Think, Focus, Learn

Two Timothy 2:1:

“You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you[’ve] heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.

“Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the offspring of David, as preached in my gospel, for which I am suffering, bound with chains as a criminal. But the word of God is not bound! Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. The saying is trustworthy, for: ‘If we have died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; if we are faithless, he remains faithful’—for he cannot deny himself.”

Amen.

Well, Father, we turn to the Bible now. We want to hear from you. We want to do more than simply gain further information. We want to be swept up by you, the living God. Help us, we pray. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.

Well, I wonder if you can imagine sitting down to write your last letter. What would you put in it? Actually, some of you can’t even imagine sitting down to write a letter. Let’s be honest about it. Because you’ve joined the ranks, the growing ranks, of those for whom letter writing has gone the way of the dodo—a vast company of people who have so been embraced by the ability to communicate very, very quickly, instantaneously, and dramatically that you have lost the opportunity to actually put pen to paper and leave something behind.

“Well,” you say, “I’m not so sure.” That’s okay. It’s not my main point this morning. But I want to suggest to you that it is highly unlikely that you will hear children in a coming generation say, “Let’s go up in the attic and read some of Grandma’s emails.” I just do not believe it will happen. And so, I was greatly encouraged, as with you, to hear that part of the process of VBS resulted in the writing of 166 letters—letters—that were dispatched to Austria.

I start in that way because Paul has written a letter. It’s a letter. It’s his final letter, by all reckonings. And as we might expect—given that he was aware of the fact that he was now crystallizing, as it were, that which had been the driving impetus of his life—that in entrusting this to Timothy, his young lieutenant, he would give to him only that which was salient and vital and pressing. There were other things that he addressed in the course of all of his letter writing, but now, as you might expect, given that it is his final letter, he gets to the heart of things very quickly.

It’s not easy, actually, to then summarize the entire letter. Perhaps the best we can say is that he is concerned that this amazing gospel which has transformed him will be so laid hold of by Timothy and others along with him that subsequent generations will come to understand who Jesus is and why he has come and what he has accomplished. He has already suggested to Timothy, or urged Timothy, to make sure that he is prepared to take up Paul’s invitation to join him in suffering for the gospel.[1] It’s an interesting invitation. I’m not sure we think of pastoral ministry in that way. “Well, what were you thinking of when you decided to become a pastor?” Well, of all the things that one might be thinking about, suffering might not be at the top of the list. And yet that’s the invitation he receives: “Suffer for it bravely, proclaim it boldly, so that subsequent generations will also be able to take their stand upon it.”

And very helpfully, I think, Paul could never be accused of sugarcoating this invitation. There’s no sense in which he is trying to slip it in, as it were. He has provided, at the beginning of chapter 2, these three pictures of a soldier and of an athlete and of a farmer in order to drive home the essential fact that this gospel business—believing it, proclaiming it, living in the light of it—is a tough business. And he wants Timothy to know that strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, Paul himself has been enabled to run the race, to finish the course, to fight the fight,[2] and Timothy will be able to do the same.

And as he proceeds with this, he, in verse 7—and we should really have dealt with verse 7 last time, but it escaped us—in verse 7, he issues a further invitation to think. In verse 8, he invites him to remember. And in verses 9 and 10, he encourages him to learn or to know. For myself, because I’m pretty simple, I thought I could remember this by TFL: think, focus, learn. Think, focus, and learn. And that’s how we’ll proceed through the passage.

Think

First of all, “I want you, Timothy, to think over what I say.” Well, why is it so important that he thinks over what Paul says? Because Paul was aware of the fact that his teaching was not ultimately his own but God’s. He’s going to go on in chapter 3 to point out that all of the Scripture is God-breathed.[3] And Paul was aware of the fact that under the inspiration of God, he was actually penning this letter. Therefore, the significance of what he was saying demanded thoughtfulness on the part not only of Timothy but on all who read it, including us. And the reason that it is so vitally important is because it is the very Word of God.

