Mocking the King

Mocking the King

(No. 3138)

A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, APRIL 1, 1909.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING, JUNE
1, 1873.

"And they stripped Him, and put on Him a scarlet robe. And when they
had platted a crown of thorns, they put it upon His head, and a reed in
His right hand: and they bowed the knee before Him, and mocked Him,
saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon Him, and took the
reed, and smote Him on the head." Matthew 27:28-30.

[There are two other Sermons by Mr. Spurgeon on verse 29–Sermons
#1168, Volume 20–THE CROWN OF THORNS and #2824, Volume 49– MOCKED OF
THE SOLDIERS.]

I AM certain that I would fail if I were to attempt to preach a sermon
that should be worthy of such a text as this. I shall make no such
attempt but, during the few minutes available for the address of this
evening, I shall try to set forth our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, as
He was when–

"Sinnersin derision crowned Him." I pray the Holy Spirit to enable me
to do this, for unless He shall do so, my words will be of no avail.

Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have before us a King–such a King
as was never known before! His pedigree is more glorious than that of
any mere earthly monarch. His right to reign is indisputable. His power
to subdue all to Himself is infinite, whether He chooses to use it or
not. His Character is such as never belonged to any king before. He is
as eminent in goodness as He is supreme in power–"the Son of the
Highest," "who is over all, God blessed forever"–yet who became the
Son of Man for our sakes! This is the King who is now before us.

But what an enthronement was accorded to Him! See that scarlet robe? It
is a contemptuous imitation of the imperial purple that a king wears.
See that old chair into which the soldiers have thrust Him so that He
may be seated upon a mockery of a throne? See, above all, that crown
upon His head? It has rubies in it, but the rubies are composed of His
own blood, forced from His blessed temples by the cruel thorns! Look,
they pay Him homage, but the homage is their own filthy spit which runs
down His cheeks. They bow the knee before Him, but it is only in
mockery. They salute Him with the cry, "Hail, King of the Jews!" but it
is done in scorn. Was there ever grief like His? It amazes us that such
superlative goodness should have been treated with such fiendish
malice, that such mercy should have been in such misery, that such
majesty should have been reduced to such despising! Truly, He was
"despised and rejected of men; a Man of Sorrows, and acquainted with
grief." And they do not exaggerate who speak of Him as the Emperor of
Sorrow and the enthroned Prince of Misery. Look at Him and then
restrain your tears if you can. Gaze upon Him, you who love Him and who
know how fair was His glorious Countenance before it was marred more
than the face of any man–and see it all stained with His own
blood–and then let your heart delight if it can. No, rather let me say
indulge your griefs and let your sorrow flow in copious streams, for of
all spectacles that were ever witnessed by human eyes, this surely is
the most grievous!

There are three things upon which I am going to speak. There are many
other things to be seen in this strange exhibition of Majesty in
misery, but these three things will suffice to occupy our thoughts at
this time.

I. The first is this. I see in our Savior thus mocked and put to shame,
THE EMBLEM OF WHAT OUR SIN HAS DONE.

Remember that Jesus Christ stood in the sinner's place. This is an old
Truth of God with which you are very familiar, but of which you are
never tired of hearing. Having been "made in the likeness of men, and
being found in fashion as a Man," and having agreed to stand in the
place of sinners as if He had been, Himself, a sinner, you see in Jesus
Christ the full result of epitomized sin. Man wanted to be a king, or
to be more than a king. "You shall be as gods," said the serpent

to Eve in the Garden of Eden, insinuating that the great God was
jealous of man and fearful that man would grow so great as to be His
rival! Thus tempted, man put out his hand and touched the fruit of
which he had been forbidden to partake. He had been a happy subject,
but he hoped that he might become a happier king! It had been his
delight to do the will of the Lord, but now he thought he would be able
to do his own will and that he would be able to reign side by side with
God, or even in His place!

