Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] HB Good morning brothers.
[00:00:14] May grace and peace be multiplied to each of you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord. It's an unspeakable blessing to be in this room with each of you singing praise to Jesus, drawing near to the throne of grace and sitting under the wisdom of God's word. Robbie, thank you for the invitation.
[00:00:37] It's a joy to be here. I am eager to preach. Would you get God's Word, your copy of the Sacred Scriptures and turn with me to Mark chapter six? I want to breathe a word of prayer and then there's a story that I want to read to you.
[00:00:54] And then together we'll listen for what God will say to us out of his word.
[00:00:59] Heavenly Father, you are great and greatly to be praised. Your greatness is unsearchable.
[00:01:05] We thank you for your many blessings toward us. Above all, we praise you for the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our all sufficient prophet, priest and king.
[00:01:15] And in his name now we ask afresh that you would open our eyes that we may behold wondrous things from your word.
[00:01:25] Give us understanding and we will keep your word and observe it with our whole heart. In Jesus name, amen.
[00:01:37] Mark, chapter 6, verses 14 through 29 records the death of John the Baptist.
[00:01:45] I want to read the story to you up front.
[00:01:50] I'm reading from the English Standard Version and therein the reading of God's word is this. King Herod heard of it, for Jesus's name had become known.
[00:02:01] Some said, John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.
[00:02:10] But others said, he is Elijah.
[00:02:13] And others said, he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old.
[00:02:19] But when Herod heard of it, he said, john whom I beheaded has been raised, for it was Herod who had sinned and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because he had married her.
[00:02:36] For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.
[00:02:43] And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man and he kept him safe.
[00:02:57] When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, yet he heard him gladly.
[00:03:04] But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of the of Galilee.
[00:03:14] For when Herodias daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his Guest, the king said to the girl, ask me for whatever you wish and I will give it to you.
[00:03:27] And he vowed to her, whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half my kingdom.
[00:03:34] And she went out and said to her mother, for what should I ask?
[00:03:39] And she said, the head of John the Baptist.
[00:03:42] And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
[00:03:52] And the king was exceedingly sorrow, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her.
[00:04:00] And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head.
[00:04:07] He went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl. And the girl gave it to her mother.
[00:04:16] When the disciples heard of it, when his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in the tomb.
[00:04:25] Amen.
[00:04:29] Mark, chapter one, verse one, states up front the theme of this gospel.
[00:04:38] It reads, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
[00:04:43] That's the main idea, the dominating theme, the melodic line of Mark's gospel. Every story declares, defends, and demonstrates the deity of Jesus Christ.
[00:04:59] Our text is unique. It is one of two passages in Mark's gospel that is not about Jesus.
[00:05:09] Both of those passages are about John.
[00:05:14] The first is Mark, chapter one, verses two through eight, that tell us that John was a man sent from God who came to prepare the way of the Lord.
[00:05:28] But be clear, John was just the forerunner, not the Messiah.
[00:05:36] This distinction was made clear in Mark, chapter 1, verses 9 through 11.
[00:05:43] When John baptized Jesus as they came out of the water, the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus as a dove. And a voice from heaven said, you are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.
[00:06:04] Mark, chapter 1, verses 14 and 15 says, now after John was arrested, Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel.
[00:06:25] That's a transitional statement from the ministry of John.
[00:06:29] Now Mark will focus on the ministry of Jesus. But that transitional statement leaves a cliffhanger.
[00:06:39] Why was John arrested?
[00:06:44] Mark will not explain that until six chapters later in our text.
[00:06:53] Our text is what they called when I was a boy in Sunday School, one of Mark's sandwich stories.
[00:07:04] If you read through the Gospel of Mark, you'll see he has a way of telling stories in a weird way. He'll begin one story and then interrupt himself to tell a seemingly unrelated story, and then circle back to conclude his original story.
[00:07:18] This is what you have in the text. And the key to those chiastic structures, as they are called, is that the middle portion is the emphasis.
[00:07:29] So in verses 7 through 13 of Mark, chapter 6, Jesus sends out his disciples on a short term mission trip.
[00:07:38] In verses 30 through rather 40 through 43, the disciples will come back and report to Jesus how things went.
[00:07:50] But in the middle we have this story of the death of John the Baptist.
[00:08:00] The death of John the Baptist is a warning about rejection.
