The Bully Demon Who Feared One Thing

I'm gonna get you to open with me to Acts 19 this morning as we continue our look at the book of Acts, and specifically its focus on the church, the early Christian church. I trust that it's been an interesting and helpful thing to look at some of these things and how it applies to our lives, and the encouragement that it can be for us as Christians today, two thousand years later, and how we may live in a way that is pleasing to God as His church. We look at Acts 19:8-20. And he, who is Paul, entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the way before the congregation, Paul withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the Hall of Tyrannus.

This continued for two years so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and 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. Then 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. Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. But the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?

And 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. And 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. Also, many of those who were now believers came confessing and divulging their practices. And a number of those who had practised 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 50,000 pieces of silver. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. So far, our reading. There's a famous line in the Shakespearean play Romeo and Juliet. What is in a name?

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet. And if you take out that line, that sentence, you would think that Romeo, as he said this to Juliet, was saying there's nothing in a name. A rose could be called a car, and it would smell as sweet. It would still be a rose. It would still have its internal inherent qualities of being beautiful and nice smelling.

But if you understand the story of Romeo and Juliet, Romeo being a Montague and Juliet being a Capulet, when Romeo says this, the irony is that there is a lot in a name. He is a Montague and she is a Capulet. And as you read the story or as you listen to the play, you understand that that's an ironic statement. That's an unfortunate statement. The same is relevant here.

What is in a name? As the name of the Lord Jesus is invoked in the city of Ephesus. And we will see that there is plenty in that name. As we've worked through the book of Acts, we've sort of paused at various sections and various scenes within the book, particularly regarding the important themes that are carried on through the book of Acts. One of those important significant themes in the book of Acts is on its emphasis on the supernatural.

There's plenty of focus on the power of Jesus Christ working through the apostles. It's sort of indicative of probably Luke's personal theology. Luke himself had a strong emphasis on highlighting Jesus' miracles. He does that in his gospel account, the book of Luke. Jesus is shown to be a powerful miracle worker.

He exercises unclean spirits, and in doing so, he shows the power of Satan being overcome by the greater power of Jesus Christ. When we come to his second volume, the book of Acts, the conflict between Satan and the exalted Christ now is seen again, but this time through the church, through this church of God. There are a number of instances recorded in Acts which demonstrate both the power of the ascended Lord and the impotence of Satan in trying to resist the advance of the gospel as it goes out. A quick survey, you'll see that the first instance of this where it's really focused is Acts 8, in the story of Simon the Sorcerer. You may have remembered that name, that story.

Simon the Sorcerer is a magician in a place called Samaria. At this stage, the church was starting to spread outside of Jerusalem and Judea to a neighbouring province, I guess you could say, in Samaria. The Samaritans were obviously fascinated by this man, Simon, and his magic. And because they were so captivated by this phenomenon, when Philip, the evangelist, comes to share the good news of Jesus with them, they are initially drawn to Philip, not because of the message, but because of the power of the miracles that was being done through him. Healings, exorcisms that they were witnessing.

When Simon hears the preaching and he sees the accompanying signs and wonders, Simon also decides to get baptised alongside everyone else. Now, it's debatable whether he undergoes a genuine repentance, because we see an ambitious desire in his heart which comes to the fore when he seeks to gain the same supernatural power that the apostles Peter and John, who eventually also come to Samaria, are showing in their ministry. At one point, Simon goes up to Peter and asks him, can I buy this power that you have for myself? The apostle Peter exposes Simon's wicked heart saying to him, may your silver die with you, because you think you could have bought the gift of God with money.

Simon, in that instant, is gripped with fear, the Bible says, perhaps because it sounds like a terrible curse that has been placed on him. And he says to Peter, please pray for me that the thing that you have said will not happen to me. But here we start seeing that the servants of Jesus Christ have an authority over the master of Simon, Satan, magic, and sorcery is seen as not a cute or harmless thing, but something that Peter describes as wicked and evil. And a contrast is being drawn.

That real power lies not in magic or in magicians, but in God and God's ambassadors like Peter and Paul. We find other encounters like in chapter 13 in the book of Acts, in chapter 16, chapter 13 with a magician named Bar-Jesus. In chapter 16, a demon-possessed slave girl in Philippi who is able to predict the future. And we see as the gospel goes out into the world, not only is there a physical oppression, a resistance to the good news of Jesus, there is a supernatural resistance as well. And so by the time we get to Acts 19, the story of Paul in the city of Ephesus, we are well aware that there are forces at play, unseen powers that are also at work in trying to resist the message of Jesus.

Contextually, Ephesus is the capital city of a region called Asia Minor in the Roman Empire, which is now modern-day Turkey, by the way. The city of Ephesus bore the title the first and the greatest metropolis of Asia. Ephesus was the most populated city of the most prosperous province in the whole empire. It was a wealthy city. In Luke's recording of the events that took place in Ephesus, we come to see one clear message from our passage, and that is that there is power in the person and the name of Jesus Christ to overthrow Satan.

He has power over everything. And so let's look at those few things in these three points. Firstly, the powers that compete for your heart. We see Paul entering the synagogue, which is his custom in the city of Ephesus. He first heads a beeline to the synagogue, the Jewish synagogue, to go and teach the fulfilment of the Messiah to the Jews.

And he begins speaking boldly, we're told, for three months, trying to persuade the listeners about the things related to Jesus and the coming kingdom of God. What we see is a natural reaction to the preaching of the gospel, patterned again and again throughout the book, and that is that some continue to listen while others reject it out of hand. Those who hardened their hearts began to slander Christianity to the crowds that were listening, which causes Paul to stop preaching in the synagogue, and we are told that he goes to a Greek lecture hall to continue his preaching. Amazingly, Paul is able to do this for a further two years. In chapter 19, we're also told of the mighty power of God being worked through the hands of Paul.

We're told that even rags that were used to wipe perhaps Paul's forehead to catch the sweat, or the aprons that were tied around his waist while he was working as a tent maker. These things were used to carry to the sick, to heal diseases, to cast out unclean spirits. Why does God allow something so peculiar like this method to happen? In fact, this wasn't the normal way that the apostles healed people. Once again, the context gives us insight.

Ephesus is a hub for all things magical and supernatural. But because it was so often tied with greed and the lust for power, the more showy these magical acts were, the more fame and the more money the magicians got. The more people were impressed. And so this generates some sort of pop culture of magic in Ephesus. And I believe that even though there would have been perhaps some genuine magicians empowered by evil spirits, I think there were a lot of charlatans and hucksters and tricksters involved in this as well.

People that made a big show, and therefore could generate lots of money. And so it's important for us to realise that in the context of this pop culture of magic, comes these witnesses saying that simple handkerchiefs and aprons that had simply touched this new person in Ephesus named Paul, were bringing miraculous healings, driving out evil spirits. It made people sit up and notice. Having read and observed Paul throughout the book of Acts, we know that it's unlikely that Paul would have given in to this pop culture when he came into Ephesus. This wasn't Paul entering into the showmanship that was around him.

Paul, I think, would not have sat on a street corner, wiping his forehead with cloths and just passing it on to people to go and deliver them to sick people. It's more likely that as he was preaching in the Hall of Tyrannus or elsewhere, people probably just touched these items on him and then took it home. But the result was people were amazed. There was no trickery involved in this. It was no hit and miss parlour trick.

No lame excuse from this charlatan who said so and so doesn't have enough faith, or he hasn't paid enough money, or he hasn't done all the rituals that I need him to do for this thing to happen. It's simply healed. This is legit. Paul is being shown as being a true messenger of the most high God. The power working through him was revealing the truth of the gospel he was proclaiming at the same time.

The detail by which Luke describes the Ephesian context applies to us, however, in one important way. And that is to realise that there are powers working all around us all the time. Some of those powers are natural, but some of those powers are more than natural. In fact, the rest of the Bible tells us that there are three main sources of power in this world. The power of God, the power of Satan, and the power of sin.

Ephesus was a hotbed of the occult, of sorcery, of witchcraft. This is confirmed when we read Paul's letter to the eventual church in Ephesus. Throughout that book, as we already touched on earlier in this service, Paul writes to them about the powers of Satan and the work of darkness. Remember, he says, are children of light, not of darkness anymore. You've escaped that.

When it comes to the final chapter in Ephesians chapter 6, Paul famously writes about the spiritual armour of God that protects the church, that protects the Christians of the church against the attacks of Satan. We have to realise that those things that Paul wrote about are as real today as they were back then. Sorcery is alive and well. Many of us may feel that we don't see that happening around us, in our own personal private circles, but go and turn on your TV or go and walk into your local bookstore, and you will see an interest and an intrigue in the occult, in the supernatural. Shows like Paranormal, shows like Supernatural, books like Vampire Diaries.

They're there and they're very popular. There is an intrigue in those things, just like Ephesus. And although they may look innocent on the outside, these shows, these books, this media, this literature, they draw us in to the same powers that were involved back here. Ouija boards, seances, astrology, all of those things are tied with it all. The funny thing is a lot of Christians think they're sort of cute, innocent things to be dabbled in with.

In various forms throughout history, they've been tied to Satan, and they may seem very new to us, but they are actually very, very old. So the first thing we have to do is to realise that we live in a world that is still under the influence of an old enemy, Satan. And that he is trying to resist the church. And he is at work testing and tempting humanity into perhaps the greatest power that we need to fear, not the power of God or his power, Satan, but the power of sin. Neither God's power nor his own power, but the power that lies in our hearts, the power of sin. And where Satan's power is temporary, and we believe it is fading even though at times it is terrifying, the power of sin is a power that lasts forever for those outside the kingdom of God.

