Audio Version read by Kathy Bird
|
Paul In Rome - The Closing Years For The Apostles PAUL SHIPWRECKED Paul says, "We spent a long time there, until it became dangerous to continue the voyage." Then Paul tells them that if they continue on, the voyage will be dangerous; there will be great damage to the cargo and to the ship, and loss of life as well." But the army officer was convinced by what the captain and the owner of the ship said, and not by what Paul said. The men did not want to spend the winter in that harbor and thought they could make it to the other side of the island in a better harbor called Phoenix. They set sail when the weather seemed fine, but soon a storm blew them away from the island and they were at the mercy of the storm and the wind for fourteen days. They lose the cargo and the ship is wrecked and stranded just off the island of Malta. They finally listen to Paul when he tells them what to do and all 276 men on board make it to shore safely. They are there for three months and Paul does many miracles and heals many people while they are there. The people give them many gifts and what they need to continue their journey. Then they leave for Rome on a ship from Alexandria called the "Twin Gods", which has spent the winter in the island. PAUL IN ROME Paul sails from the island of Malta, which is just below the island of Sicily. If you look on a map Sicily looks somewhat like a football that is about to be kicked by what looks like a boot (the country of Italy). The ship that Paul is on sails to Sicily and then to Rhegium, Italy.(The toe of the boot) From there they head up the coast of Italy to Puteoli, and will travel by land to Rome. At Puteoli, Paul finds some believers who ask them to stay for a week and then they travel on to Rome. Word has spread about Paul and while they are traveling, many believers come to meet him from far away towns located on the road leading to Rome. When he sees them, he gives thanks to God and is greatly encouraged. When he arrives in Rome, Paul is allowed to live by himself with a soldier guarding him. After three days, Paul contacts the Jewish leaders and asks to arrange a meeting with them to explain his story. The leaders are interested to hear about the party to which Paul belongs and sets date to which Paul can address a large number of people where he is living. Some who hear him speak are convinced by his words and others do not believe. So they left disagreeing among themselves, after Paul had said this one thing: "How well the Holy Spirit spoke through the prophet Isaiah to your ancestors! For he said, You will listen, but not understand; you will look and look, but not see, because this people's minds are dull, and they have stopped up their ears and closed their eyes Otherwise, their eyes would see, and their ears would hear, and their minds would understand, and they would turn to me, says God and I would heal them.'" (These were the same words spoken by Jesus to the leaders of Israel.) And Paul tells them, "Now you know the message of salvation has been sent to the Gentiles and they will listen!" Paul lives for two more years in a place he rents for himself, and he welcomes all who come to see him. He preaches the good news about the Kingdom of God and teaches about the Lord Jesus Christ with boldness and freedom. THE CLOSING YEARS FOR THE APOSTLES The extreme price paid by those who would not give up their faith in Jesus was death, and those who died like this were known as Martyrs. The people who imposed these conditions on the believers were the Jewish priests and elders and men like Saul before his conversion. They thought they were doing a service for God, by getting rid of those who did not give respect to God or the Law of Moses. The first of these Martyrs was Stephen and many came after him. The second group of people who imposed death on the believers were those who had no use for God or his people. They were people like Nero, the Emperor of Rome who made a sport out of killing Christians for entertainment. There were those like the silversmith named Demetrius who made silver models of the temple of the goddess Artemis in the town of Ephesus. Paul had succeeded in convincing many people in Ephesus and nearly the whole province of Asia that man-made gods were not gods at all. Demetrius was worried that the temple of the great goddess would come to mean nothing and her greatness would be destroyed and so would his profits from the sale of silver model temples. He stirred up a riot against Paul, but had no success in doing him harm. It is thought because of letters (or epistles) that were written after Paul was in Rome, that he stayed for two years and was released. This was before the persecution of the Christians in Rome by Emperor Nero. After his release, he is thought to have visited Ephesus, leaving Timothy to work there while he went to Macedonia. He left Titus to finish the missionary work on Crete and tells him in the final instructions of a letter, (Titus;3:12) "do your best to come to me in Nicopolis, because I have decided to spend the winter there." From there he may have made a visit to Spain and might have been working there when the persecution of the Christians started in Rome. In the epistle Paul's Second Letter to Timothy; 1:16-17; 2:9, it is revealed that Paul is again a prisoner in Rome and kept in close confinement as a criminal. His first appearance before the court holds no condemnation for him, but when he writes at (2Timothy;4: 6-8; 16-18), he knows that he has finished his work on earth for the Lord. He is executed at Rome in late A.D. 66 or early 67. Peter and his wife traveled to many towns preaching the good news of Jesus to the Jews. He came to Rome shortly after Paul's first release from prison and writes two letters, The First Letter from Peter and the Second Letter from Peter. In the first, he seeks to strengthen the saints in their sufferings for Christ, while in the second letter, he warns against those teaching Christ will not return again saying that only God will decided the right time for Jesus' return and it will not be too late, for God is calling all people to himself and giving them a chance to believe. Peter was executed at Rome in A.D. 65, under the persecutions by the Emperor Nero. John was one of the twelve Apostles and writer of the gospel of John, 3 epistles and the book of Revelation, the last book of the bible. He spent his last years in Ephesus and it was likely that the seven churches of Asia, mentioned in book of Revelation, knew him well. Because of his testimony that Jesus is Lord and the Word of God, he was exiled to the small island of Patmos which was the site of a penal colony, where political prisoners were condemned to hard labor in the mines. Here he wrote Revelation, a book to give his readers hope and encouragement, and to urge them to remain faithful during time of suffering and persecution. He apparently died in Ephesus near the end of the first century about 98 to 100 A.D. |