The Living Bible (350 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
When it was all over, Paul sent for the disciples, preached a farewell message to them, said good-bye and left for Greece,
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preaching to the believers along the way in all the cities he passed through.
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He was in Greece three months and was preparing to sail for Syria when he discovered a plot by the Jews against his life, so he decided to go north to Macedonia first.
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Several men were traveling with him, going as far as Turkey;
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they were Sopater of Berea, the son of Pyrrhus; Aristarchus and Secundus, from Thessalonica; Gaius, from Derbe; and Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus, who were returning to their homes in Turkey,
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and had gone on ahead and were waiting for us at Troas.
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As soon as the Passover ceremonies ended, we boarded ship at Philippi in northern Greece and five days later arrived in Troas, Turkey, where we stayed a week.
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On Sunday
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we gathered for a Communion service, with Paul preaching. And since he was leaving the next day, he talked until midnight!
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The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps;
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and as Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, went fast asleep and fell three stories to his death below.
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Paul went down and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s all right!” And he was! What a wave of awesome joy swept through the crowd! They all went back upstairs and ate the Lord’s Supper together; then Paul preached another long sermon—so it was dawn when he finally left them!
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Paul was going by land to Assos, and we went on ahead by ship.
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He joined us there and we sailed together to Mitylene;
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the next day we passed Chios; the next, we touched at Samos; and a day later we arrived at Miletus.
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Paul had decided against stopping at Ephesus this time, as he was hurrying to get to Jerusalem, if possible, for the celebration of Pentecost.
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But when we landed at Miletus, he sent a message to the elders of the church at Ephesus asking them to come down to the boat to meet him.
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When they arrived he told them, “You men know that from the day I set foot in Turkey until now
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I have done the Lord’s work humbly—yes, and with tears—and have faced grave danger from the plots of the Jews against my life.
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Yet I never shrank from telling you the truth, either publicly or in your homes.
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I have had one message for Jews and Gentiles alike—the necessity of turning from sin to God through faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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“And now I am going to Jerusalem, drawn there irresistibly by the Holy Spirit,
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not knowing what awaits me,
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except that the Holy Spirit has told me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.
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But life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about God’s mighty kindness and love.
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“And now I know that none of you among whom I went about teaching the Kingdom will ever see me again.
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Let me say plainly that no man’s blood can be laid at my door,
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for I didn’t shrink from declaring all God’s message to you.
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“And now beware! Be sure that you feed and shepherd God’s flock—his church, purchased with his blood—for the Holy Spirit is holding you responsible as overseers.
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I know full well that after I leave you, false teachers, like vicious wolves, will appear among you, not sparing the flock.
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Some of you yourselves will distort the truth in order to draw a following.
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Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you—my constant watchcare over you night and day and my many tears for you.
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“And now I entrust you to God and his care and to his wonderful words that are able to build your faith and give you all the inheritance of those who are set apart for himself.
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“I have never been hungry for money or fine clothing—
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you know that these hands of mine worked to pay my own way and even to supply the needs of those who were with me.
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And I was a constant example to you in helping the poor; for I remembered the words of the Lord Jesus,
‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’
”
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When he had finished speaking, he knelt and prayed with them,
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and they wept aloud as they embraced him in farewell,
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sorrowing most of all because he said that he would never see them again. Then they accompanied him down to the ship.
After parting from the Ephesian elders, we sailed straight to Cos. The next day we reached Rhodes and then went to Patara.
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There we boarded a ship sailing for the Syrian province of Phoenicia.
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We sighted the island of Cyprus, passed it on our left, and landed at the harbor of Tyre, in Syria, where the ship unloaded.
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We went ashore, found the local believers, and stayed with them a week. These disciples warned Paul—the Holy Spirit prophesying through them—not to go on to Jerusalem.
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At the end of the week when we returned to the ship, the entire congregation including wives and children walked down to the beach with us where we prayed and said our farewells.
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Then we went aboard, and they returned home.
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The next stop after leaving Tyre was Ptolemais, where we greeted the believers but stayed only one day.
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Then we went on to Caesarea and stayed at the home of Philip the Evangelist, one of the first seven deacons.
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He had four unmarried
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daughters who had the gift of prophecy.
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During our stay of several days, a man named Agabus, who also had the gift of prophecy, arrived from Judea
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and visited us. He took Paul’s belt, bound his own feet and hands with it, and said, “The Holy Spirit declares, ‘So shall the owner of this belt be bound by the Jews in Jerusalem and turned over to the Romans.’”
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Hearing this, all of us—the local believers and his traveling companions—begged Paul not to go on to Jerusalem.
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But he said, “Why all this weeping? You are breaking my heart! For I am ready not only to be jailed at Jerusalem but also to die for the sake of the Lord Jesus.”
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When it was clear that he wouldn’t be dissuaded, we gave up and said, “The will of the Lord be done.”
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So shortly afterwards we packed our things and left for Jerusalem.
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Some disciples from Caesarea accompanied us, and on arrival we were guests at the home of Mnason, originally from Cyprus, one of the early believers;
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and all the believers at Jerusalem welcomed us cordially.
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The second day Paul took us with him to meet with James and the elders of the Jerusalem church.
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After greetings were exchanged, Paul recounted the many things God had accomplished among the Gentiles through his work.
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They praised God but then said, “You know, dear brother, how many thousands of Jews have also believed, and they are all very insistent that Jewish believers must continue to follow the Jewish traditions and customs.
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Our Jewish Christians here at Jerusalem have been told that you are against the laws of Moses, against our Jewish customs, and that you forbid the circumcision of their children.
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Now what can be done? For they will certainly hear that you have come.
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“We suggest this: We have four men here who are preparing to shave their heads and take some vows.
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Go with them to the Temple and have your head shaved too—and pay for theirs to be shaved.
“Then everyone will know that you approve of this custom for the Hebrew Christians and that you yourself obey the Jewish laws and are in line with our thinking in these matters.
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“As for the Gentile Christians, we aren’t asking them to follow these Jewish customs at all—except for the ones we wrote to them about: not to eat food offered to idols, not to eat unbled meat from strangled animals, and not to commit fornication.”
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So Paul agreed to their request and the next day went with the men to the Temple for the ceremony, thus publicizing his vow to offer a sacrifice seven days later with the others.
The seven days were almost ended when some Jews from Turkey saw him in the Temple and roused a mob against him. They grabbed him,
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yelling, “Men of Israel! Help! Help! This is the man who preaches against our people and tells everybody to disobey the Jewish laws. He even talks against the Temple and defiles it by bringing Gentiles in!”
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(For down in the city earlier that day, they had seen him with Trophimus, a Gentile
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from Ephesus in Turkey, and assumed that Paul had taken him into the Temple.)
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The whole population of the city was electrified by these accusations and a great riot followed. Paul was dragged out of the Temple, and immediately the gates were closed behind him.
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As they were killing him, word reached the commander of the Roman garrison that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.
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He quickly ordered out his soldiers and officers and ran down among the crowd. When the mob saw the troops coming, they quit beating Paul.
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The commander arrested him and ordered him bound with double chains. Then he asked the crowd who he was and what he had done.
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Some shouted one thing and some another. When he couldn’t find out anything in all the uproar and confusion, he ordered Paul to be taken to the armory.
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As they reached the stairs, the mob grew so violent that the soldiers lifted Paul to their shoulders to protect him,
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and the crowd surged behind shouting, “Away with him, away with him!”
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As Paul was about to be taken inside, he said to the commander, “May I have a word with you?”
“Do you know Greek?” the commander asked, surprised. “Aren’t you that Egyptian who led a rebellion a few years ago
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and took 4,000 members of the Assassins with him into the desert?”
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“No,” Paul replied, “I am a Jew from Tarsus in Cilicia which is no small town. I request permission to talk to these people.”
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The commander agreed, so Paul stood on the stairs and motioned to the people to be quiet; soon a deep silence enveloped the crowd, and he addressed them in Hebrew as follows: