Professor Horner’s Reading Plan

¹The Festival of Unleavened Bread, which is also called Passover, was approaching.

²The leading priests and teachers of religious law were plotting how to kill Jesus, but they were afraid of the people’s reaction.

³Then Satan entered into Judas Iscariot, who was one of the twelve disciples,

⁴and he went to the leading priests and captains of the Temple guard to discuss the best way to betray Jesus to them.

⁵They were delighted, and they promised to give him money.

⁶So he agreed and began looking for an opportunity to betray Jesus so they could arrest him when the crowds weren’t around.

⁷Now the Festival of Unleavened Bread arrived, when the Passover lamb is sacrificed.

⁸Jesus sent Peter and John ahead and said, “Go and prepare the Passover meal, so we can eat it together.”

⁹“Where do you want us to prepare it?” they asked him.

¹⁰He replied, “As soon as you enter Jerusalem, a man carrying a pitcher of water will meet you. Follow him. At the house he enters,

¹¹say to the owner, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room where I can eat the Passover meal with my disciples?’

¹²He will take you upstairs to a large room that is already set up. That is where you should prepare our meal.”

¹³They went off to the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and they prepared the Passover meal there.

¹⁴When the time came, Jesus and the apostles sat down together at the table.

¹⁵Jesus said, “I have been very eager to eat this Passover meal with you before my suffering begins.

¹⁶For I tell you now that I won’t eat this meal again until its meaning is fulfilled in the Kingdom of God.”

¹⁷Then he took a cup of wine and gave thanks to God for it. Then he said, “Take this and share it among yourselves.

¹⁸For I will not drink wine again until the Kingdom of God has come.”

¹⁹He took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. Then he broke it in pieces and gave it to the disciples, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.”

²⁰After supper he took another cup of wine and said, “This cup is the new covenant between God and his people — an agreement confirmed with my blood, which is poured out as a sacrifice for you.

²¹“But here at this table, sitting among us as a friend, is the man who will betray me.

²²For it has been determined that the Son of Man must die. But what sorrow awaits the one who betrays him.”

²³The disciples began to ask each other which of them would ever do such a thing.

²⁴Then they began to argue among themselves about who would be the greatest among them.

²⁵Jesus told them, “In this world the kings and great men lord it over their people, yet they are called ‘friends of the people.’

²⁶But among you it will be different. Those who are the greatest among you should take the lowest rank, and the leader should be like a servant.

²⁷Who is more important, the one who sits at the table or the one who serves? The one who sits at the table, of course. But not here! For I am among you as one who serves.

²⁸“You have stayed with me in my time of trial.

²⁹And just as my Father has granted me a Kingdom, I now grant you the right

³⁰to eat and drink at my table in my Kingdom. And you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

³¹“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat.

³²But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen your brothers.”

³³Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.”

³⁴But Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something. Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

³⁵Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you out to preach the Good News and you did not have money, a traveler’s bag, or an extra pair of sandals, did you need anything?” “No,” they replied.

³⁶“But now,” he said, “take your money and a traveler’s bag. And if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one!

³⁷For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: ‘He was counted among the rebels.’ Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.”

³⁸“Look, Lord,” they replied, “we have two swords among us.” “That’s enough,” he said.

³⁹Then, accompanied by the disciples, Jesus left the upstairs room and went as usual to the Mount of Olives.

⁴⁰There he told them, “Pray that you will not give in to temptation.”

⁴¹He walked away, about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed,

⁴²“Father, if you are willing, please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will to be done, not mine.”

⁴³Then an angel from heaven appeared and strengthened him.

⁴⁴He prayed more fervently, and he was in such agony of spirit that his sweat fell to the ground like great drops of blood.

⁴⁵At last he stood up again and returned to the disciples, only to find them asleep, exhausted from grief.

⁴⁶“Why are you sleeping?” he asked them. “Get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.”

⁴⁷But even as Jesus said this, a crowd approached, led by Judas, one of the twelve disciples. Judas walked over to Jesus to greet him with a kiss.

⁴⁸But Jesus said, “Judas, would you betray the Son of Man with a kiss?”

⁴⁹When the other disciples saw what was about to happen, they exclaimed, “Lord, should we fight? We brought the swords!”

