Acts 24
“Indecision”
July 22, 2018 – Ninth Sunday after Pentecost
He came forward a few feet, turned and scurried back. He sniffed the air, then darted toward us again. Back and forth, back and forth. Our little girl’s hand trembled as she held out a piece of hot dog bun and watched the chipmunk who couldn’t quite work up courage to come get it. He wanted it, but the big creature was frightening. He was drawn forward by food, but pulled back by fear. We watched for several minutes until Joanna finally threw her bit of bread a couple feet. Quick as a flash, the little guy dashed up to snatch it, then ran off to eat at a safe distance atop a tree stump where he could keep an eye on us.
Approach and avoidance. This kind of conflict is stock in trade for psychologists. Attraction draws you to a new relationship, but fear of commitment pulls you back. Higher salary and better hours move you toward finding a new job, but insecurity about your abilities keeps you where you are. Approval of your friends makes you walk out to the end of the high dive, but the sight of a long drop to the water forces you to step back. Approach-avoidance conflict is part of our psychology. You want it, but you don’t. It makes you afraid, but you are strangely attracted to it. Back and forth, back and forth.
Chapter 24 of Acts shows the Roman governor Felix locked in an approach avoidance relationship with the apostle Paul. He is drawn toward Paul and his message but can’t overcome the social and political factors which push him away.
For Jewish leaders who came down to Caesarea to bring charges against Paul, the main factor was avoidance. Paul and his faith repelled them. Their single desire was to be rid of him, to have him killed. They were prepared to say whatever it took to push him away for good.
Verse 1 says the Jewish delegation arrived five days after Paul was taken to Caesarea. The high priest Ananias made the journey himself, along with “some elders.” These were almost surely Sadducees. The group contained no friendly Pharisees, attracted to Paul by his faith in the resurrection. No the folks from Jerusalem were uniformly hostile.
The final member of the party from Jerusalem was an attorney. Tertullus had a Latin name, but he may have been either a Jew or a Roman. Jews sometimes hired Roman lawyers when they had to deal with Roman law in Roman courts. But as was true for Paul himself, Hellenistic Jews sometimes also had Latin names. In any case, Tertullus knew his business. His words to Procurator Felix in verses 2-8 are full of slick rhetoric and slanted facts, stock in trade for shady lawyers throughout history.
Tertullus’ opening in verse 2 is pure flattery. “Your Excellency, because of you we have long enjoyed peace, and reforms have been made for this people because of your foresight.” The fact is Felix was one of the worst governors the Jews ever had. His term was not peaceful, but filled with bloody revolt and rebellion. But Romans liked to think of themselves as keepers of the peace, so this compliment was calculated to please Felix.
To say Felix brought reforms is even further from the truth. His lack of sympathy for the Jews made life miserable for them. So “Your Excellency” is total baloney, just like the “utmost gratitude” in verse 3. Tertullus was a total kiss-up.
In verse 4, Tertullus offers one more piece of classical flattery about Felix’s “customary graciousness” and promises to speak briefly. It’s all approach and avoidance. As a prosecutor, Tertullus approached Felix because of his power to hand down the desired judgment. But power is dangerous. He needs to flatter and appease the governor to avoid his anger. So he complimented Felix and promised to keep it short.
Finally, in verse 5 the lawyer got down to business. He has approached close enough. Now he brought three charges against Paul. Maybe you’ve played an icebreaker game called “Two truths and a lie.” Write down three things about yourself, two that are true and one that is false. Others have to guess which one is the lie. There in Caesarea Tertullus told two lies and a truth about Paul. Guess which was the truth.
First, Paul is supposed to be “a pestilent fellow, an agitator among all the Jews throughout the world” Second, he was called “a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.” Third, in verse 6, the complaint is “he even tried to profane the temple.”
Which one is true? You might imagine there’s some substance to the first accusation. Riots did seem to follow Paul. People got worked up when he was around. In Thessalonica, in Ephesus, and most recently in Jerusalem, he ended up at the center of an angry mob. But it was still false to picture Paul as a deliberate agitator, especially, as Paul points out later, in Jerusalem’s temple.
