Acts 24:10-21 Then Paul, after that the governor had beckoned to him to speak, answered… The charge brought against Paul included three particulars. He was guilty of sedition, and so of disloyalty to the Roman government; of heresy, the ringleader of a sect, and so a renegade from Judaism; of profaning the temple, and thus of affronting a worship which was under the protection of Rome. The charges were the old ones: familiar to us already in the cases of Stephen and Christ. The time came for the apostle's defence. He begins by selecting the only ground on which he could count himself fortunate in being tried before Felix. He could depend at least upon his acquaintance with the rites and customs of Judaism. Felix knew the day of that feast of Pentecost for which St. Paul had gone up to Jerusalem, and that it was but twelve days since. It was a short time for the commission of this triple crime; and already five of them in prison! How had the other seven been spent (vers. 12, 13)? Note — I. THE MANNER OF HIS ADDRESS. 1. He stands before a wicked ruler; yet he pays to him the respect due to his office. It is the same man who wrote lately to the Romans, "Render therefore to all their dues; fear, to whom fear; honour, to whom honour." There is all the difference in the world between servility and courtesy; between the flattery of Tertullus, and the manly respectfulness of St. Paul. Insolence to rulers is no part of the religion of Christ. "Render unto Caesar," our Lord said, "the things which are Caesar's," etc. 2. The present was dark, the future was ambiguous: and yet he answers for himself "cheerfully." If we are in Christ's hands, on Christ's side, what circumstance is enough to justify despondency? Pain of mind or body, want, weakness, anguish, impending death; all shall be well: for "I am Christ's, and Christ is God's." II. THE MATTER. 1. We find two of the three charges calmly and earnestly repelled. The charges of sedition and sacrilege are refuted by an appeal to fact. None can dare to say of him, that his brief time in Jerusalem had been spent in creating insurrection. His supposed desecration of the temple was the opposite of truth, for he had frequented its courts to show his respect for the law. 2. But one charge he rather qualifies than repels. If it be a schismatical thing to be a Christian, then he avowed it and gloried in it. St. Paul worshipped God according to a particular system; not vaguely as the Creator and Preserver, not merely as the Lawgiver and the Judge, but definitely and precisely as revealed in Christ. What is there to mark our confessions, prayers, praises, thanksgivings, as offered according to the way of Christ? Does Christ really enter into all? And is there anything in our habits of speech and action which recognises and reminds men of our faith in the way of Christ? 3. But observe how Paul claims for himself, all the time, the position of the truly orthodox; the God whom he worships is "the God of his fathers." He "believes all things written" in the Old Testament Scriptures, and it is just because he does so he is a Christian. The true revelation of God is never at variance with itself. Everything which God has ever spoken will be true forever. His voice in nature, in reason, in conscience, to the Patriarchs, in the law, the prophets, the gospel, are all consistent and harmonious. Each one of these completes, fulfils something, in the one before it; but it destroys and it contradicts nothing. He who affects, unlike St. Paul, to despise Old Testament Scriptures, proves himself by that contempt to be not a full-grown man, but a very babe in Christ. 4. Paul claims for Israel under the law a glimmering at least of that hope, for which, as a Christian and an apostle, he was himself bound with his chain (ver. 15). It suited the occasion and the purpose of this heroic defence, to trace the hope of the resurrection to a dispensation earlier than the Christian. And we too must accept the declaration, and give thanks for it, that even the Old Testament is not silent as to this great restitution of all things. 5. The resurrection of the just is an expression used by our Lord. But He stopped not there, nor could Paul. There is also a resurrection of the unjust. The resurrection must be either the hope, or the fear, of each one of us. And which? (Dean Vaughan.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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: |
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