I don’t particularly like this kind of lesson for a Sunday night service, but I couldn’t really think of any way to avoid it in this case.
Tonight we have little more than a geographical background lesson as the Book of Acts winds down.
Although I don’t believe that Paul’s life ended in Rome at the close this book, we are approaching the close of this book.
Paul has finally made it to Rome as he had hoped and as he had been promised by the Lord.
As we pointed out this morning, “all roads lead to Rome,”
But this evening I just want to show you the actual road that was taken from Melita to Rome.
( I really hope that you enjoyed the song-service this evening.)
And as was always the case, the missionary was not idle.
He was redeeming the time, and in the process I’m sure that some souls were redeemed as well.
I find it hard to believe that the Lord would work miraculously in the physical realm without working miraculously in the spiritual as well.
Whether or not a church was actually started during that time, no one can say for sure.
I believe that our commission is several-fold with evangelism being the first aspect, but it should be carried out with the eventual desire of starting a self-propagating church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But Paul didn’t have the luxury of determining his own schedule.
Even though Julius gave the man of God a great deal of leeway, at the earliest opportunity the freighter from Alexandria wanted to set sail to Rome, and Julius knew that he needed to be on her.
So they sailed the 80 miles from Melita to Syracuse, the capital of the Island of Sicily.
If you are like me, you picture Sicily as being a thoroughly Roman or Italian place, but actually it was first colonized and civilized by the Greeks.
The Corinthian, Archias founded the city of Syracuse about 735 BC.
That was about the time that Hezekiah was king of Judah.
Pliny, who was a Corinthian said that no matter how bad the weather, there was never a day that the sun didn’t shine on Syracuse for at least a little while.
And Cicero the Roman said that there was not a greater and more beautiful Greek city in all the world.
It had another temple dedicated to Athena, a huge semi-circular theater cut out of the side of a mountain, and beautiful towers, walls and buildings of marble.
Because of its strategic location, Sicily has often been attacked by various nations, vying for control of the Mediterranean, but Syracuse was more often successful in defending itself than in falling.
For example, the Carthaginians were unable to take it from the Romans, and it took three years for the Romans to take it from the Greeks.
During the Roman attack, there was a genius residing in Syracuse by the name of Archimedes.
Finally someone murdered the man, and Syracuse became another victim of Rome.
Several of my books said that it took a day for a ship like Paul’s to travel from Melita to Syracuse.
Then for some reason or other, the ship lay in port for three days.
Luke gives us no explanation for that delay, so the guess of most experts is that the Spring winds were still rather variable and dangerous.
There is a Sicilian tradition that Paul was the founder of the first church on the island,
but it doesn’t seem very likely that Paul would have had time to establish a church there on this voyage.
There could have been a church already established there in which Paul might have preached,
and if the opportunity was right, he would have preached the gospel to those people.
To “fetch a compass” means that they couldn’t sail in a straight line, probably tacking back and forth.
Rhegium was the city right at the tip of the boot of Italy, at the entrance to the strait of Messina between Italy and Sicily.
Luke tells us that the ship spent a day there, and once again it was probably due to contrary winds.
You can be sure that the captain and owner of the grain on board that ship wanted to get to Rome as quickly as possible; they were not deliberately dragging their anchors.
If you stop and think about it, that ship could have been the first freighter from Alexandria to arrive that year, and if all things went well, she could make at least a couple more trips before that year’s season came to an end.
This ship was in a very good position, and if it was the first of the year, it might have been able to demand a really good price for its grain.
When the wind shifted and promised a good voyage they left Rhegium and sailed up the west coast of Italy to the primary port of Rome at Puteoli, at the north corner of the Bay of Naples.
Several of my reference books said that they sailed 182 miles in roughly 26 hours,
Probably some ancient scholar made that statement and then everyone else just quoted him until his name wasn’t being quoted any more.
It could be that some, or all of the grain was sold right off the ship.
Exactly why Julius granted this, we aren’t told, but my heart wants to look at Julius in the best possible light.
Anyway, there seems to have been a church there, as well as another church in Rome.
In this way it was much like Corinth and the church in Cenchrea, one of its ports.
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 as far as Appii forum, and The three taverns: whom when Paul saw, he thanked God, and took courage.
And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to the captain of the guard: but Paul was suffered to dwell by himself with a soldier that kept him.”
Not far from Puteoli, Paul and the others got on the most famous road of the ancient world: the Appian Way.
It was given that name from Appius, who either engineered the road or who financed its construction.
The Appian Way was a paved road begun about 312 B.C. that went 350 miles from Rome to Capua.
Apparently the brethren in Puteoli sent word to the brethren in Rome that Paul was with them.
And as Julius took his prisoners north, two groups of Christians came down from Rome.
The first bunch met Paul at Appii Forum, and the others probably left later and only got as far as the Three Taverns.
When Paul saw the brethren he thanked God and took courage.
I have read that there was a canal that ran along side the Appian Way for some distance.
I suppose that when it came to a cargo like grain, it would be easier to put it aboard barges or boats and to ferry them as far as they could.
It could have been like the container systems of today where the sacks of grain were on wagons pulled by oxen or then later sent by boat.
Historians say that Three Taverns, especially, was a wild place where the wagoners and freighters lived.
Appii Forum, the market of Appius, was 90 miles up the road from Puteoli and Three Taverns was another 10 beyond that.
Then from Three Taverns it was only 30 miles to Rome.
It had a population of about 1,200,000.
Half of these were said to be slaves.
But there was at least one church of the Lord Jesus Christ in Rome.
Paul was great blessing to that church.
And that church was a blessing to Paul while he was there.