February 10, 2026 –  Persecution and Peace — Acts #29
Acts 9:26–30 

So let’s review where we are in Acts 9:  Saul was persecuting the followers of Jesus until he encountered Jesus himself on the road to Damascus.  Then he spends 3 years in Arabia to hear the word from God and to practice sharing Jesus with others.  He returns to Damascus, but the Jewish leaders and the governor seek to kill him, and he escapes being lowered in a basket out of the city.  He returns to Jerusalem, but the Jesus followers there are scared of him.  Barnabas serves as a mediator to bring Saul to the apostles, and Saul is welcomed.  That leads us to our scripture this morning:

Acts 9:28-30   So he [Saul] went in and out among them at Jerusalem, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. And he spoke and disputed against the Hellenists. But they were seeking to kill him. And when the brothers learned this, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.”

So Barnabas got the Jesus followers and Saul together, but it didn’t take long for Saul to get in trouble with the “Helenists” in the city.  Why did they get so upset with Saul?  These “Helenists” are Jews who grew up outside of Israel in the Greek/Roman culture and speak Greek.¹  This is the same group that Stephen was speaking to in Acts 6.  This is the group that went to the Sanhedrin and accused Stephen of blasphemy, which led to his stoning.  And once again, they get angry.  Imagine how they feel.  Here is Saul, one of the members of that Sanhedrin who voted to stone Stephen, now saying the very things to them that Stephen said about Jesus.  They see this as ultimate betrayal.  So now they are seeking to kill Saul.  Notice it is the Greek-speaking Jews who are after Paul and not the Jewish leaders, not the Temple authorities.   But Jerusalem is too hot for Saul, so the apostles arrange to send him to the coastal city of Caesarea to catch a boat to his hometown of Tarsus

And this is where we will leave Saul for a bit, after once again having to flee for his life.  Then Acts continues with a surprising verse:

Acts 9:31  So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

Slow down a minute. After this death threat and yet another escape for Saul, you don’t expect the next verse to talk about a time of peace. But now, there was a time of relative peace for the followers of Jesus, and their number multiplied.  Why had the persecution from the Jewish leaders died down at this time?

I think there are 3 primary reasons. First, because the followers of Jesus were scattered.   

They had all been centered in Jerusalem since the miracle at Pentecost.  They had grown to such a large number (at least 8-10,000) that the Jewish rulers felt threatened.  They were all gathering in the Temple grounds to meet, and there they were preaching about Jesus.  They were right in the faces of these Jewish leaders and were seen as a threat.

When Stephen was stoned to death for blasphemy, they all feared for their lives, and most of them left Jerusalem.  Once the crowd was gone and the rest into hiding, the pressure was relieved.  Those in charge of the temple no longer saw them, so they no longer felt threatened.  Less visibility equals less friction.  Out of sight, out of mind.  They didn’t care so much about small gatherings of believers in the countryside.  Well, there was one in their group who cared very much.

Saul still cared.  He asked for letters to hunt them down all over and have them bound and carried back to Jerusalem for punishment.  So the second reason that persecution died down was what happened to Saul.  When Saul met Jesus and discontinued his attack on Jesus’ followers and then disappeared, the persecution died down.  When he returns three years later, His trouble comes not from the Jewish leaders but from Greek-speaking Jews in Jerusalem.  Without Saul’s driving force on the persecution of Jesus’ followers, the religious authorities in Jerusalem just didn’t seem nearly as concerned about it.

We see what a lightning rod Saul was, first against Jesus, and now for Jesus.  Saul was the powerful driving force behind the persecution. Now you can better understand what Jesus did on the road to Damascus.   With this change, Jesus brought the persecution of his followers to a standstill and, at the same time, created the most dynamic missionary for his movement.  One man coming to Jesus makes a world of difference.

Finally, the third reason for the pause in persecution is that Jewish leaders had other problems brewing.   Something happened in Rome around that time that had a significant effect on matters.  Caligula became emperor of Rome in 37 AD and began a reign marked by cruelty, megalomania, and insanity.  He declared himself god above all other gods. In 40 AD, Caligula issued an order to place a statue of himself in the Jewish Temple’s Holy of Holies.

As you would expect, resistance by the Jews was swift and intense, with mass protests, strikes, and other forms of passive resistance. At one point, the historian Josephus notes that “tens of thousands” of Jews gathered in Tiberias for a 40-day protest.² The governor of Judea at the time, knowing it would cause war, deliberately delayed the placement of Caligula’s statue.  He was successful in postponing the placement until Caligula was assassinated in Rome in 41 AD, killed by members of his own Senate who judged him to be insane.   

