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Sermon Illustrations: Sin

When Leonardo da Vinci was painting The Last Supper, he sought long for a model for Christ. At last he located a character in one of the churches of Rome who was lovely in life and features, a young man named Petro Bandinelli. Years passed and the painting was still not finished. All the disciples had been protrayed except Judas Iscariot. Now he went to find a man whose face was hardened and distorted by sin and at last he found a beggar on the streets of Rome with a face so villainous he shuddered when he looked at him. He hired the man to sit for him as he painted the face of Judas. When he was about to dismiss the man, he said, "I have not yet found out your name." "I am Petro Bandinelli", he replied. "I also sat for you as your model of Christ." The sinful life of years so disfigured the once fair face of the young man that it now looked as though it were the most villainous face in all Rome. Sin degrades. Sin debases.

Take a peach out of the frig for a few days and it begins to spoil. Put it back in the frig, and it doesn't stop decaying, it just slows down the process. "Religion is a refrigerator; it slows up corruption, but it doesn't stop it." Derek Prince

All you need to say when you are tempted is, "I am dead to that. It has no power to make me act against my will." Alli Llewellyn

Sometimes we can blame God for our sin. One Sunday morning, a cop in a small town saw a car swerving all over the road. When he pulled him over, he recognised an African American driver named Frank. "Frank, you're swerving all over the road." "I'm just trying to get to church, man." The cop saw a bottle on the seat beside the driver. "What's that on your seat, Frank?" "It's just water." "Give it to me." "That's not water. That's wine." Frank just looked up to heaven and said, "He done did it again."

Most of us think that we're fairly good. But it's a bit like a bunch of wart hogs standing around talking about who's the best looking. You'd say, "Hang on guys, it doesn't matter who you think is the best looking. You're all ugly. It doesn't matter how good we think we are compared with someone else. In God's sight we're all sinners.

No country in the world allows the keeping of some laws to balance out and pay for the breaking of other laws. In fact this idea could very well encourage people to break the law in 'moderate ways'. After all, if I go and break one law, I can just go and do something good and then there is no penalty to pay. No country in the world functions in this way, yet we are supposed to believe that a perfect and holy God does.1

Imagine you are speeding along - 30ks over. The police pull you up and begin to write out a ticket, when suddenly you cry out, "Hold on officer! I think you ought to know that I was tempted to rob a bank this morning and I didn't do it. And not only that, I helped a little old lady cross the road." "Well, I didn't know that. Why didn't you say so in the first place? Two good deeds, and only one bad deed. You're free to go." How likely is that? The policeman doesn't care how good you've been or which laws you've kept, he's still going to book you for the one you broke.

A little girl got saved and applied for membership to a church. "Were you a sinner?" "Yes." "Are you still a sinner?" "Yes." "Then what real changes have taken place in your life?" "The best way I can explain it is that I used to be a sinner running after sin, but now I'm a sinner running away from sin."

In Preston, England, the walls of a prison are being raised to stop people throwing tennis balls filled with drugs into the jail. Sunday Mail (Good Mail) 25th January, 2004, p55

Why don't you have to teach your children how to be naughty? Why is it that obedience has to be learned, but disobedience comes naturally? If you put a vase on the table and say, "Don't touch," what's the one thing your child wants to do? That's because we are born with a nature that wants to do evil.

If you've got an apple tree, nothing you do is going to make it produce avocados - you can't discipline it, reform it, pray for it - none of this works.

Nowhere is the powerlessness of laws seen more graphically than on the roads. Have you ever noticed how the majority of people on the roads do 70 in 60 zones, 80 in 70 zones, 90 in 80 zones, and anything but 100 in a 100 zone?

Jenny was with a group of teenagers at a party. "Let's go to a night club" someone suggested. Jenny said, "No, my parents wouldn't like that." One of the other girls said, "Afraid your father will hurt you?" "No," she replied. "I'm not afraid my father will hurt me. I'm afraid I might hurt him."