Ah, foolish man, see what kind of royalty it is that sin can bring you!
Come here and see as in a mirror the image of the coronation which sin
gives to man. See how it crowns him with mock dignity and honor. It
makes him look like a king, but it is only a tinsel splendor–all
outside show and sham. It gives him no royal rank or regal character in
any case whatever. It is true that there is a crown upon man's head,
but it is a crown of thorns and this is the only crown that sin can
ever give to poor humanity. Man wanted to be lord of the earth and so
he was in a certain sense, but his first act of lordship was to cause a
blast and blight upon Paradise and to sow the earth with thorns and
thistles so that from then on he should never eat bread without being
reminded of his sin through the very sweat on his face! O yes, Man, you
are a king! I can see your crown! Set great store by it if you
can–proud, foolish monarch! You scorned to be a subject of the great
Ruler of the universe and now you have become a monarch yourself!
Behold your royal regalia! Especially notice your crown–a crown of
thorns! This is how sin crowns us! We see the same thing in our Savior,
when He stood in our place–He was mocked, despised, rejected, crowned
with thorns–and this is what we become through sin. "Sin, when it is
finished, brings forth death." Christ on the Cross is a yet fuller type
of what man would have become had sin been let alone. It brings manhood
ever lower and lower until it plucks his very life out of him and lays
him dead beneath the clods of the valley. Sin's only throne is a mock
one! Its only crown is a painful one and its only reward is sorrow and
shame. In Jesus, mocked by the soldiers, we see what sin had brought
our race to and all that sin could do for us.

But our Lord, as a spectacle of shame, was also a Representative of all
of us in another way as to what sin would make of us. In the time of
His shame nobody had a good word for Jesus. All His disciples forsook
Him and fled. He was deserted by all other men and given over to
mockery. That is just what our condition would be apart from Christ!
And, mark you, it is just what will be the condition of every sinner
who has no share in Christ's substitutionary Sacrifice. The angels that
kept their first estate must be ashamed of men–and redeemed men,
themselves, will, throughout eternity, be ashamed of ungodly men.
Daniel tells us that when men shall awake, after the
resurrection–unforgiven, unsaved–they will wake up "to shame and
everlasting contempt." Among the pains and miseries of the world to
come, to the ungodly, this will perhaps be one of the most
crushing–that the whole universe will ring with scorn of them! There
will not be any beings capable of thought that will have any admiration
for sinners, then! They will all wonder with the wonderment of contempt
how men could ever have acted as they have done. I think some angel
will say to them, "You, created by God and fed by His bounty, used your
breath only to speak against the Most High. Though every day you owed
every morsel that you ate and even the garments on your backs to the
benevolence of God–the gifts of His charity–you ungratefully lifted
up your heel against Him! You were constantly receiving favors from the
plentiful Benefactor and yet were never grateful for them. Shame on
you, you ungrateful men and women!" And then the angel might say, "And
after you had sinned so foully, the Gospel was brought to you and you
were bid to believe in Jesus. Christ crucified was set before you, but
even that wondrous sight never touched your heart, or, if your heart
was touched for a little while, the impression soon wore off, for you
turned your back upon that wondrous sight and said, by your actions, if
not by your words, that it was nothing to you that Jesus should die!"
It seems to me that an angel, looking down upon a sinner who has
rejected Christ, will think of him as some sevenfold atrocity of
nature!

My dear Hearers, do not think that I am speaking too strongly. I am
not, for there can be no crime that can be equal to that of the
rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ by a sinner who has had the Gospel
preached to him! It will be proven to be so in the world to come if not
in this. And I believe that you impenitent sinners will be ashamed of
yourselves, then, and that you will call upon the mountains and rocks
to fall upon you, to hide you from the face of Him that sits upon the
Throne, because you will feel so mean, so wretched, so contemptible
even to yourselves as you remember that Jesus Christ upon the Cross,
with unparalleled love, had no charms for you! You will then see what
you do not appear to see now– that you must have been the meanest
creature that ever existed that you did not at once fly to His arms,
kiss His feet and then and there say, "Blessed be God for such a
Savior! I love Him and will spend and be spent for Him all my days."

