There's one verse that unlocks the entire Gospel of Mark. When we learn it, the whole book opens before us. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll begins his series on the life of Jesus. Right from the start, Chuck provides valuable context and helps us grasp this gospel as one unified message, from the first verse to the last. Before the details pull us in different directions, at the center of it all stands a single verse that glues everything together.
We'll pick up right where we left off on yesterday's program. For half of Mark, he is coming to serve, not to be served, and for the last half of Mark, he is giving his life a ransom for many. Chapter ten, verse forty-five says that.
So memorize the key verse of Mark. Ten forty-five. The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. That's chapters one through eight, about in the middle, and chapter eight, about in the middle, verse thirty, thirty-one, all the way to chapter sixteen, and to give his life a ransom for many.
So the emphasis at the beginning is serving. The emphasis at the end is his death and his resurrection, the price he paid for our sins. The first part of Mark, he's with multitudes of people. The last part of Mark, he's focusing in on the twelve. Because they were sick and broken, he healed people.
Because they were hopeless, he encouraged people. Because they were sinful, he forgave people. The religious officials cannot stand him. Religion has no place for the genuine, authentic Christian message. It's traditionalism, filled with legalism.
Religion is the dead faith, filled with ritual and liturgy, and bogged down in the stuff of religion. Christianity gives you wind beneath your wings, so you can fly freely because of God's grace. Mark unfolds all of that for us, and he doesn't cut a corner when it comes to the Savior's suffering and death. Look at the right part of the angled chart. He pressed the claim Messiah toward the end of the book.
He spent more time alone with his disciples toward the end of the book. He encountered more open conflict with the authorities. He was hated and deserted and crucified, ultimately bodily and miraculously raised from the dead. When you speak of the resurrection, use the words bodily and miraculously. It'll help keep you accurate.
It was in fact in a body, and it was in fact a miracle. That's the book as a whole. One more. See the circles? How different it begins than it ends.
At the beginning, we have one man who baptizes Jesus. The baptizer announces the coming Christ.
Now I don't put Baptist because everybody thinks he's a Southern Baptist.
So this is a baptizer. John is a baptizer.
Okay, the baptizer announces the coming Christ. That's at the beginning of the book. But look at the end. The believers are proclaiming the risen Christ. That's what's happened in the book.
This one who came. This one John baptized. This one whose life and ministry was was ignited with power by the Holy Spirit. This is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased," said the Father at his baptism. This one who hit the floor running, and ministered all over the country.
This is the one who ultimately was crucified, and buried, left to die. What will amaze you in the Gospel by Mark, is that sometimes the same people who followed him and said how to him how much he meant to them were the same ones who later yelled crucify him, crucify him. If you've lived long enough on this old planet, you know how people can turn. The same ones who once were for you, were later against you. I thought of that when I read the true story of Governor Hoy when he was governor of North Carolina, or North Carolina.
He decided to travel to the western part of the state and visit some of the country folk in the Blue Ridge Mountains. When he was there, he met up with an old raw-boned preacher. The governor said to him, "How many members in your church, Parson?" Preacher said, "Fifty." Knowing that the size of membership isn't necessarily a true barometer of the church's spiritual condition, the governor asked the preacher, "Fifty, huh?
Well, that's great. How many are active?" "Fifty," replied the preacher. "Wow," said the governor. "You must be an unusually good pastor." "No, not necessarily. Twenty-five are active for me, and twenty-five are active against me." That's the way it was with Jesus in the Gospel by Mark.
A lot of the same ones active for him, saying, "Feed us, heal us, help us, lead us," are at the end saying, "Get out of our lives." Mark tells it straight. Remember, he's writing to the industrial-minded Roman, who is interested in theories. He's not looking for poetry and symbols. He's looking for facts. That's why he moves immediately from one event to another, to yet another, to another.
But he wasn't in a hurry to get things done. Where life was no longer any fun, Jesus meaningfully paced himself in things that mattered.
Now, let's look again at the outline. Go back to the other side. The panoramic view of the book, we're ready for that. Four parts. The first and the last are the shortest.
The two center ones are the longer of the four.
So the servant in verses one through thirteen is introduced and tempted. That's what chapter one, verses one to thirteen, will cover, and we'll be there next time we're together. We're going to look at the servant who is introduced by John, but what is interesting? He is tempted in the wilderness by Satan. How do I know that?
