Herod's Evil Conscience

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Date: 7th Sunday of Pentecost Text: Mark 6:14-29 www.kongsvingerchurch.org

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern
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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.
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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St. Mark, the sixth chapter.
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King Herod heard of it for Jesus's name had become known. Some said, John the
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Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. Others said, he is
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Elijah. Others said, he's a prophet like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard of it, he said,
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John whom I beheaded has been raised. For it was Herod who had sent and seized John, bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother
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Philip's wife, because he had married her. For John had been saying to Herod, it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.
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And Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could not, for Herod feared
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John, knowing that he was a righteous and a holy man and he kept him safe. When he had heard him, he was greatly perplexed and yet he heard him gladly.
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But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.
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For when Herodias's 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.
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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
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I ask? She said, the head of John the Baptist. And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying,
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I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter. And the king was exceedingly sorry because, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her.
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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.
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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.
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This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus. Alright, have you ever heard the phrase, somebody has an evil conscience?
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It's a weird one. It's kind of a, one of those archaic ways of putting it. We say somebody has a guilty conscience.
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You think of Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and she's washing her hands out, out, damn spot, right?
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And so she's got an evil, evil, evil conscience. And you'll note that we human beings, because it's
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God's law, it's written on our hearts, we know that when we've run afoul of God's commandments, and yet at the same time, boy, the darkness, the depth, the magnitude of sin, none of us is capable of wandering out of the darkness of sin into the light unless God, well, shines the light on us, drags us into his kingdom.
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You'll note that over and again scripture talks about the fact that none can come to the Father unless, well, the
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Father draws him. None can come to the Son unless the Father draws him. And so here in our text today, we're going to note something, and that is, is that God is graciously allowing that good -for -nothing
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Tetrarch, because that's all he really is, that good -for -nothing Tetrarch, King Herod. Now, he's not a true king in the truest sense.
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Israel is not a sovereign state, and Herod is not in control of all of Israel.
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He's not Herod the Great. This is one of his descendants. And we've learned from Josephus that his brother
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Philip was married to this gal by the name of Herodias, and boy, she was kind of one of these gals that was really all about, well, you know, money and status and power and things like this.
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She's kind of a gold digger of sorts. And so when Philip is divested of some of his power, she no longer is really keen on her husband and instead is a little more keen on the guy who, well, was invested with the power that Philip was divested of.
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And all of this took place in Rome. They were in Rome when all this happened. And next thing you know, well, you find her in Herod's bed, and he ends up marrying her while his brother is still—this is the kind of stuff that's like daytime soap opera kind of stuff, you know what
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I'm saying? You know, we all see this like on Netflix, and it's the same stuff that goes on.
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And we should note that, because you'll note that this same stuff, we all do this too, you know?
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Although we are not powerful or wealthy, or we're not people who have a lot of status, that being the case, well, this is the same kind of nonsense that goes on among us.
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Why? Because each of us is born dead in trespasses and sins. We still have a sinful nature, and we—how should
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I put it ?—we have this amazing ability to want to make everything about me, about you.
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It's all about—we're so much like the devil in that capacity. And then you'll note here, as we consider this, that the
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Emperor Caesar is still in charge, and so this is all going to play into it. So if I could,
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I'd like to do a little bit of a character study—kind of a weird way to put it—between this
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Tetrarch who has delusions of grandeur, thinks he has power that he doesn't, and consider the fact that God was gracious and merciful, because what was the purpose of John the
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Baptist's ministry? To prepare the way of Christ, to make paths straight.
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And we can tell by the fact that Herod and Herodias and this dirty dancing little girl, whoever she was, that she—I think her name is
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Salome, that's what Josephus says her name is—that God wanted them to John the
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Baptist as the precursor of Christ. So the story goes like this. King Herod heard of Jesus.
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Jesus' name had become known. And some said, John the Baptist has been raised from the dead.
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I always like to point this out. Since when did Jews become reincarnationists? This is bizarre.
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Here they cannot deny what Jesus is doing. Jesus is healing the sick.
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He's cleansing lepers. He's forgiving sins. He's giving the ability for those who are paralytics to walk.
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And you'll see later in the Gospel of Mark that he's even going to raise people from the dead. He's freeing people from demons, casting them out.
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And in all of the history of Israel, from Moses all the way through all the prophets, no one has done more miraculous signs than Christ.
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The next person under him would be like Moses. But that being said, everybody knows that something is afoot.
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And they're trying to put two and two together. And here's the depth and the magnitude of sin. Despite the fact that the answer is obvious, they still can't see it.
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The answer is obvious. Jesus is the promised Messiah. He's the one Moses prophesied about. He's the one all the prophets told us was coming.
