20
“Don’t Be Alarmed! He’s Alive!”
1 When the excitement had died down, Paul had the disciples come to him, and after encouraging them, he said good-bye and set out for Macedonia.
2 After passing through those regions and strengthening the believers there+ with many encouraging words,+ he arrived in Greece,
3 where he stayed for three months. When the unbelieving Jews+ devised+ a plot against him as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia.
4 The men who accompanied him were Sopater son of Pyrrhus, from Berea; from Thessalonica, Aristarchus and Secundus; Gaius, from Derbe, and Timothy; and from the province of Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus.
5 These men, having traveled on ahead, were waiting for us at Troas.
6 As for us, we set sail after the Festival of Unleavened Bread from Philippi and joined them in Troas+ within five days. We stayed in Troas for seven days.
7 On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to share in the fellowship meal and the Lord’s supper,+ Paul began to address the group,+ and because he was planning to leave the next day, he went on speaking+ until midnight.
8 Now there were quite a few lamps burning in the upstairs room where we were gathered,
9 and a young man named Eutychus was sitting on the windowsill, growing sleepier and sleepier+ as Paul talked on at length. When he was finally sound asleep,+ he fell from the third story to the ground and was picked up dead.
10 Paul went down and threw himself on the young man,+ and putting his arms around him, said, “Don’t be alarmed! He’s alive!+”+
11 Then going back upstairs and breaking bread and sharing in the meal,+ and talking with them for quite some time, until sunrise, that’s how he left.
12 And they took the boy home alive and were greatly relieved.+
“I Know That None of You Will Ever See Me Again”
13 As for us, going on ahead to the ship, we set sail for the city of Assos, where we were to take Paul aboard. (He had made this arrangement+ because he wanted to go there by land.)
14 When he met us in Assos, we took him aboard and went on to the city of Mitylene.
15 From there having set sail, the next day we arrived off the island of Chios. The following day we approached the island called Samos, and the day after that we reached the city of Miletus.
16 (Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so as not to lose any time in the province of Asia, because he was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem, if at all possible, in time for the Festival of Weeks.+)
17 From Miletus Paul sent a message to Ephesus telling the elders of the assembly to come to him.+
18 When they arrived,+ he said to them, “ᵖYou yourselves know that from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia, I lived and worked among ᵖyou in the same manner until the very day I left,+
19 serving the Lord with the utmost humility and with tears despite the trials that befell me because of the plots of the unbelieving Jews,+
20 and that I didn’t shrink back from proclaiming to ᵖyou anything that would be helpful, or from teaching ᵖyou publicly and from house to house,
21 solemnly warning both Jews and Gentiles+ that they must turn to God in repentance and put their faith in our Lord Jesus.+
22 And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what it is in that city+ that awaits me.
23 I only know+ that the Holy Spirit keeps giving me strong warning in city after city, saying that it is imprisonment and suffering that lie ahead.
24 Yet I do not consider my life worth even a single word; I only want+ to finish my course and carry out the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to bear solemn witness to the gospel about the gift of God.
25 And now I must say this: I know that none of ᵖyou among whom I went about proclaiming the Kingdom will ever see me+ again.
26 That is why I am solemnly declaring to ᵖyou, on this very day, that I am in no way responsible for anyone’s blood.+
27 For I did not shrink back from proclaiming to ᵖyou the whole plan of God.
28 Keep careful watch over yourselves and the entire flock of which+ ᵖyou were appointed overseers by the Holy Spirit, to shepherd God’s assembly, which he purchased with the blood of his own Son.+
29 I know that after I leave vicious+ wolves will come in among ᵖyou, not sparing the flock.
30 Even from among ᵖyour own number men will rise up and twist the truth in order to lure the disciples into following them.+
31 That is why ᵖyou must be watchful and alert, remembering that for three years it was night and day and day and night, with tears, that I never stopped warning each one of you.
32 And now I am entrusting ᵖyou to God and to the teaching+ about his gift, the teaching+ that is able to build you up+ and give you the inheritance with+ all those who have been set apart to God.
33 I have coveted no one’s silver or gold or fine clothing.
34 ᵖYou yourselves know that it is my own needs, as well as those of my companions, for which these hands have worked to provide.
35 I have shown ᵖyou in indeed every way that by this kind of hard work we must come to the aid of the weak, bearing in mind the words of the Lord Jesus:+ ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”
36 And these things having said, kneeling down with them all, he prayed.
37 They all began to weep loudly,+ and throwing their arms around+ Paul, they bid him good-bye with a brotherly kiss,+
38 saddened especially by his statement+ that they would never see him+ again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.