Paul and Barnabas were in the midst of a long, fruitful time of ministry in the church at Antioch when some Judaizers from Judea arrived. They taught the Gentile believers a doctrine of faith plus works saying,

“Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” Acts 15:1

Paul and Barnabas disputed with them strenuously but made no headway. So the wise leaders of the Antioch church sent Paul and Barnabas up to Jerusalem to ask for guidance from the church council.

Paul and Barnabas turned the journey into a mission and visited churches all the way south from Antioch to Jerusalem. Believers everywhere rejoiced to hear how the Gentiles were responding to the Gospel.

The Gentiles and the Law

The apostles and elders in Jerusalem listened carefully to all sides of the debate about circumcision for Gentile believers.

“Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, ‘The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.’” Acts 15:5

After much discussion Peter reminded the council about his experience with the Gentile household of Cornelius at Caesarea.

“Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith.” Acts 15:7-9

Peter wondered why his Jewish Christian friends wanted to burden the Gentiles by yoking them to laws that even the Jews couldn’t keep.

“No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.” Acts 15:11

Barnabas and Paul recounted the wonderful things they had seen God do among the Gentiles on their first missionary journey. They saw God save Gentile believers based on their faith, not on obedience to any part of the law.

Instructions to the Gentile Believers

James gave the deciding opinion on the matter:

“We should not make it difficult for the Gentles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood.” Acts 15:19-20

While sexual immorality was clearly sinful, eating meat offered to idols, or meat from an animal whose blood had not been drained, was not sinful for believers. Jesus himself declared all food to be clean in Mark 7:14-23. But these food choices were offensive to the Jewish Christian brothers and the council asked the Gentiles not to do participate in them. They wanted to ease the relationship between the Gentile and Jewish Christians.

The council sent a letter to the Gentiles Christians and Paul and Barnabas delivered it. Judas Barsabbas and Silas, two of the leaders from Jerusalem went with them.

“So the men were sent off and went down to Antioch, where they gathered the church together and delivered the letter. The people read it and were glad for its encouraging message. Judas and Silas, who themselves were prophets, said much to encourage and strengthen the believers.” Acts 15:30-32

Salvation in Christ Alone

This letter was a milestone in reaching people with the Gospel because it removed a major hurdle to receiving Christ as their Savior. Now the Gentiles knew they didn’t have to embrace the Law of Moses to be saved.

The letter also relieved Jewish believers of any responsibility to direct the spiritual path of the Gentiles. They were all equal in the eyes of God.

“So in Christ you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Galatians 3:23-29

Paul and Barnabas Separate

“Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let’s go back and visit the believers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing.’ Acts 15:36

Barnabas was ready to go back, but he wanted to take young Mark with them. Paul was opposed to this because Mark deserted them on the first journey and wasn’t part of their ministry in Antioch after their return. But Barnabas wanted to encourage Mark and give him another chance, so Barnabas and Paul parted ways.

Barnabas sailed off to Cyprus with Mark and Paul chose Silas to go with him overland to the churches he had planted on the first journey. Barnabas disappeared from the book of Acts after that, although Paul mentioned him later in some of his letters to the churches. Mark must have benefitted from being with Barnabas, because he later wrote the Gospel of Mark, and tradition tells us he founded the church in Alexandria, Egypt.

Paul, Silas, and Timothy

Paul and Silas traveled north and turned west toward Tarsus before going on to Derbe, Lystra, and Iconium. In Lystra they met an outstanding young man named Timothy whose mother and grandmother had introduced him to faith in Jesus when he was a child. Paul invited Timothy to travel with him and Silas, but first he circumcised him.

This seems contradictory since Paul had fought so hard to eliminate the circumcision requirement for Gentile believers. But Timothy’s mother was Jewish and Paul knew that unless he was circumcised, there would be friction between Timothy and the Jewish believers. Performing the ritual removed a stumbling block to ministry.

Paul, Silas and Timothy traveled from town to town and delivered the letter written by the Jerusalem council to the Gentile churches.

“So the churches were strengthened in the faith and grew daily in numbers.” Acts 16:5

The Call to Macedonia

After visiting all of the churches in Galatia, the three missionaries traveled farther west, across the big Roman province of Asia. The Holy Spirit didn’t allow them to preach in Asia so they kept going until they reached the port town of Troas on the northeast side of the Aegean Sea.

Paul had a vision of a man from Macedonia begging him to come and help his people, so they sailed to Macedonia and made their way to Philippi where they stayed for several days.

Macedonia was the birthplace of Alexander the Great whose Greek Empire had ruled most of the known world four hundred years earlier. The Greeks were masters of philosophy, literature, mathematics, art, drama, engineering and science. The Romans admired the Greeks and adopted much of their culture, and Greek was the language of the early Church.

Philippi

When Paul, Silas and Timothy landed in Macedonia they became the first missionaries to Europe. Lydia, the businesswoman who sold purple cloth was the first European convert, and the church they planted in Philippi was the first European church.

Paul usually went to the local synagogue on the Sabbath, but Philippi didn’t have one. So Paul and his friends went outside the city to the river where they expected to find a place of prayer.

Paul and his friends found a group of women praying at the river, and among them was Lydia. She was the first to receive Christ and her entire household  joined her in baptism. Her home became the location of the new church in Philippi.

Paul and Silas in Jail

One day, as Paul and the others were going to the place of prayer, a slave girl who told fortunes followed them and shouted,

“These men are servants of the Most High God, who are telling you the way to be saved.” Acts 16:17

After several days of this loud, distracting behavior, Paul cast a demon out of her. When her owners realized they had lost their hope of making money through the girl, they dragged Paul and Silas before the magistrates and made false charges against them. They were beaten with rods and thrown into jail with their feet in stocks. There they spent the night praying and singing hymns

God shook the jail open with an earthquake at midnight. The terrified the jailer thought all of the prisoners must have escaped, but they had been listening to Paul and Silas and were still in the jail.  Paul and Silas preached the Gospel to everyone in the jailer’s house and they were all saved that night. The grateful jailer tended to their wounds and refreshed them with a meal.

The next morning word came that Paul and Silas were to be released, and the order became more imperative when the magistrates learned they were Roman citizens. It was illegal to punish a Roman citizen without a trial.

The two missionaries went to Lydia’s house where they encouraged their new brothers and sisters in the faith. Preaching the Gospel message was so compelling to Paul and Silas that they overcame their extreme pain and humiliation to win souls even in jail.

Thessalonica and Berea

Paul and his companions traveled deeper into Macedonia and found Jewish synagogues in the towns of Thessalonica and Berea. Three Sabbaths in a row Paul discussed the Scriptures with the people of Thessalonica and proved from the word of God that Jesus was the Messiah. Many Jews, Greeks and prominent women were convinced and received Christ.

However, some of the Jews resented the missionaries success and led a riot against the them. They accused them of defying Caesar by declaring that Jesus was a new king. When the mob couldn’t find Paul and his friends, they dragged some of the new believers in for questioning, but they were released the next day after posting bond.

The Thessalonian believers sent Paul and Silas on to Berea that night and Paul went straight to the synagogue to preach again. The Berean Jews searched the Scriptures eagerly to see if what Paul preached was true and when they were convinced, they received Christ.

However, troublemakers from Thessalonica followed Paul and tried to disrupt his work in Berea. Some of the believers escorted him on to Athens for safety, but he left Silas and Timothy behind to help the new churches in Berea and Thessalonica.

Paul and his friends were breaking new ground for the kingdom of Christ everywhere they went — and the Holy Spirit was going to lead them to even more new territory in the coming months.