Chapter 39

Confronting The Roman Legal System

Acts 24

 

We pride ourselves in this country as having "liberty and justice for all."  The truth is, however, that although it is better in America than in any or many other nations, even in the American judicial system, truth is not always told and justice does not always happen.

 

It was similar in the ancient Roman empire.  "Law was the most characteristic and lasting expression of the Roman spirit ... the first person in Roman law was the citizen" (from Caesar and Christ by Will Durant). 

 

In Acts 24, we shall see the Roman legal system at work and discover how corrupt a court Paul faced.

 

Paul had traveled to Jerusalem to bring an offering from the Gentile churches, as a way of promoting unity among the churches.  He had gone to the temple for the express purpose of building bridges with Jewish believers.  At the temple, he had been mobbed and would have been killed on the spot, had not the Roman garrison rescued him.  In an attempt to get to the bottom of their hostility toward Paul, the captain of the guard had allowed Paul to be tried before the Sanhedrin in his presence, and another rescue of Paul was necessary.  When he got word of an assassination attempt, the Captain moved Paul from Jerusalem to Caesarea.  It is there that we find him in Acts 24.  There is a trial that takes place before Governor Felix.

 

The Prosecution, vv. 1-9.

 

Jerusalem is located on top of a mountain and so in the Bible when people travel to Jerusalem they always go up and when they travel from Jerusalem they always go down.  Which explains why the Jewish party descended when they came from Jerusalem.  In the party was Ananias the high priest, along with the elders and their attorney, an orator named Tertullus who was going to present their case against Paul before the governor Felix.

 

What did the prosecution consist of?

 

Flattery, vv. 2-4.  Before you can when your case, you must win your judge.  Tertullus complimented Felix for having brought quietness to the nation.  (That wasn't true otherwise why had it taken almost 500 Roman soldiers to safely escort Paul from Jerusalem to Caesarea?  History does not record the rule of Felix as a period of calm but actually as a stormy time in Palestine.)  This is more than a compliment.  It is flattery.  Flattery is insincere praise intended to produce selfish results.  Proverbs 26:28 A flattering mouth worketh ruin. Proverbs 29:5  A man that flattereth his neighbour spreadeth a net for his feet.

 

False Accusations, vv. 5-9.  They brought four charges against Paul and all of them were false.  They said he was a pestilent fellow, a personal charge.  They said he was a seditionist, a political charge.  They said he was a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, a religious charge.  And they said that he was guilty of profaning the temple, a criminal charge. 

 

Let's take a moment and think about those charges.

 

1.  Pestilent = flies, locusts, in other words, a pest, nuisance that needs to be squashed.  It is true that wherever Paul went there was either a riot or a revival.  But Paul was not the pest.  He didn't force himself on anyone.  If they were annoyed it was because they chose to be annoyed.

 

2.  A Seditionist - That Paul was trying to cause a seditionist movement of the Jews against the Roman empire.  Not true!  But it was the same kind of charge that the Jews brought against Jesus to the Pilate.  If preaching that Jesus Christ is King and Lord is a threat to the Roman Empire then Paul was guilty.  But he was not ever advocating treason against the government (Romans 13:1-7; Titus 3:1).

 

3.  A Ringleader Of the Sect Of The Nazarene -  Because Jesus had been raised in Nazareth, there was a time when Romans considered Christians to be just another sect of the Jewish religion who followed the guy from Nazareth, thus Nazarenes.  (The Nazarene denomination was started out of the Methodist movement in 1907 and has nothing to do with this reference other than perhaps that is the place from which they took their name.)  The Romans allowed for political purposes the Jews to practice their religion but would not allow new religions to be established without their control and approval.  What they are accusing Paul of is starting a new religion without Roman permission.

 

4.  Profaning the Temple - An outright lie, Paul's presence at the temple was to participate in the conclusion of a vow with some other Christians.  They didn't arrest him, they mobbed him and would have killed him had not the Roman captain rescued Paul.  (In a roundabout way they accused Lysias of preventing justice because he was not there to defend himself.)  And all the other Jews present said that what Tertullus had said was so.  So there is the prosecutions case - flattery and false accusations.

 

The Defense, vv. 10-21.

 

In contrast to the flattery of Tertullus, Paul simply acknowledged that he was glad to present his case to such an experienced judge. 

 

The 12 days of verse 11 minus the 5 days of verse 1 meant that Paul had only been in Jerusalem for one week - hardly enough time to do all the dirty deeds they had accused him of - especially to have organized a profaning of the temple. 

 

He points out that they did not find him in the temple arguing with anyone or raising up a riot, not in the temple, not in the synagogues, not in the city.  And where were the witnesses to these charges? (v. 13) Where was the proof?  Accusations are easy to come by.  But accusations mean nothing without evidence.

