And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple. (27) But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. (28) So he was with them at Jerusalem, coming in and going out. (29) And he spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus and disputed against the Hellenists, but they attempted to kill him. (30) When the brethren found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him on to Tarsus. (31) Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Spirit, they were multiplied.

The Acts of the Apostles is an historical record of the early church, written by Luke. In chapter nine Luke follows Paul in his earliest Christian experience. Saul, later know as Paul, was a Hellenistic Jew which is a term for Jews born in nations of the Gentiles. (Paul was also a Roman citizen as well as a Hebrew of Hebrews.) Our verses today are taken from the history of Paul after his conversion (Paul elaborates on this time in his letter to the Galatians ) when Paul went to Arabia where he received his message from the Lord Himself. He then returned to Damascus to preach the gospel and after a period of three years Paul went to Jerusalem to meet the apostles. Understandably, Paul, a former scourge of the early Christians, was feared by the apostles and it was only through the testimony of Barnabas that he met with Peter and James, the half brother of Christ. He apparently was only with Peter for a period of 15 days during which time he boldly preached that Jesus was the Son of God and the Christ, enraging the Jewish leadership who tried to kill him. It’s good to note here that no one is the target of deadly persecution who is ineffective.

Luke stresses here the genuineness of Paul’s conversion by showing the radical change in him. Paul’s message had a strong doctrinal flavor- his letters had a theological foundation before moving to a practical application; they were written for everyday Christians and with Paul’s letters composing most of the New Testament, today we have sound biblical doctrine.

Luke’s progress report on the early church tells us that “the brethren” fearing the deadly intentions of the Jews, brought Paul out of Jerusalem to Caesarea and then to Tarsus where he was born and this was followed by a period of peace. There was always tension where Paul preached the gospel but the period of peace was not because of his removal from Jerusalem. Caligula was now the Roman Emperor and issued new regulations for the Jews – one of which ordered that the statue of the Emperor be displayed in the temple – and Caligula sent his regulator to enforce the new laws. The ensuing negotiations diverted the ruling Jews from persecuting Christians and thus the church had a period of rest and they were multiplied.