I Appeal to Caesar
Have you ever waited on an envelope… watched the mailbox for it for days… and when it finally came, you were afraid to open it?
You stare at it. You do not open it. You set it back down.
Or it is the phone on the counter, waiting on the text… the web page you have refreshed fifty times.
You feel like your whole week, your whole life even, hangs on a decision that is in somebody else’s hands. Somebody who does not know you, who does not know your name, who does not know your circumstances. Yet they hold what feels like immense power in your life.
It could be a doctor’s office, an insurance company, an employer. Or maybe it is not an organization at all. It is a grown child making a choice that no one else can make for them.
The wait is hard. And the harder part still is how little say you have.
Paul knew it all too well. Before the long wait began, the Lord had spoken.
Acts 23:11 The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage! For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so it is necessary for you to testify in Rome.”
The promise of the Lord, and what he got was two years in custody in Caesarea, with nothing he could see. And in Acts 25, he is standing in front of a governor who is in the judge’s seat.
Maybe that is where you are standing too: in front of someone else who holds the decision over your life.
Somebody else may have the decision… but Jesus died for you and walked out of the grave… he has the last word over you
Now, you might be thinking, “Pastor, I already know that Jesus has the last word over me.” You say it in your prayers, and you sing it on Sundays.
The problem is not that we do not know. The problem is that we do not live like we know. We tend to live like circumstances have the last word over us.
It is one thing to believe in God, but it is another thing to believe God. Believing in him means knowing that he has the last word, and believing him is living, even this week, like he has that word over your life.
So, which of those looks more like your typical Tuesday: believing in God, or believing God?
None of that makes light of what you are carrying. It is heavy… and Jesus knows it. We may not know the answers. We do know he is with us… and over us… the resurrection proves it!
Two years pass and there is a new governor, Porcius Festus (Acts 24:27). Three days into the job he goes up to Jerusalem, and the chief priests ask him for a favor… bring Paul to Jerusalem to stand trial. Luke tells us why. “They were, in fact, preparing an ambush along the road to kill him” (Acts 25:3). Back in Caesarea they bring “many serious charges that they were not able to prove” (Acts 25:7). Paul answers in one sentence… “Neither against the Jewish law, nor against the temple, nor against Caesar have I sinned in any way” (Acts 25:8).
Like Felix before him, Festus wanted to do the Jews a favor (Acts 25:9). Felix had hoped Paul would offer him money (Acts 24:26). Festus hoped the Jews would like him. Neither one cared about Paul. The one with the power of decision over your life can be thinking about the crowd, the room, the people he answers to… and not about you.
Pilate did this with Jesus. “Wanting to satisfy the crowd, Pilate released Barabbas to them; and after having Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified” (Mark 15:15). That verdict looked like the last word over a man’s life. Three days later God raised him up, “because it was not possible for him to be held by death” (Acts 2:24). A hard answer can look final. It is not the last word, and it is not proof that he has left you.
Paul does not bargain, beg, or bribe. “I am not trying to escape death,” he says, and in the same breath, “I appeal to Caesar!” (Acts 25:11). Yes, he is protecting himself, and there is nothing faithless in that. Paul was a Roman citizen and he used every legal right he had, including the right to have his case heard by the emperor. Trusting Jesus does not ask you to stop asking questions or to stop seeking help. But the answer can still come back no.
Hear it the way Paul heard it. Two years ago, in the barracks, the Lord stood by you and said, “Have courage! For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so it is necessary for you to testify in Rome” (Acts 23:11). Then came two years in custody, two trials on charges nobody could prove, two plots to kill you, and two governors more concerned with themselves than with justice. Nobody has said Rome since that night. Then Festus, who was not in the barracks, rules: “You have appealed to Caesar; to Caesar you will go” (Acts 25:12). Caesar sat in Rome. The governor made his ruling… and the Lord’s word moved forward through it.
Paul has no idea how this will work out. And this will sound backwards, but “in the middle” of it is where Christians find joy. Paul wrote “Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!” (Philippians 4:4) from a prison cell in Rome, still waiting on Caesar’s answer. Not because he liked the situation. Because there was something under him that no answer could touch. “Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death” (Philippians 1:20). Either way, Jesus has the last word.
About a hundred years later, in A.D. 155, in Smyrna, another governor had the decision over an old pastor named Polycarp. Standing in the stadium with the crowd watching, he was told, “Swear, and I will set you at liberty, reproach Christ.” Polycarp answered, “Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?” They put him to death that day. But when the church wrote it down, they dated it like this: “Statius Quadratus being proconsul, but Jesus Christ being King for ever.”
Now date Paul’s year the same way. Porcius Festus being governor… but Jesus Christ being King for ever. Festus has the decision. Jesus has the last word, and the empty tomb is the proof.
Paul was promised Rome. You have not been promised that the answer will go your way. Polycarp did not walk out of that stadium, but he did not lose his King. If you belong to Jesus, you have been promised him… and a grave that opens because his did.
So this week, when you reach for the phone again, tell Jesus what you are afraid that answer will mean. He stood in front of a governor for you. He died for your sins and walked out of the grave. And you can never lose him. The governor does not get the last word over you. The risen King already has it.
Jesus stood in front of a governor too.
Acts 2:23-24 Though he was delivered up according to God’s determined plan and foreknowledge, you used lawless people to nail him to a cross and kill him. God raised him up, ending the pains of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by death.
A governor wanting to satisfy the crowd handed him over. But he was not only being wronged… he was giving himself for sinners. He died for our sins. And on the third day he walked out of the grave. The governor did his worst… and he did not get the last word.
The answer you are waiting on may change your year. It cannot put him back in the grave… and if you belong to him it cannot take you away from him. We know he has the last word… he walked out of the grave to have it. That is where the relief is. Jesus died for you and walked out of the grave before your phone ever rings. So you do not have to live like your circumstances do.
Somebody else may have the decision… but Jesus died for you and walked out of the grave… he has the last word over you
Come to Jesus today. He died for your sins and walked out of the grave, and you add nothing to what he paid. Come back to him if you have been living like your circumstances have the last word. You do not have to wait for the phone to ring to know whose you are.
Source: the sermon “I Appeal to Caesar” (Acts 25:1-12) preached at Red River Baptist Church on October 11, 2026.