Godbey's Commentary - Acts - Romans - Enter His Rest

ACTS OF THE APOSTLES
PROLOGUE
Luke is the writer and Paul the dictator. The hired house in Rome is the place and A.D. 61-63 the
time. As Paul does not appear on the stand till the sixth Chapter, doubtless Luke availed himself of
his ample opportunities in Palestine during Paul’s two years’ imprisonment in Cæsarea, A.D. 58-60,
to travel round over the country, visit Jerusalem, and spend much time with Peter, John, James and
other apostles, prophets and saints; meanwhile he gathered up materials for this wonderful history
of the Apostolic Church which he afterward wrote, pursuant to the dictation of Paul during his
Roman imprisonment. Luke accompanied Paul on his long anticipated journey to Jerusalem to bear
alms to the saints, having spent the winter of A.D. 57-58 at Corinth, setting out early in the spring
and arriving at Jerusalem in the latter part of May. Paul, having been arrested by the roaring mob and
dragged out of the temple, was only saved from a cruel death by the opportune intervention of
Lysias, the Roman chiliarch, with his army. Having permitted him to stand before the Jewish
Sanhedrin, and signally failing to find any charges against him criminal in Roman law, and having
discovered a formidable conspiracy among the Jews to kill him, he nobly interposed and sent him
away by night protected by an armed escort, and committed him to the custodianship and jurisdiction
of Felix, the proconsul, at the same time presenting no criminal allegations whatever against him.
Felix, unlike the noble Lysias, was unfortunately a great money lover, a notorious tyrant and a very
corrupt man. On the first trial he saw, like Lysias, that the prisoner was utterly innocent; meanwhile,
he became awfully convicted by his straight and terrible preaching, so that he trembled from head
to foot under a mighty paroxysm of alarm. While it was his imperative office of duty, and Paul’s
inalienable right, to release him without further procedure, yet the avaricious tyrant held him in
prison two long years, actuated by the vain hope that money would be paid for his release;
meanwhile he sat under the powerful preaching of Paul like millions of others, his terrible
convictions resisted and the Spirit grieved away till the powerful preaching of Paul could no longer
move him to repentance. At the expiration of two years the opportune removal of Felix out of office,
his dethronement, degradation and arraignment before the emperor at Rome, providentially secured
the release of Paul from his two years’ imprisonment at Cæsarea. Festus, the successor of Felix in
the governorship, was a high-toned Roman gentleman like Lysias. Finding Paul left in prison by
Felix to purchase Jewish favor in his terrible calamities, he immediately brings him to trial, calling
down the Jewish magnates from Jerusalem to prefer charges against him. Finding Paul perfectly
innocent, astounded and convicted by his preaching, he declares the legal possibility of his
immediate release. At this salient epoch, behold! Paul appeals to Cæsar, pursuant to the inalienable
right of a Roman citizen, thus forcing the governor to send him to Rome, there to stand before the
imperial tribunal. Paul had long earnestly desired to visit the world’s capital and preach the Gospel
in the great metropolis of all nations. This was a great undertaking in those ages when navigation
was in its infancy, the steam engine and mariner’s compass as yet undreamed of. It was as great an
undertaking at that time as it is now to travel round the world. In 1895 I traveled the very same route
from Jerusalem to Rome in the short space of ten days. As Paul was utterly incompetent financially
to make this trip, he availed himself of his right as a Roman citizen to stand at Cæsar’s judgment bar,
not that he cared anything about the verdicts of earthly tribunals, as our Savior, when He met him
on the Damascus road, had already revealed to him a martyr’s destiny. Thus, using his wonderful
natural sagacity, illuminated by the Holy Ghost, he avails himself of his right to appeal to Cæsar,