Come, follow me // #15 - John the Baptist beheaded (Mark 6:14-29)

Mark 6, 14 to 29. King Herod heard about this, for

Jesus's name, had become well-known somewhere.

Saying John the Baptist, he has been raised from the dead and

let his wife miraculous powers are at work in him.

Others said he is Elijah and others claimed, he is a prophet

like one of the prophets of long ago, but when Herod heard this,

he said, John whom I beheaded has been raised from the dead

for Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested and

he had them bound and put in prison, he did this because of

herodias. His brothers.

Phillip Phillips wife whom he married for.

John had been saying to Herod. It is not lawful for you to have

your brother's wife. So herodias nursed a grudge

against John and wanted to kill him but she was not able to

because Herod feared John and protected him knowing him to be

a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was

greatly puzzled yet he liked to listen to him.

Finally the opportune time came on his birthday Herod.

Give a banquet for his high officials and Military

commanders in the Leading Men of Galilee.

When the daughter of herodias came in and danced, she pleased

Herod, and his dinner guests. The king said, to the girl asked

of me anything you want and I will give it to you.

And he promised with an oath, whatever you ask, I will give

you up to half my kingdom. She went to her mother.

She went and said to her mother, what shall I ask for?

The head of John the Baptist, she answered once the girl her

to the king with the request, I want you to give me right now.

The head of John, the Baptist on a platter.

The King was greatly distressed, but because of his Oaths and his

dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her.

So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring

John's head so in meet the man, went and beheaded John in prison

and brought his head on a platter, he presented it to the

girl and she gave it to her mother on hearing of this John's

disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

We've called this series and mom come follow me.

You can see it up on the screen there and what a lot of what

marks been doing so far is showing who that me in that

sentences which is Jesus. A lot of what he's been doing

for us is teaching us Jesus's identity.

So, what is that? Well, we've seen most of all

that Jesus is God. That's the only possible

explanation we could have for the fact that Jesus has the

power to cast out, evil to heal the sick and even to beat down

death and we've seen that Jesus is the king of subversive but

Unstoppable Kingdom, we've seen that NG Sedalia, T, and in his

royalty, in his godness and is King nurse He still cares.

Jesus. The God.

And King should be Transcendent. He should be above all this

Above The Fray. But instead we find him in the

trenches, we find him teaching people, helping people loving

people. Jesus is compassionate, he cares

about people. He cares about their troubles.

I'm going to see as we go through the rest of Mark, that

Jesus concern and coming to his own creation, is to help those

who need it. The most His desire is to win a

people for himself. The safe.

There's we get properly into our passage for this morning.

We're going to refer to that identity, and we're going to

need to keep it in our heads as we go along.

Because a lot of what this passage is about is starting to

think about what an appropriate response that identity might be.

So as we go through, we're going to bear in mind that Jesus is

the god and King who cares and saves.

That's who mocks showed us the God, and King, who cares?

And saves. And if we do get into the

passage, I think it's helpful to see that The Narrative of

chapter 6 doesn't actually need this passage to be here at one

level. So if you look back at the last

couple of verses of the previous passage and then down at the

next couple of verses of the following one, you could just

read straight through it. Ignore this passage.

It still makes sense. Which I think makes us well,

what's Market put this bit here for them because he could have

left it out. And I don't think Mark is prone

to spilling ink when he doesn't need to everything.

Mark Wright's has purpose and that includes this slight

digression that we see here. Like I said before, Mark has

been teaching us about Jesus identity as the God and King,

who cares and saves. and now he wants us to start thinking

harder about one appropriate response that identity looks

like So we're going to think about those responses by looking

at the two men featured in The Passage, by John the Baptist and

a Herod, but before we do that, lets just get kind of the events

of this passage nailed down in our minds.

So Herod, he's the kind of local ruler of the area.

His wife herodias has a grudge against John the Baptist and

that's because of some of the things that John has been saying

about them. In response to that Herod, has

John arrested will see more of their kind of motivations behind

that later. But Herod has John arrested and

then the first chance she gets herodias Banks Herod into a

corner and forces him to have John executed.

And those are the main beats of the story.

The Grudge. The arrest herodias is scheme.

John's death And so it's in the context of all that they actual

narrative that we get here that will get a look at these two

guys, John and Herod. And first we're going to think

about John and from him. We're going to see that real

repentance has roots. Will repentance has roots.

