Do the Demons Know You? - Acts 19:11-16

11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. 13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

This is quite an interesting story.  First, we see Paul was so filled with the Holy Spirit and the gift of healing that his handkerchiefs and aprons touched the sick they were healed.  Luke notes that these were "extra-ordinary" miracles, meaning they were unusual. They happened as a sign of the Holy Spirit working through Paul. In Acts 5:15 someone was healed by merely by being in Peter's shadow, and when the women with internal bleeding touched the hem of Jesus' garment she was healed with an illness she battled for 12 years. (Matthew 14:36).  

Second, when the seven sons of Sceva the chief priest saw what was happened, they tried to duplicate the miracle Paul did. They thought by using the words "in the name of Jesus", they could cast out a man's evil spirit.  But instead of delivering the man from the demon, the demon rebuked them. They did this by saying ,"We know Paul and Jesus but not you!" 

One commentator says this, "The Jewish exorcists failed because they had no personal relationship with Jesus. They only knew that Jesus was the God of Paul, not their own God. We could say that the sons of Sceva did not have the right to use the name of Jesus, because they had no real personal connection to Him." (Guzik)

So what can we learn from this story?  Spiritual power is real.  There is a spiritual world that we don't see.  Paul says, "Our battle is not against flesh and blood but principalites and power of this present spiritual darkness." (Ephesians 6:12)  The sons of Sceva underestimated the real spiritual power they were dealing with and got quite a beating.  Pretty embarassing as well.  We have no power in and of ourselves, but we have been given the power of the Holy Spirit. Earlier in the chapter Paul came upon some disciples who didn't even know there was a Holy Spirit.  He laid hands on them and they received the power of the Holy Spirit.  We shouldn't take evil spirits lightly and neither should be afraid of them.  Why?  Because,  "Greater is the Spirit that lives within you than he who lives in the world." (1 John 4:4)

Friends we can either live in the power of Jesus, or the sons of Sceva?  Make sure the demons know which one you are! 





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