Acts 25:13-27 | Paul on Trialنموونە

Waiting

Acts 24 ends with Luke dropping a line casually, almost in passing, “When two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, but because Felix wanted to grant a favor to the Jews, he left Paul in prison” (NIV).

Wait, what? Two years!?

We start Acts 25 over two years later, and Paul is still in custody. The governor who first heard his case has changed. Felix is gone. Festus is in. And Paul’s case is still undecided.

Here, in Acts 25, it’s Governor Festus who’s trying to figure out what to do. It’s been two years, but the Jewish religious leaders are still intent on killing Paul. Who stays bitter that long? Festus is now caught in the middle—trying to please his subjects while also seeking justice for one he suspects is an innocent man.

Enter King Agrippa and Bernice. They arrive in Caesarea. Festus explains Paul’s case to them, hoping for some guidance in this whole thing. And the sense you get is that Paul’s situation is bigger than politics—it’s about the gospel itself.

It leads one to wonder what Paul faced day-to-day? What pressures? What temptations? What did it do to his soul?

Waiting through trials can have opposite effects. Some get bitter to the point that it galvanizes. Think of the religious leaders who are still plotting. One might be tempted to say “Get over it, already!” That is, until we start to think about the grudges and bitterness we continue to nurse.

Luke doesn’t narrate Paul’s day-by-day struggle, but we pick up from the story (and the rest of Acts) a different tack. He waits. On the Lord.

Two years later and his testimony doesn’t change. How easy it would have been to maybe get out sooner, to curry some favor, to try to placate the whole thing.

Not that Paul sat on his hands. It’s in times of waiting that God often does some of his greatest formative work within us—shaping and molding patience, integrity, and Christ-likeness. It was in Paul’s time of waiting that he wrote many of the letters which now constitute the New Testament. We hear from a man what that formative process is like.

Nor does Paul leave himself to fate. “I appeal to Caesar,” he says (Acts 25:11). There’s a strange interplay between prayer and our actions, seeking God and using what God has given us. Some think the fate of their lives rests solely in their hands. Others fall into inertia, resigned to fate or expecting everything to be miraculously handled by God. Perhaps there’s an interesting lesson to be gleaned. Trust in God, do what you can, wait patiently on the Lord, and leave the future to him.

Maybe you’re waiting, like Paul, with no clear end in sight of where things will go. Seek Christ. Surrender bitterness. Hope for, and wait for, the Lord.

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