Paul Before Festus, Part 2
Acts 25:7-12
How exciting it is to find ourselves in Acts 25 and to see Paul's defense before the governor of Judea, whose name was Festus. We began this study last Lord's Day, and we're going to complete it today, that is, the study of Acts 25:1-12. Those verses record for us Paul's trial before Festus.
The Word of God is such a treasure that it's hard for me to understand why there would be any such thing as a Christian who didn't study the Bible, when you realize what's there, the riches, the treasures that are here, to be discovered, to be mined. I feel like David, who said, "Oh, how I love thy law."
As we look at the book of Acts, as we have found, many of the deepest treasures in the book of Acts are just that: deep, down under the surface. We have to kind of mine them out. In a book like this that is historical narrative, most of the doctrine and spiritual principles are under the surface; that is, they are implied or illustrated. An example of that is the passage with which we're dealing today, where there is no particular statement regarding any doctrine, yet there are at least ten principles that just leap out of this page. Ten tremendous truths that are deep, they're buried, and you have to uproot them. What we want to do is pull up the food that's under the ground and feast on it this morning, and see how God will nourish us with it.
I mentioned to you last time that, as we looked at these verses, we found at least ten principles here, and there are probably more. I'm not sure we could handle ten, because that's a lot. There are ten principles that just kind of come out of the passage without being stated; they are implied or illustrated. They are these, and I'll only remind you of them.
We see in this passage the hatred of religious people toward Christ and Christians. We see also the binding power of sin illustrated. Then we see evidence of the sovereign providence of God; then we find, also, the pattern of the world's persecution, that is, the way in which the world persecutes. We see also the innocence and blamelessness of the life of Paul and the effect that such a blameless life had. We see the exoneration of Christianity in terms of being a political issue or criminal activity. We see the courage of a committed Christian. We see, as well, how a Christian is to behave toward his government, and also his attitude toward persecution. Finally, we see the impact of one totally dedicated life. These are tremendous principles.
I hasten to say this, that none of them are new. All of them we have taught you before, and it's as if the Holy Spirit just puts this narrative here as a reminder. Like Peter said, "I will not cease to put you in remembrance of these things," so the Holy Spirit puts us in remembrance of all these principles which we have already seen in the book of Acts. They seem to be summed up in these 12 verses, as they begin to appear under the surface, as you pull up the roots.
Looking at the passage, I want to divide the 12 verses into four parts. As we go through the four parts, we'll see these 10 principles. The first part, as we told you last time, was the assassination plot in verses 1-5. If you'd like, you may follow along that outline you have, and take some notes. The assassination plotted. The Apostle Paul, as you know, has been accused by the Jews of three things. Sedition, that is, crimes against Rome, being an insurrectionist. Sectarianism, that is, being a heretic; and sacrilege, blaspheming God through the desecration of the temple. These accusations are all false and without evidence, without support, and yet, they are made against him.
As a result of this, Paul finally found himself before Felix, the governor, to be tried. Felix knew Paul was innocent, but he didn't want to upset the Jews who wanted him dead, so Felix kept him in prison for two years. At the end of two years, Felix was taken from his assignment in disgrace and hauled back to Rome. A new man was put in his place by the name of Festus. As chapter 25 opens, Festus arrives in Caesarea to take over his responsibility.
I'll read to you Acts 25:1-5. "Now when Festus was come to the province," that is, the province of Judea, "After three days he ascended from Caesarea to Jerusalem." Caesarea, of course, was the head of the Roman government there in Judea, and he did a little bit of business there for three days, then headed for Jerusalem. He knew that it was important for him to establish relationships with the people over whom he would rule. He knew that relationships had been extremely shaky with Felix, and it was important to bind together some sort of working relationship.
He came to Jerusalem, then, and immediately, verse 2, "The high priest and the chief ones of the Jews informed him against Paul, and besought him and desired a favor against him, that he would send him to Jerusalem, laying wait in the way to kill him." The first thing they bring up when Festus arrives in Jerusalem is this guy who has been a prisoner for two years. He never really committed any crime, but they hate him with a deep, deep hatred. They want him dead, so they say to Festus, who is totally naive and uninformed, "Could you kindly bring this prisoner to Jerusalem? We'd like to have a little bit of dealings with this particular case, so bring him here." Really, they wanted to ambush Paul on the way, and kill him. Festus didn't know that.
