Felix was not noble at all. Tacitus says of him that "in the practice of all kinds of lust, crime, and cruelty, he exercised the power of a king with the temper of a slave." Tertullus had an end to gain, and adopted flattery as a means. He was a hired pleader, and selected for the sake of his glib eloquence. He could talk well. Men of his class were found in most of the provincial towns of the Roman empire, They were necessary because the local lawyers would not be sufficiently familiar with the proceedings at the Roman courts, or with the minute details of Roman law. Tertullus had "learned the trick of his class, and began with propitiating the judge by flattery." Canon Farrar says, "Tertullus was evidently a practiced speaker, and St. Luke has faithfully preserved an outline of his voluble plausibility. Speaking with polite
complaisance, as though he were himself a Jew, he began by a fulsome compliment to Felix, which served as the usual
captatio benevolentiae. Alluding to the early exertions of Felix against the banditti, and the recent suppression of the Egyptian false Messiah, he began to assure his
excellency, with truly legal rotundity of verbiage, of the quite universal and uninterrupted gratitude of the Jews for the peace which he had
secured to them, and for the many reforms which had been initiated by his prudential wisdom." The subject suggested for our consideration is this - What are the limits of praise? How far may we go in conciliating others by words of approval and congratulation? At
once it may be answered that no praise may go beyond the truth or be out of harmony with the truth. But in practical life we
have to remember that different persons have different estimates of personal character.
1. Some are incompetent to form sound judgment, and such persons give praise that is simply unsuitable, but is not spoken with any purpose of flattering.
2. Others are prejudiced, and can only see the evil sides of a man's character and actions. Their estimates are wholly unworthy.
3. Others are just as blind to the evil and as prejudiced to the good, and their estimates, though seemingly flattering, are really only exaggerated and untrustworthy; they lack criticism, but are not insincere.
4. Yet others praise with some object which does not appear; they have an end to gain, and the praise is regarded simply as a means towards obtaining the end. These are the flatterers, and their characteristic is insincerity. The following points may be illustrated concerning the power of the flatterer:-
I. HIS MOTIVES. Always some personal end is in view. Usually the flatterer seeks to get something that is not in itself right. It is an agency to use when a man's case is bad. If a man lacks arguments, he will flatter the judge. He means to throw him off his guard, and to get him into a favorable mind by praises.
II. HIS AIDS IN THE PERSON FLATTERED. There is in us all, even in the best of men, a self-love that makes praise pleasant. If the flattery is kept well in hand and skillfully disguised, even noble natures, even humble natures, may be swayed by it. If the flattery is too open and intense, good men are put on their guard and resent the insult.
III. THE MORAL MISCHIEF OF HIS WORK. Show the injury that is done to the flatterer himself, who is confirmed in his insincerity when he finds flattery succeed. A man may get into such a habit of flattering that he will lose the power to recognize the truth, and come to believe in his own exaggerations. Show the injury that is done to the person flattered, who may be led to form an undue estimate of himself, and so be placed in positions of extreme moral peril when the hour of temptation comes. If it is wrong for us to think of ourselves above that which we ought to think, it must be wholly wrong for any one to flatter us so that our self-opinion is unduly raised. Felix was really pushed a little nearer to his fall by. this flattery of Tertullus. For Scripture teachings concerning flattery, see Psalm 36:2; Psalm 78:36; Proverbs 2:16; Proverbs 20:19; Proverbs 26:28; Proverbs 29:5, etc. Press the apostolic counsel, "Speak every man truth with his neighbor: for we are members one of another" (Ephesians 4:25). - R.T.
He hoped also that money should have been given him.
It is a wonderful characteristic of the Bible that all its characters are still with us. The men of the Bible were types.
I. FELIX WAS SATED WITH FLATTERY; no man dare say one critical word to Felix. Are there not men whose minds are narrowed and perverted by always living in the sickly atmosphere of adultation? I am distinguishing in my own mind between just appreciation and foolish idolatry — between the praise which is due to character and the hypocrisy which is offered to mere position.
II. FELIX WAS INTERESTED IN RELIGIOUS DISCUSSIONS. That Felix is still alive — the bad man who likes to go to church once a day, who likes to spice his life with religious metaphysics and controversies. Who can explain it that a man, whose life is wholly given to the earth, should, now and again, desire to hear a prayer, listen to a discourse, and have his "views"? What a contradiction is man!
