Dennis Tuuri

# Sermon Transcript – Acts 25:13-27

Looking at verse 13 proceeding through verse 27. Acts 25:13-27. And after certain days, King Agrippa and Bernice came into Caesarea to salute Festus. And when he had been there many days, Festus declared Paul’s case unto the king, saying, “There’s a certain man left in bonds by Felix about whom when I was at Jerusalem, the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me desiring to have judgment against him.

To whom I answered, it is not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die before that he which is accused have the accusers face to face and have license to answer for himself concerning the crime laid against him. Therefore, when they were come hither without any delay on the morrow, I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought forth against whom when the accusers stood up, they brought none accusation of such things as I supposed.

But had certain questions against him with their own superstition, and of one Jesus, which was dead, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. And because I doubted of such manner of questions, I asked him whether he would go to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these matters. But when Paul had appealed to be reserved under the hearing of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept, till I might send him to Caesar. Then Agrippa said unto Festus, I would also hear the man myself.

Tomorrow, said he, thou shalt hear him. And on the morrow, when Agrippa was come, and Bernice with great pomp, and was entered into the place of hearing, with the chief captains and principal men of the city, at Festus’s commandment, Paul was brought forth. And Festus said, King Agrippa, and all men which are here present with us, do you see this man about whom all the multitude of the Jews have dealt with me, both at Jerusalem and also here, crying that he ought not to live any longer.

But when I found that he had committed did nothing worthy of death. That he himself hath appealed to Augustus, I have determined to send him, of whom I have no certain thing to write unto my lord. Wherefore I have brought him forth before you, and especially before thee, oh king Agrippa, that after examination had I might have somewhat to write. For it seemeth to me unreasonable to send a prisoner, and not with all to signify the crimes laid against him.

We thank God for his word. And now we pray in song that he might illuminate our understanding.

Three men. That’s what we have presented for us in this historical account of the end essentially of Paul’s ministry in the context of Jerusalem and then here at Caesarea that is in Judea. He will shortly be transported to Rome. And here we have a rather remarkable conclusion to his time at Judea in Jerusalem and at Caesarea.

We will have an extended account beginning in chapter 26 next week in our preaching cycle of Paul’s message, his witness before Agrippa. And so we have this final appearance in yet another court, so to speak, another examination. The text tells us and here at the conclusion of his stay in Judea it is significant that this third court is held in the presence of Agrippa Herod Agrippa.

The book of Acts is divided pretty easily into three specific parts: portion dealing with Peter and his ministry; the second portion dealing with Paul and particularly his missionary activity, the three missionary journeys; and then this final section of Paul’s journey so to speak from Jerusalem on into Rome, his final account, not really a missionary journey intended as such but that is really what it becomes. And so the gospel penetrates to the heart of the known world and we’ll end in Rome of course at the end of the book. And so we’re moving toward that conclusion now. We’re in that last third of the book and we’ve been here several chapters and a number of sermons.

Remember where we’re at is that the missionary journeys completed. Paul goes back to Jerusalem at the conclusion of the third journey. There is much reason to believe that he had taken a Nazirite vow. He had come to at least assist others. It’s one of the things he did there in Jerusalem is to assist others in the completion of their vow. We think also indications are that this may have been the completion of his vow as well. Remember he’s arrested in the temple. He then is taken through a series of examinations in courts. We talked about the Roman power here being a protective power for Paul. This continues in this text, although I think we’ll see some other things as well.

But that’s essentially where we’re at is that Paul has gone through this series of attacks by the Jews, the false apostate church. He’s been protected by Imperial Rome on any number of occasions, receiving deliverance at first from being beaten to death, then from being charged as they brought him back out to discuss the matter and as he wanted to do with those that were against him from the Jewish nation. They rushed him. They had to take him back into the fortress tower. Later, the Sanhedrin of course brought him forth to order that he be slapped; rescued again by the Romans.

Then there’s a conspiracy against his life to kill him and attack him and the Roman official at the time safely transports Paul to Caesarea. Felix hears the matter. That’s the first governor Felix. The word Felicitus means happy, and he hears the matter. The Jews come and accuse Paul. There’s no charges against him will stand and Felix should have let him go but he didn’t. So it’s not as if the Romans are painted in a totally favorable light in these passages. Paul sits there for another couple of years and then Festus comes to replace Felix.

