Acts 24 Round Two: Pain into Platforms

What if the hardest season you’re living through is also the microphone God is handing you? We walk through Acts 24 and watch Paul step into a courtroom designed to crush him, only to find a larger audience for the gospel. False accusations, political theater, and a governor fishing for bribes set the scene. Yet every obstacle widens the reach of a clear, steady message centered on the resurrection and a hope stronger than fear.

We unpack Felix’s reputation for corruption and why his delays, though self-serving, keep bringing Paul back to speak. Paul’s defense is crisp and honest: he names the facts, owns his faith in “the Way,” and points to the Law, the Prophets, and the resurrection as his anchor. When Felix and Drusilla listen, the conversation turns bold—righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment. The room shifts. Felix feels the weight and stalls for “a convenient time.” Two years pass. Paul remains in custody, but the platform grows, the audience expands, and the road to Rome inches closer.

This conversation isn’t just ancient history; it’s a roadmap for modern courage. We explore how to respond when systems are unfair, how to speak truth without bluster, and how waiting can become witness rather than waste. If you’ve wondered whether your struggle can bear fruit, this story offers oxygen: people may respect success, but they connect through pain—and God can redeem even the mess into meaningful influence.

If this encouraged you, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs hope, and leave a review to help others find the podcast. Then tell us: where have you seen purpose break through pain?

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Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Theme: Pain To Platform
• 1:21 Community Updates And Listener Prompt
• 2:28 Setting The Stage: Meet Felix
• 3:33 Charges Against Paul Explained
• 5:07 Paul’s Defense And Core Beliefs
• 6:50 Felix Listens, Stalls, And Seeks Bribes
• 8:20 Purpose In Pain And Final Prayer
• 10:45 Closing Encouragement And Reflection

