If you would take out your Bibles and turn to Acts chapter 24, we will be reading the entirety of Acts chapter 24. I know that summer has many of us traveling here and there, so I think a brief summary is appropriate of where we've come so far. Paul went to Jerusalem, traveled to Jerusalem, he met with James and the elders in the Jerusalem church. Paul was in the temple several days later and he was arrested under the guise or under the accusation that he had brought a Gentile and into the temple and polluted the temple, and that he was teaching against the temple, against the law, and against the people. The people were so incensed they took him out of the court and wanted to exact vengeance or justice upon him. When the ruler of the Roman tribune, Claudius Lysias, intervened and took Paul into custody, interviewed him, brought him before the Sanhedrin, and Paul testified there, and then the crowd stirred there, and once again, Lysias removed Paul. There was a plot to kill Paul, and so Claudius Lysias sent Paul to Felix in order that Felix might arbitrate or sit as judge over this case, and that brings us to the text for this evening. So Acts chapter 24, beginning at verse 1. And after five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a spokesperson, one Tertullus. They laid before the governor their case against Paul. And when he had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him. saying, since through you we enjoy much peace and since by your fair foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation in every way and everywhere, we accept this with all gratitude. But to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly. For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him. By examining him yourself, you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him." The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so. And when the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied, knowing that for many years he had been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. You can verify that it is not more than 12 days since 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. neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. 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. So I always take pain to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. Now, after several years, I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from Asia, they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation, should they have anything against me, or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council. Other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them, It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day. But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way, put them off, saying, When Lysias, the tribune, comes down, I will decide your case. Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody, but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs. After some days, Felix came down 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 in the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, go away for the present. When I get an opportunity, I will summon you. At the same time, he hoped that money would be given to him by Paul, so he sent for him often and conversed with him. When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Will you pray with me? Father in heaven, just as we feel the tension in our own hearts with the brokenness of our own desires and the sinfulness of our own desires and our weakness, we also feel, especially as it's displayed in this text, the tension of this world. And we ask as we consider it that you would continue to encourage us and enable us as we look and fixate on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and our ascended Lord. This we ask in Jesus' name, amen. We are, I think, often in our day-to-day business, in our day-to-day lives, prone to overlook, if you will, the effects of the fall, the depth of the effects of the fall, and just how pervasive or just how much it stains and corrupts all of creation. We tend to relegate it, the effects of the fall, that is, to our personal experience of sin and the way that we struggle against it, or maybe perhaps the things that we suffer that hurt us or that make us sad, or our experience of reality as something that's broken. But we don't always come to terms fully, probably very much so is the case because of the culture that we live in, or at least in times past, the history of the Western world, But we probably don't really conceive of it all that often or strongly enough, the corruption and the effects of the fall in the sense of its effects on the world. The world is this dark cloud that swirls around us and consumes everything. The world in the sense of the culture and the people that we live in is something that is antagonistic to righteousness and antagonistic to the things of God. Or even the world in the sense of the very structures of this world. The dirt itself. Creation itself is corrupted by sin and festering with its effects. Now we want to focus more so on the world in terms of people and culture. It's this tornado or this hurricane that is a swirling cloud of darkness against God's people and against righteousness. And in this sense, we want to look at the world that we live in. People live in this world, and each and every one of those people, whether they're a servant of God or a servant of the world in this sense of evilness, is asking the question, what is the good life? How do we do life? What's the truth? What do we believe? And what's a citizen do? What's it mean to be a part of this world, to live in it, and how should we all live? What is the good life? How do we live it? And immediately when we, arrive and think about the world in that sense and the