Acts 20

¹After the uproar subsided, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said his goodbyes and departed to travel into Macedonia. ²When he had gone through those regions and had given the people much encouragement through his teaching, he came to Greece ³and stayed there for three months. Just as he was about to set sail for Syria, a plot was hatched against him by the Judeans, so he decided to return through Macedonia. ⁴He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Beroea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia. ⁵These men went on ahead and were waiting for us in Troas. ⁶But we sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and within five days we reached them at Troas, where we stayed for seven days.

⁷On the first day of the week, when we had gathered to break bread, Paul began talking with them. Since he intended to leave the next day, he extended his message until midnight. ⁸There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were gathered. ⁹A young man named Eutychus was sitting in the window, and as Paul talked on and on, Eutychus was overcome by a deep sleep. While he was fast asleep, he fell from the third story to the ground below and was picked up dead. ¹⁰Paul went down, threw himself upon him, and took him in his arms, saying, “Do not be alarmed, for his life-force is still in him.” ¹¹Then Paul went back upstairs, broke the bread and ate, and after conversing with them for a long time until daybreak, he departed. ¹²They took the lad away alive, and were greatly comforted.

¹³We went on ahead to the ship and set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there; for that was how he had arranged it, intending himself to go on foot. ¹⁴When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went to Mitylene. ¹⁵Sailing from there, we arrived opposite Chios the following day. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the next day we came to Miletus. ¹⁶Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in the province of Asia; for he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.

¹⁷From Miletus, he sent word to Ephesus and called for the elders of the community to come to him. ¹⁸When they arrived, he said to them: “You yourselves know how I lived among you the entire time from the first day I set foot in Asia. ¹⁹I served the Lord with all humility and with tears, through the trials that came upon me because of the plots of the Judeans. ²⁰You know that I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was for your benefit, teaching you both publicly and from house to house. ²¹I testified to both Judeans and Greeks about the reorientation toward God and trust in our Lord Jesus.

²²And now, look—bound by the Spirit, I am on my way to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there, ²³except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in city after city that imprisonment and hardships await me. ²⁴But I do not consider my life-force as having any value to myself, so long as I might finish my course and the service I received from the Lord Jesus—to testify to the good news of God’s grace.

²⁵And now, look—I know that none of you among whom I went about proclaiming the kingdom will ever see my face again. ²⁶Therefore, I declare to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all people, ²⁷for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole purpose of God. ²⁸Keep watch over yourselves and over the entire flock, in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as guardians, to shepherd the community of God, which he obtained through the blood of his own. ²⁹I know that after my departure vicious wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. ³⁰Even from among your own number, men will rise up speaking distorted things to pull the disciples away after themselves. ³¹Therefore, stay alert! Remember that for three years, night and day, I never stopped warning each one of you with tears.

³²And now I commend you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. ³³I coveted no one’s silver or gold or clothing. ³⁴You yourselves know that these hands of mine served my own needs and the needs of those who were with me. ³⁵In everything I showed you that by laboring in this way we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

³⁶When he had said these things, he knelt down with them all and prayed. ³⁷There was much weeping among them all as they embraced Paul and kissed him. ³⁸They were grieved most of all by the word he had spoken—that they would never see his face again. Then they escorted him to the ship.