Acts 26:18
to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’
Most believe that Luke wrote the book of Acts. He was a gentile and a Dr., who worked and travelled with Paul. Luke's main reason for writing this book was to document the travels of the gospel from Jerusalem to Rome. Dividing the book of Acts into six parts; we see that the first part documents how the church grew in Jerusalem (1-6:7). The second part is how the good news reached Samaria (6:8-9-31). The third part is how Paul met Jesus in Damascus (9:32-12:24). The fourth part of this book describes how the gospel spread to more countries (12:25-16:5). The fifth part is about the good news traveling to Europe and the Church of Ephesus (16:6-19:20). The sixth part, Luke tells us that Paul reaches Rome and is in prison, this is the part of the book of Acts that we will be in today. Here we have Paul giving an account of himself to king Agrippa, Festus, Bernice, and the great men of Caesarea. Paul informs them that he was a Pharisee, and prosecuted Christians. Then he tells them of how Jesus came to him and chose him for a special calling to take the gospel to the Gentiles.
Paul is pleading his case here. He saying I am like you! I was taught by the Pharisee of all Pharisee! I even took part of prosecuting the Christians. I never kept company with the Gentiles. Look I am not a mad man! Jesus came to me and told me that I am to go to the Gentiles. I am to preach to them and open their eyes to God through Jesus! I am to teach them to turn from sin to God. I am an instrument of Christ to walk these Gentiles through salvation and sanctification.
We see that God gave Paul the heart to comply with the call. Paul chose to be obedient to this calling. God then equipped him for the calling. Are you being called to be an instrument of Christ? If so will you be obedient to the calling?