Appealing to the Highest Power Acts 25:1-12

Notes
Transcript
Acts 25:1–12 NIV
1 Three days after arriving in the province, Festus went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem, 2 where the chief priests and the Jewish leaders appeared before him and presented the charges against Paul. 3 They requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way. 4 Festus answered, “Paul is being held at Caesarea, and I myself am going there soon. 5 Let some of your leaders come with me, and if the man has done anything wrong, they can press charges against him there.” 6 After spending eight or ten days with them, Festus went down to Caesarea. The next day he convened the court and ordered that Paul be brought before him. 7 When Paul came in, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood around him. They brought many serious charges against him, but they could not prove them. 8 Then Paul made his defense: “I have done nothing wrong against the Jewish law or against the temple or against Caesar.” 9 Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?” 10 Paul answered: “I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. 11 If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!” 12 After Festus had conferred with his council, he declared: “You have appealed to Caesar. To Caesar you will go!”
Paul appealed to a higher authority.
As believers, we have the privilege of appeal to the highest authority, and He is Jesus Christ.
The following passage describes Jesus becoming a human being and his subsequent exaltation:
Philippians 2:6–11 NIV
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Acts 2:34–36 NIV
34 For David did not ascend to heaven, and yet he said, “ ‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand 35 until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” ’ 36 “Therefore let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah.”
Revelation 1:5 NIV
5 and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood,
Jesus said this to the church in Thyatira...
Revelation 2:26–27 NIV
26 To the one who is victorious and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations—27 that one ‘will rule them with an iron scepter and will dash them to pieces like pottery’—just as I have received authority from my Father.
Knowing the Lordship of Jesus is motivational - it motivates us to stay faithful to God because if we do, we will reign with Him.
Revelation 13:1–2 NIV
1 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.
[image of Daniel’s beasts]
In Daniel chapter 7, Daniel had a dream in which he saw four beasts. Each beast represented a world-kingdom.
The first beast was like a lion. (Babylonian kingdom)
The second was like a bear. (Medo-Persian kingdom / Median kingdom)
The third was like a leopard, but it has four heads (Greek kingdom / Persian kingdom)
The fourth beast was unlike the others, and had ten horns (Roman kingdom / Greek kingdom)
So, we have four different beasts representing successive empires - a lion, a bear, a four headed leopard, and a ten horned creature.
So that’s a total of seven heads, and ten horns.
Now, let’s read Revelation 13:1-2 again
Revelation 13:1–2 NIV
1 The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. 2 The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.
Notice that what we have here is an amalgamation of Daniel’s four beasts.
The beast has seven heads, ten horns, and is like a lion, a leopard and a bear.
In other words, this is a hybrid beast. It represents the totality of world empire.
This is not just one particular world empire. Rather it is a symbol of the totality of world empire in opposition to God and depicts all the wickedness of world empires combined.
Revelation 13:3–4 NIV
3 One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast. 4 People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”
In other words, this beast look unconquerable. It seems that it cannot be defeated. And evil can appear that way. It keeps coming up again and again. And this is reinforced by the verses that follow:
Revelation 13:5–8 NIV
5 The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise its authority for forty-two months. 6 It opened its mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven. 7 It was given power to wage war against God’s holy people and to conquer them. And it was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation. 8 All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.
Notice that the beast was given power to conquer God’s holy people. At times it can appear that evil is triumphant, like the devil is winning. And we see this happening even now in certain parts of the world where we hear of Christians being killed for their faith.
Revelation 13:16–18 NIV
16 It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, 17 so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. 18 This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666.
Revelation 14:9–12 NIV
9 A third angel followed them and said in a loud voice: “If anyone worships the beast and its image and receives its mark on their forehead or on their hand, 10 they, too, will drink the wine of God’s fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. They will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. 11 And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image, or for anyone who receives the mark of its name.” 12 This calls for patient endurance on the part of the people of God who keep his commands and remain faithful to Jesus.
[please put Rev 13:18 back on the screen]
The mark of the beast is not about technology, or about a microchip, or dare I say a vaccine. The mark is a theological symbol. It denotes allegiance and loyalty to the beast.
This will manifest in various way throughout human history. We heard about Thyatira earlier. Thyatira’s economy seems to have emphasized trades and crafts. Refusing to join the guild of one’s trade would have meant social and economic isolation. The trade guilds each had common meals dedicated to their patron gods. To refuse to participate was the same as refusing connection with the other guild members whom one needed for economic survival (Keener, NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, note on Rev 2:20). So the pressure was there to compromise, and to, so to speak, take the beast’s mark.
In every generation, there is pressure to take the beast’s make, in other words, to compromise in order fit into the world system.
In our opening passage, the emperor, the Caesar, that Paul appealed to, was named Nero.
Later on, Nero started a fire, that destroyed much of Rome. And to get himself off the hook, he blamed the Christians. And to add fuel to the first (excuse the pun), he used that as a pretext to instigate the first official state persecution against Christians.
