Insight for Living

Bill Meyer: Ever wondered why some ministries thrive while others merely survive? What's the major factor that separates idle churches from dynamic ones? Well, Chuck Swindoll says it's not just about great leadership; it's great followership that makes the difference.

And today on Insight for Living, Chuck invites us to look at 1 Thessalonians, where you'll discover how to actively contribute to the success of your church leaders. It begins with embracing the truth of God's word without reservation. From his series called "Contagious Christianity," Chuck titled today's message "The Flip Side of Leadership."

Chuck Swindoll: A leader without followers is like Arturo Toscanini without an orchestra. He may tap his baton on the music stand, lift his hands dramatically, and drop them for the downbeat, but let's face it: without musicians, he's merely a man waving his hands without purpose.

However, give him an orchestra to direct, a group of followers skilled in their instruments and dedicated to his leadership, and he's no longer a man vainly beating the air. Arturo Toscanini is a maestro. Successful leading depends on responsive following. We could call it the flip side of leadership.

As strong as Paul's leadership qualities were—and he avoided, you may recall, deception, people-pleasing, greed, and authoritarianism while at the same time cultivating sensitivity, affection, authenticity, and affirmation—they would all have been gestures in the wind if the Thessalonians had chosen not to follow his leadership.

And so today it's appropriate that we talk about the qualities of a good follower, beginning with the one characteristic for which Paul was most thankful: gratitude. Open your Bibles, will you, to 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. We'll begin reading at verse 13 down to the end of the chapter. 1 Thessalonians 2:13.

"For this reason, we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe. For you, brethren, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also endured the same sufferings at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out.

They are not pleasing to God, but hostile to all men, hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost. But we, brethren, having been taken away from you for a short while—in person, not in spirit—were all the more eager with great desire to see your face.

For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, more than once—and yet Satan hindered us. For who is our hope or joy or crown of exultation? Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at his coming? For you are our glory and joy."

Bill Meyer: You're listening to Insight for Living. To dig deeper into 1 Thessalonians on your own, be sure to purchase our Searching the Scriptures Bible study workbook by going to insight.org/offer. Chuck titled today's message "The Flip Side of Leadership."

Chuck Swindoll: It doesn't sound very spiritual to start like this, but sometimes nothing seems to say it better than a bumper sticker. Have you noticed that? I may not like them on my car, but I have to confess I read them on other cars. Like the one that appeared on a rusting out old jalopy that had no rear window, and it had about six different colors of paint all across it. It had a fender that shouldn't have still been hanging on. A big bumper sticker on the back that said, "Don't laugh lady, your daughter may be in here." I looked and my daughter was not in there, and so I laughed.

I was on the freeway trying to survive some time ago, and an unusual man drove by. He was not only absolutely bald as a billiard ball, but he had a big smile on his face and was sort of singing. People like that on the freeway, I'm always a little suspicious of to start with. I thought, now there's a guy with a great sense of humor. When he went by, he had a bumper sticker that was absolutely unique. It said, "When God made heads, he covered up those he did not like." That's pretty good.

One of our staff members said just this past week as we were finishing up our meeting, "I was driving home the other evening and I came across a real cute bumper sticker. I'll never forget it. It reminded me of my life. It said, 'I finally got my act together, but I forgot where I put it.'" You might have felt a little like that two-liner after we finished with the early part of 1 Thessalonians chapter 2. You might reword yours: "I finally convinced of leadership, but there's nobody following."

For what good is a great leader without followers? What good is it if a Hollywood Bowl is packed out with people ready for this fabulous concert, and the only person who shows up is the conductor? It's a flop. It's a failure. You know, what if they called a war and only generals showed up? They can't even fight, certainly not very long.

What good is 12 to 15 years of postgraduate education and internship and specialty in the medical field if you don't ever have any people to come as patients to treat? What good is a pulpit and a preacher if there are not parishioners? What good is a shepherd without a flock? You could go on and on with this.

