In this sermon, Pastor Babij examines the account of John the Baptist’s death from the Gospel of Mark. Pastor Babij explains the effect of God’s truth on Herod’s and Herodias’ consciences and how they chose to ignore the message and even attack the messenger to protect their sin. In light of this principle, Pastor Babij discusses what Christians should expect in their own lives and what should keep them going.
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all right this morning let’s take our Bibles and turn to Mark chapter 6 Mark chapter 6 we’re going to be looking at a larger section this morning verse 14- 29 so for the sake of time I’ll not read that but I will cover it in the message this morning let’s pray before I start let’s pray father thank you for bringing us here today we know lord it’s by your Providence by your mercy and your care for us that you allow our ears to take in truth from Heaven that comes from the word of God what a privilege that is I pray Lord that we would never take for granted of it for we know someday there will be a famine in our land for truth so I pray Lord that you’ll allow us to learn it and get it in our heart and that we would think about it meditate upon it and it become part of our conversation part of our thinking part of our decisions would reflect us growing in righteousness and Holiness and I pray Lord in doing so that we may fall in line behind John the Baptist that we may be a character like him so Lord bless our time in the word of God this morning I pray in Christ’s name amen now this morning um the last time that I was in uh markk which was last week we learned about the test mission of the Apostles that the mission in which the TW went on took them from being a disciple really to being a practical Apostle a disciple who was just a mere learner a mere student to an apostle who was a scent one a commissioned one by their Master accompanied by their Master’s Authority and sent out in their master’s name the apostles went out from a calling to follow Jesus now to a commissioning to carry out the work of ministry and Advance the message of the gospel and the message of the kingdom of God it was far from an easy task however the apostles learned from this test mission that Jesus can be fully trusted that God’s power was with them and that God would supply all their needs and that God’s providential care was active and living in the small details of their life that that must be learned by all of us if we’re going to do anything for the Lord so this onth job training Mission actually revealed that the apostles were ready for more responsibilities they were ready for more missions because if you noticed that this pattern that we’ve been looking at it’s all about being rejected so Jesus was teaching the apostles that Ministry that serving him that living for God in this world will be hard it will not be an easy thing and then of course the final outcome of the cost of discipleship is that Christ calls to discipleship that is God dependent that is Christlike not only in the individual themselves but in the community where that individual worships and attends and lives under the rule of Christ in their life so just to keep in mind that this conflict narrative is said in the construction of the top of the samage the middle of the samage and the bottom of the sage well this morning we’re going to look at the bottom of the sandwich which completes the narrative package the first part of the sandwich the top slice was the number one rejection story and that was the opposition of jesus’ Hometown they rejected him of course that taught the disciples uh that mission in a lost world will result in with resistance and hostility it also taught them that those closest to them may be the ones that reject them the most and then of course of course those who are not open to Jesus may discover that God is no longer open to them and of course that led to the middle of the sage which we looked at last week and that was the mission of the 12 apostles and of course this uh visit to Nazareth prepared the disciples for their first given mission that they would go out without Jesus and they would find out they were able to accomplish their mission so they came back if you notice in verse number 30 of chapter 6 so here’s the sage here how it this is how it ends verse 30 the apostles gathered together with Jesus and they reported to him all that they had done and taught so this is one big Sandage and if you have to take it all together and bring it all together and tie it all together to get the sense of what is actually going on so this morning we’re going going to look at the bottom of the piece of bread in this narrative and that is the story of John the Baptist or better John the baptizer all right John wasn’t a Baptist all right but he was a baptizer all right so really that’s the more correct way of thinking of John the Baptist so the other the underneath part of the narrative is written with all the Intrigue of a modern-day sitcom I try to give that sense in my sermon title which this title is verdicts conscience revenge and death me that’s a good movie right there this would be make a great movie this really would uh so it good it just goes to show you that the the human heart is still