Acts 9:22-32

²²But God enabled Saul to preach to many people even more convincingly. He was proving from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Messiah. So the Jewish leaders in Damascus could not think of anything ◄to refute what he said/to prove that what he said was not true►.

²³Some time later, after Saul had left Damascus and then returned, the Jewish leaders SYN there plotted to kill him.

²⁴During each day and night those Jews were continually watching the people passing through the city gates, in order that when they saw Saul they might kill him. However, someone told Saul what they planned to do.

²⁵So some of those whom he had helped to believe in Jesus took him one night to the high stone wall that surrounded the city. They used ropes to lower him in a large basket through an opening in the wall. So he escaped from Damascus.

²⁶When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he began trying to associate with other believers. However, almost all of them continued to be afraid of him, because they did not believe that he had become a believer.

²⁷But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He explained to the apostles how, while Saul was traveling along the road to Damascus, he had seen the Lord Jesus and how the Lord had spoken to him there. He also told them how Saul had preached boldly about Jesus MTY to people in Damascus. The apostles believed Barnabas and told the other believers about that.

²⁸So Saul began to associate with the apostles and other believers throughout Jerusalem, and he spoke boldly to people about MTY the Lord Jesus.

²⁹Saul was also speaking about Jesus with Jews who spoke Greek, and he was debating with them. But they were continually trying to think ◄ of a way to kill him/of how they could kill him►.

³⁰When the other believers heard that those Jews were planning to kill him, some of the believers took Saul down to Caesarea city. There they arranged for him to go by ship to Tarsus, his hometown.

³¹So the groups of believers throughout the entire regions of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria lived peacefully because no one was persecuting them anymore. The Holy Spirit was strengthening them spiritually and encouraging them. They were continuing to revere/honor the Lord Jesus, and the Holy Spirit was enabling many other people to become believers.

³²While Peter was traveling throughout those regions, once he went to the coastal plain to visit the believers who lived in Lydda town.