Let's get our Bibles out. If you don't already have your Bible out and open to Acts chapter 24, please do that. That's where we're going to be today. Two weeks ago, the last time we were going through the book of Acts, we kind of finished chapter 23. And the end of 23 tells us about when Paul had been moved from the barracks under arrest in Jerusalem, where the tribune there sent him by night with an escort to Caesarea. He was still under guard, but he traveled that night from Jerusalem and got to Caesarea the next day, escorted by 470 armed Roman soldiers, because there had been a plot developed to assassinate him in Jerusalem. Rather than be responsible for that, the Tribune got together a small army and sent them off with Paul in the middle of the night. He arrived without incident the next day in Caesarea, where they delivered him to Felix, whom we're going to meet and talk about today for a little bit. We kind of met Felix a couple weeks ago, but Felix was the Roman governor over Judea, Syria, and Cilicia, that whole region there around Jerusalem and north. He will be the one who's going to hear Paul's case. when the accusers come up from Jerusalem or down from Jerusalem, as the case might be, to come and make the accusations in court. So this gets us really up to chapter 24. That's our text for today. We're gonna start reading in verse one, and we'll cover 21 verses today, so is the plan. Read along with me here. It says that, and after five days, the high priest Ananias came down with some elders, and a spokesman, 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 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 you 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 you have 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 pains to have a clear conscience toward God, 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 and 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 have 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 stand on trial before you this day. But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way, put them off, saying, When Lysias the tribute 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. I guess it was actually through verse 23. So two bonus verses. You're welcome. Let's pray. Lord, I thank you this morning for gathering us around your word. I thank you for giving us this account again of Paul and something that proves again that he really was living blamelessly before you. He's the one who said that he put all sorts of effort into living before you and before men in a way that he had a good conscience. He did what he thought was right in all of these things, Lord. I thank you for the example he is in these things and the consistency of his testimony for you. Lord, I pray that you would teach us to be like him in those things, to be concerned about how we live, the things that we say, to make sure that our lives match with what we say we believe. Lord, I pray you'd help us to see through these verses today, the desire to live like that. to see this as an example we should follow. Lord, I pray you'd help us in understanding these verses today. I just ask for your blessing on the time together in Jesus' name. Amen. While Paul was waiting for the elders to arrive from Jerusalem, he was guarded in Herod's Praetorium. That was the last verse of chapter 23, verse 35, that Felix said, I'll hear your case when your accusers arrive." And he commanded that Paul be guarded in Herod's praetorium. This is just a reminder that what we noted at that point last week at the end was the praetorium really was not like some dungeon or something like that. It was Herod's palace in Caesarea that Felix now used as his personal residence. And so where was Paul being kept for these five days? Down the hall from the governor. Now it might not have quite been the Ritz, but it was no dungeon to say the least. They kept him under guard, partly to protect him from the assassination attempts that they had foiled, but also because he's a prisoner and they need to keep track of him. But this is where Paul had been for five days. And remember that God had so arranged things in Providence, we saw in that last chapter, that he got Paul safely from those barracks of Fort D'Antonia, there in Jerusalem, all the way to this palace. God had protected him, had provided for him. It was right after Jesus had met him in the middle of the night, after he had been again almost beaten to death, and he told him, you will go be my witness in Rome like you've been here in Jerusalem. And Jesus gave him that promise and the next day immediately began arranging things in Providence so that Paul would be removed from Jerusalem and on his way to Rome. And this is sort of the first step of those things. And so we see that God operates this way. We said this last time, God sometimes does miraculous things. Incidentally, you see a lot more of those earlier in the book of Acts than you see later in the book of Acts. Think about this. Think about Peter was arrested by Herod. Herod Agrippa I. Peter was arrested after they had martyred James. And how did Peter get out of jail? Remember? The angel comes in the middle of the night and lets him out, makes the guards fall asleep, sneaks him out. He thought it was a dream until he wakes up and realizes, I'm not in jail anymore. Right? Miracle. God does do those things sometimes. He does them a lot more regularly in the earlier chapters of Acts than he does here. But what you see here is that while God sometimes works through miracles, God always works through providence. He is always working all things out according to his plan. And so he can open the prison doors and send an angel to lead Peter out of the prison just as easily as he can make all the timing work out just right to where Paul's nephew goes in and overhears the assassination plan and gets into the tribune and tells him, and they put Paul on a horse and send him in the middle of the night with a small army. to be protected all the way to Caesarea. Not once in that chapter do we read anything about a miracle. We don't even read that God was involved, but we know He's the one who's involved. And so we see this, God working through these things, and that should be for us a great encouragement. Now what we see, now we catch up here, that gets us caught up here to Acts chapter 24 verse 1, that Paul was there for five