[00:08:09] Over the course of this conference, you'll hear a lot about being strong and courageous for the Lord. And what I want to contribute to this conversation this morning is if you are going to be strong and and courageous for the Lord, you must be prepared to face rejection from the world.
[00:08:30] In verses one through six of this chapter, Jesus is rejected when he visits his hometown of Nazareth.
[00:08:39] In verses 7 through 13, as Jesus sends out the disciples, he warns them that you will be welcomed into houses who will then kick you out when they hear your message.
[00:08:54] Now, in the death of John the Baptist, we see that rejection for righteousness sake is inevitable.
[00:09:04] And after this story, the rest of Mark really does just get us ready for the rejection of Jesus himself.
[00:09:13] Mark is trying to say something to his readers who were Roman Christians who were facing a culture that was in increasingly hostile against their faith.
[00:09:25] It's the reality of the world we live in.
[00:09:29] The text is trying to say, brothers, the choice is yours.
[00:09:34] Either you will be accepted by God and rejected by man, or you will be accepted by man and rejected by God.
[00:09:47] What will your choice be today?
[00:09:52] Jerry Vines says the record of how Herod the King killed John the Baptist in cold blood is one of the darkest episodes in the Bible.
[00:10:03] He's right.
[00:10:05] The story is told in three movements. Verses 14 through 16 is the confusion about Jesus.
[00:10:13] Verses 17 through 20 is about the conscience of Herod.
[00:10:17] Verses 21 through 29 is about the crime against John.
[00:10:26] But what I want to do this morning, I just want to read you through the story and along the way I want to tell you this sordid tale and lift seven lessons from the death of John the Baptist.
[00:10:42] So back home, if I tell my wife that I have more than three points, she said don't tell us up front. Just let's just let us, just let us find out along the way.
[00:10:53] But I have seven lessons I'm going to tell you up front. Trust you'll hang in there with me as we walk through this story.
[00:11:03] Verse 14, King Herod heard of it for John. Well, let's stop there.
[00:11:13] King is an interesting term here.
[00:11:16] This may have been the popular title in Galilee for Herod, or it may be Mark winking at his readers who knew that Herod was not really king.
[00:11:30] His daddy, Herod the Great, was truly a king.
[00:11:36] But after the death of Herod the Great, the Roman government divided his kingdom into four quadrants, four regions, four sections, and put Herod's four sons over those four sections. The Herod of our text is named Herod Antipas, and he was placed as the Tetra, tetrarch of Galilee. And Perea, tetrarch means ruler of the fourth. And. And in reality, Herod was more like a governor than the president.
[00:12:09] He was. He was a councilman. He was a puppet ruler under the authority of Rome. But he heard that Jesus name had become known throughout the region of Galilee. John Bingle is right. That palace is slow in hearing spiritual news.
[00:12:32] But as Jesus was teaching and preaching and healing throughout Galilee, somehow the news about Jesus reached finally Herod's palace, and there was confusion about the true identity of Jesus.
[00:12:50] Verse 14 says, Some said John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.
[00:12:59] Most likely that speculation was started by Herod himself.
[00:13:05] There's no biblical record that John the Baptist performed any miracles. But if Jesus is John raised from the dead, no wonder he now has all of these miraculous powers. So some in the royal court claimed that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead.
[00:13:27] Verse 15 says some of them said he was Elijah.
[00:13:31] And that makes sense because in the Old Testament we are told that Elijah didn't die first. Kings, chapter 2, verse 11 says he was caught up into heaven in a whirlwind.
[00:13:42] And Malachi, chapter four, verse five says, behold, Elijah the prophet must first come before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And so some in Harris court thought that the ministry of Jesus was the arrival of John or of Elijah.
[00:14:05] Then Others still verse 15 says he's. He's a prophet, like one of the prophets of old. But between the end of the Old Testament, Malachi, and the beginning of the New Testament, when John the Baptist shows up, God had not spoken to Israel in over 400 years.
[00:14:21] And so the fact that John, who they consider the true prophet, shows up, and then right after him, Jesus, who they consider the prophet, shows up, makes people think that Jesus is.
[00:14:34] Is reflective of a new age of prophetic ministry. He is like one of the prophets of old.
[00:14:42] Let me summarize all that for you, brothers?
[00:14:45] They didn't know who Jesus was.
[00:14:53] That's lesson number one.
[00:14:57] A high view of Jesus is not necessarily the right view of Jesus.
[00:15:03] A high view of Jesus is not necessarily a right view of Jesus.