This immediate threat from Rome far overshadowed the troubles of the Jesus followers, so there was a pause in the persecution.  It would, however, soon be back.  In 44 AD, James, one of Jesus’ twelve disciples, was beheaded by Herod Agrippa I.  Peter will be back in prison again, and Saul will suffer all kinds of persecution.   This is but a brief, temporary time of peace. But I want you to consider how this ebb and flow of persecution affected Jesus’ movement.  

After Stephen was stoned, persecution ramped up tremendously.  Under Saul’s leadership, followers of Jesus were being taken bound to the temple courts to be whipped, beaten, and imprisoned.  Their homes were raided.  And so many fled to other parts of the country.

But when they fled, they took Jesus with them.  The towns they settled in became new centers for the Jesus movement to spread.  And their numbers increased dramatically.  Persecution, meant to destroy the movement, actually had the opposite effect, causing it to spread throughout the country and grow tremendously.   

God did not cause the persecution of the early followers.  He did not want his people to be terrorized, beaten, and imprisoned.  Evil men in high places made that decision.  God did not cause it, but he used it.  He took a bad situation, persecution, and made it work for good.

We see this pattern all through the Bible.  Take, for example, the story of Joseph.  You know the story of Joseph and his 11 brothers.   They were all jealous of Joseph.  It seemed their father showed more favor to Joseph than to any of them.  And their jealousy led to the day when they considered killing him, but instead sold their brother into slavery.  And you know how he ended up in Egypt and, through a series of amazing events, came to hold a position of authority, second only to the Pharaoh.  And you know how his brothers, because of the famine, came to Egypt for grain.  And you know the end of the story, in the final chapter of the book of Genesis.  Joseph’s father dies, and his brothers fear that Joseph, the second most powerful man in the most powerful country in the world, will finally seek his revenge on them for selling him into slavery.  And what does Joseph say?

Genesis 50:20   As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.

Or:  What you intended for evil, God intended for good.  

But let me ask you, when Joseph was thrown into a pit and sold into slavery, did he think that was good?  When he was falsely accused and thrown in prison, did he think that was good?  And let me ask you a better question.  Did God think those things were good?

God by no means wanted Joseph’s brothers to treat him poorly.  God did not want Joseph’s brothers to succumb to sin.   He didn’t want Potiphar’s wife to entice Joseph and then falsely accuse him and have him thrown in prison.  God didn’t do that or approve of it. But hear this:  In the end, the circumstances don’t matter.  No matter what evil threw at Joseph, evil didn’t have the last word.  God did not stop people from doing evil; he rarely does that.  But what He always does is to take the evil meant against his people and turn it to good.  

It is the same in our passage in Acts.  What these evil men (including Saul) meant for evil purposes, this persecution of the followers of Jesus, God turns it around and causes the persecution not to diminish the group, but to cause it to spread and increase.  God was saddened by the response of those who would persecute his people.   It breaks his heart when his people turn against each other.  But again, the circumstances do not matter, because God always has the last word.   His will will be done.  He will work it all out to accomplish His purposes.  That brings us back to our scripture this morning.

Acts 9:31  So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it multiplied.

So we come to this time of peace in our scripture this morning, when the followers of Jesus are not under persecution, and they can worship freely.  It was the storm of persecution that led to the church’s spread and growth.  So what happens during this time of peace?  Again, the church grows. 

The circumstances are irrelevant.  Whether it is persecution or peace, God’s people grow.   This world is full of evil people doing evil things.  The Scriptures say that the whole earth is being defiled by sin.  Look at how Isaiah describes it:

Isaiah 24:4-6   The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and withers; the highest people of the earth languish. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants, for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore, a curse devours the earth….

Isaiah says that our entire planet, which God created as good, suffers and mourns under the weight of sin.  It is full of evil and evil people.  Sin has cursed our world.  So it does not operate as God created it.  There were no natural disasters in the Garden of Eden.  There were no tornadoes, no tsunamis, no hurricanes.  But our world today is not like the garden God made for us.  It is broken.  So you have to expect what we call “natural disasters” to happen. 

Jesus spoke of 2 disasters that had recently occurred.  We find that in Luke 13:

Luke 13:1-5   There were some present at that very time who told him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. And he answered them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans, because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.