Now we know from chapter one, we might know just from our own

kind of reading of the Bible. John is all about repentance in

chapter 1. It says that his is a repentance

baptism for repentance. There's a sentence in chapter

one that says something about baptism and repentance.

I can't remember the exact wording right now but it's that

he's all about repentance baptism of repentance for the

Forgiveness of sins. That's right, right?

That's what it is. Long story short, if John was on

Mastermind, his specialist subject would be repentance.

That's Ed's In this passage. We don't actually get lots of

detail about John. We only even get his words just

one time. And even that's not dialogue,

it's kind of a quote from the past The why are we bothering to

kind of zoom in on John? Why are we focusing on?

And what can we really glean from John In this passage?

Well, like I said before, we're focusing on response to the

identity of Jesus. And at this point in history,

when these events are taking place, I don't think anybody

knows more about the identity of Jesus than John does.

John baptized Jesus and the spirit descended on him.

God the father's voice spoke. This is my son, whom I love with

him. I am.

Well pleased John was a prophet of God.

He knew more about who Jesus was than anyone up to that point.

And everywhere, Mark shows us how John's responding.

He's showing us a perfect response.

Now was John perfect. Was his response to Jesus

perfect. No course it wasn't.

He's a flawed human. Like you like me?

But what Mark is doing here is showing us what John gets right.

A repentant faith in response to who Jesus is And even Herod can

see that in the passage. If you look at verse 20, Howard

says, John is a righteous and holy man.

And then Verse 18, we get to see how that knowledge of who Jesus

is how that plays out in John's life.

That says, John had been saying to Herod it is not lawful for

you to have your brother's wife. Don't herodias was previously,

married to Harrods brother and it wasn't that Harrods brother

died or anything like that. Hurry, let Herod and herodias.

Just decided they'd get married to each other.

Their previous marriages be damned and so they got married.

And so John unabashedly stands up and says God created marriage

as a lifelong Covenant, you're in sin?

Now we know there's exceptions that lifelong Covenant.

We know this circumstances in which that Covenant gets broken

and in practice, it doesn't stay lifelong.

But herodias is divorce from Philip that wasn't one of those

exceptions. This was just Herod and

herodias, suiting themselves. But John's faith means that he

has a willingness and ability to speak.

Truth to power. Herod and herodias were really

powerful. That's obvious from the passage.

They are the ones that get to choose, whether John is free or

locked up. They're the ones who get to

choose whether John lives or dies in the end.

And even still John can stand up and say to Herod what you're

doing is wrong. Even in the face of death, it

seems for all the world like John can openly say What God

Says is right and wrong. What God Says is beautiful and

not beautiful. Ultimately yeah, John is in

prison. He's actually also free.

He's free from worry about what other people think of him.

He's free from worry about how other people respond to him.

And so if we take it that John's response to, Jesus is a

wholehearted and faithful one, we get to see what the out.

Workings of a wholehearted and faithful response to Jesus look

like in John's life and they look like that ability to speak.

Truth to power. John even in the face of that

aggression from Harrods household, he can stand up and

speak and it looks like from the passage.

Actually, he was able to keep doing that until the point where

they beheaded him for it. And the reason for that, is that

real repentance has roots. The psalmist tells us in Psalm

1, that the one who Delights in God is like a tree planted by

streams of water that yields its fruit in season.

So, strong and healthy tree. No wind could ever uproot, it

wouldn't be strong enough. And I don't know about you, but

I would like to be more like that tree.

I'd like to have an unwavering tireless faith, more like John's

I wish my roots ran a bit deeper than they actually do.

Forge on his faith, in Jesus means he can keep speaking and

embodying the gospel, no matter what threat gets held over his

head. And if we're people who love

Jesus, I think we can say, with some confidence that we're going

to need to be like that. True be like that, too.

We're going to need to have Roots like that too in the

future. Your culture used to be.

If not actually Christian quite warm to Christianity, people

would say it was a nominal Christianity that we had in this

country say a couple of generations ago.

And if we use the seasons to kind of think about the

relationship between Christian people and the culture that we

live in there. Maybe that time a couple of

generations ago was the summertime And if that was the

summer time, then I think it's fair to say, actually, we're

well into the Autumn now that winter is actually right around

the corner. And for that reason, we're going

to need the kind of faith that John had In this passage Well,

you'll need a faith. That's full of fiber and full of

backbone. Faith is rooted in who Jesus is

the god and King? Who cares?

