Acts 19:13
Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.
Paul was at Ephesus, the capital of the Roman province of Asia. It was a busy commercial center with a crowded harbor and people from many countries, which made it a promising field for missionary work. It was also a city of curious arts and the great temple of Diana, where God reached the people through the mighty working of His power through Paul so they might see a power above all the powers of the magicians. Jews dispersed across many lands were expecting the Messiah, and reports that John the Baptist had proclaimed Jesus as the Promised One had spread widely and prepared the way for the apostles' work.
There wandering or itinerant Jewish exorcists copied the wonders done through Paul by calling the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits. Seven sons of Sceva, a Jew and chief of the priests, made such an attempt on a demon-possessed man, taking the name of Jesus to use in their sorcery and saying they adjured the spirits by Jesus whom Paul preached. They treated His name as a charm or formula to drive them out. Their attempt exposed sorcery secretly practiced by apostate Jews though prohibited by the Mosaic law on pain of death. Sorcery and dealings with evil spirits were real, dangerous practices and not harmless superstition, belonging to the same pattern as modern Spiritualism in which Satan uses claims of contact with the dead and other occult practices to mislead people and gain control of their minds.
The exorcists invoked the sacred name without faith in the divinity of the Saviour's mission and without the faith, authority, and true relationship with Him shown in Paul's ministry. By doing so they despised and profaned the holy name, which cannot be mixed with sorcery at all. By the power of the One to whom all evil spirits are subject and who had given His servants authority over them, the demon acknowledged Jesus and Paul but rejected the exorcists. The possessed man leaped on them and overcame them, so that they were beaten and bruised and fled the house naked and wounded in shame and defeat.
The outcome gives unmistakable proof of the sacredness of the name of Christ and the peril of invoking it without faith in the divinity of the Saviour's mission. Fear fell on all and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. The exposure of the counterfeit led many converts to burn their magic books to cut off every temptation to go back to sorcery.