Our title this morning is an old proverb: “All roads lead to Rome.”
It’s a proverb which means that there are certain things at the center of other things, and eventually everything meets at that center point – that loci.
It may only be a proverb today, but during the height of the Roman Empire, it was literally true.
If someone wanted to, all he needed to do was step on to the road out of his city and with a good map he could eventually travel all the way to Rome.
But there was another sense in which that was especially true for the Apostle Paul.
It seems as though it has been a very long time ago, but in Acts 23:
And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, SO MUST THOU BEAR WITNESS ALSO AT ROME.”
The Lord had been surveying a road for Paul to travel, for quite some period of time.
But you know, that is one of the things about the Lord; that is what the Lord does.
Our God is a road builder, and He builds those roads for you and me to travel.
Psalm 16:8 – “I have set the LORD always before me:
Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
THOU WILT SHEW ME THE PATH OF LIFE:
in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.”
From Acts 18 we know that he spent 18 months of his Second Missionary Journey in that city,
There are internal clues which suggest that the letter was written during his last missionary journey.
Paul had written to the Corinthians that he wanted to collect money to take to the saints in Jerusalem.
And in Acts 20 we read:
And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, HE CAME INTO GREECE,
And there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.”
And in the first chapter of Romans he said:
“Now I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you, (but was let hitherto,) that I might have some fruit among you also, even as among other Gentiles.
So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.”
Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company. But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.”
That I may be delivered from them that do not believe in Judaea; and that my service which I have for Jerusalem may be accepted of the saints;
That I may come unto you with joy by the will of God, and may with you be refreshed.”
And now eight chapters, and many months, later it was coming to pass.
This morning, let’s restate a couple of things and add a few more.
And then by Acts 23, the Lord Himself was telling Paul that he was going to Rome.
This was reiterated a couple of times and in a couple of different ways.
For example, when it looked as though disaster was going to sink the ship on which he was traveling, an angel of the Lord reminded him that the promise of God was sure.
And this is my first point today: THE PROMISE OF GOD IS SURE.
Last week we looked at the last part of Romans 8.
“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”
Then the Bible adds that God’s promises to us are somehow grounded in our Saviour.
There are a great many generic promises of the Lord’s blessings.
There are promises like Psalm 34:19 – “Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivereth him out of them all.”
But to be delivered out of every affliction, doesn’t mean that the Lord will heal every disease.
We may eventually die with one or two raging afflictions in us, but we’ll still be delivered from them.
The promise of God is sure.
“But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”
“Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.”
But then once in a while there is that promise similar to Paul’s: “YOU are going to Rome.”
For example, every child of God has the promise of I John 2:25 – “And this is the promise that he hath promised us, even eternal life.”
“In my Father‘s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.”
And I guarantee to you, based on the promise of God, the power of God, and the past history of God,
and that where He will be for eternity there you will be for eternity as well.
But that doesn’t mean that he couldn’t have met some of these people earlier in other places.
For example, Aquila and Priscilla had earlier been in Rome, but they had been forced out by royal edict and had taken up residence in Corinth and then in Ephesus while Paul was in those places.
But we notice that Luke didn’t mention any names here in Acts 28, so we might assume that he didn’t know any of the Christians living in Puteoli or who down from Rome.
It’s possible that even though Aquila and his wife had returned to Rome, they were not there at that time.
But whether or not that was the case, one of the things to notice is that in Christ very diverse people are brought together.
We may not know each other by face, but we can recognize a family resemblance through Christ Jesus.
We know that humanity began with one pair of individuals.
But sin divided that family and brought it so low that God chose to wipe humanity off the earth and to restart with another man and his children.
But then again sin divided the family of man, and the Lord put his exclamation mark over that division at the Tower of Babel.
Sin has since the days of Adam and Eve been dividing and separating the people of God’s creation.
But through Christ Jesus, Greeks and Romans, Hebrews and Heathens, are being brought together in a new and wonderful kind of family.
Paul wrote to the Gentile Christians of Galatia: “For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.”
“Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby: And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.”
“And we came the next day to Puteoli: Where we found brethren, and were desired to tarry with them seven days: and so we went toward Rome. And from thence, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us.”
Notice the language of verse 14: “and we WERE DESIRED to tarry with them seven days.”
It appears that when the brethren, and probably the church in Puteoli, learned that Paul had come to their city, they asked if it might be possible for him to spend the week there and probably to participate with them in the services the next Lord’s day.
