https://youtu.be/YuHZ1uzR07A

A Pesky Fellow

Acts 24:1-23

Paul is tried before the procurator Felix, a representative

of Rome, but it was the Jews who were prosecuting him. The crowd was part Roman

and part Jewish. The charges are political as well as religious.

Ananias the high priest responds to a summons to go down to

Caeserea with some of the elders and a lawyer named Tertullus, to bring their

charges against Paul before the governor.

Tertullus presents his case before Felix with an endeavor to

capture the judge’s good will- complimenting to the point of nauseating

flattery. (v.2-4)

Tertullus calls Paul a “pestilent fellow, a perfect pest”, stirring up riots, expressing political overtones; a Nazarene ringleader, accusing him of a religious sect; and of desecrating the temple, a particularly damaging and dangerous accusation because the Romans had given the Jews wide powers in dealing with offenses against their temple.

Paul launches into his defense.

Here was Paul’s confession of faith (v.14), “I confess”. It

consisted for four affirmations:

1. I worship the God of our fathers- we worship the same God

2. I believe everything written in the law and prophets-

believed the same truths

3.  I have the same

hope of God as these men- shared the same hope

4. I strive always as much as they to keep a clear conscious-

cherished the same ambition

Paul purpose was not to make a personal declaration, but to

insist that he shared it with the people of God. He was not an innovator, but

loyal to the ancestral faith, nor was he a heretical deviant but stood squarely

in the mainstream Judaism. His worship, faith, hope and goal were no different

than theirs.

“The Way” enjoyed direct continuity with the OT, for the Scriptures bore witness to Jesus Christ as the one in whom God’s promises had been fulfilled.

What does this mean to you?

1. The OT is still God’s Word and relevant for today’s world.

Paul proclaims that the same God of the “law and the

prophets” is the same God he preached about.

Jesus expounded on the OT, preaching passages and explaining

them to the crowds in their original intent and purpose because the people made

them a means of legalism instead of a loving God who was watching over His

people with care and concern.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 New King

James Version (NKJV)

16 All

Scripture is given by

inspiration of God, and is profitable

for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for [a]instruction

in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly

equipped for every good work.

Paul tells Timothy “all Scripture”, which at the time was

only the law and the prophets

It’s a shame that we have to tell people this now-a-days, but

there is so much heretical preaching out there about “unhitching” from the OT

The Old

Testament is profitable for Christians today.

We

cannot fully understand the New Testament apart from knowing the Old Testament.

The Old

Testament drips with symbolism and realities of Christ. Jesus is present from the very first chapter of the Bible.

Jesus is

the same yesterday,