<p>15:19 <i>In the power of signs and wonders, in the power of the Holy Spirit- </i>The same Spirit active in the sanctifying or making holy of the hearts of Gentile believers had been more visibly active through the miracles he had performed, which were part of the efforts of the Lord Jesus to make the Gentiles obedient (:18). That the spirit does not just refer to the naked power of God is evident from Rom.&nbsp;15:19: &ldquo;the power of the spirit of God&rdquo;.</p><p><i>So that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum- </i>His desire to go to Spain (Rom. 15:24 AV) indicates a commitment to taking the Gospel to the very ends of the world he then knew. He may well have been motivated in this by wishing to fulfil in spirit the Kingdom prophecy of Is. 66:18,19, which describes how Tarshish (which he would have understood as Spain) and other places which &ldquo;have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory&rdquo; will be witnessed to by those who <i>have</i> seen His glory and have &ldquo;escaped&rdquo; from God&rsquo;s just condemnation by grace. Paul sees this as referring to himself. For he speaks in Rom. 15:19 of his ambition to take the Gospel to Spain; and in that same context, of how he will bring the Gentile brethren&rsquo;s offering up to Jerusalem. This is precisely the context of Is. 66- the offerings of the Gentiles are to be brought up to Jerusalem, as a result of how the Lord&rsquo;s glory will be spoken of to all nations. So Paul read Isaiah 66 and did something about his Old Testament Bible study; he dedicated his life to taking the Gospel to the Gentiles, and he encouraged them to send their offerings to Jerusalem. He was no mere theologian, no academic missiologist. His study and exposition of Old Testament Scripture led to a life lived out in practice, to hardship, risk of life, persecution, loneliness, even rejection by his brethren. It is also significant in passing to note that Is. 66:19 speaks of nations which occur in the list of nations we have in Genesis 10, in the context of the effect of Babel. It is as if Paul sees the spreading of the Gospel as an undoing of the curse of Babel and the establishment of the Kingdom conditions described in Is. 66. By his preaching of God&rsquo;s Kingdom and the reign of Christ, he brought about a foretaste of the future Kingdom in the lives of his converts. And we can do likewise. Note how once again, the preacher preaches from his personal experience; Paul takes the vision of glory which he has beheld to those who have not seen nor heard. Paul speaks of how he had preached the Gospel from Jerusalem &quot;as far round as Illyricum&quot; (Rom. 15:19). This was a Latin-speaking province. Was he not implying that he had preached throughout the Greek speaking world, and now wanted to take it into the Latin-speaking world? He wanted to preach to the regions beyond his previous limits (2 Cor. 10:15); his aim was to spend some time in Rome and then preach in Spain.</p><p>Preaching, on whatever scale, involves a certain spirit of spiritual ambition;&nbsp; for example, the hope and faith that a leaflet, a mere piece of paper, might be the means of directing someone on to the Kingdom road.&nbsp;That a scrappy piece of paper, a passing comment at a bus stop should really lead a small mortal towards the eternal glory of God's nature... without spiritual ambition the preacher just wouldn't bother to start. Paul was the supreme model of ambition in preaching:&nbsp;&ldquo;I have <i>fully preached</i> the gospel of Christ.&nbsp;Yea, so have I <i>strived</i> (been ambitious, RV mg.) to preach the gospel&quot; (Rom. 15:19,20). In his last days (or hours?) Paul's mind returned to these words.&nbsp;His swansong in 2 Tim. 4:17 is a direct allusion to Rom. 15:19:&nbsp;&quot;The Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the <i>preaching</i> might be <i>fully known</i>, and that all the Gentiles might hear&quot;. Paul's reference here to 'completing the Gospel from Jerusalem and in a circle as far as Illyricum' is a window into his ambition in preaching. He speaks of his ambition to preach in Spain; and so we get the impression of him planning a circle starting in Jerusalem, curving north-west, then further west to Rome, and then south-west to Spain. To complete the circle to Jerusalem would have involved him preaching in North Africa- where there were major Jewish centres, e.g. Alexandria. Perhaps he implies that his ambition was to preach there too, in order to 'complete the circle of the gospel'.</p><p><i>I have fully preached the gospel of Christ- </i>Paul speaks of having 'fulfilled' the Gospel by preaching it (Rom. 15:19 Gk.); the Gospel is in itself something which demands to be preached by those having it.</p>