Do the Demons Know You? - Acts 19:11-20
Notes
Transcript
When good works are not enough
When good works are not enough
The first two verses from our text today give us a very strange and rare glimpse at the power that was given to the apostles. According to verses 11 & 12, the sick and the demon-possessed were healed and delivered by the sweat rags that Paul used. These handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched the skin of Paul were used as tools of the Divine to do mighty and special acts of healing. This is not unprecedented, as we know of at least two other instances where something similar happened: in Luke 8:43-44, the woman with the issue of blood was healed by simply touching the tzitzit, or hem of Jesus’ garment, the little fringes that dangled from the edges of Jews’ garments. Similarly, in Acts 5:15, we see where some sick were healed at the temple when the mere shadow of Peter passed over them.
This is simply not normative, and there are no modern equivalents to either these men nor these miracles that were wrought by God through them. And as with all miracles, there are liberal commentators who scoff at them, and some Christians even act embarrassed when confronted with these extraordinary acts of the Holy Spirit because they are so magnificent. In our pragmatic and scientific culture, such acts seem fanciful at best and ridiculous at worst. To make matters worse, certain pretenders claim to possess such gifts and abilities, and for the low cost of a modest donation, they will send you one of their prayer cloths so that you will be healed, as long as you have faith in the cloth. Such claims are an affront to Christ and bring dishonor to His name!
But the text here makes two things abundantly clear: these healing rags were both special (extraordinary, unique) and wrought by God. It cannot be overstated that God did the healing, but once again He acts through physical people and things to bring about His glory.
The pretenders
The pretenders
The “vagabond Jews” were traveling “healers” who went about from city to city performing certain other supernatural acts, including casting out of demons. Whatever they did, it seems to be a common practice for at least some of the Jews, perhaps in the priestly class. When the Jews accused Jesus of casting out demons in the name of Beelzebub, He responded in Matthew 12:27
“And if I by Beelzebul cast out demons, by whom do your sons cast them out?
This implies that the sons (disciples) of the Pharisees were in the practise of casting out devils.
Where these 7 sons of Sceva messed up was they tried to invoke the name of Jesus, whom they did not even know. This implies that even though they had experienced some success in their exorcisms, the power of the name of Jesus was stronger and carried more weight than whatever authority they were using. The name of Jesus was more powerful than whatever tools they had, and they wanted that kind of power! They made the same mistake Simon the Sorcerer in Samaria had made (Acts Chapter 8), only their difference is they did not go to the apostle and attempt to buy the power; they just simply tried to invoke the name of Jesus Christ, as if He is an incantation.
They command the evil spirits to leave the man in the name of “Jesus whom Paul preacheth.” And how does the evil spirit respond? “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?”
Consider this carefully: these seven men, who are sons of the chief priest, who are trained in the Holy Scriptures from a young age, and also practitioners of the art of exorcism, are laughed at, repulsed, and assaulted by this evil spirit, but not for a random reason. It is because they invoked the name of Jesus Christ, whom they did not even know. One might go so far as to say they had rejected Christ. Yet in this moment, when attempting to perform a mighty work, they use His name.
They did not call on the name of the Lord for salvation. They name-dropped Him for an exorcism.
They rejected His authority when He was among them, but attempted to invoke His power when He was gone.
They tried to perform mighty works in His name, but for their glory, and they were rejected.
If their rejection by the evil spirit was so complete and devastating, consider how much more so will be the rejection and devastation of those who invoke the name of Christ without knowing Him.
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
How do you get the demons to know you?
How do you get the demons to know you?
It is vastly more important that Christ knows you than for the demons to know you, but let me present this to you: if you are doing the work of Christ effectively and faithfully, the demons will know you. That very thought may make you shudder a little, and understandably so, but if Christ be for you, who can stand against you?
Paul says in Ephesians 6:12
For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.
