74. Acts 24:1-27 (Go Away for the Present!)

Title: Go Away for the Present!

Text:

Occasion: Pillar Sunday Pulpit 10.27.19

Thesis: To learn the important but tragic lesson of procrastination

Prayer of Illumination:

Spirit of the Living God,

We ask that You would awaken souls this afternoon, that as Your Word goes forth, You would illuminate hearts, and convict us of sin, righteousness and judgment.

We especially pray now for those who are still without Christ and the gift of salvation, we plead to You, turn their hearts away from sin and turn them toward Christ.

In the name of Jesus, we pray, Amen.

Introduction:

I’m sure I have used this illustration before, but for the sake of introduction, let me tell it to you again:

There once lived a man who was transported into the black abyss inside the earth, surrounded by the evil spirits and their ruler, Satan himself.

He watched as a discussion unfolded between Satan and his spirits. He saw that the ruler held a scepter of wickedness in his hand, and he heard him as he said with a loud voice, “Who will go to earth for me and persuade people that I may accomplish the ruin of their souls? What message will you use? How will you say what you want to say so that men and women, boys and girls, will turn away from the things of God?”

A spirit responded, “I will go for you, and I will tell people that there is no heaven.”

The ruler frowned and replied, “No, that will not do. For too many centuries humanity has been told that there is a heaven. And our enemy, God, has given the Christians a book that talks about heaven and promises that it is a place where there will no longer be death and tears and sorrow and pain and affliction and tragedy.”

A second spirit glided forward and said, “I will go, and I will tell men and women that there is no hell.”

Again, the ruler responded negatively: “That will not do either. The conscience, if nothing else, convinces people that someday there must be a day of reckoning and a place where men and women will come to terms with their lives. In fact, that book I mentioned, the Christian’s handbook, has more to say about hell than about heaven. You could never convince them there’s no hell.”

There was a pause. The ruler added, “I need someone who will make an appeal to all classes, all ages, and all cultures in all the countries around the planet where men and women live.”

One dark spirit stepped up and said, “I have the answer. I will go for you. I will not tell people there is no hell. I will not tell them there is no heaven. I will simply tell them there is no hurry.”

And Satan said, “You’ve won the task.”

So they sent him.

The word used for that destroyer of souls is “procrastination.”

“Procrastination” E.J. Young said some years ago, “is the thief of time.”

Procrastination is not only the thief of time, but when it comes to spiritual things, procrastination is the robbery of eternity.

The more you believe there is no hurry, the less concern you have for the consequences of inaction.

Procrastination is waiting for a more convenient time, but the tragedy of procrastination is that a convenient time never comes.

Highlighting the tendency to procrastinate, Gloria Pitzer has written this clever little poem:

Procrastination is my sin.

It brings me naught but sorrow.

I know that I should stop it.

In fact, I will … tomorrow

There are many procrastinators in the Bible.

Jesus gave many examples of them in the parables he gave.

There was that farmer who was too busy building bigger farms, too busy hoarding things that he couldn’t give attention to the real issues of life and death. “But God said to him, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” ()

There was the slave Jesus told, who was in charge of his master’s possessions, to keep it and to account for it, but that slave said in his heart, “My master will be a long time in coming,” and began to beat the slaves, and to eat and drink and get drunk. Jesus said, “the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know and will cut him in pieces.”

Then there were the girls in Jesus’ parable who had put off preparing for the wedding reception, only to find themselves left out in the cold.

Procrastination is the thief of time and of eternity!

These parables of course, are stories that take place in real life.

And the Bible presents many real life stories of procrastinators, and none more memorable and more tragic than Felix.

Now this sermon will not motivate you to finally get on that treadmill and live a healthier lifestyle, this is not a sermon for those who have a habit of procrastinating their assignments at work, or for husbands who procrastinate in fixing the broken window of the house which their wives constantly remind them of, though it can apply to us in all these areas.

No, this sermon is primarily for those who have not yet decided to trust and follow Christ, but intend to decide some day.

This sermon is especially targeted to the youth, young teenagers and young boys and girls, who’ve yet to make that decision for Christ.

If I could preach only one sermon to the youth, it would be this one.

