Acts 23:12-24:27 “Before Felix” January 20, 2008
Acts 23:11 sets up the rest of the book:
Take courage, for as you have testified to
the facts about me in Jerusalem,
so you must testify also in Rome.
The rest of the book (the last six chapters)
are all about how Paul gets from Jerusalem to Rome.
Luke goes into great detail to describe the political maneuvering
that eventually takes Paul to Rome.
It would have been easy to summarize the events of these six chapters in one chapter.
But Luke believes that it is important for Theophilus –
and indeed, for every lover of God –
to understand this story.
Why?
Certainly there is historical value in Luke’s evidence that Paul was falsely accused.
And certainly there is theological value
in understanding God’s providential oversight of all the details of life,
as God takes Paul on a remarkable journey to get to Rome
(it certainly would have been shorter and quicker to go straight from Ephesus!)
But we need to remember the point of the book:
You shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and
in all Judea and Samaria
and to the end of the earth. (Acts 1:8)
Paul is fulfilling Jesus’ call –
he is fulfilling the apostolic mission
to confess Christ before kings and rulers and all the peoples.
And we need to remember the point that we have seen throughout this section:
A servant is not greater than his master.
The Christian life is a life of witness – a life of suffering.
Christian character is seen not so much in the “goodness” of our lives,
but in the way in which we joyfully endure suffering for the sake of Christ.
In verse 12 we hear how committed Paul’s enemies are:
When it was day, the Jews made a plot and
bound themselves by an oath
neither
to eat nor drink till they had killed Paul.
There
were more than forty who made this conspiracy.
They
went to the chief priests and elders and said,
We
have strictly bound ourselves by an oath
to taste no food till we have killed Paul.
Now
therefore you, along with the council,
give notice to the tribune to bring him down
to you,
as though you were going to determine his
case more exactly.
And
we are ready to kill him before he comes near.
Such was their religious zeal that they would fast until they killed Paul.
Today we are used to hearing about Islamic extremists going to great lengths
to kill the enemies of Allah.
It is interesting to note the relationship between the origin of a religion
and its later use of violence:
Judaism:
In the call of Abraham, Abraham was told that he would inherit the land,
but he must live as a sojourner in the Promised Land all his days.
Then in the days of Moses and Joshua
Israel received the land through violence.
That ambiguous relationship of patience and violence can be seen
throughout Israelite history (even to the present day state of Israel).
Christianity:
In the cross of Christ, violence is obvious –
but Jesus patiently suffers the violence of others,
and he calls his disciples to imitate him.
And for three hundred years after Christ the Christian church remains committed
to the principle that we must suffer with him,
as the early church endured 300 years of suffering.
Only as Christianity becomes wedded to the Roman empire
does violence become an option for Christians,
and for more than a thousand years Christian theologians
-- and Christian princes --
debate and discuss how a Christian can use violence against others.
Islam:
In contrast, Islam has never suffered.
Mohammed personally suffered persecution for a few years,
but by his death in 632 he was ruler of Arabia,
and the next generation of Muslims
established the first world empire in a thousand years.
From the start Islam has been a religion of conquest, power, and violence.
But in our text today we see how a group of more than forty reputable Jews
turned to religious violence for the sake of their conviction
that Paul was unfit to live because of his alleged blasphemy against the people of God.
In one sense you can see where their plot comes from.
In the days of the judges, Ehud of Benjamin had assassinated the wicked Eglon of Moab,
thereby setting Israel free from his tyranny.
They think of themselves servants of God
seeking to deliver God’s people from a dangerous false prophet.
And so they express their religious devotion through their pledge of fasting.
But instead I can’t help but think of the plot against the Jews by Haman the Agagite.
Haman plotted to destroy the Jews because of Mordecai’s refusal to bow before him.
But as the subsequent chapters of Esther demonstrate,
God thwarted the plots of the wicked through the lowly and unexpected.
It was Esther – the lowly Jewish maiden who had become a queen –
who thwarted the plot of Haman.
And it was Paul’s nephew – a youth –
who uncovered the plot of the 40 Jews against Paul.
The irony deepens, however, when you think about who all these people are.
Do you know who Mordecai was?
He was a Benjaminite of the house of Kish (Kish was King Saul’s father).
So Mordecai was a close relative of King Saul, the Benjaminite.