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He's here now. John the Baptist, he's the one who prepared the way. And they're scratching their head going, well, maybe reincarnation is a thing.
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No, reincarnation is not a thing. He is not. He's not
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Elijah. He's not John the Baptist raised from the dead. Well, the people who are saying, well, he's a prophet.
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They're a little bit closer. Just a little bit closer. Think of it this way. You ever play that game with your kids or you had this game played with you when you were a kid.
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Your parent, one of your parents hid something and you had to go hunting for it. And they'd say, oh, you're cold.
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Oh, you're freezing. Oh, man, it's a blizzard in here. And then you'd turn direction. They'd go, getting warmer, getting warmer.
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Oh, you're burning up. It's hot lava, right? See, the folks who are saying, well, maybe he's a prophet.
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At least they're warm, all right? But they still can't put it together. And that's the thing. Remember that in the
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Gospel of Matthew, when Jesus asked his disciples, who do people say that I am?
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We got these same responses. Jesus turns it right down to them and says, who do you say that I am?
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Of course, Peter says, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. And what does Jesus say? Blessed are you,
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Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven. And so here you have all these people scratching their heads going, what's going on here?
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And what's missing? They're not reading and understanding the biblical text.
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They're not hearing the word of God. Otherwise, the answer is obvious. And we all, all of us can talk about all the different ways we've lived our lives in darkness and in confusion.
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And because we do not recognize the centrality of who Christ is and what he's done for us, we've even read the
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Bible and twisted it up and misunderstood it and missed the obvious that was going on there.
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We're all guilty of this. So Herod heard this. John, whom
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I beheaded, has been raised from the dead. Out, out, damn spot. Right?
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That's what's going on here. Now, on the one hand, we can say, ah, this is good that he's feeling guilt for his sin.
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But there's no account of him coming to Christ and being absolved of his sin.
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John the Baptist prepared the way. And see, we learn more of the story if it was
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Herod who had sent and seized John, bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother
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Philip's wife, because he had married her. John had been saying to Herod, it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.
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Now, was John a respecter of persons? No, not at all. In fact, everybody who came to hear
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John preached, oh boy, yeah, they were told in no uncertain terms that they needed to what?
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Repent. They needed to make their paths straight. The one who was coming after him was greater than he.
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And so John, he preached the law just with all of its ferocity.
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And nobody was left out in that preaching, not even Herod. And so you can see
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John, we don't know the occasion, but the text actually says John had been saying to Herod.
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And the implication here is that he may have said this on more than one occasion. There's maybe
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Herod in Herodias out amongst the unwashed masses, probably being carried on a litter or something, living in luxury.
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And there's John, spits a grasshopper leg out on the ground and says, it's not right for you to have your brother's wife.
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You need to repent. The one coming after me is going to throw you into the fires of hell.
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And Herod hears this and he's kind of perplexed by it.
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And Herodias goes, is that man saying I'm a sinner? Yes. Have you ever had that awkward moment like you're telling somebody about your
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Christian faith and what Jesus has done? And the light goes on and somebody says, are you saying I'm a sinner?
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Yeah. Yeah. You're getting it. The light's going on. Good for you. Okay. That's the purpose of the law, by the way, the law was given to show us that we're sinners and to end it.
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Well, shut us up. Also, that's what Romans three says. So you're, you're making progress here, but no, this is important.
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We cannot understand and appreciate or even believe the gospel until we first recognize, oh, we are subject to the wrath of God for sins that we've committed, that we're not good people.
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Let's get that out of our heads. All right. I always, and again, it just annoys me when someone says, well, you know, I'm a good person.
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I pay my taxes. You know, I even gave money to the rotary club last year when they were sending people around.
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Really? Okay. And I've never been to prison. Yeah. Like that's the, that's the proof that you're a good person. Okay. There's a lot of people who should be in prison who've never been.
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Okay. Let's just be blunt about that. But all of that being said, scripture is clear. None is righteous.
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Not you, not me, not Herod, not Herodias and not their, not her daughter. So Herodias now bears a grudge.
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All right. Because John had been saying you, you, it's not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. So she borrowed a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death.
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Ah, let's see. We're going to use the power that we've been given, the authority that we've been given by Caesar in order to murder people.
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Is that what the state exists to do? Do any people have the right, whether they are elected officials or appointed officials to break the commandment, thou shalt not murder?
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None. None. In fact, God's word is clear that in order for somebody to experience capital punishment, there has to actually be a real trial.
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There has to be charges. They have to be established. And a capital crime has to be proven to have been committed.
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What's his capital crime? Well, he offended me. He hurt my feelings. Right? Is anything different today?
