How do you respond to rejection? The more personal it is, and the
more you cared about that thing you're rejected from or the
person who rejected you, the harder it is to get over.
You might develop a few different coping strategies in
response to being rejected. You can blame the person.
They don't know what they're missing out on.
They don't know what a great employee I would have been.
They don't know what a great husband or wife I would have
been. You can blame yourself.
If only I'd worked harder. If only I'd said something
different. If only I'd done something
different. You could sort of spiral into
fruitless introspection. Can't change it now.
You can also develop what is often called sour grapes, right?
Oh, I I didn't get that thing. It's not that good anyways.
That job probably would have stunk.
That boss would have been no fun to work for.
Who'd really want to go out with that girl anyways?
You can try to assuage the pain in your own heart by making
light of that thing you lost. Christians can develop their own
strategies for attempting to not get rejected by the world or
respond when we are. Often those strategies can look
like a kind of soft effort to assimilate, blend in, round off
sharp edges, sound just like the things those people out there in
the world are looking for, asking for.
Don't use any terms that might offend or provoke, kind of lead
with what we have in common and eventually trickle out slowly
some of the things that might be a little less appealing about
the Christian faith and way of life.
One problem with that kind of strategy for out flanking
rejection, we're trying to minimize rejection as Christians
is that Jesus himself was rejected.
He warned his apostles to expect rejection and prepared them for
it. And as we'll see in our passage
this morning and the second-half of it, the prophet who prepared
the way for Jesus and pointing people to Jesus and made a kind
of hand off to Jesus was himself rejected in a spectacular
fashion. The Gospel of Mark teaches us
that rejection is not something to be sort of strategically
averted or avoided. The Gospel of Mark teaches us
that it's something to be expected, prepared for, and
endured. Our passage for this morning is
Mark chapter 6, verses 1 to 29. If you don't have a Bible, you
can put up a hand and someone will bring you one.
You can feel free to take that home with you if you don't have
a Bible to read at home, or you can put it back at the table
afterward. Looks like nobody needs a Bible.
All right. Mark 6/1 to 29.
Our passage has three sections and verses one to six.
We see Jesus rejected in his hometown.
In verses 7 to 13 He sends out the 12 apostles on their first
preaching mission. And then in verses 14 to 29 we
hear the sad story of the martyrdom of John the Baptist.
Please listen as I read the whole passage.
He went away from there and came to his home town, and his
disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to
teach in the synagogue. And many who heard him were
astonished, saying, Where did this man get these things?
What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done
by his hands? Is not this the Carpenter, the
son of Mary, and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and
Simon? And I'm not his sisters here
with us. And it took offense at him.
And Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor,
except in his home town and among his relatives, and in his
own household. And he could do no mighty work
there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and
healed them. And he marvelled because of
their unbelief. And he went about among the
villages teaching, and he called the 12 and began to send them
out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean
spirits. He charged them to take nothing
for their journey except a staff, no bread, no bag, no
money in their belts but to wear sandals and not put on two
tunics. And he said to them, Whenever
you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there, and
if any place will not receive you, and they will not listen to
you when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as
a testimony against them. So they went out and proclaimed
that people should repent. And they cast out many demons,
and anointed with oil many who were sick, and healed them.
King Herod heard of it, for Jesus's name had become known.
Some said John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, that
is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.
But others said he is Elijah, and others said he is a prophet,
like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he
said John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.
For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in
prison for the sake of Herodias his brother Philip's wife,
because he had married her. For John had been saying to
Herod, It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.
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. When he heard him, he was
greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.
But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a
banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the
leading men of Galilee. For when Herodias daughter came
in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests.
And the king said to the girl, Ask me for whatever you wish,
and I will give it to you. And he vowed to her, Whatever
you ask me, I will give you up to half of my Kingdom.
And she went out and said to her mother, for what should I ask?
And she said, the head of John the Baptist.
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. And the king was exceedingly
sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want
to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an
executioner with orders to bring John's head.
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. When his disciples heard of it,
they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
The key question our passage answers is what should faithful
messengers of Christ expect? The passages 3 sections.
The sermon will have three points.
What should faithful messengers of Christ expect .1 Rejection.
Rejection. This is what Jesus himself
experienced in his hometown in verses 1:00 to 6:00.