Wicked above all things and capable of expressing all the drama of human falling in everyday experience so when I started out preaching the gospel of Mark I said this that Mark’s aim was to give a picture of Jesus as he was of what Jesus said and what he did Mark evokes a wonderment an astonishment and an awe in his display of Jesus now if you haven’t figured it out yet Christianity is about the person of Jesus Christ Christianity is not just one of many views to choose from it is not just an optimistic view of life and it is not just a matter of certain morals and conduct it is not merely a religious system to adhere to Christianity is about Jesus about all that Jesus began to do and teach Christianity is not a teaching it is a person and that’s what makes it completely different from all the religions of the world so what people need today is they need to know him they need to come into a relationship ship with him by believing in the Gospel of Jesus Christ so we find from scripture that when Jesus is presented to people either people are pierced in their heart concerning the significance of Jesus convicted of their unbelief which leads them to repentance of their sins and turning to Jesus in faith or they simply ignore the message and remain in quiet uninterested unbelief or they aggressively reject the message all those are operative everywhere you go in the world matter of fact you may have experienced them on your own in your own Ministry and going in and out with your Christian life so in the gospel of Mark really he points out two essential questions uh that are definitely apparent all over the epistle all over the gospel excuse me and it which really says this the questions are who do you perceive yourself to be and then who do you perceive God to be see the question is who is Jesus it’s all over Mark in fact when we started off uh with Mark we found that in chapter 4 that when Jesus Remember rebuked the wind and the waves and they obeyed him what did the apostles what did the disciples say who then is this who is this person and then later on in the gospel of Mark we find that Jesus again brings up the question to his disciples who do people say that I am so see in other words that is a relevant question I would say this that is the only relevant question it is one that needs a correct answer and how we get that correct answer is by reading the gospels and of course the whole whole of the word of God so confusion abounds in our very day about that question as to who Jesus is and so that is why today there remains a profound need to take a fresh look at the person of Jesus and the purpose of his life on Earth as found in the scriptures so saying that it seems like in our text that at the highest level of government the message of Jesus came into the King’s Room and he had to deal with what was going going on with Jesus so verdicts about who Jesus is was circling around the government and so that’s where Mark picks it up and we’re going to see several things because there’s three sections in this part of the narra narrative the first section is this it’s a section about the verdicts on what people who people think Jesus is and so there’s the first thing is this there’s three specimens of opinions held about Jesus and this brings us in to the story and to the narrative that is contained in verse number of course uh 14 to verse number 30 now let’s look at it uh before I look at each one I want to say this that the Divergence of opinions is be all because of unbelief and the reason for unbelief is a refusal to see Jesus for who he really is now who is he he is the Messiah of course as presented in the gospel without him saying that he is and that he’s not someone else that’s who he is he’s the prophesied one he’s the one greater than Moses he’s the final word from the father about who the father is and what God’s plan is for the Salvation of humanity so consequently the gospel of Mark is so much needed for our times because there is always a danger of misrepresenting the truth about Jesus and the essence of real Biblical Faith real Biblical Christianity it’s like one Seminary profess uh president said in today’s world we increasingly face the pressure of waking up day after day breathing a looming toxic poisonous air of unbelief that’s all around us so this requires us to put our feet on the floor believing deliberately and to have a foundation that sustains our belief and of course what sustains our belief is to maintain maintain a high view of God a high view of scripture and a commitment to the plenary verbal inspiration incy and final authority of the Bible ible that will sustain our belief because this is God’s word that you have in your hands so then the gospel of Mark is a reliable witness of the astounding person and the transforming mission of Jesus in the context of the in Breaking Eternal rule of God that came with Jesus that is continuing with the spirit of God and that will ultimately end with Jesus finally vanquishing his enemies and ruling and reigning over everything that’s the goal all right so here’s the first opinion we find in our text verse number 14 of Mark chapter 6 number one is herod’s opinion here’s King herod’s opinion uh I’ll give it to you right at the get-go and then I’ll read the