Jesus Christ there, as an object of shame and scorn, is only a picture
and emblem of what every sinner is and what every sinner will be unless
renewed by Grace–he will be an object of everlasting shame and
contempt! How the very devils in Hell will mock him throughout
eternity! He shall wear his mock crown–it will not even be a crown of
thorns–it will be a circle of flames of fire! But how terrible will be
the laughter of the fiends in the Pit as they gather around him and
cry, "You would be your own master, would you not? You would be a king,
would you not? You would not kiss the Son, you would not yield to His
sway, you would have your own way! Now see what it has all come to–a
crown of fire that cannot be quenched! You said that you could save
yourself–why did you not do so? You said that you could make yourself
fit for Heaven any day without a Savior–why did you not do so?" Such
mocking as these, which will come as much from the man, himself, as
from his companions in misery, will make him realize that the fruit of
sin is shame–and that it is bitter beyond all description or
imagination!

II. Now, secondly, our Savior thus mocked, despised and rejected of
men, gives us A PICTURE OF THE WORLD'S ESTIMATE OF HIM.

Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came to this earth as the Savior sent
from God, not, "to condemn the world, but that the world through Him
might be saved." What does the world think of Him? He has lived upon
the earth 33 years and all that time He has done nothing but deeds of
kindness to all with whom He has come into contact. And now the world
is about to give its verdict concerning Him. What eulogy will it pass
upon this great Lover of humanity? What will it say to this grandest of
all philanthropists? What are the rewards with which it will seek to
ennoble Him? There they are! There they are! Coarse laughter and cruel
mockery in the common room of the Praetorian guards! That is what the
world thinks of Christ–it thinks nothingof Him! It ridicules and
despises Him!

"But," some of you say, "we have never treated Christ like that!"
Listen, Sirs, there are some of you in this house who are quite
indifferent to the Lord Jesus Christ. You pay some outward deference to
religious worship, but you have never given your hearts to Christ. You
have never spent even an hour in your whole lives in seriously
meditating upon His blessed Person and His glorious work. You are not
in a right state of heart to speak to His praise and glory, neither can
you do anything to extend His cause and Kingdom in the earth. It is
true that you do not blaspheme Him–you are not openly in opposition to
Him, but you are just indifferent. Can there be anything much worse
than indifference to the Lord Jesus Christ? He is so loving and gentle,
and so tender of heart that to be indifferent to Him is to cut Him to
the quick! Oh, had He been indifferent to us–when there was no other
eye to pity us and no other arm to save us–if He had been indifferent
to us, then, instead of meeting in this place tonight to hear of Him,
we would, all of us, have been in Hell! But He was not indifferent to
us, so let none of us be so cruel as to be indifferent to Him.

There are some who are not indifferent, for they are opposed to
Christ–not to the Christ whom they have imagined, but to the real
Christ of Calvary! If they hear the Gospel preached simply as we find
it in the Bible, they are very angry. They can admire any false gospel
that men have manufactured, but the Gospel of the Bible does not suit
them. When they listen to that, they are carried away with wrath and
indignation. For instance, the great central Doctrine of
Substitution–Christ suffering in the sinner's place–how many turn
away with contempt from that plainly revealed Truth! Then the Doctrine
of Justification by Faith, which is the very marrow of Christ's
Gospel–how many are incensed at that and cry out against it! The true
Christ, the real Christ–they are angry at every mention of Him!
Perhaps there are some of you who have been persecuting your children
because they have been speaking about the Savior. Do I address a
husband who has spoken very bitterly to his wife because of her
religion, or a brother who has been persecuting his sister because she
is a Christian, or an employer who has been sneering at and ridiculing
his godly employee? Do you not know that in acting thus, you are
ridiculing Christ Himself? For, if these people are really followers of
Christ, He counts that whatever is done to them is done to Himself. He
said to Saul of Tarsus, "Why do you persecute Me?" Saul had no idea
that he was persecuting the Lord–he thought it was only a few poor
deluded men and women that he was hauling off to prison or to
death–but it was Christ, Himself, in the person of His followers, whom
Saul was persecuting! Take care what you are doing, I pray you, you who
are thus persecuting the Christ of God, for it is very common for
Christ, in this way, to receive from the world nothing but indifference
and contempt, or actual opposition and persecution!

