Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Acts 9:31

Clarke's Commentary

Verse 31. Then had the Churches rest — Instead of ια εκκλησιαι, the Churches, ABC, several others, the Syriac, Coptic, AEthiopic, Armenian, and Vulgate, have ηεκκλησια, the Church. Every assembly of God's people was a Church; the aggregate of these assemblies was THE CHURCH. The word ειρηνην, which we translate rest, and which literally signifies peace, evidently means, in this place, prosperity; and in this sense both it and the Hebrew שלום shalom are repeatedly used. But what was the cause of this rest or success? Some say, the conversion of Saul, who before made havoc of the Church; but this is not likely, as he could not be a universal cause of persecution and distress, however active and virulent he might have been during the time of his enmity to the Christian Church. Besides his own persecution, related above, shows that the opposition to the Gospel continued with considerable virulence three years after his conversion; therefore it was not Saul's ceasing to be a persecutor that gave this rest to the Churches. Dr. Lardner, with a greater show of probability, maintains that this rest was owing to the following circumstance: Soon after Caligula's accession to the imperial dignity, the Jews at Alexandria suffered very much from the Egyptians in that city; and at length their oratories were all destroyed. In the third year of Caligula, A.D. 39, Petronius, who was made president of Syria in the place of Vitellius, was sent by the emperor to set up his statue in the temple at Jerusalem. This was a thunder-stroke to the Jews, and so occupied them that they had no time to think of any thing else; apprehending that their temple must be defiled, and the national religion destroyed, or themselves run the risk of being exterminated if they rebelled against the imperial decree.

The account given by Josephus will set this in a clear point of view. "Caligula sent Petronius to go with an army to Jerusalem, to set up his statues in the temple, enjoining him if the Jews opposed it, to put to death all that made resistance, and to make all the rest of the nation slaves. Petronius therefore marched from Antioch into Judea, with three legions, and a large body of auxiliaries raised in Syria. All were hereupon filled with consternation, the army being come as far as Ptolemais. The Jews, then, gathering together, went to the plain near Ptolemais, and entreated Petronius in the first place for their laws, in the next place for themselves. Petronius was moved with their solicitations, and, leaving his army and the statues, went into Galilee, and called an assembly of the heads of the Jews at Tiberias; and, having exhorted them without effect to submit to the emperor's orders, said, 'Will ye then fight against Caesar?' They answered that they offered up sacrifices twice every day for the emperor and the Roman people; but that if he would set up the images, he ought first of all to sacrifice the whole Jewish nation; and that they were ready to submit themselves, their wives and children, to the slaughter." Philo gives a similar account of this transaction. See Lardner's Credibility, Works, vol. i. p. 97, c.

It appears, therefore, that, as these transactions took place about the time mentioned in the text, their persecution from the Romans diverted them from persecuting the Christians and THEN had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee, and Samaria; the terror occasioned by the imperial decree having spread itself through all those places.

Were edified — οικοδομουμεναι, A metaphor taken from a building.

1. The ground is marked out;

2. the ichnograph, or dimensions of the building, ascertained;

3. the foundation is digged;

4. the foundation stone laid;

5. the walls builded up with course upon course;

6. the top-stone brought on;

7. the roof raised, and the whole covered in; and,

8. the interior part fitted up and adorned, and rendered convenient for the intended inhabitant.

This figure frequently occurs in the sacred writings, especially in the New Testament. It has its reason in the original creation of man: God made the first human being as a shrine or temple, in which himself might dwell. Sin entered, and the heavenly building was destroyed. The materials, however, though all dislocated, and covered with rubbish and every way defiled, yet exist; no essential power or faculty of the soul having been lost. The work of redemption consists in building up this house as it was in the beginning, and rendering it a proper habitation for God. The various powers, faculties, and passions, are all to be purified and refined by the power of the Holy Spirit, and order and harmony restored to the whole soul. All this is beautifully pointed out by St. Peter, 1 Peter 2:4-5: To whom (Jesus Christ) coming as unto a LIVING STONE, chosen of God and precious, ye also, as LIVING STONES, are BUILT UP a spiritual HOUSE, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices to God by Jesus Christ. And St. Paul, who, from his own profession as a tent-maker, could best seize on the metaphor, and press it into this spiritual service, goes through the whole figure at large, in the following inimitable words: Ye are the HOUSEHOLD of God, and are BUILT upon the FOUNDATION of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief CORNERSTONE, in whom all the BUILDING, FITLY FRAMED together, groweth unto a HOLY TEMPLE in the Lord: in whom ye also are BUILDED together for a HABITATION of God, through the Spirit, Ephesians 2:19-22. Edification signifies, therefore, an increase in the light, life, and power of God; being founded on the doctrine of Christ crucified; having the soul purified from all unrighteousness, and fitted, by increasing holiness, to be a permanent residence for the ever-blessed God.

Walking in the fear of the Lord — Keeping a continually tender conscience; abhorring all sin; having respect to every Divine precept; dreading to offend him from whom the soul has derived its being and its blessings. Without this salutary fear of God there never can be any circumspect walking.

In the comfort of the Holy Ghost — In a consciousness of their acceptance and union with God, through his Spirit, by which solid peace and happiness are brought into the soul; the truly religious man knowing and feeling that he is of God, by the Spirit which is given him: nothing less can be implied in the comfort of the Holy Ghost.

Were multiplied. — No wonder that the Church of God increased, when such lights as these shone among men. This is a short, but full and forcible description of the righteousness, purity, and happiness of the primitive Church.

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

In Damascus, Arabia, Jerusalem and Tarsus (9:19b-31)

People throughout Damascus soon knew of Saul’s conversion. He openly joined with the Christians and argued convincingly against the Jews (19b-22). Part of the next three years he spent in Arabia, after which he returned to Damascus (Galatians 1:17-18). His activities there stirred up such violent opposition that he fled to save his life (23-25; 2 Corinthians 11:32-33).

When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, the Christians did not welcome him. They feared that he was only pretending to be a Christian, so that when he found out who the true Christians were he could imprison them. Barnabas apparently knew him better and introduced him to the two leading apostles who were in Jerusalem at the time, Peter and James the Lord’s brother (26-27; Galatians 1:18-19).

Saul made good use of his two weeks in Jerusalem by preaching the good news of Jesus Christ. Not surprisingly, this made the Jews angry, as they were the ones who three years previously had sent him to crush Christianity. When they made plans to kill him, Saul escaped to his home town of Tarsus in Cilicia (28-30; Galatians 1:21).

At that time the rest of the churches in Judea did not know Saul personally, but they certainly knew of his conversion, because without his fiery leadership the persecution had died down and the churches were left in peace (31; Galatians 1:22-24).

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Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

So the church throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria had peace, being edified; and, walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, was multiplied.

See under Acts 6:7 for other examples of Luke's device of pausing at intervals to record the growth and prosperity of the church, thus giving several reminders of his grand design of showing how Christianity developed and spread to the whole world. It could be, also, that Luke intended that we should see the connection between this period of relative tranquillity and the departure of Paul, just mentioned. Such was the fury and bitterness of the Jewish community over the defection of one of their most able partisans, that they could hardly have suffered Paul's presence in Jerusalem without continued persecution; but, in his absence, there appeared for a while a period of quietness during which the church grew and prospered.

In time, of course, Paul would return, speaking his epic words of wisdom and judgment against Israel; but for the present he would be left out of sight in Tarsus. In the meanwhile, Luke returned to stress two apostolic miracles performed by Peter, and which mighty signs contributed emphatically to the growth of the church.

PETER HEALS AENEAS

Luke's purpose here is evidently that of showing how the apostles continued to preach the gospel in Judaea and Samaria and Galilee, these provinces actually being part of Palestine. It comes to light here that Peter had traveled and preached along the whole seacoast of Palestine in some of the same cities evangelized by Philip. As Harrison said:

Peter found in Lydda a group of Christians who had probably fled there in the dispersion caused by the persecution in Jerusalem. Here Peter healed Aeneas. This area was populated in part by Gentiles. Everett F. Harrison, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1971), p. 418.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Then had the churches rest - That is, the persecutions against Christians ceased. Those persecutions had been excited by the opposition made to Stephen Acts 11:19; they had been greatly promoted by Saul Acts 8:3; and they had extended doubtless throughout the whole land of Palestine. The precise causes of this cessation of the persecution are not known. Probably they were the following:

(1) It is not improbable that the great mass of Christians had been driven into other regions by these persecutions.

(2) He who had been most active in exciting the persecution; who was, in a sort, its leader, and who was best adapted to carry it on, had been converted. He had ceased his opposition; and even he was now removed from Judea. All this would have some effect in causing the persecution to subside.

(3) But it is not improbable that the state of things in Judea contributed much to turn the attention of the Jews to other matters. Dr. Lardner accounts for this in the following manner: “Soon after Caligula’s accession, the Jews at Alexandria suffered very much from the Egyptians in that city, and at length their oratories there were all destroyed. In the third year of Caligula, 39 a.d., Petronius was sent into Syria, with orders to set up the emperor’s statue in the temple at Jerusalem. This order from Caligula was, to the Jews, a thunderstroke. The Jews must have been too much engaged after this to mind anything else, as may appear from the accounts which Philo and Josephus have given us of this affair. Josephus says ‘that Caligula ordered Petronius to go with an army to Jerusalem, to set up his statue in the temple there; enjoining him, if the Jews opposed it, to put to death all who made any resistance, and to make all the rest of the nation slaves. Petronius therefore marched from Antioch into Judea with three legions and a large body of auxiliaries raised in Syria. “All were hereupon filled with consternation, the army being come as far as Ptolemais.” See Lardner’s Works, vol. i, pp. 101, 102, London edition, 1829.

Philo gives the same account of the consternation as Josephus (Philo, DeLegat. a.d. Cai., pp. 1024, 1025). He describes the Jews “as abandoning their cities, villages, and open country; as going to Petronius in Phoenicia, both men and women, the old, the young, the middle-aged; as throwing themselves on the ground before Petronius with weeping and lamentation,” etc. The effect of this consternation in diverting their minds from the Christians can be easily conceived. The prospect that the images of the Roman emperor were about to be set up by violence in the temple, or, that in case of resistance, death or slavery was to be their portion, and the advance of a large army to execute that purpose, all tended to throw the nation into alarm. By the providence of God, therefore, this event was permitted to occur to divert the attention of bloody-minded persecutors from a feeble and bleeding church. Anxious for their own safety, the Jews would cease to persecute the Christians, and thus, by the conversion of the main instrument in persecution, and by the universal alarm for the welfare of the nation, the trembling and enfeebled church was permitted to obtain repose. Thus ended the first general persecution against Christians, and thus effectually did God show that he had power to guard and protect his chosen people.

All Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria - These three places included the land of Palestine. See the notes on Matthew 2:22. The formation of churches in Galilee is not expressly mentioned before this; but there is no improbability in supposing that Christians had traveled there, and had preached the gospel. Compare Acts 11:19. The formation of churches in Samaria is expressly mentioned, Acts 8:0.

Were edified - Were built up, increased, and strengthened. See Romans 14:19; Romans 15:2; 1 Corinthians 8:1.

And walking - Living. The word is often used to denote “Christian conduct, or manner of life,” Colossians 1:10; Luk 1:6; 1 Thessalonians 4:1; 1 John 2:6. The idea is that of travelers who are going to any place, and who walk in the right path. Christians are thus travelers to another country, an heavenly.

In the fear of the Lord - Fearing the Lord; with reverence for him and his commandments. This expression is often used to denote “piety” in general, 2 Chronicles 19:7; Job 28:28; Psalms 19:9; Psalms 111:10; Proverbs 1:7; Proverbs 9:10; Proverbs 13:13.

In the comfort of the Holy Ghost - In the consolations which the Holy Spirit produced, John 14:16-17; Romans 5:1-5.

Were multiplied - Were increased.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

31.Then the Churches. Luke’s meaning is, that the enemies of the gospel were greatly provoked by Paul’s presence. For why was there such peace made suddenly by his departure, save only because the very sight of him did provoke the fury of the enemies? And yet this is no reproach to him, as if he had been, as it were, some trumpet in war; but Luke doth rather commend him for this, because he made the wicked run mad, only with the smell of him when he was near them. For Christ meant so to triumph in him, that he might be no less a trouble than an ornament to his Church.

Therefore we are taught by this example that those are not by and by ⁽⁶²⁹⁾ to be condemned, who inflame the madness of the wicked more than others; which admonition is not a little profitable. For as we are too dainty and too much besotted with the love of our own rest, so we be also sometimes angry with the best and most excellent servants of Christ, if we think that through their vehemency the wicked are pricked forward to do hurt; and by this means we do injury to the Spirit of God, whose force and speech kindleth all that flame.

And whereas Luke saith, that the Churches had peace, let us know that it was not continual, but because the Lord granted his servants some short breathing. For thus doth he bear with ⁽⁶³⁰⁾ our infirmity, when he appeaseth or mitigateth the winds and storms of persecutions, lest if they should hold on still, they should urge us out of measure. And this blessing is not to be despised, neither is it any common blessing, when as the Churches have peace. But Luke addeth other things, which are of far more value; to wit, that the Churches were edified, they walked in the fear of God, and they were filled with the consolation of the Spirit. For as we are wont to riot and exceed in time of peace, the Churches are more happy, for the most part, amidst the tumults of war, than if they should enjoy what rest they would desire. But and if holy conversation, and the consolation of the Spirit, whereby their state doth flourish, be taken away, they lose not only their felicity, but they come to nought. Therefore, let us learn not to abuse external peace in banqueting and idleness; but the more rest we have given us from our enemies, to encourage ourselves to go forward in godliness whilst we may. And if at any time the Lord let loose the bridle to the wicked to trouble us, let the inward consolation of the Spirit be sufficient for us. Finally, as well in peace as in war, let us always joyfully go forward toward him who hath a reward for us. ⁽⁶³¹⁾

Edification may be taken either for increase; to wit, whilst the Churches are augmented with the number of the faithful, or for their going forward who are already in the flock; to wit, whilst they have new gifts given them, and have greater confirmation of godliness. In the first signification it shall be referred unto the persons; in the second unto the gifts of the Spirit. I embrace both willingly; that there were some every now and then gathered unto the Church who were strangers before, and those who were of the household of the Church did increase in godliness and other virtues. Furthermore, the metaphor of a building is very convenient, because the Church is the temple and house of God, and every one of the faithful is also a temple, (Titus 3:15; 1 Corinthians 3:16.) The two things which follow, that they walked in the fear of God, and that they were filled with the consolation of the Spirit, are parts of that edification. Therefore, though the Churches had peace, yet they were not drunken with delights and earthly joy, but, trusting to God’s help, they were more emboldened to glorify God.

(629) “Protinus,” forthwith.

(630) “Indulget,” is indulgent to.

(631) “Ad nostrum agnotheten,” to him who judges our combat.

Smith's Bible Commentary

When Alexander the Great conquered the world, he left pockets of Greek culture throughout the world. So these pockets of Greek culture became very influential. And even though the Roman Empire conquered the Grecian Empire, yet the Grecian culture remained as a dominant characteristic throughout the world. So the world was under the Roman Empire, but it was dominated by Grecian culture.

Now the Grecian culture was more towards the arts, and in contrast, the Hebrew culture was very legalistic. The Pharisees were representatives of the Hebrew culture, very strict, very legalistic. They tended towards the legal side, whereas the Grecian was more cultural, more interested in the various forms of art and all. Thus, there was a real conflict in these cultures.

Now during this time, Israel was divided. The Jews were divided into the Hellenists and into the Hebrews. All Jews but the Sadducees were of the Hellenists culture. They were the materialists, whereas the Pharisees were followers of the Hebrew culture. Thus, for a man to effectively reach the Jewish people, he had to have an understanding of the Grecian culture, but he also needed a keen understanding of the Hebrew culture. So God chose Paul as that instrument.

Paul was born in the city of Tarsus, which was one of the centers of the Grecian culture. And up until the age of fourteen, though he was Hebrew of the Hebrews, that is his parents were of the Hebrew culture, very strong Pharisees, Paul's earliest acquaintances, friends, playmates, were all of the Hellenist culture. So he became acquainted with the Hellenist culture. But his parents, in order to shield him from the Hellenist culture, when he was fourteen, rather than send him to university there in Asia Minor, chose rather to send him to the Hebrew University in Jerusalem where he might sit at the feet of Gamaliel, one of the greatest teachers of that day and a Pharisee.

So Paul became deeply imbued with the Pharisidic culture, yet he never did freely get totally free of that Grecian cultural background that he had as a child. Perfect instrument that God needed to go out into that world and to reach those of the Hellenist culture with the straight truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

So beginning in chapter 9, we have God's apprehension of Paul.

