Acts 19:11-20

If you’re under the age of 25, how will you aim the next 20, 40, or 60 years of your life? What will be that truth that will anchor your soul, that stabilizing reality that will keep you tethered as the world swirls around you, that piercing light that will shine in the darkest night you’ll ever face?

Whatever your age… old or young… what have you learned about God that has gripped your soul, held your attention, both terrified you and drew you in?

In our passage today, we are going to read about some people who gave up their livelihood and basically left the only way of life they’d ever known. Why would someone do that? Do you believe in a God who can provoke that kind of radical change? Does the gospel you share with others point to a God, a Savior, a resurrected King that changes everything?

In Acts 19, we’re back with the Apostle Paul in Ephesus, and he’s somewhere in the middle of his two-year ministry there. Luke rewinds the time a bit, and takes us back to a particular moment of revival. By the end of v20, the whole town seems to have at least picked up a healthy respect for Christ, and many of the believers were publicly repenting of sin and turning away from the pagan lives they’d been living before.

What happened? What did God do that seemed to affect even unbelievers? Let’s find out… and let’s consider what we might learn from this passage together.

Scripture Reading

Acts 19:11–20 (ESV)

11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 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.

13 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.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 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.

17 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. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 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.

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

Main Idea:

Jesus Christ is a God to be feared, and this should lead us to repentance and faith in Him.

Sermon

1. Miraculous Signs (v11-12)

In these first two verses, Luke says that “God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul” (v11). Let’s dive right in by noting the Bible’s use of miracles and the extraordinary nature of these miracles in particular.

We’re told here that everyday items, like “handkerchiefs” (or hand towels) and “aprons” (something like welder’s bib or apron), were used as healing aids simply because they had “touched [Paul’s] skin” (v12). You know, I’ve seen televangelists do crazy stuff with this. I remember one TV preacher advertising a green handkerchief that you could stick in your wallet. The green represented money, and he told people that it could “heal” their wallet from poverty.

Friends, that’s ridiculous, and most of us already see the foolishness of such a thing. But if that’s not what we ought to do with a passage like this, then what are we to make of it? Why did Luke include these details, and why does he want us to know that God was doing miracles like these through Paul in Ephesus?

First, let’s note that Luke explicitly says these miracles were “extraordinary” (v11). The language here literally translates, “God was doing (or performing or causing) miracles (or mighty works or powers) that do not happen through the hands of Paul.”[1] When we read about miracles in the Bible, the last thing we are to infer is that God wants us to see or to experience the same sort of miracles today. Why would we think that? Not only are miracles unique to certain times and people, but Luke makes it clear that these miracles were “extraordinary” (v11).

Second, miracles are signs of God’s unusual activity in the world. When we read about a miracle in the Bible, we are reading about a special moment or occasion when God is revealing something big about Himself and about His unfolding plan of salvation. In fact, if you read through the Bible, you are bound to see that miracles are generally concentrated to a handful of specific moments in history… (1) creation, (2) the giving of the law or old covenant, (3) the ministry of the OT prophets, and (4) the inauguration of the New Covenant in Jesus Christ.

In Genesis 1 and 2, miracles are happening left and right. God created the universe from nothing, and He spoke every created thing into existence. God uniquely created man (male and female), and God spoke directly to them in the Garden. But after the Fall of humanity into sin, miracles are rare and scattered over vast amounts of time – there is the Tower of Babel, the Flood and Noah, and God’s gracious promise and protection over Abraham… but, as I said, miracles are rare and scattered over time.

The next major occasion for miracles is when God gave His law and covenant to Israel through Moses. During the time of Moses, God did spectacular miracles in Egypt, striking the Egyptians with judgments in order to deliver the people of Israel. God’s intent was to bring His people out of slavery and to lead them into the land of promise. And fundamental to this new existence for Israel was their reception of God’s covenant and law. In Exodus 19-20, we read about some of the most audibly and visually exhilarating stuff in the Bible: God spoke, the mountain trembled, the sky thundered and flashed, and God killed everything (even animals) if they merely touched the mountain.

