Paul before Felix

Good morning. We're going to be taking this passage step by step, Acts 24, 1 through 27, basically completing the chapter all today here. And I could wish at times that I had a pair of shakers up here when I was giving the message, but they've got to go. So anyway, we'll go ahead and proceed through the passage one step at a time here.

You have here on the screen, as well as on the top of your handout, the map of where the Apostle Paul had been brought by seventy Roman soldier horsemen, cavalrymen as they were often called, from Jerusalem to Caesarea. One of the things, you know, you've heard about Paul Revere's midnight ride. How about the Apostle Paul's midnight ride, right? So this is one of those. You can also imagine being a soldier riding along with Paul. And here's Paul saying, you know, I know it's dark, but there's light in the world. Let me tell you about that light, you know.

And the Apostle Paul telling the soldiers near to them, and they might have been saying, hey, this is great news. They might also have been saying, I can't wait till this ride is over, depending on their viewpoint. So here the Apostle Paul had made this ride.

He had spent several days in Caesarea after having first arrived in order to come to trial. So Paul had this trial that was set when the Jewish leaders would come and plead their case before Felix. And I think it's important as we look at this for us to understand Paul's state of mind and heart as he comes to this trial. Paul has been told in advance for months at least about the difficulties to come in Jerusalem, that he would be made captive and that he would go under some difficult circumstances.

He continued to get that message from believers with the gift of prophecy, who revealed that to him along the way. He had asked the believers to pray that he'd be rescued, and this was certainly made known in the book of Romans, chapter 15, where he asked the believers in Rome to pray that he would be rescued. And as we saw previously, he was in fact rescued to the Word by the Roman commander and his orders, and so those prayers were answered by Felix's command and demand. This was Herod's palace at Caesarea. It would be a place where he would be given a prison cell, but with some liberty to move around and to have visitors, which was very good.

The Romans did not take it as their responsibility for daily maintenance of their prisoners. You'd better have family and friends while you're in prison or you're going to be in a very bad way. It was not their responsibility to bring fresh change of clothes. It was not their responsibility to bring food. The Romans did not consider that their job.

So especially as Paul is going to spend, as we see, two years in this prison cell in the Herod's Palace, the Praetorium. It is a good thing that he's got friends, and he has allowed friends to come and visit at will during his time there. This would be kind of inside the inner plaza there, and so you get an idea of what kind of facilities that would offer him and even the guests coming to visit.

So not only did Paul desire to go to Rome, that's what he had expressed actually in the first and in the 15th chapter of the book of Romans, just a few months before this, the Lord Jesus had stood by him just five days earlier, five days before this trial began. stood by him just five days earlier assuring him that he would be the Lord's witness in Rome. Just as you have been my witness in Jerusalem, so you shall also be in Rome. So isn't that great for Paul to be able to go through all these different threatening circumstances and to have assurance from the Lord Himself face-to-face. Well, wouldn't that be great? The Lord's assurance face-to-face that he is going to get there. He's going to make it. As the trial date came closer, June 9th, 57 AD, it would be easy to imagine Paul getting anxious. Would you be? Well, I think it would be easy to figure that. I think, however, Paul was not, because Paul did not walk that lonesome valley.

You know, that folk song, I've seen it recorded on gospel albums and people perform it and all that. That idea that we've got to walk that lonesome valley is pure horse feathers. It's rubbish. It's nonsense. It's malarkey. Don't you believe it for a minute. You do not. It is not God's intent that you walk that lonesome valley. If you take it with that mindset, God will not be pleased. That is not God's intent. You are not to walk that lonesome valley instead.

Paul had in mind to come to Rome via Jerusalem at least months in advance with the blessing of Christ, Romans 15. Look at Romans 15 22 through 33 and he has this with the blessing of the Christ and the will of God And he asked at least the believers in Rome to pray and I would say that's a minimum He probably asked all the believers along the way to pray. Okay, please pray for me because I want to be rescued from those who are disobedient and And I want to get to see the believers in Rome and carry on ministry with them. So please pray for me and alongside me and with me in that regard. No doubt others along the way in Jerusalem and in Jerusalem were praying too.

