The Power in the Name of Jesus is in the Man Behind the Name
God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 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. 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.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 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. When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor.”
Acts 19:11–17 NIV Read More
Playing Power Games with the Holy Spirit
Earlier in Acts, a couple tried to fake out the community and lie to the Holy Spirit about their giving. Even though they were free to give as much or as little as they wanted, they lied about it and the Holy Spirit took their lives.
Here are some other guys trying to fake it. The weird part is that you could read this as them being fakes or as a last-ditch effort to find something that would work. They went around driving out evil spirits in Ephesus and at some point tried to do it by using the name of “Jesus whom Paul preaches.” They recognized that was a powerful name.
They knew Paul had power because even the handkerchiefs that touched him could heal the sick. Remember this is Ephesus, a crowded seaport, so there would have been thousands of people in the outlying towns that might go to Ephesus weekly or monthly. These were the people spreading the word about Paul, his message, and his power to heal.
Don’t Take the Lord’s Name in Vain
These sons of Sceva heard about this power and were probably wondering what was going on. As Jewish men they may have heard Paul preach the 3 months that he was in the synagogue. They may have heard about what he was teaching in the lecture hall. Either way, they learned that the fourth of the 10 Commandments had taken on a whole new meaning. “Don’t take the name of the Lord in vain,” had new implications if you were talking to demons.
“Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?”
Everywhere Jesus encountered demons, He won without a fight. They knew who the authority was and obeyed. When people that were baptized with the Holy Spirit encountered demons, it was as if Jesus Himself was in them, and the demon’s obeyed. Here some guys are just using words, grasping at straws, to have success. While “whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved,” it does not apply to those who call on the Lord to get their own will satisfied as if by magic words.
Knowing the Man vs. Knowing His Name
The name of Jesus is mighty, because it is His name. To throw His name around like it’s a magic word rests the power in us saying magic words and not in the Savior we are talking about. The situation we are in (living the Christian life) is a serious situation. Let us not piddle around like uninformed kids in the movies that discover a book of magic spells. Let us press in to know the Savior who loves us, wants to know us, and has power to love us.
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