Look again with me at verses one to three.
He went away from there and came to his home town, and his
disciples followed him. And on the Sabbath he began to
teach in the synagogue. And many who heard him were
astonished, saying, where did this man get these things?
What is the wisdom given to him? How are such mighty works done
by his hands? It's not this.
The Carpenter, the son of Mary, and brother of James and Joseph
and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us.
And they took offense at Him. Jesus hometown is Nazareth in
Galilee. As he usually did on the Sabbath
when he attended synagogue, He was teaching the Scriptures
publicly, and his hairs were astonished.
They marveled at both his teaching and His miracles.
Now presumably they learned of His miracles primarily through
eyewitness reports, because verse 5 will tell us that He did
hardly any miracles there. Note the common pattern in the
first three questions. Where did this man get these
things? What is the wisdom given to him?
How are such mighty works done by his hands?
They aren't denying that there's something special about Jesus.
It's just the opposite. He's so remarkable that it's
hard to explain. He's so different that it's hard
to account for in normal human terms.
We know He's from here. We know He grew up with us.
But where on earth did he get all this?
Where did it come from? This is one of a series of seven
sets of questions in Mark's Gospel that I mentioned a few
sermons ago. You can only answer each
question by recognizing that Jesus is God Incarnate.
There's a sense in which all the questions his neighbors are
asking are good questions, but they're being asked in a bad
way. Jesus's neighbors are not asking
these questions to find out the truth about who Jesus is.
They're asking these questions because they've already rejected
the only right answer. Not all questions are created
equal, and sometimes you can even ask the right question in
the wrong way from the wrong attitude.
Sometimes questions are a smokescreen or a stalling tactic
or a political maneuver to sort of deflect attention.
Hear Jesus neighbors questions do not express a quest for
truth, but hearts that are already hardened against the
truth. And then look at the remaining
questions. Is not this the Carpenter, the
son of Mary and brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon
and are not his sisters here with us?
In other words, it's kind of like saying, we know this guy,
we know his family, we know where he comes from, we know
he's been working with wood and stone all these years.
He was apprenticed into this trade by his father.
Don't don't we know all there really is to know about him?
Sure, there's all this crazy stuff he's saying and doing, but
I mean, come on, we know this guy.
Jesus neighbors are using his humanity to rule out his
divinity. They're letting Jesus humanity
block his divinity rather than seeing it as a window onto his
divinity. They are claiming they already
know all there is to know about him.
He's the Carpenter, Mary's boy. Calling him the Carpenter is not
necessarily derogatory. That the trade Jesus practice
was a skilled one. It would have been respected,
but it is. Ordinary carpenters don't walk
around doing the kind of stuff that Jesus does.
So what's happened here? Jesus's neighbors privileged one
set of evidence and used it to completely reject a whole other
set of evidence. What were his miracles?
Evidence. What was his teaching evidence?
It's not that his neighbors lacked evidence, it's that they
refused to accept the evidence that should have compelled them
to conclude that he is the Messiah and that he is God
Incarnate. For Jesus neighbors, their
barrier to belief was not lack of evidence.
If you're not a believer in Jesus, what about you?
Would you say that your barrier to belief is lack of evidence?
If not, what is it? How did Jesus respond to this
rejection? Look at verses 4:00 to 6:00.
And Jesus said to them, a prophet is not without honor
except in his hometown and among his relatives and in his own
households. And he could do no mighty work
there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and
healed them, and he marvelled because of their unbelief.
And he went out among the villages teaching.
Jesus responds with a proverb. This proverb has parallels in
ancient Greek and Jewish literature.
It's a kind of ancient equivalent of familiarity breeds
contempt. Jesus Point is that it's easy
for those he grew up with to think they know him better than
they do. It's easy for those who
overestimate how well they know Him to cut him down to their
size rather than letting him challenge everything they think
they know both about him and about themselves.
When verse 5 says he could do no mighty work there, the point is
not that their unbelief made it physically impossible for him to
do miracles, as if they like pulled the plug out of his power
and no, no, now he's he can't do anything.
No, the point and that that's disproven by the fact that the
very rest of the verse says he laid his hands on a few sick
people and healed them. But the point about him not
being able to do any mighty works there is that His miracles
were signs of the coming of God's Kingdom.
His miracles pointed to His role as the king bringing this
Kingdom where people have already rejected the king and
this Kingdom. The miracles would be to no
point. They would be to no purpose.
They would be futile. If He did a whole bunch of
miracles before everybody in Nazareth, it would have been
casting pearls before swine. More miracles would not have led
to more faith. In verse 6 Jesus marvels at
their unbelief and yet he fulfills his ministry of
traveling through all the local villages and teaching there.
In all the gospels, Jesus is only said to marvel 2 times.
Once he marvels at the faith of the Gentile centurion who said
just say the word and my servant will be healed.
And here he marvels at the unbelief of his own neighbors
and family. Why does Jesus marvel at their
unbelief? I think it's because this degree
of opposition in a Jewish region is new in his career in the
gospel so far, this is the first time that in a Jewish region
there's been a whole town that sort of turns out against him
and says no thanks. And on top of that, it's his
hometown. This region is the base of his
ministry. If you would expect anybody to
show up and support Jesus the Messiah, it would be the
hometown crowd. Jesus ministry experienced no
homecourt advantage, None whatsoever.
This is a paradox and a stumbling block.
How could those closest to Jesus reject him?
How could those who should know the most about him actually know
the least about him? Kids and teens in the
congregation, I'm confident that many of you genuinely trust in
Jesus. You have a real faith, even from
a very young age. You're trusting in Him and
obeying Him from the heart. I also know that not all of you
believe in him. So my question for you this
morning is, if Jesus were to show up in church today, or if
Jesus were to show up at lunch with your family today, would he
marvel at your unbelief? How many faithful Bible sermons
have you heard? How many times have your parents
read through a story Bible with you or portions of scripture?
How many verses have they made you memorize?
How many times have you seen answers to prayer show up in
your family's life because it's something that your parents
prayed for and then God did? If you don't believe you're
growing up in a Christian home, are you saying it's lack of
evidence? It might be.
You have all the evidence you need, and the problem is that
your eyes are shut and your heart is hard.
If Jesus was rejected by his own neighbors, then faithful
messengers of Christ should expect to be rejected too.
We should be ready for it, prepared for it, not surprised
by it or taken aback by it. Jesus did not do anything wrong
to his hometown neighbors. You cannot blame their rejection
on him. There's nothing he should have
changed, no strategy he should have tweaked, no messaging.
He should have softened and padded and made it more
palatable for their sensibilities.
The problem was not him, it was them.
Brothers and sisters, I know that some of you have suffered
various kinds and degrees of tension, opposition, or
rejection from your family for following Christ.
Take comfort. You're drinking the same cup
Jesus drank. He's been there.
Sometimes family members are personally affronted.
It's like, how did Jesus sneak in and take you away from us?
We're not those kind of people. This isn't what we've taught
you. How did all this Jesus stuff get
in there and make you into some kind of weirdo?
They can be jealous of your new loyalty.
They can be jealous for the God who in some sense has taken you
away from them. If that's anything like your
experience, keep trusting Christ.
Remain steadfast in your loyalty to Christ.
When you're rejected by family or friends, remember you follow
a rejected Christ. Don't let rejection deter you or
silence you. Don't let rejection weaken your
commitment to Christ or your proclamation of Christ.
Keep trusting Him and keep telling others about Him.
We're not all missionaries, but we are all called to tell others
about Jesus. And telling others about Him is
what Jesus sent his apostles out to do in verses 7 to 13.
So point #2 risk point #2. Risk.
What should faithful messengers of Christ expect?
Risk. Risk is an essential ingredient
in making Christ known to all nations, and Jesus required his
apostles to face many different kinds of risks in fulfilling
their first preaching mission, as we see in verses 7 to 13.
Start with verse 7. In verse 7 we see Jesus
Commission and send out his 12 apostles, and he called the 12
and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority
over the unclean spirits. So we noticed that in this first
preaching circuit, Jesus sends his apostles out not only to
speak in his name, but to act in his authority.
Their work of casting out demons is a sign that the Kingdom of
God has come. It's it's borrowed authority,
it's delegated authority. When they cast out those demons,
they're saying the Kingdom is here because the King is here
and his name is Jesus. Notice that he sends them out
two by two. This is probably for a number of
reasons, mutual support, encouragement, help.
