Acts 24:1-27 (Week 39 - Life in the Spirit)

Let me set the scene a little bit for you before we jump into Acts 24, because this is a continuation of some things that we have been learning about over the last several weeks, over the last several chapters in Acts. And what we've seen is that the apostle Paul has come back from his third missionary journey, where he had gone traveling around telling other people the good news of Jesus, how how Jesus had changed his life and how their lives could be changed by Jesus as well, and as he came back to Jerusalem, the Jerusalem religious Jewish leaders didn't like it. They didn't like that Paul was traveling around telling other people that Jesus offered salvation to all people, regardless of whether they were Jewish or whether they were Gentiles, they didn't like it that they were that Paul and his team were telling other people that Jesus had died on the cross for their sins. They didn't like it that he was telling them that Jesus had been resurrected from the dead, and that that salvation to all people was offered simply by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone, and so they began to form a riot. There was a mob that tried to attack Paul, and that got the attention of the Romans, and the Roman commander

arrested Paul to try to figure out what was going on and to keep him safe. And so Paul is in jail. He's in Roman custody. He's been trying to figure out what's going on. And then there were these plots to even try to kill Paul when he was being transferred from one place to another. And so the Roman commander had him secretly escorted to Caesarea from Jerusalem to Caesarea to see the governor. His name is Felix. And now, as we get into chapter 24, we're going to learn about what happens as he appears before the governor Felix. Luke in chapter 24, beginning in verse one, says five days later. So five days after the apostle Paul had

arrived there, the high priest Ananias went down to Caesarea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, and they brought their charges against Paul before the governor. The high priest Ananias, and all these elders were part of the Jewish Sanhedrin, kind of the Jewish supreme court, if you will, and that's who Paul appeared before last week, and they were the ones who were overseeing things and trying to rule over him. But this was Roman law; this was under the Roman legal system, and so they needed to make sure Tertullus, who was a Roman lawyer who was more familiar with the Roman law, could bring the charges against Paul that could actually stick and do something about him. So this is the way that Tertullus starts. It says, when Paul was called in, Tertullus presented his case before Felix. He said, "We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation, everywhere and in every way. Most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude. But in order not to weary you further, because I could go on and on about how great you are, Felix. I would request that you be kind enough to hear us briefly. You can obviously see the flattery here that he knows that if he kind of butters him up, if you will, then he's got a better chance of him listening to him and maybe ruling in his favor. The problem is, is this just wasn't true. I mean, Felix was not a great guy. He was known for corruption and making life miserable for the Jewish people. And so he none of this is really true. He's just trying to say as many nice nice things as he can to flatter him and and get his attention. And now that he's got it, he enters into making his case in verse five. He says, "We have found this man to be a troublemaker, stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He's a ringleader of the Nazarene sect and even tried to desecrate the temple, so we seized him. There are four charges that Tertullus is making against Paul here, according to the Roman legal system. The very first one is that he is a troublemaker. In your version of the Bible, it may say pest, or it could say he's a he's a plague. These are different words that are used to translate the Greek word there. It means that he's a public menace, someone who was malignant. It just causes all manner of trouble. It was it was used of criminals, people who were a danger to the public, and so they're trying to to charge him with being a danger to the public. The second thing that he's being charged.

With is stirring up riots. Now this is no small thing, because you may remember that the Romans prided themselves in keeping the peace. It was all about maintaining order and keeping the peace, and now they're charging him with stirring up riots and not keeping the peace. And so this was certainly a big thing that they were accusing him of. The third thing, as you see

here, is that he is a being accused of being a ringleader of the Nazarene sect. Well, what is that? Well, Jesus is from Nazareth, so he's associating him as a follower of the way of Jesus from Nazareth, and he's calling it a sect. In other words, he's trying to make sure that Felix knows that this is not part of Judaism;

that it is broken off from Judaism, and this is his own thing, his own little group. He's he's trying to rebel against Rome by forming this separate group, and that too was a big deal because Judaism was a legal religion. Like it was legal for the Jewish people to

