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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 Voice That Changed Everything

In 2018, a video went viral of a four-year-old boy named Archer Coyle from Melbourne, Australia, who had been profoundly deaf since birth. Doctors had...

John 20:1-18Universal

240 words

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Sermon Illustration

The Letter That Arrived Thirty Years Late

In 1987, Margaret Ellison taught a Wednesday night Bible study for teenagers in a cinder-block church basement in Terre Haute, Indiana. She brought homemade snickerdoodles...

3 John 1:4Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Motorcade Approaches

In November 2023, residents along a motorcade route in San Francisco watched something remarkable unfold. Hours before the APEC summit, city crews swept streets that...

Psalm 24:7-10Universal

229 words

Sermon Illustration

Dorothy Day's Uncomfortable Fast

In 1933, Dorothy Day stood in a New York City breadline — not to observe, but to serve. A former journalist and recent Catholic convert,...

Isaiah 58:1-12Universal

247 words

Sermon Illustration

Two Things He Never Forgot

In 1748, a twenty-three-year-old sailor named John Newton clung to the rigging of the Greyhound as waves crashed over the deck in the North Atlantic....

Deuteronomy 4:32-34, 39-40Universal

243 words

Sermon Illustration

The Last Word of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

On April 9, 1945, at Flossenburg concentration camp, Dietrich Bonhoeffer knelt in prayer before his executioners led him to the gallows. Allied forces were days...

Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

The Orchestra That Didn't Know What It Had

In 2019, a community orchestra in Chattanooga, Tennessee nearly dissolved. Attendance was thin, morale was low, and the musicians — mostly amateurs who squeezed rehearsals...

1 Corinthians 1:1-9Universal

225 words

Sermon Illustration

Wesley's Funeral Sermon

In 1770, George Whitefield died in Newburyport, Massachusetts, and the question arose: who would preach his funeral sermon in London? The answer surprised nearly everyone....

1 Corinthians 1:10-18Universal

232 words

Sermon Illustration

Every Tongue, One Song

In 2019, a video from a Korean Air flight went viral. Somewhere over the Pacific, a passenger began having a severe allergic reaction. Within seconds,...

Revelation 7:9-17Universal

239 words

Sermon Illustration

Florence Nightingale and the Wisdom That Called Out in the Streets

In 1854, Florence Nightingale arrived at the British military hospital in Scutari, Turkey, and found soldiers dying not from their wounds but from ignorance. The...

Proverbs 8:1-4, 22-31Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

A Burden Heavier Than Iron

In 1660, John Bunyan was arrested for preaching without a license and thrown into Bedford County Jail. He was offered freedom on one condition: stop...

Universalperseverance

216 words

Sermon Illustration

The Scientist Who Knew Every Kernel by Name

In 1944, geneticist Barbara McClintock stood in her Cold Spring Harbor cornfield and did something her colleagues found baffling. She could identify individual maize plants...

Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18Universal

232 words

Sermon Illustration

The Pastor Who Grieved for Germany

In the summer of 1939, Dietrich Bonhoeffer sat in a New York City apartment with a ticket to safety and a heart splitting in two....

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1Universal

235 words

Sermon Illustration

Mother Teresa and the Train to Darjeeling

On September 10, 1946, a thirty-six-year-old Albanian nun boarded a train in Calcutta bound for Darjeeling, heading to her annual retreat. Sister Teresa had served...

1 Samuel 3:1-10Universal

261 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hiker Who Refused to Run

In 2019, Kyle Burgess was jogging a trail near Slate Canyon, Utah, when a female cougar stepped onto the path ahead of him. Every instinct...

James 4:7Universal

234 words

Sermon Illustration

The Donor Who Never Waited for a Thank You

In 2018, a stranger in Pittsburgh named Angela Clark walked into a hospital and donated a kidney to a man she had never met. The...

Romans 5:5b-11Universal

257 words

Sermon Illustration

The Shelter That Knew Her Name

When Hurricane Harvey stalled over Houston in August 2017, dumping more than fifty inches of rain in four days, Adrienne Davis watched the water rise...

Nahum 1:7Universal

255 words

Sermon Illustration

George Müller's Morning Roots

In 1841, after a decade of caring for orphans in Bristol, England, George Müller made a discovery that reshaped the rest of his life. For...

Psalm 1Universal

242 words

Sermon Illustration

The Hundred-Year Stream From Herrnhut

In August 1727, a small community of religious refugees gathered in the village of Herrnhut, nestled in the hills of Saxony. Count Nikolaus von Zinzendorf...

Ezekiel 47:1-2, 8-9, 12Universal

226 words

Sermon Illustration

The Rescue Swimmer Who Jumped In

When a fishing vessel capsized off the coast of Cape Disappointment, Washington, in February 2021, Coast Guard rescue swimmer Chris Dean faced a decision every...

Hebrews 2:14-18Universal

229 words

Sermon Illustration

George Müller and the God Whose Word Holds

In 1844, George Müller sat at a breakfast table in Bristol, England, set with empty plates and empty cups. Three hundred orphans waited in their...

Psalm 33:4-6, 9, 18-20, 22Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Bombs Stopped Falling

During the London Blitz of 1940, as Luftwaffe bombers darkened the skies night after night, something remarkable happened in the churches of England. Sanctuaries that...

Psalm 78:1-2, 34-38Universal

237 words

Sermon Illustration

The Mountain Lion on the Trail

In 2004, ranger Jim Hamm was hiking with his wife near Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park in Northern California when a mountain lion attacked. Every...

James 4:7Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

Florence Nightingale and the Wards of Scutari

In 1854, Florence Nightingale arrived at the British military hospital in Scutari, Turkey, and found a nightmare. Wounded soldiers lay on filthy floors, neglected by...

Ezekiel 34:11-16Universal

227 words