- Acts 9:26-30
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- Acts 9:26 (KJB)
- And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself
to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he
was a disciple.
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- Assayed - Made an effort or attempted
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- Saul had now made his way back to Jerusalem and attempted to join with
the other disciples. His absence of three years did not erase the memories
of the disciples who knew what he had done to the Christians and what he
attempted to do. The disciples had thought that somehow he was trying to
make believe he was a disciple so he could gather information on them and
names for indictments. I am sure Saul had tried to convince them that he was
truly converted by telling them what happened to him on the road to
Damascus. These believers were wise to be cautious because they could once
again be in danger of persecution by Saul. I guess if our worst enemy was
saved, we too would be cautious about immediately accepting them without
testing them to see if they were really converted.
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- Acts 9:27 (KJB)
- But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and
declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had
spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of
Jesus.
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- Barnabas was originally from Cyprus and had come to Jerusalem to study
under Gamaliel. This means that there is a possibility that Barnabas knew
Saul before his conversion. This would have been an excellent situation
because Barnabas would have been able to know first hand the difference in
Saul being unsaved and now being saved. Barnabas had apparently investigated
the situation because he knew the details of Saul’s conversion. He told them
that Saul had seen the Lord on the road to Damascus and he personally spoke
with the Lord. Then Barnabas had told them that Saul was preaching the true
Gospel in the synagogues of Damascus and no doubt he told that the Jews
there wanted to kill Saul for preaching this message. The name Barnabas
means “son of encouragement” and his name fit him well as he encouraged the
disciples to accept Saul as one of the true brethren.
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- Acts 9:28 (KJB)
- And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.
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- Saul was now accepted as one of the disciples and had accompanied them
to different places but it looks like in this verse that Saul also had gone
other places to preach the Gospel which probably would have been synagogues
in surrounding areas. Now Saul was able to get first hand information about
the Lord Jesus Christ from those who actually walked with Him while He was
on earth. It would have been a time of great learning for Saul.
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- Acts 9:29 (KJB)
- And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed
against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him.
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- Disputed - Debate, discuss, or reason
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- Since Saul was a citizen of Tarsus located in modern day Turkey on the
Mediterranean Sea he had an affinity to the Greek speaking Jews. This verse
tells us that Saul had tried to speak to them about the Lord Jesus Christ
but their attitude was like those in Jerusalem and Damascus, they wanted to
kill him. These were the same Jews who had a problem with Stephen. Saul went
to their synagogues to debate them and found great opposition to the true
Gospel.
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- Acts 9:30 (KJB)
- Which
when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and
sent him forth to Tarsus.
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- They had found out about the plot to kill Paul so what they did was to
bring Saul to Caesarea Philippi which was just south of the Syrian border.
From there he was dispatched as a representative of the Gospel. He was not
sent to Tarsus to escape the death threat but was sent because Tarsus was a
free city and had a University there which meant many teachers. It is said
the only two cities that outshined Tarsus in the area of education was
Athens and Alexandria in Egypt. Now we know why Saul had such a tremendous
base of knowledge because he must have studied there, right in his home
town.
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