I think one of the reasons that Paul was so in love with Thessalonica is that the body of believers there were such great followers. I've said all along, all through my ministry, that you never have great leaders without finding around those leaders great followers. I don't know that they even heard of bumper stickers back then. If they did, they were on chariots.

If Paul had a chariot while he was riding around Corinth while writing this letter, I think it might have had a sticker that read, "Ask me about my month in Macedonia," or "I'd rather be in Thessalonica." There's something very, very pleasant about his memory when he made that little "J" in the hook of the "J" and back up north from Corinth to what is known today as Thessaloniki. What a great bunch of people.

Now, in light of all of that, I think a little review is in order. Look, for example, at the second chapter with me of 1 Thessalonians. The question that comes to our mind as we review this is: why is some leadership like it is? See the way he says it in verse 1: "You recall, you know, brethren, our coming was not in vain." Not in vain.

I don't know of anything that I want to say more at the end of my life than to say, looking back over my shoulder, "Yesterday was not in vain." Thinking back over my ministry and thinking back through the lives of my family and thinking back through the cultivation of my friends, it wasn't in vain. Is there anything more empty than to say with a sigh, "In vain"?

I know some heartbreaking stories that come from the lips of embittered pastors today because they feel their ministry back then was in vain. Now, why was his not in vain? I'm intrigued by that, so are you. Well, remember last time? In verses 2 through 6, he sets forth the reasons. He left some things out of his ministry, and he tells what those things were.

In verses 7 through 11, he put things into his ministry, and he tells us what those are. There are four in each. Number one, he refused to rely on deception. Number two, he wasn't a flatterer. Number three, he wasn't greedy. And number four, he refused to be authoritarianistic in his leadership. Remember that? Those things were not a part of his leadership.

In place of that, in verses 7 through 11, he was sensitive to needs. He had an affection for the followers. They had a love affair going. There was an authenticity of life. Remember verse 8? I hope you haven't forgotten chapter 2, verse 8. One of the great verses of the New Testament. "Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased not just to give you the gospel, but we gave you our lives."

There was an authenticity about Paul. He unveiled the truth and he let them know Paul. They didn't push him up on some pedestal; they had him down among them, and he delivered the goods. He wept with them. He confessed with them. He was broken with them. He was happy with them. He was real.

And finally, he was enthusiastic about affirmation. Remember verse 11? How could we ever forget verse 11? "You know we were exhorting and encouraging and imploring as a father would his own children." I did that just this week. Two of our four are still at home, and I'm still encouraging and I'm still imploring and I'm certainly still exhorting those two that are still at home. That's my job. That's the job of the daddy. And that's what I love to do. It's for their good, verse 12. It's to help them walk in a manner worthy of the God who has called them, and that's what it's all about.

Now, I want to repeat: what good is a leader without witnesses or without followers? Did you notice something? Did you notice in verse 5 he said, "God is the witness," but in verse 10 he says, "You are witnesses." Ah, I thought when I read that, now that is important. Not only does God smile at and applaud and respond to our leadership when his people are impacted, but people themselves do.

And this drew me to the latter part of this chapter, where the tables are turned from the leader to the following. In fact, the leader himself is following in this section. In verses 13 to 16, the emphasis is on the Thessalonians. In 17 to 20, it turns to Paul. Did you see the shift as the words were read earlier? Verse 13: "For this reason we constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God's message, you accepted it."

And verse 14: "For you, brethren." But down in verse 17: "But we, brethren." See the change? When you read your Bible, be like a Doberman Pinscher who hears footsteps out front. Ears pop up and he starts to get ruffled inside. Be alert. Be sensitive. God is giving us truth, and he hides it in things like verbs and nouns and particles and connecting thoughts, and he expects us with intelligence to draw it out, to learn from it. This isn't just a good reading from the good book. This is life. And sometimes it's hidden away behind the meaning of a term or the turn of a phrase or the connecting word from verse to verse. Don't be sloppy in your reading. Good students of the Scriptures are good students of English.

