Almost Persuaded....

It has been 14 years since Watergate. Fourteen years since our nation was mired in that two-year long crisis of confidence in leadership. At the time it was all happening, many of you prayed that somehow, something good would come out of it. And something did. Lives were changed. People who fell from the great heights of power found out that there was more to life. And so you have a Chuck Colson, who met the Lord Jesus Christ and has become, in the years since, one of the leading spokesmen for the evangelical community in America and the leader of a dynamic ministry to prison inmates. You have a Jeb Stuart Magruder, who has given his life to bringing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the youth of our nation. And now, wonder of wonders, Gordon Liddy has become a Christian too.

Gordon Liddy was a tough former FBI agent who became a White House aide to the President. From that position he headed up the team that sought to discredit the opponents of Richard Nixon. They operated inside and outside the law, using and respecting only one thing - power. Eventually they were caught planting electronic bugs in the Democratic National Headquarters, and the rest is history.

Liddy was the most unrepentant of the Watergate characters. He was sentenced to 21 years in jail for his part in the break-in. When Chuck Colson visited him in his prison cell and asked him if he had seen the light, Liddy replied “No, I’m not even looking for the switch.” Liddy only had to serve four years of his sentence. When he was released, he was in great demand on the lecture circuit and on tv talkshows. He wrote books and became a successful businessman. He was even accorded a role playing a macho character on Miami Vice. People were fascinated by his hard-nosed, strong-willed approach to life. Going to prison barely even broke his stride. On the day he was released, Liddy gave a statement to reporters in German. He was quoting from Nietzsche, the philosopher who venerated the will to power as the highest of human goals.

Recently Gordon Liddy renewed a friendship with some former FBI colleagues who just happened to be Christians. He respected their lifestyle, but he had no interest in their beliefs. He felt he had no need for God in his life. But because he regarded his colleagues as sharp, together people, he became interested in studying the Bible. In the process of doing this, Gordon Liddy came to realize that the Bible is God’s revelation to us, and that Jesus Christ is God’s Son, our Savior. Liddy became a Christian. Now, this former disciple of Nietzsche starts each day by seeking to know God’s will. He says “I have an almost 57 year history of doing what I want, what my will wants, and I have to break out of that habit into trying to do the will of God.”

Jesus Christ changes people. But for every Gordon Liddy who meets Christ and is changed forever, there is someone who meets Christ and turns away - people who hear Christ knocking at the door of their lives and cover their ears. We’re going to look at four of them today. We read of their stories in the book of Acts, chapters 24 and 25. They were all people of high standing, members of the privileged class in a hard and cruel Roman Empire. They all came in contact with Jesus Christ through the life of the Apostle Paul.

Acts 24 and 25 cover a period of two years in the life of Paul. He had gone to Jerusalem and while there had gone to the Temple to pray. The Jews recognized him and seized him on the charge that he had taught people against the Jews and their Law and that he had profaned the Temple by bringing a Gentile into it. The crowd broke into a frenzy and they would have killed Paul then and there were it not for the fact that he was rescued by a detachment of Roman soldiers sent to quell the riot.

He was eventually taken to Caesarea, the Roman headquarters in Judea. There he would stand trial before Antonius Felix, the Roman governor of the province. The trial was held, but Felix did not come to a verdict on the case because he felt he needed more evidence. So he held Paul under house arrest in Caesarea for the next two years, hoping that Paul’s friends would come up with a bribe for his release, but fearing the Jews’ reaction if he did in fact release him. During this time, Felix often had conversations with Paul.