"Pastor, I want you to hold me accountable. I really need your help." Matt was the youth pastor. A part-timer, he was not in the building much on weekdays. He had made a point to come to the pastor's office that day. Russ at the big desk, looked at Matt sitting across from him. "I found the first pornographic site accidentally," Matt said. He hesitated. "I was looking for something else, and it was just - there. I was stunned by it and I turned the computer off right away, but - later," he confessed, "I went back." "More than once?" "Yes. Several times. But I felt really guilty about it. I've prayed about it. I told my wife. I asked her forgiveness. But I need someone who will help me control this urge to - to look." Russ fidgeted with the keyboard. "What do you want me to do?" "I need someone who'll look me in the eye sometimes and ask if I've kept myself pure." The two men prayed and Matt left. Russ knew he would never initiate the subject with Matt again. How could he? Like Matt's experience, his had started innocently…2

Promises can be hard to keep, especially when it comes to sex. U.S. teens who pledged to remain virgins until marriage had a bit of trouble keeping their word, according to a study of 12,000 adolescents by researchers at Columbia and Yale. In fact, 88% of them went ahead and had premarital sex anyway. What's more, those who made a vow of chastity were less likely to use condoms than other teens, contracted sexually transmitted diseases just as often and were less likely to know they were infected. It's difficult for teens to learn safe sex while saying they're not going to have sex, says study co-author Peter Bearman. Time 11th March, 2004, p67

Judas sinned, and instead of repenting to the person he sinned against, he repented to the person he sinned with. Mark T. Barclay

Jimmy Swaggart, when asked what happened, said he didn't stop praying but, "I lost track of Jesus". (He was only praying for what he wanted, instead of allowing God to deal with him.) As related by Mark T. Barclay CLCI Conference 25-3-04

Sin is not the expected norm for a Christian. The captain of a ship does not say, "When this ship sinks, this is what you do." He says, "In the event of an emergency."

Sin is like a credit card. You deal with it while it's small. There's no use leaving it till it's out of control.

I don't play in his (Satan's) playground. If I played in his playground, he'd eat my lunch. Paul Ruzinsky

Little sins count. Far more people die of mosquito bites than from mad dogs. Yet we guard against mad dogs, but not mosquitoes.

If a girl wiggles her hips at me, and I end up in bed with her, I can't say, "She seduced me." If I've truly dealt with lust, she can wiggle her hips at me all she wants, and I'll just think, "Whoa, she must have something wrong with her hips."

Sin and prayer: When Norman Vincent Peale was a boy, he found a large cigar and hurried off to a secluded spot to try it out. He didn't like it, but he felt grown up, at least till he saw his father coming. Hoping to distract his father, he pointed to a billboard advertising a circus. "Can I go?" he begged. "Can I go to the circus when it comes to town? Please, dad?" "Son," his father replied, "One of the first lessons you need to learn about life is this: never make a petition while at the same time trying to hide a smouldering disobedience behind your back."

In 1540, Luther's close friend, Frederick Myconius, became extremely ill. He had lost the ability to speak and death was imminent. He wrote Luther a farewell letter. Luther's response was, "I command you in the name of God to live because I still have need of you in the work of reforming the church… The Lord will never let me hear that you are dead, but will permit you to survive me. For this I am praying, this is my will, and may my will be done, because I seek only to glorify the name of God." Myconius completely recovered and outlived Luther by two months.

Have you ever heard of shark "tonic"? It isn't a serum that prevents shark attacks or a medicine given to sharks. The actual term is "Tonic immobility," described as "a natural state of paralysis that animals enter … Sharks can be placed in a tonic immobility state by turning them upside down. The shark remains in this state of paralysis for an average of 15 minutes before it recovers." Imagine, a dangerous shark can be made vulnerable simply by turning it upside-down. The state of tonic immobility makes the shark incapable of movement. Sin is like that. Our ability to honour our Lord, for which we are created in Christ, can be put into "tonic immobility" by the power and consequences of sin. Our Daily Bread 25th October, 2008

1 E.S. Coplestone Jesus Christ or Mohammed? p35
2 Reed, Eric Leadership - Winter 2001, p88