days. And these accusers came, they showed up. The guys from Jerusalem came and verse one says that after five days, the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus. They laid before the governor their case against Paul. And when he had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse Paul. Now this was no small affair for the high priest to travel to Caesarea. It's not something that he would do normally. The only reason he would do that was there was some significant reason for him to go. And we see immediately here is that he came because of the seriousness with which he considered the desire to get rid of Paul. How bad does he wanna get rid of Paul? He's willing to leave Jerusalem For these guys, it wasn't an overnight trip on horseback with an army going at full speed. These guys probably took three days or so to get to Caesarea, traveling the way that they would have. It's no small thing for the high priest to leave Jerusalem behind and go to the Roman governor and appear before him. It indicates just how much he really hated Paul, how much they wanted to see him be gone. Then he didn't come alone, he came with some elders. And we assume that since these guys are among the richest and most powerful men in Jerusalem, they didn't just a few of them come, they probably also came with an entourage of servants and probably some of the temple guards who would have guarded them along the way and kept track. And so there's probably a pretty good size contingent of guys who come to Caesarea. And they brought along a man named Tertullus. Somebody described here as a spokesman indicating that he was probably a lawyer. He's probably a lawyer. He has a Latin name, a Roman name, not even a Greek name, certainly not a Hebrew name. Tertullus is a Latin name indicating that he's probably a lawyer who is experienced with presenting cases before the Roman courts. They thought, we need to get this guy to go butter up Felix, to tell Felix what we want. So they hire this guy to come. Many commentators take note of this, that it's likely, given his Latin name and the fact that he was testifying in front of Felix, who's a Roman guy, that he may have presented this whole thing in Latin, sort of high educated Latin. Luke records it for us in Greek. But Luke was a highly educated man himself who probably knew and understood Latin anyway. Kind of irrelevant about that, just an interesting fact to some maybe. But what we see here is that the high priest and the elders, they don't want to address Felix directly. They want to get this guy to come do it for them. They wanted, I think this is the picture we see here, they want a smooth talking lawyer to do it for him. figuring that he'd be more likely to persuade Felix than they would. Because by all accounts, the high priest Ananias, the whole Sanhedrin, all the elders, and Felix, they all hated each other. You wouldn't get that from the passage. but we'll talk about that in a minute. That is actually the case that they hated each other. Because what you read in verse two is when this Tertullus begins speaking, you could get this idea that they don't hate each other at all, that they love Felix, right? Look at what he says. He begins speaking and Tertullus begins to accuse Paul saying, since through you, meaning Felix, we enjoy much peace and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation in every way. And everywhere, we accept this with all gratitude, right? But to detain you no further, I beg your kindness to hear us briefly. This is something that actually has a name, this sort of introduction. It's called a captatio benevolente. In Latin, captatio benevolente, it means something roughly like winning the goodwill. What's he doing here? He's buttering Felix up. That's what he's doing. He's exaggerating this thing with such flattery to Felix that he's extravagant in his exaggerations about how great Felix is and how much we love you. And we think you're the greatest guy ever, right? As if he's speaking for these high priests and the elders who don't want to talk to him, right? He, he, he, he, and this thing, this speech that they have a name for, it always has this feature of it that towards the end they say something that, we're not gonna waste your time, we'll keep it brief. See, he says that. This is how the commentators know that this is actually what it is. You're such an important man. Let us not go on and on. I could go on and on for hours about what a wonderful guy you are. But in order not to waste your time, let's move on. The reality is that he just doesn't have anything else to say about him, right? I got to keep it brief or else I'm going to start saying the truth, which is the total opposite of what I've been saying. This cracks me up because at this point, when listening to John MacArthur, he goes, you know this about the preacher, whenever the preacher goes, I have so much more I could say about this, it means he's run out of stuff. And so he uses that as his device to move on. Anyway, you see this all built into what Tertullus says to Felix here. If you didn't know anything about this introduction, we might actually read this as a genuine appreciation. Like the Jews genuinely think that you've done such marvelous things for us. We're so benefited by being in your grand presence. But the reality is that nothing could be further from the truth. The reality is, like I said earlier, these Jewish leaders hated Felix. They basically had to hire turtulence to flatter him because it was more than any of them could stomach to stand up there and even act like they had any respect for the guy at all. They couldn't have figured out how to lie to his face so well. Which is saying quite a lot because they got plenty of lies to say about Paul. But they hated Felix this much they couldn't even stand it. The reality of history is that Felix is known as one of the absolute worst governors ever in Judea. He's one of the worst governors anywhere in all of Rome. Felix had a brother named Pallas and the two of them had been slaves. They were set free from their slavery. Pallas actually got a job with Claudius the emperor and convinced Claudius to give this job to his brother Felix. This is how Felix gets the job. Somehow Felix was so vicious and cruel that shortly after he got this job, I guess the high priest at the time was a guy named Jonathan when he got the job. Jonathan actually sort of supported Felix becoming governor, but then he threatened Felix, if you don't do this thing, I'm gonna tell Caesar on you. So Felix had him murdered. He had murdered the last high priest, the one just before Ananias, the guy who is standing in front of him now. The last high priest, Felix, had that guy murdered. So you could imagine they're not real fond of him, right? It's not like you kill the high priest and the next high priest looks up to you and thinks you're a good guy, right? We'll meet his wife next week, a lady named Drusilla. She was a daughter of Herod Agrippa I. Herod Agrippa was the guy who had James martyred, killed. She was a daughter of Herod Agrippa. She had actually married a king of Syria when she was 15. It was before she was 15. But when she was 15, Felix shows up in the area, decides she's real pretty, woos her away and steals her from her husband, who's the king of Syria, right? This is how he ends up with this Drusilla that we'll read about a little while from now. Actually, not his first, but his third wife, Felix. This is the kind of guy he was. The reality is that history knows him as a guy who openly invited bribes. We'll see that he was waiting around for Paul to give him a bribe. That's one of the reasons why he kept him in prison for a good two years. He was vicious. He was able and willing to steal property, to steal goods, and he basically silenced all opposition with cruel force. The Roman historian Tacitus said of Felix that he had the office of the king, but he ruled it with the mind of a slave. He basically was a thug who ran this thing for many years. So with that in mind, go back and look at what Tertullus said about him in his opening remarks in verses three and four. The Jewish elders certainly did not think that they had been enjoying any peace from Felix, meaning murdered the last high priest. He hadn't enacted anything like a reform that benefited the Jewish nation in any way. He was all about enriching himself. In reality, nobody accepted any of his activities with any kind of gratitude whatsoever. You could hardly have a guy whose opening statement was more full of absolutely just lies. And we get this distinct impression here. that Ananias and the elders hated every second of this short opening. You should get that impression. Tertullus is going on and they're all sitting back there like, when is he going to be done? At the same time, you've got to assume that Felix is just watching them enjoy and watching them score, too. He kind of likes this whole thing. That's the kind of guy he was. Anyway, while Tertullus is laying it on thick, he's going, ha ha. You guys think that, huh? None of that's true. They were most surely relieved when he finally said, I could go on and on, but I'll stop now. which is what I'm going to try to do. Because on to the brief accusations. He says, I'm going to tell you what we're accusing him of, and then he butters him up and waits for the accusations until after that. But in verse 5, Tertullus begins reciting what really are three accusations against Paul. He says, 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." Like I said, there's three basic accusations here. First, that Paul was just a general plague, a pest. He was a pestilence, some translations might say. But he was a plague on society because he stirred up riots all throughout the whole world. The second accusation was that he was a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. And the third was that he was trying to profane the temple. You could summarize these accusations saying that they said Paul was guilty of crimes against Rome. crimes against Judaism and crimes against the temple or even crimes against God thereby. This is what they accuse him of in these brief accusations. What Tertullus led with was the accusation that was most likely to get Felix's attention, that Paul was stirring up riots that threatened the precious Roman peace. All these governors and Roman magistrates all had the same purpose. I got to keep the peace so I can keep my job. And that was nowhere maybe more important than in Judea because there's always uprisings. And so Felix is definitely focused on this. And the accusation is that Paul is going around in the Jews, not just in Jerusalem, but all throughout the whole world. Everywhere he goes, he's like a virus. He's like a plague. He goes in and infects the minds of the Jews and gets them stirred up in riots against the good rule of the Romans. That's the first accusation. You shouldn't put up with this, Felix. You're next. It's kind of like that. He wasn't just doing that. The second thing was that he was a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. The fact that Tertullus doesn't offer any explanation to Felix about who the Nazarenes were or what they believed pretty well indicates that he assumed Felix already knew a lot about them, and he did. That's confirmed in the later verses in the same chapter, that Felix had quite an accurate knowledge of the way. But they don't call it the way. Here they call it those Nazarenes. He's a ringleader of the Nazarene sect, right? It was surely known in that area what the Christians were teaching, that Jesus was from Nazareth. But Felix had plenty of familiarity with this. Like I said, he's married to the daughter of King Herod Agrippa I, who was responsible for one of the persecutions that caused the first death of one of the apostles. He's responsible directly for the death of James, the brother of John, and for the imprisonment of Peter. Now, he would have killed Peter, except for the angel broke Peter out of jail. Agrippa I knew all about the way, and Felix is married to one of his daughters, so he probably knows quite a bit. There's a good church there in Caesarea too, right? Remember? Remember who's at the church in Caesarea? Paul stopped there on his way to Jerusalem and stayed at the house of Philip the Evangelist, who was one of the first seven appointed by the apostles to be leader of the church before he was driven out of Jerusalem by Saul of Tarsus under that first persecution. So Caesarea is not unfamiliar, and Felix himself can't be unfamiliar either. Tertullus points at Paul and says, he's a ringleader of the sect. It has the connotations of being an illegal, heretical, splinter sect from the true Judaism of the high priests and the elders. These guys are the true