In our journey through the book of Acts, we’ve walked with Paul through his first missionary trip and watched the gospel explode among the Gentiles. Acts 15 brings us to a turning point—not just in church history, but in our understanding of leadership, burdens, and what it really means to follow Jesus.
When Paul and Barnabas returned to Antioch, they were confronted by a group insisting that Gentile believers had to keep the entire Jewish law and be circumcised. In other words, “If you want to be saved, Jesus isn’t enough. You need to carry this heavy religious yoke too.”
Peter stood up in the Jerusalem council and said, in essence, “We couldn’t carry that yoke ourselves. Why would we put it on the necks of others?” Then he reminded everyone of the heart of the gospel: we are saved by the grace of the Lord Jesus, not by our performance.
This ties straight back to Jesus’ own words in Matthew 11: “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Following Jesus isn’t always comfortable, but compared to the crushing weight of sin, shame, and self-effort, His yoke truly is light.
From there, the message turned to leadership. Who we follow—and how we lead—has everything to do with whether the yokes in our lives feel heavy or light.
Scripture shows us two kinds of leaders:
“King” leaders like Saul, who use people to build themselves up. It’s about their image, their comfort, their control.
Servant leaders like David (despite his flaws), who see leadership as a call to lay themselves down for the good of others.
Jesus pulls the curtain back even further in Matthew 23. He warns about religious leaders who “tie up heavy burdens” and place them on people’s shoulders, but won’t lift a finger to help. They love to be seen. They love the titles. They look holy on the outside but are full of hypocrisy on the inside.
In contrast, Jesus defines greatness this way: “The greatest among you shall be your servant.”
Acts 15 also shows us another side of leadership: humility. Paul and Barnabas didn’t just declare, “We’re the missionaries. We know what’s right.” They went to Jerusalem. They listened to the apostles and elders. They opened their hearts to counsel and accountability. Then they were able to say, “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us…”
That one phrase captures godly leadership so well. Good leaders hear the Holy Spirit and also welcome the wisdom of godly people around them. They are confident in God and honest about their own humanity.
And then there’s the honest, messy ending of the chapter. Paul and Barnabas, two mighty men of God, have a sharp disagreement over John Mark. Barnabas wants to give him a second chance. Paul isn’t ready. The conflict is so severe that they separate.
It’s not clean. It’s not pretty. But even there, God is at work. Two missionary teams are launched instead of one. And later, we learn that God heals and restores those relationships, and John Mark becomes highly valuable to Paul’s ministry.
So what do we do with all this?
We remember that churches, businesses, organizations, nations, and families all rise and fall on leadership.
We recognize that we are all leaders somewhere—at home, at work, in the church, in our friendships.
We commit to choose leaders wisely and to be the kind of leaders others are glad to follow.
That means:
Serving instead of demanding.
Lifting burdens instead of adding to them.
Listening to the Holy Spirit and to wise counsel.
Keeping the main thing the main thing: God is real, people need Jesus, and we are called to reach the lost and grow them to be like Christ.
No leader is perfect—not pastors, not parents, not bosses, not you, not me. But we serve a perfect God who leads His church through imperfect people. If we will walk in humility, servanthood, and surrender to the Holy Spirit, He will use our lives to lighten the yoke of others and point them to Jesus, whose burden is still light.