Do you know who Haman was?
Haman was an Agagite.
That may not mean much to you,
but Agag was the Amalekite king whom King Saul had spared,
after God had told him to kill all the Amalekites.
(It would appear that this was the reason why Mordecai would not bow to Haman –
“My father defeated your father, so why should I bow to you!”)
Indeed, God would use Mordecai to finish the job that King Saul had failed to do.
But why do we care about King Saul and King Agag, or Mordecai and Haman?
Who is Paul?
He is Saul of Tarsus, a Benjaminite – the namesake of the only Benjaminite king.
And now his own people are plotting against him,
even as Haman had plotted against the people of God
in the days of his kinsman Mordecai.
Once again, we see a contrast between the Jews and the true people of God.
The leaders of the Jews (those associated with the temple and the priesthood)
have become like the Gentiles – or worse!
In verses 16-22 we hear of how Paul’s nephew overhears the plot and tells Paul and the tribune.
Why would the tribune believe a boy?
And especially, why would he believe the nephew of the accused?
Well, so far he has been unable to figure out what Paul has done wrong.
No one has been able to provide a satisfactory charge against him –
and yet it is clear that some people want Paul dead.
That much was clear from the events of the day before!
In verses 23-35 the tribune (and we finally learn that his name was Claudius Lysias)
sends Paul to the governor Felix.
Given the fact that Paul is a Roman citizen,
Claudius Lysias understands that he is responsible for Paul’s safety.
So he orders a guard of almost 500 soldiers to take Paul by night to the governor.
His letter is quite interesting!
In verse 27 he claims that he had “rescued” Paul,
“having learned that he was a Roman citizen.”
Of course we know that Claudius Lysias had “arrested” Paul
and only learned that was a Roman citizen because he nearly beat him!
But Claudius Lysias is trying to protect himself and so he fudges the truth!
(This is a good place to remember that when we say that Scripture is inerrant,
we are not saying that everyone who is quoted in Scripture is telling the truth!
Luke is accurately reporting to us the “fudging” of Claudius Lysias –
though it is important to note that Luke himself says
that the letter was “to this effect.”
In other words, Luke may not have had access to this document when he wrote Acts,
so he may be relying on memory or hearsay to reconstruct the letter.
Certainly the letter is consistent with what we know
from other letters from provincial officials to their governors.)
But Luke’s point is that Claudius Lysias wrote to the governor that Paul had done
nothing deserving death or imprisonment. (v29)
When the soldiers bring Paul to Felix,
Felix inquired what province Paul was from.
When he hears that Paul is from Cilicia, Felix has a choice –
either he can refer the case to the Legate of Syria
(who would be very upset at having to deal with such a minor case)
(not to mention the fact that he would be upsetting the Jews
Who would have to travel a lot further to present their case!)
or he can deal with it himself (since the conflict happened in his jurisdiction).
As we’ll here later, Felix is thinking that this is a good opportunity for bribe money.
It is a minor case – an innocent man falsely accused on religious grounds
by very highly motivated Jews.
He thinks that either Paul will offer him money to let him get away from the Jews,
or perhaps the Jews will grease the wheels to get Paul back to Jerusalem.
Either way, it’s a win-win situation for Felix!
He wasn’t counting on Paul being a prophet of the Lord Jesus Christ...
Chapter 24 recounts the trial before Felix.
The Jews brought one Tertullus to speak for them –
possibly he was a Hellenistic Jew, or maybe a Gentile orator,
but he is a skilled rhetorician hired as legal counsel to argue the case before Felix.
No doubt his speech was longer (as most of the speeches recorded in Scripture),
but Luke is merely summarizing the case.
There are three parts to the charge against Paul:
1) he is a plague – literally! – a pestilence upon the Jewish people – because he stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world – drawing on the uproar that followed Paul all through modern Turkey and Greece.
2) he is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes – in other words, he is not really a Jew, he is part of a new sect, “the Nazarenes,” and so is engaged in illegal religious activity.
3) He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him – this would be a serious charge before the Roman governor, because for polytheistic Rome anyone who profaned any temple would be a disturber of the peace.
Paul responds to these charges in order.
1) there is no one present who has ever seen him stir up a riot –
I went up to worship in Jerusalem,
and they did not find me disputing with
anyone or stirring up a crowd,
either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. (v11-13)
I was just minding my own business.