The third charge is clearly untrue. As Paul states in his own defense in verse 18, he in no way defiled the temple. He himself was ceremonially clean when he entered it. Contrary to the lie told in chapter 21 by the Asian Jews, he did not take Gentiles into the temple. Paul was totally innocent on that score.
What was totally true was the second claim. Paul was a “ringleader” of the “Nazarenes.” That’s what some Jews called Christians because Jesus came from Nazareth. Paul was the chief spokesperson of the church in the wider Roman world. His influence spread the faith throughout the empire. You might say he wasn’t just a ringleader, but the ringleader of it all. Tertullus was right about that. Verse 9 says the Jewish group from Jerusalem stepped up to corroborate it.
Verses 10 to 21 give us Paul’s defense speech. He was now well prepared. His words are not emotional and excited, but measured and careful. He addresses every point of the charges and states his case precisely. He considers all the legal questions and addresses some of the holes in the indictment brought by the prosecution. As reasonably as possible, Paul stated both his case and his faith.
Rather than flattering Felix, Paul began in verse 10 by simply noting that the governor has been judge over his nation for several years. He was not afraid of Felix. He had no need to back off or kiss up. He did not deny being in Jerusalem nor being a Christian. He only denied deliberately causing any trouble.
Paul made a point in verse 14 about the wording used by Tertullus, calling him a ringleader of the Nazarene sect. “Sect” could be a neutral term for a party within Judaism, like Pharisees or Sadducees. But Christianity was not viewed neutrally. The Greek word “sect” is hairesis, which the church itself later used for departure from correct doctrine, “heresy” in English. So to call Christianity a “sect” was to say they held false beliefs, incorrect doctrines. In other words, Tertullus claimed that Christians were Jewish heretics.
That’s why Paul was so careful to say in verse 14, “this I admit to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our ancestors, believing everything laid down according to the law or written in the prophets.” The Jesus Way was not heresy. They worshipped the same God Jews had always worshipped. And, as he says in verse 15, Paul shared with at least some Jews the same hope, “that there will be a resurrection.”
In modern terms, Tertullus was trying to convince Felix that Paul was a terrorist. During his whole career in Judea, Felix was putting down rebellions. If Paul was yet another terrorist out to overthrow the empire, judgment would be swift and harsh, just as our own government would wish for terrorists. But there was no real basis to detain Paul. As Paul points out in verse 19, his original accusers, the Asian Jews, had not appeared in court. Nothing Paul said was illegal by Roman law. In verse 20, Paul wondered out loud if he were not on trial “about the resurrection of the dead,” a Jewish religious dispute rather than a Roman civil matter. There was no reason to keep him prisoner.
Procurator Felix was between a rock and a hard place. He was thrust into approach-avoidance conflict. Even though his third wife was Jewish, he had no sympathy for the people he governed. When they made trouble, his response was cruel and brutal. At the same time, he was in trouble back in Rome. As we find at the end of this chapter, it will not be long before he was removed for incompetence. So at the same time he despised the Jews, he wanted to appease them and keep the peace.
So verse 22 says that when Felix caught Paul’s drift about the religious nature of the case, he simply adjourned the trial. He knew about the Way, about Christianity. He did not want to antagonize the Jews any further. He would just delay, put off a decision until the arrival of the Roman commander Lysias who first arrested Paul. But Lysias never came.
The last few verses here tell us about the worst conflict for Felix, the great psychological struggle of approach and avoidance he experienced. Felix’s wife Drusilla showed up. The historian Josephus tells us she was exceptionally beautiful. It was Felix’s third marriage, her second. Felix was bewitched by her and stole her from her first husband by promising to make her “happy,” which is what Felix means in Latin.
So in verse 24, with his Jewish wife present, he had motivation to hear more from Paul. What Paul had to say was about “faith in Christ Jesus.” He went on to the practical implications of that faith in verse 25: “righteousness, self-control and the coming judgment.” Those were not subjects guaranteed to please a couple whose very marriage was hardly an example of righteousness or self-control.
Once again then, Felix cut Paul off. He “became frightened,” and said, “Go away for the present; when I have an opportunity, I will send for you.” Approach and then avoidance. Felix got close to the truth for a few moments, then backed off.