Now the Bible delights in striking contrasts. When we begin the reading the Bible in the 4th chapter of Genesis, we immediately are struck with the contrast of Cain and Abel.

There is Jacob and Esau and the contrast Scripture lays out when it says, “Jacob have I loved; Esau have I hated.”

Then there is my personal favorite contrast between King Saul, Israel’s choice of king and King David, God’s choice of king.

Well, we see another one here between Paul, the prisoner and Felix, the governor.

So we have Paul in the presence before Felix and really there are two parts in this chapter.

Firstly, Paul before Felix (1-23) and then secondly Felix before Paul (24-27).

1. Paul before Felix

We traced, two weeks ago, the way in which God providentially worked to bring Paul to Caesarea, protecting him from being slain by the plots of 40 men and guarding him in a great company of soldiers, where Paul is now in a courtroom before Felix, the Roman governor.

Felix was a successor to Pontius Pilate, the governor who conducted the trial of Jesus.

Felix is an interesting character. And secular sources tells us much about this man.

This man has a rags to riches kind of story.

He was born a slave, but his brother, Pallas, happened somehow to become a favorite of the emperor in Rome.

Through the influence of Pallas, Felix had been freed from slavery and somewhat later had been appointed governor of this province. He was the first slave in history to become a governor of a Roman province.

You can say Felix was an opportunist without a conscience. Tacitus described him as one who “practiced every kind of cruelty and lust, wielding the power of a king with all the instincts of a slave.”

Felix was a man characterized by a ruthless greed, using people and circumstances to accomplish his own agenda, and ultimately to gain more power and accumulate more wealth.

He had been married by this time to three different princesses.

The first one we know nothing about, except that she was a princess.

His second wife was the granddaughter of Antony and Cleopatra, whose namesake all recognize today because Hollywood has made them famous.

The third wife appears with him in this account. Her name was Drusilla. Don’t ever name your daughter Drusilla.

She was as one writer described, “a frivolous, wretched, vessel of wrath, fitted for destruction.

She has the family genes to back it up too. She was one of the three daughters of Herod Agrippa I.

Her father murdered James, the disciple of Jesus.

Her great-uncle Herod Antipas murdered John the Baptist.

Her great-grandfather Herod the Great murdered those babies in Bethlehem in the time of our Lord.

And the way Felix married Drusilla tells us a lot about these two. Drusilla was actually the wife of someone else.

And Felix, lusting after Drusilla, to make her his own wife, he secured a magician from Cyprus and made every effort to take her away from her husband and finally enticed this woman to live in an adulterous relationship with him.

Evidently, Drusilla was a strikingly beautiful woman, according to Josephus, and the lust of Felix’s heart made him go to any lengths to capture her for himself.

It is before such a judge that the apostle Paul must appear.

Less than a week after his arrival in Caesarea, Paul was put on trial before Felix. Paul’s accusers sent a deputation, including Ananias, the high priest himself and his special hired gun and prosecutor Tertullus.

Nothing is known of this man outside of this passage. We do know that he was a professional attorney, probably of Gentile birth, who would know the Roman legal system.

Judging by the fact that they hired this man to prosecute Paul, tells us that he had a reputation for being very successful in his prosecution.

We also know that his name Tertullus is the diminutive of Tertius. So his name means, “little Tertius,” probably to indicate the shortness of his stature.

Can’t you see him in your imagination? A short, fat, pompous, greasy, smooth-talking lawyer, strutting around the courtroom, establishing his case.

And Tertullus, begins with some nauseating flattery. Listen to what he says, remembering the kind of wicked man Felix is:

“Since we have through you attained much peace, and since by your providence reforms are being carried out for this nation,

we acknowledge this in every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, with all thankfulness.”

If you read between the lines you can see what is happening. The lawyer begins to praise the governor with some over-the-top flattery, “Oh, most excellent Felix, we know that all these great things are happening in our nation because of you.”

That was sheer hypocrisy of course. The Sanhedrin hated this man.

“Most excellent Felix” was in itself a misnomer. He was anything but excellent and noble, for this governor was a most ungodly man.

I suppose even Felix, being the shrewd man that he was, detected their insincerity.

What is it that these Jewish leaders are after that they should come all the way from Caesarea and flatter me in this fashion? He must have wondered.

