One of the largest free collections of sermon illustrations, organized by topic, scripture, and theological tradition.

Stay updated

New illustrations, features & occasional discounts

Website

Browse

By Topic
By Scripture
By Tradition
By Emotion
By Source Type
Sermon Slides

Resources

Sample Illustrations
About
Premium
Contact Us
SermonWise AI
PewSearch
ChurchWiseAI

Support

Contact Us
+1 (888) 603-0316
support@churchwiseai.com
Privacy Policy
Terms of Service
Refund Policy

HomeIllustrations

9,108 Illustrations

Browse Sermon Illustrations

Search, filter, and discover the perfect illustration for your sermon

All Stories & Illustrations Poetry & Verse Quotes Biblical Insights Historical Examples Movie Analogies Devotionals Tradition Perspectives All types →

Top Rated Newest Oldest|All Sources Biblical Illustrator Spurgeon Maclaren

Free to browse · Sign up free to unlock most illustrations · Premium ($9.95/mo) for the full library of 50,000+ illustrations

Sermon Illustration

The Finish Line Eric Liddell Never Saw

In 1924, Eric Liddell stunned the world at the Paris Olympics, winning gold in the 400 meters after refusing to run on Sunday. The newspapers...

Hebrews 11:29-12:2Universal

230 words

PreviousPage 295 of 380Next

Sermon Illustration

William Wilberforce and the Pews That Finally Meant Something

For decades, the churches of 18th-century England were filled every Sunday. Hymns rose from polished pews. Prayers were offered with eloquent precision. The liturgy was...

Isaiah 1:1, 10-20Universal

230 words

Sermon Illustration

Newton's Stubborn Kindness

In 1767, the poet William Cowper moved to Olney, England, already haunted by bouts of severe melancholy that had twice driven him to the brink...

Galatians 6:1-16Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Surgeon Who Worked by Ultraviolet Light

In 2012, a surgical team at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York began using fluorescence-guided surgery to remove cancerous tumors. The surgeon would inject a...

2 Kings 6:16-17Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

The Golden Cross of Dresden

For nearly sixty years, the ruins of Dresden's Frauenkirche stood as a blackened heap in the center of the city — a wound left open...

Isaiah 60:1-6Universal

247 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bridge at Mostar

In November 1993, Croatian forces deliberately shelled the Stari Most, the ancient stone bridge in Mostar, Bosnia. Built in 1566 by Ottoman architect Mimar Hayruddin,...

Obadiah 1:15Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Refugees Who Became a Movement

In 1722, a ragged band of Protestant refugees from Moravia arrived on the estate of Count Nicholas von Zinzendorf in Saxony. They had nothing —...

1 Corinthians 1:1-9Universal

217 words

Sermon Illustration

The Free Table Nobody Trusted

Every Saturday morning, Maria Gonzalez sets up a folding table outside her bakery on Magnolia Street in downtown San Antonio. She covers it with a...

Isaiah 55:1-9Universal

221 words

Sermon Illustration

A Single Match in Mammoth Cave

Rangers at Mammoth Cave in Kentucky have a tradition. They lead visitors 300 feet underground into a chamber called the Rotunda, where limestone walls stretch...

Genesis 1:1-3Universal

234 words

Sermon Illustration

George Müller's Ten Thousand

In 1836, George Müller opened a rented house on Wilson Street in Bristol, England, with room for thirty orphans. He had no salary, no fundraising...

Ephesians 3:20Universal

241 words

Sermon Illustration

The Bulbs of Haarlem

In 1637, the Dutch city of Haarlem was gripped by tulip fever. Fortunes changed hands over small, wrinkled bulbs that looked like dried onions. A...

1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-50Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

O Love That Will Not Let Me Go

In June of 1882, a Scottish minister named George Matheson sat alone in his family home while the rest of the household celebrated his sister's...

Universallove

260 words

Sermon Illustration

The Young Parliamentarian Who Changed a Nation

In 1780, William Wilberforce won his seat in the British Parliament at just twenty-one years old. By his own admission, he was a lightweight —...

Jeremiah 1:4-10Universal

247 words

Sermon Illustration

The Price of Thirty Pieces

In 2018, a photograph surfaced of a former bodyguard testifying against the very person he had sworn to protect. Reporters noted how he avoided eye...

Matthew 26:14-27:66Universal

240 words

Sermon Illustration

The Spring That Never Stopped

In 1888, a cholera outbreak swept through Hamburg, Germany, killing over eight thousand people in ten weeks. The city's water supply had been drawn from...

Zechariah 13:1Universal

246 words

Sermon Illustration

Wilberforce and the Forty-Six Year Calling

In 1787, a twenty-seven-year-old member of Parliament named William Wilberforce sat at an oak desk in his London home and scribbled five words in his...

1 Corinthians 1:3-9Universal

231 words

Sermon Illustration

The Breakwater at Plymouth

In 1812, engineer John Rennie began constructing a massive breakwater across Plymouth Sound in southwest England. For centuries, ships anchoring in that harbor had been...

Nahum 1:7Universal

237 words

Sermon Illustration

Conducting in Silence

By 1824, Ludwig van Beethoven had been profoundly deaf for years. He hadn't heard music, conversation, or the sound of his own playing in nearly...

Universalpatience

258 words

Sermon Illustration

The Casserole on the Doorstep

In 2018, a family in Greenville, South Carolina found their mailbox smashed and racial slurs spray-painted across their garage door. The Hendersons had moved into...

Luke 6:27-38Universal

228 words

Sermon Illustration

Every Tongue, Every Flag, One Song

On June 2, 2022, over a million people gathered along the Mall in London for Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee concert. Camera crews captured something...

Revelation 7:2-4, 9-14Universal

241 words

Sermon Illustration

Written in the Wings

Every autumn, millions of Monarch butterflies rise from fields across North America and fly up to 3,000 miles south to a cluster of oyamel fir...

Universalpurpose

248 words

Sermon Illustration

The Nurse Who Wouldn't Stop Praying

In 2019, a hospice nurse named Margaret Ajagu in Birmingham, England, was called into her supervisor's office and handed a formal warning. A family had...

Acts 5:27-32Universal

219 words

Sermon Illustration

When the Spirit Fell on Azusa Street

In April 1906, William Joseph Seymour — the son of formerly enslaved parents, blind in one eye, once forced to listen to Bible school lectures...

Joel 2:23-32Universal

221 words

Sermon Illustration

The Cobbler God Sent to the Nations

In 1792, a young cobbler named William Carey stood before a gathering of Baptist ministers in Northampton, England, and proposed that Christians had an obligation...

1 Samuel 16:1-13Universal

241 words