Haddon Robinson, the former preaching guru, said an illustration can either be like a beautiful lamp or a streetlight. When you walk into someone’s expensive den and notice an ornate lamp, you compliment its beauty to the owners. But if you are walking down a city sidewalk at night, the streetlights provide you visibility but you hardly notice them. A sermon illustration should be like a streetlight. It throws light on the subject you are preaching but doesn’t unnecessarily draw attention to the illustration. The illustration is always a handmaiden to explanation. The illustration should not be the centerpiece of the sermon. Our people should not leave the service saying, “Wow, what an illustration!” They should exit contemplating the text and how they can “be doers of the Word and not hearers only.”
We do not want skyscraper sermons: story on top of story, on top of story, on top of story, ad infinitum.
Haddon Robinson also said, “Poor communicators are always saying, ‘In other words.’ Excellent communicators are always saying, ‘For example.’” You are preaching, and you notice your audience is not getting it, and you say, “In other words,” and explain some more. And they still don’t get it. But if, after observing their blank looks, you say, “For example,” and provide a concrete example, most likely your listeners' countenance will improve. Paul followed this pattern. In Romans 3, Paul writes some heavy theology about justification by grace through faith and not by the works of the law. In Romans 4, he fleshes out these truths in the concrete example of Abraham. In Romans 3, you have Paul's explanation, and in Romans 4, his illustration.
According to a lecture by Stephen Olford, there are three reasons why preachers lack good illustrations.
1. Lack of Imagination
You must think like a preacher to be able to use good illustrations. What do preachers think? Preachers are always looking for good illustrations. One of the great sermon illustrators was Donald Grey Barnhouse, who said, “All of life is an illustration of Christian doctrine.” Barnhouse saw illustrations everywhere. For example (Did you catch that? I did not say “In other words,” but I said, “For example.”): When Barnhouse was driving his young sons to their mother's funeral, they had to stop at an intersection. As they waited, a delivery trunk slowly lumbered through the intersection, and its shadow slowly passed over their car. Barnhouse asked his sons, “Boys, would you rather be hit by that trunk or its shadow?” They answered, “Daddy, we would rather be hit by its shadow.” Barnhouse then seized his teaching moment, “Boys, that is exactly what we have experienced with your mother's passing. Because Christ removed the sting of death for believers in his death and resurrection, we walk through the valley of the shadow of death today. Your mother is with Jesus and we will see her again.” Donald Grey Barnhouse saw illustrations of doctrine in all of life.
There are three places where we should be looking for illustrations.
1) In our imagination. Nathan the prophet made up a hypothetical illustration when preaching to King David in 2 Samuel 12:1-4. David was guilty of adultery with another man’s wife. Nathan told his king a fictional story of the rich farmer with many flocks of sheep who stole the one loved ewe [female] lamb of the poor farmer. Nathan then applied that story to David who, even though he possessed his royal harem, stole Uriah’s wife. Jesus’ parables were fictional examples he created to teach spiritual lessons, i.e., The Prodigal Son and the Good Samaritan.
For example, I sometimes use the following hypothetical illustration when preaching on spiritual gifts. Imagine that seven of you go to LongHorn Steak House for lunch after the Sunday morning service. Each of you has one of the seven spiritual gifts operative today as listed in Romans 12:6-8: The spiritual gift of comfort or mercy, service or helps, leadership, teaching, exhortation, preaching, and giving. The waitress gets your order and returns with a huge tray of food. But she trips over a chair leg and dumps all the food and drinks. Food splatters and glasses shatter. Each Christian responds according to his/her spiritual gift. The believer with the gift of mercy or compassion runs to the waitress, takes her by the hand, and whispers, “Are you okay? That must be very painful.” The Christian with the gift of service or helps doesn’t say a word, she starts cleaning up the mess. The believer with the gift of leadership commands, “You other waitresses bring some brooms and mops, and let’s get this mess cleaned up.” Next, the teacher starts instructing the waitress, “Next time you come out of the kitchen, if you come from this other direction, you will have more room and you won’t have this problem.” The believer with the gift of exhortation next counsels the waitress, “Everybody fails. Just learn from your failure.” The preacher, which is one of the sterner gifts, says to the waitress, “Young lady, you need to be more careful. You are fortunate that nobody was hurt.” Finally, the believer with the gift of giving slips some money to the waitress and says, “Here take this, I am sure management is going to take this out of your pay.” In addition to finding illustrations in our imagination, we can locate illustrations in our personal experiences.