So what he says is, “If you don’t immediately grasp what I’ve been getting at, give it some thought.” It’s quite startling, actually, in the simplicity of it, isn’t it? I find it quite helpful. Because I’m sure Sunday by Sunday, as I and my colleagues teach the Bible, we find ourselves saying, “I’m not sure anybody really got that.” And what needs to happen? Well then, we need to do some thinking. Some thinking. Some plain, old-fashioned thinking.

Wasn’t it A. A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh writer, who said, “Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits”? Now, I don’t know whether you’re just sitting or whether you’re sitting and thinking. I have no way of actually knowing. I can gain something by your eyes, but you can be deceptive in that way as well. My father-in-law used to regularly close his eyes when I was preaching. He said that it helped him to concentrate. I’m not sure that I accept that.

No, the process is straightforward. The Spirit who inspired the text is the Spirit who gives understanding of the text. That’s why we pray. That’s why the psalmist prays, “O Lord, open my eyes, that I may behold wonderful things in your Word.”[4] “I’m going to behold them. I’m going to think, but you’re going to have to give me the understanding.” And the Lord will give you understanding in everything. That’s a promise. Our part is to cogitate. God’s part is to illuminate. Illuminate, not eliminate. Illuminate. And cogitate is a good verb. It means to deliberate. It means to reflect. It means to weigh.

It’s not spiritual to bypass the mind.

So in other words, it’s not a sort of superficial way of tackling the Scriptures whereby we’re hoping that something will hit us, and if it doesn’t quite hit us, or hit us in the right way or in the way that we expect, then we perhaps move on to other things: reach for our cell phone or begin to do some tweeting or whatever it might be. [Inadauble.] No, you must be thinking. Thinking.

It’s a reminder to us, isn’t it, that the Christian faith is rational? It’s rational. It’s not somehow or another spiritual to bypass the mind. Sometimes people suggest that, you know, real spirituality has to do with the disengagement of our minds, with the faculty of thought. In fact, it’s only when you think that things will get too convoluted and complicated, so it’s better if you kind of take your mind out of it.

You can hear this on Christian television all the time. I heard it just this week. I didn’t go looking for it. You don’t have to go look for it. It’s there; it’ll hit you all the time. And the man was explaining, telling the people, exhorting the people, “Make sure that you’re not dealing in the realm of your mind, you’re not dealing in the realm of your will; you’re dealing in the realm of your heart,” he said, and with great passion. And I was shouting out at the television, “Oh, no, no, no!” He didn’t know that I was doing that, and neither did anyone else, because I was listening by myself.

But it was “No, no, no!” because what he failed to recognize, or chose to ignore, is that when the Bible speaks about the heart of a man or the heart of a woman, it is speaking about the central, core dimension of who and what we are. Therefore, when the Bible speaks about the heart, it involves all that we think, all that we feel, all that we do, all that we desire, so that the Scriptures appeal to that very core of our being. Therefore, it is wrong to set an antithesis between our minds and our hearts. Because the mind is the entrance point to the soul. The mind is the entrance point to the soul.

This is very, very important. Because if we don’t learn to think and if we don’t think properly, then we will go wrong. Every schoolteacher in here understands that. For all the times my teachers used to say, “Are you thinking, Begg? Are you actually even thinking?” I’d say “Well, I’m thinking about what you just said, but I don’t know…” Right?

Now, I listened this morning on public radio to an interview with Marcus Borg, who, by his own testimony, really, has long since given up on biblical Christianity. I don’t need to articulate that for you, and if you didn’t know anything other than the interview, then you would have been able to conclude that along with me within the space of about fifteen minutes driving here. He dismissed the doctrine of the atonement. He dismissed the opening chapters of Genesis. He dismissed a literal resurrection and so on. And the irony of it was that he was being interviewed about his latest book, which is called Convictions. Convictions! And apparently, his only conviction is that he’s totally convinced of everything that he doesn’t believe about the Bible, and he’s made it his life’s emphasis.

