Faithfulness in Adversity: Paul's Journey in Acts 23

Hello and welcome to the Middletown Baptist Church Podcast, where we are proclaiming the truth to the world.

My name is Pastor Josh and I want to thank you for listening to this podcast.

I hope that this podcast can be a blessing to you and strengthen you in the word of God.

Now come along, let's look into the Bible and see what God has for us here today.

If you have your Bibles, turn there with me to Acts chapter 23.

We've been now in the book of Acts for quite a bit of time.

We're 23.

Well, almost completely 23 chapters in.

So if you're just joining us now, don't worry.

Each message in and of itself has a.

Has a meaning and has a purpose for our lives.

But again, in context, we've been looking at the early church, and we've been looking at what it means to follow Christ in accordance to his word, not allowing the things of this world to seep in, not allowing distractions to pull us away from the things that matter.

And we've been looking at that word Acts as an acrostic, authentic church through scripture.

And from the very beginning, we saw that God had a plan for the church.

And obviously God used individuals for his work within the church and outside of the church with winning people to the the truth of the gospel.

And one of those individuals is a guy named Paul.

And we've been tracking Paul now for a long time, all the way back from Acts chapter 8, where he was a guy named Saul and, and he was persecuting Christians, killing Christians, and, and then in his beautiful transformation of his life in Acts chapter 9, which, where God came there on the road to Damascus, met him in his broken moment and changed his life.

And that's really the story for all of us.

All of us have a Damascus Road moment.

Even though it might not be as dramatic as Paul's, all of us came to a point in life where we had to reconcile with God and know that there's nothing that we can do to save ourselves, but that he saves us and that he calls us for a specific work.

And we know what Paul's work really was.

And I want you to keep your finger there in Acts chapter 23, because we're going to be there for most of the time.

But I want you to go all the way back there to Acts chapter 9.

Acts chapter 9.

In Saul's conversion, there was an individual that God called to come.

And early on in Saul's life, his Christian life, so to speak, not his physical life, but his Christian life, early on there was a guy named Ananas that God called to come and minister to Paul to essentially disciple him.

And God tells Ananas something really miraculous, that this very man that was known for persecuting Christians was going to be greatly used by God later on to minister not only to the Jews, but specifically to the Gentiles.

Now, there's a purpose to going back to this, because I know that if I was Ananas back then, and I knew who Paul was or Saul at that time, I knew who he was.

And God told me that, hey, no, this guy's actually going to be used by me to do a work of the Gospel to the Roman world.

I would have been shocked.

But we go back to Acts, chapter 9, and we.

We see in verse number 13 it says, and Ananias answered, lord, I have heard by many of this man how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem.

So, so God tells Ananias, ananias, go minister to Saul.

Go, go help him.

Go pray with him.

Go lead him to the truth more and more.

And then he says, hey, I've heard a lot about this guy.

I've heard that he's persecuted Christians there in Jerusalem.

And here he hath authority from chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.

But here, here's verse number 15.

And I want you to think about verse number 15 in context to what we're talking about tonight in Acts, chapter 23.

But the Lord said unto him, go thy way, for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.

It was God's plan from the very beginning to use Paul for those purposes, to proclaim the Gospel message, as it said there to the Gentiles, which we're going to see that he does to.

To kings leaders, which we're going to see tonight that he does.

And then ultimately to the Jews there.

And.

And he does.

Now think about that in mind.

And no doubt Ananias communicated that to Paul.

No doubt God communicated that to Paul, that, hey, this is my plan for you.

Now fast forward in time.

Where is Paul right now?

In Acts 23, Paul is in prison.

Paul is in prison for preaching the gospel to his own people there in Jerusalem.

Now remember, what happens is Paul is called by God, led by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem to preach the Gospel message.

And Paul has this phrase, and it's a phrase that's really been convicting my heart recently.

It says that.

He says that I was bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, bound by the Spirit.

Meaning there's nothing that can stop me.

The Spirit has me going.

Now, there were many people in Paul's company that were telling Paul, paul, we know God has revealed to us that there is going to be persecution when you go to Jerusalem.

So with that being said, don't go.

Now, I don't believe God was telling Paul not to go, but I do know that God was letting Paul know that there would be persecution.

Now, what was happening is that Paul's friends and his companions were saying, paul, we're reading into this and you shouldn't go to Jerusalem because persecution's bad.

So therefore don't go.

But Paul says, no, I'm bound by the Spirit.

I'm going to Jerusalem.

Now, if this was a story that maybe we were writing, we would say Paul goes to Jerusalem and wins all these people to Christ.

And that makes sense why he went to Jerusalem.

But no, we know that he goes to Jerusalem and preaches the Gospel and is doing his best there.

And they falsely accuse him.

They essentially persecute him and they throw him into prison.

And so through all of that, Paul might be tempted to think, hey, maybe I'm not called to do what God has called me to do.

But what we're going to see here in Acts 23 and 24 and even into 25 and, and further, that God has a plan for Paul.

Even though the circumstances don't look great for him, God's still in his provision and his protection is leading him to do the work that God has called him to do.

And so through this journey that Paul is on, God inserts himself and comforts Paul with the truth.

And here in verse number 11, Paul is in prison.

Paul has been persecuted.

He's about to go before certain individuals to basically plead his case.

And what does God tell him?

Verse 11.

And the night following, the Lord stood by him.

And so we see the presence of God meeting Paul in his need, meeting Paul in his confusion, meeting Paul in his persecution.

And this is what God says to him.

