Acts 25:1-27 - Paul Before Festus and the Appeal to Caesar

Felix has left Paul bound. A new governor arrives, but the request to move Paul returns with a fresh ambush. Festus first keeps the hearing in Caesarea, then offers a Jerusalem transfer to gain favor. Paul refuses to be handed over on unproved charges and appeals to Caesar. Yet the chapter’s central confession comes through the puzzled governor’s report: the dispute concerns Jesus, who died and whom Paul affirms to be alive. The legal road toward Rome is also a road for Resurrection witness.

Renewed Plot and a Kept Tribunal (Acts 25:1-5)

¹ Now when Festus had come to the province, after three days he went up from Caesarea to Jerusalem. ² Then the high priest and the chief men of the Jews informed him against Paul; and they petitioned him, ³ asking a favor against him, that he would summon him to Jerusalem— while they lay in ambush along the road to kill him. ⁴ But Festus answered that Paul should be kept at Caesarea, and that he himself was going there shortly. ⁵ “Therefore,” he said, “let those who have authority among you go down with me and accuse this man, to see if there is any fault in him.”

Festus comes to the province and goes up from Caesarea to Jerusalem after three days. The geography is not decoration. The tribunal has been in Caesarea; the request is to reverse that venue. The high priest and the chief men inform him against Paul and petition him, asking a favor against the prisoner. The word favor already tells the truth about the request. The requested favor would move Paul onto a road where an ambush is being prepared. A change of venue is therefore a matter of life, not merely convenience.

Luke then discloses the hidden intent: they would summon him to Jerusalem while they lay in ambush along the road to kill him. The official language covers a murder. This is the opposition of particular Jerusalem leaders and accusers. Paul himself is Jewish, the apostles are Jewish, and Acts presents the Gospel as the hope of Israel fulfilled in Christ. The text does not license contempt for Jews as a people.

Festus answers that Paul should be kept at Caesarea. He himself is going there shortly. Those who have authority may come down with him and accuse the man, to see if there is any fault in him. Luke records the decision without assigning Festus a hidden motive for it. Providence works through this ordinary restraint. The Lord had already told Paul in Acts 23:11 that he must bear witness in Rome. A governor’s decision about venue becomes one more hinge of that promise. The believer does not need to romanticize danger in order to trust God. Sometimes the mercy is simply this: not here, not that road, not that way.

I Appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:6-12)

⁶ And when he had remained among them more than ten days, he went down to Caesarea. And the next day, sitting on the judgment seat, he commanded Paul to be brought. ⁷ When he had come, the Jews who had come down from Jerusalem stood about and laid many serious complaints against Paul, which they could not prove, ⁸ while he answered for himself, “Neither against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I offended in anything at all.” ⁹ But Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, answered Paul and said, “Are you willing to go up to Jerusalem and there be judged before me concerning these things?” ¹⁰ So Paul said, “I stand at Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged. To the Jews I have done no wrong, as you very well know. ¹¹ For if I am an offender, or have committed anything deserving of death, I do not object to dying; but if there is nothing in these things of which these men accuse me, no one can deliver me to them. I appeal to Caesar.” ¹² Then Festus, when he had conferred with the council, answered, “You have appealed to Caesar? To Caesar you shall go!”

Festus remains more than ten days, then goes down to Caesarea and sits on the judgment seat the next day. The accusers who have come down from Jerusalem stand about Paul and lay many serious complaints, which they cannot prove. The case is loud and empty at once. Paul answers with a clean threefold denial: he has not offended against the law of the Jews, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar in anything at all. His answer meets each part of the accusation rather than retreating into a general claim of sincerity. A religious accusation is not allowed to become a Roman conviction without proof.

Festus, wanting to do the Jews a favor, then asks whether Paul will go up to Jerusalem and be judged there before him. The same word returns. Favor is trying to move the prisoner again. Luke has already told the reader, in Acts 25:3, that the requested road hides a lethal ambush. Paul does not rest his refusal on that hidden plot. He answers from what he himself states. He stands at Caesar’s judgment seat, where he ought to be judged. The charges remain unproved. He has done no wrong, as Festus very well knows. No one can deliver him to them as a favor. Then he draws a line that the Church must keep hearing. If he is an offender, or has committed anything deserving of death, he does not object to dying. If there is nothing in these accusations, no one can deliver him to them. I appeal to Caesar.