III. FELIX LIVED IN SIN: he did not dabble in it, he was no retail criminal, yet he sent for an apostle to speak "concerning the faith in Christ." It is not only possible, it is the daily use of men. Herein we are to some extent all in the same condemnation. Only yesterday we shattered every commandment of Heaven, and today we are — outwardly at least — standing at heaven's gate! There is hope in. this contradiction. Do not let us take wholly the black view of it. We can look at the sin until we see Felix turning into a devil; or we can look at him, sending for Paul, until we see spots of whiteness even on the black disc of his character.
IV. FELIX WAS MORALLY IMPRESSIBLE. He trembled. Then there is hope of him. Are there not such men amongst us who never hear a sermon without weeping, men. who like it the more when it wrings their conscience and turns them white with fear? There is a possibility of becoming too familiar with that kind of emotion, of measuring services by its presence. Marvellous that we like to be vivisected We call the preacher faithful, and, having paid him the compliment, we go to repeat the sin he has rebuked.
V. FELIX WAS OPEN TO BRIBERY AMIDST ALL THIS CONFLICT OF EMOTION. He, perhaps, did not know that it was criminal, as we understand that term. Men become accustomed to crime until they repeat it as a kind of virtue. It is the custom of the trade; it is always expected that it should be so. We do not always take the bribe in the form of money, and if the act were isolated, we could detest it. Paul was often sent for, but Paul never suspected the design. Evil be to him who evil thinks. Paul might receive the invitations as expressive of a real desire to know more about these religious mysteries.
VI. FELIX WAS KIND TO PREACHERS (ver. 23). Some of the most generous friends I have ever had have been men who made no profession of religion and who yet liked to come to church, and who loved the preacher with even a fond affectionateness. Herein the preacher has an infinite advantage over other men.
VII. FELIX WAS PROCRASTINATING (ver. 25). It was not a rude dismissal; there was a longing for the very whip that scourged him. The procrastinating man is in every Church. He dose not mean to give it up; he says, "I will return in the evening." Conclusion: In Felix I see that double action which is so characteristic of every man, which excites the observer, and indeed, excites the subject himself. Sometimes the good is uppermost, and then the bad, and then again the good; and we say, looking on, "Which will win?" Let us this day, in God's strength, so act as to give joy in the presence of the angels of God over many a sinner that repenteth. Left to ourselves, the struggle can only go one way; aided by Christ, it is still a struggle, but a struggle that must end in victory.
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Scientific Illustrations.
You would not think a man who had held high office in the State for long years would descend to mean and paltry tricks to obtain still more power. But he will. You would not believe that a vast capitalist would go out of his way to grab at the farthing which the rough hand of toil is endeavouring to hold. But he does. Power is avaricious alike in birds and men. The more the man has the more he wants. These men. who thus display the avarice of power are the white-headed eagles of society. During spring and summer the white-headed eagle follows a course to procure sustenance which you would judge very little suited to a bird as well able to supply itself without interfering with other plunderers. No sooner does the fish hawk make its appearance along the Atlantic shore, or ascend the numerous and large rivers, than the eagle follows it, and robs it of the hard-earned fruits of its labour. Perched on some tall summit in view of the ocean, or of some water course, he watches every movement of the osprey while on the wing. When the latter rises from the water with a fish in its grasp forth rushes the eagle in pursuit. He mounts above the fish hawk and threatens it by actions well understood, when the latter, fearing, perhaps, that its life is in danger, drops its prey. In an instant the eagle, accurately estimating the rapid descent of the fish, closes its wings, follows it with the swiftness of thought, and the next moment grasps it. The white-headed eagles of society pursue their course with equal disgrace to themselves; and their method is not more exalted. They take advantage of their strength, and the great elevation to which fortune has raised them, for the greedy purpose of discovering the movements of those who are below them, the better to rob the more humble of even the little they possess.
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Scientific Illustrations.
Though selfish kindness is a paradox, its existence is a reality. There are people who are really kind towards us and others, but are so from no creditable motive. Father Ripa, in the account of his sojourn near the mouth of the Ganges, tells us of a set of religionists who are very kind to all sorts of animals and insects, which they neither kill nor eat, but, on the contrary, tend them with great care. Indeed to such a pitch do they carry their kindness, that they have hospitals for lice and fleas, and pay liberally by the hour those who will allow the insects to feed on their blood. They are also most kind to sheep and cows. And why all this? Not because they possess disinterested kindness, but because they believe in the transmigration of souls, and that after death they will pass into the body of some animal more or less offensive according to the good or evil actions of their past life. And further, because they believe after death that a great river must be passed which can only be done by holding on fast to the tail of the sheep or cow. So that in this, as in a number of other instances to be met with in civilised society, there is really a complete absence of real unselfishness in the act, which, however, may be kind enough in its way. Here we have the expectation of some future advantage as the actual basis of the act. Numbers of deeds which pass for genuine kindness are the result of a complex mixture of motives, amongst which pure charity is not found. Where is the kindness which lends, which does, and which gives, expecting nothing as reward in return either in this world or the other?
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Biblical Museum.
A poor man in Smyrna claimed a house which a rich man usurped. The former held his deeds to prove his rights; the latter provided witnesses to invalidate his title, whose testimony he sought to support effectually by a present of five hundred ducats. When the day arrived for hearing the case, the poor man told his story, and produced his writings, but could not bring witnesses; the other rested the whole case on his witnesses, and on his adversary's defect who could produce none. He urged the Cadi, therefore, to give sentence in his favour. Whereupon the judge calmly drew from under his sofa the bag of ducats, saying very gravely, "You have been much mistaken in the suit, for if the poor man can produce no witnesses in confirmation of his right, I can produce five hundred." He then threw away the bag with indignation, and decreed the house to the poor plaintiff. Such was the noble decision of the Turkish judge, whose disinterestedness was the reverse of the unjust time-serving Felix.
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But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix's room
or the painful yet blessed resting and waiting times of the servants of God. Compare Joseph in prison, Moses in the wilderness, David in the mountains, Elijah at the brook Cherith, John the Baptist in prison, John the Evangelist in Patmos, Luther at Wartburg, faithful preachers in sick beds.
I. PAINFUL —
1. To the servant of God whose hands are bound.
2. For the congregations of the Lord who are deprived of their pastors.
II. BLESSED —
1. For the servant of God.
(1)For quiet consideration.(2)Deeper purification.2. For the Church.
(1)For the increase of its strength.(2)Its grateful estimation of the grace bestowed by God by means of faithful teachers.(3)Its earnest continuance is prayer for pastors and flocks.().
People
Ananias,
Drusilla,
Felix,
Festus,
Paul,
TertullusPlaces
Asia,
Caesarea,
JerusalemTopics
Accept, Acknowledge, Always, Conscious, Debt, Everywhere, Excellent, Felix, Gratitude, Instance, Noble, Places, Profound, Receive, ThankfulnessOutline
1. Paul being accused by Tertullus the orator,10. answers for his life and doctrine.24. He preaches Christ to the governor and his wife.26. The governor hopes for a bribe, but in vain.27. Felix, succeeded by Festus, leaves Paul in prison.Dictionary of Bible Themes
Acts 24:1-9 5201 accusation
7505 Jews, the
Acts 24:1-23
5593 trial
Library
Paul and Felix
ACTS xxiv. 25. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. This is a well-known text, on which many a sermon has been preached, and with good reason, for it is an important text. It tells us of a man who, like too many men in all times, trembled when he heard the truth about his wicked life, but did not therefore repent and mend; and a very serious lesson we may …
Charles Kingsley—Discipline and Other SermonsFelix Before Paul
A Sermon to the Young 'And as Paul reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.' --ACTS xxiv. 25. Felix and his brother had been favourite slaves of the Emperor, and so had won great power at court. At the date of this incident he had been for some five or six years the procurator of the Roman province of Judaea; and how he used his power the historian Tacitus tells us …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts
Paul Before Felix
'Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned unto him to speak, answered, Forasmuch as I know that thou hast been of many years a judge unto this nation, I do the more cheerfully answer for myself: 11. Because that thou mayest understand, that there are yet but twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem for to worship. 12. And they neither found me in the temple disputing with any man, neither raising up the people, neither in the synagogues, nor in the city: 13. Neither can they prove the things …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts
A Loyal Tribute
[Footnote: Preached on the occasion of the Jubilee of Queen Victoria.] '...Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence, 3. We accept it always ... with all thankfulness.'--ACTS xxiv. 2-3. These words were addressed by a professional flatterer to one of the worst of the many bad Roman governors of Syria. The speaker knew that he was lying, the listeners knew that the eulogium was undeserved; and among all the crowd of bystanders …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts
The Resurrection of the Dead
There are very few Christians who believe the resurrection of the dead. You may be surprised to hear that, but I should not wonder if I discovered that you yourself have doubts on the subject. By the resurrection of the dead is meant something very different from the immortality of the soul: that, every Christian believes, and therein is only on a level with the heathen, who believes it too. The light of nature is sufficient to tell us that the soul is immortal, so that the infidel who doubts it …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856
Paul's Sermon Before Felix
We might stay a little while and dilate on this thought, and show you how, in all ages, this has been the truth, that the power of the gospel has been eminently proved in its influence over men's hearts, proving the truth of that utterance of Paul, when he said, that neither tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword, shall separate them from the love of God, which is in Jesus Christ their Lord. But instead of so doing, I invite you to contemplate the text …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 4: 1858
Saurin -- Paul Before Felix and Drusilla
Jacques Saurin, the famous French Protestant preacher of the seventeenth century, was born at Nismes in 1677. He studied at Geneva and was appointed to the Walloon Church in London in 1701. The scene of his great life work was, however, the Hague, where he settled in 1705. He has been compared with Bossuet, tho he never attained the graceful style and subtilty which characterize the "Eagle of Meaux." The story is told of the famous scholar Le Clerc that he long refused to hear Saurin preach, on the …
Grenville Kleiser—The world's great sermons, Volume 3
The Awakened Sinner Urged to Immediate Consideration and Cautioned against Delay.
