Acts 25: Waiting With Purpose; Paul Before Festus

Paul’s trial before Festus becomes a masterclass in waiting with purpose, using wisdom without losing faith, and keeping the gospel central in both hardship and ease. We walk through Acts 25 to show how delay can be stewardship, not defeat.

• context of Acts 25 and Paul’s appeal to Caesar
• political pressure on Festus and legal strategy
• God’s control in confusing seasons
• using rights and systems for gospel impact
• not wasting the waiting in small places
• action over intention in spiritual growth
• mission over safety across Paul’s journeys
• staying gospel-focused in ease and abundance
• everyday spaces as fields for witness
• patient seed-planting and long-view faith

Transcript

Acts 25 Setup And Context

SPEAKER_00 0:24

It's Acts chapter 25. We've only got a couple of chapters left in the book of Acts. And we'll talk about this later. Acts does not give you a good ending. It's not like a book that has like a good conclusion. It sort of just stops before some things happen. And so basically what we get is uh Paul ends up in Rome. And then uh, and that's really where it stops. We we get a couple of like a chapter of him in in Rome, and then what we discover about his time in Rome, we get through his epistles, his letters that he wrote from prison in Rome. So that's just some fun stuff for you. Uh again, today we're back in Acts chapter 25. I want to finish what we started after our review from last week. What has happened is that after years out in the mission field, Paul is finally returning to Jerusalem. He feels called to go back to Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit's calling him back. A lot of people say that's a bad idea. Uh, his friends, and he has some people who prophesy that when he goes there, it's going to be a problem. But he has to go. And so he goes to Jerusalem, and it is a problem. There are issues. There's all kinds of things that happen. There's a crowd that, a mob that wants to kill him. The Rome, uh Roman government steps in, they have to pull him out, and all of these things happen. He's in imprisoned uh for two years. It's it's not normal prison. He's in a palace sort of fort sort of thing, and he has free reign to walk wherever he wants to go. People can come see him and and and things like that. He eats with uh he eats with uh uh Felix and his wife every morning. So it's not normal prison, but for a guy like Paul who's used to being on the move and going, it's tough. It's tough. And then there is this transition that that happens, and Felix uh he leaves and somebody else takes over Festus. And that brings us to our scripture today. We read it last week. We'll read it again here, Acts chapter 25, verses 1 through 12. Says this. Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea, and the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, and they urged him, asking as a favor against Paul that he summon him to Jerusalem, because they were planning to ambush and to kill him on the way. Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea, and that he himself intended to go there shortly. So, said he, let the men of authority among you go down with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them bring charges against him. After he stayed among them not more than eight or ten days, he went down to Caesarea, and the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. When he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many serious charges against him that they could not prove. Paul argued in his defense, neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense. But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, Do you wish to go up to Jerusalem and there be tried on these charges before me? But Paul said, I am standing before Caesar's tribunal, where I ought to be tried. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you yourself know very well. If then I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything for which I deserve to die, I do not seek to escape death, but if there is nothing to their charges against me, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar. Then Festus, when he had conferred with his counsel, answered, To Caesar you have appealed, to Caesar you shall go. I already wrote this down last week, but just so you know, this is almost a repeat of what had happened two years before this in Acts chapter 24. Paul's already had to deal with sort of this court case. He's already essentially proven his innocence, but there's such political pressure placed on the ruler of this region that they can't just ignore what the Jewish people want. And so uh uh Festus here and and Felix before him are in a tough spot. And Festus, uh historically speaking, is less experienced than many, many others. And so what we we have is just this pressure, this issue, this thing that's happening that Paul is stuck in. He's having to deal with this thing. And you think maybe this is a moment of transition, a moment whenever he can escape and get back to his business and get back to what he wants to do, which is church planning. But it doesn't happen that way. He's stuck. And last week I brought up two sort of things very briefly, that sort of uh you draw out of this, and the first one's this. We're not gonna stay in in great, great uh detail here, but God's in control. Throughout this journey in Acts chapter 24 and 25, even though it seems like Paul is stuck, God is still in control. God is still in control in your life. No matter what circumstances you are going through, no matter what confusion you might be facing, no matter uh uh whether you're living in a time of blessing or in a time of uh of pain and confusion and like, God is in control. And it's not first nature for us to submit ourselves to his control. It's something we got to work at. But once you do that, right, it it it it's it's like the worries of your life can start melting away and you can start having peace and joy because