Propensity for Prevarication – Acts 23:26-30

This letter is an interesting example of basic human nature – basic, self-centered, sinful human nature.

I’m forced to smile when I read it, but in fact, I probably shouldn’t.

It says what it says, and it doesn’t take a genius or a mind-reader to understand it,

but of course, we know more about its background than Governor Felix did at the time.

In the progress of our message this morning we’ll look at its various bits and pieces.

But what I would like to do is look at it as if it was a parable.

Because this is so representative of human behaviour, let’s pretend for the sake of a few lessons

that this letter was not written to the governor of Judea, but rather to God.

Claudius Lysias, the chief of military police for the city of Jerusalem was writing to his boss, the Roman governor of Judea.

But what would the implications be if instead of the Governor, he was writing to the God, Judge of all men?

First we consider the JUDGE.

Verse 26 begins the letter: “Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix sendeth greeting.”

When it comes to people in high offices, it is customary to address them in an ingratiating fashion.

For example, when speaking directly to a courtroom judge, we generally call him “Your Honor.”

But isn’t it true that there are many of those judges, who are not particularly honorable people?

We call them “Your Honor,” because it is expected due to the office, but not necessarily because it is deserved personally.

And what do the words “Your Royal Highness” mean?

The words are almost ludicrous when considered out of their usual context.

But even more ridiculous is the practice of calling various religious leaders “Your Holiness.”

How many of the Roman Catholic priests now under inditement or in jail for pedophilia were addressed as “Your Holiness” in their former lives?

There is no true and absolutely holy person in this world, & the term shouldn’t be indiscriminately used.

Don’t you wonder what Claudius meant when he addressed Felix as the “most excellent governor”?

Was this the way that all governors expected to be addressed, so Claudius complied?

Was it that “most excellent” had become an obligatory adjective to the office of governor?

Or was the Chief Captain fawning over his boss like a sniveling sycophant, hoping for a raise in salary?

Felix may have been an efficient Roman governor, but he was far from being an honorable person.

His name, by the way, means “happy” and is similar to the girl’s name: “Felicity.”

But even if the name accurately reflected the person, people can be happy for wicked reasons.

In the next chapter we’ll hear the Jewish attorney, Turtullus, refer to his many “worthy deeds.”

This was probably a reference to Felix’s “law and order” campaign,

in which he had rid the country of many of the bandits and highway men which had plagued travelers.

This was the kind of people to which the Lord Jesus referred in the Parable of the Good Samaritan.

So Felix had cleaned up the country a little bit.

But according to secular history he was one of the most depraved men of his time.

He had been a slave, who had been freed by Claudius Caesar and appointed to office, probably because of the influence of his brother Pallas.

Tacitus says of him that “with all cruelty and lust he exercised the power of a king with the spirit of a slave.”

In 60 AD he was sent to Rome accused of cruelty and the misuse of his office for personal gain.

He then married three important women in rapid succession and earned the nickname “husband of three queens.”

And, as we shall see, at this time he was married to a Jewess named Drusilla.

This Drusilla was the daughter of Herod Agrippa and had been married to the king of Emesa.

Felix induced her to leave her husband and to live with him.

Felix had the morals of a dog.

And then as far as his relationship with Paul is concerned, it appears that he delayed acting justly toward him, hoping that either Paul, his family, or the saints of God would buy his freedom with a large bribe.

In other words, Felix was far from being truly “excellent.”

But what if the Chief Captain, Claudius Lysias was addressing Jehovah, instead of Felix?

Do you suppose at either of the great judgments, people will actually be addressing the Lord?

Will we be given permission to speak in our own defense?

Will anyone be so full of himself that even if he had permission that he would speak?

And if anyone did address the Lord, would they use some sort of flattering title?

I tend to think that there aren’t any adjectives that would be appropriate under those circumstances.

“Your Holiness, loving Saviour, righteous Judge, Just One – ”

These and a hundred more would be perfectly applicable, but they would be almost redundant.

I think that at both the Bema, the Judgment Seat of Christ, and at the Great While Throne Judgment

“we [shall] know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law:

that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.”

When you and I stand in judgment before Christ Jesus, everything about that situation will be holy.

“When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him,

Then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

And before him shall be gathered all nations:

and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.”

“Say among the heathen that the LORD reigneth: the world also shall be established that it shall not be moved: he shall judge the people righteously.

Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea roar, and the fulness thereof.

Let the field be joyful, and all that is therein: then shall all the trees of the wood rejoice

Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.”

“As the Father raiseth up the dead, & quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will.

For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son:

That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.”

Paul even preached to the Heathens in Athens:

“The times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where – repent:

Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained;

whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.”

If Claudius Lysias had been writing to Christ Jesus instead of Governor Felix, I think that the attitude, content and result of that letter would have been very, very different.

But now think about CLAUDIUS HIMSELF.

For the sake of our parable, he would be the defendant.

