Acts 20:13-22:29

International Children’s Bible

The Trip from Troas to Miletus

¹³ We sailed for the city of Assos. We went first, ahead of Paul. He wanted to join us on the ship there. Paul planned it this way because he wanted to go to Assos by land. ¹⁴ When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard and went to Mitylene. ¹⁵ The next day, we sailed from Mitylene and came to a place near Chios. The next day, we sailed to Samos. A day later, we reached Miletus. ¹⁶ Paul had already decided not to stop at Ephesus. He did not want to stay too long in Asia. He was hurrying to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, if that was possible.

The Elders from Ephesus

¹⁷ Now from Miletus Paul sent to Ephesus and called for the elders of the church. ¹⁸ When they came to him, he said, “You know about my life from the first day I came to Asia. You know the way I lived all the time I was with you. ¹⁹ The Jews plotted against me. This troubled me very much. But you know that I always served the Lord. I never thought of myself first, and I often cried. ²⁰ You know I preached to you, and I did not hold back anything that would help you. You know that I taught you in public and in your homes. ²¹ I warned both Jews and Greeks to change their lives and turn to God. And I told them all to believe in our Lord Jesus. ²² But now I must obey the Holy Spirit and go to Jerusalem. I don’t know what will happen to me there. ²³ I know only that in every city the Holy Spirit tells me that troubles and even jail wait for me. ²⁴ I don’t care about my own life. The most important thing is that I complete my mission. I want to finish the work that the Lord Jesus gave me—to tell people the Good News about God’s grace.

²⁵ “And now, I know that none of you will ever see me again. All the time I was with you, I was preaching the kingdom of God. ²⁶ So today I can tell you one thing that I am sure of: If any of you should be lost, I am not responsible. ²⁷ This is because I have told you everything God wants you to know. ²⁸ Be careful for yourselves and for all the people God has given you. The Holy Spirit gave you the work of caring for this flock. You must be like shepherds to the church of God.^[a] This is the church that God bought with his own death. ²⁹ I know that after I leave, some men will come like wild wolves and try to destroy the flock. ³⁰ Also, men from your own group will rise up and twist the truth. They will lead away followers after them. ³¹ So be careful! Always remember this: For three years I never stopped warning each of you. I taught you night and day. I often cried over you.

³² “Now I am putting you in the care of God and the message about his grace. That message is able to give you strength, and it will give you the blessings that God has for all his holy people. ³³ When I was with you, I never wanted anyone’s money or fine clothes. ³⁴ You know that I always worked to take care of my own needs and the needs of those who were with me. ³⁵ I showed you in all things that you should work as I did and help the weak. I taught you to remember the words of Jesus. He said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

³⁶ When Paul had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. ^37-38 And they all cried because Paul had said that they would never see him again. They put their arms around him and kissed him. Then they went with him to the ship.

Paul Goes to Jerusalem

21 We all said good-bye to them and left. We sailed straight to Cos island. The next day, we reached Rhodes, and from Rhodes we went to Patara. ² There we found a ship that was going to Phoenicia. We went aboard and sailed away. ³ We sailed near the island of Cyprus. We could see it to the north, but we sailed on to Syria. We stopped at Tyre because the ship needed to unload its cargo there. ⁴ We found some followers in Tyre, and we stayed with them for seven days. Through the Holy Spirit they warned Paul not to go to Jerusalem. ⁵ When we finished our visit, we left and continued our trip. All the followers, even the women and children, came outside the city with us. We all knelt down on the beach and prayed. ⁶ Then we said good-bye and got on the ship. The followers went back home.

⁷ We continued our trip from Tyre and arrived at Ptolemais. We greeted the believers there and stayed with them for a day. ⁸ We left Ptolemais and went to the city of Caesarea. There we went into the home of Philip and stayed with him. Philip had the work of telling the Good News. He was one of the seven helpers.^{[b] 9} He had four unmarried daughters who had the gift of prophesying. ¹⁰ After we had been there for some time, a prophet named Agabus arrived from Judea. ¹¹ He came to us and borrowed Paul’s belt. Then he used the belt to tie his own hands and feet. He said, “The Holy Spirit says, ‘This is how the Jews in Jerusalem will tie up the man who wears this belt. Then they will give him to the non-Jewish people.’”

¹² We all heard these words. So we and the people there begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. ¹³ But he said, “Why are you crying and making me so sad? I am ready to be tied up in Jerusalem. And I am ready to die for the Lord Jesus!”

¹⁴ We could not persuade him to stay away from Jerusalem. So we stopped begging him and said, “We pray that what the Lord wants will be done.”

¹⁵ After this, we got ready and started on our way to Jerusalem. ¹⁶ Some of the followers from Caesarea went with us. They took us to the home of Mnason, a man from Cyprus. Mnason was one of the first followers. They took us to his home so that we could stay with him.

Paul Visits James

¹⁷ In Jerusalem the believers were glad to see us. ¹⁸ The next day, Paul went with us to visit James. All the elders were there, too. ¹⁹ Paul greeted them and told them everything that God had done among the non-Jewish people through him. ²⁰ When they heard this, they praised God. Then they said to Paul, “Brother, you can see that many thousands of Jews have become believers. But they think it is very important to obey the law of Moses. ²¹ These Jews have heard about your teaching. They heard that you tell the Jews who live among non-Jews to leave the law of Moses. They heard that you tell them not to circumcise their children and not to obey Jewish customs. ²² What should we do? The Jewish believers here will learn that you have come. ²³ So we will tell you what to do: Four of our men have made a promise to God. ²⁴ Take these men with you and share in their cleansing ceremony.^[c] Pay their expenses. Then they can shave their heads.^[d] Do this and it will prove to everyone that what they have heard about you is not true. They will see that you follow the law of Moses in your own life. ²⁵ We have already sent a letter to the non-Jewish believers. The letter said: ‘Do not eat food that has been offered to idols. Do not taste blood. Do not eat animals that have been strangled. Do not take part in any kind of sexual sin.’”

²⁶ Then Paul took the four men with him. The next day, he shared in the cleansing ceremony. Then he went to the Temple. Paul announced the time when the days of the cleansing ceremony would be finished. On the last day an offering would be given for each of the men.

²⁷ The seven days were almost over. But some Jews from Asia saw Paul at the Temple. They caused all the people to be upset, and they grabbed Paul. ²⁸ They shouted, “Men of Israel, help us! This is the man who goes everywhere teaching things that are against the law of Moses, against our people, and against this Temple. And now he has brought some Greek men into the Temple. He has made this holy place unclean!” ²⁹ (The Jews said this because they had seen Trophimus with Paul in Jerusalem. Trophimus was a man from Ephesus. The Jews thought that Paul had brought him into the Temple.)

³⁰ All the people in Jerusalem became very upset. They ran and took Paul and dragged him out of the Temple. The Temple doors were closed immediately. ³¹ The people were about to kill Paul. Now the commander of the Roman army in Jerusalem learned that there was trouble in the whole city. ³² Immediately he ran to the place where the crowd was gathered. He brought officers and soldiers with him, and the people saw them. So they stopped beating Paul. ³³ The commander went to Paul and arrested him. He told his soldiers to bind Paul with two chains. Then he asked, “Who is this man? What has he done wrong?” ³⁴ Some in the crowd were yelling one thing, and some were yelling another. Because of all this confusion and shouting, the commander could not learn what had happened. So he ordered the soldiers to take Paul to the army building. ^35-36 The whole mob was following them. When the soldiers came to the steps, they had to carry Paul. They did this because the people were ready to hurt him. They were shouting, “Kill him!”

³⁷ The soldiers were about to take Paul into the army building. But he spoke to the commander, “May I say something to you?”

The commander said, “Do you speak Greek? ³⁸ I thought you were the Egyptian who started some trouble against the government not long ago. He led 4,000 killers out to the desert.”