Felix was recalled to Rome and replaced by a man named Porcius Festus, who among other problems he inherited from Felix, had to decide what to do with Paul. The Jews, hoping to take advantage of the inexperience of the new governor, asked that Paul be transferred to the jurisdiction of the Sanhedrin for a trial in Jerusalem. What they were really planning to do was to assassinate Paul as he was being transferred. Festus, to his credit, refused to be stampeded by the Jews. He held a preliminary hearing and asked Paul if he was willing to have his case heard in Jerusalem. Paul said “No way. I appeal to Caesar to hear my case.” As a Roman citizen, Paul had the right to demand that his case be heard by the Imperial Court in Rome. This was something of a relief to Festus because now he was able to pass the buck on to Caesar and get rid of this character.

But one thing remained for Festus to do. He had to send along to Rome a written opinion on the case, and to do that, he needed more facts. So he called for another hearing with Paul, this time without the Jews present. Because Festus was a Roman and new to the area, he brought in some expert help in the person of Herod Agrippa II, who was a half-Jew and very familiar with Jewish laws and customs. Agrippa brought along his sister Bernice for the hearing. They were there to help Festus write up his report to Caesar.

Each of these four individuals heard Paul deliver his defence and his testimony of faith in Jesus Christ. The record in Acts indicates that Paul spoke very powerfully and eloquently on these occasions, and that his hearers were under the conviction of the Gospel. Why did they not become Christians? To understand that, you have to understand a little more about each of these people.

Felix

Marcus Antonius Felix was a survivor, a cat with nine lives. He was an opportunist, a man on the make. There was no way that he should have been sitting in the governor’s chair, because Felix was born a slave. He and his brother Pallas had been slaves in the household of Antonia, the mother of Claudius Caesar. For some reason they had been granted their freedom, however, and Pallas had risen to the rank of Secretary of the Treasury of the Roman Empire. From that powerful position he was able to influence the Emperor’s appointments and that is how his brother Felix, a man of much lower abilities, came to be the governor of Judea. It didn’t hurt his career that Felix married a Jewish woman named Drusilla, who just happened to be Herod Agrippa’s sister. So Felix, the former slave, had come a long way.

Unfortunately, his tenure as governor was not distinguished. Under his rule, the Jews began to foment rebellion. His administration was characterized by graft and corruption. The Roman historian Tacitus wrote of Felix that he exercised the power of a king with the mind of a slave. Felix, you see, was not one to let his scruples get in the way of a little profit. So it is that we read in Acts…

Acts 24:22 Then Felix, who was well acquainted with the Way, adjourned the proceedings… He ordered the centurion to keep Paul under guard but to give him some freedom and permit his friends to take care of his needs. Several days later Felix came with his wife Drusilla, who was a Jewess. He sent for Paul and listened to him as he spoke about faith in Christ Jesus. As Paul discoursed on righteousness, self-control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, “That’s enough for now! You may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you.” At the same time he was hoping that Paul would offer him a bribe, so he sent for him frequently and talked with him.

Felix was a man who saw everything in terms of what was in it for him. Personal gain was his credo in living. He tried to play all the angles. He cut corners to come out ahead. Maybe that’s why he got uncomfortable when Paul talked about righteousness, and self-control, and ultimate judgment before God. There are people like Felix today. They just want to get ahead in life and they don’t care what that does to their personal integrity. Self becomes their king.

Well it eventually caught up with Felix. He was recalled to Rome for misgovernment. Normally he would have been executed, but even there that old cat got away. He was spared because of his brother and because of his wife. He lived out his life in obscurity and disgrace. But one day he will face a Judge who will not let him off, and who will ask him “What have you done with Jesus Christ?”

Festus

Felix was succeeded as governor of Judea by a man named Porcius Festus. We do not know this man’s background or career, but we do know that he was a man of integrity. Probably that is why he was appointed to succeed Felix. He became a prudent, able governor and his administration was perhaps the best that the Romans brought to that troubled province. Under his regime, the Jewish underground terrorist movement was subdued. As we read in the book of Acts, Festus showed reasonable, sound judgment in his treatment of Paul’s case. He refused to be forced into hasty action. He took all the proper steps. He went by the book. He inherited a messy situation and brought order out of it.

