Sermons on Simon On Cyrene:

Addressing Sin In The Church

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Apr 29, 2024

Jesus has just told the Parable of the Good Shepherd. The shepherd goes after the straying sheep. Then Jesus spells out what WE need to do when we see a member of our church falling into sin and straying.

INTRODUCTION We sometimes hurt people. I can think of times when I’ve hurt people. And people sometimes hurt us. I can think of times when I’ve been hurt. It happens in families, in workplaces and in churches. There was a time when Paul was planning to visit the church in Corinth. But he was ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 18:15-17

Denomination: Baptist

Forgive!

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on May 5, 2024

Jesus tells us that we MUST forgive. We have a fundamental moral obligation to forgive. There is a terrible consequence if we don't forgive. But what does it mean to forgive?

INTRODUCTION Today we’re looking at a passage about forgiveness. It may be the longest passage about forgiveness in the Bible and it’s extremely important. Forgiveness is a God-quality. It’s at the heart of what God is like. We find it very tough to do. But in this teaching, Jesus demands that ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35

Denomination: Baptist

Why David Is So Important Series

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 18, 2024

David is a hugely important figure in the Bible. But if we're going to learn from him we need to have an understanding of why he is so important.

Part 1: Is David important? Over the next few months, we’re going to have eight studies on David, the shepherd who became king. We could easily give David much more time than that – he’s such an important person in the Bible, but we can’t fit in more than eight studies between now and December ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 1:1, Revelation 22:16, Acts 13:22

Denomination: Baptist

The Good Shepherd Series

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 18, 2024

Jesus said 'I am the Good Shepherd.' This is one of Jesus' most famous descriptions of himself. It gives us a lot of encouragement. But there are some things he calls us to do: follow, listen and flee.

INTRODUCTION A couple of weeks ago, we started a new series for the afternoon services, looking at WHO JESUS IS. In the Bible, God the Father and Jesus have many titles and descriptions. They tell us something about God the Father or Jesus. When Jesus was crucified, Pilate had a notice prepared ...read more

Scripture: John 10:1-17

Denomination: Baptist

How To Survive A Storm Series

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Nov 25, 2023

Three important strategies for surviving a storm. They're all not-so-common common-sense.

The book of Acts is 28 chapters long. In Chapter 28, Paul finally gets to Rome. But chapter 27 is the chapter where the last major drama of the book of Acts happens. It’s the story of Paul in a storm. Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, gave a lot of space to this story. He must think it’s ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Hungry – But Not For What's Really Important Series

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Feb 26, 2023

In John's gospel, after feeding 5,000 people with bread and fish, Jesus goes on to say what true bread is. Actually, true bread isn't a what, it's a who. It's Jesus. He is our sustenance.

PRE-TALK earlier in the service Three pictures / slides (1) Israelites collecting manna in the wilderness ~1450 or 1270 B.C. ‘Manna’ = ‘what is it?’ The people of Israel had fled slavery in Egypt. They travelled eastwards, crossed the Red Sea and entered the Sinai Peninsula. There isn’t a lot ...read more

Scripture: John 6:22-35

Denomination: Baptist

Jesus' Brothers Get It Wrong Series

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Mar 4, 2023

Jesus' brothers gave Jesus some advice. It wasn't very good advice. But we can learn from it, about assumptions, about accepting Jesus as Lord, and about dealing with pressure from our families.

Today, we’re continuing in our series ‘Encounters with Jesus in John’s gospel.’ I’m going to focus on the first eight verses of John 7. These tell us about an encounter Jesus’ brothers had with him. As usual, I’ll try to give the context. Then we’ll look at what happened. After that, we’ll ...read more

Scripture: John 7:1-8

Denomination: Baptist

Lord Of The Storm

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Mar 11, 2023

Everyone experiences storms in life. Storms are miserable. They are dangerous. But Jesus wants us to be calm in them. And they provide almost unique opportunities to learn to trust Jesus.