worship God and have their religion Judaism, but it was against the law to have a separate thing to create a new thing, and they're charging him as starting something new and it's all part of rebelling against the government and this troublemaking thing that stirs up riots everywhere. and And then the fourth charge is that he desecrated the temple, and this goes back to a previous chapter when he was charged with having a Gentile, bringing a Gentile into the innermost part of the temple or the inner parts of the temple, which again was against the law. This was no small thing either. The Romans even actually allowed the Jews to use capital punishment for Gentiles entering into this particular area because it was such a big deal. So these are these are no small things. I mean, Paul is a troublemaker. He's a rebeller. He stirs up riots. He doesn't maintain the peace. He started this whole new thing. He's desecrating our temple, and you should do something about it because he is a he is a dangerous man. Is what he's trying to say.

Well, now that he's done, he begins to wrap it up. Now you may notice if you're following along in your own Bibles, or even if you're following along up here, that it's got verse number seven in brackets, and there are no words there at all. And we've gone over this before when we've been going verse by verse. There are some older manuscripts that have something written in here, but the earliest copies of manuscripts that we have of what was originally written, there is no verse seven there. And so, what most likely happened is that there was a scribe who was copying down the text, who who added these this one little sentence in here, and it's it's not like it changes much. He's just filling in something that happened to make sure we knew what was happening. But again, most likely it wasn't there in the original, and so that's why it's highlighted in this particular way. Anyway, Tertullus says by examining him, he's talking to Felix again. So by examining him yourself, you will be able to learn the truth about all these charges we are bringing against him, and so he's he's made his case in going, oh great, most excellent Felix, you've got this, you you know the truth, you'll be able to rule against him, you got this, and then Luke says that the other Jews, after he finished, joined in the accusation, asserting that these things were true, so everybody behind him. Yeah, he is a troublemaker. He is a dangerous guy, and this is a whole sect. And he did desecrate our temple, and so they're they're all joining in at this point. Paul finally gets a chance to speak. Verse 10, when the governor motioned for him to speak, Paul replied, "I know that for a number of years you have been a judge over this nation, so I gladly make my defense. What do you notice that's different there than the way Tertullus started?

There's not all the flattery. He's not going to make up a bunch of lies and try to tell him things that weren't necessarily true. He's he's respectful. We know that you've been a leader around for years, and so I'm happy. I can now defend myself against these charges. Verse 11. You can easily verify. He says that no more than 12 days ago, I went up to Jerusalem to worship, not to start a riot, to worship. My accusers did not find me arguing with anyone at the temple or stirring up a crowd in the synagogues, or anywhere else in the city, and they cannot prove to you the charges that they are now making against me. And so, first of all, to combat the charges, Paul Paul says, "Man, it wasn't even 12 days ago. I've been here five, and it took me a while to get here, and then I had a night in jail over there, and so I went in, and then."

Long enough to start a whole riot, and by the way, I was there to worship, and he's going to go more into that later. But he's saying you can ask anybody around that I wasn't starting anything. These charges are certainly not true. He's just defending each one of these things that they just brought up against him. But now he says, however, I will tell you what is true, right? So here's here's what is true. Verse 14, I admit that I worship the God of our ancestors as a follower of the way which they call a sect. I believe everything that is written in accord or that is in accordance with the law and that is written in the prophets, and I have the same hope in God as these men themselves have, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man. One of the things that Paul was charged with was what being the the ringleader of this Nazarene sect, this whole different thing than Judaism-that's just this rebellious group that has nothing to do with with with us who are Jews and and under Judaism. And Paul's going, that's not true at all. And look at all the things that he kind of highlights and points here. He he tells Felix, "Listen, I I worship the God of our ancestors, lumping himself in with the Jews that he is Jewish, and the same God that he worships is the God of the Jews, the one true God who's the Creator of all things. And he clearly says, "Listen, as a follower of the way, as a Christian, as someone who follows the way of Jesus, they may call it a sect, but he says, listen. I believe everything, everything that is written in the law and the prophets. Now, first of all, that is good for us to even think about today, outside of what he's using it for here, because there can sometimes be a tendency for us to go to the Bible and highlight the things that we really like that it says here, and those are true, and they're true for me in my life, and we ignore and and we go, well, those things aren't really true, and we kind of brushes. We don't believe everything that's written in here, but we have to put ourselves under the authority of it because it's under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, God Himself, that we have the words that are written here and reveals the truth to us. But in other words, what He's trying to say is that the law under Judaism, everything that's written in the prophets, all of this is not some separate thing than the group I am a part of right now. As the way, it's a continuation of it. It's the fulfillment of everything that's written in the Old Testament, the Messiah that was to come. This is the same thing that Jesus did on the road to Emmaus after his resurrection. Remember, after he rose from the dead, and on the road to Emmaus, and he appears before the the guys that were walking, and and they were whining, and oh man, have you not heard about Jesus? And he he died. We thought he was the one, and then he died, and then he's going, guys, you're idiots. He's like, let me just show you. And he goes to the Old Testament and he says, starting with Moses and the prophets, he showed them everything that it said under the old covenant in the scriptures about who he was and that he was the one who was the fulfillment of all of those

