Acts 26:1-8, 19-23

King Agrippa said to Paul, “You may now state your case.” Paul motioned with his hand for silence, then began his defense. “King Agrippa, I consider myself highly favored to stand before you today and answer the charges made against me by the Jews. Because you, more than anyone else, are very familiar with the customs and controversies among the Jewish people, I now ask for your patience as I state my case. “All the Jews know how I have been raised as a young man, living among my own people from the beginning and in Jerusalem. If my accusers are willing to testify, they must admit that they’ve known me all along as a Pharisee, a member of the most strict and orthodox sect within Judaism. And now, here I am on trial because I believe in the hope of God’s promises made to our ancestors. This is the promise the twelve tribes of our people hope to see fulfilled as they sincerely strive to serve God with prayers night and day. “So, Your Highness, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me. And how should you judge this matter? Why is it that any of you think it unbelievable that God raises the dead?

“So you see, King Agrippa, I have not been disobedient to what was revealed to me from heaven. For it was in Damascus that I first declared the truth. And then I went to Jerusalem and throughout our nation, and even to other nations, telling people everywhere that they must repent and turn to God and demonstrate it with a changed life. That’s why the Jews seized me when I was in the temple and tried to murder me. “But in spite of all this, I have experienced the supernatural help of God up to this very moment. So I’m standing here saying the same thing that I’ve shared with everyone, from the least to the greatest. For I teach nothing but what Moses and the prophets have said was destined to happen: that our Messiah had to suffer and die and be the first to rise from the dead, to release the bright light of truth both to our people and to the non-Jewish nations.”

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