Now, unless you’re thinking—unless you’re thinking, unless you’re studying, unless you’re processing Scripture—you may succumb to that stuff. And so may I. Towards the end of the interview, the person asks him, “So what would you say is the essence of Christian belief?” You know what he said? He said, “Well, first of all, I don’t like to use the word belief.” I said, “Okay, well, that says it. We pretty well got it clear now. We can turn it off and go to church.” Because what he said was, “Christianity is the only religion that is actually concerned about belief. Other religions of the world, they don’t really care about belief.”

Have you heard the American supporters for the United States World Cup team? Did you hear what they’re chanting? “We believe!” That’s what they’re shouting in Brazil. “We believe! We believe!” Sounds pretty good. Then they add to it: “We believe! We will win!” We’ll find out at six o’clock tonight, if we’re not at the evening service. “We believe! We will win!” Here’s the point of this: they think that if you say, “We believe,” it does something. No! It is the foundation of belief that gives belief validity. It’s not a question of whether “Do you believe?” The question is “What do you believe?” And is there any basis for belief? Is there any reason why this gospel that Paul is expounding as he writes his final letter is worth both living for and dying for? Is it worth Timothy taking up the challenge, even though it means suffering for him? Is it worth it? It’s a valid question. And the encouragement is to think it out.

And I want to encourage you to make sure you’re thoughtful as you read your Bibles on a daily basis. Don’t be like a butterfly. Don’t do the Tiny Tim treatment of the Bible, you know: “Tiptoe through the tulips…”[5] There’s people reading the Bible like a butterfly: “Oh, there’s a good thing. Woo! Look at that. Oh, I like that one. That’s a nice one. I wonder what that means. I haven’t a clue. Oh, here’s something now. Wow, look at this! Wow, that’s a beauty! Woo!” If you read your Bible that way, I’m not surprised you haven’t a clue what it’s about. When did you ever start believing that you could understand a book without thinking?

And part of the problem comes from preachers who don’t encourage their congregations to think, by simply telling stories or anecdotal material that appeals in some way, titillates, intrigues. But at the end of the day, you could live for thirty-five years of ministry, and the people walk out the door and go, “I haven’t a clue what that was about.” No, you’ve got to be like a bee that goes for the nectar. The bee will stay there for as long as it takes in order to get what it wants, in order that it might be transformed by it, and in order that it might do something transformative as a result of that. And don’t mistake being a bee for being a digger, whereby you dig yourself into a hole and nobody knows what you’re doing down there, including yourself.

Well, we spent too long on that, didn’t we? He says, “I want you… If you’re not getting this, Timothy, make sure that you think.”

Focus

Secondly, “It’s important that you focus.” That’s the emphasis here, I think, in verse 8: “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.” Because after all, that opening phrase appears strange, doesn’t it? Almost unnecessary. Paul obviously can’t be reminding Timothy that he mustn’t forget about Jesus. So, what he’s actually saying is that he must make sure that he keeps Jesus at the center of everything. To keep Jesus at the center of everything.

When Paul took his leave of the Ephesian elders (it’s recorded in Acts chapter 20), he told them that when he was gone—and he’d worked there for three years, telling them everything that he possibly could to lay down the foundations—he said, “There will be wolves that will come in among you after I leave,” and then he adds, even more dramatically, “and from among your own selves, some will arise who will speak twisted things and draw people away with them.”[6] “They will come, and they will speak twisted things.” Not a huge twist, necessarily, at the beginning; just a little twist, just a little deviation, just a little uncertainty and so on. And before you know where you are, that individual, that life, that congregation has deviated way off course. Why? Because its focus is gone. It might have focused on good things—the concern of this, the opportunity of that, whatever it might be. But unless those things emerge from solid doctrinal convictions about the person and the work of Jesus of Nazareth, then all of those things, albeit good things, may actually become distractions that leave a congregation adrift within a generation or two.

Check church history. You’re sensible people; you can figure this out. Congregations that were once stalwarts in relationship to the story of Jesus and what he’s done now have gone off into all kinds of tangential things, and the message of the gospel is barely heard from them at all. What happened? Well, they didn’t focus.

If Timothy’s going to be successful in suffering for the gospel, he’s going to have to keep his eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, as preached by Paul. You’ll notice that: “as preached in my gospel.” Well, you see, Paul understands that this gospel is not something he invented. “The gospel[, I remind you, brothers, that] I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless[, of course,] you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures.”[7]

Marcus Borg this morning says, “I reject entirely the notion of a debt being paid by the sacrifice of Jesus.” That’s what he said: “I reject that.” And the person said, “Well, why do you reject it?” He said, “Well, that wasn’t believed a thousand years ago. This is a newfangled idea.” I said to myself, “Are you reading the same Bible as me?” “I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for sins according to the Scriptures.” That he was led as a lamb to the slaughter; like a sheep before its shearers is dumb, he didn’t open his mouth.[8] “He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities.”[9]

Loved ones, is that tangential, or is that central? It’s central! So Paul is saying, “Listen, keep your focus where it needs to be, Timothy. It is imperative that you understand that this gospel is this gospel: that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, that he appeared and so on.”[10] There’s a sense in which this is just a summary of what he is saying in 1 Corinthians 15. Because “Jesus Christ,” he says, is the one who is “[risen] from the dead.”

Now, that must have meant a great deal to Paul. Why? Because he’s writing under the looming shadow of his own execution. And he had already written 1 Corinthians 15, where he pointed out that if Jesus Christ is dead, we’re all dead. If Jesus Christ is not risen, then nobody’s rising.[11] That’s one thing where you’re talking about theoretical physics or something. But this is not arm’s-length theology. This is practicality. Paul is writing, “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead.” And he must have said under his breath, “And thank God for that, because as I have been united with Christ in his death, so I have been united with him in his resurrection.[12] And as he rose, so I too will rise.”

In other words, these biblical doctrines have vital implications for the living of the Christian life. And the focus is absolutely crucial. It’s good to remember that Jesus’ exaltation came along the path of humiliation. Paul says, “Jesus suffered and was exalted. I’m suffering, and one day I will be raised. You’re going to suffer, but don’t lose your focus, son.”

Now, when we think about our lives, many of our days are difficult, aren’t they? Many of our days are dark. Diagnoses come; physical implications of things; social environment in which we live, where we feel ourselves threatened and opposed; the discouragements of our own Christian experience and so on. What should I do? Well, keep your eyes on Jesus. He’s risen from the dead. He’s the triumphant, risen Lord. Sometimes we just have to say that to ourselves again.

Days of darkness still come o’er me,
And sorrow’s paths I often tread,
But my Savior still is with me;
And by his mighty hand I’m led.[13]

Why? Because he’s a risen Savior. If he’s not alive, that’s bogus.

Biblical doctrines have vital implications for the living of the Christian life.

So you see, you can’t take the central truths of the gospel and set them aside and be left with the gospel. He’s risen from the dead. He is the son of David. He’s the offspring of David. In other words, Paul is pointing out that you daren’t have a less-than-divine Jesus, and you daren’t have a less-than-human Jesus. Because in Jesus, the kingdom has come. In Jesus, David’s greater Son has taken his place, and we look to the day when finally, every knee will bow.