[00:15:13] Jesus was called a friend of sinners. That was not a compliment.
[00:15:17] The religious leader said he had a demon. His own family said he was out of his mind.
[00:15:25] Compared to those statements about Jesus, the court of Herod had a really high view of Jesus. Here it again. He's either John the Baptist raised from the dead, he's the prophet Elijah come back from heaven to earth, or he is one of the prophets of old.
[00:15:45] They had a high view of Jesus, but their high view of Jesus was a wrong view of Jesus.
[00:15:55] He is more than a moral leader.
[00:15:58] He is more than a mighty prophet.
[00:16:01] He is more than a miracle worker. Go Back to Mark 1, verse 1. Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
[00:16:11] And there's literally only three. CS Lewis is right. There's only three positions, three options to conclude about Jesus.
[00:16:18] Either he is a liar, he is a lunatic, or he is Lord of all.
[00:16:27] John knew who Jesus was.
[00:16:31] He knew who Jesus was.
[00:16:35] Was.
[00:16:37] He was the Son of God. And remember In Mark chapter 9, when Jesus is transfigured, his divine glory shows through his human flesh. And. And Peter, James and John have been invited to, you know, this free indeed conference on the mountain. And Peter is blown away by what he is seeing. And he says, let's build three tabernacles here. One for Moses, one for Elijah. Moses representing the law, Elijah representing the prophets, and one for Jesus.
[00:17:08] And in Mark 9, verse 7, God from heaven speaks and dismisses Moses and Elijah and says of Jesus, this is my beloved Son. Listen to him.
[00:17:28] Be careful, brothers.
[00:17:30] A high view of Jesus may not be the right view of Jesus.
[00:17:35] I got a long way to go in a short time to get there. But let me pause here and ask you, how are things today between you and Jesus?
[00:17:51] God made us for his glory and we are accountable to him.
[00:17:55] All of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
[00:18:01] There is no good thing in us to commend to God for His approval.
[00:18:06] We cannot fix what our sin has broken.
[00:18:10] All of our righteous deeds are like polluted garments before the Lord. But God sent his Son Jesus into the world.
[00:18:20] He lived a righteous life. He died at the cross to pay for your sins and mine. And he rose from the dead for our justification.
[00:18:29] And friend, whoever you are today, no matter how far you may have been from God in your life, up to this moment. Today, if you will make a U turn and run to the cross, confess your sins and put your trust in Jesus Christ for salvation, today you can have free forgiveness, new life and eternal hope.
[00:18:55] Notice verse 16.
[00:18:59] But when Herod heard it, he said, john, whom I beheaded, has been raised from the dead.
[00:19:12] Lesson number two.
[00:19:18] A guilty conscience will not leave you alone.
[00:19:24] A guilty conscience will not leave you alone.
[00:19:30] I read one commentary on this passage that calls this story the death of a conscience.
[00:19:37] But I'm not sure if the conscience ever really dies.
[00:19:42] Herod was settled in his life of sin.
[00:19:48] And yet when he heard the name of Jesus and he heard about the ministry of Jesus and the preaching of Jesus, this is what he concluded.
[00:19:59] Herod concluded that John, whom I had killed, has now been raised from the dead.
[00:20:08] I just want you to think about that. What was your response when you first heard about Jesus?
[00:20:15] Whatever it is, look how wild this text is.
[00:20:18] When Herod first heard of Jesus, he didn't react to anything. He heard about Jesus. His conscience took him back to a crime he had committed years ago and said, this Jesus is John, whom I murdered, now raised from the dead. Scholars tell us that Herod was a Sadducee, and Sadducees did not believe in the afterlife.
[00:20:50] But here, paranoia trumps theology.
[00:20:56] He forgot. He didn't believe that there was life after death and his conscience was bothering him.
[00:21:07] And he thought that Jesus was John raised from the dead.
[00:21:11] Brothers, I need you to hear me. I don't care how rich and powerful and successful you are.
[00:21:18] Your conscience will not.
[00:21:21] I don't care how much you surround your life with toys and signs of success. Your conscience will not let you rest until you get right with God.
[00:21:32] FB Meyer said it well.
[00:21:35] Better to be with John in the dungeon than with Herod in the palace.
[00:21:46] Because in the palace conscience was the ghost of a murdered prophet that haunted Herod's soul.
[00:22:00] In the end of the story, John will lose his head, but Herod loses his Soul.
[00:22:12] Beware. Proverbs 28, verse 13 says.