What we don't hear as we read this account in Acts is about what all the other believers were doing. But can you imagine? They were very likely praying and with intensity for Paul. not really having great access to him, but knowing Paul just got snatched. Paul just got snatched from certain death at the hands of this Jewish mob, and we don't know what's happening, we don't know the details, but we'll bring it to the Lord. Paul fellowshiped with the Lord constantly in this because he wanted to go to Rome with what? with the blessing of Christ and in the will of God, he trusted the Lord step by step from one day to the next.

Matter of fact, that may not be often enough, right? Even hour by hour might not be often enough. Moment by moment, one moment to the next. Also have something to introduce to you. This is the Felix and Drusilla story We won't go into it just yet But the Felix and Drusilla story is some combination of the song I am my own grandpa and do you believe in magic? Okay, and we'll go into that more detail But anyway, the family tree is fascinating more than that it Some places it's fascinating, other places it's disgusting, but we'll be taking a look at that not too long.

I don't want you to get nauseated before noon. Okay? All right. So here's Acts 24, 1 through 9. Now, this has already been read, so I'm actually not going to go into immense detail about it and reading through every point, because there are other places where we will want to go through the details, but not here.

This is, so after five days, the high priest Ananias came with some elders and these were probably both Pharisee and Sadducee leaders. They came along with a Roman attorney named Tertullus. And so they brought Paul there along with the Jewish leaders and this Roman attorney Tertullus. And Tertullus began to accuse Paul, but first he had to go through several verses of buttering up Felix. It was all lies, but he buttered them up nonetheless. And then he goes on with verse 5 into verse 9 with the various falsified, twisted, and distorted accusations.

When you hear the name Tertullus, you may be thinking of a herd of turtles. That's fine. He didn't come across as a herd of turtles, but might have done just as well. Because by hiring Tertullus, the leaders of the Jews showed that they were serious.

They intended to have the Apostle Paul come to his end as a result of this trial. Either Tertullus was not told the truth, or he decided to twist the facts to put a better face on them for the sake of the trial before Felix. He used flattery on Felix, which was all lies.

It was completely bogus. Nothing he said was true, and as a matter of fact, Felix was presented, according to Tertullus, as being this fellow that the Jews were thankful for, and he did all these nice things. Anything but. Not at all true. Felix was nasty and horrible and cruel to the Jews. You don't get that impression reading the introduction by Tertullus.

Stirring up the Jews was chronic. That was his complaint against Paul. So everybody stirred up the Jews. And by this time, Claudius, the emperor, had already kicked the Jews out of Rome. Why? Because they got stirred up in Rome. And there were several other major cities where the Jews got stirred up before this event. So stirring up the Jews, what else is new? The Jews were getting stirred up in Israel, and what ultimately came as a total rebellion against the Romans in 66 AD, this was right on track. The Jews were getting stirred up, and even more so, and Felix was one of the guys getting stirred up. Next, Paul did not desecrate the temple. That accusation was completely false.

Of course, Tertullus didn't provide any details, because in the details it would all fall apart anyway. Next, the Jews' temple guard did not arrest Paul, as Tertullus claimed. No, it was not an arrest of the temple guard by official action. Instead, it was just a mob acting by rumor that happened to be false. Paul did not bring a Gentile into the inner fold of the temple there. And lastly, the Roman commander Claudius Lysias did not take Paul from the temple guard with, as he put it, much violence. That's bogus, that's false, it's malarkey. It was in fact a matter of, here is a mob, and in answer to prayer, Claudius Lysias rescued Paul, but there's no evidence that any Jew was killed or even injured in the process.

Tertullo's claim was completely bogus. A couple other things, the law of Moses required two or three witnesses and Roman law also would have required at least two witnesses. So actually the Roman law and the law of the Jews was quite in harmony on this point. So how many witnesses did Tertullo's present? Exactly zero. None. Not a zilch. No witnesses. Was he in compliance with the law of Moses? No. Was he in compliance with Roman law? No. Was this going to work with Felix? No. Not happening.

In Acts 24.10-21, and again we won't be looking at all the detail there, The Apostle Paul begins making his presentation, and of course the governor, Felix in this case, had to grant each person to speak and not speak. And so Paul begins, as did Tertullus, with a positive statement, but not just empty flattery. And so he says, when the governor had nodded for him to speak, Paul responded, knowing that for many years you have been a judge to this nation.

