22 The Powerful Word

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8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

The Sons of Sceva

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.

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Introduction

Ever since the Fall, members of the human race have been in rebellion against God. Having (so they think) burst God’s “bonds apart, and cast [His] cords from us” (Ps. 2:3), they imagine themselves to be free. In reality, they have become enslaved to sin (John 8:34; Rom. 6:17) and Satan (1 John 5:19). The apostle Paul reminded the Ephesians:
“And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. (Eph. 2:1–2)”
Satan manipulates fallen men by two means.

First

First, he influences their minds. “A natural man,” wrote Paul to the Corinthians, “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are folly to him, and he is not able understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). Lacking the Holy Spirit’s illumination, unregenerate men and women fall prey to Satan, who seeks to blind “the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4).
This is confirmed by the spiritual strategy for war with Satan’s kingdom given in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5, where Paul writes:
“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”
We are waging war against ideas, proud philosophies and thoughts in an effort to tear down human ideologies and bring every thought captive to Christ. That can be done only with the truth of Scripture.

Second

Second, Satan exerts a sinister influence over the fallen human will, though he cannot force it to act. He does so by temptation, both externally, through the evil world system and internally through sinful human nature. Jesus expressed the fearful effect of that influence to the Pharisees when He said, “You are of your father the devil and your will is to do your father’s desires” (John 8:44).
Satan does not have things all his own way, however. Into this fallen, rebellious, evil world “the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). His death on the cross assured Satan’s ultimate defeat:
“Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb. 2:14)”
When the glorious earthly kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ comes, Satan will not be permitted to tarnish it with his presence (Rev. 20:1–3). Released for one last burst of evil activity at the end of that Millennium, he and all his wicked, rebelling forces, both angelic and human, will then be cast into the lake of fire forever (Rev. 20:10–15).
The earthly ministry of Jesus Christ foreshadowed Satan’s ultimate defeat. From the very outset, He exercised absolute power and authority over Satan and his demons. Tempted three times by Satan himself, Jesus emerged from the struggle victorious. The gospels are replete with examples of His power over the demonic realm. Matthew 17:14–18 relates one such incident:

14 And when they came to the crowd, a man came up to him and, kneeling before him, 15 said, “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he has seizures and he suffers terribly. For often he falls into the fire, and often into the water. 16 And I brought him to your disciples, and they could not heal him.” 17 And Jesus answered, “O faithless and twisted generation, how long am I to be with you? How long am I to bear with you? Bring him here to me.” 18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him, and the boy was healed instantly.

Mark 1:32–34 yields another insight into Jesus’ amazing power over demons:

32 That evening at sundown they brought to him all who were sick or oppressed by demons. 33 And the whole city was gathered together at the door. 34 And he healed many who were sick with various diseases, and cast out many demons. And he would not permit the demons to speak, because they knew him.

Not only did Jesus have the authority to cast out demons, but He also had such absolute control over them that He could forbid them to speak. Mark 5:1–13 describes one of the most terrifying examples of demon possession in all of Scripture:

They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. 2 And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. 3 He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, 4 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. 5 Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. 6 And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. 7 And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” 8 For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” 9 And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” 10 And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. 11 Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, 12 and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” 13 So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.

The cure of even this individual, infested with numerous demons, posed no difficulty for Jesus. He commanded them to enter the pigs, so that all watching would have no doubt that they obeyed Him. It was a dramatic display of His power over the spiritual forces of evil.
The demons exhibited a terror that stems from their knowledge of their ultimate fate. Luke 4:33–35 relates that

33 And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out with a loud voice, 34 “Ha! What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God.” 35 But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent and come out of him!” And when the demon had thrown him down in their midst, he came out of him, having done him no harm.