those prophecies. And and so his point again is that you don't have to worry about the way

these Christians, because this is a fulfillment of Judaism. It's not some separate thing. So that whole charge about me not being tied into it-that's not really true. You don't have to worry about that kind of thing. Paul goes on in verse 17. After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings. I was

ceremonially-that is sometimes a hard word, evidently to say on stage. Clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this, there was no crowd with me, nor was I involved in a disturbance. Now, if you were here for our series earlier, you may remember that Paul was traveling around two different New Covenant churches and telling them about the poor in Jerusalem, and that if they made themselves available by God's grace, Jesus would prompt them to give. He would provide for them. He would empower them to give, and it would go to God's kingdom work and what he was doing there. They had given. They were taking that collection from the third missionary journey back to Jerusalem. So he's just telling Felix, "Listen, they're trying to say I was there to start a riot. Do you know what I was really there for? To give money to."

The poor and that money. By the way, after they get it, guess where it was going to go back into Governor Felix, the Roman economy. So this is a good thing for you that I was even doing this thing. I wasn't there to start a riot. I was there to also present offerings, offerings of of thanksgiving to my God who had seen me through all of these journeys, and to just glorify Him for all the people who had become new creations in Christ, and and I was not involved in any disturbance at all. and And you can ask other people; they'll testify that that was true.

But there are Paul goes on and says, but there are some Jews from the province of Asia who ought to be here before you and bring charges if they have anything against me, or these who are here should state what crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin, unless it was this one thing I shouted as I stood in their presence. It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today. You may remember that when Paul was at the temple, it was these Jews from the province of Asia. Not even the Jews, religious leaders that were there in Jerusalem. They're the ones that came down and actually started a riot, they were the ones that accused him of these things. And under Roman law, if you accused someone of something, you were supposed to show up in court to continue to make your accusations against them. And so Paul's bringing up and going, by the way, if somebody's here to accuse me, and it wasn't even these guys who were here today, and it was the other guys. Then where are they? You're going to have to throw this out, Felix, because they're not even here. And so he's just continuing to bring all of these things up, and he says, you know, I don't even know what they're really talking about since I've refuted all these other things. And he says, why I'm really here? What I'm really here for is because I proclaim the resurrection of Jesus Christ, that He died on the cross for the forgiveness of all of our sins, Jews and Gentiles. That God raised Him from the dead, vindicating Him, proving that He was the Messiah that was to come. That's why I'm really on trial here.