Be of good cheer because you're not going to face any more problems anymore.

No, that's not what he says there.

Okay?

He says, be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou has testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.

So what is he telling Paul?

Be cheerful, because you're doing what I've called you to do.

Have joy in your heart, because you're fulfilling the call that I have for you in your life.

Because remember what Paul's call Was preach to the Gentiles, that's the Romans.

Preach to the Jews and preach to the king, Preach to the kings, the leaders.

And so God doesn't come to Paul and say paul, it's okay, you're not going to get persecuted anymore.

He doesn't say that.

He doesn't say paul, everything's going to be okay.

You can go retire on an island and relax.

He says, no, Paul, be of good cheer.

Why?

Because you're doing what I've called you to do.

You've been faithful.

Now we look at things in scripture and we look at what God expects for his followers and we never see God expecting or pushing people for perfection or, or success in the eyes of the world.

What do we see God calling us to do?

And it really giving us praise for faithfulness.

Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

And we even know that another passages of scripture that the only thing required of a steward is that a man be found faithful.

So what is he telling Paul in verse number 11?

You're doing a good job, be of good cheer, you're being faithful, you're sticking to it.

But he doesn't give him the promise that everything is going to be easy.

He doesn't give him the promise that the persecution is going to stop.

But the only what he does here is the only confidence that he gives them is hey, you're walking in my will.

And the greatest place to be is in the will of God.

The safest place to be is in the will of God.

The most rewarding, joyful place is to be in the will of God.

And so he says, Paul, you're doing what I've called you to do.

Paul here is receiving the comfort of God through his presence, through his provision and through his protection.

Paul was physically alone there in that prison, but he wasn't alone because Jesus had not forgotten about him.

And I don't know where you're at in your life, you might question, hey God, what are you doing?

I don't understand, I don't, I don't know why, I don't know how.

But at the end of the day, the thing that we can engage ourselves in when it comes to our joy and our satisfaction and our usefulness to the Lord is this.

Am I staying faithful to what he has called me to do?

And so Jesus was with Paul.

He gives him comfort, he gives him joy, he gives him strength.

And so we go forward here and we see that Paul is going to face a really, really bad conspiracy against him.

Verse 12.

And when it was Day, certain of the Jews banded together and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they killed Paul.

And so the next morning, again, if we were writing the story and we wanted it to end the way that we expected it to end, that Paul would wake up and go out and everything would be victorious for him in his circumstance.

But what does Paul find the next morning after God meets him?

That a group of Jewish people are taking a vow to kill him.

And, and it says that they're pretty committed.

They're not going to eat or drink until they kill Paul.

Verse 13.

And they were more than 40, which had made this conspiracy.

So this isn't just a random guy out there kind of talking with craziness.

This is a conspiracy.

It's coming together.

They're committed to this.

And, and they were zealous about what they were doing.

And basically what they're doing is the exact same thing that Paul was guilty of before he came to Christ.

Persecuting the truth, trying to stop the truth.

Why?

Because the Gospel overturns everything that we expect in our human religion.

And, and those Jewish people there were saying, you know what, Paul, you're going against us.

And so we need to eliminate you.

We need to get you off of this earth.

And so we know that they were zealous, even though zeal doesn't always mean that they're right, commitment doesn't always mean that we're right.

There's a lot of people in this world that might think that if someone's zealous about something, if they're really committed about something, that they're okay, that, that they're good.

But the Bible says that they can be misguided with their zeal.

They can be misguided with their commitment.

Why?

Because the Bible tells us In Romans, chapter 10, verse 2, For I bear them record that they have zeal of God, but not according to knowledge, meaning they have zeal for God, but they don't have the truth of God.

And that's how these Pharisees and these people that were religious leaders back then, really, they were falling into the trap of zeal, but zeal without the knowledge of really the truth about Jesus Christ.

And so what happens here is verse 14.

And they came to the chief priests and elders and said, we have bound ourselves under a great curse that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul.

So they're committed to this.

They're committed to eliminating Paul.

Now, no doubt Paul is understanding this because we see that he gets word from Actually, it's a relative.

It's actually his nephew that comes and gives him word.

We're going to read about that now.

Verse 15.

Now therefore, ye with the council, signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto you tomorrow as though ye would inquire something more perfectly concerning him.

And we, or ever he come near, are ready to kill him.

So basically they're trying to bring Paul in under false pretenses to basically say, hey, let, let's tell Paul.

Come in and tell your full story, but when we get him here, let's kill him.

That's the plan.

And so verse 16.

And when Paul's sister's son, his nephew, heard of their lying in wait, he went and entered into the castle and told Paul.

So.

So we see here God working his provisional plan to protect Paul by allowing the nephew to hear what's going on.

And we know that God has a plan for Paul and he's not done with Paul yet.

We know that Paul must go to Rome to continue that prophecy that Jesus had told him long ago.

And so there's nothing that these people can do.

Whatever curse they might have, whatever, whatever commitment that they have, there's nothing that they can do.

God is going to eventually get Paul to the place that he needs to be.

So the nephew comes and tells Paul, hey, look, they're trying to kill you.

So verse 17.

Then Paul called one of the centurions unto him and said, bring this young man unto the chief captain, for he hath a certain thing to tell him.

So he took him and brought him to the chief captain.

And said, paul, the prisoner called me unto him and prayed me to bring this young man unto thee who has something to say unto thee.

Then the chief captain took him by the hand and went with him aside privately and, and asked him, what is that that thou that thou has to tell me?

