Making an Impact:
Instructing in God’s Word
Since Bible is our “middle” name, I thought it would be a good idea to begin this morning with a little Bible quiz. You guys should do really well on this.
Let’s start with an easy one from the Old Testament.
1. Where is the first tennis match mentioned in the Bible?
When Joseph served in Pharaoh’s court.
2. Which Bible character had no parents?
Joshua, son of Nun.
3. What kind of man was Boaz before he got married?
Ruth-less
4. What is one of the first things that Adam and Eve did after getting kicked out of the Garden of Eden?
They really raised Cain.
5. What excuse did Adam give to his children as to why they no longer lived in Eden?
Our mother ate us out of house and home.
Some of us do well on Bible quizzes…others of us not so well. Did anyone get all 5 of these right? I didn’t think so.
As we continue in our series called “Making an Impact,” this morning we’re focusing on the first part of Acts 2:42, where we read that the early church “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching.”
As we learned last week, these first Christ-followers were 100% devoted to Christ and to His cause. They were sold-out, completely committed and ready to make an impact. As we’ve already established, the most important commitment they made was to Christ. In addition, however, they were intently devoted to 6 other lifestyle practices. Let’s take a look at the first one they were devoted to instruction in God’s word.
The most basic essential for any healthy church is a commitment to hearing, learning, and applying God’s Word. At the time of the first church, this meant listening to the apostles’ teachings and reading the Scriptures they had at that point.
But notice also the words, “they continued steadfastly.” This means two things the apostles were faithful in their responsibility to preach and teach and, the believers were faithful to “continue in” to learn and keep growing in what was taught. They were convinced that the depth of their devotion to the Word would determine their impact.
In our text today, we see an illustration of what can happen when people correctly respond to the Word of God. Here we will find several principles which can enable us, not only to discover the truth, but also to apply it to our lives. Turn in your Bibles to Acts 17:11-12.
1 -- They Received The Word
Let’s look at verse 11: “Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness…” What does it mean, that they were of more noble character? Originally the word noble meant well-born and spoke of nobility. Later on this word also came to mean people of generous spirit, those who are open-minded toward truth, not prejudiced, hostile or suspicious of others, but who give others a fair hearing. The Bereans, therefore, were called noble because they listened to the preaching of the gospel with open hearts as they pursued God and his truth.
The people in Berea were more noble because first of all, they received the message. Our text says that they received the Word with eagerness. There was an openness to the Word preached to them. They had an anticipation, an expectancy, that God might be speaking specifically to them. And this is what set them apart. There was a readiness and receptivity to the Word of God. These are the characteristics which made them a cut above those who had just rejected the truth in Thessalonica.
I wonder how many of us came to church today with the expectation that God was going to speak to us? Perhaps coming to church has become merely a habit, and so, little thought is given to why we are here. We need to come into this place with the expectation that God will speak to us. Every Sunday we need to come with an eagerness of mind, with an openness of heart to hear what God will say. If these qualities are cultivated by us, they will place us in a position where we can hear the voice of God.
[ Stop and Pray ]
When we pray for God to speak to us, that sense of anticipation and expectancy will come alive in our hearts, so that, like the Bereans, we will receive the Word with eagerness.
But, here’s the rub. If you and I are not reading the Bible on a regular basis, we will never know its truth. According to a Barna Research Group survey, less than 50% of Americans open the Bible in a given week. 82% think that “God helps those who help themselves” is directly from the Bible; 63% cannot name the four Gospels; 58% do not know that Jesus preached the Sermon on the Mount; 52% do not know the book of Jonah is in the Bible.
That reminds me of a story I heard about a religious woman who had to do a lot of flying for her work. Air travel made her extremely nervous, so she always took her Bible along with her to read since it helped her relax on long flights. One time, she found herself sitting next to a man who chuckled and then smirked when she pulled out her Bible.
After awhile, he turned to her and asked, “You don’t really believe all that stuff in there, do you?”
The lady replied, “Of course I do. It is the Bible.”
“Well, what about the guy who was swallowed by the whale?” he asked.
She replied, “Oh, Jonah. Yes, I believe that. It is in the Bible.”
Still smirking, the man asked, “Well, how do you suppose he survived all that time inside the whale?
The lady replied, “Well, I don’t really know. I guess when I get to heaven, I’ll ask him.”
“What if he isn’t in heaven?” the man asked sarcastically.
To which the lady answered, “Then you can ask him.”
This lady received the Bible as the Word of God every part of it. She was devoted to it, just like the believers in the early church, and just like the believers in Berea.
2 -- They Researched The Word
Not only did the Bereans first receive the Word, secondly, they researched the Word. They received the Word because they were of a ready mind. They researched the Word because they had a high regard for truth. Look with me at the last part of verse 11 “…for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.”
These Bereans weren’t content with the word of man. The reasoning of mere mortals was not enough for them. They wanted a more sure word. They wanted a “thus saith the Lord.” And so it says of them that they searched the Scriptures daily to see whether what they were being taught was true or not.
The Bereans listened to Paul’s preaching and received it, and we are told that they did so daily. Just as the Israelites had to gather manna daily, so it is the duty and privilege of Christians to study the word of God every day.
