Peter Barnes | 2 Timothy 4:9-22
SERMON NOTES
COMFORT IN A CLOAK AND THE LORD
Psalm 73:1-28; 2 Timothy 4:9-22
William Tyndale awaiting execution in Vilvorde Castle in 1535
1. We need other people.
– not in an absolute sense; but Paul wants Timothy to visit him soon (4:9, 21)
– he feels his isolation in 4:10-12, 14-15, 16; note Eccles.4:9-10; Luke 10:1
2. We have physical and intellectual needs.
– the cloak is the heavy outer garment; books, either scrolls or codices
– ‘Give us this day our daily bread’
3. But the Lord fulfils our deepest needs.
– 4:17-18; lion’s mouth is a saying (Psalm 57:4; 1 Cor.15:32)
– Psalm 73:24-28; Phil. 4:13; the Christian is not taken out of the situation but through it by the Lord. To a woman who was depressed, Charles Simeon wrote: ‘you are too much occupied in looking at yourself, and too little in beholding the Lord Jesus Christ. It is by the former you are to be humbled; but it is by the latter that you are to be changed into the divine image.’