Acts 24:22-27
~11 min read
TRANSCRIPT
NOTE: Apologies for the incomplete transcript. Technical difficulties were encountered and the recording was ended early thus the transcript is also incomplete.
The Jewish leaders had engaged an orator, a lawyer, to bring charges to Felix against Paul. Paul had represented himself, and he represented himself by simply speaking the truth in a very accurate and systematic way. He spoke about his time in Jerusalem; he only spent seven days in Jerusalem, and the majority of that time was spent in the purification rites. So, even if Paul wanted to plan and create a riot, he did not have sufficient time to do that. He spoke about his mission in Jerusalem. It was not for the purpose of evangelism but for the purpose of bringing the love gift to support the poor brethren in the Jerusalem Church. Then he went on to talk about the nature of the charges. It was religious and theological in nature. That was why it should not be brought up in a secular court in the first place. It should be thrown out of court. And then he quoted the sequence of events, how the riot started and who were the real instigators. Finally, he spoke about the real accusers: the eyewitnesses. They were certain men from Asia, not these Jewish leaders. So, if the actual eyewitnesses were not present, how could they bring all these charges against him? That was what we have learned last week in Paul's defence before Felix.
Tonight we want to see how Felix responded to Paul's defence. Felix knew that Paul was a Roman citizen. There were no eyewitnesses who had come forward to testify that Paul was guilty. He had committed a crime. As far as the Roman law was concerned, it was not a crime to believe in the resurrection. The Sanhedrin Council was not able to find Paul guilty. Let us learn some spiritual lessons from this passage that deals with the response of Felix.
I. Man Running Away From the Truth
Our first point is “Man Running Away From the Truth”. Let us begin with verse 22: "And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of that way,” which means after Paul had explained to him that the Christians were not a heretical group or political troublemakers, he now had a more complete understanding of Christianity. That is the meaning of a more perfect knowledge of that way. Paul had introduced Christianity as that way, in line with what our Lord Jesus Himself has said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh [to] the Father, but by me” (John 14:6). Now if Paul could not be proven guilty, then according to the Roman’s law, he should immediately be released, right? But Felix was afraid to do that because he knew that such a verdict would stir up the Jewish leaders and perhaps lead to further chaos and unrest. So instead of confronting the truth as it was, he tried to avoid it. Look at the second part of verse 22, “he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter.” The word deferred means to put off, to postpone, in other words, to adjourn the trial until the chief captain Claudius Lysias had come down to Caesarea from Jerusalem.
The question is, was he truthful and genuine in postponing the case in order to find out the truth? I don't think so. The reason why I don't think so is because remember the chief captain Claudius Lysias had already given to Felix a written statement, a written report. And in that report, he had made it very clear that this whole matter was about the Jewish law. So it was beyond the jurisdiction of Rome, and he stated briefly that Paul was not guilty of any crime. You can read about that in Acts 23:29. And there was no record that Felix had actually called Paul to come down to Caesarea to testify. Personally I believe that Felix was just buying time. He was just trying to run away from the truth. He knew that Paul was not guilty. The right thing to do was to release him immediately. But he was afraid of the Jewish leaders. He knew what the Jewish leaders were capable of doing. So the best thing to do was to avoid it, to run away from the truth, not to get involved, shift the responsibility to someone else, someone like Claudius Lysias. Even if Claudius Lysias were to come down to Caesarea and testify that Paul was not guilty, he was truly innocent, well, the Jewish leaders would blame Claudius Lysias, not him. So this man was trying to run away from the truth.
My friends, if one day you have been confronted by the truth, as in to speak the truth or not, but if you speak the truth, it will offend someone. Let's say that someone is very prominent and influential, and you may face some serious consequences, some backlashes and repercussions. The easiest way is to avoid it, right? The easiest way is to say, “Well, I do not want to get involved in this matter. I do not want to be implicated. It is not my business anyway.” The difficult thing to do is to confront the truth straight in the face and then to face whatever consequences that may come your way for the sake of the truth. What will you do? Allow me to say this to you: whatever you do will determine what kind of a person you are.
Let me give you an example. If one day your colleague was implicated in a particular case, she was accused of something she did not do, you knew the truth, and she knew you knew the truth. But you were afraid of offending your boss. You were afraid of losing your job, and because of that, you said, “Well, please, I do not want to get involved in this matter. I do not want to be implicated. Please keep me out of this matter.” How do you think your colleague will feel about you? You have just revealed to your colleague what kind of a person you are. When speaking the truth has no cost to pay, think about this. When speaking the truth puts you in a good light in front of everyone, and everyone says, 'You are a nice person. You are a wonderful person. No one has any issue in speaking the truth in such a situation. But when speaking the truth will cost you something, there is a price to pay, there is a consequence you have to face. Then when you still speak the truth and face whatever consequences that may come your way, it will reveal who you really are.
Do you think Paul did not know what kind of a person Felix was? He stood before Felix; he presented the whole truth. He presented all the facts and records, and this was the response he has gotten from this Roman governor. Most certainly, he knew what kind of a man Felix was. So how you and I respond in a given situation where this opportunity is given to us to speak the truth or to avoid it because of anticipated troubles will reveal who we really are. Think about this. Look at verse 23: “And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let him have liberty,”— or freedom— “and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him.” Which means the centurion should not stop any of Paul's friends from visiting him. I do not think that Felix did all this because he was kind, generous, and gracious to Paul. He could not help it because, as a Roman citizen, Paul had his rights.
