Immerse: Messiah - Flipbook - Page 89
9:25-41
L UK E – A cts
77
watching for him day and night at the city gate so they could murder him,
but Saul was told about their plot. So during the night, some of the other
believers lowered him in a large basket through an opening in the city wall.
When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he tried to meet with the believers, but
they were all afraid of him. They did not believe he had truly become a
believer! Then Barnabas brought him to the apostles and told them how
Saul had seen the Lord on the way to Damascus and how the Lord had
spoken to Saul. He also told them that Saul had preached boldly in the
name of Jesus in Damascus.
So Saul stayed with the apostles and went all around Jerusalem with
them, preaching boldly in the name of the Lord. He debated with some
Greek-speaking Jews, but they tried to murder him. When the believers
heard about this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him away to
Tarsus, his hometown.
The church then had peace throughout Judea, Galilee, and Samaria, and
it became stronger as the believers lived in the fear of the Lord. And with
the encouragement of the Holy Spirit, it also grew in numbers.
Meanwhile, Peter traveled from place to place, and he came down to visit
the believers in the town of Lydda. There he met a man named Aeneas,
who had been paralyzed and bedridden for eight years. Peter said to him,
“Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you! Get up, and roll up your sleeping mat!”
And he was healed instantly. Then the whole population of Lydda and
Sharon saw Aeneas walking around, and they turned to the Lord.
There was a believer in Joppa named Tabitha (which in Greek is Dorcas).
She was always doing kind things for others and helping the poor. About
this time she became ill and died. Her body was washed for burial and laid
in an upstairs room. But the believers had heard that Peter was nearby at
Lydda, so they sent two men to beg him, “Please come as soon as possible!”
So Peter returned with them; and as soon as he arrived, they took him
to the upstairs room. The room was filled with widows who were weeping and showing him the coats and other clothes Dorcas had made for
them. But Peter asked them all to leave the room; then he knelt and prayed.
Turning to the body he said, “Get up, Tabitha.” And she opened her eyes!
When she saw Peter, she sat up! He gave her his hand and helped her up.
Then he called in the widows and all the believers, and he presented her
to them alive.