And, alas, I grieve to have to say it, but I fear that Christ is
crowned with thorns and mocked by a great many who scarcely think they
are doing so. I mean, for instance, do you not feel that it is mocking
the Savior to have His image set up in many countries as an idol to be
worshipped? Even in our own land you may find tens of thousands bowing
down before what they think to be the image of Christ or before a
picture of His Cross! I would rather die a thousand deaths, if I could
do so, than that anyone should set up my image and turn it into a god!
Yet I am only a poor weak, sinful man and, therefore, so to degrade me
would not matter much–but to take Jesus Christ, the pure and perfect
Son of God, and make an idol of Him–a detestable loathsome thing, for
such is an idol–must cut Him to the quick! It must daily crucify Him
afresh and put Him to an open shame. If you will make idols, take
devils and make idols of them! But to take the Son of God and make an
idol of Him is infamous! When the poor heathen bow before their ugly
idol of wood or stone, it is degraded by being put to such an evil
use–but when the immaculate Son of God has His image prostituted to
such a vile use as that of being made part of the machinery of
idolatry, it is atrocious! Now is He mocked indeed!

But there are other people who seem determined to mock Christ in other
ways. He instituted the ordinance of Believers' Baptism to be the
introductory rite into Church fellowship, but the mockers have changed
the subject, mode and meaning of the ordinance and turned it into a
piece of witchcraft which, they say, regenerates unconscious babies and
makes them members of Christ, children of God and inheritors of the
Kingdom of Heaven! Christ also instituted a simple Supper of bread and
wine to be a memorial of His death. But the mockers have changed that
ordinance into the sacrifice of the "mass," a thing for "priests" to
perform, saying that they make the bread and wine into the actual flesh
and blood of Jesus Christ! Oh, these are dreadful horrors! I sometimes
marvel that the earth does not open and swallow up these mockers and
that Almighty God still allows these abominations to continue! Surely
the mockery of Christ by the Praetorian guard was not such a crime as
this! Then there are others who mock Christ in another way. They preach
Christ but say that He is nothing but a man. They exalt His humanity,
but deny His Deity! Is not this doing spiritually what the soldiers did
literally? Such preachers put on Christ a purple robe but, as they deny
His Deity, it is only a mock robe–it is not the true purple of
Omnipotence and Omniscience which belongs to Him of whom the Psalmist
said, "The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty." They put on Him
the crown of humanity, but it is only a crown of thorns! They put in
His hand a scepter, but it is nothing but a reed! Their christ is
nothing but a man and not the co-equal and co-eternal Son of God,
Christ Jesus our dear Lord and Savior! They have taken away the King's
real regalia, His real scepter and His real crown–and thus they have
degraded Him to their own level. Or rather, I should say that they
would do so if they could! It is thus that Jesus is still mocked and
shamefully entreated by some whose preaching consists of philosophical
essays in which there is no mention of the precious blood of
Christ–the Atonement and all the other grand old Doctrines of
Christianity are utterly ignored! This is just imitating the Roman
soldiers who set Christ up on an old chair and mocked Him with all the
emblem of royalty travestied and with everything that constituted regal
power and majesty taken away from Him.

