Paul's nephew

So when Paul's sister's son heard of their ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. Then Paul called one of the centurions to him and said, “Take this young man to the commander, for he has something to tell him.” So he took him and brought him to the commander and said, “Paul the prisoner called me to him and asked me to bring this young man to you. He has something to say to you.” – Acts 23.16-18

I love this little story. It shows the importance of ‘nobodies’ doing ‘little things’ that impact the world in mighty ways. The ‘nobody’ here is Paul’s nephew who who have plan by a Jewish mob to ambush the officials and carry out their own form of justice on him. It was something like a modern day lynch mob. They hated that Paul had legal protection so they wanted to take things into their own hands.

But Paul’s unnamed nephew heard about the mob. He went to Paul and told him and then Paul sent him on to the captain of the guard so they would be able to protect Paul from the mob.

That doesn’t seem like much, does it? This wasn’t a huge thing done by a well known hero. It was a simple task by an unknown young man.

The important thing though is that this young man got involved and did the right thing. Because he did Paul would eventually make it to Rome and preach the gospel at the the population centre of the western would and from there it would be spread to the rest of the world.

It’s the little things that sometimes have the greatest impact. Paul’s nephew had the courage to do right, and God used that as part of His plan to carry the gospel to Rome.