Was that fact? Yes. And I cheerfully make my defense. Was that fact? Yes. No buttering up, but it's a positive statement. So then he goes on to make his presentation on into what we count there as verse 21. So we're going to look at a summary of Paul's defense here. Paul claimed to be a faithful, law-abiding Jew. Was that true? Yes. Who did not stir up any unrest. Was that true? Yes. As had been claimed, but served the God of the Jews. Was that true?

Yes, it's true. and he believed in the entire Old Testament as did the Pharisees the Sadducees by the way did not they believed in the first five books of Moses so far as they could allow for it because they were skeptical of angels which are included in the first five books of Moses right and miracles which are included in the first five books of Moses And so there was a problem with that. And there was evidence, as Jesus later told them, of the resurrection. I am the God, present tense, of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So he believed in the entire Old Testament as did the Pharisees. And any Pharisees present would have said, yeah, we agree with that.

Paul also truthfully pointed out that the Jews didn't even bring one witness against him. Not a single one. Even though they should have, and he makes the point, they should have brought witnesses according to Jewish law, according to Roman law, according to anything that makes any sense at all, they should have brought witnesses. They didn't. And these witnesses should have been those from Ephesus who apparently had carried on this false rumor if the charges were true and none of them showed up. They produced not one witness breaking Jewish and Roman law.

Some of the very biblical things that came out here in Paul's testimony. He made a number of very biblical points and we'll summarize that. Paul believed in all the books of what we call the Old Testament. Did the Jews call them at this point the Old Testament? No. To them, that was the whole Testament, right? And so what we call the Old Testament, he said and openly declared, I believe in all those books. Starting from the Law, which is the first five books of Moses, all the way on to the Prophets. Continuing then through Isaiah, and through Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and all those, all the way to Malachi, the very last one. I believe in all those books.

In verses 15 and 21, so twice, Paul affirmed his belief in the physical resurrection of those who are saved, that is, the righteous, and those who are not saved, the wicked, unlike the Jews' high priest, the Sadducee, who was there present. And it makes a huge difference. That is what Paul declared in front of the Sanhedrin when he appeared before them. at the command of Claudius Lysias, and he expressed it here twice. I believe in the resurrection of the dead. In the Greco-Roman culture, it was assumed that there was no physical resurrection. Among the Jews, the most popular group was the Pharisees, who also believed in a physical resurrection. So Paul, in harmony with them, proclaimed his belief in the resurrection.

Here's Acts 24, 22, and 23, and so here I will begin reading. But Felix, having a more exact knowledge about the way, put them off, saying, When Lysias the commander comes down, so this is Claudius Lysias the commander from Jerusalem, I will decide your case.

Then he gave orders to the centurion for him to be kept in custody and yet have some freedom, not to prevent any of his friends from ministering to him. So I'm sure the centurion got on the cell phone and called Claudius Lysias and said, hey, you better come here, right? No. So he had to send a messenger. I'm not sure they sent it with quite the speed that had been used with delivering Paul, but nonetheless, they would have sent a messenger and Claudius Lysias would have come probably some days later after this event.

But here is Paul saying he's to be kept in custody. He's good to be kept in custody at the prison right there in the same palace complex, if you will, that Felix is at. Have some freedom. That is, he's free to move around, have people come. He's not just stuck in one cell, you know, chained to the wall. He was not to have any friends prohibited from ministering to him, coming to him, bringing food and clothing, especially fresh changes of clothing. Imagine two years with no changes of clothing. That would be bad. So things like that.

So Felix, however, Tertullus had spoken ill, without naming him, of the Roman commander Claudius Lysias, who had written the letter a kind of a letter or transmittal that had come with Paul and was recorded in Acts by Dr. Luke. It was recorded, by the way, verbatim right there in the Book of Acts.

Neither Claudius Lysias' letter nor Paul's testimony confirmed the claim of much violence. And while it's not mentioned, probably Claudius Lysias came and said, no, there was no much violence, nonsense. And we did not take Paul from the Temple Guard and various points he's going to correct things. Felix delayed any further action until this commander Claudius Lysias could come and be present to testify to the facts and present his own case before Felix to correct the distorted impressions that Totalus had left.