2) In our personal experiences. Personal illustrations were used by the Apostle Paul as in Acts 14:27. This is the account of when Paul returned to his sending church to report concerning his first tour of missionary service. Paul sets an excellent example of how to tell a personal story. He is not the hero of his story, God is: "When they were come and had gathered the church together, they rehearse all that God had done with them, and how He had opened the door of faith unto the Gentiles." In addition to finding illustrations in our imagination and personal experiences, we can locate illustrations from our reading.
3) In our reading. Again Paul is our mentor. Paul used examples from his secular reading in Acts 17:28 when he quoted Greek poets. Preachers should not only study deeply but also read broadly. Read Spurgeon's sermons and note the multiple sources of illustrations and examples, including mythology. John Piper noted that Spurgeon read six substantial books a week. See Piper’s Charles H. Spurgeon: Preaching through Adversity (click to open). Not only do we lack illustrations because of a lack of imagination but also because we fail to file good illustrations when we find them.
2. Failure to find and file good illustrations
“The weakest ink is better than the strongest mind. Write down illustrations,” said another great illustrating preacher, Adrian Rogers. “Illustrations, like babies, have a habit of being born at awkward times” (Preaching with Freshness, 166). That is why it is good to have pen and paper, or a recorder (smartphone), nearby at all times so that when the illustration comes, you can record it. Most preachers have experienced thinking of a great sermon idea or illustration in the middle of the night, only in the morning not being able to remember it.
Once you have discovered a good illustration file it textually or topically. To file the illustration textually means you create file (electronic or non-electronic) folders beginning with Genesis through Revelation. If you are just starting, make 66 folders, one for each book of the Bible and as you preach through a book create a new folder for each chapter or paragraph you preach. To file topically means you create a filing system alphabetically from A to Z. Sometimes you will hear or come across an illustration that you don’t know which text it can illuminate, so you file it topically. You could start with a file on “Adoption” or “Abortion,” etc. Dr. Billy Martin called these folders sermon gardens where he was always growing sermons.
I had a homiletic teacher who once told our class that he would sell his soul for a good illustration. He was exaggerating. I once told a preacher I would pay him $10 for one of the illustrations he had just told in a sermon. He gave it to me for free, but I would have paid him.
3. Unable to tell a story
“There is nothing you can do that will help you communicate more than collect illustrations. Collecting illustrations will help you to think in terms of pictures and to preach in terms of pictures. Practice on your family at mealtime” (Haddon Robinson). If you have small children, you know how much they love a good story. We older kids love them, too.
According to Haddon Robinson, two kinds of illustrations will help you preach and communicate God’s Word.
1) The specific instance. The specific instance is a short one or two-line illustration given to help with your explanation. Alexander McClaren (click to open) was a master with the specific instance.
"If God sends us on stony paths, He will provide us with strong shoes." ~ Alexander MacLaren
"As the flowers follow the sun, and silently hold up their petals to be tinted and enlarged by its shining, so must we, if we would know the joy of God, hold our souls, wills, hearts, and minds, still before Him. God speaks for the most part in such silence only. If the soul be full of tumult and jangling voices, His voice is little likely to be heard." ~ Alexander MacLaren
"The apostolic church thought more about the Second Coming of Jesus Christ than about death and heaven. The early Christians were looking, not for a cleft in the ground called a grave but for a cleavage in the sky called Glory." ~ Alexander MacLaren
2) The longer story illustration is the second rhetorical process.