Also probably to fulfill the legal requirement in the Torah
of establishing testimony by the mouth of two or three witnesses.
How can we apply this principle of two by two and how we as a
church carry out the mission of Christ?
One simple way is to involve other Christian friends in your
evangelism. Ask a friend to help you share
the gospel with a non Christian friend that can provide support,
accountability, encouragement. It might also mean that this
friend you enlist might be able to answer some of your non
Christian friends questions better than you can.
Or they might be able to relate to a different aspect of that
friend's experience and kind of unlock a new way of connecting
with them. We should also pray that over
time we as a church can raise up and send out missionary teams
and missionary speak. They call them units, whether an
individual or a couple. It is so helpful to send out
missionary teams of multiple units, whether from the same
church or from a network of like minded churches.
Finally, I'm deeply thankful that implanting this church,
Michael Abraham and I have been able to serve side by side full
time together as pastors. I wanted to say this to
Michael's face, but he's homesick.
Michael, if you listen to this on the audio, I hope you're
encouraged. I'll say it to you all, Being
pastored by Michael for these past few months has been an
enormous encouragement and help to me.
Michael has done a wonderful job pastoring me, and as far as I
can see, he has done a wonderful job pastoring you all.
It's been one of the great joys of planting this church to serve
side by side with him. After commissioning His
apostles, Jesus gives them two sets of instructions.
Verses 8 and 9 are instructions for the road.
Verses 10 and 11 are instructions for their stay in
each place that they visit. So start with verses 8 to 9.
He charged them to take nothing for their journey except the
staff. No bread, no bag, no money in
their belts but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.
The staff was for protection, whether from robbers or from
wild animals. But now why did Jesus prohibit
his apostles from bringing bread or money?
It's because he wanted them to rely exclusively on the
hospitality of those they were going to be ministering to.
Jesus wanted them to depend directly on God, which in this
instance meant depending on the provision of the people they'd
be speaking to. That's also why he prohibited
them from bringing a bag, because this sort of accessory
of a bag was something that other teachers and traveling
philosophers would carry as they begged for gifts.
So no begging, just receiving. Now, the second tunic that Jesus
prohibited them to carry was for warmth.
People would wear a kind of inner garment, and then their
outer garment could serve as a sheet or a blanket.
Like if you didn't have a bed to sleep in, you just wrap your
cloak around you. And Jesus is saying you don't
even get to bring that. You don't get to use your second
cloak as a bed. Someone's going to give you a
bed. Jesus's list of what his
apostles are and aren't to bring with them exactly matches what
the Israelites did and didn't have with them as they left
Egypt during the Exodus, as we learn in Exodus chapter 12.
Same Spartan packing list. What's the point of the
connection? The apostles are participating
in the new Exodus inaugurated by Jesus, and so they can trust the
God of the Exodus to provide for them, just as he provided for
the Israelites in the wilderness.
That's important to recognize all the ways in which this first
temporary mission of the apostles differs both from the
kind of normal Christian life in general and from modern
missions. Think about some differences
between the apostles first mission and kind of ongoing
Great Commission work. The apostles were going out for
a short preaching tour, whereas modern missionaries often go out
long term, indefinitely, as long as they can stay.
The apostles were travelling along their own people in their
own homeland, whereas missionaries go out cross
culturally. The apostles were travelling
among people whose religion they shared.
They were simply announcing the fulfilment of that religion,
whereas modern missionaries often go minister to people of
radically different beliefs. So in all those ways, this
passage is different from Great Commission sending today.
But the common principle is risk.
You have to be willing to risk in order to advance the gospel.
You have to be willing to risk how you'll be provided for and
what degree of comfort you'll live in in order to put
proclaiming the gospel first. There is no way to push the
Great Commission forward without incurring risk in these
instructions for the road in verses 8:00 and 9:00, it's as if
Jesus goes through the normal long list of everything you
would bring on a trip and then he says, OK, don't bring any of
that, only a toothbrush. Are you the kind of person who
over packs for every trip? Let's say you're going on A7 day
vacation and somehow half of your wardrobe makes its way into
your suitcase. You want to be prepared for all
weather. A bathing suit in case it's hot,
a parka in case it snows. Now for me, when I go on a trip,
what I over pack is books. I don't ever want to be in the
position where I actually have time to read and I run out of
stuff to read. That would be the worst.