Felix had more psychological conflict, another attraction to Paul. Verse 26 tells us he hoped Paul would offer him money, a bribe. Maybe because Paul carried an offering to the poor in Jerusalem, Felix thought he had money. In any case, the governor was attracted enough to Paul to send for him and listen to him “often” for the next two years.
Motivations mixed together in Governor Felix. He wanted to please the Emperor and save his job. Approach the emperor by keeping peace, avoid the axe. So he needed to keep the Jews happy to keep the peace. Approach the Jews by keeping Paul in prison, avoid a riot. But Paul was a Roman citizen and perhaps had money. So approach Paul, but avoid either killing him or letting him go. Paul said interesting things about Jesus, but Christian morality was troubling. Approach faith, avoid accepting it. Back and forth, back and forth, like that chipmunk, trying to stay away from any final decision, any real commitment.
His name may have meant “happy,” yet Felix was anything but. His conflicted soul kept him from embracing the only true happiness there is. He understood the Christian faith. Verse 22 says he was “rather well informed about the Way.” But it scared him. Caught between attraction and fear, he remained undecided until he lost his job.
Approach-avoidance and indecision put many of us where Felix was. We get caught between wanting all the good things we find in Jesus, but then turning from Him for fear of losing other things we want.
- S. Lewis pictures the way he came to Christ the same way. He believed in God, but he wanted a reasonable, comfortable faith, one that would not demand too much. But finally he realized that what God wanted from him was “All.” He writes,
You must picture me alone in that room in Magdalen, night after night, feeling, whenever my mind lifted even for a second from my work, the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet. That which I greatly feared had at last come upon me. In the Trinity Term of 1929 I gave in, and admitted that God was God, and knelt and prayed: perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all England.[1]
Back and forth, back and forth we go. It does not always turn out so well as it did for Lewis. Verse 27 shows Felix still undecided. He kept Paul alive, but left him in jail, still wishing to grant one last favor to the Jews he had antagonized. But their petitions to Rome finally got him removed. Felix went back to face the wrath of emperor Nero. Only the intervention of his brother Pallas saved his head. Nobody really knows about his soul.
Last night we heard Dan McKaughan talk about struggling with doubt, about indecision concerning faith. His example was Mother Teresa, who oriented her whole life to following Jesus and loving others like He loved. Yet inside she went back and forth, back and forth, often finding herself unable to believe. Yet in the end she kept going forward, kept approaching Jesus rather than backing away.
As Christians we must admit that we move both toward and away from Jesus. Grace and forgiveness and the promise of eternal life draw us forward. Yet all the hard parts Paul mentioned to Felix, the need for righteousness and self-control and the threat of judgment can push us away. We like our faith to comfort us, not demand anything of us.
We like to hear someone talk about the Bible, but put off any real study of it for ourselves. We want others to forgive our failings, but are reluctant to forgive theirs. We like the idea that God gave us His Son Jesus. We don’t like the idea that He wants us to give Him anything. Maybe we come to church, but put off the commitment of becoming members. We approach Jesus, but try to avoid all the hard things about Him.
I invite you this morning to consider where and how you might be avoiding Jesus. You may believe in Him or you may be doubting. You may love Him, but you also love things you know He doesn’t want for you. You approach Jesus, but in some ways you pull back. You come to Him, but there are corners of your life where you don’t want Jesus to come.
I tell you and tell myself, if you quit avoiding Him in whatever way you do, you will find you had nothing to fear. Jesus never tries to avoid us. No matter how it seems, He always loves us. As Lewis felt, He is always approaching us. When He came into our world, Jesus held back nothing. He gave up Himself completely on the Cross for you and me. Just so that we could approach Him without fear.
Jesus is approaching you. Don’t remain undecided. Don’t try to put off a commitment to His Way in every part of your life. Jesus is coming to you. So come to Him. If you wander off, like a sheep without a shepherd, come back to Him. Come back again and again. Whatever indecision you may feel, Jesus Christ has already decided He loves you. Trust His love and keep going forward until all your fear melts away.
Amen.
Valley Covenant Church
Eugene/Springfield, Oregon
Copyright © 2018 by Stephen S. Bilynskyj
[1] Surprised by Joy (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., 1955), p. 228f.