The Exhausting Toll of an Effective Ministry, Part 1

Bill Maier: Oddly speaking, the truth comes with a price and a reward. Sometimes it exposes things in others we'd rather not see, and sometimes it exposes something in us that we'd rather keep hidden. Well, Jesus was the boldest truth teller who ever lived, and the crowds came by the thousands from every direction, over 100 miles, pressing in to touch him, to be healed, to hear. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll reveals a hidden cost to effective ministry, even for the Son of God. And then Chuck offers the biblical remedy.
Pastor Chuck Swindoll: In our journey through the Gospel by Mark, we have come to the center section of the third chapter. You have a copy of the New Testament or your Bible handy, please locate Mark 3. I'll be reading for us verses 7 through 15. Mark 3 beginning at verse 7. Jesus withdrew to the sea with his disciples. And a great multitude from Galilee followed, and also from Judea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and beyond the Jordan, and the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. A great number of people heard of all that he was doing and came to him. And he told his disciples that a boat should stand ready for him because of the crowd, so that they would not crowd him. For he had healed many with the result that all those who had afflictions pressed around him in order to touch him. Whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they would fall down before him and shout, you are the Son of God. And he earnestly warned them not to tell who he was. And he went up on the mountain and summoned those whom he himself wanted, and they came to him. And he appointed 12 so that they would be with him and that he could send them out to preach and to have authority to cast out the demons.
Bill Maier: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into the Gospel according to Mark, be sure to purchase a copy of our Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message, The Exhausting Toll of an Effective Ministry.
Pastor Chuck Swindoll: Boldly speaking the truth has its downside consequences, and also its upside benefits. One of the downside consequences of speaking the truth boldly is that sometime you hear something you would rather not hear. Sometime that bold speaking reveals something inside you that you didn't want exposed for others to know about. I I have thought about that when I read this past week of a Mississippi grandma who was asked to take the stand in a small southern town court setting. She was called as a witness, this grandmother was, and and uh she took the stand and the prosecuting attorney approached her and and said, Mrs. Jones, do you know me? She responded, why yes, I I do know you, Mr. Williams. I've known you since you were a boy, and frankly you've been a big disappointment to me. You lie, you cheat on your wife, and you manipulate people, and you talk about them behind their backs. You think you're a big shot. When you haven't the brains to realize you'll never amount to anything more than a two-bit paper pusher. Yeah, I know you, Mr. Williams. Lawyer was stunned. Not knowing what else to do, he pointed across the room and asked, Miss Jones, do you know the defense attorney? She again replied, why yes, I do. I've known Mr. Bradley since he was a youngster. He's lazy, bigoted, has a drinking problem, and can't build normal relationships with anyone, and the law practice is one of the worst in the entire state. Not to mention he cheated on his wife with three different women, and one of them is your wife. Yes, I know Mr. Bradley. Defense attorney almost passed out. Judge asked both counselors to approach the bench, and in a very quiet voice said, if you either of you idiots ask her if she knows me, I'll send you to the electric chair. I love that story. I'd like to know Miss Maybe I wouldn't. I noticed that as you get older, you get bolder. You got less to lose. Furthermore, you know more than you've ever known in all your life, and you realize the consequence of not telling the truth is greater than the downside of telling it. There's also an upside. People want to be around those who boldly speak the truth. We appreciate them. We appreciate their courage. We admire them for being willing to stand alone when necessary and say what other people won't say. And I have just introduced to you Jesus of Nazareth. Classic example of a bold, uncompromising manner that caused many people to be drawn to him and others to hate him. Well, the crowds are growing. They usually do when there is a a leader who is bold enough to tell the truth. If your Bible is open to Mark chapter 1, you will observe shortly after he calls the first five disciples, he now comes to the synagogue at Capernaum, verse 21. They went to Capernaum, and immediately on the Sabbath he entered the synagogue and began to teach. Observe they were amazed at his teaching. Of course. They've been sitting through all the dull, dry sermons of the scribes that just went from one quotation to another in a very disinteresting, uninteresting fashion. And along comes this itinerant preacher from Nazareth who holds them spellbound with the truth as he unfolds the scroll and takes them from one Old Testament section to another. They're amazed. They're amazed at his teaching. Verse 22 tells us he was teaching them as one having authority, not as the scribes. I'm sure by now elbows are poking other people's arms. Listen to that. Who who who is he? He deals with a demon or demons that have filled this person in the synagogue. And verse 27 tells us again they're amazed, and they debated among themselves saying, what is he? What is this, this new teaching with authority? It wasn't conceit, it wasn't an ego-centered message. It was a divine authority that compelled the people to listen and to admire. They're amazed, not surprisingly. Verse 28 Immediately the news about him spread everywhere into all the surrounding district of Galilee. If you check your map, you will see that that section that surrounds that area where the sea is located, all around that area, people began to come to Capernaum to see him, to hear him, to