Now, his reason for gratitude, verse 13: "For this reason, we constantly thank God." Now, here's the reason I'd rather be in Thessalonica than Corinth. Here's the reason I want people to ask me about my month in Macedonia. "For this reason, we constantly thank God that when you received from us the word of God's message, you welcome it."

Different terms are used, though both of them could be translated "received." When you received from us God's word, you received it. But they're different terms in the original text. This second "receiving" is from a word that means "to welcome." You get two different kinds of knocks on your front door. You want to be kind to both.

One comes from a stranger. Knocks on your door, you open the door, and you officially receive that person. You have a connection, you catch their eyeball-to-eyeball contact, and you hear what they have to say. It might be a solicitor, it might be a salesperson, it might be a neighbor you've not met. But there is a somewhat warm, hospitable greeting.

Now, there's another kind of knock from a friend. And when you open the door and you see your friend, you invite them in. That's the term used here. When you received from us the message from God, you said, "Come on in." You welcomed it.

F.F. Bruce has said, "The word of human beings, however wise in substance or eloquent in expression, cannot produce spiritual life. This is the prerogative of the word of God." Men and women, it's very probable that you and I are in a place where the word of God is taught openly and frequently. You and I have probably never been around a place that is starving for truth.

I know a pastor who somehow got behind the curtain and somehow had on his person a copy of the Scriptures, and he visited a number of the underground church ministries in the land of Russia. He had pastors begging him for simply a page of Scripture. If you would just leave behind a part of the Gospel of John.

Now, I know you hear dramatic stories like that, and I do, and you think, well, that's tragic, and I know some people are doing things about it and we must, we want to. But the alternative or the other side of the coin is when you are frequently exposed to truth, it is easy to become a bit nonchalant about it, isn't it? "Oh, they're going to be in 1 Thessalonians today. We'll be in 1 Timothy tonight. When that's through, we'll probably take 2 Thessalonians and maybe 2 Timothy, and we might throw in a little Genesis."

Friends, this is the word of God. Hearing it means nothing. Welcoming it means everything. Everything. Just to hear it does you no more good than simply hearing the paper read to you this morning. You know that? I am not saying it's on the level of the newspaper. I'm saying just to hear it does nothing for you or for me. But the secret and the thing that makes the ministry thrive, the thing that makes the family flourish, is that you welcome it. You say, "Come on in."

Why? Why is that so valuable? Because that's when it goes to work. See the latter part of verse 13? Now we're into the response among those that were led. "When you received God's message, you welcomed it, not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God." Don't stop reading. "Which," modifies the word of God, "the word of God performs its work in you who believe." Isn't that great news?

I don't read the word and then say, "I'm going to get to work." It isn't like that. When the word of God comes into my life and really gets rooted, it does a work. It works even when I'm not aware of it. It's like getting in touch with radium. It's like being in a spiritual fallout. You don't suddenly feel the fuzz. You don't have big-time tingles that occur from Sunday to Sunday. It's not like that.

But you plow up the soil and you prepare the heart for the sowing of the seed, and the Spirit of God drops it in the right place and covers it over that soft soil and fertilizes it with time and affliction, and it begins to take root. And you change. See, that's the first response in attitude. It's cooperation with needed changes.

Think how impatient you would be if you had never let the word of God take root. Think how unloving, think how murderous we would be. Think how vicious, think how compromising we would be in our morals and in our finances. Think how indifferent we would be politically. Think how unconcerned we would be for the lost. Just think of it if the word of God didn't take root. Think of our concern for the fields about us, those lands beyond our bodies of water. Just think of that.

The Bible is a map, and it's pointing us in God's direction saying, "Go for it." One theologian has said it so much better than I: "The distinctive mark of theology in our day is its dreadful ambiguity. The chaos of American theology can be traced back to its roots in the rejection of biblical infallibility. Preaching is not the act of unfolding our personal conviction. It is the duty of informing men and women of all that God has spoken."

