Acts 23 Character in Crisis

In our text this morning, in Acts 23, we're going to get a close -up look again of the life of the

Apostle Paul, again under poor circumstances. The Apostle Paul, as he was traveling, and we're going through the book of Acts, those of you who have been a part of this series, you kind of get to know him and get to feel what his life was like a little bit, and it was hard.

Would any of you agree with that? If you've been listening into these messages, the life of Paul, pretty difficult and going through some tough stuff.

He seems to go through one problem after another in the book of Acts, but God used him in an amazing way to kick -start the early church.

He used the gifts, the talents, the abilities that Paul had, and kind of like Paul was a man on fire.

This morning we see, through Paul, the value of two things. Two things that we identify in his life that were valuable in his ministry, and that was his character and his cultural awareness.

His understanding of what was going on around him in his culture, but then also the character with which he lived his life.

Something that at one point he said, imitate me as I imitate Christ. Now, how many of you would feel comfortable saying that to somebody?

Any of you? I don't see many hands. Follow me, live like me, of course with the attachment, as I seek to follow and honor

Christ. That's the kind of character that Paul had, and I mean, he wasn't superhuman, but he was a regular dude, but he was able to say things like that because he was very, very careful, and we're gonna see in the text that he was very cautious and worked hard at his conscience, trying to keep a clear conscience before God and others.

He's gonna be accused in our text of a load of stuff, but it won't stick, and not only does it not stick, but as we've come to expect, as Paul goes through adversity and hardship, he uses his wisdom, his knowledge, and his cultural awareness as an opportunity to express the gospel to the

Roman leaders. He takes the circumstances that he's put in, and then in turn, turns those into opportunities to proclaim the gospel.

It's awesome. He was a man who commonly took the lemons of life and made lemonade, a common phrase that we use, and in Paul, we see the power of a changed life.

We see a man remade, restored, and reutilized. Now, as you get to know

Paul, you understand you gotta take everything that you see about the life of Paul in the book of Acts from the perspective of what he was before he came and met

Jesus Christ. He was a man, his personality, his character was a man on fire.

He was always, some of you are real go -getters. You're aggressive, and you're out there making life happen.

Some of you let life kind of come at you a little bit more, and you know who you are in that, but the fact of the matter is

God can reutilize anybody for the kingdom of God, regardless of your gifts, your talents, your abilities, and that's what he did with Paul.

Paul was running 180 degrees away from Christ, opposing

Christ, fighting Christ at every turn. Then he met Christ, and what happened?

It's like when he met Christ, it was like he got hit by a train and going 180 degrees the opposite direction, completely reutilized for the kingdom of God, his gifts and talents, his personality still intact, but man, he was on fire.

Do you see that? You see that when you meet Paul in the text, reutilized for the kingdom of God? And the same character, the same resolve, the same driving purpose that made

Paul a man on fire is available to all who are followers of Jesus Christ.

That same passion, that same drive, that same focus that we see. Now, it doesn't have to look like Paul. Is everybody here called to look just like Paul, do the things that Paul did?

No, I mean, everybody has a different calling, different set of skills, different set of abilities, but God desires to use us for his kingdom, and he gives us the power to do so.

So I want you to open your Bibles. We're gonna read a pretty good sized chunk here, Acts 23. We're gonna read

Acts 23, 23, all the way through the end of chapter 24. It's page 799 in the

Bible in the seat back in front of you. If you get to 799 in that Bible, we're basically gonna read that page.

And if you don't own a Bible, we want everybody to own a Bible, to have one, and that is a free gift from us to you.

That one in the seat back, we've got a box full of those to replace whatever's taken this morning. So we want everybody to own a

Bible. As a matter of fact, if you don't own one and you don't take one, I'd be sad. So make me happy and take a

Bible. But don't sell them on eBay, okay? Take it and read it. All right, follow along as I read

Acts 23, 23. Then he called two of the centurions, he being the tribune, we talked about last week, we'll get there.

Then he called two of the centurions and said, get ready, 200 soldiers and 70 horsemen and 200 spearmen to go as far as Caesarea.

At the third hour of the night. Also provide mounts for Paul to ride and bring him safely to Felix, the governor.

And he wrote a letter to this effect. Claudius Lysias, to his excellency, the governor Felix, greetings.

This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a

Roman citizen. And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council.

I found that he was being accused about questions of their law, but charged with nothing deserving death or imprisonment.

And when it was disclosed to me that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him at once to you, ordering his accusers also to state before you what they have against him.

So the soldiers, according to their instructions, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatrus. And on the next day, they returned to the barracks, letting the horsemen go on with him.

When they had come to Caesarea and delivered the letter to the governor, they presented Paul also before him. On reading the letter, he asked what province he was from.

And when he had learned that he was from Cilicia, he said, I will give you a hearing when your accusers arrive. And he commanded him to be guarded in Herod's Praetorium.