Because the Bible says so. You will learn when you study your Bible that it will give you sufficient information to inform you to prepare you for life. Guard against reading into it. Train yourself to pull out of it what is there. Names are mentioned on purpose, and when they're left out, it's for a purpose.
We don't always know why. For example, the name Mark never appears in the book, even though he wrote it. Tradition tells us he wrote it. Church he wrote it. Church fathers encourage us to believe that he's the one who wrote it.
He certainly reveals a number of things about Peter in this gospel that the others don't reveal.
So it's probably through his association with Peter. But look here, it says, verse six: John was clothed with camel's hair, and he wore a leather belt around his waist. His diet was locusts and wild honey. Gotta watch out for a guy like that, by the way. He was preaching and saying, "After me, one is coming who is mightier than I, and I am not fit to stoop down and untie the Thong of his sandals.
I love that about John the Baptizer. Reason I love him is because, as John writes, he is the one who said, "He must increase; I must decrease." Forget about me. He's the man who lost his congregation, and he applauded the one who got the congregation. You will love John the Baptizer, though you don't want to get close to him, you'll start itching. Chapter one, verse thirteen.
We read. Jesus was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan. He was with wild beasts and the angels ministering to him. We'll look at all of that next time. But look closely.
There is a literal Satan. Our culture will tell you that's nonsense. The culture is nonsense. The scriptures are true, and let everyone else be a liar. There is a literal Satan.
And he tempted the son of God for a reason. We'll look at those reasons when we're back in that section. While he is with wild beasts, Satan has a desire to get him dislodged and move him off target.
So he is introduced, and he is tempted.
Now the second section, chapter one, verse fourteen, all the way to chapter eight, verse thirty. Here we go. He is ministering. And training. He's ministering to the multitudes.
Remember, there's a growing number of people that are following him. He's ministering, and we'll see that from this first chapter on. And he's also training. Let me show you an example. Look at chapter three, verse fourteen.
Another great verse you'd be wise to memorize. Mark three fourteen. He is the Lord Jesus. That's why it's capitalized with a capital H. Jesus appointed twelve.
That would be, of course, the twelve disciples. They are, by the way, named in the Gospels, and it's a bit of an interesting process of getting the list complete. You might think there's one place where they're all there, and there's no complication. But there is complication.
However, we read here simply. Remember, Mark's not given. The complication. He appointed twelve so that they would be with him, and that he could send them out to preach. Don't go any further.
That is the ministry of Jesus to the disciples, and that is his ministry to you and to me. In that order, first, what that we would be with him. That's first. And then, as having been with him, learned from him, trained by him, deepened through him, guided by him, directed with gifts given because of him, he then sends us out to minister. Here he calls it preaching.
That's what the disciples did. Many of you have been doing ministry, but you've not really been with him sufficiently.
So you're operating with a lot of zeal, but not a lot of knowledge. If you're going to minister effectively, you need knowledge, and you need prayer, and you need devotion, and you need time. And in the process of time, you will be better prepared to minister to others. Doesn't mean you don't minister in the process, but you don't minister as effectively until you spent sufficient time with Him. I would dare say some of you could not name the last time you have spent twenty minutes in the presence of the Savior, with nothing else going on—no music, no activity, no television, no people.
Just isolated time with the Lord Jesus Christ. Vertical, His speaking to you, and you are speaking to Him. His using His Word in your heart, and you are responding to Him with your questions and prayers and devotion. Be with Him, and then, having been with Him, you are well equipped. To be sent forth to preach, to teach, to minister, to love, to encourage, to show comfort, and compassion and care.
That's a grand verse on ministry and training.
Now, the third section on your outline again: the servant is resisted and rejected. He is resisted and rejected. Here, pressure intensifies. It intensifies for the disciples because they are sort of disillusioned, thinking he was going to set up his kingdom, and now he's starting to talk about dying and suffering and being arrested and being scourged and crucified. What kind of a future is that?
I left my nets to follow you. I gave up my tax collecting business to follow you. We had a lucrative thing going on, Jesus, and now you're telling us you're going to die. What's that about? They missed it by a mile.
