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Home›Scriptures›Matthew›Stories & Illustrations

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Matthew Stories & Illustrations

429 illustrations — Vivid stories and real-world analogies for sermon use

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Sermon Illustration

The Stockbroker Who Became a Father to 669

In December 1938, a twenty-nine-year-old London stockbroker named Nicholas Winton canceled his skiing holiday and traveled to Prague instead. What he found in the refugee...

Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24aUniversal

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Also from Matthew

⛪ LensLines™ (1026)🏛️ Historical Examples (160)🎬 Movie Analogies (159)🙏 Devotionals (153)🎯 Application Points (102)🔍 Biblical Insights (93)💭 Theological Reflections (84)📜 Theological Quotes (75)📝 Commentary (74)🧘 Spiritual Disciplines (48)

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Sermon Illustration

The Upside-Down Trophy Case

In 2018, a high school in San Antonio made national news — not for winning a championship, but for what happened during a basketball game...

Matthew 5:1-12aUniversal

Sermon Illustration

The Composer Who Saw Heaven Open

In the late summer of 1741, George Frideric Handel locked himself in his London apartment on Brook Street and barely ate for twenty-four days. Friends...

Matthew 17:1-9Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Former Slave Who Salted Los Angeles

In 1856, Biddy Mason walked out of a Los Angeles courtroom a free woman. She had been enslaved for thirty-two years, carried across the country...

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Grave That Could Not Hold the Word

On October 6, 1536, William Tyndale was led to a stake outside Brussels. His crime: translating the Bible into English so that common plowboys could...

Matthew 28:1-10Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Flavor That Changed a Neighborhood

In 2019, a retired schoolteacher named Dorothy Henderson started leaving homemade soup on the porches of her neighbors in a struggling block of East Nashville....

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

William Wilberforce and the Salt That Would Not Lose Its Savor

In 1787, a young British parliamentarian named William Wilberforce sat at his desk in Old Palace Yard, London, and scratched five words into his journal:...

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

When the Clouds Break on Denali

In June 2019, a group of climbers spent eleven days on Denali, the highest peak in North America, waiting out storms at base camp. Fog...

Matthew 17:1-9Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Orchard That Had to Be Cut Back

In 2019, apple grower Maria Gonzalez stood in her family's orchard outside Yakima, Washington, and made a decision that horrified her neighbors. She ordered every...

Matthew 3:1-12Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Graduation Speech Nobody Expected

In 2019, a high school in Birmingham, Alabama invited two commencement speakers. The first was a hedge fund manager who flew in on a private...

Matthew 5:1-12aUniversal

Sermon Illustration

The CEO Who Stood in the Unemployment Line

In 2009, during the worst of the Great Recession, Howard Schultz made a decision that baffled his executive team. The Starbucks CEO walked into a...

Matthew 3:13-17Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Bakery That Wouldn't Close on Sundays

For twenty-three years, Maria Gonzalez ran a small panaderia on East Cesar Chavez Street in Austin, Texas. When a massive commercial development went up across...

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Restaurant That Lost Its Salt

In 2019, a beloved barbecue joint in Memphis called Central BBQ faced an unexpected crisis. A new kitchen manager, trying to cut costs, quietly reduced...

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Laundromat on Cypress Avenue

For eleven years, Maria Gutierrez ran a laundromat in East Oakland that should have gone under twice. The margins were razor-thin. A bigger chain opened...

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The GPS That Led to a Dirt Road

In 2018, a couple from Chicago named Marcus and Elena drove through rural Kentucky searching for a renowned woodworker whose hand-carved furniture had gained a...

Matthew 2:1-12Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Medic Who Obeyed When It Made No Sense

In the spring of 1945, Private First Class Desmond Doss stood atop the Maui Escarpment on Okinawa — a jagged, thirty-five-foot cliff the soldiers called...

Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24aUniversal

Sermon Illustration

The Hummingbird's Crossing

Every autumn, the ruby-throated hummingbird — a creature weighing barely three grams — launches itself from the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and flies five hundred...

Matthew 6:25-34Universalanxiety

Sermon Illustration

The Crossing Guard on Maple Street

For eleven years, Dorothy Chen stood at the corner of Maple and Third in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, guiding children safely across the street. She knew...

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

Two Shoemakers on a Danish Dock

In August 1732, two young Moravian men — Johann Leonhard Dober, a potter, and David Nitschmann, a carpenter — stood on a dock in Copenhagen,...

Matthew 28:16-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Quiet Obedience of Dietrich Bonhoeffer

In April 1935, Dietrich Bonhoeffer received a letter that would change his life. He had been safely lecturing in London, building a promising academic career,...

Matthew 1:16, 18-21, 24aUniversal

Sermon Illustration

When the Evidence Arrives on Stretchers

For nearly fifty years, Mother Teresa carried a secret. Letters published after her death revealed that the woman the world celebrated as a saint of...

Matthew 11:2-11Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Village That Refused to Go Dark

In the winter of 1941, Pastor André Trocmé stood before his congregation in Le Chambon-sur-Lignon, a small village in the mountains of southern France, and...

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Moravians Who Sold Themselves Into Slavery

In 1732, two young Moravian men named Johann Leonard Dober and David Nitschmann stood on the docks of Copenhagen with a radical plan. They had...

Matthew 5:13-20Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Professor Who Sailed Back Into the Dark

In June 1939, Dietrich Bonhoeffer stood on the deck of a ship bound for New York, watching the German coastline disappear. Friends had arranged a...

Matthew 4:12-23Universal