Luke concluded each of his narratives of the Samaritans' conversion (8:4-25), Saul's conversion (9:1-31), and Cornelius' conversion (10:1-11:18) with references to the mother church in Jerusalem. He evidently wanted to stress the fact that all these significant advances were part of one great plan that God orchestrated and not just independent occurrences (cf. Matt. 16:18; Acts 1:8).
9:26 Perhaps the fact that Saul had not sought out the apostles and other Christians in Jerusalem for three years following his conversion made the believers there suspicious of him (cf. Gal. 1:18). They had not met him personally, and since they were being persecuted they may have wondered if Saul had adopted clandestine methods to oppose them.
9:27 Barnabas willingly reached out to the new convert in Jerusalem, as Ananias had done in Damascus. His behavior here is consistent with what we read of him elsewhere in Acts (cf. 4:36-37; 11:22-30; 13:1-14:28; 15:2-4, 12, 22). Barnabas proved to be a true "Son of Encouragement"(4:36) for Saul.
"First, the Church owed Paul to the prayer of Stephen. Then the Church owed Paul to the forgiving spirit of Ananias. And now we see that the Church owed Paul to the large-hearted charity of Barnabas. . . . The world is largely divided into people who think the best of others and people who think the worst of others; and it is one of the curious facts of life that ordinarily we see our own reflection in others, and we make them what we believe them to be."409
The apostles whom Saul met were Peter and James, the Lord's half brother (Gal. 1:17-19). Paul wrote later that he stayed with Peter for 15 days (Gal. 1:15), but he may have been in Jerusalem somewhat longer at this time. James was an apostle in the general sense of that term. He was not one of the Twelve.410
Barnabas pointed out three indications that Saul's conversion was genuine for the benefit of the Christian skeptics. Saul had seen the Lord, he had talked with Him, and he had witnessed boldly in Damascus in Jesus' name. Imagine how difficult it must have been for those Christians who had relatives whom Saul had persecuted to sit down with him in church meetings and share the Lord's Supper.
9:28-29 While Saul was in Jerusalem he resumed Stephen's work of debating the Hellenistic Jews. He was himself a Hellenist, as Stephen apparently was, having been born and reared in Tarsus.411At first he enjoyed freedom in the city, but soon the unbelieving Jews tried to silence him too. Evidently Saul continued evangelizing in Jerusalem until it became obvious to the other believers that he must leave immediately or suffer death as Stephen had. They probably envisioned a recurrence of the persecution of the disciples that followed Stephen's martyrdom.
9:30 Saul's concerned Christian brethren travelled with him to Caesarea. We do not know how long he stayed there, but Luke's account gives the impression that it was not long. Saul then departed, apparently by ship, to Tarsus in Cilicia, his hometown (21:39; Gal. 1:21), probably to tell his family and others about Jesus.
In 22:17-21 Paul testified that during this visit to Jerusalem he received a vision of Jesus who told him to leave Jerusalem because God wanted to use him to evangelize the Gentiles. Thus his departure from Jerusalem was willing rather than forced.
Saul remained in the province of Cilicia until Barnabas sought him out and brought him to Syrian Antioch (11:19-26). This was some six years later. We have no record of Saul's activities during this period (probably 37-43 A.D.) except that many of his experiences that he described in 2 Corinthians 11:24-27 and 12:1-9 seem to fit into these silent years. If they do, we know that Saul was active in ministry gaining experience that fitted him for what we read he did later in Acts.
