78 Sermon Illustrations on Church

When I think about the kind of offensive strategy God expects from His church, I think about the San Francisco Forty-niners. They were the team of the eighties. Their greatness was due to their ability to make an offensive impact. They controlled the ball, thereby controlling the game. Their offense was almost always on the field, so other teams rarely had an opportunity to score. Even if the other teams did score, the Forty-niners almost always came back and scored again. God doesn't expect Satan to "control the ball" in his battle against the church. God expects the church to be on the offensive, executing His game plan. Satan's defense is to be kept on the field while God's offense scores the touchdowns. When Satan's team does have the ball, the church ought to be causing fumbles so the right offense gets back on the field. The church isn't in the game just to keep Satan from scoring. God has called His people to be forward-moving Christians. The Church's Responsibility Like many Christians today, the disciples had a faulty view of the future. They focused on Christ's future kingdom rather than on their responsibility to occupy enemy territory and represent His kingdom until He returns (Luke 19:31). The church's responsibility to occupy the world can be compared to what happened in 1983 on the island of Grenada. Due to the rise of Communist insurgency, the U.S. President ordered troops into Grenada. In just eight hours, the battle was over. However, many of the Communists would not accept defeat. Rather than surrender, they sniped at our troops from behind cars, buildings, and trees. So our troops remained there until the victory was secured and a new government was installed. When Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead, He was victorious over all God's enemies. He clearly won the victory. However, Satan and his followers have not accepted defeat and still try to claim victory. Thus, the victorious Christ has established His troops-the church-to secure the victory until He returns to set up His new government. The church is God's occupational force until He comes again. Rather than focusing on their future rule with Him, therefore, Jesus wanted the disciples to focus on their impact in the world and be ready to receive God's power through the Holy Spirit.

Attend only when convenient. When you do attend, arrive late. Grumble about having to attend. Criticize the officers and teachers in front of your family and friends. Refuse to accept any responsibility in the Sunday school. If you ever do accept any, do it grudgingly and neglect it often. Never study your lesson. Always show your lack of interest in the lesson. Appear relieved when the class is over. Act as if you have wasted your time. Refuse to welcome visitors; make them feel that you belong and they don't. Criticize every new idea that is suggested. Dominate discussions; always insist that your opinion is right. Regard the teachers of your children as upstarts and busybodies. Show your distrust or disapproval of teachers when they call in your home. Never sacrifice for the Sunday school; leave that to somebody else. The Oldest Company It happened at the noonday luncheon of the local Rotary. The dishes had been cleared away, and the meeting had been called to order. After the reception of new members and the introduction of visitors, the chairman asked who of those present represented the oldest company in the community. A young man in the back of the room hesitated a moment, then arose and said: "I believe I do, sir. I am a minister of the gospel. The company I represent was founded some 1,900 years ago. And I am happy to say that it is still flourishing." His announcement was greeted with applause, for none of those present was inclined to contradict him. He did, indeed, represent "the oldest company" in the community. It was 19 centuries ago that the Founder of this "company" had said: "Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it" (Matthew 16:18). How true the intervening centuries have proved His startling prediction to be! On every continent and on the islands of the seven seas, from East to West, from North to South, the company of Christ's redeemed have carried the message of salvation. It was that "company" that the youn g minister represented-indeed, the oldest, grandest, and the largest to be represented at the meeting, a "company" that you can belong to by simple faith in Christ the Savior. We are "fellow" citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Cornerstone (Ephesians 2:19-20).

Did you ever raise a radish? You put a small black seed into the black soil, and in a little while you return to the garden and find the full grown radish. The top is green, the body white and almost transparent, and the skin a delicate red or pink. What mysterious power reaches out and gathers from the ground the particles which give it form and size and flavor? Whose is the invisible brush that transfers to the root, growing in darkness, the hues of the summer sunset? If we were to refuse to eat anything until we could understand the mystery of its creation, we would die of starvation-but mystery, it seems, never bothers us in the dining room; it is only in the church that it causes us to hesitate.