 

He goes on to say (vv. 14-15) that they wanted to accuse him of starting a new religion but that he actually worshiped the God of his Jewish fathers, believed everything that was in the Old Testament, and anticipated, like many of them (the Pharisees) a future resurrection from the dead and judgment.  There is a sense in which Jewish Christians were not former Jews but fulfilled Jews.  And in verse 16, Paul reports that all he wanted to do was please God - a clean conscience before God and men - how could that be so threatening to these Jews?

 

Finally, Paul says (vv. 17-21), "Look, I didn't come to Jerusalem to profane the temple.  I came bringing an offering to my fellow Jews.  And when those Asian Jews saw me in the temple, I had gone through the ceremonial purification, I wasn't with a big crowd and I certainly didn't create a disturbance.  Where are they to accuse me?  The only thing that I did was when I appeared before their council, I said with a loud voice that I believed in the resurrection.

 

Paul simple spoke the honest truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

 

 

The Verdict, vv. 22-27

 

Felix was having a bad hair day.  His prisoner was a Roman citizen against whom no eyewitnesses had come forward to verify any of the alleged crimes.  The Sanhedrin hadn't actually even found Paul guilty of anything specific.  Felix had some prior knowledge of the Christian way (v. 22a).  He knew perhaps that they were not revolutionaries.  And knowing that the Jews had lied about that had to make him suspect of all the other charges.  The only possible verdict under Roman law was innocent.  Yet if he said that, it would probably irritate the Jewish leaders and lead to unrest and upheaval, which he could not afford to have happen.  You see, in the end, Felix was a politician instead of judge, trapped between justice and popularity.

 

He decided that the best decision was no decision, v. 22b.  "Before I render my verdict, I want Lysias the chief captain to come down and I want to hear from him."  Which actually never happened.  Besides he already had a written report from Lysias, 23:29.  He was just stalling.

 

To placate the Jewish leaders he ordered that Paul be kept in custody, but that he not be kept in close confinement nor be isolated from any visitors.

 

Paul apparently was an intrigue to Felix.  The Scriptures tells us that in the days that followed, he sent for Paul and listened while the apostle told him about faith in Christ, v. 24.

 

Drucilla, the wife of Felix was a Jewess.  She was the great granddaughter of the Herod who had tried to have the infant Jesus killed, the great niece of the Herod that had beheaded John the Baptist and mocked Jesus, the daughter of the Herod that had killed the Apostle James.  Her family had hated Christ and Christians, but now she is listening to the gospel.

 

Paul gave three reasons why this couple needed to repent.

 

Reason #1 - Righteousness which is about sins of the past.  There is none righteous, no, not one.  All have sinned...  The word sin has gradually been removed from our vocabulary.  It has been replaced with mistakes, weaknesses, faults, errors.  To hear some tell it, we are no longer sinful.  No.  Now we are immature, weak, underprivileged, frightened or sick.  Righteousness is what God demands.  The bad news is that we don't have any of our own.  The good news is that God provides it for us through Jesus Christ.

 

Reason #2 - Temperance which is about temptations of the present.  Man can control almost everything except himself.  Not only does man have a history of sin, it isn't getting any better.

 

Reason #3 - Judgment which about facing God in the future.  Judgment is the inevitable result of the absence of righteousness and temperance.  Since Felix and Druscilla lacked the first two virtues they faced inevitably the coming judgment. 

 

And upon hearing Paul, the Bible says that "Felix trembled" with conviction.  But his conviction did not result in his conversion.  The verdict for himself was much like the verdict he had given about Paul.  He procrastinated.  Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.  See Proverbs 27:1; II Corinthians 6:2.  His mind was enlightened.  His emotions were stirred.  But his will would not yield.

 

One day, the devil huddled with his top three demons to think up a way to keep men from being saved.  The first one said, "Tell them there is no heaven."  But they concluded that that wouldn't work because everyone who faces death longs for heaven in the hereafter.  "Tell them there is no hell." suggested the second demon.  But they concluded that wouldn't  work either because of the conscience tells men that their sins will be judged.  They finally settled on the suggestion of the third demon.  "Tell them there is no hurry."  And that one seems to work for a lot of people like Felix.

 

According to verse 26, over the next two years Felix talked to Paul often.  But his conscience had been seared with a hot iron.  He no longer felt the sting of conviction.  Now he was motivated only by materialism.

 

As in so many countries, bribes and graft were so common that, perhaps based upon what Paul had said in verse 17, he waited for the offer.  But it never came from Paul. And so, for two years, Paul remained a prisoner.

 

Felix was replaced by Festus, who, although he knew, no doubt that Paul was innocent, but for political reasons refused to release Paul from prison, v. 27.

 

We know how Paul fared before Felix but how will he fare before Festus?  The answer ... the next time.

 

Like Felix, you may be tempted to postpone a decision about Jesus Christ.  Hebrews 3:7-8a  Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,  Harden not your hearts.