The Busy Life of Ministry Mark 3:7-21 Justin Deeter January 22, 2017 Introduction When you ask someone, Hey how are you doing? One of the most common replies is, I m busy. Everyone seems to be busy. We bustle around, frantic with activity, bouncing from one obligation to the next. We have soccer games to see, parties to attend, family to visit, meals to cook, homework to do you get the point. That s not to include the constant bombardment we get with the super computers in our pocket called cell phones. We have messages dinging and phone calls ringing. Though we have all this technology that makes our life quicker, faster, and easier it seems like we ve only gotten busier! I think its easy for us to look back to Jesus' day and long for a simpler time. If you just skim through the Gospels it seems like Jesus and the disciples are always at a party or fishing. Sounds like a pretty stress free life, but it was anything but! Jesus was far busier than you and me, and the stress and pressure he had to endure was enormous. The passage before us today reveals the strain that the increasing crowd and their incessant demands put upon the savior. You see, being a follower of Jesus doesn t mean a stress free life. If we live our lives for Christ and his kingdom, sometimes we will feel overwhelmed. Sometimes 1
we will be busy. Indeed, we should be busy. You wake up early before work to spend some time with the Lord in word and prayer. You take your lunch break to meet a friend from church for discipleship. After a long day at work you invite your neighbors over for dinner to minister to them and share the Gospel with them. A kingdom, gospel-centered life is a busy one! As we look at Mark s Gospel today, we will learn from Jesus about how to handle the pressures of ministry in our discipleship journey. The Fame of Jesus Jesus attempts to withdraw away with his disciples from the gargantuan crowd by retreating to the sea. But, as word spread throughout the region of Jesus the miracle worker, the crowd followed. Mark tells us that this crowd is coming from all over from Galilee and Judea and Jerusalem and Idumea, and even from beyond the Jordan around Tyre and Sidon. Jerusalem for example, is one hundred miles north from Galilee. The radius of people hearing about Jesus, then traveling to see him is increasing. Now, if you traveled a hundred miles by foot to see a miracle worker that you ve only heard rumors about, you are going to find him and you will insist on seeing him! I didn t travel all this way for nothing! This explains the growing size of the crowd. It s difficult to know the exact size of the crowd, but many scholars estimate that tens of thousands of people were pressing in on Jesus at this point. A crowd of this size, pressing in to see Jesus, put the savior s life at risk! So as they went to the sea, the disciples prepared a get away boat for Jesus, in case the crowd pressed in to violently and crushed him. Yet, even in these hectic and stressful circumstances, the ministry of Jesus continued. He healed many in the crowd, and everyone was forcing their loved ones up to the front of the crowd just so they might be touched by Jesus. As we ve 2
already seen, the demons shriek in terror at Jesus, continually attempting to reveal Jesus true identity as the son of God. No doubt, Jesus was exhausted, just as any of us would be. Remember, he was human in every way we are. Jesus, just coming off a series of heated confrontation with the religious establishment, now had a needy crowd who simply wanted him only for his ability to heal. We can even imagine Jesus frustration here. Again, he saw his primary ministry on earth as one of teaching, heralding the kingdom of God! We saw already in Mark 1:38, that Jesus was already growing frustrated by the fact that his preaching ministry was being sidelined by his healing ministry. Jesus, who I m convinced was an introvert, needs to withdraw from the crowd to recharge and refresh in the presence of his Father. The busyness of his ministry exhausted him. If you seek to serve the Lord with your life and be active in ministry, you will face fatigue. There is always someone who needs you. People often show little respect for your time and feel entitled to speak to you. In addition, there is always someone who has a need or a crisis. Jesus shows us that such pressures are to be expected. Faithfulness to Christ doesn t mean an easy or stress-free ministry. If you serve the Lord well, stress will come! Yet, Jesus teaches us how we can handle such pressure. So if you are stressed or overwhelmed with God s calling on your life, then here are three lessons we can learn from the life of Christ. 1. Spend Time with God in Refreshment First, we see that Jesus needed time with his Father. As we saw back in Mark 1, whenever Jesus withdraws like this, he goes to be with his Father. He needs the refreshment that comes from being in the presence of God. Jesus knew that what 3
he needed to rejuvenate himself from the demands and stress of his ministry, and this would only come through concentrated time with the Lord. When he s tired, his instinctual response is to get alone with God. What do you do for refreshment? When you are tired and exhausted after a long day, what do you do? Most of us simply resort to soul-numbing activities. We veg on the couch flipping through the channels, mentally and emotionally checking out from the world around us. As we give ourselves over to exhaustion, we completely disconnect. And often, we disconnect through the escapist entertainment of the world. Sadly, we are often unaware of how our tv-induced comatose affects our souls spiritually. We fill our minds and souls up with worldly wisdom and values. There is a place for enjoying movies and entertainment in the Christian life, but when we are tired, our default posture is not to go to a quiet place with the Lord but a noisy place with a screen. That indicates there is a problem in our souls. Much of what we do for rest doesn t stimulate our soul or our love for God. If anything, the way we rest can actually steer our affections away from the Lord. Christ must be Lord of our leisure as well, and we should steward our down time well for the stimulation of our own love for God. Though the Christian is free in Christ to do many things, we should choose to rest in ways that increase our love for Jesus. This of course might look different for each of us, depending on our own personality and temperaments. Perhaps its sitting on the back porch with a Christian book that increases your love for God. Maybe its going for a walk in the cool of the morning, enjoying the world that God has made. Maybe its pulling out a board game and playing it with your family after dinner. Maybe its with a canvas 4
