Sunday: Before Felix
Five days after Paul’s transfer to Caesarea, a group of important Jewish leaders—the high priest, some members of the Sanhedrin, and a professional lawyer named Tertullus—came down from Jerusalem and formally laid before Felix their case against the apostle (Acts 24:1-9).
This is the only trial in Acts in which the accusers employed a lawyer. In his speech, Tertullus tried an interesting strategy to win the governor’s favor.
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It was simply not true that, under Felix, the Jews had enjoyed a long period of peace. In fact, no other governor had been so repressive and violent, and this repression generated an enormous antagonism among the Jews toward Roman rule. With a lot of ingenuity, Tertullus used the governor’s own administrative policy to convince him that he would achieve political stability in this case also only by means of severe repression.
Then, he went on to press three specific charges against Paul: (1) that Paul was an agitator who was constantly fomenting unrest among Jews throughout the empire (Acts 24:5); (2) that he was a ringleader of the Nazarenes (Acts 24:5), which implicated Christianity as a whole as a kind of disruptive movement; and (3) that he had attempted to defile the Jerusalem temple (Acts 24:6).
Read Acts 24:10-19. How did Paul answer each one of the charges?
Two further points raised by Paul were devastating to the accusers’ case: (1) the absence of the Asian witnesses (Acts 24:18-19), which had the potential of rendering the trial invalid, and (2) the fact that the Jews there could speak only about Paul’s hearing before the Sanhedrin the week before (Acts 24:20), and as such they had nothing to accuse him of except that he believed in the resurrection of the dead (compare with Acts 23:6).
Felix immediately understood the weight of Paul’s arguments, also because he was somewhat acquainted with Christianity, probably through his Jewish wife Drusilla. The fact is that he decided to adjourn the proceedings until further notice (Acts 24:22).
Felix’s response (Acts 24:24-27) revealed much about his character: he procrastinated, he was able to be bribed, and he was opportunistic. Paul had little chance of a fair hearing with someone like Felix.
| Read Acts 24:16. Paul said that he strove always to have a “conscience void of offence toward God, and toward men.” What does that mean? What, if anything, would you have to change in order to say the same thing? |
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Paul was able to provide the correct answers to all the accusations of the Jewish council. How was he able to do this? His background, the Holy Spirits guidance, or both? The number of times and the number of dignitaries that were sent, is most impressive. If it were me, I would have run out of patience long ago. The trip to Rome through weeks of terrible weather conditions, ship wreck and hunger, Paul always trusted God no matter the outcome. An Amazing Man of God!
Check Paul's defence, according to the Way and Law and Prophets he had done nothing wrong being purified in the temple. Was he lying?
Paul had followed *Jewish* laws by going through "purification" rites in the temple. But he had compromised the *gospel* teaching that there was no longer a dividing wall between Jews and gentiles.
The Asian Jews were incensed when they saw him in the temple because they saw him as a defector from Judaism. In fact they had tried to kill him several times. Now they saw him in the very temple of God which was their holy place, and they saw him as profaning the temple. More than that, they thought he had brought gentiles into the temple because they had see him with his Gentile associates. That was a transgression punishable by death, according to Jewish laws. And they were more than willing to take the law into their own hands.
The skilled lawyer, the high priest and elders present at the hearing of Paul shows the seriousness of the Jewish leadership in obtaining a conviction.
Flattery is often neglected as sin
Romans 16:18 speaks to us of those who do not serve our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple.
Jude 1:16 speaks of those who mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.
“Flattery is refined deception–it is the froth of language–it is the alcohol of social intercourse–it is the prescription of the subtle–and the nectar of fools.” ─ William Scott Downey
How do you use flattery?