No Small Parts - The Apostle’s Nephew
March 21, 2021 Sunday Evening Study
Acts 23:12-22

When I began praying about a series to do for Sunday evenings way back in May, I wasn’t sure what we might do that would be different from what you have all done in every Bible study. I really wanted Sunday evenings to be apart from the norm - I wanted to help create an opportunity where we might discuss some things that you would not necessarily get from another Bible study.

During that time in my daily devotional reading I came upon the story of David - specifically when he was a boy and he faced the giant Goliath. Now, I doubt there is a person alive in our country who has not heard some version of this story - this David and Goliath concept that has been applied to all sorts of situations in life. But let me ask you something - have you ever really sat and considered the scene? Can you imagine what it must have been like to be there, to witness something as completely ridiculous as this must have been?

We have a man - huge, monstrous compared to other men. Thickly muscled, imposing, and exceptionally arrogant. This guy is bigger and badder than anyone alive, and he knows it. He is such a terrifying figure that even an army fears him. This guy is totally out of control and nearly unstoppable - every soldier’s worst nightmare. Now that picture may look different to some of you than to others, but I want you to imagine the most terrifying a person could possibly be, and consider that you have the shared responsibility of neutralizing this person. Today we’d be thinking big guns - patriot missile, massive overkill - preferably something we could fire from 10000 miles away in safety.

Imagine instead while we are all shaking and panicky over what we are going to do, and out of the trees comes our deliverer - one of the boys from our youth group. He pipes up excitedly and says “I just picked up some rocks - nothing to worry about here.”

It is absolute lunacy, and yet, there is a beauty to God’s providence and protection when he uses the least likely to perform the greatest feats. This is what led to this series of no small parts - it was an opportunity to see how even the slightest of actions could change the world - no matter who did it. This is one of the things that creates so much wonder for me as I study God’s word - there are so many little intricate pieces that must fit together in order to create this incredible mosaic of God’s majesty - and each piece is absolutely critical.

Please open your Bibles to Acts chapter 23. We are going to wrap up this series with a character who showed bravery not unlike David, even though his victory did not have the same effects. This character is deemed almost so insignificant, he isn’t even given a name, only an association. And even though he did not save a nation from a murderous giant, he displayed God’s power yet again - showing that God can and will empower all who are faithful. Read Passage Acts 23:12-22.

All we know of him is that he was a “young man.” We see later that he is led through the prison “by the hand” which may indicate he was quite young indeed - even younger than David when he faced Goliath. Young, though just old enough to be able to communicate the urgency and importance of his message - with at least enough eloquence to get the centurions and captain to listen. He appears one time in the Bible, and vanishes from the pages of Scripture. But he was God’s instrument, ready for His use at a very critical moment in the life of Paul, who was at that time in Roman custody, securely imprisoned, when forty of his enemies bound themselves under a great curse that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed Paul. Somehow his nephew, by one of those mysterious providences from God, learned of the secret of the conspiracy for the assassination of his uncle and knew that he could not sit idly by.

Young though he was, and at great personal risk, he determined to do all he could to defeat the would-be murderers by giving information of the plot to Paul. Within a fortified prison, somehow this young man got into the prison and located his uncle, telling him all he knew. How could he have gotten in there? He could not go in disguise - he was not of an age or size to be mistaken as a centurion or a jailer of another sort. Although it was common for prisoners to be fed by family or by the local synagogue, a boy of this age would not have been allowed into the prison without a guardian. Apart from the logistics, a prison is a terrifying place for an adult - it had to be his worst nightmare realized for this young boy as he searched cells filled with murderers and other criminals in search of his uncle.

Then, when he is handed over to the centurion by Paul, the boy is not punished for what is very certainly a crime. Instead, he is led by one of the centurions to the chief captain, who “took him by the hand,” and had a private interview with him; who, after hearing the story from his lips, swore him not to reveal that he had told them of the plot. As a result, Paul’s life is spared and he is transferred to Caesarea.

His work done, we hear no more of Paul’s sister’s son. He was God’s instrument for the deliverance of this great servant of Christ. In the case of Peter an angel was the instrument, and miraculous was his deliverance from prison. Here it was a youth who disappointed the band of assassins and prolonged the days of the Apostle. A boy - likely lingering around their meeting space as they discussed the plan and dismissed as unimportant enough even for remark.

Why do a series about small parts? We study the Bible and we determine the truths which were preached in that day. We take the truth - timeless as it is, and we endeavor to determine how it applies to our given situations in life today. This does not just apply to the timeless principles of doctrine and theology, but it also applies to life situations. Most of us, at one time or another, have felt like nothing more than a small cog in the machine. Most of us have had a job somewhere where it felt like we were simply a number and not of any individual contribution.

Unfortunately, this can often be the way with ministry. We know that God has called some to devote their entire lives to ministry - to be pastors or chaplains or to move their families across the globe to commit everything to the spreading of the Gospel. Yet He has also called many - most, actually, to serve in the world alongside of those who are unsaved - to minister through example and live a life where ministry is not your vocation. 

Have you ever asked yourself - “If my life is not fully devoted to ministry, what difference can I make for the Kingdom in comparison to those who are devoted?”

You have seen it here in black and white, week after week, what a life of ministry looks like, and even more importantly, how that life can change the world, no matter who you are or to what you have been called. It in fact has an impact so great that we see and study it 2000 years later as an example of Christ-led living, and the legacy continues. The secret in each of these cases is obedience to God when His call comes - that is what is important. Not your job, your name, or your abilities. It is your obedience to Him that changes the world.

God calls us to be servants, and when we answer His call, He will use us. His servant may be a “father-in-law,” or “a lad with five barley loaves,” or a flock of ravens, or “a widow woman,” as well as an angel or a “sister’s son”; but everywhere, and at all times, God is able to pick up and send a servant when all hope in expected channels is gone. He can take a young shepherd boy and slay the giant in our lives - He has done so over and over again.

This is full of encouragement, and well it is for our oft-troubled hearts to remember that our God is just as omnipotent as He is omniscient, and that His love is as great as His power. He can employ a “young man” in His service as He can use an Apostle in His ministry. Our only responsibility is to listen and to reply as Isaiah did - “Here am I LORD. Send me.”