And Saul, still breathing out threatenings and murders against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest, and desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way [an interesting description of the Christians], whether they were men or women, that he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem. And as he journeyed, he came near to Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the goads ( Acts 9:1-5 ).

Paul's apprehension. He said, "I am not yet apprehended that for which I was apprehended." Here's Paul's apprehension by God in a very dramatic way. Here's a man that God turns around 180 degrees. Yet there are indications in the text that God's Spirit was already dealing with this man. As the Lord said unto him, "It is hard for thee to kick against the goads."

Now the goads were those instruments that they put on the front of the plow so that if the ox began to kick, it would kick the goads and it would determine the kicking wasn't so wise. And, of course, it would help protect the fellow guiding the plow. It's hard for you to kick against the goads.

I believe that the death of Stephen had a very remarkable effect upon Paul. I think that as he watched Stephen die, and Paul said, "I consented unto his death," which means that Paul was a member of the Sanhedrin and he voted for the death of Stephen as a member of the Sanhedrin. Which brings up some interesting sidelights. He had to be married to be a member of the Sanhedrin and whatever happened to his wife, the scripture is silent. There are stories that abound from the early church that she left him when he embraced Christianity, and that they had two sons; one went with Paul, one went with her. But that's all tradition; we don't know.

But I believe that watching Stephen die, hearing the message of Stephen . . . for Paul was there, heard his message, saw the face, saw the anointing of God's Spirit, and yet, he was determined as a Pharisee to stamp out this new sect that was arising within Judaism. So he went to the high priest.

Later on, writing of his testimony to the Philippian church, he said, "Concerning zeal, persecuting the church" ( Philippians 3:6 ). And he came to Damascus, and suddenly God apprehended him there on the road. "Who art thou Lord?" And the Lord said, "I am Jesus whom you persecuted. It is hard for thee to kick against the goads."

Now here's an interesting thing. Paul was actually persecuting the church, wasn't he? But notice how Jesus so completely identifies Himself with the church. Any persecution that you may receive is directed against Him. He is totally identified with His church. He didn't say, you know, "Why do you persecute My church?" Jesus said, "Why are you persecuting Me? For it is, I am the One that you are persecuting."

And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt you have me to do? ( Acts 9:6 )

Instant conversion, 180 degrees.

And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it will be told you what you must do ( Acts 9:6 ).

Now, the command of the Lord to Paul was very simple, wasn't it? Remember last week we told you how God gives us one step at a time. So rather than spelling out to Paul at this time the whole future, he just said, "Just get up and go on into the city and it will be told you what you are to do."

And so the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man ( Acts 9:7 ).

Now there are those who imagine a contradiction in the scripture here. Because as Paul is recounting this story in the twenty-second chapter of Acts, he declares that those that were with him did not hear the voice, but he uses a different Greek word there--they did not hear the articulation of the words. They heard sounds, but they didn't understand the sounds. And so the Lord was speaking to Saul. They heard a voice speaking, but they could not understand the words, and that's what Paul is referring to in the twenty-second chapter; they did not hear the pheone, the phonetics. And so, no contradiction. They stood speechless because they heard a voice, but they didn't see anybody.

And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man ( Acts 9:8 ):

So he was blinded momentarily by this experience.

but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus ( Acts 9:8 ).

Now his entry into Damascus was surely far different than what Paul was imagining his entry to be into Damascus. He was going to come in charging in with the papers from the high priest and start throwing people in prison who called upon the name of the Lord. But rather than coming in this manner, he is being led in blinded and being led by his friends into the city.

And for three days he was without sight, and neither did eat nor drink ( Acts 9:9 ).

I believe that in these three days there must have been an awful lot going on in Paul's mind. God sort of cut him off from other distractions, sensory distractions that He might really help him into trying to filter out exactly what was going on. So he was without sight. He did not eat or drink for three days as he was just sifting through these happenings that were taking place in his life.

Now there was a certain disciple at Damascus [now notice not an apostle, just a disciple], and his name was Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he is praying, and hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight. Then Ananias answered and said, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all those that are calling on your name. But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel ( Acts 9:10-15 ):

So God needed a man with the background of Paul, a man who could address the Hebrews, a man who could address the Grecian culture, a man who could address kings. So he is a chosen vessel of God. So Paul, later on, recognized that God's hand was upon his life from his mother's womb, that even in the early experiences, God's hand was upon him, training him, developing him for that work that God ultimately had in mind for him to accomplish.

And so with every servant of God. We can look back in our lives and watch the processes by which God was developing us for the work that God had in mind for us to accomplish for Him. Paul, writing to the Ephesians, said, "For you are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that you should walk in them" ( Ephesians 2:10 ). God knows what He has in mind for your life. God knows that ministry or that work that He has in mind for you to fulfill for the kingdom's sake.

Now God in the meantime is working in your life as He is preparing you for that work. And one day you will discover that all of this background that I have is all a part of God's plan as he was preparing that instrument to do His work. And it's exciting then to realize that even at times when I wasn't aware of God, wasn't conscious of God, yet God was there working in my life, preparing my life for the work that God had in mind for me to accomplish. A chosen vessel. "And he is to bear My name before the Gentiles, the kings, and the children of Israel." And here, to me, is an interesting statement,

For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake ( Acts 9:16 ).

I wonder if I had been in his shoes and the Lord would call me to the ministry and show me in advance all of the things that I would have to suffer, if I would have continued or would have bowed out and said, "Lord, why don't You send someone else. Why don't You call someone else." I admire Paul. The Lord showed him all of the things he was going to suffer, and yet Paul was ready. He was yielding his life when he said, "Who art thou Lord that I may serve Thee? What will You have me to do Lord?" There wasn't any changing from that. He made a contract with the Lord, a binding contract, one that he wasn't going to go back on, because he realized that God's hand was upon his life to develop him to this point, and no matter what, Lord, I'm going to go through.

And Ananias went his way ( Acts 9:17 ),

When God first told Ananias to talk to Saul, he was sure that God had made a terrible mistake. "Lord, I've heard about this fellow. You can't be serious." So Ananias went his way,

and entered into the house; and putting his hands on him said, Brother Saul ( Acts 9:17 ),

I like that; he immediately acknowledges him as a brother. He receives him immediately into that fellowship of the brotherhood in Christ, "Brother Saul."

the Lord, even Jesus ( Acts 9:17 ),

Now you remember, he said, "Who art thou Lord?" and He said, "I am Jesus whom you persecuted." So here Ananias is saying, "The Lord, even Jesus."

who appeared unto you in the way as you were coming, has sent me, that you might receive your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit ( Acts 9:17 ).

Remember Ananias is not an apostle; he's only a disciple. There in the church in Damascus, of which we hear nothing more about him after this time. Just an ordinary disciple, and yet God is using him as the instrument to lay his hands upon Paul that he might be healed, receive his sight, and that he might receive the empowering of the Holy Spirit.

And immediately there fell from his eyes as it had been scales: and he received sight immediately, and he arose, and was baptized. And when he had received meat, he was strengthened. Then was Saul certain days with the disciples that were at Damascus. And immediately he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God ( Acts 9:18-20 ).

Now, Paul had enough background in the scriptures that as soon as he realized that Jesus was Lord, he was able to take his understanding of the scriptures and realize that God had promised to send His Son. He realized according to the prophecy of Isaiah that a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is "God with us." "For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father" ( Isaiah 9:6 ). And all of these scriptures began to click in Paul's mind, and he was able to see now that Jesus was the Son of God. And so he began to go in the synagogue, and he began to preach unto the Jews that Jesus was the Son of God.

But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this the one that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and did he not come here with that same intent, that he might bring them bound to the chief priests? ( Acts 9:21 )

And they were amazed at Paul's preaching. Now between verse Acts 9:21 and verse Acts 9:22 , there is a gap of time that isn't indicated in our text. But at this point according to the Galatian epistle, Paul left Damascus, not conferring with flesh, but to really just wait upon God and to really get his full instructions. He went down to the wilderness area of the Sinai, and there for two to three years he was just waiting upon the Lord, being instructed by the Lord concerning the way of truth in Jesus Christ.

So Paul writing to the Galatians said that after his conversion, "Immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia" ( Galatians 1:16-17 ). And there was taught directly by Jesus, the Gospel, the doctrine that he proclaimed.

Then later, he said, "I returned to Damascus." "Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days" ( Galatians 1:18 ). But not to be instructed by him, but just to share the things that had happened. So the three years in Arabia down near the Sinai are not spoken of in the Acts, but just passed over and the . . . if you want to put them in the text, it's between verse Acts 9:21 and 22 is Paul's journey to the desert for three years.

But Saul increased the more in strength ( Acts 9:22 ),

Now in verse Acts 9:22 , Saul by this time increased all the more in strength. That three years was a time of strengthening in his life as he was just waiting upon the Lord.

I get a little concerned about those who come up and say, "Chuck, I want to go into the ministry." And I say, "Well, that's fine. How long have you been a Christian?" "Oh, two months now." And they're looking for a pulpit and somewhere to begin their pastoring. Paul had a very rich background in the scriptures, yet he did not enter immediately in the ministry but took time to prepare himself as he was there in Arabia for three years being taught of the Lord.

God uses instruments that he has prepared, but preparation is a necessary part to any affective ministry. I believe there is a great mistake that takes place in the church by laying hands on people too suddenly. I think that a tragedy has existed for years within the church whenever some Hollywood celebrity makes a profession of faith. Immediately they are bombarded by every church and every conference to come and to be a conference speaker. And they're going around constantly giving their testimony week after week after week, here and there giving their testimony to excited crowds around the United States.

Well, unfortunately, they're spending so much time traveling around the country to give their testimony to the crowds, the only thing that they ever hear is their own testimony! Thus, they are never rooted and grounded in the Word. They never get a foundation. And so many of these great celebrities who have gone around with their sparkling testimonies, after a period of time you say, "Well, what happened to..." "Well he's back into the old life. It didn't last." It's because the church has made a tragic mistake of assuming that because a person is a brilliant person in one field that he can immediately be a great theologian or a teacher of the Word.

That is a wrong assumption to make. There have been some very brilliant scientists who have accepted the Lord, and, of course, immediately everyone wants them to come and testify of their conversion experience. Well, you might be a genius in biology, but that doesn't mean that you know anything about the Word of God. And so Paul needed to get a foundation established, and thus he went to Arabia, and that is just a wise move for anybody. Don't be in a hurry. Make sure that you've dug deep and laid a foundation.

Jesus talked about the two men building their houses. The wise man dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. The foolish man just began to build immediately on the sand. And unfortunately that's what a lot of people do. They want to get things going. "Let's get the building up; let's start the framing, you know." And they haven't taken the time to lay a solid foundation. And when the storm comes, the house is destroyed. So take time, lay a foundation. If God is calling you, God is not in a hurry. We are the ones that are in a hurry, and God wants to prepare those instruments that He will use for His work.

And so while he was there in the wilderness, he increased the more in strength as he came back to Damascus after this three years, he was now a real dynamo for God.

and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is the very Christ ( Acts 9:22 ).

Again, he had his rich background in their scriptures and he could take their scriptures and by them prove that Jesus is the Messiah. Now that's not a difficult task; it's very simple to take the Old Testament scriptures and to prove that Jesus is the Messiah. But there are none so blind as those who will not see.

And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him ( Acts 9:23 ):

Though he proved that Jesus was the Messiah, it only angered them. And so they began to lay in wait for him. But it was told to Saul that they were ready to ambush him, going to kill him.

But they were watching the gates of the city of Damascus day and night ready to kill him. Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket ( Acts 9:24-25 ).

So he didn't have a very triumphant exodus out of Damascus. A rather ignominious way to leave, over the wall in the basket, escaping from those Jews who were plotting his death. And so it was at this point he came to Jerusalem and first met the apostles.

And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he attempted to join with the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and they believed not that he was a disciple ( Acts 9:26 ).

And this is a tragic thing, how that he was rejected by the church when he first returned to Jerusalem.

But Barnabas ( Acts 9:27 )

Now you remember this man Barnabas. It said that he had a different name, but they called him Barnabas, which means "son of consolation". And here you see why he got his name. Barnabas is a fellow to bring men together.

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. 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 Hellenists: but they went about to kill him ( Acts 9:27-29 ).

Paul's ministry seemed to have that effect upon people. Everywhere he preached, it ended in either a revival or a riot. And people were moved by what he said one way or another, some adversely and some in a favorable way. But Paul had a way of stirring people.

Now when the brethren knew ( Acts 9:30 ),

That they were planning to kill Paul in Jerusalem. What a way to start your ministry. The first two places you have to leave town quietly because there are those who are plotting against your life.

So when the brethren knew [the plot], they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him forth to Tarsus ( Acts 9:30 ).

Go back home, Paul! And so they sent him back to Tarsus.

Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria ( Acts 9:31 ),

I don't know if that rest was too healthy. They got rid of Paul. Well, it meant that their witness wasn't as bold as it was. They began to live more peaceably with those, and I don't know if that is a sign of a healthy church or not. Now Paul stayed at Tarsus for up to ten years. Just how long, we are not certain, but most scholars believe that his going back to Tarsus, he remained in obscurity for ten years more. No doubt they were times in which God was continually pouring into Paul the knowledge of the grace and the goodness of God. But they were silent years as far as Paul's ministry is concerned. The churches had rest throughout Judea and Galilee and Samaria,

and were edified; as they walked in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied ( Acts 9:31 ).

Now we leave Paul at this point and the record goes back now to Peter.

And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda ( Acts 9:32 ).

So at this point, Peter decided to go around and to visit the various pockets of believers that had sprung up throughout Judea. And over towards the coast, the area of Lydda, which is the present city of Lot, where the Ben Gurion airport is, is the area where Peter went to visit the Christians there.

And there he found a certain man named Eneas, which had been in his bed [had been confined to the bed for] eight years, and was sick of the palsy. And Peter said unto him, Eneas, Jesus Christ makes you whole: arise, and make your bed. And he arose immediately. And all of those that dwelt at Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord ( Acts 9:33-35 ).

Peter spoke to him the word of faith and there is power in the spoken word of faith. It's important that we find the balance. There are those who take this teaching and they carry it to extremes, as they would elevate man to the position of sovereignty, "You can have anything you want, all you have to do is to speak it." And they speak of the rhema, the spoken word and the creative power of the spoken word, and so you speak by faith whatever you want. "I want to be a millionaire. I want to drive a Mercedes. I want to have a home on Lido Island. I want..."

And they tell you to speak the words of faith. Visualize what you desire. Visualize yourself driving that little Porsche. See yourself scooting in and out of traffic, visualize it! And then, you know, you're putting these creative forces to work. You can have whatever you want. Did not God say, command ye the works of My hands? And they talk about speaking the word of faith and the visualizing of the things that you want.

This is metaphysics. You find the same things in Napoleon Hill's book, Think and Grow Rich, or The Thirteen Richest Men in Babylon. It's a part of metaphysics and it is something that there is creative power in the subconscious. And so by visualizing and by putting up your goals and by declaring your goals over and over, you're planting these things in the area of the subconscious and the subconscious then begins then to develop schemes and devise methods whereby these things might become a reality and you're using the vast powers of the subconscious.

Of course, the spiritual writers will say you're using the vast powers of the spirit, the fourth dimension, and you're putting that power to work. But it works without the spirit; it works for men of the world who want to follow these principles. And you'll find many, many men who will testify that their tremendous success in business and all is attributable to Napoleon Hill's concepts in metaphysics in Think and Grow Rich. The same principles exactly.

Now, because of that, there is a tendency for us to have a backlash against that. Because it is such dangerous heresy, we are prone to back away, and that's wrong. But we're prone to back away from what God is wanting to do, from stepping out in faith and from declaring a word of faith. Now I am certain that before Peter said this to Eneas that the Lord spoke to Peter's heart to say it.

You remember when Paul was at Lystra, he perceived that this lame man over here had the faith to be healed, and he said, "Brother, Jesus Christ makes you whole. Stand up and walk." And the man who was lame for forty years stood up and walked because Paul spoke the word of faith to him. But before Paul spoke the word of faith, the Spirit had already revealed to Paul what the Spirit was wanting to do.

I do not direct the works of God, nor should I ever seek to be in that position of directing God's works. They are God's works; they always begin with Him. It is important that I recognize what God is doing. It is important that I recognize the work of God. And herein is the real key. And so yes, there may be times when the Lord would have us to speak a word of faith to someone and have them act upon that word of faith.

Jesus often did that. Be strong! And I'd like to speak that word of faith to you tonight. Be delivered! Be set free! Live a life of victory in Jesus! Now you can take those as words of faith and say, "Yes, Lord, I will be strong. Yes, Lord, I will have victory. Yes, Lord, I will stop it." And they can be a word of faith that you will act upon and you will find victory, you'll find strength, you'll find God working in a dynamic way within your life. The work of God will be done and the word of faith is important.