reality that everybody's asking that question or everybody is assuming that question because they all have their own answer. We recognize that there is a severe clash or a severe amount of tension. Our answer is the people of God as Christians, even if it's not oppressive, even if it's not violent, so violates the mores and the answers to those questions that our world has that we ourselves and our faith, our hope, our love, our convictions, our conduct is itself a threat to public peace. And it is in this context that we read this story. Paul himself, his own convictions about Christ and about the resurrection are what is presented to Felix as being a threat to the public and civic good. And what we learn from this text, the thing that we can take away from this text is that faith in Christ inherently brings us into this kind of tension with the world. and yet requires us to continue to be without fault as we hold to that faith, even in the face of injustice. To state more simply, we feel the tension of this world, yet we must be faultless and persevere in faith and obedience in the face of injustice. And our three points as we consider that this evening is tension, faultless, and perseverance. We feel tension in this world, yet we must be faultless and persevere in faith and obedience in the face of an injustice. So first, tension. We need to see the reality that our faith brings us into conflict with our world in order that we have hope in the right thing and look for hope and solutions in the right place. We need to see the reality of this. And we see this in this first section where the Pharisees bring their accusations against Paul. They come against Paul in court, really with what is an incredibly well put together and crafty and clever ruse, or court case. Tertullus, who is a rhetorician, he is a great speaker, if you will. He is somebody that gets up and is incredibly persuasive. It is his job to go and act as a lawyer on behalf of other people, something that not all people could afford in the ancient world, something that not all people were provided in the ancient world. Lawyers back then were not as prevalent or not as accessible as they are in our day and age. But Tertullus is presented as the best of the best, an advocate for the case of the Pharisees. And he brings before Felix charges that are so broad that they can neither be proven nor disproven. And it is what we would call a very shrewd or very crafty tactic. He brings before Felix these accusations, that Paul is a plague, he is a disease, he causes riots throughout the world, he is the leader of the Nazarenes. The Nazarene, that is, that the Roman government crucified, a rebel, or a political disturber. He also tried to profane the temple, Tertullus claims we stopped him and you can examine yourself, the inference of his phrase, you can examine him yourself and you'll see is that it's so clear what we're asserting to you today that you can't possibly miss it. You'll see. There's no question about it. Paul's a plague. He causes riots. He's the ringleader of the Nazarenes, this sect that is seditious, that is causing disturbances throughout the world. At the end of Tertullus' accusations, the rest of the Jews pile in, which is probably a summary statement, if you will, by Luke, that Felix heard many testimonies from them. and the effect of these accusations are so vague and yet so serious and so airy that it cannot be proven or disproven. And the interesting thing about this case is that it's not a theological case, but this shrewd or clever political recasting, if you will. How is it shrewd? They present to Felix that Paul is a rebel who is disturbing the peace, not an issue that is primarily theological. It's not neutral in character, Paul is not neutral in character, and neither is this faith system, but Paul is a rebel that the magistrate must execute and deal with in order to maintain the peace. And this is no minor thing for Felix. because as governor of a Roman province, it is his highest duty. The most important thing that he does is maintain peace. And if he fails to do this, then he will be uprooted root and stem. Now, if this is indeed true that Paul is troublesome and that he is the one that's causing these riots and causing these disturbances, then Felix is bound, if you will. His hands are tied. He can do nothing else but deal with Paul. And if he doesn't, if Felix lets Paul go, and Paul goes on elsewhere or in Jerusalem again to cause more riots and cause more disturbances, whose neck is on the line? Felix's is. And they'll say, you heard these accusations that he was causing rebellion and sedition all over the empire. Faith and obedience to Jesus, we learn from Paul's example, from Paul's story here as he interacts with the Jews, creates tension with the world. They become incensed, they become fiery. And it makes him, it makes us, public enemy number one. Paul's religious activity, his identity, his faith, his convictions are not merely theological. but they have an effect on the political world. They have an effect on the people around him in this world of sin. And this leads us to the conclusion that if this is the reality of Paul's life, if this is the reality of our life, that recognizing this tension is important. Recognizing that this is how things are is indispensable to us. Recognizing this tension shocks us out of our delusion, our sleep, our confusion, and moves us to place our hope in the right places and to be prepared. To some degree or another, their charges are actually right. How so? Well, because Paul was the source of, in some sense, a riot in Jerusalem. And not just in Jerusalem, but all throughout Paul's ministry, people have come up against him. Whole crowds have wanted to stone him. The Pharisees throughout Paul's entire ministry have been fired up about