As we continue our
studies in the book of Acts we need to always keep in mind that these are essentially the Acts of the Holy Spirit. In His sovereignty He propels Paul through his many and varied situations and crises. And the purpose of all this is that God will
glorify Himself in the life of this man, Paul.
The Gospel of Jesus will be made known in very unconventional
contexts and settings. I don’t know whether you remember the words of God to
Ananias (after Paul’s Damascus road experience) concerning Paul in 9:15,16, “… he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the
Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. 16 For I will
show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name."
What a prophetic and a mighty and
true word this was. In our preaching through the Book of Acts we have already
seen that Paul was the great apostle to the gentiles. He is the One who also
carried the Name of Jesus consistently before the children of Israel.
But how was this
despised little Jew going to carry the name of Jesus before
kings?
How was he going to obtain
access into the presence of kings?
The answer is this: He was going to obtain
access to earthly kings by the means of the power of the King of kings.
Remember? God is the one that opens and shuts doors. (Isa. 22:22; Rev.3:7)
In this text before us we will see how
God will open the door for Paul
to appear before governors, kings and eventually Caesar
himself.
We begin in our customary way in terms of observing the text.
Chapter 25 can be simply divided:
(i)
25:1-12: Paul before
the governor Festus, under whom
the significant appeal to the supreme king , Caesar is made
(ii)
25:13 – 27 and
Chapter 26 : Paul before the
Jewish king Agrippa
1.
25: 1-12 : PAUL
BEFORE PORCIUS FESTUS
Last time we saw that
Paul was brought to Caesarea, about 90 kilometres from Jerusalem. There (in Chapter 24) he appeared
before the governor Felix, an unpopular and brutal man, who was removed
from office (leaving Paul in prison) . Felix was replaced
by Porcius Festus in AD 60. You may
have suspected that his name Porcius
has something to do with ‘pig’
(pork) and you suspected rightly so! The name Porcius comes from the noun porcus, meaning pig . This word was sometimes used
derogatorily to denote a human glutton, but in general, the Romans held the pig
in much higher regard than we do today, and thus in Roman history we even have
a feminine name, Porcia (which means Sow).
The name Porcius means Belonging To Swine
or with Swine. It probably originated
as the title of a herder of pigs or a
pig breeder.[1]
It is before this
Porcius Festus that Paul was brought on trial yet again. History describes him as a fair and reasonable
man, but he was governor for only two or three years before he died.
Porcius Festus, thought that it would be wise to
go up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with the Jewish hierarchy and the high priests (25:1). As he met with Jewish
authorities, they thought that this would
be a good opportunity to get rid of Paul, something which they were unable to do during when
the governor Felix was the procurator. So they tried to manipulate the new governor,
Festus. Their plan was to bring Paul back to Jerusalem, lie in wait for him,
and put him to death (25:3). There was plenty of Jewish guerrilla activity going on at that time.
Festus however was smart enough to realize that something was afoot,
and he said, “No, we’re going to keep
Paul in Caesarea. But if you would like to come down with me, and I’m going
back in a few days, we’d be glad to have a hearing down there” (25:4-5).
And so it was that
another trial happened
under Festus. They laid a number
of charges against Paul, but they
couldn’t prove any of them. (25:6,7).
When Paul’s turn came to defend himself, he said what he had
said before, “I haven’t said anything against the law of the Jews, nor have I made
any defamatory remarks against the temple, nor have I said anything against
Caesar” (25:8).
So the whole matter appears to be a set of trumped up
charges. And Paul, by rights should have
been released under the terms of the law. But Festus was subject to the making
of the same mistake in 25:9 as his
predecessor, Felix in 24:7. He was,
after all, more a politician than a just judge, and therefore, he wanted to please
the Jews more than help Paul to obtain justice. That is actually a perversion of justice,
and as such, such bias is never
defensible. But we must
remember that even this twisted system of
justice served God. God remains
the sovereign God in the midst of all the crooked and twisted schemes of men.
And the apostle Paul knew that better than anyone else. And Paul knew that he was a dead man, should he be taken to Jerusalem. But it wasn’t actually
the fear of death at the hands of the Jews that drove him to make an appeal to
Caesar (25: 10-12). Paul knew that
he could not die in Jerusalem for
in 23:11 (!) the
Lord had told him that he still had work
for him to do. “The
following night the Lord stood by him and said, "Take courage, for as you
have testified to the facts about me in Jerusalem, so you must testify also in
Rome." He needed to testify in Rome! He still had work to
do! And so he said, “ad caesarium pro voco“ - in
Latin, the Roman language for , “I appeal to Caesar.”