Paul struggled against these evil, cosmic, spiritual forces on the regular. So did Jesus, and so did Peter, and John, and Bartholomew, and all of the rest of the early saints. It was a daily battle against the flesh, and against these evil forces.
“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”
Sun Tzu - The Art of War
The first step in fighting the enemy is to know the enemy. It’s not enough to know the identity of the enemy, for we know that - our enemy is the devil (1 Peter 5:8). We need to know his tactics, his methods, and his weaknesses. We also need to know ourselves, and chiefly, our own weaknesses.
In our weakness, we find strength in the Lord
The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped. Therefore my heart celebrates, and I give thanks to him with my song.
We have got to persuade ourselves of our weakness. This is half the battle. We need to know that we are ill; in other words we need to indulge in a great deal of self-examination.
David Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Welsh Preacher and Writer)
If we can identify and embrace our own weakness, we will then be able to accept and lean into the strength of our captain and our great Savior who will grant us the victory. I love the lyrics of the old hymn “Just A Closer Walk With Thee,”
I am weak but Thou art strong;
Jesus, keep me from all wrong;
I'll be satisfied as long
As I walk, let me walk close to Thee.
Just a closer walk with Thee,
Grant it, Jesus, is my plea,
Daily walking close to Thee,
Let it be, dear Lord, let it be.
Walking daily, walking closely, walking consistently with our Lord means that when He fights battles, we’re there beside Him. And more importantly, when we fight battles, He’s there right beside us. So when our enemies see Him, they see us, and when they see us, they see Him.
Thus the evil spirit in Ephesus said to the sons of Sceva, “we know Jesus and we know Paul, but we don’t know you.” To continue with my illustration, they might have said, “We’ve seen Paul when we are fighting Jesus, and we’ve seen Jesus when we’ve been fighting Paul, but we’ve never seen YOU on the battlefield! YOU must not be on His side, therefore YOU do not have His protection!” And with that, they attacked, beat, stripped naked, and sent running these cheap imposters.
Does Jesus know you?
Does Jesus know you?
If the demons don’t recognize you from the battlefield, what makes you think Jesus will? When the day of judgment comes, will Jesus recognize you as someone who fought alongside Him, or will He say, “I don’t know you, depart from me!” in that moment?
Before you can become a soldier of Christ on the battlefield, you first must know Him. If you don’t know Him, you will suffer the same fate as those who claimed to fight under His banner but were freelancing. If you don’t know Him, your fate will be eternally separated from Him under His righteous judgment.
The Result of the Failed Exorcism
The Result of the Failed Exorcism
After the multitudes heard what had happened, both in the mighty works of God through Paul and the pummeling of the fakes by the demons, the glory of Christ was magnified. The result of this was many of the people who believed were practitioners of darkness and magic and they began to confess their sins and bring their books to be burned.
Scripture makes a deliberate point in saying how much these books were worth. Fifty-thousand pieces of silver; if these were the measure of coin known as drachma, this would be the equivalent to a laborer’s day wage. So 50,000 days labor worth. In modern equivalence, this would equal anywhere from 6 million to 10 million dollars. Such an astronomical sum is hard to fathom, let alone when talking about the value of books, but these books were worth a literal fortune, and rather than sell these books and use that dirty money for personal (or even ministry) gain, they burned the books. This displays both how dark this magic was, and how complete their salvation was in Christ.
Once again we see how the Lord’s Providence uses the force of evil to advance His plan. He allowed the devils to attack those who used His name in vain, and the result was the devils’ influence in the region was all but eliminated. And this is how He worked and continues to work in advancing His kingdom, through any means and methods He sees fit. Even through the deeds of evil men...and evil spirits.
It’s not the demons you have to worry about, but if they don’t know you, there’s a good chance Christ doesn’t know you. If He doesn’t know you, your soul is in danger! Do not fear man (or demon) who can destroy the body, but fear the One who has the power to destroy both body and soul in Hell!
Again I ask...are you on His side? Who is on the Lord’s side?
