Acts 28:24

And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not.

When Paul had made his appeal for a square deal at their hands, the Jews frankly told him that they had received neither any written nor verbal communications which were unfavorable to him personally; letters they had not received from Judea, and none of the brethren that had come to Rome during the last years had reported anything bad against him. But they thought it good and proper to hear from Paul himself what he thought, to get his ideas on the whole situation, for so far as this new sect was concerned, it was known to them that it was finding contradiction and opposition everywhere. The report had been spread that the Christians were an atheistical and wicked sect, to be detested and abhorred by all mankind. But with the idea of being fair and of hearing Paul's story in his own way, the leading Jews of Rome fixed a date on which they would come to his place of lodging in larger numbers. To all of them Paul explained and expounded, not so much in vindication of his own conduct as in testimony for Christ, the kingdom of God, showing them what the term meant, in what manner they might enter into this wonderful kingdom, what faith was, always placing into the center of his persuasive discourse Jesus the Savior. From morning till night he tried his best to convince them concerning Jesus, from the Law of Moses, from the historical books of the Old Testament, from the books of the prophets, proving by a comparison with the life of Jesus that He must be the promised Messiah. It was a day of blessings from the Lord, of His merciful call to all those that were present. But the result was the usual one under similar circumstances. Some were convinced by what Paul said, but others were obstinate and refused to believe. So matter how emphatic and overpowering the evidence, some people will persist in hardening their hearts against the gracious influence of the Gospel and thus in spurning the grace of God which is offered to them.