The story of Jesus and his disciples in a storm on the Sea of Galilee is short. But it has a huge amount to teach us. I’d like to show you a little video clip of an actual storm on Lake Galilee so you can get an idea of what that storm might have been like. [Video clip.] Jesus and his disciples ...read more

Scripture: Mark 4:35-41

Denomination: Baptist

Merciful But Tough: The Story Of The Woman Caught In Adultery Series

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Mar 25, 2023

Jesus showed mercy to the woman caught in adultery. But he didn't water down his demands.

INTRODUCTION I imagine we really like this story of the woman caught in adultery. We especially like the fact that Jesus didn’t condemn the woman – even though the religious experts said that she should be stoned. But as we reflect on the story, we find that it gives us some quite uncomfortable ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Fixing The Problem

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Mar 25, 2023

Why did Jesus have to die on a cross? This is a simple and fairly brief presentation of the gospel.

Last week we looked at the story of Adam and Eve. After God created humankind, Adam and Eve were initially in good relationship with God. But God warned them that if they ate the fruit of a certain tree they would die. It wasn’t that the fruit of this tree was poisonous. The issue was disobeying ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 1:7, Isaiah 53:6, Psalm 22:1, 1 Corinthians 6:20

Denomination: Baptist

Zechariah’s Remarkable Prophecy

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Apr 1, 2023

Zechariah's prophecy about Jesus' riding a donkey into Jerusalem leads us to look at what else Zechariah had to say about Jesus. It's all about him being king.

Today it’s Palm Sunday. We remember the occasion when, just a week before he was crucified, Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey. In a sense, nothing very remarkable happened. 2,000 years ago – as we all know – there were no cars or buses or lorries. If people were going somewhere they would ...read more

Scripture: Zechariah 9:9

Denomination: Baptist

Witness And Prayer

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 10, 2023

Prayer is essential to witnessing. Only God can change other people's hearts. Only God can give us the strength and courage we need.

This was a fairly short talk in the context of a family service Back in March I got an email through our church website. It was from an American called Tagg Wolverton. He works for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association. Tagg Wolverton explained that Billy Graham’s son Franklin would be ...read more

Scripture: John 1:41, Acts 1:14, Ezekiel 37:1-10, Matthew 9:37-38

Denomination: Baptist

The Fruit Of The Spirit: Patience, Kindness

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 15, 2023

We look at two fruit of the spirit: patience and kindness. We need patience! People are difficult. Other Christians can be difficult. Ministry takes time to bear fruit. And we need to show kindness. We may not realise what a fundamental quality it is for a Christian.

RUCKSACK ILLUSTRATION, EARLIER IN THE SERVICE. Narrator: ‘Today, Sam, Gifty, Vanessa and Cyril are going camping. Vanessa and Cyril are very excited about it. Vanessa gets to work packing two rucksacks. She is very thoughtful; she doesn’t want Cyril’s rucksack to be too heavy for him. She ...read more

Scripture: Galatians 5:22, 1 Timothy 1:16, Romans 8:29, Galatians 6:9, Matthew 11:28-30, Romans 3:12-17, Ephesians 4:32  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Baptist

The Fruit Of The Spirit: Goodness

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Jul 22, 2023

The Holy Spirit wants us to grow in the quality of goodness. But what is goodness? How can we find the path of goodness?

For the past three weeks we’ve been focusing on two verses in Paul’s letter to the Galatians. Paul wrote, ‘But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law’ [Galatians 5:22-23] In these famous ...read more

Scripture: Galatians 5:22-23

Denomination: Baptist

The Last Three 'fruit Of The Spirit': Faithfulness, Gentleness And Self-Control

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Aug 5, 2023

How can we be more like God? By demonstrating God's character. We look at three more wonderful qualities of God that the Holy Spirit wants to produce in us.

INTRODUCTION Today, we’re having the last in our series on the Fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5. We’re going to look at the last three fruit in Paul’s list: faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I thought I’d do something a bit different to usual today. I’m going to look at three true ...read more

Scripture: Galatians 5:22-23

Denomination: Baptist