Paul’s endurance is not a command to remain in preventable danger. He distinguishes willingness to bear a deserved penalty from refusal to be surrendered to a false and dangerous process. A Christian may document harm, report abuse, seek counsel, and use lawful protection. Humility does not require silence. Courage and prudence belong together.

Paul already stands before a governor exercising Caesar’s jurisdiction. His appeal does not confess Caesar as lord of his conscience; it seeks judgment rather than surrender as a favor. Nor does readiness to accept a deserved penalty make him seek death. He asks to be tried truthfully. Christians must not use this statement to pressure an innocent or abused person into accepting punishment.

St. John Chrysostom answers the objection that appeal might show unbelief in Christ’s promise of Rome. Paul acts because he believes, not because he doubts. To neglect available protection and force a further danger would be to test God. Chrysostom describes Paul as doing what lies within his power while entrusting the whole to God.¹ Prayer and lawful action belong together here.

Festus consults his council and grants the appeal. The word toward Rome now takes legal form. Luke does not promise that every appeal will succeed or every court will protect the innocent. This particular road carries Paul’s witness onward.

A Certain Jesus Who Had Died, Whom Paul Affirmed to Be Alive (Acts 25:13-22)

¹³ And after some days King Agrippa and Bernice came to Caesarea to greet Festus. ¹⁴ When they had been there many days, Festus laid Paul’s case before the king, saying: “There is a certain man left a prisoner by Felix, ¹⁵ about whom the chief priests and the elders of the Jews informed me, when I was in Jerusalem, asking for a judgment against him. ¹⁶ To them I answered, ‘It is not the custom of the Romans to deliver any man to destruction before the accused meets the accusers face to face, and has opportunity to answer for himself concerning the charge against him.’ ¹⁷ Therefore when they had come together, without any delay, the next day I sat on the judgment seat and commanded the man to be brought in. ¹⁸ When the accusers stood up, they brought no accusation against him of such things as I supposed, ¹⁹ but had some questions against him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. ²⁰ And because I was uncertain of such questions, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem and there be judged concerning these matters. ²¹ But when Paul appealed to be reserved for the decision of Augustus, I commanded him to be kept till I could send him to Caesar.” ²² Then Agrippa said to Festus, “I also would like to hear the man myself.” “Tomorrow,” he said, “you shall hear him.”

Agrippa and Bernice come to greet Festus, and after many days the governor lays Paul’s case before the king. He begins where Felix left him: a certain man left a prisoner. He reports the request for judgment, then recites Roman custom. The accused must meet the accusers face to face and have opportunity to answer. Festus presents himself as orderly. Luke has already shown that the same man, wanting to gain favor, proposed sending Paul back toward Jerusalem. Festus now describes that proposal as uncertainty about religious questions. His account omits the favor Luke named in verse 9. Procedure can be stated correctly while being applied unjustly.

Then the summary becomes spiritually revealing. The accusers brought no accusation of such things as Festus supposed. They had questions about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, whom Paul affirmed to be alive. Festus does not speak as a believer. He classifies the matter as a religious dispute he cannot adjudicate. Yet Luke lets his words uncover the heart of the Gospel. The Christian confession cannot be reduced to moral reform, legal controversy, or an argument about customs. The apostolic witness stands or falls on Jesus Christ crucified and risen. Festus sees confusion. Paul confesses the living Lord.

This also keeps the appeal from shrinking into a personal escape story. The governor must explain why he is keeping and sending a man whose alleged crime he cannot establish. In trying to explain Paul, he names Paul’s message. The prisoner’s insistence that Jesus lives has entered the rulers’ conversation before Paul speaks in the auditorium.

Festus can report that Jesus lives without yet confessing Him. Luke lets the reader see the distance between accurate information and faith. For the governor, the Resurrection is a puzzling disputed claim. For Paul, the living Lord is the One who has called him and promised the next witness. That difference will come into the open in his testimony before Agrippa.

Great Pomp and No Clear Charge (Acts 25:23-27)

²³ So the next day, when Agrippa and Bernice had come with great pomp, and had entered the auditorium with the commanders and the prominent men of the city, at Festus’ command Paul was brought in. ²⁴ And Festus said: “King Agrippa and all the men who are here present with us, you see this man about whom the whole assembly of the Jews petitioned me, both at Jerusalem and here, crying out that he was not fit to live any longer. ²⁵ But when I found that he had committed nothing deserving of death, and that he himself had appealed to Augustus, I decided to send him. ²⁶ I have nothing certain to write to my lord concerning him. Therefore I have brought him out before you, and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the examination has taken place I may have something to write. ²⁷ For it seems to me unreasonable to send a prisoner and not to specify the charges against him.”

The next day Agrippa and Bernice enter with great pomp, together with commanders and prominent men of the city. Paul is brought in at Festus’ command. Rank fills the auditorium. The prisoner has Christ’s promise of witness in Rome, although he has not been given the whole course of events. The pomp is not holiness, and the chains are not a sacrament. God turns a constrained hearing toward witness without calling coercion or humiliation good.

Festus addresses the room and again names the petition against “this man,” both at Jerusalem and here, the cry that he was not fit to live any longer. Then he admits what the accusations could not prove: Paul has committed nothing deserving of death. Claudius Lysias had already reached a similar conclusion in Acts 23:29. Festus now says it before Agrippa, the commanders, and the city. Roman procedure is not thereby made righteous or salvific. Festus is not converted here. No Christian is promised a public clearing of the name. Providence can use imperfect institutions without baptizing their power.

The governor’s difficulty is plain. He must send Paul to Caesar, and he has nothing certain to write. It seems unreasonable to send a prisoner and not specify the charges against him. The demand for a written charge exposes the distance between loud demands for death and an established crime. Paul is still a prisoner, but Festus cannot supply a certain accusation for the emperor. Meanwhile, the message he has already reported is that Jesus lives. Luke will soon let that same room hear the heavenly vision. The hearing is not the Gospel’s triumph by spectacle. It is God enlarging the audience.

The scene ends with an unanswered legal question, not with Paul’s release. Why send a prisoner without specifying a charge? The next chapter will answer the audience’s desire to hear Paul, but it will not make injustice necessary or holy. God gives room for witness within a process whose failures Luke has made plain.

Gems from the Fathers 💎: An Audience Gathered for the Apostle

St. John Chrysostom looks at this auditorium and sees providence rather than mere pageantry: “See what an audience is gathered together for Paul.”² Paul did not arrange the room. He did not flatter the powerful in order to enter it. Festus needed something to write; Agrippa wanted to hear the man; commanders and civic leaders came with great pomp. The Lord turns even that display into a place where an unproved case is exposed and the Resurrection will soon be proclaimed. The Church learns here that a truthful conscience does not need to control the stage in order to be faithful.

The Church’s Voice in Worship ⛪

The Coptic Liturgy Praxis on Saturday of the fourth week of Great Lent is Acts 24:24-25:12, carrying the story from Felix’s hearing of judgment to Paul’s appeal. On Sunday of that week, Acts 25:13-26:1 brings Festus’s report and the assembled hearing before Agrippa. Thursday of the seventh week reads Acts 25:23-27.³

These readings bring unproved accusation and the confession of the living Jesus into the Church’s fast. They give us words for repentance and intercession: may we never trade a neighbor’s safety for favor, and may Christ sustain those who must speak truth before power.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

Do not mistake lawful protection for unbelief. Paul appeals because Festus is offering a favor, because the charges remain unproved, because he already stands at Caesar’s judgment seat, and because no one may deliver him to them. The Lord’s word has already pointed him toward Rome. If a servant, a spouse, a child, or anyone vulnerable needs documentation, wise counsel, a report, or legal help, humility does not require silence. Endurance in Christ is not cooperation with a false process.

Keep the Resurrection at the center when conversation slides toward custom, party, or reputation. Festus can only hear questions about religion. Paul knows the case is about Jesus who died and whom he affirms alive. Before you defend the Church as a culture, name the Lord who lives. Before you win an argument about identity, ask whether you have confessed Christ.

Refuse the spirituality of favor. Festus keeps trying to manage people by doing them a kindness that would cost Paul the truth. Parishes, families, and workplaces still know that temptation: move the inconvenient person, quiet the hard witness, hand someone over to keep the peace. Ask God for a conscience that will not deliver a neighbor as a gift. If a decision is yours, hear the person concerned, check the facts, and refuse to make the vulnerable pay for everyone else’s comfort.

Trust providence in ordinary restraint without making officials into saviors. Festus is not converted in this chapter. His initial refusal of the transfer keeps Paul from the ambush and his confusion still names the living Jesus. God can use slow processes and imperfect courts. He does not owe us public vindication, and He does not ask us to call chains good. The good is the witness Christ makes possible, not the injustice that constrains it. Pray for those awaiting a hearing, help with a practical need, and support honest advocacy rather than offering patience as a reason to do nothing.

Teaching Notes

Renewed Plot and a Kept Tribunal (Acts 25:1-5)

• Ask: What hidden danger does Luke reveal behind the request to transfer Paul?
• Emphasize: God can preserve His servant through ordinary restraint, not only through obvious miracles.
• Watch for: Do not turn the Jerusalem leaders’ opposition into contempt for Jews as a people. Keep Paul’s own Jewish identity and Acts’ fulfillment theme clear.
• Connect: Acts 23:11 already promised witness in Rome; this small legal decision serves that larger word from the Lord.
• Show: Trace the movement from Jerusalem’s request to Caesarea’s tribunal so the group sees how venue becomes providence.

I Appeal to Caesar (Acts 25:6-12)

• Ask: Why is Paul’s appeal not a failure of humility?
• Emphasize: Paul accepts a deserved penalty, but he refuses false surrender. Luke discloses the lethal ambush in Acts 25:3; Paul’s own reasons for refusing the transfer are Festus’s favor, the unproved charges, standing at Caesar’s judgment seat, and the refusal to be delivered.
• Watch for: Do not teach vulnerable people that Christian endurance means staying exposed to preventable harm.
• Connect: Lawful appeal becomes part of Christ’s promise that Paul will bear witness in Rome.
• Show: Contrast Paul’s threefold denial, against law, temple, and Caesar, with the unproved accusations.

A Certain Jesus Who Had Died, Whom Paul Affirmed to Be Alive (Acts 25:13-22)

• Ask: What does Festus misunderstand, and what does he accidentally reveal?
• Emphasize: The center of the case is not Paul’s personality or politics, but the risen Jesus.
• Watch for: Do not let the class reduce Christianity to values, culture, or religious controversy.
• Connect: This prepares Acts 26, where Paul will speak before Agrippa about the heavenly vision and the hope of Israel.
• Show: Put Festus’s phrase about Jesus dead and alive at the center of the discussion.

Great Pomp and No Clear Charge (Acts 25:23-27)

• Ask: Who looks powerful in this room, and who actually carries the word of life?
• Emphasize: Public display cannot erase a truthful witness. Festus’s own summary points toward Paul’s innocence.
• Watch for: Do not romanticize humiliation. Paul’s chains are not good in themselves; God turns them toward witness. Do not make Roman law salvific or presume Festus is converted.
• Connect: Chrysostom sees the hearing as an enlarged audience for Paul, and Acts keeps moving toward Rome.
• Show: Use the four movements of the chapter: plot, appeal, resurrection named, public innocence.

Sources

Scripture is from NKJV.

• St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts, Homily LI, exposition of Acts 25:10-22, and Homily LII, opening exposition of Acts 25:23-27. LI; LII.

• Coptic Orthodox Liturgy Praxis appointments cited below. Lectionary collection.

Footnotes

1. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts, Homily LI, on Acts 25:10-12, appeal as action in faith rather than testing God. ccel.org ↩

2. St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on Acts, Homily LII, opening exposition of Acts 25:23-27. ccel.org ↩

3. Coptic Orthodox Liturgy Praxis: Saturday of the fourth week of Great Lent, Acts 24:24-25:12; Sunday of the fourth week, Acts 25:13-26:1; Thursday of the seventh week, Acts 25:23-27. Lectionary collection. ↩