2. Sunday morning, we began a study of Romans 15:19 and in this passage Paul writes that through the power of the Spirit, Christ performed signs and wonders among the Gentiles through Paul.

3. This evening we will complete our study of the verse by noting that Paul writes that he proclaimed the gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum.

4. “So that from Jerusalem and round about as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” presents the results of Christ working through him by the power of the Spirit in his ministry to the Gentiles.

5. In Romans 15:18-19a, Paul has identified the source and agent of his work as an apostle to the Gentiles, namely Christ Himself.

6. He also identifies the purpose of this work as an apostle, which was to bring about Gentile obedience.

7. Lastly, he has described the means he employed to accomplish this work as an apostle to the Gentiles, namely “In the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Spirit.”

8. “From Jerusalem” denotes that the city of Jerusalem was the geographical staring point of Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles.

9. We would expect Paul to identify Antioch as the beginning of his ministry to the Gentiles (Acts 13:1-2).

10. Many scholars contend that Paul is not thinking geographically when he mentions Jerusalem as the starting point of his ministry but rather he uses this city to denote the starting point of Christianity.

11. This does not correspond to the fact that Paul specifically mentions a specific geographical location, Illyricum as the extent to which his ministry reached.

12. Some cite Acts 9:26-30 along with Acts 26:20 as evidence that Paul is referring to his own ministry in Jerusalem but this has problems since Paul does not mention in these verses that he ministered to Gentiles but rather Greek speaking Jews.

13. In Acts 22:17-21, Paul reveals that immediately after getting saved, he came back to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple and fell into a trance when the Lord Jesus Christ told him to leave Jerusalem and that He would send him far away to the Gentiles.

14. Cranfield rejects this idea saying that Paul actually began his work as an apostle in Damascus, which is of course true.

15. However, the issue in Romans 15:19 is not when Paul began proclaiming the gospel but rather where geographically he considered his ministry to the Gentiles to have begun, which was when the Lord told him to go to the Gentiles as recorded in Acts 22:21.

16. Therefore, though it is true that Paul started immediately proclaiming the gospel in Damascus Syria, he did not receive his commission from the Lord to go to the Gentiles until he returned to Jerusalem after his conversion.

18. “Round about as far as Illyricum” is composed of the adverb of place kuklo (κύκλῳ) (kee-kloe), “round about” and the preposition mechri (μέχρι) (meh-kree), “as far as” and the articular genitive neuter singular form of the proper name Illurikon (Ἰλλυρικόν) (Ee-lee-ah-dah-kone), “Illyricum.”

19. Illyricum was a Roman province in the northwestern Balkan peninsula, stretching along the eastern coasts of the Adriatic Sea to the borders of Italy to Macedonia and inland as far as the Danube.

20. Today, this area corresponds to modern northern Albania, much of Yugoslavia and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

21. The adverb kuklo means “around” referring to all directions from a point of reference indicating that Paul took a circuitous route and that his journey was not a direct one (See Mark 6:6b).

22. The word does not mean that Paul’s travels were in an “arc” or “circle” indicating that he went “from Jerusalem and a circle round about it” but rather the word speaks of circuitous route indicating he went “from Jerusalem round in a circuitous route to Illyricum.”

23. The preposition mechri is employed with the genitive form of the proper name Illurikon and means “as far as” since it functions as a marker of extension up to a point in an area indicating that Paul’s ministry to the Gentiles extended from Jerusalem “as far as” Illyricum.

24. The Egnatian Way passes through Illyricum on its way from the Adriatic Coast to Macedonia, thus it would not be beyond the realm of possibility to think that Paul would have passed through the southern regions of Illyricum during his third missionary journey (Acts 20:1-2) since he preferred well-traveled Roman roads.

26. The statement “I have fully preached the gospel of Christ” means that Paul fulfilled what he was required to do as an apostle sent by the Lord Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.

27. It means that he proclaimed the gospel in strategic centers throughout the area from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum and established churches in these areas.

28. From these strategic centers, these churches that he had planted would evangelize their own specific regions.

29. He was simply laying a foundation among the Gentiles from Jerusalem, all the way around as far as Illyricum.