Noble character

When they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a Jewish synagogue. As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, explaining and proving that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead. "This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Christ, " he said. Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a large number of God-fearing Greeks and not a few prominent women.

But the Jews were jealous; so they rounded up some bad characters from the marketplace, formed a mob and started a riot in the city. They rushed to Jason's house in search of Paul and Silas in order to bring them out to the crowd. But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some other brothers before the city officials, shouting: "These men who have caused trouble all over the world have now come here, and Jason has welcomed them into his house. They are all defying Caesar's decrees, saying that there is another king, one called Jesus." When they heard this, the crowd and the city officials were thrown into turmoil. Then they made Jason and the others post bond and let them go.

As soon as it was night, the brothers sent Paul and Silas away to Berea. On arriving there, they went to the Jewish synagogue. 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 (Acts 17:1-12).

Let’s imagine that we lived 2,000 years ago in ancient Greece. Spring has come and it’s time to think about your summer vacation. If you were to go to a travel agent, where would he recommend that you go? Well, Greece can get pretty hot in the summer, so a seaside city would be a good choice—as a matter of fact, Thessalonica might be a nice destination. Thessalonica not only received the benefit of sea breezes, it was the capital of the province of Macedonia, the largest and most prosperous city in the area, with 200,000 residents. There would be lots to see and do there.

This all sounds great, but you have one concern: you and your family are Christians, and you know that at this time in history, Christian congregations are few and far between. So you ask the travel agent about opportunities for worship in Thessalonica. The agent shakes his head. "Thessalonica has some Christians, but not very many", he says. "If fellowship with a strong Christian community is important to you, the nearest place you could go from Thessalonica would be Berea. But I have to warn you, Berea isn’t much to see; it’s a smaller city about 50 miles south of Thessalonica, and it isn’t even on a major road. Are you sure that Christian worship is really an important part of your vacation?"

It’s interesting—Thessalonica was a major city, a hub of trade. Thessalonica would have been a great place for Paul and Silas to establish a large, active church. There was a very large population. There were traders and travelers coming and going every day. Thessalonica could have been a center for mission work throughout northern Greece. But things didn’t work out that way. Some people did come to faith, but not in the numbers that Paul and Silas hoped for. It didn’t take long for opposition to rise up and force the apostles out of the city.

The problem was the community of Jews living in Thessalonica. They became jealous of Paul and Silas. They became jealous because they had built their lives around worldly priorities. The Jews of Thessalonica valued status, influence, popularity. In other words, they needed to feed their egos every day. Then along came the apostles, and suddenly people in town were listening to these two strangers. Their message was an attractive one, one that did not discriminate between man and woman, between Jew and Gentile. Their message was not about how to get ahead in society, but how to experience forgiveness and love. Their message was not about influencing others, but about serving others.

Paul and Silas were teaching about Jesus, the Son of God. The apostles were teaching that Jesus was the fulfillment of the Scriptures, Scriptures that God had instructed holy men to write over the course of more than a thousand years. These Scriptures told that all people are born rebellious, hostile to God and anyone else in authority over them. These Scriptures also said that God loved each and every rebellious person, just as a father loves his son in spite of the boy’s bad behavior. But God is more than our heavenly Father—He is also the king of creation, and no king can tolerate rebellion against His rule. Rebellious behavior must be punished, so that the kingdom can be a place of perfect happiness for its citizens. No man or woman could survive God’s just punishment, because rebellion is punishable by death; so Jesus, the perfectly obedient Son of God, volunteered to stand with rebellious mankind as one of us in order to take God’s death sentence in our place. Jesus, the Obedient One, was punished for our rebelliousness. Jesus gave up His life so that when we die, we will not face an angry heavenly king who will throw us into hell for being rebels. Jesus rose from the dead to prove that we no longer need to fear death; when we ask Him, He is happy to forgive us for our rebellious ways so that when we die, we will face a loving Father who will welcome us into heaven as His beloved children.

The Scriptures had promised that the Son of God would come and do all these things; now, Paul and Silas told the people that the promises had indeed been kept. Jesus had lived, died, and returned to heaven alive once more. God, the king to be feared, was also God, the Father to be loved and depended on--when a person loved and trusted in His Son Jesus. This message of loving reconciliation was winning the hearts of people—winning them away from the Jews. So the Jews were jealous. And because of their jealousy, the Jews were not interested in listening to the Gospel. They were not interested in checking for themselves to see if Jesus really had fulfilled the Old Testament writings. All that the Jews cared about was that they were in danger of becoming ‘old news’. And so they rounded up some young toughs who had too much time on their hands and incited a riot in order to make the apostles look bad. The two apostles had come to teach the Thessalonians about the freedom that Jesus brings, but they had to post bond to move freely themselves.

But Berea was a different story. This city, isolated from commerce and the ways of the world, welcomed the apostles. Saint Luke tells us that they were of more noble character than the Thessalonians. In the first place, the Jews in this city were not wrapped up in feeding their egos. These Jews held to the teachings that God had given to them in the Scriptures. These Jews gave first priority to reading God’s word and trying to thank God for His loving care by loving each other and their Gentile neighbors. Since their focus was on God and their neighbors instead of themselves, they did not become jealous of Paul and Silas when they brought the Good News to Berea. Instead, they received the Good News eagerly. But the Bereans were not blindly trusting. They listened to the apostle’s claims that Jesus had fulfilled the promises of Scripture, but they also tested the truth of the apostles’ words by examining the Scriptures themselves to make sure that Paul and Silas were accurately representing God. The Bereans were so interested in the promises of the Gospel that they met every day to listen and study, to make sure that they were hearing God’s own truth.

This is what made the Bereans of noble character: they built their lives around God’s word, they made sure that it was taught rightly in their midst, and they took delight in what God was doing for them through His Son Jesus. The Bereans did not take their religion for granted. They did not measure its worth in terms of political influence or social acceptance. The Bereans treasured God’s promises because they knew that God’s kingdom is eternal, while the kingdoms of earth are temporary. Living to please politicians and social cliques will only yield short-term rewards; living in the promises of God extended through Jesus Christ will result in unending pleasures and peace.

So I ask you: are you a Thessalonian, or are you a Berean? Do you take your Christianity for granted, or do you build your life around God’s word? Do you go to church because you feel that you have to, or do you attend because you know that church is where God gives to you—gives you forgiveness, peace and life through His words and through His sacraments? Do you go to church just to listen, or do you also study God’s word so that when you hear false teachings, you can immediately know them for what they are? Are you a Thessalonian, or are you a Berean?

If you are a Berean, then I thank God that you are, because the Church needs more people like you—you are a blessing from God. But if you are afraid that you might be a Thessalonian, remember what Jesus said: "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:17). Jesus did not come to condemn you failing to be the kind of person that you ought to be; Jesus came to make you a Christian. All true Christians—all who trust in Jesus alone for rescue from eternal death—will inherit heaven as children of the heavenly Father. Saint Luke singled out Berea as an example to us all, but don’t forget that people were saved in Thessalonica too.

It is my prayer that in your life you may become more and more like the Bereans—building your life around the word of God, receiving His gifts of Word and Sacrament with eagerness, and studying the promises that He has made to you, that your faith may be secure.