Acts 15 Round Two: Paul Has Had Enough

A tug-of-war over grace erupts as new Gentile believers face pressure to add the Mosaic law to their faith. We walk through the turning point at Jerusalem where Peter points to the Spirit’s unmistakable work among Gentiles and James charts a path that guards holiness without rebuilding old barriers. The council’s decision affirms salvation by grace through faith and offers four simple instructions to protect table fellowship and community life in mixed Jewish-Gentile churches.

From there, we follow the letter back to Antioch and the wave of relief and joy that comes with clarity. No extra gates on grace. No new burdens only the committed few can bear. Just a call to reject idolatry, resist sexual immorality, and live in ways that honor God and welcome one another. Then the narrative turns, and we face a hard truth: even faithful friends can fracture. Paul and Barnabas part ways over John Mark. The mission doesn’t stall—it multiplies—but the ache is real. Their story shows how to handle sharp disagreements without poisoning the witness of the church.

Throughout, we keep circling the same center: Jesus is the main thing. Where Scripture speaks, we obey. Where Scripture is silent, we pursue wisdom with charity. That balance—conviction anchored in the word, freedom guided by love—keeps communities healthy and the gospel clear. If you’re navigating questions about legalism, conscience, or church conflict, this conversation offers both clarity and courage for the road ahead.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Setup
• 0:31 The Judaizers’ Pressure On New Believers
• 1:43 Journey To Jerusalem For Clarity
• 2:44 Peter’s Case For Grace
• 3:50 James’ Judgment And The Four Instructions
• 5:16 The Letter Delivered And Joy In Antioch
• 6:05 Paul And Barnabas Part Ways Over John Mark
• 7:10 Keeping The Gospel Central And Walking In Freedom
• 12:22 Prayer And Final Exhortation

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, Acts chapter 15. If I would give this a title, it would just simply be Paul has had enough. He is done with some things that are going on. We're going to get into that in just a moment. Before we do that, as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure that you are like, sharing, and subscribing. The YouTube videos, make sure you're commenting down below. I want to hear what God is doing in your life. Also, if you listen to the podcast, please leave us a five-star review. Also, let us uh let us know, leave us an actual review, let us know what God's doing in your life. And I would love for you to go to our Facebook discussion group, Bible Breakdown Discussion, and let us know what God is doing in your life. Because man, the more we dig, the more we find. Now, we're going to jump into this because if you've noticed what has been happening over the past couple of chapters, as Paul is going on these missionary journeys, he's planting churches where he goes. He's raising up believers, he's discipling people, he's putting leaders over them and they're going. But then if you notice what is happening, there are these Jewish people that are following behind Paul. And it's becoming a problem. There's this idea of what's going on, and it's just getting worse and worse and worse to the point now that some of these people are coming from all over the place, and Paul's beginning to go, hey, look, either I've been getting this wrong the whole time, and so I need to go check with the people in Jerusalem to make sure I'm not getting this wrong, or y'all need to help a brother out. I mean, we need to stop doing this because what would happen is Paul would preach the gospel and preach about salvation through Jesus, and then he would raise up believers and raise up disciples and go. Well, then these people, they called them Judaizers, would come behind him and say, Well, I mean, Paul was good. That's that's Christianity 101. Well, Christianity 202 is you need to become Jewish. And this became a whole problem to where Paul ends up writing a letter that we now have as the book of Galatians back to the city of Galatia saying they need to stop doing this. And so finally it gets to a point where Paul goes to Jerusalem to figure out either I'm wrong or y'all need to help a brother out. Like he's had enough. So we're gonna read this and just kind of see what's happening, and then we're gonna see about something very sad at the bottom. So let's jump into this together and we're just gonna listen to what's happening as Paul's trying to get to the bottom of this because they need to get back to some unity so they can be moving forward. So, Acts chapter 15, the New Living Translation. Let's read together. While Paul and Barnabas were at Antioch of Syria, some men from Judea arrived and began to teach the believers, unless you are circumcised as required by the law of Moses, you cannot be saved. Paul and Barnabas disagreed with them, arguing vehemently. Finally, the church decided to send Paul and Barnabas to Jerusalem, accompanied by some local believers, to talk to the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent delegates to Jerusalem and they stopped along the way of Phoenicia and Samaria to visit the believers. They told them, much to everyone's joy, that the Gentiles too were being converted. When they arrived in Jerusalem, Barnabas and Paul were welcomed by the whole church, including the apostles and elders. They reported everything that God had done through them. But then some of the believers who belonged to the sect of the Pharisees stood up and insisted, the Gentile converts must be circumcised and required to follow the law of Moses. So the apostles and elders met together to resolve this issue. At the meeting, after a long discussion, Peter stood and addressed them as follows Brothers, you all know that God chose me from among you some time ago to preach to the Gentiles, so that they could hear the good news and believe. God knows people's hearts, and he confirmed that he accepts Gentiles by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as he did to us. He made no distinction between us and them, for he cleansed their hearts through faith. So why are you now challenging God's burdening these Gentile believers with a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors were able to bear? We believe that we are all saved the same way by the undeserved grace of our Lord Jesus. Everyone listened quietly as Barnabas and Paul told them about the miraculous signs and wonders God had done through them among the Gentiles. When they finished, James stood up and said, Brothers, listen to me. Now pause for a second. By the way, who is this James? This is James, the half brother of Jesus. This is the James who Jesus actually appeared to personally, 101, and now he is a leader in the early church. And he is the one who, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote the letter that we now have called the Book of James. All right, verse 14. Peter has told you about the time God first visited the Gentiles to take them to be the people for himself. And this conversion of Gentiles is exactly what their prophets predicted, as it is written, Afterward, I will return and instore, restore the fallen house of David. I will rebuild its ruins and restore it, so that the rest of humanity might seek the Lord, including the Gentiles. All those I have called to be mine. The Lord has spoken, He has made these things known so long ago. So my judgment is that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are who are turning to God. Instead, we should write and tell them to abstain from eating food offered to idols, from sexual immorality, and from eating meat that was strangled of animals, and from consuming blood. For these laws Moses has been preached in the Jewish synagogues in every city and every Sabbath for many generations. So what happened in this whole time was is once again, Paula keeps being like pursued by these Judaizers, and these Judaizers has finally made their way to Antioch. And Paul's finally like, look, I've had enough of this. And so they go to Jerusalem and they start debating it and talking about it. And they're finding out at the end of it that what's going on is they're saying, No, that's what we're not what we're going to do anymore. Instead, what we're going to do is we're not going to put this heavy burden, but give them these instructions. Now I'd encourage you on your own time to look at these instructions and to realize that this is the essence of so much of the law on how to have community with one another and with God. Let's move forward. Verse 22. Then the apostles and elders, together with the whole church in Jerusalem, chose delegates, and they sent them to Antioch of Syria with Paul and Barnabas to report on this decision. These men cho were chosen were two of the church leaders, Judas, also called Bersabbas, which I don't blame him. He's probably want to get away from that name, and Silas. This was the letter they took with them. This letter is from the apostles and elders, your brothers in Jerusalem. It is written to the Gentile believers of Antioch, Syria, and Cilicia. Greetings. We understand that some men have troubled you and upset you with their teaching, but we did not send them. So we have decided, having come to a complete agreement to send you official representatives, along with our beloved Barnabas and Paul, who have risked their lives for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are sending Judas and Silas to confirm that we have decided concerning your question. For it seems good to the Holy Spirit to lay on you no greater burden than on you than these few requirements, that you abstain from eating food offered to idols, other words, no no idol worship, from consuming blood or meat, from anything strangled, from sexual immorality, and if you do this, you will do well. Farewell. I encourage you to study those things at your another time. The messengers went at once to Antioch, and they called a general meeting of the believers and delivered the letter. And there was great joy throughout the church that day as they read this encouraging message. I don't blame them, because then the guys are going, I don't got to get circumcised. Moving forward quickly. Verse 32. Judas and Silas, both being prophets, spoke at length to the believers, encouraging them and in strengthening their faith. They stayed for a while, and then the believers sent back to the church in Jerusalem with the blessing of peace. Paul and Barnabas stayed in Antioch, and many others taught and preached the word of the Lord there. Now, we're going to finish on kind of a down note. Here we go, verse 36. After some time, Paul said to Barnabas, Let's go back and visit each city that we had previously preached the word of the Lord, and let's see how the new believers are doing. Barnabas agreed, and he wanted to take John Mark. But Paul disagreed strongly since John Mark had deserted them in Pamphylia and had not continued with them in their work. Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Barnabas took John Mark with him and sailed for Cyprus. Paul chose Silas, one of the ones from earlier, and he left, and the other believers entrusted him to the Lord's gracious care. Then he traveled throughout Syria and Cilicia and strengthened the churches there. So what we have here is we have Paul who goes to Jerusalem and they figure out that we don't have to become Jewish in order to become Christian. We can receive Christ and we live according to God's word, and that is enough. We don't have to do the all the different things of the Old Testament and that thing. We we live in the New Testament community. But then the sad thing is that Paul wants none of this. He's none of these shenanigans. He wants to go and see the people, but he does want to take John Mark. And it becomes so bad that they part company. And then what happens is it appears as though Paul goes a new way on a second missionary journey, and Barnabas goes and sees. And so here's the thing, and here's the truth. Even within the context of the church, people are not always going to get along. I know that's sad, but it's just the truth. You're going to have disagreements, you're going to have conflicts. So what you do is that you do the best you can. And in this moment, Paul and Barnabas love each other. It never says in here they stopped loving each other and they stopped considering each other to be friends, but they just decide that it's better if they don't do ministry together. They have to go their own separate ways. And what we have to realize is make sure that we never let our conflict get in the way of the gospel, get in the way of doing the right things for the right reasons. And so if we can't walk beside one another, then still loving each other, we go different directions. So that the gospel is never tainted with our conflict. I think that's a wonderful lesson for us today, is to make sure that we always keep the important thing the important thing. Always keep the main thing the main thing. I love studying the Bible. I love studying the things of the Old Testament. I love studying Jewish law and all that kind of stuff. But we don't ever need to let it get in the way of the main thing, which is Jesus and the gospel and living according to what his word says and what he has called us to do. And that's what Paul is fighting for is he's saying, some of these different laws that are traditions of men that were never written in the Old Testament, all these different things, this is not the way to salvation. Let's not put any burdens on them that we can't do either. And let's be careful that we don't do that in our world. That something that is not written in God's word, but is a conviction to your heart, you need to stay away from it. But if it's not written in God's word, but it's a conviction, but it's not a conviction of someone else, someone else, we don't need to put our burden on them. But to let people live in freedom as long as it lines up with God's word. Let me pray for us today. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you for your word that speaks life. Thank you that your word gives us boundaries. And when the context of those boundaries is freedom. But then you also give us the freedom that when your word doesn't speak to anything, well, that there's freedom there for us to work out that salvation with fear and trembling. Because we don't try to see what we can get away with. We try to see how holy we can be. And when you do that, we always get led in the right direction. We thank you for that today. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. What did God's word say? Jesus said in Acts 1, verse 8, say it with me. You will receive power. When? When the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses to the ends of the earth. My prayer today is that you would receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and you would be his witness to the end of your world. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for Acts chapter 16.