Acts 24

CHAPTER 24THEME: Paul before FelixThis chapter opens and closes with Paul a prisoner in Caesarea. As we have seen, he was brought here secretly from Jerusalem to elude the Jews who had plotted his murder. Candidly, Paul had failed in gaining the sympathies of his brethren for the gospel ministry in which he was engaged. I suspect that this was a time of mental depression and discouragement for him, because the Lord came to him in the night to give him encouragement (Act_23:11). He told His faithful servant that he would witness to Him in Rome also. The Lord did not promise him that it would be easy. Many trying experiences and hardships were immediately before him. In fact, from here to his final martyrdom there was nothing but peril and dangeractually that had been the pattern since the day he was let down in a basket over the wall at Damascus. In this chapter we will learn that the high priest Ananias and the elders come down from Jerusalem to accuse Paul before Felix. Paul is accused of sedition, rebellion, and profaning the temple.

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PAUL BEFORE FELIXThe accusers didn’t waste time. They came down after five days in order to press charges against Paul. They brought with them a man named Tertullus who would act as the prosecuting attorney. He was a clever and well-prepared man. The charge he brought was very well prepared, too. It was brief and to the point. I think he did the best he could with the charges he had.

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He starts out with flattery in his address to Felix. This had nothing in the world to do with the charge against Paul.

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Believe me, he is really buttering up the governor.

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He calls Paul a mover of sedition. He couldn’t prove that, of course.

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The “Jews” are the religious rulers who came down to press charges. Notice he makes subtle insinuations about the way the chief captain handled the case. He cannot charge him with dereliction of duty, but there is a faint breath of criticism to the governor. He says the Jews could have handled this case adequately themselves. He has nothing but flattery for Felix, unjust charges against Paul, and subtle insinuations against Claudius Lysias. So the charges against Paul are that he is a mover of sedition, he is a leader of a rebellious sect, and he has profaned the temple. Tertullus presents these charges for the religious rulers. Now Paul makes his defense before Felix.

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Paul is saying that he is delighted to present his case before Felix. He knows that Felix has been a judge of the people for a long time, which means that Felix understands their customs. So what Paul is going to say will not be something that will be strange or foreign to Felix.

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Since Felix understands the customs of the Jews, Paul tells him that he went up to Jerusalem to worship according to their custom. In substance he says, “I am in agreement with my nation. Only I must confess that the way in which I worship God is to them heresy.” But Paul makes it clear that the way he worships is according to the message to the fathers, that is, the Old Testament.

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Have you noticed that the Resurrection is the very center of Christianity? It has been from the very beginning, friend. “What think ye of Christ?” is always the test. Did He die for your sins? Was He raised from the dead? Paul immediately comes to the core: the Resurrection.

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Paul testifies that what he has done, he has done for the sake of his conscience.

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Paul came to bring to the church in Jerusalem the gifts which he had been gathering on his third missionary journey. I have a notion it was a substantial gift which the gentile believers sent to Jerusalem, and Paul wanted to bring that gift with his own hands.

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The real accusers, if there were any at all, are not even present. The charge that Tertullus makes is that Paul had been stirring up people in the temple. Why don’t the people who were being stirred up testify against Paul? They aren’t there, and Paul calls attention to it.

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“Let them tell you about my appearance before the Sanhedrin. Did they find that I had done anything evil? Let them give testimony about that.”

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He tells Felix again that the real issue is the Resurrection. The Resurrection is the very heart of the gospel message. Christ died for our sins, was buried, and was raised again on the third day. In fact, I think of Christianity as an arch supported by two pillars. One pillar is the death of Christ and the other pillar is the resurrection of Christ. Without one or the other the arch would fall.

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Felix had been hearing about “that way”; he knew the death and resurrection of Christ was being preached. He realized that Paul was the expert, that Paul was the man who could tell him all about it. So he deferred the Jews because he wanted to have another hearing with Paul about this matter. He told the Jews he would wait until Lysias could come down, and then he could get the real story about what had happened to Paul. Apparently he could make no decision from the contradictory testimony that was offered here. Tertullus was making certain accusations. Paul said the real issue was the Resurrection. So he defers judgment.

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Actually, Felix should have freed Paul. However, he was a politician, an astute politician. He does give Paul a great deal of liberty while still keeping him a prisoner.

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FELIX HAS PAUL IN FOR A PRIVATE AUDIENCEA sinner will never have “a convenient season” to hear the gospel. This man Felix already knew something about the gospel, or “the Way,” which is synonymous with what we today call Christianity or the Christian faith. I personally would like to see the name “the Way” restored because Christianity, as it is used today, is a most abused word and has lost its real meaning. I heard a man, actually a good preacher, say the other day that we live in a Christian nation. My friend, we don’t live in a Christian nation! This country is not Christian by any stretch of the imagination. We have a lot of church members, but the number of real Christians composes a small minority today. Felix called Paul in to explain to him the gospel which had induced this entire situation. He called Paul in “and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.” Some Bible teachers caption this section “Paul’s Defense Before Felix.” I disagree with that. Paul was not defending himself here. What he was doing in this second appearance before Felix was witnessing to him, trying to win this man for Christ. The scriptural record does not present this man Felix in the bad light that secular history does. I would like you to know what a rascal he really was. To know the man, we must turn to the record of that day. Felix was a freed slave who through cruelty and brutality had forged to the front. He was a man given to pleasure and licentiousness. By the way, his very name means “pleasure.” The Roman historian, Tacitus, says this concerning him: “Through all cruelty and licentiousness he exercised the authority of a king with the spirit of a slave.” This was the man into whose hands Paul was placed. Yet the Scripture does not condemn him. His wife Drusilla sat there alongside him. Again secular history turns the spotlight on her for us. She was a daughter of Herod Agrippa I. Her father killed the apostle Jameswe have already seen that in Act_12:1-2. The great uncle of this woman had slain John the Baptist. Her great-grandfather tried to kill the Lord Jesus Christ. This couple of rascals, Felix and Drusilla, are in an exalted position. They probably would never have attended a church in which the gospel was preached, nor would they have gone to hear Paul the apostle if he had come to town to preach. Yet here are these two who have this great opportunity given to them under the most favorable circumstances. They have a private interview with the greatest preacher of the grace of God that the world has ever known. God gives them a private sermon. Their palace becomes a church and their thrones become almost a mourner’s bench.

