Sermons on Simon On Cyrene:

Reflection C.8 Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? Summary Of New Testament So Far...

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jun 3, 2020

In the previous seven 'Reflections' I've looked at what the New Testament, excluding Revelation, says about 'End Times'. In this Reflection I try to draw the threads together and show how they are relevant to our question.

Today is a milestone – the end of the second stage of my study. At the end of March, I decided to try to answer the question, ‘Could God be behind coronavirus?’ I knew that people were asking the question and it seemed like a good question. I decided to split the task into three parts. I would ...read more

Scripture: Luke 21:25, 2 Thessalonians 2:3

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection D.1 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? Starting To Look At Revelation

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jun 3, 2020

If we think coronavirus might be God's judgement or a part of 'End Times' then we need to know what God's judgement and 'End Times' look like. We now turn to Revelation. This Reflection provides an introduction.

Today we start on Revelation. However, before diving in I’d like to do a quick introduction. When we start to talk about Revelation we quickly find that there are a lot of different views. The main views are ‘preterist’, ‘historicist’, ‘idealist’ and ‘futurist’. Preterists believe that most of ...read more

Scripture: Daniel 7:13-14, Daniel 7:27-28

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection D.2 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? Revelation. Checking Our Orientation; The Court Sits.

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jun 5, 2020

There are four main ways people approach Revelation. We need to get our initial orientation right. The start of the process to bring in Jesus' kingdom - the court sits.

When I was in my twenties I worked as an engineer on power station construction projects. On one occasion a colleague was overseeing the construction of a concrete foundation for a very large fan. The foundation was many metres long and approximately rectangular. Unfortunately, after pouring the ...read more

Scripture: Daniel 7:26, Luke 19:27

Denomination: Baptist

Prayer (1) Gideon’s Prayer Regarding A Fleece

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jun 7, 2020

Most commentators criticise Gideon, feeling that his prayer demonstrates a lack of faith. But given how positively the New Testament views Gideon, we should be inclined to take a positive view of his prayer. It's a very sensible prayer, and a great example to us.

Today we’re starting a short series on prayer, and looking at a prayer which Gideon prayed. It’s in Judges 6:36-40. Introduction First, let’s look at the situation Gideon was in before we look at his prayer. We may think, ‘We pray, God answers. Simple.’ But when we look at what was going on at ...read more

Scripture: Judges 6:36-40

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection D.3 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? Revelation. The Rider On The White Horse.

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jun 8, 2020

Who is the rider on the white horse in Revelation 6? Some say Jesus, some say the antichrist! And there are many other suggestions. We look at the possibilities.

Today we meet ‘the four horsemen’. The first of the horsemen is described as follows (Rev. 6:2): And I looked, and behold, a white horse! And its rider had a bow, and a crown was given to him, and he came out conquering, and to conquer. Who is this? Why is he conquering? When will it happen? ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 6:2

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection D.4 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? Revelation. The Rider On The White Horse.

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jun 12, 2020

Could the rider on the white horse be 'a spirit of conquest' which has been with us for the past 2000 years? The correspondence between Matthew 24 and Revelation 6:1-8 might lead us to think so.

I started this enquiry in response to the question, could God be behind coronavirus? Could coronavirus be some form of judgement from God or a sign of ‘End Times’? To answer that in relation to ‘End Times’ we want to know what ‘End Times’ will look like. A decision we make at this point will ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 6:1-8

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection D.5 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? Revelation. The Four Horsemen.

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jun 12, 2020

When did the four horsemen in Revelation 6 set out? After Christ's ascension? In the future? Or, conceivably, in our time? Our view on this question makes a big difference to how we view 'End Times'.

At this point I feel as though I’m at a fork-in-the-road moment. We’re in Revelation 6. I have to keep reminding myself of why I am doing these Reflections. My goal is to ‘diagnose’ coronavirus. I am considering two possible ‘diagnoses.’ The first ‘diagnosis’ is that coronavirus is a random ...read more

Scripture: Revelation 6:8

Denomination: Baptist

Prayer (2) The Lord's Prayer, Part 1

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jun 14, 2020

Before giving us a model of how we should pray, in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus teaches us about two ways we should not pray - not hypocritically, and not babbling.

