Acts 19:1-20

¹ And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. ² And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” ⁴ And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” ⁵ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all. 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. 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.

In 1986, a Christian novel was published that gripped the imagination and attention of large swathes of the evangelical world. It was written by Frank Peretti and was entitled This Present Darkness. I would go on to sell 2.5 million copies and become a genuine publishing sensation.

The general spiritual theme of the novel was spiritual warfare. It told a story on two levels: the ground level of the happenings of the lives of the characters in the story and the upper level of the spiritual dynamics going on around and behind these happenings. Peretti’s point was that we should appreciate the existence of an unseen spirit world and we should recognize that the forces of light (in the book, angels) and the forces of darkness (demons) are constantly vying for the soul of mankind.

I remember the stir that this novel caused. A lot of people swore it represented solid biblical truth. Other Christians criticized it on various grounds, not the least of which was the idea of territorial demons that controlled certain geographical areas. As with lots of Christian bestsellers, some folks seemed to idolize it and others seem to demonize it (for lack of a better word).

My purpose in mentioning this title is not to argue for or against the merits of the book. My purpose is simply to say that, whatever its strengths or weaknesses – and I suppose it had a measure of both – the book seemed to strike a chord by reminding people that there are indeed powerful spiritual happenings going on all around us. I will not vouch for Peretti’s particular take, but I will say that it is a truth we all feel and it is jarring to be reminded of it in unsettling ways.

There is a world around us that we do not see. We should, I would caution, restrict our ideas about this world to what scripture plainly says about it, but what scripture does plainly say is that this world exists! The first twenty verses of Acts 19 are very interesting because they highlight this reality in a powerful and memorable way. In fact, the first ten verses speak of the Holy Spirit of God and the next ten verses speak of demonic forces. We will allow this natural division within the text to frame our approach to it.

The Holy Spirit comes upon believers as they truly embrace gospel.

Paul is now beginning his third missionary journey. He came to Ephesus where Apollos had previously preached. While there, he meets an interesting group of disciples and has a most fascinating conversation with them about spiritual matters.

¹ And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. ² And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” ⁴ And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” ⁵ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all. 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.

Paul encountered a group of disciples and something prompted him to ask if they had received the Holy Spirit. Surprisingly, they responded that they had never heard of the Holy Spirit being familiar with only John’s baptism. Thus, their view of the gospel was limited and stunted. This has led Will Willimon to suggest that these disciples who had never heard of the Holy Spirit were “Apollos’ converts.”[1] Why would he suggest this? Do you recall what we learned about Apollos in Acts 18?

²⁴ Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. ²⁵ He had been instructed in the way of the Lord. And being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, though he knew only the baptism of John. ²⁶ He began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the way of God more accurately. ²⁷ And when he wished to cross to Achaia, the brothers encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him. When he arrived, he greatly helped those who through grace had believed, ²⁸ for he powerfully refuted the Jews in public, showing by the Scriptures that the Christ was Jesus.

It is quite possible, then, that these disciples Paul encountered received their incomplete understanding of the gospel from Apollos in his earlier preaching ministry before he received correction from Priscilla and Aquila. Regardless, an incomplete understanding of the gospel they did in fact have. Paul remedied this by informing them that John the Baptist was in fact pointing to One greater than himself: “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” As a result, they believed and, when they believed, the Holy Spirit fell upon them with spectacular displays of his presence.

This reveals to us that the Holy Spirit comes upon believers as they truly embrace gospel. To be sure we need not have an absolutely perfect understanding of the gospel. Nobody does. We are all growing day by day in our understanding of the gospel. But we must indeed embrace the gospel!

Perhaps we may question why it is that the Lord God withheld His Spirit from these sincere disciples who simply were unaware of the whole story. It is no doubt because God does not wish to bless and thereby leave us in error. John the Baptist was a great man. Jesus Himself said so. But to content ourselves with John the Baptist and not move on to Jesus is to keep reading the introduction of the story over and over without ever actually moving on to the actual story! To stay with John at the Jordan instead of walking with Jesus to Calvary and the empty tomb is to build a hut in the foyer of the grand cathedral of God’s glory without ever moving into the marvelous, dizzying, overwhelming beauty of the sanctuary itself!

