The Way Home
TALKING TO A KING
Story 17 - Acts 25:1 to 26:32
Festus took Felix’s place as ruler over the land of Judea. Remember Felix? He was the governor who kept Paul in prison so long. Festus went up to Jerusalem to visit. There the chief priests and leading men spoke to him against Paul. They asked him to send Paul to Jerusalem to be tried. It was their plan to kill Paul on the way from Caesarea to Jerusalem. But Festus told them that Paul should be kept at Caesarea. He told them that he would soon go there himself.
“Let some of your leaders go down with me,” said Festus, “and bring your charges against him, if you have any.”
When Festus came down to Caesarea, he called them all together and sat upon the judge’s seat and commanded Paul to be brought. Then the Jews said evil things about Paul, declaring that he had done wickedly. But they could not prove any of the things which they spoke against him. And Paul said, “I have done no wrong against the law of the Jews nor against the Temple nor against the rule of Caesar the emperor.”
Festus wished to please the Jews, because he did not know of their secret purpose to kill Paul. He said, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried upon these charges?”
But Paul said, “I am standing before the Roman court where I ought to be judged. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you know very well, and no man shall give me into their hands. I ask for a trial before Caesar, the emperor at Rome.”
It was the law throughout the Roman lands that any free citizen of Rome, like Paul, could ask for a trial at Rome before Caesar, the emperor. When
Festus heard Paul’s words, he said, “Do you ask to be tried before Caesar? Then unto Caesar you shall go.”
So Paul was taken back to the prison at Caesarea until it was time to be sent to Rome. A few days after this, a Jewish ruler named Agrippa, with his sister Bernice, came to visit Festus. He was called “King Agrippa,” and he ruled over a part of the land on the east of the river Jordan. While Agrippa and Bernice were at Caesarea, Festus said to them, “There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix, of whom the chief priests and elders of the Jews asked, when I was at Jerusalem, that I should give orders to have him put to death, or given into their hands. I told them that the Romans never give judgment against any man until he stands face to face before his enemies and can make answer to their charges. When they came down to this place and the man was brought before them, their charges were not the wicked acts that I expected to hear about; but they had some questions about their ways of worship and about somebody named Jesus, who was dead, but Paul said is alive. Since I could not understand these questions, I asked Paul whether he would go up to Jerusalem and there be tried. But Paul asked for a trial before Caesar, and I am keeping him to be sent to the emperor at Rome.”
Agrippa said, “I would like to hear this man myself.” “Tomorrow,” said Festus, “you shall hear him.” So the next day, Agrippa and his sister Bernice and Festus, with the chief men of the city and the officers of the army, came in great pomp and ceremony into the hall of judgment. Then Paul was brought before them, chained to a Roman soldier. After a few words by Festus, Agrippa said to Paul, “You may now speak for yourself.”
Then Paul spoke in words like these: “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, to give answer before you of all the things charged against me by the Jews, because I am sure that you know all the Jewish ways and questions about the law. I ask you, then, to hear me. All the Jews know my way of life from my youth, for I have lived among them; and if they told the truth, they would say that I was one of those who kept the laws of our people very carefully. And now I stand here to be judged for the sake of the promise which God made to our fathers; that promise to which our twelve tribes, serving God day and night, hope to come. And on account of this hope, O king, the Jews charge me with doing evil; because I believe that Jesus Christ
rose from the dead to be the King of Israel. Why should God raising the dead to life be something you cannot believe?
“In former times I thought within myself that I ought to do many things against the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And this I did in Jerusalem; for I shut up many good men and women in prisons, and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them. I caused them to be beaten, and I tried to make them curse the name of Jesus; and being exceedingly mad against them, I searched for them even in cities far away.
“And as I journeyed to Damascus with letters from the chief priests, at midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining around me and those who were with me. And as we all fell down upon the ground, I heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you fighting against Me?’
“And I said, ‘Who are You, Lord?’
“And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus, Whom you are trying to destroy. Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of Me and of what I will show you. I will keep you safe from the Jewish people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them to open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may be forgiven of sins, and that they may receive a reward among those that are made holy by faith in Me.
“O King Agrippa, I did not disobey the voice from heaven, but first at Damascus and then at Jerusalem and throughout all the land of Judea, and also among the Gentiles, I have spoken, telling them to turn from sin to God and to show deeds of right-doing. This is why the Jews seized me in the Temple and tried to kill me. Having gained help from God, I stand unto this day, speaking to people, small and great, saying only what is given in the law of Moses and in the prophets: that Christ must suffer and die, and that He by rising from the dead shall give light to our people and to the Gentiles.”
While Paul was speaking, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are mad! Your great learning has turned you to madness!” For Festus, being a Roman, knew nothing of Jesus or of the truths which Paul spoke. But Paul said to him, “I am not mad, most noble Festus. I speak only sober and truthful words. The king knows of these things, and I speak freely to him. None of these things are hidden from him, for these things were not done in secret. King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know that you do believe.”
And Agrippa said to Paul, “A little more and you will persuade me to become a Christian!”
And Paul said, “I would before God, that whether with little or with much, that not only you, but also all that hear me this day, might become such as I am, except for these chains!”
After these words, King Agrippa and Bernice and Festus the governor, and those who were there, went away by themselves, and they said to each other, “This man has done nothing deserving death or prison.”
And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man might have been set free if he had not asked to be tried before Caesar.”