text that Herod deduced that this Jesus is John the baptizer Risen from from the dead now why would Herod Antipas think that John the baptizer returned to life well King Herod feared that John the baptizer had come back to haunt him look at verse number 14 and King Herod heard of it that he heard the message of Jesus of for his name had become well known and people were saying John the Baptist has risen from from the dead and that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him so see this is what’s coming in to the government at that time and King Herod of course is hearing about it and he’s afraid he’s haunted by this message of Jesus these things that Jesus is doing now since Jesus is From herod’s perspective John risen from the dead then that is why these works of powers are active in him however Jesus Powers had gone far beyond John’s in fact to my knowledge you may be able to correct me on this I don’t believe that the scriptures ever record John the baptizer ever doing any Miracles see John’s power was embodied in his teaching in his fiery preaching and his in his holy character of being righteous and holy which is contained in this text so see Mark chapter 6 and verse number 16 does give us a glimpse look at verse 16 into why Herod held this opinion of Jesus verse 16 but when Herod heard of it he kept saying John whom I behead headed has risen now you can see why he’s being haunted right because what what’s going on here you know what’s going on here and and this is what the well let me just back up for a minute who is Herod there’s many herods right there’s that was the title giving to uh the herods of you know King Herod the Great and then all below him his sons would be called Herod too all right this was Herod Antipas he was ruler over Galilean Korea he was recognized locally as a king but he was not recognized by Rome as a king and the reason for that was that he only ruled over a quarter of of King herod’s domain so he was just a tetrarch they call it that means that a tetrarch was somebody who just rolled over a portion of the full Realm of the Kingdom all right and many times the king would not be recognized as a king but as someone who does certain government duties under the king and had certain ruling Powers that’s who really who he was but he called himself a king and the local people in Galilee and peria called him King the reason why is because he wanted to be called King so there’s a little bit of ego going on here in our narrative all right so what’s going on is Herve I mean Herod has a guilty conscience right so the life of John the Baptist caused him to feel like Jesus is John the Baptist come to haunt him because he’s guilty right because Herod had John jailed bound put in prison and finally beheaded Herod perceived that John had come to haunt him for his sins and commit that he committed against him because of his acts against John uh the acts of against John was really really tormented his soul look at verse 17 the first part of it it says for Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison so see Herod is the one guilty of doing this to John that’s the number one opinion now before I look at what why that happened uh let’s look at the second opinion about Jesus in verse number 15 of Mark chapter 6 it says but others were saying he’s Elijah all right so some thought that Jesus was Elijah come again that the thought about this is that uh before Messiah the Conquering king would come and lead the Jews back to Liberty Elijah the great the greatest of the prophets would come again to be messiah’s Herald and for Forerunner and that was definitely in the minds of the Jews all right they did not recognize John as any for as any Forerunner in fact uh the practice of the Jews even till this day is when the Jews celebrate the Passover feast they leave an at the table an empty chair called Elijah Elijah’s chair they place a glass of wine before it and that one part of their service they go out to the door and fling it open wide that Elijah may come and bring at last the long awaited news that Messiah had come all right they still doing that obviously they don’t believe Jesus is the Messiah even today they don’t all right uh so that is what’s going on so the motive for those who believed that it was Elijah that Jesus was Elijah is really A procession ction of Jesus uh it’s not someone who wants to obey and submit to God as a servant but somebody who wants something from God somebody who wants to be to use God for their own selfish purposes and advancement all right that God would do this for us because we’re Jews all right so the motive was motive was all wrong and then there’s a third opinion in our text verse 15 others were saying that he is a prophet like the one of the prophets of old now some thought that Jesus was one like the Old Testament prophets come to speak for God now why did they believe that the Jews were very conscious that God had not spoken through a human Prophet for hundreds of years now of course we know that Jesus identify John the baptizer as the last prophet as the prophet who would come and speak after hundreds and hundreds of years of God not speaking through a prophet so see their motive well they were kind of on a right path this group but they still