Festus is made request of by the Jews at Jerusalem and he goes up to Jerusalem, the holy city. He goes up there to talk with the people that he was now governing. They say, “Bring Paul to us so he can be tried here.” And in the meantime, they had set a conspiracy to kill Paul along the road. Well, in the providence of God, Festus may be not knowing what he was doing, or maybe he did. Maybe he did know there’s a conspiracy. We just don’t know. Nonetheless, Festus keeps Paul at Caesarea and makes the Jews come back there to bring charges against him. And the charges again are unsubstantiated.

And Festus simply cannot turn over a Roman citizen to the Jews for execution because there’s no charges that fit. But Festus remember at the end of that interrogation, Festus begins to pressure Paul to go ahead and go back to Jerusalem to be examined there. Paul sees what’s happening. He sees that while Festus has protected him so far, he’s weakening. He’s like the wicked important judge in the parable with the widow, the false widow, the wicked city of Jerusalem, continues to make request after request of the Roman officials banging on the door.

And finally, the Roman officials seem like they’re ready to cave and make Paul go back to Jerusalem to his death. So Paul appeals the matter to Caesar. We talked about that at some length over a couple of weeks. That means that he had to be heard. He had to be taken to Augustus. The problem that Festus faces at this point in time is that he doesn’t know exactly what letter of communication to send with the prisoner to Augustus.

He’s going to look pretty stupid if you know there’s nothing going on. This guy’s done nothing wrong and still the man had to appeal to Caesar in order to save his life. He could have told Paul, “No appeal is necessary. I find you innocent.” But he didn’t do that. You see, he wouldn’t release him. Remember, he was trying to give a favor to the Jews by keeping Paul. And so while he’s protecting the church, nonetheless, he’s caving to the false church.

And of course, by AD 70, we’ll see that and then on into the next few years that Rome turns against the church. Well, so that’s where we’re at here. We have Paul. He’s still imprisoned. He’s still in bonds. Maybe not physically, but certainly symbolically, he’s imprisoned at Caesarea. They’re waiting apparently. We read in Acts 27:1 that when Paul is finally transported other prisoners go with them. And so they’re waiting to get a number of prisoners together to transport Paul to Augustus.

And while they’re waiting, Agrippa comes. This is very significant because with the completion of this particular cycle of examination, Paul will have gone through the same three powers arrayed against him that were arrayed against our Savior. You remember after Jesus’s arrest, he went through a series of courts. There was the same Sanhedrin, which Paul has already seen. Then he was taken in Luke 23, we read of him being taken to Herod, and he answers not a word to Herod.

And then his final decision of the matter is made by Pilate. And so Jesus is being buffeted about and these three courts that he goes through, the Sanhedrin, Herod, and then the Roman official Pilate are the same groups that Paul goes through. You know, he’s been tried by the Sanhedrin. He’s been tried by Festus. And now he’s got Agrippa who is the descendant, grandson of the Herod that heard Jesus’s case.

And so this is a critical incident again to show the correlation of what Paul was going through and the providence of God to what Jesus had gone through. By way of application, we can say that there is a similarity to what the church and individually and corporately will go through as history proceeds on and what our Savior has done. He’s blazed the course, so to speak. But it’s not as if all that is irrelevant to our lives.

We come under attack. Paul did. We will as well through various opposing powers that essentially correlate to these three sets of courts that have tried Paul. Now the difference is of course is that Paul will be delivered at the end of this. And even Herod his treatment both of Jesus and Paul is not exactly animated hatred for them. Herod wants to see Jesus do some miracle when he appears before him and in this case Herod seems almost ambivalent to the whole thing and we’ll talk about that. But I want to talk about these three men then that are pictured together for us. It’s quite important for us to see a couple of points of application relative to sin that we’ll get from Herod, Agrippa and then also the primary purpose of this text is to cause us to both recognize that we’ll go through tribulations and suffering, but that the trailblazer, the Lord Jesus Christ, has won the victory over all these forces.

And so, this text should be one of great comfort to us at the end of the day. It’s an encouragement to particular forms of righteousness and doing what’s right. And we’ll discuss that. But primarily, it is a text of comfort to the church, knowing that indeed, as we’ve recited from the book of Revelation, that the kingdoms of the earth have become the kingdoms of our Lord and his Christ. So, let’s look at the text a little bit, make sure we understand what’s going on and then we’ll look at these three men.

The text begins with Agrippa and Bernice coming unto Caesarea to salute Festus. And you know Festus is the governor of the Jewish people. Agrippa is the king of the Jews. The Herods were the kings of the Jews. We’ll talk about that a little bit more. Bernice is not Agrippa’s wife. She is his sister although there is indication of an incestuous relationship and that perhaps is why this is mentioned in the text.

But just so you understand in verse 13, Bernice is Agrippa’s sister. And they come together and Festus says that I’ve got this problem here. After many days, this was not number one on the agenda. Okay. But as they’re talking along and conversing together, Festus declares Paul’s case under the king. See, he called the king there. See, the king here is Agrippa. And the word king is usually used almost all the references in the New Testament in terms of other than the Lord Jesus, King Jesus, is to the Herods and they were declared king of the Jews by Roman edict. And so when Pilate puts the title king of the Jews on our Savior’s cross that reminds us in the providence of God that he’s superintending all of this that really Herod is a false Christ. He is a false king of the Jews. And the real king of the Jews, the Lord Jesus comes to supplant him. And indeed the line of the Herods will end after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

So the judgments are being played out in any event. So he’s referred to as the king here and Festus then goes on to give the account. Festus’s account is not quite consonant with the accounts that are given earlier. He makes himself out to be a lot better of a guy in the context of all this thing than he really was. He does say that he was at Jerusalem. The chief priests, the elders of the Jews informed him desiring to have judgment against him.

To whom I answered, it’s not the manner of the Romans to deliver any man to die before the his license to hear the accused. Well, see that isn’t really true, is it? You remember that what really happened back then was they wanted they asked Festus to send him to Jerusalem to have that same trial. They weren’t, you know, so him saying here while it may be true of principle of Roman justice that people had to be able to face their accusers, that’s not exactly the answer he gave the Jews back in the earlier chapters where this is all referred to.

In any event, he goes on to say that therefore when they were come together, come hither, that is to Caesarea I sat in the judgment seat commanded the man to be brought forth and that certainly is true. You remember that he had the Jews come up to Caesarea against whom the accusers stood up they brought none accusation rather of such things as I suppose but had certain questions against him of their own superstition and of one Jesus which was dead whom Paul affirmed to be alive.

This is a very significant verse 19. You remember that Paul, well, you know, we began talking about Paul’s assertion of the resurrection of the Savior back when he’s before the Sanhedrin. Remember, a long time ago in this account several chapters back, he’s before the Sanhedrin. And you’ve got Sadducees there. You got Pharisees there. The Pharisees believe in the resurrection of the dead. The Sadducees don’t.

And Paul says that he’s on trial for the resurrection of the dead. And some people, many people commonly think he just did that to get these guys fighting together as kind of a diversion so that he wouldn’t be died and found and put to death to get them fighting amongst themselves. Well, that’s only partially true. I mean, it is true that it caused dissension, but his purpose in bringing that up at the Sanhedrin was not to obfuscate or make vague or to cloud over the issues.

His purpose was to focus the issue on the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is his message. That is the extent of his message. Remember Jordan over the weekend talked about what the gospel is. RJ Rushdoony has used a phrase, the gospel is the good news. That’s what gospel means. What is the good news? Well, it’s not just personal salvation. Rushdoony said, Reverend Jordan said essentially the same thing. In other words, it is the good news of the ascension of the Savior King to the throne.

He rules. Things that have been passed over will no longer be passed over. The world will now move in the direction of righteousness through the proclamation of the gospel. That gospel of the ascension of Christ to the throne. And so, Paul’s message is the resurrection of the savior, the king, the king of kings. So Paul doesn’t obfuscate the issue again. He focuses the issue on the resurrection of Christ.

And this text at the end of this long process, these years of trials and investigations about Paul shows that he was successful. Festus in reviewing the case to Agrippa focuses the whole issue right to the nub, right to the central point. Certain elements of Rome’s superstition religion and of one Jesus which was dead whom Paul affirmed to be alive. It’s interesting by the way that as we go through this text as Festus is telling Agrippa in verses 14 and following about Paul he calls him this man.

This man we don’t see Paul’s name enunciated here in this context until verse 19 and it is in relationship to the resurrection of the Savior. Now I know this is application. This isn’t exegesis. But I think that the application I want to make is that our identity, who we are, is tied to the resurrection of the Savior. And our name, the naming of who we are is pictured for us here in the context of the resurrection.

But the important point to see here is that Festus is trying to figure out what to do. And the central problem he has is that the issues really revolve not around legal issues, but really about the resurrection of Jesus. Now again, here he wasn’t being totally true because the Jews accused Paul of sedition, a mutiny against Rome and disturbing the order. But he gets really gets in the providence of God to the central issue not just for himself as a representative of the emperor.