⁵⁰And one of them struck at the high priest’s slave, slashing off his right ear.

⁵¹But Jesus said, “No more of this.” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him.

⁵²Then Jesus spoke to the leading priests, the captains of the Temple guard, and the elders who had come for him. “Am I some dangerous revolutionary,” he asked, “that you come with swords and clubs to arrest me?

⁵³Why didn’t you arrest me in the Temple? I was there every day. But this is your moment, the time when the power of darkness reigns.”

⁵⁴So they arrested him and led him to the high priest’s home. And Peter followed at a distance.

⁵⁵The guards lit a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat around it, and Peter joined them there.

⁵⁶A servant girl noticed him in the firelight and began staring at him. Finally she said, “This man was one of Jesus’ followers!”

⁵⁷But Peter denied it. “Woman,” he said, “I don’t even know him!”

⁵⁸After a while someone else looked at him and said, “You must be one of them!” “No, man, I’m not!” Peter retorted.

⁵⁹About an hour later someone else insisted, “This must be one of them, because he is a Galilean, too.”

⁶⁰But Peter said, “Man, I don’t know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.

⁶¹At that moment the Lord turned and looked at Peter. Suddenly, the Lord’s words flashed through Peter’s mind: “Before the rooster crows tomorrow morning, you will deny three times that you even know me.”

⁶²And Peter left the courtyard, weeping bitterly.

⁶³The guards in charge of Jesus began mocking and beating him.

⁶⁴They blindfolded him and said, “Prophesy to us! Who hit you that time?”

⁶⁵And they hurled all sorts of terrible insults at him.

⁶⁶At daybreak all the elders of the people assembled, including the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. Jesus was led before this high council,

⁶⁷and they said, “Tell us, are you the Messiah?” But he replied, “If I tell you, you won’t believe me.

⁶⁸And if I ask you a question, you won’t answer.

⁶⁹But from now on the Son of Man will be seated in the place of power at God’s right hand. ”

⁷⁰They all shouted, “So, are you claiming to be the Son of God?” And he replied, “You say that I am.”

⁷¹“Why do we need other witnesses?” they said. “We ourselves heard him say it.”

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pay close attention to this. I will make you seem like God to Pharaoh, and your brother, Aaron, will be your prophet.

²Tell Aaron everything I command you, and Aaron must command Pharaoh to let the people of Israel leave his country.

³But I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn so I can multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.

⁴Even then Pharaoh will refuse to listen to you. So I will bring down my fist on Egypt. Then I will rescue my forces — my people, the Israelites — from the land of Egypt with great acts of judgment.

⁵When I raise my powerful hand and bring out the Israelites, the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.”

⁶So Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD had commanded them.

⁷Moses was eighty years old, and Aaron was eighty-three when they made their demands to Pharaoh.

⁸Then the LORD said to Moses and Aaron,

⁹“Pharaoh will demand, ‘Show me a miracle.’ When he does this, say to Aaron, ‘Take your staff and throw it down in front of Pharaoh, and it will become a serpent. ’”

¹⁰So Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did what the LORD had commanded them. Aaron threw down his staff before Pharaoh and his officials, and it became a serpent!

¹¹Then Pharaoh called in his own wise men and sorcerers, and these Egyptian magicians did the same thing with their magic.

¹²They threw down their staffs, which also became serpents! But then Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs.

¹³Pharaoh’s heart, however, remained hard. He still refused to listen, just as the LORD had predicted.

¹⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Pharaoh’s heart is stubborn, and he still refuses to let the people go.

¹⁵So go to Pharaoh in the morning as he goes down to the river. Stand on the bank of the Nile and meet him there. Be sure to take along the staff that turned into a snake.

¹⁶Then announce to him, ‘The LORD, the God of the Hebrews, has sent me to tell you, “Let my people go, so they can worship me in the wilderness.” Until now, you have refused to listen to him.

¹⁷So this is what the LORD says: “I will show you that I am the LORD.” Look! I will strike the water of the Nile with this staff in my hand, and the river will turn to blood.

¹⁸The fish in it will die, and the river will stink. The Egyptians will not be able to drink any water from the Nile.’”

