PAUL'S VISIT TO JERUSALEM

In Galatians 1:18-19, Paul said "Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to get acquainted with Peter and stayed with him fifteen days. I saw none of the other apostles-only James, the Lord's brother." Paul said quite a lot in a very few words. Luke expanded that sequence of events quite a bit.

According to Acts 9, the Christians weren't exactly prepared to greet Paul with "high-fives." To them Paul was a tough character. He was not to be trusted. Listen to this comment from Acts 9:26 "When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple."

Again we witness another example of Paul's courage. Jerusalem was the place where he had done the most damage to the church. It was his base of operations for breathing out threatening and slaughter against the church, yet he went right back into that same place and made an effort to join himself with the Christians there, who really didn't want to have any part of it.

I wonder what his old cronies thought. Would they have been willing to let bygones be bygones?" Would they walk up to Paul and say, "We're sorry you left, brother, but we wish nothing but the best for you?" You can be sure it didn't happen that way. Acts 9: 29, provides insight into their response. "He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him."

It must have been a terribly frustrating and lonely feeling to be rejected and hunted like a criminal by his former friends and to be feared by his new brothers and sisters.

But God arranged to bring someone into Paul's life that would ease the tension, at least insofar as the brothers and sisters in the church were concerned. His name was Barnabas.

But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus. So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. - Acts 9:27-28.

After that Paul visited with Peter, and James, the Lord's brother. He stayed for 15 days.

THE SILENT YEARS

If God worked in human lives according to our timetables, Paul would have commenced a vigorous program of evangelism, but it didn't happen that way. Notice his account in verse 21 "Later I went to Syria and Cilicia." Those names might not mean that much to you until you start looking for them on the map, then you realize that Tarsus, Paul's home city was in Cilicia. According to Acts 9:30, that's exactly where he went. God sent him home. That required another act of courage. What do you suppose the people of Tarsus thought about Paul's conversion to Christianity. About the best thing I could imagine they might say would be "What a shame. That boy had every opportunity in the book and threw it away for this new religion that won't last." Charles Swindoll called this period in Paul's life a "pit stop on the way to maturity."

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