Inexperience and its outcome can prove to be a humbling thing. We’ve most of us been in the uncomfortable position of the first day on the job. I think Ben Sliney of the FAA would understand how Festus felt as he took over for Felix as Roman governor of Judea. Mr. Sliney had airplanes flying into buildings on his first day on the job (September 11, 2001); Festus had Paul of Tarsus. Mr. Sliney had 20-odd years in air traffic control before that faithful day, but nothing could prepare him for his first day on the job as national coordinator. Festus had a distinguished carrier in Roman politics, but his predecessor Felix had left him with a problem that had never before existed in the Roman world – a sovereign God determined to have His man preach the gospel to governors and kings.

A Roman governor possessed considerable power, but Festus was new to Judea and a stranger to the Jews. His inexperience and insecurity played a major role in the outcome of Paul’s two-year imprisonment, resulting in Paul’s appeal to Caesar. Felix, a seasoned politician who knew both the Jews and Christianity, had allowed his corruption to cause many problems for his replacement. Festus had some very hard lessons to learn. His first case was also one of the worst problems he would face in his short stay in office. Paul’s trial seemed quite simple at first, cut and dried, but it proved to be a nightmare for Festus because it was an almost explosive situation that would be detrimental to his popularity and career.

Josephus recorded that Festus was a prudent and honorable governor who took over Judea after Felix had allowed the province to become embroiled in political strife and robberies. Festus succeeded in ridding the province of many of these criminals, but he was only in office a short time and his successor allowed the situation to deteriorate rapidly after that.

Unfortunately for Festus, he also inherited the unresolved problem of Paul, who was still being held prisoner in Caesarea. It became Festus’ task to identify some charge against Paul so that he could be tried and this long-standing problem ended. In all honesty, Festus tried, but failed to fulfill this obligation. In his search for the truth, however, the gospel was proclaimed to many people of position and power, which was God’s plan all along.

Scholars say that it is a mystery that Paul’s case ever got this far in the Roman judicial system and even more so that it made it all the way to the court of Caesar. A false accusation based on an inaccurate and hasty conclusion by witnesses who seem to have disappeared somehow made it to the highest court in the land. I don’t know if you could get more improbable than that.

“Three days after Festus arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea.
Then the chief priests and the leaders of the Jews presented their case against Paul to him; and they appealed,
asking him to do them a favor against Paul, Lit asking a favor against him that he might summon him to Jerusalem. They were preparing an ambush along the road to kill him.
However, Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was about to go there shortly.
 “Therefore,” he said, “let the men of authority among you go down with me and accuse him, if there is any wrong in this man.” Acts 25:1-6

Festus, wanting to start off on the right foot, presented himself almost immediately in Jerusalem, where he spent several days. The Jewish leaders pressed him to send Paul to Jerusalem for trial. They had no intention of actually trying Paul, but it would have been easier to assassinate him had they had custody of him. Festus quickly grasped the political implications of what they were requesting, but he declined to allow them to take custody. I don’t think he knew about the assassination plot, but Paul was a Roman citizen, so a trial in Jerusalem was not proper. They were welcome to come to Caesarea if they wanted to press charges. A brilliant move, intended to gain the upper hand among these “provincials”, Festus must have often have wondered how it all went so terribly wrong.

“When he had spent not more than eight or 10 days among them, he went down to Caesarea. The next day, seated at the judge’s bench, he commanded Paul to be brought in.
When he arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him and brought many serious charges that they were not able to prove,
while Paul made the defense that, “Neither against the Jewish law, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned at all.”
Then Festus, wanting to do a favor for the Jews, replied to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem, there to be tried before me on these charges?”
But Paul said: “I am standing at Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as even you can see very well.
If then I am doing wrong, or have done anything deserving of death, I do not refuse to die, but if there is nothing to what these men accuse me of, no one can give me up to them. I appeal to Caesar!”
After Festus conferred with his council, he replied, “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you will go!” Acts 25:6-12

Again, assuming himself to be in charge, Festus did not rush back to Caesarea, but lingered in Jerusalem for another week and a half. Once returned to Caesarea, he promptly set Pau’s trial for the following day. The charges shocked Festus! They were nothing like what he had expected. The Jews had fundamental issues with Paul’s teachings on the gospel, particularly his insistence that Jesus was the Messiah, attested by His resurrection from the dead. The Jewish officials had seemed quite sensible in Jerusalem, presenting their “Romanized” charges against this troublemaker, but once in Paul’s presence they turned into a wolf pack, circling their prey, shouting their accusations.

