Good morning, everyone. Good morning. Glad to see everyone here this morning engaging in your church. That's great. So, last week, Elder Sam, he talked about the, with Paul, he was before the St. Peter's Council, and he got arrested, and taken before, and they slipped him out of the cover of Congress with an army. So this morning now, Paul has arrived in Caesarea, and he's going to have his trial before Thebes. Again, looking at the timeline of Acts, there's been some interest in this timeline, which I like. This is around 60 AD. Now, what happened in the Book of Acts is the first part of the Book of Acts is kind of condensed in 30 AD, and then there's this real quick And now we're about 60 AD. And now for the rest of the Book of Acts, it's going to be condensed again around 62 AD is when everything comes to culmination. And we're getting to the end of Acts, so we're finishing that up. So there are two Caesarias in the area. There's Caesaria of Delphi, and then Paul is actually at Caesaria of Maritima. Now, this is located between Dora. I couldn't find a map that showed Joppa. But this is between Dora and Joppa. And you remember back in Acts 10, that Peter was in Joppa. Cornelius sent for him and brought him back up. Because this is the hub, the corner of the Roman government, I guess, in that area. And this beautiful port was built by Herod the Great. So that's kind of where we're located. So we start in chapter 24. It says, now, after five days, Ananias the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul. Now, when it comes to the language here about coming down, actually, Jerusalem is south of Caesarea, but it's higher in elevation. So coming down, basically, coming down the mountain. But it's about 50-something miles that they've traveled. And this is the first trial, or the only trial, in the Book of Acts where the accuser is actually bringing an attorney with him. And they brought this fellow by the name of Tertullus to advocate for their position against Paul. And I guess that they're willing to travel for 50 miles, 50-plus miles. They're willing to bring an attorney. And I mean, these guys, they really want to silence Paul. They really won't want to shut him up. So verse two, when he was called upon, Pertullis began his accusation, saying, seeing that through you we enjoy great peace and prosperity and being brought to this nation by your foresight. We accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Nevertheless, not to be tedious to you any further, I beg you to hear by your courtesy a few words from us." So it's often been thought of that this cartology was like a second-rate lawyer, and it is the practice of when you're appearing before a judge, back in, well, even today, I guess, but that you can honor or speak good things to the judge. Tertullis here, he laid it on thick. I mean, you need a snowplow to clean this up, right? I mean, he just really laid it on there. But anyway, he said in verse 3, we accepted always and in all places most noble Felix. He called him most noble Felix. Well, let me just tell you this, that Antonius Felix was anything but noble. You may have been talking about maybe his position, but he was actually raised or born as a slave. and he is the first Roman governor that ever had his beginnings as the slave. Felix's brother, Pallas, was a friend of the Emperor Claudius, and it was through the influence that Felix was able to move up through the ranks, and he didn't do it Because he's such a great guy, he did it through cutting and backbiting and backstabbing. The guy was brutal. He just kind of kept this slave mentality with him. A Roman historian described Felix as a master of cruelty and lust who exercised the powers of a king with the spirit of a slave. But back in verse two, he says, seeing that through you we enjoy great peace and prosperity is being brought to this nation through your foresight. This couldn't be any more of a flattering lie than you could possibly imagine. Because you see, Felix did not bring peace to Judea. He did not bring prosperity to those he governed. In reality, Felix was a brutal man. who put down several resurrections with tremendous violence. He was a violent, unwise, sometimes crazy man, with such barbarous brutality that he earned for himself the horror, not the thanks, of the Jewish population. And not long before this time here, he just ordered the massacre of thousands of Jews, property, livelihood, everything, everything. Soldiers looted people's houses and stuff like this. Felix was not as benign as he appears in the Book of Acts. So Tertullius begins with this great flattery, with this great oration telling Felix how wonderful he is. So now he's getting to the place now where he's going to state the charges that he's bringing against Paul. And I've got to believe that maybe even Felix was shrewd enough that he's kind of watching this guy get started here, maybe a little tongue-in-cheek. And he's going like, OK, one of these guys, where did all this flattery come from? One of these guys do it. But I want you guys to kind of look at this as maybe like a courtroom drama. You're watching these little courtroom dramas on TV. Of course, I remember Perry Mason. Y'all don't remember him. But anyway. you know, Judge Wapner on the people's court and all these types of things. So kind of play that in your mind as this is the play of this trial out here before us. And so in verse 5, he's going to start with the with the charges against Paul. Verse five, it says, for we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sects of the Nazarene. He even tried proclaiming the temple and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to our law. Now, they found him to be a plague. Well, what they found was, was they were so politically opposed to Paul. And they wanted to silence him. That was the whole notion there. But notice there that he used the ringleader of the Nazarene. Now with each one of these statements here, Tartullus is trying to discredit and to just really demean Paul. So he even goes on to say that he even tried to profane the temple and we seized him. So, profaning the temple, that was probably the only specific charge that they may have had against Paul, but they gave no evidence to the charge. They just simply stated the charge, and there was no evidence. These charges were fabricated on river. You remember that from Acts 21. And I find it very significant here that the same man that offered up the flattery to Felix. He also now, he's bringing up charges with no evidence. And that's, it's like false charges, flattery, they kind of go hand in hand. Proverbs speaks about using flattery. But anyway, this phrase that he uses, a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarene. Now that's got the same like ringleader, that's the same negative connotations that we would use for ringleader today. The reference to Paul being a Nazarene or being of the Nazarenes, again, he's trying to demean Paul. He's trying to connect him with, I'm trying to think of a good example, but he's trying to connect him with bad, with this is bad. And you may remember back when Nathaniel was called, He told Andrew, he says, can anything good come out of Nazareth? It's the same type of thing. It's like, I really can't, like if you were saying, could anything good come out of Alphabet City in four years kind of thing. I mean, that's probably the closest thing I could think of. So, First Paul, he's a ringleader. He's a dangerous, weird sect. Then he describes Christianity as of the Nazarenes. And again, he's trying to create a negative appearance for Paul. But he's just saying that this man's a problem for both the Jews and the Romans. So looking at verse five and six, Tertullus doesn't offer even the slightest bit of evidence. Basically, he's saying is, well, he did this. Well, how do you know he did it? Well, I'm saying that he did it, so he did it. And so, again, as this courtroom drama now is playing out, I want you to kind of think about that little statement that Paul, that Kerkalos makes. He goes, among all the Jews throughout the world. Now, picture this. Here's Paul, right? He's at the end of his third missionary journey, and his accuser is standing over here saying, well, you're just upsetting everybody throughout the whole world. I could see a smile come on Paul's face. And he's probably thinking, throughout the whole world, we're doing a pretty good job. Even my accuser thinks that we're doing a pretty good job. So, but the commander Lysaeus came by and with great violence, took him out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come to you. By examining him yourself, you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him. And the Jews also ascended, maintaining that these things were so. You ever watched in Parliament, you ever watched a session of Parliament, where some guy will be giving a speech, and you get all these little hurrah from the gathering. Nobody's saying, hurrah, hurrah, yeah, yeah. And that's all these Jews are doing. They're standing behind her going, yeah, that's right, that's right. So they're just really trying to back him up. No evidence. So he's mistaken. He says, by examining him yourself, you may ascertain all of these things of which we accuse him. The only thing that Tartullus is basing his entire case on, and this don't work in court today. It's never going to happen, right? But what he wants to happen is he thinks, here's Paul. Paul's sitting up here without an attorney. This is our courtroom drama playing out, right? And he thinks that Paul hadn't got any better sense but just to stand up and discriminate himself. And Paul's going to make this case for us. And we'll be out of here in time for lunch. And that's really all they had. But anyway. He didn't even pretend to offer any evidence of the charges. His only real hope was that Paul, again, would incriminate himself. But the, getting ahead of myself here. Then Paul, after the governor had nodded at him, began to speak answer. And as much as I know that you have been so many years a judge of this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself because you may ascertain that it is no more than 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem. to worship. What we've got here now, Turtles, the prosecution basically had arrested, and now the defense, they're going to present their defense, right? But you'll notice here with Paul, not a word of flattery. He just simply stated the fact, okay, you've been a governor for a long time, I'll give you that kind of thing. But there was no flattery from Paul. And then he says, I do more cheerfully answer for myself because you may ascertain that it's been no more than 12 days since I went up from Jerusalem to worship. Now Paul, he's happy to answer for himself that the facts of the case were in his favor. Carl Sandburg, you've probably heard it repeated often, but Carl Sandburg once advised, if the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell. Well, Paul got basically, he's got the facts on his side, and he's got the law on his side. And Paul knows it, right? So all he's got to do is just present evidence. And that's what Paul is going to do here, is