Paul's Trial Before Felix, Part 1
Acts 24:1-9
Take your Bible, if you will, and turn to Acts 24. Some passages in the Scripture are very theological. I can remember when we were studying the book of Hebrews in the evenings, and how deep and penetrating and sometimes very difficult the book of Hebrews was. There is so much doctrine, so much deep theology, and other books are very much the opposite. They are very much historical narratives, and Acts is one of those. The Gospels have an amazing way of being doctrinal and historical in a beautiful combination.
Here in the book of Acts, you pretty much have a running historical narrative, and doctrine comes rather sporadically. Often, it's implied rather than stated. So as we come to the conclusion of the book of Acts, what we're really seeing is the moving of God in the life of one man. Last week, we saw how God's providence acts, didn't we? We said that God works today through providence rather than through the miracle.
That's a word we throw around a lot, and I believe there are miracles today. The miracles God performs today, primarily, are the miracles of the new birth. That is a miracle. But other than that, this is not a day of miracles. This is not a day, I believe, when people are doing miracles. This is a day when God is ordering His will through providence. It means this: miracle is when God violates the natural world to accomplish His purpose. Providence is when God uses all the circumstances of the natural world to accomplish His purpose. It's just a different approach.
Today, we see God moving through many ways and doing mighty and wonderful things, but it is not the day of the apostolic miracles. Nevertheless, God is at work.
As we move through the book of Acts, rather than seeing, at least in the latter part, the great, dramatic miracles, we see God working through providence. It's almost as if God is beginning to phase out that apostolic miracle era. It's almost a different feeling that you get toward the end of Acts. Boy, in the beginning of Acts, you see miracle after miracle after miracle. All of a sudden, as you flow toward the end, you begin to see that God starts working more with His providence through the circumstances rather than in direct violation of them, where He just injects Himself and violates what is the normal flow. God begins to kind of work through the circumstances.
Remember, early in the book of Acts when Peter and John were in jail? An angel just reached down and yanked them out. Later in the book, what happens? Through a series of circumstances and the byplay between the Romans and the Jews, Paul gets out. But it isn't miraculous; it's providential. We begin to see this. So it becomes more and more a historical narrative.
In the background, what you need to focus on, and I'm telling you this at the beginning because I don't want to say it all the way through, you need to be aware that God is moving. In this morning's discussion, we'll only get down to verse 9, though we'd need to cover to verse 27 to get the whole story. In these verses, in the back of your mind, be aware of the fact that through all that is happening, God is moving. Of course, you'll have to come back next week to see what God is moving toward, because that's good too.
This is really the story of a man, and as much the story of a bad man as it is the story of a good man. It's the story of Paul, but it's also the story of Felix. Felix was a bad man. He was bad in every sense; he was corrupt. He stole his wife. As a 15-year-old girl, she married another man, a king. But Felix lusted after her, seduced her, and stole her. Tacitus, the historian, said about Felix, "He had the office of a king and he ruled it with the mind of a slave." You know something? He had opportunity and he blew it. He is a great illustration of lost opportunity.
Have you ever thought about opportunity? J.J. Ingalls wrote these words describing opportunity. "Master of human destinies am I; fame, love and fortune on my footsteps wait. Cities and fields I walk. I penetrate deserts and seas remote, and, passing by hovel and mart and palace, soon or late, I knock unbidden once at every gate. If sleeping, wake; if feasting, rise, before I turn away. It is the hour of fate, and they who follow me reach every state mortals desire, and conquer every foe
save death; but those who hesitate condemned to failure, penury and woe, seek me in vain, and uselessly implore. I answer not, and I return no more." Opportunity.
The greatest story of opportunity lost in the history of man, I think, is Judas. Wouldn't you agree? Can you imagine living three years in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, seeing all that He is, hearing all that He says, and being a damned suicide condemned to Hell for unbelief? Lost opportunity.
