Acts 25:23-27 – The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. 24 Festus said: “King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man! The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. 25 I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome. 26 But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. 27 For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.”
“The next day Agrippa and Bernice came with great pomp and entered the audience room with the high-ranking military officers and the prominent men of the city. At the command of Festus, Paul was brought in.” King Agrippa II and Bernice entered with full pageantry. They were dressed to the hilt and led a progression of officials who were also dressed to the hilt. This “hearing” of Paul, attended by non-Jews other than King Agrippa II and Bernice, were coming to a prestigious event. It was held in an amphitheater overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and the venue was filled. It was, to them, a place to be seen by those that mattered. In this atmosphere of pomp and circumstance, and to the satisfaction of the curiosity of the attendees, Paul was led in. He was in chains and wearing humble garb. Paul was accounted to have been a short man with little hair, a long hooked nose, bowed legs and runny eyes. Certainly not inspiring any high regard from his viewers. Yet Paul knew that he was not before these government officials due to the brilliance of who he was, physically or otherwise, but because of the exceeding excellence of his Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. Paul was not puffed up by speaking to these people, but rather the audience that he sought to please was but One, the Lord Jesus Christ. The people came in together, to be seen and acknowledged. Paul came in with the unseen Jesus. There are countless examples of God being with one is more than the millions, or giants, who oppose. Praise God!
“Festus said: “King Agrippa, and all who are present with us, you see this man! The whole Jewish community has petitioned me about him in Jerusalem and here in Caesarea, shouting that he ought not to live any longer. 25 I found he had done nothing deserving of death, but because he made his appeal to the Emperor I decided to send him to Rome.” Festus states that the “whole Jewish community” had petitioned him concerning Paul. We should understand that the Sanhedrin represented the Jews. Not unlike a modern leader of a country represents the country to leaders of other countries. So the Sanhedrin, as the leaders of Judaism, spoke for the entire Jewish community, though certainly we know that not all agreed with them.
We have discussed when previously reviewing the scriptures preceding these, that the Jewish leaders proved Paul guilty of no crimes against Rome (most important) and in fact had only brought charges of different beliefs regarding the resurrection of the dead, specifically (and vitally), concerning the resurrection of Jesus. Festus here, again, states that Paul had done nothing worthy of Roman punishment and certainly not of death.
“But I have nothing definite to write to His Majesty about him. Therefore I have brought him before all of you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that as a result of this investigation I may have something to write. 27 For I think it is unreasonable to send a prisoner on to Rome without specifying the charges against him.” Festus lets the dignitaries in attendance know that since he has no charges against Paul to present to Caesar, perhaps they could help him with that? We have discussed that King Agrippa 2 had a greatly diminished rule than his father, but that does not mean that he did not have great influence. In fact, it is said that King Agrippa had greater influence than Governor Festus. A letter of support from him would go a long way.
Imagine a man with cuffed hands and ankles brought into a modern court to be convicted of a crime by the judge. Now imagine that when the judge asked the prosecutor for the charges, the prosecutor reported that he had no evidence of the man having broken any law. The man had been jailed and cuffed because city officials wanted him to be ordered to death because he had different opinions than they. Why, the prosecutor would be thought a fool by the judge. The judge would chastise the prosecutor for wasting the time of the court and may likely recommend punishment for the actions of the prosecutor. If Festus had sent Paul to Caesar without good reason, Caesar could have become enraged. Doing that would have been especially dangerous to Festus as the Caesar was the unpredictable and evil Nero. Certainly Nero would have asked “If you had no charges to bring, instead of troubling me, why didn’t you just set him free?” Exactly. This problem of Festus was not one created by the Jewish leaders but rather the cause of his problems was his own weakness. He feared the unrest the Jews may have created if they didn’t get their way so he wavered from doing the right thing and just letting Paul go. Of course, God knew how Claudius Lysias, and Governor Felix and how Governor Festus would respond. He used how He knew they would react to give Paul the opportunity to share the Gospel in Caesarea and in Rome. We know that the Roman government did not really control the fate of Paul, it was God who was in control. God was in control for Paul and He is for us. Praise God!
It is recorded that around 100 AD Pliny the Younger (A lawyer and magistrate of Rome wrote of hundreds of notable letters of which 247 survive and are considered historically significant) wrote to Caesar Trajan about His process of identifying and killing Christians. He reported that he found Christians to be “contumacious and inflexible” in holding to their truth. He said that if they would renounce Jesus as God, then they could be set free but if they did not, they would be killed. (Let’s remember that meant being horribly tortured before death.) Pliny the Younger reported that there were many who renounced their faith in Jesus in order to avoid suffering and death. He spoke comparatively of those he thought as real Christians who were completely committed to the faith, in this way “whereas there is no forcing, it is said, those who are really Christians…” Even this slaughterer of Christians could recognize true Christians from those who played at it. Those who were true Christians would not renounce their faith for any reason. Not to save themselves, or their families, from any torture of death. Yes, they held stubbornly to their faith and trusted the Lord even onto the afterlife.
Family and friends, we are called to have the same faith as these early believers. Hebrews 11 reveals the faith that we are called to. The faith that we are called to considers Christ most dear, and that with no rival, and cannot be dissuaded for any reason, for any person, or for anything. Yes, there are many victories in the Christian life, yet Vs 34-38 also states of the true believers of the past, and to what we are likewise called to, “There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. 36 Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— 38 the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground.” Family and Friends, there is no valid reason to give up what we eternally have for what we temporarily have. The martyred missionary Jim Elliot (1927-1956) famously said “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” Let us, as our brothers and sisters before us did, hold the riches of our inheritance in Christ as the treasure we hold more dear than anything, and anyone in this world. After all, Jesus gave all for us so that we could have all that is eternal and lasting and wonderful. Praise Jesus! Praise God! Hallelujah!
Psalm 150:6 – Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord!
Micah 7:7 – But as for me, I watch in hope for the Lord, I wait for God my Savior; my God will hear me.
Micah 6:8 – He has shown You, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of You but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with Your God
Numbers 6:24-26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; 25 the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; 26 the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.”