Spurgeon's Sermons on New Testament Men #1

by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

A gallery of people and topics are covered in this popular series. Spurgeon provides the busy pastor with starter material and the Christian reader with devotional meditations.

160 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 1994

About the author

Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was England's best-known preacher for most of the second half of the nineteenth century. In 1854, just four years after his conversion, Spurgeon, then only 20, became pastor of London's famed New Park Street Church (formerly pastored by the famous Baptist theologian, John Gill). The congregation quickly outgrew their building, moved to Exeter Hall, then to Surrey Music Hall. In these venues, Spurgeon frequently preached to audiences numbering more than 10,000—all in the days before electronic amplification. In 1861, the congregation moved permanently to the newly constructed Metropolitan Tabernacle.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid collection. I've found that Spurgeon tends to swing between fantastic and boring. His audience is quite a bit different than what we would see at any church service today. 10,000 people ranging from believers to non believers, from harsh critics to sympathetic ears, and even readers on the street, newspapers, and even rival pastors. All would find themselves in the Tabernacle on a Sunday morning with not a whole lot else to steal their interest.

The general audience would have been far more Bible literate than even a group of believers today. Everyone raised Christian and reading their Bible fairly regularly, at least more so than the people of today's world.

All this, simply to say that his messaging is vastly different than what is used and/or needed today. He tends to stay very impersonal, tends to be far more into calling people to repentance, and it makes sense for him to talk about people in church as being nonbelievers.

He also, and this is actually what bothers me the most, tends to stretch the verses a bit more than I would like. I wouldn't call this expository preaching. Taking two verses and speaking on them for 45+ minutes is a bit much. There is a bit of lacking explanation and while I wouldn't go so far as to say they are allegorical, they stretch the limits of what the intended audience in the first century would have understood, and the historical events are even more egregious.

All of this is incredibly forgivable. Spurgeon is a delight to bath in, become consumed by, and simply lose yourself in the beautiful words and turns of phrase, the remarkable imagery and the skill and imagination he uses to make his Biblically sound point are a simple joy. I simply like some of the sermons better than others.

His Prodigal Son sermon was an absolute delight, his Barabbas Preferred to Christ was an eye opener, his Shoe Latching (John the Baptist), and the First Five Disciples and fantastic and will inspire you to preach and discuss those works with others.

His one on Simeon, Greater Things (Nathanael), and the Centurion are largely forgettable with some interesting points and ideas.

They all tend to live in that area. Okay sermons sprinkled with good ideas that I want to harvest and use myself.

A solid read. I hope to read more of Spurgeon when I get the chance.