(Harbinger’s Daily) Paul had a great desire to go to Rome. Even as he served as an evangelist and planted churches throughout the Roman Empire in the East, his missionary journeys pushed further and further west. Paul leveraged his Roman citizenship to overcome some persecution and to eventually claim his right to appeal to Ceasar. Faced with Paul’s well-played trump card, Festus responded, “to Ceasar you shall go” (Acts 25:12).
This is not to say that Paul personally planted a church in Rome. His letter to the Roman church exists because he was eager to be with them in person and wanted to ground their faith in solid teaching about the Gospel. To this day, I frequently cite the words of Paul as I recount my own prayer in anticipation of speaking at a church: “For I long to see you so that I may impart some spiritual gift to you, that you may be established; to be mutually encouraged while among you, by each other’s faith, both yours and mine” (Romans 1:11-12).
When Paul eventually arrived in Rome, it was in chains—figuratively, if not literally. (Read More)
