Get Ready to Party

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.

It's our hope that these sermons will draw you

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us online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Facebook,

Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this

sermon. God Bless. Oh, Lord Godden, you are the

light of the world. In your light, we see light.

We ask now that you would shine your light into

our hearts, that we would be able to perceive

the truths of this word, that we would go out

from here changed and loving you more. We pray

these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well,

friends, life is strange. We come here hopeful

and trusting in God, even though we come on this

day which commemorates one of the saddest days

in our shared history. I refer, of course, to

Malcolm Butler intercepting Russell Wilson with

less than a minute to play in Super Bowl XLIX.

Give it false stop heresy giving the Patriots

their fourth championship and extending Tom Brady's

reign of terror So as you know, the Super Bowl

is later tonight The Seahawks are playing the

Patriots. So it's a rematch of that game That

game honestly was it's right up there with the

worst moments in my life as a sports fan I'm

trying to learn to distinguish between Sports

fan life and regular life. I'm getting there

When that game happened I was teaching down in

North Carolina and The very next day the Monday

afterwards. I was giving a quiz and one of my

ninth graders said Man, I need to do a Russell

Wilson and pass when I shouldn't still too soon

Anyway We heard today the Super Bowl is happening.

I just looked up It's probable that somewhere

between 65 and 80 percent of Americans will be

watching at least a portion of tonight's game

Which is somewhere between two to four times

as many people as will attend church this morning

So interesting stuff if you're interested at

all in sports, you're probably thinking about

the game right now will Seattle put a spy on

Drake May the whole time? And if so, how will

they disguise their coverages? This is important.

Or maybe you're just wondering what kind of commercials

we're going to see tonight. I read that the average

cost for a 30 -second commercial tonight is $8

million, so they better be good. So you're thinking

about that, and then you come to the House of

the Lord, And you hear the texts that we read

together today, and it's a little bit of emotional

whiplash, right? The death of John the Baptist

is startling. But even though it is startling,

I think this is the right text for us as a church

today, and I think it's good for us to be startled

by the Bible. So what we've got here is shocking

political violence at a birthday party. So, my

title today, Get Ready to Party, is supposed

to be doing a few different things. So first

of all, it's referring to this banquet that Herod

throws for himself, which turns deadly. It seems

to me that Herod was not prepared for the party,

even though he was the one throwing it. And it

seems to me that John the Baptist was prepared

for the party, even though he was not exactly

invited. I also want my title to do double duty

and remind you that your Super Bowl party tonight,

which I hope will be a lot of fun, will go better

for you having come and worshiped the Lord in

his holiness here today. When we come to the

Lord's table regularly, all the other tables

take their proper significance in our lives,

I tend to think. So with that said, what can

we learn from the unpleasant end of John the

Baptist's I think we can look at John's story

with three sort of different lenses, and those

will be my three points today. Those are confusion,

clarity, and confidence. Let me explain. When

we From inside our own stories, as the Lord in

His providence is directing, when we try to understand

what God is doing, it can be very confusing.

The big picture is difficult to understand, so

that's point one. But in the particulars of our

lives, no matter what's happening, big picture,

very often we can know what to do. We can have

clarity as to what our next action should be.

So that's point two. And then finally, we can

rely on God to reconcile all of it, fix what

appears to be broken at the end of all things.

We can have confidence that the judge of the

world will do what is right, as Abraham said

way back in Genesis. So that's point three. Let's

jump in. Point one, God in his providence is

confusing and John the Baptist is maybe the prime

example of how it's confusing to try to follow

the Lord or how, you know, the work that you're

putting in and the faith that you have and the

expectations that you have based on the Word

of God and the character of God can still sometimes

turn out very differently from what you had expected

or hoped. I think we can see that in sort of

concentric circles as we look at John here. I

want to stress that John's a big deal. Did you

know that Jesus' public ministry in all four

gospels is initiated or introduced by John? In

all four of them, it's John who's linked with

the prophecy from Isaiah, prepare you the way

of the Lord, and then the Lord, Jesus, shows

up. Mark begins with one introductory verse,

and then it says in verse two, it is written

in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger

before thy face, which shall prepare thy way

before thee. That's a prophesy from Malachi chapter

three. That's right before what we read earlier

today. Then verse three, the voice of one crying

in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the

Lord. That's the prophecy from Isaiah. And then

verse four, John did baptize in the wilderness.