Not just for Agrippa as a representative of the kingdoms of the earth. He’s a king and not just for in isolation for the church, the apostate church, the Jews, but for all of history, whether it has to do with the church Whether it has to do with kingdoms, whether it has to do with empires, the flow of world history. I said I was going to say biblical history and then in the extension by way of the history through the ages.

This is the central issue, the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we will see next week, beginning of next week with Paul’s defense before Agrippa, that is exactly where he brings the focus back to again. That’s very instructive. We’re going to talk more next week about the implications of Paul’s witness for our witness. This will conclude essentially Paul’s witness in the context of Judea. His witness to the church, his witness to the emperor as represented in Festus and his witness to the kings of the earth is represented in Herod.

And so it is very significant for us as we come before people whether they’re kings, emperors or just people and presenting our witness. But the witness of Paul will again focus upon the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Festus says that’s the question we got a resolve here. And we’ll see that’s the central question as I said for all of life.

And then he goes on to say that he said, “Well, I asked him if he would go up to Jerusalem because I wasn’t sure about a number of these questions.”

Well, that’s just a lie. I don’t, you know, you could try to paper that over, but it seems to me real clear that Festus here is not being forthright. We Paul’s reaction to Festus seemed to indicate that he had no trust for that man anymore. There’s reason to believe that Festus might even have known of the particular conspiracy to kill him. And what good would it do Festus to inquire about the religious matters of the resurrection of the dead by going to Jerusalem?

It do him no more good than it would to stay at Caesarea and bring the guys up and talk to him. He’s not going to become any more informed of the religion of the people over which he says he basically had nothing to do. So Festus is really not being very accurate here in terms of what he is saying. He’s putting himself in a more favorable light to Agrippa. Then he says, “When Paul appealed to be reserved to the hearing of Augustus, I command him be kept. I might send him to Rome.”

Well, if it’s true that he was innocent, he should have been let go, not sent up to Rome. Then Agrippa says, “Well, I’d like to hear this guy myself.” And indeed, he says, “You shall hear him.” And then in verse 23, on the morrow when Agrippa was come and Bernice with great pomp, it’s very significant here. Great pomp. We’re not told a lot about Agrippa in this account.

We are told that him and Bernice enter into the hall with great pomp. And when he was entered into the place of hearing with the chief captains and principal men of the city, at Festus’s commandment, Paul was brought forth. So, we have a mass. This is really kind of the picture. The entire section here is found in verse 23. We have this regal Roman scene. We’ve got Herod Agrippa and Bernice his sister coming in and not just pomp, great pomp.

The word pomp is the root word for our fantasy or fantastical. Okay? Tremendous pomp, great sight. The only other place where the root word is used is when it talks about Moses being afraid at the exceedingly great sight of the revelation of God. And you remember that this is the same place here at Caesarea. And indeed, this is probably the actual same physical location where this Herod’s father had gone to hear cases related to his problems with people round about where he had worn that shiny robe, you know, that shown like the sun.

Remember that? Remember after Herod kills James early in the book of Acts and he tries to kill Peter and Peter is delivered by God and then Herod goes up to Caesarea to hear different court cases and he appears in that bright shining robe. This is this guy’s father and the people say it’s a god, it’s a god. He was in great pomp you see and the people cried out it’s a god and he reveled in that saying oh yeah I’m a god and an angel of the lord struck him and he was smitten with worms and died a terrible death.

Well here we are the son. Just like the father is arriving and the daughter Bernice the daughter and son together arriving in great pomp. And so they have this place of hearing. They come in their great pomp. You got Festus. You got the principal men of the city. You’ve got the chief captains of which there are probably five with their cohorts or legions behind them. You’ve got all these forces and powers of Rome arrayed.

You’ve got the pomp and glory of this really apostate king, this false king of the so to speak, involved in what is probably an incestuous relationship with the sister. All these people gathered together. The pomp and authority of the world is represented here for us. All the hosts of mankind are arrayed in their shining power and their mighty armament with the Romans being representative of that.

And in walks, not walks, he’s pulled in, so to speak, he’s commanded to be brought in. Paul is brought in by his guards. You know, Paul means small. And he was not a big man in any case a prison guard probably where I didn’t wasn’t dressed real nice at least and he comes into the context of a world filled with might and power and pomp and circumstance. Paul, domination of man and the point of all this I think is that it is Paul who sways the future who determines the events that’ll happen here. He’s center stage and of course he’s center stage because of his presentation of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Festus then says, “Well, I brought you all here and particularly you, King Agrippa, because I don’t know what to do with this guy. I’m not sure what to write to Augustus, and I want you to, you know, examine him and see what you have to say, and I brought him forth, particularly before you for examination to be made so I can tell what to write.” Seems unreasonable, absurd to me, he said, to send a prisoner and not with all to signify the crimes laid against him. Well, it is absurd, isn’t it? To send a prisoner up who’s made an appeal to the highest court of courts and to not be able to put what the charges are against him.

It’s not an absurdity that Paul has brought upon himself. It’s an absurdity that Festus has brought upon himself by not choosing one side of the other. He’s just like Pilate, isn’t he? Here he doesn’t really there nothing wrong with this guy and yet he has this inclination to turn him over for death. So we see here essentially the same figures as our Savior went to with Pilate and Herod.

Interestingly enough in Luke 23 when we read of Jesus appearing before Herod and not answering him a word, wouldn’t speak a word to him. There’s a contrast there with Paul. He’ll speak many words to this Herod. Jesus didn’t answer him a word. And but it goes on to say that Herod and Pilate became friends on that very day. In Luke 23, you can look it up later. They became friends on that very day. And here we have again the friendship of Rome and Herod being developed in the context of keeping the representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, Christ again, so to speak, represented through his people in bonds and reserving them under judgment.

So that’s the account of what happens. Let’s talk a little bit more now about these men who were gathered together. First, as I said, Festus is a representative of Rome and of the empire of Rome. And as such, I suppose you could see a correlation to the emperor the empires of the world. Indeed, we heard some very good instruction this last week about the relationship of the empires to the world that there was this and I talked about it several weeks ago from Haggai chapters 1 and two.

There was a series of successive empires that we now find ourselves at the end of remember there was the Babylon, Persia, Greece and Rome. And so here we have that final empire and indeed there is a fifth empire indicated in Daniel chapter 7 which is this correlation between Rome this marriage so to speak between Rome and the Herods who govern the particular people in Judea or Jerusalem. So, with Festus, what we see particularly in this text, we’re told, by way of examining the details of this text with what he had said before that he’s a deceiver.

He’s picturing himself in the best possible light. One could say that he is positioning the truth. His remarks are not made up out of whole cloth, but his account of the tale given to Agrippa and then to all the public people gathered around that day to hear the matter against Paul indicates that Festus was one to position the truth, who was not who was deceitful in the sense of not being forthright and rearranging what was said to make his own image look better to everybody else than it really was.

This is a caution to us. Festus is representative of the empire here is a caution to us. Again, Reverend Jordan has talked to us about how in a time of empire, the great tendency is to give false witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. The third commandment, thou shalt not bear false witness. You should not bear witness of the Lord Jesus Christ with vanity. That’s what it means, false witness. God will not hold him guiltless, but taketh his name in vain or vainly upon himself.

And so, we have a requirement to have a not vain, but a full witness to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have a requirement as Christians to seek and reveal truth. Now, you think back to your life this last week or month or so and try to think of incidents where you may not have been completely forthright with someone that you’re talking about, particularly another Christian. We all do it. We try to place our own actions in the best possible light to others.

And in so doing, we frequently or at least occasionally can enter into deceit. We don’t maybe we’re not going to just lie outright, make up stories completely erroneously or completely in a complete perversion of the truth, but we are going to take and represent ourselves in whatever way we can to others to make them like us or at least to cover over the sins that we may have committed. And I think that if you examine yourself or think of the way your children, for instance, act in relationship to you, it’s pretty easy to see that this is a sin that is easily entered into.

And indeed, here we have Festus. This guy’s a man of great power and authority. He represents Augustus Caesar. He represents Nero to these people. And yet he also is apparently tempted to engage in deception to make himself look better than he was. And that to a king was essentially just a figurehead in terms of Herod Agrippa. I mean it was Agrippa who should seek all the help from Festus that he could. So what I’m saying is that we all have this sinful tendency and the story of Festus here and his representation of these facts in an erroneous manner is a encouragement to us or a warning to us not to engage in false witness not to swear falsely or in vanity, not to profess the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and to hold that profession in vanity.

We’ll be we’ll be tempted in the context of a metropolitan cosmopolitan sort of world in which we live to subjugate our Christian witness to not deny Christ necessarily overtly but to deny him by to deny him by not moving in terms of the truth and a presentation of who we are really. That means on the positive side bearing witness to the Lord Jesus in all that we do and say. On the other side though, it also means moving toward truth and away from deception.

And so if you find yourself in the evaluation that as the Lord comes to us today on his day, if you find yourself as one who positions the truth, who engages in deceit by not being forthright about your actions, then now is the time to repent of that and to tell God that I want to move away from that and I want to be more fearful of you and of sinning against you than am of being fearful of other men and what they might think of me.

You know, it’s been said frequently that the liar is somebody who is brave to God and a coward to men. And that’s what Festus is here. He’s a coward to other men. And his root sin is being brave to God and being prideful of himself. Now, I can think I don’t know maybe you’re saying, “Well, I don’t do that.” I can I know that this last week I became aware of various things. I don’t need to tell you what they’re about.

But I know that this happens and I know that this happens regularly. Now maybe you can’t see it. Maybe it’d be good for you to ask your spouse, husbands to ask your wives, wives to ask your husbands to keep you on track in terms of not covering up things that you shouldn’t leave covered up terms of distorting the truth to paint yourself in the best possible light to others. Seek out that sin. It’s represented here at the climax of this section as a great sin to be avoided.

It’s the contrast again. And we’ll see this with Paul. Paul is completely forthright about the truthfulness of the Christian faith. And because of that forthrightness about the thing that people would ridicule most, the resurrection from the dead, Paul correctly and is blessedly used by God to focus the whole world on the question of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ because he didn’t blink.

Because he wasn’t fearful of what other people might think of him. He wasn’t fearful at the Areopagus back on Mars Hill to speak of the resurrection from the dead. He wasn’t fearful to the Jews. And when he spoke to them, he reminded them that they killed him. And he’s not fearful here in front of the Roman emperors represented by Festus to speak of the resurrection of the dead. And he carries the power of God into situations because his complete intent to be truthful and with full declaration of that truth to so speak to men.

So we have Festus represented here to us. We also have Herod and this will take a little bit more time. I mentioned that what we have here is another Herod and I know this can be confusing so I want to take a little bit of time give you some references to write down. So get out your pens. Let me just say briefly that we won’t look at these verses now but Reverend Jordan has done some excellent work I believe in his commentary in the book of Daniel.

In Daniel 7:9-14 and particularly verse 11, he correlates the identification of this beast of Daniel 7:1 with Herod. So there are these Old Testament prophecies in the book of Daniel again in the New Testament in Revelation 13, the picture of Nero given in Revelation 13 and a correlation of that to what Herod the Herods did collectively and particularly the great Herod who was prominent in the New Testament which we’ll get to in just a minute.

So understand first of all there are these Old Testament prophecies and New Testament prophetic language in the book of Revelation much of which has to be interpreted in relationship to the fact of the Herods and their significance to the time of our Savior. So Herod is an important element in understanding prophecy in Daniel 7, Revelation 13 and Revelation 17.

Well, who is Herod? Well, let me just give you a little bit of background here of who the Herods were. The father of the Herods was a guy named Antipater who was king of the Edomites. And he was around when the battle became pitched for control of the Roman Empire. Actually, the development of the Roman Empire. Antipater first took sides with Pompey who did battle with Octavian Caesar who would become Augustus Caesar. Okay. And at first this Antipater who was king of the, as I said, king of the Edomites in other words descended from Edom and from Esau.

Antipater took sides with the wrong side but when he saw that the battle was going toward Octavian Caesar as the battles went on for the control of the Roman state and what would become the Roman Empire. Antipater switched sides and he then helped Octavian Caesar who had become Augustus Caesar. He helped him and as a result was repaid when the conflict was over by being given a particularly specifically he was given Roman citizenship and so while he wasn’t really a Roman to begin with Augustus rewarded Antipater with the title of Roman citizenship and so as a result Herod Antipater’s son the first Herod though of Idumean stock, Edomite stock was actually comes out of the fourth beast in terms of those pictures of the prophecy of the Old Testament.

In other words, he was grafted into Rome by being named a son for his switching sides. And that switching of sides is quite important to understand the history of the Herods. This Herod we’re talking about now, the fourth Herod on the scene, the fifth, if you include Antipater as the first, though his name wasn’t Herod. The Herod we’re speaking of here in the context of Festus’ court, this is the Herod that will ride into the AD 70, representing the Jewish people in those wars.

But after AD 70, after Rome crushes Jerusalem, this king of the Jews will sit in court and at the festivities that are called for the celebration of Rome’s victory over the Jews. See, he switches sides, too. His allegiance is always political. The way I see Herods, the Herods in the scriptures, they’re political animals. They’re always going with who’s going to win. And so, this idea of them appearing in pomp, in great pomp, is is kind of related to the fact that essentially they’re undisciplined except in the exaltation of themselves.

They’re always self-seeking. They’re always trying to lay themselves with other forces can build them up. Okay? They’re a picture of pomp. They’re a picture of selfish pride to us. Well, in any event, we then have a series of Herods given to us in the New Testament. Now, here’s there’s I’m going to give you four Herods and then you can have the references. You might write them down for further study.

Herod the Great is in Matthew 2:1-9 and Luke 1:5. Herod the Great was the one who followed Antipater was the first Herod, so to speak. He was the Herod who murdered all the children seeking after the Lord and Savior. So, he’s the one who led to the massacre what is known as the massacre of the innocents. He also and apparently Josephus tells us that on one occasion he wiped out the entire Sanhedrin, had all the members of the Sanhedrin killed. He murdered a guy named Hyrcanus who was a mild-mannered high priest.

He was a bad dude. When he neared death, a group of young Jews tore down the golden imperial eagle that he had placed over the great gate of the temple. This the first Herod, Herod the Great, had rebuilt the temple, but you might think that’s good, but he placed the Roman eagle in the front of the temple. And as he was getting close to death, a group of young Jews tore that eagle down. Herod had them burned alive as a result.

As he was about to die, he recognized that everybody hated his guts. And so what he did was, so he would have mourners of his death. He had men go out and get a bunch of Jewish citizens together, put them in a big amphitheater in a big enclosure, closed them up, and upon his death, he was going to have them killed. And the idea was there’d be mourners for him who would want to die because he was dying.

In his twisted mind, that’s what he thought. Now, those people were released. So, it didn’t actually take place. But see, he was a real picture of an evil, wicked man, an evil king. That’s Herod the Great. Herod Antipas was found it’s his account is found in Mark 6:14-27 and he was the one who sought after the Savior and as a result Jesus had grew up in Nazareth as opposed to Bethlehem. Herod Antipas, Herod Agrippa the first is in Acts 12:1 and 20 and he was the one as I said earlier who martyred James and who sought Peter’s death.

And then Herod Agrippa II is here in Acts 25:13-26:30 through the end of chapter 26. So those are the four Herods that are given for us and their father as I said is Antipater.

Now this last Herod, Herod Agrippa II, he has two sisters. His sisters are Drusilla and Bernice. And remember Drusilla is married to this Festus. And that Drusilla that we talked about before is the sister of Herod Agrippa II and of Bernice his sister given for us in this particular account. And so we have this historical account of who these Herods were in God’s revealed history in the New Testament in the Gospels and then into the book of Acts.

So essentially the Herods come from the Edomite line and as a result can be traced back to the Jacob Esau conflict. Again, Reverend Jordan speaks of this more extensively in his commentary on the book of Daniel. But the Herods represent to us, he believes, and I think correctly, the war of the false son, so to speak, the son not of choice and election against the true son of God’s blessing. And so this inner family warfare that actually originates with Cain and Abel, the antithesis that God places judicially in the world between the two seeds, Cain and Abel, Jacob and Esau, and then down through this is pictured for us in the Herods.

So in the scriptures, when you read of the Herods, you want to think about the false son, so to speak, striking out against the true son. And so that’s what goes on. Now, the way he strikes out is given for us in a couple of different ways in the scriptures. First, the pattern, as Reverend Jordan says, laid out in the Old Testament is that after Jerusalem is attacked by Gentiles, the Edomites descend as vultures on the corpse.

That’s in Psalm 137. That’s shown. The whole book of Obadiah shows that. So the first way the false son wars against the true son is after men are attacked by the Gentiles, these they’re to the gentiles being seen as totally unrelated to the people they’re oppressing then the false sons come in and swoop in as vultures for the kill and that is pictured for us as well actually in the historical accounts of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

It was the invasion of the Edomites who came in as vultures for the kill in Jerusalem that caused much of the blood to flow. So that’s one way that this attack is played out.

In the second place the way this is played out is in the three as one of as I said before of the three enemies of the kingdom of God. Jesus as I said was put on trial by the Sanhedrin by Herod and the Romans. Paul goes through these same courts until he pictures for us these same three elements of apostate humanism attacking the church.

The second way in which the false son attacks the church. This is speaking specifically of Herod is given for us in the book of Esther after the exodus from Babylon seen in the book of Esther. Then the people of God are attacked by an Amalekite who is essentially the same group. Amalekite is descended from Esau as well. We find that in Genesis 36:12. And so what the other thing we see is that after we have an exodus after we have victory over Pharaoh, Amalekite attacks.

And so in the Exodus from Egypt, after the people of God are delivered out of the hand of Pharaoh who is turned against them, they then are attacked by the Amalekites in the wilderness. And so what we can expect in history is after deliverance from one from the imperial forces of Egypt in that case or the imperial forces of Babylon in the case of the book of Esther then were attacked now by these Herodian Edomite Amalekite people and so the same thing is true in the context of God’s people we can as we see this played out in the life of Jesus and him being attacked by Herod Paul being attacked by Herod Agrippa now and Herod Agrippa persecuting the people of God for instance in the martyrdom of James and the attempted martyrdom of Peter they were delivered so to speak and then they’re attacked by Herod.

Well, so what this tells us is that as church history develops and unfolds, we can expect in our lives individually and corporately as God gives us victory over statist so to speak and over Caesars, we can expect attacks then from those who claim to be brothers but are not brothers, from the false brothers of the Herods. And indeed, church history is replete with such stories. And we could say even the history of this church has seen that same two-prong attack upon him both through state and then through Herodian false brothers.

So that’s the picture for Herod given for us here. Now specifically in the context of the text that we’ve just read, the Herod is, as I said in the account of Jesus is somewhat of an ambivalent creature. I mean, he doesn’t really has no animated hatred for Paul. Some people think that his whole purpose in meeting with Festus was to get at Paul. The text doesn’t tell us that. It may be true. I suppose you could assume that Agrippa would like the Jews to like him and therefore want to kill Paul.

But there’s no animation toward that way at all. We’ll see at the end of Paul’s defense of his faith that Agrippa says, “Well, this guy could have been set free. He doesn’t seem to have a big interest in the case.” Why? Well, because he’s not really a representative king of the people. He’s more interested in his own personal pomp and glory. You see, to him, Paul is more or less irrelevant. Why did Herod want to see Jesus?

It says, “Well, he wanted to see him do some miraculous to amuse him.” And why does Herod Agrippa want to see Paul here? Well, he’s just got a curiosity about the thing. It’s not even really related to an act of hatred for the Christ or for his people. So, by this time, Herod, the Herods have become essentially totally ingrown into their own desire for pomp and glory. And that’s the second temptation that we must avoid.

We must avoid the deception of Festus. And we must avoid the self-aggrandizement, the building up of oneself and of one’s personal glory of Herod. It’s interesting that the text tells us first of all there was great pomp, but also there’s several references to Bernice being with him. Why is that given to us? Bernice isn’t his wife. She’s not related to the authority structure at all. She’s just his sister. I think the text wants to remind us of the incestuous relationship rumored throughout the time and all the historical writers at the time talked about their incestuous relationship.

She had been married to her uncle before, another Herod. And after her divorce from him, after he died, then she comes and lives with her brother. Because of the rumors of incest, she finally marries somebody else, but then leaves him as well and goes back to her brother and lives with him some more. She will later marry two different Caesars. She’s very much like Drusilla. Remember, we talked about the checkered past of Drusilla, Festus’ wife, who was a sister as well.

This was a wicked family. And at the end of that wickedness, the end of five generations of wickedness, so to speak, We have people that are totally within themselves, totally convinced of their own godlike nature, and unable to find mates outside of the family. That’s what I think is going on. Why is there an incestuous relationship? Well, there’s perversion involved, no doubt. But probably the greatest perversion, it was an extension of their desire to show themselves in great pomp.

For instance, in the context of this hearing or administrative hearing in the hall of judgment of justice. People become given over to their own sense of goodness. And that sense of goodness in its perverted fashion ends up with a total focus upon oneself, a total conceit. People that can’t get along with other people are people usually who at the end of the line build up themselves to be greater than everybody else.

They find fault in everyone else. To the extent that in Herod here, everyone else is almost irrelevant for him. That’s the picture given for us here. These scriptures tell us that these representations of the powers of the earth, Festus and Herod are a great reminder of us to do to have Christian witness bearing of the truth focused upon the resurrection but the extension of that the truth of God in all that we do and say and to walk with humility before God.

The very thing that Herod reminds us was not done by the king of the Jews.