Speaking Boldly

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

SPEAKING BOLDLY

Acts 9:26-30

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. 27 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. 28 So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He talked and debated with the Grecian Jews, but they tried to kill him. 30 When the brothers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

NIV

Finally Saul arrives in Jerusalem, the place where so much was happening. Although there had been a great escape from Jerusalem because of the persecution there were still disciples in town, in fact, perhaps in hiding, but Saul found them and tried to join them as a new believer. Maybe some disciples returned to Jerusalem after the great persecution that broke out, as perhaps it had settled down, but it certainly appears they had some relief and were able to return and enjoy an openness about their faith. But they were still not sure about Saul, and were afraid he was just trying to infiltrate into their group in order to find out who exactly they were. So now we meet Barnabas, a man who was not afraid, a man who saw the real Saul, the converted Saul and brought him to the Apostles, and testified about Saul’s conversion. In essence Barnabas believed Saul and was willing to stand by him. Where other disciples mistrusted Saul, judging him to be a false believer, Barnabas believed him enough to take him to the Apostles. Had Saul still been the old person he once was, this would have been a great moment, being able to arrest the central figures in this new movement, but Saul was no longer interested in arresting them as he had encountered Jesus himself, and wanted to join the movement. We also see that Saul spent time debating with the Grecian Jews, which were those Jews that had been born in foreign lands and spoke only Greek, but had made their way back to Jerusalem. It is interesting that although they had followed the Greek customs and did not even speak Hebrew or Aramaic they were so infuriated at Saul and his message about Jesus they wanted to kill him. We can learn several life lesson here, first from Barnabas and second from Saul. Trusting and believing in the testimony of others is a good thing, as well as heralding their conversion. It is easy to remain focused on our own life, being concerned about what happens to us, and what has happened to us, and always talking about our own experiences, but Barnabas was interested in Saul and his life experiences. We can learn from him, how we should be interested in the lives of others and want to tell their story just as much as we want to tell ours. Now that is not gossip if we are holding up another’s life, but it is encouraging others with the life experiences of someone we know. Barnabas saw the good in Saul and he wanted others to know about it. The second lesson we can learn once again from Saul is that we cannot keep silent about our conversion, our faith in Jesus Christ, even if that means people will hate us because of it. So often we are caught in the mentality of loving them into the kingdom, but it appears Saul was not simply loving them, which love is truly expressed by telling them the truth, but he was debating with them, making every effort to convince them that Jesus was the Christ. Have we diluted this message because we do not want them to hate us? It does not appear Saul spent any time developing close relationships with those Grecian Jews before giving them the message. He simply moved about town speaking boldly in the name of Jesus. Perhaps we should be just a little bolder in our message. Maybe we should be speaking boldly.