Acts chapter 25 and verse 13. And after certain days, King
Agrippa and Bernice came unto Caesarea to salute Festus. And
when they had been there many days, Festus declared Paul's
cause unto the king, saying, There is a certain man left in
bonds by Felix, about whom, when I was at Jerusalem, the chief
priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, desiring to
have judgment against him. To whom I answered, it is not
the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die before that he
which is accused have the accusers face to face, and have license
to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. Therefore,
when they were come hither without any delay on the morrow, I sat
on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought forth,
against whom, when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation
of such things as I supposed, but had certain questions against
him of their own superstition, and of one Jesus which was dead,
whom Paul affirmed to be alive. And because I doubted of such
manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem
and there be judged of these matters. But when Paul had appealed
to be reserved unto the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him
to be kept till I might send him to Caesar. Then Agrippa said
unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself. Tomorrow, said
he, thou shalt hear him. And on the morrow, when Agrippa
was come, and Bernice with great pomp, and was entered into the
place of hearing with the chief captains and principal men of
the city, at Festa's commandment Paul was brought forth. And Festus
said, King Agrippa and all men which are here present with us,
ye see this man about whom all the multitude of the Jews have
dealt with me both at Jerusalem and also here, crying that he
ought not to live any longer. But when I found that he had
committed nothing worthy of death and that he himself had appealed
to Augustus, I have determined to send him. of whom I have no
certain thing to write unto my lord. Wherefore I have brought
him forth before thee, and specially before thee, O King Agrippa,
that after examination had, I might have somewhat to write. For it
seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not withal
to signify the crimes laid against him. Amen, may God bless to us this
reading. In many ways this is really a
very simple and straightforward story that we have before us
right now. The Romans often allowed the
rulers of countries that they had conquered to rule with a
delegated authority while they, the Romans, kept the real power. And this was the case with this
man Agrippa. So while he's called a king,
he's not actually as important as the Roman provincial leader,
Festus. This Agrippa was son of Herod
who had killed James. You may remember from the beginning
of Acts that James, one of the disciples, had been killed with
the sword. and he's the son of the man who
killed James and then would have killed Peter also. And this Bernice was likely his
sister. They were Jews and Festus hoped
that they would be able to explain what this trouble with Paul and
the Jews was all about, because it now was clear that Festus
had to send Paul to Rome, but he didn't even know what to write
as being the sentence that was against, or the accusations that
were against Paul. And so he hoped that Agrippa
and perhaps Bernis would be able to cast some light so that he
had something to write to Caesar. Since like Felix and Lysaeus
before him, he really had no idea what Paul was in prison
for and what his crime was. He simply knew that the Jews
wanted him dead. and Agrippa, it seems, was happy
to oblige. No doubt, as a Jew, he knew something
of the Jewish faith, and perhaps he was interested to know a little
bit more about Jesus, whom he also likely had heard about and
may even have been familiar with because of the Christian movement
in Jerusalem. And there was plenty of pomp
and ceremony when Agrippa came to see Festus and came to the
court and again we find that Paul is brought out and he has
to explain himself again and despite three judges already
finding no reason to condemn him. And so this incident in
itself is very straightforward and the facts of the case are
clear. But what we can point out here
perhaps is that we find here a lovely fulfilment of Jesus'
words to his disciples, of whom of course now Paul is numbered
as an apostle. Because the Lord Jesus Christ
had told his disciples that for his sake they would be brought
And we're told, the Lord says in Matthew 10, verse 18, And
ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a
testimony against them and the Gentiles. And Paul could later
write to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 4, verse 9, For I think that
God hath set forth us, the apostles last, as it were appointed to
death for we are made a spectacle unto the world and to angels
or to rulers and to men and Paul was writing there to the Corinthians
of the fact that here he was once again stood in the middle
of all of these people the high and the mighty the great and
the good and he had to give a reason time after time for the faith
that was within him. And that's always been true of
the Lord's people. They've been mocked, they've
been misunderstood, they've been misrepresented by the powers
of religion, the powers of government, even military powers. because
these have found the doctrines of the church, the doctrines
and teachings of believers to be mysterious and their beliefs
to be unusual. The practices of Christians in
worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ betrays a hope that is not of
this world, but of the world to come. It speaks of allegiances
that are not directed to worldly powers, but to a heavenly king
with a heavenly kingdom. And of course, when we speak
about a heavenly king with a heavenly kingdom, that might appear to
be a threat to earthly kings and earthly kingdoms. And yet
the believer's conduct is in itself kind and gracious and
inoffensive. Yet we find that the powers of
religion, of government, and of kings is often set against
us. This is a great enigma, a great
puzzle. But in the end, it comes down
to the message of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we believe and that
men mock. The gospel of salvation through
the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. Festus,
he said to Agrippa, one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul affirmed
to be alive. And indeed, that Paul did. That was the motivation of his
ministry, that he knew that the Lord Jesus Christ was alive. He had met him, he had spoken
to him, and he had taught him and commissioned him for this
great work of gospel preaching. So the Apostle Paul could say,
I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the Scriptures. The world cannot comprehend this
message. It must either deny it, or adapt
it, or suppress it, and all three have been tried against the Church
of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the Apostle Paul could say,
and I hope we all can say with him, I am not ashamed of the
Gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation,
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek. the great and the good, the pompous
and the powerful, and all the natural, carnal men and women
of this world. They can and they do mock and
ignore or misuse our gospel. But to all who by grace simply
believe the message of the resurrection, The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the power of God unto salvation. May God give us all
the grace to find it to be so. Amen.