We see that they examined the Scriptures during their daily exposure to God’s truth. In the King James, it says they searched the Scriptures. The literal translation of that word is that they sifted the Scriptures.
[ Hold up strainer ]
The Bereans were like the blessed man of Psalm 1 whose “delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.” They poured over the Bible, comparing Scripture with Scripture, evaluating the word they were hearing from the apostles by the absolute counsel of God’s Word. And that is precisely what we need to do.
What about you? Do you welcome the message of the gospel as the Bereans did? Do you study it daily, with passion, enthusiasm, zeal, delight, and hunger?
What we see here is a strong statement for the Reformation doctrine of the priesthood of the believer everyone can hear directly from God through His Word. That is precisely what we see exemplified in this passage. The Bereans searched the Scriptures because they knew they could hear God. You see, it doesn’t take a theologian or a member of the clergy to interpret the Word of God for you. God gives each of us the Holy Spirit to help us understand it and apply it.
Friends, if we don’t do this daily, we’ll either just accept what someone else says is the truth and be led into error, or we won’t hear what God is saying to us in the first place, and thereby fail to obey Him. These Bereans searched the Scriptures daily. They researched the Word because they had a high regard for the truth.
3 -- They Responded To The Word
Now, let’s take a look at verse 12: “Many of the Jews believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men.” These people received the Word because they were of a ready mind. They researched the Word because they regarded the truth. And, thirdly, they responded to the Word because they knew it was the direct revelation of God.
Notice that the result of their research ended in a response, “Many of the Jews believed…” It was because of their research that they responded. Notice too that many believed it wasn’t just a few. These Bereans responded to the Word because they received the revelation of God as they searched the Scriptures daily. They responded because they were steadfastly devoted to living out what they learned. The Bereans wanted to hear from God -- so that they could live for God.
So many people today want to hear from God before they decide whether they are going to obey what they hear. But they will never hear until they are willing to obey. You see, there is a moral element involved whenever we hear truth. Over and over, Jesus said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” Not everyone is serious about hearing because not everyone is serious about obeying what they hear. In John 7:17 it says, “If any man is willing to do His will, he shall know of the teaching, whether it is of God, or whether I speak from Myself.” A person must be willing to do God’s will in order to have discernment to hear from God. There is a moral element involved in hearing truth.
A couple weeks ago, when I was preaching at a church in Chicago, a man came up to me after the service and told me that he knows what God wants Him to do in a certain situation he just doesn’t know if he should do it. After listening to Him for awhile, I said, “Friend, if you know what God wants you to do then you must do it. To do otherwise is to disobey Him.”
God’s will isn’t all that difficult for us to figure out. The more difficult matter is our will are we willing to obey what He says.
Friend, are you willing to do His will once He has revealed it to you? That is the real question we need to answer. Let’s be like the Bereans. Let’s receive the Word because we are of a ready mind; Let’s research the Word because we have a high regard for the truth; and finally, and perhaps most importantly, Let’s respond to the Word because we have received a revelation from God and we want to obey Him.
Action Steps
Here’s another way to look at how to become fully devoted to Instruction from God’s Word.
We need to first of all, get the Bible into our head. Then we need to get it into our heart. Finally, we need to make sure it gets lived out through our hands. That’s exactly what the Bereans did.
We get the Bible into our head by getting into it. The Word resides in our heart when we let it get into us. And, it’s fleshed out in our daily lives through our hands when we live it out obediently.
Information about the Bible in our heads is not enough. It’s a good starting point, but we can’t stay there. We must move from information to Inward Transformation which takes place in the heart. This inward transformation then leads to Outward Reformation as we determine to live out we know in our heads and what we believe in our hearts. The Bible is not just a textbook to be studied; it is what God uses to change hearts and lives.
We see then that exposure to God’s truth must first inform the head, then transform the heart, and finally reform our hands.
Let me give you some action steps that may help you in these three areas:
1. Getting it into your Head. The best way to get the Bible into your head is to look for ways to be exposed daily to its truth. The primary way for this to happen is by reading the Bible every day. There’s really no other way for this to happen. Most of you have heard this many times before but I don’t know how else to get it into our heads we must get into the Word.
Now, some of you might be thinking, “I’ve tried this before. I’ve read the Bible, but frankly I’m a bit bored and stuck in a rut.” If this is close to what you are thinking this morning, may I suggest that you are not alone? Let me give you a suggestion. Why not find a different translation or paraphrase of the Bible? While it’s certainly a good idea to stick with one translation so that you can develop a greater familiarity with the Bible, sometimes it’s good to vary your reading. Just recently I started using the Living Bible during my Quiet Times and it has helped a lot.
You also might want to follow a Reading Plan or use a Bible that is arranged in daily readings to help you get through the entire Bible in one year. George Muller, the man who started a number of orphanages, and made a tremendous kingdom impact, read through the entire Bible 200 times in his life!
While the primary way to get the Word into our head is through regular reading of the Bible, let me give you some secondary ideas that can help supplement your exposure to the Truth.