And saves? in Ephesians chapter 4, Paul

Ephesians 4 · chapter mention

writes that those who aren't mature in Christ are infants,

tossed back and forth by the waves and blown here and there

by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of

people and they're deceitful scheming Who's immature people

are people who lack Roots deep roots in Christ and because of

that they're violently blown around by the World, by the

world's lies. But Paul contrasts that with

those who are growing to full maturity in Christ.

And when he does that, he's not talking about someone special,

but kind of rarefied, air of Christian faith.

He's talking about Christian people, normal Christian people.

He means people who are meeting with God's people, we can we

count people who are serving and being served people who are

speaking and hearing the truth in love.

Because those are the kind of people that have roots.

So if it is late Autumn for us in this country, now if winter

is coming, we're going to need a kind of Faith Like John's.

We're going to need those Deep Roots.

That HR policy that you could never in good conscience, sign

up to is going to come. Even that law that says you

can't offer to pray for somebody else is on its way.

The active expectation that you won't just accept things, God

says that are wrong but you'll have to endorse them.

You'll have to affirm them. Those facts are going to make

their presence felt in our lives and when they do we will need

Deep Roots, like John to stand firm.

Jesus offers us, the deepest Roots, anchored in him, anchored

in who he's revealed to be at the cross.

But you know what? John still ends up dead, doesn't

he? We don't get a happy ending in

this passage. And the reason for that and we

see this in the rest of Mark is that for Jesus the way to Glory

was through suffering. And if we're people who belong

to Jesus, if we answer that call come follow me.

How else can we get to where he's gone without following the

same path? The Christians to same for John,

the weight of Glory is through suffering.

But even In this passage with its beheading and imprisonment

persecution, Even In this passage we get strains of that

glory and actually they come from all places the lips of

herot Verse 16, John whom I behead.

It has been raised from the dead.

Now, here it is wrong and that point John hasn't been raised

from the dead, but it's actually not the substance that he's

wrong about. It's the timing that he's wrong

about. Because Jesus has been raised

from the dead. John is going to be raised from

the dead. All believers will be raised

from the dead. Victory Belongs To Our God and

King who cares and saves and even though we could never

deserve it, he shares that Victory with us.

He shares that Victory with everybody, who loves him.

And the price he paid to make that possible was his own life.

So, whatever stands against us. Now, whatever opposition is

thrown at us a story. His story has a happy as a

Victorious ending and so we can stand firm not in our strength,

but in response to who we know Jesus to be in response to our

God and King, who cares? And safes.

Now we're going to move on to thinking about Herod in a

moment. But before we do just one more

thing about John, Don is unsurprisingly a person in this

passage, but he's also something else for us as well.

He's a proxy, he's a proxy for Jesus.

Sometimes people might talk about someone being a type of

Christ, especially in the Old Testament and some of us might

be used to seeing those types of Christ.

In the Old Testament. Are David reminds us of Christ,

Joseph reminds us of Christ in various ways.

We've got this book at home, that's going to come up on the

slide. Now, it's called Jesus and the

lions den and the point of the book maybe, as you can tell from

the title is that the Old Testament is full of these Jesus

moments. So, here's an example, from the

book in the story of Daniel, there's a point where his

enemies want to get rid of him and they try and get him into

trouble. And then the book parallels,

that with Jesus life where we see exactly the same thing being

true between Jesus and the Pharisees.

I think some of us will be used to seeing those Jesus moments in

the Old Testament. That's a thing.

Maybe, maybe we're quite used to doing, but we don't usually have

to do it in one of the gospels. Like we've got here, we're

normally just given Jesus really directly.

But what we've got with John, the Baptist here is a Jesus

moment, John represents Jesus for us and the passage shows us

that. So just to prove, I'm not making

it up, we can see that really clearly in the passage the verse

16. Howard doesn't quite forget

things right there as we've already talked about.

But he does equate, John, and Jesus, and he's right to do

that. Verses 17 and 18.

John's arrest it. And he's done nothing wrong.

All he's done. Is speak the truth and later the

same thing would happen to Jesus.

Then in verse 20, John gets described as a righteous and

holy man, we know that Jesus is the ultimate righteous and holy

man and then at the end and I think most clearly John is

executed having not perfect wrong.

And then his disciples take his body, put in a two.

Exactly the same as what would happen to Jesus.

Over and Over In this passage Mark casts John in the Jesus

roll. John for us.

Here is a living breathing picture of Jesus.