It become clear enough. They wanted the governor to kill Paul.

So the lawyer, says let me get right to the point.

Then he sets forth three charges against Paul, each one stronger than the last.

The first charge against Paul is that he is a troublemaker.

V. 5 “We have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout all the world.”

That word for “pest” was stronger than what pest usually means for us today. For us “pest” usually means a nuisance.

For them, “pest” meant in its literal sense a “plague” or a “pestilence.” It came to be used as a metaphor for a dangerous person, like someone who carried a deadly disease and infects other people.

So Tertullus was accusing Paul as an infectious disease, and that if set free, he would spread a troublesome rebellion throughout the Empire.

The second charge is more serious, he is not only a troublemaker, but he is the ringleader of a troublesome group.

Look at the end of v. 5, “And a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes.”

That of course, wasn’t a compliment at all. To be called a Nazarene was a slur, an insult. “Nazarene” was a term invented by the enemies of the Christian faith to describe the Christians.

The Jews wanted to avoid using Jesus’ name, and instead was just called “the Nazarene.”

It was the Nazarene “sect” instead. “Sect” has over tones of heresy.

Now, the Romans recognized certain religions as legal, or permitted. It had the support of the Roman Empire. But Paul is accused here of an unrecognized religion. He is heretical; his religion is unrecognized, it is illegal.

Paul is accused as “the ringleader” of this illegal sectarian movement.

A serious charge.

Then the third charge, is the proof or the evidence that Paul was acting as a ringleader os a dangerous sect, Paul was accused of “trying to desecrate the temple.”

This was a serious charge. The Romans knew that the temple was sacred to the Jews and if anything happened to their temple, it was like a grenade that would explode the entire nation’s rage.

But it was a bald-faced lie! Paul did not try to desecrate the temple. This was only the mob’s accusation.

This is what is called throwing mud and hoping some of it would stick!

Paul had not profaned the temple, he had been there that day precisely to remove ceremonial defilement to preserve the temple’s purity.

Paul did not start the riot, the Jews had.

In fact, the Jews didn’t “arrest him” as Tertullus said, they tried to kill him.

And the people who actually arrested Paul were the Romans, and they did it in order to save his life.

Well, how does Paul defend himself? How does he respond to these charges?

He begins courteously, and unlike Tertullus, he did it without flattery.

“Knowing that for many years you have been a judge to this nation, I cheerfully make my defense.”

He simply thanks Felix for the fact that he stands as a judge over Israel for a number of years. That’s about all you could have said honestly about Felix.

After that brief introduction, he answers these charges one by one.

The first charge, you recall, was that he was a revolutionary troublemaker. To that he says,

since you can take note of the fact that no more than twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship.

“Neither in the temple, nor in the synagogues, nor in the city itself did they find me carrying on a discussion with anyone or causing a riot.

“Nor can they prove to you the charges of which they now accuse me.

Pau’s saying, “it’s only been twelve days since I went up to Jerusalem to worship and 5 of those days I’ve been in prison in Caesarea. It’s obvious that one week isn’t enough time for me to cause all this commotion?”

Second, he says, there is no evidence. There are no witnesses to the charges against me. If there was, they would bring it forward, but there is nothing.”

So he completely demolishes this charge, exposing its emptiness.

Next he moves to the charge of being a radical ringleader of the Nazarene sect. To this he answers,

“But this I admit to you, that according to the Way which they call a sect I do serve the God of our fathers, believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets;

having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.

“In view of this, I also do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men.

To the second charge, he does admit to this accusation, “But” he says, “I want to point out that I am indeed a follower of the Way which they call a sect.”

In calling himself a “follower of the Way” he affirms that “the Way” is the true way to follow the God of their fathers.

So he points to his beliefs and stressed that he believes all that is written in the law and the prophets, the same law and prophets these Jews claimed to believe.

He says, “I have the same hope as these men, that there will be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked.”

And in this, you see, Paul was affirming that following Jesus as the Way was not a deviation from Judaism but rather true Judaism itself. If anyone had strayed from true Judaism, it wasn’t him, it was his opponents.

Furthermore, Paul states that his “conscience is clear before God and man.”