Perhaps his blended with the plans of Julius, the Centurion, who may have needed to send a message to Rome that he was coming.
Perhaps this request was granted simply because Julius felt obligated to Paul for saving the voyage from disaster.
Or perhaps Julius, too, had become a child of God, one of the brethren of Paul, and that he longed to be a part of the services of an established church.
Whichever it was, it’s hard not to commend Julius for his on-going consideration of Paul.
Everywhere the Christian goes throughout the world, there are brothers and sisters in Christ, whom he has never met before, but with whom there can be an instantaneous and loving relationship.
A third aspect of this scripture is mysterious despite being so very, very common:
It is nearly impossible to explain why Paul would be in need of encouragement.
He had received countless special revelations from the Lord.
Angels had spoken to him; he had worked miracles, and he been the recipient of other miracles.
He was the great Apostle to the Gentiles;
He was the pen-man of some of the most encouraging books of the New Testament.
And yet Luke tells us specifically that Paul was encouraged by the arrival of these brethren from Rome.
Our problem is that we tend to make our heros larger than life.
We tend to place men like Daniel, Samuel and Paul on an equal footing with the Lord Jesus.
Our Lord Jesus Christ could be tempted to sin, but he never sinned.
Paul, Moses, Abraham and David, not only could be tempted to sin, but being men of flesh just like ours, they did sin.
Logically, we might think that Paul should never have been discourage, or fearful, or worrisome, but he was no different from ourselves.
There is no more reason that we should need encouragement than the great Apostle Paul.
But the fact is that we not only get discouraged, we get depressed.
Despite knowing that all things work together for good to them that love God, we still worry and doubt.
Yes, Paul should not have been disconsolate, but apparently he was, and Luke tells us the truth.
But the arrival of the brethren from Rome filled the heart of Paul with joy, and he lifted up eyes to the Lord and filled the air with His praises.
Judging from some of the rest of this chapter, it appears that Paul was afraid that the Roman believers were filled with the anti-gentile sentiment that some of the believers in Jerusalem felt.
Perhaps Paul was thinking that his earlier letter to Rome might have offended people there.
Perhaps he had received letters from Rome or heard rumors about Rome that made him worry that there were already people there who hated him.
We can’t know what was going on the heart of the Apostle, but we do know that the friendly faces of people whom he had never met before filled him with encouragement, joy and thanksgiving.
That should be as it is with us as well.
Not only should our worship of God with our brothers and sisters in Christ encourage and uplift us,
but there should be a desire in us to be that same kind of blessing to others around us.
Probably, based in part, by the letter that was sent from Festus in Caesar,
Paul was not incarcerated with the common criminals of Rome.
And into this house came dozens, if not hundreds of people, throughout the months to come.
There were unbelieving Jews whom Paul personally invited.
I’m sure that the pastor and members of the church in Rome often came to talk with Paul.
There were probably people coming and going most of the time.
And perhaps there was even the opportunity for some sort of church services there at the house.
But in addition to these things, there was a soldier that constantly guarded or kept watch over him.
Nearly every scholar whom I have read has said that Paul was actually chained to this soldier.
Most even vividly described how that Paul’s right hand was chained to the guard’s left hand.
And they suggest that at least two guards every day kept watch over Paul.
Even if they were not actually chained to Paul, those soldiers were responsible to watch and thus to hear, everything that Paul said.
How long Paul was kept like this, it is impossible to say.
But even if it was no more than three months, it could have been that dozens, if not a hundred or more of Rome’s elite guards, heard the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ over and over again.
Not only did they hear Paul discussing the theology of salvation with other Christians, but you can be sure that unless they demanded otherwise, Paul directly spoke to the soldiers themselves.
Can you imagine what an impact that this might have had on the Roman military?
Some of these men could have been later sent out as commanders of their own troops to the far flung edges of the Roman Empire.
And some of them carried with them the seeds of the gospel.
Some of you children and young people have been coming to this church all of your lives.
At times you may have felt that there was chain about your wrist and that you were dragged to the House of God.
Some of you have no idea about the great privilege that the Lord has given you to hear the gospel in a hundred different ways over those years.
I’m not suggesting that I am a great Bible teacher or evangelist, but I serve One Who is.
And like those guards you have been given the opportunity to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit.
What has that voice said and what has that seed become in that heart of yours?
Have you been brought to your knees? Have you been brought to repentance?
Have you learned to love the Lord Jesus as Paul did?
Are you now willing to do whatever he asks of you, as Paul was willing to do?
Are you a child of God?