‘Now these [Bereans] were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so’. Acts 17:11.
When exactly I became a ‘Berean’ at heart I don’t recall. I do remember that I, along with many believers in the Lord of my acquaintance often asserted that we believed the Bible to be the truth of God from cover to cover.
However, as time went by and I started to read the whole Bible I found there were passages of Scripture I skipped rather quickly over. They would challenge me and make me feel ill at ease. Sometimes I came across something that appeared to be contrary to one of my cherished beliefs or practices and I found myself avoiding the issue.
There came a time, however, when I relaxed my concerns and I surrendered myself to trust the Lord in all circumstances; that He would reveal to me in His good time whatever He wished me to know as I gave myself to walk in the path of His choosing.
As a twenty two year old I had found the Lord Jesus in a glorious encounter and knew the real joy of His great salvation. At that time He impressed upon me that His body the church is one and indivisible. He made clear to me that I must hold myself aloof from all divisiveness. Along the road of my spiritual sojourn I am sure I have failed in this from time to time yet, as time has gone by, I have known more and more the joy of accepting all who love Jesus, as I myself would wish to be received.
I asked myself why is there so much division among those of the same professed faith? From that starting point I was led to examine the Scriptures with an increasing dedication to find out what they said. I relied wholly on the Spirit to show me the way of the Lord. What came most clearly forth from this ‘Berean’ approach was that man’s influence had hugely distorted what the Spirit had established following the birth of the church at Pentecost so long before.
The great apostle Paul was given by God a pattern for the establishment of assemblies of believers and their mission and conduct. Self-administering gatherings of believers appeared in many cities across the Roman world to be the Lord’s representatives and His testimony in each location.
The overwhelming fact that has emerged from these studies has been that failure to be and to do what the Lord Jesus desires of His people boils down to one thing. Jesus is not being accorded His rightful place as Lord.
He must be unrivalled Lord of my life and yours. The focus of all our gatherings together, whether of two or three or of two or three thousand must be the Father’s exalted Son, before whom every knee must bow ‘of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’. Philippians 2:10-11.
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