And he said, the Jews have agreed to desire thee that thou would us bring down Paul tomorrow into the council as though they would inquire something of him more perfectly.

So he's telling them of.

Of the plan.

Verse 21.

But do not thou yield unto them, for there lie in wait for him of them more than 40 men which have bound themselves with an oath that they will never eat, neither eat nor drink till they have killed him.

And now are they ready looking for a promise from thee.

So the chief captain then let the young man depart and charged him, see thou that no man that thou has showed these things to me.

So he basically says, go, and we'll take care of this.

And so Paul's nephew learns of the plot and warns the Roman commander that they're trying to kill Paul.

Now remember, Paul has claimed that he is a Roman citizen.

So the, the Roman centurion, the Roman leader there, does not want this to happen.

And so I don't believe that this was an accident, that God allowed all of this to happen.

God is protecting Paul because Jesus promised him that he would go to Rome to testify.

We've already learned about that in verse number 11.

We already learned about that in Acts chapter 9.

And so God is protecting Paul here.

And so Paul has committed no crime.

But yet at this time, Paul is a prisoner because of the persecution.

And so what happens here?

Verse 23.

We see Paul escape to a place called Caesarea and he actually gets a full military escort here, which is amazing because with God on our side, hey, you know what, we've got all the protection that we need.

And so I believe that this is a picture of God's provision and protection.

Verse 23.

And he called unto him two centuries saying, make ready 200 soldiers to go to Caesarea.

And horsemen three score and ten and spearmen 200 at the third hour of the night, that's, that's nine o' clock at night.

And provide them beasts that they may set Paul on and bring him safe unto Felix the governor.

So what happens here is this.

Paul is given an opportunity to flee Jerusalem under the protection of the Roman military and have a full military escort to get to a new place where he can stand before a guy named Felix.

And we're going to talk about Felix.

Felix is a leader.

Felix is an interesting, a character in scripture.

And this is fulfilling the plan that we saw back in Acts chapter 9, that Paul would speak to dignitaries, that he would speak to kings.

And this is going to be an opportunity for Paul to speak the gospel to a new individual.

And so not only did Paul escape Jerusalem alive, that's win number one.

But he did so as we see here, riding a horse in victory, going on his way to meet Felix the governor.

So let's look at verse number 25.

I know that this is kind of historical and I know that this is kind of like reading some of you might say history was not my cup of tea.

I don't like to read about history.

Well, this is scripture leading to the point of explaining why Paul had to do this, what happened with Paul ministering to Felix.

So we, there's a scripture, so we got to go through it.

Verse 25.

And he wrote a Letter after this manner.

This was the leader, the, the governor, or excuse me, the, The.

The Roman centurion Claudius Lysius, unto the most excellent governor Felix, sending greetings.

So we're actually reading a letter from Claudius to Felix.

This man was taken of the Jews and should have been killed of them.

Then came I with an army and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman.

And when I would not have known the cause wherefore they accused him, I brought him forth into their council.

So he's just recapping what's already happened, whom I perceive to be accused of questions of their law and but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or bond.

So he's saying he's not really guilty of anything, they just want him dead.

And when it was told me how the Jews laid wait for the man, I sent straight way to thee and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee what they had against him.

Farewell.

Then the soldiers, as it was commanded them, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.

On the morrow they left, and the horsemen to go with him, and they returned to the castle, who, when they came to Caesarea and delivered the epistle to the governor, presented Paul also before him.

And when the governor had read the letter, he asked of what province he was.

And when he understood that he was of Cilicia, I will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers are come.

And he commanded him to be kept in Herod's judgment hall.

So we conclude there at verse 35.

And there's, there's a lot of nuances there, but essentially what we see is, is that Paul is recognized as not doing anything wrong.

He's being falsely accused.

And essentially the Roman government is protecting Paul to get out of Jerusalem, to get him to a place where he can be tried properly.

And so 200 soldiers take him up to this place and ultimately they present Paul to Felix.

And Paul is going to await trial here in a place called Caesarea.

And so this begins a two year period of time where Paul is going to be waiting and being under trial and being in difficulty with patience.

And so Paul, Paul lived a long time with freedom.

We know that there was a long time where Paul lived under bondage, but we know that he was trusting in the promises of God through all of that.

And there's a lot of circumstances in our life that might cause us to feel like, hey, you know what?

I have more freedom in that time, or I have more blessings in that time.

But ultimately no matter what the circumstances are in our life, the Bible says that we can live effective for the cause of the Gospel because it didn't matter if Paul was a free man.

And it didn't matter if Paul was in bonds under the Roman authorities.

Paul still lived that life of the Gospel.

He still lived that life of joy.

We know that through the book of Philippians, Philippians, Chapter 4, Paul is in prison for doing the right thing.

And he says, rejoice in the Lord always.

And again I say, rejoice.

And so Paul received the promises of God and he was resting in the promises of God.

And we as believers have to do the same.

We have to say, you know what?

I don't care what's going on around me.

I don't care if my life is turned upside down.

I don't care if people are coming against me.

All I can do is trust in God and know that I'm being faithful to him.

And that's what we see here in chapter 23.

Now we're going to kind of bleed over to chapter 24 because I want you to see a little bit of his interaction here with Felix, because this is an interesting opportunity for Paul to minister to a leader which is fulfilling that prophecy there in Acts, chapter nine.

So verse one of chapter 24.

And after five days, Ananias, the high priest, descended with the elders and with a certain orator named Turlus, who informed the governor against Paul.

So we see that the.

The chief priest, the high priest, he's coming as his name's Ananias.

