Book of Common Prayer

⁶ Paul and Silas went through the district of Phrygia and Galatia. The Holy Spirit said they should not tell God's word in the country of Asia Minor.

⁷ After they came to the district of Mysia, they wanted to go to the country of Bithynia but the Holy Spirit did not allow them.

⁸ So they went by Mysia and came to the city of Troas.

⁹ In the night Paul had a vision: he saw a picture like a dream. He saw a man of Macedonia standing and calling to him, `Come over into Macedonia and help us.'

¹⁰ After Paul had seen the vision, we tried to leave for Macedonia right away. We believed that the Lord had called us to tell the people there the good news.

¹¹ So we left Troas in a boat and went straight across the water to the town of Samothrace. The next day we went to Neapolis.

¹² From there we went to Philippi. This was the big city of the district of Macedonia. It was a free city. We stayed there for some time.

¹³ On the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the river. We thought this was a place where people met to talk with God. So we sat down and talked to the women who had come there.

¹⁴ One woman named Lydia listened to us. She was from the city of Thyatira, and she sold red cloth. She worshipped God. He worked in her heart and she believed what Paul said.

¹⁵ She and all the people in her house were baptised. Then she begged us and said, `If you really feel that I believe in the Lord, come and stay at my house.' And she would not allow us to say no.

⁹ Many of the Jews knew that Jesus was at Bethany. So they came because Jesus was there. But they also came to see Lazarus, whom Jesus had raised from death.

¹⁰ The chief priests planned to kill Lazarus also.

¹¹ Many of the Jews left the priests and believed in Jesus, because of Lazarus.

¹² The next day Jesus went to Jerusalem. Many people who were at the feast heard that he was coming.

¹³ So they took branches of palm trees and went to meet him. They shouted, `Praise God! God bless the King of Israel! He is coming in the name of the Lord!'

¹⁴ Then Jesus found a young donkey and rode on it. He did as the holy writings say,

¹⁵ `Do not fear, people of Jerusalem. Your King is coming. He will be riding on a young donkey.'

¹⁶ His disciples did not understand this at first. But when God had made Jesus great, then they remembered what the holy writings said about him. They remembered that people had done these things to him.

¹⁷ Many people were with Jesus when he called Lazarus out of the grave and raised him from death. They had talked about what he did.

¹⁸ That is why many people went out to meet Jesus. They had heard about the big work he did.

¹⁹ The Pharisees said to each other, `See, you cannot stop this thing. People everywhere are going after him.'