The Sunday of Confession (NTA)

Acts 19:11-20

¹¹ And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. ¹³ Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. ¹⁵ But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” ¹⁶ And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. ¹⁷ And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. ¹⁸ Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. ¹⁹ And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. ²⁰ So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.

God has truly done many extraordinary miracles through his Apostles. One could only image how this captivated people like Simon the Magician to desire this gift. But these Sons of Sceva go off on their own and are way to confident. These Sons of Sceva have probably cast out demons before, but now they boldly attempt to use the power of Paul.

These Jewish exorcists try to adjourn demons by the person Jesus whom Paul preaches. But here is the great confession. It is not the confession of truth from the Sons of Sceva, but from evil spirits. The Evil spirits recall knowledge of Jesus and knowledge of Paul. I am not 100% that would indicate that they would listen to Paul or Jesus. But I know that St Paul or Jesus Christ would be able to command them to leave. But these Evil Spirits will not listen to the Sons of Sceva.

Likewise, for all the people in the world who attempt to deal with their problems through meditation or by worshiping false gods and false religions this is there fate, the demons will over power them and leave them naked. Similarly, all those people who like to have nice things said about them or being told how great of a person they are will easily find themselves overpowered by mere words of demons.

But those who put their hope and trust in Jesus Christ will find the evil spirits words false. It is Jesus Christ and a true confession in his name that is necessary to cast out the demons in this world. It is the power and authority given to Jesus Christ, which has victory over the devil and his angels. We continue to fight them as they spread false teachings throughout the Christian church. But we stand firm on the Word of God, and its proclamation of the one true way of Salvation through Jesus Christ.