Verse 22. Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the way, adjourned the proceedings. When Lysias the commander comes, he said, "I will decide your case. Lysius, remember, was the Roman commander who had him arrested in in Jerusalem. So when he gets here,

which that really, as far as we know, never really happened, and you'll see why here in just a minute. Verse 23. He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard, but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs. Several days later, Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish. Now, Drusilla

and Felix are about to meet with Paul, but let me just make you aware of who she is and how their marriage came about, and a little bit more about them, because this will set the scene for what we're going to see when they actually meet with Paul in just a moment. Drusilla

was Felix's third wife. She was one of the daughters of Herod Agrippa the first, who was responsible. You may remember in Acts chapter 12 for murdering James, not James the brother of Jesus, but James the brother of John, the disciple James. So, so her father was responsible for murdering James. Drusilla's great uncle was Herod and Antipas, who was the one who had John the Baptist beheaded, and then her great grandfather was Herod the Great, who you may remember was the one responsible for murdering all of the babies, those who were two years old and under in Bethlehem. And so this was her background. This was the lineage that she came from, and what she was aware of with in regards to Jesus and followers of the way and all the above, she too had also been married before. She was young. She was only 16 years old, and Felix was just infatuated with her. She was described as someone who was the most beautiful girl in all of the the area or the the the empire, and and he couldn't control himself. He just had to have her, and so there's this weird story about how he hired some magician dude to help him figure out a way to lure her away from her husband and and and convince her to come marry him, and and it worked. He did, and so again, this is not really a good guy, as we talked about earlier, and we're continuing to see it here. But but now that we know a little bit more about her and how they came together, look at what happens next.

It says he, Felix, sent for Paul and listened to him.

As he spoke about faith

in Christ Jesus, now notice that. So he speaks about faith in Christ Jesus. That's what they're speaking about. And as Paul was speaking about faith in Christ Jesus, he talked about righteousness and self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid after talking about those things and said, "That's enough for now.

You may leave, and when I find it, when I find it more convenient, I will send for you. At the same time, he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe. Again, a corrupt guy, no self-control, and so he sent for him frequently and talked with him, hoping he would get a bribe. And then Paul finishes this chapter up and says, when two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison.

This whole chapter has been about what happened in one day, in these little meetings that we were having. All of a sudden, oh yeah! And after two years,

Paul, who refuted every single charge that they had against him, none of them were actually true,

has now spent two

years,

over 700 days in prison.

Every day, every night, as an innocent man.

What an injustice!

It's the kind of thing that when we we

see that can make you angry, like gosh, why

does that have to happen?

It can be the kind of thing that a lot of unbelievers will point to about God. Well, I mean, if God's going to allow things like that to happen to good people, then I don't even know if there really is a God, and so why should I believe in

one?

Most commentators believe that during this two-year period, because Felix allowed visitors to come and go, that Doctor Luke, who was responsible for writing the Gospel of Luke and Acts that we're studying verse by verse over the last however many months it's been that Luke visited him during this two-year time and had more conversations with Paul to learn even more about his missionary journeys and to hear his testimonies about things to gather the information that we're reading about and studying about this morning so that we could know about the early church and how God spread this all throughout that took it from Judea to Samaria to the ends of the earth that we're reading about here. What am I getting at?

Even when it seems like good things, bad things are happening to someone good. This is an injustice. What's the point? This is stupid.

One more thing to just show us once again that God is at work, even behind the scenes when you and I can't see what He's doing,

and so we trust that same thing even when we're walking through that. And I love how our band alluded to that earlier in certain scriptures before we were able to sing, as well. Let's go back, and with the rest of our time, I want to focus on what we see happening here. Because again, when Drusilla and Felix met with Paul, we learned that he shared about faith in Christ Jesus, as we said, and that talking about faith in Christ Jesus, he talked about righteousness, self-control, and judgment to come. Now, when we're talking about these things here,

we need to understand that Paul would have talked about them in two different

ways-kind of a negative side of righteousness and self-control and the judgment to come, but then there also being a positive side to these things because we know

and have the other teachings of Paul around these areas when it comes to teaching about faith in Jesus Christ. And so, to fully understand what's going on here, and maybe the reaction and why he's having it, and what it means for us today, let's look at a couple of those things now. Especially first on the negative side, the apostle Paul is the one who wrote the letter to the church at Rome, and in Romans three he declares that there

is no one what

righteous, no one. When it comes to this whole righteousness thing, there's no one. There's no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God. All have turned away. There is no one who does good, not even

one. So Felix, standing here.

Listening to this, going oh, there's no one, no one righteous.