you're not trusting in yourself and in your own abilities, even though God gave those things to you. You're trusting first and foremost in God's power and his mind. The other thing I briefly touched on last week is that Paul took advantage of the legal protections that he had as a Roman citizen. And we, as Christians in the United States, and if you're in if someone listens to this and they're in a different country and there happens to be certain laws that protect them, take advantage of them. That's perfectly fine. Be thankful for them, fight for them for the future of the church, right? Take advantage of it. There's nothing wrong with that. Now, what else is here for us to reflect on in this scripture? And I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna cheat a little bit because even though I read chapter 25, contextually, what I'm about to draw out is between chapter 24 and 25. Right? But what do we do in the waiting? What do we do in the waiting? Paul's waiting, he's in a waiting season. You you look back at what Paul did for two years in this waiting, and he didn't waste the moment. He didn't waste the moment. Every moment he had, even while he was doing something that he didn't want to do, he still used it to his advantage. In Acts chapter 24, it says that he would eat often with uh Felix and his wife, and he would attempt to convert them. He'd share the gospel with them. He was constantly surrounded by by other Roman authorities and soldiers, and they probably remembered this Jesus guy from back when they were younger, and so he took advantage uh uh of that. He did not waste the moment, he didn't waste the waiting. He has stopped doing what he normally did, but his mission did not stop. Matter of fact, we see in other areas of his life, whenever he is also stuck in prison, he doesn't waste it. Four to five of the epistles, the letters that he writes to the church that becomes part of the New Testament, they're written from prison. They're written from a place of waiting, of standstill. He doesn't waste the moment. When we land in seasons of waiting, when we land in seasons of the in-between, how do we respond? God, I I I thought you brought me here to do this. I thought this was gonna happen. I thought I thought you were leading me this way and but why am I still here? Why am I still in the middle of this? Why am I not where I want to be? God, why'd you let this happen? Why am I stuck in this situation? Don't grow bitter when that happens. Don't grow resentful. Look for opportunities. Look around you to see who might be around you that you need to make contact with. Don't waste the waiting. Don't waste the waiting. The problem is that we want the final destination. Right? We all, I'm pretty sure we all, at some point in our lives, and even today, even yesterday, we have and develop a mental image of a preferable future for our lives. We dream. We dream and we plan and we want things to work out a certain way. And we become fixated on what we want. We become fixated on what's in front of us. It's very bright, and the problem is we stare at that, we look at that, we focus on that, we focus on what's coming and what's heading our way and what we want, and we miss what's happening today. The things are happening today. There's a purpose for our lives today, not just when things are perfect, not just whenever you are closer to this end goal, this vision for your life that you dream of. You have a purpose right here, right now, in the waiting in between, to fixate on your future. You miss the opportunities around you now. Practically speaking, for this church, this little church plant, this this little thing we're doing. Right? If we're not careful, we can become discouraged because it does not look like maybe what we thought it would look like, or what we want it to look like, or what church has looked like. We all have a different experience with different churches growing up, for better or for worse. And right now it might not look like that. It might be discouraging. And on a practical level, I get it. I'm the pastor of the church. I want things to look different. I'm not talking about mega church stuff, but yeah, I want like a permanent facility. I want a space where we can serve the community. I want a space where we can meet and do things for our kids and have regular, regular things. I want that. There's nothing wrong with that either. The problem is if I fixate on that, if I fixate on where we're not, I will miss where we are, and there's purpose right where we are right now. There's no moment, no, no situation too small where God has not gifted us to do something with it. And that applies to your personal life outside of church. Don't be discouraged by the small moments, don't be discouraged by the in-between moments. God will and can and wants to do something with those things. Paul wrote a good chunk of the New Testament in the waiting. Stuck where he doesn't want to be. So why would it be any different for us? We're here right now, and that means we all bring all of our passions and gifts right now with joy and excitement, even if it seems in earthly terms to be a waste or be to be a small or to be a bit of a joke. But the smallest moments, never too small. For God to use us and for us to bring our best to Him, our best effort, our best worship, our best giving, our best prayers, our best service. He deserves our best, even whenever we are not walking where exactly we have decided in our brain we want to be. In my mind, there's there's very few things more frustrating to listen to people who might have some health goals and they talk about the health goals, but they build an image of where they want to go, but they never take the steps to do anything about it. It's frustrating to me. And I and I grew up on my side of the family with people who had some health issues, and they weren't necessarily uh like genetic things. They could have fixed some of these things if they would have taken action and they talked