Acts 20:2-29

²He visited all the Christians in the towns in Macedonia, and he told them a lot of things to help them be strong for Jesus. Then he kept going and went to Achaia country. Another name for that country is Greece.

³Paul stayed in Greece for 3 months. Then he got ready to go back to Syria on a ship. But he heard that some Jews were going to try to kill him, so he changed his mind and didn’t go on that ship. Instead, he went by road through Macedonia country again.

⁴Paul had some friends that went with him, but they didn’t go with him by road. They got on to that ship and went to the town called Troas and waited there. Those men were, – Sopater. His father was called Pyrrhus. He grew up in the town called Berea. – Aristarchus and Secundus, 2 men from Thessalonica. – Gaius, from Derbe. – Timothy, from Galatia country. – Tychicus and Trophimus, 2 men from Asia country. These men waited for Paul in Troas.

⁶But as for me, Luke, I went with Paul by road to the town called Philippi, and we stayed there. Then the time came for the Jewish people to have their flat damper ceremony, and after that we got on a ship and kept sailing for 5 days. Then we came to the town called Troas, and we met the other men that were waiting for us there. We all stayed in Troas for 7 days.

⁷On the Sunday the Christians at Troas gathered together after the sun went down, to have the special meal to remember that Jesus died for us. And we met together with them. Paul started talking to the Christians, and he kept on talking for a long time, right up until the middle of the night. You see, he was going to leave Troas the next day.

⁸We were meeting in an upstairs room. It was 3 floors high. There were a lot of oil lamps burning in that room, and the smoke made some people get sleepy.

⁹A young man called Eutychus was sitting at an open window. Paul kept talking for a long time, and Eutychus got very sleepy. Then he went properly to sleep, and he fell out of that window, all the way down 3 floors, to the ground. Some people went down to pick him up, but he was dead.

¹⁰Paul went down too, and he lay down and put his arms around the young man, and pressed himself against him. Then he said, “Don’t worry, he is alive.” And that was true. He came alive again.

¹¹Then Paul and the others went back upstairs again, and we all ate the special meal together to remember Jesus died for us. Then Paul talked with the Christians until the sun started to come up. Then he left them and went to the ship.

¹²The other people took the young man home. He was alive again, and everyone was happy.

¹³Then we went back to the ship, but Paul didn’t get on the ship with us. He wanted to go by road to the town called Assos. The rest of us got on the ship and sailed to Assos.

¹⁴We met Paul there, and he got on the ship with us, then we all sailed to the town called Mitylene.

¹⁵The next day we kept going, and we sailed to a place near Kios Island, and the next day we sailed to Samos Island. The next day we left Samos and sailed to the town called Miletus.

¹⁶Miletus is not very far from the town called Ephesus. It was nearly time for the Jewish ceremony called Pentecost, and Paul wanted to get to Jerusalem by Pentecost time, so he was in a hurry. He didn’t want to spend time in Asia country, so he didn’t want to go to Ephesus.

¹⁷So after the ship arrived at Miletus, Paul sent a message to Ephesus to get the church leaders to come to talk with him at the ship.

¹⁸After they got there, Paul talked to them. He said, “Each one of you knows the good way I lived, all the time that I was here with you in Asia country, from the first day that I was here until the day I left.

¹⁹You know the way I worked for our leader, Jesus. I didn’t try to make myself important, and I sometimes cried about people. You know that some of the Jews here tried to hurt me.

²⁰And you know that I told you all of God’s message, everything that will help you. I didn’t keep anything secret. I taught you God’s message in places where everyone heard me, and I taught you in your homes too.

²¹I talked to everyone. I talked to Jewish people and to people that are not Jews. I told all of them, ‘You have to turn to God and stop doing bad things, and believe in our leader Jesus.’”

²²Paul kept talking to them He said, “And now I want to tell you this. God’s spirit clearly showed me that I have to go to Jerusalem, so I’m going there. I don’t know what will happen to me at Jerusalem.

²³But I do know that in each town I went to, the Holy Spirit told me that the people in Jerusalem will hurt me and put me in prison.

²⁴But I will keep going to Jerusalem. I want to finish the work that our leader Jesus told me to do. I have to tell people the good news that God is good to us, and he saves us. I really don’t care about myself, even if they kill me, so long as I can tell them that good news.

²⁵I went all around your country and told you how to join God’s family. And now I know that none of you will see me again.

²⁶So I want you all to understand that if any of you doesn’t end up in God’s family, you can’t blame me.

²⁷I told all of you everything that God wants to do for you.

²⁸Now you leaders have to watch out for yourselves, and watch out for God’s people here too. Make sure you keep on following Jesus properly, and help all God’s people to follow him properly too. The Holy Spirit picked you to be their leaders, so look after them properly. Remember, God bought his people with the blood of his own son.

²⁹I know that after I go away from here, other people will come to you and they will teach you lies. They will try to trick all of God’s people. They will be like cheeky dingoes that kill sheep. Even in your own group of Christians, some men will get up and trick other Christians. They will change the true story and tell it wrong, so they can get people to follow them.