M’Cheyne Bible Reading Plan
Paul departs on his second journey to Europe
20 1-3a After this disturbance had died down, Paul sent for the disciples and after speaking encouragingly said good-bye to them, and went on his way to Macedonia. As he made his way through these districts he spoke many heartening words to the people and then went on to Greece, where he stayed for three months.
3b-6 Then when he was on the point of setting sail for Syria the Jews made a further plot against him and he decided to make his way back through Macedonia. His companions on the journey were Sopater a Beroean, the son of Pyrrhus, two Thessalonians, Aristarchus and Secundus, Gaius from Derbe, Timothy, and two Asians, Tychicus and Trophimus. This party proceeded to Troas to await us there while we sailed from Philippi after the days of unleavened bread. and joined them five days later at Troas, where we spent a week.
Paul’s enthusiasm leads to an accident
7-10 On the first day of the week, when we were assembled for the breaking of bread, Paul, since he intended to leave on the following day, began to speak to them and prolonged his address until almost midnight. There were a great many lamps burning in the upper room where we met, and a young man called Eutychus who was sitting on the window-sill fell asleep as Paul’s address became longer and longer. Finally, completely overcome by sleep, he fell to the ground from the third storey and was picked up as dead. But Paul went down, bent over him and holding him gently in his arms, said, “Don’t be alarmed; he is still alive.”
11-12 Then he went upstairs again and, when they had broken bread and eaten, continued a long earnest talk with them until daybreak, and so finally departed. As for the boy, they took him home alive, feeling immeasurably relieved.
We sail to Miletus
13-16 Meanwhile we had gone aboard the ship and sailed on ahead for Assos, intending to pick up Paul there, for that was the arrangement he had made, since he himself had planned to go overland. When he met us on our arrival at Assos we took him aboard and went on to Mitylene. We sailed from there and arrived off the coast of Chios the next day. On the day following we crossed to Samos, and the day after that we reached Miletus. For Paul had decided to sail past Ephesus with the idea of spending as little time as possible in Asia. He hoped, if it should prove possible, to reach Jerusalem in time for the day of Pentecost.
Paul’s moving farewell message to the elders of Ephesus
17-18a At Miletus he sent to Ephesus to summon the elders of the Church. On their arrival he addressed them in these words:
18b-25 “I am sure you know how I have lived among you ever since I first set foot in Asia. You know how I served the Lord most humbly and what tears I have shed over the trials that have come to me through the plots of the Jews. You know I have never shrunk from telling you anything that was for your good, nor from teaching you in public or in your own homes. On the contrary I have most emphatically urged upon both Jews and Greeks repentance towards God and faith in our Lord Jesus. And now here I am, compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. I do not know what may happen to me there, except that the Holy Spirit warns me that imprisonment and persecution await me in every city that I visit. But frankly I do not consider my own life valuable to me so long as I can finish my course and complete the ministry which the Lord Jesus has given me in declaring the good news of the grace of God. Now I know well enough that not one of you among whom I have moved as I preached the kingdom of God will ever see my face again.
26-35 That is why I must tell you solemnly today that my conscience is clear as far as any of you is concerned, for I have never shrunk from declaring to you the complete will of God. Now be on your guard for yourselves and for every flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you guardians—you are to be shepherds to the Church of God, which he won at the cost of his own blood. I know that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you without mercy for the flock. Yes, and even among you men will arise speaking perversions of the truth, trying to draw away the disciples and make them followers of themselves. This is why I tell you to keep on the alert, remembering that for three years I never failed night and day to warn every one of you, even with tears in my eyes. Now I commend you to the Lord and to the message of his grace which can build you up and give you your place among all those who are consecrated to God. I have never coveted anybody’s gold or silver or clothing. You know well enough that these hands of mine have provided for my own needs and for those of my companions. In everything I have shown you that by such hard work, we must help the weak and must remember the words of the Lord Jesus when he said, ‘To give is happier than to receive’.”
36-38 With these words he knelt down with them all and prayed. All of them were in tears, and throwing their arms round Paul’s neck they kissed him affectionately. What saddened them most of all was his saying that they would never see his face gain. And they went with him down to the ship.
Jesus before Pilate
15 The moment daylight came the chief priests called together a meeting of elders, scribes and members of the whole council, bound Jesus and took him off and handed him over to Pilate.
