425 Sermon Illustrations on Bible

There was a young man in Russia who studied for the Orthodox priesthood. He applied himself to his studies to the point that he could recite the entire Bible from memory. But something happened and he entered politics. He worked his way up the political ladder by killing opponents and entire villages of people. His nickname: The Butcher of the Ukraine. We know him as Josef Stalin. Josef Stalin knew all about God, yet he didn't know God Himself. He knew all about God but never once met Christ.

There was no gymnasium on the seminary campus, so the seminarians played basketball in a nearby public school. The janitor, an old black man with white hair, would wait patiently until the seminarians had finished playing. Invariably he sat there reading his Bible. One day one of the students went up to him and inquired, "What are you reading?" The man did not simply reply, "The Bible." Instead he answered, "The Book of Revelation." With a bit of surprise the student asked, "The Book of Revelation? Do you understand it?" "Oh yes," the man answered. "I understand it." "You understand the Book of Revelation! What does it mean?" Very quietly that old janitor answered, "It means that Jesus is gonna win."

The late Dr. William Lyon Phelps, well-known educator of Yale

University, said: "I thoroughly believe in a university education for

both men and women, but I believe a knowledge of the Bible without a

college course is more valuable than a college course without the

Bible." ("Choice Illus." W.W. Clay pg.60)

There are many living who remember Billy Sunday, the great evangelist,

who challenged his day as Billy Graham is challenging the present

generation. Mrs. Sunday said that it was her husband's fixed rule to

begin his day with his devotional Bible reading. He would not let

anything interfere with this practice. He would not even open a

telegram, much less a letter, or read a newspaper, until he had had

his time alone with the book. So when he lay in his casket, Mrs.

Sunday put his worn little Testament into the hand that had been

clasped by thousands when they took Christ as their Savior. Many tried

to find the secret of his power with men, but perhaps the simplest

explanation lies in that daily devotion to the Bible. Certainly the

morning moments with the Book explain the peace and power of many

Christian lives. ("Choice Illus." W.W. Clay pg. 60)

My Source: STANDING IN THE GAP

Nesbit, MS church of Christ

March 26, 2000

Author: Patrick Harper

File Under: Authority

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WELL, MY PREACHER SAID...

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?

by Patrick Harper

So many people ask this question, yet they do not want the truthful answer, they want the pleasant answer that is easy to swallow and does not ask anything of them. Often, instead of going to the scriptures to find out what God has said about a matter, they will go and ask those held to be authorities. If the answer given by the authority agrees with what they want to do, then all is fine, but if they disagree with the authority, it is time to go and find someone who will agree.

What does the Bible say about this? Where should people look for answers? What should people believe?

God's inspired word is sufficient for man. God has given mankind everything needed to live life on earth, and to have eternal life in heaven. Man needs to take the time to study what He has said (2 Peter 1:3; 2 Timothy 2:15). When the question is asked, "What does God require of me," why settle for an answer from man? The best answers for questions about man's responsibilities regarding God come from the scripture, and rest upon "thus saith the Lord."

People need to study to show themselves approved unto God. When God's word is studied, then understanding about His will for mankind is gained. God's word does not try to hide God's purpose from man, it reveals His purpose to man. People may have an agenda and twist the scriptures to their own end. Only when man's teaching is compared against God's word is the corruption of man's teaching seen.

There once was a prophet who did the work of the Lord, but was lead astray by a man who claimed to be from God. God had told his prophet to go home without stopping to eat or drink after delivering God's message to Jeroboam against the altar that had been built in Bethel. As the prophet returned home, an old prophet entreated the prophet to eat with him, claiming that his contradictory message was also from God. The prophet went and ate with the lying old prophet, and as a result of his disobedience to God, was killed by a lion (1 Kings 13:1-25).

Even though the prophet knew the truth, he chose to believe a lie and died because of it. Only God's word can be expected to tell man the truth. Dishonest men will lie to suit their own purpose, God's word will save because it is sure.