To receive the Holy Spirit we need to embrace Christ! It is fascinating to see how Paul more fully fleshed this out in his beautiful introduction to the letter he would go on to write to these believers. This is the letter we know as Ephesians. Observe the flow of thought from the Father to the Son to the Spirit:

³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love ⁵ he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, ⁶ to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. ⁷ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, ⁸ which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight ⁹ making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ ¹⁰ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth. ¹¹ In him we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who works all things according to the counsel of his will, ¹² so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. ¹³ In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, ¹⁴ who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.

We are, Paul says, “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit” when we “hear the word of truth, the gospel of [our] salvation, and believe in Him.” Belief in Christ and the reception of the Holy Spirit go hand in hand. And the Spirit “is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.”

Here is the bright light of the spiritual reality surrounding us: the Father and the Son send the Spirit to take up residence within all who will embrace Christ. I would ask you what Paul asked these brothers: “Do you have the Holy Spirit?” If you have trusted in Christ and embraced the gospel, you do have Him! If you do not have Him, you need to come to Christ and be saved!

Evil spirits attack the lost as they attempt to manipulate the demons in the name of the Jesus they reject.

But there is indeed a darkness as well, and one that we must ever be aware of. Immediately following this beautiful and joyful description of the coming of the Spirit of God upon the Ephesian disciples we find the other side of the story: demonic attack upon those who sought to use the name of Jesus for their own purposes.

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.

I am personally skeptical of the notion of territorial spirits, spirits or demons who control certain geographical regions, but there can be no doubt that Ephesus in particular was a region that, at this time, was steeped in the idea of magic and spiritual powers. For instance, Clinton Arnold offers the following fascinating insight into the culture of the region:

            Ephesus was renown as being something of a center for magical practices in the Mediterranean world. The practice of magic was everywhere – it was part of the fabric of common “folk belief” – but Ephesus acquired a significant reputation for it.

            This reputation was perpetuated, in part, by the so-called “Ephesian Letters” (Ephesia Grammata). These were actually six names – askion, kataskion, lix, tetrax, damnemeneus, and aisia – thought to be laden with protective power for warding off evil demons. One ancient writer says that the “magi” instructed people possessed by evil spirits to repeat to themselves the magic words in order to drive the demons out. There was a story that circulated about an Ephesian wrestler who traveled to Olympia to compete in the games. This wrestler wore the “Ephesian Letters” on an ankle bracelet while he competed and was winning every match. Finally an opponent from Miletus discovered the bracelet and protested, whereupon the item was removed by the officials. The Ephesian wrestler then fell to three successive defeats by his Milesian opponent.

So magic and spirits and unseen forces were “in the air” of Ephesus. Perhaps this can be seen in the actions of some who were seeking healing through contact with physical objects that belonged to Paul. Luke tells us that some people were picking up Paul’s discarded handkerchiefs and were being healed. Craig Keener writes that “Paul’s ‘handkerchiefs and aprons’ (NIV) are rags tied around his head to catch sweat and his work aprons tied around his waist; they could have been taken without his knowledge. Magicians often healed by such means…”[2]

What are we to make of this? It is hard to say for sure exactly what is happening here, but this much is true: those who were being healed were being healed by the Spirit of God in the name of Jesus, not because of any inherent properties in Paul’s handkerchief. Why did God choose for such healing to be mediated through these objects? Who can say? Whatever the reason, we must not impart ideas of “magic” into this scene. That would violate the whole spirit of this passage and, indeed, of the New Testament as a whole.

Seeing these impressive events, some sought to use the name of Jesus as a kind of verbal talisman for their own ministries of exorcism.

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.

