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Demons Testify of the Greatness of God in Ephesus – Acts 19:11-20 NKJV

No Matter How Hard People Try to Thwart the Providence of God, God’s Will Always Prevails!

There is nothing more miraculous to witness than the “providence” of God in one’s life. God’s providence is his unalterable ability to weave every physical detail and moment of our lives to fulfill His divine purpose for us and those around us. And while the Lord calls for all believers to grow in their faith and actively serve Him, God also informs believers that He is in ultimate control. You are not alone or left to rely on your own strengthen as you attempt to grow and serve Him (Philippians 2:12-13; Proverbs 16:9). God’s providence also comes into play in protecting you (Ephesians 6:10-17), protecting your good reputation as a believer (I Peter 3:16), and thwarting the plans of the Evil One who desires to halt all evangelistic efforts or at the very least, agitate believers in the process (Acts 19:11-20). But no matter how much the Evil One attempts to thwart the plan of God to reach people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, God’s will always prevails. And every time He evidences His mighty providence in Scripture, believers should take heart to know that God does the same for each and every believer.

In Ephesus, “God was performing uncommon, extraordinary, purposeful, and on-point miracles through the hands of Paul” (Acts 19:11; original translation). Meaning, while all miracles performed by the apostles were uncommon and by nature extraordinary, some of the miracles God did through Paul in Ephesus were unique and unseen in previous miracle accounts of the apostles. In that “even handkerchiefs or aprons were brought from his body to the sick, and the diseases left them and the evil spirits went out of them” (Acts 19:12 NKJV). The Greek word in Acts 19:11 (toog-KAHN-oh), normally translated “unusual,” “extraordinary,” or “special,” also connotes that the action fulfilled its purpose perfectly. Hence, the translation, “uncommon yet purposeful and on-point miracles.” God divinely empowered Paul to perform some pretty fantastic miracles that were not seen before to fulfill His divine reason.

One has to wonder why God chose to allow Paul to perform such unusual miracles in addition to the miracles he was accustomed to performing through God’s power. It was to capture the attention of a culture that was so steeped in cults, superstition, magical incantations, and the spiritual realm, and to demonstrate that Paul was not just another traveling sorcerer whose God is not just another god, whose name was invoked in order to make an incantation sound impressive. Rather, to promote that Paul was a messenger of the Creator God who has providential control over everything, including the entire spiritual realm (Isaiah 45:5a, Colossians 1:16-17). God wanted these unique miracles to capture the attention of people so that they would look into them and into the Gospel more thoroughly. But not only did these miracles extraordinarily persuade the Ephesian people, they were for the purpose of providentially setting up the demons to make a huge mistake – to do something that would actually bring an exorbitant amount of glory to Jesus Christ and assist the believers in their effort to shut down the false cults and convert hundreds of people to faith in Jesus Christ! Yes, you heard that correctly. God in His providence orchestrated all the details to bring people to faith in Him and set a trap that He knew the demons would fall into, resulting in them bringing glory to God!

After watching the Apostle Paul perform these extraordinary miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus, seven sons of Sceva (SKEE-vah) wanted a piece of the action (Acts 19:14). They wanted to share in Paul’s unique popularity that would also set them apart and elevate their status in the community of sorcerers. They felt that if they could just recite what Paul often said before he performed a miracle, that must be the magical “incantation.” The problem was that they had never heard it before Paul arrived in Ephesus, and they certainly did not know anything about the “Jesus” Paul referred to. They became familiar with Paul but had no idea who Jesus was. But they concluded that if it worked for Paul, it should also work for them. So, in their attempt to cast a demon out of a man, they had to tweak their “incantation,” and said, “We exorcise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches” (Acts 19:13 NKJV). The result? Silence. It did not work. Then all of a sudden, the man looked up at all seven of them, and the demon publicly insulted them and exposed them as frauds through the voice of the man.

Now, let’s pause the story here to explain how God in His providence orchestrated all the details of this moment. Here is how God would bring people to faith in Him and set a trap that He knew the demons would fall into that would result in them bringing glory to God. It appears in Scripture that the Evil One in the past had allowed his demons to appear as if the Jewish people and fraudulent magicians (like the sons of Sceva) were successful in casting demons out (Luke 11:14-26). But of course, this illusion was just for the temporary moment to give the onlookers the assurance that they did not need to follow Jesus Christ because men who did not follow Jesus could seemingly do the same thing as, say, the apostles. Interestingly, this tactic provides a very short-term gain for the Evil One but a long-term loss. Jesus confirmed this in Matthew 12:25-26 and Luke 11:14-17 if demons are permitted to be cast out by the power of the Evil One, then that house will eventually become divided and will not be strong. And this is true, but Satan is not all-wise. There are times Satan can act in counterproductive ways for his cause. And while Satan often attempts to appear as an angel of light who does good (II Corinthians 11:14), this practice of allowing frauds to cast his own demons out was about to finally backfire.

