SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/14/2018
8:45 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Competition”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Acts 19:13-16
Message of the
verses: “13 But also some of the
Jewish exorcists, who went from place to place, attempted to name over those
who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you
by Jesus whom Paul preaches." 14 Seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief
priest, were doing this. 15 And the evil spirit answered and said to them,
"I recognize Jesus, and I know about Paul, but who are you?" 16 And
the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped on them and subdued all of them
and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.”
We can see that the Jewish exorcists decided to add to
things that they would say in order to cast out demons. John MacArthur quotes John Polhill:
“Ancient magicians were
syncretists and would borrow terms from any religion that sounded sufficiently strange
to the deemed effective. These Jewish exorcists of Ephesus were only plying
their trade. Paul’s ‘spell’ in Jesus
name seemed effective for him, so they gave it a try.”
We ran into something like this in Acts chapter eight
when we law Simon Magus, the man who though that he could buy the power that
the apostles had with money, and found out that it was not for sale. Now we see in verse 13b that these Jewish
exorcists “attempted to name over those who had the evil spirits the name of
the Lord Jesus, saying, "I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches."” These were not Jewish Christians for they did
not even know who Jesus was, only that He was the One whom Paul taught. MacArthur writes “Exorkiston (exorcists) appears
only here in the New Testament. It
derives from a root word meaning ‘to bind with an oath’; ancient exorcists
attempted to expel demons by invoking the name of a more powerful spirit being.
Exorcists were common in the ancient world, even among the Jews (Matt. 12:27;
Acts 13:6). Their fanciful spells and
ritual formulas were very different from the absolute authority delegated by
Christ and exercised by the apostles.”
I suppose that in using the name of Jesus that they thought
that it was a magical charm to be used by them, but that is not true at all,
and these exorcists soon learned the truth of this. At any rate they tried their new ritual out
saying “I adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches.” However unlike Paul they did not know the Person
they named nor have His power delegated to them. Luke identifies these men as the seven sons
of one Sceva who was a Jewish high priest.
Nothing else is known about this man.
MacArthur adds that “there was never a Jewish high priest by that
name. Either he was a member of one of
the high priestly families, or more likely, he appropriated the title to
impress his clients.” We have this kind
of things actually being done in our time today, as some call themselves
doctors or professors who do similar things.
It seems that their gig was up when they tried to cast
out a demon for the demon said to them “I recognize Jesus, and I know about
Paul, but who are you?” We know from our
past studies in Mark and also in James that demons certainly know who Jesus is,
but they did not know who these sons of Sceva were as they would soon find out.
It was because that they did not know who Jesus was, nor
had any rite to use His name that what happened to them happened: “the man, in whom was the evil spirit, leaped
on them and subdued all seven of them and overpowered them, so that they fled
out of that house naked and wounded.” John MacArthur writes “Presumably, Satan had
allowed them in the past to appear to succeed.
It can be helpful to remember that Satan’s kingdom is inconsistent and
random. Even his demons do not act
consistently, and they form a house divided against itself, which cannot stand
(Matt. 12:25-26). Here, however, God
overruled the confused efforts of those fools for His own glory.”
So what about today, as we have written there are people
who are trying to do these kinds of things today. I have heard of a couple of cases from first
of all to a friend of mine who told me a story of a small woman who, from what
he said was possessed by a demon and several large men tried to confront her
and she beat them badly. When I was
listening to Hal Lindsey many years ago on a taped message he said that in
preparation of him writing “Satan is Alive and Well on Planet Earth,” that he
cast out a demon from a woman, and stated that he felt that God allowed him to
do this in the preparation of writing his book.
John MacArthur writes:
“This story vividly
illustrates the danger for any who assume messianic or apostolic power over
demons and Satan and thus carelessly meddle in the supernatural realm.
“Satan would have wished
these sons of Sceva to succeed, so that the domain of darkness could compete
with God, as Pharaoh’s magicians did with Moses (Ex. 7:22). But the attempt to provide competition for
the Word was thwarted. In fact, it
completely backfired and only brought greater conviction among the Ephesians of
the power of Jesus’ name and the truth of Paul’s preaching.”
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: I have to say
that as far as some believers today, who are led by the Spirit of God to do
this kind of thing that it could be done today.
However I also believe that there are people in this world today who try
to exploit others for the all mighty dollar who would not stop from trying to
do things like these seven sons of Sceva.
I realize that there are those who believe that this kind of thing can
only be done by the Apostles, which we know are long gone, but like I said I
have not made up my mind on whether God allows certain believers to do this
kind of thing today.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that the Lord will give me a better
opinion of this as I always seek the truth from God through His Word as His
Spirit teaches me.
Answer to yesterday’s Bible
question: “No” (1 Kings 18:24-29).
Today’s Bible
question: “How did the Holy Spirit appear
on the day of Pentecost?”
Answer in our next SD.
6/14/2018 9:46 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment