Opening: If someone want to get you to do something that you didn’t want to do,
what would be the most effective “bride” they could use after the “Please,
please, please?” A return favor? Your favorite meal? Free babysitting? Money?
Flattery? Something else?
Scripture: Read Acts 24:1-27.
Insights:
- Felix the Governor began life as a slave. His brother, Pallas, was a favorite of Emperor Nero. Through the influence of Pallas, Felix had risen first to be a free man and then to be a governor. He was the first slave in history ever to become the governor of a Roman province. Tacitus, the Roman historian, said of him, "He exercised the prerogatives of a king with the spirit of a slave." He was two years in Samaria, and now in the fifth of seven years as governor of Judea, the same position Pontius Pilate had held. While the Jews were given much freedom to govern themselves, the governor ran the army, kept the peace, and gathered the taxes. Felix had actually been married to three princesses one after another. He was completely unscrupulous and was capable of hiring thugs to murder his own closest supporters.[1] As a result of his corruption and attempts at appeasement, Paul waits in prison for two years.
- Tertullus’ opening argument sounds like a political ad or speech: lots of fluff, very little truth. It begins with almost nauseating flattery, every word of which he and Felix knew was untrue. He went on to state things which were equally false. He claimed that the Jews had arrested Paul. The scene in the Temple court was far closer to being a lynching than an arrest. The charge he leveled against Paul was subtly inaccurate.
- Paul was able to present the Good News as he presents his point-by-point defense. Paul's accusers were unable to present specific evidence to support their general accusations, but he gave specific and provable evidence.
Life
Questions:
- Though God had promised that Paul would preach the gospel in Rome (see Acts 23:11), the great apostle had to endure more than two years of Felix's refusal to decide his fate. In addition to this custody, Paul was subjected to other long stretches of time during which he could do little but trust God and wait for him to act. What do you do when it comes to the issue of waiting on God? Do you become anxious? Angry? Discouraged? Few things test our patience and faith like being forced to wait – which perhaps explains why our sovereign God often puts us in situations where we have no other choice.[2]
- Paul talks with Felix and his wife Drusilla about weighty matters: righteous living, self-control, and the time when God will judge the world. We don’t know if all three upset Felix, but we do know that when people talk about judgment day, it can get a little scary. Honestly, do you look forward to judgment day, or does the thought of it scare you too? Maybe you should come to the November 4th First Sunday – Christianity 101.
Prayer
Focus: That we would live out Isaiah 40:31: “But those
who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with
wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not
faint.”[3]