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 we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among 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 was 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 synagogue or in the city.

Neither can they prove to you what they now bring 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 towards both God and man.

Now, after several years, I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple without any crowd or tumult.

But some Jews from Asia, they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation should they have anything against me, or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoings they found when

I stood before the council. Other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them, it is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I'm on trial before you this day.

But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way, put them off saying, when Lysias the tribune comes down,

I will decide your case. Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody, but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs.

After some days, Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish. And he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.

And he reasoned about righteousness and self -control and the coming judgment. Felix was alarmed and said, go away for the present.

When I get an opportunity, I'll summon you. At the same time, he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him.

When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Portius Festus, and desiring to do the

Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. Last week, we left with a little bit of a cliffhanger.

Paul was in protective custody of the Romans. And so I just kind of set the stage a little bit.

The Jewish leaders had tried to kill him twice in just 48 hours, actually a little less than 48 hours.

They had tried to kill him. They actually had their hands on him, and he was rescued by the Romans. Two different times. So then he's arrested, but brought into protective custody.

Not arrested in a sense that he's been found guilty of something. As a matter of fact, the Tribune doesn't even know what he's done, but a guy's about to get murdered in the temple grounds.

And so they rush down with the soldiers and bring him into protective custody. And they're getting ready to try to figure out who he is when they find out he's a

Roman citizen. And so then he's arrested, and a plot is disclosed to the

Tribune who's holding Paul in custody. Now, Tribune is a Roman ruler, a

Roman, rather, military commander, over a thousand troops. You've heard probably the phrase, or maybe many of you are familiar with the term centurion.

A centurion is a commander of 100 troops, and the Roman military was pretty well organized that way.

So this guy is up there in the military ranks. And he finds out that there's this plot of 40

Jews who have taken an oath to say they would not eat or drink until they find Paul, until Paul's dead.

We're not gonna eat any food, we're not gonna do anything else. It's our number one priority to see Paul dead. 40 Jews, how many of you would like that if you knew?

How many of you like it when you find out that there's somebody who doesn't like you? Okay, have you ever had that experience where you find out from a friend, who heard from a friend that somebody said something bad about you, and you're like, oh, man, 40 people want him dead, okay?

You like to find that out through the rumor mill, okay? And that's where we pick up the text today.

Like, that's where we left it. We had kind of a little bit of a cliffhanger. What's gonna happen to these 40? What's gonna happen to Paul? Well, this Roman Tribune isn't messing around, okay?

He's the real deal. He's arrived at his post by being an intelligent man, by understanding his community and the area that he's responsible for.

He commands 1 ,000 troops that are garrisoned within a stone's throw of the Jewish temple. Okay, and if you know anything about history, even to this very day in 2012, if unrest and civil unrest starts at the temple in Jerusalem, how many of you know that's gonna spread a little bit?

Okay, it's gonna be hard to contain if some kind of unrest begins in that area. It is a place of great controversy.

Would you agree with me about that? In the scope of global affairs, a riot begins at the temple between Muslims, Jews, whatever.

That's gonna turn ugly globally. So this guy has been given a lot of responsibility by the

Romans. Are you getting what I'm saying by that? Okay, he's responsible for a very hostile, hotbed kind of area of animosity, and he's been given that responsibility to be over that district, that area.

Bottom line, Rome trusted Claudius Lysias, and he is a man of action. He immediately takes 470 heavily armed troops, including 70 cavalry, which means mounted soldiers, and even provides mounts for Paul, the text tells us, and he's gonna move him over towards the seat of Roman government.

Jerusalem, we might have in our mind that the seat of Roman government, wouldn't you kind of naturally think would be in Rome?

It's not. I mean, in Rome, yeah, it is in Rome. But in this district, it's not in Jerusalem, rather, but it's actually in Caesarea.

That's where the governor lives, which would kind of make sense because it's on the Mediterranean Sea, and of course, people in high authority like to have a nice lakefront property on the sea.

That's what's going on there. That's where the governor lives. He likes to kind of hang out at the palace over there, and so they're gonna move him in the night to that place with a lot of troops.

They depart about nine o 'clock in the evening. So it says in the third hour, is that what it says? Third hour of the night?

Nine o 'clock in the evening is about the time that they take off. And I believe that the intense response, like doesn't that seem like overkill?

Can you imagine having 470 armed troops to escort you? Okay, does that seem, does anybody think that seems like a little bit overkill?

Okay, like what's Rome's interest in this? Like what's the deal with this? I don't think that the tribune had a lot of love for Paul.

I don't think it was just like, his heart was just like, oh man, I gotta protect this guy, and I just love Paul, and I just want him to be okay, so I'm gonna send a bunch of troops with him.

Can you think of other motivations that might be moving in this tribune's mind, like a complete all -out riot, losing some of his soldiers to these 40?

You know, he sends out 10 to guard Paul. He's gonna lose a couple soldiers in the process. So he makes a show of power and force by sending out a huge entourage.