guys. That guy's just a ringleader. He's like a gang leader, right? He's a criminal ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. Lastly, Tertullus accused Paul of trying to profane the temple. Note this, he didn't say he actually did profane the temple because that was not true and they couldn't prove that he had done that. Rather the accusation was, he was getting ready to profane the temple and we caught him just in time. See? We prevented it. But it doesn't mean he wasn't going to do it. Now they were hopeful, I think, at this point, that Felix would hear in this accusation an out for him. You might remember this. We said this when they accused Paul of this earlier, that it was actually illegal for Gentiles to go into the temple. And they accused Paul of bringing a Gentile into the temple court. And the Jews were given by the Romans one time, one allowance for executing people. They could not execute anybody for anything unless they violated that rule of the temple. Then the Jews would actually get from the Romans permission to execute that person themselves. It was kind of an odd thing, but this was part of the peace keeping. We'll let them do this. Nobody's ever gonna go in that dumb temple anyway, see? And so that's what the Romans did. I think that they present this to Felix in such a way of like, Felix, if you just give us this guy, we'll take care of him for you. You can wash your hands of it right now. He was trying to profane our temple and you should just give him to us. We'll take him and execute him ourselves. But Felix doesn't seem to buy it. Their story contradicts, remember what Lysias the tribune had written to him. about the whole matter. When Lysias, the tribune in Jerusalem, sent Paul with the soldiers to Felix, he wrote a letter and sent it with him. And in Acts 23 verse 29, in that letter that Lysias wrote, he says, I have found that he, meaning Paul, was being accused about questions of the law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment. So he's going, well, Lysias said something different than you guys are saying. He doesn't mention anything about profaning the temple or anything. So obviously Felix is not persuaded by their smooth-talking lawyer. He didn't just release Paul to them so that they could go execute him. Now here, you might notice here in your Bible, depending on the translation you're reading through, that there's a footnote or maybe some verses that run from verse six through eight. and in the ESV, it's in the footnotes, that there's some manuscripts that add some things between verse six and eight. If you look in my ESV, you read here, there's verse six and then there's verse eight. It skips verse seven. Well, that's an added sort of stuff that in history, they most consider that these were things that were added later. The earliest manuscripts don't have these verses, but some manuscripts do add this, that quote, and we would have judged him reading this way, would have read like, He meaning Paul tried to profane the temple, but we seized him and we would have judged him according to our law But the chief captain Lysias came down and with great violence took him out of our hands commanding his accusers to come before you so I Would tend to agree with those who say that this is probably a scribe who's writing this and adds the interpretation to explain verse 8 a little bit better and verse eight has this little bit of a problem the way it's printed about this that that that turtulence and spice telling felix by examining him yourself you'll be able to find out from him about everything which we accuse him who's the him who's the him that he should investigate with the way that it's printed here without worse seven in a did that the the extras it reads like felix you examine paul and paul will confirm all that i've just said By inserting these other verses, it actually reads something more like, if you investigate with Lysias, Lysias will tell you that what we're saying about Paul is true. That sort of tends to fit a little bit better with what we read at the end of verse 22, after Paul's defense, when Felix says, I'll consider this matter more when Lysias comes and tells me more. I think that somebody might have added that interpretation in there. Either way, whether he meant examine Paul and you'll find out or examine Lysias and you'll find out, either way what we learn is that Felix does neither and Felix ultimately in the end just acts the role of the politician and decides not to decide anything. And so there's little consequence to whether those verses are included or not, but I just mention it in case it happens to pop up in front of you in your Bible. But we'll just sort of move past that because we know this in verse nine, that Tertullus ended and said, examine him, you'll find it out. And verse nine ends this part of it saying that all those guys who were there, all the chief priest, Ananias, all the elders, they all joined in the charge saying, yes, yes, what he said. Now, Luke writes this like this is the whole sum of the set of accusations. Tertullus doesn't call any witnesses. He doesn't produce any evidence, right? He doesn't do any of that. He just ends and then the rest of them go, yeah, that's right. That's the force of their case against Paul. You see that? Paul's going to take advantage of that here in a minute. But this is what happened. And this is how we read it. Yeah, right? Well, maybe they thought that's all they would need to do. They thought Felix is just going to, we're going to butter him up so good he's going to feel so good about himself. And he just wants to be done with it. He'll just give us Paul. We'll take him home and stone him to death for going in the temple. It's whatever. Because we just want to. Because we hate him. But Felix didn't do that. He didn't bite. He turns in verse 10, nods to Paul to let Paul begin his defense. Now we read that starting in verse 10, Paul replies and says, knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. You can verify that it's 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. Paul did his own little introduction, kind of like Tertullus, right? Except for it wasn't full of all this empty flattery of the lawyer. He merely acknowledges, yep, you've been ruling here for a while, and I'm happy I get to defend myself in the Roman court. I think that's what Paul's talking about. At least I'm going to get a semi-fair trial. It's not going to be trial by these guys who already hate me. So I'm happy to be here. Thanks, Felix. You're a pal, right? But he doesn't go on and on about how he's a great guy. You've been a judge over the nation for many years. And I think that Paul actually does appreciate that. Because as we said, Luke notes later that Felix actually had a fairly accurate understanding of the way. And this would be a fairly good court for Paul to make his defense in front of. So Paul begins with this, and he doesn't produce any witnesses either, but he does invite Felix to do a little bit of investigating. Hey, if you want, go ask around, have somebody go ask around Jerusalem. You'll find out I only arrived in Jerusalem just 12 days ago. I was only there, I just arrived in town just 12 days ago. Just for our sake, that means that midway through chapter 21, that has taken us several weeks to look through. 