Acts 24 "When God is Inconvenient"

I spend a lot of time studying the Bible. I have all the translations, tons of commentaries, books on history and theology—I’m kind of obsessed. Kinda comes with the job. Every week, I’m digging into a text, learning all kinds of things about God and His word. 

So I always tend to be in production mode. Always applying everything to sermons, discipleship lessons, song lyrics, small group discussion, blogs, social media posts. Thinking about how a passage confronts our culture or how it speaks to struggles of people in our church. Which means I can spend forty hours a week handling all these holy things, looking at God’s truth from every angle, and thinking about how desperately other people need to hear it.

I’m constantly tempted to apply the Bible to everyone on the planet except myself.

It’s easy to mistake learning about God for actually submitting to God. I can know things, talk about those things, and still ignore them when it comes to letting those truths tear down my own pride, my own sins, and my own need for repentance. I can be a professional distributor of grace and truth while applying none of it to myself.

I think we all do the same kind of thing. Like when we come to church, hear some interesting point, and immediately apply it to someone else. We think, “Man, I wish my husband was listening to this. I wish my kids were here today.” There’s always someone else who really needs to hear it!

We do that quick glance across the room to see if a certain person is paying attention, wondering if the message is getting through to them. Because, in our minds, they’re the ones who really need it. We’re so quick to diagnose everyone else's spiritual problems, but so painfully slow to realize God’s Word is also pointed straight at us.

I mean, we’re here, we’re in the room. But are we all the way in? Or do we have one foot in the church and one foot in the world—half-in and half-out? Straddling a fence is exhausting, and painful. We like the idea of Jesus and faith and God—but let’s not get crazy—just enough to calm our fear, close enough to give our family a moral compass—but not too close. We hold God at a distance when He starts talking about actual repentance. Actual change. We’re not necessarily arguing with Him—because you know, we agree in principle—but we want to put those things off, wait for a more convenient time to actually deal with Him on our own terms.

We’ve been going through the Book of Acts verse by verse, this morning we pick it up in chapter 24. To understand what’s going on, we have to rewind just a bit to see the sheer insanity of the circumstances that dragged Paul into this courtroom. Paul had been arrested outside the Jerusalem temple after a group of Jews started a full-blown riot, screaming that he was preaching against the Jewish people, the Law, and the temple itself, falsely claiming he snuck non-Jews into the sacred courts. The mob went into such a rage trying to beat Paul to death that the Roman tribune had to march in with armed troops, pry Paul out of their bloody hands, arrest him and put him in chains just to keep him alive.

But the Jewish leaders wouldn’t give up. A group of over forty men swore a blood oath, vowing that they wouldn’t eat food or drink a drop of water until they had murdered Paul. Just lovely guys. When the Roman commander found out about it—because Paul was a Roman citizen, legally protected from being flogged or executed without a trial—the commander ordered a military escort. Two hundred soldiers, seventy horsemen, and two hundred spearmen marched Paul out of Jerusalem and over to Caesarea to stand before Felix, the governor of Judea.

That brings us to Acts chapter twenty-four…

Acts 24:1 says,

“Five days later Ananias, the high priest, arrived with some of the Jewish elders and the lawyer Tertullus, to present their case against Paul to the governor. When Paul was called in, Tertullus presented the charges against Paul in the following address to the governor: ‘You have provided a long period of peace for us Jews and with foresight have enacted reforms for us. For all of this, Your Excellency, we are very grateful to you. But I don’t want to bore you, so please give me your attention for only a moment. We have found this man to be a troublemaker who is constantly stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the cult known as the Nazarenes. Furthermore, he was trying to desecrate the Temple when we arrested him. You can find out the truth of our accusations by examining him yourself.’ Then the other Jews chimed in, declaring that everything Tertullus said was true.”

The prosecuting attorney Tertullus pours on a bunch of flattery, just gross, calling a brutal, hated governor "Your Excellency," this jerk had been anything but peaceful or helpful to the Jews. Then he tries to make Paul look like a walking biohazard stirring up riots everywhere he went. Some kind of cult leader for a crazy group called the Nazarenes. ‘Cause, you know, that’s what Christianity is called, right?

Acts 24:10 says,

“The governor then motioned for Paul to speak. Paul said, ‘I know, sir, that you have been a judge of Jewish affairs for many years, so I gladly present my defense before you. You can quickly discover that I arrived in Jerusalem no more than twelve days ago to worship at the Temple. My accusers never found me arguing with anyone in the Temple, nor stirring up a riot in any synagogue or on the streets of the city. These men cannot prove the things they accuse me of doing. But I admit that I follow the Way, which they call a cult. I worship the God of our ancestors, and I firmly believe the Jewish law and everything written in the prophets. I have the same hope in God that these men have, that he will raise both the righteous and the unrighteous. Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all people. After several years away, I returned to Jerusalem with money to aid my people and to offer sacrifices to God. My accusers saw me in the Temple as I was completing a purification ceremony. There was no crowd around me and no rioting. But some Jews from the province of Asia were there—and THEY ought to be here to bring charges if they have anything against me! Ask these men here what crime the Jewish high council found me guilty of, except for the one time I shouted out, “I am on trial before you today because I believe in the resurrection of the dead!”’”

