Acts 26:9-23

9So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. 10And that is what I did in Jerusalem. With authority from the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were condemned to death, I cast my vote against them. 11I frequently had them punished in the synagogues, and I tried to make them blaspheme. In my raging fury against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

12In this pursuit I was on my way to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. 13About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions. 14We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew,1 ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

15‘Who are You, Lord?’ I asked.

‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied. 16‘But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen from Me and what I will show you. 17I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them 18to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

19So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision. 20First to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, then to everyone in the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I declared that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance. 21For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple courts2 and tried to kill me.

22But I have had God’s help to this day, and I stand here to testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen: 23that the Christ would suffer, and as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles.”