John Calvin Commentary Acts 25:22

"And Agrippa [said] unto Festus, I also could wish to hear the man myself. To-morrow, saith he, thou shalt hear him." — Acts 25:22 (ASV)

I would also. From this we can gather that Agrippa so desired to hear Paul that he was ashamed to make his desire known, lest Festus should think that he came for some other purpose than to greet him. And it may be that not only curiosity moved him to desire to hear Paul, but also because he hoped to profit from hearing him.

Nevertheless, we can easily gather from this how cold his desire was, because he allowed many days to pass before he showed any sign of it, being more in love with earthly advantages, which he valued more highly. He neither dared to say anything, nor did he venture to speak out until Festus, of his own accord, prompted him to do so.

And so, the holy minister of Christ was brought out as if onto a stage, so that a profane man might entertain his guest. Festus, however, also intended to be helped by the advice of Agrippa and his companions, so that he could show Caesar how diligent he was.

But the matter was directed to a different outcome by God’s hidden providence. We need not doubt that such a report spread that greatly served to confirm the godly. It may also be that some of the hearers were moved and conceived the seed of faith, which afterward brought forth fruit in due season.

But even if none of them embraced Christ sincerely and from the heart, it was still a significant benefit that the uninformed were pacified once the malice of Paul’s enemies was exposed, so that they would not be inflamed with such hatred against the gospel. Impiety was put to shame, and the faithful gathered new strength, and so were confirmed more and more in the gospel.