24 Whensoever I take my journey into Spain, I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you, if first I be somewhat filled with your company.
25 But now I go unto Jerusalem to minister unto the saints.
26 For it hath pleased them of Macedonia and Achaia to make a certain contribution for the poor saints which are at Jerusalem.
27 It hath pleased them verily; and their debtors they are. For if the Gentiles have been made partakers of their spiritual things, their duty is also to minister unto them in carnal things.
28 When therefore I have performed this, and have sealed to them this fruit, I will come by you into Spain.
So it was Paul's firm intention (mentions it twice), after his pending journey to Jerusalem (Acts 20:3-26:32), to visit Rome and then Spain. He makes it to Rome in Acts 27-28 and likely appears before Nero the first time, per the coliphon (footnote) at the end of 2 Timothy 4: "The second epistle unto Timotheus, ordained the first bishop of the church of the Ephesians, was written from Rome, when Paul was brought before Nero the second time." Likely he is released, since the Pastoral Epistles (1 Tim., 2 Tim., and Titus) deal with events in the following locales:
- Asia (2 Tim. 1:15), including Ephesus (1 Tim. 1:1; 2 Tim. 1:18, 4:12); Miletum (2 Tim. 4:20b), where Trophimus is left by constraint; and Troas (2 Tim. 4:13; see notes below)
- Macedonia (1 Tim. 1:1),including Nicopolis (Tit. 3:12)
- Achaia, including Corinth (2 Tim. 4:20), where Erastus apparently chooses to stay ("abode") rather than continue with Paul
- Crete (Tit. 1:5,12)
Paul seems to have spent a considerable amount of the time between his two appearances before Nero in Rome in the eastern Roman Empire. Due to his strong desire to visit Spain, though, I think that he may have visited there, perhaps by the land route through Gaul, since he says that he would come by the Romans into Spain (v. 28) and "be brought on [his] way thitherward" by them. There's no record of believers doing this by sea (Acts 15:3, 21:5; 1 Cor. 16:6; 2 Cor. 1:16; Tit. 3:14; 3 John 6), so Paul likely would have struck out north with a company of the Romans, just as they came a considerable way south of Rome to greet him when he arrived in Italy for the first time (Acts 27:13-15). Note especially in Acts 21:5 that the accompaniment on a sea journey stops at the seashore.
In closing, I'm reminded of the last verse of the gospel of John (John 21:25), where John states there are "many other things which Jesus did" which John did not record. Because of the number of Paul's activites not recorded in Acts but recorded in his epistles (e.g. 2 Cor. 11:23-33), and because of the similitude of his ministry to the Lord Jesus' (Rom. 15:8, 16; Gal. 6:17; Col. 1:24), I'm confident that there are many others things which Paul did which are not recorded, perhaps even an evangelistic "journey into Spain" (Rom. 15:24).
