Insane

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

INSANE

Acts 26:24-32

24 At this point Festus interrupted Paul's defense. "You are out of your mind, Paul!" he shouted. "Your great learning is driving you insane." 25 "I am not insane, most excellent Festus," Paul replied. "What I am saying is true and reasonable. 26 The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner. 27 King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do." 28 Then Agrippa said to Paul, "Do you think that in such a short time you can persuade me to be a Christian?" 29 Paul replied, "Short time or long — I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains." 30 The king rose, and with him the governor and Bernice and those sitting with them. 31 They left the room, and while talking with one another, they said, "This man is not doing anything that deserves death or imprisonment." 32 Agrippa said to Festus, "This man could have been set free if he had not appealed to Caesar."

NIV

Paul gets to his conclusion only to be thought, by Festus, to be insane, or at least out of his mind. It is not unusual for unbelievers to think some Christians are out of their minds. Although today it does seem there are unbelievers, who talk as though they believe Jesus is alive, but do not either read the Bible or believe it is the very word of God. It does seem that in Paul’s time people like Festus would never believe a man could come back from the dead, and thus hearing Paul’s testimony about Jesus being alive, after he died on a Roman cross, would make him think Paul was crazy. Now it is true that if we believers actually live as believers we might be considered out of our minds. The trouble is that many of us live hardly any different than unbelievers, except maybe for the fact we attend a church on Sunday morning, but then so do many unbelievers. How would they ever know or accuse us of being out of our minds if we appear to be much the same as they are? When we are with them, what do we talk about? For that matter when we are with each other, what do we talk about? Some sports team, or figure? Maybe a little politics, or investment strategy, other people, and maybe even about the weather. The point is, do we talk about Jesus being raised from the dead, and about our encounter with Jesus on the road of our life? Do we talk about the fact that Jesus points out that we were blinded by our life, but that he gives us sight into the eternal? That is the story of Paul on the road to Damascus and it is our story on the road to death. Festus heard the message and was under the impression that what Paul was saying was for the purpose of getting Festus to see the truth about Jesus and become a believer, which is exactly what Paul confesses. This is our life lesson, in that we should be living and talking as though we believe Jesus is alive and that he has appeared to us and caused us to see the truth. Then it just might be that many people would think we are out of our minds, insane. True, they might not actually call us insane, but rather weak minded, foolish, stupid, naïve or simple minded, but the true is they rather think we are insane.