{"id":46173,"date":"2007-05-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-28T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/preaching-to-dead\/"},"modified":"2007-05-28T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-05-28T00:00:00","slug":"preaching-to-dead","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/preaching-to-dead\/","title":{"rendered":"Preaching to the Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dr. Erwin Lutzer teaches preaching courses at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. Every year, he takes his students on a field trip to the local cemetery&mdash;<em>so they can preach<\/em>. He says:<\/p>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>I take them to a little cemetery in Deerfield, Illinois, and I have them all gather around a certain gravesite. I point out the name, and then I tell one of the students, &quot;Preach the gospel to Mr. Smith here.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>They look at me like I&#39;m nuts. So I preach to Mr. Smith with enthusiasm: &quot;Sir, Jesus died for your sins, and you must put your faith in him.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>Then I look at the students and tell them, &quot;This is no different than preaching the gospel to unsaved people. The Bible says that they are dead in their sins. You can preach your heart out, but nothing will happen unless God does a miracle to give them the life to listen.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<\/blockquote>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[409],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3641,3897,4085,4096,4394,4579,4580,4687,4688,4906,4946,5025,5284],"tax_ctp_topics":[378],"class_list":["post-46173","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-communication","tax_ctp_tags-evangelism","tax_ctp_tags-gospel","tax_ctp_tags-great-commission","tax_ctp_tags-lostness","tax_ctp_tags-outreach","tax_ctp_tags-overcoming","tax_ctp_tags-preacher","tax_ctp_tags-preaching","tax_ctp_tags-seekers","tax_ctp_tags-sermon","tax_ctp_tags-soul-winning","tax_ctp_tags-witnessing"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Preaching to the Dead - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/preaching-to-dead\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Preaching to the Dead - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dr. Erwin Lutzer teaches preaching courses at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. 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