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No. And you're going to note, we Christians are starting to feel the heat a little bit.
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You say some things on Twitter. Oh, guess what happens to you? Your Twitter account disappears.
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Same thing on Facebook. I was informed by Facebook like a week ago that I may have been subjected to, well, hate speech.
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You know, I had no idea. Was it you, Bruce? It was probably me. Okay. All right.
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But I want you to know that Facebook gave me the opportunity to turn you in and I declined.
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But I was surprised I logged into Facebook. You may have been exposed, you know, and we have people that can counsel you and help you here.
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All right. Let's make this clear. When God says you're a sinner and you're going to be damned to hell, that's not hate speech.
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That's the verdict of the judge of the earth. And it doesn't matter if you like it or if it makes you feel good.
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It's not meant to make you feel good. It's meant to wake you up and to make you say, holy smokes,
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I'm in deep trouble here. Because you are. And so am
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I. Coming to grips with the fact that we are sinners is not something that's going to make you feel like rainbows, lollipops, and unicorns.
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It's going to make you feel like, well, the noose is around your neck and the fires of hell have been kindled under your feet.
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Because they have. But the story never ends there.
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Because Christ is on the scene here. Jesus is performing miracles. The murmurs are out.
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Aslan's afoot. You kind of get the idea, right? All right. So Herodias bore him a grudge.
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She couldn't do anything because Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and a holy man.
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He kept him safe. And when he heard him, he was greatly perplexed. And yet he heard him gladly.
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I'd like to point this out to the Calvinists. Yes, God's grace is resistible. Okay. Because there's
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Herod hearing the words of John the Baptist. And he's going,
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I love what I'm hearing here and I'm perplexed about it. Yet I'm not going to repent.
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Okay. Resistible indeed. All right. So persisting in his sin,
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Herodias now, well, nursing a murderous grudge. Have you ever noticed how murder and adultery go together?
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It's like they're twins or something. All right. You know, my wife watches that CSI stuff every time
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I come downstairs and she's got her iPad open and she's cooking and she's got CSI on. It's like, you know, you always hear about some poor fellow, you know, whose body was found two states over.
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The first person they want to talk to when that happens is you talk to the living spouse. Okay. Always a person of interest.
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I wonder why. Okay. Murder and adultery just always seem to go together.
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So here's what happens. On Herod's birthday, he gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee.
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Let's have a birthday. Y 'all can celebrate how important I am, right? And look at the complete vanity of this buffoon.
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So when Herodias' daughter came in and danced, and by the way, when you read the church fathers on this, they are not keen on this particular dance because they know how the culture works.
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Back in the day, it was absolutely scandalous that somebody who is a daughter of, well, royalty, a
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Tetrarch, a king, a governor, that's the high class here. That's the top of the pyramid type of stuff.
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That she would dance puts her down, down, down, down, down among the scandalous women and the unwashed masses.
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And so here, this would have been scandalous on its face, and the church fathers reveal that to us. So we can kind of translate it this way.
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She did some dirty dancing, right? Because that's what's going on here. And of course, all the guys loved it.
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Yeah! Woohoo! Do that again, right? That's what's going on. And Herod was so pleased by it.
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Never listening to the word of God, right? So the king said to the girl, ask me for whatever you wish and I will give it to you.
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And he vowed to her, whatever you ask me, I will give you up to half of my kingdom. Wait a second here. He's a
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Tetrarch. Do you think he could give away anything?
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No, no. So what's he doing? He's putting on airs. This is just complete, straight out narcissistic delusion.
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You think that Caesar's going to go, okay, yeah, sure. She can have half of your...
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No, that's not going to work. It just isn't. So he's making promises he can't keep and vows that he's not able to fulfill.
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Because what does he want? He wants his guests to think how important, how amazing, how magnanimous he is.
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And no, he's none of the above. So whatever you ask me, I'll give it up to half of my kingdom. So she went out and said to her mother, you could just see her just going, mumsy, what should
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I get? What should I do? Right? And of course she says,
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I want the head of John the Baptist at once on a platter. And so she goes running in.
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And what does she do? She says, I want the head of John the Baptist. And the text immediately says, the king then was exceedingly sorry.
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But because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her.
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Well, he's not willing to break his word, but he's willing to break God's word. What he should have said to that girl was, uh -uh.
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The commandment says thou shall not murder. And no Tetrarch has the authority to take a life of another human being without due process.
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But does he listen to the word of God? No. He decides that he didn't want to break his word.
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And always isn't that the problem? We idolaters, it's all about what we believe, what we think, what we think is important, and we don't want to have to lose face because it's about our words over God's.
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And immediately then 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, gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.
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When his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body, laid it in a tomb. Terrible end, right?