And Jesus tries to prepare them, but you'll read over and over in Mark they did not understand. Peter even says to him that he was off target. In fact, Mark says he rebuked Jesus. Can you imagine? And Jesus says to Peter, "You get behind me, Satan!
I've had one encounter with you, and this is not another. And I'm going to take on." Life is kind of like that. We're moving through it; things seem fairly clear and plain. We think we know where the Lord's going. Out of the blue, He turns a corner and doesn't tell us about it.
Where did that come from? And we got a new direction going, and we say, "Wait, wait, wait, wait, Lord! I didn't sign up for the long haul. I just like the part where it's you know health and wealth. I just like to get what I ask for." And it's at that point he says, "It's never about health and wealth.
It is about my plan for your life, which includes suffering and pain and hardship and disappointment and even some deaths you didn't expect." The Gospel by Mark puts it all together so beautifully. In fact, you know what happens when I read the Gospel by Mark. I realize I live my life before an audience of one. One. Oz Guinness, in a magnificent book titled *The Call*, you need to read *The Call*.
Oz Guinness writes this. Living before the audience of one transforms all our endeavors. Christ-centered heroism does not need to be noticed or publicized. The greatest deeds are done before the audience of one, and that is enough. Churchill once remarked in a speech in the House of Commons: "Writes Guinness, nothing is more dangerous than to live in the temperamental atmosphere of a Gallup poll." Always feeling one's pulse and taking one's temperature.
Churchill was as impervious to atmosphere as Harry Truman, who, during his presidency, dropped the first atomic bomb. Truman once said, "I wonder how far Moses would have gone if he had taken a poll in Egypt." Guinness concludes. The Puritans lived as if they had swallowed gyroscopes. We modern Christians live as if we swallowed gallop poles. Do you wish to be inner directed rather than other directed, and truly make one audience decisive—the audience of one?
Listen to Jesus of Nazareth answer his call. It'll change your whole life. Answer his call. You find yourself wanting to please him. It is remarkable how that will transform your insecurities, and also will lessen your popularity.
I might add. But of course, if you'd rather be popular than right, that's your call. There's a fourth part in this great book that I want you to get a hold of before we're through with our study. And that's the servant triumphant and exalted. The servant triumphant and exalted.
Here is the part where the disciples all forsook him and fled. Why?
Well, because their Savior died. Disillusioned, brokenhearted, confused, fearful, they left the scene of the cross. Except for John, who stayed with his mother, and then behind closed doors, Jesus comes and presents himself to them, shows them his hands and his side with the scars, and they see him triumphant. Later, he is ascending into heaven. Mark writes of it, and that's when he's exalted, triumphant, and exalted.
How do we apply something like this? I've chosen three afterthoughts for application. I always like to do this when we get to the end of a of a message because I think it's it's invaluable that we take something home with us. Here they are. First, if Jesus is our model, then servanthood is our method.
If Jesus is our model, and He is, we never get closer to His lifestyle than servanthood. I love it that Mark presents Him as a servant, a servant. You are never more Christlike than when you serve another person. For some of you, who find yourself with your marriage partner in life. Becoming increasingly more disabled, your great role as a model of Christ is to serve your marriage partner.
Serve her, serve him well. Serving your parents as they age, serving the needs as you see them. Serving—remember, the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve. That's our method. All right.
Here is the second. If servanthood is our method, then people are our ministry. Makes sense. I don't serve this pulpit. I don't serve this building.
I serve people. I don't serve a policy. I serve people. That's why here at Stonebriar we emphasize constantly the people who are around us, among us, some in need. That's why we have a a fund we take up regularly that we're able to use to help people who can't make it on their own for a while.
So we have a benevolence fund because ministry is people. That's why music is important because people help us with music, and that's why we are in it together. We're people serving the Savior. Servanthood leads to touching the lives of people. You forget that when you're in a hurry to get things done, you rush and rush until life's no fun.
Before you know it, you isolate yourself and you become a workaholic, not in touch with people. Here's the third: If people are our ministry, involvement is the means. Involvement is the key, and we have Mark to thank for that because his is the book that gets us engaged. You know what's remarkable to me? One quick glance, and then we're through.
I promise. Chapter ten. Turn again, verse thirty-two. They were on the road going to Jerusalem. Jesus was walking ahead of them, and they were amazed.