fell short of believing that Jesus was the son of God so see the motive here in this perception of Jesus could simply be a desire to hear the voice other than the moral lecture of and the legal disputations of their rabbis who just repeated over and over again the same stuff stuff coupled with a weighty list of dos and don’ts they wanted a fresh voice that’s what they wanted and that’s what they heard in Jesus they heard a fresh voice Jesus spoke like no one else spoke and so this becomes all these fall short of who who Jesus really is so see if they stay there in that belief they will not come to understand who Jesus is therefore they will not come into the kingdom of God all right so with that said let me pick up The Narrative of John the Baptist again now the question would be for us why did Herod excuse me why did Herod arrest John and imprison him well look at verse 16 17 and 18 uh in our text it said for Herod himself had sent and had John arrested and bound in prison on account of herodias the wife of his brother Phillip be because he had married her Verse 18 for John had been saying to Herod it is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife now John most likely pronounced herod’s unlawful actions publicly in the wilderness not face to face at least not initially because we know that Herod wanted like to visit John in prison and talk with him so John probably just had the same message to him there so John he preached against the flagrant sin of Herod and called for his repentance so herod’s seduction of his brother’s wife and his adulterous Mar marriage is what instigated John’s arrest John exposed the sin of adultery at the highest level of govern of a government official of course he could have had his life taken right away for that but just think of the character of John to stick his uh finger in the face of a powerful leader and tell him his sin and you know the thing thing about John is that he was clear about it he did not mince words so Herod was remember already to marry married to the daughter of AR arus uh the king of Arabia in petria now herodias in our text was the daughter of aristois she first married her full Uncle Herod called Phillip a full brother of aristobulus and this Phillip was disinherited through the treachery of his mother and he lived as a wealthy citizen privately in Rome with herodias and their daughter salomi while Herod anpus which we’re looking at in our text while he was on a visit to Rome he seduced her and persuaded her to leave her husband or she seduced him and persuaded him that he should take her for a wife right it could be the latter because of her character now so that the wife of Antipas his original wife the daughter of Artis not waiting to be divorced went to her father who was the King of the naans and a war followed between Artis and herit anpus and in which of course Artis heavily defeated Herod in battle so see John was saying to Herod Antipas you are breaking God’s law and where did he get that from he got it from of course right from the word of God in Leviticus and he was saying listen John was just saying to Herod it is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife it’s he this is a Jewish Province all right so he cannot be breaking the law so John spoke plainly plain truth truth about herod’s Sin regardless of all the consequences that would come with it and John the baptizer of course was referring to passages like Leviticus 18 where it says you shall not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife all right that means you should not have sexual relations with her all right and then in 1816 if there is a man who takes his brother’s wife it is abhorent and of course they will be guilty of that sin so he’s referring to these texts and giving them to Herod and so Herod uh of course comes under the a guilt he comes under the powerful truthful word of John the Baptist and he ends up living every day of his life guilty guilt-ridden in his conscience now let me just give you a little background of the sinfully Twisted family dealings of the herods and their matrimonial entanglements all right because there is many of them Herod the Great was married many times matter of fact in my reading I think he was married up to 25 times towards the end of his life he became insanely suspicious and murdered member after member of his own family in fact his sons his first wife was Doris she had a son named antipater he was supicious of him and murdered him he married a second wife Mar amne and she had a son Alexander and aristobulus he murdered both of them but before aristois uh got put to death by his father he had a daughter named herodias which is in our text all right now herodias King Herod married another woman uh from another section of the region and of course she had a son named herob Phillip who married herodias so herodias was married to Herod Phillip not to Herod anpus all right and so what happens is that herodias had a daughter with Phillip and that daughter was named salomi She’s also in our text all right what happened is that Herod antip stole herodias or herodias seduced him and of course she ended up eloping with him and so herodias and her daughter salomi came to live uh with herit anpus all right now that’s if you don’t