SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/14/2018 10:13 AM
My
Worship Time Focus: The Circumstances of Paul’s Testimony
Bible
Reading & Meditation Reference: Acts
25:23-27
Message of the verses: “23 So, on the next
day when Agrippa came together with Bernice amid great pomp, and entered the
auditorium accompanied by the commanders and the prominent men of the city, at
the command of Festus, Paul was brought in. 24 Festus said, "King Agrippa, and all you
gentlemen here present with us, you see this man about whom all the people of
the Jews appealed to me, both at Jerusalem and here, loudly declaring that he
ought not to live any longer. 25 “But I found that he had committed nothing
worthy of death; and since he himself appealed to the Emperor, I decided to
send him. 26 “Yet I have nothing definite about him to write to my lord.
Therefore I have brought him before you all and especially before you,
King Agrippa, so that after the investigation has taken place, I may have
something to write. 27 “For it seems absurd to me in sending a prisoner, not to
indicate also the charges against him."”
I want to first look at the word “pomp” “show, showy
appearance, display.” It is kind of like
looking at one of those old time, but not real old time movie that has the old
Roman Empire showing. Movies that
Hollywood doesn’t make any more. At any
rate this presentation that Festus actually put on for King Agrippa was the
best that he could have done. There were
also commanders present (the five tribunes commanding the five cohorts
stationed at Caesarea) “and the prominent men of the city.”
Now can you imagine in all of this splendor after they are
all set down that Festus calls the aging, balding, short man whom we know as
the Apostle Paul, as he comes in wearing chains. The people may have cringed when he walked
in, but none the less we know that in history Paul was one of the most
prominent men ever to live, and we never hear much of those sitting there in
splendor any more with the exception of those Luke names, and then we can
conclude that none of these were saved, unless it happened sometime in the
future when we hear nothing about it.
We have mentioned the problem that both Felix and Festus
had, and not Festus mentions the problem to the king here in this section. First of all if either of these two men would
have stood up and done their job properly and not been afraid to stand up to
the Jews then none of this would have been necessary for Paul would have been
released. Now Festus because of his cowardice
has to find something to write to the emperor about why he is sending Paul to
him. He would be in a world of trouble
if he could not find out something to write to the emperor as it surely would
not look good on him to send someone there with no reasons to be there.
One more thing and that is that Paul was probably not legally
bound to be at this hearing since he had already appealed to Caesar, but as we
go back to when Paul was first saved the Lord told Ananias that Paul would
speak before kings for the sake of Jesus Christ, and Paul is about to do so.
Answer to yesterday’s
Bible question: “Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ” (Acts 16:31).
Today’s Bible
question: “Jesus compared the days of
what Old Testament man to the days of the Son of Man?”
Answer in our next SD.
9/14/2018 10:37 AM
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