21 through 24 is 12 days in real time. Okay? Anyway, that's just a note. It's been less than a week since Paul was seized in the temple, since he was beat half to death, since he made his defense in front of the people, when he made his defense in front of the Sanhedrin, when he almost got beat by the centurion and he said, hey, I'm a Roman citizen. All this stuff's happening. Probably in less than a week. It's quite a whirlwind, 12 days. But Paul's not so much concerned with that. What he wants to tell Felix is why he was in Jerusalem at all. So I was only there for... It's only 12 days ago. I spent the last five of them here with you. So, you know, it was only a week. I was only there for a week. And I can't really start an uprising in a week, you know. But I was there for a different reason. You see what Paul says his reason was? You can verify that I've only been there that long, but I went up to worship in Jerusalem. That's what I was there for. I was there to worship. I wasn't there stirring up any crowds. I wasn't debating with anybody. I wasn't disputing. We don't actually read anything about Paul preaching to anybody, about him arguing with anybody, about him doing anything but going and visiting with James, who was sort of the elder of the church there, and agreeing with James that, okay, I'll do the purification thing. to make the Christians in the church here in Jerusalem happy that I'm not against the Jewish customs. Remember all that? That's what he's doing. He didn't stir anything up. He wasn't doing any preaching. Not in the temple, he says. Not in any of the synagogues. Not even in the old synagogue where he used to be the synagogue ruler. He didn't do that either. He didn't preach or stir up anything in the city anywhere. Go ask around. You won't find any truth to their accusation that I was causing any riots. They can't prove that because it didn't happen. Paul's defense against this first and most serious accusation that he was causing riots just simply isn't true. No evidence of that. Just because they say it doesn't mean it's true. He continues towards the second accusation in verse 14. He says, 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 pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man." I haven't been doing anything with riots that the Romans should be concerned about. And I'm not in some sort of illegal sect or something, right? Tertullus referred to the Christians as the Nazarenes, which was like a slur. Remember nothing, what good ever came out of Nazareth? That was the general thought about Nazareth. So they kept calling him this. But the Jews call it an illegal sect because they don't agree with their premise that Jesus is the Messiah. So it's illegal. We want it to be gone. But Paul refers to this as the way, which is the way the believers themselves referred to themselves. It seems at this time they weren't necessarily calling themselves, we Christians, but we followers of the way. Why? Because Jesus had created a way for them to be reconciled to God. Jesus was the way of continuing to worship the God of their fathers. That's exactly what Paul says. I'm just worshiping the same God I always used to worship. Don't you realize that? Paul doesn't say it here, but he said it before. I was a Pharisee of Pharisees, worshiping the God of our fathers. I'm still worshiping the same God, just with greater light now. That's what I'm doing. That's his defense. This is nothing illegal. There's no heresy going on here. I'm just worshipping the same God I always worshipped. Remember, Jesus himself is the one who taught the apostles first, that everything in the law and the prophets testifies to him. That's how the apostles learned all this doctrine. Jesus took them through the Old Testament scriptures, the Law and the Prophets, to demonstrate it to him. And Paul says, this is it. I'm just believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets. Paul believes all of that. He just believes it as fulfilled promises, not as future things yet to come. That's what I'm doing. And there's plenty of reason to do that. Because I have a hope in God, just like these guys do, that there will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust. You know who was first resurrected? Jesus was the first resurrected. That's my first hope. And my hope is that one day, like him, I'll be resurrected. And so will all the rest of you. Both the just and the unjust. See, there's nothing wrong with us. We're not a heretical sect. Even if we were, it's not really your business, but that's not even true. He doesn't quite go this way, but he almost says, There are those who are Jews by birth and those who are Jews by spiritual rebirth. I'm the second one. The true Israel, he might say, when he writes to the Romans. Anyway, he has this that he's presenting to them. Now, some of the elders there that day may be some of the Pharisees who believed in the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees denied it. That was the chief priest and some of the other guys. But the rest of the world knows this about Judaism, especially at that time. The rest of the world thinks that one of the reasons why the Jews are nuts is because they believe in a resurrection of the dead and a future judgment before the throne of God. That was one of the features that made them different from all the rest of the pagan religions. So this is no surprise. Paul, in his defense, is saying, this is all I'm