Acts 9:31

3. The church at peace 9:31

Notice that "church" is in the singular here. This is probably a reference to the Christians throughout Palestine-in Judea, Galilee, and Samaria-not just in one local congregation, in Jerusalem, but in the body of Christ. Saul’s departure from Palestine brought greater peace to the churches there. He was an extremely controversial figure among the Jews because of his conversion. Peaceful conditions are conducive to effective evangelism and church growth (cf. 1 Timothy 2:1-4). The church continued to experience four things: inward strengthening, a proper attitude and relationship to God (in contrast to Judaism), the comfort (encouragement, Gr. paraklesis) provided by the Holy Spirit, and numerical growth.

Beside this verse, there are few references to Galilee in Acts (cf. Acts 10:37; Acts 13:31). This has led some commentators to speculate that Galilee had been evangelized during Jesus’ ministry and was, by this time, fully Christian. The evidence from church history, however, indicates that there were few Christians in Galilee at this time and in later years. [Note: See Barrett, pp. 473-74.]

This statement is Luke’s third major progress report on the state of the church (cf. Acts 2:47; Acts 6:7; Acts 12:24; Acts 16:5; Acts 19:20; Acts 28:30-31). It closes this section dealing with the church’s expansion in Judea and Samaria (Acts 6:8 to Acts 9:31). The Lord had added about 3,000 who believed to the core group of disciples (Acts 2:41). Then He added more who became Christians day by day (Acts 2:47). Shortly He added multitudes of new believers (Acts 5:14). Then we read the number of disciples increased greatly (Acts 6:7). Now we read that the church ". . . continued to increase" (Acts 9:31).

"When the Spirit of God has His way in the hearts and lives of believers, then unsaved people are going to be reached and won for Christ." [Note: Ironside, Lectures on . . ., p. 228.]