15 “I asked, ‘Who are you, sir?’“The Lord answered, ‘I am Jesus, the one you’re persecuting.
16 Stand up! I have appeared to you for a reason. I’m appointing you to be a servant and witness of what you have seen and of what I will show you.
17 I will rescue you from the Jewish people and from the non-Jewish people to whom I am sending you.
18 You will open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from Satan’s control to God’s. Then they will receive forgiveness for their sins and a share among God’s people who are made holy by believing in me.’
19 “At that point I did not disobey the vision I saw from heaven, King Agrippa.
20 Instead, I spread the message that I first told to the ⌊Jewish⌋ people in Damascus and Jerusalem and throughout the whole country of Judea. I spread the same message to non-Jewish people. Both groups were expected to change the way they thought and acted and to turn to God. I told them to do things that prove they had changed their lives.
21 For this reason the Jews took me prisoner in the temple courtyard and tried to murder me.