9
“This Man Is for My Glory a Chosen Vessel”
1 Now as for Saul: Still breathing out murderous threats+ against the disciples of the Lord, he went to the high priest and
2 asked him for letters of authorization+ to the synagogues+ in Damascus, so that if he should find anyone at all+ who belonged to the Way, men or women, he could bring them back to Jerusalem as prisoners.+
3 Well, he was on his way to Damascus and drawing near to the city,+ when suddenly an intensely bright+ light from heaven+ began to shine around him.
4 Falling to the ground, he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul! Why are ˢyou persecuting+ me?”
5 “Who are ˢyou, Lord?” Saul+ asked.
“I am Jesus, whom ˢyou are persecuting,” the voice replied.
+6 “Now get up and go into the city, and ˢyou will be told what you must do.”
7 (The men who were traveling with Saul+ stood there speechless, hearing the sound+ but seeing no+ one.)
8 Saul, then, got up from the ground, and although+ his eyes were open, he couldn’t see a+ thing. Leading him by the hand, his companions+ guided him into Damascus,
9 and he remained unable to see for three+ days, during which time+ he neither ate nor drank.
10 Now there was a certain disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord spoke to him in a vision. “Ananias!” he said.
“Here I am, Lord,” Ananias
+ answered.
11 “Get ready and go to Straight Street,” the Lord said to him, “and ask at the home of Judas for a man from the city+ of Tarsus, whose name is Saul.+ At this very moment+ he is praying,
12 and he has seen a man in a vision, named Ananias,+ coming in and placing his hands on him so that he may regain his sight.”
13 “Lord,” replied Ananias, “many people have told me+ about this man and all the terrible things he has done in Jerusalem to your holy people.+
14 In this city, too,+ he has received permission from the chief priests to imprison all who call on your name.”
15 “Go!” the Lord said to him. “This man is for my glory+ a chosen vessel,+ to bear my name before Gentiles and kings and the people+ of Israel.
16 I, you see, will show him how much he must suffer+ for the sake of my name.+”
17 Ananias, then, went and entered Judas’+ home. Placing his hands on Saul,+ he said, “Brother Saul, it is+ the Lord who has sent me—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here+—so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
18 Immediately there fell from Saul’s+ eyes something that looked like fish scales,+ and his sight was restored. He got up and was baptized,
19 and after eating some food, regained his strength.
“This Man Is the Son of God!”
Saul
+ stayed with the disciples in Damascus for several days,
20 and going straight to the synagogues,+ he began to make public declarations about Jesus, proclaiming,+ “This man is the Son of God!”
21 All who heard him+ were shocked and kept saying, “This is the man who pillaged and ransacked in Jerusalem those who call on this name,+ isn’t it? And to this city+ he has come for the express+ purpose of taking them back as prisoners to the chief priests, has he not?”
22 Saul, however, became more and more convincing+ and continued to confound the Jewish authorities+ who lived in Damascus, proving conclusively+ that Jesus+ was the Messiah.
23 After many days had passed, Saul’s Jewish opponents+ met and formed a plot to kill him,
24 but Saul found out about their plan. They kept a close eye on the city gates both day and night, waiting to kill+ him.
25 Taking him under the cover of night, however, Saul’s+ disciples let him down through an opening in the city+ wall,+ lowering him in a large basket.
“Everyone Was Afraid of Him”
26 On arriving in Jerusalem, Saul+ tried again and again to join the disciples, yet everyone was afraid of him, not believing that he truly+ was a disciple.
27 Barnabas, however, coming to his help,+ brought him to the apostles and told them the whole story about how on the road Saul had seen the Lord, who had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.
28 And so from that time Saul was able to interact freely with the believers in Jerusalem.+ Continuing to preach fearlessly in the name of the Lord,
29 he also spoke and debated regularly with the Hellenistic+ Jews. Now, they were about to make an attempt on his life.+
30 When the brothers found out about this, however, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
“Aeneas, Jesus the Messiah Heals You”
31 Therefore, while the assembly, on the one hand, enjoyed a time of respite+ throughout Judea and Galilee and Samaria,+ being built up, and, conducting themselves in the fear of the Lord and in the guidance and strength and help+ given by+ the Holy Spirit, continued to increase in numbers,
32 it came about that Peter, on the other, while traveling about from place to place, went down to visit the Lord’s holy people+ who lived in the city+ of Lydda.
33 He encountered in that city+ a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been lying on a mat for a good+ eight years.+
34 “Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus the Messiah heals ˢyou. Get up and roll up your own mat.+” And immediately he got up!
35 All the inhabitants of Lydda and the coastal plain+ of Sharon saw him, and they turned to the Lord.
“Tabitha, Get Up”
36 In the port city+ of Joppa, meanwhile, there was a certain disciple named Tabitha (which in Greek means Dorcas, “Gazelle”+). This woman was constantly doing good deeds and helping the poor.+
37 Well, while Peter was in Lydda,+ Tabitha+ became sick and died. When her body+ had been washed, it was+ placed in the tower-room above the house.+
38 Because+ Lydda wasn’t very far at all+ from Joppa, the disciples in Joppa,+ on hearing that Peter himself+ was in Lydda,+ sent two men to him with an urgent message: “Please hurry and come to us!”+
39 Peter, at that, got ready and went with them. When he arrived, they led him up the outside stairs to the room,+ and all the widows came up to him, weeping and showing him all the inner garments+ and precious+ cloaks+ that Dorcas had made while she was still with+ them.
40 After Peter had sent everyone out of the room and had knelt down, he prayed. And turning to the dead body, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” At that she opened her eyes, and on seeing Peter, sat up.
41 Giving her his hand, Peter+ helped her to her feet. Then calling in the Lord’s people+ and the widows, he presented her to them alive.
42 This+ became throughout all Joppa very+ well-known, and many people put their faith in the Lord.
43 It was+ a good many days, meanwhile, that Peter+ remained in Joppa at the home of a man named Simon, a leatherworker.