“After three months we put out to sea in a ship that had wintered in the island—it was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux. We put in at Syracuse and stayed there three days.
“From there we set sail and arrived at Rhegium. The next day the south wind came up, and on the following day we reached Puteoli. There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome.”
Acts 28:11-14 NIV
After the months of upheaval…danger, rescue, fear, and relief…and miraculous intervention… the end of the voyage seemed tame. The weather was fine, the sea calm, the journey completed uneventfully…thankfully, no more drama…. “And so we came to Rome…”
…but…what lay ahead for Paul in Rome? This was no holiday interval for him. He was there to face the music for “crimes” cooked up against him by religious fanatics in his homeland. What did Caesar Nero know about Jewish scruples…religious bickering over laws and rituals and regulations? For Nero, Paul was far more dangerous. In Paul’s hand lay Nero’s very status as Lord of the empire.
Paul was preaching another king …and he was good at it. Many across the empire had changed allegiance…and Nero was not happy.
Perhaps, for this Roman despot whose every whim was to be carried out, this was an opportunity to take out this rival who was messing with his authority. It was reported that Paul had “turned the world upside down” with his message that “Jesus is Lord”. Many thousands across the empire had believed his message, creating communities that worshiped Jesus instead of Caesar.
For Nero, this was treason. So, inadvertently, Paul had fallen into his hands, and he would deal appropriately with him.
However, God also had a plan…and Rome was firmly in the middle of it. There was already a community of believers in the capital city. The message had already reached Rome.
Paul had written his superb letter to this congregation, giving the Christians a thorough understanding of the righteousness of God in all the facets of His glorious salvation. Now, after many years of longing and planning, he was here in person…a prisoner, yes, but still here to do whatever he could to strengthen the faith and understanding of the believers.
At first, Rome treated him well. Believers met him and welcomed him on his way.
“There we found some brothers and sisters who invited us to spend a week with them. And so we came to Rome. The brothers and sisters there had heard that we were coming, and they traveled as far as the Forum of Appius and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these people Paul thanked God and was encouraged.”
Acts 28:14-15 NIV
How glad they were to see him, to have him with them at last, to be able to talk to and listen to this illustrious missionary through whom the message of salvation had spread throughout the known world.
Even his captors treated him well at first.
“When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by himself, with a soldier to guard him.”
Acts 28:16 NIV
Free, but under house arrest, Paul continued to do what he did best. First, he called together the leaders of the Jewish community to give his defence. As usual, some believed his story, others rejected him. And so, once again, he turned his attention to the Gentiles.
“Three days later he called together the local Jewish leaders. When they had assembled, Paul said to them: “My brothers, although I have done nothing against our people or against the customs of our ancestors, I was arrested in Jerusalem and handed over to the Romans…
”They disagreed among themselves and began to leave after Paul had made this final statement: “The Holy Spirit spoke the truth to your ancestors when he said through Isaiah the prophet: “ ‘Go to this people and say, “You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.” For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.’ “Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will listen!”
Acts 28:17, 25-28 NIV
For two years, Paul was free to minister to the people who came to him. For two years, this man of God, this seasoned missionary…restricted as he was in his rented house…preached, taught, and lived the kingdom of God and the message of Jesus. He used the time to think, pray, and write, to communicate some of the wonderful truths he had learned on his journey of many years with Jesus to congregations he had founded in Europe and Asia Minor.
God was so in this plan to free his servant to record, both in the lives of the people he met then and the letters he wrote, the words of God we now have preserved in the covers of this divinely-inspired book.
Luke’s record of the early church and its story ends on a note of victory. Paul might be a prisoner of the state…and yet the Word of God was unfettered. People like him might come and go but the kingdom of God goes on, carried in the hearts and passed on from generation to generation by those who are witnesses of Jesus.
The books of Acts is beginning of a never-ending story. No matter how much the world might try to destroy the people and the book that carry God’s kingdom forward, this is God’s story and He will finish what He started.
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.”
Habakkuk 2:14 NIV