Bible study would put an end to denominationalism and sectarianism. In 1 Corinthians 1:10 and following, Paul chastised the church at Corinth for splitting over preachers. These people were dividing themselves over men instead of paying attention to the message. Paul told them that if they heeded the message of Christ's gospel, the fracturing would come to an end. Christ's church rests upon the fact that Christ was crucified and resurrected from the dead.

Knowledgeable men are useful aids in understanding God's word, but are not an end unto themselves. Certainly, Apollos' preaching was earnest, but it was not according to all truth, only some, in that he knew only the baptism of John. Priscilla and Aquila instructed him about Christ (Acts 18:24-26). Those who taught Apollos' teaching had themselves to be retaught as well (Acts 19:1-7). This shows that even well meaning individuals can be wrong.

The Bible is our only source of authority, even when man's teaching is opposed to it. Regardless of what the preacher says, what "some man wearing a pointy hat" thinks, or what grandpa used to do, regardless of anything like that, we should obey God rather than man (Acts 4:19; Acts 5:29). What does your preacher say about that?

St. Peter's Fish

By the Sea of Galilee stands a cafe called St. Peter's Restaurant. The menu

has a delicacy called St. Peter's Fish. I was told that it tastes excellent.

Apparently, this fish is caught in the Sea of Galilee but this is a strange

fish. The fertilized eggs of the fish are held inside her mouth. When the

eggs are hatched, the minnows stay there until they are ready to go into

the water for a quick swim. If danger is evident or they need nourishment

they quickly go back into their mother's mouth. There comes a time when

the mother says enough of that and she literally spews them out of her

mouth since she can't take "the big mouth" stuff anymore.

But having an empty mouth all the time bothers her, so very often, she

will pick up a bottle cap or a coin and keep it in her mouth like a soother.

As a matter of fact, St. Peter's Restaurant states that 1 out of every 3

fish caught today have a bottle cap or coin inside the mouth of the fish.

Back in Jesus' day, as the Bible records in Matthew 17:24-27, the tax

collectors of the Temple came to Peter and asked if his teacher paid the

temple tax lately. Peter said that Jesus did but to make sure, he went to

Jesus. He was about to speak but Jesus, who knew what was on Peter's

mind already, said, "What do you think, Simon Peter? From whom do the

kings of the earth collect duties and taxes--from their own sons or from

others?" Of course Peter replied, "From others." Jesus said, "Then the

sons are exempt."

I imagine Jesus had to laugh here because that statement had a double

meaning. We are also the sons of the King. But I do not want you to think

that we should not pay our taxes. Jesus did supply the much needed Temple

Tax in a most unusual way. He told Peter to go fishing and yes, Peter

caught St. Peter's Fish. The fish had a four-drachma coin inside it.

Peter must have been overwhelmed. This was twice the amount required

for his temple tax. But then he realized that Jesus wanted Peter to pay the

tax for himself and Jesus.

Friend, God will supply in most unusual ways. You may be depressed at this

time of year because of financial restraints, broken relationships, ill

health or abuse. God will not give you all your material desires, but He can

restore you from within. Just as it took you a while to get into your

predicament, it may take time for you to overcome your circumstances.

God doesn't have quick-fix-it answers. Peter had to go out and catch the

fish. You might not be able to catch St. Peter's Fish but I'm sure that God

will be able to supply since-- as the Bible says-- He owns the cattle on a

1,000 hills. We can belong to a King who definitely is rich!

Mark 3:1-6

BAD ATTITUDE

It's easy for us as sinners to develop bad attitudes.

The Pharisees in this story show us three ways of developing a bad

attitude.

A CRITICAL EYE Vss. 1-2

A CONCRETE (HARDENED) HEART Vss. 3-5

A CONNIVING MIND Vs. 6

--dJack Peters, Sermon Seeds, 12jan98

An elderly gentleman lay on his deathbed. His only son sat by his

side, "Son, hand me the Book," the old man said.

"Which book, Dad?" asked the son. "You have many books in your

library."

"When you're dying, there's only one book," replied the old man.

"Hand me the Bible."

- Leonard Markham, {The Sunday School Leader, }June 1994, 12.

