Acts 19:11-12

Jesus continued to work the same supernatural miracles through Paul that He had demonstrated during His own earthly ministry (cf. Mark 5:27; Mark 6:56) and that he had manifested through Peter (Acts 5:15). Luke recorded Paul doing the same types of miracles as Peter. Both healed a lame man early in their ministries (Acts 14:8; cf. Acts 3:2). Both exorcised demons (Acts 16:18; cf. Acts 5:16), defeated sorcerers (Acts 13:6; cf. Acts 8:18), raised the dead (Acts 20:9; cf. Acts 9:36), and escaped from prison (Acts 16:25; cf. Acts 12:7). Evidently it was because of the multitudes of magicians and religious charlatans that worked Ephesus that God demonstrated His power in these supernatural ways. It was to the church in Ephesus that Paul later wrote his famous instructions about spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10-20). Ephesus was a hotbed of satanic activity.

"The atmosphere of the city was electric with sorcery and incantations, with exorcists, with all kinds of magical impostors." [Note: Morgan, p. 350.]

". . . the phrase ’Ephesian writings’ (Ephesia grammata) was common in antiquity for documents containing spells and magical formulae (cf. Athenaeus Deipnosophistae 12.548; Clement of Alexandria Stromata 5.242)." [Note: Longenecker, p. 496.]

God healed indirectly through Paul’s garments in Ephesus too. The fact that God used Paul’s handkerchiefs (Gr. soudarion, or sweat-cloths) and aprons (simikinthion, lit. workman’s aprons) is unusual, but not without precedent. God had previously healed people who touched Jesus’ cloak (Luke 8:44). The fact that some modern charlatans have abused this form of healing should not lead us to conclude that God never used it.

"Paul is not said to have recommended the use of cloths from his own body as instruments of healing, but God was pleased to honor the faith of these people by granting these miracles." [Note: Kent, p. 151.]

"If God never honoured any faith save that entirely free from superstition, how about Christian people who are troubled over the number 13, over the moon, the rabbit’s foot? . . . God condescends to meet us in our ignorance and weakness where he can reach us." [Note: Robertson, 3:316.]