Greetings and welcome to another edition of Witnesses of the King. Witnesses of the King is an exposition of the Book of Acts, essentially. We're taking it more or less chapter by chapter, a little chunk at a time, and seeing how God grows his church, how he did it in the first century, how he still does it. to this day and the beautiful thing about seeing this is that we see universal application to the church as we go through the book of Acts but also even personal applications as we watch the apostles go through their lives dedicated to proclaiming the Gospels, dealing with the struggles of life and the challenges of persecution and things like that. And so we have a great deal to learn here in the book of Acts. Today we're going to be in Acts chapter 25, the beginning of Acts chapter 25. And to this point we're following the Apostle Paul who has desired to go to Rome and is convinced that he must go to Rome, but first Jerusalem. to present an offering to the church there for relief of those who were hurting from famine that was in that area. And he brings this offering from many of the churches of Asia Minor and even some over into Europe. And he comes to pay a visit and to spend some time worshiping, it was revealed to him early on that suffering and imprisonment was awaiting him at Jerusalem. But he was resolved to go. And his resolve was even tested by believers testifying him that imprisonment and suffering awaited him. But many of them even urging him not to go. But Paul remained steadfast. Paul was determined to go to Jerusalem and then convinced that he would go on. to Rome. Now Paul back in Acts chapter 9 verse 15, just bring this up for a moment, in his conversion it was revealed to him that he would be indeed ministering and even to Kings and to Gentiles and so this 915 verse the Lord said to him go for he is my chosen instrument he's speaking to Ananias about Kapal chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and Kings and the children of Israel and And then this becomes more specific to him as we go on. He's not yet been in front of any kings, but we're coming up to that here very soon. In chapter 19, verse 21 is when we see that he was resolved in the spirit to go through Macedonia, ultimately to Jerusalem, and then finally, eventually to Rome. And so here we are in Jerusalem when we come to Acts chapter 25. And what we're finding is that he has been on a two-year pause in his life. You can see at the last verse of chapter 24 when two years had elapsed. So he was in prison there under Felix for some things that had happened in Jerusalem. The Jews had made accusations of him, particularly some Jews from Asia, which would appear to be probably from Ephesus, where he had had trouble with these men before. And what we're going to see as I read through these verses, here's the thought I want to be in your mind. that believers should pursue the path laid out for them by God, no matter how unusual it may appear. Well, let's go to our verses here and see what we can learn along with the Apostle Paul. We'll go full screen here for you. So, here's what it says, the last verse of chapter 24. When two years had elapsed, Felix was succeeded by Porteous Festus, and desiring to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul in prison. Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea, and the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, and 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. 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 is anything wrong about the man, let them bring charges against him. After he stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. When he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many in serious charges against him that they could not prove. Paul argued in his defense, neither against the Jews, nor against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense. 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? 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. 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. Then Festus, when he had conferred with his counsel, answered, To Caesar you have appealed, to Caesar you shall go. Well, let's open with a word of prayer. Father God, thank you so much for this, these verses. Thank you for your servant, Paul. Thank you for all that we're about to learn by opening your word. I pray that you give us encouragement from your spirit to understand these great truths. We thank you and praise you in Jesus name. Amen. Well, here we have an interesting thing. You've got a change in leadership here. Felix, through his procrastination, through his wishing to get some kind of a bribe out of Paul, and kind of wishing to do the Jews a favor, had Paul in prison for two years with no formal charges against him, no really legitimate trial of any kind. There's no comment or account of the fact that Even the leaders from the Roman leaders that were in Jerusalem had come down and made any kind of a statement or witness to what was going on. So here we have a great injustice being done to Paul and this two-year pause in his life as this injustice occurs and then comes the new guy. And the new guy, he is Porcius Festus, and we want to talk about him for a moment. He was a Roman procurator of Judea, we think around AD 60 or so. This is when Paul seems to have been in prison and arrested. And he is accounted here in Acts, and we know a little bit about him from Josephus, but not a whole lot. As we saw there in verse 27 of the previous chapter, Felix had been recalled by Rome. Basically, Felix was fired. And he had had many failures. And when there was a change in the emperor, he was appointed under Emperor Claudius. then Emperor Nero came to power and then took Felix out, appointed Porcius Festus in his place. Now, some of you hear the word Nero or the name Nero and you think, uh oh, Paul's in big trouble. Well, I want to remind you