Sermons on Simon On Cyrene:

Reflection B.15 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / Daniel 7, Daniel’s Fourth Beast, Identifying The Horns

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

How can we identify the horns that come out of Daniel's fourth beast? Revelation can help us.

On the small Greek island of Patmos there is a place called ‘the Cave of the Apocalypse’. It is here, according to tradition, that John had the vision which we now have in the form of the last book of the Bible, Revelation. However, in the Book of Revelation, the word ‘vision’ is used just once. ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.16 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? Daniel 7, Daniel’s Fourth Beast, Trampling And Devouring

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

The description of Daniel's fourth beast fits with the identification in the previous 'Reflection'. It looks very much like the westernised nations at the present time.

We are trying to read signs. Are we in a time of God’s judgement? Are we in ‘End Times’? As we look at possible signs, I can imagine several errors we might make: We can take something as a sign that is not a sign. In Greek mythology, the beauty of Europa inspired the love of Zeus. He ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.17 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / Isaiah 65:17-25. Heaven, Or The Millennium? Either Way, It’s Good.

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

The description of 'End Times', and prophecies of judgement may seem gloomy and depressing. No doubt these will be difficult times. But having gone through that, we will come into a very, very good situation.

In today’s Reflection I’m looking at why we can be encouraged, even as we think about ‘End Times’ and God’s judgement. We don’t know if we are in such a time, but suppose we are? Jesus described the various signs that will accompany ‘End Times’ as ‘the beginning of birth pains.’ Painful, but the ...read more

Scripture: Isaiah 65:17-25

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.18 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / "Are These Questions Really Necessary?”

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

Someone may ask, 'Why do who even need to think about whether God might be behind coronavirus?' Here's part of the answer, at least.

I’ve often mentioned that I’m asking three difficult questions. In reality, there are two main questions: ‘Is coronavirus a judgement from God?’ and ‘Are we living in end times?’ But are these important questions to ask? Suppose you don’t feel well and go to the doctor. The doctor checks your ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 9:12

Denomination: Baptist

Reflection B.19 / Does God Have A Purpose In Coronavirus? / Summary So Far. Do We Imagine God Has Something To Say?

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 11, 2020

This is a summary of the Reflections on coronavirus so far (series A and B). I will follow with a series based on the New Testament excluding Revelation, and then another on Revelation, in the coming weeks.

Today we’re at a milestone in our Reflections. We’ll be leaving the Old Testament! Do I hear ‘hooray’? 🙂 After a short break we’ll move on to the New Testament. A milestone is a good place to take stock. It’s probably impossible to summarise 23 Reflections in a short space but I’m ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 9:12

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

Not Ashamed Of The Gospel

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Oct 15, 2021

Paul tells Timothy not to be ashamed of the gospel. Christians today can also face that temptation. Paul then gives some solid arguments why Timothy shouldn't be ashamed of the gospel, and they help us too!

‘So do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord’ Today we’re starting a new four-week series on 2 Timothy. I’m looking forward to this short series! Over the years I’ve studied a number of the New Testament letters but I’ve never really studied 2 Timothy. I’m interested to find out what ...read more

Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:8-14

Denomination: Baptist

Be A Good Soldier

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Oct 16, 2021

'Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus', Paul tells Timothy. We look at the story of three men who did just that: Thomas Cranmer, Nicholas Ridley and Hugh Latimer and ask why.

Last week we started a new series on 2 Timothy. We looked at chapter 1 and I suggested that Paul’s central message to Timothy was, ‘Don’t be ashamed of the gospel’. Today we’re moving on to chapter 2. But I’m going to approach the passage by a different route. I’m going to take a look at three ...read more

Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:1-13

Denomination: Baptist

God's Great Compassion

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jun 19, 2021

Jesus calls us to be merciful as God is merciful, and in the way God acted towards the people of Nineveh, he set the bar very high. The Assyrians were among the cruellest people in history.

INTRODUCTION Jonah is one of the shortest books in the Bible. It’s just 48 verses long. That’s shorter than a lot of chapters in the New Testament. Because it’s such a short book, when Bible translators begin work translating the Bible into other languages they’ll often start with Jonah. They ...read more

Scripture: Jonah 1:1-3

Denomination: Baptist

God Of Salvation

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 11, 2021

God wanted to spare the people of Nineveh. He didn't want them to face his judgement. But first, he had to save his servant Jonah. Being inside a big fish in the depths of the sea wasn't Jonah's real problem.

Today we’re continuing our series in Jonah. My first talk was titled ‘God of compassion’. Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, was wicked. God described it as wicked and historians tell us that Assyria was wicked. It wasn’t just a little bit wicked. One historian of the Middle East wrote that ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

God Of Mission

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 17, 2021

Talk 2 in my five-talk series on Jonah. Mission is God's mission. In the story of Jonah - and especially in view of what Jesus says about Jonah - we recognize that God is the master strategist in mission and he's breathtakingly creative.

Jonah Talk 2: God of Mission Last week I started a new series on Jonah. My major theme last week was how compassionate God is. At the time of Jonah, the Assyrian Empire was expanding. Historians of the Middle East tell us how cruel the Assyrian rulers were. I spared you the grizzly details. ...read more

Scripture: Jonah 3:1-5, Matthew 12:38-41, Luke 11:29-30

Denomination: Baptist

The Greatest Conversion In History

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 19, 2021

We can make a case for Nineveh's conversion being the greatest conversion in history. But whether it was or not, Jesus was clearly impressed. It shows us what genuine repentance looks like.

When I was a child people would sometimes give me a book called ‘the Guinness Book of Records’ as a Christmas present. I guess many of us have come across it. I remember as a kid browsing through the records. You can now find most of the records online and it’s now called simply ‘Guinness World ...read more

Scripture: Jonah 3:1-10

Denomination: Baptist

The Glory To Be Revealed Series

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jan 22, 2022

Paul tells believers in Rome that ‘the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us’. But what is this glory?

PRE-TALK OR CHILDREN’S TALK Before Priscilla and I got married I used to keep a scrap book. In 1988 I cut out this picture from a newspaper. It’s of Linford Christie at the Seoul Olympics. He had never before competed in the Olympics but at Seoul, he won the silver medal. Four years later, he ...read more

Scripture: Romans 8:18-25

Denomination: Baptist

The Siege Of Jerusalem

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Feb 1, 2022

We probably don't like to think about God's justice. The siege of Jerusalem by the Romans, in A.D. 70, forces us to. In this event we see God's justice but we also see that God protected his people in a time of wrath.

Note: this was a talk I gave to a small afternoon congregation. I wouldn’t give it in our main morning service. INTRODUCTION We’re presently following the theme of discipleship, picking up some of the big things that are part of being a follower of Jesus. But it’s good to have some variety so ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 21:33-41, Luke 19:41-44, Luke 21:2-24

Denomination: Baptist

You Can Resist A Lion Series

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Feb 12, 2022

We may imagine that we could never resist a lion. But lions will cross our path and Peter tells us to resist them.

[N.B. Earlier in the service we had a short presentation on Rosa Parks.] Today we’re continuing our series of ‘Great Messages of Encouragement’. We’ve had four talks so far. We’ve remembered that God will be with us. That he will strengthen those who wait on him. That there’s a glory to come ...read more

Scripture: 1 Peter 5:8-11

Denomination: Baptist