Acts 25:9
But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul, and said, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me? But Festus, willing to do the Jews a pleasure, answered Paul, and said, Wilt thou go up to Jerusalem, and there be judged of these things before me?
Before the question was put, the Jewish leaders had asked that Paul be brought to Jerusalem for trial, intending to kill him on the way. Festus at first refused that request and kept the case at Caesarea for a fair hearing where Paul could face his accusers and answer the charges. That just refusal preserved justice and, under God's providence, preserved Paul's life.
Festus understood that the accusations concerned questions of Jewish doctrine and gave no ground for Roman imprisonment or death. Despite that understanding, he feared the anger of the Jews if he neither condemned Paul nor handed him over to them. To please the Jewish leaders and to quiet their uproar and angry accusations, he asked Paul about going to Jerusalem. The proposal was for Paul to go up to Jerusalem under Festus's protection and authority and there be judged before Festus by the Sanhedrin. This would in effect move the case from Roman to Jewish jurisdiction.
Paul knew he could expect no justice from that tribunal, which was hostile to the gospel and had repeatedly condemned him without proving guilt. Though himself under Roman authority, he was safer under heathen magistrates than before that court. He therefore asserted his right as a Roman citizen to be judged at Caesar's tribunal and appealed to Caesar. The episode shows the pressure to satisfy others despite known truth, the danger of trusting justice to those opposed to the gospel, and how human power and policy can be turned against those who remain faithful to God.