Acts 26:15-32

¹⁵Then I asked, ‘Who are you, boss?’ That boss said to me, ‘I am Jesus. You are making trouble for me and hurting me. Whenever you hurt my followers, you are hurting me too.

¹⁶But stop doing that and get up, and stand on your feet. Listen, I came to you like this now to pick you to be my worker. I want you to tell everyone everywhere about the things you have seen, and tell them about the things that I will show you later.

¹⁷And if anyone tries to kill you, I will save you from them. I will save you from your own Jewish people, and I will save you from people that are not Jewish. You see, I will send you to other countries, to people that are not Jews,

¹⁸and you will tell them the true message about me. It will be like you will open their eyes to see things properly. They will come to God. Satan will not control them any more with his power, like they will not be in the dark any more, but they will be in the light. They will believe in me, and they will stop believing lies. And then God will say they are not guilty of the bad things they did, and they will be God’s people.’ Jesus said that to me.”

¹⁹Paul kept talking to them, he said, “It happened like that, Boss Agrippa. Jesus talked to me from heaven, and I did everything he told me to do.

²⁰I told a lot of people to stop doing bad things and turn to God, and to start doing good things to show that they are following God now. At first I told that message to the Jews in Damascus, then I told it to the Jews in Jerusalem, and I told it to the Jews in Judea country. After that, I told it to people that are not Jews.”

²¹And Paul said, “I told everyone this message, but some of the Jewish people didn’t like it, so they grabbed me and they tried to kill me. They did that in God’s ceremony house.

²²But God helped me. You see, God helps me all the time, and he is still helping me now. So I’m standing here now telling you mob about Jesus. I’m telling this message to you big bosses, and I’m telling it to all you other people too. I’m telling you that Jesus is the special person that God sent to us. That message is already in God’s book. I’m saying things that Moses and God’s other men wrote, a long time ago, about something that was going to happen, that people will hurt God’s special person and kill him, but then he will be the first person that God will make alive again. Then he will tell everyone that God can save them. In this way he will be like a light for them. He will be a light for both Jewish people, and people that are not Jews.”

²⁴While Paul was talking Festus suddenly shouted, “Paul, you are mad. You have been reading too much, and now you are mad.”

²⁵But Paul said, “No, Festus Sir, I’m not mad. I’m talking in a true and sensible way.

²⁶The big boss here knows about these things, so I can talk to him and I know he will understand. You see, people everywhere have heard about Jesus.”

²⁷Then Paul said, “Boss Agrippa, do you believe the message God’s men wrote in his book? Yes, I know you believe it.”

²⁸Then Agrippa said to Paul, “You have just been talking to me for a little while. Don’t think you can get me to become a Christian so quick.”

²⁹Paul said, “It doesn’t matter if it is quick, or if it takes a long time. I’m asking God that you and everyone that is listening to me will believe in Jesus, like I do. I want you to be just like I am now. But I don’t want you to be a prisoner like I am now.”

³⁰Then those 2 big bosses stood up, and Bernice, and all the others there, they all got up,

³¹and they all went out of that room. While they were going out they said to each other, “This man didn’t do anything bad. We don’t have to kill him, or even keep him in jail.”

³²Then Agrippa said to Festus, “Maybe you could let this man go free, but there is a problem. He asked us to send him to Rome for the biggest boss, called Caesar, to judge him. So you can’t let him go free. You have to send him to Caesar, the biggest boss in Rome.”