Acts 26–28

26Agrippa said to Paul, “You may now speak for yourself.”

So Paul motioned with his hand. Then he began to stand up for himself. ²“King Agrippa,” he said, “I am happy to be able to stand here today. I will speak up for myself against all the charges brought by the Jews. ³I am very pleased that you are familiar with Jewish ways. You know the kinds of things they argue about. So I beg you to be patient as you listen to me.

⁴“The Jews all know how I have lived ever since I was a child. They know all about me from the beginning of my life. They know how I lived in my own country and in Jerusalem. ⁵They have known me for a long time. So if they wanted to, they could give witness that I lived by the rules of the Pharisees. Those rules are harder to obey than the rules of any other group in the Jewish faith.

⁶“Today I am on trial because of the hope I have. I believe in what God promised our people long ago. ⁷It is the promise that our 12 tribes are hoping to see come true. Because of this hope they serve God with a true and honest heart day and night. King Agrippa, it is also because of this hope that the Jews are bringing charges against me. ⁸Why should any of you think it is impossible for God to raise the dead?

⁹“I myself believed that I should do everything I could to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. ¹⁰That’s just what I was doing in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests, I put many of God’s people in prison. I agreed that they should die. ¹¹I often went from one synagogue to another to have them punished. I tried to force them to speak evil things against Jesus. I hated them so much that I even went to cities in other lands to hurt them.

¹²“On one of these journeys I was on my way to Damascus. I had the authority and commission of the chief priests. ¹³About noon, King Agrippa, I was on the road. I saw a light coming from heaven. It was brighter than the sun. It was shining around me and my companions. ¹⁴We all fell to the ground. I heard a voice speak to me in the Aramaic language. ‘Saul! Saul!’ it said. ‘Why are you opposing me? It is hard for you to go against what you know is right.’

¹⁵“Then I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’

“ ‘I am Jesus,’ the Lord replied. ‘I am the one you are opposing. ¹⁶Now get up. Stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you to serve me and be my witness. You will tell others that you have seen me today. You will also tell them that I will show myself to you again.

¹⁷“ ‘I will save you from your own people and from those who aren’t Jews. I am sending you to them ¹⁸to open their eyes. I want you to turn them from darkness to light. I want you to turn them from Satan’s power to God. I want their sins to be forgiven. They will be forgiven when they believe in me. They will have their place among God’s people.’

¹⁹“So then, King Agrippa, I obeyed the vision that appeared from heaven. ²⁰First I preached to people in Damascus. Then I preached in Jerusalem and in all Judea. I preached also to people who are not Jews. I told them to turn away from their sins to God. The way they live must prove that they have turned away from their sins. ²¹That’s why the Jews grabbed me in the temple courtyard and tried to kill me.

²²“But God has helped me to this very day. So I stand here and give witness to both small and great. I have been saying nothing different from what the prophets and Moses said would happen. ²³They said the Christ would suffer. He would be the first to rise from the dead. He would announce the light of life to his own people and to those who aren’t Jews.”

²⁴While Paul was still speaking up for himself, Festus interrupted. “You are out of your mind, Paul!” he shouted. “Your great learning is driving you crazy!”

²⁵“I am not crazy, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “What I am saying is true and reasonable. ²⁶The king is familiar with these things. So I can speak openly to him. I am certain he knows everything that has been going on. After all, it was not done in secret. ²⁷King Agrippa, do you believe the prophets? I know you do.”

²⁸Then Agrippa spoke to Paul. “Are you trying to talk me into becoming a Christian?” he said. “Do you think you can do that in such a short time?”

²⁹Paul replied, “I don’t care if it takes a short time or a long time. I pray to God for you and all who are listening to me today. I pray that you may become like me, except for these chains.”

³⁰The king stood up. The governor and Bernice and those sitting with them stood up too. ³¹They left the room and began to talk with one another. “Why should this man die or be put in prison?” they said. “He has done nothing worthy of that!”

³²Agrippa said to Festus, “This man could have been set free. But he has made an appeal to Caesar.”

Paul Sails for Rome

27It was decided that we would sail for Italy. Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a Roman commander named Julius. He belonged to the Imperial Guard. ²We boarded a ship from Adramyttium. It was about to sail for ports along the coast of Asia Minor. We headed out to sea. Aristarchus was with us. He was a Macedonian from Thessalonica.

³The next day we landed at Sidon. There Julius was kind to Paul. He let Paul visit his friends so they could give him what he needed. ⁴From there we headed out to sea again. We passed the calmer side of Cyprus because the winds were against us.

⁵We sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cilicia and Pamphylia. Then we landed at Myra in Lycia. ⁶There the commander found a ship from Alexandria sailing for Italy. He put us on board. ⁷We moved along slowly for many days. We had trouble getting to Cnidus. The wind did not let us stay on course. So we passed the calmer side of Crete, opposite Salmone. ⁸It was not easy to sail along the coast. Then we came to a place called Fair Havens. It was near the town of Lasea.

⁹A lot of time had passed. Sailing had already become dangerous. By now it was after the Day of Atonement, a day of fasting. So Paul gave them a warning. ¹⁰“Men,” he said, “I can see that our trip is going to be dangerous. The ship and everything in it will be lost. Our own lives will be in danger also.”

¹¹But the commander didn’t listen to what Paul said. Instead, he followed the advice of the pilot and the ship’s owner. ¹²The harbor wasn’t a good place for ships to stay during winter. So most of the people decided we should sail on. They hoped we would reach Phoenix. They wanted to spend the winter there. Phoenix was a harbor in Crete. It faced both southwest and northwest.

The Storm

¹³A gentle south wind began to blow. They thought that this was what they had been waiting for. So they pulled up the anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. ¹⁴Before very long, a wind blew down from the island. It had the force of a hurricane. It was called a “northeaster.”

¹⁵The ship was caught by the storm. We could not keep it sailing into the wind. So we gave up and were driven along. ¹⁶We passed the calmer side of a small island called Cauda. We almost lost the lifeboat. ¹⁷So the men lifted it on board. Then they tied ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. They were afraid it would get stuck on the sandbars of Syrtis. They lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along.

¹⁸We took a very bad beating from the storm. The next day the crew began to throw the ship’s contents overboard. ¹⁹On the third day, they even threw the ship’s gear overboard with their own hands. ²⁰The sun and stars didn’t appear for many days. The storm was terrible. So we gave up all hope of being saved.

²¹The men had not eaten for a long time. Paul stood up in front of them. “Men,” he said, “you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete. Then you would have avoided this harm and loss.

²²“Now I beg you to be brave. Not one of you will die. Only the ship will be destroyed. ²³I belong to God and serve him. Last night his angel stood beside me. ²⁴The angel said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul. You must go on trial in front of Caesar. God has shown his grace by sparing the lives of all those sailing with you.’

²⁵“Men, continue to be brave. I have faith in God. It will happen just as he told me. ²⁶But we must run the ship onto the beach of some island.”

The Ship Is Destroyed

²⁷On the 14th night we were still being driven across the Sea of Adria. About midnight the sailors had a feeling that they were approaching land. ²⁸They measured how deep the water was. They found that it was 120 feet deep. A short time later they measured the water again. This time it was 90 feet deep. ²⁹They were afraid we would crash against the rocks. So they dropped four anchors from the back of the ship. They prayed that daylight would come.

³⁰The sailors wanted to escape from the ship. So they let the lifeboat down into the sea. They pretended they were going to lower some anchors from the front of the ship. ³¹But Paul spoke to the commander and the soldiers. “These men must stay with the ship,” he said. “If they don’t, you can’t be saved.” ³²So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat. They let it drift away.

³³Just before dawn Paul tried to get them all to eat. “For the last 14 days,” he said, “you have wondered what would happen. You have gone without food. You haven’t eaten anything. ³⁴Now I am asking you to eat some food. You need it to live. Not one of you will lose a single hair from your head.”

³⁵After Paul said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to God. He did this where they all could see him. Then he broke it and began to eat. ³⁶All of them were filled with hope. So they ate some food. ³⁷There were 276 of us on board. ³⁸They ate as much as they wanted. They needed to make the ship lighter. So they threw the rest of the grain into the sea.

³⁹When daylight came, they saw a bay with a sandy beach. They didn’t recognize the place. But they decided to run the ship onto the beach if they could. ⁴⁰So they cut the anchors loose and left them in the sea. At the same time, they untied the ropes that held the rudders. They…