I find that I must mention these events to describe the spirit and the reason that led tothe civil unrest which started with the crucifixion of Christ and what inspired the first persecution of Christ’s disciples! It was a time when Jerusalem was filled with the Good News of Jesus’ resurrection. The disciples who hid for fear of the Jews, filled with the Holy Spirit they became very bold and never ceased to preach the resurrection of Christ openly! This displeased the authorities and the citizens of Jerusalem, especially that the Church experienced a very rapid growth! People were joining Christ’s disciples by the thousands; this could have led Saul of Tarsus to take a personal interest and organise a rebellion! I believe that he was aware of the reasons for which Jesus Christ was so hated by his religious party, in which he rose rapidly to pre-eminence! His fanatical beliefs made him a very violent man, brutally opposed to everything concerning Christ, especially his followers, and this suited the religious authorities.

From the membership of the Church, others men were joining the apostles to spread the  resurrection of Jesus Christ, among them was a man, a deacon of the Church in Jerusalem, a man filled with the Holy Spirit, called Stephen! Luc dedicates the whole seventh chapter of the book of Acts, at the end of which he mentions for the first time Saul of Tarsus. In this chapter we find the whole sermon which Stephen preached to the Sanhedrin Council and to the people, what he said as recorded, infuriated them, for fearlessly Stephen concluded his sermon and said: ‘You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like you fathers: you always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those that predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered Him (meaning Jesus) – You who have received the Law that was put out into effect through angels but have not obeyed it’. (Acts 7: 51-53) In the eyes of these self-righteous men, Stephen was ‘a nobody’, they despised him and all His followers; but to God Stephen was a precious chosen vessel and through him, He continued condemning them, just like did Jesus during His ministry, for doing so, the Jewish Authorities condemned Him to death. 

Now, ‘When they heard this, they were furious and gnashed with their teeth. But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Look, He said: I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.’ At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they rushed at him, dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.’ (Acts 7: 54-57) Now the whole throng of people obsessed with hate and mastered by it, were led by a young man, a fanatical Pharisee with a mission, which was to destroy this sect and eliminate them one by one wherever he would find them,until none was left! So, it is written: ‘Meanwhile the witnesses laid their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul… He was there, giving his approval. On that day…Saul began to destroy the Church. Going from house to house, he dragged off men and women and put them in prison. (Acts 8: 3) There is so much more I could say about these amazing events, that led Saul to be this brutal Pharisee, but all I aimed at, in referring to these statements, is the fact that after His ascension into heaven, the Exalted Christ, whom Saul, called ‘Jehovah’, said to him in His reply to his question: ‘I am Jesus, whom you persecute.’ 

He alone could turn a lion like ‘Saul of Tarsus’ into a lamb! From his experience Paul was enabled to acknowledge what was essential to his salvation, a confession which is also essential to state by all that want to be saved: to this end I quote again the verses I did before: ‘The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, that is the word of faith we are proclaiming. That if you confess with your mouth ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with the heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.’ (Romans 10: 8-10) The apostle Paul said it under deep conviction on that dramatic encounter when he said: ‘Lord – who are you? And he never forgot what was the reply: ‘I am Jesus whom you persecute.’ It is the LORD,who said also: ‘Whatsoever you do unto the least of these, my disciples, you do it unto me.’ (Matthew 25: 40)