More Than What Can Be Measured

INTRODUCTION

Maybe you will remember these pop lyrics from the 1980’s.

They come from the vaunted philosopher and artist of the highest tastes—Madonna:

'Cause we are living in a material world And I am a material girl You know that we are living in a material world And I am a material girl

Madonna

Say what you will—she was right.

I’m not sure this is exactly what she was getting at, but we are boys and girls of the Enlightenment.

In our society, we have come to believe that everything can be explained by the material.

What can be measured and examined in a lab.

We live in a world with no room for the spiritual.

You must be able to see it and touch it and taste it and smell it and hear it.

Can it be recorded on some sort of scale or spectrum?

Can it be carbon dated?

Can it go in a test tube?

No? Then we aren’t interested.

The collective society of the West has come to believe that we are just bags of chemistry and stardust bumping into each other.

Feelings like love and despair and joy and anxiety can all be explained by chemicals firing off in the brain.

The heart? That’s just what pumps blood into your veins.

The soul? That doesn’t exist—you are just an animal who happened to be a part of a species that evolved better than the other things that exist.

Now, we don’t believe this as Christians, but we might be breathing it and be intoxicated by it without realizing it.

Litmus Test: If you start to roll your eyes a bit when someone starts talking about demons and miracles, you’re probably more like Madonna than you’d care to admit.

You are probably more of a child of the Enlightenment than you realize.

You may be a naturalist and you don’t even realize it.

Naturalism: all knowledge of the Universe falls within the pale of scientific method and investigation

Again—you have to be able to measure it out in the lab

Supernaturalism: the belief that there are forces in play beyond the laws of nature and scientific understanding

The supernaturalist has no problem with an unseen realm in the heavenlies, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God and worshipped by angels

The supernaturalist is fully aware that the devil is real, demons are real and evil is more than just chemicals going sideways in the brain.

If you are a naturalist and you reject anything that cannot be observed by your five senses or measured and reported on with empirical data, you have no framework to deal with this passage of Scripture this morning.

It is supernatural—from top to bottom.

Acts 19:11–20 ESV

And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so 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. 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 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. So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

We have three observations to make from this passage this morning:

1. The power of Christ’s name is undeniable.

2. The power of demonic evil is underestimated.

3. The power of God’s Word is unstoppable.

THE POWER OF CHRIST’S NAME IS UNDENIABLE

We start with our first teaching point this morning:

1. The power of Christ’s name is undeniable.

The setting for this passage is the dark, pagan world.

A place where sorcery and divination are rife.

Last week, we saw Paul piercing the darkness with the light of the Gospel, seeing the disciples of John become New Covenant believers, instructing and persuading at the synagogue and discipling in the Hall of Tyrannus.

In v. 10, Luke told us that the Word of the Lord was spreading through the Jewish and Greek residents of Asia.

But we are reminded of Ephesus’ pagan roots in this passage where we see pagan practices, repentance from involvement in dark things and a demon-possessed man inflicting violence.

However, before we speak of the evil, we see the power of Christ on display—the power of His name in particular.

THE CLOTH AND MESSIANIC POWER (v. 11-12)

First of all, in verse 11, Luke says that God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.

It is the only time in Acts that Luke describes the miraculous works of God through the Apostles in this way.

This tells us that what is happening in Ephesus is unprecedented—even in this incredible time of history that we have learning about.

The power at work is so extraordinary, that we have this strange thing happening in verse 12, where the power of God is being transmitted through cloth.

Skeptics of Christianity love this passage because they say this whole concept is ridiculous.

Charlatans love it because they use it to justify getting on TV and selling “prayer cloths,” that they will send to you in the mail for a fee.

Even today you can go online and buy prayer cloths that have supposedly been anointed by relics in Jerusalem and are said to carry some sort of power.

But what is actually happening here? If the skeptics are wrong to mock it and charlatans are wrong to twist it, what is actually occuring?

Well, we have to remember the purpose of miracles in Acts, in general.

The miraculous works of the Spirit through the Apostles were produced to attest to the fact that the Spirit of Christ was working through His Apostles.

It is no different in this situation with the handkerchiefs and aprons.

These pieces of cloth that would have been used in a work environment—possible used by Paul himself in his tentmaking—are being taken by people, who may or may not be believers, and they are applying them to sick and tormented people.

It is not strange that the people in Ephesus would think to do this, because in their culture, it was a regular thing for them.

