Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much, Lynn and Derek, for reading such a long passage and for praying for us.
So when my wife and I went on our honeymoon, we did something, you could call it vintage.
We sent a postcard to our parents like everyone used to in the good old days.
So we got married on the 13th of September 2014, and they received it in Sicily.
I'm not joking, that exact week, a year later.
It took exactly a year to travel from the Canary Islands to Sicily.
They got it for our first wedding anniversary.
Now, as you can imagine, we'd basically given up on the idea of that postcard ever, getting there.
We'd actually forgotten about them, there were two.
But the plan intended for those postcards was always to reach our parents.
And to our own surprise, that plan actually came to fruition after all.
And so I'm sure there were a lot of different people involved to make that possible, as there always is when you're shipping stuff.
And considering how long it took the postcards to arrive, I just like to think about all the different improbable things that might have happened.
So was the postcard stuck in the Canary Islands, maybe under the seat of some van, and when it finally got professionally cleaned a year later, someone found it?
Or did it get diverted to some exotic location, maybe on the other side of the world, I don't know, Vietnam?
Or maybe it got to our hometown in a matter of days, and then it got stuck under a desk in the post office.
And it was literally around the corner from our parents, but they never got it for a whole year.
The possibilities are endless.
And I'd actually forgotten about the misadventures of our postcards until I was studying this passage earlier this month.
Because isn't Paul a bit like those postcards of ours?
He seems hopelessly dependent on the different random people that move it from post office to vans to planes.
And at some point, also forgotten for a really long time.
But ultimately, what is determining its final destination is the address that is written on it.
And for Paul, it was God who put the address.
And that address was Rome.
You might remember this verse from last week's passage in Acts 23.
The following night, the Lord stood near Paul and said,
Take courage, as ye have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.
And Paul wanted to go to Rome.
He'd said it in Acts 19.
I must go to Rome also.
And so now everything seems to be completely out of his control.
He's being passed from city to city, from Roman official to Roman official.
But the truth is, we know that nothing is out of God's control.
And so Paul is going to Rome.
And that's what we'll see today.
There will be delays compared to how he would have gone about it, I'm sure.
It won't be straightforward.
And God will use the most improbable people to accomplish his plan for Paul's life.
He'll use a diligent tribune, a dishonest lawyer, and what I'm going to call two noncommittal governors.
So before we look at these characters, just a bit of context, especially for anyone who was in here the past couple of Sundays.
How did Paul end up in this situation?
He is in Jerusalem, and his life is in grave danger.
There are some Jews from Asia who stirred up a riot while he was in the temple.
And then the Roman soldiers came in, stopped the riot, brought Paul to their barracks.
And just as Lysias, the tribune, ordered to flog him, they found out that he's a Roman citizen.
And so Paul is now actually being protected by the Romans, who don't want to be caught mistreating a Roman citizen who hasn't been proven guilty.
And Lysias has just been told as well that there is a plot against Paul's life.
There are 40 men who are so committed to killing him that they took an oath.
And so it was no joke, as you can imagine, at the time when Jewish people took an oath as a group.
They really want him gone.
And so let's look at what happens to Paul as Lysias, this diligent tribune, is in charge of him.
He takes 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen to escort Paul out of town safely.
That's in verse 23.
470 men to protect the one Paul.
And to put 470 in context, in Jerusalem there was only one cohort of students, of not students, soldiers.
So that means up to 1,000 soldiers.
So we're talking about half the soldiers that were in Jerusalem are leaving the city to escort Paul out of it.
And so God carries out his plan even through Roman commanders.
It wasn't time for Paul to be killed.
And so what Lysias is doing is both moving Paul away from the immediate danger and also escalating the issue through the Roman ranks.
And he sends Paul with his letter to governor Felix.
He says in verse 29, there was no charge against him that deserved death or imprisonment.
And basically he says, here you go.
This hot potato, don't want it anymore.
I'm not paid enough for this.
And I'll tell the Jews to come and present their charges to you.
Thank you and bye.