Ultimately, he prevents the 40 from even attempting an attack. They're not gonna be dumb enough, 40 against 470 heavily armed

Roman soldiers, they don't even attack. I'm under the impression, by the way, by these guys' level of commitment, they said they're not gonna eat or drink until he's dead.

I'm guessing they were laying in a ditch somewhere as this group goes by. But it just seems to make sense in the text.

I mean, you might think in your mind, okay, well, they just missed the boat, they didn't get there in time or whatever. I'm thinking they're laying in a ditch going, you start, one, two, three, go!

One, two, three, go! And nobody jumps up out of the ditch to attack because it's 470, they got horses, they got spears, they got the military force behind them.

So they don't ever do it, and they end up making it all the way there. A letter is included with this entourage,

Lysias isn't with them, but he sends a letter to the Roman governor, Felix, and it tells us what we already know.

He catches the governor, Felix, up to speed on just events that we're already aware of, if you were here last week or the week before.

But there's one thing that I wanna point out, that because we actually got to see the events unfold as recorded by Luke, he kinda leaves something out.

He's gonna leave something out of this letter. In verse 27, the tribune lies to the governor in order to make himself look more noble than he is.

If you look at verse 27, it says this, this man was seized by the Jews, a letter that he's writing, speaking about the events that happened, talking about Paul, this man was seized by the

Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a

Roman citizen. Like, I rescued him because I found out he was a Roman citizen. Is that accurate?

Those of you who were here a couple weeks ago, is that what happened? No, as a matter of fact, he arrested him and was getting ready to torture him to find out the truth when

Paul says, are you allowed to do this to a Roman citizen? And he's like, oh, wait a minute, if you're a

Roman citizen, I can't do this. I mean, he didn't rescue him because he was a Roman citizen, but he's making himself look more noble than he is.

Are you getting what I'm saying here? He lies to make himself look better than he is. And my question to us, just in practicality, is how often are we guilty of those little tweaks to reality, tweaking the truth just a little bit to paint ourselves in a better light?

Don't leave me hanging on this one. Am I the only one that's been guilty of doing this from time to time? Have we done that? Isn't it part of our fallen, broken nature is to want others to think highly of us and it can take the form of letting somebody say something good about you that's not necessarily true and just letting it lie.

Have you ever had that where somebody has some misinformation and thinks that you did something good and you're just not gonna correct them? Or it can take the form of outright deceiving people into thinking that we're better than we are.

We ran a little bit faster in the 400 when we were in high school than we actually did. Nobody's around to verify that, so we can get away with it.

Oh yeah, we played on that state championship team and I hit the buzzer beater, by the way, it was me. Those little exaggerations.

But as we laugh, it is kind of funny, but at the same time, it's lying.

And it's an intense kind of lie, actually, because it's trying to push our character forward, trying to exalt ourselves.

When who should our lives be about exalting? Again, in Christ.

And yet we have a tendency to be self -inflating and pushing ourselves up. The trip to Caesarea goes off without a hitch.

35 miles on one day. Anybody, you kind of do the math, is that a significant haul for the foot soldiers?

Pretty good haul. I would wanna be signing up for the cavalry at that point.

It'd be nice to be on a horse for that duration. 35 miles, they stop off in Antipatrus on the way, about a little bit more than halfway, and then the foot soldiers are gonna return home, because by that point, they're saying, okay, we haven't been followed, nobody's on our case, and we've still got these 70 cavalry to, and they finish the, so the cavalry goes on with Paul the next 27 miles to Caesarea.

And we're never gonna hear about those conspirators again. So you're left with a couple, you're left with a question in your mind, and the text isn't gonna address it, but just sometimes it's kind of fun to think, because I mean, it's a real story.

It's not like this is just made up so we can just let them go. But only two real options, right?

Either they broke their oath, or else they starved to death. What do you think is probably more likely, just knowing human nature?

They broke their oath, didn't they? They had a meal, and they fed their flesh, that's the way it goes.

Upon arrival, the letter and Paul are delivered to the governor, Felix, for a pretrial hearing.

Felix asks where Paul is from, so that he can determine whether or not he has jurisdiction over Paul.

So it's not just a casual, nonchalant question. Hey, where are you from, dude? He's like, what's your district?

He's from the area of Cilicia, he says. And since Felix, and historical documents that we have that are outside of the scripture, record that actually,

Felix reports to the governor of Cilicia as his superior. And so for him to, he's looking to kind of pass this one off.

He's like, I mean, these guys are lazy, they're not eager to try anything that they can avoid. And so he's like, can

I pass the buck here? Can I push this off on someone else? Is there someone else who can try this, that it's in their jurisdiction?

He does that to his superior, who's gonna get in trouble for that. Like, no, that's your job, dude. So he has to see him.

And so he says, okay, when your accusers come from Jerusalem, I will see your case.

