Acts 25:13-27 | Paul on Trialნიმუში

Rooted in History

We come to the heart of it. “Instead, they had some points of dispute with him about their own religion and about a dead man named Jesus who Paul claimed was alive” (Acts 25:19).

What is Christianity all about? A man some claim to be dead who is actually alive. The message of Jesus is about the resurrection.

Acts 25 is filled with all sorts of historical tether points. Governor Festus is known from history. King Agrippa II and his sister, Bernice, are known from ancient history too. This whole chapter is historical figure-soaked.

Luke is not afraid of history. He loves history and he loves showing how the account he’s writing is historical. History backs up the Christian message. This stuff actually happened!

Some think the Bible is a bunch of made-up stories. Others deride it as a fairy tale or delusional fantasy. Luke will have none of that. Luke, Paul, and those first Christians didn’t stake their lives (or give them!) on the basis of a fairy tale or fantasy. They staked it on Jesus’s resurrection. Because Jesus’s resurrection actually happened.

That is the heart of the gospel. Like Festus, Agrippa, Bernice, the Roman Empire and all the other geopolitical issues we see unfolding in the story, Luke is making sure to show us that rooting in Jesus and his resurrection is rooting in history.

Ideas are good. But ideas are not enough. At some point, our lives need to be based on (and conform to) reality. What is Acts telling us? Jesus and his resurrection—that’s ultimate reality.