Festus answers in verse 4, that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and he himself would depart shortly for there. He says, "I'm not going to bring him here, I'm going to Caesarea myself." Verse 5. "Let them, therefore, who among you are able," or, that is, who are able men, influential men, "Go down with me and accuse the man if there is any wickedness in him." So Festus says, "I'm not going to bring him to Jerusalem. If you have anything to bring against the man, let's do it in Caesarea."
As we saw last time, and went through those verses in detail, there are some tremendous spiritual principles that are implied and applied in this particular illustration. The first thing we see here is the hatred of religious people toward Jesus Christ. The folks who were really antagonistic toward Paul were Jews, religious people. The persecution that comes against true religion most often comes from false religion. It is when false religion rears its head that it begins to abuse the truth. These folks were the religious leaders of their land, of their day.
Satan, who disguises himself as an angel of light and propagates all the systems of false religion, of course sets them in antagonism toward true religion. The most obvious enemy of Christ is true religion. All throughout the book of Acts it is the Jews, the religionists, who persecute Christ, and when I say Christ, that means both Jesus Christ when He was alive, and those who teach what He taught and believed in Him as their Messiah. They continued the persecution.
I think it's an interesting footnote, and I'll expand it in a minute, that the only times Roman persecution ever broke out was when it was a religious issue. Some might say, "You say it's always the religionists, but what about when the Romans persecuted?" It was a religious issue with them too, and we'll see that in just a minute. Religion is always the persecutor, because, you see, Satan sets up false religion in opposition to true religion. He brings all the unbelievers into the systems of false religion and they are in opposition to the truth. That's why any such thing as an ecumenical movement is absolutely ridiculous.
I was coming here this morning at about 7 o'clock and listening to religious news on the radio station. They were saying that recently, there was a great meeting in some city, I forget which one. It was a meeting of the Muslims, the Christians, and the Jews. The Muslims were represented by some Arab, the Christians were represented by some Coptic priest or bishop from the Coptic church, and Jewish rabbis. They were trying to figure out how they could all get together. The only way they could ever get together is if the Christianity that is represented there is run by Satan, because obviously, he is running the Judaism and Islam, because they're anti-Christ.
It is ludicrous to imagine that Christians and Jews and Muslims, or Christians and anyone else in any other religion, can get together. It's impossible because all other systems of religion are against Christ. When that effort is made, the only thing that ever results is the loss of true Christianity. True Christianity is a rebuke to all other religions in the world. We cannot accommodate them. Jesus said, "He that is not with me is against me." If Christianity is Jesus Christ, and anything other than Christianity is in opposition to Him, there can be no communion there. Throughout history, it has been the religionists who have persecuted the truth.
This is stated clearly in II Peter 2:1. Peter says, "There were false prophets among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you." You go back to the history of Israel, and you'll find out that the biggest problem Israel ever had historically was the problem with the pagan religionists, wasn't it? Drifting into idolatry and Baal worship and being hassled by all the gods of the pagans - that was always the problem. It's no different now, he says. "There shall be false teachers among you, secretly bringing in destructive heresies, denying the Lord that bought them, and bringing on themselves swift destruction." Watch. "Many shall follow their pernicious ways and because of that, the way of truth will be evil spoken of." False teachers will always speak evil of the truth.
The only way that Christianity can ever get together with all kinds of false religions is when they're ready to take the evil that is set against the truth and abandon the truth. We always stand isolated; we have to. That is our identity, because all the systems of religion in the world are against Christ. You say, "They don't seem to be." That's the idea. They secretly bring in destructive heresy. It's not always obvious; it's subtle, very often. Some religions are violently anti-Christ, some religions are subtly anti-Christ by being pro-Jesus ethic and nothing more, certainly not pro-Jesus as God in human flesh, Savior of the world.
So the hatred, historically, that has come against the truth, has come from religious systems. I think it's important for you to realize that. There is no way you're ever going to accommodate people in false religious systems; you must confront them.