doing. This is all I'm believing. He doesn't, in this case yet, retell his conversion story on the road to Damascus. But that's where he got convinced of the truth. Why? Because he saw the risen Christ. I've seen the resurrected Jesus. That's what I know. So this is just the continuation and the fulfillment of the true Jewish faith. The one that was promised in the Law and the Prophets. That's all. That's kind of his defense in this way. Because of that, because he sees it that way, because that's the way it truly is, Paul could say again that he always takes pains to have a clear conscience toward God and men. That's the same thing he proclaimed in Acts 23.1, when he was standing before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem and he made the same kind of statement. He said, he said, I have a conscience, clear conscience, I've always lived that way before God and men. Remember what happened there when he said that in front of the Sanhedrin? The same guy, Ananias, was there and ordered the guard to go over there and punch Paul in the mouth for saying such a thing. That's when Paul got slapped was he said that then. He says the exact same thing here before Felix. You can full on imagine that same Ananias standing over there wanting to smack him again. But before Felix, he's not about to do that. But this is Paul's defense. He maintains this defense against the accusation that he was operating against Judaism. He's not against it, he's for it. He's just for it as fulfilled in Christ, right? This is the defense of their accusations that he was the ringleader of some sort of a criminal sect of the Nazarenes. And then he continues in verse 17 with the last accusation. He says, now, after several years, I came to bring alms to my nation to present offerings. While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple without any crowd or tumult. Remember their third accusation was that he was trying to profane the temple. He was there to make a mess of things. He was sacrilegious in the temple, or he was about to be. That was their accusation. But Paul here points out that I'm not doing anything of the sort. I wasn't attempting to do anything like that. I mean, I'm a Jewish guy and I've been away from Jerusalem for many years. And when I came back, I wanted to go to the temple. to present alms, to give offerings, to do the things that good Jews do. I'd been away for a while, so I needed to be purified. But when they found me, I was in the temple purified according to the regulation. You can go check it out again, right? In fact, Paul had undergone that purification so that he could enter the temple. If they wanted to check it out, they could have found out from the guys at the temple that Paul showed up and paid for all of his stuff and for four other guys. All the sacrifices and all of the things, these other four guys who were fulfilling a Nazarite vow that Paul paid for them. He wasn't trying to profane the temple, quite the contrary. He's there showing honor to the temple. From where we sit as being non-Jewish Christians with no temple standing, just seems super odd, but that's what he did, isn't it? But it allows him to defend himself in this way. Go back, Felix, and check it out. I was there worshipping, no crowds, no riots. Nothing happened. Nothing was going on. I was there honoring the temple, not there to profane it. I was following all the rules. I hadn't drawn any crowd or started any tumult. That was started by others. See how it continues in verse 18? But some Jews from Asia, they ought to be here before you and make an accusation. Should they have anything to say against me? It's like he remembers, I didn't start the riot. It was those guys from Asia. They were in the temple, they recognized me. Back in Acts 21 verse 28. Luke wrote this, that they were there and they saw Paul in the temple and they cried out, Men of Israel, help! This is the man who's teaching everyone everywhere against the people and the law in this place. Moreover, he even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place. That's what started the riot. He goes, they're the guys, not me. Where are they, by the way? How come they didn't bring those guys? The outcry from them made the mob erupt. They dragged me out of the temple, beat me half to death and all this stuff. But now in front of Felix, Paul's recognizing again that he's in front of the Roman court. He goes, where are these accusers of mine? They started all of this. The reality is, is this is a serious violation of Roman law. One of the key principles of Roman law was that the accused was able to face their accuser. You had to come in court, make your accusations here. In fact, there were laws on the books that they could have gone and arrested guys who made an accusation and didn't show up to court because that was a big deal. You got to come and present your accusations. You can't just start something and walk away. Why are they doing that? They're all about maintaining the peace. So you can't just start a riot and walk away like nothing happened. Paul's pointing it out. Felix, where are these guys? These guys can't even, they hired this slick talking lawyer guy over here. They can't even follow the rules. Where are they? Where's the accusers? They haven't produced any witnesses to testify about any crime. They brought these three accusations without any evidence, no corroborating testimony, claims which Paul is just answering with the truth, and his answers make more sense than their accusations. If they didn't bring the witnesses to accuse Paul, why don't they at least tell Felix what the Sanhedrin had already adjudicated? See? Verse 20. If these guys aren't coming from Asia, how about this? 