Well, in this account in Acts, there's all these famous people in it. All these names that you can look up in history, real people in a real place and time doing a real thing outside of the Bible they're documenting.
So, Luke was a real historian. He was. Yeah, well, we'll find out exactly what Paul says to these real people today on More Than Inc.
Well, hi there. Good morning. I'm Dorothy. And I'm Jimmy. And this is More Than Inc., where we are sitting at our dining room table with our Bibles open.
And for the last few weeks, we've been with Paul just as life is heating up for him. And last week we were in Caesarea and we've been there for two years as this chapter opens. We're starting today in chapter 25 of Acts. Paul's in prison. He's in prison, but his friends can come and go.
He has some liberty according to Roman custom, probably because he's a Roman citizen. Yeah, right. And we tracked him all the way through two years of having conversations with the governor Felix there. Felix, who used to send for him hoping for a bribe, but would listen to him and be convicted of his sin. And have to listen to Paul for two years.
He certainly never responded, right? He would just become alarmed. There's no record, yeah.
So, and then we're told right at the end of that last chapter that after two years, Portius Festus comes in and takes over, and Felix. Wants to do everybody a favor, so he leaves Paul in prison. Leaves him in prison as a gift to the next incoming governor, Festus. Here, Festus, welcome to town. Here's a prisoner for you.
So, chapter 25 opens with Festus arriving officially to take up office. And so, he's the next governor. New governor. And he finds Paul still in prison. He probably knew that was going to be the case when he got there.
And again, we're going to see Paul called out and given an opportunity to speak in his own defense. And kind of in contrast, Felix, his predecessor, was pretty much a bad dude. It turns out Festus has a better reputation.
So we'll see if it proves out in this particular case.
Well, Felix was a particularly political animal. Yeah, and just, like I said, lacks morals. And he was removed from office because he didn't do his politics well. Right. Not a great governor.
But just saying, Festus has a better reputation.
So we'll see how that works out. Want me to read? Yeah, go ahead.
Okay, we're coming. Festus comes into town. That's not in the text. But verse 1 and chapter 25.
Now, three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. Which I might mention is a very responsive, a very responsible thing to do as the incoming governor. He goes right to the seat of where of where these people's heart is in the country.
So that's her death. Three days, waste no time, goes up to Jerusalem. Probably took him that long to get reorganized from the shipwreck. Probably.
Okay, verse 2.
So, and the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, and they urged him. They urged him, asking as a favor against Paul that he summon him to Jerusalem because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way.
Okay, wait a minute. These are two-year-old charges. Two-year-old charges. They are still festering. They still got an assassination plan.
They tried the assassination plot before, two years before. But it's possible that the reason Festus goes up so quickly to Jerusalem is because he knows he's got to deal with this issue of Paul still in prison. That's true. That's very likely.
So very likely. Up he goes to meet with the chief priests and the principal men. And it could be those principal men were tired with Felix's foot. Dragging clip dragging for two years.
Okay, so they're making noise, maybe.
So, yeah.
So, what they're going to ask the favor, the favor is bring Paul back to Jerusalem and then they can kill him on the way. Right. Now, I don't, it's unclear in the text where they tell Festus that's their plan. I doubt they do. No, but Luke knows about it.
Yeah, so Luke's saying they're making their case to Fest, oh, bring him to Jerusalem and we can get to the bottom of this thing, but we're actually going to kill him. Yeah. Yeah. So that's what's going down.
Okay, so verse 4. Verse 4. Oh, by the way, before we get to verse 4, what is wrong with a religion where its principal leaders agree to using murder, condone murder? Uh, in order to achieve their ends, that cannot be a valid religion. I'm just saying, you know, I'll state the obvious because I'm kept in a relationship.
Yeah, well, it can't be really about God, that's for sure. Totally true.
Okay, here we go, verse 4.
So, so Festus, Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly.
So, said he, let the men of authority among you go down with me, and if there's anything wrong about the man, let them bring charges against him.
So instead of instead of him, you know Succumbing to their suggestion about not going to be dragged around by them. No, so he's he offers a compromise. Good politicians always offer compromises. Hey, okay, tell you what, I'm going back to Caesarea in a day or so. Let's go together.
Why don't you come up with me and we'll get to the bottom of this thing up in Caesarea?
So Okay, no ambush, no assassination plan. Darn! Thwarted again! Thwarted again! And this is the doing of God, actually, in thwarting these assassination plans.
So, there you go.
So, verse 6.
So. After he had stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, this is down in Jerusalem, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day he took his seat on the tribunal, going to court, and ordered Paul to be brought. And when he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him that they could not prove. Which we've known for two years.
Right. This is the same story all over again, right? But they think maybe they can pull the wool over the new guy's eyes. New guy, yeah. Because it's been two years.
New governor, new judge. They've had a lot of time to retell their story together. Let's borrow some of Tertullus' hyperbolic speech. He's a plague.
So there is no Tertullus this time. No, there's no hired hand. I'm just. Thinking of the great lines he used, first did it. The hyperbole was just unbelievable.
So, anyway, I think you're right. I think this is the new governor. We can do this this time.
So, we'll go up to Caesarea, we'll make her case, we'll get Paul. Yeah. Well, maybe not.
Okay, so verse 8. Verse 8. Paul argued in his defense: neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.
Now, maybe that's just shorthand because the quotation ends there. It stops there. Right. Maybe he actually said more, or maybe he didn't. But it's essentially what he had said before in front of Felix.
I mean, the same thing: like, I was doing a Jewish thing. I wasn't being a non-Jew. I wasn't doing anything against you. I was just doing the law, doing everything the Jews do.
Okay, but look at this, verse 9. But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, and I would insert just like Felix said to Paul. Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me? But Paul said, I'm standing before Caesar's tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews I've done no wrong, as you yourself know very well.
If then I'm a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which oops, wait, I gotta turn my page. Anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there's nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar. Whoa.
Then Festus, when he'd conferred with his counsel, answered, to Caesar you've appealed, to Caesar you shall go. Yo, whoa. Whoa. That was a big thing when he appealed to Caesar right there.
Well, yes, he's fully asking for his rights as a Roman citizen. Right. And he's saying in line with those rights is, you know, my courtroom is not the courtroom of the Jewish leaders. Right. My courtroom is a Roman courtroom.
And I've had, you know, I've been through Felix.
Now I'm before you, Festus. These are the appropriate courtrooms that we need to be in. But if this isn't going to work out, then I'm going to go to the ultimate courtroom. This is like going to the Supreme Court.
Now, I'm appealing to the top. I'm appealing to Caesar himself. And of course, this is semi-good news for Festus. Gets him out of his hair.
Okay, so we're in about AD 60, which is when Felix was called back and Festus took office. And Caesar in question at this time was Nero. Nero. But now Nero reigned from AD 54 to 68. And the early, the first five years of his reign were pretty peaceful.
He did a pretty good job. He started to run off the rails at the second half of his reign. Yeah, the Nero we think of as that second half, Nero, who was so nasty. At this point, things are still pretty peaceful. He's still doing a good job.
He hasn't gone completely crazy yet. Yep. Nero gets great marks during this period of his reign, right? Early part of his reign. But we know that by the end of his reign, he was all out to persecute the Christians.
But at this point, Paul says, I appeal to Caesar. And Festus says, great. Caesar, you've appealed to Caesar. I've got my hair kicked up to a higher court. Yeah, yeah.
So Paul wisely decides, you know, after he's asked, do you want to go down to Jerusalem? No, I need to stay in the Roman court system. system. And so let's go to Caesar. But again, he knows the Lord has promised him he's going to Rome.
Right. So he's going to ask. In his defense here, it's just like he's, okay, this is the moment. This is the moment when I can ask for this and it'll happen. Right, right.
And I think of anyone, he's probably as shocked by the answer as anybody. I mean, really.
Well, maybe he wasn't because he knew the Lord had told him you're going. Yeah, I know, but it might be eventually, not just like right now. This is very early in Festus being in town. But you would think that Festus would try and curry more favor with the Jews, where Festus is going to have to continue governing after this. But he really doesn't.
He doesn't create any more. I mean, you would think he would do more things like Felix did to try and make the Jews semi-happy. I think he just wants to put an end to it. I think so. Because he knows Paul's been in prison already for two years.
Yeah. Yeah. He knows there's nothing that he charges. Yeah. So Festus, he confers with his council, like, what should we do, guys?
And they all agree, send him to Caesar, send him to Caesar.
So he's off to Caesar. He's off to Rome.
So his next little scenario is pretty interesting. And remember, last week we said when you come to talk about members of the Roman, well, the Roman royalty, but the Herodian household, you kind of need a chart.
So here they come. We got more characters out of the Herod family tree. Pull up your family tree now. Here we go. And because Caesarea was a really important port town, it was a kind of a vacation spot for Roman, highly placed people.
So a Roman beach town. Right. And it still is a beautiful beach town today.
Okay, so in verse 13, now when some days had passed, Agrippa the king and Bernice arrived at Caesarea and greeted Festus. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Let's figure out who these people are. And Bernice. Yeah.
See, in the writing at the time when Luke wrote this down. Most of the people knew what he was talking about.
Well, we don't really know who that is.
Okay, so tell us who Agrippa the King is.
Well, Agrippa. Agrippa, he was appointed by Caesar to rule over a relatively small territory to the northeast of here, a little bit of Syria, a little bit of Israel, stuff like that. But more importantly, he was also tasked with Rome to oversee the temple in Jerusalem, as well as issues about the appointments of the high priest.
So he was still very involved in religious Governance in Jerusalem, but his heritage, his father, I had to look this up. His father was the Herod Agrippa first. This is Herod Agrippa, too. His father was the one who martyred James, the brother of John. His grandfather is the one who took the head of John the Baptist.
His father, so now his great-grandfather is Herod the Great, who killed the innocents at the time that Jesus was born, killed all the Sabe. This is four generations of the Herodian family involved with Jesus. Exactly. And in a very nasty opposition to Jesus. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Exactly. Okay, so here's Agrippa 2, Agrippa the king, and Bernice.
Now, if you're just reading this casually, you might think Bernice is his wife. She's not. She's his sister. His sister, right?
Okay. And a little, a little interesting little tidbit here that is not in the text is that Agrippa and Bernice. were also brother and sister to drusilla the wife of felix who had been so mentioned in the previous chapter the jewish woman who was listening to jesus so yeah so this herodian family is is tied up with the ministry of jesus the history of jesus the the impact of his life on the jews so this is just an interesting bunch and they are the herodian heritage is bloodthirsty. It's horrible. Yeah, yeah.
And by the way, Herod is not a first name. It's more like a title like Caesar. Right. You know, it's a king kind of thing.
So anyway, so these people come largely probably because they're relatives and they're on vacation and they're related. They're just coming for a visit. It's a beach visit. They're coming to the beach and they're visiting family, and they greet Festus, who's just pretty, you know. And verse 14 says they stayed there many days.
So they're just hanging out in the nice weather. Right, right. Probably the conversation came up, and Festus said, Hey, I guess there's in jail here. Yeah. So you want to pick up reading verse 14?
Yeah, 14.
So as they stayed there many days, Festus laid Paul's case before the king, saying, There's a man left prisoner by Felix. And when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews laid out their case against him, asking for a sentence of condemnation against him. I answered them that it was not the custom of the Romans to give up anyone before the accused met the accusers face to face and had opportunity to make his defense concerning the charge laid against him.
So when they came together here, I made no delay, but on the next day, took my seat on the tribunal, ordered the man to be brought. And when the accusers stood up, they brought no charge. They brought no charge. In his case of such evils as I supposed. Rather, they had certain points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus who was dead, but whom Paul asserted to be alive.
So, being at a loss how to investigate these questions, I asked whether he wanted to go to Jerusalem and be tried there regarding them. But when Paul had appealed to be kept in custody for the decision of the emperor, the emperor, I ordered him to be held until I could send him to Caesar. Wow.
So, this is what he tells Agrippa. That's his whole history with Paul in prison. Oh, well, and Agrippa's response in verse 22 is he then says to Festus, I'd like to hear the man myself. Tomorrow, said he, you will hear him.
So it's kind of like they are keeping Paul locked up as a trained entertainment. I like it. Exactly. No, exactly. Call this guy out and listen to him.
Yeah, exactly. And of course, Agrippa is thinking back on his entire family history of animosity toward anything Jesus. And here's this guy in jail promoting Jesus. He's like, I got to see this. It's possible Agrippa knows more, you know, when Festus says, yeah, this guy, Jesus, who was dead, but whom Paul asserts to be alive.
Well, Agrippa knows more. That's right. That's right. Well, and that legend about Jesus has been traveling for quite some time, quite some time. But I do like how Festus says this, you know, about a certain Jesus.
Right. A certain Jesus. I don't know if he's being casual or if he's clearly not. Clear about who the claims about Jesus are. He's trying to be as objective as possible.
