Acts 24:24-27

Acts 24:24

The Character of Felix.

Felix was not a man altogether ignorant of the religion which Paul preached; he is, on the other hand, spoken of as one who had a more perfect knowledge of that way that is, of the religion of Christ. Felix' heart was not wholly hardened; his conscience not wholly seared; he was a man who had sinned grievously, who sinned against light and knowledge, and therefore was, so to speak, on the high road to utter hardness and blindness of heart; but he had not arrived at that condition yet if he had he would not have trembled when Paul spoke of judgment to come. And we must also remark, that although Felix was not ignorant of the claims of the gospel, and was not utterly beyond hope as being spiritually dead, still he was able to make the warnings of St. Paul utterly useless. Felix trembled, but he did nothing more; his mind was disturbed as by the sudden gust of a storm, but there was no abiding impression, no deep, lasting effect; and so the storm passed over, and he rested in his sins unchanged. We gather these lessons from his story:

I. Is it not a besetting sin of us all to be afraid or to be too idle to look into our consciences to examine our acts, our thoughts, our words, and see whether in each day they have been such as God will approve? Is it not, in fact, the very tendency of fallen man ever to follow the example of his first parents and hide himself from the searching eye of God?

II. Again, are there not many who listen weekly to sermons, and in them hear Christ's ministers, as Felix heard St. Paul, "concerning the faith of Christ," who yet are none the better for what they hear?

III. Again, is there nothing Felix-like in the manner in which people very often treat this warning of God, which more clearly than any human words speaks of righteousness, temperance, and a judgment to come?

IV. May we not see in Felix generally a type of want of seriousness in religion? His was a character wanting in deep solemn feeling, wanting in judgment as to the value of things, unable to see for more than a transient moment the awfulness of these thoughts, which made him tremble when they were uttered by St. Paul. Felix must for ever be a type a many within the Christian Church.

Bishop Harvey Goodwin, Parish Sermons,vol. ii., p. 182.

Reference: Acts 24:24. J. Fraser, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xvii., p. 385.