what Paul teaches. But the issue is not because Paul himself, the reason that Paul is this kind of hot potato-y figure, if you will, is not because of anything he himself is doing that is wrong, but because of the Jews. It is their reaction, not Paul himself that is doing this. And we would assert that this is our experience too. It's not that we ourselves are doing anything wrong by upholding a righteous and God-honoring way of life or by upholding faith in Christ as the sole way to be saved and delivered from God's condemnation and His justice. There's nothing inherently wrong. In fact, that's the most right thing that you can do. And there's nothing inherently wrong with doing that as an individual, as a private individual who gathers with the corporate body of believers on Sunday and who worships the living God. It is the culture who has such a negative response and disdain and hatred for that that causes the issue and that makes this to be an issue. The culture creates the tension. So then why is, where is the hope in this? Where is the consolation in this? If this is how things are and we need to be prepared for it and we need to recognize it, where do we look? To the resurrection. And why is the resurrection the solution? Well, go back to remembering the promise. Resurrection of the righteous results in an everlasting city. And it's not just an everlasting city, but life in an everlasting city where there is one answer to the question of what is the good life? What is faith? What is hope? What is love? What is truth? How do the citizens of this city conduct themselves? Who is your master? Who do you worship? It's a city characterized by eternal righteousness, a city that we read together this evening in the words of Psalm 22 says, where peace is within the walls and prosperity in the fortress. And so in the midst of the tension of our world, growing tension, this really does speak to and encourage us. This madness has an end. And that end is a city of eternal righteousness. in resurrected bodies that cannot be destroyed. Okay, well, that's the future. That's our hope in the future. How do we live in the present? And the answer to that is faultlessly. This is our second point. In the midst of this tension, we live faultlessly because of our hope and faith in God. We see this once again in Paul's witness and in Paul's example. Paul negates their charges and he asserts his innocence. He begins addressing these claims with negative statements or rather statements of negation in verses 11 to 13 and 17 to 19. If you'll look at those with me for a second. You can verify that it is not more than 12 days since 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. Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me." And if you look down at verses 17, now, after several years, I came to bring alms to my nation and to present my offerings. While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from Asia, they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation should they have anything against me. We learn from these verses that the people that are now coming to Paul with these accusations were not even eyewitnesses. They didn't even actually witness what happened in the inner courts of the temple when the Jews from Asia arrested Paul. And this is problematic for Festus, this is problematic for this whole case because Roman law primarily, With very little exception, Roman law required that the eyewitnesses be present. And not only did Roman law require this, Jewish law did. Exodus, Deuteronomy, and Leviticus require this in various places. So the Jews are not present who arrested them, and they They, that is the Pharisees, now standing before Felix, claim that Paul was causing issues throughout the world, and he's saying, this isn't the case. And actually, you weren't even present, and I'm not even gonna address this, because actually, Felix isn't really responsible for Paul's behavior over the whole world. He's only responsible and arbitrating, or sitting as judge, over this case in Judea. Paul also states, I came to Jerusalem not to cause disputes, not to raise up errors, but to worship. And I was there for only 12 days. I've been there for such a short time between the time that I appeared before the time that I walked in the gates and before the time that I was arrested in the temple. There's no way that I could have possibly stirred up a rebellion in this time. And even when you found me, you didn't find me in an impure state in the inner courts. I was pure and I was not disputing with anyone. So he negates their charges. But Paul also makes positive statements about what his faith and life are like that show their accusations are contrary to the very essence of who he is as a person. So it's not just simply that it's very clearly not the case Paul wasn't doing these things in Jerusalem from the evidence, but this is contrary to who Paul is. We see these positive statements in verses 14 to 16. 