Acts 8:2-9:43

Following the stoning of Stephen, Saul becomes a crazy man in persecuting Christians, with many being hauled from their homes and taken to prison.

Much of Acts 8 focuses on some of the things that Philip did.  This is Philip the Deacon, not one of the 12 apostles.  He first preached Christ in Samaria, where many were saved, but they did not receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit until Peter and John went there from Jerusalem, and laid hands on them in prayer.  Philip is then led by the Spirit to go to the far southwest corner of Israel, which is closest to Egypt, in Gaza.  He encounters an Ethiopian court officer, who is reading from Isaiah 53, but who doesn’t understand what he is reading.  Philip explains the scriptures, leads him to salvation, and then baptizes him in water alongside the road.  After this baptism, Philip is translated to a city 20-30 miles north, and then preaches in every city on his way to Galilee, where he will stop in Caesarea.  It is likely that he planted the churches in Joppa and Lydda, which we will see already in existence in Act 9, as he traveled from Azotus (Ashdod) to Caesarea.

In Acts 9 Saul had been given a commission by the Sanhedrin to go and arrest Christians, and he is heading north towards the city of Damascus (in Syria) when He meets up with Jesus, and is struck blind.  He is told to go to Damascus, and stay until he is given further instructions from God.  The Lord appears to another disciple named Ananias, and tells him to go and pray for Saul in Damascus, and his sight is restored, and he immediately begins preaching to all that will hear, that Jesus is the Son of God.  As will be the case for the rest of his life, he makes the Jews there angry, and they plot to kill him, but he escapes to Jerusalem, and Barnabas introduces him to the rest of the disciples.

Meanwhile, Peter goes down to Lydda and Joppa, where his prayer heals a paralyzed man, and Tabitha (Dorcus) is raised from the dead, and many more people believed in Jesus, and were saved.