he's going to continually focus back on the facts and the evidence. He said, you may ascertain that it's been no more than 12 days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship. So it's only been 12 days. Where are all of your witnesses? You're coming up here making these charges. Nobody's died in these 12 days. Where are these people that you're, that we're disputing here? There's just simply no proof of these accusations. And Paul keeps bringing that home. Then in verse 12 he says, and they neither found me in the temple disputing with anyone nor inciting the crowd, either in the synagogue or in the city, nor can they prove the things of which they now accuse me. But this I confess to you, that according to the way, which they call a sect, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets. I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept. there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. This being so, I myself always strive to have a conscience without offense towards God and men. So, you remember when Sir Tollis was trying to discredit Paul, he was trying to demean, that he called the Christianity of the sect of the Nazarene. But Paul calls it the way. Now, in the first church, you may remember, we talked about this earlier, when the church, when they were first called Christians in Antioch, the word Christians only used in the Bible three times, right? Three times. When the Christians were first called Christians in Antioch, right? That's there in the book of Acts. And then I think maybe next week, I think it's, Cain and Greco says, you would, I may have my characters wrong here, but it says, you would have me to be a Christian so quickly? And then, later on, Peter mentions it, that we're Christians. And that's it, that's the only time. So how would a, how do they, they identify themselves? Well, they call themselves the way. And you remember in John 14, Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. And then, in Matthew, Jesus says, follow me. So the first church considered themselves followers of the way, or followers of Christ. Now, so I worship the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and the prophets. Paul is making it perfectly clear that he's not a man in the God of the fathers or the law and prophets. Instead, he acted in fulfillment of them both. He says, I have hope in God, which they themselves also accept, that there will be a resurrection of the dead, both of the just and the unjust. Paul believed and taught that there will be a resurrection, and we've talked about this in other classes, but this teaching of Paul is directly connected and specific to the resurrection of Jesus. Now, we've seen previously that also there were some of the Pharisees, they believed in this resurrection. The Sadducees did not. And that's pretty much right at this point. That's who's in charge of the Sanhedrin are the Sadducees. But he talks about that there will be a resurrection of the just and the unjust. So Paul's not leaving anybody out, but he clearly believes in the resurrection of the righteous and the unrighteous. Now, after many years, I came to bring alms and offering to my nation, in the midst of which some Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with a moth nor tolen. They ought to have been here before you to object if they had anything against me, or else let those who are here themselves say if they found any wrongdoing in me while I stood before the council. Unless it is this one statement, which I cried out, standing among them concerning the resurrection of the dead, I am being judged for this day. Now, after many years, Paul's talking about this collection that he made. He talks about that in several of his books. He talks about that in Galatians and Romans and 2 Corinthians, that he was collecting money to bring back to the poor Christians in Jerusalem. But then in verse 18 it says, in the midst of which some Jews from Asia found him purified in the temple, neither with a mob nor with a covenant, they ought to have been here before you to object if they had anything against you. Now Paul here is, he's actually, he's hitting with a double whammy right here. First off, they're not here. that the people that are making this complaint against me are from Asia. And you remember, I think it was last week, Elder Sam talked about, the Romans took a very dim view of you accusing someone of something and then not showing up. Remember, that goes back to the Philippian jailer, that he thought he was in trouble because he knew that whatever punishment was supposed to happen to these men that didn't, wouldn't happen because he thought Paul and Silas had escaped, would happen to him. And that's the same thing that's going on here, is if someone makes a accusation under Roman law, if someone's making an accusation against somebody and then they don't show up, the penalty for that crime could be against that person. So Paul's got a devil's plan to go here. First off, They're not here. But secondly, an interesting thing here is he's Jews from Asia, right? Asia was not under Felix's jurisdiction. So had they actually even been there, it would not have been a case for Felix to have heard in the first place. So it's like a double whammy going on here. And then verse 19, they ought to have been here. So to give an eyewitness account. And you remember, it says here that when Elisha, the commander, comes down, well, I'll just read the whole verses here, 22 and 23. But when Felix heard these things, having more accurate knowledge of the way, because that's important, he adjourned the proceedings and said, when Elisha, the commander, comes down, I will make a decision on your case. So he commanded the centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty and told him not to forbid any of his friends to provide for him. So basically what they're saying is, is what he's declaring that Paul's been charged, right? But if you remember last week, that when they sent Paul to Caesarea, this commander, this Roman commander, he sent like a letter of introduction, right, to Felix. And he said, there's no case against Paul. There's nothing for him to be in chains. There's no reason for him to be put to death. So Felix had the letter. He'd read this. He knew what this commander was going to say. So basically what, What this is here from Felix is this is just a cowardly dodge for him. Now, he wanted, this is interesting here too, is that he commanded the centurion to keep Paul and to let him have liberty and told him not to forbid any of his friends to provide for him or to visit. So, if you remember back when Paul was in, Him and Silas were in prison with the Philippian jailer. They put him in stops and they spread him out. It was very painful, the deepest and darkest part of the dungeon. And this one here, this is different. And what we've got here is Felix is trying to straddle the fence here, right? He knows Paul is innocent. But he's also got to keep up the favor of the Jews. I mean, that's really what he's doing. So he keeps Paul in custody. But he's allowing him, let people come and go, let people see. So it's a lot different than when he was back in the Philippian jail. So Felix is being an unfaithful judge. He had enough evidence, and he was lacking evidence, to make a decision. But he didn't make a decision. And we can bring that principle forward to today. There are many people who in their spiritual life, they've got enough evidence to make a decision about Jesus Christ, but they don't decide. So why don't they decide? I won't say it's true in every case, but most often it's the same reason as Felix, that they didn't make a good decision, just lack of courage. So this lack of courage, You don't want to say, well, okay, I don't really want to identify myself with this Jesus. I don't really want to be caught up in this way because I don't want to upset the Jews. And that's really where Felix was taken. So after Sunday, this is the part of this particular chapter that that really kind of turned me on about this whole chapter. After some days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. Now, we know a little something about this, Drusilla, right? From secular history, same thing we know about Felix, that Felix was a brutal, violent man, right? That he was a slave. We know that. We also know about this Drusilla. Drusilla was about 19 years old. She was beautiful, right? She was also the the sister of Herod Agrippa II. Now, we're gonna meet Herod Agrippa II next week, the next 25. He makes a little brief appearance, but this is Drusilla's brother, right? And so she's just a beautiful, stunning woman. And so here they are, they've come to Paul, and they said, we wanna hear you concerning the faith. You wanna be careful when you ask Paul that you wanna hear about the faith. Paul is with the faith the way I am with any question. If you ask him what time it is, you're going to build you a watch company. You ask Paul about his faith, you're going to hear it. So after some days, when Phoenix came down with his wife Priscilla, who was Jewish, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith. in Christ. Now as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, go away for now. When I have a convenient time, I will call for you. So here's Paul with his perfect three-point serve. This is the one he carries in his pocket, right? He gets called on to speak. He's ready. The man's fearless, by the way. I mean, here you're standing before a governor that literally holds, whether your head stays attached to your shoulders or not, in his hand. Right? And Paul just fears. He's going to stand there, and he's going to give them the gospel. So... So they wanted to hear, it reminds me, remember in the scene, I think it was a few big men where Tom Cruise is talking to Jack Nicholson, and Jack Nicholson said, you can't handle the truth. Remember that? Well, I kind of get that attitude with Pollard. You want the truth? I'll give you the truth, right? Again, this is this courtroom drama playing out in my head. But, so Paul, he's gonna speak very, very plainly to Felix and to Drusilla, and he's probably just, you know, he's going through this first point of discernment. It's very important for you to be righteous. And guess what, Felix, guess what, Drusilla? You have fallen short of the glory of God, right? And that's exactly the way Paul put it to him. So, the only way that you can be righteous is through the righteous one, and that is Christ. He's just kind of developing this whole story. And believe it or not, this is probably the same way that you and I would probably use this idea of maybe how to present the gospel, right? Well, Stephens goes right on. I mean, Paul, he continues right on. You've got to be righteous. You've sinned and you've fallen short, glory to God. You're an immoral, brutal man. I mean, he states the facts here, right? And now he's going to talk about self-control. Now, look up there. He's got Drusilla standing up there. Now, this is Felix's 19-year-old trophy woman, right? And she's sitting there next to Felix. And Felix, Paul, he lays into him about self-control. And I can see him looking at Drusilla, and he's