He descends with the elders, the leaders, with a certain guy named Tertullus who is going to basically, he's like a real skilled lawyer in the law, and he was coming to basically turn their minds and hearts Against Paul.

Verse 2.

And when he was called forth to Turles began to accuse him, saying, seeing that by the.

We enjoy great quietness.

He's speaking to Felix here, okay?

And that thou, that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy province.

So he's basically what we call this in the south is buttering somebody up, okay?

Basically, he's trying to appeal to his pride.

He's trying to build him up.

He's trying to flatter this leader named Felix.

Verse 3.

We accepted always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness.

Verse 4.

Notwithstanding that I be not further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency of a few words.

So he's saying, just allow us to talk to you about this guy named Paul.

For we have found this man, a pestilent fellow.

So we see where their heart goes.

You know, he's kind of Felix, but he's saying, hey, you know what?

Paul is pestilent.

He.

He's.

He's.

He's a harm to us.

We don't want him around us.

And a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world.

Now, I like how he says this because to him, Paul is calling causing rebellion across the whole world.

But really, this is an underhanded compliment to Paul, right?

Because he says, hey, Paul is impacting all these people to rebel against our religious ways.

But essentially what he's saying is Paul is impacting all these people to Jesus Christ.

And so, hey, that's okay.

I'm okay to be an enemy of false religion.

I'm okay to be an enemy of the ways of this world.

Because truly, what that means is that we're on the cause of the gospel.

We're actually doing the job that we're supposed to do.

So we actually see the impact of Paul's message.

He says he is a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.

Which is kind of interesting that he accuses Paul to be the ringleader of the Nazarenes.

Really what they tell him here is that he, He, He.

It was a term of scorn for some people because it was used for followers of Jesus.

And obviously Nazareth had a.

A poor reputation as a city.

And we know a lot of that when it comes to the life of Jesus.

And so essentially what he's saying here is that he's a ringleader of people that are rebels.

He is causing rebellion across the whole world, and he is a pestilent fellow.

Verse 6.

And they accused him of profaning the temple, actually, which he didn't do, who also hath gone about to profane the temple, whom we took and would have judged according to our law.

But the chief, Captain Lucias came upon us with great violence, took him away out of our hands.

You see how he's trying to spin it?

It's actually the complete opposite of what he's explaining happened.

But he's saying we were just trying to do the right thing.

And the Roman governor just yanked him out of.

Out of the way, out of our hands.

Verse 8.

Commanding his accusers to come unto thee by examining of whom thyself may take knowledge of all these things whereof we accused him and the Jews also assented saying that these things were so.

So all of this to say that Paul is a terrible person.

Paul is not for God.

Paul is someone who's going to cause rebellion.

And Paul, Paul had nothing to fear because Paul knew the truth and Paul was living in the truth.

But essentially what we can see here is that this guy Tutoulis, this, this, this lawyer is basically trying to spin the people against Paul.

And what's going to happen in our own life is that sometimes in our life people are going to say things about us that are not true.

People are going to spread lies about us.

People are going to say harmful things about us.

People are going to do harmful things to us.

What do we do when that happens?

We don't quit.

We don't turn away in fear.

We don't cower in fear.

We don't compromise.

All Paul does is eventually Paul is going to give a defense.

And, and Paul is going to speak the truth.

And when we are on the side of truth, we have nothing to fear.

And that's all that Paul is going to rest in, is the truth of God.

So, so verse number seven.

But the chief Captain Leticias came upon us with great violence.

So essentially what they're saying here is that the, the Roman commander who rescued Paul was a bad guy, he was doing the wrong thing.

And so Paul's accusers were basically trying to turn everyone against him.

And I don't know if you feel like that's how it goes in your home life, but sometimes it does feel like everyone's against you, the world's against you.

But the truth is, is that yes, they might be against you, but the Bible says if God before us, who could be against us, we're more than conquerors.

And so Paul gives a defense here in verse 10.

And this is, we're going to spend the rest of our time.

This is, this is Paul's defense.

Verse 10.

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 carefully, or excuse me, cheerfully answer for myself, because that thou mayest understand that there are yet but 12.

12 days since I went up to Jerusalem for the 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, so what does Paul do?

He.

He exposes the weakness of their case.

He exposes the truth to the darkness.

And so Paul was.

Was glad to answer for himself, knowing that the facts are on his side.

And, and so he.

He doesn't use flattery like this other guy.

He doesn't use lies like the other ones.

He doesn't use manipulation.

All he does is point them to the truth of what's happening.

There's simply no proof to the accusations that they're bringing to him.

Now you would say, how do we apply that?

Because we know that all scripture is given by inspiration of God.

So, so why do we need to know that for our own life?

Because what do we do when people accuse us of things?

What do we do when people say slanderous things against us?

What do we do when people accuse us of not being good Christians?

Well, if we're living right for the cause of the gospel, we stand in the truth.

We just, we just speak forth what's the truth in our lives.

We don't need to lie.

We don't need to twist things.

We don't need to manipulate.

And so Paul explains who.

What his ministry is all about.

He says, I'm just going to share with you what this is all about.

Verse 14.

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 what does Paul do here?

Paul turns to the gospel.

This is what he does.

Paul says, all right, I'm going to use this opportunity that I'm getting persecuted in.

I'm going to use this opportunity where I've been lied about, and I'm going to turn it around to the gospel.

And so he says, I confess after thee the way which they call heresy.

He says, I'm going to tell you the way of the gospel.

I'm going to tell you the way of the truth.