To keep a good and clear conscience was of supreme importance to Paul, because he believed the conscience was God’s monitor in the soul.

Conscience signified a man’s knowledge of himself as standing in God’s presence, subject to God’s Word and exposed to the judgment of God’s law.

That is why people, whether or not they are Christians, have some sense of right and wrong.

One thinks, of Luther’s momentous words at Worms: ‘My conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand; there is nothing else I can do. God help me. Amen.’

I like to think of Paul standing there before Felix, hiding nothing, covering nothing, majestic as he proclaims himself a follower of the crucified Lord Jesus Christ.

When Paul claimed to always have a blameless conscience before Felix and his accusers, he challenged their consciences. They knew they were in the wrong.

Paul was saying, “I have done nothing wrong before God and before my fellow Jews. I believe in the same Scriptures as they, I worship the same God, share the same hope, but the only difference is that I believe that this hope of resurrection has already begun in Jesus Christ. That I do admit,”

Now what can be so wrong with believing in the resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked?” he argues.

What violation has he broken of the Roman law in believing the hope of the resurrection?”

And with that he again demolishes the accusation against him.

The third charge was that of profaning the temple. To this the apostle replies:

“Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings;

in which they found me occupied in the temple, having been purified, without any crowd or uproar. But there were some Jews from Asia —

who ought to have been present before you and to make accusation, if they should have anything against me.

“Or else let these men themselves tell what misdeed they found when I stood before the Council,

other than for this one statement which I shouted out while standing among them, ‘For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today.’”

His argument was simple: Far from defiling the temple, he said, “I came to bring gifts of money and offerings to my people.”

Ane he says, “I was worshipping at the temple, obeying its laws, not profaning it.”

Furthermore, Paul says, “If I’m going to be charged with profaning the temple, then those who saw me there should be here to make the charge face to face.”

That in itself should’ve closed the case.

The letter from Lysias to Felix had indicated that the actual complainants would present their charges in person (23:30). Where were they? Why didn’t they show?

Paul points this out in order to show how bogus their claims were.

Finally, Paul sums it up by saying, “The most that I have done, the most they can charge against me is that when I stood before the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem, I said something that divided their group. I cried out, “I am on trial for the hope and resurrection of the dead!”

So he says, “Now if that is wrong then that is what I am guilty of."

It was a masterful defense offered up by Paul. With each charge against him, he completely dismissed them.

Each of his arguments unanswerable. Paul set the record straight. The facts seemed clear enough.

Felix should have released Paul. That was the right thing to do.

But what did he do?

He fell into the same temptation that had mastered Pilate. Though he knew Paul was innocent, he was caught between what he knew to be right and pressure from the crowd that he was doing wrong.

He had the power, who like Pilate could say, “I find no fault in him at all,” but did nothing.

So he does what all weak men do in this crises, he gave a lame excuse, “I can’t make a decision now.”

“But Felix, having a more exact knowledge about the Way, put them off, saying, ‘When Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case.”

It was a convenient excuse. There was no need for Lysias to give any more information. The facts were the facts. You see, that Felix was using the coming of Lysias, as a convenient excuse for not making a decision.

Though this excuse served to placate the Jews, tomorrow would bring some other excuse.

Luke is showing us here, that delay and compromise were characteristic of this man.

So as Paul was on trial before Felix, there is an inescapable irony in this scene.

Here was the man before whom the apostle Paul was to be tried. Yet, in ultimate terms, their roles were actually the reverse.

Paul, the prisoner is shown here to be truly free, while Felix is seen to be the slave of his own unbelief.

And under the searchlight of Paul’s witness to the good news of Jesus Christ, the judge became the judged.

This narrative is full of reversals.

And when Felix, the Judge, who you would expect to be the man to put fear in people before him, would actually be the one who would tremble before Paul.

2. Felix before Paul

So in the next scene, we see Felix before Paul.

Now, this is where the story reaches out to us, and this is where Felix’s procrastination confronts our very hearts, especially those who’ve yet made a decision for Christ.

The most interesting part of our story comes in the final few verses.

V. 24, “But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.”

1. Felix listened

So as Felix is before Paul, there are four things that happened sequentially, firstly Felix listened. He listened to Paul’s message concerning faith in Christ Jesus.

