Paul Teaches in Ephesus

Paul came to Ephesus and found some disciples. He asked whether they had received the Holy Spirit when they believed. They said they had not even heard about the Holy Spirit. When Paul asked what baptism they had received, they said John's baptism. Paul explained that John called people to repent and to believe in the one coming after him, Jesus. Then they were baptised in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Paul laid his hands on them, and the Holy Spirit came on them. They spoke in other languages and prophesied. There were about twelve men.

Paul went into the synagogue and spoke boldly for three months about God's kingdom. Some people became stubborn and would not believe. They spoke evil of the Way in front of the crowd. So Paul left them, took the disciples with him, and began teaching every day in the school of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, and people all through Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord Jesus.

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. Even cloths carried from him were taken to sick people, and their diseases left them. Evil spirits also went out. Then some travelling Jewish exorcists tried to speak over people with evil spirits by using the name of the Lord Jesus, saying they appealed by the Jesus Paul preached. Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.

This was not something they could control. An evil spirit answered that it knew Jesus and knew Paul, but did not know them. Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them, overpowered them, and they ran out of the house wounded and without their clothes. When this became known in Ephesus, fear fell on both Jews and Greeks there, and the name of the Lord Jesus was honoured highly.

Many of the believers came, confessing and telling what they had been doing. Many who had practised magical arts brought their books together and burned them in public. The value of the books was counted and came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. In this way the word of the Lord kept growing and showing its strength. What old practices might someone need to leave behind in order to follow Jesus faithfully?