1. Sinners, when awakened, inclined to dismiss convictions for the present.--2. An immediate regard to religion urged.--3. From the excellence and pleasure of the thing itself.--4. From the uncertainty of that future time on which sinners presume, compared with the sad consequences of being cut off in sin.--5. From the immutability of God's present demands.--6. From the tendency which delay has to make a compliance with these demands more difficult than it is at present.--7. From. the danger of God's …
Philip Doddridge—The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul
The Epistles of the Captivity.
During his confinement in Rome, from a.d. 61 to 63, while waiting the issue of his trial on the charge of being "a mover of insurrections among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes" (Acts 24:5), the aged apostle composed four Epistles, to the Colossians, Ephesians, Philemon, and Philippians. He thus turned the prison into a pulpit, sent inspiration and comfort to his distant congregations, and rendered a greater service to future ages than he could have …
Philip Schaff—History of the Christian Church, Volume I
Of Presbyters who are Corrected by their Own Bishops. ...
Of presbyters who are corrected by their own bishops. Alypius the bishop, a legate of the province of Numidia, said: Nor should this be passed over; if by chance any presbyter when corrected by his bishop, inflamed by self-conceit or pride, has thought fit to offer sacrifices to God separately [from the authority of the bishop] or has believed it right to erect another altar, contrary to ecclesiastical faith and discipline, such should not get off with impunity. Valentine, of the primatial see …
Philip Schaff—The Seven Ecumenical Councils
A Plot Detected
'And when it was day, certain of the Jews banded together, and bound themselves under a curse, saying that they would neither eat nor drink till they bad killed Paul. 13. And they were more than forty which had made this conspiracy. 14. And they came to the chief priests and elders, and said, We have bound ourselves under a great curse, that we will eat nothing until we have slain Paul. 15. Now therefore ye with the council signify to the chief captain that he bring him down unto you to-morrow, as …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture: The Acts
The Witness of Our Own Spirit
"This is our rejoicing, the testimony of out conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world." 2 Cor. 1:12 1. Such is the voice of every true believer in Christ, so long as he abides in faith and love. "He that followeth me," saith our Lord, "walketh not in darkness:" And while he hath the light, he rejoiceth therein. As he hath "received the Lord Jesus Christ," so he walketh in him; and while he walketh …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions
The Parables Exemplified in the Early History of the Church.
"To Him shall prayer unceasing And daily vows ascend; His Kingdom still increasing, A Kingdom without end." We have seen that our Lord described in His Parables the general character and nature of "The Kingdom of Heaven." Consequently, if the Church established by the Apostles under the guidance of the Holy Ghost is "The Kingdom of Heaven," it will necessarily be found to agree with the description thus given. Let us therefore now consider how far the history of the Church, in the Acts of the Apostles …
Edward Burbidge—The Kingdom of Heaven; What is it?
Christian Perfection
"Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect." Phil. 3:12. 1. There is scarce any expression in Holy Writ which has given more offence than this. The word perfect is what many cannot bear. The very sound of it is an abomination to them. And whosoever preaches perfection (as the phrase is,) that is, asserts that it is attainable in this life, runs great hazard of being accounted by them worse than a heathen man or a publican. 2. And hence some have advised, wholly to lay aside …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions
"Now the End of the Commandment," &C.