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But you'll note that John the Baptist kept his integrity. He went to his grave, a righteous and a holy man, believing and preaching the truth, proclaiming
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Christ, pointing the way to him. And God, in his mercy, allowed for Herod and Herodias and that girl to hear the preaching of John the
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Baptist. But rather than repent, rather than be baptized, rather than be prepared for the one who is coming by persisting in sin and unbelief and resisting
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God's grace, they were ill -prepared for the return of Christ. And so Herod, unlike John, sadly is going to go to his grave with that evil conscience.
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And you'll note that's kind of the difference, isn't it? The one who bled and died for him and the fact that Jesus was on the scene didn't comfort
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Herod. It terrified him. And each and every one of us, we know the terror of that sin, of our own sin.
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We know the terror of standing before Christ. And see, that's the thing. We talk about King Jesus.
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King Jesus, well, you can kind of take that two different ways. If you are an impenitent sinner,
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King Jesus is a figure that scares you. But for us who are in Christ, and note this, we have nothing to boast about.
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Nothing. It is God who has revealed to us that Jesus is the Christ. It is God who has brought us to the waters of baptism and washed away our sins.
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It is God who pronounced today that we were forgiven. It is God who is here feeding us with His Word and is the
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Father who has revealed to us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. And because of that, each and every one of us who has an evil conscience because of our own sin, we do not need to cower or to fear.
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We do not have to worry regarding Jesus. And Jesus isn't like Herod at all. Because Herod, who liked to think of himself as some powerful, magnanimous, and mighty, and gracious king, he was far from it.
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Jesus actually is all of that. In fact, he's the King of kings and he is the Lord of lords. And even
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Caesar in the time of Jesus's earthly ministry was in power because Jesus said so.
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And so that being the case, consider then the words of our epistle text. And these are words that then are to comfort us because each and every one of us, we have sinned mightily against God.
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It says in our epistle text that God has predestined us in love.
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You see, here's the thing. Despite our sin, God has never given up on us, not because we are worth anything.
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We're not. But because of His great love for us. In love, He predestined each and every one of us to be adopted as sons through Jesus Christ according to the purpose of His will.
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And He has done this to the praise of His glorious grace, not ours. And He has blessed us in the in Jesus Christ.
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And then listen to these words. In Christ, we have redemption through His blood and we have received the forgiveness of all of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace.
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What an amazing thing to be spoken to such miserable sinners like you and like me, that we have been adopted into the family of God, forgiven, pardoned, redeemed.
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All of our trespasses blotted out by the great love and the riches of God's grace.
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And He has lavished this upon us in all wisdom and insight. And He is making known to us the mystery then of His will.
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The mystery that was set forth in Christ, which will be fulfilled in its proper time.
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And then listen to these words in verse 11. In Christ, we have obtained an inheritance. And here's where I'd like to point something out that is often missed, but one that is worth pointing out.
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And that is that Herod didn't have the ability to give his stepdaughter half of his kingdom.
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And you're going to note this, that Christ has promised each and every one of us an inheritance in His kingdom.
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In fact, Christ has willed for us and makes it very clear that He is giving, promising, and He will fulfill
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His promise that He is giving the kingdom to us, to you, and to me.
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How this is possible is unbelievable. But the reality is this.
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God's grace, His mercy, His forgiveness is that good. That rebel sinners like you and I, who were born hating
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Christ and God, steeped in trespasses and sins under the dominion of darkness and willingly doing the will of the devil, that God has forgiven and pardoned us.
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And not only has He pardoned us, He's adopted us into His family and given us the whole kingdom as an inheritance.
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It's mind -boggling. But it doesn't speak to how great we are, because we're not.
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It speaks to how great Christ is and what a tragedy it is. An utter tragedy that Herod, Herodias, and her daughter heard the preaching of John the
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Baptist and yet went to the grave with an evil conscience. Know this.
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You do not have to have an evil conscience, though your sins be as scarlet Christ's. His blood washes away all of them, and you are made clean white as snow because of Him.
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So know, then, that Christ isn't like Herod or even Caesar. He is a loving, kind, and gracious, merciful, forgiving
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King. And He can forgive even murder and adultery, because He bled and died for all of it on the cross.
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So let us repent of all of our stupid, vain, chasing -after -our -own -glory kind of selves and all the scheming and nonsense that we engage in, in order to, well, make us the center of the universe.
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Let us retire from being little deities, and let us again renounce the works of the devil that are exemplified in the passions of our sinful flesh.
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And let us worship at the feet of King Jesus, the one who so graciously and mercifully forgives us of all of our sins, and in His love has lavished on us the inheritance of the kingdom that is to come.