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Home›Traditions›Anabaptist

8

Anabaptist Illustrations

Radical discipleship, pacifism, and the church as a distinct counter-cultural community.

Key question: “How does this text call the community of faith to live as a distinct, counter-cultural witness to the Kingdom?”

23,674 sermon illustrations through the Anabaptist lens

The Candlesticks That Changed Everything

In the 1998 film *Les Misérables*, Jean Valjean staggers out of prison after nineteen years, hardened and bitter. No inn will take him. No table...

Universalrestoration

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Vivid Retelling

Lifted Hands, Quiet Lives: A Meditation on Prayer and Order

A theological meditation on 1 Timothy 2:1-15, exploring Paul's prioritization of prayer for all people including rulers, the foundational truths of one God and one mediator, and the instructions for men and women in worship. Examines how the gospel orders community life in chaotic Ephesus.

Universal

1002 words

Sermon Illustration

The Commit That Changed Everything

Every software developer knows the cold sweat of pushing a bad change to production — code that seemed right but broke everything. In October 2021,...

Universalredemption

Sermon Illustration

Luther's Hammer and the Tables of Tetzel

In the autumn of 1517, a Dominican friar named Johann Tetzel rolled into the towns near Wittenberg with a sales pitch that would have made...

John 2:13-22Universal

Sermon Illustration

When They Told Her She Didn't Belong

In 1939, Marian Anderson was one of the greatest contraltos the world had ever heard. Conductor Arturo Toscanini declared she possessed "a voice heard once...

Universalidentity

Sermon Illustration

The Farmer Who Planted in Drought

In 1988, the worst drought in fifty years scorched the plains of central Kansas. Creek beds turned to cracked mud. Cattle stood listless under cloudless...

Habakkuk 2:4Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Attorney Who Walked Into Death Row

In 1989, Bryan Stevenson drove his beat-up Honda Civic from Harvard Law School to rural Alabama, where Walter McMillian sat on death row for a...

1 Peter 3:18-22Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Gates of Buckingham Palace

On June 2, 1953, over three million people lined the streets of London for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. But one moment stands out...

Psalm 24:7-10Universal

Vivid Retelling

The Withered Tree and the Cleansed Temple: Mark 11:12-25

Cinematic retelling of the fig tree cursing and temple cleansing

Sermon Illustration

The Limp That Won the Open

On February 2, 1949, Ben Hogan's car collided head-on with a Greyhound bus on a foggy Texas highway. He shattered his pelvis, fractured his collarbone,...

Universalhealing

Sermon Illustration

8,000 Songs from a Dark Room

When Fanny Crosby was six weeks old, a careless doctor's mistake left her permanently blind. She would never see a sunrise, a flower, or a...

Universalperseverance

Vivid Retelling

No Other Gospel: Galatians 1:1-10

Apostolic dictation scene of Paul's angry opening to Galatians

Gravity: I Had a Daughter (Job 1:21)

In the gripping film *Gravity*, we meet Ryan Stone, a brilliant scientist floating aimlessly in the void of space. Following the tragic loss of her daughter, Ryan feels utterly untethered—not just from the physical world, but from the very essence...

Job 1:21Universalgriefsurvival

Sermon Illustration

The Silversmith's Steady Gaze

In downtown Taxco, Mexico, a third-generation silversmith named Eduardo Pineda sits before a crucible of molten metal, his eyes fixed on the glowing surface. The...

Malachi 3:1-4Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Kitchen Hymn at 5 AM

For forty years, Doris Whitfield sang while she cooked. Not hummed — sang. Full-throated renditions of *Great Is Thy Faithfulness* and *Blessed Assurance* that rattled...

Psalm 100Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Composer Who Signed Every Note to God

Johann Sebastian Bach inscribed three letters at the bottom of nearly every manuscript he composed: S.D.G. — *Soli Deo Gloria*, "To God alone be the...

Psalm 100Universal

When the Children Filled the Jails

On May 2, 1963, over a thousand young people poured out of Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, singing freedom songs as they marched...

1 Timothy 4:12Universalyouthcourage

Sermon Illustration

The Bag by the Door

In 2011, when wildfires swept through Bastrop County, Texas, residents had minutes to evacuate. Margaret Hensley, a retired schoolteacher, grabbed one bag she kept packed...

Luke 12:32-40Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Surgeon Who Worked by Candlelight

During the fall of 1944, Dr. grueling months of the London Blitz had left — actually, let me craft something more fitting and specific. The...

2 Kings 6:16-17Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Woman Who Walked Into the Storm

In 1943, a young Dutch woman named Corrie ten Boom watched her elderly father, Caspar, open their front door in Haarlem to a terrified Jewish...

Ruth 1:16Universal

Vivid Retelling

All Authority: Matthew 28:16-20

Cinematic retelling of the Great Commission

Sermon Illustration

The Lighthouse That Never Went Dark

In 1989, when Hurricane Hugo slammed into Charleston, South Carolina, with 140-mile-per-hour winds, it flattened homes, snapped century-old oaks like matchsticks, and reshaped the coastline...

Psalm 89:2-5, 27, 29Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Old Man Who Lived to See It

On July 26, 1833, a frail and nearly blind William Wilberforce lay in his bed on Cadogan Place, London. For forty-six years he had fought...

Luke 2:22-40Universal

Sermon Illustration

The Midnight Watch in Jamaica

On the evening of July 31, 1834, tens of thousands of enslaved men and women across Jamaica gathered in churches, chapels, and open hillsides. They...

Isaiah 52:7-10Universal