understand all that don’t worry about it it’s a twisted tanglement believe me all right and it goes I’m I’m G to give you to tip the iceberg it goes into graphic detail about the sin from the top levels uh down now there was a Jewish saying that said it is safer to be herod’s Pig than herod’s son but don’t forget this herodias knew the history of her of King King herit the great it was a murderous history all right so nonetheless some of that really trickled down to her character so who was herodias well she was the daughter of Herod antipas’s half brother aristobulus therefore his niece she was the wife of his half brother Herod Phillip therefore she was his sister-in-law now that’s very close blood all right and of course the the word of God warns against that kind of intermarriage thing of course there’s a lot of sins going on here there’s many other things going on so but with that in mind because John the Baptist wanted to come against herodias all right and of course her very name tells you where she’s connected to herodias the female version of Herod right it tells you she’s connected to the line of Herod and so this gives her an opportunity for the next thing in our section of scripture Revenge she wanted Revenge well why did she look at verse number 19 of chapter 6 all right now you could see why this would make a good movie all right it says in verse 19 it says and herodias had a grudge against him John the baptizer and wanted to put him to death but notice what it says and could not do so now that’s interesting because in this second section of our text about revenge it’s also about how people react to the conviction of the truth that was spoken by John the Baptist that she came under conviction too she though had a very seared conscience and herodias had a murderous hatred toward John and wanted him dead she wanted to put him to death as it says in verse number 19 but if you notice at the end of verse number 19 she couldn’t do it why couldn’t she do it because actually according to our text herod’s fear of John kept herodias from carrying out her wishes to kill John all right now that was her motives and feelings and action towards John the baptizer she just wanted him dead all right now what was herro’s motives feelings and actions towards John the baptizer well herod’s his conscience was two things it was divided and it was guilty now remember somebody who has a seared conscience and somebody who has a divided and guilty conscience they’re going to respond to truth in their own way and the way that herodia response to truth is wanting to Kill the Messenger the way that that Herod responds to truth is that he is guilty about what he has done and was forced to do all right but also he’s very perplexed in his soul here’s a king that can’t sleep at night he’s Restless he cannot rest at all and look at verse number 20 so Herod feared John he feared people he feared judgment look at verse 20 for Herod was afraid of John knowing that he was a righteous and holy man and kept him safe from who herodias right and when he heard him he was very perplexed but he used to enjoy listening to him now that doesn’t make any sense right but it doesn’t make sense if you have a guilty conscience and if you have a divided Spirit right see he was guilty for not doing the right thing because John told them what the right thing is this is the right thing King Herod you have to get rid of herodias because she’s your brother’s wife not yours you stole her from him and according to the law of God you’re guilty of that see that’s pretty clear right well you have to respond to Clarity of Truth which we all do all right but Herod interestingly he had a a a respect for John because John spoke the truth the truth held an amazing power over herod’s conscience which at the same time comforted him and as well as Disturbed and terrified him see the King was haunted by both sin and goodness he was haunted in his conscience by both sin and goodness now let me just throw this in for a minute conscience what is it you all have one right you all have a conscience every one of you have a conscience the conscience can’t be described as the thoughts within a person either accusing or excusing them it is as a person lives each day it is their thoughts that cannot be shut out and guilty thoughts will make a person restless and Afraid and it is Christ’s truth Faithfully preached and taught that can free a person from sin and guilt of course by faith in Christ alone in his precious death and burial and his resurrection however even though Herod heard John gladly he was at a loss of what to do if you notice in our text it says that he was very perplexed he didn’t know what to do her was not a good leader he waffled on things he would like to have Follow The Godly course pointed out by John but he could not break away from his former life he would not give up his adult adultery he would not give up herodias and in turn herro was unable to make a decision so that made him unstable undecided puzzled and a la at a loss in morals and ethics and religious judgment he would not repent he loved his sin that’s the bottom line he knew the message that John preached of repentance and Faith to enter the kingdom of God but he didn’t he didn’t he didn’t have the