They would take pieces of cloth and according to their traditional views on magic, they would attach power to them and treat them as a sort of talisman or amulet.

They see Paul working miracles and they think, “Let’s tap into this miracle-working power and take these cloths and use it like a talisman.”

The strange thing is that from what Luke is telling us, we can gather that God allowed His power to be at work in this practice and to actually drive out disease and cause demons to leave those they were dwelling in.

It is strange to read, but we shouldn’t be left guessing about the purpose.

God’s purpose must certainly be the same as it has been throughout Acts—to attest to the work of the Spirit through the Apostle.

Even with this cloth that touched Paul’s skin, God is demonstrating His power through His commissioned servant.

The whole scene is reminds us of an instance from Luke’s Gospel.

In Luke 8, there was a woman who had a discharge of blood that no one had been able to heal and it has been going on for 12 years.

As crowds are pressing in on Jesus, she comes up behind Him and reaches out and touches the hem of His garment.

Luke 8:44 ESV

She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.

The scene ends with her on her face before Him, proclaiming her healing by His power and Him telling her that her faith has made her well and to go in peace.

But we see that just touching the cloth that Jesus is wearing brought healing to her, which served to attest to His Messianic power as the King over disease.

Now in Acts 19, you have the power of God being transmitted through cloth again—this time cloth that Paul touched.

And yet—what is the purpose? It is really the same as Luke 8.

It is showing off the undeniable, Messianic power of Christ, which is still at work through His Spirit, though Christ has ascended to the right hand of the Father.

THE POWER OF CHRIST’S NAME (v. 13, 17-19)

Then in v. 13, we have these Jewish itinerant exorcists who are going around invoking the name of Christ, whom Paul proclaims, like some sort of Harry Potter incantation.

These were men who went around supposedly driving out demons, based on a tradition they claimed they could trace back to Solomon.

Josephus asserts that Solomon had been granted knowledge of “the art used against demons for the benefit of healing men,” and that he left behind, “forms of exorcisms with which those possessed by demons drive them out,” establishing a tradition that was still alive in his own day, the first century.

Eckhardt Schnabel

The Sons of Sceva, who try and drive an evil spirit out of a man and fail miserably, likely fancy themselves to be these sort of exorcists.

But what they find out is that Jesus’ name is not a magic incantation.

And Jesus’ power is not one to be harnessed and manipulated by men at their will.

They get physically harmed by the evil spirit who rejects any sort of power or authority they claim to have.

They are mastered and overpowered.

They sought to have dominion over this evil spirit by using Jesus’ name like a magic spell and they end up with the spirit having dominion over them.

And yet—here is the thing—Luke says in verse 17 that the account of what happens to these guys, who fled the house naked and wounded, caused fear to fall on the Jews and Gentiles of Ephesus and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.

Why does a demon overcoming seven Jewish exorcists cause people to extol the name of Christ?

Because of what the evil spirit said.

“Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize...”

The implication is that the demon would not have been able to master and overpower the men if the power of Jesus working through an Apostle like Paul was really present.

If the power of Christ, which God did allow to work through the aprons and handkerchiefs, was working through the Sons of Sceva, the demon would have been the one mastered.

But since they are invoking Jesus’ name in this powerless, pagan manner, they have no ground to stand on.

But when the people hear that something so powerful that it can literally beat the pants off of seven men, shuddered before the name of Christ, it caused them to extol the name of Christ.

The powerful name of Christ is magnified, glorified and exalted.

And not just that—the testimony regarding the power of Christ’s name is so affecting that these people are moved to repentance.

People who were converted came to Paul and openly confessed their dark, pagan practices of divination and sorcery.

They brought the books of their magic arts and burned them—at a great cost to themselves— and they did it out in public, for everyone to see.

This is what true spiritual awakening looks like.

People can get casual about terms like revival or awakening or a move of God, but if anything like that is actually occurring, this is what you will see.

On one hand, there will be a worshipping regard for the name of Christ.

On the other hand, there will be a weeping repentance for the sin committed against the Lord.

Clearly this is the sort of awakening happening here and it is all traced back to the power of Christ’s name.

His name is falsely employed by these exorcists to a devastating effect.

His name is recognized by the evil spirit, showing that what James says in his epistle is true—even the demons believe and they shudder.

And His name is extolled, which leads to a massive repentance in which worldly riches are forsaken for spiritual life.