They call it heresy, but I'm going to tell them the truth.

Verse 15.

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.

So what does Paul do?

He appeals to the resurrection of the dead.

He appeals to our everlasting life.

Verse 16.

Herein do I exercise myself to always have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.

So what we can see here in verse 16 is this.

This is the testimony that all of us need to have in the midst of a difficult world, in the midst of people being opposed to us, but in the midst of following God's plan, For our life.

Paul says, herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.

So he says, first and foremost, I want to have a clear conscience before God, and I want to have a clear conscience before man.

The way that we do that is we live a life according to the word of God.

And if we are living, what does the Bible say?

The greatest commandment is to love God with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love our neighbor as ourself.

On these two things hang all the law and the prophets.

So what the Bible clearly says is that if we're living before God in the way that he has called us to live, we can stand before God with a clear conscience and we can stand before others with a clear conscience.

You could break down the Ten Commandments.

The first five of the Ten Commandments is about our relationship with God.

The second five of the Ten Commandments is our relationship with others.

And so what does Paul say?

Paul says, through all of this, I have a clear conscience before God and a clear conscience before man.

Now, first of all, it's.

It starts with God and then it manifests itself towards other people around us.

And so Paul explains what he's all about.

He says, I'm all about following God.

I'm all about treating others as I want to be treated.

Verse 17.

Now, after many years, I came to bring alms to my nation and offerings, whereupon certain Jews from Asia found me purified in the temple, neither with multitude nor with tomo.

Meaning Paul says, they, they found me going through religious rituals.

I was there being purified in the temple.

And.

And so he says, I wasn't there with a crowd.

And they know this.

Verse 19.

Who ought to have been there before thee and object if they had ought against me, he says, they could have stopped me right then and there.

Or else lest these these same here say, if they have found any evil doing in me while I stood before the council, except it be for this one voice that I cried standing among them, touching the resurrection of the dead, I am called in question by you this day.

So he says, the only reason why they're upset with me now is because I called in question this resurrection of the dead.

And remember, the Sadducees were against that.

And so they're upset with that.

Verse 22.

And when Felix heard these things, having a more perfect knowledge of that way.

And by the way, when it says that way, it's specifically talking about Christianity.

So what we know here is that Felix had some Understanding of the way that Paul is talking here, he's been exposed to it.

At some point he deferred them and said, when Lus, the chief captain shall come down, I will know the utmost 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 acquaintances to minister or come unto him.

And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.

So he, he sends for Paul and he wants to hear about the faith in Christ.

And so something that Paul did, the way that he spoke, the way that he acted, caused the individual named Felix to be compelled to hear of his faith.

Verse 25.

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.

He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him.

Wherefore he sent for him the oftener and communed with him.

But after two years, Portius Festus came into Felix's room.

And Felix, willing to show the Jews of pleasure, left Paul bound.

So there's a lot of information that we just covered.

And so verse 22 and verse 23 tell us that Felix avoided making a decision.

Felix tried to walk in the middle ground.

He didn't want to say that Paul was innocent, yet he didn't want to identify himself as, hey, I'm, you know, against you, Paul.

He says, I, I just don't really want to make a decision here.

So he says, I'm just going to keep you in custody.

And then in verse 24, we see that he calls for Paul to preach a message to him.

And Paul preaches, no doubt a compelling gospel message.

And Felix wanted his wife to hear Paul's testimony.

It could have been out of curiosity or it could have been out of conviction.

And essentially what he says here is like, I would believe, but I don't have enough evidence yet.

And so Paul preaches a few different things.

But, but Paul used the, what we would call an opportunity here, a door of utterance to preach the gospel.

And we don't know exactly how Paul preached these three points that he preaches, but he preaches them nonetheless.

He preaches that the righteousness of ourselves is found in Jesus Christ.

He preaches that after we come to Christ that we must have self control.

That's, that's the idea of the Holy Spirit guiding our life.

And then he preaches about the judgment to come.

And that's really what the gospel is all about.

We need to understand the righteousness of God and faith.

We need to understand how to live our lives following Christ.

And we need to understand what the destiny is for a Christian and for those who are outside the bond of faith.

And that is the judgment.

And so Paul, Paul boldly preaches to Felix here.

He preaches the gospel.

And we see Felix's response here.

What is Felix's Response?

In verse 25, it says that he trembled so, so he hears this message of Paul's gospel.

Really, we know it's Christ's gospel, and, and he knows probably something about his own life.

And he's, he's in fear.

And the gospel should, should bring fear to those that are in rebellion.

But Felix is unwilling to make a commitment for the gospel.

He's unwilling to declare a decision for Christ.

Instead, he rejects Jesus in the sense of delaying.

What, what do we see there at the end?

He says in verse 25, Go thy way for this time when I have a convenience season, I will call for.

And that's sometimes how people respond to the gospel.

Like, I, I, I, I'm afraid.

I understand.

I even want to do that one day, but I need to wait for a time that's more convenient in such a, such a hard thing to see here in Scripture because we see how close Felix really was.

And many people respond in the gospel this way.

They say, you know what?

When I can, I'll get there.

Or when, when I get out of this season of my life or, or when I get to this age or whatever it is.

But truthfully speaking, the Bible says very clearly that today should be the day of salvation.

Today should be the day that we trust in Jesus Christ.

And so don't push that off.

If that's speaking to you tonight.

And you're like, maybe I'm like, Felix, maybe I'm pushing that away.

Hey, trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior, because, hey, tomorrow's not guaranteed.