And in this regard he doesn’t teach us very much, except for one thing:

Notice that when he wrote to his boss, he didn’t say much about himself personally.

We’ll get to what he did and didn’t do in just a minute, but in regard to himself he just mentioned his name.

He did not have to say to the Governor that he was the Chief Captain in the city of Jerusalem.

He didn’t have to remind him that there were 10 or 20 Centurions and thousands of troops under his command.

He didn’t need to say, and probably shouldn’t have said, that he was the Chief of the Military Police.

Not only did Felix know these things, and perhaps appointed him to this office, but they were insignificant in comparison to Felix’s own office.

Similarly, when you and I stand before God, we will be there as private citizens of the Kingdom of God.

There is a sense in which everyone: the wicked, the saint and even the unborn baby….

There is a sense in which everyone is a part of the Kingdom of God,

because we are all under the rule of the King of kings.

And when we stand before our Judge it will not be with any of our measly, puny earthly titles.

It’s not that the Lord doesn’t know or recognize that we have been missionaries, deacons or door-keepers in the house of God.

But when we stand before Him, these things will not mean anything in themselves.

At our judgment, we will stand before God for who we are, not for what office we held.

That judgment will be about our relationship to Christ, not about our relationship to other sinful humans.

And if I may say so, we’ll not have to give the Lord our social security number before He recognizes us.

The omniscient God and Judge of Heaven and Earth knows our name, our face, and our every deed.

As we’ve already seen, His will be righteous and perfect judgment.

And furthermore, it won’t be based on hearsay or the testimony of others.

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened:

and another book was opened, which is the book of life:

and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books,

according to their works.”

Those books will not be the hand-written records of angels; they will be the books of God Himself.

I know that our righteous Judge liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I be judged by Him.

Now, what about Lysias’ DEFENSE?

As I say, I don’t know for a fact that when the people of this world finally stand before our Judge, that anyone will be given the opportunity to speak.

I’m not sure that there will be any reason to speak.

There will be no attempt to twist the facts or to divert the judgment of God, because there can be no competition to the omniscience of God.

We will be so morally, mentally and spiritually naked before Him that no one will try to spin the facts or try to justify his deeds.

“Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”

There will be no reason to speak, but there will be plenty of reason to weep.

But for the sake of this parable, let’s notice what Claudius mentioned in his letter to Felix – as the way that people think.

One thing that he did was refer to some UNTRUE MOTIVES.

“Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix sendeth greeting.

This man was taken of the Jews, and should have been killed of them:

then came I with an army, and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman.”

Notice that Claudius left the impression that he ordered his men to rescue a man whom he knew to be a citizen of Rome.

We know that this was not the case.

Claudius sent his men onto the temple grounds in order to quell a potentially disastrous riot.

It was not necessarily to rescue someone, particularly one whom he already knew to be a Roman.

And I think that it’s also interesting that he said that he sent in “an army.”

The word “army” suggests a large number of men, much greater than he actually employed.

But that does sound impressive however, so what’s the harm in using it?

Isn’t this just like us?

Don’t we tend to highlight and emphasize things & situations which make us look better than we really are?

It was a surprise to Claudius that Paul was Roman citizen,

and I’m not sure that he would have said that it was a pleasant surprise.

Not only did it greatly increase his work load,

but because of his mistreatment of Paul, he came very close to being in trouble himself.

Perhaps no one would never say it to the face of the Lord, but don’t people try explain their good deeds in improper ways?

Someone says, “I tithe on my income and all that I possess, because I love the Lord and want to express my thanksgiving to Him in this way.”

But in reality, that person may give because he is hoping that God reward him by making him even more wealthy.

Years ago that man memorized Malachi 3:10 – “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

Someone else tithes and gives extra money to support missionaries,

because, he says, the heathen need to hear the gospel.

But in reality he gives to missions to impress his boss who happens to be the treasurer of the church.

Another person attends all the services of the church faithfully, hardly ever missing,

and he says that it’s because he loves the Lord,

and the Bible tells him not to forsake the assembling of God’s people,

but actually it’s because he’s lonely and he has nothing else to do,

or it’s because his parents force him to go.

And here is a lost man who will never again commit fornication.

He likes to tell people that he’s a moral man, who believes that such things are sinful and wrong,

But in reality he is deathly afraid of AIDS or some other disease.

Claudius said, “I knew that he was a Roman and that he was in trouble, so I sent in an army to save his life.”

Don’t bother trying to give your imaginary motives to the Lord, He knows the truth.

We need to serve the Lord and obey the Lord for the right REASONS, not just in the right WAYS.

Another fault which many of us tend to overlook is not admitting to our faults.

“This man was taken of the Jews, and should have been killed of them: then came I with an army, and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman.

And when I would have known the cause wherefore they accused him, I brought him into their council:

Whom I perceived to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds.”

As I was doing my usual research on this passage, the word “prevarication” came up a couple of times:

Claudius Lysias prevaricated, when he wrote to his boss.