I'm, you know, I'm not righteous. He's learning about these kinds of things.

Paul would go on and say this: for we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are

all under what the power of sin. In other words, so oh yeah, and along the lines of there not being anyone righteous, this whole self-control thing-you think that you can through self-control become righteous, but that's not going to happen. Guess why? Because all people are under the power of sin. There is no way under your self-control to make yourself righteous by learning to behave better and become a better person, and so he says. Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law through self-control and trying to become a better person. No one is going to be declared righteous in that way, rather, it's through the law that we become conscious of conscious of our sin, and so you learn that you're not righteous because here's the law, here's the way you have to measure up, and you will fall short every single time. On top of that, he says, "Oh yeah, and because you're unrighteous, and because you don't have enough self control to become righteous, guess what? There's a judgment to come, and it's not good if you're unrighteous and you don't have self-control. Revelation 20:12,

John says, "I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne. The dead were judged. There is a judgment coming. The dead were judged according to what they had done,

and so God is a holy and a just God. He will judge all people. All people will stand before Him, and if we are unrighteous and can't get where we need to be through self-control, then we are doomed, and we deserve the punishment that we will receive an eternal separation from Him,

and so many commentators believe if Paul would have been talking about faith in Christ through the lens of these things and discussing the negative side, then maybe that's why he reacted so scared. You got to leave Paul out. You can come back at a different time or all whenever it's convenient because he didn't, he didn't want to have to deal with these things. He didn't want to have to think about how he didn't have any self-control, which was proven through he had to steal his wife from someone else because he couldn't control himself from stealing someone else's wife. He couldn't control himself from trying to receive bribes. We learn even from Paul here, he was known for his corruption. This made him uncomfortable, as it would certainly make any of us uncomfortable when we begin to see the reality of how bad the bad news of our situation really is, according to the truth, according to Scripture. However,

as we mentioned just a second ago, Paul talked about righteousness,

self-control, and judgment under the umbrella of faith in Christ. Which means there would have been a positive side of this conversation as well through Jesus's finished work on the cross to pay for our sins. Each one of those things become good news, and so look at what the apostle Paul declares in Second Corinthians 521. God made him, who is him, Jesus. God made Jesus, who had no sin, to be sin for

us. Why? Here is the purpose: so that in Christ, in Him, we might become the righteousness of God.

I mean, you you

think about that verse. That is a humbling verse to dwell on.

That God, the Creator of us, who had no sin, left the glory and mercies of heaven to come here to be sin, to take on our sin for us and receive the punishment for the purchase, the the the purpose of of our sins being forgiven. The Holy Spirit coming to dwell in us, uniting us in Christ, so that in Christ through that spiritual union, because He's righteous, we would become the righteousness of God. So since Jesus substituted Himself on the cross, received God's wrath and punishment for us, and when we put our faith and trust in Jesus, we become the righteousness of God and have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us. Then self control becomes a whole nother thing as well. You didn't have it; you couldn't become righteous through it, and it will never get you there, but the Spirit brings you self control, and so we're told there that the fruit of the Spirit, He produces it and does it. One of those is self control. The fruit of the Spirit is self control. So the self control you didn't have, you now have in.

Christ, you don't need to learn

how to have better self-control. You need to just exercise the self-control that you have in Christ because you have it. And some of us who are believers need to understand that and own that truth as well because we walk around all the time and lives don't have any self-control. If I could just get some, you've got it if you put your faith and trust in Jesus, and when you learn you've got it, that can be the thing that helps you now exercise the self control you have in Christ. Because you go, oh, I don't have to find it. It's not something I have to muster up in myself. I have it in Christ, so I can just exercise what I already have in Christ. That seems a lot easier to do,

and it

is. This is the gospel. and so this is the good side of those things. And and and because you're righteous,

there will be no judgment. I mean, this doesn't mention judgment, but it highlights at it right here. Watch this. This is Paul once again. He says, "And you also were included in Christ when when you heard the gospel, when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, when you believed, in that moment something changed. You were marked in Him with the seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit. What's that word?