Claudius Lysias testimony and Paul's legal case before Felix are never mentioned again in this chapter or in the book of Acts. Apparently the legal case was of no import at all. Paul being a Roman citizen and not showing any hostility or being of evident danger was to be kept in custody right there in the palace complex where Felix was and the Roman guards, and he was given the freedom to have friends visit at will.

Can you imagine who some of those friends would be? We'll talk about that shortly. Not only would Paul be given a relatively better place to stay compared to being kept in just some outside prison cell, right? But friends could come and see and help him.

Dr. Luke, for example, and Philip and his family. It says he had four daughters. I assume there's a wife there that is not mentioned. The household of Cornelius. Remember that? About a decade and a half earlier, those of the house of Cornelius that Peter had introduced the gospel to those would be one Timothy would be another one who could come and visit and many others have all the believers in Jerusalem who wish to do so could make the trip to Caesarea and come and visit Paul, including any of or possibly even all of the apostles could come and see Paul there in the prison cell. Here's Acts 24-24, but some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his wife who was a Jewish, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about faith in Christ Jesus. Now we return to the Felix and Drusilla story, I am my own grandpa and do you believe in magic?

And when you look at the family tree of Herod the Not-So-Great, which we'll look at briefly here in a minute, that's really a rat's nest and a mess. It is not a simple drawing. What we'll have available shortly to you is a supplement that only shows those who are relevant to the New Testament case. In fact, that goes down to the great-grandchildren of Herod the Not-So-Great. And it only includes those who are included in the New Testament.

Herod the Not-So-Great had, the scholars argue, between nine and ten wives. And he had all sorts of different children and offspring by these nine and ten wives. And he decided to eliminate, erase any that he didn't like. But there was all sorts of crazy interactions between those generations. Drusilla was looked upon, she was sometimes nicknamed Drusilla the Beautiful. But Drusilla was Felix's third wife. Drusilla married Felix, it was her second marriage. Get this, starting at age 14. How about, how would you like to start on your second marriage at age 14? That's what she did, okay?

So, anyway, and the story does not end well. Guess where Drusilla ended up losing her life? At the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, 79 AD. That's how she died. And her son, right? Anyway, she was quite a personality. And we're going to see, although she's going to disappear from the scene in this chapter, her two siblings, who are both brother and sister and husband and wife, are going to show up in the next chapter.

Isn't that great? These are really something. Okay, so are the supplements available? If you want to take a look at that, I'll leave it to your discretion to decide whether or not you want to take a look at it. You might want to look at maybe after lunch a while. Anyway, okay. So you have this, however, in your handout just to show the immediate relationships there. The Book of Acts contains all of the relevant personalities there.

And it's Drusilla that we're talking about here. Oh, by the way, Felix gained Drusilla as a wife, who again was his third wife. Oh, by the way, one of his previous wives was a granddaughter of Anthony and Cleopatra. So to get that even more dramatic, right? So, nah, the granddaughter of Anthony and Cleopatra, that's not great enough for me. So I got to have this Drusilla, the great-granddaughter of Herod the Not-So-Great.

All right. The key thing is the Apostle Paul was given a prime number one opportunity to talk to this pair and all who were of the court, both Roman officers and soldiers assigned, and any others of the court. Paul was given the opportunity to talk about faith in Christ to all these. Amazing. As a matter of fact, if you look at it, between Felix and Drusilla, who could need to be saved even more than any of the others, right? I say that with a wink. This is astounding to hear.

Felix was aware of this movement called the Way, a Jewish sect as Tertullus had called it. It appears from what we see here, the Apostle Paul was able to present the gospel such that Felix and Drusilla and those of their court were able to hear the gospel in full.

I'm going to quickly summarize it, because I never want to assume anything. What is the gospel? The gospel is that Christ, the Son of God, and Him alone, died for our sins, yours and mine, was buried and rose again. Do you believe that? You're saved. as clear as can be. If you want to take a look at the details, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 3 and 4, lays it out very, very clearly. They had the opportunity to believe so as to be saved.