Let me give you a second principle that we saw here, and that is the binding power of sin. Here are these religious leaders in Israel. It's been two years since they've had to deal with Paul; for two years, he's been in jail. You'd think that, in two years, they would pretty well have forgotten about the guy. But when two years is up, and Festus, the new governor arrives, the first thing they say to this guy in verse 2 is all about Paul. "We've got to have him dead," they say, "Let's go to Festus and work out a little plot, and we'll ambush him." They're hung up on Paul for two years and they haven't even seen him.
That tells me a little about hate, does it tell you something about hate? It really drives itself deep, then it stays there. That's the way sin is: it's a binding thing. Let me show you the words of Jesus to illustrate this principle. They appear in a passage that perhaps is familiar to you, John 8:30. Jesus was speaking, and it says, "As he spoke, many believed on him. Then said Jesus to the Jews who believed on him, 'If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.'" Jesus says, "I'm glad you believe, but the proof of the true faith is if you continue. And if you continue in my word, you are truly saved, and the truth shall make you free."
By saying that, He implied that they weren't free. They were slaves. Of course, they didn't like that. They said, "We are Abraham's seed." They thought that just because they were Jews, that meant they were absolutely free. They said, "We have never been in bondage to any man." Now, how about the Egyptians, the Babylonians? Have you forgotten the Medo-Persians, the Syrians, the Greeks, and the Romans? You've never been in bondage to any man? "Well, we're talking spiritually." Oh? Fine.
Jesus answered them, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever commits sin is the slave of sin." They were slaves. Notice what He says. "Whoever commits a sin is a slave to sin." Sin is a slavery. Sin binds. The word doulos means a bondslave. The only way you could cease being a bondslave was to die. The only way out was death, and our Lord says that sin is bondage, slavery. In Titus 3, sinners are called doulos, bondslaves to lust; in Romans 6:19, a bondslave to uncleanness.
Sin is slavery; sin captures a man, he is not free, he is a slave. The only release from that slavery is death, and isn't it marvelous to realize that it was only as you were crucified with Jesus Christ, as Romans 6 says, only that you died in Him, were freed from death, woke up in the resurrection and became a doulos to a new master, not sin, but Jesus Himself? You're still a bondslave, but a bondslave to Jesus Christ. I'll tell you something. Being a bondslave to Christ is better than being free to sin.
So you see the binding character of sin. How sad it is that these men would allow two years to go by and still be totally destroyed on the inside by this hatred for Paul. Paul had loved them and was an innocent man.
A third principle that we saw in the passage was the providence of God. We saw that, in spite of what seemed to be the normal course of events, God was ordering things. When they said to Festus, "Hey Festus, why don't you take Paul up to Jerusalem? We want to do some business regarding his case," he said, "No." That's very strange. The normal thing would have been to say yes, right? He was trying to win the Jews, he was trying to influence them for his side. He was trying to conciliate them, make friends, establish a base of operation. But instead of saying yes, he says no, and there isn't any reason to say no, other than the fact that God is in control.
I get excited when I think about the fact that God is in control, don't you? Listen to Lamentations 3:37-38. "Who is there who speaks and it comes to pass unless the Lord has commanded it?" Isn't that terrific? Listen to the next verse. "Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that both good and ill go forth?" Nothing happens for good or evil unless it is in the framework of God's allowance. That's clear in the Word of God. Festus didn't know it, but he was just moving along on the divine timetable. His own attitudes fitted the consistency of the will of God. God controls the destiny of every man.
The second point we see here, first, the assassination plot, then the accusation presented. Verse 6. "When he had tarried among them no more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea." So we have Festus going down to Caesarea like he said he would. "The next day, sitting on the judgment seat, he commanded Paul to be brought. When he was come, the Jews who came down from Jerusalem stood round about and laid many and grievous complaints against Paul."
So eight or ten days later, Festus has made some contacts, perhaps established relationships with the high priests, the Sanhedrin, and whoever else he needed to. Now he hustles back down to Caesarea, and the next day, he brings Paul. The accusers have come from Jerusalem, ready to lay the case. What do we find here? They lay down grievous charges, many of them, and complaints. We find, again, another principle. This is the fourth of the principles that we'll see, and it is this: the typical pattern of the world's persecution. Watch. The world persecutes on two premises. The persecute falsely and for Christ's sake.
