Alarmed by Reason

Acts 24 Our journey through the book of Acts takes us to the point where Paul has reached Jerusalem, was the center of a dangerous riot, was rescued by the Roman army, taken for his safety to Caesarea, and now stands on trial before the Roman governor named Felix. Felix is the character we will focus on because his response to the message about Jesus is typical of the responses many people have in 21st-century America—people in America, people in NH, probably people right here this morning. Of course, we have already seen in Acts different ways people responded: some felt offended by the message that a crucified man would be the king, and so were enraged; others thought it was ridiculous that a dead person would come alive again, and so responded with amused scorn. But Felix’s reaction was neither rage nor scorn, instead, as 24:24 tells us, he “was alarmed and said, “Go away for the present. When I get an opportunity I will summon you.” (NLT: “When it is more convenient, I will call for you again.”) Felix’s response is the response of a procrastinator—a person who puts something off until later. I think we can be honest with ourselves for a moment about our tendency to procrastinate. You might have seen the T-shirt or sign that says in bold, confident letters, “Procrastinators unite! . . . Tomorrow.” We all procrastinate about some things some of the time. But I’m not talking mostly about the all-too-human tendency to put off some task we know we must do—that thank you note, that employee performance review, filing your taxes, writing that research paper, updating your will. It would be a failure on my part if someone went away thinking I gave you some advice on time management and how to get things done! No, I’m talking about our tendency to push off into some indefinite date some decision we know we must make in light of the fact that Jesus of Nazareth is the King and Savior of the world. I’m talking about procrastinating in your response to King Jesus. Now, at the outset please resist the urge to think I’m talking about someone else. It’s too easy for us to sit here and nod and say Amen on behalf of someone we think really needs to hear this. The fact is responding to Jesus as King and Savior is something every person in this room must do, and which every person in this room has a tendency to say, “Later, later.” So let us, for a moment, see in Felix a mirror of ourselves. We will look at (1) the method of a procrastinator, (2) the crisis of a procrastinator, and (3) the hope for a procrastinator.