It's wrong, though, to carry it to the extremes that these men carry it to today. So there's a balance. And so often, because were are striking out against some of the fanaticism, that oftentimes accompanies these things, people will then say, "Oh, Chuck said that's wrong, you shouldn't do that," but yet there is the balance there and it is important that we maintain the balance. Yes, God does work today. Yes, God will work today. Yes, there is power through faith. Yes, we can see the work of God accomplished in the lives of people, and yes, we can speak the word of faith to them.

And it's important that we do, but it's also important that we don't become extremists and just go around and try to run the universe. Like, suddenly I've found a new dimension of power and now I'm in control and now this is the way I want things done and God, over there, quick! And I take away from that sovereignty and that sovereign work of God by, I'm in command now and I'm going to demand what's going on. It's so easy to get on power trips, and you've got to be careful about that because there's something within us that likes power. And I like to feel that sense of power, and it's so easy to get exalted on a power trip.

I was reading where the god Thor, that north god, when he first discovered his power was so excited. He just jumped on his horse and he began to ride across the skies on his horse pointing down at the earth, because as he pointed, he could cause the lightning to come off the edge of his finger and flash across the earth. And he's discovered this great power he had of casting these thunderbolts and these flashes of lightning. So he was just riding all over the earth, throwing down the thunderbolts, causing the flashes of lightning. He spent the whole day riding his horse through the skies throwing his thunderbolts all over the world. As he got back to the north country, with this sense of power, he cried, "I'm Thor!" and his horse turned around and said, "Well, why didn't you use a saddle, silly!" So be careful of the power trips.

Peter did speak the word of faith, and we can speak the word of faith and we can see the power of speaking the word of faith. There is a legitimate concept here that we can use; we just shouldn't take it to extremes. So as the result of the healing of Eneas, people all over the area, the Sharon valley there, in seeing this man who had been informed for eight years, healed, they believed and turned to the Lord.

Now in Joppa [about eight miles away from Lydda] there was a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas ( Acts 9:36 ):

The name means a gazelle, graceful, beautiful.

this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did. And it came to pass in those days, that she was sick, and she died: whom when they had washed, they laid her in an upper chamber. And inasmuch as Lydda was near to Joppa [only eight miles], and the disciples had heard that Peter was there, they sent unto him two men, desiring him that he would not delay to come to them. Then Peter arose and went with them. When he was come, they brought him into the upper chamber: and all the widows stood by him weeping, and showing the coats and garments which Dorcas made, while she was with them ( Acts 9:36-39 ).

So here she was making things for the poor, a very marvelous, beautiful woman.

But Peter put them all foRuth ( Acts 9:40 ),

He probably took a page out of the life of Jesus, for he was there when Jairus had come to Jesus concerning his daughter. And as Jesus was on His way to Jairus' house, the servants came and said, "Don't trouble the master any further; your daughter is dead." And so Jesus said to him, "Don't be afraid, don't panic; she's only sleeping." And so when they came to the house, all of the mourners were already gathered and they were wailing and mourning over the death of this little twelve-year-old girl, the daughter of Jairus. And Jesus said, "She's not dead; she's only asleep." And they laughed Him to scorn; they mocked Him. And so He put them all forth, He said, "Get out." And he brought in Peter and John, the inner circle. Then He said unto her, "Talitha, little girl, arise." And she sat up and looked around, and Jesus took her by the hand and led her out to the parents and said, "You might give her something to eat."

But Peter had seen the Lord put away those of unbelief and doubt. And so Peter, because these people were all just, though they were perhaps Christians, they were yet just all into the mourning over her death. "Look at the beautiful things she made. Oh, she was such a wonderful person and all." Peter just put them forth. Probably also, what he was going to do was so bizarre, that in case nothing happened, he didn't want to be embarrassed. I would have done that.

So Peter put them all forth, and he kneeled down, and prayed; and turning to the body said, Tabitha, come ( Acts 9:40 ).

Now he called her by her name Tabitha, and notice how close it is to what Jesus called the little girl, Talitha. Tabitha, come, arise. Now he's talking to a dead person, a corpse that is there. And that is rather bizarre talking to a corpse. But he knelt down and prayed, and then he turned and said, "Tabitha, arise."

And she opened her eyes: and when she saw Peter, she sat up. And he gave her his hand, and lifted her up; and when he had called the saints and the widows, he presented her alive. And it was known throughout all of Joppa; and many believed in the Lord. And it came to pass, that he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon the tanner ( Acts 9:40-43 ).

Now we are reminded of the words of Jesus in the fourteenth chapter of the gospel of John, when He said to His disciples, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in my name, I will do it" ( John 14:12-14 ).

So here's Peter doing the same kind of works that Jesus did. And here is a notable, remarkable miracle of the raising from the dead of this blessed saint there in the church in Joppa, Dorcas, who God brought back from death. So we see the power still existing there in the early church. And that is, of course, one of the marks of the early church, that dynamic power of the Holy Spirit working in and through the church.

Should we assume that God no longer works in such dynamic ways? I think that it is wrong to make that assumption. I think that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. I do not believe that we should fault God for the lack of power in the church. I think that we should fault the church, fault ourselves. I believe that this power is still available today. I believe in the power of God to change lives, to transform lives, to turn people around 180 degrees. I believe in the power of God to raise people out of beds of infirmity, to deliver people from the bondage of things that are destroying them, setting people free. I believe in the power of God to raise the dead. I do not believe that there is any lack with God or with God's ability, or even with God's desire to manifest Himself.

I do feel that the lack is on our side, and I think that as much as anything else, it is the lack of being able to handle all of the notoriety and attention that would be drawn to the person who had this kind of power. I am certain that I could not personally deal with that kind of power and notoriety that would rise from it. I do not trust myself. I'm afraid that I would be lifted up with pride. I'm afraid that I would go out advertising great miracle campaigns and would just not be able to really handle all that would result from having that kind of a ministry.

Now there were years when I fasted and prayed for this kind of power. And I desired to experience this kind of power, and the Lord finally spoke to my heart and said, "I have given you the more excellent way. The path of love." And I ceased praying for the power of miracles. Now, I have seen miracles and who can doubt but what the power of God in changing a person's life, turning them around, is not really the most desirable and greatest miracle that we can see. It would be much better that a person's life be transformed by the power of the Spirit of God from the bondage of sin into a new life in Christ. That is a more important miracle than say, raising the dead, if that person, when he was raised from the dead, would live a wicked life and die in sin. Or if through that miracle you would be lifted up with so much pride that you would become useless to God.

So God's hand is not short, but we just see today more sham than reality in the miracle services. And those who are professing to have the power are men that I wouldn't trust, many times, behind my back. I know them. Now that doesn't mean that we shouldn't seek or desire it still. I don't desire it for myself anymore because God spoke to me about it. But that doesn't mean that maybe God has so worked in your life that He could use you in this way. And if so, I would praise God for it and I would rejoice in the work that God would do through your life. I don't want to be in the position of limiting God and I don't think that should ever be our position. God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think.

Now I'm not going to try to get into chapter 10, because there's so much here that we want to cover. It's quite a long chapter and it is an important chapter as it deals with the beginning of the Gospel among the Gentiles. So we'll begin this a week from Sunday night, chapters 10 and 11. Shall we pray.

Father, we thank You tonight for the power of Your Holy Spirit. Lord, we pray for true demonstrations of that power. Touch lives, anoint lives, and use them, Father, to display Your glory through the world. Lord, we offer ourselves to You such as we are tonight. As Paul, we would ask, what would You have us to do, Lord? And we make ourselves available unto You for whatever You might have in mind. Whatever purpose You would have us to fulfill. Lord, You've apprehended us, and when You did, You had in mind a purpose for apprehending us. Help us, Lord, that we might seek to accomplish and to apprehend that for which were apprehended. So guide us, use us, and through us, Lord, bring glory to Thy name and we thank You. Amen. "

Contending for the Faith

Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

Then had the churches rest throughout all Judaea and Galilee and Samaria: As Luke is prone to do, he hesitates between major events to chronicle the growth of the church (see notes on 6:7). The churches are enjoying a temporary respite in persecution; they are at "rest."This persecution, which begins shortly after the stoning of Stephen (8:1), has most likely burned itself out during the three-year absence of the chief ringleader in havoc, Saul. With the return of Saul, whom the Jews now count as a traitor, the peace is momentarily disturbed and the Jews are upset again. Peace is again restored when Saul departs from Jerusalem. It is for certain Saul’s defection from Judaism will never be forgotten by the Jewish community. Their bitterness will fester and canker until it has the opportunity to break out again.

and were edified: The church is being built up and is growing on a daily basis."The term ’edified’ comes from the Greek word oikodoumene, and means ’to build up a house; ’ this term or figure is used frequently by Paul and Peter" (Reese 298).

and walking in the fear of the Lord: The term "walking" is often used to indicate Christian conduct or manner of life. These Christians are living a life of respect and adoration for God, the type of life that will eventually bring them to the sought-after eternal abode in heaven (Luke 1:6; Colossians 1:10; 1 John 2:6).

and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost: This body of believers is enjoying the benefits of "walking in the Lord" and the encouragement and consolation given by God’s word as delivered by the Holy Spirit. Luke reveals the source of power for the church. "When the members walk with the fear of the Lord before their eyes and with The Spirit’s encouraging voice in their hearts, the church will be strong and will also surely multiply " (Lenski 381).

"These early disciples are enjoying the benefits of living (’walking’) in the exhortation of the Holy Spirit. The Greek word rendered ’comfort’ (paraklesis) means a calling to one’s side..." (Vine, Vol. I 207). This"calling to one’s side"can be either for consolation or for exhortation and the word is rendered both ways in the New Testament (compare 13:15; Romans 12:8 with 15:31; Romans 15:5)."Here exhortation is the rendering approved by the best authorities, to be construed with ’was multiplied’: was multiplied by the exhortations of the Holy Ghost; ’ i.e., by the Holy Spirit inspiring the preachers, and moving the hearts of the hearers" (Vincent 495).

were multiplied: As noted above, the Lord’s church will always grow in every way when its members walk in the fear of God and the exhortations of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 3:6).

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

C. The mission of Saul 9:1-31

The writer focused our attention next on a key figure in the spread of the Christian mission and on significant events in the development of that mission to the Gentiles. Peter’s evangelization of Cornelius (ch. 10) will continue to advance this theme. Luke has given us three portraits of significant individuals in the evangelization of Gentiles: Stephen, Philip, and now, climactically, Saul. He stressed that Saul’s conversion and calling to be an apostle to the Gentiles came supernaturally and directly from God, and Saul himself played a passive role in these events. Saul retold the story of his conversion and calling twice in Acts 22, 26 and again in Galatians 1. Its importance in Acts is clear from its repetition. [Note: See Ernst Haenchen, The Acts of the Apostles, p. 327.]

"It cannot be stressed enough that these accounts are summaries and Luke has written them up in his own style and way." [Note: Witherington, p. 309.]

Saul became God’s primary instrument in taking the gospel to the Gentile world.

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

3. The church at peace 9:31

Notice that "church" is in the singular here. This is probably a reference to the Christians throughout Palestine-in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria-not just in one local congregation, in Jerusalem, but in the body of Christ. Saul’s departure from Palestine brought greater peace to the churches there. He was an extremely controversial figure among the Jews because of his conversion. Peaceful conditions are conducive to effective evangelism and church growth (cf. 1 Timothy 2:1-4). The church continued to experience four things: inward strengthening, a proper attitude and relationship to God (in contrast to Judaism), the comfort (encouragement, Gr. paraklesis) provided by the Holy Spirit, and numerical growth.

Beside this verse, there are few references to Galilee in Acts (cf. Acts 10:37; Acts 13:31). This has led some commentators to speculate that Galilee had been evangelized during Jesus’ ministry and was, by this time, fully Christian. The evidence from church history, however, indicates that there were few Christians in Galilee at this time and in later years. [Note: See Barrett, pp. 473-74.]

This statement is Luke’s third major progress report on the state of the church (cf. Acts 2:47; Acts 6:7; Acts 12:24; Acts 16:5; Acts 19:20; Acts 28:30-31). It closes this section dealing with the church’s expansion in Judea and Samaria (Acts 6:8 to Acts 9:31). The Lord had added about 3,000 who believed to the core group of disciples (Acts 2:41). Then He added more who became Christians day by day (Acts 2:47). Shortly He added multitudes of new believers (Acts 5:14). Then we read the number of disciples increased greatly (Acts 6:7). Now we read that the church ". . . continued to increase" (Acts 9:31).

"When the Spirit of God has His way in the hearts and lives of believers, then unsaved people are going to be reached and won for Christ." [Note: Ironside, Lectures on . . ., p. 228.]

Barclay's Daily Study Bible

Chapter 9

SURRENDER ( Acts 9:1-9 )

9:1-9 But Saul, still breathing out threat and murder to the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters of credit to Damascus, to the synagogues there, so that if he found any of The Way there, both men and women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem. As he journeyed he came near Damascus. Suddenly a light from heaven flashed round about him. He fell on the ground and he heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?" He said, "Who, are you, sir?" He said, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise; go into the city, and you will be told what to do." His fellow-travellers stood speechless in amazement, because they heard the voice but saw no one. So Saul rose from the ground but when his eyes were opened he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus. And for three days he could not see, nor did he eat or drink anything.

In this passage we have the most famous conversion story in history. We must try as far as we can to enter into Paul's mind. When we do, we will see that this is not a sudden conversion but a sudden surrender. Something about Stephen lingered in Paul's mind and would not be banished. How could a bad man die like that? In order to still his insistent doubt Paul plunged into the most violent action possible. First he persecuted the Christians in Jerusalem. This only made matters worse because once again he had to ask himself what secret these simple people had which made them face peril and suffering and loss serene and unafraid. So then, still driving himself on, he went to the Sanhedrin.

The writ of the Sanhedrin ran wherever there were Jews. Paul had heard that certain of the Christians had escaped to Damascus and he asked for letters of credit that he might go to Damascus and extradite them. The journey only made matters worse. It was about 140 miles from Jerusalem to Damascus. The journey would be made on foot and would take about a week. Paul's only companions were the officers of the Sanhedrin, a kind of police force. Because he was a Pharisee, he could have nothing to do with them; so he walked alone; and as he walked he thought, because there was nothing else to do.

The way went through Galilee, and Galilee brought Jesus even more vividly to Paul's mind. The tension in his inner being tightened. So he came near Damascus, one of the oldest cities in the world. Just before Damascus the road climbed Mount Hermon and below lay Damascus, a lovely white city in a green plain, "a handful of pearls in a goblet of emerald." That region had this characteristic phenomenon that when the hot air of the plain met the cold air of the mountain range, violent electrical storms resulted. Just at that moment came such a lightning storm and out of the storm Christ spoke to Paul. In that moment the long battle was over and Paul surrendered to Christ.

So into Damascus he went a changed man. And how changed! He who had intended to enter Damascus like an avenging fury was led by the hand, blind and helpless.

There is all of Christianity in what the Risen Christ said to Paul, "Go into the city, and you will be told what to do." Up to this moment Paul had been doing what he liked, what he thought best, what his will dictated. From this time forward he would be told what to do. The Christian is a man who has ceased to do what he wants to do and who has begun to do what Christ wants him to do.

A CHRISTIAN WELCOME ( Acts 9:10-18 )

9:10-18 There was a disciple in Damascus called Ananias, and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." He said, "Here am I Lord." The Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called 'Straight'; inquire in Judas' house for a man called Saul, a man from Tarsus. For, look you, he is praying; and he has seen a man called Ananias coming and putting his hands on him so that he may get back his sight." Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man. They have told me all the hurt he has done to the saints at Jerusalem. They have told me too how he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call upon your name." The Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument for my work. He is chosen to carry my name before peoples and kings and before the sons of Israel. I will tell him all he must suffer for my name's sake." So Ananias went away and came to the house. He put his hands on him and said, "Brother Saul, the Lord--Jesus who appeared to you in the way on which you were going--has sent me that you may get your sight back and so that you may be filled with the Holy Spirit." Thereupon things like scales fell from his eyes and he got his sight back again. He rose and was baptized; and he took food and his strength increased.

Beyond doubt Ananias is one of the forgotten heroes of the Christian Church. If it be true that the Church owes Paul to the prayer of Stephen, it is also true that the Church owes Paul to the brotherliness of Ananias.

To Ananias came a message from God that he must go and help Paul; and he is directed to the street called "Straight." This was a great street that ran straight from the east to the west of Damascus. It was divided into three parts, a centre part where the traffic ran, and two side-walks where the pedestrians thronged and the merchant-men sat in their little booths and plied their trade. When that message came to Ananias it must have sounded mad to him. He might well have approached Paul with suspicion, as one doing an unpleasant task; he might well have begun with recriminations; but no; his first words were, "Brother Saul."

