Free Bible Commentary
“Acts 24:1-9”
Categories: Acts“After five days the high priest Ananias came down with some elders, with an attorney named Tertullus, and they brought charges to the governor against Paul. After Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying to the governor, ‘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. But, that I may not weary you any further, I beg you to grant us, by your kindness, a brief hearing. For we have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. And he even tried to desecrate the temple; and then we arrested him. We wanted to judge him according to our own Law. But Lysias the commander came along, and with much violence took him out of our hands, ordering his accusers to come before you. By examining him yourself concerning all these matters you will be able to ascertain the things of which we accuse him.’ The Jews also joined in the attack, asserting that these things were so.”
---End of Scripture verses---
After Paul had been handed over to the governing authorities, the Jewish leaders were finally forced to play be a system of legal rules. They had no recourse at this point to incite “mob justice” or assist in a conspiracy to have Paul murdered, so they hired a Roman “advocate” or “attorney”. Since they were compelled to bring charges against Paul in a Roman court of law, they wanted someone who had intimate familiarity with the system and a lawyer who knew all the tricks of his trade. We can see that the smooth talking flatterer, Tertullus, was an excellent choice for the job, even though their attempt to influence Felix through this slick-tongued “orator” backfired on them, as we will see in tomorrow’s reading.
After Tertullus slathered the governor with smarmy praise for all the wonderful things that he had done for the “nation” (verse 20), he then turned his attention to bringing formal (false) charges against the defendant. He started by making the general (true) accusation that Paul was “a real pest” (verse 5). This is kind of a comical thing to say in my mind, but I think it is safe to say that Paul was a very troublesome bee in the bonnet of the Jewish religious leaders. I can almost hear the exasperation in the high priest’s voice when he briefed his counsel on all the trouble that Paul had caused to his nation over the years.
More than anything else though, I believe this really speaks largely to Paul’s tenacity and his gritty determination to keep teaching people the truth no matter what the consequences might be. Sometimes you just have to pester people in order to break down the walls that hinder the penetration of the Gospel Truth. Being a pest is not always a bad thing, as long as we are doing our best to try to help other people and please the Lord. I’m afraid that most times, when our efforts to teach people the truth are met with just the slightest resistance, we give up and try our best not to upset or offend them. May God help us to understand that souls are much too important and eternity is way too long for us to give up on trying to help save people without putting up a serious fight. Let’s love people enough to let them get irritated and upset with us.
Tertullus then accused Paul of some specific (serious) offenses. He said that Paul was a “ringleader” who “stirred up dissensions among all the Jews throughout the world” (verse 5). Paul’s life would have been in serious jeopardy had he been convicted of this crime. The Roman authorities had no sympathy or tolerance for organizers of insurrections, and they usually put a very abrupt end to such an offender’s influence. Paul was also accused of desecrating the temple (verse 6) which was no minor offense either. But Jesus continued to stand by Paul and make good on His promise to deliver him (Acts 23:11), and give him the words to say when forced to stand before governors and kings for doing nothing more than obeying God’s will (Matthew 10:18-20).
Please read Acts 24:10-27 for tomorrow.
Have a blessed day!
-Louie Taylor