Here are examples of the two kinds of illustrations in a sermon outline.
I. We cannot defeat giants by running from them (1 Samuel 17:1-11)
A. Giant problems can be intimidating (17:1-7)
1. Explanation: Goliath dressed to intimidate.
Specific instance: “The weight of the spear’s head weighted more than an official shot put” (James Rose). This one-line concrete example helps explain how Goliath was dressed to frighten away his opponents.
2. Illustration: Story illustration of the believer who spent his whole life running from problems at work, church, and marriage.
3. Application: “In the same manner” or “So must we” transition to the application.
How to improve your storytelling skills
God was not only a poet (see Old Testament Poetic books) but also a storyteller (see narratives throughout Scripture). How can I better tell the stories of Scripture and illustrations?
1. General preparation
a. Read good secular storytellers like Paul Harvey, John Maxwell, and Steve Jobs (click to open).
b. Read and listen to storytelling preachers like Barnhouse, Swindoll, and Stephen Davey.
c. Practice telling stories to your family and friends.
2. Specific preparation
a. Relive the story.
Know the story so thoroughly that when you tell the story you are reliving it. This will take time not just to memorize all the details of the story, but to meditate so that you become the character in the narrative. Thinking in terms of 1st person rather than 3rd person will help in preparing to tell or preach a story. Nehemiah told him memoirs in the first person.
b. Use sensory appealing language as Jesus did in His parables.
Read Jesus' true story of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16:19-25 and pick out the words that appeal to your sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. You can see the rich man’s expensive, purple garment, smell the puss oozing out of Lazarus’ sores, feel the dogs licking that puss away, and hear the rich man begging Abraham for one drop of water as he suffers in the flames of hell. Once you are almost through preparing your sermon, hold it in your hand and ask yourself, "What is in this sermon that I can taste, smell, see, hear, touch, or feel?"
c. Contemporize the story.
Charles Swindoll’s attention step for 1 Samuel 17 puts this ancient story in the 21st century: “Goliath reminds me of the cross-eyed discus thrower. He didn’t set any records . . . but he sure kept the crowd awake” (Killing Giants, Pulling Thorns, 13).
Billy Sunday was masterful at picking up the language and sayings of the people in the cities where he was conducting his evangelistic campaigns and using them in his sermons to better identify with the people. Here is a Billy Sunday example:
Once in a community of lumbermen, Billy Sunday noticed how they would go deep into the forest to cut wood and sprinkle sawdust along the way to find their way back. At the end of the workday, the foreman would holler, “Let’s hit the sawdust trail and go back home.” In the next service under the large Billy Sunday Tabernacle, which had sawdust as a covering for the floor, Sunday, in his invitation, exhorted wicked lumbermen to “Hit the sawdust trail” and make their way back to God. From then on, Sunday employed the phrase in his meetings and saw many come to Christ.
It would be an excellent compliment to have others say about our preaching what the enemies of Christ said about Him: "Never man spoke like this man" (John 7:46).
In chapter seven of Power in the Pulpit, Jerry Vines and Jim Shaddix have some great insights on illustrating. Here is some wise advice from Vines and Shaddix:
“Be careful not to refer to family members too frequently, as that can be annoying.”
I must fight not talking about our first grandchild in almost every sermon. The other Sunday, I jokingly said, “Have you heard about our new granddaughter?” They laughed. Then, one of our members said, “Not in a while.” I was glad they did not think I was talking too much about Emery in my sermons. Call me, and I will text you some cute stories about her.
One more suggestion from these veteran preachers. “Do not violate confidence by taking matters told to you in private and using them as the basis of a sermon illustration. This mistake can be very painful to the one whose confidence is broken.” A pastor friend of mine did this in a sermon, not in his church, and when word got back to the couple about whom he referenced, they left the church hurt that he had used them as an example without their permission.