Read in this 5-day devotional about a man called Festus, who called Paul mad when he was confronted with the truth. Learn about how truth hurts as well as heals and find out how truth can set you free.
Vijay Thangiah
Day 1
Scripture: Acts 25:1-12
Who Was Festus?
Acts chapter 25 picks up from the last verse of Acts 24 – But after two years had passed, Felix was succeeded by Porcius Festus, and wishing to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul imprisoned. (Acts 24:7)
Two years after Paul began his ‘imprisonment’ in Caesarea, the Roman governor Felix raised a Jewish uprising with such brutality that the Jewish Sanhedrin complained bitterly to Rome. Felix was then recalled to Rome and Porcius Festus had just arrived in the Roman “province” (Acts 25:1) of Judea as its new governor.
It had been 2 years since the Jews had brought charges against Paul in Acts 24. Their enmity was still at full throttle, so to speak. The proverb is true of them which says “For they cannot sleep unless they do evil; and they are robbed of sleep unless they make someone stumble.” (Pro 4:!6). They had insomnia for 2 years!
Are you angry with anyone? Be careful not to let it simmer, lest it become a long lasting enmity as with the supposedly “religious” Jews. Real “religion” confesses and repents of anger to avoid grieving or quenching the Spirit and potentially incurring God’s hand of discipline.
Festus was an action-oriented man and he hit the ground running so to speak. As only “three days later” (Acts 25:1), he takes up Paul’s case. This may also show his eagerness to start on good terms with the people he needed to govern
Festus seems to have been a pleaser of people rather than a person who was willing to stand for the truth. In Acts 24:27, we read about Felix “wishing to do the Jews a favor, left Paul imprisoned.”
He was willing to sacrifice Paul to court Jewish favor by taking him to Jerusalem for trial (Acts (25:9), regardless of Paul’s guilt or innocence.
He was persuaded that the Apostle was innocent of the ‘many and grievous, charges’ brought against him, yet he was quite prepared to sacrifice him, if thereby he ‘could gain favour with the Jews’; hence the preposterous proposal of a re-trial at Jerusalem.
It was Festus that granted Paul’s request to appeal his case to Caesar (a strategy by Paul, which very likely saved his life, since if he had been sent back to Jerusalem, he would almost certainly have been killed by the Sanhedrin), a decision that resulted in Paul’s fateful voyage to Rome. Festus ruled only about 2 years; he died while in office and was succeeded by Albinus.
Festus was a pleaser of people rather than a follower of the truth. He joined hands with the wrong doing of the Jews in order to win favor with them.
How about you? Is pleasing people more important to you than living for the truth?
Quote: “If we displease God, does it matter whom we please? If we please Him does it matter whom we displease?” ― Leonard Ravenhill
Prayer: Lord, help me never to live for people, but to live for You. Help me never to be swayed from the truth but stand for it no matter how much it costs. Amen
Day 2
Scripture: Acts 26:24-25
Why Did Festus Get Mad At Paul?
In Acts chapter 26, we read about how Paul shares his conversion testimony with Agrippa. After Paul had finished his testimony and stated his deep-seated convictions on the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, Festus blurted out, ‘Paul, you are out of your mind! Your great learning is driving you mad.’”
Festus was a rationalist, an anti-supernaturalist and he regarded Christians as crazy. He was not only hardened to the truth but also thought that everyone who did not think like him was mad.
He also saw in the way that Paul shared his testimony that it was something that was real. The resurrection of Jesus had made a deep-seated change in a hardcore person like Paul. He was confronted with reality. He was faced with the truth. But instead of accepting it, he brushed it off by calling Paul mad.
The phrase ‘hitting the nail on the head’ basically means to be accurately right about something or to find the exact answer.
What do you do when confronted with the truth? Do you behave like Festus and call others mad, or are you like Paul who when he was confronted with the truth on the road to Damascus in Acts 9 responded in obedience to the voice of Jesus.
The question is who was really crazy — Festus or Paul? Festus was the one who was not rational because he did not want to look at all of life from God’s viewpoint. Sin had taken its toll on Festus as he had a world view that revolved only around himself. His philosophy seemed to have been “Enjoy life now for there is nothing beyond the grave”. It was Festus who was mad not Paul.
