Lesson for July 9, 2025
Paul the Apostle
Lesson 7
Paul’s Third Missionary Journey
Acts 19:11-20
“God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that handkerchiefs or aprons were even carried from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them, and the evil spirits went out. 13 But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had the evil spirits, saying, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches!’ 14 Now there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, doing this. 15 But the evil spirit responded and said to them, ‘I recognize Jesus, and I know of Paul, but who are you?”’ 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit, pounced on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified. 18 Also many of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. 19 And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they added up the prices of the books and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So, the word of the Lord was growing and prevailing mightily.”
Paul had traveled to Ephesus and was teaching daily. For two years, people from all over the Roman province of Asia were coming to hear him teach the Word of God. They did not come to hear him during the three months when he was in the synagogue, but once he broke away from the synagogue, he was no longer associated with Jewish religion, and people came to hear him. He then had the greatest ministry of his entire life among the Ephesians.
God was performing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul. The purpose of these miracles was to focus attention upon the Gospel and the teaching of God’s Word. God used miracles in the first years of the Church because the Canon of Scripture was not completed. The use of miracles would all eventually cease. God now authenticates His message by means of the completed Canon of Scripture, the Bible.
The apostle Paul had the spiritual gift of healing. So powerful was the gift of healing in Paul, that even cloth from his garments had healing authority. However, performing miracles was a lesser part of his ministry. This was illustrated by the fact that Paul, later in his life, no longer had the spiritual gift of healing, according to II Timothy 4:20. This is another proof text that many spiritual gifts in the early foundational period of the Church eventually ceased. Both the gift of healing and the gift of miracles were used to establish Paul’s authority as an apostle, and were eventually discontinued, once Paul’s divine authority was well-established.
Since the gift of healing is no longer valid, “TV evangelists” who claim they have cloths or other items with “healing power,” are false prophets, ministers of Satan, and involved in demon activity. The only healing that occurs in this period of the Church Age is done by the sovereign will of God, not through a human being. Remember, demons can indwell unbelievers and then Satan can remove the demon, thereby deceiving people into thinking that it was a miracle from God.
But also some of the Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had the evil spirits, saying, ‘I order you in the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches!’ Now there were seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, doing this. Jewish exorcists had a kind of traveling medicine/magic show, which was connected with demonism. The Greek word for exorcists is “ecorkistes,” and means to attempt to remove demons by incantation, by a magic formula, or by conjuring up a spell. Sceva was the chief of one of the priesthoods in Jerusalem, and His seven sons were demon-possessed unbelievers, who were practicing exorcism. There attempts to exorcise demons apparently wasn’t working very well, so they invoked the name of Jesus in an attempt to cast out a demon, which backfired on them, as we will see.
Under the Law of Moses, the sentence for demon possession was death. (Leviticus 20:27) Here are at least five methods of demon possession or demon influence: 1) idolatry – there are demons behind the idols, according to I Corinthians 10:19-21 2) drug addiction – users of drugs are suspectable to demon possession/influence, according to Galatians 5:20 (the Greek word for witchcraft is “pharmakia”) 3) prostitution – prostitutes can be possessed with or influenced by demons, according to Luke 8:2 4) neurosis and psychosis – these psychological conditions can be caused by demon possession or demon influence, according to Mark 5:1-20 5) religion – religion can be designed to turn the body and soul over to some so-called higher power, often demons, according to Isaiah 8:19-22.
But the evil spirit responded and said to them, ‘I recognize Jesus, and I know of Paul, but who are you?’ Those who claim that Satan is personally after them are showing their ignorance of the Word of God. Satan knows very few of us personally, but he does have a corrupt world system to influence our sin natures and millions of demons to do his bidding. Satan relies on the negative volition of unbelievers to blind them to the truth of the Gospel. And he relies on the negative volition of believers toward God and His Word to accomplish his goal of deception, distraction, infiltration, and destruction of their spiritual lives.
And the man in whom was the evil spirit, pounced on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.The Greek word for wounded is “traumatize,” from which we get the word trauma. This gives us a very good idea of the power of demons. One demon subdued seven men (sons of Sceva) and sent them running for their lives. The wounds that were inflicted on these men were traumatic.
This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all and the name of the Lord Jesus was being magnified.Also, many of those who had believed kept coming, confessing and disclosing their practices. This incident was a subtle Satanic attack but was unsuccessful. In the meantime, there was a great change of attitude and practice among those who believed in Christ. The fear that came over them was used by the Holy Spirit to get their attention. Fear of demon possession caused many unbelievers to give the Gospel a hearing and many believed. This same fear caused believers, who were out of fellowship because they were involved in witchcraft, to confess their sins and get back in fellowship with God.
And many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and began burning them in the sight of everyone; and they added up the prices of the books and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver. Those who were involved in the magic arts, such as sorcery/witchcraft, brought their books together and burned them in public. A piece of silver was “a dracma,” which was a day’s wages (in today’s economy at $15/hr. x 8 hrs. = $120 x 50,000 = $6 million). These books were probably about ways to get rid of demons or to practice witchcraft, which played right into Satan’s hand.
So, the word of the Lord was growing and prevailing mightily. Though there was a great deal of opposition, this did not hinder the teaching and communication of the Word of God. In Ephesus, and throughout the entire Roman province of Asia, the teaching of the Word of God became so widespread that it began to curtail some of the activities of paganism among the Gentiles.