There he is. That's how this gospel begins. It

links Old Testament prophecy to this specific

person, John, and John's purpose is to introduce

Jesus, and he does. So chapter one in this story

is the story of Jesus' baptism by John in the

Jordan, and we hear the very voice of God from

heaven saying, well done. This is exactly right,

you cousins. Good work. And that was like four

pages ago. in the text in front of you, right?

If you read your Bible like you read a novel,

and I think we should sometimes, this violent

exit of the character John from the plot is a

pretty surprising thing. And it's even more surprising

if you have some memory of the other gospel accounts.

This is concentric circle part two. We heard

in Luke, for instance, that John has a miraculous

birth. His birth is announced by Gabriel just

like Jesus' birth. We also see in that text that

John is the first person to leap for joy in the

presence of Jesus. He does so in Elizabeth's

womb. Then John goes out into the desert and

he starts this revival movement and is eating

locusts and honey. And he's the first one to

publicly identify Jesus as the Lamb of God who

takes away the sins of the world. You may also

remember that in chapter one of the gospel of

John, people come to John the Baptist and ask

him, are you the Christ? And it says that he

confesses and does not deny, but he's not the

Christ. So what's really interesting is that

in life, John is mistaken for the Christ. And

then after John's death, Jesus, who is the Christ,

is actually mistaken for a resurrected John.

John's a big deal. His birth and his life are

both heroic, and now he's just abruptly dead.

So this becomes even more confusing, you know,

another concentric circle out, if you consider

John not just in the context of the Gospels,

but in the context of the Bible as a whole. So,

if you will, let's take another look at that

Old Testament text that we read today. If you're

following along in your Bible, you can just flip

back a couple of pages. to the end, the very

end of the Old Testament, page 955, Malachi chapter

four. I'll just read quickly again. For behold,

the day is coming, burning like an oven when

all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.

The day that is coming shall set them ablaze,

says the Lord of hosts. So it will leave them

neither root nor branch, but for you. who fear

my name, the Son of righteousness shall rise

with healings in its wings. You shall go out

leaping like calves from the stall, and you shall

tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes

under the soles of your feet on the day when

I act, says the Lord of hosts. Remember the law

of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules I

commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold,

I will send you Elijah the prophet before the

great and awesome day of the Lord comes. So John,

in our text, seems to think that he's inhabiting

the time that this chapter is referring to. He

seems to think that the great and dreadful day

of the Lord has come, and the Lord has come.

So he's at least partially right. So later on

in the book of Mark, by the way, Jesus, chapter

9, Jesus is going to say, people are going to

ask him, why does it say that Elijah must first

come? When people are identifying Jesus with

the Lord who is going to come, why do they say

that Elijah must come? In that text we just read,

and Jesus says Elijah did come. It was John.

So in two counts here, John was right about where

he is in the story. And so it's very obvious

that his confusion is sort of justified. Why?

Well, because in addition to saying that the

Lord is going to come, in addition to saying

that Elijah is going to come, it says, remember,

God is going to burn up all of the proud, right?

And the righteous are going to stomp on them

as if they were ash, right? So in the text that

he's reading, he's correctly seeing that it's

being partially fulfilled in his own time. And

yet, the wicked are not burned up, right? Almost

exactly the opposite is happening. John, the

righteous one, did you see that? that little

note here. Herod feared John knowing he was a

righteous and holy man. Herod knew that John

was righteous. The righteous is in jail. He's

totally vulnerable. He's the one who's like ashes,

right? The wicked can have him killed on a whim.

So that's all confusing. And that's my first

point, right? And because of this confusion that

this text I think should give us, I think we

in our own lives are justified in having sort

of an emotional gentleness. with ourself, a generosity

with ourself when we're confused or sad about

the way the world is or about how we're being

treated. We don't have to be all smiles all the

time. This is a text, this is a record saying

that bad things do happen and we don't need to

be thrilled about it. So that's all point one.

However, while this outcome is sad, And even

startling, as I say, I do think we can have certainty

on a few things in this text, starting with this.

Even though John ends up dead in this text, he's

not the loser in this text. So on the surface,

this is kind of a story without winners, right?

But Herod is absolutely the loser in this text.

Even on his own... terms, even according to what

he thinks is important. He's the loser. Look

at the way the text portrays him. So Jesus is

out there doing the works of God and Herod responds

by saying, oh yeah, that's John the Baptist.

He's risen from the dead. He's here to bother

me. Herod is seeing ghosts. This guy has a bad

conscience. And what does this mean for Herod?

Well, it means he cannot see Jesus clearly. His

bad actions made him unwilling to hear John when

John was saying, repent. And now his fears make

him unable to hear the message that is his only

real hope, right? And that message is that Christ,

who John was pointing to, saves. That's the message

we need to hear and Herod cannot hear it because

he can't stop thinking about himself. Herod is

startlingly like Claudius from Hamlet, I think.

He married his brother's wife. He got to be king.

He's got everything he wants. But he can't rest

easy. His power does not make him happy. Oh,

my offense is rank. It smells to heaven, says

Claudius. And Herod would say the same if he

could think clearly. So Herod has the money and

the political clout to throw these big parties

to try to make himself look good. This is verse

21. An opportunity came when Herod on his birthday

gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders

and the leading men of Galilee. It's his birthday

and he gives this feast and he ends up looking

like an idiot. His daughter -in -law comes in

and dances and he promises he's gonna give her

anything she wants, up to half of his kingdom.

I'm guessing he's drunk. You don't make promises

like this, if you're sober, right? And she goes

to her mom, who sounds like a total class act,

right? And she says she wants her enemy John's

head. And Herod doesn't want to do it, but yet

he feels like he has to. Why? Because of the

guests and his oaths. That's verse 26. And so

he has John killed. Okay. Can you imagine? the

way these nobles and military commanders and

leading men of Galilee are feeling as they exit

this party. Great party, Herod. Happy birthday.

Love the way you had that innocent guy killed

on a whim, even though you didn't want to and

knew it was a bad idea. That inspires confidence.

So Herod is doing this for his reputation, and

his reputation does not look good. Herod is a

figure for mockery. In Oscar Wilde's play, Salome,

which we get that name for the dancing girl from

Josephus, some people are trying to tell Herod,

in this play, people are trying to tell Herod

about Jesus and how he can even raise the dead.

And this is the way he responds, I do not wish

him to do that. I forbid him to do that. I allow

no man to raise the dead. This man must be found

and told that I forbid him to raise the dead.

He's this contemptible little king who's trying

to impose his own will on God. Let's make sure

we're not doing the same, yes? By the way, just

to be clear, this is not the same Herod who tried

to have Jesus killed as a baby. That was a different

guy. He was called Herod the Great. Biblical

commentators suggest there were no less than

six. Different Herod's mentioned in the New Testament.

What's interesting to me about this is that the

biblical authors don't seem to care much about

distinguishing between them. Pick a Herod, any

Herod. They lump them all together. They don't

think any of them are great. It makes me think

of C .S. Lewis's great quote, how monotonously

alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have

been. How gloriously different are the saints.