And so Paul spends five days in protective custody. It says in the text, at the Praetorium of Herod, this is an archeological dig that you can actually see pictures of in archeological books and stuff.

It's right on the coast, and it was like a palace. It was Herod's former palace, and that's where the governor stays.

And it was just an immaculate location. Now, Paul isn't living it up there. Okay, he's confined to the prisoner quarters in the palace, but that's where he stays for five days.

And he's there awaiting his accusers to show up, and finally, the high priest and the elders of the Jews come down from Caesarea, and they bring a professional lawyer with them.

It's a spokesman in the ESV. It's a technical term. Actually, you can translate a lawyer or attorney, this guy named

Tertullus. And just to clarify right off the bat, Tertullus is a tool, okay?

Use a technical term. He's a tool. He uses flattery and lies to butter up the governor.

He's just kind of a tool of the system. And historians have, sorry.

Yeah, historians have clear evidence that the rule of Felix was full of strife and uprisings on the part of the

Jews. They did not like Felix. Felix did not like them. He was slaughtering them left and right.

He actually is going to eventually, two years down the road from the texts that we're at, he's been governor for five years where we're at.

He's gonna serve seven. Two years down the road, he's gonna be deposed by the emperor himself for not keeping things under control well.

And so knowing history, you realize that Tertullus is just buttering him up.

Oh, we love you. Oh, you're awesome. Oh, you're so great. And by the way, can you do us a favor and get rid of this guy?

I think it's fair to interpret the words of Tertullus in chapter 24 verses two through three as sarcastic.

And if you look at that for a second, two verses two and three. 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.

Just sappy. In essence, he's saying, you've proven yourself quick to put down rebellion to keep the peace.

We got a guy who's gonna stir up the peace. Could you just keep pace with what you've been accomplishing so far and put down another rebellion?

Verses five through eight show the actual accusations. Tertullus is gonna accuse Paul of four different things.

If you're taking notes, you can write these down. He accuses Paul of being a plague, a Greek word that literally is used for a spreading infectious disease.

That's a nice title. Calls Paul a disease and he says he's spreading, he's like a cancer that's spreading.

The second thing he accuses Paul, by the way, that's just libel. You realize that it starts off with just an insult.

There's no validation to that whatsoever. But these things kinda get deepening in seriousness as he accuses

Paul. First is just a personal attack. Well, he's a plague. The second thing he accuses Paul of is sedition and dissension.

That is that he stirs up riots, which by the way was a very serious crime at this time in Roman history.

To be a disturber of the peace was a capital offense. If you were one who the Romans feared was going to stir up the crowds against them, you were gonna be put down.

Okay, so if that's proven true, he's in trouble. The third thing he's accused of is being a leader of a sectarian religious movement.

He calls it the Nazarenes after Jesus of Nazareth. Obviously, that's the connection there.

Implying that he's dangerous. He's leading sectarianism and trying to branch things off and trying to hive off people against each other.

And then the fourth thing he accuses Paul of in verse six is of profaning the temple in Jerusalem.

Which you might think in your mind, like what's Rome care about that, right? Like why would he be standing in front of a

Roman saying this dude has desecrated our temple? But you see, the

Romans knew how dicey and touchy the Jews were about their temple. And at this time and in this era, the

Romans would allow the Jews to actually have capital, what's the word?

They would actually allow them to kill somebody who desecrated the temple. What am I trying to say? Capital punishment, I can't think of it.

They would actually allow that so that what we have here, it can be hard for us to imagine, but the Romans' attitude towards the temple was leave it alone.

If a Gentile is dumb enough to wander into the temple, they have what's coming to them. So if it can be proven that Paul desecrated the temple, he gets turned over to the

Jews for death. The Romans would do that if it can be proven. Now, obviously, that whole thing was in the temple earlier and you might be kind of wondering, well, why did

Lycius even intervene? Well, the guy hasn't been put on trial yet and they still want justice to happen. But if it's proven that he actually desecrated the temple, it's done, end of story for Paul, the book of accents here.

There's some truth to the first three accusations. I want you to see that. There's some level of reality in which if you were to follow around the life of Paul, did difficulty and dissension seem to follow him everywhere that he went?

Would it be reasonable for somebody observing his life from the outside to go, this guy's a troublemaker? Okay, everywhere he goes, people are trying to kill him and there's gotta be some reason.

I mean, he's always upsetting people. Now, the fact of the matter is, Paul wasn't looking for dissension.

He wasn't trying intentionally to stir it up. It just was always there. But the last accusation is an outright lie.

Paul had not defiled the temple, but the confidence of Tertullus. So look at verse eight. Verse eight.

Tertullus, I think, really believes he did. Okay, and this is why. I think Tertullus, the lawyer, actually thought Paul really had desecrated the temple because he appeals to just ask him yourself.

He says in verse eight, by examining him yourself, Felix, you will be able to find out from him about everything we've accused him of.

