Intro to Acts 25:1-12

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 9/5/2018 10:06 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  Intro to Acts 25:1-12

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                           Reference:  Acts 25:1-12

 

          Message of the verses:  “1 Festus then, having arrived in the province, three days later went up to Jerusalem from Caesarea. 2 And the chief priests and the leading men of the Jews brought charges against Paul, and they were urging him, 3 requesting a concession against Paul, that he might have him brought to Jerusalem (at the same time, setting an ambush to kill him on the way). 4 Festus then answered that Paul was being kept in custody at Caesarea and that he himself was about to leave shortly. 5 “Therefore," he said, "let the influential men among you go there with me, and if there is anything wrong about the man, let them prosecute him." 6 After he had spent not more than eight or ten days among them, he went down to Caesarea, and on the next day he took his seat on the tribunal and ordered Paul to be brought. 7 After Paul arrived, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him, bringing many and serious charges against him which they could not prove, 8 while Paul said in his own defense, "I have committed no offense either against the Law of the Jews or against the temple or against Caesar."

9 But Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, "Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me on these charges?" 10 But Paul said, "I am standing before Caesar’s tribunal, where I ought to be tried. I have done no wrong to the Jews, as you also very well know. 11 “If, then, I am a wrongdoer and have committed anything worthy of death, I do not refuse to die; but if none of those things is true of which these men accuse me, no one can hand me over to them. 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."”

 

          I have been thinking about what is going on with Paul in these last two plus chapters, which will go on until the end of the book of Acts.  Paul had desired to go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord and also to worship the Lord with the giving of the gifts from the Gentile churches something that is discussed in his letter to the Corinthians, and also in the last part of his letter to the Romans.  We can learn much about giving because of what Paul was doing with this special gift for the hurting church in Jerusalem. 

 

          We saw in the last chapter the first of Paul’s Roman trials and in that trial we saw that Paul did not receive justice.  I don’t like to bring political things into my Spiritual Diaries, but as I look at what was going on with Paul I can see the same thing going on with our President in these days.  I see both are innocent, and yet the trials on Paul’s part and the investigation on our President’s part are very similar.

 

          Another thing that I want to talk about is how Paul, who knew he was innocent also, I believe knew he was in the will of the Lord as far as understanding that what he was going through was similar to what our Lord went through as nothing was right about His trial, and yet it was in the will of the Lord.  Paul was the one who wrote Romans 8:28 which says “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

 

          I have mentioned that my wife and I are on a kind of short vacation and last night we stopped at the hotel that we had made a reservation to stay and let’s just say that it was not like we thought it would be. The hotel was older than we thought and thus had some problems with it.  We had a hard time sleeping because we could not figure out how to close the blinds.  Now that may sound stupid on our part, but the fact is that no one we talked to knew how to do it either.  My point in all of this is that I had a difficult time in going to sleep and I kept thinking about Paul’s situation and thinking that God must have had a purpose in all of this.

 

          I have to say that the people working in this hotel, the ones we have meet have been wonderful in trying to make things good.  I meet a lady at breakfast who works at the hotel and sat down and we talked about the problem we had and I was able to talk to her about the Lord.  She was very interested and as I write this SD I have to believe that not sleeping last night as well as I would have liked to was something I went through so that I could talk to this very friendly lady about some of the issues I had.  God truly does work out things for our good and for His glory. 

 

          John MacArthur writes the following in his last paragraph, something I always want to quote as it gives us direction into what we will be looking at in this section of verses:  “Paul’s trial before Festus unfolds in four scenes:  the assassination plotted, the accusations presented, the absence of proof, and the appeal proposed.”

 

          Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am amazed at how the Lord works in my life at times when I don’t always seem to think that He will, and yet God never gives up on me, and for that I am thankful.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  To continue to trust the Lord to work in my life to make me more like our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Answer to yesterday’s Bible question:  “1 Samuel.”

 

Today’s Bible question:  “The outer covering for the tabernacle was made of what?”

 

Answer in our next SD.

 

9/5/2018 10:35 AM