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's with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I'm on trial before you this day." Remember that? Paul was standing trial there just a few days earlier. This is literally just a few days before this, right? There had been a split house there in the Sanhedrin. The council started fighting amongst themselves. to where Lysias the Tribune went in there and grabbed Paul and drug him out of there because they were going to rip him limb from limb because they're just arguing about their in-house debate about is there a resurrection or not because Paul cries out in their midst. He says, you know, hey, I'm on trial with respect to my belief in the resurrection of the dead. And in Acts 23.9, it says this about that. Then a great clamor arose and some of the scribes of the Pharisees' party stood up and contended sharply, we find nothing wrong in this man. What if a spirit or an angel spoke to him? Remember that? Half the guys in the Sanhedrin started going, there's nothing wrong with him. So what does Paul tell Felix? Ask these guys yourself whether they convicted me of any crime. They didn't convict me of anything in their own chamber. All this is, at best, is just a dispute between the two parties within Israel. The Sanhedrin disputes with itself about this all the time. Why are they dragging me into the middle of their thing? And if it's just an internal religious dispute, which is exactly what Lizzie has told Felix in the letter it was, And Paul's now saying the same thing. If that's all it is, we're just wasting your time, Felix. These guys are showing up here, came all this way because they just don't like me and they're wasting your time. So if they couldn't figure it out, why are they dragging me to the governor with these baseless accusations, no evidence? And we know why, because they saw Paul as a massive threat. They just wanted to get rid of him. They were set on pursuing His execution. So set on this that they hired a Johnny Cochran lawyer who couldn't pull it off. Right? That's what they got here. And it didn't work. They were trying to butter Felix up to where he would just give them what they wanted, but interestingly enough, Felix didn't buy it. Now, to these verses I've mentioned a couple times, 22 and 23, 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 Paul should be kept in custody, but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs. What did Felix decide? Like a good politician, he decided not to decide. I'm gonna put it off. I'm gonna push it down the road as far as I can, right? He said, you know, I'll decide the case after Lysias comes down from Jerusalem, but there's no indication that he ever summoned Lysias at all. That he ever spoke to Lysias about this, ever. I don't think he ever did. He didn't give the Jews what they wanted, but he didn't release Paul either, did he? Like I said earlier, Felix is the consummate politician. He decides not to do right by anybody. No justice for anybody. I'm just gonna do whatever it takes for me to maintain my political power. That's all he does. It doesn't cost Felix any political capital to keep Paul in prison, but not execute him. It doesn't cost him anything. Nobody gets what they want. He presumably sends the high priests and elders back to Jerusalem. At least they have the knowledge that Paul's not walking around free. At least that. It's a little bit of a win, maybe, they could think, but not much. And he explicitly orders the centurion to keep Paul in custody, but it's a rather light version of prison, isn't it? You can be here in the palace still with me in Caesarea. Your friends can come and visit you and take care of you. And, you know, we'll just kind of keep track of you so that you don't go back to Jerusalem and make me look like an idiot. That's basically all it was. It's very interesting, though, that what Luke notes is that Felix put them off not because of political expediency, but because he had a rather accurate knowledge of the way. I think that's very interesting. He evidently knew much about the faith and the ethics of the Christians. I mean, he may have known just how highly respected Paul was amongst those Christians. Kind of have to be operating in a dark room at that time in that area to not know something about Paul, where he came from, what he had been doing, you know, and surely he spent five days trying to figure it all out, even if he didn't know, but he, he, he, he must've known exactly why these Jews hated him, why they were accusing him of being a traitor. as he sort of abandoned his life as a Pharisee and joined up with these guys of the way. I mean, yeah, perhaps Felix kind of enjoyed making everybody mad and not giving them what they wanted, but I think maybe he actually had a respect for the followers of the way and for Paul himself. He had a rather accurate knowledge of the way, so he didn't give Paul to them. We'll see next week that Felix is actually gonna spend quite a bit of time with Paul over the next two years, and there's something very interesting in that. It seems that this total scoundrel of a man, Felix, had some level of respect for Paul as he saw him as really living as a Christian. The guy's really trying to do what he believes is right. Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way, could see that Paul was living according to his convictions. He wasn't going to give it up just to get out of jail either. Paul wasn't a hypocrite, and I think that probably intrigued Felix. The reality is that we don't see that many authentic believers who live according to their convictions, do we? Do you recognize that? Don't you agree that it's very rare indeed to see somebody who lives according to their convictions? Even in the church. Even in our day. It must have been like that back then. I think this is why Felix puts off the elders and never really came back to complete Paul's trial. He was so intrigued by Paul he wanted to talk to him, see if he really was what he appeared to be. Because he had a rather accurate knowledge of the way. Then he wants to talk to Paul. He offers him a few bribes we'll see next week and Paul never takes them. He invites the bribes. He doesn't offer Paul the bribes. He invites Paul to offer him bribes. Nonetheless, Paul never does any of that. There's no evidence in any of this that Felix ever got saved. I mean, he's one of the most immoral men around and he ends up losing his job in a scandal later and all this other stuff. There's no evidence that he got saved. But he does seem to be fascinated with Paul. And the Lord ends up leaving Paul there for two years. Two years. We had, what, four chapters that covered twelve days? The next five or six verses will cover two years. And you know what Paul did during that time? Talked with Felix a bunch. Because, why did Felix keep him there? He had a rather accurate knowledge of the way, and he actually maybe saw Paul as like, he's this guy who's doing what he said. That was Paul's testimony, his defense, right? In verse 16 of this