He's convinced that these things are true, even though they're not. The crowd of the

Jews that have come down for the trial throw in their approval of these accusations and they all agree, yes, he has done these things. So now in the midst of this circus,

Paul gets his chance to speak. And he also speaks respectfully and kind. I want you to see that here. He's not disrespectful to his leaders and to his rulers.

He speaks respectfully to the governor, but nothing as buttery as Tertullus. I love to see the contrast between the way that Tertullus is trying to butter up the ruler and Paul's just a matter of fact.

He's pretty direct and he's respectful and kind. But he says, I know you know this region,

Felix. I know you've been here for five years. You're over this region. And so I'm glad I'm making my defense before you.

And that's in essence saying, I'm glad you're not a newbie here. I'm glad that you've had some experience because you know how backwards this place is.

It's kind of the nature of what he said. You know how these things roll. You know how the Jews are always accusing people and trying to get you to kill people.

And here, so I'm glad I'm making my trial before you. He says, Paul says,

I spent 12 days in Jerusalem without disrupting anyone. And you know that, you know that, Felix. You know

I haven't, I mean, there was no problem. I was there for 12 days, no crowds, no commotion in the temple, no commotion in the synagogue, no commotion in the city.

And he points to their lack of evidence for him stirring up anything at all. He says, they can't even prove anything that they're saying to you.

But now Paul turns a corner and decides to confess something. So you're on trial. Are you very eager to say, but I do confess.

How many of you think that that might be a dangerous thing to say in a courtroom as you're on trial? Okay, I'm not guilty of these things, but I do have a confession to make.

Might not be the time to necessarily start talking about other things to confess, but obviously, he's saying,

I'm not guilty of sedition. I'm not guilty of revolution. I'm not guilty of profaning the temple, but I am guilty if following the way makes me guilty.

I'm a follower of the way. You see, that which the Jews at this time were calling a sect, sectarianism, dividing things,

Paul calls it the way. Now, if you think about it, it's a pretty cool title for Christianity, the way.

You really think about, I kind of wish it had stuck. I don't know why it didn't. I don't know why we're not known as the way still today.

Be kind of cool, wouldn't it? In essence, think about what it implies, what it means. It highlights the central point of our faith that Jesus did not just make a way, but Jesus himself, what did he say?

I am the way. Jesus Christ is the way. And to call yourself or to identify with the way is to identify with Jesus Christ.

You see, Jesus is the way to salvation. Jesus is the way to reconciliation between God and humanity.

Jesus is the way of restoration to a whole and complete life. Jesus is the way to forgiveness.

There's so much truth in that one title. It's a beautiful thing. But so here's what Paul says he's guilty of.

He says, if these things are a crime, punish me. This is what I do. This I confess before you, that I worship

God. I'm guilty, guilty as charged. If you wanna accuse me of anything,

I'm a worshiper of God. I believe in the law and the prophets. Number three, I have hope in God, just like my accusers do.

They have hope in God, I have hope in God. Number four, I believe in the resurrection of all, some to life and some to judgment.

And I believe in resurrection. Is that an offense? I mean, some people in his courtroom, some people standing there accusing him believe this.

Number five, he's guilty of striving to have a clear conscience before God and people. Do you see the irony in saying I'm guilty of that?

I'm guilty of striving my best, of taking great pains to keep a clear conscience before God and before others.

And the last thing he says, and equally I'm guilty of bringing gifts and offerings to Israel. I came from outside,

I came from, he's coming from Asia Minor and modern day Greece. He's been traveling around there, taking up a collection for people in Israel who are having a hard time.

Guilty. He says in somewhat sarcastic fashion, if these things are a crime, then

I'm guilty. And furthermore, he says the Jews from Asia found me in the temple and they didn't just find me in a temple, they found me purified according to their own laws.

I went through their hoops. I jumped through their hoops to make sure that I didn't defile the temple. I did exactly what they require to be present in the temple.

And they didn't just find me purified in the temple, they found me all alone. I was there doing my washings for the final completion of an oath, if you remember correctly, that's what he was doing.

He's like, I was there alone without a crowd, without any tumult or violence or stirring up anything.

Paul had followed their rules. And then the irony, those who accused him and those who accosted him in the temple are not even present for the trial.

They didn't even, the Asian Jews didn't even come down to the trial. And I picture Paul getting almost a little snippy here saying they ought to be here to accuse me themselves if they had anything against me.

They should be here themselves, verse 19. So Paul ultimately dismisses all of their accusations readily.

His life, his character, his doctrine, his testimony points all towards his innocence. And Paul is an excellent example in the text of what it means to be above reproach.

The accusations do not stick to him. And he turns the tables and even challenges his accusers to come up with something he's done wrong in front of their eyes.

