Message/Application:
In Acts 24 all of the “speculations” that were used to build a case against Paul were being used as a full and formal accusation against him not only by the Jews using their own system, but because they had escalated the situation so badly Paul was now also being looked at by the Roman government as well. Paul was an extremely educated and intelligent man so he knew how all of the people systems worked. He used those things as an advantage to himself as he plead his own cause, but at some point you can clearly see that he was not going to be able to rip though all of that accusation on just his own wit. He didn’t just lay there and take it, but what I see most importantly through this whole ordeal is that he didn’t make it his goal to be cleared of the accusations. His goal was to use whatever opportunity he had to share the gospel and that was his steady and steadfast one and only goal. He stayed under the guardianship of the government as a prisoner but he was allowed to live in a house and have his friends look after his needs. During that time there were leaders and important people who came to hear him speak. They were legitimately interested in what he had to say until it hit a little too close to home and they would actually be required to do something with that information. Paul was available to share whenever they came to talk to him but unfortunately those who came never went any further with the gospel than just hearing it. This didn’t defeat Paul either. He carried on sharing the gospel with whomever wanted to hear it and he sat in captivity writing letters to encourage the church while doing it. What struck me here is that Paul could have obsessed about trying to get the charges dropped or trying to earn his freedom back, but he didn’t. His focus was on the gospel so he didn’t allow any other injustice to get in the way of that. Because he chose not to be distracted by all of the false accusations against him, we are now reading the gospel that he wrote from prison. How powerful is that!!!