¹⁹Then the LORD said to Moses: “Tell Aaron, ‘Take your staff and raise your hand over the waters of Egypt — all its rivers, canals, ponds, and all the reservoirs. Turn all the water to blood. Everywhere in Egypt the water will turn to blood, even the water stored in wooden bowls and stone pots.’”

²⁰So Moses and Aaron did just as the LORD commanded them. As Pharaoh and all of his officials watched, Aaron raised his staff and struck the water of the Nile. Suddenly, the whole river turned to blood!

²¹The fish in the river died, and the water became so foul that the Egyptians couldn’t drink it. There was blood everywhere throughout the land of Egypt.

²²But again the magicians of Egypt used their magic, and they, too, turned water into blood. So Pharaoh’s heart remained hard. He refused to listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had predicted.

²³Pharaoh returned to his palace and put the whole thing out of his mind.

²⁴Then all the Egyptians dug along the riverbank to find drinking water, for they couldn’t drink the water from the Nile.

²⁵Seven days passed from the time the LORD struck the Nile.

¹Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved.

²I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal.

³For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law.

⁴For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in him are made right with God.

⁵For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands.

⁶But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth).

⁷And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).”

⁸In fact, it says, “The message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart.” And that message is the very message about faith that we preach:

⁹If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

¹⁰For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved.

¹¹As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in him will never be disgraced.”

¹²Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on him.

¹³For “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.”

¹⁴But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?

¹⁵And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

¹⁶But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “LORD, who has believed our message?”

¹⁷So faith comes from hearing, that is, hearing the Good News about Christ.

¹⁸But I ask, have the people of Israel actually heard the message? Yes, they have: “The message has gone throughout the earth, and the words to all the world.”

¹⁹But I ask, did the people of Israel really understand? Yes, they did, for even in the time of Moses, God said, “I will rouse your jealousy through people who are not even a nation. I will provoke your anger through the foolish Gentiles.”

²⁰And later Isaiah spoke boldly for God, saying, “I was found by people who were not looking for me. I showed myself to those who were not asking for me.”

²¹But regarding Israel, God said, “All day long I opened my arms to them, but they were disobedient and rebellious.”

¹As I watched, the Lamb broke the first of the seven seals on the scroll. Then I heard one of the four living beings say with a voice like thunder, “Come!”

²I looked up and saw a white horse standing there. Its rider carried a bow, and a crown was placed on his head. He rode out to win many battles and gain the victory.

³When the Lamb broke the second seal, I heard the second living being say, “Come!”

⁴Then another horse appeared, a red one. Its rider was given a mighty sword and the authority to take peace from the earth. And there was war and slaughter everywhere.

⁵When the Lamb broke the third seal, I heard the third living being say, “Come!” I looked up and saw a black horse, and its rider was holding a pair of scales in his hand.

⁶And I heard a voice from among the four living beings say, “A loaf of wheat bread or three loaves of barley will cost a day’s pay. And don’t waste the olive oil and wine.”

⁷When the Lamb broke the fourth seal, I heard the fourth living being say, “Come!”

⁸I looked up and saw a horse whose color was pale green. Its rider was named Death, and his companion was the Grave. These two were given authority over one-fourth of the earth, to kill with the sword and famine and disease and wild animals.

⁹When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of all who had been martyred for the word of God and for being faithful in their testimony.

¹⁰They shouted to the Lord and said, “O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you judge the people who belong to this world and avenge our blood for what they have done to us?”

¹¹Then a white robe was given to each of them. And they were told to rest a little longer until the full number of their brothers and sisters — their fellow servants of Jesus who were to be martyred — had joined them.

¹²I watched as the Lamb broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake. The sun became as dark as black cloth, and the moon became as red as blood.

¹³Then the stars of the sky fell to the earth like green figs falling from a tree shaken by a strong wind.

¹⁴The sky was rolled up like a scroll, and all of the mountains and islands were moved from their places.

¹⁵Then everyone — the kings of the earth, the rulers, the generals, the wealthy, the powerful, and every slave and free person — all hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

¹⁶And they cried to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the one who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb.

¹⁷For the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to survive?”

¹You are beautiful, my darling, beautiful beyond words. Your eyes are like doves behind your veil. Your hair falls in waves, like a flock of goats winding down the slopes of Gilead.

²Your teeth are as white as sheep, recently shorn and freshly washed. Your smile is flawless, each tooth matched with its twin.

³Your lips are like scarlet ribbon; your mouth is inviting. Your cheeks are like rosy pomegranates behind your veil.

⁴Your neck is as beautiful as the tower of David, jeweled with the shields of a thousand heroes.

⁵Your breasts are like two fawns, twin fawns of a gazelle grazing among the lilies.

⁶Before the dawn breezes blow and the night shadows flee, I will hurry to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense.

⁷You are altogether beautiful, my darling, beautiful in every way.

⁸Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, come with me from Lebanon. Come down from Mount Amana, from the peaks of Senir and Hermon, where the lions have their dens and leopards live among the hills.

⁹You have captured my heart, my treasure, my bride. You hold it hostage with one glance of your eyes, with a single jewel of your necklace.

¹⁰Your love delights me, my treasure, my bride. Your love is better than wine, your perfume more fragrant than spices.

¹¹Your lips are as sweet as nectar, my bride. Honey and milk are under your tongue. Your clothes are scented like the cedars of Lebanon.

¹²You are my private garden, my treasure, my bride, a secluded spring, a hidden fountain.

¹³Your thighs shelter a paradise of pomegranates with rare spices — henna with nard,

¹⁴nard and saffron, fragrant calamus and cinnamon, with all the trees of frankincense, myrrh, and aloes, and every other lovely spice.

¹⁵You are a garden fountain, a well of fresh water streaming down from Lebanon’s mountains.

¹⁶Awake, north wind! Rise up, south wind! Blow on my garden and spread its fragrance all around. Come into your garden, my love; taste its finest fruits.

¹O LORD, the God of vengeance, O God of vengeance, let your glorious justice shine forth!

²Arise, O Judge of the earth. Give the proud what they deserve.

³How long, O LORD? How long will the wicked be allowed to gloat?

⁴How long will they speak with arrogance? How long will these evil people boast?

⁵They crush your people, LORD, hurting those you claim as your own.

⁶They kill widows and foreigners and murder orphans.

⁷“The LORD isn’t looking,” they say, “and besides, the God of Israel doesn’t care.”

⁸Think again, you fools! When will you finally catch on?

⁹Is he deaf — the one who made your ears? Is he blind — the one who formed your eyes?

¹⁰He punishes the nations — won’t he also punish you? He knows everything — doesn’t he also know what you are doing?

¹¹The LORD knows people’s thoughts; he knows they are worthless!

¹²Joyful are those you discipline, LORD, those you teach with your instructions.

¹³You give them relief from troubled times until a pit is dug to capture the wicked.

¹⁴The LORD will not reject his people; he will not abandon his special possession.

¹⁵Judgment will again be founded on justice, and those with virtuous hearts will pursue it.

¹⁶Who will protect me from the wicked? Who will stand up for me against evildoers?

¹⁷Unless the LORD had helped me, I would soon have settled in the silence of the grave.

¹⁸I cried out, “I am slipping!” but your unfailing love, O LORD, supported me.

¹⁹When doubts filled my mind, your comfort gave me renewed hope and cheer.

²⁰Can unjust leaders claim that God is on their side — leaders whose decrees permit injustice?

²¹They gang up against the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.

²²But the LORD is my fortress; my God is the mighty rock where I hide.

²³God will turn the sins of evil people back on them. He will destroy them for their sins. The LORD our God will destroy them.

¹Don’t brag about tomorrow, since you don’t know what the day will bring.

²Let someone else praise you, not your own mouth — a stranger, not your own lips.

³A stone is heavy and sand is weighty, but the resentment caused by a fool is even heavier.

⁴Anger is cruel, and wrath is like a flood, but jealousy is even more dangerous.

⁵An open rebuke is better than hidden love!

⁶Wounds from a sincere friend are better than many kisses from an enemy.

⁷A person who is full refuses honey, but even bitter food tastes sweet to the hungry.

⁸A person who strays from home is like a bird that strays from its nest.

⁹The heartfelt counsel of a friend is as sweet as perfume and incense.

¹⁰Never abandon a friend — either yours or your father’s. When disaster strikes, you won’t have to ask your brother for assistance. It’s better to go to a neighbor than to a brother who lives far away.

