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HomeIllustrations

7,545 Illustrations

Browse Sermon Illustrations

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Top Rated Newest Oldest|All Sources Biblical Illustrator Spurgeon Maclaren

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Sermon Illustration

The Cure He Almost Refused

In 2019, a cardiac surgeon in Nashville told forty-seven-year-old Marcus Dean that his dangerously high blood pressure could be managed — not with an experimental...

2 Kings 5:1-14Universal

239 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Trellis on Maple Street

Every spring, Margaret Kowalski wages war with the wisteria in her backyard on Maple Street in Savannah. Left alone for a single season, the vine...

Titus 2:11-12Universal

216 words

Sermon Illustration

Bonhoeffer's Final Morning

On April 9, 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer woke in Flossenbürg concentration camp knowing he would not see another sunrise. The German pastor and theologian had spent...

2 Timothy 4:6-8, 17-18Universal

233 words

Sermon Illustration

When William Seymour Opened the Doors on Azusa Street

In April 1906, William J. Seymour — a one-eyed African American preacher, the son of formerly enslaved parents — began holding prayer meetings in a...

Acts 11:1-18Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

Singing Through the Storm

In January 1736, the ship Simmonds pitched violently in the North Atlantic as a winter gale tore its mainsail to shreds. Seawater poured across the...

Isaiah 12:2-6Universal

245 words

Sermon Illustration

The Smoke Jumper Who Learned to Read the Wind

In 2003, rookie wildland firefighter Jason Ramos reported to his first season with the Arrowhead Interagency Hotshot Crew in the San Bernardino Mountains. His superintendent,...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

251 words

Sermon Illustration

The Trail That Splits at Grouse Ridge

In the summer of 2014, two friends set out to hike the Pacific Crest Trail through Washington's Glacier Peak Wilderness. They had planned the trip...

Amos 3:3Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Astronomer Who Mapped Stars No One Had Seen

In 1786, Caroline Herschel stood in the cold garden of their home in Slough, England, sweeping the sky with a telescope her brother William had...

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

The Throne Room Buried in Desert Sand

In 1899, German archaeologist Robert Koldewey began excavating a series of mud-brick mounds along the Euphrates River in modern-day Iraq. After years of painstaking work,...

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14Universal

216 words

Sermon Illustration

The Vine That Learned to Climb

In the Willamette Valley of Oregon, a vintner named Rebecca bends down each spring to pick up young Pinot Noir shoots that have fallen from...

Titus 2:11-12Universal

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The City That Forgot How to Dance

In 2013, Detroit filed for bankruptcy — the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history. But the numbers only told part of the story. Drive down...

Lamentations 1:1-6Universal

254 words

Sermon Illustration

The Porch Light on Garfield Avenue

For eleven years, Maria Gutierrez left her porch light on at 4319 Garfield Avenue in Kansas City. Not because she forgot. Because she remembered. Her...

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

265 words

Sermon Illustration

The Ulcer and the Unbelieved Truth

For decades, doctors told patients with stomach ulcers the same thing: reduce your stress, change your diet, learn to relax. Millions of people rearranged their...

John 8:32Universal

247 words

Sermon Illustration

The Garden Behind First Baptist

For twenty years, the congregation of First Baptist in Baton Rouge prided themselves on their Wednesday night prayer meetings. They fasted twice a month, sang...

Isaiah 58:1-12Universal

239 words

Sermon Illustration

The Clearing After the Summit

In 2019, Keisha Dawson stood on the stage at Howard University's School of Divinity, diploma in hand, her mother weeping in the third row. Three...

Mark 1:9-15Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bee Sting That Lost Its Power

In 2019, a beekeeper named Sarah Mapelli stood on a stage in Portland, Oregon, with twenty thousand honeybees crawling across her bare skin. The audience...

1 Corinthians 15:55-57Universal

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Pardon No One Expected

In 2019, former Dallas police officer Amber Guyger was convicted of murdering her neighbor Botham Jean, a twenty-six-year-old accountant and worship leader she shot in...

1 Timothy 1:12-17Universal

249 words

Sermon Illustration

The Voice Before the Lantern

On February 7, 1837, a seventeen-year-old Florence Nightingale sat in the garden at Embley Park and recorded four words in her diary: "God spoke to...

Mark 1:4-11Universal

238 words

Sermon Illustration

The Pardon That Made a Prosecutor Quit

In 1947, Corrie ten Boom stood in a church basement in Munich and watched a man walk toward her with his hand extended. She recognized...

Jonah 4:2Universal

236 words

Sermon Illustration

The Tinker Who Outshone the Theologians

In 1660, a traveling mender of pots and pans sat in a cold Bedford jail cell, convicted for preaching without a license. John Bunyan had...

1 Corinthians 2:1-16Universal

236 words

Sermon Illustration

Driven Into the Wilderness to Find Her Mission

In 1944, Corrie ten Boom was arrested for hiding Jewish families in her Haarlem home. Within weeks, she was transported to Ravensbrück, the notorious Nazi...

Mark 1:9-15Universal

223 words

Sermon Illustration

Wide Open

Every spring, ornithologists observe the same phenomenon in nesting songbirds. When an eastern bluebird parent returns to the nest with a caterpillar in its beak,...

Hebrews 4:16Universal

227 words

Sermon Illustration

The Fisherman's Son Who Came Home

Maria Constantinou had not slept a full night in fourteen months. Not since her son Dimitri's fishing boat vanished in a storm off the coast...

Luke 2:10-11Universal

250 words

Sermon Illustration

The One-Eyed Preacher on Azusa Street

In April 1906, a one-eyed Black preacher named William Joseph Seymour stood in a converted stable on Azusa Street in Los Angeles and watched the...

Joel 2:28-29Universal

222 words