The Smell of the Courtroom: The Gospel vs. Flattery and Lies Text: Acts 24:1-9
Introduction: The Politics of Envy
We come now to another scene in the ongoing collision between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of men. And what we find here is a master class in the tactics of the enemy. When the gospel advances, it does not do so in a sterile, academic environment. It advances into a world full of political maneuvering, backroom deals, personal ambition, and raw, seething hatred for the truth. The apostle Paul is not in a debating hall; he is in a courtroom, which is a very different kind of place. And his accusers are not interested in truth; they are interested in a conviction. By any means necessary.
This scene with Felix the governor is a stark illustration of what happens when a corrupt religious establishment, having lost all spiritual authority, seeks to co-opt the power of a corrupt secular state to silence the gospel. The Jewish leadership could not defeat Paul in the synagogues with Scripture and reason, so they have resorted to hiring a slick, pagan lawyer to defeat him in a Roman court with flattery and lies. This is what envy does. Envy cannot create, so it seeks to destroy. It cannot build, so it hires wrecking balls. The high priest Ananias and the elders are the spiritual descendants of Cain, who murdered his brother because his own works were evil and his brother's righteous.
Pay close attention to the strategy employed by their attorney, Tertullus. It is a strategy as old as the serpent in the garden and as current as this morning's headlines. It involves three key components: unctuous flattery of the powerful, vague but serious-sounding charges against the righteous, and a complete distortion of the facts. This is the devil's playbook. He is the accuser of the brethren, and he has no new material. We must study these tactics, not simply for historical interest, but because the same spirit that animated Ananias and Tertullus is still very much at work in our world, seeking to discredit and destroy the faithful witness of the church.
But in the midst of this swamp of political sycophancy and slander, the apostle Paul stands as a rock. He is the representative of a different kingdom, a different king, and a different law. And as we shall see when we get to his defense, he does not play their game. He does not return flattery for flattery or slander for slander. He speaks the truth plainly, reasonably, and without fear. This is our model. We are not called to be clever political operators. We are called to be faithful witnesses to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, which is the ultimate fact of history that turns all human courtrooms into temporary, and ultimately irrelevant, sideshows.
The Text
Now 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. And after Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, "As we have attained much peace through you, and because by your provision reforms are being carried out for this nation, we welcome this in every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, with all thankfulness. But, that I may not weary you any further, I plead with you by your forbearance to hear us briefly. 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.” And the Jews also joined in the attack, asserting that these things were so.
(Acts 24:1-9 LSB)
The Hired Gun and His Greasy Oration (vv. 1-4)
The scene is set with a sense of urgency and determination on the part of Paul's enemies.
"Now 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. And after Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, 'As we have attained much peace through you, and because by your provision reforms are being carried out for this nation, we welcome this in every way and everywhere, most excellent Felix, with all thankfulness. But, that I may not weary you any further, I plead with you by your forbearance to hear us briefly.'" (Acts 24:1-4 LSB)
Notice who comes down from Jerusalem. The high priest himself, Ananias, along with some elders. This is the A-team. They are not delegating this. Paul is such a threat to their entire system of corrupt power that the highest religious official in the land makes the two-day journey to Caesarea to see to his prosecution personally. And they have come prepared. They have hired a professional, an attorney named Tertullus. This is a Roman name, and he was likely a Roman orator skilled in the arts of legal rhetoric. The Jews, knowing they are in a Roman court, have hired a man who can speak the language of Roman power.
And Tertullus opens his case with a torrent of the most shameless flattery you could imagine. He praises Felix for the "much peace" and the "reforms" he has brought. This is, to put it mildly, a grotesque lie. The historian Tacitus tells us that Felix governed with "every kind of cruelty and lust," exercising the power of a king with the mind of a slave. He was notoriously corrupt and violent. He had suppressed several uprisings with extreme brutality. The "peace" Tertullus speaks of was the peace of a graveyard, achieved through ruthless force. Tertullus is buttering him up, laying it on thick, because that is what you do with tyrants. You praise their vices as virtues. You call their oppression "peace" and their heavy-handedness "provision."
This is the language of the courtier, the sycophant. It is the opposite of the prophetic voice. A prophet tells the king what he needs to hear; a flatterer tells him what he wants to hear. And why? Because the flatterer wants something from the king. Tertullus is not interested in justice; he is interested in currying favor with Felix to get the verdict his clients have paid for. He is an ancient lobbyist, and the currency is lies and adulation. This entire introduction, with its talk of "most excellent Felix" and "all thankfulness," is a nauseating spectacle. It is the smell of a corrupt court, where truth is not the goal, but rather the manipulation of power.
He concludes his oily introduction by asking Felix to hear them "briefly." This is another rhetorical trick. He is pretending to be considerate of the governor's time, while simultaneously preparing to unload a series of character assassinations that he hopes will be swift and decisive.
The Trinity of Slander (v. 5)
Having sufficiently flattered the judge, Tertullus now turns to the defendant and unleashes a three-pronged accusation.
