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So we finished up last week by talking about how Paul spent 2 years in the city of Ephesus preaching and teaching the people there.
And we talked about how his ministry wasn’t contained to the city of Ephesus alone, but it spread out far and wide to the point where everyone living in Asia at the time had the opportunity to hear the gospel.
As we continue reading in chapter 19 this morning we’ll see some of the details of how God was using Paul’s ministry to reach the people of Ephesus and the surrounding area for the kingdom.
Let’s start reading this morning with the next couple of verses following where we left off last week.
We’ll pick up in verse 11.
This is an interesting passage.
Luke starts off here talking about “extraordinary miracles.”
Now you have to realize here, all miracles are extraordinary.
That’s why we call them “miracles.”
But Luke is trying to emphasize here that these healings are not the same as others he has already talked about.
This isn’t like Peter and John healing the lame beggar outside the temple.
What we see here is God using inanimate objects to carry healing power from Paul to the sick.
And not only that, Paul didn’t even have to be present for it to be effective.
The verses talk about facecloths and aprons.
Remember Paul is a tentmaker by trade.
And these aren’t the little lightweight, backpacking tents that we may be used to today.
The tents that Paul was making were living spaces.
They would have been the house for a family.
So they were huge.
And they weren’t made of the thin, lightweight stuff we use today.
There was no nylon or polyester or poly/cotton blend.
These tents were made of heavy, woven fabric.
There were multiple layers of fabric and leather and animal skins in order to keep the rain out, and keep the heat out during the day and in during the night.
This was heavy, sweaty work.
So Paul would have likely worn some type of apron to protect his clothes, and he would have had towels, rags, something, to wipe the sweat off of his face and arms periodically.
And it was these aprons and towels that people were carrying to the sick who would be healed, and to those who were possessed by demons and the demons would leave.
Just the presence of these rags and aprons were enough to drive off evil spirits.
Now this may seem kind of far-fetched to us.
“You mean to tell me that a sweaty rag or a dirty apron was enough to heal someone from sickness or drive a demon out of someone who was possessed.”
Well, yeah.
You have to remember, this is not unheard of.
In Luke chapter 8, he tells us the story of a woman who simply touched the hem of Jesus’s robe and was healed.
And earlier in Acts we saw people being healed simply because Peter’s shadow passed over them as he walked by.
But the key to the healing in both of these examples, and in the passage we read this morning, is not in the item, the apron, or the rag, or the robe, or even in the shadow.
The key to the healing that occurred lay in the power of God and in the faith of the recipients of that healing.
These people believed that they could be healed through the power of God, and God healed them.
He did it in an unexpected manner, but he healed them nonetheless.
Now let’s keep reading with the next verse.
Remember, Ephesus was a center of pagan worship.
It was a city where you could find all kinds of evil practices going on both day and night.
So it should come as no surprise that there is quite a bit of demonic activity there.
And the other thing that should come as no surprise is that there was no shortage of con men living in the city trying to make a quick buck.
Some of these con men billed themselves as “exorcists” who could get rid of the evil spirits.
Much like “psychics” today, they would give some generalized mumbo-jumbo, separate the person from their money and be on their way.
But some of them saw what was going on with Paul and with the healings and getting rid of evil spirits and they decided to get in on the game.
They probably thought that Paul was just another one of them who had figured out a good gimmick to make a few more bucks than the next guy so they decided to make use of his gimmick.
Now let’s keep reading and see how it works out for them.
Acts 19:13-
Remember, Ephesus was a center of pagan worship.
It was a city where you could find all kinds of evil practices going on both day and night.
So it should come as no surprise that there is quite a bit of demonic activity there.
And the other thing that should come as no surprise is that there was no shortage of con men living in the city trying to make a quick buck.
Some of these con men billed themselves as “exorcists” who could get rid of the evil spirits.
Acts
Acts 19:14-
So we have these seven sons of a Jewish high priest who have gotten in on this money making scheme like all the other con men.
Doesn’t really sound like too much of a stretch considering everything we learned about the priests back in Jerusalem at the temple does it?
Money making schemes seem to be par for the course with these guys.
So these seven sons of the high priest, Sceva, are running their scam about getting rid of evil spirits and they say, “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches!”
But things don’t go as planned this time.
No, this time the spirit looks at them and answers.
He says, “You know what?
I know Jesus.
I know Paul.
You I don’t know.”
And then the spirit makes the man who it was possessing jump on them and beat them.
So we have these seven sons of a Jewish high priest who have gotten in on this money making scheme like all the other con men.
Doesn’t really sound like too much of a stretch considering everything we learned about the priests back in Jerusalem at the temple does it?
Money making schemes seem to be par for the course with these guys.
So these seven sons of the high priest, Sceva, are running their scam about getting rid of evil spirits and they say, “I command you by the Jesus that Paul preaches!”
But things don’t go as planned this time.
No, this time the spirit looks at them and answers.
He says, “You know what?
I know Jesus.
I know Paul.
You I don’t know.”
And then the spirit makes the man who it was possessing jump on them and beat them.
Now I want to point out a couple of things here.
First, and probably obviously, the demons know Jesus and they know those who follow him.
The evil spirit here answers, “I know Jesus, and I recognize Paul.”
This should come as no surprise to us.
We see several times in the gospels when Jesus encounters demons and they know who he is.
I want to read a couple of those accounts.
The first is in Mark 1:21-26
Mark 1:21-
And then just a few verses farther on in that same chapter
Mark 1:32-34
The second account is also in the book of Mark chapter 5
The next account is also in the book of Mark chapter 5
Mark 5:1-
In all of these accounts we see that the demons know Jesus for who he is.
They recognize him as the Son of God.
And we also see that Jesus has power and authority over them.
But it’s not just Jesus himself who has authority over the demons.
Jesus’s followers have the power to cast out demons in his name.
tells us this about the early days of Jesus’s ministry here on earth.
Mark 3:
We see several times through the scriptures this power being used, but the key is that it is in the name of Jesus.
I won’t read through the whole account but we saw this once with Paul already back in chapter 16.
If you’ll remember there was a slave girl following him and Silas around and Paul turns to her and says, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her!”
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