Bible Challenge: Acts part 2

We get the second half of the book of Acts today.

We pick up in Chapter 9 with Saul - the one who consented to the stoning of Stephen and was running around arresting Christians.

He is heading off to Damascus to arrest any of the followers of Jesus he can find there.

While he is on his way he literally meets Jesus in the middle of the road and is struck blind.  This is the turning point for the Church.  This is where it moves from being a small group of Jews believing they have found the Messiah and becomes a religion that will challenge the Roman Empire.  Because Paul (as Saul changes his name to) is the one with the skills and the vision to take the message of Christ into the Roman and Greek world.  He preaches at Antioch and around the region and then comes back to Jerusalem to argue that the Gentile believers don't need to become Jews to follow Jesus and then heads out again.

By the end of the book Paul has traveled to all the major cities of Asia Minor and is on his way to Rome to answer to the Emperor himself.