Word of Salvation – Vol.24 No.30 – April 1978
The Name ‘Jesus’ – The Only Name By Which We Must Be Saved
Sermon by Rev. J. J. Van Wageningen, B.D. on Acts 19:13-20
Scripture Reading: Acts 4:1-22.
Psalter Hymnal: 372:1 3; 222:1, 6 (after proclamation of grace);
431:4 (after Law); 431:3; 383:1,2,3; 491
“How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear.” You know why this is true, why this Name fills our hearts with joy? It does so because it is the Name of our Saviour and His Name is unique. “There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12), Jesus is the only Saviour, There is salvation in no one else. This is the message of the Gospel, which must be preached throughout the whole world.
THE NAME JESUS, THE ONLY NAME BY WHICH WE MUST BE SAVED!
We see in our text that:
- the Jewish exorcists misuse the Name;
- God protects the Name and shows that it is holy;
- the believers give glory to the Name.
1. Maybe you think it is a strange story. Jewish exorcists pronounce the name of Jesus and then they have to flee, naked and wounded. What is it all about? What does it mean?
Well, it happened in Ephesus. The apostle Paul had been working there for quite a long time. First he preached in the synagogue for three months. Like he always did, he addressed himself first to his fellow Jews. He spoke to them boldly and argued persuasively about the Kingdom of God. After three months however, he withdrew from them because of their hostile and stubborn reaction. He took the believers with him and moved into the lecture room of a certain Tyrannus. There he argued daily for two years, so that all the people of Asia heard the Word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
The apostle did not only preach and argue, no, mighty works of divine power accompanied his words. Many sick people were healed and many evil spirits were cast out. “God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, so that handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick and diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them” (verses 11 & 12). It looked like magic, and that in a city which was a centre of magical practices, Do you know what magic means? Magic means that you can dispose of supernatural powers by using a secret name or word or formula.
In our text we read that there were itinerant, wandering, Jewish exorcists. An exorcist is a person who claims that he can cast out evil spirits in such a magical way, by using occult, secret names or formulas. Many of these exorcists were Jews, who travelled around and earned a lot of money in this way. They enjoyed high respect because the pagans thought that the name of the God of Israel, which was not to be pronounced by vulgar lips, was a powerful and effective spell; a powerful and effective means to cast out evil spirits and do wonderful things. And the unutterable Name, which was too great to be pronounced, was known to the Jewish exorcists! For this reason those Jews had a very good reputation as exorcists.
Among them were the seven sons of one Sceva, described here as high priest or chief priest, It is possible that he actually belonged to one of the Jewish chief-priestly families; but it is more probable that Sceva called himself so to make a greater impression.
A sign at his house with the words “JEWISH CHIEF PRIEST” was an excellent recommendation for his exorcist business.
Of course Sceva and his sons had heard of the apostle Paul and the miracles he performed, Most probably they witnessed these things themselves, for as exorcists they had a special interest in them,. They considered the apostle as a colleague or a competitor, and a very successful one! And the secret of his success seemed to be the Name of Jesus, The sons of Sceva talked it over and decided to use that Name too. If Paul had such a success with it, why not they? At least they could seriously try it out.
So they undertook to pronounce the Name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure, I command you, by the Jesus Whom Paul preaches.” So they speak to an evil spirit, misusing the Name of the Lord Jesus in an awful way. For these men fight against Satan in unbelief, in their own strength. And in this struggle they want to use the holy and precious Name of the Saviour as a magical means to their own glory and advantage.
Perhaps you ask yourself, “What does this mean for us in our situation?” We are no exorcists who try to expel evil spirits with magical spells. We do not abuse the Name of the Lord Jesus for such a bad purpose. We live quietly as good Christian people, We do not use the Name of Jesus very often, we do not misuse it either. Is this true? Do we realize that we can use the Name of Jesus as a sort of guarantee, a sort of safeguard? You go to Church and you sing about Jesus, and you hear and read the Gospel, but your heart is not in it. It is not a matter of true, saving faith, yet you stick to it. Why? Maybe because you feel safe with it; you never know. Or you want to give a good impression; others respect you as a good Christian and you like it; you do not want to spoil that image. Maybe it is of some advantage or you can exercise influence in that way. Have you ever thought about it? We are no exorcists, but we too can misuse the Name of Jesus for our own purposes if there is no true, humble faith and love in our hearts.
- God, however, maintains the sanctity of the Name of Jesus over against the abuse by sinful men. We see this in the second place.
What happens when the sons of Sceva tried to cast out the evil spirit, saying, “I adjure you, I command you, by the Jesus Whom Paul preaches”? Is the result just like they want it? Does the evil spirit obey? Not at all! He laughs at them.
Vs.14: “But the evil spirit answered them, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?'”
From the Gospels we know that the demons recognize Jesus. Those evil spirits possessed men, trying to spoil Jesus’ work and to oppose the coming of God’s Kingdom. But when they come face to face with Jesus, then they call Him the Holy One, the Son of God; they recognize His power and authority, they obey His commands, in spite of themselves. They have to do it, whether they like it or not. We think of what James writes, (2:19) “You believe that God is One; you do well. Even the demons believe and shudder.” The demons tremble with fear because they know the Almighty, Holy and Righteous God, So they know Jesus, the Son of God, the risen Lord, Who is Conqueror of death and hell, and they tremble with fear, And when Paul, as servant of the Lord, proclaims the Name of Jesus, then the evil spirits must flee, for they know Him. They know that behind the apostle the Master stands, and God the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ works through Paul. “God did extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul.” It is a frightening knowledge for the evil spirits. They are powerless over against the authority and power of Jesus.
But when the seven sons of Sceva mention the Name of Jesus, saying to the evil spirit, “I adjure you by the Jesus Whom Paul preaches”, then the evil spirit scornfully answers, “Who are you? Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?” You have nothing to do with Jesus. You only take His Name upon your lips. The evil spirit gets furious. The man, possessed by the demon, received abnormal strength and he hurled himself at the seven exorcists and overpowered them. He assaulted them so violently that all seven ran for their lives, naked and wounded. What a humiliation! What a shame! We can imagine that the whole city talked about it.
God punished them in this way, God clearly showed to all that the Name of Jesus is holy. This Name is not a magic formula people can use to exercise divine power in unbelief and superstition. No, this Name must be proclaimed as the only Name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved, This Name is unique. It is the Name of the Saviour. He must be preached to sinners for there is salvation in no one else. Sinners will be saved from sin and evil, only if they believe in Jesus, only in the way of faith and repentance.
There is so much unbelief in the world, so much superstition, so much magic.
In the daily paper you can read your horoscope, and people are deadly serious about it. In the U.S.A, there is a “church” of Satan worshipers, The powers of darkness are active, At the same time modern man declares that he does not believe in evil spirits. That is a relic of the dark Middle Ages. We are not so childish anymore. Common sense tells you there are no demons. But the devil laughs and he answers, “Who are you?” Yes, who are we, when we are confronted with Satan all by ourselves? We are helpless, powerless. We cannot chase him away with our common sense. We cannot conquer him with rationalistic arguments We cannot get rid of him, if we only live a decent life. We cannot do anything, not even with an outward appearance of piety mentioning the Name of Jesus. Who are you? Does he see Jesus behind you? In other words, do you truly believe in the Name of the Son of God? Then you are Christ’s. If not, then you are lost, under the power of Satan.
3, We have seen that the Name of Jesus is abused, that the Name of Jesus is sanctified, Finally we see that the Name of Jesus is glorified.
“And this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks; and fear fell upon them all; and the Name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.”
The news concerning the seven sons of Sceva went round like wildfire. Everybody in Ephesus heard about it and they were all greatly impressed. Awe filled the hearts. It became clear to all that the Lord Jesus Christ and His servant Paul had nothing to do with the exorcists. It became clear to all that Jesus is really mighty to save, but that the exorcists with their magic are totally powerless. They were shamefully defeated, but the Name of the Lord Jesus was magnified! And they honoured Jesus, not only with words, but with their deeds. “Many of those who were now believers came, confessing and making known their practices.” These believers admitted in detail how they had used spells, humbly confessed their sinful practices, and by revealing their secret formulas they made it clear to all that they considered them worthless and powerless now. Only Jesus! There is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. So they glorified the Name of Jesus.
There were also others who practised magic arts. They wanted to break completely with it. Through the Word and Spirit of Christ they saw the true meaning of the glorious Name of Jesus.
They realized how sinful and foolish their practices were, and they brought their books together, an enormous heap of magical scrolls and they made a bonfire of them in public. They did not try to sell them, to get some money out of it. No, they burned them. And they did not do it in the backyard, no, everybody could see it. It was a public demonstration, And they counted the value of them and found it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. This is a mark of true conversion, that you want to break totally with sin, whatever the cost may be. 50,000 pieces of silver, a tremendous amount of money! But they did not hesitate. They did not try to find a compromise. They burned them. Away with the rubbish!
A heavy blow for the kingdom of Satan. A mighty triumph for the Kingdom of God. In this impressive way the Word of the Lord spread more and more widely. The Word of the Lord prevailed mightily.
This still happens. Some time ago it happened in the Bahiem Valley in New Guinea, Hundreds turned to the Lord and they brought their pagan religious objects, their amulets, their fetishes, and all such things and threw them on a heap and destroyed them, And they confessed Jesus as Lord, He transferred them out of the darkness into His wonderful light, And the Name of Jesus was glorified, Does it happen in our midst? Does it happen in your life? Is there total surrender? Wholehearted devotion? Do you break completely with sin whatever the cost may be, because you want to glorify the Name? The only Name under heaven by which you are saved?
How sweet the Name of Jesus sounds in a believer’s ear!
AMEN.