going like, you know, Drusilla, you're young. You're beautiful. You're his third wife, by the way. And guess what? You can be replaced. And you will be replaced, because he's got a behavior pattern, a lack of self-control that you're going to see here. So then we need to talk about this self-control thing. So after he gets done with self-control, then he moves into his third point. And after, you know, he tells him the whole thing is, is a lack of self-control. He's talking to him about lack of righteousness. You sin and fall short of the glory of God. You need to show self-control. And now he's going to lay it on him thick there, right? He's going to talk about, talk to him about the judgment to come. Now, folks, there will be a judgment to come. And we spoke about it in other classes. Pastor David was preached on it. There will be a judgment. And it will be for the righteous and the unrighteous both. And Paul, he closed strong with this third point here. And there's people that have a very wrong idea about this final judgment. You see, today in modern, I call it church life, they really want to preach on this to just fall in love with the love of God. And they imagine, they literally imagine, there are people that literally imagine that on the day of judgment that they're going to stand before God and they're going to call Him to account. Right? They're gonna say, oh yeah, God, where were you when this tragedy struck? Where were you when my three-year-old died, Lord? Where were you, Lord, when I lost my job? Lord, I wasn't living my best life. There were people who made a lot more money than I did. Where were you then, God? And I think scripture speaks about that. If you remember in Genesis 3.12, When God was questioning Adam, Adam told him, he said, the man said, the woman that you gave, right? So he's just trying to even put the blame, she gave me the fruit and then I ate it, right? So in other words, Adam's gonna blame anybody, right? He'll blame God, but you're not gonna call God into account on the last day of judgment, right? God's gonna call each of us into account. But then in verse 25, it says that Felix was afraid. His first reaction to Paul's message, something along the lines of, well, Paul, you go ahead and go for now. There's something in me that's moving in me. There's something in me that's stirring in me. I don't know what it is. I know you're right. But I want you just to go away for now. And I'll call you at a more convenient time, when it's more convenient for me. And so, Paul, we talked a lot about seeking. You know, Jonathan Edwards talked a lot about this seeking, that we seek after God, right? That we should seek after God. By Felix calling Rusella, Felix and Drusilla called Paul in so they could hear about the faith. Had nothing to do with him seeking after God. Felix wanted money. Remember, he was a corrupt, brutal man. Somewhat crazy. And so he's hoping to get money from Paul. And that's maybe got something to do with reason. He said, you know, like let his friends have access to him. So his friends could bring him money. So the whole thing, the whole plot of this, Felix knew that Paul was innocent, but he also used that opportunity to gain wealth. But after two years, Mercurius Festus succeeded Felix, and Felix, wanting to do the Jews a favor, left Paul in prison. Now, the Jews disliked, remember this, the Jews disliked Felix strongly enough, they actually sent a messenger to Rome. to complain in Rome about Felix and his cruelties. And what you're seeing here is Felix was recalled to Rome at this point. Now, interestingly enough, his brother was in Rome. His brother had favor with Nero, and so Felix was able to worm out of these charges that the Jews had brought against him. And at that particular point, he seems to fall off from history. We don't see or hear from Felix anymore. But he was strictly looking to continue to plunder the inhabitants of Caesarea. So Felix refused to release Paul, though he knew that he was in his He did this for the same reason that Pilate condemned Jesus, while knowing that he was innocent. They both acted out of pure political advantage. They wanted to do the Jews a favor. In a way, people like Felix and Pilate are probably the guiltiest of those who reject Jesus. They know what is right, but refuse to do right purely out of the fear of man. They have no, they have an internally fatal lack of courage. And I can imagine that you know someone today that's waiting for a more convenient time to make a decision for Christ, to come to Christ. And I believe that this is probably gonna be the worst time. If you're worried about what other people think, All right, maybe you should ask yourself, what does God think? You put God in front of you. So I appreciate everybody's attention. Next week, Elder Gary is going to take us into Acts 25, where he appears before Festus. So you want to read Acts 25 to kind of prepare yourself for next week. Are there any questions or comments on this morning's chat? The PowerPoint helped my timing this week, did you notice that? All right then, let's go ahead and close in a word of prayer. Most gracious and awesome heaven and Father God, we thank you for this day. We thank you, Lord, for the opportunity that we have to gather together to worship you and, Lord, to study your word. And, Lord, give us strength through Christ to let our lives be a reflection of you, that people can see Christ in us. Lord, now as we go into corporate verses, I pray to God that you bless Pastor Nathan and his work goes forth. Touch each and every heart, may I say it all in Jesus' name, amen.