Paul’s Sister’s Son – Acts 23:12-22

This evening, I would like to try to glean just a few more grapes from this spiritual vine.

For the most part they will be merely a handful odds and ends – true gleanings.

They revolve around this nameless young man.

As Bro. Asmundson mentioned to me yesterday,

First there was nothing, and then “poof” there was Paul’s sister and her son,

and then there was another “poof,” and they was gone.

We’ve been having some lessons on the trustworthiness of the scriptures.

If I wasn’t already convinced of the veracity of scriptures, here is a chapter which might make me doubt.

This sounds like badly written fiction, where the story-teller lets his hero get into trouble,

but then he can’t figure how to get him out,

so he creates a tall dark stranger to miraculously appear, save the hero,

and then the author makes him depart just as quickly and mysteriously.

Except that this time it isn’t a tall dark stranger, but a short little boy.

This is almost too good to be true, but that is perhaps my first point:

The Lord really does do things that surprise, astound and amaze us.

The Psalmist prays and praises God with the words:

“For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.”

“Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him: talk ye of all his wondrous works.”

“Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.”

“Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: so shall I talk of thy wondrous works.”

This should be one of the effects of studying a chapter like this.

Wow, I wonder what other tricks the Lord has up His sleeve.

Once again, we see that the humble and nameless can do important things for God.

I wish that I could tell you that I know this young man and his mother were Christians.

The fact is that I can’t.

There aren’t enough facts given to us about these two people to make a judgment one way or another.

But I can tell you this:

There would be a lot of preachers at the eventual funeral of this young man who would try to tell you that he was a Christian.

Eulogizing preachers and friends tend to forget about all the wickedness of the dearly departed,

concentrating on a few good deeds,

and then they would try to say that those things proved or provided the key that would take them into eternal bliss.

But just as Judas’ faithfulness as treasurer of the First Baptist Church in Jerusalem didn’t make him a Christian, neither did this young man’s work to spare his uncle.

Nevertheless, I am getting off my intended track.

Just as I can’t prove that young man was a Christian, neither can I prove that he wasn’t.

Salvation is by the grace of God, not by the deeds of either the wicked or the righteous.

This young man may have been as spectacularly converted as his uncle was.

Just because we are not told about it, doesn’t mean that couldn’t have been true.

For the sake of a point of application, let’s say that he was a child of God, and so was his mother.

Is there anyone here who can tell me their names?

Just because someone is not world-famous, state-famous or even neighborhood-known, that doesn’t mean that they can’t do great things for God.

“Who hath despised the day of small things?”

Certainly not the Lord; in fact the Lord loves the small things.

“God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.”

We have an example in this young boy, of an agent who was forgotten, but a deed that became immortal.

Let’s say that the plot against Paul had been successful.

Humanly speaking, how much smaller would the New Testament be?

There is a sense in which you can thank this young man for the Books of Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.

It is said that Paul eventually went to the far end of the Mediterranean preaching the Gospel.

It is said that Paul went out past Gibralter, up the coast of Portugal and France even into Britain.

I don’t know that to be a fact, but I know good men who are convinced of it.

I do know that Paul went to the largest city of the Western world and preached the gospel to all the Romans who would hear him.

Again I say, humanly speaking, that evangelism wouldn’t have taken place if it hadn’t been for this nameless young man.

How we stand up before the test of time doesn’t depend on our name and our fame.

What matters is the work which is done.

The timelessness or the eternality of our efforts depends on whether or not we are where the Lord wants us to be in order to hear the message and share the story.

And related to that is the truth that it doesn’t matter how weak or small we might be.

I suggested on Wednesday that I think that this was a fairly young, young man, but that I don’t have proof.

The word “son” doesn’t tell us anything about his age, just about relationship.

And the words “young man” don’t tell us much more,

except that Eutychus was called a young man,

and so was Saul of Tarsus when Stephen was stoned to death.

I suppose that it is a term which could talk about someone between the ages of 10 to 25.

But that the Chief Captain took him by the hand and led him into his inner office suggests to me that he was quite young.

Let’s say for the sake of argument that he was in his early teenage years,

That didn’t keep him from doing his duty in reporting the plot against this innocent man.

Generally speaking, what is a duty, is a duty for everyone.

Sure there are special responsibilities that go with specific offices, but there are many duties which belong to all of us.

There are Christian duties such as prayer and Bible reading.

Sure the mature Christian may glean much more from his Bible study than a boy of ten, but that doesn’t mean that the boy will waste his time when he reads God’s Word.

And the mature saint may be able to pray with much more knowledge and even wisdom, but even a six-year-old can and should pray.

Does the responsibility of tithing change between the man with a great deal of wealth and the boy who has an allowance of 50 cents a week? The tithe remains the same.

And what about our responsibilities toward sin?

Does the Lord anywhere teach that a mother must not sin but her daughter can?

Is a lie any different when coming out of a child’s mouth than from his father?

A group of men were conspiring to take the life of another man.

Lay aside the fact that the man was the uncle of this youth.