After Moses and the law, again miracles were rare and scattered. But when Israel became a kingdom, they became much like the nations around them, embracing false gods and practicing the same kinds of sins as everyone else. So, God sent them prophets, spokesmen who warned them of God’s judgment. And God confirmed or verified all His prophets by performing miracles, but none quite like Elijah and Elisha. These are the quintessential prophets. Through Elijah, God stopped the rain from falling for years (1 Kings 17:1), He raised a dead boy back to life (1 Kings 17:17-24), and He sent fire from heaven to consume an entire altar that had been drenched with water (1 Kings 18:20-40).

God also worked many miracles through Elisha, but he and Elijah were unusually miraculous, even for prophets. And yet, for the vast majority of the Old Testament era, daily life for the Israelites was pretty non-miraculous. There were dreadful horrors and wonderful rescues, but most of these were according to God’s providence… His normal governance of the world… not miracles.

Then, when the Messiah finally came, during His earthly ministry, and during the time of the Apostles, miracles lit up the scene again. That’s what miracles are in the Bible… they are giant signals that God is doing something big. First, creation… then, deliverance from slavery and the Mosaic covenant… then, various prophets who all reminded Israel of their Redeemer and their covenant… and then, the arrival of the Redeemer-King who inaugurated a New Covenant, the Messiah or Christ who would once again unite heaven and earth.

We know very little about Jesus’s life before His 30s, but His conception and birth were surrounded by miracles. When Jesus did begin His earthly ministry, He healed sick people, He delivered demon possessed people, and He even raised dead people back to life again. No other time in history had as many miracles concentrated on one person and one period. And all of these miracles were to show that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah, the promised Redeemer-King who would usher in the kingdom of heaven on earth.

Therefore, miracles are not just unusually good things that happen to people sometimes. Miracles – especially New Testament miracles – are specific and supernatural ways that God is showing us who He is. Jesus and His Apostles walked the earth during the most pivotal and profound moment in God’s plan of redemption. Jesus’s message and the message of the Apostles was/is that the Messiah has dealt with sin once and for all, and He is the one in whom there is full reconciliation between God and sinful men. In other words, in Christ, there is forgiveness of sins, love and fellowship with God and with His people, and a full reversal of God’s curse upon creation.

During the time of Jesus and the Apostles, miracles were happening everywhere. But the miracles were always accompanied by the gospel announcement, and they always pointed to the specific renewal of all things in Christ. Because of sin, God cursed all creation… people get sick, demonic forces oppress and confuse, and (in the end) people die. But, because of Christ… God has poured out the curse upon Jesus… every sin on Him was laid… and sickness, demons, and even death itself are all coming to an end!

That’s what miracles signify! That’s why the Bible calls them “signs.” John said, “Now Jesus did many other signs… which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (Jn. 20:30-31). Friends, you can know that Jesus is the Christ, and that He has the power to forgive sin and resurrect His people from the dead… because that’s the stuff that happened when He came the first time, and He has promised to do it all in full when He comes again.

2. A Superstitious Counterfeit (v13-16)

Christianity is about reconciling sinners to God, through the power of God’s Spirit, on the basis of the person and work of God’s Son, according to the plan and will of God the Father… and all to the glory of the triune God. And there are marvelous benefits to this work of reconciliation and renewal. As I’ve said already, there is forgiveness of sin, there is right relationship with God, and there is a full eradication of all that pains and grieves us so on this side of eternity. These are all benefits that Christians enjoy now (at least in part), and we shall enjoy them in full on that final day when Jesus returns to make all things new.

But Christians aren’t the only ones who want to feel less guilty… or more connected with their Creator… or less afflicted by the curse of sin. Non-Christians also want to remove their guilt, they want to rise above the futility of a life without God, and they want to be protected from evil. So, religions and gurus and philosophies of all sorts offer people such things without a Redeemer-King. These are counterfeit, they aren’t real, but they’re trying to meet a real need.

Brothers and sisters, sometimes we are even tempted to offer non-Christians all the benefits of the gospel without calling them to repent and believe (i.e., to turn from sin and trust in Jesus Christ alone to save them). No non-Christian has ever gotten mad at me for saying that God loves them or for saying that Jesus forgives… but calling for repentance and faith has gotten me in trouble plenty of times.

