May I please God to bless us
together this evening as we continue our meditation in the Acts of
the Apostles and we'll turn to chapter 24 this evening and we'll
read the first nine verses of chapter 24. And after five days
Ananias the high priest descended with the elders and with a certain
orator named Tertullus who informed the governor against Paul and
when he was called forth Totalus began to accuse him saying, saying
that by thee we enjoy great quietness and that very worthy deeds are
done unto this nation by thy providence. We accept you always
and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Notwithstanding that I be not
further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldst hear us
of thy clemency. A few words. For we have found
this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among
all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the Acts
of the Nazarenes, who also hath gone about to profane the temple,
whom we took and would have judged according to our law. But the
chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with a great violence
took him away 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
assented saying that these things were so. And so we find Paul here at Caesarea
and we see that Ananias, the high priest, comes with the elders. They've obviously come from Jerusalem
and they travel with the intention of being able to find fault with
the Apostle Paul and that he might be therefore accused of
those things which he had not done. And we see that they just
don't come one or two, it's all the elders come as well. The
elders of the Sanhedrin. We're not told how many, but
obviously there would have been quite a number. And not content
with their own abilities, and remember most of them were able
people, they brought a man who was a orator named to Thullus. And they felt no doubt that with
such an able speaker, they would be able to convince the governor
of their faults. They wanted to accuse Paul of,
and therefore have him sentenced for those faults. Well, we should
be thankful that they did everything they could, naturally. But you
see, God was on the side of Paul, and God was with Paul. Paul was
by himself. He hadn't got all his friends
with him, to support him, he was there by himself. But God
was with him. And what a blessing that is for
us to realise today, that although there may be many that might
rise up against us, yet if God be for us, who can be against
us? And so here we have the Apostle
Paul in this situation. And when he was called forth,
they obviously brought Paul forth, and Totalus began to accuse him. saying, seeing that by thee we
enjoy great quietness as he's now of course addressing the
governor and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation
by thy providence and we see that in the way of a good orator
he's using flattery to try and give this governor an ear that
might attend to the things that he's saying and therefore might
believe the things he's saying and agree with them and therefore
bring Paul to be sentenced for those things which he had not
committed. And so we see how the worldly
man under the influence of Satan tries to do those things naturally
which they think would convince. But of course how they forget,
they do not know there is a God in heaven who rules and reigns
and who watches all these antics of these accusers, recognizing
that they are not able to do or go any further than the Lord
permits them to. And so as he continues, to flatter
the Governor, he says, We accept you always and in all places,
most noble Felix, with all thankfulness, notwithstanding that I be not
further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldst hear us
of thy clemency a few words. So having introduced really the
situation and given that flattery to Felix, he now addresses him
with regards to endeavouring to accuse the Apostle Paul. And he starts aggressively and
he says, for we have found this man a pestilent fellow and a
mover of sedition. among all the Jews throughout
the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." Well,
of course, he makes that statement. He's a pestilent fellow. There
was no real evidence, of course, that Paul had been a pestilent
fellow. Pestilence really means like
a pest. And we know what pests are like.
They can come in various forms. But here he's being referred
to a pest, really, a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition
among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of
the sect of Nazarenes. No doubt he was called the ringleader
because, of course, as you know, he was born in Nazareth. That's
why he was called a Nazarene. But we have no evidence at all
that he was a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. Neither is there any evidence
that he was a mover of sedition among all the Jews. And therefore,
this man, Totalus, is trying to produce a case, build up a
situation against the Apostle Paul. And we should, in our lives
today, we should remember that there may be those who perhaps
endeavor to bring a situation against us, build up a case against
us, And we may know, as Paul would have known, that those
things which he was being accused of were not true. In actual fact,
they were lies. But the Lord allowed this to
occur, and allowed it to occur to demonstrate the great grace
that was given to the Apostle Paul so that he was able to withstand
all this acute criticism and accusations and not to answer
back, as we'll come to God willing next week, in a way which was
not with a Christian attitude. And so we have much teaching
in these things as to how you and I should react faced with
a similar situation. It may not be as adverse as this
was, with the Apostle Paul a captive, but nonetheless we may face situations
where we have a great opposition and we face people who are telling
lies against us. Well, what a blessing it is if
we can follow the examples we have in the Word of God. You
see, the Word of God is here for our instruction. It's not
just an interesting account, historical account of what happened
to the Apostle Paul, it's here for our instruction that we in
the day and age in which we live may take heed and observe those
things which were said and done and how the people of God reacted
to such accusations. And he continues and he says,
who also has gone about to profane the temple whom we took would
have judged according to our law. Well we know of course that
Paul did not profane the temple, he did preach in the temple,
he did preach the truth of God, but he did not profane the temple
because all things that he preached were of course in accordance
with the law of God and he was able to show them that those
things which had been prophesied had come to pass. It was only
that the Jews disliked what they heard, it didn't fit their view. It didn't fit what they considered
would come to pass. And that's why they were so anti
towards Paul. And so we know that Paul was
taken, but he tells us now, and would have judged according to
our law. Now by saying that, presumably
he is referring to the Jewish law or perhaps the law of lawyers. Nonetheless, that's a statement
he was making. Well, it wasn't true because
when they dragged him from the temple, if it hadn't been for
Lysias, the chief captain coming and delivering him, they would
have killed him. So there wasn't any reasoning
that they were going to judge him. So we see how the opposition
is mounting up against Paul, but God was with him. And then
we read, the chief captain Lycius, but the chief captain Lycius
came upon us and with great violence took him away out of our hands. Well, again, from the account
we have, that would seem to be an exaggeration as well. He did
come and take Paul away and he was able to stand on the stairs
of the castle, as we know, and to give his defence as to what
he was being accused of. Well, the Apostle goes on, sorry,
Totalus goes on saying, commanding his accusers to come unto thee
by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge of all
these things whereof we accuse him. chief captain had sent him,
so that the accusers might come and they might be able to come
and accuse him face to face. And therefore the accusers, well
the elders had come and Totalus had come, but of course those
who were actually apparently in the temple, they would have
seemed were not actually those who actually came to be the accusers. They pass this situation on to
these elders and to tell us to come and to bring this accusation. And so, commanding his accusers
to come unto thee by examining of whom thyself mayest take knowledge
of all these things whereof we accuse him. So, he expected Felix
now to accept what he'd said. and to believe all the things
that he had said and he also adds and the Jews also assented
saying that these things were so. So we see here the Apostle
had great opposition didn't he and we might think well perhaps
poor man he would give up and think it was no point in in defending
himself but as we move on God willing next week we'll see how
The Lord was with him and gave him words to speak. And what
a good thing it is for us today to remember an occasion like
this and to the example that we have in the word of God. So
that if we should be faced, perhaps nothing like as severe a situation,
but nonetheless, God's people do come into places where they
are accused and they are persecuted. for things that they have not
done. And so to be able to take these things and to absorb them
and then to be able to answer in love and meekness and yet
fervently with regards to the truth of God. Well, may God instruct
us from his word and bless us for Jesus' sake. Amen.