1 Tim. i. 5.--"Now the end of the commandment," &c. We come now, as was proposed, to observe, Thirdly,(474) That faith unfeigned is the only thing which gives the answer of a good conscience towards God. Conscience, in general, is nothing else but a practical knowledge of the rule a man should walk by, and of himself in reference to that rule. It is the laying down a man's state, and condition, and actions beside the rule of God's word, or the principles of nature's light. It is the chief piece …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning
The Baptist's Inquiry and Jesus' Discourse Suggested Thereby.
(Galilee.) ^A Matt. XI. 2-30; ^C Luke VII. 18-35. ^c 18 And the disciples of John told him of all these things. ^a 2 Now when John had heard in the prison the works of Christ, he sent by his disciples ^c 19 And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them unto the Lord [John had been cast into prison about December, a.d. 27, and it was now after the Passover, possibly in May or June, a.d. 28. Herod Antipas had cast John into prison because John had reproved him for taking his brother's wife. …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel
Verbal Inspiration
Not only does the Bible claim to be a Divine revelation but it also asserts that its original manuscripts were written "not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Spirit teacheth" (I Cor. 2:13). The Bible nowhere claims to have been written by inspired men--as a matter of fact some of them were very defective characters--Balaam for example--but it insists that the words they uttered and recorded were God's words. Inspiration has not to do with the minds of the writers (for many …
Arthur W. Pink—The Divine Inspiration of the Bible
Of the Power of Making Laws. The Cruelty of the Pope and his Adherents, in this Respect, in Tyrannically Oppressing and Destroying Souls.
1. The power of the Church in enacting laws. This made a source of human traditions. Impiety of these traditions. 2. Many of the Papistical traditions not only difficult, but impossible to be observed. 3. That the question may be more conveniently explained, nature of conscience must be defined. 4. Definition of conscience explained. Examples in illustration of the definition. 5. Paul's doctrine of submission to magistrates for conscience sake, gives no countenance to the Popish doctrine of the obligation …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion
Quirinius the Governor of Syria
WE come now to the last serious difficulty in Luke's account of the "First Enrollment". He says that it occurred while Quirinius was administering Syria. The famous administration of Syria by Quirinius lasted from about AD. 6 to 9; and during that time occurred the" Great Enrollment" and valuation of property in Palestine. [94] Obviously the incidents described by Luke are irreconcilable with that date. There was found near Tibur (Tivoli) in AD. 1764 a fragment of marble with part of an inscription, …
Sir William Mitchell Ramsay—Was Christ Born in Bethlehem?
Truth Hidden when not Sought After.
"They shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables."--2 Tim. iv. 4. From these words of the blessed Apostle, written shortly before he suffered martyrdom, we learn, that there is such a thing as religious truth, and therefore there is such a thing as religious error. We learn that religious truth is one--and therefore that all views of religion but one are wrong. And we learn, moreover, that so it was to be (for his words are a prophecy) that professed Christians, …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII
Jerusalem to Rome
Acts 21:17-28:31 THIS JOURNEY Scripture, Acts 21:17-28:31 1. The speech before the Jewish mob in the temple (Acts 22:1-29) in which Paul tells the Jews how he was changed from a persecutor to a believer in Christ. He relates also the story of his conversion. 2. The speech before the Jewish council (Acts 22:30; 23:1-10) in which he creates confusion by raising the question of the resurrection. But the provocation was great for the high-priest had commanded that Paul be smitten …
Henry T. Sell—Bible Studies in the Life of Paul
From Antioch to the Destruction of Jerusalem.
Acts 13-28 and all the rest of the New Testament except the epistles of John and Revelation. The Changed Situation. We have now come to a turning point in the whole situation. The center of work has shifted from Jerusalem to Antioch, the capital of the Greek province of Syria, the residence of the Roman governor of the province. We change from the study of the struggles of Christianity in the Jewish world to those it made among heathen people. We no longer study many and various persons and their …
Josiah Blake Tidwell—The Bible Period by Period
Of Christian Liberty.
1. Connection of this chapter with the previous one on Justification. A true knowledge of Christian liberty useful and necessary. 1. It purifies the conscience. 2. It checks licentiousness. 3. It maintains the merits of Christ, the truth of the Gospel, and the peace of the soul. 2. This liberty consists of three parts. First, Believers renouncing the righteousness of the law, look only to Christ. Objection. Answer, distinguishing between Legal and Evangelical righteousness. 3. This first part clearly …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion
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