Meeting Other Apostles

Acts 9:26-31

After returning from Arabia, Saul had begun to teach in the synagogues in Damascus, and because they could not disprove his arguments, they set out to kill him, a rather typical human response. Having helped in killing other Christians, he then learned what it was like to be persecuted. To escape, he returned to Jerusalem.

“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.” (Acts 9:26)

When Saul left Jerusalem three years before, he had been a vehement adversary of Christianity. The Christians had not forgotten his efforts to destroy them. When he came claiming to be a Christian now, they suspected it was a ruse to find out how to catch them. Remembering Judas‘ betrayal of Jesus for pay, they knew that a person could claim to believe without doing so. For all they knew, Saul might be trying the same thing.

“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.” (Acts 9:27)

Barnabas was one of the Christians who had given every thing to the Lord in Acts 4 as a result of the Spirit’s moving in his heart. He again demonstrated his submission to the Holy Spirit, meeting with Saul, and listening to his story. Following the Holy Spirit’s leading, Barnabas then introduced Saul to the apostles and explained what had happened. It is this willingness to forgive and encourage others to serve that causes Barnabas to have a huge impact on the Church, although he gets little credit. What if he hadn’t brought Saul to the apostles? Our New Testament would surely be different.

The apostles were going to other cities strengthening the believers, like when Peter and John went to Samaria to build up that church, and were not all in Jerusalem when Paul went back. Galatians 1;18 describes Paul’s visit. “Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord's brother.”

“And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him. Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.” (Acts 9:28-30)

After three years with the Lord, and having been trained by Gamaliel in Greek and Jewish thought, Paul was well equipped to deal with the Greeks who had joined the Jewish religion, and prove his contentions. Since he had been one of them, they at first listened, but began to view him as a traitor sought to kill him after just a couple of weeks. To protect him, the Christians took him to Caesarea and then sent him to his home town of Tarsus.

It would be years before Saul spent any significant time with the other apostles. His ministry was completely based on what Jesus taught him in Arabia, and what the Holy Spirit revealed. Galatians 1:21-24 describes Paul’s relationship to the church at Jerusalem for the next several years. “Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia; And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ: But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed. And they glorified God in me.”

Some have criticized the Bible because different writers give slightly different accounts of events. As one theologian said, they should have gotten together and ironed out the differences. In fact, it is the fact that they have these differences that proves that they are writing independently what they observed, rather than what they have agreed about. That Paul could not have collaborated with the other apostles, yet taught the same thing reinforces the belief that the New Testament is God’s word, not some story they made up.

Paul stresses this fact in Galatians 1:11-12. “But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.” Medical discoveries are not usually accepted until an independent lab duplicates the results, verifying the discovery. Paul’s writings serve to verify what he apostles taught. Luke is establishing Paul’s credentials as an independent observer. Two weeks would not have given sufficient time to have concocted the story, and especially when only Peter and James were present.