Acts of the Apostles 20

¹ When the disturbance was over, Paul sent for the disciples and, after speaking words of encouragement to them, said good-bye and set out for Macedonia.

² On his way through those areas he said many words of encouragement to them and then made his way into Greece,

³ where he spent three months. He was leaving by ship for Syria[*a] when a plot organised against him by the Jews made him decide to go back by way of Macedonia.

⁴ He was accompanied by Sopater, son of Pyrrhus, who came from Beroea; Aristarchus and Secundus who came from Thessalonika; Gaius from Doberus, and Timothy, as well as Tychicus and Trophimus who were from Asia.

⁵ They all went on to Troas where they waited for us.

⁶ We ourselves left Philippi by ship after the days of Unleavened Bread and met them five days later at Troas, where we stopped for a week.

⁷ On the first day of the week[*b] we met to break bread. Paul was due to leave the next day, and he preached a sermon that went on till the middle of the night.

⁸ A number of lamps were lit in the upstairs room where we were assembled,

⁹ and as Paul went on and on, a young man called Eutychus who was sitting on the window-sill grew drowsy and was overcome by sleep and fell to the ground three floors below. He was picked up dead.

¹⁰ Paul went down and stooped to clasp the boy to him. ‘There is no need to worry,’ he said ‘there is still life in him.’

¹¹ Then he went back upstairs where he broke bread and ate and carried on talking till he left at daybreak.

¹² They took the boy away alive, and were greatly encouraged.

¹³ We were now to go on ahead by sea, so we set sail for Assos, where we were to take Paul on board; this was what he had arranged, for he wanted to go by road.

¹⁴ When he rejoined us at Assos we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene.

¹⁵ The next day we sailed from there and arrived opposite Chios. The second day we touched at Samos and, after stopping at Trogyllium, made Miletus the next day.

¹⁶ Paul had decided to pass wide of Ephesus so as to avoid spending time in Asia, since he was anxious to be in Jerusalem, if possible, for the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷ From Miletus he sent for the elders of the church of Ephesus.

¹⁸ When they arrived he addressed these words to them: ‘You know what my way of life has been ever since the first day I set foot among you in Asia,

¹⁹ how I have served the Lord in all humility, with all the sorrows and trials that came to me through the plots of the Jews.

²⁰ I have not hesitated to do anything that would be helpful to you; I have preached to you, and instructed you both in public and in your homes,

²¹ urging both Jews and Greeks to turn to God and to believe in our Lord Jesus.

²² ‘And now you see me a prisoner already in spirit; I am on my way to Jerusalem, but have no idea what will happen to me there,

²³ except that the Holy Spirit, in town after town, has made it clear enough that imprisonment and persecution await me.

²⁴ But life to me is not a thing to waste words on, provided that when I finish my race I have carried out the mission the Lord Jesus gave me – and that was to bear witness to the Good News of God’s grace.

²⁵ ‘I now feel sure that none of you among whom I have gone about proclaiming the kingdom will ever see my face again.

²⁶ And so here and now I swear that my conscience is clear as far as all of you are concerned,

²⁷ for I have without faltering put before you the whole of God’s purpose.

²⁸ ‘Be on your guard for yourselves and for all the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you the overseers, to feed the Church of God which he bought with his own blood.

²⁹ I know quite well that when I have gone fierce wolves will invade you and will have no mercy on the flock.

³⁰ Even from your own ranks there will be men coming forward with a travesty of the truth on their lips to induce the disciples to follow them.

³¹ So be on your guard, remembering how night and day for three years I never failed to keep you right, shedding tears over each one of you.

³² And now I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace that has power to build you up and to give you your inheritance among all the sanctified.

³³ ‘I have never asked anyone for money or clothes;

³⁴ you know for yourselves that the work I did earned enough to meet my needs and those of my companions.

³⁵ I did this to show you that this is how we must exert ourselves to support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, who himself said, “There is more happiness in giving than in receiving”.’

³⁶ When he had finished speaking he knelt down with them all and prayed.

³⁷ By now they were all in tears; they put their arms round Paul’s neck and kissed him;

³⁸ what saddened them most was his saying they would never see his face again. Then they escorted him to the ship.