Paul Goes Before Felix

Paul was warned by the prophet Agabus what would happen if he went to Jerusalem. Now he is a prisoner in Caesarea and will go before Governor Felix. There is a lift-the-flap Q&A review for what/who we have studied so far for Paul in Acts. 

Review: Agabus warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem. When he did, Paul was beaten by the crowd and the chief Captain, Lysias, put him under protection.

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When Paul’s nephew heard that 40 of the Jewish men plotted to kill him, he went to the prison to tell Paul. When Paul’s nephew informed Lysias of the plot, Lysias told 2 centurions to gather 200 soldiers, 200 spearmen, 70 horsemen and a beast for Paul, probably a donkey, to ride. They left Jerusalem at about 9 P.M., and started to Caesarea which was a 60 mile trip. About half way to Caesarea, the soldiers returned to Jerusalem and the horsemen continued with Paul. The soldiers thought Paul was far enough away from the angry Jews.

    

Lesson: Today's scripture is Acts 23:23-35; 24:1-27. When they arrived at Caesarea, the soldiers turned Paul over to Felix. He was the governor. They also gave Felix a letter from Lysias, explaining that Paul would have been killed and Lysias didn’t think Paul was worthy of death since he didn’t break any Jewish religious laws.

Felix was dishonest and a lot of people detested him. He was cruel and was an unjust Roman ruler.

After five days, the religious leaders came from Jerusalem. They brought a lawyer named Tertullus. He started his speech by saying things that made Felix feel good. He said that Paul had caused riots and violence.

Paul said that what really happened was that he had gone to Jerusalem 12 days ago to worship. He didn’t preach in the temple or synagogue or anyplace in the city. “I did what God wanted me to do and was quietly worshipping God.”

Felix knew Paul didn’t do anything worth punishing, but thought, maybe, he could use this to his advantage. So he didn’t release Paul. Felix turned Paul over to a centurion. Paul was still a prisoner, but Felix let Paul’s friends visit him. Paul was given some freedom, but the Roman custom was that food and personal needs were supplied from friends.

Felix met with Paul and talked to him about God and sin, but Felix didn’t want to change how he lived, so he brushed aside what Paul told him. He thought he could get money from Paul’s followers, so he didn’t release him. He knew Paul was innocent, but wanted to keep the Jews happy, so he kept Paul in prison.

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After Paul was there for two years, Felix was sent to Rome and Festus took over.

This lift-the-flap project for today is review questions for what/who we have studied for Paul in Acts. I printed the top (page 1 in the document download) page onto cardstock, then printed the bottom (page 2 in the download) page on regular paper.

Once both pages are lined up and glued together, you have this paper with questions and a picture on top, with the answer under the flap. You can print the project here.

I used an craft knife to make the slits that you see in yellow on the above diagram, and used Aleene's Tacky Glue to glue the papers together. Where you see the green rectangle, I did NOT put the glue, so the flaps can be lifted up. You can print the diagram above here.

Click here to download the worksheet.

You can find all the Acts worksheets here.

Click here to download the updated visuals.

This file contains all visuals for Acts 24-27. All are not shown.

Click here to download the pictures to color.
(These are the same as the visuals but are black & white.)

Click here to see the updated posters.

Bible Verse:  Acts 24:23

Passport:  Caesarea of Judea

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

Used by permission.