Commit to regular Sunday worship attendance if you can (this is difficult for some of you because of work responsibilities). Come with the expectancy that you will hear from God.
Commit to attending a Sunday School class and read the material before and after each session.
Plug into a TLC small group and faithfully prepare each time.
2. Getting it into your Heart. The challenge at a Bible church is to move from the head to the heart. You see, we can get so familiar with the Scripture that it no longer impacts us. In order for inner transformation to take place, we must seek ways to allow the Word to get into us.
One way that has helped me to get the Word into my heart is through journaling. I follow a simple process perhaps it could be helpful for you. In the mornings, I take my Bible and my notebook and ask God to impact me with His word. I read a passage and then write down what I think it means. Sometimes I just copy the passage and then I pray through it. Other times I memorize it. Other times one thing jumps out at me and then I use that as a springboard for prayer and reflection. Let me give you an example…
[ Read part of journal from Wednesday ]
Psalm 119:11 says that we can be kept from sinning as we memorize and meditate on God’s Word in our hearts. Let’s look for ways to do this.
Now, let’s not stop there. Let’s move from the head to the heart to the hands. Let’s go from information to inward transformation to outward reformation.
3. Living it out with our hands. Friends, let me say this bluntly. God gave us the Bible not just so that we fill our heads, or even our hearts, He wants us to take what He’s written and to live it out. As we do, we’ll be known not only as people who honor the Book but also as people who live by the Book.
Friends, let’s determine to live out what we know to be true regardless of the cost, no matter the pain, without regard for the consequences. Let’s just do it.
There’s a moral element to all this, isn’t there? It’s not just what we know, it’s what we do with what we know. The Bible must affect how we live.
What is God asking you to do this morning? Perhaps for some of you, God has been using His Word to get your attention He wants you to stop doing something that you’ve been doing. Don’t ignore Him. Live out what you know in your head and in your heart to be true.
I love what Max Lucado says in one of his recent books, “God loves you just the way you are, but He refuses to leave you that way He wants you to be just like Jesus.” God doesn’t want us to stay just the way we are He’s in the business of changing lives, and He uses His Word to do that.
I’m sure you were moved as I was last week when it was announced that 110 kids prayed to receive Christ as a result of our 5-day Clubs and that 438 were exposed to God’s Word during the summer! It was the Word that moved people in the congregation to serve in this way, and it was the Word that changed lives during these clubs.
I felt bad that we didn’t recognize those who were involved last Sunday so I thought we should do it today. I’d like to have all the adult leaders, the host home owners, and the student missionaries stand right now.
[ Ask people to stand who were in 5-day clubs ]
We’re saved to serve, aren’t we? We’ve been taught so that we can teach others. We’ve been given spiritual gifts so that we can be mobilized for ministry. We’re going to talk more about that next Sunday.
Billy Graham
One night, about 50 years ago, a young man was experiencing some doubts about the Bible so he cried out to God in prayer and said this, “Oh, God, I do not understand it all, but I am willing to believe it and willing to obey it.”
Billy Graham later wrote: “I discovered the secret that changed my ministry. I stopped trying to prove that the Bible was true. I had settled in my own mind that it was, and this faith was conveyed to the audience. Over and over again I found myself saying, “The Bible says.” I felt as though I were merely a voice through which the Holy Spirit was speaking. I found that the Bible became a flame in my hands. That flame melted away unbelief in the hearts of people and moved them to decide for Christ. The Word became like a hammer breaking up stony hearts and shaping them into the likeness of God” (All quotes from “Give Me That Book” by Robert Coleman in The Alliance Witness, January 7, 1987)
All of us stand exactly at that same spot right now. We can do what Billy Graham did. We can say we believe the Word of God is true even though we don’t understand every part of it and we can say that we’re willing to obey it.
Either you believe the Bible is the word of God or you don’t. I believe it is. This church believes the Bible is the Word of God. That’s why the Bible has such a high position around here. That’s why we have a Sunday School. That’s why we have AWANA and a youth ministry. That’s why we have Sunday School teachers. That’s why we have 5-Day Clubs. That’s why we have a Christian School. That’s why we have a Prison Ministry. That is why we send the best and the brightest we have to the ends of the earth with the message of the gospel like Dave and Sharon Spangler who will be sent out from us very shortly. That’s why we’re called Pontiac Bible Church. That’s why we do everything that we do. We have decided that the Bible is the Word of God and we are going to stand upon it.
A Standing Vote
I’d like you to stand with me right now, and as you stand I’d like you to hold your Bible in your right hand. I’m going to read from our “Church Doctrinal Statement.”
[ Read from Church Doctrinal Statement ]
Do you believe those statements of faith about the Bible? If so, say, “I do.”
We started this morning with some questions about Bible content. Now, I’d like to ask you some questions that have to do with … our heads, our hearts, and our hands.
If you are ready to become fully devoted to Instruction in God’s Word, by modeling the Berean believers, then answer with “I will.”
1. Will you receive the Word with eagerness by doing whatever it takes to get it into your head?
2. Will you research the Word with regularity by getting it into your heart?
3. Will you respond to the Word with obedience by living it out with your hands?
Closing Prayer