Worst of all, there are some professors who, in a certain sense, hold
the Truth, but who hold it in unrighteousness! There are some who say
that they love the Lord Jesus Christ and they will probably come with
us to the Communion Table tonight pretending that they do love Him, yet
knowing all the while that Christ has no real power over their lives. I
marvel at some of you who can degrade yourselves by drunkenness and by
even worse sins, or who can be guilty of dishonesty in business, or who
live altogether graceless lives and yet dare to talk as if you were
trusting in the precious blood and righteousness of Christ! Oh, how you
mock Him and insult Him by acting thus! Never did the soldiers' spit,
which ran down His blessed cheeks in that season of shame, dishonor Him
as much as when His praises are sung here by you who will, tomorrow, be
singing a lascivious song, or who even dare to come to His Table fresh
from the haunts of sin! May God have mercy upon you and turn you from
your evil ways, for, if He shall not do so, there shall be no
punishment too stern to mark His sense of your gross insults to His
Son! I charge you, in the name of the thrice holy Jehovah, if you are
living in sin, to refrain from pretending to be saints! If you cannot
keep close to the Lord Jesus Christ. If you will not follow after
holiness, I beseech you not to play the fool with God and the liar to
yourselves by saying that Christ is your King! The devil is your king,
so you cannot love the cup of the Lord while you love the cup of the
drunkard! And you must not sit down to feast with the saints while you
revel in uncleanness! How can you enjoy the pleasures of religion while
you are satiated with the pleasures of the world?

You think that I am speaking severely and so I am, for I sometimes feel
almost brokenhearted over some whose inconsistencies make sad havoc in
the Church, "of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even
weeping, that they are the enemies of the Cross of Christ." Talk not of
Roman soldiers mocking Jesus while there are wanton professors,

while there are dishonest professors, while there are unforgiving and
unchaste professors who dare even to come to the Table of the Lord! May
God preserve all of us from ever mocking Christ in such a way as this!

III. Time fails me, or it would do so if I lingered over this theme as
I might and, therefore, my last point shall be this. The Lord Jesus,
thus mocked and despised, is THE MODEL TO US OF WHAT OUR CONDUCT SHOULD
BE.

Oh, how He loved us! Oh, how He loved us! I cannot find any other
sentence coming to my tongue but that same one a third time as I look
at Him–oh, how He loved us! This is He whose "eyes are as the eyes of
doves by the rivers of waters, washed with milk and fitly set," whose
"lips are like lilies, dropping sweet smelling myrrh," whose "head is
as the most fine gold and His locks are bushy and black as a raven." He
is the Altogether Lovely One, yet He was most shamefully treated–and
He willingly endured it for our sake! There is a famous picture which
represents the Savior wearing the crown of thorns. And at the bottom of
it are these words, written in German, "I suffered this for you; what
have you done for Me?" Count Zinzendorf, then frivolous and worldly,
walked into the picture gallery and read those words. He stopped a
while and then he went out a new man in Christ–to be a most devoted
servant of the Lord for the rest of his days! I wish I could paint that
picture now by my words so that Christ might be visibly set forth
before you and that you might then hear Him say, "I suffered this for
you; what have you done for Me?" What actions can ever be worthy of
such self-sacrificing love? What gifts can ever be equal to such
unparalleled affection? What high and fervent thoughts shall ever rise
to the height of this great argument? What consecration shall ever be
worthy of Him? What all-consuming zeal, eating us up for His sake,
shall ever approach the ardor of His love for us? I ask you that say
that you love Him, to judge for yourselves how you ought to act towards
Him who was willingly put into the place of scorn for you!

One or two things are perfectly clear. First, that none of us ought,
henceforth, to ever court ease, pomp and show. When the Crusaders took
Jerusalem and Baldwin was proclaimed king, he refused to have a crown
put on his head, for he said, "How can I wear a crown of gold where my
Master wore a crown of thorns?" I sometimes wonder how professing
Christians can dress as finely as some of them do. I wish they had
clearly before their eyes the likeness of their Lord dressed in the
scarlet robe, crowned with thorns and made the subject of the soldiers'
cruel mockery. They would not then care as they do now for those pretty
things which, after all, are often only ugly things to those who have
true taste. Jesus Christ would not pick out as His imitators those who
make a grand display–He was notable for His poverty and His shame–but
some professing Christians are never happy unless they are notable for
show. Let us give all that sort of thing up for the love of Jesus
Christ our Lord!