What are you aiming for when you over pack?
You're aiming for security. You want to be prepared in
advance. You want to have all your bases
covered. You're thinking I can supply
whatever I'm going to need for this trip.
Here's what Jesus is saying in this passage about advancing his
gospel and fulfilling his missionary Commission.
You may not pack for security. You may not over pack.
He's saying your only security will come through God's
provision. In what ways might a love of
comfort or ease be limiting your effectiveness as a messenger of
Christ? In what ways might a love of
comfort or ease be hindering you from contributing to the advance
of the gospel in ways that you could?
What might be a good and godly risk for you to run for the sake
of the gospel? In verses 10 and 11, Jesus gives
the apostles instructions for their stay in each place that
they go. And he said to them, whenever
you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there, and
if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to
you when you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as
a testimony against them. The point of verse 10 is that
the apostles are to stay with whoever first offers, offers
them hospitality when they show up in a place.
Jesus is prohibiting them from changing homes and thereby
moving up the social ladder. Oh, this person offered us a
home at first, but this one's nicer.
This one has better food. These people are more
influential and have more resources at their disposal.
He's prohibiting them from advancement and insisting on
mere provision. And then in verse 11, he
highlights another risk they run.
They run the risk of being rejected just as he was.
It's possible that whole towns and cities will turn against
them, just like Jesus own hometown of Nazareth turned
against him. When that happens, the apostles
are to perform this sign of judgment, of shaking off the
dust that is on their feet when they leave.
That's a sign of breaking off communion, of having nothing to
do with them. As if you know, not even the
dust that you live on can stick to me or cling to me.
It's a warning of separation. And how is it a sign?
It's a sign because those towns aren't just rejecting the
apostles, they're rejecting Jesus.
By rejecting Jesus, they're rejecting God their Creator.
It's a warning of judgment. To reject the only message of
salvation is to seal your own judgment.
Now after these instructions we get a brief report of the
apostles activity in verses 12 and 13.
So they went out and proclaimed that people should repent.
And they cast out many demons and anointed with oil many who
were sick and healed them. Here the apostles message echoes
that of Jesus and Mark 115. Jesus proclaimed that people
should repent and so do the apostles.
Hear repentance is an essential component of gospel preaching.
In order to receive Christ as Savior, people must repent of
sin. In order to trust in Christ,
people have to turn from sin. Repentance and faith are two
sides of the same coin. The world around us preaches a
gospel of unconditional affirmation.
The world around us treats a call to repentance as if it's
some kind of traumatizing threat to someone's safety.
But we have a message that demands that we call people to
repent. 1 aspect of faithful evangelism is exhorting people
to turn from sin. This includes both sin in
general and, where relevant, specific sins.
If someone opens up to you about a sin that they're ensnared in,
they know you're a Christian. They know you're trying to get
them to become a Christian. And they say, well, here's
what's going on in my life. If they give you that degree of
transparency, it is entirely appropriate to take aim at that
sin. It is entirely appropriate to
plead with them to turn from that sin.
If someone lets you know that there is a sin in their life
standing in the way of them embracing Jesus, then train your
sights on that sin and pray and plead and do whatever you can to
induce them to give up that sin and lay hold of Christ.
It is loving to try to persuade that person to let go of their
grip on that sin so that they can lay hold of Christ.
It is loving to tell that person that sin is spiritually
poisoning them so that they can appeal to God for surgery, get
the poison out and be healed by Christ.
Now, even with all the differences between the Apostles
first mission and our ongoing efforts to fulfill Christ's
Great Commission, the common factor is risk.
So I want to think a little bit more about the role of risk in
our fulfilling the Great Commission.
The apostles risked rejection, and so do we.
The apostles risked humanly uncertain provision, and so must
we in different ways. It's important to see how this
passage implicitly dignifies both those who run the risks and
those who provide for them. The kind of people receiving
them in these towns aren't precisely parallel to Christians
supporting missions, but the logic is evidence Those who go
need those who will support and supply.
Those who go need those who will provide.
Missions always involves partnership, and those who
support those who supply are called partners because the
mission doesn't happen without them.
There are countless ways to contribute to the advance of the
gospel. Hospitality is a major 1.
