Abracadabra

Acts 19:11-20

¹¹And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul,

¹²so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them.

¹³Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.”

¹⁴Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.

¹⁵But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”

¹⁶And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.

¹⁷And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

¹⁸Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices.

¹⁹And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver.

²⁰So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

Most of the time when the Spirit of God moves it is quite subtle. His purposes are accomplished without a great deal of notice or excitement. But there are occasions when God’s actions come with pizzazz. Yes, I said it; pizzazz. Just imagine the scene on the street of Ephesus. People are being healed and demons are being cast out in very public forums. The buzz on the streets is “Jesus”. So of course there rises up frauds and wannabes who try and appropriate the name and power of Jesus for their own profits.

I have to confess, I would have loved to see the sons of Sceva trying unsuccessfully to grab the power that comes with the name of Jesus for their own personal benefit. The demon comes right out and discusses their fraud with them which results in their being beaten and stripped of clothing. Jesus’ name is not a magic word you can just conjure up to imbue yourself with personal power. These guys were opportunists and got what they deserved.

There’s a less dramatic temptation to do the same thing in our culture today. You can’t imagine how many people (who are not interested in actually knowing God) ask me to pray for them when their lives turn sour. They don’t really believe in God at all personally, but they know that I do. So maybe I’ll rub my magic lamp on their behalf and see if I can’t get God to do something for them. I’m always willing to pray for people; but what’s the deal with that? If they don’t want to bother with God on a regular basis, why should He perform for them when they’re in trouble? This was what was going on in Ephesus. Jesus’ name was being used like a magic incantation. Bad idea. The God of the Universe is not to be treated that way. The bearer of that name is also the One who gave up everything and died on the cross for our sin to then conquer death and rise on the third day. This is the name that should be held in reverence and spoken with awe. It does not surprise me that God let the demon beat on the sons of Sceva a little.