courage the motive uh to believe he liked his life he liked his power he liked his position he liked his sin he enjoyed herodias obviously they were in love because uh it’s recorded in history that Herod anpus uh actually went to Rome for them to recognize him to be a king and they rejected him as king and so he was banished in Exile and herodias didn’t leave him when she had a chance to she stayed with them so obviously they were in love but doesn’t make things right love doesn’t make things right you realize that right and so we have to be very uh sensitive in our conscience to truth so we will become stable we will become decisive we will become unpuzzle and we will not have a loss of moral and ethical convictions about what is right and wrong that’s what truth does all right if anybody should know what right and wrong is we should because we are believers and we have the word of God all right we should all right so it’s not it hasn’t ended yet all right now how in the world is herodias going to get rid of John here’s her plan look at verse number 18 well let’s look look at verse 21 first before I look at Verse 18 it says in verse 21 well we already looked at 18 19 uh verse 21 says a strategic day came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his Lords and Military commanders and the Leading Men of Galilee now this is how she’s going to do it she’s going to scheme on this celebration to know this is the Strategic moment she was very strategic all right and so verse 21 tells us that it was a day filled with company with drinking with dancing it was on this day a strategic day that herodias will Implement her plan and she counts on the weakness and the instability and the vanity of Herod she’s counting on that matter of fact she pegged him she had him pegged now how does she do it further look at verse 22 she says well how am I going to get him once he’s in his drunken stuper to succumb to my plan well look at verse 22 she gets her daughter salomi to dance a seductive dance to lure him in it says in verse 22 and when the daughter of herodias herself came in and danced she pleased Herod and the dinner guest now there’s a big problem you you don’t see it in the text but there’s a big problem here salomi danced publicly solo however in those days solo dances before a public audience were the craft of prostitutes because the dance was immoral it was vulgar it was sexually provocative in fact salomi was encouraged by her mother to willingly perform in this way herself really was a grim commentary on both her character and the character of her mother see also for a royal princess to expose and demean herself in this way is such in such a public manner in those days and even today would be beyond belief you don’t act that way if you’re the princess right the princess has a decorum and demeanor about her that represents the king of course it is representing the king and it’s representing so actually she did a good job representing her mother uh and also her stepfather it’s never it never mentions in Scripture that herodias is his wife all right it never mentions that salomi is his daughter it just says the daughter of herodias so see the scripture is keeping very clear the problems that are going on and if you notice in verse number 22 this is a problem too that she pleased Herod and the dinner guest now I don’t know if you caught the dinner guest that was there but they were they were the heavy weights of his kingdom they were the ones that listen if you are going to do something you better mean what you say all right and so that is what’s taking place now at this particular Junction something happens Herod makes a folly ridden promise and oath look what it says in verse 20 well in verse 22 and the King said to the girl ask me for whatever you want and I will give it to you and he swore to her whatever you ask me I will give it to you up to half my kingdom now see Herod in the moment of excitement offers the daughter of of herodias a royal promise and then couples it with a royal oath that was a real big mistake and the reason why is that a royal oath makes a promise irrevocable and he did this publicly before his distinguished guest all right not I don’t know if he was catching on whether this is the plan of his wife all along or his stolen wife whatever you want to call caller so Herod is also breaking an Old Testament law again by acting impulsively he made actually a reckless promise without T thinking of the implications it warns in Leviticus that if some a person swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or good that person will become guilty and so he’s doing the same thing he’s just breaking God’s law all over the place so here’s a picture of what often results from partying and feasting and letting loose what happens when that goes on your guards let down right late hours crowded rooms Splendid entertainment alcohol music Mixed Company it sometimes seems harmless yet it is often these events that inflame the passions and desires which cause cause people to do things that afterward they deeply deeply regret you know story after Story you heard of people went to a a party where there was drugs and there was drinking and there was just loose company and what happens is disaster strikes right uh it happens all the time it happens every day it happens all over the world so Herod had a a party spirit filled with wine was proud of his distinguished guest excited by the sensual dance of herod’s daughter salomi and because he was caught up in the moment Herod made a reckless promise and what was the promise I I’ll give you even up to half of my kingdom now let me just give you a little bit of a note here he didn’t have that Authority but he was so filled with himself he made it look like he had that Authority so no doubt salomi was under the instruction of her Wicked revengeful mother she planned to have her daughter dance she planned to Corner Herod and when salomi could not decide or would not decide she went out to her mother and look at verse number 24 now the reason why she went out out to her mothers because women Jewish women did not recline at the table with men when they were eating all right so it says in verse 24 and she went out and said to her mother what shall I ask for and she said the head of John the Baptist and immediately she came in haste before the king and asked saying I want you to give me right away the head of John the Baptist on a plotter so salomi wasted no time in making this request and remember this Satan is right there to commodate the evil that evil request of a silly woman who hates as he does the Servants of God so salomi could have asked for anything she was probably only a teenager here how many things teenagers want right she could have asked for anything she wanted but she didn’t she was as coldhearted as her mother she was as calculating as her mother and it probably was because her mother beat her to death every day with we got to get rid of John the Baptist I guess the Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree here one person as I was reading said that children are more easily trained for the devil than for God it’s true it’s easy to train somebody for evil because it’s already there in their heart matter of fact all you have to do is let them go it’s the parents job because they have the power to restrain them to direct them to teach them to discipline them and to to put them on the path of of knowing what is right and wrong and hopefully to know who Christ is and want to live for them him all right so that’s what uh we ought to do as parents so what we see here in scripture is a case of entrapment his guest knew it salomi knew it herodias knew it and planned it and Herod had nowhere to go if he refused her he would have been laughed down and would have never outlived the shame Herod was an adulterer he was also full of his his uh full of self- importance and pride and if you look at verse number 26 and verse 27 it says and although the King was very sorry he was not necessarily sorry that John got put to death he was sorry he got cornered and had to do it look what it says and all though he the King was very sorry yet because of his Oaths and because of his dinner de guests he was unwilling to refuse her and immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back his head now tell me that is not as low as you can go right I mean this is incredible drama so that leads us to really the whole point of the text the death of John John the baptizer that’s where it all was going who could have been a greater there there was no greater man living than John the Baptist Jesus said that here was a holy and righteous man a man filled with truth a preacher of Truth and righteousness he called Israel to repent and believe and they were coming in droves to listen to him in the desert he he set the road for for Jesus and the preaching of Jesus and the kingdom uh to to open the kingdom of God to those who repent and believe in him so they can know they have eternal life that’s what he was doing so in this last section what do we see here we see in verse number 27 the last part of the verse the beheading of a righteous man and it says and he went and had him beheaded in prison so this righteous and holy man was handed over to the Executioner because of a Folly R written oath and the Revenge of a wicked sin Laden woman and her daughter and then the presentation in verse 28 it says and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl and the girl didn’t give it to Herod look what it says the girl gave it to who her mother mother all right the Master of Ceremonies was the wife the manipulator the one who entrapped him that’s who she was so the girl waited in the dining hall to receive her guest her request excuse me and once she received the head of John the baptizer she rushed over to her mother and gave it to her of course that was that’s proof per uh positive that John is dead right and of course that seared conscience wanting to get back at John was her motive for living at least up until this point and the only good thing we see in the text is found in verse 29 it says when his disciples heard about this they came and took away his body and laid it in a tomb so how little reward um God’s best Ser servants may receive on this side of Eternity in this world an unjust imprisonment John the baptizer suffered a violent death that was the last fruit of his labor on Earth and gave up his life for the gospel un very much being the Forerunner of Christ death too so