What a welcome was there! It is one of the sublimest examples of Christian love. That is what Christ can produce. Bryan Green tells that after one of his campaigns in America he asked at the last meeting that people should stand up and in a few words say just what the campaign had done for them. A negro girl rose. Not a good speaker, she could only put a few sentences together and this is what she said, "Through this campaign I have found Christ and he made me able to forgive the man who murdered my father." He made me able to forgive...that is the very essence of Christianity. In Christ, Paul and Ananias, the men who had been the bitterest enemies, came together as brothers.

WITNESSING FOR CHRIST ( Acts 9:19-22 )

9:19-22 Paul remained with the disciples in Damascus for some time. And immediately he began to preach Jesus in the synagogues, and the burden of his preaching was, "This is the Son of God." Everyone who heard him was astonished and kept saying, "Is not this the man who at Jerusalem sacked those who call on this name? He came here too to bring them bound to the chief priests." But Saul's power grew ever greater, and he confounded the Jews who lived in Damascus, by proving that this is God's Anointed One.

This is Luke's account of what happened to Paul after his conversion. If we want to have the chronology of the whole period in our minds we must also read Paul's own account of the matter in Galatians 1:15-24. When we put the two accounts together we find that the chain of events runs like this. (i) Saul is converted on the Damascus Road. (ii) He preaches in Damascus. (iii) He goes away to Arabia ( Galatians 1:17). (iv) He returns and preaches in Damascus for a period of three years ( Galatians 1:18). (v) He goes to Jerusalem. (vi) He escapes from Jerusalem to Caesarea. (vii) He returns to the regions of Syria and Cilicia ( Galatians 1:21). So we see that Paul began by doing two things.

(i) He immediately bore his witness in Damascus. In Damascus there were many Jews and consequently there would be many synagogues. It was in these Damascus synagogues that Paul first lifted up his voice for Christ. That was an act of the greatest moral courage. It was to these very synagogues that Paul had received his letters of credit as an official agent of the Jewish faith and of the Sanhedrin. It would have been very much easier to begin his Christian witness somewhere where he was not known and where his past did not stand against him. Paul is saying, "I am a changed man and I am determined that those who know me best should know it." Already he is proclaiming, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ."

(ii) The second thing he did is not mentioned by Luke at all--he went to Arabia ( Galatians 1:17). Into Paul's life had come a shattering change and for a time he had to be alone with God. Before him stretched a different life and he needed two things: guidance for a way that was totally strange and strength for an almost overwhelming task that had been given to him. He went to God for both.

ESCAPING BY THE SKIN OF HIS TEETH ( Acts 9:23-25 )

9:23-25 After some time the Jews formed a plot to murder him; but Saul was informed of their plot. Night and day they kept continuous watch on the gates to murder him. But the disciples took him by night and, by way of the wall, let him down in a basket.

This is a vivid example of how much a few words in the biblical narrative may imply. Luke says that after some time in Damascus these things happened. The period dismissed in that passing phrase was no less than three years ( Galatians 1:18). For three years Paul worked and preached in Damascus and the Jews were so determined to kill him that they even set a guard on the gates lest he should escape them. But the ancient cities were walled cities and the walls were often wide enough for a chariot to be driven round the top of them. On these walls there were houses whose windows often projected over the walls. In the dead of night Paul was taken into one of these houses, let down with ropes in a basket and so smuggled out of Damascus and set on his way to Jerusalem. Paul is only at the gateway of his adventures for Christ but even here he is escaping with his life by the skin of his teeth.

(i) This incident is a witness to Paul's courage. He must have seen the great gathering against him in the synagogues. He knew what had happened to Stephen, he knew what he had intended to do to the Christians and he knew what could happen to him. Clearly Christianity for him was not going to be easy but the whole tone of the incident shows to him who can read between the lines that Paul revelled in these dangers. They gave him a chance to demonstrate his new-found loyalty to that Master whom he had persecuted and whom now he loved.

(ii) It is also a witness to the effectiveness of Paul's preaching. He was so unanswerable that the Jews, helpless in debate, resorted to violence. No one persecutes a man who is ineffective. George Bernard Shaw once said that the biggest compliment you can pay an author is to burn his books. Someone else has said, "A wolf will never attack a painted sheep." Counterfeit Christianity is always safe; real Christianity is always in peril. To suffer persecution is to be paid the greatest of compliments because it is the certain proof that men think we really matter.

REJECTED IN JERUSALEM ( Acts 9:26-31 )

9:26-31 When he arrived in Jerusalem he tried to make contact with the disciples. They were all afraid of him because they did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and told them the story of how, upon the road, he had seen the Lord and that he had spoken with him, and that in Damascus he had spoken boldly in the name of Jesus. He went in and out with them in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. He talked and debated with the Greek-speaking Jews but they tried to murder him. When the brethren got news of this they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

When Paul arrived in Jerusalem he found himself regarded with the gravest suspicion. How could it be otherwise? It was in that very city that he had made havoc of the Church and had dragged men and women to prison. We have seen how at crucial moments in his career certain people were instrumental in winning Paul for the Church. First, the Church owed Paul to the prayer of Stephen. Then the Church owed Paul to the forgiving spirit of Ananias. Now we see the Church owing Paul to the large-hearted charity of Barnabas. When everyone else was steering clear of him, Barnabas took him by the hand and stood sponsor for him.

By this action Barnabas showed himself to be a really Christian man.

(i) He was a man who insisted on believing the best of others. When others suspected Paul of being a spy, Barnabas insisted on believing that he was genuine. The world is largely divided into those who think the best of others and those who think the worst; and it is one of the curious facts of life that ordinarily we see our own reflection in others and make them what we believe them to be. If we insist on regarding a man with suspicion, we will end by making him do suspicious things. If we insist on believing in a man, we will end by compelling him to justify that belief. As Paul himself said, "Love thinks no evil." No one believed in men as Jesus did and it should be enough for the disciple that he be as his Lord.

(ii) He was a man who never held anyone's past against him. It is so often the case that because a man once made a mistake, he is forever condemned. It is the great characteristic of the heart of God that he has not held our past sins against us; and we should never condemn a man because once he failed.

In this passage we see Paul taking characteristic action; he disputed with the Greek-speaking Jews. Stephen had been one of these Hellenists; and in all probability Paul went to the very synagogues where once he had opposed Stephen in order to witness to the fact that his life was changed.

Here again we see Paul in peril of his life. For him life had become a thing of hairbreadth escapes. Out of Jerusalem he was smuggled to Caesarea and thence to Tarsus. Once again he is following the consistent policy of his life, for he goes back to his native city to tell them that he is a changed man and that the one who changed him is Jesus Christ.

THE ACTS OF PETER ( Acts 9:32-43 )

9:32-43 In the course of a tour of the whole area, Peter came down to the saints who lived at Lydda. There he found a man called Aeneas who had been bed-ridden for eight years. He was paralysed. So Peter said to him, "Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you. Rise and make your bed." At once he stood up and all who lived at Lydda and at Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.

For a time Paul has held the centre of the stage; but once again Peter commands the limelight. This passage really follows on from Acts 8:25. It shows Peter in action. But it shows more than that. In the most definite way it shows us the source of Peter's power. When Peter healed Aeneas, he did not say, "I heal you"; he said, "Jesus Christ heals you." Before he spoke to Tabitha--Tabitha ( G5000) is the Hebrew for a gazelle (see tsebiyah, H6646) and Dorcas ( H ) is the Greek for the same word--Peter prayed. It was not his own power on which Peter called; it was the power of Jesus Christ. We think too much of what we can do and too little of what Christ can do through us.

There is one very interesting word in this passage. Twice the Christians at Lydda are called saints ( Acts 9:32; Acts 9:41). The same word is used earlier in the chapter by Ananias to describe the Christians at Jerusalem ( Acts 9:13). This is the word that Paul always uses to describe the church member, for he always writes his letters to the saints that are at such and such a place.

The Greek word is hagios ( G40) and it has far-reaching associations. It is sometimes translated holy but the root meaning of it is different. Basically the Christian is a man who is different from those who are merely people of the world. But wherein does that difference lie? Hagios ( G40) was specially used of the people Israel. They are specifically a holy people, a different people. Their difference lay in the fact that of all nations God had chosen them to do his work. Israel failed in her destiny. She was disobedient and by her actions she lost her privileges. The Church became the true Israel; and the Christians became the people who are different, their difference lying in the fact that they were chosen for the special purposes of God.

So then we who are Christians are not different from others in that we are chosen for greater honour on this earth; we are different in that we are chosen for a greater service. We are saved to serve.

-Barclay's Daily Study Bible (NT)

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Then had the churches rest,.... Meaning not spiritual rest in Christ; this they had before, even in tribulation, but rest from persecution; not so much because of the conversion of Saul, the great persecutor of them, for his conversion had been three years before; but rather because of his removal to other parts, the sight of whose person, and especially his ministry, had afresh stirred up the Jews to wrath and fury. The Alexandrian copy, and some others, the Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and Ethiopic versions, read in the singular number, "the church": but the several countries hereafter mentioned shows that more are designed: for it follows,

throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria; for by means of the dispersion, on account of persecution, the Gospel was preached in these several places, and churches gathered, and which shared in the persecution until this time, when they began to have rest; Galatians 1:22 1 Thessalonians 2:14 and were edified; or built up on the foundation Christ, and their most holy faith, through the ministry of the word and ordinances, and their mutual love and holy conversation; and had an increase of members, and of grace, and of spiritual knowledge:

and walking in the fear of the Lord; which was always before their eyes, and upon their hearts, continuing in religious exercises, and in the discharge of every duty, both to God and man. Not in a slavish fear of the wrath of the Lord, and of damnation for sin committed against him; for this is not consistent with their characters, as Gospel churches, made of persons who had received not the spirit of bondage to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, nor with their edification in faith and holiness; for "he that feareth is not made perfect in love"; 1 John 4:18 which edifies; nor with the comforts of the Holy Ghost, they are afterwards said to walk in: but in a godly fear, which has the Lord for its author, is not of a man's self, but of the grace of God, and is encouraged and increased by the discoveries of his grace and goodness: and which has the Lord for its object, whose name is holy and reverend, and is to be feared by all his saints: it shows itself in an hatred of sin; in a departure from it; in a carefulness not to offend the Lord; in withholding nothing from him, though ever so dear and valuable, he calls for; and in attending to all the parts of divine worship: and walking in it denotes a continuance in it, a constant progression in all the acts of internal and external worship, which are both included in the fear of the Lord; and it requires strength, and supposes pleasure and freedom. It is said of Enoch, that "he walked with God"; which the Targum of Onkelos paraphrases, "he walked in the fear of the Lord", Genesis 5:22 the same phrase which is here used.

And in the comfort of the Holy Ghost: which he communicated by shedding abroad the love of God in them, taking the things of Christ, and showing them to them, applying covenant blessings and Gospel promises to their souls, owning the word and ordinances, and making them useful to them, thereby leading them into fellowship with the Father, and with the Son. In all which he acts the part of a Comforter, and answers to the character he bears, and the office he is in: the love of God, which he directs into, and sheds abroad in the heart, refreshes and revives the Spirit of God's people; it influences and encourages every grace that is wrought in them; and makes them easy and comfortable under all providences, even the most afflicting ones: the things of Christ he takes and shows unto them are his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice; which being applied, and interest in them shown, produce abundance of peace, joy, and comfort: the promises of the covenant, and of the Gospel, he opens and applies, being such as hold forth the blessings of grace unto them; and being exceeding great, and precious, and suitable to their cases; and being absolute and unconditional, immutable, and sure, afford them much pleasure and satisfaction: and the word and ordinances being attended with the Holy Ghost, and much assurance, are breasts of consolation to them: and "walking" in those comforts which he administers, by such means, denotes a continuance of them, a long enjoyment of them, which is not very common; for, generally speaking, these comforts last but for a small time; and also it intimates much delight and pleasure in them, Psalms 94:19 and so "were multiplied"; both in their gifts and graces, and in the number of converts added to them.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      23 And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him:   24 But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him.   25 Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.   26 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.   27 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.   28 And he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem.   29 And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians: but they went about to slay him.   30 Which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Cæsarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.   31 Then had the churches rest throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria, and were edified; and walking in the fear of the Lord, and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost, were multiplied.

      Luke here makes no mention of Paul's journey into Arabia, which he tells us himself was immediately after his conversion, Galatians 1:16; Galatians 1:17. As soon as God had revealed his Son in him, that he might preach him, he went not up to Jerusalem, to receive instructions from the apostles (as any other convert would have done, that was designed for the ministry), but he went to Arabia, where there was new ground to break up, and where he would have opportunity of teaching, but not learning; thence he returned to Damascus, and there, three years after his conversion, this happened, which is here recorded.

      I. He met with difficulties at Damascus, and had a narrow escape of being killed there. Observe, 1. What his danger was (Acts 9:23; Acts 9:23): The Jews took counsel to kill him, being more enraged at him than at any other of the preachers of the gospel, not only because he was more lively and zealous in his preaching than any of them, and more successful, but because he had been such a remarkable deserter, and his being a Christian was a testimony against them. It is said (Acts 9:24; Acts 9:24), The Jews watched the gates day and night to kill him; they incensed the governor against him, as a dangerous man, who therefore kept the city with a guard to apprehend him, at his going out or coming in, 2 Corinthians 11:32. Now Christ showed Paul what great things he must suffer for his name (Acts 9:16; Acts 9:16), when here was presently the government in arms against him, which was a great thing, and, as all his other sufferings afterwards, helped to make him considerable. Saul was no sooner a Christian than a preacher, no sooner a preacher than a sufferer; so quickly did he rise to the summit of his preferment. Note, Where God gives great grace he commonly exercises it with great trials. 2. How he was delivered. (1.) The design against him was discovered: Their lying in wait was known of Saul, by some intelligence, whether from heaven or from men we are not told. (2.) The disciples contrived to help him away--hid him, it is likely, by day; and in the night, the gates being watched, that he could not get away through them, they let him down by the wall, in a basket, as he himself relates it (2 Corinthians 11:33), so he escaped out of their hands. This story, as it shows us that when we enter into the way of God we must look for temptation, and prepare accordingly, so it shows us that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that we may not be by it deterred nor driven from the way of God.

      II. He met with difficulties at Jerusalem the first time he went thither, Acts 9:26; Acts 9:26. He came to Jerusalem. This is thought to be that journey to Jerusalem of which he himself speaks (Galatians 1:18): After three years I went up to Jerusalem, saith he, to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. But I rather incline to think that this was a journey before that, because his coming in and going out, his preaching and disputing (Acts 9:28; Acts 9:29), seem to be more than would consist with his fifteen days' stay (for that was no more) and to require a longer time; and, besides, now he came a stranger, but then he came, historesai Petron--to confer with Peter, as one he was intimate with; however, it might possibly be the same. Now observe,

      1. How shy his friends were of him (Acts 9:26; Acts 9:26): When he came to Jerusalem, he did not go to the chief priests and the Pharisees (he had taken his leave of them long since), but he assayed to join himself to the disciples. Wherever he came, he owned himself one of that despised persecuted people, and associated with them. They were now in his eyes the excellent ones of the earth, in whom was all his delight. He desired to be acquainted with them, and to be admitted into communion with them; but they looked strange upon him, shut the door against him, and would not go about any of their religious exercises if he were by, for they were afraid of him. Now might Paul be tempted to think himself in an ill case, when the Jews had abandoned and persecuted him, and the Christians would not receive and entertain him. Thus does he fall into divers temptations, and needs the armour of righteousness, as we all do, both on the right hand and on the left, that we may not be discouraged either by the unjust treatment of our enemies or the unkind treatment of our friends. (1.) See what was the cause of their jealousy of him: They believed not that he was a disciple, but only pretended to be so, and came among them as a spy or an informer. They knew what a bitter persecutor he had been, with what fury he went to Damascus some time ago; they had heard nothing of him since, and therefore thought he was but a wolf in sheep's clothing. The disciples of Christ had need to be cautious whom they admit into communion with them. Believe not every spirit. There is need of the wisdom of the serpent, to keep the mean between the extremes of suspicion on the one hand and credulity on the other; yet methinks it is safer to err on the charitable side, because it is an adjudged case that it is better the tares should be found among the wheat than that the wheat should any of it be rooted up and thrown out of the field. (2.) See how it was removed (Acts 9:27; Acts 9:27): Barnabas took him to the apostles themselves, who were not so scrupulous as the inferior disciples, to whom he first assayed to join himself, and he declared to them, [1.] What Christ had done for him: He had shown himself to him in the way and spoken to him; and what he said. [2.] What he had since done for Christ: He had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus. How Barnabas came to know this, more than the rest of them, we are not told; whether he had himself been at Damascus, or had had letters thence, or discoursed with some of that city, by which he came to the knowledge of this; or whether he had formerly been acquainted with Paul in the Grecian synagogues, or at the feet of Gamaliel, and had such an account of his conversion from himself as he saw cause enough to give credit to: but so it was that, being satisfied himself, he gave satisfaction to the apostles concerning him, he having brought no testimonials from the disciples at Damascus, thinking he needed not, as some others, epistles of commendation,2 Corinthians 3:1. Note, The introducing of a young convert into the communion of the faithful is a very good work, and one which, as we have opportunity, we should be ready to do.