So, as we move on to thinking about Herod, we're going to take

it that Howard's response to John is more than a response to

John actually, it's a response to Jesus.

It's a really clear barometer of how Howard's responding to the

identity of Jesus himself. as we come on to her and we're going

to see that Fascination is not Faith, Fascination isn't faith

Now I actually get a pretty short story here in that this

passage I think is about 300 words in English, but we also

get is a really authentic. Three-dimensional.

Picture of Harrity feels really real In this passage.

He feels really real in the kind of complex relationship and

response. He's having to John and we can

see that I think most clearly and just that chunk 17 to 20.

So let me read those. It's been a while since we

looked at chunk of the passage so verses 17 to 20.

But Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested,

and he had him bound and put in prison.

He did this because of herodias. His brother Philips wife, whom

he married. For John had been saying to

Herod. It is not lawful for you to have

your brother's wife. So herodias, nursed a grudge

against John and wanted to kill him but she was not able to

because Herod feared John and protected him knowing him to be

a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was

greatly puzzled, he liked to listen to him.

So from that, and from the end of the passage Herod, has John

arrested? And then he executes him,

doesn't sound like a complex relationship at that point

sounds horrific, but doesn't sound very complex.

But actually in that junk, I just read verse 19.

We get to see the motivation for the arrest.

Herodias, herod's wife wants John dead and Herod arrests him

as a way of putting him into protective custody.

Because things aren't as simple here in terms of Harris

responses. We might first think when we

read the passage, the reason herodias wants John Dad.

We talked about before. It's there in verse 20 is

because of what John's been saying about Herod and herodias

is marriage. But Herod knows, John is

righteous and holy Herod, fears him and actually he's quite

intrigued by what John has to say for himself.

And we only hear one thing that John has to say for himself

which is Herod me, you're in sin.

And so at that point is actually a bit of a surprise.

I think that we get that that description of him being

intrigued being puzzled by what John's saying, I think Howard's

feelings towards John aren't straight forward at all

actually. ultimately Herod is very, very straightforward as a

man and that leads to the mess that we see in this passage, The

main narrative is kind of centered around.

Herod's birthday party, which is a first century banquet, and

that means drink. It means the men in one room and

the women in another room. And it means we can expect a

fairly rawkus time. If we're at that party and

actually, it turns out to be a bit more even than rawkus, it

turns out to be risky. So in comes herodias his

daughter and let's not miss the fact.

This is herod's own stepdaughter, incomes herodias

his daughter and dances. I think we can get from the

context, the kind of dance that's in question here.

This is a room full of drunk, man.

There's only one woman there. It's exactly.

The kind of dance you think is And Herod enjoys it so much, so

he lets himself, get carried away.

He promises to do whatever she wants and he makes the promise

in full view of the Great and the not-so-good of his court.

The girl goes to herodias and we know straight away where that's

going herodias. Wants John dead.

Back in. Goes the girl back to Herod and

then verse 26. It doesn't want to say yes.

But he feels. He's got no choice.

He's greatly distressed by the request.

But he does say yes in the end, why does he say yes?

By simply reputation verse 26, says, the King was greatly

distressed, but because of his Oaths and his dinner guests, he

didn't want to refuse her. And so for that reason, a

righteous and holy man, loses his head.

Why three main reasons? Parents partying, herod's

toggling of his stepdaughter and herod's desire to be well,

thought of and so that complex got a warm relationship that he

has with John is out the window in the face of herod's

overwhelming, simplicity And if we remember that John here is a

picture of Jesus at. He's a proxy of Jesus, we get to

ask what's the character of herod's response to Jesus

himself? We see clear positive signs.

Don't we Harrods protecting John.

He's listening to his words, even when they're critical

words. But ultimately, what we see is

that herod's response, no matter how warm Is deficient.

There's something missing here. Just look at the mess that gets

born out of the response. Yeah, he's interested in John,

he's protecting, John but all the way through it's obvious

that something's missing And so John gave us this example of

repentant faith of unconcerned for what other people think.

And in contrast to that inherit, we see a really active fear of

people, and what they think, even for someone in such a

position of power. We see inherited a response that

is not that a follower of Jesus, not that of a disciple. no

matter how much Fascination and interest there might be That

said the Herod we see in this passage, she's not like a

stereotypical image of someone who would say is an opponent to

the gospel, is he he's way more real and ordinary and every day

than that, he's not a Richard Dawkins or a Stephen Fry,

issuing tirades against Christianity.

