Peter Says Jesus Is the Christ

¹³ Jesus went to the area of Caesarea Philippi. He said to his followers, “I am the Son of Man. Who do the people say I am?”

¹⁴ They answered, “Some people say you are John the Baptist. Others say you are Elijah. And others say that you are Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵ Then Jesus asked them, “And who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷ Jesus answered, “You are blessed, Simon son of Jonah. No person taught you that. My Father in heaven showed you who I am. ¹⁸ So I tell you, you are Peter.^[a] And I will build my church on this rock. The power of death will not be able to defeat my church. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. The things you don’t allow on earth will be the things that God does not allow. The things you allow on earth will be the things that God allows.” ²⁰ Then Jesus warned his followers not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

The Sons of Sceva

¹¹ God used Paul to do some very special miracles. ¹² Some people took handkerchiefs and clothes that Paul had used and put them on the sick. When they did this, the sick were healed and evil spirits left them.

^13-14 But some Jews also were traveling around and making evil spirits go out of people. The seven sons of Sceva were doing this. (Sceva was a leading Jewish priest.) These Jews tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus to force the evil spirits out. They would say, “By the same Jesus that Paul talks about, I order you to come out!”

¹⁵ But one time an evil spirit said to these Jews, “I know Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?”

¹⁶ Then the man, who had the evil spirit in him, jumped on these Jews. He was much stronger than all of them. He beat them and tore their clothes off, so they ran away from the house. ¹⁷ All the people in Ephesus, Jews and Greeks, learned about this. They were filled with fear. And the people gave great honor to the Lord Jesus. ¹⁸ Many of the believers began to confess openly and tell all the evil things they had done. ¹⁹ Some of them had used magic. These believers brought their magic books and burned them before everyone. Those books were worth about 50,000 silver coins.^[a]

²⁰ So in a powerful way the word of the Lord kept spreading and growing.

Paul Plans a Trip

²¹ After these things, Paul made plans to go to Jerusalem. He planned to go through the countries of Macedonia and Southern Greece, and then on to Jerusalem. He said, “After I have been to Jerusalem, I must also visit Rome.” ²² Paul sent Timothy and Erastus, two of his helpers, ahead to Macedonia. He himself stayed in Asia for a while.