Burwell Baptist Church Sermons

Chris continues his series in Starting With God by this week looking at God's holiness. There are some passages in the Bible that can be very difficult to understand, some that we may even choose to ignore or turn a blind eye to. But we should not be turning away from the things that we "don't like". God defines holiness, even if we don't understand why things happen, we need to trust that his pla...

Everyone has a favourite painting, whether you're interested in art or not, a picture that you can admire and try to understand the artist's intention. Something that reveals part of their nature. How amazing would it be if you could actually meet with the artist and understand their true character and intention? Paul says in his letter to the Romans that by admiring God's handiwork in nature His...

Throughout this year we've been thinking about the river of God flowing from the temple in Ezekiel's vision. Well, Pentecost was day 1 of that prophecy coming true. The Spirit came in power on the disciples in the upper room and flowed out through them into the people of Jerusalem. Chris reminds us that we are called to be continually filled with the God's Holy Spirit and let the Spirit flow throu...

As Chris is away this week we have Kevin Burdett bringing God's word to us and he speaks on the Kingdom of God growing in the dark. Just like the seeds that a farmer plants in the ground sometimes it may appear that nothing is happening, however what we fail to see is what is happening underneath the surface. The seed has sprouted, strong roots are developing and when the timing is right the shoot...

In first century Judea a cross was not generally something talked about in polite conversation, let alone boasted about. Yet through Jesus' victory Paul says that he (and by extension we) can boast in the achievement of the cross. As we continue our starting with God series Chris examines Jesus' victory, the turning of a symbol of terror and oppression into a symbol of hope and how we can still se...

When we make a decision, conscious or unconscious, to not follow God wholeheartedly we can be sent into exile from Him. Not a physical exile like those experienced in the Old Testament but a spiritual exile where it feels like our connection with God is frayed or even totally broken. In the next in our series of Starting With God Chris looks at the symptoms of that spiritual exile and reminds us t...

After a short Easter break this week we're back in our series Starting With God. The writer of Ecclesiastes examines the whole of existence in his book and comes to the conclusion that "everything is meaningless". But with one proviso: "everything is meaningless" without God. Chris looks at the dead ends that can occur in our lives if we try to exist without God directing us and how He gently but...

Christ is risen! For our celebration of the resurrection this year we look at the differing responses to experiencing the risen Jesus, specifically the four people mentioned in John chapter 20. Chris examines looks at the meaning of the resurrection for Mary, the Disciples in the upper room, Thomas and John himself before expanding it and thinking about what it means to us too.

Holy Week begins for this year with the usual celebration of Palm Sunday, the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on the back of an up to then unridden donkey. There were many different responses amongst the people of Jerusalem: many in favour and others vehemently opposed to Jesus. But nobody was on the fence. We face a choice then, are we to surrender our all to Jesus and accept him as King? Or are we...

This week Chris continues looking at his series in Starting with God, this week looking at the choices we make. There is a difference between fate and destiny. Fate (which is not real, by the way) gives you no choices in life, you're restricted to the train tracks laid out in front of you. Destiny is different, where God gives us the choice to follow His way which leads to life or the other ways w...

Chris continues his series in Starting With God by looking at all of those things that we contstruct for ourselves to replace God or to divert our attention away from Him. The Bible has a word for those things: idols. Idols can even be things that make us think that God approves of what we're doing when we know deep down that He doesn't. We are invited to cast away all of those things and to focus...

Chris continues our journey in Starting with God by this week looking at having intimacy with God. At the foot of Mount Sinai God spoke to His people who he had guided out of slavery in Egypt. They were so afraid that none of them wanted to go up the mountain and seek true intimacy with Him, they rejected God's true purpose for them because of fear. We now, through Jesus, recieve that same invitat...

This week we hosted Mervyn Thomas, co-founder of our mission of the month for February CSW, who spoke to us about persecuted peoples across the world. Merv has over 40 years of experience in advocating for persecuted people groups and shares with us how we can fulfil God's calling for us to speak up for and stand with those who are persecuted for their faith.

This week we held our annual Covenant Service for 2026 where we re-commission our leaders and renew our covenant with each other and with God. Chris also continues our new series "Starting with God", looking the story from Genesis where Jacob wrestles with God. Until this point Jacob has tried to fit God into his own worldview, mould God into what he thinks God should be. It's only when God reache...

This week we begin a new series focussing on re-setting our relationship with God. In the introduction Chris lays out what the series will encompass using the illustration of a jigsaw puzzle. The final piece that completes the puzzle is Jesus, but how do we ensure that we don't lose him in the noise of life?

At the beginning of the year we revealed our year text for 2026: "Wherever the river flows, it will bring life". Now Chris puts this verse in its original context. The Israelites were a divided kingdom (sound familiar?) who had abandoned God (sound familiar?) to worship other idols (you get the idea), and as a result had been handed over to the Babylonians. Ezekiel, writing in the midst of this ex...

For our first service of 2026 we hold our annual vision service where Chris gives us the opportunity to look back over how God has blessed us as a church during 2025 and the good things that He has planned for 2026, which just so happens to be our 175th Anniversary year. We also reveal our text for the year: "Wherever the river flows it will bring life". More on that in a few weeks time!

For our final service of 2025 Chris speaks on the visit of the Magi, commonly celebrated at the traditional festival of Epiphany. The wise men were the first recorded people who seemingly understood and worshipped Jesus as God, not just as a new messenger or prophet. It wasn't the Jewish teachers, or people who knew the Law really, really well, but (an unknown number of!) non-Jews who God chose to...

A service of carols, readings and the gospel message of Jesus as we celebrate his coming to save us, all held by the light of health and safety compliant LED candles (plus a few torches!).

In the final of our Advent series we look at the invitation that God gives us to trust in Him and the Son he sent to save us. Chris speaks on the love that God has for us, despite all our failings, that he sent Jesus to be one of us, live amongst us, and ultimately to die for us.

As Chris preaches on 1 Corinthians Chapter 6, Paul reminds us that we cannot separate our everyday lives from our faith. We need to live lives that reflect God’s Kingdom.

Chris continues preaching on 1 Corinthians Chapter 4, reminding us that Spiritual riches do not guarantee, or equate to, success or financial reward. Rather, our reward we get through serving is God saying to us, “We done, good and faithful servant”. We apologise for the truncation of this recording.

We are co-workers with God in building His church - but what is the quality of our building? Chris Johnson preaches on 1 Corinthians 3.

Chris Johnson continues the series in 1 Corinthians 2, describing the worldview at the time of Paul and encouraging us not to stay as mere infants but to grow in our faith as we learn to walk in step with the Spirit.

As Paul explains his mission strategy to the Corinthians, so Chris Johnson reminds us that our faith needs to rest on God’s power.