Having shared his conversion and divine commission with King Agrippa and the rest of the royal court, Paul then turned to what he did after his encounter with Christ in the heavenly vision on the way to Damascus. Paul made it clear that there was no way he could not disobey Christ who had set him apart to proclaim His message, and this Paul did in Damascus, Jerusalem, Judea, and also to the Gentiles, urging his hearers to repent, turn to God, and to then perform deeds that showcased their repentant hearts.
For this, the Jews seized and tried to kill Paul, but God preserved him and helped him in every way, as Paul testified of Jesus before all sorts and levels of people in society, careful to simply proclaim what the OT cumulatively had already foretold: that the Christ must suffer, that He would be the first to rise from the dead, and that He would proclaim light both to Jews and Gentiles.
At this point, Festus interrupted quite forcefully crying out that Paul was out of his mind. But Paul respectfully rejected Festus’ incredulity, asserting that he was speaking true and rational words. And that what Festus could not understand, the Jewish-knowledgeable Agrippa did. He pressed Agrippa to see that Jesus is the fulfillment of all that the OT prophets foretold. Agrippa pushed back, unwilling to commit to Christianity in such a short period of time. Paul ended by expressing his desire for every person in the room to become like him, a faithful follower of Christ (just not confined to chains as he was).
Agrippa and the other VIP’s agreed together that Paul had done nothing worthy of death or even imprisonment. But Paul had appealed to Caesar, and to Caesar he would go. You can listen to this teaching on Acts 26:19-32 by clicking on the following link: NOT Out Of His Mind