chapter? I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. I mean, Paul is really a man of tremendous conviction, tremendous integrity, and that can be incredibly interesting and attractive to the lost, even if it doesn't ultimately lead to their salvation. But us living our lives like that should be a goal. We should make every effort to do what's right in God's sight and in the sight of everyone we know. I mean, we say we're followers of Christ, but how much do we really look like him? We say we're ambassadors for Christ, but how much work as an ambassador do we really do? Sam mentioned this to me a couple days ago. We've tracked painfully slowly Paul's missionary journeys and admire those things, but do we have any missionary journeys we're on? I mean, Paul's living this way according to conviction. And when somebody lives like that, they really live like that, they stand out and we should wanna be like that. Even the most wicked guys in the world have no real interest in the things of God, should be able to watch us and see that if they know what our convictions are, see whether we're living according to our convictions or not. Believe me, many in our day have a pretty accurate understanding of the way. And they are watching the Christians to figure out if we're following those things or not. I mean, obviously it's not just important to do in front of guys like Felix. It's vitally important to do in front of the people who are closest to us. I mean, it's not just Jesus who can recognize the hypocrite. Jesus was really hard on those guys. Cleaned up on the outside, full of dead men's bones on the inside. He's really hard on the hypocrites. Seems like there's nothing Jesus hates more than a hypocrite. Jesus isn't the only one good at spotting hypocrites though, is he? I mean, your kids are really good at spotting hypocrisy. Kids are excellent at that. I'm pretty good at it too. And I know most of you guys are too, actually. It's not that hard, right? If you know accurately what somebody believes, you can go, are they living that way or not? How are we in that test? How is that for us? I mean, when you can say to them that Jesus is the most important person in your life, do people see that as a reality that you're actually living out? Am I really being a Christian? Is it the reality of Christ that he's my all in all? Or is that just a song that I sing every other Wednesday night? Well, what is it? It's important. It's important not just so we don't look like a hypocrite. It's actually important to our destiny in eternity too. This all reminded me of Psalm 15. You guys know Psalm 15? That Psalm begins the first verse with a question. In verse one, Psalm 15, one asks the question, O Lord, who shall sojourn in your tent? Who shall dwell on your holy hill? Who will ascend the mount of the Lord? Who will be with God in eternity? Who will be in that kingdom? That's the question. The psalmist answers with a few verses the rest of the psalm. In psalm 15 verse 2 he says, He who walks blamelessly. and does what is right and speaks truth in his heart, who does not slander with his tongue and does no evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend, in whose eyes a vile person is despised, but who honors those who fear the Lord, who swears to his own hurt and does not change, who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. Never be moved from the life with God. Never be moved from the mountain of God. Ever move from the kingdom. The one who does these things. Someone who has a blameless walk. Someone who does what's right. What they said they were gonna do even if it cost them something. The one who speaks truth but without slander or evil or reproach. I mean, I had to stop and look. Do I have these things? Are these things that I can say? I mean, I know this for sure not the way that I want to. I mean, this forces me to put myself on trial before Felix and to consider if Felix, knowing, having an accurate understanding of the way, would look at me and go, I think he might be one of those guys. This is interesting. Would I stand in that trial? Would he say, you're just a phony. Just let these guys take you and kill you, whatever. Because Luke says that the reason why Paul didn't get sent off, why Felix kept him, is because he had an accurate knowledge of the way, and Paul had just said, I take pains to live with a good conscience before God and men. Would he conclude that's right about me, that that's what's true about me? And that's what I want, but is that who I am? Or would one like Felix, who knows the way accurately, conclude that I'm a hypocrite? Of the same vein that these guys who are just lying about Paul to try to get rid of him because of their personal gain, they'll get out of it. I mean, I don't want that. I don't want to be that. I don't. I don't want that for you either, so. That's something that I think that we could look at here and figure that out. Try to see if that applies to us or not, so. Let's pray. Lord, I pray for your help. I need your help. I want you to help me to be a guy who is living like I am a follower of your way, a follower of you. Christian, I mean, kind of means little Christ, little Jesus guy, one who's conformed to the image of Christ. And I wanna be that, Lord. I don't wanna just speak big boastful words and have none of it be true about my life. Lord, I want this. I need your help to have this. I want this for us. I pray you'd help me. I pray you'd help us that we would examine ourselves in these things and that those who have a rather accurate knowledge of the way would be intrigued that we might actually be authentic followers. that we might be the real guys. Lord, not for my pride and not for my glory, but for your glory, I pray that you'd give this, that you'd help, that you'd sanctify me in these things, that over time I would be able to look back and see that I have done everything that I thought I should do according to the convictions that you've given me and the commands you've given in the scripture. I pray that that would be true, not just in me, but of all of us, Lord. Help us in this to desire those things and give us the power to do them the way that you did for Paul. I pray if we were ever in this situation that we might be intriguing in our convictions like Paul must have been to Felix. Thank you for this and thank you again for your word today in Jesus' name. Amen.