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 by 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. So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. What do I believe and teach and how do I live? Asks Paul. Well, this is what I believe and I teach. He contradicts the claims they've made to show the similarities, first and foremost, of what he teaches and what he does. I worship the way, the only way, which they call a sect. But is it a sect? because I think it's rather the same as them. I worship the God of their fathers. I believe all that's written in the law and the prophets. I clearly uphold it because I was found pure in the temple. I also hope in God and in the resurrection of the just and the unjust, which the Pharisees, we've already seen in the previous chapter, affirm. I affirm that God will come to judge the living and the dead on the basis of righteousness and injustice. And in light of the reality that God will judge the living and the dead, how do I then live? Or since I have hope in God and in the law and the prophets and that he will come to raise the just and the unjust and dispense his justice accordingly, in light of that reality, how do I live? I do my very best, I make every effort to live with a clear conscience before both God and men. Clear conscience meaning a conscience that is without fault in my conduct. And not only this, but I actually came positively to bring alms. This massive collection he put together throughout all the churches, I come positively to give alms to my nation. which probably most likely means Jewish Christians living in Jerusalem, that it's converted Jews. But clearly he loves them, clearly he cares for them, clearly he has association with the God of their fathers and with the law and the prophets. This is a religious dispute. And all of this points to the reality that this is who I am and how I live because of what I believe. and I cannot act contrary to this belief, and I cannot and will not act contrary to this conscience, which requires me, in light of my hope in the resurrection, to live with this clear conscience, to live righteously. And what we learn from this, what we glean from this piece of the narrative and from Paul's example is that because of our faith and hope in God, in Jesus' resurrection and in our resurrection one day, we too ought to and want to and should desire to live without fault. Because of our faith and hope in God, we ought to live without fault. How come? How can we arrive at this conclusion? To some degree or another, I think this section in Acts has been rather complex because there's very little, some of his former speeches or some of the other testimonies that you have throughout Acts are these wonderful expositions of who Jesus was and what he accomplished and what that means for us. And Paul's statements and declarations here are all very short. And I think, let me say it this way. What Luke is doing is presenting Paul himself as both a model and a replica of Jesus, whose example is to be replicated by us, and whose example is also a pair of binoculars, if you will, that point us to Jesus. Paul is an example. that replicates Jesus' own behavior, his own obedience and his own suffering, but Paul is also a pair of binoculars that points us to Christ for both hope and comfort amidst our obedience and our suffering and as a reason to obey and as a reason to suffer. So Paul is a model in those two senses. The tension Like Him, we feel the tension of life in this world, and yet we continue to obey and we continue to suffer. And like Him, our hope, as we obey and as we suffer, and our reason for obeying and our reason for suffering is Jesus Christ, and in particular, Jesus' resurrection. Actually, at its base is Jesus' resurrection. And how do we know that? What is the reason Paul gives for what he is enduring? Verse 27, I am here standing trial because of the resurrection of the dead. He is suffering on trial because of his testimony about the resurrection of the dead and not any kind of abstract thing. It is a very concrete testimony. And it's very fascinating the way that resurrection kind of is interwoven between the narratives that Luke is presenting here. The analogy that I could give to you is that it's like a metronome. Kids, a metronome is something that we use to teach music. It teaches you the pace of the music and the pace the music should be played. And it is on a small little wooden thing, and it's this tiny little metal arm that you put to one side with the meter set properly, and you let it go. And it will go like this, tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock. And throughout this story, the resurrection has been continually referenced like a metronome. Resurrection, tock, tick, tock. Resurrection, tick, tock. It is the central theme that is playing throughout Paul's story in his testimony before the Pharisees, so that we cannot possibly miss the importance of it. He begins with his testimony that the resurrected Christ appeared to him on the road to Damascus, signifying to him that he was the center of all of the law and the prophets and what they were about, that he was the hope for all of Israel and their deliverance from sin and from God's wrath, that he had fulfilled the law and that now he had conquered death itself. Christ appeared, the resurrected Christ appeared to Paul on that Damascus road in the power of indestructible life. And now too, that indestructible life that he witnessed is what fuels Paul's own life. in the midst of all the tension and the trouble and the sorrows of life in this world. He lives as he does because of faith in God, the law, and the prophets, which foretell of Jesus as the sole hope of Israel and their deliverance. And because of this, because Paul is both a model for us to emulate, to copy, and because he is also a pair of binoculars that points us to Jesus, both through his testimony and through his behavior, in Jesus and his resurrection from the dead, then we also know that we live without fault, as Paul does, with a clear conscience, knowing God's law, his coming judgment, and the hope that we have in Jesus. This leads us third to perseverance. When this tension remains uncorrected, When this injustice remains uncorrected, we do not lose hope. The injustice that Paul endures is not addressed in this text. It's not solved, despite his innocence, and he remains in custody. Felix, if you will, punts. He delays. He says, I'll deal with this when Lysias returns, which may be never. We don't really get an indication if Lysias ever did come up north to Caesarea and speak with him again. The reason maybe why Felix feels the need to do this is that he wants