Then, again, it is quite clear that we ought not to care about scorn.
Scorn? Let us scorn scorn! Does the world laugh at us? Let us laugh at
the world's laughter and say to it, "Do you despise us? It is not one
half as much as we despise you! Our fathers despised your sword, O
world–your dungeons, your racks, your gallows, your stakes–and do you
think that we shall tremble at your scoffs and jeers?" Certain infidel
writers, when they caricature Christian people or the Church as a
whole, think they have done a clever thing–but how insignificant and
trifling it all is–a thing scarcely worth mentioning! Our Lord was so
scorned, that any satire we may have to endure will be only a
compliment in comparison with what He had to bear! And present-day
ridicule and scorn cannot mix a cup anything like that which He drank
to the dregs. His cup was so bitter that anything they can give us to
drink is comparatively sweet. They began so fiercely with Him that they
cannot do anything as bad as that to us! They called the Master of the
house, Beelzebub, so they cannot call His servants by any worse name
than that! They mocked Him and put Him to death. They brought forth
their sharpest weapons, first, so that the puny laughter and scorn that
they bring against Christians, now, are really not worthy of a moment's
consideration! Yet I know some who are very much troubled by them.

"Ah," says one, "I am a Christian, I hope, but I have been
misrepresented by those who ought to know what I really am." Well, but
is that a new thing? You need not be astonished, for that is just what
they did with Jesus. You might doubt whether you were a true servant of
Christ if they did not tar you with the same brush that they used for
Him! "Ah, but they say such cruel things about me and have such a way
of jeering at me that it quite stings me." Just so, but if they even
crown you with thorns, you may be sure that the points off the thorns
are first broken off, for Christ had them on His head and He has taken
away the sharpness of them! And if the ungodly mock you, it never can
be with that refined irony with which the soldiers mocked Him when they
said, "Hail, King of the Jews!" Who is ashamed to be a Christian? Yes,
who is ashamed to be a Nonconformist Christian? Who is ashamed to be
called by the name of that Church to which he belongs? If there are any
such here, let them sneak out the back way, for cowards are not needed
in the army of God! But if you know that you are followers of Christ,
glory in that blessed fact and never blush at being put to shame for
it! No, rather count "the reproach of Christ greater riches than the
treasures in Egypt."

Before I close, I just want to say that I think such a text as this
ought to stir up all of us who love the Lord to be doing something for
Christ that will demand self-denial I think it must be the reading of
such a passage as this that has made some of our Brothers and Sisters
go and labor among the very lowest of our population–where filth and
vice abound. I can understand a delicately-nurtured lady devoting
herself to such work as that, and a gentleman of the highest culture
toiling heroically among the people in the worst slums in London, after
having seen Christ wearing the crown of thorns. I can understand a
missionary, for Christ's sake, living and laboring in the midst of
tenfold filth in China and making himself a Chinaman among the Chinese
that he may win them to the Savior. I can understand something of the
spirit that has made men and women devote themselves entirely to the
causes of Christ, going about preaching the Word, or ministering to the
poor or the sick. I can understand how some have even gone to
plague-infested cities and lived and died among the sick and the dying.

When once we have seen Christ and His crown of thorns, there ought to
be such enthusiasm as would make us capable of any deed of daring for
Him! As I look at my Master's head environed with thorns, I feel that
any man who loves the Savior must grow heroic at the sight if the
Spirit of God will but help him to see it as he should. But, my
Brothers and Sisters in Christ, it is not for me to suggest what you
should do, but for each one of you to suggest it to yourselves. But I
would ask each one of you whether you cannot do something for Jesus
which you have never done before. Make some sacrifice, wear a crown of
thorns–I mean spiritually–for His sake. Go a step farther than you
have ever gone before, plunge deeper into the waters of consecration,
give yourselves up to Christ more completely from this night forward! I
pray that you may. I pray the Spirit of God to enable you to do it and
unto the Lord Jesus shall be honor and glory in compensation for His
shame–and surely He richly deserves that compensation! May He have it
now, for His own dear name's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: ACTS28.

