Here we see how seriously Paul took his new vocation as a man “saved to serve.” But the pattern for the Twelve had been first to be with Jesus then to be sent out (Mark 3:14), and Paul soon found the need to be alone for a while with the Lord (cf. Mark 6:31). His own writings add a number of details to Luke’s narrative at this point.

9:19b–22 As the bearer of the Sanhedrin’s commission, Paul would have been expected to preach in the synagogues of Damascus, and so he did, using them as he would the synagogues of his later travels as a platform for preaching the gospel (cf. 13:5; 14ff.; 14:1; 16:13; 17:1f., 10; 18:4, 19; 19:8; 28:17, see note on 13:14). His message took his hearers by surprise (v. 21), for he preached about Jesus, not against him, declaring him to be the Son of God (v. 20)…