There is a tendency to "spread out" and leave vacant pews in the front of the auditorium. I have come to the conclusion that you will never be motivated to sit toward the front until you convince yourself of the value of doing so. Here are some of the reasons for sitting up front that you might consider. Because it is considerate of other people. People who come in late, especially visitors, want to be seated as quickly as possible. If they have to walk to the front of the auditorium to find a seat it is quite embarrassing. There are fewer distractions during worship. By sitting toward the front, I avoid a lot of distractions that disrupt my concentration during worship. I do not see the latecomers filing in, nor the darling baby perched on mother's shoulder. My mind is clear to marvel at the cross of Christ during the Lord's Supper and to sing with "understanding!" The singing is more enjoyable. Sitting up front means that all the voices are pointed in your direction. You are surrounded by the sound of harmonious voices singing praise to God. I am stirred to sing more enthusiastically myself. The preaching is better. I am serious. You miss a lot in the back of the auditorium. The expression on the face of the speaker (and the song leader) adds depth to the message being communicated. I feel more a part of the message, as if the speaker were talking directly to me. It makes a positive statement about my interest and involvement in what is happening. Question: When you buy a ticket to a concert, theater or a sporting event, do you ask for the seat farthest away? When visitors see rows of empty pews at the front, what impression does that make on them as to our involvement in worship and our excitement about the Lord?

Don't visit: worship. Don't hurry away: speak and be spoken to. Don't dodge the preacher: show yourself friendly. Don't dodge the collection plate: contribute what you are able. Don't sit in the end of the pew: move over. Don't stare blankly while others sing: join in. Don't wait for an introduction: introduce yourself. Don't criticize: remember your own frailties. Don't monopolize your hymn book: be neighborly. Don't stay away from church because you have company: bring them with you. Don't stay away from church because the church is not perfect: how lonely you would feel in a perfect church. Is the Church Costing Too Much? On June 2, 1940, a little girl was born. She cost money from the moment she was born. As she grew from babyhood to girlhood, she cost even more. Her dresses and shoes were more expensive as well as the doctor through all those childhood diseases. She was even more expensive during her school and teen years. She needed long dresses to go to parties. When she went to college, it was discovered that all college expenses are not listed in the catalog. Then after graduation she fell in love and married. She had a church wedding, and that, too, cost a lot of money. Then, five months after her marriage she suddenly sickened and within a week she was dead. She has not cost a penny since the day the parents walked away from her grave. As long as the church is alive she will cost money, and the more alive a church is, the more money she will cost. Only a dead church, like a dead child, is no longer expensive!

A traveler stopped in a small town and asked of the people, "What is this place noted for?" The reply from the people was, "This is a very important place. It is the starting place for any place you want to go. You can start from here and go anywhere you wish." What is so important about this church? Your home? Your class? You can start from there and go any place you wish to be. You can go to the town of forgiveness, the mountain of faith, the island of eternity, the community of friendliness. The church is important because you can start there and go anywhere you wish.

The church was bowed in grief this week to learn that one of our most valuable members, Someone Else, passed away. This death creates a vacancy that will be difficult to fill. Someone Else has been with us for many years. During all these years, he did far more than a normal person's share of the work. Whenever leadership was mentioned, this wonderful person was looked to for inspiration as well as results. Whenever there was a job to do, a class to teach, or a meeting to attend-one name was on everyone's list: "Let Someone Else do it." Someone Else was also among the largest givers of the church. Whenever there was a financial need, everyone just assumed that Someone Else would make up the difference. This beloved church member was a wonderful person, sometimes appearing superhuman; but a person can only do so much. Everyone expected too much of Someone Else. Now Someone Else is gone. Who will pitch in to do the things that Someone Else has done? If you are asked to take a job in church, we hope you won't reply, "Let Someone Else do it." Now we need you to pick up where Someone Else left off.

For more than a year a little old charwoman who lived on the wrong side of the tracks had been trying to join a fashionable downtown church. The preacher was not eager to have a seedy looking person in faded, out-of-style clothes sitting in a pew next to his rich members. When she called for the fifth time to discuss membership, he put her off for the fifth time. "I tell you what," said he unctuously, "you just go home tonight and have a talk with God about it. Later you can tell me what He said." The poor woman went on her way. Weeks moved into months, and the preacher saw no more of her, and his conscience did hurt a little. Then one day he encountered her scrubbing floors in an office building, and felt impelled to inquire, "Did you have your little talk with God, Mrs. Washington?" he asked. "Oh, my, yes," she said, "I talked with God, as you said." "Ah, and what answer did He give you? "Well, preacher," she said, pushing back a wisp of stringy hair with a sudsy hand, "God said for me not to get discouraged, but to keep trying. He said that He himself had been trying to get into your church for 20 years, with no more success than I have had."