and an easel in painting or a pad of paper and a pen in writing. Who knows what that might be, but utilize leisure activities that stir your heart for the Lord. As I think about my own failures in this area and my own way of resting, I have a long ways to go, and in many ways I fall short of this ideal. I know for me there are a few ways that spiritual refresh me. Picking up a good book from a puritan like John Owen or John Bunyan with a cup of coffee in hand refreshes me. Pulling out my journal and recording my thoughts and prayer refreshes me. Getting fresh air outside and praying refreshes me. Playing with my children refreshes me. Activities like that stir my love for the Lord and revitalize my soul. Binge watching the sitcom that s currently on TV doesn t do that. Sure I may escape my troubles for a bit, but my soul feels shriveled up afterwards. Another word of advice I d give to us, is to begin our day with intentional time with the Lord rather than waiting at the end of the day. Again, everyone is different here so this is no hard and fast rule, but by the end of the day most of us are too tired for serious Scripture study and focused prayer. Spend the best and most energetic part of your day (which is for most of us first thing in the morning) with the Lord. Give the Lord the most focused and refreshed hours of your day. Spend time in Word and prayer daily with him and solitude and refresh your soul as you head into a day filled with stresses and demands. Jesus models for us the importance of refreshing our soul in the Lord. It s important for us to get away and spend time with God. Perhaps you need to spend some time this afternoon with the Lord laying before him your current leisure activities. Turn off the tv and put your cell phone down and ask yourself the hard questions does my leisure push me towards God or away for him? How 5
can I truly refresh my soul in the Lord and not just numb my soul with frivolous entertainment? We must learn to look to God as the source of true rest and refreshment, especially in our busy lives and ministries. So the first lesson we learn from Jesus is spend time with God in refreshment. But, Jesus also models for us a second lesson. 2. Commit Yourself to Christian Community Second, we need the encouragement of community. It s important to have time to get away and be alone with the Lord. Even Jesus, the Messiah needed refreshment and prayer. We see in verse 13, that he takes his disciples up to the mountain to get away from the crowd. As the crowd grew, he intentionally poured his life into 12 men, his disciples. Jesus teaches us of the importance of community. Even Jesus needed to be refreshed and encouraged in the company of his closest companions! He wanted these men to be with him in his moment of exhaustion. In your walk with Christ, it is vital that you never see yourself as a Lone Ranger. God does not expect, nor desires for you to serve him alone. You need other brothers and sisters in your life who can come along side you to encourage you in your ministry. It s important to have time to withdraw to be with the Lord, but also to withdraw and be in community. It s important to spend this time of rest with people who refresh you, not people who drain you. We all have people, friends and family members, in our lives who require concentrated attention and emotional energy. After spending the day with them we are exhausted. However, we also have friends where grabbing a bite for lunch brings great refreshment to our soul. You pour into each other as 6
you talk about your struggles and joys in your walk with the Lord. We should not ignore those in our lives who do drain us; we should serve them as best we can. But, we also need people who can feed us, pray for us, and refresh us. That s what Jesus does by assembling his 12 disciples. The crowd was draining; the disciples were refreshing. Jesus invites the disciples to join him up on the mountain for rest. This is one of the reasons we have community groups at Forest Hills Baptist Church, because we believe that God has designed us to need one another. Church is not an event you attend, its a community to which you belong. If you just come to an event on Sunday morning, you are missing the beauty and joys of belonging to a church body. Other Christians rejuvenate us in our walk with the Lord. They pray for us, teach us, correct us, and help us. If you want to experience growth in your walk with the Lord and in your personal discipleship, you must get connected to community. Perhaps you ve started attending our church recently or maybe you ve attended a while and have never been plugged in! At Forest Hills, the best place to take that next step is by joining a Community Group. Community groups are multi-generational, small group, sermon discussion small groups. They typically meet on Sunday nights at the homes of different church members. If you are looking to get plugged into community, I d encourage you to find one to join as soon as possible. You can always go to our website and sign up for one whenever your ready, or you can always stop by our welcome center before or after the service to sign up. In fact, our Pastor of Students and Discipleship, Tim Franks, will be by the welcome center after the service today to help you find a group that s best for you. If you need refreshment and growth in your Christian life, then get plugged into community! If Jesus needed community, so do you! So second, commit yourself to Christian community. 7