or let you know that the first four or five years of Nero's reign were really pretty decent. And it's only after he reigned some time that all of a sudden he began to really persecute the church. It's like he took a turn. Many people think that he got some kind of a situation or an illness or something that caused him some madness. And indeed, what he wreaks upon the church later is indeed madness. But here comes Portia's Festus. He gets off to a fast start. Three days after arriving, the man's barely unpacked, he goes to Jerusalem to establish relationships with the local authorities, which would be the wise thing to do as governor. And because we know very little about him, we have this account in Acts to look at. What we can see is that he was serious, that he was proactive, that he was somewhat fair-minded, but he was also a political being. And we see that in his desire to do certain favors for the Jews. There's a couple things I want to point out here. Look at verse 3 here in Acts 25. The Jews ask him for a favor, that he summon Paul to Jerusalem. to come do this and while he wants to do them a favor by dealing with Paul right away he has to kind of remind them who's in charge and he says I'll hear the case but I'll hear it at Caesarea, that's where Paul is after all and so he kind of reminds the Jews who's in charge that there's a compromise, yeah I'll deal with this right away but we're going to deal with it in Caesarea Very cleverly also, this allows an extension of this diplomatic visit and this time that he has with these leaders of the Jews to get to know them. And now he has an opportunity to host them in Caesarea. So the new guy gets right to work on Paul's case. It says after eight to ten days that they stayed there. They all go down to Caesarea together. and a formal hearing is held the very next day and notice in verse 7 this threatening kind of scary moment here the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him this had to be intimidating because he was surrounded by these enemies that they're bringing what quote many and serious charges But there's no evidence, real evidence brought forward. There's no eyewitnesses to what had happened. And fortunately Luke spares us the details of everything they said. We've heard enough the last couple chapters about what the Jews have to say. So if you're curious and you haven't been with us the previous weeks, read the last couple chapters. You'll hear how things unfolded and how it is that the Jews are accusing Paul. So Paul makes his defense, and he maintains his innocence, as always. And in verse 9, what is the climax of the scene? Bestus, kind of wanting to do the Jews a favor, he asks Paul this. Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me? So he's not giving up his jurisdiction, his proper jurisdiction over this matter, but he is saying, let's move the venue to Jerusalem. And that makes some sense because, after all, Jerusalem was the scene of the crime, so to speak. It's more likely they're going to get some witnesses from the locals that they could summon. And this appeared to be a Jewish religious matter. And so why not do this in Jerusalem, where is the center of the religious system? But that kind of brings us to Paul's dilemma. Paul's got quite a dilemma here that I think we want to take a look at. First of all, we want to point out that going to Jerusalem is simply not an option. It's not an option. And it's not an option because it's very clear from verse 3 that there was a plot against his life. Paul knew that there was a plot against his life because Luke knew that there was a plot against his life and Luke was with him. Now we don't know the source of the intelligence, we don't know how they knew there was a plot against him, but we know that Paul was connected and he had many friends. And so if he were to allow them to move this to Jerusalem, there would be an ambush. Now you might remember that Paul said very clearly back in chapter 21, as he was being tested in his resolve to go to Jerusalem, he said, I am ready to die. for this and indeed he's ready to die but I think he also realized that an ambush put innocent soldiers and perhaps even bystanders in the way and in danger and so it's not just his own life that he's concerned about at this point but it would be the lives of many others because this ambush would be violent and Roman soldiers would protect a prisoner to the death because for them to lose a prisoner, whether to lose him to escape or to lose him to death, could well be their own death sentence. And so this is a very, very serious matter. The stakes are very, very high. And so going to Jerusalem is not an option. Now, you may have noticed there in verse 9, back there in back there in Acts 25 verse 9, that Festus asked Paul. Roman law required the consent of the accused for a change in venue. So Festus has to ask Paul, and Paul has every right to say no. So going to Jerusalem wasn't an option, so obviously Paul is going to say no to that. But what if they just stayed there and finished the trial out in Caesarea? Well, one of two things is going to happen in Caesarea if they actually manage to get a trial going. And the first would be this, that he is found not guilty and he's released. Well at this point if Paul is released from Caesarea, well the Jewish authorities are going to know about it being there themselves and then they will pursue Paul and once again be able to go after him for his life. And what if he's found guilty? What if he stays in Caesarea and is found guilty? Well then we have a situation because if Paul is found guilty, he goes to Jerusalem to be executed and there's no trip to Rome. So the question remains, how is Paul going to avoid some kind of a violent confrontation that can involve others? How is he going to get to Rome? And how is he going to do all this while maintaining his integrity? Without offering any kind of a bribe or plotting to escape or anything like that. Those things are clearly off the table as a believer in Jesus Christ. Well, Paul has a very creative solution and it comes with his appeal to Rome. He appeals to the court of Caesar. And the right of a Roman citizen was to have Caesar's court in Rome hear his case. Now, not that Caesar himself is going to hear the case, but that his group of legal experts there, based in the empire's capital, would hear the case. And it was a right that Paul had. Now it was risky because it somewhat upped the stakes. You didn't want to go to Rome for a trial and waste their time. And so it is somewhat risky in that respect. But it's brilliant in this, that the Jews would be very unlikely to make the trip. They would be unlikely to travel all the way to Rome at Gentile City, the ultimate Gentile City, the belly of the beast, so to speak, to go to Rome just to pursue this guy, Paul. They probably figure he'll be released. We'll find out about where he is. We'll deal with him later. It would also be very unlikely that if the Jews did actually go to Rome to pursue this matter, that they're not going to find the kind of favors that they found with Felix and with Festus locally, because there simply wouldn't be the advantage to the entire empire to bow to these men. So, this is a very clever solution. It's a very interesting solution. It's a very, like I said, creative solution. Now, notice this also. This means that Rome is going to pay for Paul's journey as they are going to have to take him there in custody. So Paul shows himself in this account to be open-minded enough to consider that God's plan could include him going to Rome as a prisoner. Now I'm sure he assumed, as I would have assumed, as in reading the text for the first time, I'm sure I assumed this, that matters would be settled here and that he would travel in the usual way to Rome. Maybe stopping and seeing churches along the way with his merry band of other apostles and stuff to go with him to keep him company. But indeed it did not occur to normal people that he's going to get to Rome but he's going to go there. as a prisoner. But this appeal to Caesar is the creative solution, exactly the solution that Paul needed. Well, so what kind of encouragements can we take from this? Well, Paul sets us a beautiful example of making every effort to finish the course. While Paul was willing to die, as he said in 21-13, I want to take you there, Paul answered, what are you doing weeping and breaking my heart? For I'm ready not only to be in prison, but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. And so not only was he willing to die, however, he made every effort to finish the course. He made every effort not to die. And some people say that it's easier to die for Christ than it is to live for Him. In many cases, that's true. But Paul is not giving up on it. He is finding a clever way to finish the course. As he desired in Acts chapter 20, he expressed this. He says, I do not account my life of any value, nor is precious myself. If only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus. This has been Paul's priority throughout his life and in this he is a beautiful example. To the point that in his last letter that we have in 2 Timothy He writes this letter when he is imprisoned yet again. It's not this imprisonment, but it is the next imprisonment. He writes to Timothy certain that he is going to die. And listen to what he says to Timothy as he writes to him what he believes will be his last letter to him. He says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. What a beautiful thing to be able to say that I'm at the end, that I've done everything I could, that I ran every mile, that I took every step that I ought. And this creative solution of appealing to Caesar is part of that journey. So we must take courage also in the fact that God is continually at work for the benefit of his people. Because even though Paul's life was seemingly put on hold for two years, we know that time wasn't wasted. He was allowed to have friends come and go as he pleased. And we know Paul was a prolific writer and a great studier. And so he would take this time to further his knowledge of the gospel by searching the scriptures. And that he would further his ministry by writing letters to encourage and strengthen churches. And so we have this awesome opportunity that he has to actually freely receive guests that could come and go as they please and that he would be able to write and communicate and to exercise many of his rights of citizenship in the Empire and so we take courage in the fact that God is continually at work for the benefit of his people. Look what it says in Romans 8.28 a fascinating verse Romans 8.28 and we know that for those who love God all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose. Now this is a profoundly encouraging verse for believers because it says that God all things work together for good and that all things work together for good is an encouragement that yes that means even in the difficult times even Paul being imprisoned being suffering injustice for over two years under Felix and now having to go as a prisoner to Rome all these things are working for good if you believe what this verse says Now, the important part about this verse is that God gets to define what good is. Many people take this verse to mean, oh, that means I'm going to have a happy and healthy life. I'm going to be financially in good shape. I'm going to be, my health is going to be good and everything else. Well, that's not necessarily how God defines good in our lives. Good in our lives from a Christian perspective is that which furthers the gospel of the kingdom and that which perfects Christ's work in us. Those things that build us godly character. Christ is much more concerned with our character being conformed to his image than he is with our lifestyle being