Acts 9 - IVP New Testament Commentaries

Paul's Conversion and Early Ministry

The church's mission is indeed unstoppable if the risen Lord can reach down to save the movement's chief enemy, Paul. We know Paul's conversion is important to Luke because he relates it three times (see 22:6-16; 26:9-18). After its first telling Luke gives us two episodes from Paul's early ministry and a summary statement of the church's stability, vitality and growth in Judea, Galilee and Samaria. This concludes Luke's account of the advance of the Jerusalem church through the first two steps of Acts 1:8. And with this demonstration of the genuineness of Paul's conversion and call to Jew and Gentile, recognized by the Jerusalem apostles, everything is now in place for the church's next great advance: taking the gospel to the Gentiles, to the ends of the earth.