Acts 25
Acts 25:1-27
1 Now when Festus had come to the province, after three days he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem.
2 Then the high priest and the chief men of the Jews informed him against Paul; and they petitioned him,
3 asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem—while they lay in ambush along the road to kill him.
4 But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was going there shortly.
5 “Therefore,” he said, “let those who have authority among you go down with me and accuse this man, to see if there is any fault in him.”
6 And when he had remained among them more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, he commanded Paul to be brought.
7 When he had come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood about and laid many serious complaints against Paul, which they could not prove,
8 while he answered for himself, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I offended in anything at all.”
9 But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and there be judged before me concerning these things?”
10 So Paul said, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you very well know.
11 For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.”
12 Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, “You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!”
13 And after some days King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet Festus.
14 When they had been there many days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying: “There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix,
15 about whom the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, when I was in Jerusalem, asking for a judgment against him.
16 To them I answered, ‘It is not the custom of the Romans to deliver any man to destruction before the accused meets the accusers face to face, and has opportunity to answer for himself concerning the charge against him.’
17 Therefore when they had come together, without any delay, the next day I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought in.
18 When the accusers stood up, they brought no accusation against him of such things as I supposed,
19 but had some questions against him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive.
20 And because I was uncertain of such questions, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there be judged concerning these matters.
21 But when Paul appealed to be reserved for the decision of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I could send him to Caesar.”
22 Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I also would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he said, “you shall hear him.”
23 So the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp, and had entered the auditorium with the commanders and the prominent men of the city, at Festus’ command Paul was brought in.
24 And Festus said: “King Agrippa and all the men who are here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole assembly of the Jews petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he was not fit to live any longer.
25 But when I found that he had committed nothing deserving of death, and that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I decided to send him.
26 I have nothing certain to write to my lord concerning him. Therefore I have brought him out before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the examination has taken place I may have something to write.
27 For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to specify the charges against him.”
Acts 25
In Paul’s case, there is an example of both the extremely dangerous response of those personally challenged by the Truth and those who more indirectly oppose it due to poll numbers. These exist and will determine the course of society apart from a major revival that brings the number of the first group into a small enough minority to render them ineffective. Even though the offended ones are a minority, unless those living the Truth with conviction are moving with a number that influences the ones in authority, there will continue to be compliance with absurdly lunatic falsehoods that no innocent child could ever accept on their own apart from coaching. How ironic it is that those guilty ones, living the lie the truth offends, would be determining the fate of someone who is simply expressing testimony of a real encounter with Truth. What is so exemplary in Paul’s stance is that he never decided that compliance and compromise were possible courses for resolution. There was no attempt to pacify and become more accepted by the offended ones by tempering the clarity of his message, no matter how it inflamed his accusers. There was never a political triumph of the Truth in his time, but a way was made in Paul’s tenacious holding to his mission for the Kingdom not-of-this-world to be established on a foundation of truth unmoved by the notions of the ill-informed.
In a very precarious season of pandering to the personal notions of reality, it is the critical responsibility of those carriers of Truth to not sway to the forces of poll numbers with stories of the offended. Those “hurt” by the Truth are not in need of its compromise but rather their adherence to it. To relent from the reality of total new life in Christ to pacify a notion that it doesn’t include portions of our self-determined identity is to withhold eternal life and its redemption from those on a path to eternal damnation. Relenting is not loving. It’s only concern for one’s own welfare over that of the guilty. There may not be political triumph in this time that has quickly fallen into the quagmire of self-diluted compromise, but our mission as the redeemed ambassadors of Truth must remain fixed on an inward Truth that can never be honestly adjusted to meet the cries of the ones its answers offends. There may be dangerous opposition both from the minority roars and those in authority fearing their threats, but the content and direction of our mission can never depart from sharing salvation in no other notion than the Way of the cross.
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