David Dockery defines a worldview as “It is a comprehensive life system that seeks to answer the basic questions of life. A Christian worldview is not just one’s personal faith expression, not just a theory. It is an all-consuming way of life, applicable to all spheres of life. . . . A Christian worldview has the stamp of reason and reality and can stand the test of history and experience. “
What is your worldview? Is it biblical? Do you look at life from God’s viewpoint or your own? A Christian worldview becomes a driving force in life, giving us a sense of God’s plan and purpose for this world. Our identity is shaped by this worldview.
What you choose to believe about something, including yourself, has dramatic impacts. Festus chose to reject the truth about the resurrection and called it madness and died just two years later with no change in his life. Paul changed his worldview about God believing in Jesus as the Messiah and made an impact in this world and left a legacy.
Quote: I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. ~ CS Lewis
Prayer: Lord, help me to see the world through Your lens. Help me not to be conformed to the views of this world. Amen.
Day 3
Scripture: Jeremiah 18:18
Truth Hurts
Imagine going to the doctor’s office for a check-up. The doctor says, ”You are a magnificent physical specimen. You have the body of an Olympian. You are to be congratulated.” Later that day while climbing the stairs, your heart gives up. You find out later your arteries were badly clogged. You go back to the doctor and say, ”Why didn’t you tell me?” The doctor says, ”Well, I knew your body is in a worse shape but if I tell people stuff like that, they get kind of offended. It’s kind of bad for business. They don’t come back. I want this to be a safe place where you feel loved and accepted.”
You’d be furious! You’d say to the doctor, ”When it comes to my body, I want the truth!”
But sad to say when it comes to spiritual matters, people do not want to hear the truth.
When we talk about “truth,” we are talking about specific truth. Not just truths like 2 + 2 = 4. We are talking about the message that Jesus called the truth. Jesus said in John 14:6 that “He is the way, the truth and the life” Addressing His Father in heaven, Jesus prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).
The Bible gives us the truth about God, the truth about ourselves, and the truth about the world we live in. And it is this truth about God, about ourselves, and about the world we live in that hurts us and heals us.
There are people who when they hear the truth spoken about them, they react with anger. And since they don’t like the message, they decide to kill the messenger—maybe not literally in every case, but the fact remains that when people don’t like what they are being told, they direct their anger at the person who told them what they don’t want to hear. This was true of Festus and was also the experience of the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 18.
Being a prophet of God, he faithfully spoke the words of judgment that God wanted him to speak against the people of Judah who had gathered for worship at the temple in Jerusalem. But when the leaders of God’s people heard what their God had to say to them, the truth hurt. They resolved to silence the message by killing the messenger – but Jeremiah persisted.
Let us remember that even though the truth often hurts and makes us angry, the truth also helps us in the long run. In fact, it is a spiritual necessity. Denying it, covering it up, justifying it, or sugar-coating it only makes the situation worse. Like a wound or an illness, our sin first of all has to be exposed. It has to be recognized for what it is before the healing takes place.
Instead of being dejected and saying “I’m sorry I got caught” or defensive and saying “It wasn’t my fault” or being angry and saying “Get off my back” or using unkind words and saying “Who are you to be judging me?”, it is better to accept the truth and be willing to change.
Quote: The Bible may hurt you with the truth but it will never comfort you with a lie.
Prayer: Lord I pray that I will not be angry when confronted with the truth, but be willing to respond and make necessary corrections in my life. Amen
Day 4
Scripture: 2 Samuel 12:1-13
Truth Heals
After David’s sin of adultery with Bathsheba, the prophet Nathan went to King David and told him a parable about a rich man who had great wealth and his poor neighbor who had nothing but a little lamb, which he loved dearly. When the rich man had unexpected dinner guests, he stole that poor man’s lamb and used it as the main course for a banquet that he served to his guests. David was righteously indignant and promptly condemned the rich man, but he was caught totally off guard when Nathan said to him: “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7) and then proceeded to condemn the king for his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba and his subsequent murder of her husband in his desperate but futile attempt
to cover up the adultery.
It was definitely hurting to be confronted with the truth. But instead of the being like the people in Jeremiah’s time who wanted to kill him for telling the truth, David repented and found healing from his sin. Psalm 51 is a beautiful psalm of repentance and healing.
