In every sermon Paul preached, the central message was that Christ rose from the dead, and that by doing so, he offered salvation to all people. This resurrection stuff was as difficult to believe in the first century as it is today, and it always inspired a response. Just look at today’s reading: on the one hand, Governor Festus tells Paul he’s lost his mind, and on the other hand Agrippa admits that he’d like to believe it. And that’s typical. No one ever responded to the teachings of the Early Church by saying, “Oh, that’s nice.” People were either drawn to it or they rejected it out of hand. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, had a unique take on this passage, though. He read the line, Almost you would persuade me to become a Christian, and thought, “Actually, that’s true. A lot of people have been persuaded to become ‘Almost Christians.’ And most of them don’t even know that’s all they are.” So, in 1743, early in his ministry, he wrote a sermon entitled “The Almost Christian” that became one of his most frequently re-published sermons.