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and in reproach, remember to exude the perfume of another

Man, another world. What an effect it would have in the place!

So a maid, Rhoda, was the connecting link at this critical time

in the testimony.

In Acts 23 we have Paul’s sister’s son. Now apart from this

passage we would never have known that Paul had a sister,

and that he had a nephew. So it brings out the value of our

bond with one another. You might have said, Well, most

probably being Paul’s nephew, he had been converted. I

cannot think of Paul having a nephew and not speaking to him

about his soul. Paul would speak about “repentance towards

God, and faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ” (Acts 20: 21); he

would tell him that, and no doubt he would be converted, and

he maintained his interest in Paul. Think of how vital the matter

was, because if the Jews in Jerusalem had got Paul, think of

what the loss would have been. Think of the Ephesian epistle,

the Philippian epistle, the epistles to Timothy, all written from

Rome. If Paul had fallen into the hands of the Jews at

Jerusalem, what a loss the church would have sustained!

But here was this lad. Paul’s sister’s son—prepared to take the

whole responsibility of the matter on himself and go to the

chiliarch and tell him about the plot that was on foot to kill

Paul.

Dear young people, I would like to get you involved in the

testimony so that you feel every matter that occurs in it is your

matter, and that you are prepared to suffer, shall I say, for the

sake of the testimony. We are living in the day of the easy

option, you know. But in Christianity the spirit of committal to

Christ and divine interests is what God honours. And again, I

would say to you young people, The Lord wants you and

needs you. We are thankful to have you here today. I would

seek that you might become more deeply involved in the way

of committal. In God’s goodness you may be a connecting link