[00:22:19] Well, let me go back. Proverbs 28, verse 1 says, the wicked flee when no man pursues. I'm blown away by that. If. If your guilty conscience is guilty, it'll make you run and nobody's chasing you.
[00:22:36] Proverbs 28, verse 1 says, the wicked flee where no man pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.
[00:22:44] How do you get to the bottom of that verse? The righteous are as bold as a lion. Proverbs 28, verse 13 answers whoever conceals his sin will not prosper, but whoever confesses it and forsakes it will find mercy.
[00:23:05] Herod said, this is John, who I killed, now raised from the dead. Verse 17 explains, for it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brothers Philip's wife, because he had married her.
[00:23:22] Now hold on to your seat while I try to untangle this.
[00:23:29] Herodias was the daughter of Herod's brother.
[00:23:36] She was his niece.
[00:23:40] Herodias would later marry Philip, Herod's brother, which makes his niece his sister in law.
[00:23:54] And one day, Herod of our text, Herod Antipas, went to visit his brother Herod Philip. And he saw Herodias and he decided she could do better.
[00:24:10] So he dismissed and divorced his own wife and took his brother Philip's wife.
[00:24:22] McKinney is right. The branches of the Herodian family tree have been so wickedly intertwined that Herod steals his sister in law and marries his niece.
[00:24:35] It's a sordid story.
[00:24:40] But verse 18 says John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. You know, everybody in Galilee thought this was wrong. And there were whisper campaigns, but John didn't whisper.
[00:24:54] John boldly declared to whoever would listen, this is not right.
[00:25:01] It is not right for Herod to have his brother's wife.
[00:25:10] That's lesson number three.
[00:25:16] Standing up for God's word may bring tragic consequences.
[00:25:23] This is why you gotta be bold and courageous and strong in the Lord. Because just because you stand for what is right is no guarantee that things in life will go your way.
[00:25:35] Leviticus, chapter 18, verse 16. Leviticus, chapter 20, verse 21 makes it unmistakably clear it was unlawful for Herod to take his brother's wife. But Herod and Herodias, if I may put it this way, they didn't care about the Bible. They were busy living their truth.
[00:25:59] John was bold enough to tell them, I don't care what your truth is. You don't? There is. There is no personal pronoun before truth. The definite article comes before truth. It's not your truth or my truth. It's the truth or it ain't the truth.
[00:26:16] So he told them the truth of God's word. It is wrong for you to take your brother's wife.
[00:26:26] This is characteristic of John, who boldly denounced sin. But John was not rewarded for telling the truth.
[00:26:38] Herod arrested him. To silence him, Herodias wanted him silenced permanently.
[00:26:46] Beware, brother, standing for the word of God may get you into trouble.
[00:26:58] Down on English writes that John the Baptist's death shows us that no shallow triumphalism will do, nor will faithful witness always bring praise. There is a price to pay, and John the Baptist paid the ultimate price.
[00:27:17] We need to remember that. Brothers, one of the problems back home in the States is that too many Christians think, you know, we are playing with the home court advantage.
[00:27:38] And it's not true.
[00:27:40] In this world, we are always, as Christians, playing away games.
[00:27:48] You don't believe me?
[00:27:50] I'll give you a simple way to find out.
[00:27:53] Affirm any sinful lifestyle and you will be celebrated. Condemn that lifestyle and you will be canceled.
[00:28:06] Are you willing to pay the price?
[00:28:12] Still with me.
[00:28:15] Verse 19. And Herodias had a grudge against him, you think?
[00:28:20] And she wanted to put him to death, but she could not.
[00:28:26] For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man and he kept him safe.
[00:28:34] This is. This is just.
[00:28:36] This is unbelievable.
[00:28:40] Herod put John into prison to keep him safe. To keep him safe from who? From his wife?
[00:28:53] Herod and Herodias are the Ahab and Jezebel of the New Testament.
[00:29:03] His wife wanted blood, but. But Herod was more conscious, more careful, I should say. He. He feared John. I want you to think about that. It wasn't the other way around. In the power dynamic, you would say Herod was the one in control.
[00:29:21] But Herod feared John because he knew he was a righteous and holy man.
[00:29:31] Look at verse 20. You got to lay your eyes on this as I'm reading it, because I don't want you to think I'm making any of this up.
[00:29:38] Verse 20 says, when he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.
[00:29:49] Here's what I think Mark is saying.