I remember those days when I was actively involved in the prison ministries in Singapore. There were two kinds of prison institutions: prison as in real prison and remand prisons. Prisons were for those people who were already found guilty, and remand prisons were for those who were remanded waiting to be tried. So legally, they were still innocent until proven guilty. So those people who were in the remand prisons, they were given certain privileges and rights like having family visitations, meetings with lawyers, and so forth, very similar to what was practiced in those days. Therefore, Felix allowed Paul to have certain freedom. His friends could visit and minister to him. They would make his life a little more comfortable by providing for his needs. In other words, Paul was kept under guard, but he was not in close confinement. So here we see men running away from the truth, avoiding the truth, trying to see if there's a chance they need not deal with the truth; someone else may come in to deal with the truth, like the chief captain Claudius Lysias. Felix was such a man.
II. God Confronting Man With the Truth
Now we move on to our second point “God Confronting Man With the Truth”. To be precise, I'm not referring to God confronting a person with speaking the truth in a particular matter, but rather God confronting a person with something even more important, something eternal. God is confronting a person with the truth of the gospel. Let us look at verse 24, “And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.” Verse 25: “And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” A Jewess was someone belonging to the Jewish nation, whether by birth or by religion.
The Bible does not tell us the reason why both Felix and his wife Drusilla came to speak to Paul. Some people believe that it was Drusilla who had persuaded her husband to do that, just like the case of Pontius Pilate's wife. Remember, she could not sleep because of the Lord Jesus Christ, and she said to her husband, “Have thou nothing to do with that just man: for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him” (Matthew 27:19). So these people believe that Drusilla was quite similar to Pontius Pilate's wife's situation; she was troubled. So she persuaded her husband to speak to Paul. Well, we do not know for sure; the Bible is silent. But one thing we can safely say is that it was by God's providence. God had given to both Felix and his wife Drusilla this opportunity to listen to the gospel. That is the meaning of concerning the faith in Christ. In other words, Paul preached the gospel to both of them. And notice something very interesting. He spoke about three things regarding the gospel: righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come. Some people would ask, “Why these three things, righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come?” Well, history will help us to better understand why Paul would emphasise these three things.
According to historians, Drusilla was the youngest daughter of Herod Agrippa I. She was Felix's third wife. When Drusilla was still in her teens, she was already married to the king of Emesa, which was a province of Syria. But Felix was struck by her beauty, and he wanted her for himself. So he got the help of a magician from Cyprus, and he took Drusilla by force, most likely through deception. So that was the sin of adultery; he snatched the wife of another man, took her for himself. So when Paul preached the gospel to both Felix and Drusilla, he reasoned; he discussed these three things: righteousness, temperance, and the judgment to come.
Righteousness had to do with God's perfect standard. God's standard of righteousness is absolute, perfect. Temperance or self-control had to do with man's failure to respond to God's perfect standard of righteousness, especially Felix and even his wife Drusilla. You see, both of them ought to exercise self-control, but instead of exercising self-control, they had committed the sin of adultery. Because of that one sin alone, the judgment to come was inevitable. Failing to live up to God's standard of righteousness, men like you and me would have to face divine judgment. That was the reason why Paul preached righteousness, temperance, and then the judgment to come. That was also the reason why Felix trembled. Notice, Felix trembled. It was good for him to tremble. Hopefully, that trembling would lead him to repentance and faith in the gospel. That would lead him to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. But instead, look at his response: “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” In other words, go away at this present moment, and when I have more time, when it is more convenient, I will call for you, and then we will speak again.
My friends, isn't that the common response we get from our unbelieving loved ones, our grandparents, our parents, and our children? When we share with them the gospel, they will say to us, “Well, some other time, we will talk about this again. Not at this moment because I'm not free. I'm too busy; I have other things to do. When I have the time, I will call you, and we will speak.” Deep down in our hearts, we know that is not true. That is not what they mean. They just want us to stop talking. They just want us to stop confronting them with the truth of the gospel. When being confronted by the gospel, they want to avoid it. They want to shy away from it. So, they say some other time we will talk again. As we often said, tomorrow may never come. Today is the day of salvation. It's very sad, but that is a reality.
But let us take a moment and consider Paul. Put aside Felix. Paul, who was he preaching the gospel to? Who was he confronting? Felix, the Roman governor, the man who had the authority to sentence him to death. Humanly speaking, when Paul was called to stand before Felix, he could have pleaded for his own case. He could have tried his best to clear his name. He could have done everything he could to speak to Felix, to vindicate himself. That was his best opportunity, but he did none of those things. Instead, he preached the gospel. What does that teach us about the Apostle Paul? He was very gospel-minded. He was only concerned about the souls of men. He was able to look beyond Felix and onto God. So much so that, "You, Felix, you have no authority to do anything to me nor sentence me to death unless God permits." That was the reason why he did nothing about trying to get himself out of his own set predicament but just preached the truth of the gospel.
My friends, when your heart's desire is to speak the truth and defend the truth and share the gospel so that souls may be saved, do you think God does not know? God knows. God knows what is in your heart. You don't have to care about clearing your name. You don't have to worry about vindicating yourself. God will deliver you if he wants to. If he allows troubles, trials, and even death to come upon you, that is his sovereign will. We accept it. We are not afraid. Why? Because in our hearts, we know that we are doing the Lord's will. You and I know that we are speaking the...
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