of the Gospel.

"They received the message with great eagerness." The word "eagerness" ("prothumia") is defined as "forwardness or readiness of mind."

We are aware that open-mindedness is unsettling to some people. In fact, I once heard one man say of another, "He's so open-minded his brains all spilled out." On the other hand, closed-minded people are so intent on holding on to what they have always believed to be true, it doesn't do any good at all to try to persuade them otherwise - their response is, "My mind's made up, don't confuse me with the facts."

Of course there are some truths that ought to be unshakable, but it seems that religious people historically have been prone to reject anything that is new, a kind of conservatism gone bad. A notable historic example is that of the church's opposition to the idea first proposed by Copernicus and promoted by Galileo that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun rather than the commonly held belief that the earth was the center of the system.

What is called for, and what was exhibited by Paul's audience at Berea, is a kind of humility, the ability to admit that we don't know or understand everything, but are open to learn and increase understanding

There's an interesting and true statement I used to hear a colleague repeat often: "As grows the diameter of light, so grows the circumference of darkness." In other words, the more we learn, the more we humbly admit we don't know.

While we understand the importance of doctrine, we must be careful not to consider as "dogma" something that is mere opinion. Christianity exists today because there were those who have come before us who, like the Bereans, were willing to give a new teaching a chance.

2. The Bereans exhibited diligence in their efforts to understand the truth of the Gospel.

"They examined the Scriptures every day."

To their credit, these listeners expended the time and energy needed to search and verify the message they were receiving. Here, the word is "anakrino" and means "to scrutinize, investigate, interrogate." The fact that they were diligent is seen in their daily devotion to their pursuit.

At the beginning of each year, many people make what we call, "new year's resolutions." This year, many included the resolve to read a pre-selected portion of Scripture every day. Perhaps it was a mistake to call for a new "year" resolution - maybe it would have been better to have a new "month" resolution, or a new "week" resolution; after all, one of the reasons we attend church each first day of the week is to renew our vows. Some people may not even have the discipline to keep up a plan for seven days - for them there should be a new "day" resolution, remembering that God's "mercies are new every morning," and for those who ask for it, He provides "daily" bread."

The important thing is that we get with the program and expend time and energy to seek the truth and then live by it.

3. The Bereans took personal responsibility to evaluate and ascertain the truth of the Gospel.

In this case, they determined to evaluate what they were hearing according to Scripture - we would do well to follow their lead.

A few years ago, while teaching at the Bible College, I had a colleague who became quite concerned about what was taking place in a revival movement in another state. In response, he wrote an article which he called an analysis of the activities associated with this revival. His main point was that the authority for judging alleged spiritual manifestations had shifted from the Bible to man. After receiving a copy of this article from our former student minister, Dave, I published it on my website. Recently I received a letter from Eric, who complained that my friend, the author of this article, was being too legalistic.

"You cannot bind God to a book in the sense that He cannot do anything not previously recorded. The Bible contains no record of Jesus' first thirty years, so was Jesus not alive during those years? While the epistles were being written to troubled groups of young Christians, were there no movements of the Spirit happening? Because we do not know what went on every day in the first churches, is it for us to say that the churches were basically defunct while they were waiting on Paul's words of wisdom?"

Actually, I think Eric missed the point. Of course Jesus was alive from age 12 - 30, but the Bible leaves out those 18 years because His ministry had not yet begun. There are some legends that have tried to fill in the gap by telling stories about a playful young Jesus forming a bird out of clay, breathing on it and seeing it come to life and fly away. And the Mormons have tried to tell us that during that time Jesus traveled to North America and back!

However, the reason my friend criticized certain actions of the revivalists wasn't merely because there was no record of such things being done in the New Testament church, but because, for one thing, they did not measure up to the true definition of the miraculous - these activities were not supernatural at all, but all were actions that can be duplicated by mere human effort. The signs reported as miraculous in this revival included laughing, belching, jerking, people bowing at the waist, vomiting, crawling on their hands and knees and barking like dogs, screaming and shrieking, dancing, jumping off of platforms into an imaginary "river," and people tucking their hands under their armpits, flapping their arms, and clucking like chickens. These kinds of activities not only discredit Christian worship and witness, they can all be humanly generated and so should not be considered as miraculous manifestations of the Spirit.

Furthermore, the author of the analysis rightly criticized the claim that these so-called manifestations happened because "that person is no longer in control of himself or herself." This too is not according to the Biblical understanding because, among other things, it is clear in Paul's instructions that "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the control of prophets" (14:32).

Yes, Paul did write, in I Thessalonians 5:19-22, "Do not put out the Spirit's fire." But then he went on to say, in the same context, "Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil." All of these verses speak in the context of the Spirit's activity. Finally, John commands us, "test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world." (I John 4:1)

My question is, if we are to "test everything," how can we do that without having some kind of objective measuring tool? In this case, to "test" means to measure something against a standard that is reliable. People in industry understand this as "quality control."

When I was growing up my father worked at the Pratt and Whitney Aircraft Corporation - he worked as a tool and die maker in their gauge division. I well remember one very simple set of tools he had in his box, they were called "size blocks". These were square pieces of very highly polished steel - each was a different thickness, and they all had a hole in the center. Whenever he wanted to check the accuracy of a particular gauge, he would stack up a prescribed combination of these blocks, and then position the gauge, with its very sensitive needle, next to them, in order to make sure the reading on the gauge was according to the correct measurement represented by these blocks.

The Word of God is like the size blocks. The Bereans understood this, so they placed the preaching of Paul along side the Word of God to see if the message measured up to that reliable standard.

The day we live in has been dubbed "the information age," and with it comes exposure to all kinds of religious ideas, some from credible sources, others from self-proclaimed prophets or self-serving quacks. How are we to judge what is of God and what is not? By measuring them against a careful reading and interpretation of the Bible.

So the people who heard Paul preach the Gospel in this northern Greek city called Berea were commended for these three reasons:

They had an eagerness to listen and be open to the truth of the Gospel.

They exhibited diligence in their efforts to understand the truth of the Gospel.

And they took personal responsibility to evaluate and ascertain the truth of the Gospel.

The call today is for us to seek to be like the Bereans. Will you be one?

1. What are some of the miracles related to the life and ministry of the Old Testament Prophet, Elisha?

2. Where is the town of Berea, and why did the author of Acts think the people there were "more noble"?

3. If they are not all the same, what may be some different kinds of Christians?

4. Where in the Bible can one find the expression, "skin of my teeth"?

5. What are some of the differences between the seven churches of Asia as noted in the first chapters in the Book of Revelation?

6. When Luke characterized the Bereans as "noble," what did he mean?

7. What is the good and the bad of open-mindedness?

8. What character quality is associated with being eager to receive the truth?

9. Why do we say that the folk at Berea exhibited diligence?

10. What are some of the important things we do on a daily basis?

11. How is the Bible like a "size block"?

12. If not to be attributed to God, how do we explain the presence of unusual behaviors which some times accompany revival movements?