25:13-27 : PAUL
BEFORE AGRIPPA AND BERNICE
And so we see the
divine dominoes fall! He must appear before kings. And the first king he is to appear before is
King Agrippa accompanied by Bernice. They came to
visit the new Roman procurator. This king Agrippa was Herod Agrippa II the son of Herod Agrippa I of Acts
12, the king who had put to death James,
the brother of John. He was therefore
the son of Herod the great, the king who at the time of Jesus birth ordered the
massacre of the Hebrew baby boys. So this grandson of Herod’s who ruled over a
Roman territory which is roughly where Lebanon is today was living in an
incestuous relationship with his
sister Bernice, and their living together, was one of the
scandals of the day.
They came and met Festus, and they were there for some days
and it was inevitable that the talk of Paul should come to the fore. Festus gave
a fair report concerning Paul and expressed his opinion that there was no proper charge in this case. It appeared to be a mere theological squabble between one Jew that followed Christ ( who also was a Jew)
and a party of the Jews them (25:19).
Festus himself, not being a Jew nor a theologian was at a loss to understand.
Mind you, he was aware that Paul was a formidable and learned man (see 26:24). But remember too that Festus
had received no light from the Lord. In his soul there was no effectual grace, and so we cannot expect him to understand the
big issues here, even though he has
a great exponent of the gospel standing right there in front of him.
But his
is spiritually deaf and blind. He doesn’t understand.
So Festus tells Agrippa about the things concerning the
Apostle Paul, and Agrippa says, “You
know, Festus, I want to hear the man
myself” (25:22). As a Jewish
king under Roman authority he had received authority from the Romans to oversee the affairs of the temple in
Jerusalem and to mediate wherever. Paul had obviously become
a talking point at this time, and it would have been in his political interest and for the sake of peace in the
territory to hear out Paul. So Festus
said, “Well, tomorrow you will hear him.”
(25:22)
The meeting was
conducted in pomp and glory. Agrippa the king, and Bernice, and the military commanders and the prominent men
of the city were present (25:23). It
reminds us of Luther and his meeting before the council of Worms in Germany, which was conducted from 28 January to 25 May
1521, with the Emperor Charles V presiding, and with cardinals and learned men present staring down at the poor little monk
called Luther. And in like manner
Paul is found in the midst of all of this pomp, and one gains the impression
that no one really understands or bothers to understand why Paul is on trial. They are about to find
out (but still not accept), and this we will consider next time in Acts
26.
WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM ACTS 25?
1.There are none as
blind as those that cannot and will not see
Here are
people that have had heard the story of the
cross, and the story of the resurrection. Many had heard what Paul had said on so many previous occasions about Jesus
- about His life, His death and His supernatural
resurrection from the dead- just as He
said He would. Many had heard and knew what Jesus had said and claimed. No, he
wasn’t coming with political power to overthrow the Romans. Jesus had said
to Pilate another political governor, “My kingdom
is not of this world, if my kingdom
were of this world, my servants would
have been fighting that I might not be
delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not of this world.” (Jn. 18:36). It is clear that Jesus’
agenda, and Paul’s agenda was out of
this world. It was about the kingdom of God, and this kingdom had absolutely no
temporal ambitions such as overthrowing the Roman government. This kingdom
was about one thing. It was about reconciling hearts
to the King of kings. God in
Christ was seeking
the hearts of people, and it was
by means of the Gospel of Jesus Christ that
God was doing this. But
unregenerate men can’t see this . They
don’t think that way. They cannot
see the light of the gospel of the glory
of Christ who is the image of God. The god of this world has blinded them (2 Cor.4:4).The best that unregenerate
men can do is to think about this life,
and to make sure that their society remains governable while they live. That is why they are politicians. Festus and Agrippa, although curious weren’t willing to concede that behind this
little Jew called Paul stood the mighty
King of the Universe – the mighty Creator
of the Heavens and the Earth – the
righteous Judge of all. Festus and Agrippa thought of all this just as religious talk – and a matter of personal
opinion. They did not understand
that what Paul represented , is actually
the fundamental issue of life. The fundamental issue of life is a person’s relationship to God. The fundamental issue is not politics
or economics, or culture.
It’s spiritual. It’s the relationship of
an individual to the Lord God. That’s the fundamental issue of life. And to be
right about everything else and to be wrong on that is to be wrong about the
most fundamental of life. May God help us to realize that fact.
2.Thank God that He is
in charge! The ultimate truth here is not that
Paul is on trial before men. Paul is ultimately
here to further God’s plans. He must stand before kings, and he must stand to testify before the greatest of human kings at that time: Caesar. So, to Caesar he will
go. There is no biblical record that Paul ever appeared before Caesar. The Bible is
silent on the matter.
But we do have some historical commentary. About 200
years later, the church father Eusebius
recorded that, “after [Paul] defending himself
successfully, it is currently reported that the Apostle again went forth to
proclaim the Gospel, and afterwards came to Rome a second time, and was
martyred under Nero.”[2] It is very likely that he stood before Caesar Nero.
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