witness this unusual spokesman. Verse 33 The whole city is gathered at the door. Early in the morning Jesus arises. Verse 35 tells us and and he got up and and and left the house, and he went away to a secluded place and was praying there. He's not out trying to increase the crowd. He's not out promoting himself. He goes to a secluded place early in the morning before sunup and and hides away there for time with his God. And Simon, verse 36, we read along with his companions searched for him. When they found him, they said to him, what every preacher would love to hear. Everyone is looking for you. But it doesn't turn Jesus' head. To their surprise, his response is, let's not go back there. Verse 38 Let's go somewhere else to the towns nearby that we may preach there also. For that is what I came for. I love that about Jesus. Sort of a wrap-up statement the end of verse 45. They were coming to him from everywhere. It's not an exaggeration. By now the environs in Galilee are filled with words and talk about this this preacher from Nazareth who has been saying and doing things no one else has ever done in their lifetime. He boldly spoke the truth, and of course because of that he exposed the wrong of the religious authorities. In case you wonder how much they hated him, verse 6 of chapter 3 reveals they met with others that they might determine how to destroy him. Oh, the fickle crowd. Always in the midst of a setting like this, you will have those who are impressed and are interested and curious and and some genuinely filled with admiration. And you also have others who are now starting to look at him over the top of their glasses. What's he up to? Who does he think he is telling people words like that about us? Let's get rid of him. Nevertheless, the crowds continue to grow. Look at verse 7. I have marked in my Bible a great multitude from Galilee followed, but it doesn't stop there. Now we're going all over the land of Israel. Look closely. Not only from Galilee, but also from Judea. That's 90 miles away and further. You drop down to the along the the Jordan, and you and you get to the to the Dead Sea, and you get to the city of Jerusalem. You go further south and you get into Idumea, and the word travels all the way down there, almost to the Sahara. And you go to the vicinity of Tyre and Sidon. That's on the other side, up north, along the coast. That 's the Phoenician city. That's Gentile country. And word travels there about this Jewish preacher down in Galilee, and they come from there. And even across the Jordan, often called the Transjordan area, they came from there. I read great numbers of people. The crowd is there, and he's healing many, and there are those who are pressing around him. This is unbelievable growth. The thousands have come to this little village of Capernaum and beyond. And they have these needs and expectations, and and the popularity grows and grows and grows. J. Oswald Sanders has written a fine book that every spiritual leader should be reading. Even though it was written in 1967, it has a ring of truth to it to this day. In his 19th chapter, which he titles The Peculiar Perils of Leadership, Sanders identifies some of the warnings that every leader who is in the midst of rapid growth needs to remember, whether in the world we commonly call the secular world or the world of the church. He names them. There's the peril of pride, egotism, jealousy, popularity, indispensability, feelings of infallibility, elation and depression, even the possibility of disqualification. I've read that chapter so many times the pages are yellow. Always puts a chill up my back. I find within that chapter the words of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Success exposes one to the pressures of people and thus tempts him to hold on to his gains by means of fleshly methods and practices and to let himself be ruled wholly by the dictatorial demands of incessant expansion. Success can go to my head, admits Spurgeon. And it will unless I remember that it is God who who accomplishes the work and that he can continue to do so without my help, that he will be able to make out with other means whenever he cuts me down to size. George Whitfield was heard to say on one occasion, I have seen enough of popularity to be sick of it. There's a touch of that in Jesus' life. He knows that many in the crowd are fickle. They want what he can give them. Their motive is not altogether pure. Fill my belly. Help me make my payments. Answer my prayers with yes. Take care of that difficult person in my life. The crowd grows. The numbers enlarge. I notice as I read verses 7 to 15 that he is in three different places. Notice in verse 7 he withdraws to the sea. And then following that he begins to meet various needs, and the places are named where the people are from. Verses 8 through 12 he is on the land ministering here and there and touching this life and healing this person and listening to this one and paying attention to that one and and and and the crowd is pressing on him. We'll get to that in a moment. And then I notice in verse 13 he goes up on a mountain. So he's on the sea, verse 7. He's on the land. 8 to 12 And 13 he goes up on a mountain. It's as if he is there and then gets away and is back there and then gets away and is back there and then gets away. He knows what he's doing. Let's notice that he retreats first to the sea. He withdrew to the sea with his disciples. There are a few places better suited for solitude than being on a body of water or walking along the crashing surf of a great ocean. There's a rhythm about us as we take to the sea. Uh it can't be duplicated anywhere on land, not even in the mountains. The sound of the surf, the waves slapping against the hull of a boat. Perspective is gained. A renewal of our private world takes place. Something about the sound of all of that provides uh provides us with a therapy. The sea has a message in its ever-changing waters. Most of us can remember strolls we have taken along a seashore. At a time in our life when we were thinking things through. And Moral Lindberg has written a fine piece called Gift from the Sea. She describes it. At first the tired body