You’d
think that if you were doing the right things for God, that things would turn
out right.
In
the late 1700s, another young Brit decided that he ought to go to the mission
field. In fact, he pioneered missionary work in the country of India. William
Carey left for India and some years later his wife suffered from dementia.
In essence, she went mad in the mission field because of the pressure. After
a number of years, she died. He buried her in India. A few years later he
remarried, and buried here in India as well. He spent twenty years learning
the language and translating scripture into a particular Hindu dialect. After
twenty years of storing hand written notes, converting God’s word into the language
of the people, there was a fire in the compound. He lost all twenty years worth
of hand written notes. You realize, of course, in the late 1700s there was
no Xerox machine down the street for him to be able to take advantage of getting
a copy made.
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You
would think that if you were doing things for God, things would turn out right.
The
apostle Paul spends two years under Felix’ jurisdiction. Felix listens to him
often but doesn’t want anything to do with the message of the gospel and when
the transition in power comes from Felix to Festus, there is a new trial. The
Jews in Jerusalem have spent these two years simmering over this hatred they
have for Paul. They use this transition as an opportunity to call for a new
trial. Festus gave him the opportunity to go back to Jerusalem to be tried,
at which point Paul exercised his right as a Roman citizen, “I appeal to Rome.”
It was his right as a citizen to go to Caesar and so he appealed to go to Rome.
Festus
also listened repeatedly to Paul. In fact, in Acts 26 we get a sense of where
Festus is in all of this discussion. In Acts 26 Paul gives the third of his
personal testimonies. He’s before King Agrippa explaining his relationship
with Jesus, why he believes what he believes, why he stands where he stands.
In verse 24 Festus interrupts Paul’s defense, crying out: “You are out of
your mind! Your great learning is driving you insane!
Sometimes
the things of God are hard to understand. But apparently Festus didn’t have
any trouble understanding them. He only had trouble accepting them. He saw
it as some kind of mental insanity that Paul could believe the kind of ideas
that he apparently believed. And so, he rejected the message.