Listen to Matthew 5, the words of Jesus. "Blessed are you when men shall persecute you and revile you and accuse you falsely for my sake." There are the two ingredients in the typical pattern of the world's persecution: they accuse you falsely and for Christ's sake. In other words, it isn't you they hate, it's Christ. It isn't you they resent, it's Christianity. Some Christians live such messed-up lives that it may be you they resent, but the point is, if you really receive the true rebuking of the world as Paul received it, it won't be because you fouled up so much that you deserve it, it will be false and for Christ's sake because of the vibrancy of your testimony for Christ.
Our lives should be so lived that the accusations are false. Our lives should be so lived that the only accusation people could make would be that they can't stand our Christianity. They should falsely accuse you. I'll tell you something, when Christians' lives are that way, when Christians' lives are lives that can only be accused falsely, then the world is really going to take notice of us, believe it.
Let me show you the third point, and we'll begin where we wanted to begin today. After we've seen the assassination plotted and presented, we see the absence of proof. It's always interesting, I think, in all the trials so far that we've seen, no one ever had any evidence against Paul. They were all trumped-up, false charges. The end of verse 7. "All these grievous complaints against Paul were laid, which they could not prove." They couldn't prove any of them. No witnesses, no support, no evidence, no case. You say, "Maybe they hadn't really worked on it." Don't believe that. In chapter 23, they tried to get a case against Paul and there weren't any witnesses there, they tried again in chapter 24 and there weren't any witnesses.
I think one of the notes, this is just a little thought I have; it may be true, it may not be. I think the possibility of verse 6 saying that he had tarried in Jerusalem for eight or ten days, some Bibles only say ten days, the original manuscripts say eight or ten. The reason the Holy Spirit put that there is because that gives the Jews plenty of time to get their case together.
You'd better believe that, since they had been shot out of the saddle twice already because of a lack of evidence and witnesses, they used those eight or ten days, or at least a good portion of them, to scurry around and try to find or bribe some witnesses. But God never let it happen - there were no witnesses. Paul had done nothing; no one witnessed what he did because he didn't do anything. Apparently, God didn't even allow them to bribe any witnesses. So they show up without any witnesses. Again, when the thing starts and Paul gives his testimony, then thing that knocks you over is his absolute innocence.
That brings us to principle number five, which follows the one I just gave you: the innocence and blamelessness of Paul and the effect of that innocence. I'm telling you, the effect of an innocent, blameless life on the world is powerful. Let me show you a passage that you're familiar with, but with a different slant. I Peter 3:14. "If you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are you. Don't be afraid of their terror, don't be troubled." If you suffer for sin, that's a different story, if you've fouled up your life so much that you're getting abuse because you've sinned, that's another thing. But if you're suffering for righteousness' sake, if you're living a godly life and all of a sudden, you're really getting it, happy are you.
Don't be afraid of their terror, don't be troubled, but do three things. Take care of what you are, what you say, and make sure what you think. That's the next verses, watch. "Sanctify the Lord Christ in your heart." What does that mean? It means set apart Christ in your heart. That is simply a statement saying, "Be holy." What's the second thing? "Then be ready to give an answer to every man that asks for a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear." Number one, check what you are, make sure you are holy. Number two, check what you say, make sure you speak the truth of God. Number three, check what you think; have a good conscience.
He says, "You'll be persecuted for righteousness' sake; stand on what you are, a holy life. Stand on what you say, the truth. Make sure that, when all is done, your conscience is clear, your thoughts are clear, you know you've not violated God. You know what will happen? Verse 16, "They will speak evil of you as evildoers but that they may be ashamed because they falsely accuse your good manner of life in Christ."
You know how to rebuke people who accuse you? Give them nothing to accuse you of, then they'll have to face the fact that their accusations are unfounded. They'll have to face the fact that the real issue is their hatred of Christianity and they'll be forced to face that. By Paul's innocent life, he made those people, over and over again, face the fact that what was really wrong was that their hearts were not right. They hated Jesus Christ; they resented God's Messiah. He forced them to feel that way, to recognize that, because there was really nothing for which they could blame Him.
Take stock of what you are, set Christ apart in what you say and what you think. Then be bold, and stand up, confronting the world with an innocent life. The power and impact of that kind of life can make the world ashamed. Shame may be a cause of conviction that can bring someone to Christ.
