Acts 19:1–20

Paul in Ephesus

19While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul was visiting some places on the way to Ephesus. There he found some followers ²and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”

They said, “We have never even heard of a Holy Spirit.”

³So he asked, “What kind of baptism did you have?”

They said, “It was the baptism that John taught.”

⁴Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of changed hearts and lives. He told people to believe in the one who would come after him, and that one is Jesus.”

⁵When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶Then Paul laid his hands on them, ⁿ and the Holy Spirit came upon them. They began speaking different languages ⁿ and prophesying. ⁷There were about twelve people in this group.

⁸Paul went into the synagogue and spoke out boldly for three months. He talked with the people and persuaded them to accept the things he said about the kingdom of God. ⁹But some of them became stubborn. They refused to believe and said evil things about the Way of Jesus before all the people. So Paul left them, and taking the followers with him, he went to the school of a man named Tyrannus. There Paul talked with people every day ¹⁰for two years. Because of his work, every Jew and Greek in Asia heard the word of the Lord.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹God used Paul to do some very special miracles. ¹²Some people took handkerchiefs and clothes that Paul had used and put them on the sick. When they did this, the sick were healed and evil spirits left them.

¹³But some people also were traveling around and making evil spirits go out of people. They tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to force the evil spirits out. They would say, “By the same Jesus that Paul talks about, I order you to come out!” ¹⁴Seven sons of Sceva, a leading priest, were doing this.

¹⁵But one time an evil spirit said to them, “I know Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”

¹⁶Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them. Because he was so much stronger than all of them, they ran away from the house naked and hurt. ¹⁷All the people in Ephesus—Jews and Greeks—learned about this and were filled with fear and gave great honor to the Lord Jesus. ¹⁸Many of the believers began to confess openly and tell all the evil things they had done. ¹⁹Some of them who had used magic brought their magic books and burned them before everyone. Those books were worth about fifty thousand silver coins. ⁿ

²⁰So in a powerful way the word of the Lord kept spreading and growing.