      2. How sharp his enemies were upon him. (1.) He was admitted into the communion of the disciples, which was no little provocation to his enemies. It vexed the unbelieving Jews to see Saul a trophy of Christ's victory, and a captive to his grace, who had been such a champion for their cause--to see him coming in, and going out, with the apostles (Acts 9:28; Acts 9:28), and to hear them glorying in him, or rather glorifying God in him. (2.) He appeared vigorous in the cause of Christ, and this was yet more provoking to them (Acts 9:29; Acts 9:29): He spoke boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus. Note, Those that speak for Christ have reason to speak boldly; for they have a good cause, and speak for one who will at last speak for himself and them too. The Grecians, or Hellenist Jews, were most offended at him, because he had been one of them; and they drew him into a dispute, in which, no doubt, he was too hard for them, as he had been for the Jews at Damascus. One of the martyrs said, Though she could not dispute for Christ, she could die for Christ; but Paul could do both. Now the Lord Jesus divided the spoils of the strong man armed in Saul. For that same natural quickness and fervour of spirit which, while he was in ignorance and unbelief, made him a furious bigoted persecutor of the faith, made him a most zealous courageous defender of the faith. (3.) This brought him into peril of his life, with which he narrowly escaped: The Grecians, when they found they could not deal with him in disputation, contrived to silence him another way; they went about to slay him, as they did Stephen when they could not resist the Spirit by which he spoke,Acts 6:10; Acts 6:10. That is a bad cause that has recourse to persecution for its last argument. But notice was given of this conspiracy too, and effectual care taken to secure this young champion (Acts 9:30; Acts 9:30): When the brethren knew what was designed against him they brought him down to Cesarea. They remembered how the putting of Stephen to death, upon his disputing with the Grecians, had been the beginning of a sore persecution; and therefore were afraid of having such a vein opened again, and hastened Paul out of the way. He that flies may fight again. He that fled from Jerusalem might do service at Tarsus, the place of his nativity; and thither they desired him by all means to go, hoping he might there go on in his work with more safety than at Jerusalem. Yet it was also by direction from heaven that he left Jerusalem at this time, as he tells us himself (Acts 22:17; Acts 22:17), that Christ now appeared to him, and ordered him to go quickly out of Jerusalem, for he must be sent to the Gentiles,Acts 9:15; Acts 9:15. Those by whom God has work to do shall be protected from all the designs of their enemies against them till it be done. Christ's witnesses cannot be slain till they have finished their testimony.

      III. The churches had now a comfortable gleam of liberty and peace (Acts 9:31; Acts 9:31): Then had the churches rest. Then, when Saul was converted, so some; when that persecutor was taken off, those were quiet whom he used to irritate, and then those were quiet whom he used to molest. Or, then, when he had gone from Jerusalem, the fury of the Grecian Jews was a little abated, and they were the more willing to bear with the other preachers now that Saul had gone out of the way. Observe,

      1. The churches had rest. After a storm comes a calm. Though we are always to expect troublesome times, yet we may expect that they shall not last always. This was a breathing-time allowed them, to prepare them for the next encounter. The churches that were already planted were mostly in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, within the limits of the holy land. There were the first Christian churches, where Christ had himself laid the foundation.

      2. They made a good use of this lucid interval. Instead of growing more secure and wanton in the day of their prosperity, they abounded more in their duty, and made a good use of their tranquillity. (1.) They were edified, were built up in their most holy faith; the more free and constant enjoyment they had of the means of knowledge and grace, the more they increased in knowledge and grace. (2.) They walked in the fear of the Lord--were more exemplary themselves for a holy heavenly conversation. They so lived that all who conversed with them might say, Surely the fear of God reigns in those people. (3.) They walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost--were not only faithful, but cheerful, in religion; they stuck to the ways of the Lord, and sang in those ways. The comfort of the Holy Ghost was their consolation, and that which they made their chief joy. They had recourse to the comfort of the Holy Ghost, and lived upon that, not only in days of trouble and affliction, but in days of rest and prosperity. The comforts of the earth, when they had the most free and full enjoyment of them, could not content them without the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Observe the connection of these two: when they walked in the fear of the Lord, then they walked in the comfort of the Holy Ghost. Those are most likely to walk cheerfully that walk circumspectly.

      3. God blessed it to them for their increase in number: They were multiplied. Sometimes the church multiplies the more for its being afflicted, as Israel in Egypt; yet if it were always so, the saints of the Most High would be worn out. At other times its rest contributes to its growth, as it enlarges the opportunity of ministers, and invites those in who at first are afraid of suffering. Or, then, when they walked in the fear of God and his comforts, they were multiplied. Thus those that will not be won by the word may be won by the conversation of professors.

Kelly Commentary on Books of the Bible

We are now arrived at a turning-point in the history, not merely of the church, but of the unfolding of the truth of God, and the manifestation of His ways. The death of Stephen, therefore, has in various points of view a great significance. And no wonder. His was the first spirit that departed to be with Christ after the Holy Ghost was given. But it was not merely one who departed to be with the Lord, which was far better; it was by the act of the Jews in the infuriate spirit of persecution. The very same people had done it who had so lately received with the utmost favour (not the truth, nor the grace of God, which is inseparable from His truth, but), at any rate, the mighty impress of the grace as well as of the truth which had produced unwonted largeness of heart, unselfishness of spirit, and joy and liberty, that struck the minds of the Jews accustomed to the coldness of death in their own system.

But now all was changed. What was most sweet soon became bitter, as it often is in the things of God. And when they understood the bearing of that which God had wrought here below that it judged man; that it gave no countenance to the religiousness in which they boasted; that it showed most convincingly, and so much the more bitterly because convincingly, what God all through His testimony with them had expressly intimated, by the prophets as well as in the types of the law itself, that He had deeper purposes; that nothing on earth could satisfy Him; that it was in His mind, on the proved ruin of Israel, to bring in heaven and its things for a heavenly people even while here below: now that this was made manifest, above all, in the testimony that Stephen had rendered to the very man that they had rejected and crucified, seen in glory at the right hand of God, it was unbearable. Could it be otherwise, when, spite of proud unbelief and conceit of distinctive privilege, they were forced to feel that they were none the less the constant resisters of the Holy Ghost like their fathers, who had been guilty themselves, and suffered the consequence of their guilt in their prostration to the Gentiles; to feel now that they themselves were no better, but rather worse; that there was the same unbelief bringing out its effects even more tremendously; that they were guilty of the blood of their own Messiah, who was now risen and exalted in the highest seat of heaven? All these things were pressed home by Stephen; indeed, I have simply touched on a very small part of his most telling address.

But the close lets us see more than this. There was the revelation now of Christ as an object for the Christian in heaven, and the revelation of Him too in a way entirely outside the narrow boundaries of Judaism. Stephen speaks of Him as Son of man. This is an essential feature of Christianity. Unlike the law, it addresses all; there is no narrowness in a rejected heavenly Christ. By the Holy Ghost there is imparted all the firmness of a divine bond, and all the intimacy of a real living relationship of the nearest kind. At the same time, along with this is seen universality in the going out of both the truth and grace of God, which could not but be foreign to the law. And although its character had to be yet more brought out by another and far greater witness of divine things who was still in the blindness of Jewish unbelief at this very moment himself taking his own miserable part, though with a good natural conscience, in the death of Stephen, all told powerfully upon the Jews, but lacerated their feelings to the utmost.

I have already touched upon the practical effects, and therefore will not enlarge on these now. My object, of course, is simply to give a sketch of the important book now before us, endeavouring to connect (as, indeed, evidently the chapter does connect) what was coming with what was past. Saul was consenting unto Stephen's death, and Saul was the expression of Jewish feeling in its best aspect. It was now guilty of resisting unto blood, not merely as their fathers had done, but the heavenly testimony of Jesus. Nevertheless the God that vindicated the honour of the crucified Jesus did not forget the martyred Stephen; and though there was an outburst of persecution, which scattered abroad throughout the region of Judea and Samaria all the believers that were in Jerusalem except the apostles, devout men were not wanting who carried Stephen to his burial. Clearly they were not Christians; but God has all hearts in His keeping. And they "made great lamentation over him." This was suitable to them. Theirs was not the joy that saw into the presence of God. They felt in a measure, and justly, the tremendous deed that had been done. And as there was reality at least in their feeling, they made suitable lamentation. But "as for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house, and dragging off men and women, committed them to prison." Religious persecution is invariably ruthless and blind even to the commonest feelings of humanity.

"Therefore they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word;" for the God who not only has hearts at His command, but controls all circumstances, was now about to accomplish that which He had always at heart, making the disciples to be witnesses of Jesus to the very ends of the earth, though first of all to Judea and Samaria. Accordingly we find, as the testimony had gone forth throughout Jerusalem at least, so now the old rival of Jerusalem comes within the dealings of God. Philip, who had been appointed by the apostles at the choice of the multitude of the disciples to care for the distribution to the poor, goes down to the cities of Samaria preaching Christ. This did not at all flow from his ordination. His appointment was to take care of the tables. His preaching Christ was the fruit of the Lord's call. Where man chooses for human things, we have the Lord recognising it. He would have His people, where they give, to have a voice. He would meet them in grace, stopping complaints, and showing that He honours and confides in their suitable choice. But not so in the ministry of the word or testimony of the Lord. Here the Lord alone gives, alone calls, alone sends forth. Philip, besides being one of the seven, was an "evangelist," as we are told expressly in another part of this very book (Acts 21:8). It is important to distinguish between the two things one, the charge to which man appointed him; the other, the gift which the Lord conferred. (Ephesians 4:1-32) I merely make the remark in passing; though it will not be needed for most here, it may be for some.

Philip goes down, then, preaching Christ; "and the people with one accord gave heed unto those things which Philip spake, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did." But the testimony of miracles is apt to act upon the flesh. They are, indeed, a sign to unbelievers, and that such is the result we find shown us by the Spirit of God in the chapter before us. However graciously given of the Lord as a token to attract the careless minds of men, they are dangerous when they are made the resting-place and the object of the mind; and this was the fatal mistake made then, and not merely there but by many millions of souls from that day to this. Faith never rests on any other ground than God's word. All else is vain, and apt to accredit. as well as entice man. There was indeed the unmistakable action of the Spirit of God on this occasion the power that cast out unclean spirits and healed the sick, as well as the means of spreading joy throughout that city for the souls of men. Evidently it was power in external display, then so richly manifested, which acted on the fleshly mind of Simon, himself having the reputation of a great one, and before this the vessel of some kind of demoniacal power the miserable power of Satan, with which he dazzled the eyes of men. But now finding himself eclipsed, like a wily man, his object was to avail himself of this superior energy if it were possible. His aim was not Christ; it was all for himself. He wished to gain fresh influence, not to lose his old: why not, by this new method, if possible, turn things to his own account?

Accordingly, among the train of those that received the gospel and were baptized, Simon is found. Philip had not the discernment to see through him: evangelists are apt to be sanguine. It may be that the Lord had not allowed the true character of Simon to be manifested to every eye at that moment. It did not escape the discerning eyes of Peter a little afterward. But as we are told here, "When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized both men and women; and Simon himself believed also." Scripture does show, though it does not sanction as divine, a faith that is founded on evidence. And it continues still. So John often speaks of it; and the very one that tells us most of the divinely given character of true faith who most of all lets us into its secret power and blessedness, even eternal life as bound up with it, that same John is the one who more than any other furnishes instances of a mere humanly produced faith. Such was the faith of Simon. The gospel of Luke also describes what is similar; that is to say, a faith not insincere but human, not wrought of the Spirit but founded on the mind yielding to reasons, proofs, evidences, which are to it overpowering; but there is nothing of God in it: there is no meeting between the soul and God. Without this, faith is good for nothing, nor is God Himself honoured in His own word. Power was what struck Simon's mind himself a devotee of power, who in times past had sunk indeed low, even to the enemy of God and man in order from any source to be the vessel of a power beyond man. He could not deny the might that proved itself without effort superior to anything he had ever wielded. This was what attracted him; and, as it is said here, "he continued with Philip" (there was no other bond of connection), "and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done." A believer would have wondered more at the grace of God, and bowed in adoration before Him. Conscience would have been searched by the truth of God; and the heart would have been filled with praise at the grace of God. Neither one nor other ever entered into the thoughts or feelings of Simon.

And "when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent unto them Peter and John." It was of the greatest importance that unity should be kept up practically, not merely that there should be proclaimed the truth that there is unity, but that there should be the maintenance of it in practice. Accordingly Peter and John, two of the chiefs among the apostles, come down from Jerusalem. But there was another reason too. It was so ordered of God that the Holy Ghost should not at first be conferred on the disciples at Samaria: I do not mean merely on such as Simon or false brethren, but even on those that were true. Undoubtedly they could not have believed the gospel, had there not been the quickening operation of the Holy Ghost; but we must distinguish between the Holy Ghost giving life and the Holy Ghost Himself given.

Another thing too let me again and again remark: the gift of the Holy Ghost never means those mighty wonders of power which had acted on the greedy and ambitious mind of Simon Magus. The gift of the Spirit is not at all the same thing as the gifts. These gifts, at least such as were of an extraordinary sort, were the outward signs of that gift in early days; and it was of great importance that there should be a decisive palpable testimony to it. The presence of the Holy Ghost was a new and quite unexampled thing even among believers. Hence it is there were mighty powers that wrought by those who were employed by the Holy Ghost; as, for instance, by Philip himself; afterwards also by the disciples, when Peter and John came down and laid their hands upon them with prayer. The Holy Ghost came upon them, not merely, it will be observed, certain spiritual powers, but the Holy Ghost Himself. They had not those powers only, but this divine person given to them. Scripture is clear and unequivocal as to the truth of the case. I can understand difficulties in the minds of believers; and no one would wish to force or hurry the convictions of any; nor would it be of the slightest value to receive even a truth without the faith that is produced, and exercised, and cleared by the word of God. But at the same time to my own mind it seems to be only homage to God's word to affirm positively that of which I am sure.

I therefore must say that the gift of the Holy Ghost here is, in my judgment, clearly distinct from anything in the way of either a spiritual gift for souls or a miraculous power, as it is called. There followed also such signs, or outward powers; but the Holy Ghost was given Himself, according to the Lord's word the promise of the Father, a promise which, as all know, was in the first instance assured to those who were already believers, and which was made good to them because they were believers, not to make them so. When redemption was accomplished, it was the seal of the faith and the life which they already had. There can be no doubt that the facts at Samaria were analogous; but this remarkable feature is to be noticed, that the Holy Ghost was here conferred by (not, as at Jerusalem, apart from) the laying on of the hands of the apostles. Of this we heard nothing in the divine history of the day of Pentecost; and I think that scripture is abundantly plain that there could have been nothing of the kind then and there. First of all, the apostles and the disciples themselves received it as they were waiting. The Holy Ghost came down upon them suddenly, with no previous sign whatever, except that which was suitable to the Holy Ghost when sent down from heaven the mighty rushing wind, and then the tokens of His presence upon each were manifested. Yet there was no such requirement as imposition of hands in order to be the medium of it. But it would seem that special reasons operated at Samaria to make it necessary there. It was of all moment to keep up the links practically between a work which might have looked to many there, as now, not a little irregular. It was wrought not by those that had previously been always the great spiritual witnesses; for we hear of none ministering but the apostles, and indeed not even of all the apostles speaking, though it may be that they did. But here we have clearly a man who had been chosen for another and an external purpose by the church, but whom the Lord uses elsewhere for a new and higher purpose, for which He had qualified him by the Holy Ghost.

Nevertheless, care was taken to hinder all appearance of independence or indifference to unity. There was the freest action of the Holy Ghost, sovereignly free, and it is impossible to maintain this too stringently; and there was the utmost care that all should be left open for the Holy Ghost to act according to His own will, not only within the church, but also by evangelizing outside. For all that God took precaution to bind up together the work at Samaria with that which He had wrought at Jerusalem. Hence though Philip might preach and they receive the gospel, the apostles come down, and with prayer lay their hands upon them, and then they receive the Holy Ghost. To a reflecting believer it will be plain that the reasons for this do not hold at the present time. I merely make this remark lest any should draw from this the inference that there is a necessity for men commissioned from God to lay on hands now in order to confer such a spiritual blessing.

