seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Acts 19:1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?”
They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.”
3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”
“John’s baptism,” they replied.
4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
8 Paul entered the synagogue and spoke boldly there for three months, arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9 But some of them became obstinate; they refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. So Paul left them. He took the disciples with him and had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. 10 This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord.
11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.
13 Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” 14 Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. 15 One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” 16 Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.
17 When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus, they were all seized with fear, and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. 18 Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 19 A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. 20 In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.
21 After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. “After I have been there,” he said, “I must visit Rome also.” 22 He sent two of his helpers, Timothy and Erastus, to Macedonia, while he stayed in the province of Asia a little longer.
I got this from the commentary.Some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists: At that time, there were Jewish exorcists who practiced their trade with a lot of superstition and ceremony. Here, a group of itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to imitate what they thought was Paul’s formula for success.
We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches: The Jewish exorcists failed because they had no personal relationship with Jesus. They only knew that Jesus was the God of Paul, not their own God.
And the evil spirit answered and said, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?” The evil spirit knew exactly who Jesus was, and knew exactly who Paul was. But they didn’t know who the seven sons of Sceva were. Apparently, evil spirits know who their enemies are (in this case, Jesus and Paul), and they don’t waste their effort knowing those who aren’t a threat to them (in this case, the seven sons of Sceva).
Then the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them: Because the seven sons of Sceva had no real relationship with Jesus, they had no spiritual power against the evil spirit. They left the encounter naked and wounded. It was dangerous for them to take the reality of spiritual warfare lightly.
There was a couple who used to live in my neighborhood. They were "gospel singers" before they "retired" to Arizona. Pass the hat. I got a bad vibe from them when I met them. IMHO... He did not read the "gospel" he passed along. Pass the hat. They had a "routine" that they would repeat. They read the same verses over and over and over. They weren't kind or good. Pass the hat. They called out their neighbors saying they were in need of Salvation because the neighbors didn't belong to their "church". If the neighbors didn't attend their "bible study" then they were pagans. I attended once, and heard the distortion, I tried it a second time, and had to leave. There was no "Christ" in their "church". Pass the hat.I've been in brick-and-mortar churches like that too. Pass the hat. They claimed to be Baptists, Presbyterian, Methodist, or whatever, but the message was not of the Spirit. Like the guy who burnt any Bible not translated as King James. Like the guy who raped my friend and then had her thrown out of the church to cover his sin. Like the guy who insists women should be seen and not heard. Like the guy I heard about on this forum, fired from his choir director's job, because he was gay. Pass the hat.
One thing I have always noticed in those churches; there was one true Believer suffering through every repeated message. They chose that "church". Pass the hat. The "church" couldn't be a "church" unless it was real... right? Pass the hat.
The sorcerer, magicians, and the gospel wannabes all have one problem. They want the shiney baubles in the pockets of the people who attend their "church". Pass the hat. They worship money and fame. They don't worship the Lord. They worship what they can put in their hands. Pass the hat.
That's why the demon beat the Seven Sons of Seva. The Seven Sons of Seva were distorting the Gospel. Pass the hat.