It's hardly even worth figuring out which Herod

we're dealing with here, but when you meet John

eating locusts in the desert, you know you've

got something special. So that's all part of

my second point. Even though it might be confusing

where we are in God's story sometimes, we can

know what kind of part we want to play in that

story. We want to play a faithful part. We want

to be more like John than like Herod. And so

why is John in prison? It's because he was willing

to speak the truth of God's Word, even if it

made powerful people unhappy. And here's an interesting

thing. So even though Herod was a moral disaster

as a person, as we've sort of outlined here,

it looks like he might not have been an awful

ruler, practically speaking, at least compared

to some of his other peers. A scholar from the

biblical archaeology society says that Herod,

unlike his brother, took care not to offend the

religious sensibilities of his Jewish subjects

with graven images and pagan temples." And also

that the economy of his time was doing quite

well. All that to say, there were probably well

-meaning Jewish people who, when John was out

there preaching against Herod, were saying, hey,

don't make that guy angry. He's on our side.

He's the kind of king we want. But John would

not have listened to this. John treasured the

moral law of God over and above party politics.

And I tend to think that we, as Christians in

our day and place, we desperately need to learn

from John on this point. John knew what was right

and wrong without being confused by the political

situation and party loyalty. Friend, do we treasure

God's Word over and above party politics? And

I'm not saying this to either major political

party in particular. I think both need to be

ruled by our morality and our morality needs

to be ruled by the Word of God. Is our moral

compass shaped by God's word or by political

commentary? If I am unwilling to say that a bad

thing is bad because it's done by somebody who's

on my side, I am in desperate confusion. So I

know there's some people who would call me naive

on this, some very smart people who I trust,

and I want to be patient with that. But I think

the question this story is calling us to ask

ourselves, would I rather be politically naive

with John or would I rather be politically sophisticated

with Harry? So I think we need to retrain ourselves

to view the moral landscape in terms of God's

revealed will before we even think about party

politics anymore. Are you ready to party? Okay

that was part two. Our individual moral acts

don't need to be confusing. We can have clarity

about how we should act in the world. We should

act as people whose consciences are captive to

the Word of God. And actually we see a good humble

example of this at the end of our passage in

verse 29. When John's disciples heard about his

death, they came and took his body and laid it

in the tomb. They knew that wrong had been done

and they mourned. They show appropriate respect

for their beloved religious figure. And this

in itself, you have to think, this is a little

bit brave, right? If Herod and his wife are sort

of out of touch enough to kill a guy at a birthday

party because they disagree with him, who's to

say that they won't come after these guys? But

regardless, they know what's right, and they

do it. So here's a sub point. There's a good

reason to have clarity as to our moral actions

and it's simply that it looks like there's a

pretty good chance that our actions might have

some tangible result in the world, right? We

see this in a positive way in these disciples

showing bravery. We see it in a very negative

way, inherits happy little family, right? Think

about poor Salome. She gets asked to come out

and do her dance routine for her stepfather and

his cronies. And then he creepily asks her what

kind of reward she wants. She goes to her mom,

which shows she does want to please her mother

by her actions, right? And then the mom makes

this disastrous moral ask. I want John dead.

I want John's head. And she not only goes through

with it, but in fact, it looks like it's her

suggestion that it comes out on a platter. She's

the one who adds that detail in verse 25 there.

So she kind of one -ups her mom's horrific demands.

So constant badness has created a situation in

which she is extravagant in her badness. Friends,

may our homes and our lives be the opposite.

Might we demonstrate goodness consistently? so

that goodness becomes habitual and valued around

us. And maybe those little moral alternate ecosystems

will show up against our broader culture. So

all of that was on how we can have clarity in

our actions. And if you notice, I was just trying

to give practical, even secular rationale for

why we can have clarity. John is admirable. Herod

is despicable. John knows what is good and is

willing to suffer for it. Herod appears to know

what is good and is willing to actually go against

his own conscience in order to do wrong. Think

about that little detail in verse 26. The king

was exceedingly sorry, but he did it anyway.

So Herod is a wretch in this text, even from

a secular standpoint. But now I want to move

to a different motivation to do good. And that

is a religious stance. And that is this. God

is not only in control during this life, but

he's in control after this life. And he will

reward his servants and he will punish his enemies.

