Acts 20:22-38

22Now I am going to Jerusalem. God's Holy Spirit has shown me that I must go there. I do not know what will happen to me there.

23But I do know that much trouble will come to me. The Holy Spirit has told me about that. He said to me, “People will put you in prison and they will hurt you.”

24But even if people kill me, this is not important to me. The Lord Jesus gave me some work to do. It is important that I finish his work. I must tell people the good news about how kind and good God is.

25I have lived among you and I have taught you all about the kingdom of God. But now I know that none of you will see me again.

26So I want to say this clearly to you today. If any of you have not believed in Jesus, it is not because of me.

27I have told you everything that God wants you to know.

28You who are leaders should be careful about how you live. Also take care of the group of people that the Holy Spirit has chosen you to lead. Keep them safe like shepherds who take care of their sheep. All the believers belong to God because his Son, Jesus, died for them. He bought them with his blood which poured out on the cross.

29I know that trouble will come to you after I leave. Bad people will come to teach you. They will cause trouble for the believers, like dangerous wild animals that attack sheep.

30Even men from your own group of believers will teach things that are not true. They want to deceive other believers, so that they leave you and join with them.

31So be very careful! For three years I taught you, in the day and in the night. I warned you to be careful, so that I even cried about it.

32Now I ask God to keep you safe. I brought God's message to you, which tells us how kind he is. That message will cause you to be strong. As a result, God will give to you all the good things that he has for his own special people.

33When I stayed among you, I did not ask you to give me money or clothes.

34You yourselves know that I worked with my hands. I did that to get money. Then my friends and I could have the things that we needed.

35In this way I have shown you how you should live. You should work well so that you may help sick or weak people. You should remember what Jesus himself said: “It may make you happy when you receive things. But it makes you more happy when you give things to someone.” ’

36Then Paul finished speaking. He went down on his knees together with the leaders of the believers. He prayed with them all.

37They all cried a lot, because Paul wanted to leave them. They hugged him and they kissed him to say ‘goodbye’.

38They were very sad because Paul had said, ‘I will never see you again.’ After that, they walked with Paul to the ship.