about it enough, but they never took action. Spiritually, don't we do the same thing sometimes? We we talk about how we should be better, we talk about how how you know we should be doing this and that to grow closer to God, to to do this for the church, to be a better parent, to be a better spouse. But do we ever take the practical steps to do something about it? Paul doesn't do that, he takes action. And that is the mission for us. Are we taking action in the in-between moments to do what we're supposed to be doing? If we look back at Paul's life, we've been in Acts, we're getting close to the end of Acts, but if we look over his life, we see that over and over again, he's dragged before crowds, he's dragged before rulers, dragged before people of influence, he's chased out of town, he's stoned, he's left for dead, he's imprisoned, uh, he's waltzed from dangerous situation to dangerous situation, and many times his very freedom and his very life are basically put on the chopping block. Is he going to make it? How can he get out of this? And oftentimes he defends himself, or rather, sometimes God steps in and does amazing things for his life and he's delivered. But what we see in those moments is often that that his safety, his defense, his his practical liberation takes a back seat to his passion for sharing the gospel with people that otherwise he wouldn't be able to share the gospel with if he was not in these precarious situations. He was fixated on the gospel. He was fixated on the mission. And I just wonder if we are. We see examples of this in his life as early as Acts chapter 9. There are two separate attempts early in Paul's story where he is sort of chased out of town because people want to kill him. We get an example of this in Acts chapter 16, whenever he is put into the Philippian jail. We see this in Acts chapter 18 and 19. Of course, when he gets to Jerusalem in Acts chapter uh 21, we see him deal with stuff through chapters 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, and we'll see it in 26, all the way to the end of the book of Acts. We see him be dragged into these positions, these uncomfortable positions, and his instinct is not just survival, his instinct is the gospel. This is a moment where I can share the gospel with people who wouldn't hear it otherwise. Matter of fact, in I think it's early Acts chapter 24, he is in front of this crowd that wants to mob him and kill him. And the Roman centurions are basically shielding him and carrying him into a fort. And at the top of the steps, he begs, he begs the centurion, hey, can you wait a second and let me address this crowd who's trying to kill me? He's not worried about his own safety. He addresses the crowd and gives a gospel message to this crowd that's trying to kill him. And again, I don't know how well of a job I do doing that in my daily life. And I just wonder if you have the same challenge in your life. As Christians and as a church, it's just it's crazy to me. Of course, Paul takes advantage of the of the political system. Of course, he wants safety, of course, he wants a fair trial. It's practical. It's okay to be practical as a church, it's okay to be practical as a Christian. He wants a fair trial. He knows if he goes to Jerusalem that it's probably not going to go his way because this inexperienced leader is too easily swayed by the powerful forces of in Jerusalem. And so, practically speaking, he wants a trial in Jerusalem. But what he's really doing, because we see it that he does it everywhere else he goes, is that he's guaranteeing himself an audience with the emperor himself. He's going to get a meeting with Nero. And if history tells us anything, he's not going to shy away from sharing the gospel with the very leader of the largest, most powerful empire on the planet. It wasn't just about self-preservation. It was because the gospel mission was so embedded into who he was, he took advantage of the situation to guarantee the largest audience he could possibly get. Are we doing the same thing? When we're at the doctor's office, are we thinking about the gospel? When we are at the bank, are we thinking about the gospel? Whenever we are having dinner with our family, are we thinking about the gospel? Whenever we are at soccer practice or jujitsu or basketball or whatever it might be, are we thinking about the gospel? When we are hanging out with our friends, are we thinking about the gospel whenever we are at a funeral? Are we thinking about the gospel? Whenever we get a bad report at work, are we thinking about the gospel? When someone lets us down and they fail us and we are disappointed and we are hurt, are we still thinking about the gospel? Are we thinking about the gospel whenever there is an issue in our family? Are we thinking about the gospel in every moment? Because I guarantee you, Paul was. And we need to be. The gospel has to be embedded into who we are. And by the way, I'm not saying this as somebody who gets this right all the time. I struggle with this. This is something that you have to develop. It's not second nature. This is a choice you have to make every day, that no matter what you're going through or where you are, that the gospel is somehow, some way going to come out. I'm not saying you're gonna evangelize some dude on the street, even though if you're called to do that, go ahead and go do it. I'm not saying that. But the gospel has to sort of bubble up out of us in every moment that we are in. But it's not easy to do. Matter of fact, I'll go ahead and tell you, sometimes in my life, this is just personal experience. I don't know about you. I don't know, I don't know all your stories personally. I don't, I don't know that. I do know my stories, and I know that in my life sometimes it has been easier to focus on the gospel, to focus on the good news of the gospel and sharing the gospel in the bad times. And when the good times come, it's almost easier for me to sort of walk into a season of, well, that'll do.