Isn't it amazing? We don't know how they responded. There isn't any evidence that they responded positively. Isn't it amazing? The Lord's grace is so fantastic that Christ would die for the sins of the whole world. Christ would die for the sins of people like Felix and Drusilla, and he'd die for the sins of Adolf Hitler and Attila the Hun and Verne Peterman. Isn't that astounding? That is amazing.

But that's the gospel, and that's the good news. And the gospel is presented even to people who would not respond. Why? Because God is immensely gracious. How do I put this? God is gracious beyond belief. That's why. That's how. Acts 24-25, but as he was discussing righteousness, that's Paul, right?

Self-control and the judgment to come, Felix became frightened. I wonder why? And said, go away for the present, and when I find time, I will summon you. And by the way, I won't find a lot of time. What's the insight into this set of things that the Apostle Paul presented and caused Felix to be afraid? I think we have the answer starting in John 16, 5-11. This is on the night before Christ is betrayed. This is on the night that we call the Last Supper.

And Jesus says this to the eleven who are gathered with him, But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you ask me where are you going. But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper, that is the Holy Spirit, will not come to you. But if I go, I will send Him to you."

It's something cut out here on me. The next part, the part I think is included on your handout. In fact, let me grab that, given that the slide dropped out. I don't know why slides do that, you know, and I don't think they have a mind of their own, but it's important enough that I get this. Turn with me to the rest of John 16, 5 through 11. This is in the bottom of page 2.

In verse 8, and he when he comes will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. Convict, we can substitute effectively the word convince. Convince the world concerning righteousness and judgment, concerning sin because they do not believe in me.

Did Felix believe? Not apparently at this point in time. Not apparent that he ever did. So what's going to happen? The Holy Spirit has a convincing and convicting ministry. And what's that going to do? Let's look at the next part. We can see exactly why Felix was frightened. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in me, and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see me, and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.

These are precisely the things that Paul presents. One more. You see in Galatians 5, 22 and 23, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The exact same word in the English and in the Greek. Against such things there is no law.

Only the Holy Spirit, you can imagine Paul telling Felix, only the Holy Spirit can produce this self-control that you desperately need, apparently. Especially the way you went after Drusilla, your third wife, by hiring a magician. You definitely need some self-control. And you're sending out teams of Roman soldiers to slaughter Jews. You need some self-control, Felix. And the only way you're going to get that is if you believe. That's it.

So, we get this. from the household of Cornelius in Acts 10 34 and 43 so this is this is Peter presenting the gospel to the household of Cornelius and the time is 41 AD so a decade and a half roughly before this event and he presents there the the gospel the same gospel in the same city also to a bunch of Romans and Roman soldiers, and he ends in verse 43 with this message.

As Peter talks in Acts 10, 43, of him all the prophets bear witness that through his name, Jesus, everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins. How many? Everyone who believes, receives forgiveness of sins, if you don't believe, you don't receive. Got it? It's real clear. If you don't believe, you don't receive. Positively stated, if you believe, you receive. It is that clear. Abundantly clear. Everyone who believes in Him, receives forgiveness of sins. Here's Acts 24, 26.

At the same time, too, he was hoping that money would be given him by Paul. Therefore, he also used to send for him quite often and converse with him. So you imagine, here he is. I'm going to try to tease some money out of this guy, Paul. And one of the reasons he might have thought that that was possible was because Paul had come with a sizable amount of money, and he'd heard about that, to the believers in Judea. So, it had been in the contributions of the churches for some, at least months, if not some years before. Remember, Paul on his third missionary journey was gone for about five years. So, a sizable amount of money had been brought by Paul and those with him to the believers in Jerusalem.

And so, Felix is thinking, hey, this guy has access to lots of money, right? Lots of money, and I'd like some of it. So he kept bringing him and conversing with him with the ideas, hoping to tease out some bribe money. Acts 24, 27, but after two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and we'll find out more about him next week, in wishing to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul imprisoned.

So why was he wanting to do the Jews a favor? Because other evidence we have was that he was nasty to the Jews. These Jews were Jews who were pro-Rome. The other Jews who opposed Rome, he was nasty to. So it's those Jews that he wanted to do a favor, the ones who had come and tried to present their case at trial.

And so he didn't have basis to charge Paul, but he just kept him there in prison. Because according to Roman law, how fast do you have to carry out justice? Not fast at all. Two years. Leave him there. keep him strung along, and we'll find out this continues on for more years as it happens.