This all shows us the undeniable, supernatural power of the name of Christ.

And this is right in line with the consistent testimony of Acts. Remember what Peter says to the lame man in Acts 3--

Acts 3:6 ESV

But Peter said, “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”

This just one example.

For the sake of time, I won’t give more, but the power and effect of the name of Jesus is emphasized on 12 different occasions in Acts.

ILLUSTRATION: I remember the first time I was present for a gun being shot. My dad had a handgun he had gotten and I stood there while he fired it.

I had seen guns in movies. I had shot them on video games.

But when I heard the shot ring out through the woods of Powhatan and I saw my dad kick back a little and I saw what the bullet did to its destination—the power of the gun was undeniable.

That is the way Christ’s power is in this text and Acts in general. It is undeniable. You can see the results. And you can see what happens when His power is not present.

Whether you can measure that in a lab or not, you see it in the Bible, here.

APPLICATION: But church—this is where we have to be careful.

In a culture where naturalism is embraced on every front—from the origin of life to explaining the sources of depression and despair as being purely biological, there is a temptation to not believe in the supernatural, undeniable power of Jesus’ name.

In fact, this is exactly the sort of Christianity that emerged in the 1900’s and became quite prevalent in denominations all across America.

Teaching about the supernatural power of God and the miraculous and that power still being at work in the world today?

This just didn’t jive with the modern mind. Christianity needed to be adjusted and edited.

Here is Gene Edward Veith talking about this:

Such teachings, they assumed, were old, the products of a less-enlightened way of thinking, and were not credible to “modern man.” Thus, Christianity needed to be updated, recast so as to accord with modern science and progressive ideas.

Gene Edward Veith

We need a Christianity devoid of things like bodily resurrection.

We need a Christianity who can walk hand-in-hand with Darwinistic evolution.

We need a Christianity that affirms the radical individualism of the culture that says, “You are autonomous and you can live how you want.”

After this modernist makeover, Christianity looked pretty much like what non-believers believed in. Churches taught the same things the non-Christians taught. Since there was little difference between the church and the world, “modern man” — far from flocking to these newly relevant churches — decided, quite properly, that since these churches had nothing to offer other than what he already had, he might as well just sleep in on Sunday mornings.

Gene Edward Veith

Those churches don’t make it. The people who don’t sleep in aren’t going there.

When you try and domesticate Christ and tame Him with modern ideologies and sensibilities and vacuum out all of the miraculous power of His name and His Gospel, you are left with nothing special.

Just plain-old man-made religion.

You can look all around the landscape of America’s theologically liberal denominations and see that when a church forsakes the power of Christ’s name in order to conform to the world, the church itself is forsaken.

This is why so many of these churches are closing their doors each year.

But we cannot shake our heads at the state of these churches and think that our own hearts are immune to this sort of modern makeover.

Do we really live as if we believe there is power in Jesus’ name?

Do we believe that the miraculous power we have seen in this passage this morning is still at work in His church today?

Do we wake up every day and say, “Wherever you take me God?” or do we fall into the trap of functioning like Atheists—as if all that exists is that which is under the sun?

In what ways are we denying the power of the name of Christ in our lives?

We have to think about this, because here is what is downstream from denying the undeniable power of Christ—it’s pragmatic idolatry.

If we do not attribute proper supernatural power to the name of Christ, then we will end up attributing it to the natural things of the world.

And we will trust in them.

If we think the power of Christ does not work, then we will look for a power that does.

And as those who are living like all that exists is what can be tasted, touched, seen, smelled and heard, we will reach out for a created thing and bow down to it.

You may not bow down to a golden calf like the Israelites coming out of Egypt or the Israelites of Jeroboam’s generation in 1 Kings 12, but you’ll find something.

Mind-numbing television

Heart-desensitizing addictions

2-D images of naked people on the internet and the solitary sex that comes from looking at it

Co-dependent idolatrous, all-consuming obsessions with people

You know—making a god out of your spouse or your kids and putting a worshipping weight on them they were never meant to bear

Work, work, work

This sort of idolatry doesn’t come out of nowhere.

It often happens when we say, “THIS—what we can measure—is all there is.”

It happens when we deny and forsake the power of the name of Christ and then assign power to other things

Things that will ultimately fail us because they don’t actually the power we have come to believe they do

Fish swim in water, but they don’t realize it.