The fact is, that the notion of imposition of hands being a universal medium of conveying the Holy Ghost is certainly a mistake. On the greatest occasions, when the Holy Ghost was given, we have no ground to believe that hands were laid on any. There were two exceptional occasions on which one or more of the apostles so acted, but at times of more general interest and importance nothing of the sort was heard of. Take, as the most solemn moment of all, the day of Pentecost. Who that honours scripture can pretend that hands were laid on any then? Yet the Holy Ghost was given in especial power on that day. But what is more to the purpose for us Gentiles, when Cornelius and his household were brought in, not only no appearance of it is visible, but positive proof to the contrary. Peter was present, but he certainly laid no hand of his on a single soul that day before the Holy Ghost was given. So far from it, as we shall find by and by inActs 10:1-48; Acts 10:1-48, the Holy Ghost was given while he was yet speaking, before they were so much as baptized. On the day of Pentecost they were baptized first, and then they received the gift of the Holy Ghost. At Samaria they had been baptized for some time, as we know. On believing they were baptized, as we are told in Acts 8:1-40; but they received the Holy Ghost after an interval, through the action of the apostles.

I refer to this just to show how far scripture is from countenancing the cramped ideas of men, and that the only way of truth is to believe all the word of God, searching out the special principle of God by which He instructs us in the different characters of His action. Surely He is always wise and consistent with Himself. It is we who by confounding matters lose consequently the blessedness and beauty of the truth of God.

Now the reason, as it appears to me, why divine wisdom led to this striking difference at Samaria, was the necessity of hindering that independence to which even Christians are so liable. There was special exposure to this evil which called for so much the greater guard against it at Samaria. How painful must it be to the Spirit of God if the old pride of Samaria were to rise up against Jerusalem! God would cut off the very appearance of this. There was the free action of His Spirit towards Samaria without the apostles, but the Holy Ghost was given by the laying on of their hands. This solemn act was not merely an ancient sign of divine blessing, but of identification also. Such, I suppose, therefore, was the principle that lay at the bottom of the difference of the divine action on these two occasions.

Then we find Simon struck not so much by an individual's endowment with miraculous power, as by the fact that others received it by the apostles' laying on of hands. At once, with the instinct of flesh, he sees a good 'opportunity for himself, and, judging of others' hearts by his own, presents money as the means of acquiring the coveted power. But this detects the man. How often our words show where we are! How continually too where we least think they do! It is not only in cases of our judgment (for there is nothing that so often judges a man as his own judgment of another); but also where the desire goes out after that which we have not got. How all-important for our souls that we should have Christ before us, and that we should have no desire but for His glory! Not a ray of the light of Christ had entered the heart of Simon, and so Peter at once detects the false heart. With that energy which characterized him he says, "Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter: for thy heart is not right in the sight of God." At the same time there is the pity that belongs to one who knew the grace of God, and saw the end of all in His judgment. "Repent, therefore, of this thy wickedness, and pray God if, perhaps, the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee; for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." God has no pleasure in the death of a sinner. Simon can only answer, "Pray ye to the Lord for me." He had no confidence in the Lord for himself not a particle; for just as those who have confidence in the Lord have not an atom in man, his sole hope of blessing for his soul lay in the influence of another man, not in Christ's grace. "Pray ye to the Lord for me, that none of those things which ye have spoken come upon me."

The apostles then, after preaching in the various villages of the Samaritans, return to Jerusalem. But not so the word of God. The gospel goes forth elsewhere; it is in no way bound to Jerusalem. On the contrary, the grand bearing of this chapter is that now the tide of blessing is flowing away from Jerusalem. The holy city had rejected the gospel. It was not enough that they had rejected the Messiah, nor even that He was made Lord and Christ on high. They refused utterly the Holy Ghost's testimony to the Son of man glorified in heaven, and slew or scattered the witnesses, Who then was specially used as the instrument of the free action of the Holy Ghost elsewhere, without plan, without thought of man, and apparently the simple result of circumstances, but in truth God's hand directing all? Philip is told by the angel of the Lord to arise and go towards the south towards "Gaza, which is desert." "And he arose and went." Strikingly, beautiful it is to see the devoted simplicity with which he answers to the call of his Master. I will not pretend to say that it cost him little, but am sure it would have been a heavy trial to many a man of God to leave that which was so bright, where He had wrought powerfully in using himself for His own glory. But he is truly a bondman, and at once is ready to go at the bidding of the Lord, who had given him to reap in joy where He had Himself tasted the firstfruits in the days of His own ministry here below. Samaria, which had held out against the truth, was now yielding the harvest that a greater than Philip had sown; and there was joy in that very Samaria where greater works were now done according to His own word.

But this was not enough for God. A man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under the queen of the Ethiopians, was returning after having gone up to Jerusalem to worship. He was going, back without the blessing that his earnest heart yearned after. He had gone up to the great city of solemnities, but the blessing was no longer to be found there. Jehovah's house had been left doubly desolate; Jerusalem had this added to her other sins that, when the blessing had come down from heaven, she would not have it. She despised the Holy Ghost as she had despised the Messiah; and no wonder therefore that he who had gone up to Jerusalem to worship was returning with the yearnings of his heart still unsatisfied. And not the angel but the Spirit guides now. The angel had to do with providential circumstances, but the Spirit with that which directly deals with spiritual need and blessing. So says the Spirit to Philip, "Go near and join thyself to this chariot." Philip acts at once, with alacrity hears the eunuch read the prophet Isaiah, and puts the question whether he understood what was read. The answer is, "How can I, except some man should guide me?" Thereon Philip is invited to come up and sit with him, Isaiah 53:1-12; Isaiah 53:1-12 being, as we know, the portion in question; and the eunuch asks of whom the prophet spoke these words "of himself or some other man?" so gross was his darkness even as to the general point of the chapter. "Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the very same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus." It was enough. That one name, through faith in it, what could it not accomplish? The facts were notorious; but of this we may be sure, that never had they been put together before the mind of the Ethiopian as then, never connected with the living Word and His grace. They were now put in contact with his wants, and all was instantly light in his soul. Oh, what a blessing it is to have and know such a Saviour! What a joy to be warranted to proclaim Him to others without stint, even to a soul as dark as the Ethiopian, who was then and there baptized!

Remember that verse 37 is only an imaginary conversation between him and Philip. The man just now so ignorant is not the channel that God was about to use for bringing out the remarkable confession that is introduced prematurely here. It was reserved for another of whom we shall read in the next chapter. This scene does show the stranger discovering the predicted Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah suffering, no doubt, but accomplishing atonement. Certainly the Ethiopian received the truth; but verse 37 had better be passed by in your minds, at least in this connection. All who are informed in these matters are aware that the best authorities reject the entire verse.

"He went on his way rejoicing." Though the Spirit of the Lord catches away Philip, so full is his heart of the truth that we may be sure all that occurred confirmed it in his eyes. How could anything seem too great and good to him whose heart had just made the acquaintance of Jesus? Did he not feel so much the more settled in Jesus as there was no other object now before his soul? It was the Lord that had brought Philip, and it was His Spirit that bad taken him away; but it was He too who had given him and left him Jesus for ever. Philip is found at Azotus, and passing through he preaches elsewhere.

At this point we come to the history of the call of another and yet more honoured witness of divine grace and Christ's glory. Saul of Tarsus was yet breathing out his threats and slaughter when the Lord was pursuing His onward gracious work among the Samaritans and strangers. The returning treasurer of Queen Candace was a proselyte, I suppose, from the Gentiles, living among them, not as a Gentile himself, but practically a Jew, whatever the place of his birth and residence. The time for the call of the Gentiles strictly was not yet come, though the way is being prepared. The Samaritans, as you know, were a mongrel race; the stranger may have been possibly a proselyte from among the Gentiles; but the apostle of the Gentiles is now to be called. Such is the unfolding of the ways of God at this point.

Acts 9:1-43. Saul in his zeal had desired letters giving him authority to punish the Christian Jews, and was found on his way journeying near the Gentile city that he sought. "Suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: and he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, Who art thou, Lord?" All depended upon this. "And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." What a revolution this word caused in that mighty heart! Confidence in man, in self, was overthrown to its foundations all that his life had been zealously building up. "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." It was the Lord undoubtedly, and the Lord declared He was Jesus, and Jesus was Jehovah. He dared not doubt longer: to him it was self-evident. If Jesus was Jehovah, what then had his religion been? what had high priest or Sanhedrim done for him? Was it not then God's high priest, God's law? Unquestionably it was. How then could so fatal an error have been committed? It was the fact. Man, Israel, not merely Saul, was altogether blinded: the flesh never knows God. The despised and hated name of Jesus is the only hope for man, Jesus is the only Saviour and Lord. His glory burst on the astonished eyes of Saul, who surrenders immediately. It was not without the deepest searching of heart, though smitten down at once; for how could there be a question as to the divine power? How could its reality be doubted? As little could there be a question as to the grace exercised toward him, though the manner was not after that of man. The light that shone suddenly on him was from heaven. But it was God's way. The voice that said, "Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?" was from Jesus. "Who art thou, Lord?" he cried, and hears, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest." How could he resist the heavenly vision?

Observe that, although the next words are beyond a question scriptural, and so far the case differs from verse 37 referred to in the last chapter, the last clause of verse 5 and the first of verse 6 belong properly speaking to two other chapters (Acts 22:1-30, Acts 26:1-32) rather than to this. I do not therefore comment upon these additions here: they will remain for their own real and suitable places. But Saul does arise from the earth. "And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man." But he had heard the voice of His mouth, and His words were spirit and life, eternal life, to his soul. Three days and nights he neither eats nor drinks. The profound moral work of God proceeded in that converted heart. Nevertheless even he, apostle though he were, must enter by the same lowly gate as another. And so we have the story of Ananias, and the ways of the Lord, not of some great apostle, nor even of Philip, but a disciple at Damascus named Ananias, to whom the Lord spoke in a vision. And he goes, the Lord communicating another vision to the apostle himself, in which he sees Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him that he might receive his sight.

The Spirit puts us in presence of the freedom of the servant, as he pleads with the Lord, for neither man nor even the child of God ever reaches up to the height of His grace. Ananias, wholly unprepared for the call of such an enemy of the gospel, slow of heart to believe all, expostulates, as it were, with the Saviour. "Lord," says he, "I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem: and here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name." But the Lord said unto him, "Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel."

Even here the intimation is sufficiently plain that the Gentiles were in the foreground of the work designed for Saul of Tarsus. But this was not all. It was to be emphatically a witness of grace in suffering for Christ's name: "For I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake." And so it was. Ananias goes, puts his hand on him, addresses him by the sweet title of relationship Christ began, consecrated, and has given, telling him how the Lord, even Jesus, had appeared unto him. How confirmatory it must have been to the apostle's heart to learn that Ananias was now sent by the same Lord Jesus, without the slightest intimation from without, whether of Saul himself or any other man! "The Lord hath sent me that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost." And every word was made good. "Saul arose and was baptized, and when he had received meat he was strengthened, and remained with the disciples for some time."

In due time follows the further development of the truth as to Christ in testimony. "He preached in the synagogues that Jesus is the Son of God." Such was the emphatic and characteristic presentation of His person assigned to the apostle, and this at once. It was not that Peter did not know the same, we are all aware how blessedly he confessed Him to be (not Messiah only, but) the Son of the living God while Jesus was here below. Nor is it that the other disciples had not the same faith. Surely it was true of all who really believed and knew His glory. Nevertheless "out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh;" and he who loves to present the Lord in the depth of His personal grace, and the height of His glory, has surely a spiritual fitness for the expression of the heart's joy in that which faith has created within. Thus, although the others no doubt had the same Saviour taught them by the Holy Ghost, still there was not in every case the same measure of entrance or appreciation. Paul had it not more suddenly than with a heavenly splendour which was peculiar to himself; and thus there was a vast work soon wrought. There was a bringing out of that which belonged to Christ, not merely the place which Christ took, but that which He is from all eternity, consequently that which is most of all intrinsically precious. He preached Him, and this boldly in the synagogue too, "that he is the Son of God." All that heard were amazed. "But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews that dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ." The doctrine of His Sonship did not in the smallest degree, of course, set aside the Messiahship. This remained; but he preached Him rather in His own personal glory, not as the Son of David, the servant, which was the great burden of Peter's preaching, made Lord and Christ; not that He was the Son of man in heaven, as Stephen witnessed; but that this Jesus, the Christ, is the Son of God, clearly therefore more particularly bound up with the divine nature, or godhead glory of Himself.

After this comes no slight discipline for Saul. As the Jews watched the gates to kill him, the disciples took him by night and let him down the wall in a basket. Thus we find the utmost simplicity and quietness. There is no show of doing great things; nor do we read of daring in any way: what is there of Christ in the one or the other? Contrariwise, we see that which outwardly looks exceedingly weak; but this was the man that was in another day to say that he gloried in his infirmities. He acts on that of which he afterwards wrote. He was led of God.

Then we learn another important lesson. "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." God did not clothe him with such overwhelming influence that doors were thrown open to him though the greatest of the apostles. Oh why should any confessor of Christ why should any child of God shrink from rendering godly satisfaction to those that seek it? Why so much haste and impatience? Why should there be unwillingness to meet and submit to others when it is a question of reception? What earnest desire should there not be to bow to all that which is. due to the church of God? Here we find not even the apostle Paul was above it.

Not on the other hand that there ought to be a spirit of suspicion or distrust in the church or any Christian. I am far from saying that it was comely on their part to indulge in hesitation touching this wondrous display of divine grace. But what I want to press for our profit, beloved brethren, is that at any rate he who is the object of grace can afford to be gracious. Nor is there a more painful want of it than that kind of restiveness which is so ready to take offence at the smallest fear or anxiety on the part of others. Surely to shrink from their enquiries is nothing but self on our part. If Christ were the object of our souls, we should bow as one did called of God with incomparably better tokens of the Lord's favour than any other, this blessed man, Saul of Tarsus. But if the church were distrustful, the Lord was not unmindful, and knew how to give courage to the heart of His servant. There was among them a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost, of whom we have had a happy report before, as we shall hear many (though not altogether unmingled) good tidings to the end. For indeed he was but man. Nevertheless, being a good man and full of the Holy Ghost, he seeks out and takes Saul to the apostles when others stood aloof, 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; and he was with them coming in and going out at Jerusalem." Grace can credit grace easily, understands the ways of the Lord, and disarms suspicion. it is beautiful to see how the Lord thus, even in the history of that which was unprecedented and might seem to lie outside Christian wants, provides in His blessed word for the every day difficulties we have to prove in such a day of weakness as ours.

After this wonderful working of God the church had rest. I say, "the church; " for there need be no doubt, I think, that such is the true form* of what is given us in verse 31. The common text and translations have "the churches;" but I believe that this faulty form crept in here, because the sense of the oneness of the church so speedily passed away. Hence people could not understand that it was one and the same church throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria. It was plain enough to see the Christian assembly in a city, even if it were as numerous as in Jerusalem, where it must have met in not a few different localities and chambers. The church, not merely in a city but in a province or country, is intelligible enough to man; but it soon became more difficult to see its unity in various and differing provinces. The change of reading here seems to prove it was too much for the copyists of this book. The reading sanctioned by the best and most ancient authorities is the singular not the churches, but "the church." "Then had the church rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria." Undoubtedly throughout these districts churches existed; but it was all one and the same church too, and not different bodies.

* The external authority is very decidedly for the singular against the plural. Thus all the first-rate Uncials, the Sinai, Vatican, Alexandrian, and Palimpsest of Paris, supported by some of the best cursives and all the best ancient versions, oppose the vulgar reading.

The following extract from the late Dr. Carson's Letters in reply to Dr. John Brown's Vindication of Presbyterianism will show how far an able and excellent man went astray in defending Congregationalism through not knowing that his argument was based, not on God's word, but on man's corruption of it. I quote from the original edition (Edinburgh, 1807): "Acts 11: 31. 'Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea, and Galilee, and Samaria,' etc.