So we ask the question, did Paul just waste time in prison? Did God appoint a situation where the Apostle Paul was just wasting time? Worse yet, we could ask the question, have you ever felt like God's wasting my time? God's kind of messing up here. In fact, I might even feel mad at God for messing me up during this time when I'm pretty sure it's just wasted.

God was grace-given the opportunity during this time to present the gospel to Felix and Drusilla and the military officers and soldiers present and the court officials At Felix Palace and prison he was given multiple opportunities to present the gospel to all of these.

Paul also fellowshiped with a number of believers. By the way, is fellowship a really good and useful thing? Absolutely. Fellowship is a great thing. And he had the opportunity to fellowship with the household of Philip that was there. with a household of Cornelius that had been there as believers for a decade and a half, and very likely had others as well.

We know that Dr. Luke was one who would have come often to visit with Paul. Others from Jerusalem would have come and could have come, even including as many as all of the apostles, except for James, John's brother. All of them could have come to see Paul, and many others. Others who were spread around in the Gentile churches could have heard and been brought to Paul during that time. Plenty of opportunity to fellowship with and have mutual ministry among those believers.

He may also have written letters from there, and would you guess, probably did. from there that we don't even have now. Paul is a prolific letter writer. Even with, we have 1st and 2nd Corinthians, you know we don't have 1st and 3rd Corinthians, we have 2nd and 4th Corinthians, right? And you put the evidence together, and those are the letters that we know about. So very likely, Paul wrote letters at this time.

There's good evidence that Christ spent time with Paul personally here, revealing fresh insights into heavenly blessing, our seating, and our heavenly citizenship. And that is why when Paul got to Rome, he could write about things that even when he wrote to Rome, just months before, he didn't mention.

The elective is going to go through this great passage in chapter 6, in studying Romans. They got this fantastic set of wonderful truths, but the believer is only identified with Christ in that book, only months before this moment. Identified with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection.

The heavenly ascension, and seeding, and blessing, and citizenship are not included, but they are once Paul has spent time in this prison. Paul is going to be able to write to believers after this time in prison, there in Caesarea, where many would think, oh, Paul just wasted two years. No. The believer is in Christ in these five events and the last two we only know about because Paul spent time in this prison. It was not in the least a waste of time. The believers in Christ in these five events crucified and died, buried, resurrected, ascended and seated. Those last two we only hear about after Paul spent this time here in prison. And then Paul wrote about it, just he couldn't hold it back. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Hey, wait a minute. I gotta slide to that effect. Okay, here we go. Ephesians 1, 3 through 8, and you also have it on page 3 of your handout. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing of the heavenly places in Christ. And by the way, the verses 3 through 14 are all one sentence in the Greek, right? So I'm cutting it off in the middle just so that you guys get lunch. So, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before Thursday noon.

No, before Abraham came along. No, before the foundation of the world. Before He said, let there be light, and that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons, but I could get off on that one. Adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He was stingy about." No. the riches of his grace, the multiple magnitudes of wealth of his grace, which he lavished on us. He didn't write about that from any evidence we have until after he got to Rome, after spending two years in the prison.

This is fantastic stuff. And I'm really, really, really, really glad that the elective in Ephesians has gotten to cover that. The unfathomable riches, as we've stated here in the elective that I've been teaching, the unfathomable riches of Christ. They are beyond finding the bottom and the source of. It is riches of grace, multiple magnitudes of wealth, that goes on into the ages of the ages, eternal ages to come. There's amazing graces when we've been there 10,000 years.

Hey, nothing's happened already. We've no less days to sing God's praise than when we first begun. Heavenly seated, you and me, all we did was believe. God did the rest. And we know about it because a guy named Paul sat in a Roman jail for two years and wasted a lot of time, right? No, not at all. He doesn't waste any time with you either. Let's pray.

Our Heavenly Father, thank You for blessing us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Thank you for these things that you chose to reveal through the Apostle Paul after he sat and spent time in this Roman prison. Thank you that that is the means by which you have revealed the unfathomable riches that we have in Christ. Thank you for that. We give you praise forever. In Jesus' name, Amen.