³⁹ Paul said, “No, I am a Jew from Tarsus in the country of Cilicia. I am a citizen of that important city. Please, let me speak to the people.”

⁴⁰ The commander gave permission, so Paul stood on the steps. He waved with his hand so that the people would be quiet. When there was silence, Paul spoke to them in the Jewish language.^[e]

Paul Speaks to the People

22 Paul said, “Brothers and fathers, listen to me! I will make my defense to you.” ² When the Jews heard him speaking the Jewish language,^[f] they became very quiet. Paul said, ³ “I am a Jew. I was born in Tarsus in the country of Cilicia. I grew up in this city. I was a student of Gamaliel.^[g] He carefully taught me everything about the law of our ancestors. I was very serious about serving God, just as are all of you here today. ⁴ I hurt the people who followed the Way of Jesus. Some of them were even killed. I arrested men and women and put them in jail. ⁵ The high priest and the whole council of Jewish elders can tell you that this is true. These leaders gave me letters to the Jewish brothers in Damascus. So I was going there to arrest these people and bring them back to Jerusalem to be punished.

⁶ “But something happened to me on my way to Damascus. It was about noon when I came near Damascus. Suddenly a bright light from heaven flashed all around me. ⁷ I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you doing things against me?’ ⁸ I asked, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ The voice said, ‘I am Jesus from Nazareth. I am the One you are trying to hurt.’ ⁹ The men who were with me did not understand the voice. But they saw the light. ¹⁰ I said, ‘What shall I do, Lord?’ The Lord answered, ‘Get up and go to Damascus. There you will be told about all the things I have planned for you to do.’ ¹¹ I could not see, because the bright light had made me blind. So the men led me into Damascus.

¹² “There a man named Ananias came to me. He was a religious man; he obeyed the law of Moses. All the Jews who lived there respected him. ¹³ Ananias came to me, stood by me, and said, ‘Brother Saul, see again!’ Immediately I was able to see him. ¹⁴ Ananias told me, ‘The God of our fathers chose you long ago. He chose you to know his plan. He chose you to see the Righteous One and to hear words from him. ¹⁵ You will be his witness to all people. You will tell them about the things you have seen and heard. ¹⁶ Now, why wait any longer? Get up, be baptized, and wash your sins away. Do this, trusting in him to save you.’

¹⁷ “Later, I returned to Jerusalem. I was praying in the Temple, and I saw a vision. ¹⁸ I saw the Lord saying to me, ‘Hurry! Leave Jerusalem now! The people here will not accept the truth about me.’ ¹⁹ But I said, ‘Lord, they know that in every synagogue I put the believers in jail and beat them. ²⁰ They also know that I was there when Stephen, your witness, was killed. I stood there and agreed that they should kill him. I even held the coats of the men who were killing him!’ ²¹ But the Lord said to me, ‘Leave now. I will send you far away to the non-Jewish people.’”

²² The crowd listened to Paul until he said this. Then they began shouting, “Get rid of him! A man like this doesn’t deserve to live!” ²³ They shouted and threw off their coats.^[h] They threw dust into the air.^[i]

²⁴ Then the commander ordered the soldiers to take Paul into the army building and beat him. The commander wanted to make Paul tell why the people were shouting against him like this. ²⁵ So the soldiers were tying him up, preparing to beat him. But Paul said to an officer there, “Do you have the right to beat a Roman citizen^[j] who has not been proven guilty?”

²⁶ When the officer heard this, he went to the commander and told him about it. The officer said, “Do you know what you are doing? This man is a Roman citizen!”

²⁷ The commander came to Paul and said, “Tell me, are you really a Roman citizen?”

He answered, “Yes.”

²⁸ The commander said, “I paid a lot of money to become a Roman citizen.”

But Paul said, “I was born a citizen.”

²⁹ The men who were preparing to question Paul moved away from him immediately. The commander was frightened because he had already tied Paul, and Paul was a Roman citizen.