Sad to say, many Christians though become quite adept at sidestepping the truth. Some make it a lifelong habit. Paul writing to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 7:10 calls this a sorrow of the world. It’s sidestepping the truth to avoid dealing with reality.
Worldly sorrow is a pain over the consequences of sin that does not lead to repentance. It’s using every defense mechanism in the book so we don’t have to change the way we live. But Godly sorrow always produces a radical change.
A person who mourns over sin as committed against God and who seeks God for pardon will reform his life and truly repent. He who has grief for sin only because it will lead to disgrace or shame or because it will lead to poverty or pain will not necessarily break off from it and reform. It is only when it is seen that sin is committed against God and is evil in His sight that it will lead to a change of life.
To be “healed” is to be cured of a problem. A surgeon’s scalpel cuts us in order to cure us, and the truth of the Scriptures hurts us in order to heal us.
One major implication of this is that Christians—people who ought to be committed to the truth of the Scriptures—should not try to run from conviction. When the Spirit of God uses truth from the Scriptures, whether it is delivered through a sermon in the church, a conversation over coffee, a loving correction from a loved one or an idea brought to mind, we should not bury it.
If you flee from the truth, by denying your sin or your need to change in one area, then you will never be healed by the truth. Some people do this by leaving their church family (or their community group or their circle of friends) every time something is said that offends them. They never think that it might be God’s truth hurting them in order to heal them of their sinful thinking, their sinful attitudes, or their sinful actions.
Quote: “The notion of truth is not philosophical or abstract or theoretical. Truth is fundamentally about who God is.” – Oz Guinness
Prayer: Lord, I pray that I will allow the truth of Your Word to heal me. Amen
Day 5
Scriptures: John 8:32, Proverbs 28:13
Truth Will Set You Free
If we can be honest about ourselves and if we can believe what God says about our sin, about our need for him, and about his provision for us in Christ, we can be healed. This is what Jesus meant when he said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
The question “What is truth?” is more relevant today than ever. You would think that with all our easy access to information and expert opinions, we would know the truth— yet the opposite is true. We have trouble recognizing real news from fake.
There is factual truth, as in two-plus-two-equals-four, and truth that conforms to reality, in that summer will follow spring. We speak of a “true friend” or “true love,” meaning faithful, lasting, and genuine. But Jesus referred to fundamental truth when he said, “…you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:32).
The fundamental truth has been under attack since the very beginning of time. We look back at creation and see that Adam and Eve lived in a perfect world and had only one prohibition. But Satan came along and said, “Is that really true? Did God really mean that you shouldn’t eat from that fruit which is pleasing to the eye and certainly would taste very good?” Satan attacked God’s truth.
There is the absolute truth of God and the Scriptures. When the Bible tells us about the reality of sin, we need to accept it as sin and not as just a mistake or temperament. When the Bible tells us what is right and wrong, we must accept it as true and not reject even though it may hurt us.
When the Bible tells us that there is forgiveness because of the death and resurrection of Jesus, we must also accept this truth and find freedom from our sin through confessing and forsaking it.
The Bible tells us that “Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy”. (Proverbs 28:13)
When Adam and Eve sinned, they sought to cover their nakedness by sewing fig leaves together. Many today go through much of the same experience, more or less relying on their own ingenuity to hide their own confusion. Like Festus, instead of admitting that he was wrong, he got mad at Paul.
When confronted by wrong that you have done, do you make lame excuses that seek to disguise the seriousness of the guilt? Or do you pretend that the thing done was not done? Or that it is not what people supposed it to be? Or do you use every ingenious arguments that seek to represent sin as something other than sin, as a mere defect or taint in the blood, as hereditary and unavoidable weakness, as an aberration of the mind for which you are not responsible?
Will you spend a few moments asking God to show you areas in your life that you have been covering up sin in your life? Confess it. Forsake it. Find freedom.
Quote: “You will find in the average church that there is a Band-Aid of silence wrapped over the cancer of sin.” J. Vernon McGee
Prayer: Lord, I confess to You the times that I have got mad when confronted with the truth of my sin. I ask You for forgiveness. Thank You for setting me free. Amen