[00:29:52] I. I picture it this way.
[00:29:55] John was put in prison.
[00:29:59] And John may have been having prison chapel services in the jail, preaching to the other prisoners.
[00:30:07] And Herod was showing up for the services.
[00:30:14] And he was perplexed every time he heard John preach, because every time he heard John preach, John preached the same sermon.
[00:30:26] It is not lawful for you to take your brother's wife.
[00:30:32] I just want you to think about that. If you came this weekend to free indeed. And every sermon, every breakout was about your secret sin, you wouldn't come back next year.
[00:30:44] But Herod keeps going to hear John, and he leaves, perplexed. And his. He's troubled in spirit because every time he hears John, John preaches the same sermon. It is unlawful for you to take your brother's wife. And yet the text says he heard him gladly.
[00:31:04] Somehow, Herod was torn between John's cell and Herodias bed, which is lesson number four.
[00:31:27] The power of truth is short circuited by a love of sin.
[00:31:35] The power of truth is short circuited by a love of sin. And you're going to be filled up with the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ this weekend.
[00:31:48] But it will do you no good if you keep holding on to sins that you love.
[00:31:58] James, chapter one, verse 21, says it this way. Therefore, laying aside all wickedness and rampant filthiness, let us receive with meekness the implanted word that is able to save our souls. The old folk used to say it like this in the church I grew up in. Either the Bible will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from the Bible.
[00:32:27] Herod kept going to hear John. He kept hearing the truth. He heard what was right. There was a chance for him to turn from his sin and come to God.
[00:32:40] But he wanted to keep going back to Herodias's bed.
[00:32:46] And the power of truth was short circuited by his love for sin.
[00:32:51] Little boy was messing around in the family room and was playing with an expensive vase his parents had that he knew he should not have been touching. And his hands got caught.
[00:33:09] His hand got caught in the vase. He had no choice but to tell his parents. And his mom tried to help him and dad tried to help him get his hand out. They were unsuccessful. Mom says, look, like we're just gonna have to break this vase, dad, knowing how much it costs. Said, wait a minute, let's try one more thing.
[00:33:30] So we're gonna try one more time. I'm gonna count the three, and on the count of three, I'm gonna pull and you try to get your hand out.
[00:33:42] The little boy said, dad, I can't open my hand like that and pull, because if I do, I'll drop my pe.
[00:33:57] Brothers, hear me this morning.
[00:33:59] It is meaningless for you to be here this morning asking God to deliver you from sin, that you keep holding on to.
[00:34:12] Be careful. The power of truth is short circuited by a love of sin.
[00:34:23] Verse 21 says. But an opportunity came when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.
[00:34:35] It's amazing. We're going to now see that Herod's birthday becomes John's death day.
[00:34:41] John threw himself. Herod threw himself a big birthday party. He invited the military commanders, the political leaders and the civic authorities. Of Galilee. It was more like a political fundraiser than it was a birthday party.
[00:35:02] Verse 22 says when Herodias, his daughter, came in and danced. Wait, I'm going to be clear.
[00:35:14] This is the turning point of the story.
[00:35:17] During this party, Herodia's daughter came in and danced for Herod and all his guests.
[00:35:26] This is, this is not a tick tock culture.
[00:35:31] No Jewish family would ever allow their daughter to dance before men to entertain them. For that matter, Gentiles didn't do this.
[00:35:43] This is the activity of slave girls and prostitutes.
[00:35:50] But this is no professional, no dancer.
[00:35:53] The girl dancing here is the princess Herodias daughter, Salome.
[00:36:04] Mark is discreet.
[00:36:08] All he tells us, verse 22 is that her dance pleased Herod and his guests, pleased them so much. Verse 22, the king said to the girl, ask me for whatever you wish and I will give it to you.
[00:36:31] Note this phrase. The king said to the girl, that word. I'm going to speculate for a moment. Just stay with me.
[00:36:39] That same word, girl, is used in Mark 5, verse 41, for Jairus's daughter, who Jesus raised from the dead. And Mark 5, 42 says that girl was 12 years old.
[00:36:56] This is perverse, whatever is happening here.
[00:37:05] And apparently the girl didn't even know how to respond when the king made her this offer.
[00:37:12] And so verse 23 says, he doubled down. He vowed to her, whatever you ask me, I will give it to you. Up to half my kingdom.
[00:37:24] I told you at the top, Herod was no king, he was a tetrarch.
