Acts 9:20-31 (ESV)
Journal
Please use one of the prompts below to get your journaling started.
- Explore your fears and what’s behind them.
- Write about a relational conflict you are experiencing.
- List out all that you are grateful for.
- Recall a significant reaction, conversation or event.
- Here are some tools to help you with the devotionals:
Commentary
INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF ACTS
Bible Text: Acts 9:20-31 (ESV)
20 And immediately he proclaimed Jesus in the synagogues, saying, “He is the Son of God.” 21 And all who heard him were amazed and said, “Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name? And has he not come here for this purpose, to bring them bound before the chief priests?” 22 But Saul increased all the more in strength, and confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus by proving that Jesus was the Christ.
23 When many days had passed, the Jews plotted to kill him, 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night in order to kill him, 25 but his disciples took him by night and let him down through an opening in the wall, lowering him in a basket.
26 And when he had come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join the disciples. And they were all afraid of him, for they did not believe that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and declared to them how on the road he had seen the Lord, who spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had preached boldly in the name of Jesus. 28 So he went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. 30 And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.
Go Deeper
Acts 9:20-31
- What can I learn from the fact that Saul immediately started proclaiming Jesus in the synagogues and had “his disciples” (v.25) by the time he had to make his escape from Damascus?
- What lessons can we learn from the way Saul’s life was targeted from the very start of his ministry as an apostle of Jesus, and from the ways he survived?
[1] Acts, The NIV Application Commentary Series, p.302
[2] Acts, The NIV Application Commentary Series, p.302-4.
[3] John Stott, The Spirit, the Church, and the World, (Intervarsity Press, 1990) 178-9.
Prayer