My third point is this. We can have confidence

in God in the long run. And that's a point that's

not actually found here. Sort of an implication.

And it's also something we confess every week.

He will come again to judge the living and the

dead, right? I bring this up because my second

point might not actually be all that convincing,

right? Even as I'm saying, Herod is bad. John

is good. Part of you might have been thinking,

well, yeah, but John is dead. Herod is at a party.

I think I would rather be at a party. I mean,

there's something to that. Unless you consider

the long term. The very long term, the fact that

when our stories in this life are over, as happens

to John in verse 27, they are not over entirely.

Though our bodies will die, we perdure. I have

that quote in your bulletin from Plato, or rather

Socrates, Plato quoting Socrates, saying it's

better to suffer wrong than to do it. So these

are pre -Christian thinkers, but their argument

is that Since your soul will last forever, you

need to not injure your soul. If you do injury

to your soul by doing moral bad in this life,

well then you enter eternity with an injured

soul. They know that the best argument for not

doing bad things is because there's a life to

follow this one. And as Christians, this should

be our mindset as well. One pastor says this,

quote, And good and evil are just categories

of power or distinctions between friend and enemy.

Well, that's one thing. But if there is an all

-seeing God and Jesus is alive, then the judgment

seat is quite different from public opinion.

Well, there is an all -seeing God. And Jesus

is alive. And John, even if he didn't know all

the details, knew that judgment was coming. And

though he faced death, he knew God's truth would

be vindicated eventually. Somehow, you think

about that quote from Malachi again, the day

is coming, says the Lord of hosts, when all the

proud and those who do wickedly will be burned

up, but you who fear my name, the son of righteousness

will rise with healing in its wings. And you

will leap like calves from their stall. So though

John is dead, shockingly, his head is on a platter.

He will jump for joy again as he did once in

the presence of his his savior And Herod in his

arrogance will be smashed down finally never

to do irresponsible violence again Where do we

see this in the text? We don't not quite what

do we see? We see after this episode is over

it picks up with the story of Jesus right That's

how this whole thing happened, right? Now King

Herod heard of, back in verse 14, the stuff that

Jesus was doing. And some said, John the Baptist

has been raised from the dead. That's actually

how we first hear that John was dead. And then

once the story has been told, the gospel writer,

he just moves on. He goes back to Jesus and the

work that Jesus is doing. And that's the answer

for us. Two, we can get confused by what's happening

in the world. We can be saddened by what's happening

to us personally or those that we love. These

disciples bury John's body. There are deep sorrows

that happen in a world marked by sin. My pipes

froze last night. Sometimes the wrong team wins

the Super Bowl, but Jesus is still doing his

work. John called it correctly back in chapter

1, there comes one after me and he will baptize

you with the Holy Spirit. Jesus goes forward

on his mission to seek and to save the lost and

because of that we can have confidence that John

is, that God, is going to right all of the wrongs.

The Lord will heroically deliver his people.

He will bring judgment on those who have wronged.

His people. Earth has no sorrow that heaven can't

heal. And that's what we have to remember. John's

story ends abruptly, but that's okay, even for

him, because he's not the main character in his

own story. Because Jesus is the main character,

this is just the end of John's earthly story,

and there's more story to come. And the epilogue

is going to be a feast way better than Herod's

feast. And John is going to be the big shot then.

John will be a guest of honor at the feast of

the true King. And friend, if we remember that

Jesus is the main character in our stories as

well, we also will be guests of honor at that

party. And our time here is to help us to be

remembering that party. Get ready, right? Please

pray with me. Oh, Lord God, we live in a world

in which your treasured people die tragically,

sometimes violently. We live in a world where

things don't often make sense, but we praise

you that you are good, that you are bringing

all things to glorious completion in Christ.

We praise you for your mercy. We praise you that

the son of righteousness will rise with healing

in his wings. Help us Lord to fix our eyes on

that. Make us people who desire you and desire

that day spring above all else. We pray all this

in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening

to Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this

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God bless.