Acts 24:24-25 And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul… We have often seen Paul in public; we have now to study somewhat his private ministry. It is easier to speak upon Mars' hill to a great crowd than to speak in a gilded chamber to two eminent personages. Will Paul be the same man in both places? Look at the case in detail. I. THE AUDITORS ARE GREAT PEOPLE, YET THE GOSPEL DOES NOT SPARE THEM. Here is the true apostle face to face with evil; he smites it with both hands alone. These are the instances that commend the gospel to our confidence. We cannot dwell too long, too gratefully, upon the moral dignity of this gospel. There is no greatness before it. Because the gospel speaks in this tone it lives forever. II. THE AUDITORS WERE BUT TWO IN NUMBER, YET THE GOSPEL SOUGHT TO SAVE THEM. When Christianity takes the census it counts every man one, and says to despairing preachers, "Let him know that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death." Christianity despises no one. Other religions go by numbers; the individual life is a fleck, a drop of a bucket. But the religion of Jesus Christ having found that one of the lambs has gone astray, will neither eat, nor drink, nor sleep, until the wanderer is back again. So, every man is a congregation. Earnestness can always speak to the individual. If one soul is within ear shot, he constitutes the supreme occasion of any ministry. Jesus often spoke to the one hearer and made revelations to individual hearers greater than any he ever made to the crowd. III. THE AUDITORS ASKED FOR ENTERTAINMENT; YET THE GOSPEL GAVE THEM JUDGMENT. The gospel has no entertainments. Felix cared nothing for the faith in Christ himself, for he was a Roman; but Drusilla was a Jewess, and had heard of Jesus of Nazareth, and would hear somewhat of her eccentric compatriot. So we become interested in certain sides and aspects of questions. Drusilla could have no interest in the spiritual Christ; but she had intellectual interest, or the interest of curiosity in the historical magician, the prince of the wonder workers. Paul was an expert, a devotee; he would know about the whole case and would be able to explain it, and now he was at liberty to tell the tale. "And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment." Is that the faith that is in Christ? Is that Christian preaching? Verily; and the preaching we want every day. Men are delighted with high theological cobweb speculation, and call it marvellous. It is not Christian preaching. The true preaching makes the robber empty his pockets, makes the bad man white with inward accusation, makes the oppressor turn uneasily on his seat as if he were sitting on thorns and fire, turns the bad man mad, and makes him say foamingly at the church door that he will never come back again. The audience should always suggest the subject. This was Paul's method, and was the invariable method of Jesus Christ Himself. The audience is the text; this is where our speakers fail so much. What do our hearers want with speculations they cannot follow, with dreams they never heard of? He who would preach to the times must preach to the broken-heartedness of the day, to the criminality of the hour, to the inconstancy of the times, to the disloyalty of the army. This advice will never make popular preachers: it will make Pauline preachers. May the Lord of the harvest thrust into His harvest field many such preachers! We are not sent to make theologians, but Christians; we are not sent to build up a system, but to build up a character. (J. Parker, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. |
    |