And maybe you noticed, but he also retold the events in his letter in a way that actually makes him sound way more in the know and kind of on the ball than he was.
Because verse 27 says, I came with my troops and rescued him, for I had learned that he is a Roman citizen.
When in fact he'd already ordered to flog him.
He had no idea that Paul was a Roman citizen until Paul himself told him.
But either way, Paul is accompanied all the way to Antipatris by the 470.
They spend the night there.
Then the soldiers on foot return to Jerusalem.
And the cavalry keeps going with him all the way to Caesarea to Felix.
And then Felix reads the letter.
And you can almost see him roll his eyes.
You can tell that he's not a fan of a Jewish hot potato himself.
In verse 34, he kind of double checks what province Paul is actually from, hoping perhaps that this was all a mistake.
And he doesn't actually fall under his jurisdiction.
But he does, because Cilicia and Judea at the time are part of what used to be called Syria.
And it is all under Felix.
So Felix has Paul put away for a few days until his accusers come from Caesarea for a total of five days.
The next group of people that play a big role in Paul eventually going to Rome, as per God's plan, are his Jewish accusers.
It's a delegation of elders led by the high priest Ananias.
And on this occasion, actually represented by a Gentile, Tertullus, the dishonest lawyer.
Tertullus makes his dishonesty known from the very beginning, even before telling lies about Paul.
Look at how he addresses Felix in verses 3 and 4 of the next chapter, chapter 24.
We have enjoyed a long period of peace under you, and your foresight has brought about reforms in this nation.
Everywhere and in every way, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with profound gratitude.
Now, by just reading the passages, we wouldn't know.
But actually, the truth is that, contrary to everything that Tertullus would lead us to believe,
Festus was an extremely violent man, virgin on madness, actually.
And if there was one thing that he wasn't known for, then that would have been bringing peace.
Violence? Definitely.
Corruption? Plenty.
He had thousands of Jews massacred in that same city of Caesarea to stop an insurrection.
And he loved a bribe, as we'll see.
So the Jews actually hated him.
But Tertullus tries to flatter Felix, and then he goes on the offensive in verse 5.
This man is a troublemaker, stirs up riots among the Jews all over the world.
Which, when you think about it, actually, you know, he's kind of paying a compliment to Paul all over the world.
Paul is spreading the word.
He is a ringleader of the Nazarene sect, where Nazarene is as degrading a word as sect is.
Nazareth being where Jesus, of course, came from, and a poor town that people thought nothing good had ever come out of.
And he even tried to desecrate the temple.
Examine him yourself, Felix, and you'll see that these charges are true.
And then the rest of the Jewish delegation joins in and confirms that all of this was absolutely true.
So Tertullus is a dishonest lawyer who uses flattery and lies to try and get his own way.
But fundamentally, he has nothing to substantiate what he is accusing Paul of.
And so he was probably hoping that Felix would perceive Paul as one of the many false messiahs and the revolutionaries that Rome would have probably actually been concerned about.
He describes him as an insurrectionist, being part of a sect, an unactual criminal, because desecrating the temple would have been something that even the Romans would have recognized as a valid accusation.
So lie after lie after lie.
And now contrast this with Paul's defense.
He opens with, in verse 10,
I know that for a number of years you have been a judge over this nation, so I gladly make my defense.
There's no lies.
There's no flattery.
Paul just tells it as it is.
You've been a judge for many years.
No one could argue with that.
And that's because he has God on his side.
He's not looking to charm anyone, but he does defend himself.
And he does it with the truth because he has nothing to hide.
And so if you look at verses 11 to 13, he says, paraphrasing,
First, it was only 12 days ago that I got to Jerusalem, so not nearly enough time to get a riot like the one that they're describing to you organized.
And then I quite simply didn't do any of it.
And that is why my accusers are not even trying to prove it to you, because they can't.
And then Paul goes on to explain that all he was doing in the temple was really things that his accusers would do in the temple themselves.
He, too, worships the same God as they do.