¹¹Be wise, my child, and make my heart glad. Then I will be able to answer my critics.

¹²A prudent person foresees danger and takes precautions. The simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences.

¹³Get security from someone who guarantees a stranger’s debt. Get a deposit if he does it for foreigners.

¹⁴A loud and cheerful greeting early in the morning will be taken as a curse!

¹⁵A quarrelsome wife is as annoying as constant dripping on a rainy day.

¹⁶Stopping her complaints is like trying to stop the wind or trying to hold something with greased hands.

¹⁷As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.

¹⁸As workers who tend a fig tree are allowed to eat the fruit, so workers who protect their employer’s interests will be rewarded.

¹⁹As a face is reflected in water, so the heart reflects the real person.

²⁰Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied.

²¹Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised.

²²You cannot separate fools from their foolishness, even though you grind them like grain with mortar and pestle.

²³Know the state of your flocks, and put your heart into caring for your herds,

²⁴for riches don’t last forever, and the crown might not be passed to the next generation.

²⁵After the hay is harvested and the new crop appears and the mountain grasses are gathered in,

²⁶your sheep will provide wool for clothing, and your goats will provide the price of a field.

²⁷And you will have enough goats’ milk for yourself, your family, and your servant girls.

¹On the third day of the fast, Esther put on her royal robes and entered the inner court of the palace, just across from the king’s hall. The king was sitting on his royal throne, facing the entrance.

²When he saw Queen Esther standing there in the inner court, he welcomed her and held out the gold scepter to her. So Esther approached and touched the end of the scepter.

³Then the king asked her, “What do you want, Queen Esther? What is your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom!”

⁴And Esther replied, “If it please the king, let the king and Haman come today to a banquet I have prepared for the king.”

⁵The king turned to his attendants and said, “Tell Haman to come quickly to a banquet, as Esther has requested.” So the king and Haman went to Esther’s banquet.

⁶And while they were drinking wine, the king said to Esther, “Now tell me what you really want. What is your request? I will give it to you, even if it is half the kingdom!”

⁷Esther replied, “This is my request and deepest wish.

⁸If I have found favor with the king, and if it pleases the king to grant my request and do what I ask, please come with Haman tomorrow to the banquet I will prepare for you. Then I will explain what this is all about.”

⁹Haman was a happy man as he left the banquet! But when he saw Mordecai sitting at the palace gate, not standing up or trembling nervously before him, Haman became furious.

¹⁰However, he restrained himself and went on home. Then Haman gathered together his friends and Zeresh, his wife,

¹¹and boasted to them about his great wealth and his many children. He bragged about the honors the king had given him and how he had been promoted over all the other nobles and officials.

¹²Then Haman added, “And that’s not all! Queen Esther invited only me and the king himself to the banquet she prepared for us. And she has invited me to dine with her and the king again tomorrow!”

¹³Then he added, “But this is all worth nothing as long as I see Mordecai the Jew just sitting there at the palace gate.”

¹⁴So Haman’s wife, Zeresh, and all his friends suggested, “Set up a sharpened pole that stands seventy-five feet tall, and in the morning ask the king to impale Mordecai on it. When this is done, you can go on your merry way to the banquet with the king.” This pleased Haman, and he ordered the pole set up.

¹This message concerning the fate of Israel came from the LORD: “This message is from the LORD, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundations of the earth, and formed the human spirit.

²I will make Jerusalem like an intoxicating drink that makes the nearby nations stagger when they send their armies to besiege Jerusalem and Judah.

³On that day I will make Jerusalem an immovable rock. All the nations will gather against it to try to move it, but they will only hurt themselves.

⁴“On that day,” says the LORD, “I will cause every horse to panic and every rider to lose his nerve. I will watch over the people of Judah, but I will blind all the horses of their enemies.

⁵And the clans of Judah will say to themselves, ‘The people of Jerusalem have found strength in the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, their God.’

⁶“On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a flame that sets a woodpile ablaze or like a burning torch among sheaves of grain. They will burn up all the neighboring nations right and left, while the people living in Jerusalem remain secure.

⁷“The LORD will give victory to the rest of Judah first, before Jerusalem, so that the people of Jerusalem and the royal line of David will not have greater honor than the rest of Judah.

