“He requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the Way he found there. He wanted to bring them—both men and women—back to Jerusalem in chains.”
Acts 9:2 (NLT)
Apparently, while Philip is doing all this ministry in Samaria between Azotus and Caesarea, Saul is eager to kill the disciples—the Lord’s followers. With every breath he’s uttering threats. This guy’s angry. He’s passionate, persistent, and consistent. He’s focused on destroying those that follow Jesus, and he even gets recommendation letters so the synagogues will help him arrest them and bring them back to Jerusalem in chains.
This verse calls them “followers of the Way,” and John 14:6 helps me understand why. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life—so Jesus is the method God uses to enter into the lives of humans here on earth and have relationship with them. If we follow Jesus, then we follow the Way. This is just another way of saying disciples.
But the more important thing I notice is that Saul wants men and women both—same group, same level, equal persecution. In that day, women were not seen as very important in society. They didn’t have high social status, they weren’t seen as leaders, and they certainly wouldn’t be seen as a threat to anything a man was doing. Yet Saul is not just trying to find the men. He wants the women too. I think he recognizes a difference in these women that followed Jesus—power, passion, ability, and the presence of God—that women following the religious system and culture of the day did not have.
That’s interesting today, because when we begin following Jesus—when we become true disciples—there should be evidence. There is life change. There is fruit. There is impact. We are set apart. We are made holy. We are empowered by Holy Spirit to do the same things Jesus did, and we create ripples. Just like Saul is spearheading a wave of persecution against the church, there should be a wave of Jesus hitting our homes, workplaces, communities, and churches through followers of the Way who look and act and talk differently because they have a relationship with Jesus. We need the fire of God to be like a tsunami, affecting everything it touches—everywhere we go and everyone we touch—until there’s so much impact that people can’t ignore it.