In Sermon Illustrations: "Revelation 1:1-12:30"

Suburban Outreach

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jun 10, 2010

SUBURBAN OUTREACH Calvin Miller teaches in Birmingham, Alabama, at the Beeson Divinity School. He recently wrote a provocative article entitled, "Rethinking Suburban Evangelism," on the challenge taking the gospel to people who sense no need: "Suburbia: the push-button Zion of those who have made ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 3:14-22

Tags: Evangelism How To

How God Protected David Brainerd During ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Sep 30, 2010

How God Protected David Brainerd During Missionary Work American history tells of missionary saints who interceded for those of this land too. In answer to the question, "What can be done to revive the work of God where it has decayed?" John Wesley once said, "Let every preacher read carefully ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 5:6-10

Tags: Missions

Radical Faith  PRO

Contributed by Ken Pell on Jan 24, 2011

RADICAL FAITH I want to read to you the opening story from David Platt's book "The Radical Question" (Multnomah Press). Imagine a scene that took place in Asia not so long ago: A room in an ordinary house, dimly lit, all the blinds on the windows closed. Twenty leaders from churches in the ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 12:10-17

Tags: Persecution, Better Together

Denomination: Nazarene

The Relationship Is What Counts  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 24, 2011

THE RELATIONSHIP IS WHAT COUNTS Wayne Cordeiro, a preacher in Honolulu, HI writes: Some time ago some wonderful people in our church gave Anna, my wife, and me a dinner certificate to a nice restaurant for $100. We thought, Wow, a hundred bucks. Let's go for it. We found a free evening. We ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 2:1-7

Tags: Basics Of Christianity

Be Found Doing Your Duty

Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 1, 2011

BE FOUND DOING YOUR DUTY The time was the 19th of May, 1780. The place was Hartford, Connecticut. The day has gone down in New England history as a terrible foretaste of Judgment Day. For at noon the skies turned from blue to gray and by mid-afternoon had blackened over so densely that, in that ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 2:8-11

Tags: Judgment

Zig Ziglar Said, "A Study Of Three Hundred ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Feb 1, 2011

Zig Ziglar said, "A study of three hundred world-class leaders, including Franklin D. Roosevelt, Sir Winston Churchill, Helen Keller, Mother Teresa, Dr. Albert Schweitzer, and Martin Luther King, Jr., revealed that 25 percent of them had serious physical disabilities and an additional 50 percent ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 2:8-11

Tags: Trials And Difficulties

Only One Opinion Counts

Contributed by Sermon Central on Mar 22, 2011

ONLY ONE OPINION COUNTS An umpire named Babe Pinelli once called Babe Ruth out on strikes. When the crowd booed with disapproval, the legendary Ruth turned to the umpire and said, "How could you call that a strike? There are 40,000 people here who are of the opinion that the last pitch was a ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 16:7

Tags: God's Judgment

Christians Still Persecuted

Contributed by Sermon Central on Mar 23, 2011

CHRISTIANS STILL PERSECUTED * Last year (July 2009), Catherina Cenzon-DeCarlo, a nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City was told that she would help a doctor perform an abortion or be fired. Even though the hospital knew it was against her Christian values. * In September of 2009 at Pace ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 6:9-11

Tags: Persecution

Why Don't They Let Him In?

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 20, 2011

WHY DON'T THEY LET HIM IN? A picture of the Lord Jesus knocking at the door of a heart was taken one day by a parish visitor to a house where a father and mother lived with their small son. Some impulse made the mother pin the picture up in their little kitchen, and when the small boy came in from ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 3:20

Tags: Commitment To Christ

The Church Without Outreach

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 26, 2011

THE CHURCH WITHOUT OUTREACH Fred Craddock tells the story of his first church. It was a beautiful little white church on a hill in Oak Ridge, Tenn. The church was beautifully maintained. The pews had been hand-hewn from giant poplar trees that had grown nearby. Little kerosene lamps on the walls ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 3:14-22

Tags: Church Purpose Of

A Dying Church  PRO

Contributed by Sermon Central on May 5, 2011

A DYING CHURCH An artist was once asked to put on canvas what he considered to be the picture best symbolizing a decaying and dying church. After several months, he returned and reported that he had finished the task. The hour finally arrived when the painting was to be unveiled. Several people ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 3:1-6

Tags: Church Growth

Prayer Of The Persecuted

Contributed by Alison Bucklin on Jun 25, 2011

PRAYER OF THE PERSECUTED Author Eugene Peterson says in Reversed Thunder, "While conflicts raged between good and evil, prayers went up from devout bands of 1st c. Christians all over the Roman empire. Massive engines of persecution and scorn were ranged against them. They had neither weapons ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 8:1-13

Tags: Warning, Prayer General

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Watered-Down Social Gospel

Contributed by Alison Bucklin on Jun 25, 2011

WATERED-DOWN SOCIAL GOSPEL Richard Niebuhr rightly challenged the liberal social gospel movement of watering down the offense of the cross with the scathing words, "A God without wrath brought me without sin into a ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 8:1-13

Tags: Judgment

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Child Slaves

Contributed by Alison Bucklin on Jul 2, 2011

CHILD SLAVES Over two hundred million children around the world, some as young as four and five years old, are slaves. A majority of the children work in Asia, especially in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Indonesia--slaving away to make goods for us to buy in K-Mart and Wal-Mart... "Child slave ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 18:9-13

Tags: Greed

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

King Rat

Contributed by Alison Bucklin on Jul 2, 2011

KING RAT James Clavell, King Rat: about a Japanese POW camp in which one prisoner, a pathetic loser before the war, who became the most powerful man in the camp by trading with the enemy and exploiting the misery of his fellows. He used to try to pressure the other prisoners to join him, calling ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 18:9-15

Tags: Apocalypse

Denomination: Presbyterian/Reformed

Knock, Knock... Who's ...

Contributed by Terry Laughlin on Aug 11, 2008

Knock, Knock... Who’s There? An excuse often given by those who refuse to receive the gospel of Christ is, “Later, I am not ready yet.” Nevertheless, Jesus says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with Me” ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 3:20

Tags: Salvation

Denomination: Evangelical/Non-Denominational

None Like To Jesus

Contributed by Sermon Central on Jan 5, 2009

NONE LIKE TO JESUS Charles Spurgeon said, "Climb ye up to heaven, and behold the snow-white host, glittering like the sun in spotless purity. I ask them whence came they? The reply is that they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. It is most true that Jesus saves ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 19:1-21

Tags: Atonement

Passion And ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Mar 17, 2009

PASSION AND PRODUCTION There were a group of people standing outside a very large and ornate cathedral in Europe and they were admiring the very fine craftsmanship, the detail work, the care and the love that seemed evident in building such a fine place to worship a loving God. One of the men ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 3:16

Tags: Conviction, Christian Values

Greeting The ...

Contributed by Sermon Central on Mar 17, 2009

GREETING THE QUEEN Greeting Queen Elizabeth II’s visit in 2007 was quite a chore and challenge to the Americans. "Do people wear pants, dresses or business attire to meet the queen?" was a common question guests fortunate to be invited to meet the queen asked. Dinner attire was white tie and ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 19:11-16

Tags: Second Coming

Getting Caught Asleep

Contributed by Sermon Central on Apr 8, 2009

GETTING CAUGHT ASLEEP Just in case your boss catches you asleep at your desk, be ready to blurt out one of these excuses: "They told me at the blood bank that this might happen." "This is just a 15-minute power nap like they raved about in that time management course you sent me to." "I was ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 3:1-3

Tags: Church General