Oh, the wonder of the grace of God to give these two a chance! The hour of salvation struck for them. The door of the kingdom was opened and they had their opportunity to enter. This is in fulfillment of the verse in the second psalm: “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth” (Psa_2:10). It appears that they heard Paul with a great deal of interest. I think Felix would have liked to have made a decision for Christ.

But he didn’t make that decision. He wanted to wait for a convenient season. My friend, the sinner will never have a convenient season to hear the gospel. Man does not set the time; God does. Paul reasoned with him of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. This makes a very good sermon, by the way. Righteousness here is, I think, the righteousness of the Law, which man cannot attain. In other words, the Law reveals that man is a sinner, and he cannot even present a legal righteousness that would be acceptable to God. A sinner must have a standing of legal righteousness before God, and he cannot provide it for himself. So God provides it for him in Christ Jesus.

That is the “robe” of righteousness which comes down like a garment over those who put their trust in Christ. That is the righteousness “Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference” (Rom_3:22). Paul reasoned with this man about the righteousness of the Law which he could not meet and the righteousness which Christ provides the sinner who puts his trust in Him. Then Paul talked of temperance, which is self-control. Felix was a man mastered by passion and cruelty. These two, Felix and Drusilla, great sinners, living in sin, did not know what real freedom was.

Then Paul spoke about the judgment to come, which is the final judgment at the Great White Throne of Rev_20:11-15. Friend, today your sins are either on you or they are on Christ. If your sins are on Christ, if you have put your trust in Him, then He paid the penalty for your sins over nineteen hundred years ago. They do not lie ahead of you for judgment in the future. But if your sins today are still on you, then there is yet a judgment to come. People don’t like to hear about judgment to come. Felix and Drusilla did not like to hear about it either. But if your sins are not on Christ, that is, if you have not trusted Him as your Savior, then you are going to come up for judgment. You can close this book right now, but that doesn’t alter a thing. You cannot escape the fact that you are coming up for judgment. Very few preachers touch on this subject. Those who still teach the Bible are the only ones who mention it at all, and most preachers soft-pedal it. I received a letter from a college professor in Virginia who wrote, “I listened to you and I was about ready to tune you out when I found out you were a hell-fire and damnation preacher. But I noticed that you didn’t handle it in a crude way, and then I noticed that you did offer salvation; so I continued to listen to you.” Hell-fire and damnation is a pretty good subject if it is used to lead one to Christ, friend. But it should never be used alone without the message of salvation which we have in Christ Jesus. It is interesting to observe Felix here. When Paul had to appear before Felix, Ananias the high priest, the elders, and the great orator Tertullus came to bring their charges against him. Felix could immediately see that they had no real charge. He should have let Paul go free. But Felix was most of all a politician and did not want to antagonize the Jews. He did not do what was right but did what was politically expedient. Then Felix had this private interview with Paul, and Paul apparently really touched him. Yet he delayed his decision and postponed the day. It has been proven out in the history of the human family for nineteen hundred years that folk can keep postponing making a decision for Christ until they come to the place where they cannot make a decision for Him at all. That is the reason that most decisions for Christ are made by young peoplewe ought to try to reach young people for Christ. Also this is the reason a person need not think that because he is getting older he is becoming smarter. Older people just become more hardened to the gospel. Years ago I heard the late Dr. George Truett, a great prince of the pulpit in Dallas, Texas, tell an incident that illustrates this fact.

It was at the celebration of his fiftieth anniversary that a lawyer friend, who was not a Christian, came to him. He said, “George, you and I came here to Dallas at the same time. You were a young preacher and I was a young lawyer. I must confess that when I first heard you, I was moved a great deal by your sermons. Very frankly, there were nights when I couldn’t sleep. As the years wore on, the day came when I could listen to you and enjoy hearing you.

Your message didn’t disturb me at all. And you’re a much greater preacher today than you were at the beginning.” The lawyer chuckled about it. He didn’t realize how tragic it was. He didn’t realize the place to which he had actually come. “Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee,” said Felix. That time never came for Felix. That time never came for the lawyer in Dallas.

That time does not come for a great many people who postpone receiving Christ.

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He was a clever politician and also a crook, by the way. He hoped that he would be bribed and then he would have let Paul go free.

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Felix played politics to the very end. He left Paul in prison. Again we say that Roman justice was no better than the men who executed it. Either Paul was guilty or he was not guilty. If guilty of treason, he should have been put to death. If not guilty, he should have been freed. One or the other should have been done. Under no circumstances should he have been left in prison for two years.