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6 Sermon Illustrations on Discipleship

6 illustrations

Discipleship in Christian preaching emphasizes following Christ not just in belief but in active mentorship and spiritual reproduction (Matthew 28:19-20). Illustrations often contrast mere activity or success with genuine spiritual growth, using images like harvests and restoration to highlight the transformative journey of making disciples.

Success Can Be Failure

Physical restoration is insufficient without spiritual guidance and discipleship.

A rehabilitation counselor took early retirement to spend the rest of his life preaching the gospel. Early in his career he found a young boy with several birth defects. He arranged financial and medical help. Skilled surgeons restored the child's facial appearance. Trained therapists taught him to speak and walk. By his teens, the boy was able to take part in all the activities of other young people. "What do you think has become of this young man?" the counselor asked. One guessed he was a great athlete; another, a skilled surgeon. "No, none of these," the retired counselor said sadly. "The young man is a prisoner, serving a life sentence for murder. We were able to restore his physical features and his ability to walk and act, but we failed to teach him where to walk and how to act. I was successful in helping the boy physically, but I failed to help him spiritually."

Think About It

True discipleship involves reproducing believers, not just working hard in the church.

Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny. A Generation of Mules "The church today is raising a whole generation of mules. They know how to sweat and to work hard but they don't know how to reproduce themselves." It's not known who said that, but it is a statement of incredible insight. Mules are hard workers. They have carried supplies, plowed fields, pulled wagons and transported people. The only problem is that they are almost always sterile and thus cannot reproduce. They are hard workers, but they are the end of the line. They do not produce more like themselves. The church is full of hard workers. They teach classes, serve the physical needs of others, clean up and mow the grass, cook, move tables, organize social activities, visit and even write letters and cards, and do a host of other things. There is just one problem. They don't "reproduce." They don't teach the gospel to the lost so others can become hard workers. They are the end of the line. The real job the Lord gave us is to go into the world and "reproduce ourselves" by making disciples of others (Matthew 28:18-20). It is a tough lesson to realize that you may have worked hard and yet still haven't gotten the job done. Let us say it plainly. If we are not evangelizing, we are not doing the job completely. If we are nothing more than a generation of mules, we are on the road to extinction. Hup, Mule! Gee-Haw!!! Who Leads Whom? A worldly kind of person came to the preacher, defending her practice of attending worldly entertainments. She said, "But, pastor, I can take Jesus Christ with me wherever I go." The pastor after a few moments of thought quietly replied, "Indeed, is that so? I didn't know that was the order of the Bible. Is it for you to lead Jesus to where you want to go or for Him to lead you where He wants you to be?"

Harvest Time

A prisoner contrasts sewing with reaping, illustrating spiritual harvest in prison ministry.

The youth minister was passing through the prison garment factory. "Sewing?" he said to a prisoner who was at work. "No, preacher," replied the prisoner gloomily, "reaping!"

Converts, Duty of

New converts must actively engage in spiritual battle as soldiers of Christ from the start.

Before the capture of Richmond, and at other times during the war, officers entered the meetings where penitents were seeking Christ, and gave the order, "Fall in for the front!" Duty begins at the altar; and the convert must enter the conflict as the soldier prepares for battle.

Converts, Responsibility for

The church and pastors share responsibility to nurture and protect new converts from falling away.

The responsibility of preserving the convert in his new faith and experience is not less, but greater, than that of laboring for the salvation of sinners. The converts of the early Church were called Catechumens, and for the strengthening and development of these the pastor's labors were mainly spent. The legend of the young man left in care of a bishop at Ephesus, and who, by his neglect, apostatized, illustrates this. St. John's rebuke, "Alas, alas! to what a guardian have I trusted our brother!" has too frequent an application to the pastors of the churches. Too many have been lost to the Church and to God through inattention. "Where are your converts?" is sometimes asked with a wicked disregard of personal responsibility for them. A direct effort to destroy them could hardly be more effectual. The shepherd gathers and carries the lambs in his arms, and presses them to his bosom. So should the shepherd of souls. The question which God put to Cain, "Where is thy brother?" will be a fearful one when presented to the negligent pastor in the great day of inquisition. The Church shares this responsibility with the pastor. Both must work together to conserve her members. The Church is the great family; converts are given her, as children to their parents. These babes in Christ must be appropriately cared for. They are not to be left to starve or chill and die under neglect. Converts leave their old companions and pleasures in sin, and must find others in the Church. The Church must be a kind, sympathizing, devoted, and faithful parent to all her children. She, as well as the Christian parent, should be able to present herself before the Judge of all in the reckoning day, saying, "Here am I and the children thou hast given me. Not one of them is lost."

Teaching, Adapted

Teaching should be made interesting to engage learners effectively.

A little girl was asked whether she would visit Aunt Mary or Aunt Jane. She chose to visit Aunt Jane, "because she made lots of ginger-snaps, and kept them on the lower shelf." So the lesson should be made interesting to the scholar.

from New Cyclopaedia of Prose Illustrations · Elon Foster

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