Gambling with Eternity: A Touching Message of Restoration about Eternity

"And when Felix heard these things, having more perfect knowledge of [that] way, he deferred them, and said, When Lysias the chief captain shall come down, I will know the uttermost of your matter. And he commanded a centurion to keep Paul, and to let [him] have liberty, and that he should forbid none of his acquaintance to minister or come unto him. And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. He hoped also that money should have been given him of Paul, that he might loose him: wherefore he sent for him the oftener, and communed with him. But after two years Porcius Festus came into Felix’ room: and Felix, willing to shew the Jews a pleasure, left Paul bound." Acts [24:22-27]

Gambling with Eternity

In this topic, we have two key words; gambling and eternity. Gambling means to engage in reckless or hazardous behavour. For example if somebody is abusing his body; taking things he ought not to take; you may say; you are gambling with your health. In other words, you are behaving in a reckless hazardous manner with your health. That is the meaning of gambling in this context. Eternity on the other hand, means endless life after death. Life without end that is eternity.

Naturally, important things are well secured and looked after by people naturally. That is the tendency. So one will think that since life is the most important thing for human beings that human begins will do everything to secure their life. More so in such a way that this life that is the most important has an endless eternity. It has an endless life. It has no end. So if life has no end, one will think that man will do everything to ensure that the endless life will be well lived.

Your life here on earth has an end. No one knows when he or she will live this world. Proverb 27:1 tells us not to boast of tomorrow because we don’t know what tomorrow will bring. People you see today, you may not see anymore. So you can’t tell but in eternity, life has no end. It’s either life with God endlessly or life with Satan endlessly. One is life of joy; life of joy unspeakable whiles the other one is life in damnation; life of sorrow unspeakable. One would have thought that man will do everything to ensure that his endless life will be that life that will be joy unspeakable. But nothing is further from the truth in reality.

In reality man constantly gambles with his life. And you wonder why; it is because there is a spiritual force that is interested in making man never to have life that will be endless life of joy unspeakable. Satan the ark enemy of man wants every man to end on the other side of eternity; the side of damnation because that is where he is going to end. Satan has no option but to end in damnation. He has already been judged and condemned so he wants to take everyone as much as he can to damnation. And that is why man behaves the way you see him behave. We are going to look at a case study from the text where we read of a tragic gamble with eternity. We are going to see a classical case of gambling with eternity which unfortunately ended tragically.

From the book where we read, Acts 24:22-27, you can see that these two characters Felix and Drusilla they had a lot of baggage but inspite of their background, God showed them uncommon mercy and grace. God made it possible for them to hear the word of God the way they did. But let’s start from Felix where we started to read in this verse 22. You could see what the Bible said there that Felix was familiar with the way. Felix as a matter of fact, both Felix and the wife Drusilla they were familiar with the way. The way they are talking about here is the gospel of Jesus. They were familiar with the way. It was not something that was strange to them. Inspite of that, when Felix had opportunity to hear the gospel he procrastinated. He told Paul wait I will hear you at another time. He gave an excuse; he said wait till Lysias the garrison command arrives then I will decide the case. That was how he stopped Paul.

Then later on from verse 24 we saw that he now called a few days later. Felix came back with his wife Drusilla and they sent for Paul and listened to him and he explained the faith to them; the gospel of Jesus Christ. Can you imagine Paul just talking to two of them they had all the time in the world. Paul was a prisoner. Paul was not in a hurry. They were the one that wanted to hear so as long as they were ready to listen, Paul was ready to talk. Paul was a prisoner. Did you notice that when Paul before these people, he did not talk about his freedom. He did not tell Felix you know I am innocent; you know I did not do anything; please release me from here. Please let them remove the chains. No that was not what Paul did. Paul was not interested in his physical freedom.

All By His Grace: A Message of Motivation about Grace

Paul was interested in the spiritual freedom of Felix the governor and the wife Drusilla because Paul knew the important of their souls. Paul knew the important of their life after death. And Paul knew that there was no inconvenience on his own part that is to be compared to their salvation. So Paul focus on that one thing that was important; the salvation of the souls of these two people. That was grace in action. And when Paul spoke to them, Paul did not tell them what they wanted to hear. They thought maybe Paul will come and began to perform some miracles and entertained them with miracles.

Drusilla must have heard of Paul how Paul shadows will heal the sick, how Paul will raise the dead, how Paul was anointed. They would have heard about all the miracle that happened in the ministry of Paul. They thought that Paul will come and entertained them. No that was not what Paul did. When Paul came, look at verse 25; Paul message was pointed. The Bible said he reasoned with them about righteousness; self-control and the coming Day of Judgment. Paul was not there to make them happy. He was there to tell them the truth.

You know many times we come to Church we just want to hear motivational talk. You don’t need to be born again to be a motivational speaker. Anybody can motivate anybody but that is not what will take you to heaven. That is not what will make you to live a Holy life. Paul did not come to tell them how to be charismatic leaders. Paul did not come to tell them how to remain in power. How to grab power and never let go. He did not come to give them the seven keys to success. He gave them a pointed message about righteousness, self-control and the Day of Judgment.

Paul knew the background of these two characters that he was talking to. Paul was an educated man. Paul was exposed. Paul was enlightened. So Paul knew their background. Paul decided to tell them the things that they needed to hear whether they liked it or not. You know as I was studying and I was preparing this message. I began to wonder what it could be that Paul spoke to them about. We are just told that he told them about righteousness, self-control and the Day of Judgment. I began to wonder what kind of message did Paul gave to them because he couldn’t have just told them beware of righteousness, beware of self-control. He would have told them specific things. And in the cause of my study, I began to read some scriptures in Romans chapter I and Roman chapter 2 and I discovered that Acts 24 which was where Paul was talking to these two characters was the last chapters before Romans chapter I and Roman chapter 2 followed. And Paul was the author of both accounts. I began to wonder could it be possible that part of what Paul told these two people was what he later passed-on to the Romans in the next chapters.

Source: Message Preached by Pastor Sonny Wogu, 5th October, 2014