…Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?… – Acts 26:14

Jesus did not say out of heaven. “Saul, why does the synagogue persecute Me? Why do the Jews hate My religion?” No; it was put more pertinently than that-“Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” If it had been put in general terms, it would have glanced off from the heart of the apostle; it could have been like an arrow which had missed the mark, and barely grazed the skin of the man in whose heart it was intended to find a home; but when it came personally-“Why persecutest thou Me?”-there was no getting off it. I pray the Lord to make the question personal to some of you. There be many of us who have had personal preaching to our souls. Do you not remember, dear brother in Christ, when you were first pricked in the heart, how personal the preacher was? I remember it well. It seemed to me that I was the only person in the whole place, as if a black wall were round about me, and I were shut in with the preacher, something like the prisoners at the Penitentiary, who each sit in their box and can see no one but the chaplain. I thought all he said was meant for me; I felt persuaded that some one knew my character, and had written to him and told him all, and that he had personally picked me out. Why, I thought he fixed his eyes on me; and I have reason to believe he did, but still he said he knew nothing about my case. Oh, that men would hear the word preached, and that God would so bless them in their hearing, that they might feel it to have a personal application to their own hearts.

Oh! Master! turn sinners to Thyself; for Jesus sake! Amen.~ C.H. Spurgeon

https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/spurgeon_charles/sermons/0202.cfm