\reference{Ecclesiastes 12:12}{Ecclesiastes 12:12} states "of

making many books there is no end." What would the writer say if he

could see our well-stocked book stores and overflowing libraries

today? For example, the Library of Congress, one of the biggest, has

almost 100 million items!

Textbooks, comic books, cookbooks, reference books, poetry books,

travel books, fiction, nonfiction, technical - the list is endless.

But one book stands above all, the BIBLE.

- {Adult Teacher}

A women's Bible class was having a weekday meeting in a member's

home. The gathering met on the day when the cleaning woman came, but

that day; she was ill and sent a friend in her place. As the

devotions were about to begin, the leader said to the hostess, "I came

away without my Bible today. Could I borrow yours?"

The hostess hurried to get her Bible but couldn't find it. She

knew where it was, for she had used it the day before. But it wasn't

anywhere to be found. She searched everywhere. The noise of opening

and shutting drawers reached the women. "What will they think of me?"

wondered the embarrassed hostess. In panic she ran down to the

kitchen where the cleaning woman was at work. "Did you see anything

of my Bible?" she asked breathlessly.

"Praise the Lord," exclaimed the cleaning woman.

"What do you mean?"

"Praise the Lord," she continued. "The first thing I do when I

start working for someone is to hide their Bible."

"But why?"

"Just to see how long it takes the people there to miss it. Yours

is in the linen closet."

When a boy went off to college, his father said, "Don't ever let

the take away your faith."

Back home after two years of college the son was asked, "Do you

still believe the Bible? I hope you didn't let them weaken your faith

in the Bible. You still believe Jonah was swallowed by a fish?"

"Oh, now, Father," said John, "you don't mean to say that you still

believe that story about Jonah?"

The father threw up his hands, horror-stricken. "Oh, son, you've

forsaken you father's faith!"

"Father, is Jonah still in your Bible? Have you read about him

lately? Father, get your Bible and show me where you find anything

about Jonah."

With considerable indignation the father took down his Bible and

began to turn over the leaves excitedly, but could not find Jonah.

"Now, Father, I may have played a mean trick, but two years ago

when I went to college, I took your Bible and carefully cut out the

pages of Jonah, and you have never missed it."

The father's face revealed an inward struggle. Then he quietly

said, "I see it. I'm as bad as the unbelievers. There has been no

Jonah in my Bible for two years."

A man said he was an army sergeant stationed in Europe and his job

was to help get the chapel ready for services on Sunday. He himself

never attended, but he got everything ready for the chaplain.

One day he opened a box. It was full of books called {Good

News for Modern Man.} He said to himself, "I'm a modern man. I'll

read this." As he read it he kept thinking, "This sounds a lot like

the Bible." That was the beginning of his conversion.

The Bible is truly a book for modern people. A young man said to

his pastor: "I live in the jet age. Those people in the Bible rode

camels. What do a bunch of camel drivers have to say to me?" It's a

legitimate question, but it's a question we can answer: the basic

issues of life (sin, guilt, hope, faith, grief, death) have not

changed. Those camel drivers do have something to say to us. That

Book written so long ago does have good news for modern man.

-Robert C. Shannon, {To Illustrate,} Preaching, Sept-Oct 1994,

p. 49

We search the world for truth; we cull

The good, the pure, the beautiful

From graven stone and written scroll,

From all old flower-fields of the soul.

And we are seekers of the best,

We come back laden from our quest,

To find what all the sages said,

Is in the book our mothers read.

- John Greenleaf Whittier

There hath God married

And no man shall part,

Dust on the Bible

And drought in the heart.

- {The Record of Christian Work}

A Muslim bought a Gospel for four eggs, because, as he said, he had no money, but the day following he returned with the money, making this remark: "Your book is very good, but the eggs I gave you were not fresh; I should like to pay the price of the Book." That is how the Gospels work: they touch the conscience, they awake the spiritual thirst; something happens which tells immediately upon life.