The sons of Sceva were trying to invoke the name of Jesus in their own exorcism efforts though they did not personally believe in Jesus! Interestingly, this seems to have become something of a practice for non-Christian exorcists. For instance, Clinton Arnold quotes the words of “an Egyptian magical papyrus that dates to the late Roman period” and mentions Jesus among the many names it mentions.

A tested charm of Pibechis [a legendary magician from Egypt] for those possessed by daimons: Take oil of unripe olives with the herb mastigia and the fruit pulp of the lotus, and boil them with colorless marjoram while saying, “IOEL OS SARTHIOMI EMORI THEOCHIPSOITH SITHEMEOCH SOTHE IOE MIMIPSOTHIOOPH PHERSOTHI AEEIOYO IOE EO CHARI PHTHA” [Ptah is the Egyptian creator god], come out from (the name of the victim). The phylactery: On a time lamelle write “IAEO ABRAOTH IOCH PHTHA MESENPSIN IAO PHEOCH IAEO CHARSOK,” and hang it on the patient. It is terrifying to every daimon, a thing he fears. After placing the patient opposite to you, conjure. This is the conjuration: “I conjur you by the god of the Hebrews, Jesus, IABA IAE ABRAOTH AIA THOTH ELE ELO AEO EOY ILLBAECH ABARMAS IABARAOU ABELBEL LONA ABRA MAROIA BRAKION, who appears in fire, who is in the midst of the land, snow, and fog. TANNETIS; let your angel, the implacable, descend and let him assign the daimon flying around this form, which god formed in his holy paradise, because I pray to the holy god, calling up AMMON IPSENTANCHO.[3]

There it is. Amidst all these garbled words we find, “This is the conjuration: ‘I conjur you by the god of the Hebrews, Jesus…” This was the kind of thing that the sons of Sceva were attempting, though surely in a different form than this. The result?

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.

Oh my! What an absolutely chilling scene! The evil spirit addressed the sons of Sceva! “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?”

This offers us some amazing insights into spiritual realities we cannot see. It shows us, for instance, that the devil knows who Jesus is. In James 2:19, James wrote, “You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe—and shudder!” So yes, the devil and his demons know who Jesus is.

Furthermore, they know who belongs to the family of God. “Paul I recognize,” the spirit says. In Job 1 Satan reveals that he knows who Job is. In Luke 22:31, Jesus said to Peter, “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat…” This reveals that Satan knew who Peter was and wanted to attack him.

Be aware: the devil knows who belongs to the family of God! He can only attack us with God’s permission, but attack us he does. To come to Christ is to draw the attention of the evil one, but to come to Christ is also to receive the protection of Christ who loves us, prays for us, and is with us!

The evil spirit’s comment and actions also reveal that a mere mechanistic and manipulative usage of the name “Jesus” carries with it no particular spiritual protection. This is dramatically and scarily demonstrated in the spirit’s attack upon the men who flee naked and battered from his presence.

Let us be sure of this: the name of Jesus is not to be handled like a verbal talisman. Saying “Jesus” if you are not walking with Jesus affords you no particular spiritual protection. Wearing a cross on a necklace if you have not embraced the cross of Christ in faith and repentance means nothing in terms of your soul. Physical crosses only have inherent protective powers in vampire movies, and that is pure nonsense. Wearing a Jesus t-shirt while you get in your car covered with Jesus bumper stickers and turn on your Jesus music means nothing if you have not truly accepted Jesus!

Church, it is the living presence of Christ within you that protects you spiritually! It is the living Christ – not the mere word “Jesus” or the mere shape of the cross – that gives us life!

Come to Christ and you will receive the Holy Spirit! Come to Christ and He will be with you to protect you and grant forgiveness and life and salvation and peace and hope!

 

[1] William H. Willimon, Acts. Interpretation. (Louisville, KY: John Knox Press, 1988), p.146.

[2] Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. (Downers Grove, IL: 1993), p.378.

[3] Clinton E. Arnold, “Acts.” Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. Vol.2. Clinton E. Arnold, gen. ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002), p.411,409-410.