Sermon Tone Analysis
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If you’ll remember, a couple of weeks ago when we left Paul he had been transferred by the commander of the Roman regiment in Jerusalem to face the Roman governor in Caesarea.
The commander also ordered the Jewish religious leaders who were accusing Paul to go down the Caesarea to make their accusations in front of Felix.
They did, except it wasn’t really accusations so much as it was buttering up the governor hoping that he would side with them.
Felix decided to keep Paul in protective custody and then right at the end of the passage we read we saw Felix replaced by Festus after Paul had been there for 2 years.
And that’s where we’ll pick up reading this morning.
Acts 25:1-3
Don’t you know these Jewish leaders have been stewing for the last two years?
They thought they had Paul.
The mob was about to take him out and then the Roman soldiers showed up.
Then they had a plan to ambush the soldiers and kill Paul.
Not necessarily a good plan, but a plan nonetheless.
Then they went down to accuse Paul before Felix thinking, “This is it.
The Romans won’t stand for this and they’ll give him back to us and we can finally be rid of him.”
Well, not so much.
Like I said before, Felix decides to keep Paul in protective custody and the Jews spend 2 years plotting new ways to kill Paul.
But now, there’s a new leader in town.
Festus arrives in Jerusalem and this is just the opportunity the Jews have been waiting for.
Festus doesn’t have the ties to the Jews that Felix did (remember, Felix’s wife was a Jew) so he won’t understand the culture the same way, so maybe they can get him to go along with them.
So they ingratiate themselves to Festus.
They butter him up, just like they had done to Felix and they ask for a favor.
“Just bring him back to Jerusalem.
Let us take him off your hands.
We’ll take care of him.”
But as we read in that last verse, “they were, in fact, preparing an ambush along the road to kill him.”
So we’re back to this ambush thing again.
I still don’t get this.
They were wanting to try an ambush when Paul was going to Caesarea and now they’re wanting to try one as he is on his way back.
This still just doesn’t seem like a well thought out plan to me.
You’ve got a bunch of ragtag Jews going up against what was the greatest military force the world had ever seen at that time and they think they can win through and kill Paul.
Now maybe they would have succeeded but I can guarantee that they would have paid a very high price to kill this one man if they had been able to go through with this ambush plan.
But they never got the chance, as we’ll see in these next few verses.
Acts 25:4-
Now we don’t know why Festus reacted this way.
Maybe he was warned by Felix about the Jewish leaders before he took over.
The first verse of this chapter says that he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea so maybe he got a turnover brief from Felix when he first arrived.
Or maybe he had actually met Paul during those first three days in Caesarea.
Remember we read that Felix would call for Paul frequently.
So maybe during those first few days during one of their turnover sessions Felix called Paul in and introduced him to Festus.
Or maybe it was just a feeling that Festus got from dealing with the Jewish leaders.
Remember reading about the lawyer Tertullus and how he talked to Felix in the last chapter?
That’s likely the way they were talking to Festus now.
Have you ever had to deal with that?
Someone’s talking to you and they may be saying all the right things, building you up, complimenting you, but in the back of your mind you’re thinking, “This just doesn’t feel right.
What do they want?”
That could be what’s going on with Festus here.
The slimy lawyer is throwing on the schmooze and buttering Festus up hoping to get him to accept whatever he’s asking for.
But Festus just gets that feeling that something’s not quite right.
Personally, I think it was a combination of the things I just described.
Festus arrived, got the pass down from Felix, maybe even met Paul, and he was probably thinking, “Yeah right.
There’s no way the Jewish leaders are that adamant about killing one guy.”
Then he got to Jerusalem and met the Jewish leaders and went, “OHHH, now I get it.”
So Festus pushes back.
He says, “You know what, I’m heading back to Caesarea in a few days anyway, so we’re going to leave Paul there for now.
But if he really has done anything wrong come down and bring your accusations to the court there.”
Now let’s keep reading.
Acts 25:6-
Festus returns to Caesarea after a week and a half in Jerusalem and the next day he enters the tribunal, the courtroom, and orders Paul to be brought in.
And something about verse 7 just gives me the impression that the Jewish leaders didn’t sit around and wait while Festus was spending time in Jerusalem.
I just get the sense that when Festus told them to come to Caesarea to bring their accusations that at least some of them took off immediately and were sitting there waiting when Festus got back.
So Paul comes in and the Jews immediately start accusing him of all kinds of things, but as the end of verse 7 tells us, they weren’t able to prove any of it.
So it’s the same thing all over again.
We saw this before the Roman commander in Jerusalem.
We saw it before Felix.
And now we see it before Festus.
They are bringing false accusations.
And Paul tells Festus as much when he says, “Neither against the Jewish law, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned in any way.”
Once again Paul is saying, “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
The Jews just keep bringing up the same false accusations, with no proof, and Paul just keeps saying, “Nope.
Didn’t do it.”
So what is Festus to do? Well he is the perfect politician, always trying not to offend anyone so we read this in verse 9
Festus is trying to make everyone happy.
He figures if he can get this trial moved to Jerusalem the Jewish leaders will be happy, and if Paul can present his case in front of the people, maybe they will drop it and everyone will just be one big, happy family again.
But Paul doesn’t go for it.
Paul knows better.
He knows that if he goes back to Jerusalem, if he even makes it that far, it’s over.
And besides, God has told him repeatedly that he’s supposed to be going to Rome to share the message of the gospel there.
So let’s read Paul’s response.
Some years ago there was a popular fad among Christians to wear t-shirts, or bracelets, or really anything else that they could get it printed on that had the letters “WWJD.”
This stood for “What would Jesus do?”
The letters served as a reminder to people to look at their circumstances even when they were tough, and ask that question, “What would Jesus do?”
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