Verses 1-3. And when they were escaped, then they knew that the island
was called Melita. And the barbarous people showed us no little
kindness: for they kindled a fire, and received us, every one, because
of the present rain and

because of the cold. [See Sermon #3136, Volume 55–LESSONS FROM THE
MALTA FIRE.] And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks. It must
have been a fine sight to see the great Apostle of the Gentiles
gathering a bundle of sticks to put on the fire! But the men who can do
great things are usually the men who do not disdain to do little
things.

3-5. And laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat and
fastened on his hand. And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast
hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a
murderer, whom, though he has escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffers
not to live. And he shook off the beast into the fire, and felt no har
. Was not this a fulfillment of the Master's words concerning the signs
following faith in Him? "They shall take up serpents." Whether this
viper had bitten Paul so as to really fill his veins with venom, we do
not know–but it is an equal miracle whether it had done so or not.
Whether the sting had already poisoned him or not, his life was
preserved, and that was sufficient.

6. Howbeit they looked when he should have swollen, or fallen down dead
suddenly: but after they had looked a

great while and saw no harm come to him, they changed their minds, and
said that he was a go . Those who saw what had happened to him regarded
it as so marvelous that they thought he must be one of their heathen
deities who had come down to the earth! He was not a god, however–but
he was a man of God, and God had preserved him in the hour of peril.

7-10. In the same quarters were possessions of the chief man of the
island whose name was Publius, who received us, and lodged us three
days courteously. And it came to pass that the father of Publius lay
sick of a fever and of a bloody flux: to whom Paul entered in, and
prayed, and laid his hands on him and healed him. So when this was
done, others, also, which had diseases in the island, came and were
healed: who also honored us with many honors; and when we de-

parted, they loaded us with such things as were necessary. Happy island
of Melita to have such a missionary driven on its shore, to heal the
sick and preach the Gospel to the people! The calamities of ministers
are often a benediction to the people. The shipwreck of Paul resulted
in blessing to that island which otherwise it might have missed. Let
us, as God's servants, leave ourselves in His hands and believe that He
can sometimes use us better by means of a shipwreck than if He had
given the winds and waves charge concerning us to bear us safely to our
desired haven!

11-13. And after three months we departed in a ship of Alexandria,
which had wintered in the isle, whose sign was Castor and Pollux. And
landing at Syracuse, we tarried there three days. And from there we
fetched a compass, and came to Rhegium: and after one day the south
wind blew, and we came the next day to Puteoli Those who have ever been
there regard the spot as almost sacred where Paul set his foot on his
way to Rome. It is a place where there is an abundance of hot springs,
a place which of old was frequented for healing. I have stood there
with intense delight! "We came the next day to Puteoli."

14. Where we foundbrethrei.. There were some Christians there. See how
soon the Gospel had spread as far as to this seaport town? Probably
some Christian sailors carried it there. Blessed will it be when the
ships of Tarshish shall bear not only men especially set apart as
missionaries, but when every sailor shall be a missionary for Christ!
"We came the next day to Puteoli: where we found brethren."

14. And were desired to tarry with them seven days. So they were able
to have one Lord's-Day together! They were probably only a very small
company of poor Christians, but what a joyful privilege it was for them
to have the beloved Apostle with them for that memorable week in their
lives!

14. And so we went toward Rome. Now it was a marching band of soldiers
taking them as prisoners to appear before the emperor at Rome.

