Acts 19:5-20

⁵So, when those men heard that, they were baptized to affirm that they believed MTY in the Lord Jesus.

⁶After that, Paul placed his hands on their heads one by one, and the power of the Holy Spirit came upon each of them. The Holy Spirit enabled them to speak in various languages MTY that they had not learned, and they also spoke messages that the Holy Spirit revealed to them.

⁷There were about twelve men whom Paul baptized and who received the power of the Holy Spirit.

⁸For three months after that, Paul entered the Jewish meeting place in Ephesus on each Sabbath/Jewish day of rest, and he spoke boldly. He convincingly taught the people about how God wanted to rule MET their lives.

⁹A few of the people in the meeting house believed the message about Jesus. But some of the people would not believe that message and did not want to continue to hear it. While many people were listening, they said many bad things about the way for people to receive eternal life about which Paul was preaching. So Paul left them and took the believers with him to meet in another place. He taught every day in a lecture hall that a man whose name was Tyrannus lectured in/owned.

¹⁰For two years Paul continued to teach people in that building. In this way, most of HYP the Jews and non-Jews who lived in Asia province heard the message about the Lord Jesus.

¹¹Also, God gave Paul the power MTY to do amazing miracles.

¹²If those who were sick could not come to Paul, handkerchiefs or aprons that Paul had touched would be taken and placed on the sick people { others would take and place on the sick people handkerchiefs or aprons that Paul had touched}. As a result, those sick people would become well, and evil spirits that troubled people would leave.

¹³There were also some Jews who traveled around to various places, and they commanded the evil spirits in those places to depart from people. Certain ones of those Jews once tried to command the evil spirits to come out of people by saying “I command you by the authority MTY of the Lord Jesus, the man about whom Paul preaches, to come out!”

¹⁴There were seven men who were doing that. They were sons of a man named Sceva, a Jew, who called himself a chief priest.

¹⁵But one day as they were doing that, the evil spirit refused to come out of that person. Instead, he said to them, “I know Jesus, and I know that he has authorized Paul to expel demons. ◄But no one has authorized you to do anything to me!/who authorized you to do anything to me?► RHQ”

¹⁶After saying that, suddenly the man who was controlled by the evil spirit jumped on the seven Jewish men, one after another, knocked all of them down, and beat each of them severely. He tore off their clothes and wounded them, causing them to bleed. So, greatly frightened, they all ran out of the house.

¹⁷All the people who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and non-Jews, heard what had happened. So they were afraid MTY. They honored the Lord Jesus MTY because they realized that he was very powerful.

¹⁸At that time, while other believers were listening, many believers confessed the evil things that they had been doing.

¹⁹Several of those who had previously practiced sorcery gathered up their scrolls that told how to work magic and burned them in a public place. When people added up how much those scrolls had cost, they realized that altogether the amount was fifty thousand valuable silver coins.

²⁰As a result, many more people heard MTY the message about the Lord Jesus, and the message powerfully changed their lives.