Acts chapter 15

vs 31

T'was a pretty short message, but the theme of it is clear - that as gentiles they should not be burdened with a bunch of jewish rules.

vs 32

So they probably hung around for a while doing that. It's amazing what a bit of preacher-sharing can do to bring churches together.

vs 33 (34)

There's a turnup for the books - the TNIV doesn't even put a note in about other manuscripts in this instance.

Anyway, eventually the church sent them back, wanting then to go bless Jerusalem church once more.

vs 35

It was not just B & P, but a whole swag of unnamed preachers and teachers. Wait, weren't they missionaries? Well, yeah. But now they're in their church teaching. They can do two things.

vs 36

Sounds like a nice thing to do. The speed at which they set up churches, discipled people, and chose leaders, should not make us feel slow. Like I said, many of the converts would have been Jews or God-fearers, and so they already knew a lot.

But now they could probably use some encouragement, they certainly need to hear this message from Jerusalem, and P & B probably want to see how they're going because they planted the churches there.

vs 37

Who, if we remember, flaked out at one stage and went home.

vs 38

Which is a reasonable attitude to take. In theory, anyway. Luke doesn't go deeply into this argument and its cause, but I think he leaves enough said that the rest of it can go unsaid and we still get it.

vs 39

This is perhaps the more surprising of the situation - that their disagreement was so sharp that they part ways over it. Doesn't seem particularly Christian, but having said that, sometimes it probably is best for Christians to part ways if they don't agree. That's basically what denominations do.

vs 40

So they each go their separate ways, both roping in some new blood (Mark wasn't quite as new, but getting him re-involved is good). The Paul and Silas combo goes off well too - remember how many of Paul's letters come from both of them (and Timothy too).

vs 41

So Paul and Silas do the dime tour around the areas in which Antioch is based (which I can tell you thanks to a recent comment). At least, that's where he starts.