Think, Focus, Learn

A lot of people think faith is some kind of blind belief, or maybe it's an emotional response to a religious experience.

But when suffering occurs, that kind of so-called faith will ultimately let us down. We'll see today why true faith demands that we think, focus and learn. Alistair Begg is teaching from 2 Timothy Chapter 2. Well, I wonder if you can imagine sitting down to write your last letter, what would you put in it? I started 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 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, and Timothy will be able to do the same. And as he proceeds with this, 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.

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. 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. 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. 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. And cogitate is a good verb.

It means to deliberate, it means to reflect, it means to weigh. 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. No, this is obviously not going there. No, you must be thinking. Thinking. It's a reminder to us, isn't it, that the Christian faith is rational? It's not, somehow or another, spiritual to bypass the mind. 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. That's 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, Beck? Are you actually even thinking? They say, Well, I'm thinking about what you just said, but I don't know.

Right? 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. I have no one 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. There's people reading the Bible like a butterfly. Oh, there's a good thing.

Whoo! Look at that. Oh, I like that one. That's a nice one. I wonder what that means, having a clue. Oh, here's something now. Wow, look at this. Wow, that's a beauty.

Whoo! 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 to me, then make sure that you think. 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, as 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. 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. 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 preach to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved.

If you hold fast to the word, I preach 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. That he was led as a lamb to the slaughter, like a sheep before its shearers is dumb.

He didn't open his mouth. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. 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. 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. Well, 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. That's one thing when 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 will be united with him. I have been united with him in his resurrection. 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. 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, the 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 over me, and sorrow's paths I often tread, but my Savior still is with me, and by his mighty hand I'm led.

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

So you see, you can't take the central truths of the gospel and set them aside and be left with a gospel. He's risen from the dead. He is the Son of David. He is 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, and he loves you with an everlasting love. You're worth more than many sparrows, and he knows when a sparrow falls to the ground. 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 have to get myself back on it. 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 it does that. You know, and that may be what God has for you this morning. He says, Now, come on, just 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. Well, that brings us to our final verb, to learn. I use the verb to learn.

We might have used the verb to know, but I wanted an L, and so that's why I use 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're saying, 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. I don't want to take up a cross and follow Jesus. Look what happened to Jesus. Maybe that's what will 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. 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'd 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. And people say, Norah, how could it advance the gospel? The best preacher we have is in jail, that he was in jail advancing the gospel. I wonder, do you believe this? And in fact, this letter is one of the evidences that the gospel was advancing. 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'm 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—not those who are lovely, but those who are unlovely—one who comes and speaks into the minds that are dark, the beings 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? 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. That might be how you feel today, deep down inside, lost and alone in a multitude.

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. 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?

These 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. They 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.

Are you going to leave that as a legacy for your children? Think, focus, learn. You're listening to Truth for Life with Alistair Begg. As we're learning, the Apostle Paul charged his protege Timothy to uphold clear doctrine, to stay focused on Jesus and the gospel and to lead with humility. Today, we want to recommend to you a book titled Honor, Loving Your Church by Building One Another Up, which explores all of this in more detail. The book delves into why Paul urged Christians to selflessly love and honor one another. He taught that we're to do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility, we should count others more significant than ourselves. In fact, Christians are called to outdo each other in showing honor. So how do we do this as members of a local church?

This book, Honor, explains it involves adopting a radically reoriented posture in which we choose to hold nothing positive back from each other in both word and action. This is a book that everyone who is a vital part of a local church will find very helpful. Ask for your copy today when you donate to support the ministry of Truth for Life. Go to truthforlife.org slash donate.

I'm Bob Lapine. The Bible teaches that death can actually be an entrance to life. But how does that work? Tomorrow we'll explore the answer to that conundrum. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.