takes over completely as on shipboard one descends into a deck chair. Apathy One is forced against one's mind, against all tidy resolutions back into the primeval rhythms of the seashore. Rollers on the beach, wind in the pines, the slow flapping of herons across sand dunes drown out the hectic rhythms of the city and suburbs, timetables and schedules. One falls under their spell, relaxes, stretches out prone. One becomes in fact like the element on which one lies flattened by the sea, bare, open, empty as the beach, erased by today's tides of all yesterday's scribblings. The sea escorts us to the center of ourselves and allows us to see truth that we would have otherwise passed by. He's quiet at the sea with his disciples. And the sound of silence is rare to these busy men. One wonders what they talked about. The next place we find him, he is busy meeting many needs. And we've read the places where they're from, but but look at the growth. I've got marked a great number of people heard. A great multitude from Galilee followed. Verse 9 The crowd Verse 10 Many all those pressed around him in order to touch him. Just let me touch him. Just just get near him. This is an immense gathering, some having come well over 100 miles, and they're thinking, make this worth my trouble. Heal me, speak truth, cast out this demon, minister to me. And they're pressing in on him. And he's whispers to one of his disciples, you may have a boat ready because the crowd could become crushing. Not to mention there's danger sometime in a large crowd. You never know when there are thousands around who may have your harm in mind. I I just finished reading a fine biography of Lincoln, and the one of the things that made it unique is the uh the photographs. This is back in an era when photography was in its in its embryonic stage, and there is a there's a photographic shot of Lincoln delivering his second inaugural, considered his best ever public speech. If you look real closely as I did with a magnifying glass, you will spot a mustache wearing man 35 feet away named John Wilkes Booth listening, planning. In fact, a couple of days later he hears Lincoln deliver a speech from a a doorway in the White House and whispers to a friend as he speaks with a racial slur regarding Lincoln and says to his friend, that's the last speech he'll ever deliver in public. Only hours later he drove a bullet into his brain. That explains why there are times when crowds can make a leader cynical. They can change our perspective. Uh they can appeal to the ego. They can lead the leader to to manipulate and become greedy and use people, build his own kingdom and empire, take their money, and to start dropping numbers as they go from one place to another, comparing one crowd with another. I would urge all of us as we grow older in Christ to stop mentioning how large things are, how many attend. If I had one message to give young preachers, it would be that one. We don't care how big your church is. Okay? Doesn't mean anything. If size meant anything as Junior used to say on Heehaw, a cow could outrun a rabbit. Further it it'll take a while, but there are you you Furthermore, furthermore um something happens to you when you become numbers conscious. It builds a jealousy and envy, comparison. If numbers meant anything, the cults are winning. So Jesus deals with the numbers in an interesting way. He he asks for help by having a place on the boat, and that would of course help in the acoustics so that large crowds could hear as he spoke from a small body of water, perhaps right off off the shore from the Sea of Galilee. By the way, when we take our trips to Israel, we often ask people as they look back on the tour, what was their favorite part of the trip, almost without exception they name the time we were on the boat in the Sea of Galilee. Isn't that interesting? Why? Because there is something about the solitude where you get away from the press and demands and expectations of the crowd where life sort of makes up its mind.
Bill Maier: There's something about solitude, just getting away from the demands of the crowd. Jesus knew that. Even as the multitudes pressed in, he kept withdrawing to the sea to quiet places to be still before his father. Maybe that's what you need today. If the crowds and expectations have worn you thin, remember even the busiest life needs a shoreline. This is Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll has a lot more from this passage in Mark chapter 3 to show us. He titled his message The Exhausting Toll of an Effective Ministry. You know Jesus found his shoreline in a quiet place with his father. And that's really what we're after when we open God's word each morning, a still point before the noise begins. Here's something built exactly for that. Swindoll's Living Insights for Every Day It's a perpetual flip calendar from Insight for Living. One page, one passage from the New Testament, one clear-eyed insight from Chuck to turn over in your mind. It asks nothing more than a minute, and it gives back a settled heart. Display it where the day tends to grab you, the kitchen counter, the edge of your desk, and let it catch you before the crowd does. Because it never expires, you'll come back to it year after year. We love to send it your way today. Just go to insight.org/offer. And if that calendar hands you a moment of stillness each morning, Chuck's new memoir hands you a whole life's worth of it. In Awakened by Grace, Chuck tells for the very first time how God grew an unsure boy into a man who has spoken grace and truth to millions. You'll find the hard-won wisdom of 60 years in ministry, the words he'd say to his younger self, and real encouragement for anyone walking through a hard stretch. To purchase a copy, go to insight.org/offer or call us at 800 772 8888.
Bill Maier: Success includes hidden dangers. I'm Bill Maier. Join us when Chuck Swindoll describes how to stay grounded Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, The Exhausting Toll of an Effective Ministry, was copyrighted in 2010 and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R. Swindoll Incorporated. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.