Although, of course, Paul does it as a follower of Jesus.
In verse 14, he calls it the way.
And Paul himself was ceremonially clean in the temple.
So there were no crowds.
There was no disturbance, or at least not until some men from Asia stirred up the crowds.
But they, Paul points out, who started all of this, didn't even bother coming here to bring any charges.
So what are we even doing here?
Those who accused me in the temple, they're not here.
Those who accused me in the Sanhedrin, they're here, but they have no evidence to support their charges.
But there are two verses in Paul's defense that I'd like us to focus on today.
And it's verses 15 and 16.
So even here, in such a short defense, Paul manages to profess his faith,
as he's been doing all along in the previous chapters.
And he manages to challenge the complacency of those around him.
And I hope also to challenge us today here, reading his words 2,000 years later.
What he's saying in these two verses is that because he knows that there will be a resurrection,
because he knows that this life is not the end of it all,
but there is an afterlife that is either spent in God's presence or away from him,
he strives to keep his conscience clear.
Before God first, and before man too.
And so in other words, I strive not to sin.
What a contrast with Tertullus.
Not only does Paul not lie, he doesn't even need to, because his conscience is clear.
Because despite everything that he has been through because of these people and how much they hate him,
he managed to be a witness of the gospel by behaving as he did.
By not repaying evil with evil, but by always keeping his eyes fixed on the bigger picture instead.
We are here only for a time.
And we are here to bring glory to God, not to repay evildoers with evil.
And because of this, he can stand upright in front of everyone,
including the governor himself, and declare himself a follower of the way with no shame.
If this isn't the perfect application of Peter's words in 1 Peter 3, from verse 14.
But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed.
Do not fear their threats, do not be frightened, but in your hearts revere Christ as Lord.
Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.
But do this with gentleness and with respect, keeping a clear conscience,
so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.
So, friends, the first challenge that I would like us to bring home today is,
Do I live like I actually believe that there will be a reckoning?
Do I live consistently with this idea that there will be a resurrection of what Paul calls
the righteous and the wicked in verse 15?
By which he means those who do and those who don't live their lives for Christ.
Because if we do accept the Bible as the word of God,
then we do believe that we're here only for a time.
Then we die.
But also that then that is not the end of it.
Because the Jesus who died for our sins,
as we'll be commemorating later during communion,
he is coming back.
And how can I believe that and yet still live like I don't?
Go about my life without thinking twice about my sin.
I strive always to keep my conscience clear.
Paul doesn't say, I always keep my conscience clear.
I strive.
Because Paul sinned, just like we all do.
And God knows we're fallible.
We're broken men and women.
And that is why we are saved by grace.
But that absolutely does not mean, not for a moment,
that we should not strive to keep our conscience clear.
We should not strive to resist sin.
And so as we'll ask God for forgiveness,
as we take the bread and cup later,
can I challenge every one of us, me first,
to pray about maybe those recurrent sins
that are preventing us from keeping our conscience clear?
Maybe those ones that we've kind of gotten used to,
to the point that they maybe go undetected,
that we don't even feel the need to ask for forgiveness about.
The ones that we've learned to coexist with.
And not only ask God to forgive us,
but also commit in prayer to strive to resist this sin.
And we'll all know what it is for each of us.
So let's work with the help of the Spirit
to be able to stand straight and say with Paul,
I strive to always keep,
I strive always to keep my conscience clear.
And as a result, our testimony as well,
whenever we profess faith to our neighbors,
it'll be so much more impactful,
just like Paul's,
because it'll be consistent with what we
and what those around us see in our lives.
So after this, Felix,
similarly to what he'd done with Paul
when he was first sent to him,
adjourns the proceedings.
He just puts off having to deal with the situation.
That's why Felix, the non-committal governor.
Now, there's a couple more things
that is helpful to know about Felix,
just for context.
The first one is that he used to be a slave.
And it's through connections,
mainly his brothers to,
and his connection with the emperor himself.
And through corruption,
he managed to rise to the position of governor,
despite his background.