2) He denies that he is involved in a new religion:
But this I confess to you, that according to
the Way, which they call a sect,
I
worship the God of our fathers,
believing everything laid down by the Law
and written in the Prophets,
having
a hope in God, which these men themselves accept,
that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust.
Paul claims that the Way is faithful to the Law and the Prophets,
and that he continues to worship the God of our fathers.
He insists that the central point is their hope in God,
which is centered on the resurrection.
So I always take pains to have a clear conscience
toward both God and man. (v14-16)
3) And on the charge that he tried to profane the temple, he points out that he had comes to bring alms and present offerings in the temple: While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult. (v17-18)
At this point, Paul acknowledges that there may be people
who have a real grievance against him.
It is a tribute to his honesty that Paul does not evade this.
But some Jews from Asia –
they ought to be here before you and to make
an accusation,
should they have anything against me.
If anyone has a complaint that Paul is a disturber of the peace,
it would be the Jews from Asia.
But they are not here.
And so Paul concludes that the real issue is this one thing that I cried out:
It is with respect to the resurrection of
the dead that I am on trial before you this day.
Paul is claiming that the central issue is the resurrection.
Israel’s hope had never been that they could escape death.
The exile had taught them that their hope was that they would pass through death,
and that God would raise them up from the dead.
And Paul says that this is what has happened to Jesus.
As a Pharisee he had hoped in the resurrection of the body at the end of history,
when God finally vindicated righteous Israel.
On the Damascus road, Paul finally saw that all that he had hoped
would happen to Israel at the end of history,
has happened to Jesus.
And so he says,
It is with respect to the resurrection of
the dead that I am on trial before you this day.
But Felix knew all about Christianity.
He, like most Roman rulers at this time, did not consider the Way as a sect –
a different religion.
He saw it as another branch of Judaism (like the Pharisees, the Sadducees, etc.).
And so he said that he would wait to decide the case
until Claudius Lysias, the tribune, came down from Jerusalem,
hoping to receive a bribe from Paul (v26).
Conclusion: Paul’s Teaching Makes Rulers Nervous (24:24-27)
But rather than get money,
Felix gets something better – he gets the preaching of the Word!
After some days Felix
came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish,
and
he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Jesus Christ.
And as he reasoned
about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment,
Felix
was alarmed and said,
Go
away for the present.
When I get an opportunity I will summon you.
It would be nice to know the details of what Paul said!
But even this brief summary tells us the gist:
when Paul spoke to Felix about faith in Jesus Christ,
he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment.
Paul understood his audience.
We’ve seen this throughout Acts.
With Jews Paul will preach with a strong emphasis on OT history.
With Gentiles Paul will use pagan poets to illustrate his points.
Now he is speaking to a governor who already understands “the Way.” (v22)
And so he warns him of the coming judgment.
The message of the gospel makes Felix nervous.
Felix is alarmed at Paul’s preaching –
though as verse 26 suggests, he continued to send for Paul and converse with him.
Why is Felix alarmed by Paul’s message?
Because Paul speaks truth to power.
Paul is not afraid of Felix’s authority.
When you believe in the coming judgment,
when God will judge the living and the dead,
all of sudden the earthly power of a Roman governor is a whole lot less intimidating!
And for that matter,
when you believe in the coming judgment,
it changes your whole outlook on life.
Your view of righteousness (or justice) changes.
Are you worried about getting justice?
How often have you heard a child complain, “he took it from me”?
Or for that matter, how often have you said, “I deserve better than this”?
But for us, life is no longer about getting justice.
Life is about the righteousness of God, revealed in Jesus Christ,
and which will be made fully known at the coming judgment.
And so Paul reasoned about righteousness,
and about self-control.
This is a big issue for rulers.
Those in authority often have trouble with self-control.
After all, if you are the big boss, who’s going to rule you?
After a hard day’s work, when you get home,
after having to run around and do everything your boss said,
isn’t it nice to go someplace where no one can order you around?
You may not be a Roman governor –
but you face the same temptations!
You like to be in control.
But life is not about being in control – or getting our own way –
we are called, as imitators of Christ, to lay down our lives for those under our care
If we truly see all of life in the light of the coming judgment,
then we are truly living by faith in Jesus Christ.