Each Monday including departure day,click back here for something fresh I'm preparing for you. Each of these readings is about one of the sies we'll visit. Each new article will appear below the earlier one. Don't miss any of them. See you very soon! -David
Read each of these with your trip Bible open and ready to mark the passages and your thoughts. All but this opening one are about the Greece part of our trip. The first one is also the longest one.
First we see Paul's goal - his eye is on the capitol of the empire. He just couldn't wait to take the
the gospel to Rome! But it didn't happen as he'd planned. Isn't that often God's way of leading us?
# 1 “I Must Also See Rome” (Acts 19:21)
Rome, the ancient and modern is in the center part of the "boot" of Italy, near the western coast. The Tiber River flows through the city. Since the 1929 Lateran Pacts, Vatican City is a separate, sovereign nation (the world's smallest at 120 acres.) It is completely surrounded by the city of Rome. Those taking our optional Rome Extension will visit Rome and Vatican City – including St. Peter’s Square, Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel, the Vatican Museum and St. Peter’s Basilica.
Likely founded in 753 B.C., by the time of Paul, Rome had become a congested city of about four million people. A keystone of it's economy was slavery - most slaves captured as the Army Legions conquered more territories. Probably more than half of the population of Rome was slaves. During the time of Christ, Rome was the seat of wealth and power, "Rome ruled the world." The Roman highway network enabled movement of the Legions as well as international trade. The reality was that "all roads lead to Rome" and the accurate, stone mile-markers along the way, all marked the distances to the capital.
Christianity came early to the Empire and the Imperial city. Jews from all over the world were in Jerusalem for the festival of Pentecost when Peter preached the first Christian sermon - and the church of Jesus was born. On that day, the crowd of thousands comprised those who “were staying in Jerusalem - God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven…” including “visitors from Rome, both Jews and converts to Judaism." (Acts 2:5,10-11).
In response to the message preached by Peter, "3,000" men were baptized into Christ that day. They certainly carried this good news of Christ back home to Rome. The church there was planted by them. Three decades later, the apostle Paul arrived.
Paul longed to preach the gospel in Rome personally. Through extraordinary circumstances, God and government did it. Luke’s precise record of this harrowing voyage is the most detailed account of ancient sea navigation in all the annals of history. Read Dr. Luke’s record. It's spot on (Acts 27:1-28:16.) [We hope for better sailing weather for our Mediterranean cruise]
Paul is escorted under military guard to Rome during the reign of infamous Emperor Nero. The last 2 verses of Acts describe his first “imprisonment” (Acts 28:30-31.) 30 For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house and welcomed all who came to see him. 31 Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.
Many believe that was when he wrote the “Prison Epistles” – inspired letters to the Philippians, Ephesians, Colossians, slave-owner Philemon. Christian companions who encouraged him there were Physician/Author Dr. Luke, Aristarchus (Acts 27:2), Timothy (Philippians 1:1, Colossians 1:1), Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21), Epaphroditus (Philippians 4:18) and writer of the fourth gospel, missionary John Mark (Colossians 4:10).
Besides his house arrest and a temporary release, Paul was later re-confined, this time in a dungeon holding facility called Mammertine, just off the Forum. Among the famous monuments we’ll visit in Rome are the Coliseum, the Forum, pagan temple ruins, Capitoline Hill, the commemorative Arch depicting the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in A.D. 70 under Roman General Titus, and hopefully, Mammertine Prison itself. Others have been imprisoned for the faith as well, even in our day, but as Paul wrote to his protégé Timothy, “This is my gospel, for which I am suffering even to the point of being chained like a criminal. But God’s word is not chained….Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of Truth.” He continued to affirm that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work….Preach the Word…” (2 Timothy 2:9,15; 3:16; 4:2.)
More than ever, the world needs to hear the clear teachings, and trust the solid promises of this life-changing Word of God!
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# 2 Taking The Gospel to Corinth
Greece is surrounded on 3 sides by water – the Aegean Sea on the east side, the Ionian Sea on the west. Imagine if there was a narrowing of land a little over halfway down the country, almost dividing it in two – an isthmus just 3½ miles wide between the two seas. Roman historian Strabo describes Corinth’s strategic location controlling that narrow strip of land. About 600 BC, Corinth built a paved road across the narrow connector by which cargoes and even small ships were hauled, avoiding the dangerous and time consuming 200-mile sea voyage sailing around the southern Cape Malea. Later, an amazing canal was dug to connect the seas. The strategic location made Corinth a very wealthy city.
