April 22, 2015 (Wednesday)
Our study of the Bible Book of Acts continues tonight at Bethel Baptist Church, Ingleside, as we take a close look at Acts 9:20-31,which tells of the newly-converted Saul of Tarsus and his experiences in Damascus and Jerusalem.
As one might imagine, many Christians were suspicious and afraid of Saul because he had taken the lead in persecuting Christians, arresting them, and taking them back to Jerusalem for trial as heretics. All of a sudden the word has spread that he has accepted Jesus as the Messiah and is urging everyone else to do so as he speaks in the Damascus synagogues. In spite of their fears, Saul continued to prove by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ, growing bolder in his witness with each passing day.
They all learned of a plot by Jews to kill Saul. To save his life, they lowered him to safety 
through the city wall in a basket in the dead of night and assisted him in going back to Jerusalem. There he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him. They could not believe he was really one of them, but Barnabas, whom we met earlier in the Book of Acts, “took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.”
So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him. When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus” (Acts 9:28-30).
With the chief persecutor of the church now converted and living in another country, “the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers” (Acts 9:31). Years later Barnabas will fetch Saul from Tarsus and introduce him to the predominantly gentile church at Antioch of Syria, where he and Barnabas will be commissioned thereafter as missionaries to the gentile world (Acts 11:19ff; 13:1-3).
Tonight we will study the beginnings of a new life in Christ as Saul of Tarsus the Pharisee becomes Paul the Apostle of Jesus Christ. The change in this man’s life was drastic but wonderful; Jesus makes a difference in the lives of those who receive him by faith into their hearts and lives.