3. Share the Work with Others through Disciple Making Third, we must share our ministry with others. As we are dealing with stress and pressure in our lives, particularly our ministry lives, we have to realize we can t do it alone. We have to empower and equip others to join in the work. This of course was Jesus discipleship strategy. He taught the crowds, but gathered twelve men for intensive training. Jesus appointed twelve and invested his time and energy into their lives. He called them that he might send them out to preach and have authority to cast out demons. Or, to use the language of our church mission statement, they were equipped so that they might be sent.the disciples were supposed to shoulder the load of Jesus ministry. When we try to do everything ourselves, not only are we not as effective as we could be, but we fail to train others so that the work can further spread. When it comes to our personal ministries in the church or outside the church, we should constantly be recruiting and training others for the work. People tend to get territorial over their ministry areas? That s my Sunday school class or my ministry or my committee or my job. Well first of all, no you are not entitled to your ministry and you aren t doing your ministry for yourself. Second of all, every faithful Christian should be attempting to raise up others to take on the ministry. Our ministry in the church or outside of the church should not be protected positions, but positions in which we continually raise up other men and women to take. Jesus didn t tell his disciples, well there are a lot of demons to cast out, but I don t really want to empower you guys for the work because I don t want you to 8
steal my thunder, so I ll just do it all by myself. No! Jesus empowered and equipped others to do the work of ministry. We should be weary of pastors, deacons, or church members who think they can do everything on their own. Such an attitude reveals only pride and selfishness. Rather, we should select a few people to train and bring them into the rhythms of our lives and ministry for personal disciple making. Yet, something must be said about these twelve disciples. With the exception of Judas, who would betray him, these disciples would go on to establish the church after the accession of Jesus. The apostles would travel all over the known world and most of them died the death of a martyr. In our own discipleship, we too must come under the school of Christ. We must learn to die to self. We must learn from his words, but also his life! We must pick up our cross and follow him! Discipleship is more than just a data dump of biblical facts, but its imitation and modeling. The Christian church today has an overly intellectual approach to discipleship. We think that we form disciples by throwing people in the right classes, getting them to regurgitate certain facts, or forcing them to read certain books. Yet, this was not the way Jesus made disciples. Yes, he taught them, but he lived life with them. He invited the disciples into the most personal aspects of his life. They saw the powerful teacher and healer at work in the crowd, but they also saw the exhausted man up on the mountain in prayer. These disciples had special access to Jesus that the crowd never had. Jesus invites these men not only to listen to his teaching, but to watch his life. I hope every one of us is in some way helping other people follow Jesus. Indeed, that s what Christians do. We disciple other Christians. If you aren t helping other 9
people follow Jesus, I m not sure what you mean when you say that you follow Jesus. Discipling is what Christians do! Yet, as we help others grow in Christ, we invite people to watch our lives. Sure, we aren t perfect and we sin regularly, but younger Christians need mature Christians to imitate. They need to see what a godly Father looks like as he plays with his children. They need to hear what a godly woman talks like. They need to watch how a godly person prays and reads the Scriptures. They need to see an evangelist labor in sharing the gospel with their neighbor. They need to observe how a Christian mourns and weeps with joy in their suffering. For those of us who have been following Jesus for quite some time, think back to the Christian men and women who have had the greatest impact on you. Chances are what made them so impactful to you was not listening to some lesson they gave behind the lectern, but the personal conversation and interactions you had with them. Jesus invites these disciples to teach them and to live life with them. He does so to train them for the work of ministry, so that when he returns to heaven after his resurrection, the apostles would be ready to build the church on the cornerstone of Christ! We too must share our ministry with others by prioritizing disciple making. We must replicate ourselves through our life and teaching. We must model to other believers what following Jesus looks like. In so doing, we will raise up a new generation of Christian men and women to carry the Gospel further than we could ever imagine! 10
Final Thoughts The work of ministry can be exhausting and overwhelming. As we think about the Great Commission to go and make disciples of all nations, it can feel a bit like an overwhelming commission! Yet, in the stress of our ministry labors, we must remember to refresh ourselves in the presence of God, commit ourselves to receiving the life giving encouragement from Christian Community, and invest our lives in others so that they can share the work of Ministry. The life of ministry can be grueling. However, Christ bids us all to come and die. Our lives our not our own, but replicate the life of our master Jesus. We lay down our lives for Christ and for others out of the joy of salvation we ve received from Jesus. During the last supper, Jesus tells us the path of the Christian life by breaking the bread and holding up the cup. Just as Jesus lays down his life for us, we too lay ourselves down for others. We are busy not just for busyness sake. We are busy not with meaningless activity. We are busy for the glory of God as we lay down our lives in ministry to others. Though sometimes we are stressed and overwhelmed by our demands, we do so in joy knowing that we follow in the same pattern of Jesus. Yet, even in our work, we must remember to pause and find rest in the finished work of Christ. As we prepare to take this supper today, we must remember the sacrifice of Christ and remember too our call to discipleship a call to be busy as we die to ourselves, following in the pattern of our savior. 11