Acts 20:4-23:35

⁴ His companions for the journey were Sopater, son of Pyrrhus, from Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus, both Thessalonians; Gaius from Derbe; Timothy; and the two from western Asia, Tychicus and Trophimus. ⁵ They went on ahead and waited for us in Troas. ⁶ Meanwhile, we stayed in Philippi for Passover Week, and then set sail. Within five days we were again in Troas and stayed a week.

Paul's Farewell Visit at Troas

⁷ We met on Sunday to worship and celebrate the Master's Supper. Paul addressed the congregation. Our plan was to leave first thing in the morning, but Paul talked on, way past midnight. ⁸ We were meeting in a well-lighted upper room. ⁹ A young man named Eutychus was sitting in an open window. As Paul went on and on, Eutychus fell sound asleep and toppled out the third-story window. When they picked him up, he was dead. ¹⁰ Paul went down, stretched himself on him, and hugged him hard. "No more crying," he said. "There's life in him yet." ¹¹ Then Paul got up and served the Master's Supper. And went on telling stories of the faith until dawn! On that note, they left - Paul going one way, ¹² the congregation another, leading the boy off alive, and full of life themselves.

The Voyage from Troas to Miletus

¹³ In the meantime, the rest of us had gone on ahead to the ship and sailed for Assos, where we planned to pick up Paul. Paul wanted to walk there, and so had made these arrangements earlier. ¹⁴ Things went according to plan: We met him in Assos, took him on board, and sailed to Mitylene. ¹⁵ The next day we put in opposite Chios, Samos a day later, and then Miletus. ¹⁶ Paul had decided to bypass Ephesus so that he wouldn't be held up in Asia province. He was in a hurry to get to Jerusalem in time for the Feast of Pentecost, if at all possible.

Paul's Address to the Ephesian Elders

¹⁷ From Miletus he sent to Ephesus for the leaders of the congregation. ¹⁸ When they arrived, he said, "You know that from day one of my arrival in Asia I was with you totally - ¹⁹ laying my life on the line, serving the Master no matter what, putting up with no end of scheming by Jews who wanted to do me in. ²⁰ I didn't skimp or trim in any way. Every truth and encouragement that could have made a difference to you, you got. I taught you out in public and I taught you in your homes, ²¹ urging Jews and Greeks alike to a radical life-change before God and an equally radical trust in our Master Jesus. ²² "But there is another urgency before me now. I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I'm completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. ²³ I do know that it won't be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. ²⁴ But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God. ²⁵ "And so this is good-bye. You're not going to see me again, nor I you, you whom I have gone among for so long proclaiming the news of God's inaugurated kingdom. ²⁶ I've done my best for you, given you my all, ²⁷ held back nothing of God's will for you. ²⁸ "Now it's up to you. Be on your toes - both for yourselves and your congregation of sheep. The Holy Spirit has put you in charge of these people - God's people they are - to guard and protect them. God himself thought they were worth dying for. ²⁹ "I know that as soon as I'm gone, vicious wolves are going to show up and rip into this flock, men ³⁰ from your very own ranks twisting words so as to seduce disciples into following them instead of Jesus. ³¹ So stay awake and keep up your guard. Remember those three years I kept at it with you, never letting up, pouring my heart out with you, one after another. ³² "Now I'm turning you over to God, our marvelous God whose gracious Word can make you into what he wants you to be and give you everything you could possibly need in this community of holy friends. ³³ "I've never, as you so well know, had any taste for wealth or fashion. ³⁴ With these bare hands I took care of my own basic needs and those who worked with me. ³⁵ In everything I've done, I have demonstrated to you how necessary it is to work on behalf of the weak and not exploit them. You'll not likely go wrong here if you keep remembering that our Master said, 'You're far happier giving than getting.'"

³⁶ Then Paul went down on his knees, all of them kneeling with him, and prayed. ³⁷ And then a river of tears. Much clinging to Paul, not wanting to let him go. ³⁸ They knew they would never see him again - he had told them quite plainly. The pain cut deep. Then, bravely, they walked him down to the ship.

Paul's Journey to Jerusalem

21¹ And so, with the tearful good-byes behind us, we were on our way. We made a straight run to Cos, the next day reached Rhodes, and then Patara. ² There we found a ship going direct to Phoenicia, got on board, and set sail. ³ Cyprus came into view on our left, but was soon out of sight as we kept on course for Syria, and eventually docked in the port of Tyre. While the cargo was being unloaded, ⁴ we looked up the local disciples and stayed with them seven days. Their message to Paul, from insight given by the Spirit, was "Don't go to Jerusalem." ⁵ When our time was up, they escorted us out of the city to the docks. Everyone came along - men, women, children. They made a farewell party of the occasion! We all kneeled together on the beach and prayed. ⁶ Then, after another round of saying good-bye, we climbed on board the ship while they drifted back to their homes. ⁷ A short run from Tyre to Ptolemais completed the voyage. We greeted our Christian friends there and stayed with them a day.

⁸ In the morning we went on to Caesarea and stayed with Philip the Evangelist, one of "the Seven." ⁹ Philip had four virgin daughters who prophesied. ¹⁰ After several days of visiting, a prophet from Judea by the name of Agabus came down to see us. ¹¹ He went right up to Paul, took Paul's belt, and, in a dramatic gesture, tied himself up, hands and feet. He said, "This is what the Holy Spirit says: The Jews in Jerusalem are going to tie up the man who owns this belt just like this and hand him over to godless unbelievers." ¹² When we heard that, we and everyone there that day begged Paul not to be stubborn and persist in going to Jerusalem. ¹³ But Paul wouldn't budge: "Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You're looking at this backwards. The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience. Can't you see that?" ¹⁴ We saw that we weren't making even a dent in his resolve, and gave up. "It's in God's hands now," we said. "Master, you handle it."

¹⁵ It wasn't long before we had our luggage together and were on our way to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ Some of the disciples from Caesarea went with us and took us to the home of Mnason, who received us warmly as his guests. A native of Cyprus, he had been among the earliest disciples.

Paul Arrested in the Temple

¹⁷ In Jerusalem, our friends, glad to see us, received us with open arms. ¹⁸ The first thing next morning, we took Paul to see James. All the church leaders were there. ¹⁹ After a time of greeting and small talk, Paul told the story, detail by detail, of what God had done among the Gentiles through his ministry. ²⁰ They listened with delight and gave God the glory. ²¹ They've been told that you advise believing Jews who live surrounded by Gentiles to go light on Moses, telling them that they don't need to circumcise their children or keep up the old traditions. This isn't sitting at all well with them. ²² "We're worried about what will happen when they discover you're in town. There's bound to be trouble. So here is what we want you to do: ²³ There are four men from our company who have taken a vow involving ritual purification, but have no money to pay the expenses. ²⁴ Join these men in their vows and pay their expenses. Then it will become obvious to everyone that there is nothing to the rumors going around about you and that you are in fact scrupulous in your reverence for the laws of Moses. ²⁵ "In asking you to do this, we're not going back on our agreement regarding Gentiles who have become believers. We continue to hold fast to what we wrote in that letter, namely, to be careful not to get involved in activities connected with idols; to avoid serving food offensive to Jewish Christians; to guard the morality of sex and marriage." ²⁶ So Paul did it - took the men, joined them in their vows, and paid their way. The next day he went to the Temple to make it official and stay there until the proper sacrifices had been offered and completed for each of them.

²⁷ When the seven days of their purification were nearly up, some Jews from around Ephesus spotted him in the Temple. At once they turned the place upside-down. They grabbed Paul ²⁸ and started yelling at the top of their lungs, "Help! You Israelites, help! This is the man who is going all over the world telling lies against us and our religion and this place. He's even brought Greeks in here and defiled this holy place." ²⁹ (What had happened was that they had seen Paul and Trophimus, the Ephesian Greek, walking together in the city and had just assumed that he had also taken him to the Temple and shown him around.) ³⁰ Soon the whole city was in an uproar, people running from everywhere to the Temple to get in on the action. They grabbed Paul, dragged him outside, and locked the Temple gates so he couldn't get back in and gain sanctuary. ³¹ As they were trying to kill him, word came to the captain of the guard, "A riot! The whole city's boiling over!" ³² He acted swiftly. His soldiers and centurions ran to the scene at once. As soon as the mob saw the captain and his soldiers, they quit beating Paul. ³³ The captain came up and put Paul under arrest. He first ordered him handcuffed, and then asked who he was and what he had done. ³⁴ All he got from the crowd were shouts, one yelling this, another that. It was impossible to tell one word from another in the mob hysteria, so the captain ordered Paul taken to the military barracks. ³⁵ But when they got to the Temple steps, the mob became so violent that the soldiers had to carry Paul. ³⁶ As they carried him away, the crowd followed, shouting, "Kill him! Kill him!"

Paul's Defense before the People

³⁷ When they got to the barracks and were about to go in, Paul said to the captain, "Can I say something to you?" ³⁸ I thought you were the Egyptian who not long ago started a riot here, and then hid out in the desert with his four thousand thugs." ³⁹ Paul said, "No, I'm a Jew, born in Tarsus. And I'm a citizen still of that influential city. I have a simple request: Let me speak to the crowd." ⁴⁰ Standing on the barracks steps, Paul turned and held his arms up. A hush fell over the crowd as Paul began to speak. He spoke in Hebrew.

22¹ "My dear brothers and fathers, listen carefully to what I have to say before you jump to conclusions about me." ² When they heard him speaking Hebrew, they grew even quieter. No one wanted to miss a word of this.

³ "I am a good Jew, born in Tarsus in the province of Cilicia, but educated here in Jerusalem under the exacting eye of Rabbi Gamaliel, thoroughly instructed in our religious traditions. And I've always been passionately on God's side, just as you are right now. ⁴ "I went after anyone connected with this 'Way,' went at them hammer and tongs, ready to kill for God. I rounded up men and women right and left and had them thrown in prison. ⁵ You can ask the Chief Priest or anyone in the High Council to verify this; they all knew me well. Then I went off to our brothers in Damascus, armed with official documents authorizing me to hunt down the Christians there, arrest them, and bring them back to Jerusalem for sentencing.

Paul Tells of His Conversion

⁶ "As I arrived on the outskirts of Damascus about noon, a blinding light blazed out of the skies ⁷ and I fell to the ground, dazed. I heard a voice: 'Saul, Saul, why are you out to get me?' ⁸ "'Who are you, Master?' I asked. ⁹ My companions saw the light, but they didn't hear the conversation. ¹⁰ "Then I said, 'What do I do now, Master?' ¹¹ And so we entered Damascus, but nothing like the entrance I had planned - I was blind as a bat and my companions had to lead me in by the hand. ¹² "And that's when I met Ananias, a man with a sterling reputation in observing our laws - the Jewish community in Damascus is unanimous on that score. ¹³ He came and put his arm on my shoulder. 'Look up,' he said. I looked, and found myself looking right into his eyes - I could see again! ¹⁴ "Then he said, 'The God of our ancestors has handpicked you to be briefed on his plan of action. You've actually seen the Righteous Innocent and heard him speak. ¹⁵ You are to be a key witness to everyone you meet of what you've seen and heard. ¹⁶ So what are you waiting for? Get up and get yourself baptized, scrubbed clean of those sins and personally acquainted with God.'

Paul's Call to the Gentiles

¹⁷ "Well, it happened just as Ananias said. After I was back in Jerusalem and praying one day in the Temple, lost in the presence of God, ¹⁸ I saw him, saw God's Righteous Innocent, and heard him say to me, 'Hurry up! Get out of here as quickly as you can. None of the Jews here in Jerusalem are going to accept what you say about me.' ¹⁹ "At first I objected: 'Who has better credentials? They all know how obsessed I was with hunting out those who believed in you, beating them up in the meeting places and throwing them in jail. ²⁰ And when your witness Stephen was murdered, I was right there, holding the coats of the murderers and cheering them on. And now they see me totally converted. What better qualification could I have?' ²¹ "But he said, 'Don't argue. Go. I'm sending you on a long journey to outsider Gentiles.'"

Paul in the Custody of the Chief Captain

²² The people in the crowd had listened attentively up to this point, but now they broke loose, shouting out, "Kill him! He's an insect! Stomp on him!" ²³ They shook their fists. They filled the air with curses. ²⁴ That's when the captain intervened and ordered Paul taken into the barracks. By now the captain was thoroughly exasperated. He decided to interrogate Paul under torture in order to get to the bottom of this, to find out what he had done that provoked this outraged violence. ²⁵ As they spread-eagled him with thongs, getting him ready for the whip, Paul said to the centurion standing there, "Is this legal: torturing a Roman citizen without a fair trial?" ²⁶ When the centurion heard that, he went directly to the captain. "Do you realize what you've done? This man is a Roman citizen!" ²⁷ The captain came back and took charge. "Is what I hear right? You're a Roman citizen?" Paul said, "I certainly am." ²⁸ The captain was impressed. "I paid a huge sum for my citizenship. How much did it cost you?" "Nothing," said Paul. "It cost me nothing. I was free from the day of my birth." ²⁹ That put a stop to the interrogation. And it put the fear of God into the captain. He had put a Roman citizen in chains and come within a whisker of putting him under torture!

Paul before the Council

³⁰ The next day, determined to get to the root of the trouble and know for sure what was behind the Jewish accusation, the captain released Paul and ordered a meeting of the high priests and the High Council to see what they could make of it. Paul was led in and took his place before them.

23¹ Paul surveyed the members of the council with a steady gaze, and then said his piece: "Friends, I've lived with a clear conscience before God all my life, up to this very moment." ² That set the Chief Priest Ananias off. He ordered his aides to slap Paul in the face. ³ Paul shot back, "God will slap you down! What a fake you are! You sit there and judge me by the Law and then break the Law by ordering me slapped around!" ⁴ The aides were scandalized: "How dare you talk to God's Chief Priest like that! ⁵ Paul acted surprised. "How was I to know he was Chief Priest? He doesn't act like a Chief Priest. You're right, the Scripture does say, 'Don't speak abusively to a ruler of the people.' Sorry."

⁶ Paul, knowing some of the council was made up of Sadducees and others of Pharisees and how they hated each other, decided to exploit their antagonism: "Friends, I am a stalwart Pharisee from a long line of Pharisees. It's because of my Pharisee convictions - the hope and resurrection of the dead - that I've been hauled into this court." ⁷ The moment he said this, the council split right down the middle, Pharisees and Sadducees going at each other in heated argument. ⁸ Sadducees have nothing to do with a resurrection or angels or even a spirit. If they can't see it, they don't believe it. Pharisees believe it all. ⁹ And so a huge and noisy quarrel broke out. Then some of the religion scholars on the Pharisee side shouted down the others: "We don't find anything wrong with this man! And what if a spirit has spoken to him? Or maybe an angel? What if it turns out we're fighting against God?" ¹⁰ That was fuel on the fire. The quarrel flamed up and became so violent the captain was afraid they would tear Paul apart, limb from limb. He ordered the soldiers to get him out of there and escort him back to the safety of the barracks. ¹¹ That night the Master appeared to Paul: "It's going to be all right. Everything is going to turn out for the best. You've been a good witness for me here in Jerusalem. Now you're going to be my witness in Rome!"

The Plot against Paul's Life

¹² Next day the Jews worked up a plot against Paul. They took a solemn oath that they would neither eat nor drink until they had killed him. ¹³ Over forty of them ritually bound themselves to this murder pact ¹⁴ and presented themselves to the high priests and religious leaders. "We've bound ourselves by a solemn oath to eat nothing until we have killed Paul ¹⁵ But we need your help. Send a request from the council to the captain to bring Paul back so that you can investigate the charges in more detail. We'll do the rest. Before he gets anywhere near you, we'll have killed him. You won't be involved." ¹⁶ Paul's nephew, his sister's son, overheard them plotting the ambush. He went immediately to the barracks and told Paul. ¹⁷ Paul called over one of the centurions and said, "Take this young man to the captain. He has something important to tell him." ¹⁸ The centurion brought him to the captain and said, "The prisoner Paul asked me to bring this young man to you. He said he has something urgent to tell you." ¹⁹ The captain took him by the arm and led him aside privately. "What is it? What do you have to tell me? ²⁰ Paul's nephew said, "The Jews have worked up a plot against Paul. They're going to ask you to bring Paul to the council first thing in the morning on the pretext that they want to investigate the charges against him in more detail. ²¹ But it's a trick to get him out of your safekeeping so they can murder him. Right now there are more than forty men lying in ambush for him. They've all taken a vow to neither eat nor drink until they've killed him. The ambush is set - all they're waiting for is for you to send him over. ²² The captain dismissed the nephew with a warning: "Don't breathe a word of this to a soul."

Paul Sent to Felix the Governor

²³ The captain called up two centurions. "Get two hundred soldiers ready to go immediately to Caesarea. Also seventy cavalry and two hundred light infantry. I want them ready to march by nine o'clock tonight. ²⁴ And you'll need a couple of mules for Paul and his gear. We're going to present this man safe and sound to Governor Felix." ²⁵ Then he wrote this letter: ²⁶ From Claudius Lysias, to the Most Honorable Governor Felix: ²⁷ I rescued this man from a Jewish mob. They had seized him and were about to kill him when I learned that he was a Roman citizen. So I sent in my soldiers. ²⁸ Wanting to know what he had done wrong, I had him brought before their council. ²⁹ It turned out to be a squabble turned vicious over some of their religious differences, but nothing remotely criminal. ³⁰ The next thing I knew, they had cooked up a plot to murder him. I decided that for his own safety I'd better get him out of here in a hurry. So I'm sending him to you. I'm informing his accusers that he's now under your jurisdiction. ³¹ The soldiers, following orders, took Paul that same night to safety in Antipatris. ³² In the morning the soldiers returned to their barracks in Jerusalem, sending Paul on to Caesarea under guard of the cavalry. ³³ The cavalry entered Caesarea and handed Paul and the letter over to the governor. ³⁴ After reading the letter, the governor asked Paul what province he came from and was told "Cilicia." ³⁵ Then he said, "I'll take up your case when your accusers show up." He ordered him locked up for the meantime in King Herod's official quarters.