Felix wasn’t alone to listen to Paul. Luke makes certain to mention his wife Drusilla, who was with him, in order for us to realize something of a power over this man that kept him from making a definite decision for Christ.

Remember Drusilla, was the woman whom Felix seduced to leave her former husband. She was one of the three daughters of Herod Agrippa I.

Her father murdered James, her great uncle, Herod Antipas slew John the Baptist and her great grandfather, Herod the Great, slaughtered babies in Jerusalem. And so far as we know of Drusilla, she was of that kind of person.

And Felix stood before Paul along with his wife in this adulterous and sinful relationship. And God draws special attention to Drusilla’s presence with him.

Luke notes that she was a Jewess, who was brought up in the religion of Israel. She had been instructed in her earliest days in the knowledge of the one true and living God. She knew something of the high standards set forth in the law of God.

And with Felix’s “exact knowledge about the Way,” and Drusilla’s background, I can imagine they got together and Drusilla said something like, “You know, court life is kind of boring. Why don’t we call for Paul and talk with him? Maybe he can provide some amusement for us.”

Perhaps, Felix was genuinely interested in what Paul had to say. Evidently he knew a great deal about what happened in Palestine, he knew about Jesus, his crucifixion and he knew it was commonly reported that He had risen from the dead and he knew how the gospel was spreading through all the parts of the world. And he knew that Paul represented the ringleader of this group.

I don’t doubt that deep in his heart, he wondered whether Jesus was who He claimed to be, the son of the Living God and the Savior of mankind.

I don’t doubt that Paul’s masterful defense and his determination to preach the hope of the resurrection left Felix wondering if this was true.

But for Felix to accept this message and believe in Jesus would mean facing the sin he was living in.

So Felix and Drusilla called for the Apostle, and got more than they bargained for. The guilty couple found a judge in their prisoner as Paul preached faith in Christ Jesus.

How many are in this situation as we speak here this afternoon. You are drawn by two forces pulling you in opposite directions.

There’s a battle that wages war against your soul between good and evil, between truth and deceit.

How many struggle in their hearts between the seductive kisses of the temptress at his side and the clear truth of God’s Word of the messenger before him.

It may be for you, like Felix and Drusilla, a relationship you are in, you know violates God’s holy law.

It may be, a darling sin, like getting drunk you know is not right, watching things out of bounds, going to places you have no business being in, and yet you’re here listening about faith in Christ Jesus.

2. Felix trembled

We read on and see that as Paul was “discussing righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened.”

So Felix first listened to Paul concerning faith in Christ Jesus, then secondly Felix trembled.

No wonder he trembled, with another man’s wife sitting there beside him on the throne!

One thing we learn from the apostle Paul is that when speaking about “faith in Christ,” this involves much more than telling them to believe in Jesus because He can improve your life, much more than telling them to believe in Jesus to be in heaven, it involves much more than telling people Jesus is a ticket into eternal life, it involves as Charles Simeon said, “We must see our desert and danger as transgressors of the law, before we can ever fully appreciate the Gospel.”

The apostle Paul was not worried about what modern Christians too often worry about, in turning people off, by confronting them with their sin, about forsaking their sin and the consequences of their sin.

When Paul spoke “about faith in Christ,” he not only spoke of Jesus, as the way of salvation but also discussed on “righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come.”

When Paul reasoned with Felix of righteousness, he must have brought before Felix the fact that he had no righteousness.

And I’m sure Paul, as we know from his letter to the Romans, would’s surely pointed out that while we have no righteousness in our selves, that God, the righteous One, demands perfect righteousness from us.

He would’ve pointed to the fact that “the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness,” and that all men everywhere were sinner who needed a Savior.

And that the only way by which we may be “right” and “justified” before God is through the blood that was shed on Calvary’s Cross.

And Paul did not stop there, he surely would’ve pressed the law of God’s perfect righteousness right into the heart of Felix, telling him about self-control.

As Drusilla stood right beside him, Paul would’ve said, the great problem in your life is that your self is out of control.

Instead of living in self-control, Felix, you are controlled by evil, by the lust of your hearts.

Friends, isn’t this the great problem for many of you this afternoon? Isn’t this the central problem of your lives?

That self, holds sway rather than God!!!!

Then Paul went on to tell Felix, that there is a judgment to come.

There is coming a time when every life is going to be examined and judged, when each human being, without exception, whether young or old, will find himself standing naked before God.

And your whole life will be laid out before Him. That is the judgment to come.

He said there will come a time when that which is spoken in secret will be shouted from the housetops, and that everything hidden shall be revealed.

All the hidden secrets of the heart, every sin done in secret will be openly displayed.

And no doubt, Paul would’ve pointed out that in dealing with God in this judgment to come, that you are dealing with God who is the searcher of all the hearts of men, a God who is aware of your motives and your secret sins.

While we live this life, we seem to be content that we can fool people by the exterior of our lives.

We think we’re ok because we can fool our parents, we think we can fool other Christians by the outside of our lives. But Paul tells Felix and he tells you, you cannot fool God, for you are dealing with a God who reads the heart.

So we read that as Paul discussed righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened!

His soul was startled, his conscience awakened!

To shudder and tremble reveals something about the guilt of his conscience. Richard Sibbes said that “there is a flash of hell in the present, after an ill act.”

That’s what Felix experienced, “a flash of hell in the present.” Felix was aware of the judgment to come, and the guiltiness of his wickedness.

Such an event is meant to call us to repentance and trust in Christ.

Friends, if your soul is awakened this afternoon, and you are overcome with guilt with sin before the all-seeing and all-knowing God, that is part of God’s mercy to you.

When Felix is trembling with the thoughts of eternal judgment, and the Holy Spirit brings a man to the realization of what he is before the Holy God, and we tremble before Him, that’s the grace of God.

That is God’s flashing neon sign for you to come to Jesus Christ.

When you come to this point of trembling before God, that is the moment you must turn to Him, that is the most opportune time to flee to Christ.

3. Felix procrastinated - Go away for the Present!

Never had Felix heard such preaching. Never had he been so pierced by the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.

For Felix, it was the watershed moment of his life, the crisis of his fate. Eternity swung in the balance. Everything depends on the next five minutes.

Will he repent and trust in Jesus?

Will he resist?

What does he do?

He said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.”

The NIV translates it this way, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.”

Sadly, that convenient time never came.

Felix, listened, his heart trembled, but he procrastinated.

Felix postponed his decision because it was not convenient for him.

The fact that Felix procrastinated, tells us that though this man had an interest in God, though he genuinely thought that Paul was speaking the truth about Jesus Christ, in the end, he could not give up his dear sins.

So he says, “when I find it convenient, I will send for you.”

That is the answer so many make today.

So, let me ask you here, personally, are you procrastinating as Felix did, saying, “Go away for the present, and when I find it convenient, I will send for you?”

Are you saying, “Some day, some time, but not now. When I have a more convenient time, then I will get right with God?”

When do you think that a more convenient time will come?

Do you believe that a more convenient season will come after this busy season of life you’re in?

There are some I believe who are saying, “When I can take life more leisurely, then I will consider this question. Today, I am too busy in my education, too overwhelmed with the pressures at my work, and too occupied with all that is going on in my life.

Let me wait until I find a better opportunity. When this busy season dies down, when I’ve finished my training at my work, when my kids gets older and married, when I could reach the place and retire peacefully, then I’ll consider this question.”

Let me say this to you: the person who spends a lifetime in being occupied with the things of this world will not so easily leave these things for God when it comes time for what he believes is a convenient season.

Jesus warns of this and speaks of the seed which fell among the thorns, these are the one who have heard, there is an interest, but as they delay their decision to receive Christ, “they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life,” and choke out those impressions of God first made on their hearts.

So you say to yourself, “Not now, a little later perhaps, when I have more time to think about it. When I’m less busy, I’ll decide at a more convenient time.”

But I ask, “how much later? How much before the worries and riches and pleasures of this world choke this out of you?”

When is a more convenient time to come to Christ?

You say, “Well, a little bit later. You see, I feel too young now. Go away for the present, because there is enough time later when I’m older to think about serious things like this.”