If Felix was an opportunist, Festus was a rationalist. He believed in reason and order. He was a solid administrator who had built a good reputation of public service. So why did this man reject the Gospel?

Probably because in his ordered, structured, rational mind there was no room for the supernatural. When Paul spoke to him of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Festus responded by crying out

“You are out of your mind, Paul! Your great learning is driving you insane.”

You see, when a person learns to live on brains and logic, on the power of the human mind to figure things out, he develops a blind spot. He no longer is open to consider the supernatural dimension of life. He refuses to acknowledge that it exists. All there is for him is reason, that which can be deduced through the senses. Perhaps this was why Festus refused to consider what Paul was saying. But notice how Paul responds to him…

Acts 26:25 “I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “What I am saying is true and reasonable. The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner.

Paul is saying that he didn’t pull these assertions about the resurrection out of thin air. He didn’t make this story up. The truth of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is based on historically verifiable facts - it was not done in a corner. It is both true and reasonable. The rationalist must realize that his confidence in human reason is misplaced. That there are things which are true that are beyond the power of the human mind to discern. Festus never realized this.

Bernice

She is the silent one in this story. Bernice was a woman in her late twenties, a beautiful but dangerous creature. As she sat there listening quietly to Paul, you would never guess that Bernice happened to be the subject of the choicest bit of gossip in the Empire. She was the daughter of Herod Agrippa I, the sister of Agrippa II who sat by her side listening to Paul. They had another sister Drusilla who had married Felix. Bernice had been married twice already and now she was a widow. But she was now having an incestuous affair with her brother Agrippa II, and that is why she was the talk of the Empire. In order to keep the gossip down to a dull roar, Bernice wed the king of Cilicia, but she soon dumped him and went back to her brother. Several years later, the two of them moved to Rome, where Bernice became the mistress of Titus, the Roman general who sacked Jerusalem in 70 AD.

So Bernice was a manipulator - a person who used people for her own ends. People who are manipulators become hardened and insensitive. Whether she was the least bit convicted by Paul’s testimony we do not know. All we do know is that she never changed her lifestyle. Bernice was like the hard ground in the parable of the soils. Trampled down by the world, the seed of the Word of God makes no impression. It just lays there and the birds of the air come and take it away.

Agrippa II

Agrippa is called a king because the Romans let him be one. He ruled over a portion of territory north and east of Galilee. The Romans found it convenient to have a half-Jew front for them in this turbulent area. Agrippa, like all the Herod family before him, played both ends of the political spectrum. He tried his best to stay on good terms with his Jewish subjects while at the same time pleasing his Roman masters.

For a politician, Agrippa became quite an authority on Jewish religious matters. The Roman governors like Festus regularly consulted him for his opinion on questions of Jewish law and customs. He was well-versed in the Old Testament Law and Prophets. Paul recognized this when he said to him…

Acts 26:27 “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”

But Agrippa was a lot like Henry VIII of England. In spite of the fact that Henry was an amateur theologian, he did whatever he pleased. The truth made no impact on his morals. That was Agrippa. He was a religionist, a man who used religion to hide his sin. Though Agrippa knew the Word of God, he went ahead and did whatever he wanted to. He never let the truth speak to the center of his being. Religion for him was just a hobby, an interesting diversion, a game that he played. When Paul began to challenge him, he just laughed it off by saying…

“Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?”

Agrippa had become so used to living with contradictions that he saw no problem with doing it in the most important area of his life. He was a Jewish king who was in bed with the Romans, and he was a religious man who was in bed with his sister.

Each of these four individuals was playing a game that kept them from meeting Jesus Christ:

For Felix, it was the game of selfish opportunity.

For Festus, it was the game of proud reason.

For Bernice, it was the game of manipulation.

For Agrippa, it was the game of religion.

Gordon Liddy played a game called “Willpower” for the first 57 years of his life. The only difference was that he was willing to abandon his game to meet Jesus.