an independent witness to come and testify again and hear more about the situation because clearly these two testimonies can't be reconciled and he's kind of stuck. He can't really do anything. If he lets Paul go, more riots. If he executes Paul, what about the Christians and this world, this religion that's exploding around the world? The interesting thing about this, actually, though, is that Lysias' letter had indicated to Felix, when he wrote to him, that the error or the problem going on was not a political dispute. It was not political in nature. There was no crime that Paul committed against Rome, but it was a religious dispute. It was something that they themselves should be working out. But then, speaking with Paul, Felix says, I will summon you at a later date And he hopes, after hearing from Paul a testimony, and he hopes that money as a bribe would be given to him as he continually summons him into his presence. For two years this goes on in nothing, and then Porcius Festus is elected in the deposition, or Felix was deposed, he was taken out of office, and in his place there's another, and he keeps him in court for two years to curry favor with the Jews. There's no solution for Paul. Ironically, or rather not ironically, in an inspiration to us, as a model to us, in the midst of this injustice, Paul continues to be obedient to his calling and fervent in his hope. Luke records that Paul has continued to testify before both Felix and Drusilla about his faith in Christ Jesus. Paul testifies before Herod Agrippa II's daughter, Drusilla, who was the last king, Herod Agrippa was the last Jewish king in Jerusalem, and a Gentile in the highest court of Rome. Highest courts, let's say. And this again demonstrates who Paul is as he testifies to them. He is not a rebel, but a faithful citizen who believes in the way. Okay, how does it testify to this, that he's a faithful citizen? Because he speaks about three things, righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment. Now there's some debate over what righteousness here means. Is it in an ethical sense, thinking about our conduct as citizens of the world, or is it thinking about righteousness in terms of justification? The declaration of righteousness that we have before God, are standing before God. The debate goes back and forth. I am of the opinion that he is speaking here about the righteousness that comes from faith, or about our righteousness before God. And in light of this, in light of this righteousness and the reality that all of us ought to want to stand before God as righteous, we also ought to have self-control. If we are justified, then we will be people who live according to this justification, who live according to this way. especially in light of the third thing that he speaks about, the coming judgment. And what this, the effect of this is, in Paul speaking about this, that these accusations are contrary to who I am. I would never act this way because I have a righteousness of faith, I'm required to act with self-control, and because if I act contrary to it, I have something serious to worry about in the coming judgment. Okay, so I'm a good citizen. But on top of this, it's not just that Paul himself is defending himself and showing the quality of his character to Felix in his continued testimony. It is the case that Paul is also implicitly warning Felix. And we see this warning is perceived by him. He's alarmed. And the result of this is that Paul continues to be remaining custody. And he suffers this tension, he suffers this injustice, he suffers this ridiculousness without caving to Felix's desire for a bribe. He suffers it for two years. He perseveres in obedience and in faith, believing in the resurrection and believing in what Christ had told him formerly, that this would not be the end, but that he would testify in Rome about Christ. And all of this leads us to the conclusion that we continue in faith and hope in the resurrection, and we persevere with good conduct no matter the tension that we ourselves feel in our age, the odds that we feel, and the pressure or the animosity and hatred and disdain that our culture has, or rather the world has, for us for what we believe and how we live. And there really is a sense in which that tension is growing in our current day and age. Our simple faith, our conviction that Jesus Christ is the only way to be saved and that apart from repentance and faith in him, you will be condemned by God to eternal wrath. Our faith in the way that we ought to live and the way that we were created to be and how life should be conducted. There's a growing sense in which these are out of tandem with our world. Simply to believe these things as we do puts us in a tricky spot. Scripture's definition of the good life, of the right life, is under threat. And that really shouldn't surprise us. But as we look at this story, we can be encouraged that just as Paul suffered the in-betweenness, the tension, the lack of justice and the lack of resolve in his own life, and yet continue to obey and believe and testify to Christ, so too can we. And like a metronome, just like Paul, our impetus and our reason for doing this is to always go back to the resurrection, to the promise of God about our life as a result of that resurrection, that there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we give you thanks for the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, that the animosity and the tension and the hatred that this world has for him, the oppression of the devil and all of this world's evil forces could not hold him in the grave, but he was raised to life for our justification and for our resurrection. Encourage us with these truths and help us to cast our hearts and our minds there in faith and in perseverance. For this we ask in Jesus' name, amen.