Acts 11:25

Barnabas to Tarsus. This is significant. It presupposes that Saul would approve the work that was going forward in Antioch, and shows the confidence of Barnabas that Saul was the right person to aid in the work there. It implies, too, that some intercourse had been maintained with Saul by letter or messenger since his departure from Jerusalem. Saul, it is to be inferred, had remained in and around Tarsus, preaching the gospel there and in the neighboring towns of Cilicia (see pp. 101, 102; see on ch. 15:41).

To seek Saul. Literally, “to hunt up Saul.” He to whom the Lord had appeared, and who had been marked as a “chosen vessel” (ch. 9:15) to carry the name of Christ to the Gentiles, was now asked to join Barnabas in this new work of preaching to the Gentiles at Antioch. Doubtless having already heard of the operation of the power of God there, Saul accepted the invitation.