"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." (Acts 24:5 LSB)
Each of these charges is carefully crafted to alarm a Roman governor. The first charge is personal: "we have found this man a real pest." The Greek word is loimos, which means a plague or a pestilence. This is pure ad hominem. It's not an argument; it's name-calling. They are painting Paul as a public nuisance, a walking infection, a social disease. This is designed to dehumanize him and prejudice the judge against him from the outset.
The second charge is political: he "stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout the world." Now this is a serious charge for a Roman official. The one thing Rome could not tolerate was insurrection or civil unrest. The Pax Romana, the Roman Peace, was maintained by crushing any threat to public order. By accusing Paul of being a global agitator, an international rabble-rouser, Tertullus is trying to frame him as a threat to the stability of the empire. Of course, the charge is a lie. Paul did not stir up dissension; the gospel he preached often revealed the dissension that was already there in men's hearts. It was the Jews who consistently started the riots in every city Paul visited, and now they are projecting their own sin onto him. This is classic. The arsonist blames the fireman.
The third charge is religious, but with a political edge: he is "a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." By calling Christianity a "sect," Tertullus is attempting to portray it as a breakaway, illegitimate, and unrecognized splinter group. Judaism was a religio licita, a legal religion in the Roman Empire. The Jews had certain protections. Tertullus is arguing that Paul's movement is not authentic Judaism, but rather a new, unauthorized, and therefore illegal, cult. And by calling them "Nazarenes," he is using a term of contempt, linking them to the despised town of Nazareth. He is essentially telling Felix, "This isn't a recognized religion. This is a dangerous, upstart personality cult, and this man is its leader." The implication is that Felix can shut it down without any legal complications.
The Distorted Incident and the Chorus of Liars (vv. 6-9)
Finally, Tertullus presents his one piece of "evidence," which is a complete fabrication of what actually happened in Jerusalem.
"And he even tried to desecrate the temple; and then we arrested him... By examining him yourself concerning all these matters you will be able to ascertain the things of which we accuse him.” And the Jews also joined in the attack, asserting that these things were so." (Acts 24:6, 8b-9 LSB)
The charge of trying to desecrate the temple was the original accusation that started the riot in Jerusalem (Acts 21:28). It was based on a false assumption and was entirely untrue. But it was a potent charge, as it combined religious sacrilege with an offense against the Jewish people. Tertullus presents this as the climax of Paul's villainy. He then proceeds to lie about the arrest. He says, "we arrested him." This is false. A mob tried to lynch him. He says they wanted to judge him by their own law, but the commander Lysias came with "much violence" and took him away. This is a masterful spin. He portrays the Jews as calmly and legally handling a problem, and the Roman commander as the violent intruder who disrupted their lawful process. The truth was the exact opposite: the Jews were a murderous mob, and Lysias rescued Paul from being beaten to death.
Tertullus is telling Felix a story in which the Jews are the victims of Roman overreach, hoping to play on any existing tensions between the governor and his military subordinates. He concludes by inviting Felix to interrogate Paul, confident that his web of lies has so thoroughly poisoned the well that any testimony from Paul will be interpreted in the worst possible light.
And to cap it all off, we have the chorus of confirmation in verse 9: "And the Jews also joined in the attack, asserting that these things were so." The high priest and the elders all nod along. "Yes, yes, that's exactly how it happened." It is a united front of falsehood. When the leadership of a people abandons God, they become capable of the most brazen and coordinated dishonesty. They have rejected the one who is the Truth, and so they have no ground to stand on but lies.
Conclusion: The Unflappable Kingdom
This is the case for the prosecution. It is a textbook example of how the world operates when it sets itself against Christ and His church. It is a mixture of bootlicking flattery, personal slander, political fear-mongering, and bold-faced lies. And it is all done under the guise of law, order, and public decency.
We should not be surprised when we see these same tactics deployed against the church today. When faithful Christians are called bigots, haters, a public nuisance, a threat to peace and progress, this is simply Tertullus getting new clients. When our beliefs are misrepresented and our motives are maligned in the public square, this is simply the high priest and his elders nodding along, "asserting that these things were so."
But the story does not end here. Paul will get his turn to speak. And when he does, he will not stoop to their level. He will not flatter the corrupt judge. He will not engage in slander. He will simply bear witness to the truth of the gospel and the hope of the resurrection. He knows that he is not ultimately standing before Felix. He is standing before King Jesus, the judge of all the earth.
And that is our confidence as well. We live and move and have our being in a world full of Felixes and Tertulluses. But they do not have the last word. Their power is temporary, their courts are passing away, and their judgments will be overturned by the one who holds all authority in heaven and on earth. Therefore, we are not to be intimidated by the accusations of the world. We are to be faithful, to speak the truth in love, and to rest in the knowledge that the ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes has already won the case. He has risen from the dead, and because He lives, we shall live also. The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever. And all the greasy orations of all the hired guns in the world cannot change that one, glorious fact.