Acts 15:1-21

15:5 | Of the Pharisees who believed in Christ, some had a harder time than the apostle Paul did in recognizing that God’s grace in Jesus had given them a different relationship to the law.

15:7-9 | Peter reviewed for the Jerusalem Council how Cornelius and his household received salvation and the Holy Spirit. All who came to faith are saved by one thing and one thing only: God purifying their hearts through belief in Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:12).

15:12 | Like Peter, Barnabas and Paul’s goal in describing the miracles and wonders God had worked was to show that God was doing among the Gentiles as He had done in Jerusalem among Jewish converts.

15:13-19 | James, the leader of the church in Jerusalem, affirmed what had already been said by quoting from Amos 9:11-12. That passage will be ultimately fulfilled in the millennial reign of Christ, but what was happening through Peter, Paul, and Barnabas was sure confirmation that Gentiles were part of God’s plan (Isa. 2:2; 11:10; 40:5; 66:23).

15:20-21 | These four prohibitions were not to put Gentiles under the Jewish law but to promote fellowship and harmony as two disparate cultures came together in one spiritual body.