August 6th, 2011 – Acts 24

Click here to read Acts 24 on BibleGateway.com

If you’ve never read through Acts, you may have missed one of the best characters in the Bible. Not “best” as in the kind of person you want to be or to hang around, but “best” as in most entertaining. That’s right, friends, today we get to hang out with Felix. Never heard? Not to worry; you’ll probably remember him after today.

OH HERE’S THE STORY

Felix was a governor in the time of Paul, and like Jesus before Pontius Pilate, the Jewish leadership brought Paul before a Roman (Felix) to put him on trial. Felix had a wife named Drusilla (actually, he was married three times, and the first two wives were both named Drusilla.  That can’t be normal.) who also was in attendance when Paul was brought to trial.

Here we get into Felix’s awesomeness; he talks with Paul for a while, can’t find anything wrong with him, but leaves him in jail for two years so that Paul has ample opportunity to offer Felix a bribe. When he (Felix) gets called back to Rome for being a complete loser as governor, he leaves Paul in prison as a “favor to the Jews.” Real humanitarian, that Felix.

WAIT A MINUTE. GO BACK TO THE OTHER STUFF

Verses 24 and 25 give us great insight into Felix’s character: He [Felix] sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now!” Notice what’s going on here. Felix enjoys talking to Paul about theology and miracles, but when it gets personal, when it’s a matter of self-control and judgement, Felix has heard enough and shuts the conversation down.

Now, we may laugh at Felix (perhaps rightfully so), but maybe he’s not so different from us. Many of us like getting into debates over politics, or fine points of theology, or sports, or whatever; but when it comes time to be serious about changing ourselves, then suddenly we want to shut the conversation down. We’d rather hear about Jesus feeding the five thousand than about dying to ourselves and taking up our cross. But which is really what God wants to show us?

Are you able to look at the full message of Christ today?