In verses 13 through 16, we meet seven guys who were like traveling gurus or faith-healers. They offered people healing from evil spirits for a small fee. Luke says they were “itinerant Jewish exorcists” (v13) or “Jewish exorcists who went from place to place” (NASB). They were also sons of a “Jewish high priest,” which means that they had some religious bona fides(v14). But, as one commentator put it, they “were far from home, both physically and spiritually, being caught up with the magical worldview of this Gentile city.”[2]

The picture Luke paints for us here is that these guys were opportunists. There was a synagogue in Ephesus, but these guys weren’t from there. They were “vagabonds” (as the KJV puts it), who traveled around the pagan world, peddling their magic of “exorcising demons.” This is all the more obvious when Luke tells us that these guys “undertook” (v13) or “attempted” (NASB) or “tried” (NIV84) to “invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits” (v13). They didn’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah, but they heard Paul preaching and praying in Jesus’s name, so they figured Paul’s chant would work for them too.

Luke says in v14 that they “were doing this.” It seems they did this more than once, but Luke tells us about one particular encounter they had that didn’t go so well for them.

I’d like to note two quick things as a sort of side note here.

First, there is a lot of superstition that tries to pass itself off as real spiritual activity. Today, just like in ancient times, spiritualists, gurus, fortune tellers, psychics, witches, and even exorcists will try to make you believe that they have some special connection to the spiritual world. Every time I’m doing cardio at the gym, one of the hanging TVs is on a show about psychics who find ghosts in old houses. But these people are often either deluded or liars (or some combination).

Second, angels and demons do exist. And we ought never presume that we have the ability to control spirits. Christians do not have to fear demons or even the devil himself, but neither should we arrogantly provoke angelic beings. Angels and demons are exceedingly more powerful than us. The Bible warns us not to mess with stuff like that… and just see what havoc demons create in the lives of the people they afflict in the Bible.

I guess what I’m saying here is don’t be so gullible that you believe anybody who claims some spiritual power, but also don’t be so foolish so as to unnecessarily expose yourself to demonic forces, which can cause you great pain and trouble. If you have more questions about that, let’s talk.

Back to v15… Luke says that on one particular occasion, when the “Jewish exorcists” “invoked the name of the Lord Jesus” the “evil spirit answered them” (v15)… and the words are telling: “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” (v15). Not only did the demon answer, but Luke says the possessed man “leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded” (v16).

Their counterfeit solution to the problem of sin and evil was exposed for what it was – a completely powerless and empty magic trick that’s woefully inadequate when a real demon shows up. In fact, this brief account from Luke here is nearly the photo negative (the exact opposite) of Luke’s earlier account of what happened when Jesus Himself confronted a demon-possessed man.

Turn with me to Luke 8… starting in verse 26. There’s more to this connection than I can show you this morning, but I’ll just say that I am confident Luke meant to contrast these two accounts… (1) Jesus with a possessed man, and (2) those Jewish exorcists with a possessed man.

In Luke 8, Luke is recounting some of Jesus’s travels during His earthly ministry. Arriving by boat in “the country of the Gerasenes,” Luke says, “When Jesus had stepped out on the land, there met him a man from the city who had demons” (v26-27). Ok, we don’t have time to walk all the way through it, but let me point out the contrast.

In Acts 19 and in Luke 8, both the exorcists and Jesus encounter a demon-possessed man. First, the man in Acts 19 had only one demon (v15), but the man in Luke 8 was possessed by “Legion” (v30). This may simply mean “a lot,” or it could refer to a legion of Roman soldiers, which was more than 5,000. Either way, the point is that Jesus’s demoniac was possessed by many, not just one.

Second, the demon in Acts 19 did not know who the “seven sons of… Sceva” were (v15), but the demons in Luke 8 recognize Jesus right away. The possessed man “fell down” at Jesus’s feet and said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God?” (v28). And even the demon in Acts 19 acknowledged that it knew who Jesus is/was (v15)!

Third, the demon in Acts 19 caused the possessed man to “leap on” and “overpower” all seven exorcists, and they “fled” the house “naked and wounded” (v16). Consider, they entered the house clothed and seemingly in charge, but they left beaten and naked. But in Luke 8, it is the demoniac who begins naked and abused (v27, 29). And yet, because of the power and authority of Jesus, the man who was once possessed by so many evil spirits ends up “sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind” (v35).

And fourth, in both accounts (Acts 19 and Luke 8) the result of the demonic encounter is that the people who hear about it were afraid. Luke 8:37 says, “Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him [Jesus] to depart from them, for they were seized with great fear.” And this is the same sort of response we’re going to consider next in Acts 19.

