Acts
Chapter 19: 1-20
Paul in Ephesus
1While
Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus.
There he found some disciples 2and asked them, “Did you
receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy
Spirit.”
3So Paul asked, “Then what
baptism did you receive?”
“John's baptism,” they replied.
4Paul said, “John's
baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after
him, that is, in Jesus.” 5On hearing this, they were
baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus. 6When Paul placed
his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied.
7There were about twelve men in all.
8Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly
there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and
publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had
discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10This
went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia
heard the word of the Lord.
11God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were
taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
13Some Jews who went around driving out evil
spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demonpossessed.
They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come
out.” 14Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were
doing this. 15(One day) the evil spirit answered them,
“Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” 16Then
the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such
a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
17When this became known to the Jews and Greeks
living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held
in high honor. 18Many of those who believed now came and
openly confessed their evil deeds. 19A number who had
practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they
calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. 20In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in
power.
