Book of Common Prayer
Round the coast and out of the window
20 After the hue and cry had died down, Paul sent for the disciples. He encouraged them, said his farewells, and set off to go to Macedonia. 2 He went through those regions, encouraging them with many words and, arriving in Greece, 3 stayed there three months. He was intending to set sail for Syria, but the Jews made a plot against him, and he decided to return instead through Macedonia.
4 He was accompanied on this trip by Sopater, son of Pyrrhus of Beroea; by Aristarchus and Secundus from Thessalonica; by Gaius from Derbe; and Timothy, and Tychicus and Trophimus from Asia. 5 They went on ahead and waited for us at Troas, 6 while we got on board ship at Philippi, after the days of Unleavened Bread, and joined them in Troas five days later. We stayed there for a week.
7 On the first day of the week we gathered to break bread. Paul was intending to leave the following morning. He was engaged in discussion with them, and he went on talking up to midnight. 8 There were several lamps burning in the upper room where we were gathered. 9 A young man named Eutychus was sitting by the window, and was overcome with a deep sleep as Paul went on and on. Once sleep had got the better of him, he fell down out of the third-story window, and was picked up dead.
10 Paul went down, stooped over him and picked him up.
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “There is life still in him.”
11 He went back upstairs, broke bread and ate with them, and continued speaking until dawn. Then he left. 12 They took up the young man alive and were very much comforted.
Paul the pastor looks back—and looks on
13 We went on ahead to the ship and set off for Assos, with the intention of picking Paul up there (he had decided that he would walk to that point). 14 When we arrived at Assos, we picked him up and went on to Mitylene, 15 and from there we sailed on the next day and arrived opposite Chios. The following day we got near to Samos, and the day after that we came to Miletus. 16 Paul had decided, you see, to pass by Ephesus, so that he wouldn’t have to spend more time in Asia. He was eager to get to Jerusalem, if he could, in time for the day of Pentecost.
True greatness
30 They went away from there and were traveling through Galilee. Jesus didn’t want anyone to know, 31 because he was teaching his disciples.
“The ‘son of man,’ ” he was saying, “is to be given over into human hands. They will kill him; and, when he’s been killed, after three days he will rise again.”
32 They didn’t understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.
33 They came to Capernaum. When they got into the house he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?”
34 They said nothing, because on the road they had been arguing about which of them was the greatest.
35 Jesus sat down and called the Twelve. “If you want to be first,” he said, “you must be last of all, and servant of all.” 36 He took a small child, and stood it in the middle of them. Then he hugged the child, and said to them, 37 “If anyone welcomes one child like this in my name, they welcome me. And if anyone welcomes me, it isn’t me they welcome, but the one who sent me.”
Warnings about sin
38 “Teacher,” said John, “we saw someone casting out demons in your name. We stopped him, because he wasn’t following us.”
39 “Don’t stop him,” said Jesus. “No one who does powerful things by my name will be able to say bad things about me soon afterwards. 40 Anyone who’s not against us is on our side. 41 Anyone who even gives you a cup of water in my name, because you belong to the Messiah—I’m telling you the truth, that person won’t go unrewarded.
Scripture quotations from The New Testament for Everyone are copyright © Nicholas Thomas Wright 2011, 2018, 2019.