Guaranteeing. There is no doubt,

no if, no maybe, guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of His glory, and so when we stand before Jesus as the Judge, it will not be good for those who are unrighteous.

But when we can stand before Him and in Christ, I

have been made righteous. Then it becomes good news. You and I don't have anything to worry about. Our deposit, our our inheritance, is guaranteed there. And so this is all part of the gospel, the good news of faith in Jesus Christ that Paul would have talked about as well when talking about righteousness, self-control,

and the judgment to come.

So if Paul got around to that,

why would Felix be so scared?

Why would he be afraid, and why would he leave?

Well, either he didn't allow him to get there, he got to the negative side and just bailed. But you can also see that that is also a response that we even see in some people today, because guys, grace is offensive to pride.

Grace is offensive to pride. I mean, the gospel confronts our self sufficiency. We want to believe that we control our own lives, that we can do what we want to do because it feels good to us. It's right for us. We want to be our own God, and grace is offensive to our pride. And so, the struggle for Felix could also be that he, as someone who was

a powerful person of influence in the most powerful empire of the world, would have to agree that he,

even he,

needs God.

I mean, that's offensive to someone who's so powerful and who rules, and he's the judge over all of these people. And how is he going to be seen in front of other people like that? And so I can't have other people seeing that about me. And so it scares him. And what's it going to do with his wife and that situation and the way that he's able to be with her or not be with her? And so he sends him him away. And so this could have been something that was going on as well,

and so as we think about this,

and especially this conversation that he would have had, the way that Paul presents the gospel, this

man, this says something to us today too.

I mean, first of all, if you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you've never said yes to Him. You need to know first and foremost the the negative side of the gospel when it comes to righteousness, self control, and judgment.

That there is no one who is righteous.

That you stand guilty before the God of the universe, who's holy and perfect, and you are not. That you do not have enough self control to ever get you where you think you need to be, to justify yourself before God, and because of that, you will face judgment one day,

and that's the reality of the situation that we all find ourselves in. And if that makes you nervous and that makes you scared, can I be honest with you? It should.

But God doesn't want you to know that, so you'll be nervous and scared. He wants you to know that, so you'll understand the truth about the situation you're in, so you can understand how good the good news of Jesus really is. That if you will put your faith and trust in Him.

Salvation, He will send the Holy Spirit after completely forgiving you, and in Christ you will be made righteous. You will have self-control that you can exercise and change the way you live your life every single day, and you have the freedom of knowing that you will escape the coming wrath, the coming judgment that others will face, and so if that's you,

don't let your pride get in the way of receiving His grace today.

If you've said yes to Jesus, I have two quick things to say to you. Number one, be reminded of the righteousness that you have in Christ; that in Him you are righteous; that you have self-control. That is a matter of exercising the self-control you have in Christ. That you have that freedom. Live in that freedom. Rest in that freedom.

May that change the way you live with an understanding of the truth and that being true about you, but then number two,

life in the spirit for Paul, the spirit prompted him to share the gospel with a powerful person who had influence over him, who he knew it might be offensive to, and that could cause a negative reaction to come back on Paul. Did it keep him from sharing the gospel?

It did not,

because the Spirit laid it on his heart and emboldened him to do so. Many times we today,

gosh, I don't know

if I should share the gospel with with this person, my boss. They're in charge. They're an influence over me. It's going to change our relation. What if it's offensive to them? I mean, it it could impact our relationship, and it could have negative consequences for me.

And so we're hesitant to share the gospel now. Now we don't need to take the the message. Then is to just run in and try to offend someone with the gospel.

There's there's a difference. We do it in love and grace, and we look for the right time and all the things that we're sensitive to with the Spirit. But if it if it happens to offend them and it changes our relationship, I think we would all say, I would have rather taken that chance, knowing there's a judgment that is coming for them,

than avoided it for selfish reasons, to go it may make our relationship awkward,

and so maybe the lesson for a lot of us is to go. Who are you leading me to share with? Even if it could change our relationship, and they could react offensively in the same way that maybe Felix reacted, and to trust him with even that today.

Let's pray.