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The Apostles
Jerusalem → Greece → Rome
After the Spirit came at Pentecost, the good news of Jesus went out from Jerusalem exactly as He had promised: through Judea and Samaria, north to Damascus and Antioch, and then west by sea and road into Greece and on to Rome. Paul carried it across the Aegean to Philippi, Athens, and Corinth, and came at last to the capital of the empire as a prisoner. What began in one upper room reached the ends of the known world.
Who walked it
- Peter
- Stephen
- Philip
- Paul
- Barnabas
- Timothy
The road
Antioch → Derbe · 9 stops
- Antioch
- Seleucia
- Salamis
- Paphos
- Perga
- Pisidian Antioch
- Iconium
- Lystra
- Derbe
Antioch → Antioch · 18 stops
Ephesus → Jerusalem · 15 stops
Caesarea → Rome · 12 stops
- Caesarea
- Sidon
- Myra
- Cnidus
- Fair Havens
- Malta
- Syracuse
- Rhegium
- Puteoli
- Forum of Appius
- Three Taverns
- Rome
Moments on the road
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Pentecost
The Spirit comes · Acts 2
At the feast, a sound like a rushing wind filled the house, and tongues as of fire rested on each of them. Peter stood up with the Eleven, and about three thousand were added that day. From this city the road runs outward to every nation.
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The Damascus Road
Saul sees the Lord · Acts 9
Breathing threats, Saul drew near Damascus, and a light from heaven threw him to the ground. Why do you persecute Me? He entered the city blind, and left it a witness: the persecutor became the apostle.
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Joppa
Tabitha, and a sheet from heaven · Acts 9-10
In Joppa Peter raised Tabitha, full of good works, back to life. On a rooftop by the sea he saw a sheet let down from heaven and heard: what God has made clean, do not call common. The door was opening to the nations.
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First Called Christians
A new name · Acts 11
Scattered believers preached the Lord Jesus here to Greeks as well as Jews, and a great number believed. Barnabas fetched Saul from Tarsus, and for a whole year they taught the church. In Antioch the disciples were first called Christians.
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Stoned and Standing
Lystra · Acts 14
When Paul healed a man lame from birth, the crowds called him a god come down; days later they stoned him and dragged him out as dead. He got up and went back into the city. From this same town came Timothy, his son in the faith.
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The Ship for Italy
Bound for Rome · Acts 27
At Myra the centurion found a ship of Alexandria bound for Italy and put the prisoner Paul aboard. Ahead lay the great storm, the wreck on Malta, and Rome itself, far to the west. The road did not stop at the sea; it ran on to the heart of the empire.
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Lydia and the Jailer
The first church in Europe · Acts 16
By the river outside Philippi a dealer in purple cloth named Lydia listened, and the Lord opened her heart to believe. That same city threw Paul and Silas in prison, where at midnight they prayed and sang until an earthquake shook the doors open. The jailer fell down trembling and asked how to be saved, and they told him: believe in the Lord Jesus, you and your household.
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To an Unknown God
The Areopagus · Acts 17
The city was full of idols, and it stirred Paul to the heart. Standing before the council on the Areopagus, he spoke of an altar he had found in the streets, inscribed to an unknown god. The God they worshiped without knowing, he told them, he had come to proclaim. Some laughed at the resurrection, but others believed, among them Dionysius and a woman named Damaris.
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Keep On Speaking
A year and a half · Acts 18
In Corinth many who heard Paul believed and were baptized, even Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, and all his house. One night the Lord spoke to him in a vision: do not be afraid, keep on speaking, do not be silent, for I have many people in this city. So Paul stayed a year and a half, teaching the word of God among them.
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Great Is Artemis
Two years and a riot · Acts 19
For two years Paul taught in Ephesus, until everyone in the province of Asia had heard the word of the Lord. So many turned from idols that a silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis, saw his trade in danger. He stirred up the city, and for two hours the crowd in the theater roared as one: Great is Artemis of the Ephesians.
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The Viper
Shipwrecked on Malta · Acts 28
The ship broke apart in the storm, yet everyone reached the shore alive, on an island called Malta. As Paul laid a bundle of sticks on the fire, a viper driven out by the heat fastened on his hand. He shook it off into the flames and suffered no harm, and the islanders who had waited for him to swell up and die changed their minds and said he was a god.
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The Kingdom Unhindered
The gospel reaches Rome · Acts 28
The prisoner came at last to Rome, the heart of the empire, and was allowed to live by himself with a soldier to guard him. For two whole years he stayed in his own rented house and welcomed everyone who came to him. Boldly and freely he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ, and no one stopped him.
At a glance
- Span
- About AD 30 to 62
- Tracks
- The Way North, the First, Second, and Third Journeys, and the voyage to Rome
- Reach
- Jerusalem to Rome
- Commission
- Witnesses to the ends of the earth
- Scripture
- The Book of Acts
The story
It began in Jerusalem at Pentecost, when the Spirit fell and about three thousand believed in a single day. Persecution soon scattered the believers through Judea and Samaria, and they preached wherever they went. On the road to Damascus the Lord stopped Saul, the fiercest enemy of the Way, and turned him into His apostle to the nations. At Antioch in Syria, where Jews and Greeks believed together, the disciples were first called Christians.
From Antioch the church sent Paul and Barnabas out by ship, first across Cyprus and into the hills of Galatia. On a later journey a vision drew Paul across the sea into Macedonia, and the gospel entered Europe. He preached in Philippi and Thessalonica, reasoned with the philosophers on the Areopagus in Athens, and stayed a year and a half in Corinth, where the Lord told him He had many people in that city.
Back in Jerusalem Paul was arrested, and as a prisoner he appealed to Caesar and set sail for Italy. A great storm drove the ship for two weeks and broke it on the rocks of Malta, yet every soul came safely to land. From there he reached Rome, and for two years in his own rented house he proclaimed the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ, boldly and without hindrance. The gospel had reached the heart of the empire.