Thurs. Aug. 28th :: Acts 25 :: Stay on Mission

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!"

(Acts 25.10-11)

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Some might wonder why in the world Paul would choose to appeal his case to Caesar. After-all, Caesar Nero was by all accounts a certifiably psychotic whack-job who would ultimately order the death of both Peter and Paul. In this way, Acts 25 is in some sense analogous to an American soldier who, after being captured, appeals for a hearing before Osama Bin Laden himself. It was suicide. So why appeal to Caesar?

A couple reasons perhaps.

1) Appealing to Caesar would guarantee Paul the opportunity he had longed for, to end his life proclaiming the message of King Jesus before the most powerful King of this world. By doing this, the gospel would have made its way from the tiny hick-town of Nazareth to the most powerful city in the world. Just as Jesus saw it as his destiny to die in Jerusalem, Paul seemed to see it as his destiny to die, bearing witness to Jesus, in Rome itself.

2) Second, the appeal to Caesar was almost sure to buy Paul some time to do the most important activity of his life. It would buy him time to write. 2 thirds of the NT was penned by Paul, and we would not have much of that had it not been for the time the apostle spent in prison—awaiting trial—with plenty of free hours to write what would become our Bible.


So why does this matter?

For me today, it strikes me as another example of how committed Paul was to his mission. If appealing to a despotic maniac helped Paul fulfill his calling, then it was an easy decision. He would appeal to Caesar, even if it meant certain death. The goal was always the same: “stay on mission, period.”

I don’t do as well at that as Paul does. Not even close. Yet it’s something worth striving for. As a pastor the mission of our church is to develop and deploy ‘non-religious’ followers of Jesus Christ. That means we want to dedicate all our resources and energy to discipling and sending out folks who look a little more like Jesus, and a little less like the dead and false ‘religion’ that sometimes pervades the church. That’s the mission, period.

Given that, here’s a question for today:

What would it look like for you this week to contribute in some way—through a conversation, or a commitment—to that singular mission?