Sermons on Simon The Leper:

Christmas: Reason To Hope

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Nov 28, 2020

Simeon hoped to see the messiah before he died and he did. His story teaches us something about why we hope and how to hope.

We’ve just sung that great song by Keith Getty and Stuart Townend, ‘In Christ alone my hope is found.’ That’s quite a declaration! Getty wrote the music and Townend wrote the words. Townend isn’t merely saying that Jesus is A source of HOPE. He’s saying that Jesus is the ONLY source of hope! ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:22-35

Denomination: Baptist

Jesus, Prince Of Peace

Contributed by Simon Bartlett on Dec 5, 2020

Peace is central to Christmas. Jesus came to heal the age-old fracture and bring us peace with God and he's the only one who can.

What does Christmas mean to you? What do you like best about Christmas? Spending time with family and friends? Christmas trees? Turkey roasts? Christmas puddings and brandy butter? Stockings? Santa? Presents? Carols? A season of goodwill when we put past hurts aside? I certainly like all ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:8-10, Isaiah 9:6-7, John 14:27, Luke 2:29-30, Luke 2:14, Luke 12:50-52, John 16:32-33  (view more)  (view less)

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 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 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