Our story today is a legal drama with a spiritual subplot: a Christian accused of capital crimes, on trial for his life before a magistrate who does not know Jesus, but does know about Jesus, and is more than a little intrigued with Jesus. It will turn out the subplot is the whole reason for telling the story.

This is the account of how a sinner named “Happy” messed around with the Savior and found out there is no real and lasting happiness outside of a real relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is the tale of a sinner who heard the gospel, and was moved by the gospel, but never actually accepted the gospel, and therefore—as far as we know—never met Jesus and is so in hell right now.

Today we find the Apostle Paul on trial again. He is no longer in Jerusalem. You might remember from last week that he has travelled to a city called Caesarea Maritima, the administrative center of the Roman province of Judea. Built by Herod the Great around 15 BC and named after his patron the Roman emperor Augustus Caesar, it was the richest, most opulent city on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. It was the imperial seat for Pontius Pilate in Jesus’ day, and saw a succession of Roman governors over the years until Paul’s trip there.

The current governor of the province of Judea was Marcus Antonius Felix. He was Greek, a former slave who had gained his freedom and found ways to rise rapidly in the Roman social structure. “Felix” is Latin for “happy” or “fortunate.” It’s quite likely he gained that name because of his meteoric rise in the world, from slave to high Roman official. The Roman historian Tacitus describes him as an audacious, corrupt, and brutal self-made man. The Jewish historian Josephus recounts that, when Felix saw the legendary beauty of young Drusilla, granddaughter of Herod the Great, daughter of Herod Agrippa I, sister of Herod Agrippa II, he quickly made a play for her. He divorced his wife, and used his own looks, charm, skill, forcefulness, and powerful imperial office to convince the young woman to leave her husband for him. She had just been married off to an Arab king named Azizus of Emesa, who had actually converted to Judaism to marry her. She divorced the Arab after only a year or so of marriage and married the Roman instead. Apparently she was as much an aggressive and ruthless social climber as Felix was. She will appear at Felix’s side in our reading today. This event took place in AD 53 or 54, when Drusilla was at the ripe age of 21 or 22, stunningly beautiful and startlingly corrupt. Apparently she and Felix were quite a pair.

There is much that the Lord wants to tell us today about sin, corruption, evangelism, conviction, conversion, and eternity. Let’s stand together out of reverence for the Word of God.

Acts 24

¹ And after five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a spokesman, one Tertullus. They laid before the governor their case against Paul. ² And when he had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying:

“Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation, ³ in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. ⁴ But, to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly. ⁵ For we have found this man a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. ⁶ He even tried to profane the temple, but we seized him. ⁸ By examining him yourself you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him.” ⁹ The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so.

¹⁰ And when the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied: “Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. ¹¹ You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, ¹² and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. ¹³ Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. ¹⁴ But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, ¹⁵ having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. ¹⁶ So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. ¹⁷ Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. ¹⁸ While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from Asia— ¹⁹ they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation, should they have anything against me. ²⁰ Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, ²¹ other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them: ‘It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day.’”

²² But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, “When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case.” ²³ Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs.

²⁴ After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁵ And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” ²⁶ At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him. ²⁷ When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.

There are three confrontations we need to give our attention to today.

ONE The legal confrontation

This is the confrontation between Paul and his accusers from Jerusalem. This is a classic courtroom scene, with both a prosecution and a defense. Not surprisingly, the Great Sanhedrin, the ruling authorities back in Jerusalem, have hired a professional prosecutor. That’s kind of backward from how we do things in America. Our prosecutors are employees of the government while all the best defense attorneys are professionals hired privately by rich defendants.  But it was quite a different world back then.  As you might expect, Paul will be representing himself in this trial.

First, consider

The prosecution (vv1-9)

Two important names here are Ananias the high priest, whom we’ve already met, and Tertullus, the man Luke calls the “spokesman” in v 1. He’s the prosecutor. Listen to how he tries to flatter Felix in vv 2-4:

² … “Since through you we enjoy much peace, and since by your foresight, most excellent Felix, reforms are being made for this nation, ³ in every way and everywhere we accept this with all gratitude. ⁴ But, to detain you no further, I beg you in your kindness to hear us briefly.

Apparently Tertullus expects this Roman official to be a powerful and narcissistic man, susceptible to being easily manipulated by flattery and bluster. Felix will turn out to be more wily than that. Tertullus goes on:

 ⁵ For we have found this man (Paul) a plague, one who stirs up riots among all the Jews throughout the world and is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. 

(This is pretty much true, so far as it goes, wouldn’t you say?)

⁶ He even tried to profane the temple, (completely inaccurate, if you remember from ch 21) but we seized him. ⁸ By examining him yourself you will be able to find out from him about everything of which we accuse him.” ⁹ The Jews also joined in the charge, affirming that all these things were so.

And so the prosecution rests. Then comes

The defense

Listen as Paul speaks to Felix.

