Acts 26

(1) Paul Tells His Story to King Agrippa

King Agrippa told Paul,

“I now give you permission to speak for yourself.”

So Paul stretched out his arm and made his defense, saying,

“King Agrippa, I consider it a blessing to present my defense to you today, especially since you have so much expertise in Jewish customs and topics that Jews find to be controversial. I beg you to please listen patiently.

“The Jews are familiar with my life story, from my early years which I spent in my own country and in Jerusalem. They’ve known about me for a long time and might even be willing to testify that I was a Pharisee, even according to the strictest branch of our religion. The whole reason I’m being put on trial right now is for hoping in the promise God that made to our forefathers. It’s the same promise that our 12 tribes hope to benefit from as they serve God night and day! King Agrippa, that hope is what the Jews are accusing me of! Why are you guys baffled by the idea of God resurrecting the dead? 

“As a Pharisee, I thought I had to do lots of hostile things to defame Jesus the Nazarene—so that’s exactly what I did in Jerusalem. The chief priests gave me authority—and not only did I use it to throw lots of God’s people into prison, but whenever God’s people were were on the chopping block, I always voted to have them killed! I would often go into churches to punish them and try to get them to slander God. I was so furious with God’s people that I kept chasing them down, even to foreign cities.

“Endorsed by the chief priests, I was about to exercise that authority in Damascus one time, but something happened on the way there. King, on my way there, I saw a light from heaven that was even brighter than the sun! It shined all around me and on everyone who was traveling with me. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice in Hebrew that told me,

‘Saul! Saul! Why are you driving Me away? It’s gonna be hard for you to fight against the current.’

“So I said, ‘Who are you, sir?’

“And the Ruler said,

‘I’m Jesus—the one you’ve been driving away. Stand up on your feet. The reason I’m appearing to you today is because I’m appointing you as both a servant and an eyewitness—not just to what you’re seeing now, but also to more things I’ll show you later. I’ll rescue you from the very Jews and non-Jews who I’m sending you to. I’m sending you to them to open their eyes so they can have the chance to turn away from darkness and toward the light—from Satan’s jurisdiction to God. That way, they can be released from their shortcomings and receive an inheritance along with all the others who have been purified by their trust in Me.’

“So as you can see, King Agrippa, I didn’t disobey the vision from heaven—first, I spread the message to Damascus, then to Jerusalem and the rest of Judea, and then even to the non-Jews. The message I shared was that they should change their way of thinking, turn to God, and live lives aligned with their new mindset. That’s the whole reason why some of the Jews seized me in the temple and tried to kill me. God’s been helping me, which is why I’ve been testifying—to this day—to people in prominent positions as well as commoners. The only thing I’ve been telling them is that the message from the Prophets and Moses would come to pass: the Chosen One would suffer, and as a result of His resurrection, He would be the first to announce God’s light to the Jews and non-Jews.”

(24) Paul Says It’s True

After hearing Paul’s defense, Festus blurted out,

“Paul, you’re out of your mind! All those books you’ve been reading are driving you mad!”

But Paul said,

“I’m not out of my mind, most excellent Festus. I’m a rational guy, and everything I’m saying is true! King Agrippa knows about these things. The reason I can talk about these things so boldly is because I know he’s aware of them. None of it has been done in secret! King Agrippa, you know the prophets, right?”

Agrippa replied,

“You’re not gonna try to convince me to become a Christian in these few brief moments, are you?”

Paul said,

“Whether it takes a short time or long time, I hope to God that you and everyone else listening will become like me—minus the chains.”

(30) Agrippa Finds Paul Innocent

Then the King, the governor, Bernice, and the others who were sitting with them stood up and went off to the side to discuss, saying,

“This guy isn’t doing anything worthy of the death penalty or imprisonment.”

Then Agrippa told Festus,

“He probably would have been set free if he hadn’t appealed to Ceasar.”