If you've seen me do anything wrong, this is the time, we're on trial here, point it out. What have I done wrong? Because he knows that the main reason he's on trial, as he says in the text, is that he openly declared that he believed in resurrection from the dead, something that some people in the very courtroom believe.

So if you can try me for it, then some of you are guilty here too by implication. But Felix had been around the block a few times, five years in this area.

He had a fairly good understanding of the way, the text tells us. He had a working academic understanding of Christianity.

Does that come as a surprise to anybody that this Roman governor had an understanding of Christianity at this time in history?

Shows the scope and reach of Christianity by the late 50s AD, that Christianity had certainly spread to the point where the

Roman leader of Judea thought that it was valuable for him to know about it. It's become significant, it's become a movement and it's growing.

And he desires to have a more reliable witness, so he tables the trial until the Roman Tribune can come and testify himself.

He's like, I don't trust what I'm hearing here. I'm not sure I'm getting the truth from Tertullus, I'm not sure if I trust

Paul, and so I need somebody who's a little bit more dependable, that had eyes on the scene, that's a good Roman to give me information.

So here goes Paul back into protective custody where he's gonna spend two years, two years in protective custody at Caesarea.

He is at least given the liberty to have visitors. Great, okay, that's nice, that's nice of them, especially since the

Romans didn't usually provide food for their prisoners, and so it's nice that he's able to be brought food and things like that.

And I can't help but wonder, if you were to go back and listen to this series, we met a guy named

Cornelius way back in Acts chapter 10. Some of you were here back then, but probably not many of you.

Cornelius, the first Gentile non -Jewish believer in Jesus in the entire

New Testament. And where is he from? Anybody wanna guess?

Caesarea, he's from this town. I can't help but wonder, you know what I mean? Speculation isn't necessarily valuable, but it's interesting and adds a little bit of richness to the story, but can you imagine

Cornelius coming in, visiting Paul in these two years, bringing him food, sitting down with his family, bringing his family, talking to Paul and interacting with him during this time?

There was a church in Caesarea by this time, and he's open and he can have visitors.

And I can imagine Cornelius, that Roman centurion who came to faith in Christ through miraculous events, coming and visiting

Paul in prison. Felix apparently was intrigued by Paul.

He's interested. He's just kind of like, what is this? So he brings his wife, Drusilla, who is Jewish. And there's some history here.

History, by the way, Roman history is pretty well documented. I mean, if you wanted to get into ancient histories, you can see interrelationships and things are very, very clear and they corroborate, they support the

New Testament documents with intense accuracy, crazy accuracy, so that we know who

Drusilla is. If we never had the Bible, we'd still know who Drusilla is because we've got documents of who she is.

She's actually the daughter of Herod Agrippa. Now that name might not mean anything to you, but you've met Herod Agrippa before, way back in Acts chapter 12.

The dude who stood on the stage and said, I am a God, and he dropped dead. That's her dad.

That's her dad. So this is Drusilla. She's Jewish, and Herod Agrippa was

Jewish. So Paul used this opportunity to speak more directly about faith in Jesus.

He's got Drusilla there, who is a high -ranking individual who has run in elite circles and nobility for years,

Felix, who is the governor of Judea. I want you to know that the circumstances and the dark times of Paul are leading him into deeper levels of trust and higher leadership in getting chances to share the gospel with people that, are we gonna get a chance to share with the gospel with people of this caliber and this level in our government?

Probably not very often, right? But it's through the hardships, are you seeing what

I'm saying? It's through the hardships and the difficulties that Paul is facing that are leading to deeper opportunities to share the gospel with people that are way up there.

He doesn't get arrested, he doesn't have these opportunities. Not really eager to sign up to get arrested to get those opportunities, but that's the way that God is leading and working in his life.

And he gets the opportunity, it says he directly speaks about faith in Christ Jesus as he reasoned, the text says, the

Greek word for reasoned is dialogued. He's got this dialogue, ongoing dialogue with Felix and Drusilla.

And as he talks about the gospel and faith in Jesus with Felix and Drusilla, he also talks with him about righteousness, self -control, and the coming judgment.

Why? Because I'm convinced that sometimes conviction is the number one need of a human heart. We need to be convicted and understand our sinfulness before holy

God, before we can understand what faith in Jesus Christ means, because we don't understand the cross aside from our sinfulness.

The cross makes no sense if we're not broken and messed up people. Why would he go through that degree if we can do it ourselves, if we could save ourselves, if we could do any other way, if there's any way that we can save ourselves, the cross is senseless and foolishness and completely like,

God, why would you do that to your son unless there was no other way? And so Paul's literally, we're seeing an insight into Paul's gospel presentation.

He explains that it's by faith in Christ Jesus. And then he begins to see that Felix isn't getting this.

So he starts to talk with him about his own life. And he's talking about self -control and righteousness and that there's a judgment coming.

Really light topics, you know? It's interesting to note that historical records show clearly that Drusilla was a married woman when she met

Felix. And they ended up hooking up and she left her husband for Felix.