Aware of the fate that awaited him—eternal destruction in hell—the demon fearfully asked if this was the time and if Jesus was going to destroy him on the spot (cf. Matt. 8:29). Interestingly, while men through the centuries have debated Jesus’ identity, the demons have no such doubts. This fallen angel knew that he was in the presence of “the Holy One of God,” and such awareness terrified him (cf. James 2:19). It should be noted that in this instance, as in all the instances recorded in the gospels, there was no struggle. Jesus spoke, and the demons instantly acquiesced.
Jesus also extended His power over demons by delegating it to some of His followers. During His earthly ministry, He sent out seventy of His disciples to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. When they returned they exclaimed, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name” (Luke 10:17). The twelve were given power over demons (cf. Matt. 10:8). Acts 5:16 records that “The people also gathered from the towns around Jerusalem, bringing the sick and those afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all healed” by the apostles. Through the ministry of Philip the evangelist, “For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed” (Acts 8:7). Encountering a demon-possessed girl in Philippi, “Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned aside and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” and it came out that very hour” (Acts 16:18).
Such miraculous power over demons was unique to a few individuals during the apostolic age, being basically one of the “signs and wonders and mighty works” that constituted “the signs of a true apostle” (2 Cor. 12:12). By the time Hebrews 2:3-4 was written, its author spoke of such miraculous signs in the past tense:

3 how shall we escape if we neglect such a great salvation? It was declared at first by the Lord, and it was attested to us by those who heard, 4 while God also bore witness by signs and wonders and various miracles and by gifts of the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will.

The fascination, seen today in some Christian circles, with exorcising demons is without biblical support and dangerous. The assumption that a believer has authority to command demons and Satan, or to bind them, is fiction. Even Michael the archangel would not be so bold (cf. Jude 9). And reducing the Christian life to a demon hunt obviates believers’ biblically mandated responsibility to pursue true sanctification by holiness and godly living.
Nowhere in the epistles is there any promise to Christians that they can deliver the unsaved from demons. Nor is there any command for believers to exorcise demons out of each other. Nowhere in Scripture are demons ever cast out of believers. Since there is no evidence in Scripture that demons reside in Christians, it is not surprising that there is no record of demons ever being cast out of believers. Indeed, the definitive New Testament passage on spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:10–17) emphasizes the believer’s victory through the means of a righteous, holy life armed with the Word. (For further discussion of these issues, see my books Charismatic Chaos [Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992] and, particularly, How to Meet the Enemy [Wheaton, Ill: Victor, 1992].)
The weapon Christians are to wield in their personal battle with the forces of darkness is “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph. 6:17). As it is through the power of the Word alone that the intellectual fortresses of Satan fall, so Christians by that truth can successfully battle Satan and his demon hosts. Even the book of Acts, which records the apostles’ evangelistic ministry, emphasizes the preaching of the Word over signs, wonders, miracles, and exorcisms. And in Acts 6:4 the apostles defined the priorities of their ministry in the church: “We will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.”
This rich text shows how powerfully the Word of God dominated the city of Ephesus. Verse 20 summarizes the passage: “So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing.” The power of God’s Word is evident through its proclamation, confirmation, competition, conviction, and domination.

PROCLAMATION (19:8-10)