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's word together. Well hello, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Acts chapter 24. And if I were to give this one a title, it's just continuing this narrative of God turns pain into platforms. God turns pain into platforms. We wouldn't ever want to go through some of the things that Paul went through. We don't want to go through the things we have to go through. But here's the thing if you're going to go through pain, don't waste it. Let God turn it into something amazing. And God told Paul to get to Jerusalem, and he did. And then when he gets to Jerusalem, everything hits the fan. It gets crazy. He got beaten and arrested, tied up, and then he gets a plot against him, 40 fools trying to kill him. And I mean, it just goes crazy. But then right in the middle of that, God talks to Paul and he says, You're good. You're not going to end here. You're going to make it all the way to Rome. And all of this pain is happening. But what it's doing, though, is on his way to Rome, the platforms are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And we're going to talk about that more in just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe the YouTube channel. Make sure if you're watching this or listening to this rather on the podcast, give us a five-star review. It really does help us. Make sure that you go to our Facebook group at Bible Breakdown Discussion. Let us know what's going on in your life. And I want to ask you this question. Have you ever had to give a speech? Have you ever had to give a speech before? If so, I want you to tell us about it. Did you like it? Did you not like it? Did you were you willing to take a zero speech class instead of doing it? Have you ever had to do that? Well, Paul, he's a speaker. He does that a lot, but his platforms are getting bigger and bigger and bigger. And now it's getting to where he is speaking from these elites. And we're going to get into that in just a moment. But I also want to tell you, we've been adding music at the end of it to give us an opportunity just to sit and settle what God's Word is doing in us. And I want to know, if you listen to this on the YouTube channel, I want you to leave us a comment and let us know if it is helpful for you just to have a moment. If it doesn't matter to you, let us know. We're just trying to, you know, try out some ideas. This is also proof to you that we do try out your ideas to see kind of what works, what helps. So you let us know if it's going to help. Let's get to this today. Acts chapter 24. Now, I want to give you a little bit of a background about Felix. Felix is a Roman politician. Felix was known to be extremely corrupt, very much into playing the political game of the Roman establishment, very much into not really caring about the value of human life, willing to kill people in order to help himself get ahead, and also very willing to accept a bribe at any given time. And later, what's going to happen is he is actually going to get in a whole lot of trouble from this. And a contingent of Jewish people are eventually going to go to Rome to complain to the emperor about Felix is going to get Felix removed because he's just so corrupt and so horrible. But that hasn't happened yet. Right now, Felix is over kind of the area that encompasses all of the Jewish territory. And that's why, once when they couldn't come up with the solution in Jerusalem, they sent him to the next step up, the Roman uh provincial leader, which is governor Felix. And so that's why they have done this. And so a contingent from Jerusalem has now come to the governor's palace so that they can hear the case, or Felix can, and figure out what to do. So, yet again, all of this that's going on, all of these painful experiences are just broadening out the platform that can be used so that Paul can continue to tell the story of the gospel. Even if it's a corrupt environment, Paul is able to move forward because God is with him. So if you got your Bibles open with me to Acts chapter 24, your NLT version, let's jump into verse one together. Five days later, Ananias, the high priest, arrived with some of the Jewish elders and the lawyer Tertulus to present their case against Paul, the governor. To the governor. Paul was not the governor. All right, verse 2. When Paul was called in, Tertulus presented the charges against Paul in the following address to the governor. You have provided a long and uh long period of peace for us, the Jews, with foresight that have enacted reforms for us. For all of this, your excellency, that's really hard to say. We are very grateful to you. But I don't want to bore you, so please give me your attention for only a moment, for we have found this man to be a troublemaker who is constantly stirring up riots among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the cult known as the Nazarenes. Furthermore, he was trying to desecrate the temple when we arrested him. You can find out the truth of our accusations by examining him yourself. Then the other Jews chimed in, declaring that everything Tertula said was true. Verse 10. The governor then motioned for Paul to speak. So Paul said, I know, sir, that you have been a judge of the Jewish affairs for many years, so I gladly present my defense to you. You can quickly discover that I arrived in Jerusalem no more than twelve days ago to worship at the temple. My accusers never found me arguing with anyone in the temple, nor stirring up a riot in any synagogue or on any streets in the city. These men cannot prove that the things they accuse me of accuse me of doing. But I admit I follow the way which they call a cult, and I worship the God of our ancestors, and I firmly believe the Jewish law and everything written in the prophets. I have the same hope in God that these men have, and he will raise both the righteous and the unrighteous. Because of this, I always try to maintain a clear conscience before God and all the people. After several years away, I returned to Jerusalem with money to aid my people and to offer sacrifices to God. My accusers saw me in the temple as I was completing a purification ceremony. There was no crowd around me and no rioting, but some Jews from the province of Asia were there, and they ought to be here to bring charges if they have anything against me. Ask these men what crime the Jewish high council found me guilty of, except for the one time I shouted out, I am on trial to you today, uh before you today, because I believe in the resurrection of the dead. As you can see, the govern the lawyer uh before him was a little bit kind of vague about whatever, but not Paul. He's got nothing to hide. It's very specific about what he had just done, and he had an opportunity there to also splash in the gospel when talking to Governor Felix. So verse 22, at that point, Felix, who is quite familiar with the way, adjourned the hearing and said, Wait until Lysissus, the garrison commander, arrives, then I will decide the case. He ordered an officer to keep Paul in custody, but to give him some freedom to allow his friends to visit him and to care for his needs. A few days later, Felix came back with his wife Dorusilla, who was also Jewish. Sending for Paul, they listened as he told them about faith in Christ Jesus. As he reasoned with them about righteousness, self-control, and the coming day of judgment, Felix became afraid, probably because he's full of sin. Go away for now, he replied. When it is more convenient, I'll call for you again. He also hoped that Paul would slip him a bribe, so he sent for him quite often and talked with him. After two years, after two years had gone by, Felix was succeeded by Portius Festus. And because Felix wanted to gain favor with the Jewish people, he left Paul in prison. What I think is amazing about that is there is corruption, greed, and bad intentions all around Paul. But all those things are doing is creating a bigger platform for Paul to preach the gospel. I mean, think about it. The reason why he's even there is because of the lies and the deception of the Jewish people who were against him. It created a platform. While he's there, he's talking to Felix because of the bad things and lies they said. Then, because Felix wants a bribe, he continues to bring him before him often. That's corruption. But he's building the platform unknowingly. And then because he wants to help the Jewish people do them a favor, he leaves them in prison, which means then the new governor is going to have to hear him. So all of this pain, all of these problems, all they're doing is building a platform for Paul to share his story. Now, let's be honest as we get ready to end our time together. I don't want that. You know what I want to build? A platform for me to share the gospel? Good news. Good things. Pastor, I want you to share with me how you've got such a perfect life. Well, let me tell you, because the Lord is good. That's what I want to share. But according to the life of Paul, sometimes the greatest platform builder is pain, is difficulty, is heartache, is tragedy, is horrible things. But in that pain, when you see somebody still being faithful, still holding on to God, still trusting in the Lord, that says a whole lot more. I heard someone say one time, people will respect you when your success is, but they connect with you through your pain. And the thing is, is that if we're trying to truly share the goodness of God, many times people will be excited for you when good things happen, but they get close to you in painful situations. And that doesn't mean we ever enjoy a single bad day. But it's to realize that even in the bad days, God has purpose for us there. I don't know what you may be going through, but maybe, just maybe, that God is big enough to do something beautiful, even through something as ugly as that. Let's pray together and we'll be done for today. Father, thank you so much. That your word says that you can turn beauty from ashes. Lord, I see that the life of Paul, you're turning pain into a platform. And I pray, God, that you will do that in some kind of way in the life of everybody who's listening today. I don't know what they're going through, but you do. And you're able to take whatever that is and mold it into something beautiful. I pray that not only will you do that today, but you'll open our eyes to see your goodness and to see you doing that in our life today. We celebrate that in advance. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. And amen. Don't forget God's word says, Jesus said in Acts 1, he said, You'll receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you'll be my witnesses. Where? To the ends of the earth. I love you. I hope you have a great day. I will see you tomorrow for Acts chapter 25. And let's take a few moments and reflect on God's word together.