Born Again

02.18.12

Acts 25.26-28 26 Yet I have nothing definite about him to write to my lord. Therefore I have brought him before you all and especially before you, King Agrippa, so that after the investigation has taken place, I may have something to write. 27 For it seems absurd to me in sending a prisoner, not to indicate also the charges against him.” NASB

Festus’ lord was Caesar – Paul’s was Jesus Christ. Festus was at a loss because he neither knew nor understood Jesus Christ – all he knew was Caesar. Jesus once said to a man name Nicodemus: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3.3) Festus had not been born again and so the things of the Kingdom were hidden from him and appeared foolish. Festus didn’t have any room in his heart for Jesus.

And so Festus was in a spot, he wanted to send Paul to Caesar to defend himself against these Jews as a Roman citizen, but Festus didn’t have anything to say about it – he was at a loss at how to explain to Nero just exactly why Paul had been sent to him. He had to find something. But all Festus had to rely on was human experience and reasoning. All he could do was try to find something that made sense so that when Paul arrived in Rome he wouldn’t look foolish for sending him to Caesar in the first place.

But the things of the Spirit are discerned by the Spirit. Or the things of the Spirit are discerned by the spirit when the spirit is awakened by the Spirit in order for these things to be discerned… Festus needed to be born again.

There are many who misuse the term Born Again to describe a new experience or perspective. Experience and perspective fall short of what really happens when one becomes a new creation in Christ – it’s not just a new experience, it’s a completely different life because of what happens when one is born again. Being born again means becoming something completely different because with new birth comes new life and the old life has no capacity for the new. It isn’t just new thoughts – it’s a whole new life and the old life begins to decay and fade.

So for Festus to try to explain to his lord (small “l” Caesar) what was going on, it was as if a still-born baby was trying to explain what it means to be alive. Festus was indeed at a loss.

Of course he eventually came up with some plausible excuse and Paul went to see Caesar. Paul explained to Caesar what was going on and it went from there: Caesar decided to start persecuting and killing anyone who believed such nonsense. (Btw,Caesar wasn’t born again either…)

When we attempt to explain the Gospel we must be aware that apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit, there is no born again; there is no understanding – because the things of the Spirit are only discerned by the spirit that’s been enlivened by the Spirit: no Jesus, no peace; know Jesus, know peace. I must be filled with the Spirit to speak the things of the Spirit and beseech God that the hearers of what I say may be helped by the Spirit to understand what the Spirit is saying to them. Anything else is just like an attempt by one dead person to tell another dead person what life is all about…