They just breathe it in. It is all they’ve known. They are immersed in it.

We have to realize that we are immersed in a world that says, “The supernatural power of God is superstition.”

We have to make sure that we don’t end up functioning as material boys and girls in a material world.

We believe in the undeniable, supernatural power of Christ’s name.

THE POWER OF EVIL IS UNDERESTIMATED

Now, with that first teaching point in place, let’s look closer at the situation with the Sons of Sceva, and as we do, we will have our second point this morning:

2. The power of demonic evil is underestimated.

The Seven Sons of Sceva have a father who is described as a Jewish High Priest.

There is no Jewish High Priest named Sceva in Jewish records, but sometimes that term was used to simply describe members of the Jewish priestly aristocracy.

Luke even does this a few times in his gospels.

Now here is the thing about these guys—they are frauds.

Their fraudulence is exposed in both their lack of understanding and in their actions.

In terms of their understanding, these guys recognize that key to Paul’s miracle-working is Jesus’ name, so they try and hi-jack it for their own purposes.

But as I said earlier, they use Jesus’ name like a hocus pocus spell and seem to have no real faith.

And David Peterson is right in saying that this left them without the proper tools to deal with the kind of evil they are staring down in verses 15-16.

The Acts of the Apostles 2. Miracles and Their Impact (19:11–20)

These pretenders did not have the appropriate moral or spiritual integrity with which to engage the powers of evil.

And the evil spirit lets them know about it.

He knows Jesus’ name. He is aware of Jesus’ servant Paul—but the question for the seven men is haunting: But who are you?

In other words—you have authority here. Who do you think you are?

So what happens?

Well, you can only describe it as a savage beating.

They went in with tunics and undergarments and they came out naked with black-eyes.

The possessed man leaps on him

They got battered. They got clobbered. They received a good hiding.

A thorough pummeling. A drubbing. A walloping.

They were trounced. They were thrashed.

It was a licking of the highest order.

And they are probably quite blessed to leave with their lives.

This is not the only time we see this sort of things with demons in the New Testament.

There are all sorts of twisted things that we see when evil spirits take up residence in humans in the Scriptures.

You see irrational behavior

You see self-harm

You see the basic human functions impaired

You see awful suffering

And you see unnatural physical strength and violent behavior

When Mark describes the man with many unclean spirits in the country of Garasenes, he says this about him:

Mark 5:3–4 ESV

He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him.

Then, in Mark 9, we have a demon violently throwing a boy to the ground.

Mark 9:17–18 ESV

And someone from the crowd answered him, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams and grinds his teeth and becomes rigid. So I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they were not able.”

We certainly have violent behavior in this passage here, as the Sons of Sceva are humiliated and nearly killed.

And it is safe to say that as much as these men were in this situation because they misused the name of Christ, they are also in it because they miscalculated the power of evil.

They underestimated it.

They thought it was something they could handle.

They fancied themselves experts, but ultimately they are exiting stage left with no pants and clearly no power to deal with such things.

On one hand, we almost want to laugh at them for their foolishness, but we also have to stop and ask, “Do we do the same thing?”

“Do we underestimate evil?”

Do our materialistic, naturalist tendencies cause us to forget Paul’s words about the war we are in?

Ephesians 6:10–12 ESV

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Do we really live like this is true or do we count spiritual forces of evil in unseen realms to be the stuff of an ancient world and an ancient book?

Have we become naturalists in the way we think of evil?

For example, imagine you are living in a state of deep depression. A dark night of your soul.

You feel like you are stuck in an emotional valley of sullenness and self-pity and you can’t see past the cloud in front of you.

You feel like the very pillars of your personality are falling away.

You aren’t enjoying people or hobbies or any of the things you used to.

The world we live in would listen to you talk and they would say, “Ahhhhh…This is simply an imbalance of seratonin and dopamine. A chemical catastrophe.”

And don’t get me wrong—I believe that.

The chemicals of the brain are real and I believe in creating healthy pathways in our lives to produce those happy chemicals.

BUT—is that all there is in play?

Not according to Paul. Not according to Scripture.

That is not to say that all depression is a result of demonic oppression, but listen—it might be.

Do we really think that Satan would not employ his forces to try and drag a Christian down into the dungeons of misery, so that their joy would be robbed and their witness would be silenced?

Do we really want to roll our eyes at the idea of cosmic powers over this present darkness?

