Paul stood by while they crucified Stephen. Being a strict Jew, he considered the message of the disciples to be heresy. Being present at Stephen's death did not soften his heart, instead, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. (Acts 9:1-2 NIV) This was not to be. On the way to Damascus, he had such an encounter with Jesus (the one he thought was nothing more than a mere mortal who had deceived his followers into becoming heretics) that he was left blinded and and unable to eat or drink for three days, until Ananias laid hands on him and the scales fell from his eyes.
Paul's ministry would not begin before the events in the next few chapters took place. Although the disciples had been scattered, they did not stop preaching the gospel and the miracles did not stop taking place. Peter healed the paralytic, Aeneas, and raised Dorcas from the dead. Even more importantly, while in Joppa, Peter was visited by a vision. while almost simultaneously in Caesarea, Cornelius, a Roman centurion, was visited by an angel. Suddenly, Peter realized that God does not show favoritism. As he preached to the gentiles gathered at Cornelius' house, the Holy Spirit was poured out on them and they began speaking in tongues and praising God, just as the Jews had done at Pentecost. When Peter was confronted by the apostles and brothers to explain what had just transpired, his only explanation was:
"So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?”
When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.” - Acts 11:17-18 NIV
All this time, Saul, who was now going by the name of Paul, was laboring in obscurity with Barnabas from the church in Antioch. Paul, along with Barnabas, took his message to the synagogue.
On the next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. When the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and talked abusively against what Paul was saying.
Then Paul and Barnabas answered them boldly: “We had to speak the word of God to you first. Since you reject it and do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, we now turn to the Gentiles. For this is what the Lord has commanded us:
“‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles,
that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.- Acts 13:44-47 NIV
This set the stage for Paul, the strict, steeped in tradition, Jew, the one who had so violently opposed the gospel to spend the rest of his life in ministry to the Gentiles who had no knowledge of the Jewish tradition or law. Fourteen years after the encounter with Jesus on the Road to Damascus, Paul met with the disciples in Jerusalem. James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews. - Gal. 2:9 NIV
Paul, the zealous Jew, who had once breathed murderous threats bent on destruction of all Christians, would now be the one tasked with spreading the light of the gospel to the non-Jewish world.
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