the Week of Proper 9 / Ordinary 14
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Daily Devotionals
Day by Day Devotional - Year 4 of 5
Acts 25:13-27
Agrippa, Bernice (as well as Drusilla, wife of Felix; Acts 24:24), were the children of Herod III (Acts 12:1), and formed the fourth generation of this criminal dynasty. The courtesy visit which they pay to the new governor offers him the opportunity of interrogating his strange prisoner. It would seem, from the manner in which Festus summarizes the affair, that he has very little interest in religious matters. It concerns "one Jesus, which was dead" (v. 19). Christ is no more than this for multitudes today. But Paul declared that He was alive and it was indeed this which made all the difference.
Paul is thus introduced into this court gathered together "with great pomp". According to the word of the Lord to Ananias, Paul would be "a chosen vessel" to bear His name "before . . . kings" (Acts 9:15). But he was the ambassador of a King so much greater than those before whom he was summoned to appear, "an ambassador in bonds", as he calls himself elsewhere. Yet he is bold to speak of his Lord for the Word of God is not bound (Ephesians 6:20; 2 Timothy 2:9).