the truth of the Gospel of the kingdom of God in Christ can produce many specimens of opinions if they are wrong it is still unbelief and it will still receive condemnation and exclude people from the kingdom of God the truth of the Gospel of the kingdom of God in Christ can be imprisoned yet it is still it still penetrates the human conscience to produce guilt of sin it is still the gospel that will bring relief for one it will cause the their conscience to be haunted for another it will be cause their conscience to be blessed the truth of the Gospel of the kingdom of God in Christ may be silenced by cutting down God’s servant by extinguishing the messenger by killing the messenger and yet it still speaks beyond the grave see you cannot kill testimony you cannot kill the holy and righteous character I’m still preaching to you about John the Baptist today and he will be preached by others as time goes on and his truth still goes out he is still that man that speaks from the grave it’s like when I was preaching in Hebrews when it was talking about the people of faith in Hebrews 11 it was interesting it says this it says by faith Abel offered to God a better sacrifice than Cain through which he obtained the test Tony that he was righteous God testif testifying about his gifts and and through faith though he is dead still speaks so though John is dead he still speaks well John may have lost his head but Herod herodias and salomi lost their soul you know what the best for Christians is yet to come for John his rest his crown his wages his reward are all on the other side of the grave and you know what that’s why we live by faith because we’re not going to receive all the reward we’re not going to receive everything that God promised us we have it by faith but when we die beyond the grave we will obtain it all of it more than we could ever imagine or think what God has prepared for those who love him right that is what the promise of the Bible is so see you cannot squash truth you cannot no matter how hard it gets no matter how difficult it gets God’s word the message of the kingdom of God Will Go On I pray that you and I are are those Messengers that when we pass on that our testimony will go on in our family with our children with our grandchildren they will know what we stood for they will know what we believe they will know in whom we believed they will know in whom we followed and they will be sure about that even if they decide not to the testimony will still be with them and will resonate with them because it’s the story of the family and it’s a true story I pray that for us I pray that for your families and my families right because remember when you come to Christ When You Believe In Jesus when you repent of your your your sin and you trust in him by faith everything changes you can have Victory all over your generational sins your family sins your personal sins all of it because of Jesus Christ see that’s where God’s taking us so John the Baptist John the baptizer becomes the quintessential human person besides the Lord Jesus Christ of the one to exemplify in this world can we be righteous and holy in character like John yes can we speak the truth yes can we answer the ultimate question who do you say that I am can you answer that if you can then the blessings are endless for believers even though in this world we may suffer persecution if in fact if you are righteous you will suffer persecution you know it’s amazing to me because of our media that there are probably more Christians being killed today in the world and yes beheaded in the world because of their faith than any time in human history and we he nothing of it nothing why is that we ought to know all right we ought to know because you know what it may be us next it’s not too far-fetched today that this world is very unstable governments are unstable monetary systems are unstable everything is unstable evil is abounding God is thrown out there’s no ethics and morals anymore and yet God calls us to live in the middle of a perverse and wicked generation holy that means you have all the power to do it no matter how bad it gets you can live for Christ and all God’s people said what let’s pray Lord thank you thank you this morning for this incredible passage of scripture Lord it it’s in some ways it’s surprising in other ways it’s not because Lord we all know too well what sin does we all too know too well what a guilty conscience is we all know Lord too well that when we do know the truth sometimes we just don’t do it we know it’s right and yet we don’t do what’s right I pray Lord today from this passage and this text you can build in us a stability and a strength of Holiness and righteousness that will just grow as we grow in Christ Lord make us people like John the Baptist make us people that have a testimony that’s strong that can be passed on from generation to generation make us people like that and I pray Lord Jesus you would use us in a very effective way as we give ourselves holy to you holy to the control of the spirit of God holy to the authority of scripture and that Lord you may transform our mind that each day we would know what is the good and the acceptable and the perfect will of God I pray that for us and I ask this in Christ’s name amen