What might Judas have been? Have you ever thought about that? Judas might have been one of the 12 Apostles of the Lamb, reigning in the Kingdom, one of the 12 foundations of the heavenly Jerusalem, one of the 12 stones on the breastplate of the Eternal High Priest. He might have been one of the great heroes of all time; he might have been one of the great and glorified saints of all eternity. What was he? Traitor, thief, villain, hypocrite, the darkest of men of whom Jesus Christ Himself said, "Good were it for that man if he had never been born." Lost opportunity.
Judas lived in the face of the unclouded Son of God and his life set in the night of terrible despair, he blew it. But there is another like Judas, and I don't think he's very far behind. His name is Felix. Felix is kind of a later Judas. Do you realize that, as we will see in our story today and next Lord's Day, Felix had the Apostle Paul living in his house for two years? You say, "Well, maybe Paul didn't say anything." You don't know Paul. That's opportunity, friend. There wasn't a mind like him; there wasn't a man like him. Felix rejected all that Paul stood for and proclaimed.
Formally, his name is Antonius Felix. Formally, he is the procurator of Judea, or the governor of Judea, and he follows in the rather infamous line of Pilate. He ruled in Judea from A.D. 52-59, and the reason he ruled is because his brother, Pallas, was buddy-buddy with Claudius, and he got the job that way, not because he had any qualities.
His term as procurator was marked by trouble; everything went wrong. The Sicarii, who I told you were professional assassins, were around during his time. He did manage to quell some riots, but he did it in such a dramatic way and overdid it to the extent that even when he stopped the riot, he had killed so many people that he alienated the Jews he was trying to protect. They hated him. He is a figure of infamy. He comes off, in this story, not only as indecisive and a procrastinator, but also a coward.
You know, when you read about the byplay of the Romans in the land of Judea during the time of Christ and afterwards, you wonder whether there was such a thing as a hero, or a Roman that really believed in anything. Now, as we look at the passage, we have to take it as a unit from verses 1-27, even though we'll divide it. It really is one unit, and it's the trial of Paul before Felix. There are three ways to look at it. You can look at what Paul is doing (that's what we'll do today), you can look at what God is doing (that's what we'll do next week), or you can look at what Felix is doing (that's what we'll sum up with next time).
You know, like so many passages in Scripture, it's like a diamond - it has facets. You can look at it one way or another way; the perspectives are almost unlimited. You could use this passage to teach the attitude of Paul in trial. You could use it, as I am, to teach the tragedy of procrastination. You could use it to teach the providence of God. You could use it to teach the hatred of unbelief and the hardness of men's hearts when they turn against Christ. You could use it to go a lot of different directions, and I trust the Holy Spirit may just implant these things into your brain as we go through it from the one perspective.
Just to give you the background, the book of Acts records the history of the church from the day of Pentecost until the church had finally spread itself to Rome. Those were the great early years when the church first bloomed and brought its message all the way to the great capital of the world, Rome. During those years, we find, in the book of Acts, all kinds of exciting things happening, but two people dominate those years. The first few years are dominated by a man named Peter, and the last are dominated by Paul.
We're in the midst of the story of Paul. Paul is the man who took the Gospel to the Gentiles, and he really took three tours to the Gentiles. As we come to chapter 24, he has just finished his third one. This is the last of his tours as a free man; he is now a prisoner.
When he arrived in Jerusalem at the conclusion of his third tour, he was really trying to pacify some of the Christian Jews by going to the temple to show them he wasn't anti-Jewish, even though he was a Christian, and that he still believed in some of the customs of Israel. While he was there, some Jews from Asia Minor, where he had had such a dramatic impact on the Jews, and where he had won so many of them to Christ that the remaining Jews were very upset, they saw him there and attacked and tried to kill him. As we come to chapter 24, Paul has arrived in Caeserea.
His ministry as a prisoner took place in three cities: Jerusalem, Caesarea, and Rome. He only spent a few days in Jerusalem, a few years in Caesarea, and then he went to Rome. We remember what happened - the riot started when he came back to Jerusalem. The tribune, Claudius Lysias, was responsible for things in Jerusalem, was the ruler of Fort Antonia, and was under Felix, the procurator of the whole territory of Judea.
