The Book of Acts
Paul's Trial Before Felix, Part 3
Acts 24:17–27
This evening we'll continue our study of Paul's appearance before Felix. And while it is about Paul, the section we'll look at tonight is really more about Felix and the tragedy of a man who had a great opportunity, and forfeited it.
He served as the Roman governor assigned to Judea, and when a controversy between Paul and the Jews in Jerusalem arose, the Roman centurion in charge decides to send Paul to Felix for trial.
We've heard the defense presented by Ananias, the High Priest, some of the Sanhedrin, and a hired attorney named Terullian as they accuse Paul of heresy and sedition. And as we know, all of their charges are false.
Paul then, presents his defense. Last week we began to look at his response to their charges to sedition and heresy and made it through verse 16. Tonight, we pick up there where he defends himself against the charge of descrating the temple by taking a Gentile into it.
verse 17-21
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is his defense to the accusation of sacrilege, that he had blasphemed God. He's been gone for an extended time, and when he returned to Jerusalem, he came primarily to bring his tithe and pay his taxes.
Had I been in charge, I would have dismissed the case immediately! Do we really want to find people guilty for doing that? I don't think so!
Remember, he had collected that money from all the Gentile Christians, and he was bringing it to give to the Jewish Christians as a sign of love. And so, he said, “I came to bring alms and offerings to my nation.”
Notice the next phrase of 17 and verse 18. I think we need to parenthetically insert into the white space between the verses, "and there I was in the temple, minding my own business”.
Now, notice; he says, “I was in the temple, and I was carrying out a simple vow of purification, going through that Nazarite vow, worshiping in that very Jewish way, that customary way when these Jews from Asia Minor came and they found me there."
No riot; no crowds, just me and God. They saw what I was doing there. I did desecrated the temple and start a riot. I was simply doing what I came to do when I was captured.
And that was exactly what had happened. They seized the opportunity when it presented itself with the intention of killing him.
Verses 19-20
In other words, if they had a legitimate complaint, they should have come to you immediately and made it public. But where are their witnesses?
In fact, there is nothing prohibiting the ones standing here right now from telling you if I really took Gentiles into the temple.
Well, they had nothing to say, so, there was no accusation from witnesses, and there was no accusation from the Jewish hearing. The only thing they could come up with, and Paul confesses to it is found in
verse 21
"The only thing they can accuse me of is making an issue out of the resurrection. That is all.”
And of course, Paul knows that that’s no criminal issue at all. That’s a theological discussion, and it certainly doesn't need to be tried in a legal proceeding. And by the way, Felix knew it also. In fact, he knew it even before Paul’s testimony, because as we saw in chapter 23, he had received a letter from the Roman centurion that explained it.
Acts 23:29
So at the end of verse 21, Paul throws the whole discussion back to a theological one, which was a very wise move.
He knows from experience that a Roman judge cannot make a determination in a case or regarding Jewish theology. There is no crime, there’s no criminal act, there’s no civil crime. Felix knew that, so Paul just brings it up to remind him of his responsibility.
So with that, we come to
3. The Verdict
Now maybe I'm biased, but it seems like the verdict is obvious. There aren’t any witnesses, there is no evidence. Therefore, the only verdict that is possible is innocent.
So what does Felix do? What is the verdict that he will render? After all, he is a competent man. He understands the truth and rule of law. He’s judged cases before. He knows they've tried to influence his decision with all their platitudes. He knows that the Jews have perjured themselves from the beginning of the trial to the end.
And it's very interesting that when Paul finished his defense, they didn't offer any rebuttals. They just stand there with their mouth shut.
So what’s Felix going to do? Well, he’s got a problem because on the one hand, he knows what he should do in light of what he's heard, but he's afraid. What's he afraid of? He's afraid of violating Paul's rights as a Roman citizen and he's afraid of offending the Jews who live under his jurisdiction.
Either way, he could wind up with a mess on his hands. His responsibility to Roman law and citizenship is at stake. And his relationship with the Jews was at stake. So he does what every pure politician does: nothing. He compromised. Now, I’m not saying all people in public office do that. I’m saying pure politicians do. He didn’t do anything.
Verse 22
So what does Luke mean when he tells us that Felix had had "more accurate knowledge of the Way"?
Well, "the Way" is a title for Christianity, so Felix had more accurate knowledge about Christianity. More accurate knowledge than who? Obviously, he's not talking about Paul, but rather, the accusers of Paul.
He knew more about Christianity than these Jews did. He was an informed man, and I think the Holy Spirit inspired Luke to include that little detail so we could have a little added insight into how responsible he was to make a right judgment.
In other words, Luke is telling us that Felix knew enough about Christianity to do what was right. Maybe he knew because of Christian evangelists in the area like Phillip. Maybe he knew through his own research and inquiry. Maybe he knew because he listened to other Christians, but he knew the issue was a theological debate between Judaism and Christianity.
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he deferred and chose to wait until Lysias the commander in Jerusalem could come. By the way, there is no record, that Claudius Lysias ever came. So Felix permanently postponed making a decision about the case against Paul.
verse 23
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puts Paul into a sort of house arrest under the supervision of this centurion with very little restriction. And according to verse 27, after Felix leaves his position, Festus succeeds him and Felix, wanting to do the Jews a favor, left Paul bound.
And with that, the trial concludes. And looking at it from Paul's perspective, you find exactly what you would expect to find. Here is a man who unashamedly serves the Lord, and does what God sent him to do. And just as the Lord said, he was falsely accused and persecuted. But when it's all said and done, there he stands, with a clear conscience before God.
What a great way to live!
But what about God’s perspective? How do we see God in this passage? Aside from the obvious and what we see in the life and ministry and experience of Paul, how do we see God at work in this situation?
Remember, Felix left Paul in prison after he was no longer governor and it seems that God is just having to sort of sit by and see what's going to happen.
The whole time he’s there, we don’t know of any sermon that Paul ever preached, or of anything that he ever wrote.
Can you imagine the apostle Paul, two years and he doesn’t write something and he doesn’t preach? Now, there may have been times when he wrote something, there may have been times when he preached; we don’t have record of it.
So what's going on from God's perspective?
Let me be careful to say this is not in the text and just me wondering out loud, but I wonder if God wasn't just letting him rest?
He worked so hard and accomplished so much and had so little time left. He’d been all over the Roman world, and it all kind of climaxed in Jerusalem. He was nearly beaten to death, he was slugged in the face, he was clamored after and yanked apart, he was thrown into custody, he was hustled to Caesarea by 470 Roman soldiers, and he went through this trial. So maybe the Lord just said, “Well, you might as well take a couple of years off.”
And one of the reasons I lean toward that opinion I lean toward that opinion is because of a little phrase in
verse 23
He gave free reign for his friends to" provide for him"
The implication is that they came to minister to him. And that's a nice idea for a change. He just got to rest and have some folks that ministered to him. And he did it in the best of accommodations with everything he needed provided.
Lastly, we need to look at Felix. We’ve seen Paul and how he handles the situation, and we’ve seen God and a possibility of how He's at work, but maybe the biggest lessons from this text come through Felix, and just so we have plenty of time to deal with him, we'll save that for next week.
Let's pray