Now, what this means, loved ones—and I must hasten on—is that we have to be done with the notion of dealing with Jesus as if he was just a guru, as if he was to be considered along a spectrum of religious and moral teachers throughout time. No, he is

  the Word of God the Father,
From before the world began;
Every star and every planet
Has been fashioned by [his] hand.[14]

And he loves you with an everlasting love.[15] You’re worth more than many sparrows, and he knows when a sparrow falls to the ground.[16]

Sometimes, you see, I just need to recalibrate my life in relationship to that. When I’ve had a solid dose of the news, or when I’ve been aware of my own ineptitude, or whatever it might be, I’ve got to get it back in focus. It’s as if you’ve been trying to take photographs, and the thing has just gone out on you. You say, “Now, wait a minute. If you’re using your cell phone now, you can hit it.” You know, you hit that little thing in that square, like that, and then, [click], it does that. You know, and that may be what God has for you this morning. He says, “Now, come on, just let’s [click]. Let’s get back on track here.”

Where’s your focus? On Christ risen from the dead, fully God, fully man? Only such a Christ is able to provide the salvation—the salvation that is in himself that brings eternal glory.

Learn

Well, that brings us to our final verb: to learn. I used the verb to learn. We might have used the verb to know, but I wanted an L, and so that’s why I used learn. You see what he’s saying now: “You think. You focus. And don’t you forget—learn this: that there’s a direct correlation between my suffering and my gospel. I preach the gospel, and because of that, I suffer.”

There’s far more about endurance than there is about enjoyment in the emphasis of Paul in this final letter. That’s not because he’s a masochist. That’s not because he’s a gloomy old person. But it’s because he’s a realist. He wouldn’t have recognized many of the pseudo gospels today that offer self-fulfillment, that make their appeal on the basis of that: “Why don’t you believe, and you’ll be fulfilled?”

Now, you’re a thinking person. You’re thinking, right? You’re focusing. You say, “Now, where does that fit within the framework of who Jesus is and what Jesus said?” Is that the kind of thing that Jesus said? How are we going to square that with Jesus saying, “If anybody would like to be my disciple, he must take up his cross every day and come and follow me”?[17] “I don’t want to take up a cross and follow Jesus. Look what happened to Jesus! Maybe that’s what’ll happen to me.” That’s exactly what may happen to you! That, loved ones, is what is happening to our brothers and sisters this morning in North Korea. They’re living this. They live this, in parts of Egypt, in Somalia, in Nigeria. For them, they read this, and they go, “Oh, I get it. ‘For this gospel I am suffering.’”

Who came up with the idea of this celebrated, American-style Christianity that sets you free from all of this stuff? I mean, Paul is saying to Timothy, “Listen, you’re going to take this gospel. I’m going to die for it. You’re going to live for it. You’re going to take it into an environment where people have turned away from me, and they will turn away from you. They will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.”[18] That’s the key, you see: “Give the people what they want. Give them what they want. They’ll come in droves.” “But if you’re going to hold to this gospel, you better understand this. You need to learn this. I’m suffering. In part, my suffering is contributing to the salvation of others”—not in a redemptive way, by means of his suffering, but because his suffering is creating a context in which the gospel is advancing.

Read, for example, the beginning of Philippians, where he says, “I want you to know, brothers [and sisters], that what has happened to me has … served to advance the gospel.”[19] And people say, “No, how could it advance the gospel? The best preacher we have is in jail.” But he was in jail, advancing the gospel. I wonder, do you believe this? In fact, this letter is one of the evidences that the gospel was advancing.

[Subhead]

Now, the challenge is pretty obvious, and I will draw it to a close as you think this out. Paul lives his life, faces his death, concerned not about his suffering per se but in order that the Word of God, which isn’t bound—verse 9—that the Word of God may so penetrate the lives and hearts of others that they, those whom God has purposed to save, may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.

In other words, he says, “It may look as though I am going out under a cloud. They’ve been able to constrain me and contain me, but they haven’t been able to contain the Word of God. It isn’t bound. Therefore, I am prepared to endure everything in order that—for the sake of—that they may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” In other words, that men and women might hear about one who loves—who loves not those who are lovely but those who are unlovely; the one who comes and speaks into the minds that are dark, the minds that are prepared to say, “You know, once I was blind but believed I saw everything.”