Claudius Lysias rescued Paul and assumed he must have done something terrible for people to be so adamant at trying to assassinate him, so he tried to get an accusation but couldn't. The mob screamed and yelled all kinds of things, since a mob never knows what it's doing anyway, and he couldn't get any answers. So he decided to torture Paul. He stretched him out on a rack to scourge him, but Paul reminded the soldiers standing by that he was a Roman and in a panic, they cut him loose. To scourge a Roman was a crime, and so there still wasn't an accusation.
Claudius Lysias then decided to take him before the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Council. Paul went before the council and they started fighting each other, but he still didn't have an accusation. So he's kind of in a hard place. As a Roman, he has a sense of justice and honor toward Rome and he wants to keep his job, so he can't execute a Roman citizen who is guilty of nothing. But in an area like Jerusalem, in a hotbed of Judaism, he's got to be sure that he pacifies the Jewish people or he'll have a riot on his hands, an insurrection, maybe lose his life and job because he hasn't been able to keep the politics to the level where there isn't a revolution.
So he's caught between a rock and a hard place. He doesn't want to break his knowledge of Roman justice or violate that, and he doesn't want to cause problems with the Jews. He can't accuse Paul of anything, he has no accusation, but he knows the Jews want to kill him. In order to try and get out from under the burden, he shuffles Paul out of town in the middle of the night and uses 470 Roman soldiers to get him to Caesarea. 470 people escort Paul.
Well, they got Paul to Caesarea, and that's where he comes to Felix. He's turned over to Felix now, and you can imagine Claudius, up in Jerusalem, saying, "Whew! Am I glad that's over." But now Felix is saying, "What do I do?" Claudius pushed the whole thing upstairs, and now Felix has the same problem. He's got a sense of Roman justice and an obligation to Rome, he can't kill a Roman citizen, either, without an accusation, and he's got to pacify the Jews too.
You see, this is the thing that finally destroyed Pilate, remember? This is the thing that destroyed him. He came out and said over and over again, "I find no fault with the man," but he wound up letting the Jews crucify Him because they put pressure on him. They said, "We'll report you to Caesar for allowing a seditionist to exist." He was trapped. Here we see the same thing happening to Felix. He reacts very much the way that Pilate did.
The passage divides itself into three very simple parts: the prosecution, the defense, and the verdict. It's really kind of a hearing. We'll see the prosecution. What are they going to accuse him of? They have to have an accusation. Claudius Lysias sent Paul, and a letter with him, saying, "I'm sending this guy, but as far as I can see, it's only a matter of Jewish theology. He hasn't really done anything for which he should be put in jail or killed." He really gives him a stamp of innocence. Then, Claudius Lysias goes to Paul's accusers and says, "Now, if you're going to pursue your case, you have to go to Caesarea; it's in the hands of Felix." So off they go.
You'd think that maybe these Jewish leaders would be content just having Paul out of town. No, they wanted him dead. He was a tremendous threat to them. You see, he undermined their security. They were smug and content, they ate up their prestige, and they loved their spiritual prominence.
Paul came along and just tore the slats out of it. He called them hypocrites, and preached Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the Messiah, the very one they had deemed a blasphemer and executed through the Romans. So Paul was doing the same thing Jesus had done - he was stomping all over their ecclesiastical toes. He was destroying their theology, and they couldn't tolerate it. They wanted to get rid of him. Besides, he was winning Jews to Christ all over the place, and this was really creating problems.
So they march on down to Caesarea; they make the 60-mile trip down there, ready to accuse him. We see the prosecution in verse 1. First of all, we meet the accusers. "After five days, Ananias, the high priest, descended with the elders." You always 'descend' from Jerusalem. Anywhere you go is down. "With a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul," or who made the indictment.