You might open up your home for visiting missionary to stay in.
I'm encouraged by how many of you opened up your homes to me
and Michael and others as you're traveling back and forth in the
kind of early stages of this church land.
It wasn't just for me and Michael.
It was for people considering joining.
It was so they could come to interest meetings.
Multiple of you opened up your homes for that kind of purpose.
How can you use your home as a base for ministry?
How can your home and household in some small way become a
missions sending station? Other ways to advance the gospel
in supporting and partnering and going include building
businesses that can travel overseas and help provide
financial support and visas for gospel workers or other locals.
And of course, there must be some who will take the risks of
becoming full time cross cultural gospel workers.
What risks do full time missionaries incur abandoning a
career or choosing not to start one in the 1st place?
Financial sacrifice. Distance from family.
Often not just physical distance, but emotional
distance. Making a decision, perhaps, to
bring grandkids farther than grandparents want them.
Sometimes harsh living conditions, often rejection and
persecution. Often the threat of violence
against them and their families. What makes those risks worth it?
One factor is confidence in God's provision.
Another is a deep rooted desire for God to be glorified among
the nations. And finally, the kind of anchor
for them all is confidence in our eternal reward.
The clearer that reward is in your mind, the heavier it weighs
on your heart, the more risks you'll be willing to run for the
sake of other people. Come and know Jesus.
Comfort and security are good things, and they are even better
things to let go of for the sake of the progress of the gospel.
Someone who let go of all comfort and security for the
progress of the Gospel was John the Baptist .3 Martyrdom.
What should faithful messengers of Christ expect?
Martyrdom. Not every Christian will be a
martyr, of course, but every Christian should be prepared to
be a martyr. And every Christian should
understand something of how the martyr's calling is essential is
a picture of what it means to be a Christian.
We see this in the tragic story of John the Baptist execution in
verses 14 to 29. Look first at verses 14 to 16.
King Herod heard of it, for Jesus name had become known.
Some said John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, that
is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.
But others said he is Elijah, and others said he is a prophet
like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he
said John whom I beheaded has been raised.
Jesus reputation reached far and wide fast.
That was partly through his own ministry, partly through word of
mouth. It was also partly through the
ministry The disciples have just had right.
Word of this coming to Herod follows upon the apostles
preaching ministry. Now the report about Jesus comes
to Herod the local ruler. The Herod mentioned here is
Herod Antipus. His title was technically
tetrarch of Galilee, but he craved the title King.
And so Mark May be mocking him here by calling him king.
Herod Antipas was half Jewish, but his lifestyle was anything
but exemplary Torah keeping. So here Mark provides a survey
of what people were saying about Jesus.
Some people thought he was a prophet, and he was, but he was
more than that. Some people thought he was
Elijah. That's not as random as you
might think because as we'll see tonight, Elijah was prophesied
to come back before the day of the Lord.
But Jesus wasn't Elijah. He was the Lord whose way Elijah
prepared. We saw the beginning of Mark's
gospel that John the Baptist fulfills this role of being
Elijah, who prepares the way for the day of the Lord.
But now Harriet, along with some others, apparently has a strange
view of who Jesus is. John the Baptist raised from the
dead. OK, now Jesus and John the
Baptist public ministries overlapped.
They were virtually the same age, so it's hard to know how
John could have been resurrected and reincarnated as someone who
is already 30 years old. It doesn't really make sense,
but the point is, we're not meant to puzzle this out and see
how this weird theology makes sense.
The point is that Herod's conscience was haunting him.
Herod was responsible for John's beheading.
And the murderer feared the man he murdered.
Now the text is going to flashback and tell us what
happened. Verses 17 to 20.
For it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in
prison for the sake of Herodias his brother Philip's wife,
because he had married her. For John had been saying to
Herod, It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.
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.
When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he
heard him gladly. So here's the back story.
Herod was already married to another woman.
His brother Philip was married to Herodias, but Herod wanted
Herodias, so he groundlessly divorced his wife and he stole
his brother Philip's wife to be his own wife.
This is wrong on so many levels, and we know we learned from the
passage that John somehow had access to Herod.
Perhaps Herod invited him to preach at his court.