2 Pilate asked him straight out, “Well, you—are you the king of the Jews?” “Yes, I am,” he replied.
3-4 The chief priests brought many accusations. So Pilate questioned him again, “Have you nothing to say? Listen to all their accusations!”
5 But Jesus made no further answer—to Pilate’s astonishment.
6-9 Now it was Pilate’s custom at festival-time to release a prisoner—anyone they asked for. There was in the prison at the time, with some other rioters who had committed murder in a recent outbreak, a man called Barabbas. The crowd surged forward and began to demand that Pilate should do what he usually did for them. So he spoke to them, “Do you want me to set free the king of the Jews for you?”
10-12 For he knew perfectly well that the chief priests had handed Jesus over to him through sheer malice. But the chief priests worked upon the crowd to get them to demand Barabbas’ release instead. So Pilate addressed them once more, “Then what am I to do with the man whom you call the king of the Jews?”
13 They shouted back, “Crucify him!”
14 But Pilate replied, “Why, what crime has he committed?” But their voices rose to a roar, “Crucify him!”
15 And as Pilate wanted to satisfy the crowd, he set Barabbas free for them, and after having Jesus flogged handed him over to be crucified.
16-18 Then the soldiers marched him away inside the courtyard of the governor’s residence and called their whole company together. They dressed Jesus in a purple robe, and twisting some thorn twigs into a crown, they put it on his head. Then they began to greet him, “Hail, your majesty—king of the Jews!”
19-20 They hit him on the head with a stick and spat at him, and then bowed low before him on bended knee. And when they had finished their fun with him, they took off the purple cloak and dressed him again in his own clothes. Then they led him outside to crucify him.
21 They compelled Simon, a native of Cyrene in Africa, who was on his way from the fields at the time, to carry Jesus’ cross.
The crucifixion
22-30 They took him to a place called Golgotha (which means Skull Hill) and they offered him some drugged wine, but he would not take it. Then they crucified him, and shared out his garments, drawing lots to see what each of them would get. It was about nine o’clock in the morning when they nailed him to the cross. Over his head the placard of his crime read, “THE KING OF THE JEWS.” They also crucified two bandits at the same time, one on each side of him. And the passers-by jeered at him, shaking their heads in mockery, saying, “Hi, you! You could destroy the Temple and build it up again in three days, why not come down from the cross and save yourself?”
31-32 The chief priests also made fun of him among themselves and the scribes, and said, “He saved others, he cannot save himself. If only this Christ, the king of Israel, would come down now from the cross, we should see it and believe!” And even the men who were crucified with him hurled abuse at him.
33-34 At midday darkness spread over the whole countryside and lasted until three o’clock in the afternoon, and at three o’clock Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’
35 Some of the bystanders heard these words which Jesus spoke in Aramaic—Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?, and said, “Listen, he’s calling for Elijah!”
36 One man ran off and soaked a sponge in vinegar, put it on a stick, and held it up for Jesus to drink, calling out, “Let him alone! Let’s see if Elijah will come and take him down!”
37 But Jesus let out a great cry, and died.
38 The curtain of the Temple sanctuary was split in two from top to the bottom.
39 And when the centurion who stood in front of Jesus saw how he died, he said, “This man was certainly a son of God!”
40 There were some women there looking on from a distance, among them: Mary of Magdala, Mary the mother of the younger James and Joses, and Salome.
41 These were the women who used to follow Jesus as he went about in Galilee and look after him. And there were many other women there who had come up to Jerusalem with them.
The body of Jesus is reverently laid in a tomb
42-47 When the evening came, because it was the day of preparation, that is the day before the Sabbath, Joseph from Arimathaea, a distinguished member of the council, who himself prepared to accept the kingdom of God, went boldly into Pilate’s presence and asked for the body of Jesus. Pilate was surprised that he should be dead already and he sent for the centurion and asked whether he had been dead long. On hearing the centurion’s report, he gave Joseph the body of Jesus. So Joseph brought a linen winding-sheet, took Jesus down and wrapped him in it, and then put him in a tomb which had been hewn out of the solid rock, rolling a stone over the entrance to it. Mary of Magdala and Mary the mother of Joses were looking on and saw where he was laid.
The New Testament in Modern English by J.B Phillips copyright © 1960, 1972 J. B. Phillips. Administered by The Archbishops’ Council of the Church of England. Used by Permission.