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“Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian. And Paul said, I would to God, that not only thou, but also all that hear me this day, were both almost, and altogether such as I am, except these bonds” (Acts 26:28-29).
When Paul (then Saul of Tarsus) was first saved, the Lord predicted through His servant Ananias that Paul would “bear My name before the Gentiles, and before kings” (Acts 9:15). Here in Acts 26, Paul was privileged to address some of the “higher ups” in the Roman Empire, and he gave a magnificent testimony. Although he was a prisoner and in chains, he did not envy any of them. When King Agrippa (who was a great-grandson of Herod the Great) mockingly said that Paul was almost persuading him to be a Christian, Paul confidently replied that he wished that all of them had what he had.
He did not, of course, want them to be in chains as prisoners, but he wished that all of them knew the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. As a believer in the Lord Jesus, he was richer than any of them.
Did any of them get saved as a result of Paul’s preaching? We do not know, but we do know that God’s word will “not return unto [Him] void” (Isaiah 55:11). It will have its effect, and we hope that some of those men took to heart what Paul said.
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