Category: Acts

As Paul talked about righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.” (Acts 24:25)

Antonius Felix was a horrid fellow. He served as a slave to Antonia, Emperor Claudius’ mother, until she freed him as an adult. His brother, Pallas, helped him find a job and Felix determined from that point forward to make up for every slight, deprivation, and poverty he’d ever experienced. Eventually, he became governor of Judea and his uncontrolled passion led him to steal another man’s wife. The Roman historian Tacitus described him as “a master of cruelty and lust who exercised the powers of a king in the spirit of a slave.”

Paul was tried before Felix about 58AD. It didn’t go well. Though Felix liked to hear Paul speak, he didn’t like his message which involved repeated urgeings to “self-control” and warnings of God’s judgement.

Self-control is an important but often overlooked theme in the New Testament. Paul wrote: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into “strict training.” The “strict training” is that “self-control” theme.

“Self-control,” the effort to discipline oneself is one of the fruit of the Spirit.
Learning and practicing self-control is an important discipline of life. A study by the National Academy of Sciences revealed that “kids who scored low on assessments of self-control as toddlers were more likely to have adult difficulties including health problems, alcohol and drug dependence, financial problems and a criminal record.” Self-control, doing, on our own, what we need to do or what we must do rather than what we want to do or what is easiest to do, is critical to successful living – and equally important in our relationship with God.

Paul’s voyage to Rome is a fitting end to this encouraging book. Despite persecution and opposition, God’s people, executing God’s will, simply cannot be stopped.

Remember Jesus’ arrest and trial. From his healing of the High Priest’s servant (Luke 22:31), to his defiant confrontation and condemnation of those who would arrest him, the Jews who tried him, and Pilate who condemned him, there is no mistake who is in charge of the whole affair: it is Jesus.

Likewise, under the protecting hand of God, Paul has been in charge of his life. He confronts Felix concerning his sins, pointedly corrects Festus, and boldly tries to convert Herod Agrippa II. Despite the fact that he is a prisoner, Paul advises the captain (without success) on his sailing dates, encourages the seamen regarding their future, advises the centurion regarding the activities of the soldiers, and encourages all to eat. After their shipwreck, Paul builds a fire for the survivors, shakes off a viper as if it were nothing, is welcomed into the home of a nearby official and heals the official’s father. By the time they get to Rome, Paul seems fairly free to do as he pleases.

And he does.

Though under house arrest, it is his house, hired with money from . . . where? God has provided. For two years he preaches the word boldly without hindrance.

If Acts was written for a Roman official considering the case of Paul, the message is clear: Be careful what you do to this man (and those like him). The cause he is pressing is of God, and nothing can stop it.

Do you believe that?

Acts 18 ends Paul’s second missionary journey.  It also provides us with some points with which to date the journey.

Luke mentions that the emperor Claudius expelled all the Jews from Rome.  The writer Suetonius mentions this edict and it likely dates from 49-50 A.D.  The date then for Paul’s arrival in Corinth would be after the edict.

Luke also mentions Gallio.  Gallio was the brother of Seneca the Younger who was the tutor of the boy Nero who would become emperor in 54 A.D.  From an inscription at Delphi, we know that Gallio was the proconsul of Achaia in 53 A.D. and he only served one year.  And so, the events of chapter 18 occur about that time.

Chapter 18 also introduces us to an idea that will be dealt with in more detail in chapter 19.  Evidently, there were preachers in the ancient world who knew the teaching and baptism of John the Baptist.  Apollos evidently knew that teaching, and, as far as it went, he knew the correct teaching about Jesus.  But there was something he didn’t know.  Under John’s baptism, people were made ready for Jesus when he came.  Baptised for the forgiveness of sins, they would await the Messiah and when he came, would follow him and eventually, become the first citizens of the Kingdom of God.  It’s why you don’t read of the Apostles being baptized by Jesus again.

But after Jesus came, this baptism would not do.  It was performed in expectation of something that had already happened.

Seems like a small thing, right?  And yet, it was important enough for Priscilla and her husband Aquila to “correct” his teaching to know the way of God more adequately.  If God has spoken specifically about a matter, it’s important for us to know and practice it as He has willed.

Acts 14 opens with the words: “At Iconium, Paul and Barnabas went as usual into the Jewish synagogue.”

Why?

Didn’t they know they were just going to stir up trouble? That had certainly been their experience up to now. So why do it?

Because these people would be the best for constituting the Church in a new area. They worshiped the same God. They read the same scripture. They practiced the same moral ethic. All they needed was to become Christians.

But if they worshiped the same God, read the same scripture, and practiced the same moral ethic, weren’t they already Christians?

Evidently not. What was needed was a profession of faith in Jesus as the son of God, a submission to Jesus, his lifestyle and teaching, and a uniting with Jesus through baptism. To be a Christian, those things are still needed today, and our best prospects for bringing people to Christ are those who may already be near, just not there.

Prejudice is difficult to overcome, and some prejudice is always with us.

The Jewish Christians of the Jerusalem church had grown up believing they – Jews – were God’s chosen people. Their prejudice was that only Jews could be Christians. As you move through the New Testament story, that prejudice dies hard. Actually, in the early church, it never really died at all.

When Peter returned to Jerusalem he was accosted by Christians who challenged his faithfulness because he went into the home of a gentile and ate with them. Peter had violated Jewish custom.