And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

The first step in unleashing the power of the Word is to proclaim it, and Paul did just that. He had established cordial relationships with the Ephesian Jews on his previous, brief visit (18:19–21). Returning to Ephesus, he found the door still open, so he entered the synagogue and continued speaking out boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. The imperfect tense of parrēsiazomai (speaking out boldly) emphasizes the continual nature of Paul’s proclamation. Boldness was a hallmark of apostolic preaching (Acts 4:29) and of Paul’s desire for ministry (Eph. 6:19). The content of his preaching was uncompromisingly confrontational; he held back nothing out of fear of rejection or hostility. Paul spent three months boldly proclaiming the gospel in the synagogue, his longest stretch in any synagogue, except possibly at Corinth. During that time, Paul was reasoning with the Jews and persuading them about the kingdom of God. Reasoning is from dialegomai, from which the English word dialogue derives. Paul did not merely lecture, but again was responding to their questions and challenges. Persuading is the present participle of peithō, and means “to convince by argument” (cf. Acts 28:23). He was obviously in the midst of a whole congregation of unbelieving Jews. Yet he unflinchingly and directly challenged their whole religious system, calling them to repent and believe in Jesus as their Messiah and God.
Preaching the kingdom of God encompasses more than the eschatological thousand-year reign of Christ on the earth. To teach the kingdom of God is to teach the things concerning Christ and salvation (cf. Acts 28:31) and righteousness (Rom. 14:17). It is to teach how to enter the sphere of salvation and live there in communion with God.
Although Paul was able to minister in the synagogue for an unusually long time, the inevitable finally happened. Some of the Jews became hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude. Hardened is from sklērunō, a word always used in the New Testament to speak of a heart hardened against God (Rom. 9:18; Heb. 3:8, 13, 15; 4:7). The imperfect tense of the verb shows that the hardening was a process. Over the course of Paul’s three-month ministry in the Ephesian synagogue, some hearts gradually hardened against the gospel. When the truth is rejected repeatedly, it hardens the heart, and the message of salvation becomes an “aroma from death to death” (2 Cor. 2:16). Their refusing to repent and believe the gospel is classified as being disobedient, since belief is a divine command (Acts 17:30; cf. Mark 1:15).
The outward manifestation of their hardened inward disobedience manifested itself not only in a refusal to repent and believe but also in speaking evil of the Way. As the capitalization in the New American Standard Bible text suggests, the Way was an early title for Christianity (cf. Acts 9:2; 19:23; 24:14, 22). Paul’s opponents began an aggressive public campaign of slander before the multitude in an attempt to destroy the apostle’s influence with them.
Realizing nothing was to be gained by remaining in the synagogue any longer, Paul withdrew from there and took away the disciples (those who had repented and confessed Jesus as Lord), and began reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. Tyrannus may have been the owner of the lecture hall or a philosopher who taught there. If he was a teacher, his name, which means “our tyrant,” may be a nickname given him by his students. Some New Testament manuscripts add that Paul taught in that school from the fifth to the tenth hours (11:00 A.M. to 4:00 P.M.), perhaps the time when Tyrannus would have dismissed his students for the midday rest. F. F. Bruce, for example, wrote:
Tyrannus no doubt held his classes in the early morning hours. Public activity ceased in the cities of Ionia for several hours at 11 A.M., and … more people would be asleep at 1 P.M. than at 1 A.M. But Paul, after spending the early hours of the day at his tent-making (cf. Ch. 20:34), devoted the hours of burden and heat to his more important and more exhausting business, and must have infected his hearers with his own energy and zeal, so that they were willing to sacrifice their siesta for the sake of listening to Paul. (The Book of the Acts, The New International Commentary on the New Testament [Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1971], 388–89)
Paul did not go off duty at 4:00 P.M. but continued ministering well into the evening hours (Acts 20:31), no doubt instructing from house to house.
Paul maintained this grueling schedule for two years, with the result that all who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks. Without (as far as is known) ever leaving Ephesus, Paul, through his converts, evangelized the entire province of Asia (cf. v. 26). During this time, the churches at Colossae and Hierapolis, and probably also the seven churches of Revelation 2–3, were founded. Paul’s very effective strategy for evangelism was to teach the Word, make disciples, and let them spread the gospel. Spiritually reproducing Christians are the heart of any successful method of evangelism.
So the kingdom of darkness was effectively assaulted by the proclamation of the gospel.

CONFIRMATION (19:11-12)

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.

To provide incontrovertible evidence that the message was true, God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. Such miraculous confirmation was a standard feature of apostolic preaching. In the absence of a written New Testament by which to measure someone’s teaching, God used signs and wonders to authenticate His message (2 Cor. 12:12; Heb. 2:3–4; cf. Acts 2:22).
Steeped in superstition and failing to understand that Paul was merely the human channel for God’s power, the Ephesians did some amazing things. The handkerchiefs, or sweatbands, and aprons Paul wore during his tentmaking labor were even carried from his body to the sick. The idea that healing power could be so magically transmitted was prevalent in the ancient world (cf. Matt. 9:21; Acts 5:15). That the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out through those means does not commend that method (as some would-be healers would have people believe). It must instead be viewed as nothing more than God’s accommodation to the mentality of those people. And it further proved that Paul was from God and thus spoke for God. As a doctor, Luke carefully distinguishes between diseases and afflictions caused by evil spirits to make clear that not all illness stems from demonic causes.
The miracles God performed through Paul were essential to convince the Ephesians that he was from God. Impressed with him as the messenger of God, their hearts were prepared to hear his message of salvation.

COMPETITION (19:13-16)

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.

