15. “I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “The Lord said, ‘I am Jesus. I am the one you are persecuting.
16. Stand up! I have chosen you to be my servant. You will tell people about me—what you have seen today and what I will show you. This is why I have come to you.
17. I will keep you safe from your own people and from the non-Jewish people, the ones I am sending you to.
18. You will make them able to understand the truth. They will turn away from darkness to the light. They will turn away from the power of Satan, and they will turn to God. Then their sins can be forgiven, and they can be given a place among God’s people—those who have been made holy by believing in me.’”
19. Paul continued speaking: “King Agrippa, after I had this vision from heaven, I obeyed it.
20. I began telling people to change their hearts and lives and turn back to God. And I told them to do what would show that they had really changed. I went first to people in Damascus. Then I went to Jerusalem and to every part of Judea and told the people there. I also went to the non-Jewish people.
21. “This is why the Jews grabbed me and were trying to kill me at the Temple.
22. But God helped me, and he is still helping me today. With God’s help I am standing here today and telling all people what I have seen. But I am saying nothing new. I am saying only what Moses and the prophets said would happen.
23. They said that the Messiah would die and be the first to rise from death. They said that he would bring the light of God’s saving truth to the Jewish people and to the non-Jewish people.”
24. While Paul was still defending himself, Festus shouted, “Paul, you are out of your mind! Too much study has made you crazy.”
25. Paul said, “Most Honorable Festus, I am not crazy. What I am saying is true. It all makes perfect sense.
26. King Agrippa knows about all this, and I can speak freely to him. I know that he has heard about these things, because they happened where everyone could see them.
27. King Agrippa, do you believe what the prophets wrote? I know you believe!”
28. King Agrippa said to Paul, “Do you think you can persuade me to become a ‘Christ-follower’ so easily?”
29. Paul said, “It is not important if it is easy or if it is hard. I pray to God that not only you but that everyone listening to me today could be saved and be just like me—except for these chains I have!”