Seven Sons of Sceva: Legalism and Pride

Exorcism is known all over the world. Generally, if it is not a Christian exorcist, the driving out of the demon is done by bribery. You cajole and beg and bribe the spirit to leave the affected/afflicted person. Even so, we Christians believe that if a spirit isn't cast out in the name of Christ, it often is playing a trick and will only get the person in greater trouble in the future. Only when a demon is cast out in the name of Jesus and sent to the feet of Jesus for judgement is a person free from it. And even then, a person must not be left "empty" but must be filled with the knowledge of God and of His son, our Saviour Jesus Christ.

 The seven sons of Sceva used the name of Jesus to cast out demons because they saw the success of using the name, but they were not Christians. In one way, their not being Christians didn't really matter. Even before Jesus died, he had given authority to his disciples to cast out demons in his name.

At that time, someone who was not part of Jesus group heard Jesus and started casting out devils. We don't know if he believed in Jesus or not. We only know he was not part of Jesus' group. But he understood one of the keys to the kingdom...the power of Jesus' name. Jesus' disciples forbade the man from casting out the devils in Jesus' name because the man was not a part of their group. Who knows why they forbade it? Perhaps they wanted to spare the man future trouble because the man was alone and we know devils can be nasty. Perhaps they wanted the man to go all the way and join them as a child and follower of Jesus. Perhaps the man thought he was some great person and liked to be known as a exorcist. Perhaps the man was setting himself up as someone who could folks a little Jesus-lite, and giving people just what they needed from God without the people having to go all the way and accept Jesus. We don't know what was happening with this guy. Although Jesus' disciples were annoyed that this fellow was doing it, Jesus told them not to forbid the man. After all, the man was doing it in Jesus name and perhaps was well on his way to believing in Jesus as the Messiah.

Later, Jesus again gives the holy spirit and the command to cast out demons after his resurrection. (He had given the spirit and the authority to them before. And he would give it to them later again at Pentecost. The Holy spirit was always being given to folks but only at Pentecost was it given without measure.)

So here we are at the Seven Sons of Sceva. It seems that there were a bunch of itinerant Jewish preachers who were going about casting out demons. We don't know how many itinerant Jewish preachers there were. The verse is mentioned before God mentions the seven sons of Chief Priest Sceva. These itinerant Jewish preachers obviously all had some success as well. Of these itinerant Jewish preachers, there were these seven sons of a Chief Priest.

These  seven sons of Sceva might have exorcized people before using Jesus' name. Nowhere does it say that this famous encounter was their first rodeo. But for some reason, this particular encounter caused them trouble. Why then did this particular spirit beat them? Why then?

One of the reasons might be the kind of spirit they were attempting to exorcize. As Jesus said, some spirits don't come out that easily.

Another reason is that these were seven sons of a chief priest. Sin in the life of an exorcist or healer makes healing and exorcising hard. There is much we don't know as Christians so it's pretty stupid for us to believe that God doesn't heal or that God doesn't remove demons if the entire Christian body doesn't know all there is to know about healing. But if there is one thing that we Christians won't admit it's this: sin in the life of a healer/exorcist is not going to help. IF one gets prayed for by a minister, it might not be his lack of faith of your lack of faith. It could be the minister doesn't know what he's doing or the minister has some sin in his life. Anyway, I digress. Back to these seven sons. It is quite probable their reliance on their own holiness and importance and eliteness and legalism and family hierarchy got in the way. It is hard to exorcise a spirit when Christian exorcism is based on grace. In addition, the spirit's answer to them shows his idea of them. These Chief priest's sons are proud and legalistic. Both sins that are utterly anathema to grace. And faith and authority and power work by grace. The spirits basically puts them in their place.  "I know Paul, I acknowledge Jesus. But who the heck are you?"

Can any of us Christians say we are free from pride and legalism?



11And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul: 12So that from his body were brought unto the sick handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them. 13Then 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. 14And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. 15And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye? 16And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17And this was known to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus; and fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18And many that believed came, and confessed, and shewed their deeds. 19Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.


