Acts 17 Round Two: Be A Berean

A city erupts, a city listens, and a city debates—Acts 17 shows three worlds colliding with the same unshakable message. We follow Paul through Thessalonica, Berea, and Athens to uncover a timeless pattern for wise discernment and courageous witness. Along the way, we highlight the Bereans, who model how to listen eagerly and test everything by Scripture, and we trace Paul’s bold move into the Areopagus, where he engages philosophers without diluting the gospel.

We start with Paul’s strategy in the synagogue, reasoning from the Scriptures that Jesus is the promised Messiah. The response in Thessalonica is intense: some believe, others rally a mob. Then comes Berea, where the people search the Scriptures daily to verify the message. Their posture becomes our blueprint for spiritual discernment—welcoming new ideas, yet measuring every claim against the authority of God’s Word. That kind of daily, thoughtful examination cultivates resilient faith and guards the church from trends that sound spiritual but stray from truth.

Next, we step into Athens, a marketplace of idols and ideas. Paul studies the city, notices an altar to an unknown god, and starts where his audience is. He connects their search to the Creator who made everything, is near to all, and commands all people to repent. He quotes their poets to build a bridge, then anchors the conversation in the resurrection of Jesus. Some scoff, some ask for more, and some believe. The lesson is clear: use culture as a tool to carry the message, but never let culture edit the message.

By the end, two takeaways stand out. Be a Berean—let Scripture be your objective standard. And follow Paul’s example—engage your world thoughtfully, speak with clarity, and trust God with the results. If this resonates, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review to help more people discover the Bible Breakdown Podcast. What’s one idea you’ll test against Scripture this week?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:00):
Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast.
Every day, we take one chapterof the Bible, dig deeper, and
discover that the more we dig,the more we find.
You can find out more at theBibleBreakdown.com.
Now let's grow in God's Wordtogether.
Well, hello and welcome back tothe Bible Breakdown Podcast with
your host, Pastor Brandon.
Today, Acts chapter 17.

(00:22):
And if I were to give this atitle, it would be Be a Berean.
Be a Berean.
We're going to talk about what aBerean is in just a little
while.
But of course, as always, if youlike what we're doing here, make
sure you like, share, andsubscribe on our YouTube
channel.
Make sure you're commenting downbelow so we can engage with
God's word together.
And if you're listening on thepodcast, leave us a five-star
review and go to our Facebookgroup, a Bible Breakdown

(00:45):
Discussion, and let us know whatyou're finding.
Because the more we dig, themore we find.
And as we've been sayingthroughout this whole thing, is
that, man, the doctor-turnedinvestigative journalist, Luke,
inspired by the Holy Spirit, iswriting about the birth and
growth of the church.
And what we see over and overand over again is that this,

(01:07):
we've been saying this, that ifyou were voted most likely to
succeed by your peers, ifeverybody loves you and they
just think you're an awesomeperson, I want to tell you some
good news.
God can still use you.
But most often he uses the leastlikely to succeed, the ordinary,
the common, the one that nobodytalks about.

(01:27):
That's the one that God doesamazing things through.
And we get to see that as we sawin the first half, where God
took ordinary fishermen and usedthem to shake up the known
world.
And then when we shifted in Acts12 and 13 to now, you know, Luke
is actually traveling with Paulon now his second missionary
journey.

(01:47):
We see this washed-up Phariseeturn just firebrand for the
gospel and just sharing the goodnews everywhere he goes.
What we're going to see today iswe're just going to walk with
Paul as he's going through thesedifferent Roman cities and just
sharing the good news.
And what we're going to comeacross in the middle are these
people from a place calledBerea.

(02:09):
And I love the way they take thegospel.
I love what they do.
And I think there's a greatlesson for us on the idea of
just being a Berean.
But let's get there first.
If you have your Bibles openwith me to Acts chapter 17,
let's start reading our NewLiving Translation, verse 1.
Paul and Silas then traveledthrough the towns of Amphipolis

(02:31):
and Apollonia and came toThessalonica, which by the way,
that's where he would eventuallywrite 1st and 2nd Thessalonians,
where there was a Jewishsynagogue.
He, or as was Paul's custom, hewent into the synagogue service,
and for three Sabbaths in a row,he used the scriptures to reason
with the people.
He explained the prophecies andproved that the Messiah must

(02:55):
suffer and rise from the dead.
He said, This Jesus I'm tellingyou about is the Messiah.
Some of the Jews who listenedwere persuaded and joined Paul
and Silas, along with manyGod-fearing Greek men and quite
a few prominent women.
But some of the Jews werejealous, so they gathered some
troublemakers from themarketplace to form a mob and

(03:17):
start a riot.
They attacked the home of Jason,searching for Paul and Silas so
they could drag them out of thecrowd.
Not finding them there, theydragged out Jason and some of
the believers instead and tookthem before the city council.
Paul and Silas have causedtrouble all over the world, they
shouted, and now they are here,disturbing our city too.

(03:38):
And Jason has welcomed them tohis home.
They are all guilty of treasonagainst Caesar, for they profess
allegiance to another king namedJesus.
The people of the city, as wellas the city council, were thrown
into turmoil because of thesereports.
So the officials forced Jasonand the other believers to post
bond, and then they releasedthem.

(04:00):
So another city, same story.
The Jewish people start to getjealous, start to lie, and then
just things start to happen.
Verse 10, that very night, thisis where the Bereans come in.
That very night, the believerssent Paul and Silas to Berea.
When they arrived there, theywent to the Jewish synagogue.
Now watch what somethingdifferent happens in this city.

(04:20):
And the people of Berea weremore open-minded than those in
Thessalonica, and they listenedeagerly to Paul's message.
Listen, they searched thescriptures day after day to see
if Paul and Silas were teachingthe truth.
As a result, many Jewishbelievers as did, believed, as
did many prominent Greek womenand men.

(04:42):
But when some Jews ofThessalonica, Lord help us,
learned that Paul was preachingthe word of God in Berea, they
went there and stirred uptrouble.
And the believers acted at once,sending Paul onto the coast
where Silas and Timothy remainedbehind.
Those escorting Paul went withhim all the way to Athens.
Then they returned to Berea withinstructions for Paul or for

(05:03):
Silas and Timothy to hurry andjoin him.
Well I love about what theBereans did is they listened,
but then they didn't believehim.
They looked to the scriptures,and they looked to the
scriptures to tell them what wastrue.
That is one of the number oneways to discern a false teacher
from a true teacher.
Is don't take what they say atfirst, let the scriptures speak.

(05:25):
And if God's word is true, thenit will agree with God's word.
If it's not true, it won'tagree.
How good could we do if webecame Bereans in our mindset
and let God's word be the truththat we establish our life on?
And then whatever wants to come,let it come.
But it has to agree with God'sword, or I'm not going to pay
attention.

(05:46):
Be a Berean.
Verse 14.
While Paul was waiting for themin Athens, he was deeply
troubled by all of the idols hesaw everywhere in the city.
And he went to the synagogue toreason with the Jews and the
God-fearing Gentiles, and hespoke daily in the public square
to all who happened to be there.
He also had a debate with someof the Epicureans and Stoic

(06:07):
philosophers.
When he told them about Jesusand the resurrection, they said,
What is this babbler trying tosay with these strange ideas he
has picked up?
Other says, He seemed to bepreaching about some foreign
gods.
Then they took him to the highcouncil of the city.
Come, tell us about this newteaching, they said.
See, you are saying that somerather strange things, and we

(06:30):
want to know what it's allabout.
It should be explained that allthe Athenians, as well as the
foreigners in Athens, seemed tospend all their time discussing
the latest ideas.
So Paul, standing before thecouncil, addressed them as
follows, Men of Athens, I noticethat you're very religious in
every way.
For as I was walking along, Isaw many shrines.

(06:51):
One of your altars had thisinscription on it, to an unknown
God.
This God, whom you worshipwithout knowing, is the one I'm
telling you about.
He is the God who made the worldand everything in it.
Since he is the Lord of heavenand earth, he doesn't live in
man-made temples.
He are and human hands can'tserve his needs, for he has no

(07:14):
needs.
He himself gives life and breathto everything.
He satisfies every need.
From one man he created all thenations throughout the whole
earth.
He decided beforehand when theyshould rise and fall, and he
determined their boundaries.
His purpose was for the nationsto seek God and perhaps feel

(07:34):
their way toward him and findhim, though he is not far from
any one of us.
For in him we live and move andexist.
As some of your own prophetshave said, we are his offspring.
And since this is true, weshouldn't think that God as an
eye was an idol designed bycraftsmen of gold or silver or

(07:54):
stone.
God overlooked people'signorance about these things in
earlier times, but now hecommands everyone everywhere to
repent of their sins and turn tohim.
For he has set a day for judgingthe world with justice by the
man he has appointed, and heproved to everyone who this was
by rising him from the dead.

(08:14):
When they heard Paul speak aboutthe resurrection of the dead,
some laughed in contempt, butothers said, We want to hear
more about this later.
And that ended Paul's discussionwith them.
But some of them joined andbecame believers.
Among them were Dionysus, amember of the council, and a
woman named Demarius, and otherswith them.
So what Paul is doing is he'susing everything he can,

(08:38):
including modern philosophiesand what would be considered
then, not necessarilytechnologies, but what was
considered important of the day,the modern cultures, modern
customs, in order to help themunderstand the good news.
And I think that's important forus to understand today.
Two of the main takeaways wecould take is number one, be a
Berean.
When anything comes your way,don't listen to it and believe

(09:00):
it.
Don't listen to it and throw itaway.
Always listen to it and let itsee if it can be applied to
God's word.
If God's word agrees, then giveit space.
If it doesn't agree, throw itaway.
But let your objective standardbe God's word.
The second thing is to learn alesson from Paul.
Paul used modern customs, moderncultures in order to assist him

(09:23):
in preaching the gospel.
Now, one of the challenges wehave in the modern church is we
don't always use modern cultureto assist us.
Sometimes we become a slave ofmodern culture and then we try
to find a way to make it allfit.
The message never changed.
The culture assisted him indoing so.
That's why I think it'swonderful for us to use
technology in church.

(09:44):
Why it's okay to use lights inchurch, why it's okay if we use
different kinds ofinstrumentation and to use
different technologies.
But the gospel stays the same.
So the joy we've been given isto use everything we have to
bring light and hope to everyonearound us.
What a wonderful privilege we'vebeen given today.
Let's pray together.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you for the opportunityyou have given us to bring light

(10:07):
and hope.
And the opportunity, Lord, tofound our lives on your word.
And then according to your word,live in freedom every day.
We thank you for that.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
Don't forget what Jesus said inActs 1, verse 8.
What did He say?
You will receive power when theHoly Spirit comes upon you, and
you will be my witnesses to theends of the earth.

(10:29):
My prayer today is that you willreceive that power and you will
be God's witnesses to the endsof your world today.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Actschapter 18.