Oh, such wretched hallucination that has led tens of thousands of youth to turn away from Christ.

Listen to me, young people, old men and women rarely turn to Christ.

In his study of Acts, Harry Ironside tells of something that happened to him when he was twelve years old. He had gone to hear Dwight L. Moody in Chicago.

Moody was preaching in an old theater that held about ten thousand people, a building that has since been torn down.

Because the theater was jammed with people and he was just a boy, Ironside managed to climb up on a rafter above where Moody was speaking. From there he was able to look down upon that vast host of people.

There was a point in Moody’s address where he said to the people, “I want everybody who knows the Lord Jesus Christ as his or her Savior to stand.”

From where he was looking down, Ironside saw perhaps six or seven thousand people out of that great host of ten thousand rise to their feet.

Then Moody went on, saying something like this: “I want everybody from this large number who are Christians but who became Christians before the age of fifteen to be seated.”

Ironside saw that about half of those who had been standing resumed their seats. There were about three thousand left.

Moody said, “I want everybody who became a Christian before the age of twenty to sit down.”

Another half were seated. Now there were only fifteen hundred standing.

Then Moody raised the number by ten

“All who were saved before they were thirty, be seated”; and a number sat down.

“All who wore saved before they were forty, be seated”; and a smaller number sat down.

And when he got to fifty, there were only about twenty left standing in that great congregation who had trusted Christ after they were fifty years of age!

The point was dramatically and clearly made: Never is it easier to believe on Jesus Christ than when you are young. It is always much much harder later on in old age!

To procrastinate is gambling, and it’s a fatal gamble for there is but a step between us and death.

You dare not put off “for a more convenient season” young people, because that “season” may never come.

It never came for Felix.

These last two verses closes in a chilling way. V. 27, “At the same time too, he was hoping that money would be given him by Paul; therefore he also used to send for him quite often and converse with him.”

Felix lost his opportunity. This verse tells us that when his fear left him, greed and covetousness mastered his heart. “He was hoping that money would given him by Paul.”

Perhaps, he remembered that Paul said he brought offerings when he came to Jerusalem and was hoping that Paul would bribe him out of prison. Sad, sad picture. And Paul never gave in to that. He’d rather stay in jail.

But Felix, Luke tells us, “used to sent for him quite often and converse with him.”

It’s as if Felix was saying to Paul, “come here, no go away, come back here, go away.” In other words, Felix was dilly dallying with God, dilly dallying with eternity.

It’s actually one of the most solemn pictures in the whole Bible, “come here, go away, come here, no, actually go away.”

It’s a sad picture of many who come to church, and then leave and then come, and then leave, without ever turning to Christ.

You know what I think, even though Felix called Paul many times and talked to him often, he never trembled again!!!

That was the last time he trembled in this world.

He never trembled again until after he died.

The rest of the time Felix had on earth, he managed to silence his conscience and drown the voice of the Holy Spirit.

That is the danger that men face when they are confronted with the reality of Jesus Christ and do nothing about it. Their hearts are hardened.

The last sentence sums it all up for us:

But after two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and wishing to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul imprisoned.

And with that Felix passes off the pages of Scripture, but he does not pass from the eye of God.

Now Felix is in a Christ-less eternity instead of a Christ-filled eternity.

Like Felix, you too will one day stand before a Judge who can never be bribed, and you will have to answer Him for refusing the message of His grace.

What then are you waiting for dear friend?

There is no more convenient time to come to Christ then now.

Do not delay, because delay may end in eternal death.

“Today, if you hear His Voice, do not harden your hearts.”

And “believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved.”

Believe in Him now. There is no more convenient time then now.

Prayer of Confession

Our Heavenly Father,

We thank you for these solemn words to bring us to the knowledge of our senses and to still our consciences before Your Ultimate throne. We thank you if our souls have been stirred and awaken this afternoon, for this is an expression of Your mercy.

May we not be in awe and tremble before You and yet turn away from you.

May we not postpone our decision for a more convenient time.

Rather, may we at once bow before You for forgiveness and eternal life.

And if indeed have come to Christ by repentance and faith, help us to be as fearless as Paul in preaching the gospel and knowing the urgency of the season we are in.

In Jesus’ name, Amen.