So that I'm guessing that righteousness, self -control and coming judgment were not comfortable subjects for Paul to be talking about to them.

Get it? And if we're honest, those really aren't up there in the small talk category.

Right? At your workplace are those small talk? Probably not.

Try it sometime. Try it this week. Try getting involved in a conversation about the

Tigers picking up Prince Fielder this past week. Pretty cool, okay? Anybody excited about that? So the

Tigers pick up Prince Fielder. People are talking about it at work. And try getting that conversation worked around to righteousness, self -control and coming judgment.

This is gonna be tough, right? But the fact of the matter is sometimes we need to talk about hard things, right? Is that right?

Sometimes we need to get there and we need to get to the point of conviction. I'm convinced that sometimes, and I see it in my own life, the tendency to, we can talk about God, we can talk about spiritual things, but start talking more about Jesus and watch people squirm.

And then take that up a notch and talk about his return in judgment. Paul talked about that a lot.

He talked about that to complete pagans on Mars Hill back in Acts 17. His driving point.

God's appointed one man who is going to judge the nations and his name is Jesus. Judgment, self -control.

Boy, does our culture need a dose of self -control? Do we need a dose of self -control?

You better believe we need that. But look at the impact this has on Felix. He's there and he's talking about these things.

And Felix, it says in the text, became alarmed. What do you think is happening in Felix's heart?

A little bit of conviction? And all of a sudden, Felix has someplace else he needs to be.

Something else needs to be attended to. The topic turns convicting and Felix is like, oh, look at the time.

I'll get back with you some other time on this. You see that in the text? And he does pick it up at some other time or many other times.

Because it says in the text, he calls for Paul often for more conversation. But with the ulterior motive that Paul might offer him an illegal bribe so that he can get out of jail free.

Well, not free, for a bribe. And something is missing in Felix's understanding.

Like conviction, self -control, all these things, and he's hoping to get a bribe, which is illegal for him to receive a bribe in this context.

It's likely, by the way. Why would he be looking for a bribe from Paul? Well, what did Paul say in his defense before the high priest?

I was coming to bring gifts. I came to bring financial gifts to my people. So Felix puts the connection together and goes, you know what, this guy's a man of high means.

He's got some means. So meet with him once in a while, kind of get in good with him.

Maybe he'll offer me a bribe and we'll get this taken care of. Felix never gets it.

Gets it, he doesn't get a bribe, but he doesn't get the gospel either. And two years later, history reveals, Felix was deposed from his office and was replaced with Portia Festus, the cousin of Uncle Fester from the

Adams family. Not really. But this guy came to replace him.

Thank you for humoring me, I like that. I know you don't have to laugh at that, so that's good. Felix was in bad shape politically by the end of his career, and if he had hopes of getting anywhere, he needed to make some friends fast.

And even, you might go, okay, he abused the Jews his entire seven years in term. Why is he gonna do him a favor now?

Because he's getting kicked out on the street where there's a lot of Jews. Not gonna go well.

Do you a favor, I'm gonna leave Paul in prison, okay? So here in this heavily historical text, we find that Paul was again the victim of the miscarriage of justice.

She used to follow him along the way. He's an innocent man. He's being held in custody for two years. What could you do with two years?

You could change your career in two years. KBCC offers two -year programs. I could be taking x -rays in two years.

You know what I'm saying? I could be a pharmacy tech in two years. Okay, two years is a long time, right?

Complete career change, life change, direction change. Two years is a long time. How many of you think that you could be driven towards bitterness spending two years in prison, no, alone, like just innocently?

You think that that could happen to you? You could be driven to bitterness? He's not in a dungeon.

That's a good thing. But he has no freedom to come and go as he pleases. And I don't know if your heart is like mine, but it doesn't matter if I'm getting fed well or I can have visitors, but you tell me

I can't walk through the door and leave, what's the first thing that you want to do? Walk through the door and leave, right?

And he can't. There's two primary applications I want to conclude with this morning. First of all,

Paul lived a life of significant character. In his own words, he always took pains to keep a clear conscience.

He didn't stir things up and he was a good citizen. And that brings us to about the most political comment you are ever going to hear me say from this place right here.

Now, do I have everybody's attention now? And that is to describe the relationship of Christians to the state, because that's in our text,

Paul's relationship to Rome. We should be a joy to our country.

We should be a joy to the state. Christians should be honored as individuals who are blessed, rather are a blessing to the civic health of their communities.

We should be serving the poor, helping the helpless, and maintaining the peace of our communities to the best of our abilities.

We should stand out as those who love and serve and do for others. You agree with me?

Paul was accused of sedition against his government, a government that would have been reasonable to revolt against, an occupying force.

Get this, occupying force. The Romans were occupiers of his country.

He's accused of sedition against them and none of it sticks. Christians were not seditious in their culture.

