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Saul at Jerusalem:
v. 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.
v. 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.
v. 28. And he was with them, coming in and going out at Jerusalem.
v. 29. And he spake boldly in the name of the Lord Jesus, and disputed against the Grecians. But they went about to slay him,
v. 30. which when the brethren knew, they brought him down to Caesarea, and sent him forth to Tarsus.
v. 31. Then had the churches rest throughout all Judea 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.
Three years before, Saul had left Jerusalem. an enemy and persecutor of the disciples of Christ. And now he returned to the city, himself persecuted and hunted by his former friends and companions. Just what feelings surged through his heart as he passed the place where the Lord had appeared to him, or the spot where the stoning of Stephen had taken place, may well be conjectured. But the crowning humiliation came to him in Jerusalem, in the treatment of the disciples. He tried to join himself to the members of the congregation, with the intimacy which was the rule among the disciples in those days. But his efforts were met with suspicion, since his former career was too well known. Very likely they feared that Saul was merely simulating interest and conviction for the sake of being admitted into the secrets of the congregation and of obtaining names of the prominent people connected with it, in order to pursue his old methods once more. In their distrust they felt that they needed the strongest kind of evidence for the sincerity, both of his conversion and of the honesty of his motives in desiring to join them. It may often happen that a sin of earlier days, though performed in partial or total ignorance, may harm a person's standing in later years, in spite of the most sincere repentance. Fortunately, this distressing experience of Saul did not last too long; for Barnabas, the former Levite, Act_4:36, who may have been acquainted with Paul even from early days in Tarsus, now undertook to vouch for him. He took him to the apostles and narrated to them at length how the conversion of the former persecutor of the Church had taken place when the Lord Himself appeared to him and spoke to him on the way, and also that Saul had spoken the great truths of the Gospel boldly at Damascus. In the name of Jesus he had spoken so freely, and had thus received the same commission as had the apostles themselves. This introduction took place to Peter and James, Gal_1:19, the other apostles being absent from Jerusalem on matters pertaining to the Church. Barnabas having vouched for Saul, the latter was now recognized as a brother, and he went in and out among the congregation in Jerusalem; he had confidential intercourse with the apostles and with all the brethren daily. And very naturally Saul, also in Jerusalem, began to preach freely in the name of the Lord. The message of salvation whose glory and comfort he had experienced he felt constrained to bring to others, Act_4:20. But when he also spoke and disputed with the Hellenists, to whom he himself had belonged, perhaps in the same synagogue that had attempted to argue against the wisdom of Stephen, Act_6:9, he found that they were deeply embittered against him as a deserter from their ranks. With this feeling prompting them, they undertook to kill him; they did not actually apply their hands to it, but they began to make arrangements to that effect. It was true, therefore, that the Hellenistic Jews would not accept Saul's testimony concerning Jesus, Act_22:17. The brethren found out about the intention of removing the brother whom they now highly esteemed, and foiled the evil purpose. They took Saul down to Caesarea on the Mediterranean, whence he had an opportunity to cross over to Asia Minor, to Tarsus in Cilicia, his home town. It seems to have been the opinion of the brethren that it would be best for Saul to wait in his own city until such a time as the Lord would assign some definite work to him. Here we leave Saul for a while. Luke, in closing this section, appends the remark that all the congregations, the entire Church, since their fiercest, most zealous enemy had been vanquished, had rest, peace, and prosperity, had a fine opportunity of being established, internally and externally, throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria. The Church was edified, built up as a solid structure; its right to exist was fully vindicated; its members walked, conducted their entire lives, by or through the fear of the Lord, as a result of the faith which lived in their hearts; and they were filled with the comfort of the Holy Ghost, the promised help and sustenance of Jesus became a fact, and the result was seen also in the growing number of the disciples. It is the Lord that builds His Church, as well in the days of strife and oppression as in the days of peace and prosperity, and it is the comfort of His Spirit which makes true church-work possible, causing also the appearance of true, piety in the life of the congregations.