Do we dare to ignore the clear teachings of Scripture that there are authorities we are warring against that are not flesh and blood?

And keep in mind—he is talking to believers.

I don’t believe a demon can take up residence in a heart that the Holy Spirit dwells in.

But that doesn’t mean the devil’s forces won’t play the role of the Big Bad Wolf from the outside, huffing and puffing and doing all they can to try and blow the house down.

That doesn’t mean they won’t oppress. They won’t plague. They won’t attack.

I am not saying we should ignore the physical or ignore what can be measured in a lab.

But we also cannot ignore the activity of the Enemy and his forces.

Not when Scripture clearly tells us they are in play.

So we have to fight in a physical world as spiritual people.

And as we do it, we cannot be relaxed about the sort of darkness we are at war with.

This is why we must take up the whole armor of God.

So that we can stand firm in the evil day.

Put on truth like a belt.

Righteousness like a chestpiece.

The Gospel of peace on your feet.

The shield of faith to repel the darts of Hell

The helmet of salvation

The Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God

Praying every day, throughout the day

Keeping alert and watchful

Not just for ourselves, but for others

The way to combat evil biblically is not to be strong on our own, but to be strong in the Lord and the power of His might.

We trust in the undeniable power of Christ’s name to defeat the power of evil, which should not be underestimated.

The Sons of Sceva did not do that. We must.

THE POWER OF THE WORD IS UNSTOPPABLE

And then we have our final teaching point this morning:

3. The power of God’s Word is unstoppable.

You see this in verse 20.

Acts 19:20 ESV

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

It is very reminiscent of what Luke said in Acts 19:10

Acts 19:10 ESV

This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

God’s Word is on a tear here.

When Luke says that it continued to increase, the Greek word auxano conjures up images of a plant that grows and spreads quickly. It flourishes.

The Word of God is like creeping phlox here.

Creeping Phlox is this mostly pink flower that gets no more than ankle-high and yet, it will take over a garden if you let it.

It is beautiful, but it is aggressive.

SHOW PICTURE OF CREEPING PHLOX

This is an image of how God’s Word is increasing and spreading over Ephesus and spilling out into Asia Minor in Acts 19.

And it prevailed mightily.

Unlike the Sons of Sceva, who did not prevail—the Word does prevail.

We saw it prevailing mightily in verses 18-19, when people came and publicly burned their expensive books as an act of repentance to the Lord.

We saw it prevail earlier in the chapter:

New baptized converts in 19:5

New disciples, converted out of the synagogue, meeting with Paul in the Hall of Tyrannus in 19:9

New disciples as a result of the testimony spreading about the Sons of Sceva in 19:17

The Word of God and its cross-centered, Gospel message is a joke to many in our world.

They laugh at the idea that a man dying like a criminal could rescue the souls of countless people who love Him.

They mock that He would rise again.

Their naturalistic, “it must be measured in a lab,” worldview has led them to believe that there is nothing but blind, pitiless indifference in this world and that the idea of a God who saves is a punchline.

But again—we are no naturalists.

We believe that we know what we know based on what God has revealed in His Word.

We are a people of revelation before we are anything else.

And for us, this Word of the Cross IS the supernatural power God on display.

1 Corinthians 1:18 ESV

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.

There are some who are not being saved and will not be saved.

They will perish in their mockery of God’s power and God’s Word.

But make no mistake—God will save His people.

The power of His Word, which is not to be disconnected from the power of His name—after all, we know Jesus is the Word—will raise the dead hearts of God’s elect to life and they will know Him.

They will know His power.

They will know the defeat of evil.

They will know the sweetness of grace.

The Word of the Cross will not be stopped.

Until the Day when Christ returns and by His powerful Word the world is judged, the Word of the Lord will continue to increase and prevail mightily.

Do you believe in this sort of power? Has it changed your life?

And do you believe it will still change the lives of others?

This is another area where we cannot find ourselves starting to go with the crowd on the broad road of modernism.

We must go against the grain of the naturalist culture we live in and remember that the words of Hebrews are true:

Hebrews 4:12 ESV

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

CONCLUSION

For many reasons, let not the words of 1980’s Madonna be your identity.

Christian—there is more to reality that what you can put in a test tube or under a microscope or even see in a telescope.

The power of Christ’s name is undeniable.

The power of evil is not to be underestimated.

And take heart—because the power of the Word of our God is unstoppable.