And then second,
that his wife,
Trusilla,
she was the sister of King Herod Agrippa,
and she was Felix's third wife
that he'd taken away from her husband.
And she was Jewish.
So as the passage,
as the text tells us,
he was well acquainted with the way.
And he seems to be intrigued by it,
at least up to a point.
He knows, just like Lysias,
that Paul cannot be charged with anything,
that those accusations really just don't stand.
But he also will not free Paul
and make his already rocky relationship
with the Jews even more difficult,
just for one man.
So the compromise that he comes up with
is to put Paul under house arrest,
but a very loose one.
Verse 23 says,
he ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard,
but to give him some freedom.
But then because he has Paul at his disposal,
and he is intrigued by Christianity,
he calls for him to talk about faith in Christ Jesus.
We see that in verse 24.
And now see what Paul talks about.
Luke tells us of three topics.
Righteousness,
self-control,
and the judgment to come.
Ouch.
I think we can assume that Paul talked about
the righteousness that he has before God
as someone who has accepted Jesus in life,
Jesus in his life,
which means he's talking about the righteousness
that Felix and Rosilla do not have.
Self-control,
very relevant to such a couple,
considering the mess they've made of their marriages
because of lack of self-control,
not to mention killing hundreds of people
who started an insurrection.
And then finally,
the judgment to come.
That judgment that he had already hinted at
during his defense before the Jews,
he now goes all in
and makes the connection between the governor's sin
and the final judgment,
just in case he hadn't joined the dots himself.
So imagine that typical scene
that you see in many movies
when one of the characters,
the character sleeps off a cliff
and another one grabs their hand just in time.
And so now there's two of them.
One is dangling over a cliff.
And you wouldn't expect the person dangling over the cliff
to start bringing out,
let's say their friends,
all of their friends' flaws.
You'd think they'd focus on,
okay, how do we get out of here, right?
Not, you just are so noisy
when you chew your food.
Your jokes are so boring
and your breath kind of smells.
You wouldn't want them to let go.
And if they were enemies,
and you see that in those movies as well,
you wouldn't expect the guy who's about to die
to talk about everything that makes the two enemies.
If anything, he'd be looking for some common ground
and try and convince him that,
you know, maybe we can try just a fresh start after this.
Paul's life is literally in the hands of Felix.
And Paul is dangling over that cliff.
And yet he just will not hold back.
Because Paul's mission is to share the truth of the gospel
and not a watered down version of it.
No matter the circumstances.
And so he talks to Felix and Rosilla
about living according to the gospel,
even though he knows very well that they don't.
To the point, verse 25,
that Felix is afraid
and asks him to please leave.
Enough about judgment.
And so it seems that
after this,
he mainly called him
just because he was hoping to be offered a bribe.
So Felix has rejected the gospel.
So here, Paul lived clearly
according to Jesus' words
in Matthew 10, 19 to 20.
But when they arrest you,
do not worry about what to say
or how to say it.
At that time,
you will be given what to say.
For it will not be you speaking,
but the spirit of your father
speaking through you.
And so here's the second challenge for us.
We've got to stop waiting
for the perfect situation
to share the gospel.
Jesus doesn't say,
careful when you speak.
Here's a list of boxes to tick
before you do it.
Do they like you?
Tick.
Do you like them?
Tick.
Have they ever shown any interest
in the gospel before?
Tick.
And so on.
What we're called to do
is trust the spirit
to speak through us.
We're not called to convert
people to the gospel
because that is not for us to do.
But we are called to share it.
Paul shares the gospel here
and Felix doesn't accept it.
But he did share
and boy, did he do it
without holding back.
So do I wait
for the perfect situation
to evangelize?
It's just the question
that we want to ask ourselves.
Am I obeying Jesus?
Or am I making excuse
after excuse for myself
when it comes to sharing his word?
And this links back
to that awareness
of Paul as well
that there will be
a resurrection.
And so this can be
another good indicator
of whether we live
like we believe that.
what is our passion like
for those around us
who have not found
the way yet?