Yeah, that could be. This Jesus who was dead, but Paul asserts to be alive. I mean, there's enough curiosity just in that statement for Agrippa to say, I got to hear this guy. You know, I got to hear this guy. Which is interesting, too, because Paul uses the same thing when he's at Athens with the intellectuals in Athens.
He just teases them. Right. And he gets to the point at the end of his presentation, which I think they stopped him for, where he says, you know, you're going to be judged by a guy who's been proven to be your judge, a man. Right. And he raised from the dead.
That's how you know he's the judge. And they all said, okay, we're done here.
Well, so it's fascinating because Paul is just really straight up about who he's claiming Jesus to be. And he's doing so right here as well. And I think the fact that he's just being straight up about who Jesus is to Festus, and then Festus, you know, just translates that on to Agrippa, I think that creates a tremendous curiosity on Agrippa's part about, okay, before you ship him off to Rome, I'm going to go. I got it.
So that's where we are. And so far here in the handoff sequence, Paul has been to the important magistrates of Felix and then Festus and now King Agrippa, who has personal connections into Rome's ruling class. And this was before Christianity really took root in Rome, which was going to happen in the next few years after Paul gets there.
So now there were Christians in Rome because Paul had already written Romans. But the opposition to it, to Christianity had not yet erupted. That was going to happen within the next five years. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so we're just jumping from one important person to the next one. And Agrippa says, tomorrow, let's hear him. And we're not going to read that right now. We're going to leave you with that. But isn't it fascinating that Jesus had promised Paul, you're going to Rome, and here, before he ever leaves the shores of Israel, he has already preached to these three very important Roman people, kind of in successive order of authority or importance going up the chain.
And the next one is Caesar. Yeah, and the next one is Caesar. That's right. And he's going to have opportunity in Caesar's household in amazing ways. You know, it raises for me a couple of questions.
I mean, one is, why is it so important to God that these large governmental leaders have a clear-eyed view into who Jesus is? Why is that a big issue? Why couldn't God just grow the way, you know, the followers of Jesus under the radar of these guys? Why is it so important that God arranges with meticulous care to have Paul in prison when he's doing totally innocuous things? And then have and then have audience in front of these guys.
Why is, in a sense, serving notice to these important people so important to God's schedule? Hmm, that's an interesting question. Yeah, and I don't know the answer to that. But I mean, that's clearly a plan. Paul was informed by God that that was going to be part of the plan.
But I just wondered as I read this again for this time thinking, why is that important? Why not just keep the gospel with the little people?
Well, Rome ruled the world. Yeah. At this point, right? The way Rome ruled the known world. Everything outside of Rome was.
Nothing. Right. And Rome was about to conquer it. That's the way they felt about the world. Yeah, Rome was in its ascendancy big time right now.
And we know from history that part of the reason that the gospel spread so easily during this period of time over long distances was because of the Roman road system. God used the Romans. It was easy to travel. God used the Romans. As well as the sense of peace along those roads.
They were enforced. Remember, the Romans were really, really against uprisings. Bad stuff going on.
So they enforced the roads as well as paved the roads and allowed people to move about within the Roman Empire quite easily. Yeah, you know, there are places in the old Roman Empire where you can see Roman roads still in that condition today. Yeah. Yeah. Matter of fact, I just read about one that they just unearthed in England when they were excavating for a foundation for a new building.
They turned up this. Roman road in really good condition. And they're like, uh-oh, now what do we do? And now we can build our building here. And they're pretty sturdy structures.
But yeah, it's just a fascinating thing. I think this every time I come across here, what is so important in God's mind? Is God serving notice to the leaders of the known world at the time of what's going on? You know, like right now, we're studying through Daniel. God clearly did this with Nebuchadnezzar.
I mean, he really gave him a very clear eye view to the fact that God's the only one who's really sovereign, not you, Mr. Nebuchadnezzar. Which then puts that world leader on the hot seat. What will his response be? Yeah.
Right. And as in the case of Rome, it became all-out opposition. They were determined within a few years to crush out Christianity, which we know how that worked. Right. Yeah, and it inflames Nero, too.
I mean, Nero's going to really shoot off. And it looks as though Nero's change in terms of his acceptance of the Christian culture that was blooming, and then he becomes very anti-Christian, that that was the roots of what got Paul killed, wasn't it? The midst of that kind of antagonism.
So, so, so, yeah, it just is just a good question to think about. You know, when we talk about studying the Bible, for me, one of the most important things when you read passages like this is to sit back. You know, I talk about figuratively, pushing back from the table for a second, putting my hands behind my head and asking questions. Asking questions of the text is a really powerful way to kind of surface issues that weren't really apparent in the text, but they're not talked about. But you wonder why they're not talked about.
