Paul before Festus
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Hallelujah. This morning we come to Acts 25.
Last week, we saw how Felix kept putting off and postponing things until the he was removed from office, and lost the opportunity to do anything useful. And after two years of having Paul in the backyard, Felix is removed as governor of Judea and is replaced by a Porcius Festus. And Paul is left in prison.
1 Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.
2 And the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, and they urged him, 3 asking as a favor against Paul that he summon him to Jerusalem—because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way.
4 Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly. 5 “So,” said he, “let the men of authority among you go down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them bring charges against him.”
Festus is a more efficient and expedient man compared to Felix. He doesn’t procrastinate. He is pragmatic and practical.
Now, imagine you are Festus, and you’ve just come into office. What’s the first thing on your mind? Meet with the leaders of the people and get friendly. Find out what you can do for them. Make them grateful toward you.
So you decide to go to Jerusalem. And the leaders of the Jews say, “Please do us this favor, send the man Paul to Jerusalem to be tried. He’s a criminal, a traitor, an unworthy fellow.” If I were Festus, what do I care about this Paul? Just send him to Jerusalem. There is no universe in which Festus would not send Paul to Jerusalem.
But what does Festus do? He says to them, “You bring your men of authority to Caesarea, and bring charges against Paul there.”
This is completely unexpected. And I dare say, this is the hand of God upon Festus’s mind. Do you know that God is sovereign over our thoughts and our decisions? This is but one example of many.
The Bible teaches us that God governs our thoughts, knows our thoughts, moves our thoughts, restrains our thoughts, and renews our thoughts.
1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
1 In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing:
17 for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.
12 But the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he did not listen to them, as the Lord had spoken to Moses.
28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
Now, by the way, I’d like to point out that for two years, Paul has been on the minds of these Jewish leaders. They are stuck in time. They can’t move on until Paul is silenced.
So Festus decides to bring the Jews from Jersualem to Caesarea, and he calls for another hearing on Paul’s case.
6 After he stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought.
7 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.
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.”
9 But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me?”
Now, Luke here gives a shortened version of the court hearing, because it’s probably a simple rehash of what happened in the previous chapter. Again, the Jews accuse Paul. Again, Paul points out that he has done nothing wrong. And again, the Jews are unable to produce any witnesses, because there was nothing to witness. Paul is still completely innocent.
And so Festus, being the ever so expedient man, decides to come to a compromise. The Jews want Paul brought over to Jerusalem to be tried before the Sanhedrin council. But Paul wants to be tried as a Roman citizen before a Roman official.
So Festus says “Okay, we can have the hearing in Jerusalem, but it will be I who judges you, not the Sanhedrin.” He’s an expedient man.
But what does Paul say?
10 But Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you yourself know very well.
11 If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death. But if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar.”
12 Then Festus, when he had conferred with his council, answered, “To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go.”
See, Paul knows that these Jews are not going to play fair. He remembers the last time he was in Jerusalem, there was a group of more than 40 men who swore an oath to murder him. And those men conspired together with the members of the Sanhedrin to have Paul ambushed and killed.
They never intended to have a second hearing.
And so Paul, knowing this, says “No one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar.”
When Paul says “I appeal to Caesar”, that’s his right as a Roman citizen. Now, the word Caesar here was originally the family name of Julius Caesar, but later became a title for the Emperor of Rome.
And it sounds very good and victorious for Paul to say, “I appeal to Caesar!” But do you know who the Caesar was at the time? It was a man named Nero. And Nero was a madman. A maniac. He was the most immoral man you could imagine. He killed his mother to please his lover, who was married to someone else. Then he got mad at that same lover, and killed her by kicking her in the stomach while she was pregnant. He wanted to marry his adoptive sister, but she didn’t want it and so he killed her. Then he married another woman after killing her husband. And finally, chances are he himself started the great fire of Rome in 64 AD that burned down 10 out of Rome’s 14 districts, out of a desire to clear space for a new and bigger palace. He later blamed the Christians for it and persecuted them to death.
It was in reference to this man that Paul said, “I appeal to Caesar.”
Doesn’t sound like a good deal. But perhaps in that moment, Paul saw his opportunity to go to Rome. That was his right as a Roman citizen.
And so Festus replies to Paul, “To Caesar you have appealed, to Caesar you shall go.” And so kickstarts Paul’s journey to Rome, which would be his final resting place. I can’t imagine Paul got a fair hearing with Nero, if it even came to that.
Now, as a final thought, I’d like for us to notice that in a similar way, we Christians have a special right. Is it not true that before the judgment seat of God, it is those who declare with faith, “I appeal to Jesus!” who are not condemned with the rest of the world? That is your right as a citizen of heaven. And what absolutely good news it is that Jesus is the farthest thing from Nero. He is merciful, kind, and compassionate. He sympathizes with our weaknesses, He weeps at our pain, and He is human in the fullest sense of the word.