We don't know exactly how, but somehow John had that
opportunity to speak directly to Herod, and he used it
courageously to rebuke him. Specifically, John would have
appealed to the Law in Leviticus 18 and 20 that forbade a man
from having intercourse with his brother's wife.
After all, Herod was half Jewish.
He would have claimed to obey the Law of Moses, even if that
claim to align himself with the Law of Moses was more of a
convenient political veneer than anything that spoke to the state
of his heart. Faithful evangelism involves
preaching the Law. Faithful evangelism will, at
times, involve calling out specific sins.
It's not fun, it's risky, and you should not take any kind of
perverse Glee in it. But sometimes calling out a
specific sin is the most loving thing you can do, even if the
person you're talking to will receive it as the opposite of
love. Naturally, Herodias had a grudge
against John like Jezebel did against Elijah, as we read in
First Kings 19, but Herod's respect for John kept her hatred
at Bay. Though John was in prison, at
least he's safe there. No assassin can get to him
there. And we see how much power this
powerless imprisoned prophet had.
Herod knew John was righteous and holy.
He could not deny the testimony of John's character.
And Herod heard him. He apparently invited John out
of his prison cell to come and preach to him repeatedly.
He heard him gladly. He didn't know what to make of
John's preaching. He was puzzled.
He was confused, but there was something he liked in it, as JC
Rile observed. We see here the amazing power of
truth over the conscience. Herod fears John the Baptist
while he lives and is troubled about him after he dies.
A friendless, solitary preacher with no other weapon than God's
truth disturbs and terrifies the king.
But John's situation is not exactly stable.
Verses 21 to 23 But an opportunity came when Herod on
his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military
commanders and the leading men of Galilee.
For when Herodias daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod
and his guests. And the king said to the girl,
Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you.
And he vowed to her, Whatever you ask me, I will give you up
to half of my Kingdom. Here Herod is entertaining his
powerful and influential supporters, his inner circle.
Now, the young woman who dances is Herodias, his daughter by
Philip. The account is reserved, but it
doesn't take much imagination to infer what kind of dancing would
have so pleased the ruler and his guests that he makes this
big, boastful offer to give her whatever she wants.
When Herod offers her up to half his Kingdom, that's
stereotypical language, a kind of big, boastful, generous
offer. It's also kind of an empty
promise. Herod's a client king.
He doesn't own any of this land. He doesn't have the authority to
give her a single acre. But nonetheless, the point is
that she's got him in the palm of her hand.
She just doesn't know what to do with him.
So verses 24 to 29. And she went out and said to her
mother, for which did I ask? And she said the head of John
the Baptist. 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.
And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths
and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her.
And immediately the king sent an executioner with orders to bring
John's head. 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.
When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and
laid it in a tomb. Everything comes to a head in
verse 26. The king was exceedingly sorry,
but because of his odes and his guests, he did not want to break
his word to her. Here both John's fate and
Herod's hang in the balance. Herod was a man blown and driven
by his passions, lust, pride, fear of man, love of power.
His conscience weighed down on him and pulled him toward John,
but his sin pulled harder in the opposite direction.
In that moment of giving that order, there's a sense in which
Herod sealed not only John's fate, but his own.
He chose to keep the world at the cost of his soul.
He chose to please his wife and his stepdaughter and his inner
circle rather than submitting to God in his word.
Sins that had planted seeds in Herod's heart years before came
to a bitter fruition. Now.
All the promising spiritual signs in Herod's life fell short
of true repentance. You look at Herod's character.
You should not make the mistake of thinking that because he
likes to hear John the Baptist preach, he must be with Jesus.
There were good signs. He protected him.
He kept him safe. He respected his character.
He liked what he heard, and yet none of those spiritual signs
added up to true repentance. It's not enough to respect a
righteous man. It's not enough to enjoy hearing
a faithful preacher. Only repentance from the heart
will deliver your soul from sins Tyranny.
So John dies. It's a tragic death.
It's a seemingly futile death. We have to ask a couple of
questions. Why does Mark narrate this story
at such length? It's the longest single
narrative in all Mark's gospel that's not about Jesus.
Why does he give it so much space, and why does he put it
here in this section on mission and ministry and rejection?