Here I would be glad to know how this can be interpreted upon any other principle than that church in the single number was solely appropriated to a single congregation, when applied to an assembly of Christ's disciples. It is not the church of Judea, the church of Galilee, and the church of Samaria, but the churches of Judea, etc. Way, more, had these been Presbyterians, all under the same government, the phraseology would not have been even the church of Judea, and the church of Galilee, and the church of Samaria, but all these would have been in one church, and even then but a small part of a church. This phraseology would have been somewhat like this, 'The church had rest throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria,' i.e., the part of the church that lies in these countries." (p. 378.) How startled this good man but excessively keen controversialist must have been, had he learnt that, beyond all just question, the only tenable text here is destructive of the notion of independent churches, and in reality gives the appellation to the entire body of the disciples throughout these regions, as standing on one common ground, and enjoying full intercommunion, though in these different districts. But that branch of criticism which consists in a full knowledge of the sources, a nice discrimination of the various readings, and a sound judgment in deciding the preferable text, as it is rarely found, so it certainly was not the forte of Dr. C. One hundred and fifty years ago, Dr. E. Wells, in his "Help for the more easy and clear understanding of the Scriptures" (Oxford, 1718), not only adopted the singular in his Greek text and his English paraphrase, but pointed out in his Annotations the great weakness of the argument drawn by dissenters from the plural ἐκκλησίαι , as if it favoured their system of separate churches.

The end of the chapter shows us the progress of Peter. He visits round about. It was no longer a question of Jerusalem only even for Peter, but without being called to the same largeness of work practically as the apostle Paul, he nevertheless passes throughout "all quarters" of Palestine, and comes down to the saints at Lydda, and is seen by those of Saron. At Joppa too was wrought a still more striking miracle of the Lord in Tabitha's case, already dead, than in that of Eneas, who had been paralysed for years. On these I need only remark how grace used them for the spread of the testimony. "All that dwelt in Lydda and Saron saw him, and turned to the Lord." "It was known throughout all Joppa, and many believed on the Lord." But at this point a still more important step was about to be taken; and the Lord enters on it with due solemnity, as we shall see in the following chapter. (Acts 10:1-48)

Little did the great apostle of the circumcision anticipate what was before him as he tarried many days in Joppa with one Simon a tanner. For hence the Lord called him to a new sphere a task which, to a Jewish mind, was beyond measure strange. It would be a mistake to suppose that God had not wrought on the heart of Gentiles. We see such in the gospels. Cornelius was one of those who, among the Gentiles, had abandoned idolatry; but more than this was sometimes found. There were Gentiles who truly looked to the Lord, and not to self or man; who had been taught of Him to look for a coming Saviour, though they quite rightly connected that Saviour with Israel; for such was the burden of the promise. As there was a Job in the Old Testament, independent of the law and perhaps before it, so we find a Cornelius before the glad tidings in the New Testament had been formally sent to the nations. All know that there were Jews waiting for the Saviour. It is of interest to see, and should be better known, that among the Gentiles were not wanting such as worshipped no idols but served the true and living God. No doubt their spiritual condition was defective, and their outward position must have seemed anomalous; but Scripture is decisive that such godly Gentiles there were.

It is a fallacy then to suppose that Cornelius had no better than merely natural religion. He was assuredly, before Peter went, a converted man. To regard him as unawakened at that time is to mistake a great deal of the teaching of the chapter. Not that one would deny that a mighty work was then wrought in Cornelius. We must not limit, as ignorant people do, the operation of the Holy Spirit to the new birth. No man in his natural state could pray, nor serve God acceptably, as Cornelius did. One must be born again; but, like many others who had really been quickened in those days (and it may be even now, I presume), a soul might be born again, and yet far from resting in peace on redemption, far indeed from a sense of deliverance from all questions as to his soul. There is this difference, no doubt, between such cases now and that of Cornelius then, that, before the mission of Peter, it would have been presumptuous for a Gentile to have pretended to salvation; now it is the fruit of unbelief for a believer to question it. A soul that now looks to Jesus ought to rest without question on redemption; but we must remember that at this time Jesus was not yet publicly preached to the Gentiles not yet freely and fully proclaimed according to the riches of grace. Therefore, the more godly Cornelius was, the less would he dare to put forth his hand for the blessing before the Lord told him to stretch it out. He did what, I have no doubt, was the right thing. He was truly in earnest before God. As we are told here and the Spirit delights to give such an account "he was a devout man, and one that feared God with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God alway."

Such was the man to whom God was about to send the gospel by Peter. Thus we must carefully remember that the gospel brings more than conversion to God. It is the message of life, but it is also the means of peace. Before the gospel was preached to every creature, a new nature was communicated to many a soul; but till then there was not and could not be peace. The two things are both brought us in the gospel life brought to light, and the peace preached that was made by the blood of the cross. At the same time scripture shows there might be and often was an interval after the gospel did go forth. So from experience we know there is many a man that you cannot doubt to be truly looking to the Lord, yet far from resting in the peace of God. Cornelius, I apprehend, was just in this case. He would no more have perished, had it pleased God to have taken him away in this state, than any Old Testament saint, whether Jew or Gentile. No believer could be so ignorant of God and His ways of old as to imagine there ought to be any doubt about those who nevertheless were full of anxieties and troubles, and through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

Even now, although it is the gospel that God sends out, we know well how many, through a misuse of Old Testament teaching, plunge themselves into distress and doubt. God does not suggest a doubt of His own grace to them, or of the efficacy of Christ's sacrifice for them: unbelief does. It was not so with Cornelius. He was not entitled to take the peace of the gospel till God warranted Peter to bring it to him. This was precisely what God was now doing; and the remarkable fact appears, that God did not wait for the apostle of the Gentiles to bring the good news to Cornelius. Is not this interlacing after a divine sort? It was not to be done by mere systematic rule of a human pattern. But just as the great apostle of the Gentiles was the one that wrote the final word of testimony to the Christian Jews in the epistle to the Hebrews, so the great apostle of the Jews was the one sent to fling open the door to the Gentile. It was Peter, not Paul, who was sent to Cornelius. The chapter itself proves that he had to be forced to go. He seems to have lost sight of the words of the Lord Jesus that he was told by Jesus risen from the dead to preach the gospel to every creature. There was to be a testimony to an the nations. The promise was not merely to them and to their children, but to all "afar off, as many as the Lord their God should call." At any rate, the Lord now graciously interferes, and as he gives Cornelius to see a vision most instructive to him, so next day also there is to Peter another vision from the Lord.

Answering to the vision, messengers bring the apostle to the household of Cornelius, and Peter opens his mouth to the following effect: "Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him. The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ: (he is Lord of all:) that word, I say, ye know." I call your attention to this. Cornelius was not in ignorance of the gospel going out to the children of Israel, but it was precisely because he was a lowly-minded believer that he did not therefore arrogate the blessing to himself. The very essence of faith is that you do not run before God, but receive what and as He sends to you. God had published it already to the sons of Israel, and the good man rejoiced in it. But for himself and his household, what could he do but pray till the rich blessing came? He valued the ancient people of God; nor is he indeed the only centurion that loved their nation. We are told of another who also built for the Jews their synagogue. Thus Cornelius was aware that God had sent the gospel to the Jews; but there was precisely where he necessarily stopped short. Was that word for him?

"That word ye know," says Peter, "which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John preached; how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with him . . . whom they slew and hanged on a tree: him God raised up the third day, and showed him openly" (not to all the people, but) "unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. And he commanded us to preach unto the people." Clearly the Jew is meant. "He commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead. To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever," etc.

Here comes the telling word for him that feared the Lord and bowed to His word, though he was a Gentile. "Whosoever believeth on him shall receive remission of sins." Peter had not long learnt it himself. Had he not read or heard those words in the prophets? No doubt he had read them many a time, but no better than we have read them, and many other words likewise; and how little we understood any of them to profit until the mighty power of God gave it efficacy in our souls! In this case Peter had God's own direct warrant in the vision, not of the church (for this was not the meaning of the sheet let down from heaven), but decidedly of the call of the Gentiles. It was the obliterating of mere fleshly distinction between Jew and Gentile. God was meeting sinners as such, whatever they might be, giving no doubt a heavenly character to what had a heavenly source with a heavenly result. But there is not yet the revealed truth of the body, though involved in the word of the Lord to Saul of Tarsus when he said, "Why persecutest thou me?" Here it is not this, but simply the indiscriminate. grace of God to sinners of the Gentiles as certainly as to the Jews to those who, in the judgment of the Jews, were nothing but refuse, vile, and unclean.

Peter then, with this new-born conviction in his soul, reads the prophets with entirely fresh light and other eyes. Full of the truth himself, he speaks with the utmost simplicity to Cornelius, who with his household hears the blessed word. "To him give all the prophets witness." It was one concurrent evidence. "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him." There is no question of a Jew, but "Whosoever believeth in him." Alas! the Jews did not believe in Him; but whosoever did, let him be Jew or Gentile, "shall receive remission of sins." This precisely Cornelius had not known, nor could any one have known it till the work of redemption was done. The Old Testament saints were just as safe before the work of Christ as they were afterwards, but this work put them on a ground of conscious salvation before God. It was not a question of being saved in the day of judgment; nor is this the meaning of the term "salvation" in the New Testament. Salvation means that the heart enters into deliverance by grace as a present known public standing in the world. Nobody could have this till the gospel, and even after its publication God Himself sent specifically to the Gentiles; for He has His ways, as well as His times and seasons. God will always be Himself, and cannot be other than Sovereign.

Thus we see God had allowed things apparently to take their course. Israel had the truth presented to them as it was afterwards to all. It was their responsibility now as ever to accept the gracious offer of God. If Israel would have received, the Lord would have given. It was even, and urgently, pressed on them, but they refused with disdain the message, and rejected the messengers to blood. Accordingly the rejection of the very witness of Christ, speaking by the Holy Ghost the rejection of Him to heaven becomes the turning-point; and then by the Lord from heaven is now called forth the witness of grace as well as of the glory of Christ. Finally, after the call of Saul of Tarsus, Peter himself (as well for other reasons as in order to cut off the semblance of discord in the various instruments of His grace) is brought in to show the perfect balance of divine truth and the wonderful harmony of His ways. Thus the church would still retain its substantial character, and the testimony of God still bear the same common likeness, while room was left for whatever speciality of form God might be pleased to give the truth, and the unfolding of the ways in which God might employ one or another. Peter was the one then, not Paul, that announced the gospel to Cornelius, who by the Holy Ghost received it, and was not merely safe but saved. It was no longer simply a cleaving to a God of goodness who could not deceive and would not disappoint the soul that hoped in His mercy, "but the conscious joy of knowing his sins all one, and himself distinctly put on the ground of accomplished redemption as a known present thing for his own soul in this world. Such is salvation.

"While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost." Thus on the great Gentile occasion, as before on the Jewish at Pentecost, the medium of man completely disappears. It was as thoroughly according to God that the apostle should not lay his hands on any this day, as it was according to His wisdom that they should lay their hands on the Samaritans. It is granted that man sees difficulty in this: there is what he cannot reconcile; but be assured that the great point is, first, to believe. Settle it invariably that God is wiser than we. Is this too much to ask? After all, though it seems so simple as to be a truism, though nothing can well be conceived more certain; nevertheless, practically it is not always the plainest and surest truth that carries all before it in our souls. But to believe is the secret of real growth in the revealed wisdom of God.

On this occasion they of the circumcision see that the Gentiles receive the gift of the Holy Ghost; for they hear them speak with tongues and magnify God, and they were astonished. Then Peter says to them, "Can any man forbid water?" It was a public privilege he was warranted to confer on the Gentiles thus baptized of the Spirit. Water baptism is neither slighted nor is it put forward as a command or condition. The previous gift of the Spirit without the intervention of any human hand was the most effectual stopper on the mouths of the brethren of the circumcision who were ever prone to object, and would surely have forbidden water, if God had not undeniably given them the unspeakable gift of the Spirit. But this manifestation and fruit of gracious power silenced even the unruly and hard spirits of the circumcision. "And he commanded them to be baptized."

It may be observed passingly, that thus plainly baptizing is in no way a necessarily ministerial act. It may be all right and in perfect keeping that one preaching the gospel should baptize; but occasion might well arise where he who preached would avoid it himself. We know that Paul thanked God that so it was with himself at Corinth; and we see that Peter here did not baptize, but simply "commanded them to be baptized." God is always wise. It is too familiar how soon human superstition perverted this blessed institution of the Lord into a sacramental means of grace, duly administered by one in the line of succession.

The next chapter (Acts 11:1-30) shows us Peter having to give an account of himself before those who had not witnessed the effects of the mighty power of God in the house of Cornelius. When the matter is rehearsed, the great argument is this, "Forasmuch then as God gave them the like gift as he did unto us, who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ; what was I, that I could withstand God?" This brought the question to a simple issue; but here again, let it be noticed that the gift of the Holy Ghost belongs to those that believe. It is not His operation in enabling souls to believe, but a precious boon given to such as believed. "When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, Then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life." The Spirit of God alone quickens a person by faith in Christ. Without the action of the Holy Ghost faith is impossible; but this capacitating power and the gift of the Holy Ghost are two very different things, and the latter consequent on the former. If God had given them the Holy Ghost, as was manifest in sensible results, it was very evident that they must have by God's grace had repentance unto life. The Spirit given to the believer was a privilege over and above faith, and supposed, therefore, their repentance unto life.

Then follows another grave fact. It appears that the scattered men of Cyprus and Cyrene, who had gone in consequence of the persecution everywhere, and among other places to Antioch, preaching the word to none but the Jews, took courage now and spoke (not to the Grecians - for this had been done long ago, but) unto the Greeks, preaching the Lord Jesus." Those to whom they addressed themselves were really Gentiles. The word "Grecians" does not mean "Greeks," but rather Greek-speaking Jews; to whom the gospel had been preached long before, as the cases of Stephen, for instance, and Philip clearly testify. Acts 6:1-15; Acts 6:1-15 shows us the party in question murmuring. They were in the church already. But the point here is lost in our English version. There is a mistake, not only in our vernacular Bible, but also in the common Greek text which is equally faulty as the authorized version. The true text,* which has sufficient if not the most ancient authority, tells us that they spoke to Greeks or Gentiles. Thus we see the Lord was working, and, as so constantly happens, it was not only that He called out Paul for the Gentiles; it was not only that He sent Peter to a Gentile; but now these men, who might have been despised as irregular labourers, were in the current of the same work of God, even if they knew nothing of it, save by divine instinct.

*The copyists of old seem to have confounded in writing, as the Latin and most other ancient translators did in rendering, Ἕλληνας (Greeks) and Ἑλληνιστὰς (Hellenists), here and elsewhere. Thus it might seem incredible, if it were not the notorious fact, that the only two known manuscripts in favour of that which is here most certainly requisite are the Alexandrian and the Cambridge Graeco-Latin of Beza. The Vatican and all others, uncial and cursive (as far as collated and known), support the error. Of the fathers, Eusebius among the Greek, and Cassiodorus among the Latins, are in favour of the true; others are in strange conflict, their text having the wrong reading (perhaps through mistaken scribes), and their comment correcting it. The reading of the Sinai MS. ( εὐαγγελιστὰς ) is a mere blunder, not uncommon in that most ancient but not very accurate document, arising from confusion through a contiguous word; it would give the sense of "unto the preachers, preaching the Lord Jesus." But the correction confirms the true reading.

The importance of closer attention to the text is well shown by Calvin's remarks on this verse. He was led into no small perplexity by the reading current in his day, and, to the shame of Christendom, still tolerated as the received reading. Yet his masculine good sense held to the truth, though he did not know the solid basis on which it here stands. I cite from the Calvin Tr. Society's edition of his Comm. on the Acts, i. pp. 466, 467. "Luke doth at length declare that certain of them brought this treasure even unto the Gentiles. And Luke calleth these Grecians not Ἑλληνες but Ἑλληνισται [?]. Therefore some say that those came of the Jews, yet did they inhabit Greece [and these would be right if the reading had been really Ἑλληνιστὰς and not Ἑλληνὰς ]; which I do not allow. For seeing the Jews, whom he mentioned a little before, were partly of Cyprus, they must needs be reckoned in that number, because the Jews count Cyprus a part of Greece. But Luke distinguisheth them from those, whom he calleth afterward Ἑλληνιστας [this is precisely where he is mistaken; his reasoning is sound, but his knowledge defective]. Furthermore, forasmuch as he had said that the word was preached at the beginning only by the Jews, and he meant those who, being banished out of their own country, did live in Cyprus and Phenice, correcting this exception, he saith that some of them did teach the Grecians. This contrariety doth cause me to expound it of the Gentiles." Quite right: only the true text delivers from the need of wresting the force of a word, and is as simply as possible Greeks, not Grecians, and means Gentiles without the smallest difficulty or discussion.

But it is still more strange as evidence of the slipshod criticism of the Reformers that Beza, who was more of a scholar than his predecessors, uniformly edits Ἑλληνιστὰς , and writes a blundering note to the effect that it is here used in the sense of Ἑλληνάς . And yet he had in his possession that famous Graeco-Latin Uncial (D) which he presented to the University of Cambridge in 1581, which MS. supports the Alexandrian.