Here are the accusers; it's an interesting group, frankly. First of all, there is the high priest, Ananias. Now for a high priest to get in on an accusation is _________. This guy was upset. Of course, Ananias was corrupt; he was as corrupt as you could be corrupt, in every way. We talked about that last time and won't go over it again. He was a corrupt man, saw Paul as a threat, and wanted to get rid of him, so there he goes. He is part of the entourage that comes down to accuse. In addition to Ananias, you've got the elders. That would be key leaders out of the Sanhedrin. So you not only have the ruler of Israel, there's the Supreme Court too. They're all down to accuse Paul.
They didn't want to do it alone, so they hired a smooth-tongued, oily, slick character by the name of Tertullus. He's sort of a hired Italian, professional case reader. He's a guy who could come in and read this deal off, figure it all out, and then could go and plead the thing. This is a man who was probably versed in legal procedure as far as Rome went. He probably spoke eloquent Latin, and he was the guy they were going to have plead the case. It says at the end of verse 1 that, "He informed the governor." The high priest and others from the Sanhedrin just stood there while Tertullus did the talking.
Now it was very common for orators in those days to do what Tertullus did. In the first two verses, he just lays it on thick. The Latin description of what he did is captatio benevolentia. Do you know how that translates? Soft-soap job. That's a free translation.
What he did was butter Felix up with flattery; I mean it was so thick it was ridiculous. In the first place, there wasn't two minutes worth of good that could be said about the guy, so what he does is give a lot of generalities. You know, like the politicians who say, "My, that is a baby." A whole lot of generalities without any significance. But it was a very common approach to get a favorable hearing. Even though you know it isn't true, you like to hear it, right? It's like Herod. He sat up on his throne and gave his speech, then everyone said, "He's not a man, he's a god." Herod loved every bit of it, even though he knew it wasn't true. We know that about flattery; we know it isn't so, but we love it.
So he butters him up, even though the man is intelligent enough to know that the Jewish people hated him. They've hired a professional to come in and tell him how wonderful he is. Well, let's see what he says that's flattering. Verse 2.
"When he was called forth," the hearing began; we don't know if it was very formal or informal. Apparently, though, it was informal, because there had to be a later determination of the case according to verse 22. So it was some kind of official but informal hearing. He calls forth Tertullus, and Tertullus began to accuse Paul. This is how he began his accusation, "Seeing that by thee [referring to Felix] we enjoy great quietness." He says, "Felix, first of all, let me begin by saying we are so happy with the peace that you have brought."
Now, Felix had nothing to do with peace, he had made absolutely no contribution to Roman peace whatsoever. In fact, the only time Felix had brought peace was when he stomped out a riot that shouldn't have started in the first place if he had known what he was doing. And when he stomped it out, he did such a lousy job that he alienated everyone else. So he hadn't really done anything that had contributed to peace, it was just a flattering statement. "We enjoy much peace."
Listen, many of the Jews didn't see the Pax Romana as peace at all. Tacitus said, "The Romans create a desolation and call it peace." It may have been peace for Rome, but it was oppression for everyone else. So when he says, "Oh, we enjoy this great quietness," that's just not so.
Then he goes on, "And very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy provision. Oh, you've done so much for us, Felix!" You know, I checked out 12 different books this week to try and find one thing Felix did and couldn't find one. Whatever he was supposed to have done, history never recorded it. But notice the generalities; there are no specifics. He doesn't say, "You did this, or that other thing," he just says all these generalities.
He had driven off the Egyptian impostor, which really potentiated a revolution, he had done that. He had quelled a few riots, but certainly no reforms of any consequence. He did some bad things. He assassinated Jonathan, the high priest, because he didn't like him. One way to be popular with the Jews is not to assassinate the high priest.
Tacitus, the historian, says, "He thought he could do any evil with impunity." That is, he thought he could do any evil and get away with it. Tacitus went on to say, "He indulged in every kind of barbarity and lust." Very worthy deeds? I don't think so. History hasn't recorded one; but he butters him up. Verse 3 gets even thicker.
