Acts 26:24-32

I. MADNESS OR MESSAGE? (vv. 24–25)

Festus’s outburst (“You’re out of your mind, Paul! Too much study is driving you mad”) embodies the secular world’s verdict on resurrection preaching: educated, but deluded. This allows you to contrast modern intellectual objections with Paul’s calm insistence that he speaks “words of truth and good judgment,” highlighting the rational, historical, and public nature of the gospel.​

Emphasize Paul’s respectful tone (“most excellent Festus”) and unshaken confidence, showing a model for pastors and believers who are labeled irrational for believing in a crucified and risen Lord. Drawing on Zondervan, you can trace how Luke’s wording underscores both the sobriety of Paul’s speech and the irony of Festus’s blindness.​

Homiletic movements:

Expose how contemporary culture still treats orthodox faith as madness in academic, media, and social settings, much like Festus.​

Affirm that Christian preaching is not anti-intellectual but deeply coherent when read in light of Scripture and the resurrection event, a point you can buttress with the commentaries’ discussion of “truth” and “reason.”​

II. NOT DONE IN A CORNER (vv. 26–27)

Paul pivots from Festus to Agrippa, grounding his defense in public history and the prophetic Scriptures: “the king knows about these matters…this was not done in a corner.” Use this to show that the gospel rests on events and promises in the open—Jesus’ death and resurrection and the growth of the church—rather than esoteric speculation.​

His question, “King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets?” presses Agrippa’s professed orthodoxy to its logical conclusion; believing the prophets should lead to believing in the Messiah they foretold. This creates a sharp bridge from doctrinal agreement to personal encounter with Christ, ideal for application to churched but unconverted hearers.​

Homiletic movements:

Confront nominal believers who affirm the Bible in theory but resist its Christological fulfillment; like Agrippa, they “know” but will not bow.​

Show how Paul models courageous, respectful evangelism: he moves from defense to invitation, urging Agrippa to bring his knowledge of the prophets under the lordship of the risen Christ.​

III. ALMOST, BUT NOT ALTogether (vv. 28–29)

Agrippa’s response—“Are you going to persuade me to become a Christian so easily?”—reveals both that he understands Paul’s aim and that he retreats behind ironic distance. Here you can unfold the tragedy of being “almost persuaded,” intellectually engaged yet spiritually unyielding, which many in a Baptist context will recognize.​

Paul’s answer gives the pastoral heart of the text: “Whether easily or with difficulty, not only you but all who listen to me today might become as I am—except for these chains.” This verse lets you show that the apostle’s priority is not acquittal but conversion, not personal comfort but their salvation, even as he accepts suffering as part of his calling.​

Homiletic movements:

Draw out the contrast between Paul’s physical chains and his spiritual liberty versus Agrippa’s physical freedom and spiritual bondage.​

Make a direct appeal: there are hearers who are “almost” convinced by years of preaching and study, yet remain outside Christ; Paul’s words call them to move from almost to altogether His.​

IV. INNOCENT, YET STILL IN CHAINS (vv. 30–32)

The dignitaries rise, ending the hearing rather than the argument, and privately agree: “This man is not doing anything to deserve death or imprisonment.” Luke continues his pattern of showing that, in Roman eyes, the Christian movement is legally innocent, even while spiritually offensive to some.​

Agrippa’s verdict—“This man could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar”—highlights that Paul’s continued chains are not due to guilt but to his own appeal, which in God’s providence will send the gospel to Rome. This creates a strong platform to preach on the mysterious convergence of human decisions, political processes, and God’s sovereign mission.​

Homiletic movements:

Encourage believers that faithfulness may invite misunderstanding and unnecessary suffering, yet their “chains” can become God’s means to advance the gospel into places they could not otherwise go.​

Use the commentaries’ narrative insights to show how Acts 26 closes the Caesarea hearings and sets up the Rome narrative, reinforcing that obedience may mean staying in circumstances God could change but does not—because mission is at stake.​

Suggested sermon flow and applications

Opening: Set the scene in the Caesarean hall—a chained apostle, a sneering governor, an almost-persuaded king—and pose the central question: “What will you do with words of truth and good judgment?”​

Exposition: Walk sequentially through the four movements above, weaving in Zondervan’s discourse analysis (publicity of the events, rhetorical address to Agrippa, the force of the “almost” language) and Preaching the Word’s pastoral emphasis on near-conversion and bold testimony.​

Application:

To skeptics: The gospel is not madness but the only coherent explanation of fulfilled prophecy and historical resurrection.​

To nominal believers: Believing the prophets without embracing Christ leaves a person in Agrippa’s tragic middle ground.​

To saints in hardship: God may keep you “in chains” so that your testimony reaches rooms and rulers you would not otherwise see.​

Invitation: Return to Paul’s desire—that all who hear might become as he is in Christ—and invite hearers to move from almost to altogether, trusting the Spirit to do the persuading “whether easily or with difficulty.”​