Paul sets the record straight: he didn’t start a riot, wasn’t even preaching, certainly no desecration of the temple. Just relief money for the poor, taking part in a purification ceremony—he said, “the thing they really hate about me is that I’m a follower of the Way, meaning I believe a crucified rabbi from Nazareth named Jesus came back from the dead.” Get your facts straight, Turtullus, it’s not a cult called the Nazarenes.

Acts 24:22 says,

“At that point Felix, who was quite familiar with the Way, adjourned the hearing and said, ‘Wait until Lysias, the garrison commander, arrives. Then I will decide the case.’ He ordered an officer to keep Paul in custody but to give him some freedom and allow his friends to visit him and take care of his needs. A few days later Felix came back with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish. Sending for Paul, they listened as he told them about faith in Christ Jesus. As he reasoned with them about righteousness and self-control and the coming day of judgment, Felix became frightened. ‘Go away for now,’ he replied. ‘When it is more convenient, I’ll call for you again.’ He also hoped that Paul would bribe him, so he sent for him quite often and talked with him. After two years went by in this way, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus. And because Felix wanted to gain favor with the Jewish people, he left Paul in prison.”

This wasn’t the first time Felix had heard about Jesus; it says he was familiar with the Way. So, he saw through the lies of the Jewish prosecutors. Probably learned all about Christianity from his third wife, Drusilla, who was an actual Jewish princess from the Herod dynasty. He thought his wifey would want to hear what Paul had to say. So he brought her to listen to Paul talk about faith in Jesus—probably expecting an amusing philosophical diversion. They didn’t have good internet service and there was nothing to watch on Netflix.

But Paul doesn't give a polite lecture. He hits them with three harsh realities: righteousness, self-control, and the coming day of judgment.

He holds up the mirror of God's Law and totally freaks Governor Felix out. The judge was suddenly trembling before the prisoner. But instead of repentance and calling on the Lord to save him, Felix puts it off: “Go away. When it is more convenient, I’ll call for you again.” This went on for two years. Two years! Felix would bring Paul in for conversations over and over. Private Bible lessons from the greatest theologian the world has ever known. But hearing never became belief. Just more information and procrastination. It says he kept hoping for a bribe. I think the only thing he really heard from Paul’s testimony was that he brought money with him to Jerusalem. “I mean, if his friends can come up with money, then let’s talk!” But time ran out for ol’ Felix and when his career collapsed, he left Paul in chains for political reasons. “Thanks for all the Bible lessons but you can rot in jail.” Such a jerk move. Worst of all, for Felix, his time to respond to Paul preaching the Gospel had run out, and he remained a prisoner of something more permanent than prison chains.

Felix is like the default setting of our fallen nature.

We think we know all we need to know about Jesus. We have no interest in letting those things interrupt our lives. We pick up some Bible facts, a little theology—we know there’s things God wants us to change but... We only want faith as long as it minds its own business.

The moment God’s Law and His demands press into our actual lives—confronting our lack of obedience, lack of righteousness, pointing out our garbage self-control, and how we’re led around by our emotions and love of sin like the fools that we truly are—we’re so tempted to get defensive. When the mirror of God’s word shows us what we really are and what needs to change. When we’re reminded of the coming judgment—we’re tempted to do the same thing Felix did: Plug our ears, close our eyes, and tell God to come back later. Because for now, we want to keep on hoarding our wealth, holding on to our pathetic illusions of power and independence. We don’t want to change. We want to keep doing our favorite sins—whatever it is that God is telling us to change—we put it off, we procrastinate.

We try to manage the situation instead of confessing our sin. Instead of repenting.

We tell God, “I hear You. I do. I feel really bad about all this. But I’ll do something about it later, when I have more time, when it’s more convenient.” Do we hear how lame this sounds? We open the Bible, it’s plain as day, and God’s Law says, “You are unrighteous, and you need to change.” But we harden our hearts and think to ourselves, “Not now. I’ve got plenty of time. I’ll repent later.”

Procrastinating repentance isn’t a harmless game; it’s an active decision to ignore God and remain in the prison of sitting on our own little plastic thrones. The devil puts a little paper crown on our head and says, “Ah! You look so good!” Every time we feel the weight of God’s Word and hit snooze on repentance and change, our hearts turn a little more into stone—sin gets a little better grip. Felix listened to Paul for two years, and all that truth only hardened him because he treated it like something he could manipulate for his own advantage.

