Practicing Witchcraft
Acts 19:13-20
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."
The power and the author of the miracles throughout the Scripture is Christ. You see, the devil can copy the miracles of Christ to a certain extent. During the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt, the devil copied several miracles of God through the false magicians of Exodus 7:22. These mimics were done for earthly human glory. The miracles of God connected with judgement and belonged to him alone. There is a purpose and product of such miracles and the driving out of demons.. By whose power do you do such? The answer should be by the power of Christ. The word power is also synonymous with authority. Thus, I should say by whose authority do you do such things? Luke 20:2 is a question asked by the worldly religious leaders and again reiterated by Christ in the giving of the church's commission. Matthew 28:18 says that all power and authority have been "given unto me in heaven and in earth." As children of God, by heritage of birthright and position of sonship, we share in his power and authority according to Revelation 1:6. He has made us "a kingdom and priests" unto him as in Revelation 5:10. Many other times throughout the Scripture the position of the believer as a son of God not only to share in his power and authority but also in his purpose is mentioned. How many of you know people who just want the inheritance but do not want to function in the family? They show up for the reading of the will at the end of a life but the rest of the time they would not. The purpose of God's acts is for his glory whether through judgement or deliverance. The purpose of Christ is the priesthood according to Hebrews 7:17. He stands in Heaven now making intercession for the believers and asks for grace for the rest of the world as in Romans 8:34.
Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. One day the evil spirit answered them, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?" 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.
We have a flawed vision of what a priest should look like. Even in judgement, Jesus is acting to judge the world as a priest who knows all things. Even in ruling, he is as a King, yet he remains approachable and righteous. We seeing "through a glass darkly" as in 1 Corinthians 13:12, view the three callings of Christ as prophet, priest, and king unequally. Some think he stops one task to resume another. Rather, he is someone who completes a task but has more to do. The three callings are one in Christ. We see in him a man who intercedes for the people and who is also God. He made the ultimate sacrifice that his justice demanded then carried out the ruling himself. Not only that, but he also has a lot to say about the past and what is to come. What does this have to do with what happened with the demonic spirits? First, it starts with God. You have to know who you serve, where your power comes from, and what your position now is. Those who are not of God's house have used his authority to cast out the evil spirits from people without believing themselves. Do you know how dangerous it is to not believe someone and talk about them anyway? They had no position and no power for what they were doing. They claimed nothing but the name of Christ; yet, they did not believe he had that power for he was not their Messiah and certainly not their God. The sons of the high priest tried to cast out the demons and met something who knew who Christ was. See, "even the demons believe" in Christ and tremble as in James 2:19. The evil spirits knew Christ was whom he claimed to be. Their possession of man as with everything was not complete.
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. Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. 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.
A demonic spirit needs a body and a soul to act. It displaces the human spirit by trying to take the person's God-given authority away from them. Even the acts of the devil can glorify God for he makes them to serve him as in Genesis 50:20. See the effect of the beating given to the Jewish priests. A number of practicing witches came and burned their sorcery textbooks, stopped their practice, and confessed their secret sins. Even those who did not believe now did because of the testimony of an evil spirit who had a very thorough understanding of who God is. Proverbs 9:10 says, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Take up the power, position, and authority of God over your life. Do the same over everything else in your life and in those to whom you minister that is not of Christ. The demons and circumstances thereof must obey him who created them. The text does not clarify whether the man who had the evil spirit was healed; what is clear is his obedience to the name of Christ. The text said he had an evil spirit. I think after this encounter with the name of Christ his spirit became righteous. Note that the man had acted of his own will to beat up these men. He still had supernatural power yet his actions were righteous.