I think the answer to why he puts the story here is that he's
sending the message that gospel advance will come through cross
shaped sacrifice. John's defeat wasn't ultimately
a defeat, it was part of the plan God had ordained for his
ministry. Those who go out and preach on
Jesus behalf will run these risks and God will work through
them. But I think the reason John
narrates this story at such length is because John's story
foreshadows Jesus's story. John's fate foreshadows Jesus's
fate. What happened to John will
happen to Jesus. John was eagerly heard, and so
is Jesus. John became the object of the
curiosity of a leader who tried unsuccessfully to save him.
So would Jesus. John was arrested and bound,
executed and buried. So was Jesus.
John died alone, so did Jesus. John was buried by faithful
disciples. So was Jesus.
In John's death, a partial Jew, ruling at Rome's behest, accedes
to the demand that he be killed so that he won't be embarrassed
in front of the crowd. In Jesus's death, Pilate the
Roman accedes to the desires of the chief priests and the crowd
that Jesus be crucified. As one scholar put it, in both
executions Jews conspire with Gentiles, thus representing all
humanity to kill those sent to redeem humanity.
John foreshadows Jesus, and in Jesus case we see why His
rejection leads to the acceptance of all who believe.
His unjust execution was not just a human miscarriage of
justice, though it was. It was also God's ordained means
of punishing all the sins of all those who had turned from sin
and trust in Him. Jesus's rejection means even
those who rejected him can be accepted.
And Jesus's rejection is not the end of the story because God
rose him from the dead. God reversed the world's guilty
verdict. God reversed the world's verdict
of pretender, false prophet, nothing, nobody.
God lifted him up out of the grave, rose him up to his right
hand, and now calls upon everyone everywhere to repent
and believe in Him. Jesus's rejection can become
your salvation if you only turn from sin and trust in Christ.
John's story finds resolution only in Jesus resurrection.
The story of every martyr finds its resolution only in Jesus
resurrection. Because Jesus was raised from
death, so will every faithful martyr be, and every faithful
Christian. Because Jesus was raised from
the dead, every tragedy suffered by one of God's people will one
day turn into victory. The end of John's story is not
the end of John's story. Because Jesus was raised from
the dead, John will be too, and so will all who trust in him.
What should faithful messengers of Christ expect?
Rejection, risk, and sometimes even martyrdom.
What makes all that risk and rejection and even martyrdom
worth it? The promise of resurrection to
eternal life with our Lord. John Bradford was born near
Manchester, England in 1510. He began his adult life as the
servant of a high-ranking nobleman, and so he had
considerable wealth and status. When he was 37 years old he was
born again, and one of the fruits of his conversion was
that he sold off all kinds of jewelry and gold articles and
used all the proceeds to care for poor Christians.
After studying at Cambridge, he entered the Christian ministry
and was sent out by King Edward the 6th as the kind of
travelling preacher of Reformation doctrine.
Kind of like the apostles made their circuit of Israel, he made
a circuit of England. Bradford became renowned for his
deeply godly character, gentle demeanor, and fearless preaching
of holiness and repentance, just like John the Baptist.
When King Edward died and his intensely Roman Catholic sister
Mary took the throne, Bradford was imprisoned within a month.
Bradford's refusal to embrace Roman Catholic teaching on the
Church, the sacraments, and salvation would cost him his
life. He never left prison again until
he was led out to be burned at the stake.
Bradford's sentence of condemnation was passed on
January 31st, 1555, and then a few months later, on the morning
of July 1st, 1555 in London, Bradford was led out to be
executed. When word of it got out, a huge
multitude assembled on the spot. On his way to be executed,
Bradford distributed his remaining money as gifts, He
gave away articles of his clothing, and he prayed with
friends and acquaintances. When he was bound to the stake
and about to be burned, he prayed for the forgiveness of
those who decreed and carried out his execution.
Then he turned to the young man who's being executed with him
and said, Be of good comfort, brother, for we shall have a
merry supper with our Lord this night.
What should faithful messengers of Christ expect?
Rejection, risk, martyrdom, and then feasting with our Lord
forever. Let's pray.
Father, we praise you for your power in raising the dead.
We praise you for your generosity and promising all who
trust in Christ an eternal reward beyond what we can
conceive. And so, Father, we pray that you
would grant us to live for you, and live so that others may come
to know You, whatever it costs us, in Jesus name, Amen.