Even dictators must maintain a certain level of popular support or find themselves removed from office, so Festus quickly moved to appease the Jews. Protecting Paul, even though he was a Roman citizen, would be a costly move and the politician in Festus weighed the implications of one man’s life over the peace and tranquility of the entire region. Festus knew that the charges against Paul were primarily religious and theological in nature, thus not truly matters involving Roman law, but he lacked enough information about Judaism and Christianity to understand what the Jews were arguing about. It seemed to him to make sense to allow the Sanhedrin to handle this case, which he would explain to Agrippa in Acts 25:18-20. He proposed Paul go to Jerusalem to stand trial with Festus as judge. The Jews would get what they wanted and, given the lack of evidence, Paul would be found innocent (probably).

I think Festus was a bit in the dark about all the history. Maybe chain of evidence wasn’t a strong suit in the 1^st Century. He apparently didn’t know that a trial before the Sanhedrin had already been attempted and I don’t think he knew about the assassination plot (the original plotters had apparently not starved to death in the last two years; I guess hunger strikes are not what they used to be – and yes, I mean that pun deliberately). No wonder Paul refused the offer, but it surprised Festus.  Combined with Paul’s other teachings on the role of government and its God-given responsibilities (Romans 13:1-5; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13-17), we see that government had a responsibility to protect those who are not guilty. Paul has been tried before and the charges against him were not proven. Now Festus wanted to try him again. We would call that double jeopardy. Seeing that Festus was failing to carry out his appointed duty, Paul therefore used his rights as a Roman citizen to the full and exercised his right of appeal to Caesar.

This was a well-established right in Roman society, going back to the foundation of the Republic in 509 BC. The implications of Paul’s appeal to Caesar required Festus to send Paul to Caesar along with a full report of the circumstances leading to his appeal and a listing of the charges. Charges? No Roman official since Paul’s arrest had able to identify any charges! The absence of these charges reflected badly on the Judean administration and upon Festus, who was now in charge there. Festus was in trouble not even a month into his new job.

Was it a coincidence that Herod and Agrippa stopped in at Caesarea to pay their respects to the new governor just at that moment? I don’t know. Seems too coincidental, but who knows. Herod Agrippa II was the ruler of a client kingdom northeast of Judea (about where Lebanon is now). The son of Herod Agrippa I, he had been deeply entangled in Roman politics since his father’s death in AD 44. He was accompanied on this state visit to Caesarea by his sister (and possible lover) Julia Bernice, the eldest daughter of Herod Agrippa I. Thus we have seen three of the children of Herod Agrippa I, who had James killed, in this short space of time.

I think Festus was ecstatic to have Agrippa’s advice on dealing with the dilemma that was Paul. He admitted he was in over his head and didn’t have a clue where to turn. Agrippa’s family had had frequent contact with the gospel. The case must have sounded excitingly complex and he had probably already heard of Paul. He asked if he could speak with him.

“Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he said, “you will hear him.”

We’ll look at Paul’s “defense” next time.

Things didn’t look good for Paul. The Jews wanted to kill him and the Roman rulers wanted to avoid ruling in his favor, even when all evidence demanded a verdict of not guilty. We know that God was in control, but I have to wonder if Paul wasn’t terrified.  If he was, the words recorded don’t show that.

Paul would not truly use his hearing before Agrippa to defend himself, but would use it instead to proclaim the gospel to a large group of very prominent people, including Festus, Agrippa, Bernice, Roman military commanders and a large number of prominent men from Caesarea. Thanks to Agrippa, Paul was allowed to proclaim the gospel without hindrance or interruption by the Jews who opposed him.

God always keeps His promises and usually in ways that make our chins hit the ground. Theologians call that sovereignty. People in Paul’s day were dumbfounded by it as much as we are today.  God had promised Paul that he would testify to the gospel before Gentiles and kings back when he was first saved. So far, God had kept that promise – first the Gentiles, then the Roman officials, now King Agrippa and soon Caesar himself. God orchestrated an enormous host of people and evens to bring Paul to this point. From a human standpoint, nothing’s going right for the apostle from Tarsus, but from God’s standpoint, it’s all working to good. The greatest opportunities for ministry often come dressed in the form of failure or of frustratingly limited circumstances. In Caesarea, Paul’s options looked limited and diminishing, but Paul was exactly where God wanted him to be, poised on the cusp of almost limitless opportunity, to proclaim the gospel to people he never would have had contact with otherwise.

I think when we look back upon our lives from the vantage point of eternity, we will see that many of the most significant ways God has used us for His glory are very much like the way in which He used Paul in Acts. God will not only fulfill His promises in and through us, but He will do it in a way that He gets the glory and the praise, and that we will fall before Him in wonder and worship. The disasters of your life or mine, like those which befell Paul and other Biblical saints, are the materials with which God builds His program to promote His gospel. We need not pursue disaster and difficulty as some kind of virtue, but we shouldn’t dread them when God brings them our way. What a comfort to us who live in a fallen, chaotic world, knowing that behind the chaos is a sovereign God, Who is able to use our best efforts, and sometimes our worst, to achieve His purposes.