Welcome to a year in the Bible with daily grace. The Bible tells one big story of

redemption and we want to spend five minutes every day journeying through the Bible from start to finish, and exploring how all of it

points to Jesus. Hi friends, welcome back to a year in the Bible with Daily Grace. My name is

Shelby Turner. I'm one of your hosts for this podcast and today we're going to

talk about acts 19 through 21. In these

chapters we are going to see things really heat up as the persecution of

Paul and other Christians intensifies, but at the same time we are going to see the

gospel continue to spread and disciples continue to mature in their faith.

In chapter 19, Paul is in Ephes, and he comes across some men he calls disciples, yet they have not

yet received the Holy Spirit. You know, not unlike today, there were many different forms of Christianity

that were being taught in Paul's day and not all of them were true or complete.

So these disciples probably had an incomplete understanding of Christianity, but after the encounter Paul, they repent and

believe in Jesus, they're baptized in water, and they receive the Holy Spirit, start

speaking in tongues, and prophesying. The gospel is true and it can stand up to any false form of Christianity that's out there.

Paul then stays in Ephesus and teaches the disciples for three years total.

And because of this, all of the residents of Asia

heard the word of the Lord.

And because of his strategy of teaching disciples and then sending them out to preach the gospel,

it says that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord.

While there, Paul also encounters Jewish priests who are using magic to try to cast out demons.

It doesn't go well by the way, and because they fail, many people actually end up trusting in Jesus because they see the weakness

of the magic that these Jewish priests are using.

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