Main Idea: After two years in custody, Paul goes on trial before Festus where he appeals to Caesar to avoid a plot against his life.
[1] Now three days after Festus had arrived in the province, he went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. [2] And the chief priests and the principal men of the Jews laid out their case against Paul, and they urged him, [3] asking as a favor against Paul that he summon him to Jerusalem—because they were planning an ambush to kill him on the way. [4] Festus replied that Paul was being kept at Caesarea and that he himself intended to go there shortly. [5] “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.”
[6] 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. [7] When he had arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him that they could not prove. [8] Paul argued in his defense, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I committed any offense.” [9] 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?” [10] 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. [11] 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.” [12] Then Festus, when he had conferred with his council, answered, “To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go.”
1) The enemy of our souls will stop at nothing to thwart the _______________ _______________ of God. *Ephesians 6:12
2) God’s good plans _____________________ be hindered.
*Acts 9:15–16; Acts 23:11
3) God uses His good plans to _____________________ our lives for His glory.
*Hebrews 12:3–11; Psalm 13; John 17:18-19; Acts 1:8
Today’s Key Insight! If you were to share a key insight from today’s sermon with a friend, what would you say?
Today’s Lunch Discussion: Can you identify the similarities between Jesus’s trials in Luke 23:1-25 and Paul’s trials in Acts 24–25? What can you learn from Paul’s behavior in the face of hateful accusations? Where do you see the providence of God on display in this text? How does God use discipline to correct us and to form us to be like Jesus? What difference does it make to know that every apparently unpredictable twist and turn of life is in fact under the Lord’s sovereign control?