And so, this is one of those things for me. Why is it so concerning for God to serve notice to these very important people about who Jesus is? Powerful people. Powerful people. And then, you know, in Felix's case, dwelling on the fact that, look, here, there's a standard of righteousness, there's your attempts at lack of self-control, and there's the fact that judgment is coming.
And Felix is totally undone with that bad news, right?
So, um.
Well, okay, so I'm struck, since you've been talking so much about Roman authority, that God in his providence had ordained Paul for this ministry. He was born a Roman citizen. That's fascinating to me. That was God's plan all along, long before Paul ever had any idea that he would respond to the news of Messiah, Jesus. But something that I don't want to leave this passage without at least mentioning is Paul's emerging attitude toward being in prison.
Because at this point, he's been in prison for two years. Right. And he simply responds cheerfully, truthfully, faithfully every time he's called out to brought out, why are you here? What do you got to say? He's headlong into the gospel.
And, you know, he wrote at the end of Ephesians 6: I'm an ambassador in chains, right? Pray for me so that I could proclaim boldly. And he wrote to Timothy, 2 Timothy 2:9, he says, You know, remember Jesus Christ for whom I'm in chain, but the word of God is not chained. Yeah. So he regarded all his imprisonments as a tool for the furtherance of the gospel just.
With a very specific audience. Yeah, and in a limited sense, we always think that that kind of imprisonment limits the spread of the gospel. All it does is actually just focus it into a different audience, it hears. And in Paul's case, during the time that he was imprisoned in Rome, when he wrote so many letters, God locked him up so he would hold still and write. Exactly.
And we have the influence of those letters. Hold still, buddy. Hold still. Yeah, write some of this stuff down because people 2,000 years ago need to hear about this. Another thing that struck me in these texts is the constant accusations against Paul, which we've said before, they're all untown.
They're all false. They're totally all false. And yet they just seem to keep coming and coming and coming. And it made. And the same old thing.
And the same old thing. And Paul's response is always the same too. Show me your evidence. We don't have any evidence. This won't fly in Roman courts.
So this is happening over and over again. And even the religious leaders think they can get away with it with the next governor. You know, it doesn't work. But what it made me think of was this passage in Revelation 12. And just listen to it because this is the source of why there's a constant din of accusation, that's falsehood accusations everywhere Paul goes.
Revelation 12, 10, and I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, Now the salvation and the power of the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come. Why? For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down who accuses them day and night before our God.
So this is the actual source of the constant din of this accusation. It's not a human din of accusation. It's a satanic din of accusation.
So everywhere the gospel goes, everywhere the gospel goes, without any kind of variation, the response sometimes is welcome, but often it's just accusation full of falsehoods saying this is all wrong. Because Satan wants mankind to fall and to sin and be entrapped in hell. The sting of sin is death.
So the sting of death is sin.
So it turns out that's Satan's intention.
So everywhere the gospel goes, it's going to be opposed.
So the important thing to remember about that passage that you just read is the accuser of the brethren has been, past tense, thrown down. He is a defeated foe. He's still yelling about it. Yep, that's exactly right. That's exactly right.
That's a really important perspective. He's not going to stop accusing. Until all things are done. But he has been defeated. And you know how he was defeated?
Next verse. And they've conquered him by the blood of the Lamb. Amen. And by the word of their testimony. For they loved not their lives even unto death.
So that's how this battle is being won. And Paul is not oblivious to the fact that what's happening is exactly along the lines of God's design and plans. And Paul is loving going with it. Yeah. Even though it's painful and costly.
Yeah. And even though he's testifying cheerily.
So come back with us next time. We're going to hear what he says to Agrippa. Another famous address is going to be made, and we'll see why Agrippa's curiosity has been piqued.
So I'm Jim. And I'm Dorothy. And so come back with us next time here on Morgan Inc. There are many more episodes of this broadcast to be found at our website, morethanink.org. And while you are there, take a moment to drop us a note.
Isn't it interesting that the uniform response from all of these people in these couple of chapters is, well, I want to hear from that guy myself.
Well, yeah, and Agrippa, after he just hears Festus talking about him, that's what he says as well.
So, and we want to hear it too. Yeah, we'll do it next week. On More Than Inc. Bye. This has been a production of Main Street Church of Brigham City.