[00:37:30] This is just he don't. You don't have half a kingdom to give away.
[00:37:38] This is just hyperbole for him to show off in front of important people that he may need down the road.
[00:37:51] Verse 24 says she went out and said to her mother, for what should I ask?
[00:38:00] And Herodias, who've been looking for an opportunity to kill John the Baptist, now has her golden opportunity. She said, ask him for the head of John the Baptist.
[00:38:14] Man, Herodias was gangster.
[00:38:21] She didn't just say execute him, she specified how she wanted him to die.
[00:38:28] Chop his head off.
[00:38:31] Not just his tongue for speaking out against me, but chop his head off.
[00:38:43] Verse 25, she, Salome, the daughter, came in immediately with haste to the king and Acts, saying, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Solomon was more gangster than her mama will you notice she didn't hesitate.
[00:39:06] Verse 24 is the only place in the story where Herodias speaks, but it tells us Everything we need to know about her.
[00:39:16] She didn't respond to the news of her daughter by saying, you did what?
[00:39:21] He said, what?
[00:39:24] She gives her daughter instructions to give to her husband.
[00:39:31] And the girl goes in immediately, without delay. And she adds to her mama's request, bring me the head of John the Baptist and put it on a platter.
[00:39:48] Verse 26 says, and the king was exceedingly sorrowful.
[00:39:53] That term, exceedingly sorrowful will be used in Mark 14, verse 33, to describe the agony of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.
[00:40:06] His mind was troubled. His heart was broken. His conscience was tormented. He knew this was wrong.
[00:40:15] He should have said to that girl, I offered you a gift, not a murder.
[00:40:21] I'm. No way I'm doing that. Ask for something else.
[00:40:25] But the Bible says because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. What he. What he was about to do, he knew was wrong. But he was more impressed by the people around him.
[00:40:44] So he proceeded even though he knew it was wrong.
[00:40:51] Lesson number five, do not let people stop you from doing what is right.
[00:41:07] Can we be honest?
[00:41:09] Some of us in here are old enough to remember being young and being warned about peer pressure.
[00:41:17] But peer pressure don't stop. When you get out of high school, you could be, quote unquote, a grown man.
[00:41:26] And your life decisions and life directions can be more shaped by what people around you think than what you know is right before God.
[00:41:38] This is Herod.
[00:41:43] Earlier, he did not have the courage to accept John's words. Now he does not have the courage to ignore his own words.
[00:41:52] And peer pressure meant more to him than divine truth.
[00:41:59] He let the people around him influence him to do something that he knew was wrong.
[00:42:08] Brothers, I don't care how much you determine to do what is right, if you're going to carry it out, hear me.
[00:42:15] There's some places you got to stay away from.
[00:42:20] There's some practices you got to stay away from.
[00:42:23] And yep, there's some people you need to stay away from.
[00:42:29] Brothers, you don't need any friends in your life who just co sign your foolishness.
[00:42:39] You need brothers in your life who love you enough to tell you the truth, who won't give you worldly opinion but will remind you what the word of God says. You need brothers in your life who can get a prayer through.
[00:42:54] Your best friends are not the guys you have the best time around. Your best friends are your friends that make you better.
[00:43:06] First John, chapter four, verses three and four, says it this way for the time that has passed suffices for doing what the Gentiles want to do. Literally. Peter says, you done wasted enough of your life doing sinful things.
[00:43:24] Sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties and lawless idolatry. 1st Peter 4:4 with respect to this, they are surprised when you don't join them in the same flood of debauchery and they will malign you. Let me bottom line that for you, brothers, it is virtually impossible to be holy and popular at the same time.
[00:43:50] If you truly are determined to live for the Lord, there will be people who will malign you when you don't run with them in the same flood of debauchery.
[00:44:01] You've got to determine to do what pleases the Lord no matter what people say do.
[00:44:07] Verses 27 and 28 says, Immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. And he went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on the platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
[00:44:35] The girl went in there and asked Herod for John the Baptist head on the platter like she was ordering a drink.
[00:44:44] He sent an executioner into the dungeons to behead John.
[00:44:49] And while the party is still going on, some soldier comes marching into the party with the head of John the Baptist on a platter like he's delivering dessert to the guest.
[00:45:07] He hands the head of John the Baptist to Herod, who hands it to Salome, who hands it to her mother, finally satisfying her blood thirst.
[00:45:21] Verse 29 says, When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
[00:45:33] So John the Baptist is the forerunner of Jesus in life and in death.