They could have. And I think that you could probably make a case for, if you wanted to really wrangle around and work and look at the

Old Testament and try to find some proof texts for yourself, you could find reasons why Christians should have rose up against Rome or something like that.

They didn't. He was focused on the things that mattered most in life.

You know, we got a limited number of times on this spinning ball of dust out here. Did you know that?

You had a limited amount of time and what matters most, what is it that he spent his time doing?

Worshiping God, bringing offerings to help others, believing the law and the prophets, striving towards a clear conscience.

That was Paul's focus. And so what about us? The character of Paul is not because he was superhuman.

It was because his faith and hope were placed firmly in Jesus Christ. And if you're in Christ, you have the same

Holy Spirit available to you. But also, Paul speaks of striving to have a clear conscience, of taking great pains.

Good character, I'm convinced, will not just creep up on you and take you by surprise someday. One day you're gonna wake up and you're just gonna have good character.

It's striving. It's working. In the power of the Spirit, trusting in Him, resting in Him, but at the same time, striving and taking great pains to cut those things out of your life which you know are not productive.

You know there are things, there are things in my life, there are things in your life that you know ought not to be there and they have no room in growing us into Christ -likeness.

Are they there? Can you think of what they are? Is it going to take great pains and striving to see them removed?

Yeah. Even if it's that TV show that you love that you know is not growing you towards Christ. Probably most of us have one.

Well, that might be a place to start. If you get a chance, check out my blog this last week. I was feeling convicted and just thinking about the way that we, what we feed to ourselves and then wonder where the health is.

What diet of stuff do we take into our minds and then go, God, where's the power in my life? How come

I'm not doing well? There's maybe something to do with our nutritional intake, you know, mentally.

Do you think that that maybe correlates a little bit with our spiritual health? I think it's there. Striving to have a clear conscience.

And the second thing, so the first is that Paul had significant character, but all of that character came through a relationship with God based on the gospel of Jesus Christ.

That's the basis. That's the foundation. If you walked out of here and thought, I'm telling you to be more like Paul and just have a clear conscience, we cannot do that on our own.

We need the gospel. We need Jesus Christ to come in and change us and give us a new heart and a heart's desire.

By the way, if you have a desire to grow in Christ's likeness, if you have a desire to see sin pushed away in your life, man, that is a beautiful thing.

That is a sign that the Spirit is alive in you. Take comfort in that. Yeah, you could be easily discouraged and go, man,

I've got a long ways to go. But man, if you even want to be in that journey, that is a sign of life in you.

Take courage in that. Be encouraged. The Spirit is alive there. He had this relationship based on the gospel of Jesus Christ, a relationship with Christ himself.

And Paul believed that the death of Jesus Christ on the cross had covered his sins and that Jesus was raised to new life, confirming that he is the rightful king and master.

So that when he took in God's word and he understood what Jesus was asking of him, he thought that had some binding on his life because Jesus is king,

Jesus is master, Jesus is Lord. And he used his wisdom and circumstances to communicate that gospel, that good news to anyone who would listen.

I'm convinced that if a dog walked by, Paul was gonna share the gospel with it. By the end of our passage,

Paul has had many opportunities to proclaim the good news to Felix. Felix has come to him, has invited him to come.

He's had an audience with him. And at least at one point, Felix was convicted by his own sin, right?

But we never see any indication that Felix ever repented. The text even says that he had a rather accurate knowledge of the way.

And it's quite possible, did you know this? It's quite possible to have a rather accurate knowledge of the way, a rather accurate knowledge of Christianity, a rather accurate knowledge of the cross of Jesus Christ, a rather accurate knowledge of many things, and not believe it, and not trust it, and hold on to other things so tightly that we don't give ourselves over to Christ and we never fully trust in him.

But Paul took the circumstances God had placed him in and kept pressing ahead with the mission to proclaim the good news. Where some of us would have been sitting, sulking, miserable about our misfortune,

Paul just kept plugging away, proclaiming the good news. And so my final question to you is this issue of character, but then there's this issue of gospel, of being a gospel individual, of being a person who is centered on sharing that and proclaiming that.

And so what situation has God uniquely given you for the proclamation of the glory of Jesus Christ? Where has he put you that he hasn't put the rest of us?

Where has he put you that I can't come into? There are work relationships, there are family relationships, there are people that you know.

Who has he placed in your pathway? You see, Felix was placed in Paul's pathway.

And Felix never believes. Paul's faithful, and we never see

Felix give his life over to Christ, and you're kind of like, well, Paul sometimes missed it? Sometimes, don't you sometimes get in your mind, well,

Paul's gonna proclaim the gospel to somebody, and they're gonna believe it, right? It's not the way that it works, but he was faithful.

And it was not for Paul's lack of faithfulness that Felix didn't speak. So Paul had a clear conscience regarding Felix, because he had shared the truth.

Paul was God's chosen man for a unique time and place. And the question is, who do you know that needs you to be