Bible Verses About Ephesus

Sha’ul remained for some time, then said good-bye to the brothers and sailed off to Syria, after having his hair cut short in Cenchrea, because he had taken a vow; with him were Priscilla and Aquila.

They came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself went into the synagogue and held dialogue with the Jews.

When they asked him to stay with them longer, he declined;

however, in his farewell he said, “God willing, I will come back to you.” Then he set sail from Ephesus.

After landing at Caesarea, he went up to Yerushalayim and greeted the Messianic community. Then he came down to Antioch,

spent some time there, and afterwards set out and passed systematically through the region of Galatia and Phrygia, strengthening all the talmidim.

Meanwhile, a Jewish man named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent speaker with a thorough knowledge of the Tanakh.

This man had been informed about the Way of the Lord, and with great spiritual fervor he spoke and taught accurately the facts about Yeshua, but he knew only the immersion of Yochanan.

He began to speak out boldly in the synagogue; but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the Way of God in fuller detail.

When he made plans to cross over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote the talmidim there to welcome him. On arrival, he greatly helped those who through grace had come to trust;

for he powerfully and conclusively refuted the unbelieving Jews in public, demonstrating by the Tanakh that Yeshua is the Messiah.

Then some of the Jewish exorcists who traveled from place to place tried to make use of the name of the Lord Yeshua in connection with people who had evil spirits. They would say, “I exorcise you by the Yeshua that Sha’ul is proclaiming!”

One time, seven sons of a Jewish cohen gadol named Skeva were doing this;

and the evil spirit answered them. It said, “Yeshua I know. And Sha’ul I recognize. But you? Who are you?”

Then the man with the evil spirit fell upon them, overpowered them and gave them such a beating that they ran from the house, naked and bleeding.

For Sha’ul had decided to bypass Ephesus on his voyage, in order to avoid losing time in the province of Asia, because he was hurrying to get to Yerushalayim, if possible in time to celebrate Shavu‘ot.

But he did send from Miletus to Ephesus, summoning the elders of the Messianic community.

When they arrived, he said to them, “You yourselves know how, from the first day I set foot in the province of Asia, I was with you the whole time,

serving the Lord with much humility and with tears, in spite of the tests I had to undergo because of the plots of the unbelieving Jews.

You know that I held back nothing that could be helpful to you, and that I taught you both in public and from house to house,

declaring with utmost seriousness the same message to Jews and Greeks alike: turn from sin to God; and put your trust in our Lord, Yeshua the Messiah.

“And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Yerushalayim. I don’t know what will happen to me there,

other than that in every city the Ruach HaKodesh keeps warning me that imprisonment and persecution await me.

But I consider my own life of no importance to me whatsoever, as long as I can finish the course ahead of me, the task I received from the Lord Yeshua — to declare in depth the Good News of God’s love and kindness.

“Now, listen! I know that none of you people among whom I have gone about proclaiming the Kingdom will ever see me again.