Paul’s Defense to the Crowd

¹“Brothers and fathers, listen now to my defense before you.”

²When they heard him speak to them in Hebrew,they became even more silent.Then Paul declared,

³“I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but raised in this city. I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel in strict conformity to the law of our fathers. I was just as zealous for God as any of you are today.

⁴I persecuted this Way even to the death, detaining both men and women and throwing them into prison,

⁵as the high priest and the whole Council can testify about me. I even obtained letters from them to their brothers in Damascus, and I was on my way to apprehend these people and bring them to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶About noon as I was approaching Damascus, suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed around me.

⁷I fell to the ground and heard a voice say to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?’

⁸‘Who are You, Lord?’ I asked.‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting,’ He replied.

⁹My companions saw the light, but they could not understand the voice of the One speaking to me.

¹⁰Then I asked, ‘What should I do, Lord?’‘Get up and go into Damascus,’ He told me. ‘There you will be told all that you have been appointed to do.’

¹¹Because the brilliance of the light had blinded me, my companions led me by the hand into Damascus.

¹²There a man named Ananias, a devout observer of the law who was highly regarded by all the Jews living there,

¹³came and stood beside me. ‘Brother Saul,’ he said, ‘receive your sight.’ And at that moment I could see him.

¹⁴Then he said, ‘The God of our fathers has appointed you to know His will and to see the Righteous One and to hear His voice.

¹⁵You will be His witness to everyone of what you have seen and heard.

¹⁶And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away, calling on His name.’

¹⁷Later, when I had returned to Jerusalem and was praying at the temple, I fell into a trance

¹⁸and saw the Lordsaying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem quickly, because the people here will not accept your testimony about Me.’

¹⁹‘Lord,’ I answered, ‘they know very well that in one synagogue after another I imprisoned and beat those who believed in You.

²⁰And when the blood of Your witnessStephen was shed, I stood there giving my approval and watching over the garments of those who killed him.’

²¹Then He said to me, ‘Go! I will send you far away to the Gentiles.’”

Paul the Roman Citizen

²²The crowd listened to Paul until he made this statement. Then they lifted up their voices and shouted, “Rid the earth of him! He is not fit to live!”

²³As they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and tossing dust into the air,

²⁴the commander ordered that Paul be brought into the barracks. He directed that Paul be flogged and interrogated to determine the reason for this outcry against him.

²⁵But as they stretched him out to strap him down, Paul said to the centurion standing there, “Is it lawful for you to flog a Roman citizen without a trial?”

²⁶On hearing this, the centurion went and reported it to the commander. “What are you going to do?” he said. “This man is a Roman citizen.”

²⁷The commander went to Paul and asked, “Tell me, are you a Roman citizen?”“Yes,” he answered.

²⁸“I paid a high price for my citizenship,” said the commander.“But I was born a citizen,” Paul replied.

²⁹At once those who were about to interrogate Paul stepped back, and the commander himself was alarmed when he realized that he had put a Roman citizen in chains.

³⁰The next day the commander, wanting to learn the real reason Paul was accused by the Jews, released him and ordered the chief priests and the whole Sanhedrinto assemble. Then he brought Paul down and had him stand before them.

Paul’s Testimony to Agrippa

¹Agrippa said to Paul, “You have permission to speak for yourself.”Then Paul stretched out his hand and began his defense:

²“King Agrippa, I consider myself fortunate to stand before you today to defend myself against all the accusations of the Jews,

³especially since you are acquainted with all the Jewish customs and controversies. I beg you, therefore, to listen to me patiently.

⁴Surely all the Jews know how I have lived from my earliest childhood among my own people, and also in Jerusalem.

⁵They have known me for a long time and can testify, if they are willing, that I lived as a Pharisee, adhering to the strictest sect of our religion.

⁶And now I stand on trial because of my hope in the promise that God made to our fathers,

⁷the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. It is because of this hope, O king, that I am accused by the Jews.

⁸Why would any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

⁹So then, I too was convinced that I ought to do all I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

¹⁰And that is what I did in Jerusalem. With authority from the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison, and when they were condemned to death, I cast my vote against them.

¹¹I frequently had them punished in the synagogues, and I tried to make them blaspheme. In my raging fury against them, I even went to foreign cities to persecute them.

¹²In this pursuit I was on my way to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests.

¹³About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, shining around me and my companions.

¹⁴We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice say to me in Hebrew,‘Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’

¹⁵‘Who are You, Lord?’ I asked.‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,’ the Lord replied.

¹⁶‘But get up and stand on your feet. For I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen from Me and what I will show you.

¹⁷I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. I am sending you to them

¹⁸to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those sanctified by faith in Me.’

¹⁹So then, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.

²⁰First to those in Damascus and Jerusalem, then to everyone in the region of Judea, and then to the Gentiles, I declared that they should repent and turn to God, performing deeds worthy of their repentance.

²¹For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple courtsand tried to kill me.

²²But I have had God’s help to this day, and I stand here to testify to small and great alike. I am saying nothing beyond what the prophets and Moses said would happen:

²³that the Christ would suffer, and as the first to rise from the dead, would proclaim light to our people and to the Gentiles.”

Festus Interrupts Paul’s Defense

²⁴At this stage of Paul’s defense, Festus exclaimed in a loud voice, “You are insane, Paul! Your great learning is driving you to madness!”

²⁵But Paul answered, “I am not insane, most excellent Festus; I am speaking words of truth and sobriety.

²⁶For the king knows about these matters, and I can speak freely to him. I am confident that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner.