Friends, there are counterfeit superstitions all around us. One guru will offer to heal your anxiety, another will help you with your relationship problems. This religion will give you rules to follow, and that one helps you feel better about yourself. But when you encounter the real afflictions of this life… be they physical, emotional, relational, psychological, or spiritual… only the real Jesus will do. Only Jesus meets the deepest needs of your soul, and only Jesus has the power to conquer your enemies, truly heal your diseases, and finally give you genuine hope and life amid the experience of death itself.

But the real Jesus can’t be controlled! He’s not at your beck-and-call! He’s not some spell or incantation… and He’s not like a rabbit’s foot in your pocket or a charm around your neck or bumper sticker that helps you avoid car accidents.

No, the real Jesus rules the cosmos! The real Jesus reigns over everything… even demons. And this is the point Luke is getting at by telling us about how these Jewish exorcists failed so miserably. Jesus means business, and only those who repent and believe can count on this Jesus to meet them in their time of need.

Jesus is the Savior who saves to the uttermost… and He’s also the King who reigns… and so, we should not only trust Him… we should also fear Him.

3. Fear and Repentance (v17-20)

In v17, Luke says that “all the residents of Ephesus” heard about what happened to the seven sons of Sceva. And what was their response?! It was “fear” (v17)! In the town of Ephesus, Luke says, “fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled” (v17)!

The book of Proverbs teaches us that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge[or “wisdom”]” (Prov. 1:7). It is a healthy fear or reverence for God that puts us in a position to hear Him, to learn from Him, and to obey Him. In Exodus, we read that even the unbelieving Egyptians who “feared the word of the LORD” payed attention to what Moses said and pulled their people and livestock inside to avoid the hail that God said would fall on the land (Ex. 9:20).

That seems to be what Luke is saying happened in Ephesus. Whether they were Christians or not, the people of Ephesus had a healthy fear of the Lord Jesus Christ. They all knew that He was a God they should not truffle with. David Peterson noted, “The [humiliating] defeat of the Jewish exorcists by the demon showed the Ephesians that ‘Jesus’ is a power that cannot be controlled… [In other words], ‘he will not act as a lackey for anyone who calls on his name’.”[3]

Friends, I wonder just how much we fear God. Do we really believe that God is the ruler of the world? Do we really believe that God sees and knows all of our thoughts, words, and deeds? If we really feared God, what would be different? How would we know that someone fears the Lord?

I think we see two results or responses in our passage.

First, “the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled” or “magnified” (KJV) or “praised” (NET) or “held in high honor” (NIV84). Again, this seems to be the response from everyone in Ephesus… Christian or not. Luke says that there was a certain kind of “fear” that “fell upon them all” (v17). And “the Lord Jesus” was “extolled” or “held in high honor” (NIV84) throughout Ephesus.

Now we know that this “fear” didn’t last, because of what happened later in Acts 19. This wasn’t the sort of praise or reverence for Christ that Christians do. But, at least for a time in Ephesus, Jesus was known as a deity that heals and delivers according to His own will and power, not a god of superstition that could be invoked by merely calling out His name.

Friends, I wonder how different our East Texas culture would be if people really feared Jesus. What if our friends and family members knew that Jesus can’t be picked up and put down whenever it’s convenient? What if all those who said that Jesus is their Savior actually lived like they believed in Jesus as their Lord?

The sad and sobering fact is that everyone will stand before Christ in fear on the last day… We shall all come to know Him as Lord and King one day… but I pray that God will help us all to understand this better now… before we have to learn it the hard way.

The second response was an explicitly Christian one. Luke says, in v18, “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” (v18-19). In other words, there was a general response of “confession” of sins (v18); and, in v19, we learn that there were particular Christians (or “believers”) who had been part of the cultic pagan religious system there in Ephesus who brought their magic “books” and “burned them in the sight of all” (v19).

This is public repentance! This is genuine repentance! This is the sort of thing you see happen when sinners come to grips with their situation… they see it for what it really is. They realize that sin is not to be protected… even at the cost of reputation and livelihood… and they cut it off at the root.

John Owen (an English Puritan from the 1600s) famously said, “Be killing sin, or it will be killing you.”[4] And confession is a great way to fight and kill sin! Sin thrives in the dark, it grows in secret, and it takes over more and more of our lives when we try to pretend that it’s not as deadly as it really is. Do you know the word “confession” comes from two Greek words that mean “same-speak”?[5] The idea is that we speak the same about our sin as God has already spoken about it.

