Acts 20

1After the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples, and after encouraging them, he said goodbye and set out for Macedonia.

2He went through those regions, encouraging the believers with many words, and then he came to Greece,

3where he stayed three months. Because the Jews had made a plot against him just as he was about to set sail for Syria, he decided to go back through Macedonia.

4He was accompanied by Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea, Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.

5These men went on ahead and waited for us at Troas.

6We sailed from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and five days later we joined them at Troas, where we stayed seven days.

7On the first day of the week, when we had gathered to break bread, Paul spoke to the people. Since he intended to leave the next day, he kept on talking until midnight.

8There were many lamps in the upstairs room where we were gathered.

9A young man named Eutychus, who was sitting in the window, was sinking into a deep sleep as Paul talked on and on. Overcome by sleep, he fell from the third story and was picked up dead.

10But Paul went down, threw himself on him, took him in his arms, and said, “Do not be alarmed, for his life is in him.”

11Then Paul went back upstairs, broke bread, and ate. After talking with them for a long time, until daybreak, he left.

12They took the boy home alive and were greatly comforted.

13We went on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we were to take Paul on board. He had arranged it this way, because he himself intended to go there on foot.

14When he met us at Assos, we took him on board and went on to Mitylene.

15We sailed from there, and the next day we arrived off Chios. The day after that we crossed over to Samos, and on the following day we arrived at Miletus.

16For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus so that he would not have to spend time in Asia, because he was hurrying to be in Jerusalem, if possible, by the day of Pentecost.

17From Miletus he sent a message to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church.

18When they arrived, he said to them, “You know how I lived among you the whole time, from the first day I set foot in Asia,

19serving the Lord with all humility and with tears, and through the trials that came upon me because of the plots of the Jews.

20You know that I did not hold back from telling you anything that was helpful, or from teaching you publicly and from house to house,

21testifying to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus.

22And now, bound by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there,

23except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in city after city that chains and hardships are waiting for me.

24But I do not count my life as worth anything to me, if only I may finish my race and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

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

26Therefore I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of everyone,

27for I did not hold back from declaring to you the whole purpose of God.

28Watch over yourselves and the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he acquired with his own blood.

29I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock.

30Even from among your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away the disciples after them.

31So be on your guard, remembering that for three years I never stopped warning each one of you night and day with tears.

32And now I entrust you to God and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified.

33I have not coveted anyone’s silver or gold or clothing.

34You yourselves know that these hands of mine have provided for my own needs and the needs of those who were with me.

35In everything I showed you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

36When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed.

37They all wept freely, and they embraced Paul and kissed him,

38grieving most of all because of what he had said, that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship.