VI — Barnabas goes in search of Saul
The narrative basis for our last five studies has all been taken from one chapter in the Book of Acts, namely, the ninth. For our present study we move on to the eleventh, where we find ourselves taking up the story of Saul once more. The intervening portion is one which deals with Peter and his activities in and around Joppa and Caesarea. While Peter is thus engaged in the Lord’s work in connection with the spread of the Gospel to the Gentiles, Saul himself, to whom belongs the title, pre-eminently, of ‘Apostle of the Gentiles’, is at that time far away from the lime-light, resting at Tarsus, his native city, and waiting for the Lord’s call to the next phase in his ministry. We shall now see how that call came to him through the working of the Divine Providence and the instrumentality of Barnabas. The centre to which our thoughts will be directed, is the third city of the Roman Empire (after Rome and Alexandria). Antioch, the capital of Syria.
Let us then, as enabled, meditate on these three matters:
(a) The Lord’s work at Antioch.
(b) The Church of Jerusalem sends Barnabas to Antioch.
(c) Barnabas goes to Tarsus in search of Saul.