And those who followed him were fearful. Again, he took the twelve aside and began to tell them what was going to happen to him, saying, "Behold, we're going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. They'll condemn him to death, and they'll hand him over to the Gentiles. They'll mock him, and spit on him, and scourge him, and kill him. Three days later, he will rise again." Verse thirty-five.
Look what came on the heels of that. James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, came up to Jesus, saying, "Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you." Ever prayed something like that? Rather regularly, don't we? And he said to them, "What do you want me to do for you?" They said, "Grant that we may sit, one on your right and one on your left in your glory." He'd been talking about his death. They want to know: Can we sit on your right?
We don't want the center seat; that's yours. But could I have this one, and could my brother have that one? I mean, that'd be okay, wouldn't it? And verse thirty-eight: Jesus said, "You don't know what you're asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, and be baptized with the baptism which I'm baptized?" They said, "We're able." Doesn't that sound like us in an unguarded moment?
Yeah, we're ready. No, you're not. You have so much to learn before you suffer like I'm going to suffer, and you will suffer like this.
So much to learn. In chapter ten, verse forty-five, sort of the turning point we mentioned earlier. Even the Son of Man didn't come to be served, but to serve. That's the first section. And to give his life a ransom for many—that's the last section.
That caused Robert Raines to write this in his book *Creative Brooding*. I'm like James and John, Lord. I size up other people in terms of what they can do for me, how they can further my program, feed my ego, satisfy my needs, give me strategic advantage. I exploit people, ostensibly for your sake, but really for my own sake. Lord, I turn to you to get the inside track and obtain special favor, your direction for my schemes, your power for my projects, your sanction for my ambition, your blank check for whatever I want.
I'm like James and John. Lord, change me. Lord, make me a man who asks of you and of others, "What can I do for you?" Wouldn't it be great when we finish the book of Mark that we're all asking that genuinely, "What can I do for you?" When we do, we are most like Christ. And by then, we'll not only have gone through the book of Mark; the book of Mark would have gone through us. Thank you, Father, for the things we learn from you.
In just a brief span of time, we've journeyed over a 16 chapter book, and we find ourselves on tiptoe, anxious to know better the servant you gave to this world. Centuries ago, may his life change ours. May his motivation purify ours. May his ministry affect ours, so that we become unassuming servants before an audience of one. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ.
Everybody said, "Amen." There it is—one verse holding an entire gospel together. The Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. Take a moment to let that settle in. Everything Jesus did, He did for you. And the invitation today is to simply receive it, to stop striving, stop earning, and rest in what He's already accomplished on your behalf.
You're listening to Insight for Living. Chuck Swindoll, our Bible teacher, has just begun a brand new study through the Gospel according to Mark. Chuck split this study into three sections, and all three Bible study workbooks for Mark are ready today. The Searching the Scriptures Bible Study Workbooks are spiral bound, and you can find all the details for volumes one, two, and three at insight.org/offer. And then we're excited to offer a once-in-a-lifetime book written by Chuck.
I'm referring to his personal memoir called Awakened by Grace. All the chapters have been written, the pictures selected, and Chuck's memoir is ready to be shipped to your home in mid-October. Born in rural Texas in 1934, Charles often heard he was a mistake. Did you know that Chuck began stuttering in the seventh grade? But even while stumbling through his young adulthood, God was working out His purposes.
In Awakened by Grace, Chuck shares for the very first time how God helped him grow from a small, insecure boy into a man who delights in speaking grace and truth to millions. You can pre-order your copy right now by calling us at eight hundred seven seven two eighty eight eighty eight. When you do, we'll immediately send you a free digital preview of the book. You'll love reading about the wisdom Chuck Leen from over sixty years in ministry, the words he'd like to speak to his younger self, and the encouragement for anyone going through tough times. Call us at eight hundred seven seven two eighty eight eighty eight, or pre-order your copy at insight dot org slash memoir.
Are you ready for some really good news? I'm Bill Meyer. Chuck Swindoll describes twelve simple words that will lift your spirit. Friday on Insight for Living. The preceding message, snapshots of the Servant God, was copyrighted in 2010 and 2026, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2026 by Charles R Swindoll Incorporated.
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