Acts 19: 1-20

13th February 2011 Off By Derek Buckthorpe

 

1: While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul travelled through the island regions till he came to Ephesus, where he found a number of disciples.

2: When he asked them, ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?’ They replied, ‘No, we were not even told that there is a Holy Spirit.’

3: He asked, ‘Then what Baptism were you given?’ ‘John’s Baptism,’ they answered.

4: Paul said, ‘The Baptism that John gave you was a baptism in token of repentance, and he told the people to put their trust in one that was to come after him, that is, in Jesus.’

5: On hearing this they were baptised into the name of the Lord Jesus;

6: and when Paul had paid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues of ecstasy and prophesied.

7: There were about a dozen men in all.

8: During the next three months he attended the Synagogue and with persuasive argument spoke boldly about the kingdom of God.

9: When some proved obdurate and would not believe, speaking evil of the new way before the congregation, he withdrew from them, taking the disciples with him, and continued to hold discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.

10: This went on for two years, with the result that the whole population of the province of Asia, both Jews and Gentiles heard the word of the Lord.

11: God worked extraordinary miracles through Paul:

12: when handkerchiefs and scarves which had been in contact with his skin were carried to the sick, they were cured of their diseases, and the evil spirits came out of them.

13: Some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried their hand at using the name of the Lord Jesus on those possessed by evil spirits; they would say, ‘I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul proclaims.’

14: There were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who were doing this,

15: when the evil spirits responded, ‘Jesus I recognise, Paul I know, but who are you?

16: The man wit the evil spirit flew at them, overpowered them all, and handled them with such violence that they ran out of the house battered and naked.

17: Everybody in Ephesus Jew and Gentile alike, got to know of it, and all were awestruck, while the name of the Lord gained in honour.

18: Moreover many of them that had become believers came and openly confessed that they had been using magical spells.

19: A good many of those who formerly practised magic collected their books and burnt them publicly, and when the total value was reckoned up it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.

20: In such ways the word of the Lord showed its power, spreading more and more widely and effectively.