Do we care at all?
Because if we did
we wouldn't want
we wouldn't be waiting
for the perfect moment.
So Felix leaves Paul
under arrest
for more than two years.
He doesn't commit
to the gospel
in his personal life
and he will not commit
to the gospel
by taking a position
on Paul's fate.
Verse 27 says that
to grant the Jews a favor
he leaves him in prison.
What a contrast for Paul
all this time
in the same city
compared to the years
of spontaneous traveling
that he'd had so far.
And then Felix
is succeeded by Festus
who is very quick
to take action
as soon as he learns
about Paul.
And the same thing
as before happens
the Jews are still
100% committed
to having Paul killed
over two years later.
If anything
they seem even more
interested in
making that happen.
And so they want him
to be sent back
to Jerusalem
so that they can
ambush him.
But just like last time
their accusations
will not convince
the new governor either.
There are very serious charges
but there is still
no evidence being given.
Because there was nothing
about Christianity
really that went
against Roman law.
And so just like last time
this governor
will not commit
either way.
He can't sentence Paul
but he won't make
the Jews unhappy either.
And so when Paul
is offered the option
to go back to Jerusalem
and basically be killed
he appeals to Caesar
as a Roman citizen.
And he is granted
his request.
So Paul is going
to Rome
just like God
had told him
he would.
So let me conclude
with Jesus' words
in the Gospel of Matthew
chapter 10
from verse 28.
Do not be afraid
of those who kill
the body
but cannot kill
the soul.
Rather be afraid
of the one
who can destroy
both soul
and body
in hell.
Are not two sparrows
sold for a penny?
Yet not one of them
will fall to the ground
outside your father's care.
And even the very hairs
of your head
are all numbered
so don't be afraid.
You are worth
more than many sparrows.
Two thoughts on this
for us to conclude.
If you are in a situation
similar to that
of Felix and Festus
if you've heard
the Gospel
but you are
delaying
your decision
if you're not
taking a stance
if you're not committing
delaying
is rejecting
in the here and now.
And rejecting
is not being afraid
of the one
as Jesus calls him
who can destroy
both soul
and body
Satan.
It's ignoring
that resurrection
that Paul
was talking about.
So please
pick up a Bible
open it
on one of the Gospels
and read for yourself
about the hope
that Jesus offers.
Come and talk to us
we'd be
very happy
to help.
And for those of us
who have
committed
by being made weary
by the difficulties
of life
in a broken world
who are struggling
to see how
any of this
any of what we see
around us
or what is happening
to us
who struggle to see
it fit
within God's plan.
If we're feeling
sent from post office
to post office
and then forgotten
under a desk.
I pray that the
example of Paul
and Jesus' words
in this passage
will be the
encouragement
that we need
because God
is executing
his plan.
God
is sovereign.
He might use
the most improbable
people
and situations
to carry out
his plan
but he is
at work
and if he cares
for the sparrows
then he cares
for Paul
and he cares
for you
and me.
Let's pray.
Father thank you
so much
for the
example of
Paul.
Thank you for
everything that
we can read
about how he
interacted with
those around him
how he
professed his
faith
how he
shared
the word.
And we pray
Father that
we just like
him
will let the
spirit work
in us
Father.
That we will
be committed
to the
gospel
and that
that will
be visible
in how
we go
about our
lives
Father.
That we
will be
committed
to
resisting
sin.
And Father
we also
pray that
we will
be committed
just like
Paul to
sharing
your word
Father.
That we
will live
in accordance
with the
belief
that there
will be
a resurrection
Father.
That there
will be
a
reckoning
and that
we will
show
care
for those
who haven't
accepted you
yet.
Father thank
you so
much for
Jesus'
reassuring
words that
whatever
happens around
us you
have a
plan.
We might
not know
what that
plan looks
like exactly
but we
are not
forgotten.
We are
looked after
by you
Father.
We thank
you for
all of
these truths
in Jesus'
name.
Amen.