He seems warm to things of faith in some ways.

But the problem for Harriet is that he is in a settled

position. He's in a settled position of

curiosity and unrepentant, disregard for the gospel.

How many times must Herod? Have heard John.

I remember this is the John who when he preached multitudes we

don't know how many thousands probably of people repented in

response to John's message. We don't know how many times

Herod must have heard that from John and the best he can muster

along the way as this kind of puzzled enjoyment that we see.

With herod's response to Jesus isn't enough.

What About Us? I wonder if you might be someone

who finds themselves puzzled and interested as you listen to

Christians, maybe as you read the Bible for yourself, I wonder

if you're someone who enjoys being with God's people, maybe

does that a lot in the same way that Herod seem to have with

John You might even be someone who would forcefully even and

gladly State their admiration for Jesus, Isaac?

Jesus, yeah, Greg guy righteous and holy man.

If that's you, and if that's where it stops with you, this

passage has a clear message for you.

The things that you're feeling and doing or not the same things

as saving faith. Now don't get me wrong, those

things that you're doing, they're not a mistake, they're

good things to do. You should read the Bible, you

should admire Jesus. If you're growing and knowledge

of Jesus, that's fantastic and praise God for that fact.

But if your admiration and enjoyment of God's people is for

you a settled position. If that's somewhere, you're just

really comfy actually. If it means you get to have a

little hit of Jesus now and then to make you feel better but the

rest of your life you live without reference to him without

thinking about him. That's not the same thing as a

response of repentance and faith.

It's not the same thing as knowing Jesus as our God and

King, who cares and saves. and ultimately, if that's you If

that leaves you in the same position as Herod, was long as

you're there, you're in danger. I don't want that to be heard by

anyone who really is a follower of Jesus who really is earnestly

trying to live their lives, out in response to him and getting

things wrong because we all do that, I do that.

Like I said, before, my roots, don't run as deep as I'd like to

be known as deep as they should. But if you are in that same

position as Herod sat, still comfortable not growing.

Well, the author c.s. Lewis puts it this way.

Now, is our chance to choose the right side.

God is holding back to give us that chance.

We won't last forever. We must take it or leave it.

Because the truth is that Jesus is the god and King, who cares

and saves and that fact changes everything.

Jesus created all things and he rules and Reigns over them.

He created you and him ruling and reigning over you is the

right thing whether you like the idea or not.

Maybe it seems like bad news that Jesus should be ruling over

you, but it's not. And that's because of who Jesus

is. He doesn't leave us with nothing

to go on when it comes to his character.

Instead he became human and entered his own creation, he

allowed himself the God and King of Everything, he allowed

himself to be tortured to death at the cross.

And he did that for you. He did that to win your heart

and to win your freedom. He did that ultimately because

he loves you. Doesn't he deserve more than a

dash of admiration here and there in response to that?

Jesus is Worthy. He's worthy of Your Love.

He's worthy of your devotion, your faith, your whole life is

Jesus, is the god and King who cares and saves and to all of

us. He invites us, come follow me.

Let's play together. I have a father.

We thank you and praise you for that.

God and King, who cares and saves?

He needn't have come, he needn't care about us.

He needn't shed his own blood to save us and yet he did because

he loves us. We pray, whoever we are.

Whatever we make of that today, that you would open our eyes and

soften our hearts towards those facts.

Thank you for Jesus and that he loves us.

We pray for those who maybe haven't responded to that before

and maybe even here today are seeing for the first time.

But that's the case that they haven't responded

wholeheartedly. We pray that you would put

people around them to speak the gospel to them.

We pray that they wouldn't just forget what you have to say for

yourself. Wouldn't just go on into the

busyness of life but word pause. Would take a moment to do

business with you, to answer your call.

We pray, people would come follow, you, Lord Jesus, we pray

for those of us who do know you, those of us who longed to have

deeper roots to be able to stand firm.

Like, John, did we know that we might need those deeper Roots,

very much in months and years to come.

We pray, we be a church family. Who each other is presenting

Jesus to one another that God and King who cares and saves?

Would we be speaking? King of him encouraging, one

another in him. And what that fact grow us to

full maturity in the way that you and able it to, we pray for

the work of your spirit and the Heart of us as a church family

that we would be growing. So that maturity, that we would

be able to stand firm and stand strong.

And that your name would be glorified as a result.

We pray all these things in the name of your son, Jesus.

Amen.