SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/9/2018 6:29 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Appeal Proposed
Bible Reading &
Meditation Reference: Acts
25:11b-12
Message of the verses: “I appeal to
Caesar." 12 Then when Festus had conferred with his council, he answered, "You
have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you shall go."
My thoughts are that Paul’s thoughts were that he would not
get a fair trial in Jerusalem, and that because Festus was wanting to side with
the Jews he felt that he only had one thing to do and that was appeal to
Caesar. John MacArthur writes “Such
appeals could come after the verdict (aooekkatui)
or, in Paul’s case before it (provocation). Once granted, the appeal took the case out of
the governor’s hands and transferred it to the emperor. Paul’s appeal seems at
first glance to be sheer madness, since the emperor at the time was the
infamous Nero. However, the early years
of Nero’s reign (during which Paul’s appeal took place) were not marked by the
cruelty and insanity of his later years.”
We see in verse twelve that Festus had to confer with his
council before he would answer “You have appealed to Caesar, to Caesar you
shall go.” Perhaps this was also a way
to take the pressure off of Festus. As
we will see later on in the book of Acts this will have ended what the Jews
were trying to do to Paul, but perhaps they thought that at least he would be
out of their hair for the time being, but the important thing for us to
remember is that this was all put into motion by God.
Another thing for us to remember is that God had promised
Paul that he would go to Jerusalem, and so Paul probably had a feeling of
exhilaration over this verdict.
There were some sad things that came out of this and the
first one is that we see that the Jews were still hostile to the gospel of
Jesus Christ, something that still goes on today as my Pastor reported from his
recent trip to Israel.
A second truth seen here is that this text illustrates is a
binding power of sin. We have to remember that Paul had been in custody for
over two years and as we can see the Jews still hated Paul and were still eager
to put him to death. Jesus says the
following in John 8:34 “I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of
sin.” Romans 6:16 Paul ask a rhetorical
question “Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves
for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting
in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?” 2 Peter 2:19 says “By what a man is overcome,
by this he is enslaved.” The Jews were
overcome by the sin of hating Paul and the gospel of Jesus Christ and as
mentioned and are still that way today.
Third truth that this
passage reveals is the sovereignty of God in human affairs. I have actually
mentioned this truth earlier in this SD.
Fourth, the believer’s
proper relation to government also appears in this passage. We see that Paul willingly submitted to the
Roman government, even to a person like Nero.
God is always in charge. Let us
look at Romans 13:1-5:
1 Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For
there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by
God. 2 Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God;
and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves. 3 For rulers
are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. Do you want to have no
fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; 4
for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be
afraid; for it does
not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a minister of God, an avenger
who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. 5 Therefore it is necessary to
be in subjection, not only because of wrath, but also for conscience’ sake.”
Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:
“David” (Psalm 27:1).
Today’s Bible question: “In what
country did Samson die?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/9/2018 6:57 PM
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