"We accept it always. Whatever you do, oh Felix, we accept it. Always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thanksgiving." Notice all the 'alls': always, all places, all thankfulness, all bologna. I can just imagine the Jewish leaders standing there, the high priest and those from the Sanhedrin, just gagging. I mean, now I know why they hired a lawyer. They could never have said that with a straight face, it was impossible. I know Felix didn't believe it, and he was there with his tongue in his cheek, smiling from ear to ear because those Jewish people had to stand there and endure while he said that about Felix. So he was loving it because he knew they detested it. "Most noble Felix." There was nothing noble about him at all.
Verse 4 is interesting. How are you going to turn the corner after that? Well, this guy was pretty oily, pretty smooth. Verse 4. "Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious unto you, [I don't want to take your time reciting all the wonderful, wonderful things you've done, so I'll get on with it] I beseech you that you would hear us of thy clemency," that means yieldedness. The idea is that one is to give place to another, to give over your rights. "That you would be kind enough to yield to us a few words. I don't want to continue to recite all these things; that would be tedious to you." The real truth was, he didn't have a thing to say. That was it. It's like when a preacher says, "I have much more I could say on this subject," that means he's run out of material.
So he butters up Felix in order to get a hearing. Incidentally, the idea that 'I don't want to be tedious, I want to get this over with' was very common. There is historical evidence that orators did this very often before judges. They said, "This is going to be very brief." The reason they would do that would be to get the concentration of the man at the very beginning. It didn't always turn out to be brief, but it was a good way to sort of win over an immediate response.
So Felix is there, and I know he's smiling because these Jewish leaders are having to sit there and acknowledge all this flattery. I know they're gagging because of the flattery. Tertullus is doing his job. So there they are, all the accusers and their hired mouth have come down to bring their case against Paul. We'll leave the accusers now and listen to the accusation.
Verses 5-9 give us the accusation. I want you to notice that the accusation falls into three categories, and it's a very clear accusation. Sedition, sectarianism, and sacrilege. It's easy for you to remember that way. They accused him of sedition, that's a violation of Roman law, sectarianism, a violation of Jewish law, and sacrilege, a violation of God. They get him on his relationship to Rome, to the Jews, and to God. That's the accusation in total. Let's look at it in part.
First of all, the accusation of sedition. Sedition could be translated treason. Of course, if they could make this stick, they could really get him. If the Romans think for a minute that this man is committing treason, or is stirring up sedition or insurrection or riot, he is in deep trouble. Verse 5, and this is a generality, "We have found this man a pestilent fellow." What that really translates is 'a nuisance, a plague, a pest'. In the modern day, this man would be a pain in the neck. That isn't an accusation, that's just a statement, a very general statement, reflecting their attitude. "He causes us trouble."
Then they define the three areas in which he is such a pestilence. "He's a disrupter. He creates problems wherever he goes." First of all, sedition against the government. He is a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world. The idea is that he is getting Jews to revolt against Rome. This man is gathering Jews and they're revolting all over the world! He's treasonous. There is insurrection, riots are happening.
You know, they could have supported that. Paul didn't stir up riots, but he sure was in on a lot of them. He would preach, then someone else would get excited and stir up the riot, but he was usually there when the riot was happening. So if there had been any weight of evidence at all that this guy could have pulled out of his hat to support this, he could have had Paul in trouble because it was true that Paul had been in riots. We'll see, interestingly enough, in a few moments, that even in the midst of those riots, Paul could never justifiably be accused. That is made clear in the book of Acts.
There was, though, the potential that this could stick, if the right twist on the truth could be brought to bear. So they accuse him of being a man of sedition, and one who moves people to riot. The Romans did not tolerate that; they were paranoid about revolution, insurrections, and riots, because they had managed to conqueror. They had placed all their rulers and soldiers in these areas to keep the peace, and this is the one thing they feared.
Notice the exaggeration. It says, "He is a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world." I mean, that is a little broad, but again, these are great generalities. He doesn't name any riot, you know why? If he had named a riot in any area, it would have immediately removed the responsibility from Felix because they would have had to transfer Paul into that area to be tried under whoe