And forget about the fact that this young man was probably a Pharisee, as Paul had been.

Whether he loved his uncle or hated him for turning against the religion of their fathers, a man’s life was in danger, and this young man knew about it.

Some people would tell him to mind his own business; that he was just a boy and it didn’t concern him.

But whether he was 15 or 50 to know about the plot and to remain silent would have made him as accessory to murder.

I know that most parents try to teach their children not to be tattle-tales.

Certainly kids don’t need to be tattling about their sibling’s every little naughtiness.

But our children also need to be taught when they must open their mouths and reveal the crime.

There is no young man who is too young to save another person’s life.

A third lesson from this scripture is value of swift action.

The conspirators went to the priests on one day and told them to bring Paul to them on the next.

We don’t know at what point the young man heard of the plot, but he had only a few hours to act.

Quickly he went to Paul, probably in the evening of day the plot was hatched.

Then Paul called the Centurion and he in turn took him to the Chief Captain.

Later that night Paul was whisked out of the city and toward the coast.

There is a lesson here about getting the job done without delay.

When there is a duty to be done, then do it.

Perhaps we should think of ourselves like emergency room doctors.

When that bleeding or dying patient is rushed in, decisive decisions need to be made immediately.

Similarly, God wants us to obey His will now, not tomorrow, now.

And a corollary to that idea is that sometimes duty demands courage.

There is tenderness in the way that Claudius took the young man by the hand and led him away from the Centurion and whatever other guards were there.

All those weapons and armor were probably quite intimidating to a young man like this.

His eyes may have been like saucers and there was probably a tremulousness in his voice.

Perhaps he had heard the stories about what this Roman had done to earn this prestigious position over Israel.

The boy may not have been afraid to visit his uncle, but when Paul told him that he had to talk to the chief Roman in Jerusalem, his confidence might have sagged.

Yes, sometimes it is hard to do our duty.

Sometimes it takes courage to tithe when it looks like there is a mountain of bills coming up.

Maybe the Lord has put this young man into a quiet room with a well-known agnostic, and whispered that he should tell this powerful man about his Saviour.

Yes, sometimes it take courage to do the right thing.

Perhaps a young man is surrounded by neighborhood kids tempting him and teasing him about joining them in some sinful action; it takes courage to refuse to join them.

“My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.”

Another lesson involves Paul more than his young nephew.

Despite our faith in God, sometimes we need to realize that the Lord wants us to take precautions.

Paul’s relative brought him word about the conspiracy.

The Apostle might have looked at that exactly as I have, and said “praise the Lord.”

He may have seen that the providence of God put that young man in a position to hear and react.

He may see the hand of God in that boy’s visit, when he might have kept it to himself.

Paul might have said, “God has exposed this murderous plot, so it must be His will that I be spared.”

True, but now it is your job, Paul, to send this young man to the Chief Captain.

Yes, we believe in the sovereignty and the omnipotence of God.

Yes, we believe that it is the will of the Lord that Paul go to Rome, because that has already been revealed.

But despite these things, we believe that God ordains men to act logically and rationally.

How is the Chief Captain going to know about this plot if you and this young man don’t tell him?

Is God going to send an angel into his bedroom and rouse him from sleep?

God has done his part and now, Paul, you must do yours in sending your nephew to the Chief Captain.

And lastly, going back to Wednesday, the best laid plans of men, cannot defeat the will of the Lord.

But here is something that we didn’t discuss last week:

God had a million potential ways in which to spare Paul.

When the Sanhedrin called for Paul, Claudius might have refused to send him.

Sometime during the night he might have decided to send the whole matter to Felix in Caesarea.

Perhaps his wife had a nightmare about what would happen to them if he sent Paul to the Sanhedrin.

Or at the last moment, Claudius might have doubled the guards around Paul, when he sent him to council.

Paul might have been sick that day, and Claudius might have postponed the meeting

The meeting could have been rescheduled to his offices rather than the council chamber.

Someone else might have found out about the plot.

The Lord has more tools than Steve Kjeldgaard.

But the one that He chose to use came in the clothing of a young man.

What a privilege!

That nephew of Paul might have had to overcome the prejudice of his Pharisaic family.

He may have had to table his own creed to go to his uncle.

And he had to enter the daunting Castle of Antonia.

If you have never visited someone at the county jail, you need to do it. It’s a humbling procedure.

You have to pass one or two forms of identification through a security window to armed police.

They keep your papers while they do a quick security check on you.

If you are approved, and not arrested yourself, you have to pass through a metal detector.

There are guards in the corridor as you enter the tiny cubicle with the thick scratched up glass wall which separates you from the person that you’d like to see.

The whole process is very humbling, if not demeaning.

Do you suppose that this young man had to go through something like that to see his uncle?

If he did, he did. It was the right thing to do.

The point is, if God has a work for you to do, do it.

It doesn’t matter if you think that there are better qualified people thanyou.

It doesn’t matter if you think that you might not do a good job.

We owe a great debt to this un-named young man.

And if you and I do our jobs, maybe some day someone will come to us thanking us for doing our duty.