²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”

²⁸Then Agrippa said to Paul, “Can you persuade me in such a short time to become a Christian?”

²⁹“Short time or long,” Paul replied, “I wish to God that not only you but all who hear me this day may become what I am, except for these chains.”

³⁰Then the king and the governor rose, along with Bernice and those seated with them.

³¹On their way out, they said to one another, “This man has done nothing worthy of death or imprisonment.”

³²And Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been released if he had not appealed to Caesar.”

Jesus Heals a Man with Dropsy

¹One Sabbath, Jesus went to eat in the home of a leading Pharisee, and those in attendance were watching Him closely.

²Right there before Him was a man with dropsy.

³So Jesus asked the experts in the law and the Pharisees, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath or not?”

⁴But they remained silent.Then Jesus took hold of the man, healed him, and sent him on his way.

⁵And He asked them, “Which of you whose sonor ox falls into a pit on the Sabbath day will not immediately pull him out?”

⁶And they were unable to answer these questions.

The Parable of the Guests

⁷When Jesus noticed how the guests chose the places of honor, He told them a parable:

⁸“When you are invited to a wedding banquet, do not sit in the place of honor, in case someone more distinguished than you has been invited.

⁹Then the host who invited both of you will come and tell you, ‘Give this man your seat.’ And in humiliation, you will have to take the last place.

¹⁰But when you are invited, go and sit in the last place, so that your host will come and tell you, ‘Friend, move up to a better place.’Then you will be honored in front of everyone at the table with you.

¹¹For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

¹²Then Jesus said to the man who had invited Him, “When you host a dinner or a banquet, do not invite your friends or brothers or relatives or rich neighbors. Otherwise, they may invite you in return, and you will be repaid.

¹³But when you host a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind,

¹⁴and you will be blessed. Since they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

The Parable of the Banquet

¹⁵When one of those reclining with Him heard this, he said to Jesus, “Blessed is everyone who will eat at the feastin the kingdom of God.”

¹⁶But Jesus replied, “A certain man prepared a great banquet and invited many guests.

¹⁷When it was time for the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’

¹⁸But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I have bought a field, and I need to go see it. Please excuse me.’

¹⁹Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me.’

²⁰Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, so I cannot come.’

²¹The servant returned and reported all this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the city, and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame.’

²²‘Sir,’ the servant replied, ‘what you ordered has been done, and there is still room.’

²³So the master told his servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel them to come in, so that my house will be full.

²⁴For I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will taste my banquet.’”

The Cost of Discipleship

²⁵Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and He turned and said to them,

²⁶“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be My disciple.

²⁷And whoever does not carry his cross and follow Me cannot be My disciple.

²⁸Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost to see if he has the resources to complete it?

²⁹Otherwise, if he lays the foundation and is unable to finish the work, everyone who sees it will ridicule him,

³⁰saying, ‘This man could not finish what he started to build.’

³¹Or what king on his way to war with another king will not first sit down and consider whether he can engage with ten thousand men the one coming against him with twenty thousand?

³²And if he is unable, he will send a delegation while the other king is still far off, to ask for terms of peace.

³³In the same way, any one of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be My disciple.

Good Salt

³⁴Salt is good, but if the salt loses its savor, with what will it be seasoned?

³⁵It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile, and it is thrown out.He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

More Proverbs of Solomon

¹These are additional proverbs of Solomon, which were copied by the men of Hezekiah king of Judah:

²It is the glory of God to conceal a matterand the glory of kings to search it out.

³As the heavens are high and the earth is deep,so the hearts of kings cannot be searched.

⁴Remove the dross from the silver,and a vessel for a silversmith will come forth.

⁵Remove the wicked from the king’s presence,and his throne will be established in righteousness.

⁶Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king,and do not stand in the place of great men;

⁷for it is better to be told, “Come up here!”than to be demoted in the presence of the prince.Even whatyou have seen with your own eyes,

⁸do not bring hastily to court.Otherwise, what will you do in the endwhen your neighbor puts you to shame?

⁹Argue your case with your neighborwithout betraying another’s confidence,

¹⁰lest he who hears you bring shame upon you,and your infamy never go away.

¹¹A word fitly spokenis like apples of gold in settings of silver.

¹²Like an earring of gold or an ornament of fine goldis a wise man’s rebuke to a listening ear.

¹³Like the cold of snow in the time of harvestis a trustworthy messenger to those who send him;he refreshes the soul of his masters.

¹⁴Like clouds and wind without rainis the man who boasts of gifts never given.

¹⁵Through patience a ruler can be persuaded,and a gentle tongue can break a bone.

¹⁶If you find honey, eat just what you need,lest you have too much and vomit it up.

¹⁷Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house,lest he grow weary and hate you.

¹⁸Like a club or sword or sharp arrowis a man who bears false witness against his neighbor.

¹⁹Like a broken tooth or a foot out of jointis confidence in a faithless man in time of trouble.

²⁰Like one who removes a garment on a cold dayor vinegar poured on a woundis one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

²¹If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat,and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink.

²²For in so doing, you will heap burning coals on his head,and the LORD will reward you.

²³As the north wind brings forth rain,so a backbiting tongue brings angry looks.

²⁴Better to live on a corner of the roofthan to share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

²⁵Like cold water to a weary soulis good news from a distant land.

²⁶Like a muddied spring or a polluted wellis a righteous man who gives way to the wicked.

²⁷It is not good to eat too much honeyor to search out one’s own glory.

²⁸Like a city whose walls are broken downis a man who does not control his temper.