Sermons on Simon On Cyrene:

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

Joshua And The Walls Of Jericho

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 22, 2020

This is a great children's story. But as adults, it prompts some difficult questions. Is it even true? How could God destroy an entire city? It's also a wonderful example of God's people overcoming a seemingly-insurmountable obstacle through faith and obedience.

JOSHUA AND THE WALLS OF JERICHO INTRODUCTION We’re moving from our series on prayer to a new series called ‘Bible Stories for Grown-Ups.’ There are some famous stories in the Old Testament which we may have heard as children, perhaps at home or at Sunday School. In this series the idea is to ...read more

Scripture: Joshua 6:1-21

Denomination: Baptist

God Restores Elijah / Preparation

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 3, 2020

In this first-of-two talks we look at some of the initial things that helped Elijah recover from depression. They are things we can also do. They paved the way for God to address the root cause of the problem: Elijah's sense of failure.

INTRODUCTION We’re now onto the second talk in our series called ‘Bible Stories for Grown-Ups.’ In these talks we’re going back to some of the famous stories in the Old Testament which we may have heard as children, perhaps at home or at Sunday School. The idea is to take a fresh look at them as ...read more

Scripture: 1 Kings 19:1-8

Denomination: Baptist

God Restores Elijah / The Heart Of The Problem

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 15, 2020

To help Elijah out of his depression God needs to reach a point where Elijah is willing to listen to him. He then needs to resolve Elijah's sense of failure and hopelessness. We see how God did that.

1 KINGS 19, GOD RESTORES ELIJAH INTRODUCTION Today we’re returning to the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19. 1 Kings 18 tells us about Elijah’s confrontation with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. In 1 Kings 19, we find that Elijah has become very depressed. He thinks he’s a failure, but God ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

God Heals Naaman

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 23, 2020

The story of God healing Naaman is full of lessons, for example, about opportunity, courtesy, humility, and greed. But the key message must be the one Jesus drew from it. That is, that if we wish to see God's miracles, we must accept his word.

NAAMAN’S HEALING We’re continuing in our series ‘Bible Stories for Grown-Ups.’ Today we’re looking at one of the most famous stories in the Book of Kings. It’s the story of the healing of the Syrian general, Naaman. It’s a great story for Sunday School, because one of the key characters is a ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

God Saves Jonah, Nineveh, And Us.

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 29, 2020

The story of Jonah tells the story of God rescuing Jonah, not FROM a whale, but BY a whale. It tells of God reaching out to one of the cruellest people in history, the Assyrians. And it prefigures the story of God reaching out to us, through Christ.

GOD SAVES JONAH, NINEVEH, AND US We’re in a series ‘Bible Stories for Grown-Ups.’ Today, we’re looking at the story of Jonah. I’m going to assume most of us are fairly familiar with the story of Jonah and not spend time revisiting it. I’m going to look at the story under three headings: the ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.1 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / How To Approach The Question

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

We should ask whether God has a purpose in coronavirus. It's a logical and reasonable question to ask. But we first need to think about how to even approach the question.

In my second Reflection I wrote: “Some Christians are asking why we’re experiencing this pandemic. Is coronavirus a judgement from God? Are we living in end times?” In my fifth Reflection I noted that the Daily Express [an English newspaper] had asked another question: “What does the Bible say ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 1:10-11

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.2 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / God Responds To Sin And Oppression

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

The title is 'God responds to sin and oppression'. That's a very basic thing to understand in our process of thinking about coronavirus! Not only that, God responds to sin and oppression in an appropriate way. The plagues of Egypt show us this.

We’re looking at three questions. Is coronavirus a judgement from God? Are we living in end times? And, what does the Bible say about COVID-19? Today we’ll look at some general principles about how God responds to a situation he doesn’t like. 1 Kings 6:1 tells us that ‘In the four hundred and ...read more

Scripture: Exodus 3:7

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.3 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / Pestilence Is One Of God’s ‘standard’ Ways Of Judging

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

We are asking if God might be behind coronavirus. Is sending a plague the kind of thing God might do? Yes, it is.

Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels – Habakkuk 3:5, speaking of God We’re looking at three questions. Is coronavirus a judgement from God? Are we living in end times? And, what does the Bible say about COVID-19? These are hard questions! Today I will think about ...read more

Scripture: Habakkuk 3:5

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.4 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / The Old Testament Prophets – Still Relevant Today!

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

The Old Testament prophets are relevant to our question because their major theme is judgement, and because God's great act of judgement at the end of the Old Testament may be a foreshadowing of his judgement of the whole world in 'End Times'.

Starting with my next Reflection I will look at some passages in the Old Testament prophets. I would love to dive straight in, but I feel that some sort of introduction is in order. First, the Old Testament prophets take up more of the Bible than the whole of the New Testament! We believe God ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 1:2

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.5 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? Isaiah 1, God’s Indictment On Israel

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

God's arraignment and indictment of Israel: rebellion, and the evidence for it.

At last, we’re looking at the prophets! We’re starting with the ‘prince of the prophets’, Isaiah, and we’re going to take a look at Isaiah 1. Yesterday I quoted 1:2: Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: “Children have I reared and brought up, but they have ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.6 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? Isaiah’s Oracles Or ‘burdens’, Fulfilled Or Could Be Fulfilled

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

Events that may be indicative of 'End Times' in Isaiah 13-22; reasons for God's judgement

In chapters 13-23 Isaiah pronounces a series of ‘oracles’ regarding eleven neighbouring nations. This part of Isaiah is often referred to as ‘the oracles against the nations.’ But Isaiah doesn’t introduce his oracles as ‘against’; he uses the phrase ‘an oracle concerning…’ Oracles don’t have to ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.7 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / Isaiah’s Oracles Or ‘burdens’, An Environmental Dimension

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

What might lead us to conclude that God is in some way behind coronavirus? We need to see if present-day events fit the picture Scripture gives us of how God judges and 'End Times'. Isaiah's oracles clearly indicate that God judges by means of acts in the environment.

We’re looking at three questions. Is coronavirus a judgement from God? Are we living in end times? And, what does the Bible say about COVID-19? In order to answer them I’m looking at prophecies that were made maybe 2700 years ago. Why? In order to understand an event, we almost always draw on ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.8 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / Isaiah 24, Isaiah Foresees Global Environmental Destruction

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

Isaiah foresaw global environmental destruction. That's what we have today.

People often talk about ratios. We have student-teacher ratio, price-earnings ratio, debt-GDP ratio, power-weight ratio and so on. I’d like to propose a ‘significance-study ratio’ to highlight significant passages of Scripture which we overlook. Today’s passage is one of them. World leaders and ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 24:1-6

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.9 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / The Siege Of Jerusalem By Rome

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

The story of the siege of Jerusalem by Rome reminds us that God judges. But it also tells us that in a time of judgement, God protects his people.

In an earlier 'Reflection' I mentioned that I would include a few Reflections on notable events in Christian history, mainly to give us a bit of variety. Today we’re going to have the first of those. The event is the siege of Jerusalem. In 66 A.D. a Roman prefect attempted to seize money ...read more

Scripture: Luke 21:20-22

Denomination: Baptist