Acts 8:4-11

⁴The Christians that ran away from Jerusalem went to a lot of different places, and they told people the good news about Jesus in all those places.

⁵One of them was Philip. He went to the town called Samaria and told everyone, “Jesus is the special man that God promised to send.”

⁶A lot of people listened to Philip and thought carefully about his message. And God gave him a lot of power. People saw him do powerful things and everyone knew that God was with him.

⁷You see, a lot of people had bad spirits in them, and Philip used God’s power to throw those bad spirits out of them. Those bad spirits screamed as they left those people. Philip also used God’s power to make a lot of crippled and weak people better.

⁸The people in that town were very happy.

⁹A man called Simon lived in that place, Samaria. He used to do magic tricks. He did these things for a long time before Philip went there. Everyone was surprised by the things he did. He used to say, “I am a great man,”

¹⁰and the people looked at him and said, “This man is really great. He has God’s power.” The important people said that, as well as the other people.

¹¹Simon did this for a long time, and everyone there used to listen to him.