If there ever was a power worth fearing, it is that power. And Satan's greatest influence comes not from what he can do to us himself, but from deceiving us to think that there are things more intriguing, more tantalising, perhaps more powerful than being satisfied by God. Why do people try a seance? Why dabble in fortune telling? Because Satan has deceived the world and perhaps some of us, that those things are more rewarding than knowing and trusting the living God.

So the first thing, and some of us are already past that, but for some of us, we need to know that we cannot be naive about these things. Satan has power, and he wields it in all sorts of ways. But genuine life-giving power is found in Jesus Christ alone, and that leads us to the next application. Point number two. I'm sorry.

I don't think my clicker is on. Point number two, the power of Christ makes even His most determined enemies tremble. In the passage we read, we are introduced to a scene between a demon-possessed man and the seven sons of Sceva. We're told that this man Sceva was a Jewish high priest in Ephesus. In a situation which can only be described as monkey see, monkey do, these seven sons have heard of Paul doing amazing things, remember, in this pop culture of magic, and I think this is so cool.

We're gonna invoke this powerful name, the name of Jesus, and we're gonna do something amazing, and hopefully there's a bit of fame or fortune that comes our way. We know that from archaeology in those days, there existed a belief that magicians could coerce deities or spirits to do their will by invoking either that deity or that demon's name, or invoking a name that this spirit would have to abide by, have to honour. These seven sons of Sceva think it'll be kind of cool to dabble in that world of the supernatural. They are flippant and naive about the whole thing, as some Christians today might be as well. Let's give it a go.

So they attempt to cast out this demon through what they call a magical formula, thinking the name of Jesus, the name Jesus is some sort of magical charm. The response of this demon-possessed man is astonishing. You can almost hear it as he's saying it. Calmly, with an incredulous look, the man turns to them and says, verse 15, Jesus I know, and Paul I recognise, but who are you? The Greek translation literally reads, I know Jesus, I'm acquainted with Paul, but who do you think you are?

Then Luke tells us that the man leapt on these seven men and gave them the beating of their lives. They run out of the house, Luke says, naked and wounded, naked and bleeding. Here we again see that Satan's power can be a real power. Don't be naive. This possessed man had superhuman strength.

I mean, it takes something truly extra-natural to beat up seven guys against one. If you think the name Jesus is some sort of magical charm, however, and some Christians do think again. The power of the name Jesus Christ doesn't come from his the word, the letter Jesus. The power comes from the person behind that name. The Son of God, the King of the universe.

And the power that we have as Christians does not lie in the literal sound of that name, but the family bond associated with that name that we carry. Theologically, we are told that when we become Christians, we are adopted into the family of Christ. That's why we call ourselves Christians. We take on the name Jesus. We are little Christs.

We are with Him in this family. These sons of Sceva aren't. They thought Jesus was a magical gimmick. So when the demon hears this, he doesn't flinch when they utter the powerful name of Jesus Christ because they don't come with the actual power that can come from only belonging to the Lord of the universe. It is a family bond as Christians that we enter into through repentance and faith.

I've had it on several occasions that people know that we're a church here, I'm a pastor here, and people have called me out to say, there's a demon in my house, I believe, or a ghost or whatever. Can you come and pray? You know, I've tried all the things. I've got holy water from a priest here, and I've invoked the name of Jesus there, and nothing seems to happen. And I just think, why are you trying to do this on your own, with all these gimmicks and thinking there's power in those things?

That is not where the power lies. The second thing we learned from this encounter is just how powerful this family name, this name of Jesus is, and the great confidence we can have of being protected and guarded by it. After these sons of Sceva have the living daylights beaten out of them, verse 17 tells us the next verse. And 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, was honoured. That's a strange response, isn't it?

Why is the name of Jesus honoured when the power is with this demon? Like, he's the one that beat up these guys. The name of Jesus actually didn't do anything for these men. Why is the name of Jesus honoured? Well, if we look closely at what the demon-possessed man says, we see some very important things.

When the demon says he knows Paul, it is better translated as a knowledge of identification. It seems that this demon who had seemingly never met Paul before was aware of the work that Paul was doing. Perhaps in the supernatural realm, the demons who had been driven out by the ministry of Paul over those two years had spoken to one another, had informed each other of what was happening. He recognises Paul, the name at least. But then the demon says, he also knows Jesus.

And the interesting thing is, it is a completely different word in the Greek of knowledge. On the one hand, Paul is epistemied, to be known, and Jesus is ginoscoed, also to be known. But there is a difference between the two knowledges. The word used of knowing Jesus is a personal knowledge of Jesus. It's a knowledge that we as Christians have of Jesus as well.