And so the motive here is that Paul wants to present the message to Felix.

We see that this is a fulfillment of Acts, chapter nine.

And we see ultimately here that Felix rejects.

And so the success in preaching the gospel is not having multiple converts, even though that's our goal.

The success in preaching the gospel is proclaiming it before people, whether they receive it or not.

We're called to cast the seed out.

We're called to proclaim the seed.

And we know that ultimately it is God who gives the increase but we see that in verse 26 and 27 that Felix's heart is revealed.

Why doesn't he not come to Christ?

It's, it's not so much that he just doesn't feel like it's convenient right now.

Verse 26.

He hoped also that money should have been given him Appal, so his heart is a heart of greed that he might loose him.

And so Felix met with Paul and talks with Paul, but it was not him honestly necessarily seeking the gospel.

He hoped to be paid off with a bribe.

And so ultimately Paul didn't give Felix what he was wanting and Felix didn't go for what he was preaching.

And so, so many people in this world today, it's greed that pulls them back from understanding the truth of God, greed and pride.

And so they were acting more with political prowess than being open to the called Spirit.

So Felix is guilty and, and we don't know necessarily the rest of the story, but we do know in that case if he left and, and rejected Christ, he is facing judgment for that.

But ultimately Paul is held there and he is bound.

So Felix refuses to release Paul, though he knew that he was innocent.

And basically he did it for the same reason as, as Pilate did for Jesus.

It's political advantage.

He says, I'm going to try to use this opportunity for me just to be politically elevated.

And so he.

Verse 27.

But after two years, Portius Festus came into Felix's room and Felix, willing to show the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound.

So he just did for political reasons.

And so Felix says, hey, I'm compelled, but in a more convenient time.

But Paul preaches the gospel nonetheless.

And so what can we learn from all this?

We can learn a few different things.

We can learn ultimately that no matter what the case may be in the difficulties in our life, God is going to give us opportunities to preach the gospel.

And that's what happens here with Paul.

God is going to protect us in the call that he has given us in our life.

He's going to provide for us in areas of confusion.

He's going to provide for us in areas of loss.

He's going to provide for us in areas of doubt.

He's going to provide for us in areas of pain and suffering.

But ultimately what we have to do is just stay faithful to what he has called us to do.

There's a passage of scripture that I think about quite frequently, and it's in the book of Galatians.

Most of you know this verse, but I'm wanting to Take us all there and look at this.

Because what we, what we can characterize Paul by in this chapter is not great success by winning thousands of people to Christ, right?

If we were to read this and say, well, Paul is successful, if he went into Felix's chamber and led Felix and his wife to Christ and all the people there in Caesarea.

But, but that's not what we see happening.

We see Paul faithful to preaching the Gospel.

But In Galatians chapter 6 we know in verse 9 it tells us something that is not always flattering, not always exciting, but a necessity when it comes to our Christian walk.

And it's this.

And let us not be weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.

The Bible says it's not necessarily about having all success.

It's not about having all of the following.

It's about staying faithful, not get wearying well doing.

And so Paul no doubt could have been tested in those two years of waiting, in those two years of being under false pretenses and all these things that he has piled up upon him, Paul could have had every reason to quit.

Paul could have had every reason to doubt the promise of God from the very beginning and throughout the his life.

But yet Paul stayed faithful.

We know that Paul stays faithful because in the next chapter Paul appeals to go to Caesar and he's going to have an opportunity to visit a guy named King Agrippa.

He's going to have an opportunity to preach to a guy named Festus.

And we're going to see all these different opportunities through this time where Paul is going to continuously preach the truth of the Gospel all the way to the end.

And some of you know the story of King Agrippa about being almost persuaded we're going to get there.

But the truth is, is that there were victories in Paul's life what we would consider to be defeats.

But ultimately it was a victory because Paul stayed faithful.

And so the takeaway for us this evening is that God might take you down a path that is difficult.

God might take you down a path that doesn't make sense to the ways of this world.

But ultimately what God is saying is that I'm with you.

I'm with you through this.

I'm providing for you.

If I've called you to do this, I'm going to provide for you.

I'm going to do this thing for you.

And we know that ultimately Philippians chapter 4, verse 13 says I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me, and I always use in the analogy of this, that doesn't mean that I can do whatever I want to do and my life, okay?

So, for example, I use this all the time.

Like, I.

I want to play NBA basketball, okay?

And if I'm a Christian and I want it enough, I'm going to go play NBA basketball next year, okay?

Now, all of you in this room are smiling.

Not all of you, but some of you are smiling.

Some of you that are smiling know that I could never play NBA basketball.

It's not God's call for my life, okay?

But the truth of the matter is, is that what that means?

Philippians 4:13.

I can do all things to Christ.

It means if God calls me to do something, if God calls me and ordains that for my life, he is going to give me all the grace and the provisions to do the things that I need to do in the time that he has given me.

So for some of us, say, pastor, I don't think that I can do this ministry that he's called me to do.

I.

I'm convinced that he's called me to do it, but I don't think I have the talent to do it.

I'm going to tell you here tonight, none of us have enough talent to do it.

None of us have enough goodwill in our lives to push forward.

All of us need to come to the point of saying, lord, I need you.

I need to stay faithful to what you called me to do through the ups and through the downs, through the difficult and the easy.

And so Paul, through all of this, has been lied about, has been beaten, has been thrown in jail, but yet, at the same time, he stays faithful.

And the reason why he can do that is because he is convicted.

He is convinced of the truth of God, and he has the confidence of the call of God in his life.