Let me give you principle number six. Another principle we see in this particular situation as Paul is brought before this governor, but there is no evidence, is the exoneration of Christianity of any crimes. You know, it was a very popular thing for the Jews to try to get rid of Christianity by accusing the Christians of being criminals against the Roman government. Throughout the whole book of Acts and the early history of the church as it grew from Jerusalem to Rome, the Jews had tried over and over again to make the Romans believe that Christianity was revolutionary, that Christianity was sedition and insurrection, that if the Romans tolerated the Christians, they'd overthrow the government.
Of course, the hypocrisy of it is enough to make you sick, because the Jews were busy trying to do the same thing. They had a group called the Zealots, and the Zealots were going around starting riots and insurrections, secretly assassinating people that they wanted to get rid of. In fact, they used to kill the Jewish Uncle Toms. That's today's vernacular, of course, they didn't call them that then. In today's vernacular, a Jewish Uncle Tom would be a Jew who paid tribute to Rome. The Zealots would kill them just as soon as they'd kill a Roman. So there was tremendous insurrection coming out of Judaism. And they're tying to accuse the Christians of doing that, but of course it never stuck.
All through the book of Acts, you repeatedly have different trials of Christians. Every time, the Roman government said they were innocent. The testimony is written down for all time, for all men to know. Christianity is not a revolution, it is not a political threat, it is a personal relationship to a living God, and the world doesn't have to fear Christianity. God has established that in the printed pages of His Word. So every time there is a trial of Christians in the book of Acts, Christians are exonerated.
You say, "Why then did the Romans start persecuting them?" That happened because there was a change in things. Let me tell you what happened. The Roman Empire was vast, from the Euphrates on the east to Britain on the west. From the top of Europe and Germany to north Africa, that entire, huge area was the Roman Empire. The Romans were practically scared to death about the possibility of fragmenting that empire, so they worked long and hard to try and come up with a unifying factor that could tie a thread across the whole situation and pull it together.
What they came up with was Caesar worship. If they could get everyone to worship Caesar, that might be the thing they needed to hang it all together. So they established Caesar as a god and demanded out of everyone emperor worship. Once a year, every inhabitant of the Roman Empire had to take a pinch of incense, burn it to Caesar, and then publicly declare, "Caesar is lord." After he did that, he could go and worship any god he wanted to, but he had to believe in the god Caesar and establish that verbally.
You know as much as I do that no Christian would do that. Salvation is confessing Jesus as Lord. We sang that when we came in here. "He is Lord, He is Lord. He has risen from the dead and He is Lord." That's the testimony of a believer, and no believer is going to stand up and say, "Caesar is lord." The Christians wouldn't do it, and that's when the persecution began. Now remember what I said earlier, the persecution is not political, it's religious. They then persecuted the Christians for religious disloyalty. As I say, it's always false religions that lead persecution against the truth. It was then that martyrdom began.
Incidentally, the first guy to really get it off the ground was named Nero. You'll be interested to note, Nero was the Caesar at this very time that Paul is in Caesarea. You'll find out in just a minute, if you didn't know already, that Nero was a complete maniac. He began to murder Christians. The succeeding Caesars after him continued it, and they murdered Christians because they were supposedly religiously disloyal, and they dreamed up all kinds of other accusations. But this perverted character Nero began it.
It's funny, because the first five years of his rule weren't anything; he was just an ordinary character. Or as ordinary as a pervert could be, I suppose. He was ordinary historically, nothing really happened. But all of a sudden, after his fifth year, bang! Everything just broke loose, and it was due to the fact that they had established emperor worship. That really keyed persecution, as I said, because it comes from religious antagonism.
The record stands, beloved, it stands in the Word of God. No accusation, no accusation, no accusation ever, ever rendered a guilty verdict against the believers; the were never successfully accused of insurrection. Remember in Acts 16, the Romans took Paul and Silas and threw them in jail? You know what happened. God just had a localized earthquake and opened every door in the place. Of course, everyone was scared about that, and it says in verse 35, "The sergeants and magistrates got together and said, 'Let those guys out. Get them out of there.' The keeper of the prison told the same to Paul. 'The magistrates have sent to let you go. Now, therefore, depart and go in