Acts 19:16
And 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. And 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.
The verse belongs to the work at Ephesus, which raised up a large church in a stronghold of heathenism. That city was full of curious arts and magicians around the great temple of Diana, where God worked genuine miracles through Paul by His Spirit to reach the people by proving a power above all the powers of the magicians.
Those exposed were certain wandering or vagabond Jewish exorcists, seven men described as seven sons of Sceva, a chief of the priests. They were secretly practicing what the Mosaic law condemned as sorcery punishable by death. Seeing Paul's wonders, they tried to copy and imitate him by taking upon themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over the possessed. They used it as a charm and in their sorcery, invoking the Jesus whom Paul preaches, without faith in the divinity of the Saviour's mission.
The evil spirit answered by declaring that it knew Jesus and knew Paul but challenged who they were, thus recognizing Jesus and Paul while denying any authority to the seven brothers. The evil spirit in the man then enabled him to leap on them and violently attack them. He beat and bruised them, overpowered them and prevailed against all seven, so that they fled out of that house stripped, naked and wounded.
The verse shows shame and defeat brought by Christ, to whom all evil spirits are subject and who gives His servants authority over them, upon those who despised and profaned His holy name. It gives unmistakable proof of the sacredness of Christ's name and the peril of invoking it as a charm or mere formula without faith. The power of Christ cannot be mixed with sorcery. The event was made known to all Jews and Greeks dwelling at Ephesus, and fear fell on them all while the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified, filling the people with awe and reverence for the gospel.
The defeat helped convince the people, so many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many who used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men at a counted price of fifty pieces of silver. They cut off every temptation to go back to sorcery, so that mightily grew the word of God and prevailed. The verse exposes the danger of the magic practiced at Ephesus, whose spiritual voices were deceptive. The Ephesian events show ancient magic and modern Spiritualism to be the same system of deception by which Satan uses supposed communications from the dead and other occult practices to mislead people, gain control of minds, and turn them from God.