conformed to some kind of an American dream. God gets to define what is good here. And if we align ourselves with Him and abide in Him, our definition of good will be the same. And we will be able to see the good that He is doing. We will see the encouragement coming to believers. We will see those that are coming to believe as a result of the situation and the opportunities within the situation. Though he is a prisoner, his work goes on. And in any given situation, for believers to endure, we must have this question in mind. What is God doing? Because we know he's doing something. This verse is our encouragement that God is still working for the good of his people even in the difficulties, good times and bad. The church is his bride and he has committed himself to her for better or for worse. The only difference is until death do we meet better than ever. But we must caution you at this point and we must have confidence in this principle. But we cannot have confidence in this principle if we are not abiding in Jesus Christ. Ours is not to kick back and just enjoy the ride. This verse does not suggest that, oh, it doesn't matter what you do. God's going to fix it all up. God's going to work good things despite your lack of obedience or skills or ability. No, we must make every effort, as Paul did, to fight the good fight, to finish the course, to continue in the race, to persevere until the very end. The Bible tells us very plainly, it's only those who endure to the end that are the saved. We have no reason to believe that we are His if we get to a discouraging point and we throw our hands up and say, well, God will make good of it, I'm done. That is not the attitude of someone with the Spirit of God indwelling them. Someone who went to the cross, Jesus going to the cross in that same spirit, being raised in that same spirit from the dead. Jesus did not rest until he breathed his last upon the cross and said, it is finished on your behalf. Neither do we have the permission to stop, the permission to quit, the permission to lay down our arms, the sword of the spirit, and to take off our armor until the Lord brings us home or comes to fetch us. We do not have that privilege, but we do have the privilege of knowing Him and His great counsel and His wisdom that are handed to us in the Word of God, that are encouraged and brought to us through the people of God, and that we can surround ourselves with the people of God, with the encouragement of His scriptures, all that has been in our heart, and we can mull these things over in the deepest and darkest depth persecution and of hopelessness and imprisonment and difficulties and challenges of all kinds. We have this confidence in Christ that if we are those who are enduring to the end, if we are those who are abiding in Him, then it shows that we are those that love God and that are called according to His purpose. If we're not abiding in Christ, we lose our confidence. You'll notice Romans 8.28, this does not absolve us of the responsibility or consequences of our actions or our foolishness. This verse promises no protection from those things, from consequences of our actions. Indeed, as the faithful of Christ, We should be working to better our situation at all times, to remain blameless in whatever circumstance we find ourselves in, and to further the gospel at every opportunity. Our status as the called, as the ones who love God, does not absolve us of the guilt of our sins. We have committed our mistakes we've made, but with confession and forgiveness, those things are nailed to the cross. and we do our very best to make things right and we continue forward, then we can truly live in that moment when in freedom we pursue the path laid out for us by God, no matter how unusual it may appear to be. Well, those are the encouragements I want to leave you with. And I want to close us in a word of prayer as we consider these things. Father God, we praise you and thank you for bringing us together. We thank you for these verses and this tremendous difficulty that Paul was in. We praise you for that because it has been kept through your servant Luke. as instruction for us, as example for us. Lord, I pray that we indeed will follow it, that we will exhaust every possibility, and that we will look around ourselves when we're in a dilemma, when we're in a situation in which there seems no way out. And Lord, you will give us the way. You will give us the way forward into your gospel work. For Paul goes on to do many great things in Rome after this, Lord. And we know these things, and we have some of his letters that he wrote from there. And Lord, we know that he continued to minister mightily the gospel. because of your great faithfulness. Lord, we thank you for working all things to the good. And we pray, Lord, that you will conform us to the image of Christ, that we will always see the good things, that we can remark with him, you know, as he remarked of the blind man, that he was put forth for the glory of God. and that we'll be able to see the glory of God by abiding in Christ. We thank you, Lord, for this wonderful opportunity to gather, and we thank you for your servant Paul, and we pray, Lord, that you'll encourage us daily as we think on these things and as we search the Scriptures to see that they are so. We thank you and praise you in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I invite you to write us if you have any kind of questions or concerns. Anything else you want to know about this, if you want to understand more about this creative solution of Paul. you can contact us at Whiterunbaptist at gmail.com Whiterunbaptist at gmail.com for more information about our church you can go to Whiterun.org where you can read our statement of faith, you can find links to other resources that might be helpful to you and you can also find out where we are and perhaps join us sometime for worship. May God bless you.