That was what you were like before you became a Christian. You believed you saw everything. You would sit and listen to a talk like this and say, “I can’t believe where that fellow comes up with that stuff. It’s really amazing to me. How silly is that?” And what happened to you? Did you simply bang your head?

Once I was blind,
But believed I saw everything,
Proud on my own,
But a fool in my part.
Lost and alone
In a great multitude of people.[20]

That might be how you feel today, deep down inside: lost and alone in a multitude. Or you may be doing very, very well. You may feel that somehow or another, you’ve got this whole thing taped. But when you lie in your bed and you think things out, you know that you have no answer for the final exit on the freeway which will mark the end of your life. For “it is appointed unto [man] once to die,” and “after this [comes] the judgment.”[21] And who then will stand to speak in your defense if you do not have Jesus as a Savior and as an advocate before the Father?

Loved ones, that’s why this is so important. That’s why it is vital that we think, that we focus, that we learn, that we’re prepared to order our lives in such a way that generations yet unborn may go up in the attic and read our letters—the letters that we wrote to them that contained old bits of hymns. And they’ll read it out and say, “Isn’t it funny? Did you ever hear Grandpa sing this song?”

I heard an old, old story,
How a Savior came from glory,
How he gave his life on Calvary,
To save a wretch like me;
And I heard about his groaning,
And his precious blood atoning,
And I repented of my sins
And he gave the victory.[22]

You going to leave that as a legacy for your children? Who will serve the generations that you just saw on this screen?

Think. Focus. Learn.

Father, thank you that you have given us the ability to reason and that you want us to do so, that the key to successful Christian living does not involve disengaging our mental faculties and launching into some mystical experience, but rather, you call us to think, to consider these things.

And when we look at Jesus Christ, we realize that in him we have the only one who lived a perfect life and kept your law. We have the only one who was able to take the place of we, who are lawbreakers, to bear the curse, the punishment that we deserve, in order that we might be the recipients of a forgiveness that we don’t deserve.

Thank you that this is a call to salvation, to eternal glory. Thank you that eye hasn’t seen—’cause it’s invisible—nor ear heard or has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him.[23]

Forgive us, Lord, for thinking so much in immediate terms. We thank you that you are immediately our Friend, immediately our Savior. But help us to understand that this life is fleeting—that we were made from dust, and to dust we will return.[24]

So grant that our focus may be on Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, the Lord of Glory. Hear our prayers, for his name’s sake. Amen.

[1] See 2 Timothy 1:8.

[2] See 2 Timothy 4:7.

[3] See 2 Timothy 3:16.

[4] Psalm 119:18 (paraphrased).

[5] Al Dubin, “Tiptoe through the Tulips” (1929).

[6] Acts 20:29–30 (paraphrased).

[7] 1 Corinthians 15:1–3 (ESV).

[8] See Isaiah 53:7.

[9] Isaiah 53:5 (KJV).

[10] See 1 Corinthians 15:4–5.

[11] See 1 Corinthians 15:13–14.

[12] Romans 6:5 (paraphrased).

[13] Francis H. Rowley, “I Will Sing the Wondrous Story” (1886). Lyrics lightly altered.

[14] Stuart Townend and Keith Getty, “You’re the Word of God the Father (Across the Lands)” (2002).

[15] See Jeremiah 31:3.

[16] See Matthew 10:29.

[17] Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23 (paraphrased).

[18] 2 Timothy 4:3 (paraphrased).

[19] Philippians 1:12 (ESV).

[20] Stuart Townend, “I Will Sing of the Lamb” (1997). Lyrics lightly altered.

[21] Hebrews 9:27 (KJV).

[22] Eugene M. Bartlett, “Victory in Jesus” (1939). Lyrics lightly altered.

[23] See 1 Corinthians 2:9.

[24] See Genesis 3:19.