unknown 19:16

Right?

Do Not Waste The Waiting

Fixation On Future Vs Today’s Purpose

SPEAKER_00 19:16

It's almost easier to stay focused when things are going wrong because it sort of strips away all the distractions. And so, what I think we need as a church, especially a church in the United States, which is still a place of great abundance and blessing, we need the discipline not to stand up for the gospel when it's tough. We need the discipline to stand up for the gospel whenever it's easy. To walk through life from blessing to blessing and still knowing and fixating on the gospel whenever it's so easy for it to take a back seat to the busyness of life and all the things that we do as parents and as family. But it's hard. There's this guy named Ernest Shackleton. I'm almost finished, by the way. Anyone know anyone ever heard of Ernest Shackleton? Okay, right. A couple of good books on him. Um well, you can pick one. One's called Endurance, it's probably the best one. It's written by a journalist who got to interview a bunch of people before they passed away. But he is this explorer. He's a uh basically he was really interested in the the South Pole, the Antarctic region. And he was a part of several expeditions. He was almost one of the first people to make it to the South Pole. He just missed out. And basically, and I'm just gonna give a brief synopsis, he ends up doing this other expedition. He wants to be like the fastest person to the South Pole. And so he takes the ship down there, the endurance, and uh some things happen. There is this winter, unnatural winter storm. They get trapped in an ice pack, and basically there is this like uh couple of year journey, right? It's gonna be a long trip anyways, but they get trapped in ice. They have to leave the boat, they have to go on this journey, they end up on this place called Elephant Island. A couple of people take this little rowboat across the the South Sea, which is one of the most dangerous seas in the world, to this other little tiny island. It's a great story. And and Ernest Shackleton carries this group through. No one dies. No one dies. Their ship's destroyed, they're stranded with nothing, right? And and they're traveling hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of miles over ice, and they're on this tiny little island, and then they make this crazy. I when I say crazy, I mean the boats, this the boat, I think, if I recall correctly, I would say the boat is a roughly the size of four of these tables put together, and they travel a couple hundred miles over stormy, crazy seas to get to get rescue, and then they have to come back over the stormy seas to get the rest of the it's a whole thing. It's a crazy thing. Great story. Here's the thing about Ernest Shackleton. He was a great leader when it mattered. When he was on an expedition, he was on it. He was on it, he was the guy, he was the man. But whenever he got home and the mission stopped, he was a drunk, he was a failure. He he he completely lost sight of stuff. He he he he he just sort of melted away into nothingness. And this might not seem like a direct correlation to what we're talking about, but what we need is not to be Ernest Shackleton, as great as and cool as he is. What we need to be is the little old grandma who served God her entire life out in the middle of nowhere. No name, no attention, but she does the right thing every single day. She reads her Bible, she prays, she talks about God when it matters to anybody who will listen. And that's what we need in our life. I love Ernest Jackleton, but I don't want to be an Ernest Jacklin Christian. I want to be somebody who doesn't fall apart in between the tough moments and the blessings. And as a church, as Christians in this room, the challenge this morning is to emulate Paul in letting the gospel trickle through everything we do at all times, no matter the circumstances we are going through. Like I said, for me, it's easier sometimes to fixate on the gospel in the tough times. What I need is a consistency in the blessings to have the same passion for the gospel, even whenever it's easy. And maybe you're different this morning. That's okay. That's okay. If you're good this morning, you're good. Praise God for that. But I just know how tough it can be in this day and age. Three kids, a job, trying to do this, family, this, sports. I get it. I get it. And all those things are blessings. They're stress, but they're blessings. And then we get at the end of the week or at the end of the day, and we realize that we've given such little thought to the gospel that has changed our lives. And I just don't want that for us. I don't want that for you. Fixate on the gospel. Let it be in your very DNA. Let it be something that