In fact, he burned many Christians alive so that they could be torches to light his imperial at night.
Now, in English, we have letters and we have numbers, and they are two separate things.
But in Hebrew and Greek, letters are used for numbers, and every letter has a numeric value.
In Hebrew, the name Nero Ceasar, when its letters are added together, has the numeric value 666
Now imagine you are in the shoes of a first century Christian and you are hearing this passage read to you. You know what Nero did, and you hear the description of this beast and how it would kill God’s people and blaspheme God and then you hear that the number of his name is 666. You're going to think of Nero.
And I suspect that what may be happening here is that Nero is used as a symbol of opposition to God and oppression of God's people.
Now, another vision is given to John in chapter 14
Revelation 14:1 NIV
1 Then I looked, and there before me was the Lamb, standing on Mount Zion, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads.
Notice the contrast
In chapter 13 the focus was the beast, but now we see a Lamb
In chapter 13 the focus was the earth, but now we see a heavenly scene, on the heavenly Zion
In chapter 13 the number of the beasts name was marked upon the foreheads of those loyal to the beast, but here the 144,000 have the name of the Father and the Son written on their heads.
Now, the number 12 is an important number for God’s people. You have the 12 tribes of Israel, and you have the 12 apostles of the Lamb. And 12 multiplied by 12,000 is 144,000. It is a symbolic number that represents God’s people.
All of us who are faithful to Christ are part of this symbolic number
One thing that this picture of this heavenly scene reminds us of is that whilst all this chaos and is happening on the earth and evil looks like it is prevailing, our minds should be set on heaven where peace and righteousness reigns. The good news is that this heavenly scenene will one day invade the earth, the Lordship of Jesus will be manifested in great power
Revelation 14:3–5 NIV
3 And they sang a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. No one could learn the song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. 4 These are those who did not defile themselves with women, for they remained virgins. They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among mankind and offered as firstfruits to God and the Lamb. 5 No lie was found in their mouths; they are blameless.
The description of the 144,000 as virgins is again symbolic. It points to the fact that they are pure. They don’t tolerate sin in their life.
Notice also that they follow the Lamb wherever he goes.
No matter what happens, we are with Jesus.
As long as we know that He is guiding us, no matter what is happening around us, we know that He is in control and will take care of us.
Now let’s jump to near the end of Revelation to get a little glimpse of how this will all end
Revelation 19:11–13 NIV
11 I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. 12 His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. 13 He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God.
Revelation 19:14–16 NIV
14 The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. 15 Coming out of his mouth is a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. 16 On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: king of kings and lord of lords.
This is none other that Jesus Christ making His return to earth as the King of kings and Lord of lords.
Revelation 19:19–20 NIV
19 Then I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to wage war against the rider on the horse and his army. 20 But the beast was captured, and with it the false prophet who had performed the signs on its behalf. With these signs he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped its image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur.
No matter what the powers of this world to oppose Christ and oppress His people, they will not prevail, because Jesus is only in heaven until the day comes when He will come bring all opposition in subjection to Him; and in that day every knee will bow and every tongue will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord!
But Jesus' Lordship is not only something that will manifest itself in the future, Jesus is Lord right now!
We can call upon Him to intervene in our circumstances in accordance with His will for us
We see this even in our opening passage and with what Paul was going through
Paul had now been in Roman custody for 2 years, which obviously not a great situation
But when you are living under the lordship of Jesus, delay is not denial
Back in chapter 23 of ActsJesus had told Paul that he would testify about Him in Rome
Acts 23:11 NIV
11 The following night the Lord stood near Paul and said, “Take courage! As you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so you must also testify in Rome.”
But that hadn't happened yet.
And so the Jews tried plot against Paul to have him killed by trying to get him to Jerusalem
Acts 25:3 NIV
3 They requested Festus, as a favor to them, to have Paul transferred to Jerusalem, for they were preparing an ambush to kill him along the way.
But Festus said no, and told them to come to Casearea where Paul was being held
Proverbs 21:1 ESV
1 The king’s heart is a stream of water in the hand of the Lord; he turns it wherever he will.
But then the devil tried it again. After the Jews came to Ceasarea and failed to prove their accusations against Paul we read...
Acts 25:9–11 NIV
9 Festus, wishing to do the Jews a favor, said to Paul, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and stand trial before me there on these charges?” 10 Paul answered: “I am now standing before Caesar’s court, where I ought to be tried. I have not done any wrong to the Jews, as you yourself know very well. 11 If, however, I am guilty of doing anything deserving death, I do not refuse to die. But if the charges brought against me by these Jews are not true, no one has the right to hand me over to them. I appeal to Caesar!”
So, the devil tried to get Paul to Jerusalem presumably so he could be killed there. But the very plan of Satan is what gave Paul the opportunity to appeal to Ceasar, which meant he would get to go Rome as Jesus promised!
God uses the devils own strategies against him. Delay was not denial. What the devil meant for evil, God turned around and made it good.
Romans 8:28 NIV
28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
I want to encourage you today that no matter what you may be facing, God is working. Jesus is Lord, even in your circumstances, and He is working for your good.

Summary

Jesus is Lord!

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