We do this publicly and corporately every Sunday. Barry led us today in a prayer of confession, and his aim was to confess sin that is common to all. As we’re led in a corporate prayer of confession, we (along with whoever is leading us) confess to God that we are not just mistaken… we are sinful. We admit that there is still a desire for sin in us and that we still follow (sometimes more, sometimes less) those wicked desires where they lead us.

But we should also be confessing sin personally and specifically. In our relationships with one another, as church members, we need to divulge or expose the wickedness of our hearts so that we can run out into the light and stop letting sin have it’s way in us. But it’s far easier to confess general sin… It’s another thing entirely to confess our particular sins… because we are afraid of what it might mean for our reputation… what it might say about us… what people might think about us.

John Calvin (a Protestant reformer from the 1500s) said, “We know what a hard matter it is to wring true confession out of those who have offended, for seeing men count nothing more precious than their [reputation], they [fear] shame [more] than of truth; yes, so much as [they are able], they seek to cover their shame. Therefore, this voluntary confession [in Acts 19] was a testimony of repentance and of fear. For no man, unless he be thoroughly touched, will make himself subject to the slanders and reproaches of men, and will willingly be judged upon earth, that he may be loosed and acquitted in heaven.”[6]

Did you hear that last bit?! It is our fear that shuts our mouths… we fear the judgment of others… But it’s also fear that will open our mouths! When we fear God more than men, when we fear what our sin might do to us more than we fear the shame of confessing it, then we will tell all of our wickedness… because we know that to tell it is far less fearful than to keep it hidden.

Luke gave us something heavy to consider at the end of v19. He recorded that the value of what they burned in Ephesus was “fifty thousand pieces of silver” (v19). I don’t know exactly what that might be in our money today, but it was big. These believers in Ephesus show us what it looks like to care more about genuine discipleship and less about the stuff that the world values… May God help us.

Conclusion

Acts 19:10 tells us that Paul’s ministry in Ephesus “continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord…” And these ten verses we’ve considered today end with a claim that “the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily” (v20). Therefore, all that Luke has told us about miracles, counterfeits, fear, and repentance is intended to be a sort of explanation of what the “word of the Lord” did in Ephesus.

May God help us to be the sort of people who fear the word of the Lord… the sort of people who are eager to hear God’s word, who are eager to understand it, who are eager to believe it, and who are eager to obey it… And when we fail, may God help us to be the sort of people who confess our failure and sin… who run to the grace of Christ… and who enjoy the freedom and joy and power of Christ’s work in our lives… until He comes to deliver us once and for all from not only the power of sin but the presence of it too.

Endnotes

[1]This is my own rudimentary and literal translation of the NA28 (Δυνάμεις τε οὐ τὰς τυχούσας ὁ θεὸς ἐποίει διὰ τῶν χειρῶν Παύλου). [2]David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 539. [3]David G. Peterson, The Acts of the Apostles, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2009), 540. [4]See this wonderful short devotional on the idea here: https://www.ligonier.org/posts/be-killing-sin-or-sin-will-be-killing-you [5] ἐξομολογεω; ὁμοιος – same, λογεω – to speak [6]John Calvin and Henry Beveridge, Commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles, vol. 2 (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 219–220.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Aland, Kurt, Barbara Aland, Johannes Karavidopoulos, Carlo M. Martini, and Bruce M. Metzger. Novum Testamentum Graece. 28th Edition. Stuttgart: Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 2012.

Biblical Studies Press. The NET Bible First Edition; Bible. English. NET Bible.; The NET Bible. Biblical Studies Press, 2005.

Calvin, John. Commentary upon the Acts of the Apostles. Edited by Henry Beveridge. Translated by Christopher Fetherstone. Vol. 2. 2 vols. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010.

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update. La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995.

Peterson, David. The Acts of the Apostles. The Pillar New Testament Commentary. Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, England: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company; Apollos, 2009.

Polhill, John B. Acts. Vol. 26. The New American Commentary. Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992.

Sproul, R. C., ed. The Reformation Study Bible: English Standard Version. 2015 Edition. Orlando, FL: Reformation Trust, 2015.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016.

The Holy Bible: King James Version. Electronic Edition of the 1900 Authorized Version. Bellingham, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 2009.