- Dr. Horton, in the Contemporary Review

There is a story of a frontier settlement in the West whose people

were engaged in the lumbering business. The town wanted a church, so

they built one and called a minister. The preacher was well received

until one day he happened to see some of his parishioners clawing onto

the bank some logs that had been floating down the river from another

village upstream. Each log was marked with the owner's stamp on one

end. To his great distress the pastor saw his members pulling in toe

logs and sawing off the end where the telltale stamp appeared.

The next Sunday he prepared a forceful sermon on the text "Thou

shalt not steal." At the close of the service, his people lined up

and congratulated him: "Wonderful message, mighty fine preaching."

However, as the preacher watched the river that week he saw his

parishioners continuing to steal logs. This bothered him a great

deal. So he went home and worked on a sermon for the following week.

The topic was "Thou shalt not cut off the end of thy neighbor's

logs." When he got through, the church membership ran him out of

town.

On a Christmas card the following verse was cited: "They exchanged

gifts and made merry ... (\reference{Rev. 11:10}{Revelation

11:10})." The context of the verse, which describes anything but what

it appeared to mean on the Christmas greeting, is rejoicing over the

death of God's two witnesses at the hand of the beast.

A member of the French Academy went to see Diderot, an able

champion of infidelity and found him explaining a chapter of the

Gospel to his daughter as seriously as a Chirstian parent. The

visitor expressed his surprise. "I understand you," said Diderot,

"but, in truth, what better lesson could I give her?"

- Rev. Elon Foster, D.D.

It is told that many years ago, while on a visit to England, a wealthy businessman was fascinated by a powerful microscope. Looking through its lens to study crystals and the petals of flowers, he was amazed at their beauty and detail. He declined to purchase a microscope and take it back home. He thoroughly enjoyed using it until one day he examined some food he was planning to eat for dinner. Much to his dismay, he discovered that tiny living creatures were crawling in it. Since he was especially fond of this particular food, he wondered what to do. Finally, he concluded that there was only one way out of his dilemma - he would destroy the instrument that caused him to discover the distasteful fact. So he smashed the microscope to pieces!

“How foolish!” you say. But many people do the same with the Word of God. They hate it and would like to get rid of it because it reveals their nature.

Without Scripture, we're left in the dark with only our

experiences, political opinions and pop psychology to illuminate our

lives!

- Friar Tuck in {What Constitutes a Healthy Congregation?, }a

monthly publication by the American Baptist Churches of Indiana

The authority of Scripture is so rooted in and closely linked to

the authority of Jesus Christ that the two are indivisible. To

attempt to distinguish them is like asking which blade of a pair of

scissors is more important, or which leg of a pair of pants is more

necessary. We know Christ through the Bible, and we understand the

Bible through the knowledge of Christ and the Spirit he sent.

A young believer was discouraged in his attempts to read and

remember the Bible. He said, "It's no use. No matter how much I

read, I always forget what I have just read."

A wise pastor replied, "Take heart. When you pour water over a

sieve, no matter how much you pour, you don't collect much. But at

least you end up with a clean sieve."

The story has been told of a South Sea Islander who proudly displayed his Bible to a G. I. during World War II. "We've outgrown that sort of thing," the soldier said. The native smiled back, "It's a good thing we haven't. If it weren't for this book, you'd have been a meal by now!"

NEW YORK, NY. (EP) - Yoko Ono, . . . widow of . . . John Lennon,

tore pages from a Bible and threw them into the audience at a May 7

concert with her son, Sean, and his band, Ima. Joseph Zwilling,

spokesman for New York's Roman Catholic Archdiocese, called Ono's

action "inappropriate." Ono later apologized - almost. "I am sorry,"

she said. "I did not mean to offend them by distributing the words of

God."

- {Watchman Expositor, }Vol. 13, No. 4, 1996, p. 30

FROM A FILM REVIEW: "It's the kind of movie that grips you by the

eyelids and won't let go until you've fallen asleep."1

The Bible is like this, once we start reading it, reflecting it,

and meditating on it, it's grips will not let us go until we die.

- Matt Neace

1. Thomas Mallon, {Rockets and Rodeos and Other American

Specticles}