It backfires in Acts 19:15-16 because these frauds attempted to sound just like the apostles who were sent out by Jesus Christ and invoked the very “name that is above all names” (Philippians 2:9 NKJV). Now, Satan had a dilemma. Because if Satan made it look like invoking Jesus’ name worked in people’s eyes and they saw that invoking the name of Jesus commanded the demons to flee, people would begin to be drawn to the message of Jesus Christ, even though it was proclaimed by a group of frauds and unbelievers. In addition, the demons hate – HATE – obeying a command given by or sanctioned by Jesus Christ! So, they were not about to comply with this command. Their bitterness and hatred for the Lord Jesus Christ got the better of them, and they reacted in such a way that demonstrates that both Paul was the true messenger of Jesus Christ and that one could not just speak the name of Jesus and expect any level of power or authority to be demonstrated unless one was a true follower of Jesus Christ. Back to the story.

The man looked up at all seven of them, and the demon publicly insulted them and exposed them as frauds through the voice of the man, saying, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you” (Acts 19:15 NKJV)? Or, in a fuller sense, borrowing from the Greek language, the demon conveyed, “Jesus, yes, I know Him very well, and Paul, I am acquainted with who he is, his story and his ministry, but who are you” (Acts 19:15; original expanded translation). As if
he was saying, “How dare you begin to invoke the name of Jesus upon us! We made you who you are today! We’ve been giving you your success behind the scenes. But you had to want just a little more fame and invoked the one name that we despise and tremble at” (see James 2:19)! They were not happy that the sinful frauds attempted to invoke the name of Jesus. And not wasting a moment of time, “the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked
and wounded” (Acts 19:16 NKJV). And not just “wounded” but “traumatized” (as the Greek word is “trauma-TIDZ-oh”)! That display of anger over the invocation of the name of Jesus brought a bigger influx of attention to Paul’s Gospel message than any other event in that city had done to date. “This became known both to all Jews and Greeks dwelling in Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified” (Acts 19:17 NKJV)! In essence, the demon made the Gospel message go viral in Ephesus!

Then those who had been involved in the cults for years publicly repudiated their false beliefs and placed their faith in Jesus Christ, “And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Also, many of those who had practiced magic brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted up the value of them, and it totaled fifty thousand pieces of silver” (Acts 19:18-19 NKJV). This was a big statement of repentance and repudiation of their former ways, especially when you do the math. One piece of silver is approximately a day’s wage for an average worker in Ephesus! It illustrates how steeped in false beliefs they were and how many people out of the 250,000 residents were potentially involved in this sinful practice.

God’s providence was on full display in Ephesus on that day. He divinely orchestrated the words and actions of His faithful messenger Paul, the popularity-hungry arrogance of seven fraudsters, and the wicked demons themselves to fulfill His perfect will. It is only fitting that the Holy Spirit ended this section of Acts 19 with the words, “So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed” (Acts 19:20 NKJV)!

Ponder & Pray Today…

Reflect on this specific devotional and how God divinely orchestrated both the spiritual and the carnal things of this world to bring about His perfect will. Ponder the reality that God’s plan brought about an outcome that Paul probably never would have imagined happening in his wildest dreams. Take a moment to dwell on the fact that God’s way is the best way and that His way “prevails” (Acts 19:20b) over any other way or effort of man. Ponder the reality that God’s way is the best way in our lives and better than any of our own plans.

Pray the following verse back to the Lord. Convert the following verses into a prayer and pray, “Lord, I will be responsible to make thoughtful and judicious plans, but I pray you will ultimately direct my steps” (taken from Proverbs 16:9 NKJV). “Lord, there are many plans in my heart right now that I am looking into, but ultimately I want your will to prevail” (taken from Proverbs 19:21 NKJV). “Lord, I will trust in you and promise to do only good things. I will delight in you, and I humbly ask that you would plant within me the proper desires my heart should feel. I will commit everything I do to you, Lord, and I will trust you. Thank you for your promise that you will help me” (taken from Psalm 37:3-5 NKJV).