Seeing the potency of the name of Jesus, some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists decided to add it to their repertoire of incantations. As John Polhill explains,
Ancient magicians were syncretists and would borrow terms from any religion that sounded sufficiently strange to be deemed effective. These Jewish exorcists of Ephesus were only plying their trade. Paul’s “spell” in Jesus’ name seemed effective for him, so they gave it a try. (The New American Commentary: Acts [Nashville: Broadman, 1992], 403)
Like Simon Magus (Acts 8), the exorcists thought the power of the Spirit operative in the apostles was no more than their own fakery or demonic activity, and could be manipulated for their own ends. Accordingly, they attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” These, of course, were not Christian Jews, since they only knew Jesus as the one whom Paul preaches. Exorkistōn (exorcists) appears only here in the New Testament. It derives from a root word meaning “to bind with an oath”; ancient exorcists attempted to expel demons by invoking the name of a more powerful spirit being. Exorcists were common in the ancient world, even among the Jews (Matt. 12:27; Acts 13:6). Their fanciful spells and ritual formulas were very different from the absolute authority delegated by Christ and exercised by the apostles.
The name of Jesus is no magical charm to be used by whoever wants to use it, as these exorcists soon learned the hard way. They addressed the demon with the incantation “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” Unlike Paul, however, they did not know the Person they named nor have His power delegated to them. Luke adds the parenthetical note that seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. Nothing further is known of Sceva, and there was never a Jewish high priest by that name. Either he was a member of one of the high priestly families, or, more likely, he appropriated the title to impress his clients. That is not unlike those charlatans in our own day who falsely claim to be doctors or professors.
Though they may have fooled the gullible Ephesians, these would-be exorcists could not fool the demon. He knew that they did not have any power over him. Speaking through the voice of his human victim, the evil spirit scornfully said to them, “I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” He knew very well who Jesus was, and was aware that Paul had received supernatural power over the demonic realm from Him. By demanding of the exorcists “who are you?” the demon challenged their authority over him.
The exorcists, of course, had neither the right to use the name of Jesus nor the power to command demons, so the demon attacked them viciously. With the supernatural strength that sometimes accompanied demon possession (cf. Mark 5:3–4), the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all seven of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. Battered, defrocked, and humiliated, they beat a hasty and ignominious retreat. They were no doubt shocked that their attempted exorcism had so utterly failed. Presumably, Satan had allowed them in the past to appear to succeed. It can be helpful to remember that Satan’s kingdom is inconsistent and random. Even his demons do not act consistently, and they form a house divided against itself, which cannot stand (Matt. 12:25–26). Here, however, God overruled the confused efforts of these fools for his own purposes.
This story vividly illustrates the danger for any who assume messianic or apostolic power over demons and Satan and thus carelessly meddle in the supernatural realm.
Satan would have wished these sons of Sceva to succeed, so that the domain of darkness could compete with God, as Pharaoh’s magicians did with Moses (Ex. 7:22). But the attempt to provide competition for the Word was thwarted. In fact, it completely backfired and only brought greater conviction among the Ephesians of the power of Jesus’ name and the truth of Paul’s preaching.

CONVICTION (19:17-19)

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.

The would-be exorcists’ fate soon became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived in Ephesus. As a result, fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. The tremendous reality of the name (encompassing all that is true about Him) of Jesus was evident to everyone. They recognized that He was no one to trifle with but someone before whom to bow in faith. Shaken by what had happened, and recognizing the futility of pagan magic, many also of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. Thus they displayed the turning from sin that marks genuine repentance. Praxeis (practices) here refers to their secret magic spells, which were generally believed to be rendered useless if they were divulged. They turned from their magic as the Thessalonians turned from their idols (1 Thess. 1:9).
Not content with merely ruining their spells by revealing them, many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of all; and they counted up the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. They destroyed all their magic paraphernalia publicly, in the sight of all. The staggering value of it, noted as fifty thousand pieces of silver (equivalent to 50,000 days’ wages for an average laborer), was given to indicate Ephesus’s widespread involvement in the magic arts.

DOMINATION (19:20)

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

Luke’s brief summary statement (cf. Acts 6:7; 12:24) pulls the passage together and emphasizes the dominant position the Word of God achieved in Ephesus. All the satanic forces of the occult and magic arrayed against the Word could not overpower it. The bold preaching of the gospel, the confirming miracles, the defeat of the exorcists, the resultant awe and respect for the name of Jesus, and the public repudiation of the magical arts demonstrated the invincible might of God’s Word.
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