He was only a boy of four, so there was nothing unusual about the fact that he did not like soap and water. One day his mother, endeavoring to reason with him, said, "But surely you want to be clean, don't you?" "Yes," the boy replied through his tears, "but can't you just dust me off?" This is amusing when coming from a boy of four, but pathetic when grownups are content with a once-a-week spiritual dusting. (And some only let the duster be applied a few times a year.) The inner filth goes undisturbed in their lives and they seem content to have it so.

Someone once called a preacher to say he wanted to place church membership. But, he went on to explain that he did not want to worship every week, study the Bible, visit the sick, or serve as a leader or teacher. The minister commended him for his desire to be a member, but told him the church he sought was located in another section of town. The man took the directions and hung up. When he arrived at that address, the man came face to face with the logical result of his own apathetic attitude. There stood an abandoned church building boarded up and ready for demolition. The Church Is a Trading Post During the century of westward migration in America, the trading post was a familiar landmark in every frontier town. To the trading post came the hunters, trappers, miners, and homesteaders with such things as furs and gold, and these they traded for things they needed more-food, tools, weapons, clothing. In a very real way, the church is a kind of trading post. Here some things may be put down and left, and others may be picked up and taken. We may bring our cares and fears, our sins and guilt, and we may take forgiveness, joy and peace. Can a Person Be a Christian Without Joining the Church? Yes, but it is like a soldier without an army; a student who will not attend school, a salesman without a customer, a sailor without a ship, a bee without a hive, an author without a reader, or a baseball player without a team. These situations might exist, but they would not be very satisfactory.

I am your church. Make of me what you will, I shall reflect you as clearly as a mirror. If outwardly my appearance is pleasing and inviting, it is because you made me so. If within my spiritual atmosphere is kindly, yet earnest; reverent, yet friendly; worshipful, yet sincere; sympathetic, yet strong; divine, yet humanly expressed; it is but the manifestation of the spirit of those who constitute my membership. But if you should, by chance, find me a bit cold and dull, I beg of you not to condemn me, for I show forth the only kind of life I shall receive from you. I have no life or spirit apart from you. Of this may you always be assured: I will respond instantly to your every wish practically expressed, for I am the reflected image of your own soul. Make of me what you will. A Shining Light In the Alps in Switzerland nestles an obscure village, with a castle and a church of rough, hewn stone, reached by worn steps up the mountainside. The peculiar thing about this church is that it has not a lighting system nor has ever had one. A traveler there heard a church bell ringing and saw folks coming out of the narrow streets, each bearing a quaint little bronze lamp filled with oil and having a wick. She approached a worshiper and said, "Please, I am a stranger here, will you tell me why you carry a lamp to church?" The woman replied, "Why, yes, I would be happy to. Years ago a duke lived in that castle. He built the church, endowed it, and asked that each worshiper bring his own lamp." The traveler replied, "I should think that would keep folks from attending the evening services." "Oh, no, it works just the other way. It is called The Church of the Lighted Lamps. Everybody that goes makes it a little brighter and when anybody is tempted to stay at home or go somewhere else, he just remembers that the dear old church needs everybody's lamp, and if your lamp isn't there, there is so much less light." Not Good If Detached Did you ever notice on a railroad ticket, or on many coupons of various nature, "Not good if detached?" The coupon was made of the same material as the rest of the ticket, was printed with the same ink, on the same press, and was kept in the same office and used by the same company. But it was not good if detached. Its usefulness, its ability to take you places, was dependent upon its relation to the rest of the ticket. Of how much worth is a church member detached from the rest? How much fruit can a branch bear detached from the vine? How good is your hand when it is detached from your body? A Christian is one who stays with the rest of the church. He cannot serve apart from it. You may be a foot, a hand, or an eye of the body of Christ, but you are not worth much to yourself or to anyone else separated from the church, which is His body. Did you ever notice just how quickly a banana gets skinned after it leaves the bunch? So remember: "Forsaking not the assembling of yourselves together...." (Hebrews 10:25).