⁸On that day the LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem; the weakest among them will be as mighty as King David! And the royal descendants will be like God, like the angel of the LORD who goes before them!

⁹For on that day I will begin to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

¹⁰“Then I will pour out a spirit of grace and prayer on the family of David and on the people of Jerusalem. They will look on me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him as for a firstborn son who has died.

¹¹The sorrow and mourning in Jerusalem on that day will be like the great mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo.

¹²“All Israel will mourn, each clan by itself, and with the husbands separate from their wives. The clan of David will mourn alone, as will the clan of Nathan,

¹³the clan of Levi, and the clan of Shimei.

¹⁴Each of the surviving clans from Judah will mourn separately, and with the husbands separate from their wives.

¹When the uproar was over, Paul sent for the believers and encouraged them. Then he said good-bye and left for Macedonia.

²While there, he encouraged the believers in all the towns he passed through. Then he traveled down to Greece,

³where he stayed for three months. He was preparing to sail back to Syria when he discovered a plot by some Jews against his life, so he decided to return through Macedonia.

⁴Several men were traveling with him. They were Sopater son of Pyrrhus from Berea; Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica; Gaius from Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus from the province of Asia.

⁵They went on ahead and waited for us at Troas.

⁶After the Passover ended, we boarded a ship at Philippi in Macedonia and five days later joined them in Troas, where we stayed a week.

⁷On the first day of the week, we gathered with the local believers to share in the Lord’s Supper. Paul was preaching to them, and since he was leaving the next day, he kept talking until midnight.

⁸The upstairs room where we met was lighted with many flickering lamps.

⁹As Paul spoke on and on, a young man named Eutychus, sitting on the windowsill, became very drowsy. Finally, he fell sound asleep and dropped three stories to his death below.

¹⁰Paul went down, bent over him, and took him into his arms. “Don’t worry,” he said, “he’s alive!”

¹¹Then they all went back upstairs, shared in the Lord’s Supper, and ate together. Paul continued talking to them until dawn, and then he left.

¹²Meanwhile, the young man was taken home alive and well, and everyone was greatly relieved.

¹³Paul went by land to Assos, where he had arranged for us to join him, while we traveled by ship.

¹⁴He joined us there, and we sailed together to Mitylene.

¹⁵The next day we sailed past the island of Kios. The following day we crossed to the island of Samos, and a day later we arrived at Miletus.

¹⁶Paul had decided to sail on past Ephesus, for he didn’t want to spend any more time in the province of Asia. He was hurrying to get to Jerusalem, if possible, in time for the Festival of Pentecost.

¹⁷But when we landed at Miletus, he sent a message to the elders of the church at Ephesus, asking them to come and meet him.

¹⁸When they arrived he declared, “You know that from the day I set foot in the province of Asia until now

¹⁹I have done the Lord’s work humbly and with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews.

²⁰I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes.

²¹I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike — the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.

²²“And now I am bound by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what awaits me,

²³except that the Holy Spirit tells me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead.

²⁴But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus — the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.

²⁵“And now I know that none of you to whom I have preached the Kingdom will ever see me again.

²⁶I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault,

²⁷for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.

²⁸“So guard yourselves and God’s people. Feed and shepherd God’s flock — his church, purchased with his own blood — over which the Holy Spirit has appointed you as leaders.

²⁹I know that false teachers, like vicious wolves, will come in among you after I leave, not sparing the flock.

³⁰Even some men from your own group will rise up and distort the truth in order to draw a following.

³¹Watch out! Remember the three years I was with you — my constant watch and care over you night and day, and my many tears for you.

³²“And now I entrust you to God and the message of his grace that is able to build you up and give you an inheritance with all those he has set apart for himself.

³³“I have never coveted anyone’s silver or gold or fine clothes.

³⁴You know that these hands of mine have worked to supply my own needs and even the needs of those who were with me.

³⁵And I have been a constant example of how you can help those in need by working hard. You should remember the words of the Lord Jesus: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

³⁶When he had finished speaking, he knelt and prayed with them.

³⁷They all cried as they embraced and kissed him good-bye.

³⁸They were sad most of all because he had said that they would never see him again. Then they escorted him down to the ship.