Acts 19:22


"Master," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us." Luke 9:49

Pride

Now, if I'm not mistaken, the worst sin is pride. Satan fell because of it. It's the sin that makes us hard-of-hearing spiritually. It's the sin that makes us fall into comparative mode. We Christians can't stand adultery, won't put up with all sorts of stuff. But this pride thing...in our church every week...and do we get upset? No.

Weirdly, sin is something we cannot ask God to rid us of. Actually, most of the time when we ask God to get rid of a sin, we're asking amiss. For the most part, we are the ones who are called to cooperate in getting rid of our sins. We do this by reading the word and the word purifies us. For the most part we collaborate with God in purifying ourselves. But the sin of pride is pretty much tossed into our court. That's because it's a sin that takes credit for the work God has done. Let's say the Lord helped us get over adultery...if we aren't careful we'll be proud of ourselves. This leaves us in the situation of being proud of our holiness and totally forgetting that God did the work in us. We are told over and over to fight against pride -- pride of life, pride of wealth, pride in our social position..but especially spiritual pride. So all those prayers -- "Oh God, please let me not be proud!" -- just don't cut it. It's a sin we have to set our energies against. Let's do it. It's in our court.

Now why should we do this? Because there is a curse upon those who have spiritual pride. St Paul says wherever the cross is rejected, we are under a curse and we also have carnality. Paul defines carnality as arguments over denomination. If you're in the kingdom you crucify the flesh and its carnality... you say I am above denominations and arguing as to which set of laws and which denomination makes me better than you.

Galatians 3:10 For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.

Galatians 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.

Once one ends up in legalism one ends up with a cursed life. It's a tough walk...not sinning and yet not using the grace of God for lasciviousness. We must do good because God is good and because He loves us. But we must not fall into legalism and trust in our good works. Legalism only breaks God's church into tiny little pieces, each with their own scattered sets of laws which they can use to say they are better than other folks. God doesn't care if someone is Catholic or protestant or seventh day adventist. He cares about his son. We preach Christ crucified. We are determined to know nothing except Christ crucified.

11But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.

And faith boasts only in the work of God.

The purpose of the cross is to bring us to the end of our works, our wits, our wisdom, our self-righteousness, our selves. We find Christ is the wisdom and power of God only when we come to the end of ourselves. The foolishness of God is the cross, the strength of God is the cross. The cross is totally weak and totally foolish in man's eyes. But when we come to the end of our wisdom, our righteousness, our strength, we realize the cross is stronger than man's strength and wiser than man's wisdom. And how can we be proud of our wisdom or our ability to endure and follow the standards we set up for ourselves? God has given us the mind of Christ and his own righteousness. To try to add our own righteousness and wisdom to that is like being given a wonderful garment and being unwilling to give up our old filthy rags.

We have come into the Promised Land but we have let a lot of the canaanites hang around. What does God do in that situation? As he did in the old testament, he did in the old, he sends a thorn of flesh to buffet us to keep us humble. Poor Paul! No chance for him to fall into pride with God allowing a messenger of Satan to stir up trouble for him wherever he goes.

Let us avoid pride. God's strength is made perfect in our weakness. But pride invites destruction. We can't expect God's grace to help us if we can do things ourselves. But strangely you don't hear Paul or any of the apostles saying anything negative. What they did say is: I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I, but Christ who lives in me. I can do all through Christ who lives in me. It's a tough balancing act. But God has asked us to to it.

It is not our effort. No tree brings forth fruit by effort. We as Christians cease from our struggling, our sins, our good works and yield to Jesus. It is Jesus in us, the hope of glory. It is immanuel, God in us. So let God lead and live in us. Let God prune us. (Never ever ever let a human prune you. Jesus says God is the pruner.) Only the cross releases the grace and the power of God. We can't follow any rules unless the grace of God helps us. And if we have pride we don't allow God to live his life in us.
-C