Paul reaches Jerusalem with his Gentile posse, and they meet up with James and the Jesus Jews. The groups shouldn't get along on paper, but the Holy Spirit-filled, Gospel-driven, Jesus-centered church shows a kind of unity, generosity, and welcome that should be the mark of every church.
Paul says in chapter 20 that he's compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem. In every city he visits, people tell him through the Spirit, that he's going to face persecution. People even tell him "The Spirit says don't go!" But Paul pushes on, going to Jerusalem anyway. So are the other disciples false prophets? Is Paul disobeying the Spirit by pressing on? Or is it that "prophecy" in the New Testament has a little definition than it did in the OT?
Everything from Genesis to Revelation is working toward the New Creation. God generates in Creation, Humans degenerate through sin, and God regenerates by his Son and the Spirit. The Story of God reaches it's "conclusion" when Christ returns, and the New Creation is launched!
Sin brings all kinds of death. Death physically, relationally, spiritually. Sickness, disease, war, affliction, and trouble are now part of human existence. Sin corrupts us all the way down – mind, will, emotions, desires, leaving us completely depraved and unable to please God. By the time you get to the end of Genesis 6, one of Adam and Eve’s sons has killed the other; people are bragging about sex and murder, until, “When the Lord saw that ... every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.”
Priscilla and Aquila listen to a young man named Apollos speaking in the synagogue about Jesus, but the message was not quite complete. What he said was correct, but it wasn't complete – like stopping with Jesus' death and resurrection and leaving out the Holy Spirit. So they invited him over and explained "The Rest of the Story."
As Paul rolls into Corinth, we get a bit of a window into him being a little more human than we may have thought about him. He admits in 1 Corinthians that he came into town with weakness, fear, and much trembling. Yet, God meets him in that fear and offers him incredible comfort.
With the base of operations now at Lydia's house, Paul and Silas settle into a routine of prayer with the new believers. But this new church has stirred up some opposition – both spiritual and political. Paul and Silas end up beaten by rods and thrown in prison, where we find them worshiping in the middle of the night.
Paul and Silas head north to catch up with the new believers in Galatia and Phrygia. Then apparently, they decide to not go home yet, but keep going further west. But, in one of the strangest lines of Acts, the Holy Spirit said no to Asia, and no to Bithynia. Paul gets a vision about heading to Macedonia, and the crew springs into action.
The Jerusalem council writes a letter to send back to the Gentile believers in Antioch, and send it by the hands of Paul, Barnabas, Judas, and Silas. The Gentile believers were overjoyed when they received the letter, because it welcomed them as brothers and sisters in Christ!
After Paul and Barnabas return from their missions trip, they are met with a bit of hostility from local church leaders who say these new Gentile converts need to follow the laws of Moses if they want to belong to the church. Paul and Barnabas get into a heated argument with them, and they all agree to take this one to Jerusalem for some answers.