¹⁰ And when the governor had nodded to him to speak, Paul replied:

“Knowing that for many years you have been a judge over this nation, I cheerfully make my defense. ¹¹ You can verify that it is not more than twelve days since I went up to worship in Jerusalem, ¹² and they did not find me disputing with anyone or stirring up a crowd, either in the temple or in the synagogues or in the city. ¹³ Neither can they prove to you what they now bring up against me. ¹⁴ But this I confess to you, that according to the Way, which they call a sect, I worship the God of our fathers, believing everything laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, ¹⁵ having a hope in God, which these men themselves accept, that there will be a resurrection of both the just and the unjust. ¹⁶ So I always take pains to have a clear conscience toward both God and man. ¹⁷ Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings. ¹⁸ While I was doing this, they found me purified in the temple, without any crowd or tumult. But some Jews from Asia— ¹⁹ they ought to be here before you and to make an accusation, should they have anything against me. ²⁰ Or else let these men themselves say what wrongdoing they found when I stood before the council, ²¹ other than this one thing that I cried out while standing among them: ‘It is with respect to the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you this day.’”

Now if you have read chapters 23 and 24 of the book of Acts, or if you have been paying attention around here for the past few sermons, then you know that what Paul is saying is completely true. His accusers have nothing substantial that they can pin on him. Even the accusations that the Sadducees had against him amounted to nothing more than just that he was a Pharisee. He believed in the resurrection of the body, just like all Pharisees did—and just like Jesus.

So the legal confrontation comes down to just a dud. There is no case. But as we’ve said, the courtroom drama is really not what this story is all about. It’s about the gospel drama. So let’s go on.

TWO The gospel confrontation

Watch this:

²² But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the Way, put them off, saying, “When Lysias the tribune comes down, I will decide your case.” ²³ Then he gave orders to the centurion that he should be kept in custody but have some liberty, and that none of his friends should be prevented from attending to his needs. ²⁴ After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁵ And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” 

Felix is married to a Jewish princess who grew up surrounded by all the virtues and vicissitudes of Jewish culture in the ancient heart of Jewry—first-century Judea . She has a thorough familiarity with the conflict between Sadducees and Pharisees, and she’s well able to inform her husband about all the details of that kerfuffle. She was also perfectly capable of telling Felix a great deal about this Messianic movement who call themselves the Way—followers of a wandering prophet who got himself crucified during the reign of Pontius Pilate a couple of decades earlier. She would have been able to tell Felix that Jesus had believed most of the same things that the Pharisees did, but condemned the Pharisees for their hypocrisy and for adding their traditions to the written Word of God, so was violently rejected by both the Pharisees and the Sadducees and turned over to Pilate to be crucified.

So Paul and the Christians were, just like their Lord Jesus, almost Pharisees; Paul had actually been trained as a Pharisee. But Paul and the other Christians believed something about the resurrection that the Pharisees didn’t. The Pharisees believed that the resurrection was simply the general Resurrection at the end of the age, when the God will separate the righteous from the wicked and send them all to their appropriate destinations. Like Jesus, Paul and the other Christians believed in the resurrection in that sense. But they also believed in something more. They believed that the resurrection had already begun. Jesus had risen from the dead. The Christians referred to their Lord as the firstborn from the dead. Jesus was the down payment that guaranteed that all of God’s people would rise from the dead at the end of time. On top of that, Jesus claimed that he himself would be both the criterion by which judgment will be rendered, and the Magistrate who will be deciding the final verdicts. He will be the one on the throne. That’s why the Pharisees had no problems convincing the Romans to do away with him.

When Paul stood before Felix’s judgment seat in Caesarea, Paul testified that the governor would end up standing before Jesus’s judgment seat at the end of time. Actually Paul would eventually stand trial in Rome before the judgment seat of Caesar Nero himself. On that day, he would preach the same gospel and pronounce the same verdicts. Not very long after that Nero would give the order for Paul’s head to be removed from his body.

That was 2,000 years ago. Today men name their sons Paul, their cats Felix, and their dogs Nero. You might want to take that one home and think about it for a while. [[ ]]

So those were the legal details behind the trial. But I hope you see that the legal details were nothing other than the gospel itself. Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, the king of Israel, the Lord of the nations, and the Son of God. The Jewish leadership of his day pressured the Romans of his day into crucifying him, and in so doing did nothing other than what God had planned all along: the sacrifice of a sinless substitute for the salvation of the world. Three days after that he rose from the grave and glory, and 40 days after that ascended to his father’s right hand, where he sits to rule and from whence he will return to judge the living and the dead. That’s the gospel That was preached by the followers of the Way. Here it was again, square in Felix’s face. And here it is today, square in your face and mine. That was the gospel confrontation.

THREE The Holy Spirit confrontation

In many ways this is both the most interesting and the most tragic confrontation in the story. This is where the Holy Spirit begins to take the gospel and drill it down into Felix’s consciousness, and it clearly begins to mess with him. This is where this corrupt, immoral, cruel sinner Felix could have gotten saved. We’ll see soon enough that all he ever does is mess around with the Messiah. Let’s try to notice three things about him together quickly.

First of all, he was

A curious sinner

²⁴ After some days Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was Jewish, and he sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. 

I hope you notice that this is no longer the trial. This is Felix wanting to hear more about what this insane man, or insanely fascinating man, actually believes. He is no longer just doing his job as the Roman magistrate. This is to satisfy something inside of Felix. He has learned enough from Drusilla that he knows that he wants to know more. He has asked Paul to speak more about faith in Christ Jesus, and now he’s listening intently. Something was going on in this sinner.

I hope you know that there is a movement afoot in America and the world today that is drawing plenty of people to find out more about Jesus and faith in him. It began a couple years ago as more and more people became aware all the lies that The dominant voices in our culture have been telling us about almost everything. It reached a breaking point a couple of weeks ago with the assassination of Charlie Kirk and the radically divergent ways different people reacted. You could argue that the dam actually bursts one week ago with the memorial service for Charlie in Arizona. It has been estimated that over 100 million people worldwide watched that live and heard the gospel preached clearly by several speakers. I have heard it said that since then something like 200 million more have watched it on YouTube. It’s being called the largest gospel event in human history. And really that’s only the tip of the iceberg. There are numerous data points indicating a renewed fascination with Jesus Christ worldwide. Hallelujah! Watch for the opportunities God will give you in coming weeks to point people to Jesus.

Felix was fascinated with Paul and the Jesus Paul preached. He was interested and curious and listening. Now let’s see what happens next.

Felix was not just a curious sinner. He was also

A serious sinner

²⁵ And as he reasoned about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, Felix was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” 

He heard Paul talk talking about righteousness and self-control and the coming judgment, and he got alarmed. History tells us that Felix was a wildly unrighteous man who showed shockingly little self-control except when it’s served his own lust for pleasure and power and prestige. If he had even a little bit of honest self-awareness as he heard Paul preach, he would have known that he was square in the crosshairs of the judgment that was coming. That’s why he was alarmed. He should have been.

By the way, so should you. The Bible says that there is none righteous, no, not one (Romans 3:10). There is no one who truly seeks after God (Romans 3:11). All have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). And the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). If the Lord Jesus Christ has not wrapped you up in his perfect righteousness, you should be alarmed. Felix was certainly right to be alarmed. He should have taken this seriously, and at least for a while, it seems he did. In fact, he brought Paul back to talk with him repeatedly. This was not just a one-off absorption. It was a serious and ongoing interest.

But there’s a third fact we ought to notice about Felix. He was not just a curious sinner and a serious sinner. He was also

A covetous sinner

Felix had an ulterior motive for talking with Paul. Both Tacitus and Josephus tell us that Felix was notorious for seeking and accepting bribes. He was a very corrupt politician. Along with his interest in the gospel Paul was preaching, his well-known greed remained constantly at work.

²⁶ At the same time he hoped that money would be given him by Paul. So he sent for him often and conversed with him. 

Does it startle you that somebody could be in the grips of both conviction from the Holy Spirit and the covetousness of his own sin nature at the same time? Don’t be surprised. Jeremiah tells us that the heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Our Lord Jesus himself warns us constantly of the dangers of self-deception. Speaking of the warnings Jesus gave us, do you remember the 3rd soil in the parable of the sower?

Matthew 13 ¹⁸ “Hear then the parable of the sower: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. ²⁰ As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, ²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. ²² As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 

Felix was a curious sinner and he was a serious sinner who seemed like he was on his way to being a saved sinner. But he was a covetous sinner, and in the end his greed choked out the word of the gospel in his heart. Let the one who has ears to hear, hear the warning in these words.

Felix almost got saved. But he didn’t. Look with me:

²⁷ When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.

The Roman historian Tacitus tells us that Felix was recalled to Rome in AD 60 and put on trial for corruption and cruelty in the exercise of his office. Apparently, he was declared innocent, not because he was innocent, but because he had friends who pulled strings for him. After that there is no record of how he lived out the rest of his life.

Felix had three wives during his life, one of whom was Drusilla. Remember she was the daughter of Herod Agrippa I. Felix Andrew Cilla had one child, a son. His name was Marcus Antonius Agrippa. He actually died in Pompeii in the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79. Depending on how we should be translating the Greek Drusilla may have been there with her son in the conflagration. Perhaps their bodies are among the many McCabe remains that are even now still being dug up by archaeologists in Pompeii as they document the tragedy. Sadly, we have no reason to think that Felix has not been experiencing a similar fiery fate for the last 2000 years. No one would call him happy or fortunate today. He was confronted by the gospel and the conviction of the Holy Spirit as he heard the gospel repeatedly proclaimed and explained in private one-on-one meetings with none other than the apostle Paul. He is without excuse.

Of course, none of us has an excuse, either. We have heard the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed and explained. When we stand to be judged on the last day we will have no excuse if we have not believed and received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. I have received him as my Lord. Have you?