Acts 9:23-31 Saul's early travels

Acts 9:23-25 A plot by the Jews against Saul is foiled. In these verses we see an echo of the Jews' murder of Stephen. They could not win arguments with him, so they planned to murder him. At least Saul's partners in the murder of Stephen had gone through the motions of a trial. It is not stated how the Jews planned to kill Saul, but it couldn't have included the Sanhedrin since he was in Damascus and the Sanhedrin met in Jerusalem. The disciples must have been familiar with Joshua, since lowering Saul over the wall in a basket closely mimics Rahab's protection of the spies (Joshua 2:15). Or perhaps this was a common means of escaping from a walled city in ancient times.

Acts 9:26-30 Saul travels to Jerusalem but the believers there are afraid of him. Saul's reception in Jerusalem was difficult, a foreshadowing of the rest of his life. The Christians were afraid of him because he had not very long before been instrumental in arresting them and had participated in the murder of Stephen. The Jews reacted just as those in Damascus had; unable to refute his preaching, they tried to kill him. In addition, it must have been supremely embarrassing to have their most vocal and aggressive advocate suddenly change sides and join the opposition.

          Barnabas brought Saul to the apostles when they were afraid of him, and explained about his encounter with Christ on the Damascus road.  There is no hint of how Barnabas knew about this. We can only infer that he must have listened to Saul at some point and actually heard what had happened to him. Later in Acts, Barnabas travels with Paul, and later still parts company with him because of a disagreement. Barnabas emerges as one of those people who is around to listen and relate, to encourage those who are on the outs. Paul could later operate effectively without him, but at this juncture his actions helped Paul establish his connection with the church leadership. Since he could not minister effectively in Jerusalem and was in danger, they sent him far away. We read in Galatians 1:17 that he spent three years in Arabia. It is a bit confusing as to whether this was before his trip to Jerusalem, or after he was sent away. It appears that the time he spent in exile was used very effectively, as Galatians 1:12 suggests that it was there that The Lord spoke directly to him and revealed profound truths of the gospel.

Acts 9:31 The church continues to grow.  This verse suggests that church growth was a direct result of Saul no longer arresting believers, and also the on-going work of the Holy Spirit. The key point is that the church was growing throughout Galilee and Samaria, not just in Jerusalem, not yet taken beyond their borders, although Acts 9:10 suggests that there were also believers in Damascus.