We go to passage of scripture after passage of scripture to say that this is.

God has a call for all of our lives.

And it might not be the same when it comes to the method of it happening, but ultimately the end game for all of us is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God calls all of us to have a gospel ministry.

He's called all of us to present the gospel to the world through whatever path that he might call us to have, but he doesn't promise that it's going to be easy.

I.

I think I mentioned this last week, remember when Jesus is standing on one side of the Sea of Galilee with his disciples and he says, hey, guys, we're gonna go to the other side now.

At that point, what was that?

That was a promise.

We're going to the other side.

If Jesus says we're going to the other side, we're going to the other side.

Nothing's going to stop that because we.

We know that Jesus is going to be protected.

He's going to get across the other side.

But what happened was, is that they were out there on the water and they weren't willing to doubt the promise of God and the provisions of God until the storm started coming, right?

They were fine with trusting that story until the storms came.

So, so what happens is that the difficulties come and we're tempted to doubt when the storms of life hit us.

The Bible says in Psalm 1 that we can be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, deeply rooted.

And so the analogy that we see in the New Testament is that yes, we can be like a tree, but we can be a tree deeply rooted, so that when the storms of life come, we can stand fast and we can trust in God and we can know that he's going to get us to the other side.

Now, what happened was, is that they were in the, in the boat and they looked and what happened, they doubted.

Even though Jesus was there with them, they doubted that he cared, right?

They said, you know, you don't care, Jesus, that we're gonna die.

And he was sleeping on the boat.

And, and the truth is, is that sometimes we, we intellectually understand that God is with us.

We go, yeah, I know God is with me, but it doesn't seem like he cares right now.

He's sleeping in the back of the boat.

And I don't understand that.

But at the end, what happens is that they lack faith.

And Jesus wakes up and they say, jesus, why don't you care about us?

Why, why don't.

He goes, guys, you have so little faith.

And just with a voice, just with a word, he calms it all.

And, and so there's the conviction there of, like, you know what?

We can think that all these problems are bad.

We can think that we're overwhelmed, we're going to die.

And then ultimately, the moment we trust in the Lord, that's when you know what, the storms of life can go away just like that.

Now, the storms of life might not go away, but the reality is that Jesus never promises us to be exempt from the storms.

The only thing that he promises us is that he's going to be with us in the boat, in the midst of the storm.

And that's what we have to understand.

When I read this about Paul, I'm like, how in the world could he stand so strong in the truth of God?

It's because he goes back to the Damascus road and says, I remember what the call of my life was.

The call of my life was to serve the Lord Jesus and to preach that message.

And so nothing can sway me from that.

You remember, Paul was ready for this.

It's not like Paul was just living his life in a frivolous way and all of a sudden he's thrown in jail and he's like, oh, man, now I got to figure this all out.

You remember from the very beginning they said, paul, don't go to Jerusalem.

Please don't go.

They're going to persecute you.

They're going to put you in, in, in bonds.

They're going to put you in, in chains.

And he goes, guys, I'm ready to go to Jerusalem.

I'm completely fine with going in chains.

And actually I'm ready to die for the cause of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So what Paul is saying here is the hates a win, win.

I, I'm going to go into this and if I'm persecuted, great, I'm going to push to Jesus Christ.

I'm going to lean into him more, I'm going to love on my Father more, and he's going to love on me more.

And the Bible says in James, chapter four, verse eight, draw nigh unto God and he will draw nigh to you.

Draw close to God and he's going to draw close to you.

And so instead of when the storms come and the difficulties come and the confusion comes, instead of pulling away from him, draw closer to him.

And that's what Paul does.

We see him drawing closer to the Lord in the midst of this.

And so he proclaims the truth of the gospel.

Paul could have said anything there, but what did he do?

He appealed to the truth of his life, and ultimately he appealed to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And Felix was an interesting guy.

By the way, if you, you do more research on Felix, he was actually a former slave.

He began his life as a slave, and through a lot of work he was able to buy his own freedom.

And so he was actually a unique individual because he didn't come from a high estate and basically stand above other people.

He actually was very cruel in many different ways.

And I was actually reading a history book and it says that he was a master of cruelty and lust who exercised the powers of a king with the spirit of a slave, which basically means this, this guy Felix that we're talking about, he had a lot of revenge in his heart and he had a lot of hate in his heart.

So when we look at it from the very beginning of things, Paul could have easily been put to death for any cause.

But through God's provision, Paul was able to present the gospel to a very hard man, a very deep, dangerous man.

And I can tell you that God will open doors and he will open up opportunities for us to preach the gospel to people we never guess would hear the gospel.

Who knows who we can reach for the gospel of Jesus Christ?

We, we were talking about this morning, Romans, chapter one.

People that have come into a place of a reprobate mind.

And a lot of times what that means for us is, hey, they're too far gone.

But the truth of the matter is, is that the only thing that's going to cause people to come to Christ is, is essentially the gospel message to be preached to them.

How can they not hear without a preacher?

And the Bible says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.

And so Paul said, I know what can change the heart of a guy named Felix.

I know what can change the heart of these people who are against me.

I'm going to preach the gospel because remember, he preached the gospel to those that were persecuting him.

He preached to the gospel to those that were wanting to kill him.

He still preached the gospel.

And at the end of the day, that's what we have to do.

We have to intentionally live and proclaim the gospel, just like Paul did.

So here this evening as we close, I want you to think about just the idea of put yourself in Paul's shoes for just a minute.

There could have been a lot of reasons for him to doubt, but no doubt Paul went back to that original promise of God.