This knowledge is a knowledge you feel in your bones. It's an experiential knowledge. This demon, in other words, didn't know about Jesus. He knew Jesus. And perhaps, you could argue that as a fallen angel alongside Lucifer himself, this demon would have known Jesus from the past, the pre-incarnate Son of God.

And he knew the authority that this Jesus has. It's a deeper knowledge of Jesus. And this powerful being is aware in a reverent sort of way of this name. And so the people extol and honour the name of Jesus when they see the respect that this power has towards Him. And so we see the reality that the power of Christ can make even His most determined enemies tremble.

And then lastly, we come to our third point. All the powers of the world bow down to one. Now, we're told of a result, of both Paul's preaching, and the miracles that God was doing through him, and the testimony of a demon-possessed man. Through these things, the whole city of Ephesus comes to hear the good news. And many, we are told, repent and believe.

Now, this happens across a two-year, two and a half-year period. But there comes a moment which is like the climax of Paul's ministry in Ephesus, where hundreds, if not thousands of people come together in a very public space, and they bring together all their magical artefacts, their books and their scrolls. And they make a huge bonfire inside, of everyone, we're told. After this fire or perhaps during, people calculate the value of everything that is being burnt up. And Luke tells us that they believe it's about 50,000 pieces of silver.

Historians tell us that a piece of silver was probably a day's wage. And when I sat down with my poor maths skills and I worked it out, that's about in Australian average salary, daily salary, that comes to about 15,000,000. 15,000,000 of scrolls, parchments, magical trinkets up in smoke on one day. Can you see the upheaval that the gospel of Jesus Christ had done, had made, had caused in Ephesus? People were so moved, so compelled that they literally burnt up their former lives.

And they do so because they have been adopted into the family of God, into the kingdom of light. This is why Luke ends this section of Acts by stating in verse 20, the word of the Lord continued to increase, and then he says, prevail mightily. Satan is resisting. Satan is pushing back and he can do nothing against the advance of the church. In a strangely paradoxical world that we live in today, on the one hand, we have atheism screaming, there is no such thing as the supernatural.

And at the same time, interest in the occult is on the rise. Don't you think that's strange? The reason that is happening, the reason that those things can actually work together is because their power comes from the same source, the enemy of God, Satan. He doesn't care what method he uses as long as it is not the kingdom of God, as long as people don't believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we are meant to take heart in the story that we just read this morning, have just read.

That despite the deeply entrenched cultural values of Ephesus, there was a day where people burnt up 15,000,000 worth of old life, bad history, in response to the gospel. There was a day when an entire city bore witness to people gladly receiving the gift of Christ's salvation even when it cost them perhaps a whole year's salary. To receive eternal life, what does it matter how much I have to sacrifice? Ultimately, we are comforted that this existence that we live in is the realm of the Lord Jesus. He is much more powerful than Satan, and even sin is.

As one Corinthians 15 will tell us, Jesus has crushed both of these great enemies, enemies, both sin and Satan in His death and resurrection. And that although these powers lurk in this world, there is a power that is always greater than these things. There is a King who can heal the sick with a touch of a handkerchief. There is a King who directs His church to preach the gospel to the Gold Coast, and people can respond in the way that they responded in Ephesus. That is within the realm of possibility.

It is possible for the most entrenched non-believer, people who wholeheartedly live in the kingdom of darkness, to turn to the truth that whoever the Son sets free is free indeed. Do we pray for that? Do we think that our God, the powerful name of Jesus Christ, can still do this? The one we serve is the one who can take an entire city, sold completely into the slavery of the power of Satan and sin, and turn it on its head. So much so, that if you read the story, it bankrupts the entire idol-making market of that city, that great prosperous city of Ephesus.

Who has this sort of power? It is the Lord Jesus. And in His name, because we carry it upon us, we can do amazing things. He is our Lord. He is our maker and He is our Saviour and we must recognise His power today.

So let us pray for His intervention in this city. Let us remain safely content as well. That whatever resistance we face, it will never overcome. It will never defeat us because we are in His family. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for this encouragement that You are the God of this universe, that You are the God of this city. And Lord, that there may be resistance. There is an active rebellion at work. But God, You are the one who at a word, Lord, with a simple thought can turn the city of the Gold Coast on its head. And so God, we implore you, we ask you, please have mercy.

Please act mightily. Please cause us, those who profess to carry the name of the Lord Jesus, to believe in the power of that name. Help us therefore to have confidence in everything we do as Christians in this city. Help us to have confidence in the conversations we have with our friends and with our family members. And help us, Lord, to realise that if and when we experience resistance, whether that is physical or supernatural, there is no power that can overcome Your plan.

And so, Lord, we pray for this plan to come, for this kingdom to be established more and more, that You may use this church as one of the vehicles for this outworking. Empower me, empower our elders, empower our leaders, and every single one of us sitting here to be at work in this kingdom. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.