Corinth became a bawdy seaport town where anything could be had for a price. Sailors looked for opportunities to visit Corinth! It had such an earned reputation of sinfulness, that if you wanted to insult someone's character, you simply said they were "living like a Corinthian!" The opportunity for evangelism there drew Paul to Corinth like a magnet. Acts 18;1 "After this Paul left Athens and went to Corinth." He traveled 50 miles west and south (Acts 18:1-18). For us, it's a pleasant motorcoach ride along the Agean. Corinth was surrounded by 6 miles of defensive walls protecting a population of 100-200,000. Except for Ephesus, Paul worked for Christ at Corinth longer than any other city we know of. He later wrote two inspired letters back to them. In 1 & 2 Corinthians he addressed problems in the Corinthian church and urged believers not to fall back into the sinful practices that characterized their town.
While at Corinth, Paul stayed with Aquila and Priscilla, Jewish tent makers from Rome (Acts 18:2-3). How did THEY happen to move there? According to historian Suetonius, Emperor Claudius expelled the Jews from Rome in 49 A.D., because "the Jews were in a state of constant tumult at the instigation of one Chrestus" (i.e., Christ).
By this time, the "best years" of Corinth were in their history books. The golden age of Corinth was really 500 years before Paul's mission there, but it was enjoying a kind of resurgence as a Roman city in the 1st century A.D. Every other year, the Isthmian Games, rivaling Athens' Olympics, were held there in honor of Poseidon, the "god" of the sea (remember, surrounded on three sides by ocean). Since he used athletic analogies to explain spiritual truths, it seems likely that Paul was there for at least one of these major events. Two friends of mine in different cities, own trophy shops. I haven't told either of them that the Isthmian Games victor's crown was not gold, silver or bronze. The "crown" was made of wilted celery! That explains Paul's reference to the "corruptible crown" given to athletes (1 Cor. 9:24-27) in sharp contrast to the "unfading crown" we receive in Christ! The resemblance of the ancient Corinthian lifestyle to our sin-saturated society today is striking. The inspired counsel and redeeming message of Jesus in the Corinthian letters is as current and applicable as if it had been written yesteday!
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# 3 Athens – Birthplace of "Democracy"
First practiced there from 5-4 BC, the word itself comes from two Greek words “demos” meaning people and “kratos” meaning power. Democratic government was born in the culture and nation of Greece. Athens is also home to the Acropolis, the Olympic Games and unique treasures of poetry, art, drama, comedy, art, and a surprising Biblical History.
Before Abraham's time, Greece created a unique linguistic tool - the language in which the New Testament would later be written. In Athens we find Paul’s only fully-recorded sermon to a gentile audience.
Acts 17 captures his angst regarding their idolatry. He introduces them to the true "unknown god." When we’re at Mars Hill, we’ll read that brief but exciting message – right where the Apostle Paul preached it!
Assuming Paul arrived in Athens by ship, he would have landed at Piraeus, where we will be landing from our cruise. He would have gone north from the harbor and entered Athens by the ancient "Double Gate", where several highways converged. He walked through an extensive cemetery, noticing the graves of many distinguished Athenians.
Passing through the gates, walking on the “Sacred Way” Paul would have explored Athens the same as we will on our tour (without air-conditioned motorcoach!) In the marketplace, wherever Paul turned, he saw statues to this god, temples to that god, and shrines to the other god. They were everywhere in the lower part of the city and he still hadn’t reached the higher Acropolis! Finally climbing Acropolis hill, he and pilgrims like us today, share the same amazement. On the western side of the Acropolis was the Temple of goddess Nike, called Wingless Victory (and tennis shoes). Paul would have looked back toward the bay, as we will. He would have walked around the most famous and beautiful of Greek temples, the Parthenon, and the Erechtheum on the northern edge of Acropolis hill. Finally, there was the amazing statue of the city-goddess Athena, in the heart of the Parthenon and the city.
It is said that there were more "gods" in Athens than men! Wherever Paul looked - gods of every size and rank, statues and altars in the courtyard of every home. Hiking through this forest of deities Paul discovered one altar (of at least four) to the "unknown god." These altars to "unknown gods" guaranteed that no deity was omitted from worship, and throw a jealous fit!
Paul was appalled. “His spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols" (Acts 17:16). As a devout Jew, he knew God’s commands #1 & #2, "You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." (Exodus 20:3-4).
He first went into "the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers," then went into the marketplace (Acts 17:17-21). Certain "Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him" and brought him to the Areopagus, where the supreme court of Athens met. Sixteen well-worn marble steps lead to the summit from a plateau between the Acropolis and the Areopagus where Paul preached one of the most memorable sermons recorded in the Bible (Acts 17:22-31). There is no place like Athens! We'll step through history, Bibles in hand, in the "Footstpeps of Paul".
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