NT 11: All Roads Lead to Rome

They say all roads lead to Rome. In the early Christian Church, they kind of did.

Peter and Paul both found their way to Rome to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was the center of the First Century world.

Why would they go to Rome? Because the Gospel they preached there would spread. If all roads lead to Rome, then there are roads leading from Rome to many other places in the world. This was a continuation of the Christian church's efforts to spread the gospel to all nations, lands, and people.

Preaching in Rome was the passing of the torch, the spreading of the Gospel fire.

Rome was also the place where it is speculated Mark wrote down the memories and testimony of Peter in the Gospel of Mark. He wrote down the things the Lord said and did while on earth. This testimony, joined with the other three Gospels, provides another witness for the divinity of Christ.

Rome was the place where at that point Peter and Paul and Mark could do an incredible amount of good.

While Rome was the place where they would preach some of their greatest sermons, it also the place where they would be put to death for their testimonies of Christ.

Paul was put to death, scholars assumed beheaded, and tradition says that Peter was crucified upside-down. Before this, they suffered tribulation, mocking, and punishment for preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

When we are in the position of doing the most good, that is when we have the most Satanic opposition. Even though Rome would be the place of their death, because of their testimony, the Apostles headed to Rome.

In our lives, all [right] roads lead to our own Rome--the place where we will do the most good, learn the most, but probably also experience the greatest opposition. It is at those times when we need to follow the example of Paul, and Peter, and Mark and have faith, even in the midst of fear.