14 June 2020 Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Boscombe, Bournemouth, UK ** PRE-TALK I think most of us have been following the news about the racial conflict in the United States following the death of George Floyd in police custody. Yesterday, there was a large ‘Black Lives Matter’ demonstration ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 6:5-9

Denomination: Baptist

Daniel's Prayer Of Confession, Part 1

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 1, 2020

Daniel is about to say sorry to God on behalf of his people, the Jews. In 'Part 1' I look at WHY he prayed (he understood scripture), HOW he prayed (intensely) and WHO he prayed to (his God, a covenant-keeping God, a great and awesome God). Part 2 will be WHAT he prayed.

Daniel’s prayer of confession Part 1 1. Introduction Today we are continuing our mini-series on prayer, and looking at an amazing prayer which teaches us about saying sorry. It’s a prayer which the prophet Daniel said; we find it in Daniel 9. I’m going to start to look at it this week and ...read more

Scripture: Daniel 9:1-5

Denomination: Baptist

The Lord's Prayer, Part 2

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 1, 2020

How to use The Lord's Prayer in our own prayer time.

The Lord’s Prayer (2) We’re continuing our little series on prayer. I planned to do two talks on the Lord’s Prayer and today we have the second. Jesus doesn’t just dive straight into the Lord’s Prayer. He first gave some teaching about how we should not pray, and last week, we looked at what ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 6:9-15

Denomination: Baptist

Daniel's Prayer Of Confession, Part 2

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 6, 2020

All of us have to say sorry to God. Daniel's prayer has much to teach about saying sorry. In particular, Daniel accepts that he shares responsibilty for the sin of his people.

Last week I did a first talk on Daniel’s prayer of confession. I’m going to assume that you can roughly remember what I talked about last week. That might be a mistake, but even if you can’t, I don’t think it should be too much of a problem for following my talk today. At the end of last week’s ...read more

Scripture: Daniel 9:4-10

Denomination: Baptist

Praying For Our Church

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 12, 2020

Paul's second prayer for the church in Ephesus is a great model of how we can pray for our church and for other churches today, for God to strengthen his people with power.

PRAYING FOR THE CHURCH INTRODUCTION We’ve now come to the sixth and last in our mini-series on prayer. We first looked at Gideon’s prayer for guidance. Then we spent two weeks on the Lord’s Prayer. Then we had two weeks on Daniel’s prayer of confession on behalf of his people. Today we’re ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 3:14-21

Denomination: Baptist

The King Of Glory Comes In

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Sep 12, 2020

The earth is the Lord's. The Lord will return and enter our world as king of glory and mighty warrior. Ancient doors should lift up their heads in anticipation, and so should we.

Psalm 24 INTRODUCTION This month I’m going to take a look at three psalms: Psalms 24, 69 and 119. Today, we’ll look at Psalm 24. The words of the psalm are really moving: ‘Lift up your heads, you gates; be lifted up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in…’ We can ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Delighting In God's Law

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Sep 20, 2020

God's law is the basis for the psalmist to be blameless, and that is the basis for him to enjoy God's favour. The psalmist respects God's law, relies on it, delights in it, and asks God to teach him it. But can he be blameless? The answer is yes.

[This talk was quite dependent on PowerPoint slides. I’ve indicated where I used slides with ***] INTRODUCTION Today we’re looking at Psalm 119. One of Psalm 119’s claims to fame is the fact that it’s the longest chapter in the Bible. It’s 176 verses long! It’s way in the lead. In second ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

An Attitude Of Gratitude

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Sep 26, 2020

When we look at how God instructed the Israelites to celebrate TWO harvest festivals we find there is a lot we can apply to how we thank God for his goodness to us. There are some surprises!

Today we’re celebrating Harvest Festival. This year, coronavirus restrictions have resulted in a rather muted celebration. We aren’t meeting at church and we don’t have the usual piles of food to give to the food bank, or a beautiful harvest loaf. I’m going to take a look at some passages and ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 65:9-13, Exodus 23:16, Deuteronomy 16:13, Deuteronomy 16:16

Denomination: Baptist