Hope

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

HOPE

Acts 24:17-21

17 "After an absence of several years, I came to Jerusalem to bring my people gifts for the poor and to present offerings. 18 I was ceremonially clean when they found me in the temple courts doing this. There was no crowd with me, nor was I involved in any disturbance. 19 But there are some Jews from the province of Asia, who ought to be here before you and bring charges if they have anything against me. 20 Or these who are here should state what crime they found in me when I stood before the Sanhedrin— 21 unless it was this one thing I shouted as I stood in their presence: 'It is concerning the resurrection of the dead that I am on trial before you today.'"

NIV

This is the rest of Paul’s defense that he is giving to Felix the Roman Governor. If anyone with a unbiased ear heard what Paul was saying, that person would certainly find no fault with him. But there is more at state then a simply judgment of the facts. Yet it certainly is true these Jews were bringing false charges against Paul because he was disrupting their power base. They were losing followers to the Way. If they truly were seeking God and all his truth, they would see Jesus Christ as fulfilling all that was written about the Messiah and would believe. So Paul tells Felix exactly what he had being doing which caused these Jews to incite a riot against him. He was doing what any good Jew would do, become ceremonially clean, go to the temple, bring gifts for the poor, and present offerings. How could that be bad? So it was not what he was doing, but the fact he was in the way of their authority over the people. But Paul not only tells Felix about the facts of his behavior, but he gets in the whole issue of the resurrection of the dead. This would not be a part a Romans belief. They had so many gods, temples, rituals, traditions they had taken or adopted from cultures they had conquered over the centuries, but a resurrection of the dead was not part of what they believed and Paul, being a Roman citizen would have fully known this. So he gets his witness in before Felix while he is defending his actions among the Jews. This could be our life lesson. Knowing the beliefs of those we are endeavoring to witness to about Jesus Christ may well be our door opener, but at the same time we need to use something which will give them hope. Felix would not have considered life after death, but now after what Paul said about the resurrection of the dead, Felix would now be thinking about the idea that he could live past death. Hope comes in the morning. Our witness about Jesus should bring hope to the hopeless. Now it is true there are some denominations who consider themselves to be Christian, yet much like the Jews of Paul’s time are more religious and insistent on obedience to laws, or rules and regulations of their church then the truth of scripture. A witness to these people still needs to be one of hope rather than of tearing down their beliefs. Paul witnessed to Felix without any damaging language about the polytheists beliefs of Romans. We need to witness without damaging language about the beliefs of those who we desire to bring the hope of Jesus Christ to.