bubbles out at any time you're with anyone. And I get it, there's always the fear that this person doesn't want to hear about God. Well, you never know. You never know. You don't got to shove the gospel down someone's throat. But you can share the gospel in real and meaningful ways with people. I recently read, and I'll finish with this. There's this guy, I he builds gems for a living. Does anyone do YouTube? I watch YouTube all the time. I know Dave does too. I watch and I get fixated on these things. And this guy, his name's like Cooper something, I think. I can't remember, but he builds gems, garage gems. Garage gyms. And he never really talks about the gospel. He never really talks about Jesus, but he's got a positive attitude. But the other day, uh I found him on Twitter or X, whatever it's called, and he shared this story, and I just think it's a good story because he had a friend in college who was an atheist. He's an atheist, and they were roommates, and they became really good buddies. And every once in a while, he would drag this buddy with him to church, or he'd talk about gospel. The guy didn't want anything to do with it. And when they graduated, they drifted apart. It happens. He had a family, this other guy's a family, live in different states. They drift apart. Well, this guy got news later. They just randomly met up later that he and his family were going to church and they were bought into God. And this dude was an atheist for almost his entire life. You just never know how your gospel example, imperfect as it will be, because we will be imperfect and we will make mistakes. You just never know what seeds that's going to plant in someone's life. You never know. And you can never give up. I'm testament, a grandmother I prayed for every day for a long, long time, or at least every week for a long, long time. She got saved the year that she died. At 70-something years old. So never give up. You just don't know. But if we don't let the gospel bubble out, you're just not doing what God wants you to do. And I just want to I want to do what God wants me to do. Can we pray? Let's bow our heads and close our eyes. And let me just say this in this room, I know we all have different stories, we all have different journeys with God. And so I just want you to challenge yourself right now to ask yourself, can I do better? Can I do better? Can I let the gospel be more consistent in my life? Can I let the gospel leak out in my life in a more consistent basis? Just be honest with yourself. And if the answer to that question is yes, let's pray together. Prayer is not a spectator sport. Pray with me. And let's ask the Holy Spirit to help us. Let's ask God to help us, and He is faithful to answer our prayers to do it. Heavenly Father, we once again come to you and say that we love you. And right now, I want to thank you for your gospel, the gospel that changed my life. The gospel that gives me hope that I can see my brother again one day, that I can see my dad again one day, that I can see my grandparents again one day. A gospel that gives me hope that I can be who you designed me to be, that any failures I might have won't be the end of the story, but it's just a testimony of your goodness and of your power that they don't define my life. But Lord, I pray right now in the name of Jesus for my life and anyone in here who feels the same way that your gospel would become embedded into our very DNA, embedded into what we do and how we act and how we talk and how we behave in every situation and circumstance that we walk through. I pray that your gospel would leak out and it would change lives through your Holy Spirit and through your work and through your calling. Let us be a part of the process of your calling. Let us be a process, part of the process of you reaching out and bringing people to the kingdom of heaven. But I just simply pray for a passion, a passion like Paul, that we wouldn't grow uh, I don't know, just angry or bitter or confused in the waiting, but that we would use every season to glorify and honor you, no matter how small it might seem. You're worthy of our best, Lord. Our best efforts, our best mindsets, our best attitude. Help us, God. Lord, thank you. Thank you for your faithfulness to us. And I just pray through your Holy Spirit that you would help make us more faithful to you, Lord. We can't do anything on our own, God. We can only come to you and ask for help. And you are gracious to gift us with the help that we need to be who we need to be, Lord. In Jesus Christ's name I pray. And we all said together, Amen and Amen. Thank you. If y'all get a chance, reach out to uh Brandon and Danielle. Let them know you're thinking about and praying for them. I just know it's been stressful for them. So