I have a plan for you.

You're preaching to the Gentiles, you're preaching to Kings, you're preaching to your people.

And you're going to be used by me greatly.

And I think that all of us have to go back to that Damascus road moment and say, I remember when Jesus Christ changed my life.

I remember when God made it so clear for me what I'm supposed to do.

And for some of us, you might say, I don't even know what God has for me in my life.

It's not clear for me.

What I would encourage you to do is seek after him, cling to him, grow closer to him, and know what he has for you.

Because if you seek that, he will Reveal that to you.

He's always going to reveal to us what his plan is for our life.

The truth is, is.

Are we open to hear it?

And sometimes what God calls us to do is not something that we want to do.

I can tell you that there has been a lot of there, there.

I don't want to go too far into this, but I, I will say this.

There have been some things in my life that God has called me to do that I did not want to do.

Every fiber of my body was like, no, no, no, no, not that, please don't.

Not that, please.

But the truth is, at the end of the day, if God calls me to do it, there's no if, ands or buts.

It's this.

Lord, I love you, you save me.

I was the guy on the road to Damascus, a rebel, a sinner, a persecutor, but yet you changed me.

You transformed me.

You gave me a purpose, you gave me hope, you gave me life, you gave me salvation, you gave me everything.

And so therefore, I want to give you everything.

That's the way we have to live our lives.

So many times we see our Christian life as this thing that's optional, folks.

To be a Christian, that's following Christ.

What does Jesus say?

He says, die to yourself, reject the ways of this world.

He goes on to say, if you want to be my disciples, continue in my word.

So I do believe we have a lot of casual Christians in our world today that are willing to follow in low stakes Christianity.

But what I would say is this, let's get serious about what God has called us to do.

Do Paul.

Paul didn't have a chance to live with a comfortable life.

He didn't get a chance to do that.

Think about how much comfort we actually live in in our lives.

Think about how, how much God allows us to have in freedom and enjoy and in satisfaction.

And yet we bulk at the idea of God asking us to do anything in our lives, to sacrifice a little bit more time to, to preach this message to someone.

You know what?

For me, I would have been so fearful to preach to Felix.

I would have not said what I said.

But Paul presented those three points of the righteousness of God.

Self control or temperance, and the judgment that is to come.

And so you say, well, Pastor, what do I tell people?

Tell them of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Tell them of the beauty that it is to live in the truth of Jesus Christ in our life and to tell them what the judgment is to come, that that's really the three point sermon that we all could preach in the gospel.

And that's what Paul did there.

So if you want to go, you know, Paul gives us some good outlines if, if you want to, if you ever about to preach a sermon, you're like, I want a good three part outline.

Go to Acts chapter 24 and look at verse number 25 and you've got a three point gospel message outline that you can preach and it's right there for you.

So I encourage you to think about that, encourage you to be praying about how you as a Christian can push forward for the cause of the gospel no matter what the case is.

Now, Paul is going to appeal to Caesar and we're going to see next week that Paul goes into a place, he goes into the den of lions.

Okay, not literally, but he's going to go further and further up the chain.

He's going to go further and further up in leadership and fulfill that prophecy of God and that call of God to preach to the kings and leaders.

And so think about it this way.

We're still talking about Paul today.

He's in the Bible.

That's one reason why we're talking about Paul.

But think about, think about that opportunity that you have to impact those people around you.

You know, one, have you ever thought about this really quickly?

This is kind of weird.

So don't, don't think this is morbid, but how many of you have ever thought, what are they going to say about me and my funeral?

I don't know if any of you thought that maybe like, I'm far from that pastor.

I don't want to think about that because you know what?

At my funeral, I don't, here's what I don't want to have said about me.

I mean, I'm okay with people saying this about me, but this is not what I want it to always be about.

Well, he really liked baseball.

He, he was like, he was a big, you know, he, he, he liked to fish, he liked to hunt, he liked to go out there.

Those are all good things.

I love that.

I love that.

But if that's the summation of my life, my dad really liked his hobbies.

We, we have to understand that as a Christian, we've been called to so much more.

And you know, one of the things that I, I mean, again, I'm not preaching against having hobbies and fun stuff, I get that.

But at the end of the day, what Paul is known for is like, in the face of danger, in the face of persecution, it was the gospel he had a heart for the lost.

And you know what?

That's what I want to be said about Middletown Baptist Church and the members of Middletown Baptist Church.

Like, we have a heart for those that need the Gospel message.

And so we'll continue moving on in the study in the Book of Acts.

I know that these are a little bit difficult because we're going through these stories and we got to hit all of those things.

But there, there is application throughout all of the Book of Acts.

And obviously this is all tying together because we, we know that Paul writes a lot of the epistles in the New Testament and a lot of these.

If we have more time, we can talk about the overlap on all these areas.

But what we see Paul teaching in First Timothy, Second Timothy, First Thessalonians, Second Thessalonians is intertwined here with many of the things that he does in his life.

So we know that Paul just doesn't talk to talk.

We know Paul talked the talk, but he also walks the walk.

Paul is practicing all those things that he has called us to practice within the church.

Thank you again for listening to the Middletown Baptist Church podcast.

I hope that this sermon has been a blessing for you.

If you would like to find out more information about our church or this sermon, you can find us at middletownbaptistchurch.org or find us on Facebook or YouTube.

You can also also email me directly at Josh Massaroiddletownbaptistchurch dot com if you've enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and follow along for future podcast and updates.

Thank you so much.

God bless.

Have a wonderful day.