There is an incipient danger in thinking, since there are so many belonging to the Church, "Why not let George do it?" An eastern story tells of four brothers who decided to have a feast. As wine was rather expensive, they agreed that each one should bring an equal quantity and add it to the common stock. One of the brothers thought he might escape making his contribution by bringing water instead of wine. "It won't be noticed in the common wine jar," he reasoned. But when, at the feast, the wine was poured out, it turned out not to be wine at all but plain water. All four brothers had thought alike. Each one had said, "Let the other do it." The Wolves and the Dogs Have you heard the fable of the wolves and the dogs? It seems the wolves were afraid of the dogs for they were many and strong, so they sent out a spy to observe them. On his return the scout said, "It is true the dogs are many, but there are not many who can harm us. There are dogs of so many kinds one can hardly count them, and, as they came marching on, I observed that they were all snapping right and left at one another. I could see clearly, though they all hate us wolves, each dog hates every other dog with all his heart." How we need to take to heart the words of Paul to the Galatians: "For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" (Galatians 5:14-15). The Church Where God Wasn't Welcome There was a dear black saint of God who happened to enter a fashionable church. After the service he approached the preacher and told him that he wanted very much to join the church. The pastor knew that his consent to such a request would certainly not meet with the approval of the official board of the church and of the congregation. At the same time he did not want to appear cruel and harsh. So he said to this man, "John, go home and pray for two weeks for the Lord to guide you definitely whether He wants you to join this church." Accordingly, humble John took the advice and went home. When the two weeks were up, he came again to the church, and after the service the preacher said to him, "John, what was the guidance of God?" "Sir," John replied, "God told me that He has been trying to get in here for the past fifteen years and He hasn't succeeded, so I had better give up trying where God cannot find entrance."

A flourishing church was once reduced to complete ineffectuality. Sunday school had customarily been held in the afternoon. But the pastor and others in the church wanted to change it to the morning hour. They knew that the Sunday school superintendent was strongly opposed to this. Rather than face the matter openly with him, they met in secret and voted to change the hour. When he learned of it, his feelings were deeply hurt. Angry words were exchanged. People in the church began to take sides, and soon a sizable faction moved out. Bitterness quenched the work of the Spirit, and what was once a deeply spiritual and soul-winning church became a poorly attended one. Lacking support, the edifice itself became shabby and unattractive, reflecting outwardly the destructive result of jealousy that led to strife and divisions. The Decaying Church The building is not really the Church. God's people are. Yet the Church today spends more money for buildings than for anything else. When an artist was asked to paint a picture of a decaying church, to everyone's astonishment, instead of putting on canvas an old, tottering ruin, the artist painted a stately edifice of modern grandeur. Through the open portals could be seen the richly carved pulpit, the magnificent organ, and the beautiful stained glass windows. To one side was an elaborately designed offering plate for foreign missions -covered by a cobweb!

An old deacon was once asked about the state of his church. He replied, "We are in sad straits; the church is slipping back, getting worse all the time; but, thank the Lord, none of the other churches in our neighborhood is doing any better."

An officer on the battlefield aimed his cannon toward what he thought was the distant enemy. Just before he fired, the commander, looking through his field glasses, shouted, "Your aim seems perfect, but stop! They are not the enemy; they are our own people." Did you ever think that when you aim criticism at God's people so thoughtlessly, you are actually aiming your cannon at the Lord of your brethren?

There is a little story that has gone the round of the American press that made a great impression upon me as a father. A father took his little child out into the field one Sabbath, and, it being a hot day, he lay down under a beautiful shady tree. The little child ran about gathering wild flowers and little blades of grass, and coming to its father and saying, "Pretty! pretty!" At last the father fell asleep, and while he was sleeping the little child wandered away. When he awoke, his first thought was, "Where is my child?" He looked all around, but he could not see him. He shouted at the top of his voice, but all he heard was the echo of his own voice. Running to a little hill, he looked around and shouted again. No response! Then going to a precipice at some distance, he looked down, and there, upon the rocks and briars, he saw the mangled form of his loved child. He rushed to the spot, took up the lifeless corpse, and hugged it to his bosom, and accused himself of being the murderer of his child. While he was sleeping his child had wandered over the precipice. I thought as I heard that, what a picture of the church of God!

How many fathers and mothers, how many Christian men, are sleeping now while their children wander over the terrible precipice right into the bottomless pit. Father, where is your boy to-night?

"Wicked men may supply the needs of an office, as Ffudas for a while did duty as an apostle. A wooden leg may be a stay to the body, though it be not a true member." Quaint, but true. It is to be feared that our churches have many wooden legs, in the form of lifeless ministers, graceless deacons, and unregenerate elders. The body may move with these, but her walk must be limping, painful, slow, and ungainly. As for the wooden limb itself, its end is to be burned. It will be a fearful thing to turn out to be a dead member of a living body—a false arm, or a glass eye. Such shams can never be part of the body of Christ. O for living, loving, lasting union with the living Head!

During a revival in the central part of New York, a little boy was converted, who desired to join the Church. His father told him he had better wait six months, and see if he could live his religion first. Shortly after, he was in the field with his father, and found a lamb, separated from its dam, bleating piteously. The father directed the son to put the lamb with its mother. The boy replied, "I think we might as well leave it six months, and see whether it will live or not; and then, if it lived, we could put it with its mother." Feeling the force of the application, the father said, "Put the lamb with its mother, and join the Church if you wish to."

When Napoleon I invaded Egypt, he encountered a force ensconced in a mud-fort that effectually defied all his efforts to reduce it. If it had been built of rock, he could have blown it up with powder, or shivered it with artillery; if it had been wood, he could have fired it with rockets; but it was a huge mass of mud, in which his iron missiles stuck fast, and rather increased than diminished its powers of resistance. He therefore left the place in despair, and turned his attention to more practical operations. Now, what this mud-fort was to the Egyptian soldiery, a cold, dead Church is to the world of ungodly men. They are effectually protected behind this mass of carnality, and utterly defy all the moral artillery of the gospel. The heavenly missiles stick fast in this intervening obstacle, and never reach their mark. Christian Index.

The Church was built to disturb the peace of man; but, often, it does not perform its duty for fear of disturbing the peace of the Church. What kind of artillery practice would that be which declined to fire for fear of kicking over the gun-carriages, or waking up the sentinels asleep at their posts? Beecher.

The King of Navarre, who was a Roman Catholic, and bitter in his opposition to the Protestant cause, had been speaking of its downfall, and how it would be brought about. A celebrated Protestant replied, "Sir, it assuredly behooves the Church of God, in whose name I speak, to endure blows, and not to strike them; but may it please you also to remember that it is an anvil that has worn out many hammers!"

Dr. Adam Clark was preaching to a large congregation in Ireland; and after dwelling in glowing terms upon the freeness of the gospel, and telling that the water of life could be had "without money, and without price," at the conclusion of the sermon, a person announced that a collection would be made to support the gospel in foreign parts. This announcement disconcerted the preacher, who afterwards related the circumstance to the lady of the house where he was staying. "Very true, Doctor," replied the hostess: "the water of life is free,— 'without money, and without price;' but we must pay for pitchers to carry it in."

Gifts to the. The gifts of poverty are the richest gifts to the churches. I refer not now to the widows' mites, richer though they be than all the gifts of wealth, but to the gifts richer even than the widow's mite. A few years ago, on a wintry morning, a boy in the habiliments of poverty entered an old schoolhouse among our Western mountains, and avowed to the master his desire for an education. There was poverty laying one of her richest gifts on the altar of religion; for that boy was Jonas King. On his humble shoemaker's bench, Carey laid the foundation of British Baptist Missions. John Newton found in his congregation an unfriended Scotch boy, whose soul was then glowing with new-born love to Christ; he took him to see John Thornton, one of those noble merchants whose wealth, whose piety, and whose beneficence, increase together. They educated him; and that boy became Claudius Buchanan, whose name India will bless when the names of Clive and Hastings are forgotten. John Bunyan was a gift of poverty to the Church. Zwingle came forth from an Alpine shepherd's cabin; Luther from a miner's cottage; the apostles, some of them, from fishermen's huts. These are the gifts of poverty to the Church. Dr. J. Harris.

Many men seem to think that religion consists of buying a ticket at the little ticket-office of conversion. They conclude that they will make the voyage to heaven. They understand that a man must be convicted and converted, and join the Church; and, when they have done that, they think they have a ticket, which, under ordinary circumstances, will carry them through. Their salvation is not altogether sure. A man may be cast away upon a voyage. But still they say, "I have got my ticket, and, if no accident occur, it will carry me to my destination safely; and all I have to do is to have patience and faith." And they are like a man that is riding in the cars, who, every time the conductor comes around, shows his ticket. They say, "I was awakened, I saw that I was a sinner, and trusted my soul in the hands of Christ." Yes: you have trusted it there, and there you have left it ever since you thought you were converted. Are there not hundreds and thousands who are living in just the same way? Beecher.

As the windows of the temple were large within, but narrow without, so they which are within the church have greater light than they which are without. They sit like Pharaoh in the darkness of Egypt, when the others dwell like Israel in the light of Goshen. Henry Smith.