But what is it to “prevaricate?” Isn’t that just a fancy synonym for lying?

“Prevaricate” comes from the Latin language, and “varus” means “to straddle.”

Prevarication is to straddle and thus to evade the truth.

So, in a sense, yes, it is a fancy synonym for deceit.

Claudius was a like a mediocre archer: he was around the truth, but only once in a while did he hit it.

He said that there was nothing in Paul worthy of execution or even of bonds.

And yet in the last chapter we read:

“The chief captain commanded him to be brought into the castle, and bade that he should be examined by scourging; that he might know wherefore they cried so against him.

And as they bound him with thongs, Paul said unto the centurion that stood by,

Is it lawful for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and uncondemned?”

Under the circumstances, no one should fault Claudius for ordering Paul to be bound,

but as soon as it was known that he was a Roman, he should have been released with full apologies.

And except for the part about the apologies, that is what happened.

And all this took place earlier in Paul’s life – in the city of Philippi.

After the arrest of Paul and Silas and a miserable first part of the night locked into the prison stocks,

“when it was day, the magistrates sent the serjeants, saying, Let those men go.

And the keeper of the prison told this saying to Paul, The magistrates have sent to let you go: now therefore depart, and go in peace.

But Paul said unto them, They have beaten us openly uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us out.”

I’m sure that it was not uncommon for Roman citizens to be hand-cuffed and jailed.

Sometimes it had to be done in order to maintain law and order.

But as soon as it was known that the prisoner was a Roman citizen,

and by law he should not be bound or beaten,

then the cuffs should have been removed and apologies made.

It should have been in Claudius’ report that he had done this,

and probably there would have been no punishment upon him.

But to make himself look just a little better than he really was,

and to maintain the earlier lie that he already knew Paul was a Roman, he had to omit this little detail.

When it comes to our relationship with the Lord, we all have a great propensity for prevarication.

For example, even though we know that we have sinned,

we compare our sin with our neighbor’s sin, and we decide that our’s isn’t as bad as his.

In fact, it probably is not even worth mentioning.

We’re all trapped in a field filled with land-mines, and we are carefully watching our every move lest we step on something that will blow our leg off.

We are straddling the truth and stepping over all the lies of our lives.

But that is a waste of time before the Lord, because He knows every detail of every event.

Don’t prevaricate; admit that you are a sinner, deserving the worst of God’s judgment.

Cast yourself down before His mercy; don’t try to outrun or dodge His judgment.

Something else here in this letter is the statement:

“And when it was told me how that the Jews laid wait for the man, I sent straightway to thee, and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee what they had against him.”

Again, I don’t fault Claudius Lysius for this, but once again it’s probably a slight prevarication.

It doesn’t appear that he had yet commanded the Jews to go to Caesarea; that would have been done in the morning.

It’s not an outright lie, because the Chief Captain had every intention of doing what he said,

but it probably wasn’t done as yet, because if he had already told the Jews what he was doing with Paul

it might have endangered his men before they reached Antipatris.

To tell them was something that he intended but hadn’t yet accomplished.

And once again, when it comes to the things of the Lord,

isn’t it true that we often have grand aspirations but often fail to follow them through?

But the Lord is not interested in our resolutions and intentions; He measures the reality not the imagination.

When you stand before the Lord don’t tell Him that you planned to start serving him, but before you could, you died.

Don’t think that the Lord will reward you for thinking about teaching a Sunday School class, or volunteering to work in the nursery, or looking for sheet music in order to one say sing in the worship services.

The reward and recognition will be given for the doing, not for thinking about doing.

The gist of what I am trying to say this morning is that you and I, everyone of us, are going to stand before the judgment bar of God one day very soon.

And we are all going to be judged.

First we are going to be judged for our relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you are not trusting Him, and Him alone, for forgiveness and deliverance from your sin, then you will spend eternity in the Lake of Fire.

If your name is not written in His Book of Life, it means that you will die the second death.

And if you don’t love Him, worship Him, and want to glorify His name, it means that you are kidding yourself about His salvation.

Secondly, the rest of the Lord’s books are going to be opened, and we shall be judged out of the things which are written in those books.

Our works shall be judged whether they are good or bad; gold, silver and precious stones or wood, hay and stubble.

And we won’t have the opportunity to explain, justify or embellish what those perfect records will say.

God’s judgments will be accurate and final.

There will be no appeals or repeals.

And so the points of application are these:

You need to humbly bow before Christ Jesus, and you need to do it today; right now.

You need to do it before you stand in judgment.

You need to confess the fact that you are sinner and that your only hope for life is Christ.

You need to repent of your sin and trust the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice for sin.

And secondly, there is no better time to start really serving God, than right now.

He is aware of every sin that you commit.

He is aware of every opportunity that you have to glorify His name, whether you do so or not.

And these things will be brought up against you some day.

Your salvation from sin depends on what Christ Jesus accomplished on the cross.

But in some limited ways some of your future joy is related to what you are doing with your life today.