Sermon Illustrations
Commands Obeyed
If there is one commandment that christians have kept, one commandment of Christ that christians have really followed, it is Jesus’ admonition to three disciples, “See that you tell no-one!”
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Mag, Aug 97, J. John
Being Outward Looking
Sometimes we have the impression that being outward looking means that you put the sign of the fish on your car. All unbelievers who see the fish on the car think we belong to an angling society.
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Mag, Aug 97, J. John
People Watch
John Wesley was asked, “Why are people drawn to you?” and he replied, “When you set yourself on fire, people will come and watch you burn.”
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Mag, Aug 97, J. John
Lost Child
Imagine my wife and I go to Sherward forest for a day’s picnic. At the end of the day, we are packing up and realise we only have one of our sons with us. We’ve lost the other two. “Oh no! What shall we do? Let’s go and look for them.”
We go back into the forest and hunt all over the forest. We find one of them and say, “Oh well, at least we have found one. Let’s go! We lost two, we got one back. You lose 100%, you get 50% back – that’s the way life is. Win some lose some.”
NO! What would we do? We would go back into the forest and we’d search for our lost son until we found our son, alive or dead. We wouldn’t stop.
That’s the heart that the church needs to have as part of this whole thing of being outward looking, to have a heart for the lost. I am not saying that every minute of every hour of every day, we are out seeking the lost, but if that’s the heart of the church, then its troops are going to be active at different times and different places doing this.UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Mag, Aug 97, J. John
My Purpose
“My purpose in life is to go to heaven and take as many people as possible with me.”
UK Focus – Holy Trinity Brompton Aug 97 Magazine, J.John, D.L. Moody
Bambi or Rambo
When asking people to church or church functions, chill out about it. Don’t get too intense. Use the Bambi approach, not the Rambo approach.
J. John – in UK Focus, Aug 97 (HTB)
Daily doses of penicillin
A helpful analogy of how we share our faith is that of taking daily doses of penicillin in order to remove an infection. Just as taking all the penecillin at once makes little inpact on the infection, so a bombardment of Christian truth rarely has a positive effect on an unchurched friend or family member. It is likely to so more harm than good.
J. John – in UK Focus, Aug 97 (HTB)
Some Kneeling Form
Every work of God can be traced to some kneeling form.
J. John – in UK Focus, Aug 97 (HTB)
If We Do Not Speak
Jesus was born in a borrowed manger. He preached from a borrowed boat. He entered Jerusalem on a borrowed donkey. He ate the last supper in a borrowed room. And he was buried in a borrowed tomb. Now he asks to borrow the lives of christians to reach the rest of the world. If we do not speak then he is dumb and silent.
J. John – in UK Focus, Aug 97 (HTB)
Sunday School
“During the war a man lay dying in the trenches. A friend leaned over him and said, ‘Is there anything I can do for you?’
He replied, ‘No I am dying.’
‘Is there anyone I can send a message to for you?’
‘Yes, you can send a message to this man at this address. Tell him that in my last minutes what he taught me as a child is helping me to die.’
The man was his old Sunday School Teacher. When the message got to him, he said, ‘God forgive me. I gave up Sunday School teaching years ago because I thought I was getting nowhere. I thought it was no use.’”
Questions of Life, Nicky Gumble, p200