Today’s Passage: Acts 24
It is five days after Paul was brought to Caesarea, and now his accusers arrive: the high priest Ananias, some of the elders, and a hired orator named Tertullus, who lays their case before Governor Felix. He opens with flattery, and then comes to the charges. Paul, he says, is a pestilence, a man who stirs up trouble among the Jews the world over, a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes who even tried to desecrate the temple. When his turn comes, Paul answers not with flattery but with facts, and then with a confession he is glad to make: he worships the God of the fathers according to the Way, he believes everything written in the Law and the Prophets, and he holds the hope of a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked, striving all the while to keep a clear conscience before God and man. Felix knows enough about the Way to know better, and yet he only delays. Later he sends for Paul again, and with his wife Drusilla beside him he listens to him speak of faith in Christ, of righteousness and self-control and the judgment to come, until he grows afraid and sends him away. He keeps Paul in prison two more years, hoping the while for a bribe. Accusation, defense, and delay all belong to one long scene, and through the whole of it one confession holds steady.
This is the same gospel, not a second one. The Way is no break with the God of Israel; it is the worship of the fathers’ God through the risen Messiah, and justification remains, as ever, by faith. And the unfinished wait of two years in a cell does not undo the verdict of Romans 8.
As you read, hold this: I have hope in God that there will be a resurrection.
Context The world of Acts 24
Antonius Felix was a freedman who had risen to power, and he governed Judea with a reputation for harshness and corruption. Luke’s note that he hoped for a bribe fits the man exactly, and it explains why he keeps just enough distance from the Way to delay rather than decide.
Beside him sits Drusilla, a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod Agrippa I and sister of Agrippa II. So it is a Herodian who hears Paul speak of faith in Christ, while that same gospel presses in on her with its words about righteousness and judgment.
Tertullus is a hired rhetorician, and his praise of the “peace” Felix has brought to the province is simply the oil a courtroom runs on. Behind the flattery, though, the charges are aimed with care. “Stirring up dissension” is meant to wake Roman fear of unrest, and “desecrating the temple” is meant to stir Jewish outrage. Paul takes both apart with a plain timeline and the simple fact that the witnesses who could prove such a thing are nowhere in the room.
And then, two years. The long delay is not the failure of the word Paul received in the night, that he would testify in Rome (23:11). It only turns the prison into a long pulpit.
Acts 24:1–9 (BSB)
¹ Five days later the high priest Ananias came down with some elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, who presented to the governor their case against Paul. ² When Paul had been called in, Tertullus opened the prosecution: “Because of you, we have enjoyed a lasting peace, and your foresight has brought improvements to this nation. ³ In every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, we acknowledge this with all gratitude. ⁴ But in order not to delay you any further, I beg your indulgence to hear us briefly. ⁵ We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, ⁶ and he even tried to desecrate the temple; so we seized him. ⁸ By examining him yourself, you will be able to learn the truth about all our charges against him.” ⁹ The Jews concurred, asserting that these charges were true.
It is a procession of power, opened with hired speech and a global smear. The words are chosen to wound: pestilence paints Paul as a disease loose in the world, and ringleader makes him the general of a dangerous faction. The chorus of voices agreeing that it is all true is not the same thing as evidence. Luke lets the flattery and the accusation speak first, so that the clear defense to come will shine all the brighter against them.
Acts 24:10–16 (BSB)
¹⁰ When the governor motioned for Paul to speak, he began his response: “Knowing that you have been a judge over this nation for many years, I gladly make my defense. ¹¹ You can verify for yourself that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship. ¹² Yet my accusers did not find me debating with anyone in the temple or riling up a crowd in the synagogues or in the city. ¹³ Nor can they prove to you any of their charges against me. ¹⁴ I do confess to you, however, that I worship the God of our fathers according to the Way, which they call a sect. I believe everything that is laid down by the Law and written in the Prophets, ¹⁵ and I have the same hope in God that they themselves cherish, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. ¹⁶ In this hope, I strive always to maintain a clear conscience before God and man. Acts 24:15 (BSB) — “and I have the same hope in God that they themselves cherish, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.”
Paul begins with respect but without the oil of flattery. He offers a timeline anyone can check, and he points out that there is no riot for his accusers to cite. Then comes the real confession. The Way, he says, is nothing other than the worship of the fathers’ God; the Law and the Prophets still stand; and the hope he holds is anastasis, pronounced ah-NAH-stah-sis. Strong's G386, resurrection, a standing up again. Paul holds this same hope for the righteous and the wicked alike, the hope Daniel saw when he wrote of the many who sleep in the dust awaking (Daniel 12:2), and the hope Jesus named when He spoke of the hour when all who are in their graves will hear His voice (John 5:28–29). Paul will hang the whole Sanhedrin uproar on it, saying plainly that it is concerning the resurrection of the dead that he stands on trial. This is no side topic. The Christian faith stands or falls with the raising of Jesus and the raising of the dead still to come, for history itself ends in resurrection and judgment. That is why, a few verses on, Felix trembles. , the very hope Israel has always cherished, now pressed to its fulfillment in Christ. People who truly know they will be raised begin to live differently long before that day arrives.
Acts 24:17–23 (BSB)
¹⁷ After several years, then, I returned to Jerusalem to bring alms to my people and to present offerings. ¹⁸ At the time they found me in the temple, I was ceremonially clean and was not inciting a crowd or an uproar. But there are some Jews from the province of Asia ¹⁹ who ought to appear before you and bring charges, if they have anything against me. ²⁰ Otherwise, let these men state for themselves any crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin, ²¹ unless it was this one thing I called out as I stood in their presence: ‘It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.’” ²² Then Felix, who was well informed about the Way, adjourned the hearing and said, “When Lysias the commander comes, I will decide your case.” ²³ He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard, but to allow him some freedom and permit his friends to minister to his needs.
The alms and offerings he brought demolish the story that he is an enemy of his own people. He was found in the temple ceremonially clean, not desecrating it, and the Jews from Asia who might have accused him have failed to appear. The only charge left standing is his hope in the resurrection. Felix knows the Way well enough to know better, and still he chooses to delay. The partial freedom he grants Paul, and the leave he gives his friends to care for him, are real mercies tucked inside a plain injustice.
Acts 24:24–27 (BSB)
²⁴ After several days, Felix returned with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁵ As Paul expounded on righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, Felix became frightened and said, “You may go for now. When I find the time, I will call for you.” ²⁶ At the same time, he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe. So he sent for Paul frequently and talked with him. ²⁷ After two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And wishing to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison.
It is a private audience, but the gospel Paul preaches here is the same one he preaches in the open. Faith in Christ Jesus arrives carrying righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment, for a resurrection that will raise the wicked as well as the righteous lays a moral weight on every life. Felix trembles under it. Then he does what frightened people so often do: he manages the feeling by putting it off, and by hoping a bribe will make it go away. Two years pass. A new governor arrives, and Paul remains bound so that a politician can do the Jews a favor. Yet the Lord who promised him Rome is not late. He is Lord of the waiting as surely as He is Lord of the road, and through it all the hope still stands.
Study notes Going deeper
This hope is an old one, far older than Paul.
"And many who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake, some to everlasting life, but others to shame and everlasting contempt." Daniel 12:2 (BSB)
Paul’s word about resurrection reaches back into roots like these, and the hope it names will one day raise the righteous and the wicked alike.
"Do not be amazed at this, for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and come out—those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment." John 5:28–29 (BSB)
Felix heard that hour coming toward him, and all he could think to ask for was more time.