15. And from there, when the brethren heard of us, they came to meet us
as far as Appii Forum and the Three Taverns: whom when Paul saw, he
thanked God, and took courage. It must have cheered his heart to see
that there were some who loved him sufficiently to make a weary tramp
along the Appian Road to meet him and salute him in the name of their
common Lord!

16. And when we came to Rome, the centurion delivered the prisoners to
the captain of the guard: but Paul was allowed to dwell by himself with
a soldier that kept him. This was a great favor, no doubt, but do not
forget that he had to have his right hand chained to the left hand of
the soldier day and night and that was not very pleasant either for him
or for the soldier! Yet he thus had an opportunity of personal
conversation with the soldiers of the Praetorian Guard and as they were
continually being changed, Paul no doubt had opportunities of
conversation with hundreds of them–and thus the Gospel was spread in a
very unlikely quarter! Would you like to be chained to a soldier day
after day, and month after month? There are some who would not have
that experience for half an hour without putting the Gospel plainly
before the soldier so that he should at least know what it is, even if
he did not accept it. That is a wonderful way of preaching–man to man!
When they were chained hand to hand, there was no getting away from
what Paul had to say!

17. And it came to pass, that after three days. That was quick work! He
had only got into his house three days when he began to work. "After
three days,"

17. Paul called the chief of the Jews together. There are said to have
been seven synagogues in Rome at that time, so the Apostle sent for a
number of the chief men in the various congregations.

17-20. And when they were come together, he said unto them, Men and
brethren, though I have committed nothing against the people, or
customs of our fathers, yet was I delivered prisoner from Jerusalem
into the hands of the Romans. Who, when they had examined me, would
have let me go, because there was no cause of death in me. But when the
Jews spoke against it, I was constrained to appeal unto Caesar; not
that I had anything of which to accuse my nation. For this reason,
therefore, have I called for you, to see you, and to speak with you:
because that for the hope of Israel I am bound with this chai. They
were all looking for the Messiah, for there was at that time a general
expectation of His coming.

21, 22. And they said unto him, We neither received letters out of
Judea concerning you, neither any ofthe brethren that came showed or
spoke any harm of you. But we desire to hear of you what you think for
as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against.
Although men did not understand it, they spoke against it. This is
often a blessing. This is the kind of advertisement that helps the
Gospel, for if men will only be sufficiently interested in it to

speak against it, they will be likely to come and hear it–and some of
them will be almost certain to receive it. The Truth never spreads so
fast as when men oppose it!

23. And when theey had appointed him a day, there came many to him into
his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified of the Kingdom of God,
persuading them concerning Jesus, [See Sermon #1970, Volume 33–loving
persuasion.] both out of the law of Moses, and out of the Prophets,
from morning till evening. It was a long and blessed day, a grand
opportunity for Paul thus to be able, hour after hour, to expound the
Gospel. But see the result–the result which always seems to follow the
faithful preaching of the Truth.

STOCK-TAKING–Read/download the entire sermon, free of charge, at
http://www.spurgeongems.org.] And when they agreed not among
themselves,

they departed, after Paul had spoken one word, Well spoke the Holy
Spirit by Isaiah the Prophet unto our fathers, saying, go unto this
people and say, Hearing you shall hear, and shall not understand; and
seeing you shall see, and not perceive: for the heart of this people is
waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have
they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their
ears, and understand with their heart, andshould be converted, and I
should heal them. Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of
God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it. Oh, blessed
confidence of the Apostle! If some reject the Gospel, others will
receive it!

29-31. And when he hadsaid these words, the Jews departed, andhadgreat
reasoning among themselves. AndPaul dwelt two whole years in his own
hired house and received all that came in unto him, preaching the
Kingdom of God, and teaching those things which concern the Lord Jesus
Christ. What a subject Paul had to preach about–"the Kingdom of God,
and those things which concern the Lord Jesus Christ," and how
faithfully and fearlessly he proclaimed this great theme!

31. With all confidence, no man forbidding hi .

were spoken, and some believed not.