In Acts 11 Peter relates the story of Cornelius and it is the third time we’ve read it in two chapters. His point then was that God had opened the door for all people to become Christians no matter their race. The church certainly seemed to accept it (verse 18), but as we will see in chapter 15, accepting it mentally is one thing. Accepting it in your heart is another.

Our prejudices are conditioned by our experiences and influences and customs also play a large role. We can’t keep our prejudices from coming to the forefront of our lives, but we can learn to recognize them and we should ask ourselves if these prejudices keep us from doing the will of God (as they obviously kept the Jerusalem church from being evangelistic). We can also ask ourselves if they keep us from living like Jesus. An affirmative answer to either of these questions makes getting rid of that prejudice a requirement of (and for) salvation.

Chapter twenty-six is the longest defense of Paul’s life in this book.

His hearers are not nobodies. Herod Agrippa (the second) is the son of the Herod Agrippa who put James to death and tried to kill Peter. He is the great-grandson of the Herod who killed the little babies when Jesus was born. Festus was the Roman governor. Bernice was Herod Agrippa II’s sister, and if you get the feeling there was something untoward in their relationship, you’d probably be right for the rumor mill in their own time operated at full tilt about their affair.

Paul is not a nobody. All of his accusers know that Paul was once one of them – and doctrinally, still is. Paul is on trial because he believes in the resurrection of the dead – specifically, Jesus’ resurrection. All of his accusers know that Paul was an ardent persecutor of Christianity.

But something changed him, and he relates the cause of the change in his speech.

Festus is a newcomer to Palestine and knows nothing of these matters, but Paul knows Agrippa knows about them all, and he appeals to Agrippa’s belief in the Jewish faith.

Paul’s tact, and you should not miss it, is to essentially ask Agrippa: “How good a Jew are you?” Agrippa wants to answer “A good one!” But if he does, he must embrace Paul’s faith. That is the argument Paul uses. Rather than an answer Paul, Agrippa skirts the issue, knowing where Paul is leading, but proclaiming instead Paul’s innocence.

But Paul is not to go free. The story is not about Paul. It is about God, and it is God’s will that Paul go to Rome – on the emperor’s dime.

The high degree of Christian ethics is highlighted in chapter twenty-three, especially when compared with the duplicity of the Jews in the next chapter.

Paul, before the Sanhedrin (who knows him well) asserts that he has fulfilled his duty to God in all good conscience.

Such an assertion is too much for the high priest, Ananias, who orders Paul to be hit on the mouth.

Paul reprimands him for this act of injustice and calls him a hypocrite (a “white-washed wall”).

Then Paul is reprimanded for insulting the high priest, at which point Paul apologized. He didn’t know he was the high priest.

Why not?

We simply don’t know. Perhaps Paul had been away so long from Jerusalem he did not know who the high priest was. Perhaps Paul knew, but was making a comment regarding the unfitness of Ananias to be high priest. After all, it was to have been a hereditary office yet Ananias had been appointed by Herod of Chalcis, the brother of Herod Agrippa I (who put James to death in Acts 12). Herod of Chalcis was such a cruel and despicable fellow that he had been sent to Rome a few years before to give an accounting of himself to Caesar. He has been called one of the most unworthy men to hold the office of high priest.

Worthy or not, however, he was the high priest and Paul had insulted him. So, Paul apologized and when he does, Luke points out that while the high priest may not have been a close observer of the Law, Paul was.

Whether other people do what is right or not, whether they are ethical people or not, is irrelevant to our own behavior. We must not be guilty of breaking the law: neither God’s nor the law of the land.

As you read chapter twenty-one, you will see numerous echoes of Jesus’ life. It would be going too far to equate Paul with Jesus, but it is within the purpose of the book to show that Jesus’ disciples followed in Jesus’ footsteps.

Thus we see Paul anxious to go to Jerusalem (compare Luke 9:51 with Acts 20:16), just as Jesus was. Paul is determined to go there despite the fact that prison and hardships await him (compare Luke 13:33 with Acts 20:23), just as Jesus knew that death awaited him there. The hardships awaiting them were both according to the will of God (Luke 24:45ff and Acts 21:14). Paul’s experience in the temple mirrors that of Jesus: he is falsely accused and convicted by rumor. Through it all, the reader understands that like Jesus, Paul was innocent.

Chapter twenty-one illustrates well the tight-rope leadership sometimes has to walk. Paul arrived with a large contribution for the relief of the Jerusalem church. Neither Luke nor the leadership of the church mention it. Something more momentous is afoot. The rumor is the Paul tells Jews they don’t have to obey the law nor adhere to Jewish customs. This was untrue, of course. Paul had even taken a vow according to Jewish law (Acts 18:18). What Paul had taught was that keeping Jewish customs did not merit the blessing of God. But folks tend to believe what they want to believe regardless of the facts.

The Elders ask Paul to undergo purification rites (he had, after all, been in gentile territory) and pay for the vows of four men. The cost was considerable and Paul is being asked to foot the bill. The whole purpose was to scotch the chance of trouble in the church. Paul, to his credit, realized that such needed to be done for the sake of unity. Unfortunately, things went down hill from there.

Did the Elders and Paul do right? Absolutely. Paul could have asserted his freedom not to do it, but Paul was not in bondage to his freedom. He had written just a few years before: “19 Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible” (1 Corinthians 9:19). Sometimes we have to take a step back as individuals so we can go forward together as the people of God.