And then this closing point where he just twists it: "To move off from the pages of Scripture is to enter into the wastelands of our own subjectivity." Who cares what my opinion is? In the long run, it proves nothing and it will not last. It's only my opinion. But who cannot help but care what this book says?

By the way, that's one of the reasons I'm so sold on this ministry. You care. You care about what the book says. Now we're not all doing it like we should, we never will, but at least you care. You say, "Here's my life. Pour in the truth and let's see what God will do."

And brothers and sisters, that's what we're about. That's why we occupy the places we do inside this building—to take it in so we can give it out. Well, the result is the imitation of a godly lifestyle. I don't mean an imitated life in that wrong sense. I mean we begin to imitate godliness like other believers. We have a connection, we have an identity with others.

Look at verse 14: "For you, brethren." See, the "for" is a connecting explanation. The word of God performs its work in you who believe. For example, fellow Christians, "You became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea." Now about that. Here he is in Macedonia, which is a continent and a half removed from where he had been in Jerusalem.

And of all things, when the word of God took root in Thessalonica, across the Aegean, down across the northeastern section of the Mediterranean to that body of land is the church of Judea or the churches of Judea. And up here in Macedonia, you are beginning to look just like the saints who lived down there in Judea.

Amazing. And nobody in Macedonia said, "We're going to meet tonight and look at a film on how they live in Judea." You don't have that here. The remarkable thing is that whether you're ministering in Canada or Mexico or mid-United States or the South Sea Islands or some part of Europe, regardless, there is a thread of godliness in the lifestyle that connects, right?

You travel, you'll see it. It's called the Spirit. Your spirit witnesses with my spirit. I get on the plane, I fly to some place, and on route I meet a guy whose smile is right. I see a lady who's got an interest in some seems to be an interest in spiritual things, and I discover as we get into a conversation, we're alike and we've never met. We are imitating the same lifestyle. It's the life of Christ.

Bill Meyer: Chuck Swindoll is defining what he calls the flip side of leadership, and he's just getting started, so stay with us. This is message number three in a 12-part series called "Contagious Christianity." To fully engage with all 12 messages, Insight for Living has put together a printed Bible study workbook that lets you linger over the book of 1 Thessalonians at your own pace.

It's a spiral-bound resource that guides you through Paul's letter and leaves plenty of room for making personal notes and observations. Look for the Searching the Scriptures study titled "Contagious Christianity" at insight.org/offer. If you're an audio learner, take advantage of our convenient Insight mobile app, where you can download and listen to all 12 studies for free.

As a complement to this series from Chuck, you're invited to request his very popular book called "Laugh Again." I'm sure you'd agree, our troubled world is good at stealing our smiles, right? Bad news, setbacks, worries that keep us up at night. But God intends for his children to experience a level of peace and joy that this world can't deliver. In the book called "Laugh Again," Chuck explains how that's possible. Spoiler alert: it's not about pretending everything's fine. It's about knowing who holds our future.

So in addition to the teaching series on "Contagious Christianity," you can request a copy of Chuck's book "Laugh Again." It's yours when you give a gift to support the ministry of Insight for Living. Call us at 800-772-8888 or visit insight.org/offer. Thank you so much for giving generously. It's your voluntary gifts that make Chuck Swindoll's teaching available on radio and all the other platforms that carry Insight for Living. As a result, men and women all around the world are learning how to receive God's grace and share his grace with others. That wouldn't be possible without supportive friends like you.

Once more, for the book "Laugh Again," call us at 800-772-8888 or visit insight.org/offer. I'm Bill Meyer, inviting you to join us when Chuck Swindoll continues his message called "The Flip Side of Leadership" Tuesday on Insight for Living.

The preceding message, "The Flip Side of Leadership," was copyrighted in 1984, 1985, 1993, 2003, and 2024, and the sound recording was copyrighted in 2024 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.