The Seventh Sunday after Epiphany (NT)

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.

I guess book burning is not always a bad thing! These people destroy many books, which contained false teaching, or maybe just wicked teaching. Interestingly enough they did not do this because of what St Paul did nor St Peter. They did this because seven men where over powered by a demon.

The disciples were unable to cast the demon out of a child, but at least they were not sent away without their cloths. I really think the lesson here is simple, don't try to take on a demon by yourself. This should not teach us that demon possession is left to the medical professionals, but the power of demonic forces is strong.

Jesus casts out demons on many occasions. Even the apostles are said to have cast out demons or evil spirits from time to time. But it is not about the rubric or phrasing. It is about the Word of God. (Now that sounds a little stupid.) The demon knows Jesus and knows Paul, but these seven boys he does not recognize their authority.

All authority on Heaven and on Earth has been given to Jesus. He gives that authority to his Apostles. The Apostles pass this authority onto the church? The church will forgive sin. Point you to Jesus, and even in extreme cases pray for the demon possessed. But it is the Holy Spirit and Christ that will remove the evil, or evil spirits, from your life. 

Just don't play, or toy, with demons. You will get into trouble!