“Wherefore, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision, but declared both to those of Damascus first and at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judaea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance. For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple, and attempted to kill me.”
And it was because of this commission and the heavenly vision that accompanied it, that he had gone everywhere proclaiming the Good News of Jesus Christ, and calling on men to have a complete change of mind and turn to God, and do the kind of works that will reveal it. And it was for this reason that the Jews had seized him in the Temple and had tried to kill him. Let those then who heard consider whether what he had done was worthy of death. He had called them to God and to works worthy of repentance. The words here echo those spoken about John the Baptiser (Luke 3:8; Matthew 3:8 compare Luke 6:43-45).
‘Throughout all the country of Judaea.' He may have had in mind here the trip he made through Judaea on his way to Jerusalem when he first went there after his conversion, a trip which he no doubt took advantage of by preaching on the way (Acts 9:26), or it may refer to the trip at the time of Acts 15:3-4 similarly, or even one of which we know nothing. He takes advantage of these here in order to bring out that he had not neglected the Jews in their own land, even though the work amongst them was incidental and not a full scale evangelistic effort, for it demonstrated that he was not against them.
His Ministry Which Has Resulted From the Receipt of His Commission