Jesus tells of 2 disasters.  Evil Pilate killing people on the very grounds of the Temple, and a tower that fell in Siloam and killed 18 people.  And for both, he asks them if those who suffered did so because they were worse sinners.  Because people in Jesus’ day felt that God caused or allowed bad things to happen to bad people.  If something bad happened, then you must have sinned.  Remember Job?  Remember the disciples asking Jesus whose sin caused the man to be born blind?    

Sadly, people still think this way.  I have heard people say that if they follow God’s commandments, then God will protect them from disaster.  But Jesus tells us that is not the way God works.  Evil and disaster happen because God gave humanity free choice, and all of us chose sin.  And what is really important is not the disaster of the tower nor Pilate’s slaughter.  What is really important is that we choose to repent of the disaster that we have all brought on our own lives, the disaster of our own sin.   But who the tower falls on is not determined by who is good and who is bad – because we are all bad.  None of us is good.  We all sin and fall short.

Isaiah tells us that natural disasters are only natural in that they are the natural result of sin on the earth.  So don’t blame God when storms or tornadoes or floods come, when towers fall, or evil men commit murder.  That is not the way He meant for the world to be.  And praise Him, one day He will redeem and restore this world to the way He meant for it to be.  But until then, we have to understand that we live in a defiled world full of catastrophes.  And it is the fault of humanity, not God.

But again, hear the good news:  If you belong to Jesus, then learn the lesson of Acts 9.  Learn the lesson of Joseph: Again, the circumstances are irrelevant.   Because each of us lives in a broken world, we all have to expect some bad things to happen.  Things that God never intended to exist in this world.  Things like car accidents, sickness, cancer, theft, child abuse, and murder.  That is not the world God created, but the one we defiled.   But none of those things matter in the long run.  As we see in Joseph’s life and in Acts here, when bad times come, God works them for good.  When peaceful times come, God works for good as well.  God uses times of storm and times of calm.  What sinful people and this defiled world intend for evil, God intends for good.  

And we need that ebb and flow in our own lives.  There are seasons of pressure when we are moved, and there are seasons of calm when we are allowed to grow.  

Anyone doing bodybuilding or weight training will tell you that this is the cornerstone of resistance training.  You push a muscle to its limits, increase the weight, and apply pressure to it. Then you rest it, and it grows.  We now know that what is happening in the muscle is the formation of microtears in the muscle fibers, which the body recognizes as a signal to rebuild stronger to protect against further tears.  You can not achieve results if you don’t put stress on the muscle.  Working out with light weights that do not stress the muscle will not give results.  Similarly, you also can’t see results unless you allow the muscle to recover.  Overtraining, by not allowing time to rest, will also lead to poor results.   You need times of pressure and times of rest.

We need this similar ebb and flow of pressure and peace to develop into the people God wants us to be.  Situations of pressure lead us to see the need for growth, and times of peace give us time to grow.  We see this in the life of Jesus.  There were times when he was in the midst of crowds and times of confrontation.  And he often retreated and withdrew from the crowds for times of peace, for times of prayer.  Times of intense teaching and healing were often followed by times of solitude.  

Even creation echoes this pattern.  There is the growing season, and there is time to let the ground rest.   There is spring, and there is winter.   And God established this pattern for us to live with 6 days to work and one day to rest, to Sabbath. We need both times.  Too much pressure can crush us. Too much peace can soften us.  We will experience times of pressure and times of peace in our lives, and God will use both for our good.

So what season are you in?  A time of testing or pressure, or a time of peace and rest?  If you are in a season of pressure, God may be refining you, pruning some aspect of your life.  Or he may be redirecting you. It may be time for some change.  If you are in a season of peace, that is not the time to coast.  It is the time to deepen your prayer life, redouble your efforts to study the word, and strengthen your faith.  

Whether life comes at you with times of pressure or times of peace, the question to ask is not “Why is this happening?” but instead, “How, Jesus, do you want to refine me in this season?”   

Again, the circumstances life throws at us can be very difficult, but know this: your circumstances do not get the last word; God does.   Or as our friend, whom we left in Tarsus, would say, 

Romans 8:28 “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Or as Joseph would say, “What you intended for evil, God intended for good.”

God is at work in your life every day, taking whatever circumstances life gives you and ultimately causing them to work for your good.  We rejoice today, knowing we have a good, good Father who only gives us good gifts. 

1.  Please see note regarding the term “Helenists” in Acts #28.
2.  Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 18.1.1.