Who In Hell Knows Your Name

Scripture: Acts 19:11-22 (cf. v. 15)

Title: Who In Hell Knows Your Name?

INTRO:

Grace and Peace from God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Today’s passage is a remarkable section of Scripture. It is full of all kinds of strange stories and events. When you first read it, you might wonder what kind of world the Apostle Paul and the Early Church faced.

One of things that you can understand is that there was quite a bit of supernatural activity going around Ephesus. Ephesus was well known as a city of that dabbled in the magical arts and the occult. It was a city where you could find numerous people who could cast spells, perform exorcisms and practice a level of control over supernatural spirits for a bit of coin.

From what we can read here in our passage, it seems that were at least a few Jews that would go around the city trying to cast a spell and drive out a demon or two. There was a “chief priest” by the name was Sceva who had seven sons that attempted to practice the ministry of exorcism.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of the word “Exorcism” those old movies from the 1970’s and 80’s come to mind. But just recently, I was searching exactly when those movies came out and was surprised by how many supernatural movies about demonic possession and exorcism have come out in the last few years. Five have already come out this year alone (2022).

Perhaps this story we find in our passage isn’t so strange as we might think.

That said, it does have a rather odd twist to it. Or at least that is what I think.

Sceva’s seven sons thought that they have found a new key in casting out demons. They had been watching Paul go around the city having success bring healing and wholeness to quite a few people. They noticed that when someone was healed or when someone was freed from a demon that the name of Jesus was used.

They thought that they had hit on a key. There was something about the name of Jesus that had power over sickness and demonic possessions. They believed that they had found the “genie in the jar”. All they had to do was to call forth the name of Jesus and they too would be in the healing and freeing business.

After all, that is what others in the town had been trying to do. Instead of the name of Jesus they had been using the name of this god or that goddess. They had been calling upon the name of this ancestor or that ancestor.

However, they quickly discovered that playing with the devil was not fun and games. They discovered that just mentioning the name of Jesus and not having a personal relationship with Jesus could lead to disaster. Merely quoting the name of Jesus in a spell did nothing except in their case it got them humiliated and beaten up.

That’s what happened to these seven sons. They bit off more than they could chew and instead of the demon(s) being under their control they got the beating of their lives. Instead of them looking good to the others around them they had to run away naked and defeated.

Now, that is the story in a nutshell.

What I want us to do this morning is to look for a few moments at verse 19 –

“Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?

There is more here than at first meets the eye. There is something going on here that we need to take some time and think about.

What do our spiritual enemies think of us this morning?

How are we viewed by the Devil and by Hell?

Do they take the time to talk about us and discuss how much of a headache we are to them?

How are we to be viewed and spoken about by demons as individuals and as a collective Church body?

Let’s take some time this morning and look at this passage in more detail.

I. The Devil/Demons knew Jesus

The name of Jesus was well known to the Devil and to the other demons. After all, they had been in battle with Jesus on numerous occasions.

+The Devil had done his best to kill Jesus when he was a child (Matthew 2:13-18).

+The Devil had done his best to manipulate Jesus in the Wilderness (Luke 4:1-13)

+The Devil had done his best to get others to kill Jesus right at the start of Jesus’ public ministry by enticing them to throw Him off a high cliff (Luke 4:28-30).

+The Devil had prompted Judas to betray Jesus leading to Jesus’ crucifixion (John 13:27-30).