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[7:59] And so, He didn't have to be trained in the matters of the law.
[8:59] And that every word, He said,
[10:29] And we're going to find that they're all, They're all, in temple that's a punishment worthy of death you have profaned the temple now they've kind of backed it up a little bit they said you have attempted to profane the temple so even even between a few chapters ago and now their stories are starting to ease up a little bit and so they said he's gone about to profane the temple all the while he's going through a purification ceremony with the rest of the people on a nazirite vow whom when we took and would have judged according to our law meaning we were going to beat him to death so they didn't they didn't tell him that part notice the details he's conveniently leaving out he didn't say we just went in and seized him drug him out of the temple and was going to kill him they didn't say that part they said we were going to judge him according to to our law so you can see how court proceedings going this way aren't a new thing all right they they just didn't start a week or so ago in manhattan they've been doing this for a long long time where they have brought people in on on false charges or made up charges and they don't tell you the whole story in the when the prosecution begins to speak this has been going on for years and years and so notice what he says but the chief captain lysias came upon us and with great violence took him away out of our hands remember that they were the ones great violence on paul they were actually rescuing him and saving his his life but they said your chief captain came upon us with great violence and took him out of our hands commanding his accusers to come unto thee by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all these things whereof we accuse him and the jews also ascended saying that these things were so so the jews were in complete agreement they knew that he wasn't being honest they knew that he didn't have the facts exactly straight but they hated paul so they were they were in agreement and so remember these were some of the same tactics they tried against jesus they brought false witnesses to testify against jesus but even their stories contradicted each other now if you're teamed up with somebody in a lie you got it the one thing you got to be sure of is your life is going to match the other person's or the whole thing goes goes away real quickly and so apparently they didn't do that against jesus they had these false witnesses and their stories didn't even match up and so they couldn't you can't go by that if it's contradicting testimonies and so you have this same same thing going with with paul here
[14:35] you've got people falsely accusing him and now paul will get his his chance to speak now notice how luke has meticulously recorded all sides he's recorded claudius lissius's side of the story he's recorded the jews side of the story and now he's going to record paul's side of the story so then paul after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak answered for as much as i know that thou has been of many years a judge unto this nation i do the more cheerfully answer for myself now notice he didn't begin with flattery like the jewish people did he didn't he didn't try to butter up uh felix he just went straight to the point he recognized who he is he says you're the governor and i'm happy to speak for myself because that thou mayest understand that these are yet but 12 there are yet 12 days since i went up to jerusalem for to worship so you know you can't really back then think about this here's one man that hasn't hasn't been in jerusalem in a long time now he goes into jerusalem to worship he's there 12 days worldwide you know troublemaker insurrectionist kind of guy how can you do that in 12 days back then remember communication wasn't he didn't pick up a cell phone and send a text message he didn't sit down at his computer and type an email this was you had to you know do the old-fashioned dip the quill into ink and make a mark and do it again and then you send that in a few days or weeks or months later it'd get to the person but in so many days here's a guy come into jerusalem hasn't been there in a long time and he's got the whole town stirred up according to the jewish people but he said it's only there 12 days and i went up to jerusalem for to worship and they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man neither raising up the people neither in the synagogues nor in the city neither can they prove the things whereof they now accuse me so he he said i i wasn't causing trouble i wasn't disputing with anyone when they caught me in the temple i wasn't doing any of that he said they can't prove any of these things that they're accusing me of so he's letting the governor know these are these are false charges and remember there have been other times they brought paul in and tried to convict him of something but they they haven't been able to and so if the charges were so strong paul would have already been found guilty and dead but here he is saying neither can they prove these things whereof they now accuse me but this i confess unto thee that after the way which they call heresy so worship i the god of my fathers believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets so he's appealing to the old testament the law and the prophets now that's going to register in the jewish minds like he's he's appealing to our scriptures basically and what paul all paul was doing was he was saying that the way he's living is the fulfillment of what the old testament said was going to happen so he's not doing anything that's against the jewish religion in fact his faith and his belief and his what he's doing is actually the fulfillment of what was given back in the old testament and so now he's pointing them back to that and then we're going to get to verse 15 which is the crux of the matter and have hope toward god which they themselves also allow that there shall be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and the unjust so ananias the high priest he would have been a sadducee the sadducees were the priestly class most of your most of your priest would have been from that group remember who the sadducees were they didn't believe in anything supernatural they didn't believe in a resurrection of anyone they didn't believe in the resurrection of christ they didn't believe in a future resurrection of saved lost good bad they didn't believe in the resurrection of any sort and they only adhered to the first five books of the bible the torah the books that moses wrote that's all they they went
[18:40] and so the high priest ananias would have been from that group and so when paul mentioned the resurrection remember he had pharisees and sadducees in the same group and paul mentions that he's a pharisee and then he mentions the resurrection and he got them fighting each other well the high priest would have been on the side of the sadducees and for paul to mention something about the resurrection in his mind that would be paul teaching heresy which in jewish law was punishable by stoning the death and so this is the whole this is the whole thing of the matter but just like with jesus what did the jews have against jesus well he was he was interrupting their their belief system he was he was going against what they their tradition he was going against all the things they were telling the people he hadn't done anything wrong by roman law but they had to get the romans on their side somehow this is the exact same thing that they're trying to do now with paul their procedures haven't changed the people haven't changed as far as how they are doing things it's still the same process at work the only difference is they were talking to pilot in the days of jesus they're talking to felix now a guy in the same position they're going with the same methods trying the same thing and so he said and have hope toward god which they themselves also allow that there shall be a resurrection of the dead both of the just and of the unjust that when you are raising the just the righteous the unjust the unrighteous and you have that sort of a resurrection that means one thing there's only one reason why you would be raised from the dead and that would be given account that'd be faced judgment and that's what people don't want to do they don't want they don't want to acknowledge that one day if we're resurrected by god himself that means we must appear before him that means there must be a judgment that's the part people want to get away from is the fact that individually everyone who has ever lived will one day stand before god and give an account but if there's no resurrection you never have that to worry about if there's no resurrection you just kind of die and that's it and your body decomposes and it becomes natural fertilizer and that's where you stay but if there is a resurrection then there's accountability there's a judgment your deeds the things that you are doing the things you have done will be brought to the record against yourself before before god he said in here do i exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward god and toward man now after many years i came to bring alms to my nation and offerings he said i came here to bring an offering i came here remember a few chapters ago remember when paul wanted to get to jerusalem he wanted to get there for the feast of pentecost he wanted to celebrate a jewish feast with his jewish people and in the process he was bringing an offering for the jewish people and so he's clearly showing these charges are not are not true these charges are false he says whereupon certain jews from asia found me purified in the temple neither with multitude nor with tumult who ought to have been here before thee and object if they had ought against me he's saying they should be here saying you know we object if they had ought against me because i i wasn't doing anything wrong or else let them say let these same here say if they have found any evil doing in me while i stood before the council that evil doing there is the same word we use normally see unrighteousness unrighteousness means the breaking of the law he said basically he's saying or else let them say here if they have found any law breaking or breaking the law in me where while i stood before the council that have already stood before the sanhedrin and they could not convict me of breaking the law except it be for this one voice that i cried standing among them touching the resurrection of the dead
[22:43] i am called in question by you this day there again paul's reiterating the fact that he's not here because he broke some jewish law he's definitely not here because he's some sort of insurrectionist trying to overthrow the roman government he's here because he taught the resurrection from the dead that that's why he's he's there and when felix heard these things having more perfect knowledge of that way he deferred them and said when lysias the chief captain shall come down i will know the uttermost of your matter and he commanded a centurion to keep paul and to let him have liberty and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him and so felix is going to wait till lysias comes down and he hears directly from him but in the meantime paul is is kind of kept under supervision but he's he's at liberty he's not like a prisoner because remember he's a roman citizen he's not been convicted of a crime he's not been shown to be guilty and so therefore he has to be careful how he handles him and said he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister are coming to him so he could have visitors come in and out so he has he has some freedom he's just kept kept he's guarded really the word keep there is the same that we use the word guard so basically you're you're in charge you're going to guard him so basically if anything happens to him it's on your head just what's going on there verse 24 and after certain days when felix came down with his wife drusilla now drusilla is going to be a relative of herod agrippa the second we'll meet him a little bit later paul will be before king agrippa and so felix has married into the king's family so he's related by marriage to the king that paul will eventually meet king agrippa which was a jewish he sent for paul and heard him concerning the the faith in christ and as he reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgment to come felix trembled and answered go thy way for this time when i have a convenient season i will call for thee so here's paul's opportunity you know the lord had promised paul you're going to testify of me before kings and rulers and eventually you're going to go to rome so paul is entering this knowing that he's not going to be released completely and he's not going to be killed because he's got to get to rome jesus has told himself just a chapter or so earlier remember the lord stood by him one night and said just like you've testified of me in jerusalem you got to do that same thing in rome and so paul knows he's he's going to rome he's he's been told that by the lord himself so he knows he's not going to be released and he knows at the same time he's not going to be killed but here he is he gives he gives the gospel concerning the faith in christ and he reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgment to come and that righteousness there is judicial approval how to be right with how to be in a right relationship with god how to be right with him according to his law and that's where the resurrection comes in because remember jesus was raised again for our justification and so the fact that jesus rose from the dead is the only way possible for us to be in that right standing in that right relationship with god because here's jesus who has been a sacrifice for the sins of the world our sin was put upon him the judgment of that sin came upon him in our place how do we know god was satisfied how do we know god accepted the sacrifice he rose from the dead and because of that we can we can have righteousness credited to our account because of what jesus did so of righteousness temperance and judgment to come felix trembled the word there is felix became terrified so he had felix to the point of he was just terrified and trembling from the thought of what paul was was telling him but he does like so many people when they hear the gospel he says go thy
[26:44] way for this time when i have a convenient season i will call for thee he hoped also that money should have been given him of paul that he might lose him so basically if paul would have just gave him some money here he'd have been free to go wherefore he sent for him the oftener and communed with him so this wasn't the last time felix and paul communicated now he said i'll call for you at a more convenient season basically saying when the opportunity arises i'll call for you and apparently he did he he had more interactions with paul in the future but after two years porcius festus came into felix's room and felix willing to show the jews a pleasure left paul bound so he knew that if he released paul that would cause a jewish uproar and his as governor of that region his number one goal his number one mission by the romans was to not have any public disturbances you were to keep the public pacified you were to keep disturbances down even if you had to do something illegal if you did it in the name of we're squelching this riot here you would be forgiven of that because you were looking out for the betterment of the empire because you were keeping peace among the people and so therefore we could overlook that so his main task in what he was doing was to keep rebellion eliminated keep riots from happening and so that's what he's that's all he's doing here he's saying i'm going to keep paul locked up just to keep the jews content he won't bother them if he's in prison and so he left paul bound and so now in the next chapter in chapter 25 that we'll see next time paul is going to be before festus the person that has come in to replace felix but notices notice felix's response he said go thy way for this time when i have a convenient season i will call for thee so how how many people don't get the other opportunity to talk to paul more about things of the gospel how many people have put it off for the last time to never hear it again the serious thing when a person hears the gospel and hears about what jesus has done for them and says you know not not right now maybe maybe later there's probably millions of people in hell today that said maybe maybe later and so if if you've not trusted christ i hope you won't be that way i hope you won't put it off i hope you'll trust him today and but think about the opportunities of this jewish council jesus was in front of the jewish council they heard from him stephen was in front of the jewish council they heard from him paul was in front of the jewish council they heard from him other apostles were in front of the jewish council and yet they still rejected the message of the gospel from very eyewitnesses from the very lord of heaven himself they rejected the message of the gospel and you can see they're progressively their hearts are progressively getting harder and harder and harder and that's that's the that's the severity of a person being in a service and hearing the gospel you never leave the same as you are when you come you'll always be changed somehow if you accept if you've received the truth that you're given your heart will be softened but if you reject your heart gets harder each time so you never leave the same when you come in you either leave closer to the lord with your heart changed or you leave rejecting the lord and your heart has been changed and then it mounts harder than it was before and so a person who hears the gospel never leaves unchanged they're either receptive or rejective and if they reject their heart has been hardened and so that's why it's always a serious matter when when lost people hear the gospel because it may be their last opportunity and it may be the last time they hear it so
[30:44] anytime we're given the gospel to people that's something that we can keep in mind this may be the last time this person hears the gospel how much more emphasis would that put on our part of really presenting it clearly and accurately to them and prayerfully to them if we felt you know this could be it this could be the last time they hear the gospel from anyone so it's a serious thing but so many people they they put it off just like Felix did the next time we'll see what happens when paul meets let's pray father we thank you for your word