Claudius Lysias

Then he wrote this letter to the governor.

From Claudius Lysias to His Excellency, Governor Felix.

Greetings.

This man was seized by some Jews and they were about to kill him when I arrived with the troops.

So he went there and sure enough, I mean, the mom tried to kill him.

He was really rescued by Claudius Lysias, the commander of the Roman army there.

He was taken in and then there was a plot to kill him.

So then the commander commanded that there be several hundred troops that would take him by night from Jerusalem to Caesarea, which was a beautiful Roman city considered by the Jews to be a pagan city.

This was a theological question rather than a crime against Roman or Jewish law.

Felix deferred or called a temporary halt to the proceeding until the chief captain Claudius Lysias could come, although no indication was given that he was actually coming.

This ploy was basically to buy time because Felix feared that releasing Paul would cause a riot among the Jews.

He kept Paul in prison hoping for a bribe, and when Festus came to take over, he left Paul bound to please the Jews.

So he tells his soldiers, go ahead and arrest Paul in order to save his life so that I could hear what's going on in this man's life.

Now, this Roman man, this Roman commander's name was Claudius Lysias, all right? And he notices quickly how the crowd moves.

All right, listen, kids.

Listen, kids in this room, don't always be so eager to follow what the crowd is doing.

All right, Paul's journey from Jerusalem to Rome would roughly take about two or three years, But again, along the way, God is gonna place him in front of very important people to share the gospel.

And so I wanna quickly kind of explain who these people are and what God did, because it gets very interesting.

Now, the first one, we just talked about him, the Roman commander, Claudius Lysias.

Now again, Claudius didn't care about a revival, right? You understand that? He did not care about a church service.

And he wrote a letter to this effect.

Claudius Lysias to his excellency, the governor Felix, greetings.

This man was seized by the Jews and was about to be killed by them when I came upon them with the soldiers and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman citizen.

And desiring to know the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their council.

But Felix, having a rather accurate knowledge of the way, Put them off.

Saying when Lysias the Tribune comes down, I will decide your case.

He does not lack information.

He's lived there for years.

He has complete power to solve this right now.

But what does he do? He delays.

Why? What he says is, we'll wait for Lysias, the military commander in Jerusalem, to come.

That's a one-day trip.

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.' [coughs] The Jews also joined in the attack, asserting that these things were so.

When the governor had nodded for him to speak, Paul responded: 'Knowing that for many years you have been a judge to this nation I cheerfully make my defense.

Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings, in which they found me occupied in the temple, having been purified without any crowd or uproar.

But there were some Jews from Asia who ought to have been present before you and to make accusation if they should have anything against me.

Or else let these men themselves tell what misdeed they found when I stood before the council, other than for this one statement which I shouted out while standing among them, "For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today!"' But Felix, having a more exact knowledge about the Way," about Christianity, that is, "put them off, saying, 'When Lysias the commander comes down, I will decide your case.' Then he gave orders to the centurion for him to be kept in custody and yet have some freedom, and not to prevent any of his friends from ministering to him.

But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla his wife, who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus.