24 While Paul was talking, Festus suddenly shouted, “Paul, you are crazy. You have been reading and learning too much, and it made you go crazy in your head.”
24 While he was speaking these things and presenting his defense, Festus said with a loud voice: "Paul, you are insane! Too much studying has turned you to insanity."
But we are not like those people. We tell people about Jesus Christ, and we tell them that he died for them on the cross. The Jewish people can’t understand that. It isn’t what they want, so they don’t believe it. And the other people that are not Jews, they reckon it is stupid, so they don’t believe it.
They see that we work for Jesus Christ, and lots of people think we are fools. But you mob reckon you are different from us. You reckon you are really smart because you know Jesus Christ. Yes, everyone thinks we are weak, but you reckon you are strong. You reckon everyone has to respect you, but you don’t care if they respect us or not.
Somebody went and told Jesus’s family about him. So his family said, “He is crazy in his head,” and they went to get him. They wanted to take him home to look after him.
I often punished the Christians that were in the Jewish meeting houses. I tried to get them to say bad things about Jesus. I was so angry with Jesus’s followers that I even went to other towns to get them.”
The council men heard Paul say that a man died and then came alive again, and some of those council men laughed at Paul. Some others said, “You can tell us more about this later, at some other time.”
And Paul told them about the way God wants people to live. He said that God wants us to do what is right, and that he wants us to control ourselves. And Paul told them that God will judge everybody one day. Felix heard Paul talking about those things, and he got frightened. He said, “Stop, Paul, that’s enough for today. You can go back to the jail now. Maybe I will have time to listen to you another day, and then I will get you to come and talk to me again.”
Paul said, “You mob are Jewish, and I am Jewish. I respect you like you are my family. Please listen to me now while I tell you that I haven’t done anything wrong.”
Then the Jewish leaders said, “Now we know for sure that you have a bad spirit in you. Think about all of our grand-fathers that lived a long time ago. They all died. Our father Abraham died, and so did all the men that told people God’s messages. But you say, ‘If anyone does what I say, they will never finish up.’ You are wrong.
The Jewish leaders told him, “Hey, you are wrong. We always reckoned that you are a rubbish man from Samaria, and you’ve got a bad spirit inside you. And we are right.”
Felix kept Paul in jail there for 2 years. Then the time came for them to change the boss over that country, and another big boss came to take over from Felix. The name of the new boss was Porcius Festus. Felix wanted to keep the Jewish leaders happy, so he didn’t let Paul go out of jail. Paul was still in jail there when Festus took over.
And remember that a long time ago you were a kid, and your mother taught you things from God’s book, and that gave you enough sense to believe in Jesus Christ. Now you believe in him, and he saves you.