11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left them and the evil spirits came out of them. 13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” 16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of silver. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. (ESV)

What happened in Ephesus bore all the hallmarks of what we, in church circles, call ‘revival’, not least the confession of sin and the very clear public renunciation of personal evil. There was a profound awareness of the presence of God, and Jesus’ Name was held in high honour (17). Also, there was an unleashing of the miraculous. God put very real power upon Paul for the blessing and benefit of others, and supremely for the glorifying of His own Name (11). God’s Word was heralded widely (10,20).

” So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.” We can see that the emphasis is not on any human being, no matter how great. This is about what ”God was doing”.

‘So deep was the work of God in that great city of Ephesus that the trade in charms and amulets, sold in the neighbourhood of the temple, began to fall off. The crowd of worshippers in Diana’s temple was also perceptibly less. People who came in from the seaboard would find their way to the Apostle, who preached the gospel with a power that could not be withstood. Regenerated souls therefore, in turn, carried the gospel throughout the whole region.’ F.B. Meyer

In terms of the story about the sons of Sceva, I have wondered if this is again about jealousy? They wanted a ‘piece of the action’ (but they got more than they bargained for! See also 8:9-25). My wife, Jilly, made the comment about verse 17 that God can use the strangest of things to get people’s attention.