Between Paul and Felix: who do you think was really free? One of them sat on an imperial throne with an army at his back, but was totally enslaved to greed, lust, public approval, and fear of the grave, trembling at the thought of God’s judgment. The other slept in a prison, and stood in iron chains, but his conscience was clean and his soul was secure in Christ—he looked forward to judgment day when Jesus would say, “Well done good and faithful servant, enter the joy of the Lord.” 

Keeping Jesus at arm’s length so we can hold on to our sin doesn’t make us free; it keeps us trapped in a prison of self-destruction.

Now, a lot of preachers at this point in the sermon would hit you with a big, emotionally charged plea to surrender. They’d tell you that what you need to do right now, is you need to rededicate your life to Christ, surrender all, all your bad habits, surrender your plans, try harder, do better, and prove that you’re really serious about following Jesus. They’d try to convince you that you just aren’t trying hard enough. So, with every head bowed and every eye closed!

I mean, that sounds really spiritual, but it isn't the Gospel. And it’s the absolute last thing I want you to take from this sermon today.

Salvation isn’t about you surrendering enough to God so He’ll save you.

This is the Gospel: Jesus already surrendered completely for you. You’re saved entirely by what He already did. He gave it all. Not a single drop of your own effort can add anything to it. You don’t need to add your emotional sincerity, or your moral striving, you can’t add anything to the finished work of the cross. God’s not waiting for a spiritual bribe. He doesn’t need a promise of your future surrender to make you worthy of His love. 

This is so countercultural to the typical church mindset—revival, altar call Christianity. God’s not waiting for you to surrender all so He can finally save you. You’re not the one who surrenders all, Jesus is.

And He didn’t wait for you to be ready before He rescued you. He didn't sit in heaven waiting for you to get your act together. While you were still helpless, while you were actively keeping Him at a distance, while you were still dead in sin, Christ came to you.

He was the only truly righteous Man, the only One who walked in perfect self-control—and He let Himself be tied up and dragged before corrupt politicians. He surrendered His back to the whip and His hands and feet to the spikes. On the cross, Jesus absorbed the full fury of the coming judgment that would have been for you and me. He took the punishment for every compromise, every spiritual procrastination, and every excuse we’ve ever made.

He gave it all. We have to be reminded of this every week. Every day. Because we forget the Gospel and are tempted to look at our own performance for assurance of our salvation. Don’t look to your performance, look to Jesus. Through His sacrifice, He saved you, He justified you—He declared you righteous and covered you with His own holiness. Your eternity isn’t dangling by the thread of your ability to surrender; it’s secured to the historical fact that Jesus rose from the dead, and you have not only the promise of your own bodily resurrection but also eternal life—all as an absolute, free gift. All because He surrendered all, went into the tomb, and on the third day came out of the grave. 

So, today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your heart.

Give up the illusion of your little velvet throne, it’s not freedom, it’s not power. Trust the promises that God’s word has given you. Stop pretending like you're the judge who gets to decide whether what God said is true or not. That’s poison. That’s a trap. 

Apply the truth of God’s promises to yourself. Believe them. Trust them. Do not postpone repentance. “Today when you hear his voice, don’t harden your hearts.” [Hebrews 3:15] Be doers of the word, and not just hearers… if you hear the word and do it you will be blessed. [James 1:22, 25] 

God promises a blessing if we do what He says. I’m not talking about heaven and hell salvation, I’m talking about life in the here and now. How to live your life. Do you really think you know better about how your life works than God does? If He tells you to stop doing something, stop it. If He tells you to do something, you better do it. Not because He’s going to get mad and smack you if you don’t. But because procrastinating what God tells us to do, drags hell into our life now.

We need to look in the mirror of God’s word and let it change how we see ourselves. We need to repent—turn away from sin, and turn toward God, His love, His mercy, His forgiveness—His promises. We need to come before God as forgiven sinners trusting and resting in His grace.

I know how easy it is to read the Bible and apply it to everyone but ourselves. It’s easy to treat Jesus like a topic to be analyzed instead of a Savior to be trusted.

Give your elbows a rest, and the ribs of the people sitting next to you. Instead of looking around, hoping someone else is listening—realize that God didn't just bring all these other people to church today. He brought you. This message is for you.

You’re not going to be saved because you might finally someday surrender to God enough. You are saved because Jesus surrendered Himself completely for you. Your sins are forgiven. He’s the One on the throne, and in His kingdom of grace, the judgment is “not guilty” and prisoners go free. AMEN.

Prayer
Heavenly Father, thank You for speaking Your truth to us and patiently calling us back when our hearts wander. Thank You for sending Your Son, Jesus, who carried our judgment, forgave our sins, and set us free. Thank You that our salvation rests not on our performance, but entirely on Christ’s finished work. Keep our eyes fixed on Him and lead us in the freedom of Your grace. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.