[00:45:40] Both men died as a result of of the judgment of weak willed men.
[00:45:53] Both men were wrongly condemned.
[00:45:58] Both men were John and Jesus were both brutally executed. Both men, John and Jesus were laid in a tomb.
[00:46:10] But oh brothers, I am so glad to announce that's where the comparison ends.
[00:46:19] The disciples came and took the body of John and put it in some grave, and his remains to this day are in some nameless unidentified tomb.
[00:46:31] But when Jesus died at the cross and they placed him in Joseph's tomb, he did not stay dead. On the third day, he rose from the dead with all power in his hand, which is lesson number six.
[00:46:58] I'm trying to keep my cool now.
[00:47:00] Lesson number six, brothers, is that there is nobody like Jesus.
[00:47:09] Y' all knew he wasn't on Jesus's level. When he saw Jesus. He declared John 1:29. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
[00:47:22] John had the biggest church in town, and then he started losing members.
[00:47:30] And his staff came up to him and said, hey man, that dude you baptized, he done started a church and everybody's leaving our church and they're joining his church. And if we don't do something, he's gonna take all our members.
[00:47:51] Remember what John said. John, chapter three, verse 29 and 30.
[00:47:57] I'm not the groom, I'm just the best man.
[00:48:02] And when the groom shows up, the best man moves aside. John, chapter three, verse 30. I must decrease, but he must what?
[00:48:14] Increase. Oh, brothers, don't forget, no matter what's going on in your life or in the world around you, there is nobody like Jesus. Nobody lived before they lived like Jesus. Nobody was born like Jesus. No one grew up like Jesus. No one spoke like Jesus. No one worked like Jesus. No one loved like Jesus. Nobody died like Jesus. Nobody got up like Jesus. And ain't nobody coming back like Jesus.
[00:48:47] The disciples come with John and they.
[00:48:52] They. There's no moral to the story. If you're waiting for the moral, John just leaves it with the disciples coming and they.
[00:49:02] They take his body and they put him in a grave.
[00:49:08] John doesn't, Mark, doesn't try to resolve this story. The tragic story just ends here and it speaks for itself. But there is one more lesson from that fact.
[00:49:22] Thanks for hanging in there. We made it.
[00:49:26] Lesson 7.
[00:49:28] The end of the story is not the end of the story.
[00:49:37] This is a dark story, a really dark story.
[00:49:45] A wicked monarch, a vengeful woman, an immoral girl, a perverse party, a lonely prophet, an unjust execution. As you read through this story and get to the end of it, it seems that everything in this story screams out that evil wins.
[00:50:15] But the end of the story is not the end of the story.
[00:50:23] Herod visited his brother Philip and decided his wife Herodias could do better. So he dismissed and divorced his own wife and took his brother Philip's wife.
[00:50:45] But after all of the events here, the father of Vesalus, who was the divorced wife of Herod, her father King Eridas iv, took his armies and marched against Herod.
[00:51:06] He is supported by Herod's brother Philip, whose wife Herod had taken.
[00:51:15] And they would have taken Herod down, but Roman forces stepped in to intervene and save him.
[00:51:26] And later the Roman government would name Herod's other brother Agrippa to be a king.
[00:51:34] And Herodias started gassing up Herod and saying they done made your brother, they done gave him the title of the king. You need to go to Rome and tell them they you need the title king too. And he did.
[00:51:46] He went and spoke to the Roman Emperor, asking to receive the title King.
[00:51:52] The Roman Emperor was Caligula, who stripped Herod of his tetrarch and banished him to Gaul.
[00:52:03] And he's never heard from again.
[00:52:06] And now, 2,000 years later, people name their dogs Herod and their sons. John.
[00:52:19] In Matthew 11, verse 11, Jesus says, Truly I say to you, of all those born of a woman, there is not risen one greater than John the Baptist.
[00:52:34] John's head was delivered on a platter, but his soul was delivered to eternal glory.
[00:52:44] Daniel Danny Akin comments Here one's tombstone may serve as a trumpet, and one's grave can be a megaphone of a life well lived for the glory of that great king whose name is Jesus.
[00:53:01] I'm talking to some brother here and you're trying to do what is right and pleasing to the Lord and you find yourself in a hard place.
[00:53:10] Hang in there brother. The end of the story is not the end of the story.
[00:53:19] When I was a boy, my mother taught me to sing a song.