How blessed it is to see the free activity of the Holy Ghost without any kind of communication of man! It is always thus in the ways of God. It is not only that God uses one and another: this He does and we may bless Him that so He does; but the God who employs means is also above them, and He needs now only to draw out by circumstances the souls of some simple Christian men who had faith and love to seek the Gentiles without requiring the same vigorous and extraordinary means, under His mighty hand, as even the apostle did. Great workman as Peter was, he required the intervention of God in a vision to send him to do a work that these unnamed brethren undertook in their confidence of His grace, without any vision or sign whatsoever. It seems to have been the working of divine grace in their souls, and nothing else. At first they were more timid; they spoke only to Jews. By and by the power of the gospel and the action of the Holy Ghost fill their souls with desires as to the need of others. The Gentiles were sinners: why should they not dare to speak to the Gentiles? "And the hand of the Lord was with them," as we are told, "and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord." But what a rebuke is this to those that would make the church to be merely a creature of government, or in any wise to be of man's will, which is still worse, How blessed to see that it is a real organic whole, not only a living thing, but that He who is the spring of its life is the Holy Ghost Himself a divine person, who cannot but answer to the grace of the Lord Jesus whom He is come down to glorify.

Next we find Barnabas stirred up to another and a characteristic enterprise. He had before this delivered Saul from the effects of undue anxiety and distrust in the minds of the disciples. He would have Saul to return good for what I may venture to call a measure of evil towards him. As there was need in the church at Antioch, he goes and finds him. He had a conviction that this was the instrument the Lord would use for good. Thus we see that, while we have the angel of the Lord in certain cases, the Spirit of the Lord expressly in others, we have also simply the holy judgment of the gracious heart. This is all quite right. It is not to be treated as mere human arrangement. It was not only right, but recorded of God that we might see and profit by it. Barnabas was quite justified in seeking Saul. "And it came to pass that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch." The place once so famous for its nicknames was now to give a name that will never perish a name of incalculable sweetness and blessing, connecting Christ as it does with those that are His. It was, no doubt, a Gentile title. There would be no particular force in giving it to Jews, for all Jews professed to be looking for Christ. What a wonderful change for these poor Gentiles to know Christ for themselves, and to be called after Christ! All was ordered of God.

Then we find that if the church at Jerusalem had become impoverished, the Gentiles minister of their carnal things to them. Saul (as he is still called) and Barnabas are made the channels of bringing the contributions to the elders not named before. How these elders were appointed, if indeed they were so formally, does not appear. Among the Gentiles we know that they were installed, as we shall see a little later, by apostolic choice. Whether this was the ease among the Jews scripture does not say; but that there were persons who had this responsible place among them, as among the Gentile churches afterwards, we see clearly.

Finally, and in few words (for I do not intend to say more on Acts 12:1-25 tonight), we have the completing of this second part of our narrative in this chapter. We are given a striking prefiguration of the evil king that will be found in the latter day; he that will reign over the Jews under the shadow and support of the Gentiles as Herod was, and not less but more than his prototype bent on the murder of the innocents, and with his heart full of evil for others who will be rescued by the goodness of the Lord.

James sheds his blood, as Stephen had before; for this Peter was destined by man, but the Lord disappointed him. The disciples gave themselves to prayer, yet they little believed their own prayers. Nevertheless we learn hence that they had prayer-meetings in those days; and so they gave themselves up to this special prayer for the servant of the Lord, who did not fail to appear by an agent of His providential power. All this confirms its having a Jewish aspect, regarded as a type, and was very natural in James and Peter, who had to do specially with the circumcision.

It is needless now to dwell on the scene, more than just to point out that which is familiar, no doubt, to many that are here the manner in which the Lord judged the apostate; for Herod owned shortly after by the people whom he had sought to please, disappointed in one place, but exalted in another was hailed as a god; and at that moment the angel of the Lord deals with his pride, and he is devoured of worms a sad image of the awful judgment of God that will fall upon one who will sit "in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God."

In the portion which follows we shall see the manner of the Spirit of God's working by the great apostle of the Gentiles.

APPENDIX.

It may be interesting to many readers to read as follows from Mr. Edward A. Litton's work on "The Church of Christ in its Idea, Attributes, and Ministry; with a particular reference to the Controversy between Romanists and Protestants." There are, of course, imperfect expressions, inasmuch as the truth itself is but partially apprehended; but one is glad to see views so decidedly in advance of ordinary evangelicalism, with equal decision against more churchism.

"In the opening chapters of the Acts of the Apostles, the Christian dispensation is seen in actual operation; for that with the descent of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost that dispensation properly commences will probably be admitted by all parties. Moreover, in these chapters the Church of Christ is first spoken of as in actual existence. What in our Lord's discourses is a matter of anticipation or prophecy, here appears as a matter of fact. Though not at first fully aware of the great change which had taken place in their religious standing, still less of its ultimate consequences, the first believers at once formed a separate community in the bosom of the Jewish theocracy; a community having, for its distinctive marks, adherence to the twelve Apostles, baptism in the name of Christ, and the celebration of the Lord's Supper.* Thenceforth the Church becomes a matter of history; and its history is nothing less than that of the vicissitudes, prosperous and adverse, which the kingdom of God upon earth has in the lapse of ages passed through.

*Is it not distressing to find, in this thoughtful production of one in much above the traditions of men and the bias of party, the palpable omission of the grandest and most momentous distinction of the church, namely, the presence of the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven? Unbelief here is alas! characteristic of Christendom.

"It has already been remarked that, far from intending to establish a mere invisible fellowship of the Spirit, our Lord contemplated His Church as having a visible existence, His followers as collected into societies [that society called the Church or assembly of God]. With this view He Himself instituted certain external badges of Christian profession, to come into use when they should be needed, and took measures to qualify a small and select company of believers, by attaching them constantly to His person while His earthly ministry lasted, and giving them a formal commission with extraordinary powers, when He left the world, to preside over the affairs and direct the organisation of Christian societies. These essential conditions of the existence of any regular society we find from the very first in being in the Church: the Apostles were the officers, and, collectively, the organ of the community; members were admitted into it by baptism; and they testified their continuance therein by participating in the sacrament of Christ's body and blood. As we advance farther in the inspired history, we find additions made to these simple elements of social fellowship; the organisation of the Christian society becomes more complex and systematic; questions of polity and order occupy no small portion of the apostolic epistles; and we have every reason to believe, if not from Scripture alone, yet from the unanimous voice of authentic history, that towards the close of the apostolic age Christianity had almost everywhere crystallised itself into a certain, definite, and well known form of ecclesiastical polity" (pp. 192, 193).

"St. Paul, in chap 14 of the first epistle to the Corinthians, presents us with a graphic picture of the mode in which Christians in the first age of the Church celebrated public worship. The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper constituted the visible symbol of their profession, and the pledge of their union with Christ and with each other; but the governing function in the assembly was the ministry of the Word, whether it assumed the extraordinary forms of 'tongues' or a 'revelation,' or 'prophecy,' or 'the interpretation of tongues,' or consisted of the stated instruction of regular pastors and teachers. Among the various spiritual gifts then common in the Church, the chief place was to be assigned to prophecy; 'for he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.' Of any typical or sacrificial element, St. Paul makes no mention: the whole service, with the exception of the Lord's Supper, was manifestly homiletic or verbal. That the gifts mentioned in the chapter were, for the most part, extraordinary, and in process of time were to cease, makes no difference as regards the argument; for it is the essential character of Christian worship, not the particular vehicle of its expression, that is the point now under consideration" (pp. 256, 257),

"The Church of Christ was not properly in existence before the day of Pentecost; much less did she, before that era, go forth on her mission to evangelize* the world. A body of believers indeed had been by Christ gathered out of the Jewish people to be the first recipients of the Pentecostal effusion; but before that event, this body could not be called distinctively His Church. It is, then, nothing but the fact, that the invisible Church, or rather that which in the Church is invisible, preceded that which is visible. The spiritual power which wrought so wonderful a change in the Apostles must first descend from heaven, and give to the Church its inner form as its spiritual characteristic! afterwards the Apostles preach and organize. First, there are saints, or men in whom Christ is formed by an invisible operation of His Spirit, whose origin, however, is not unknown; then these saints proceed to execute their appointed mission" (p. 272).

* It is well to avoid a figure which churchism has ever turned to its own aggrandisement and the Lord's dishonour. The Church neither preaches nor teaches, but Christ sends those who evangelize the world and teach the Church.

"Were the question put to a person of plain understanding, unacquainted with the controversies which have arisen on the subject, What, according to the Apostolic Epistles, is a Christian Church, or, how is it to be defined? he would probably, without hesitation or difficulty, reply, that a Christian Church as it appears, for example, in St. Paul's epistles is a congregation or society of faithful men or believers, whose unseen faith in Christ is visibly manifested by their profession of certain fundamental doctrines, by the administration and reception of the two sacraments, and by the exercise of discipline. He would direct attention to the fact, that the ordinary greeting of St. Paul, at the beginning of each epistle, is to the 'saints and faithful brethren' constituting the Church of such a place, fellow-heirs with himself of eternal life; and that throughout these compositions, the members of the Church are presumed to be in living union with Christ, reasonings and exhortations being addressed to them, the force of which cannot be supposed to be admitted, except by those who are led by the Spirit of God; in short, that the members of the Corinthian or the Ephesian Church are addressed as Christians; and a Christian is one who is in saving union with Christ."

"In proportion to the apparent simplicity of the question, would be his surprise to hear it affirmed that he is mistaken, and that, in addressing a Christian society as a congregation of Christians, St. Paul merely regards it as a society of men professing the same faith, and participating outwardly in the same sacraments (it being immaterial to the idea whether they possess saving faith or not); a society invested with spiritual privileges, but not necessarily realizing those privileges, and that, consequently, we must lower the import of the terms, 'saints' and 'faithful in Christ Jesus,' to signify outwardly dedicated to God, and professing with the lips the doctrines of Christianity . . . . . That the mode of interpretation alluded to involves a deviation from the obvious meaning of the New Testament phraseology is not, indeed, sufficient reason for at once rejecting it; but it does warrant us in requiring that the necessity for such deviation shall be clearly made out. And in the present case this requirement is the more reasonable from the circumstance that the Apostles uniformly identify themselves, as regards their Christian standing and hopes, with those to whom they write. 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ;' 'that I may be comforted by the mutual faith both of you and me;' did St. Paul, when he thus wrote, regard himself as but nominally interested in the blessings of redemption? Was his faith nothing more than a profession of Christian doctrine? If he must have meant something more than this; if his own faith and his own sanctity were living and real, the effect of the Holy Spirit's operation; then, inasmuch as he makes no distinction as regards this point between himself and those whom he addresses, we must suppose that he looked upon them also as real saints and believers. The language of the inspired writers of the New Testament is the expression of that Christian experience, or conscious participation in the blessings vouchsafed through Christ, which the Holy Ghost had shed abroad in their hearts: their idea therefore of a saint, or a believer, being derived from their own spiritual consciousness, must have been the highest of which the words will admit. But in the sense in which they supposed themselves to be Christians, do they, to all appearance, apply that title to those to whom they write" (pp. 280-283).

To the argument drawn from the use of similar terms under the Mosaic covenant in a merely national and external sense to prove that they mean the same, and nothing more, under the gospel., our author answers, "Here, in fact, is the real source of the error. While the typical character of the Mosaic institution in general is recognised, it has not been sufficiently borne in mind that the Jewish nation itself in its external or political aspect, was a type, and nothing more, of the Christian Israel . . . . . . We have only to extend this undoubted principle of interpretation to the Jewish people itself in its national that is, its legal-character, to perceive that the terms by which, in the Old Testament, its privileges are expressed, assume, when applied to Christians, a different meaning, or rather betoken the spiritual realities of which the former were but the types" (pp. 286, 287).

"To all this, however, it will be replied, that the nature of a visible church, which we know must in all cases be a body of mixed character, as well as the actual state of several of the churches to whom St. Paul addressed his epistles, forbid the supposition that, in terming them communities of saints and believers, he could have used these words in their highest signification. This is the second difficulty which it is conceived lies in the way of our interpreting the apostle's language literally. But a moment's reflection will show that the difficulty is only imaginary. We must recollect that in the Apostolic Church an effective discipline the very idea of which seems to be lost amongst us existed. By means of this discipline, they having been separated from the society whose overt acts were contrary to their Christian profession, the apostle, not being endowed with the divine prerogative of inspecting the heart, was compelled to take the rest at their profession, and to deal with them as real Christians so long as there was no visible, tangible proof to the contrary . . . . . Without pronouncing upon the state of individuals in the sight of God, he assumed the whole body to be what they professed to be a body of real Christians. For it must be remembered that, however far his profession may be from being a true one, every professor of Christianity professes to be a true, not a mere nominal, Christian. Except on this assumption the apostle could not have proceeded to enforce Christian duties by Christian motives" (pp. 298, 299).

"Nor is there any weight in the objection that many of these primitive Churches were very defective in doctrine or in, practice, or in both; that St. Paul speaks of the Corinthians as being, on account of their divisions, 'carnal,' and not 'spiritual,' as 'babes in Christ,' and sharply reproves them for their laxity of discipline in the case of the incestuous person, and their want of discipline in the celebration of the Lord's Supper. For it is not maintained that the first Christians, any more than those of our own day, were or could be perfect; and all that can be fairly gathered from what St. Paul says of the Corinthians is, that they were imperfect and inconsistent. In the remarks sometimes made upon this subject it seems to be assumed that there is no medium between our affirming of persons that they are not perfect Christians, and that they are not Christians at all; whereas in fact there is no Christian, however holy, who comes up to the ideal of Christian practice. . . . To return to the case of the Corinthians: on what principle, let us ask, did St. Paul reprove them for their inconsistencies? Did he address them as absolutely destitute of the vital principle of grace, or as possessing it, but needing exhortation to walk conformably thereto? The latter is, unquestionably, the ground which he takes" (pp. 302, 303).

"Christianity, as it appears in the New Testament, knows nothing of the atomistic theory of modern independentism. There can be little doubt that, even in the apostolic age, the church of each considerable city such as Rome or Ephesus consisted, not of one congregation, but of several, who were collectively styled the church of that place; certain it is that such was the case towards the close of the first century. It could not be otherwise. The expansive power of Christianity called it to break forth on all sides; and speedily the original congregation, or in modern language the mother church, of each city gave birth to other societies of Christians in the surrounding neighbourhood. . . . No notion is more at variance with the spirit of apostolic Christianity than that of societies of Christians existing in the same neighbourhood, but not in communion with each other, and not under 'common government'" (pp. 449, 450).

It is a perilous mode of reasoning and likely to lead to universal scepticism, to maintain, for the sake of theoretical consistency, that the visible fruits of the Spirit do not possess a sufficiently distinctive character to enable us to pronounce where they are and where they are not: not to mention that the sin of denying the evident operation of the Holy Spirit is spoken of by our Lord in terms far too awful not to make us tremble at the thought of verging towards it. The fruits of the Spirit, whether they be produced within our own inclosure or beyond it, are always the same, and always to be recognized; otherwise our Lord would never have given us the simple test whereby we are to distinguish false from true prophets 'by their fruits ye shall know them.' If men profess themselves not to be able to do so, they simply profess that they have neither consciences nor moral sense." [Alas! the power of the Spirit to this end is lost sight of.] . . .

"One visible manifestation, then, of the sanctity of the Church is the holy walk and conversation of individual Christians; but there is another, and more formal, mode in which she professes herself to be holy, and that is, by the exercise of discipline. The personal holiness of the Christian is a property of the individual, not of the society as such; hence a professing Christian society, however large a proportion of holy men it may contain, does not predicate of itself that it is a part of Christ's holy Church as long as it exercises no formal official act implying that assumption. The exercise of discipline is the true and legitimate expression of the sanctity of a visible Church considered as a society. Hence the great importance of discipline. It is not merely that the absence of it operates injuriously upon the tone and standard of piety within the Church; it affects the claims of the society as such to be a legitimate member of the visible Church Catholic. A Christian society which should openly profess to dispense with discipline, and tolerate on principle open and notorious evil doers [or still worse heretics, Antichrists, or their abettors] within its pale, would thereby renounce its title to one of the essential attributes of the Church; it would sever all ostensible connection between itself and the true Church [or rather Christ and His sacrifice: see1 Corinthians 5:1-13; 1 Corinthians 5:1-13 ], of which sanctity is an inseparable property; in short, it would unchurch itself. For every particular church is so, called on the supposition of its being a manifestation, more or less true, of the one holy Church the body of Christ. . . . How essential to the idea of a Church the exercise of discipline is, may be seen from the embarrassing contrarieties between theory and practice which the virtual suspension of it in the Church of England is constantly occasioning" (pp. 515-517).