Two Men: A Tragedy and a Triumph Matthew 14:1-12

Many people in the world are like chameleons. Chameleons are lizards that have the ability to change color.

Depending on where they are in their environment, they can make themselves look a certain way. If we are honest, this is how many

Americans are described. It used to be popular for Americans to call themselves

Christians because mainstream society for several centuries was greatly influenced by Christianity.

To be a Christian, in some sense of the word, was fashionable. Sometimes we look back to old

America and we say things were better then. The people were better then.

In some sense, this is true. As Christianity influenced America, a majority of the people in America were decent people.

It was the Christian convictions of good and evil that gave the allied countries of France, Great Britain, and the

United States the courage and strength to defeat the Axis powers of Japan, Germany, and Italy.

During the war, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin Roosevelt sang the

Christian hymn, Onward Christian Soldiers. They saw that God was on their side because they were the ones influenced by the one true religion of the world,

Christianity. But mainstream American society is no longer in this place.

We are told that the nation arguably most influenced by Christianity is inherently an evil nation.

And the new way of doing things, where morality has been flipped on its head, is the way to go.

What mainstream society now promotes, the old America influenced by Christianity thought abhorrence.

The fact that so many people now go along with the new morality shows people's character.

It shows that people are cowardly. Many people are like chameleons.

They will follow the winds of society because it is more comfortable to do so. They will hold to their ungodly values, or at the very least, not speak out against evil because it is safer.

It doesn't stir the pot. It won't get you in trouble. Just do what they say and you'll be fine.

Don't call out evil because people will cut you off from their life. Don't call it out because you'll lose your job.

Don't call it out because you'll have a big target placed on your back. Don't call it out because down the road, you could be thrown into jail.

But what does a person of integrity do? The answer is obvious. The person of integrity thinks, who cares what the evil opposition says or does?

Do what is right. This morning, we are going to focus on the end of a life that is worth admiring.

A man who was the furthest thing from a chameleon. And that man is

John the Baptist. What we will see is that his integrity led his life to end gruesomely.

And yet, integrity, no matter what the outcome for our lives, is what God calls us to.

At this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew 14. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 12.

And if you're using one of those red Bibles in our pews, it's on page 974. This sermon is titled,

Two Men, a Triumph and a Tragedy. And I'm going to begin by reading our text.

Chapter 14, verses 1 through 12. At that time,

Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus. And he said to his servants, this is

John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.

For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother

Philip's wife. Because John had been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her.

And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people because they held him to be a prophet.

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased

Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask.

Prompted by her mother, she said, give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.

And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given.

He sent and had John beheaded in the prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl.

And she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took the body and buried it.

And they went and told Jesus." Here's our big idea.

Here's what this sermon is calling you to do. Pursue a life of integrity that trusts

God no matter what the cost. Pursue a life of integrity that trusts

God no matter what the cost. And we will see five observations of these two men, John the Baptist and Herod, in this text.

But before we jump in, let me tell you where we were one week ago. Last week, we looked at the end of chapter 13.

What we saw is that Jesus endured great opposition from those closest to Him. After gaining fame from His preaching and His miracles,

He came to His hometown. And what Jesus found is that the reception

He received in His hometown of Nazareth was worse than the reception He received everywhere else.

He was rejected by His family, and He was rejected by the people He grew up with.

This led Him to leave there and not do as many miracles as He had done in other places. The opposition that He faced was questioning

His reliability. The people asked, is this really a prophet? Is this really the

Messiah? How could He be? We saw Him grow up among us. We remember little

Jesus. This is His hometown. This questioning led the people to reject

Him for who He really is. Jesus is the Messiah. He is the Son of God.

But His family and the people in His hometown did not believe this. They were content staying in their unbelief rather than hearing the truth of Jesus and following Him.

And we can relate to Jesus' struggle because it's hard to minister to those closest to us. It's hard to minister to those who we've known for many years.

It's hard to minister to family. And what that sermon last week brought out is that Jesus knows what it is like because He went through it

Himself. And we need to remember that. God can still use us though to be influential in those who've known us for such a long time and those family that we want to reach for Jesus Christ.

So that was last week. But let's narrow back in on the text that we are looking at this morning, the one we've already read.

We're gonna begin by looking at the first two verses and really pulling this apart here. As we see in the first two verses,

Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus and he said to his servants, this is John the

Baptist. He has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.

Now when we see the name Herod in the New Testament, we need to realize that there is a Herod dynasty.

The first Herod was Herod the Great. He is the Herod in the Christmas story that commanded all those children two years younger to be annihilated in the city of Bethlehem.

His jealousy was his jealousy over the King Jesus who everyone was flocking toward.

And he said, I don't want a threat. So he wiped out all those children. Herod the

Great's sons were just as bad as their father. When Herod the Great died, the region of Israel was divided into three among his three sons.

These sons were Herod Aristobulus, Herod Philip, and Herod Antipas.

There's not a quiz on this, okay? But just so you know. The Herod that verse one is describing is

Herod Antipas who ruled over the Galilean region. This Herod heard about the fame of Jesus.

Jesus was the talk of town. He traveled around the region preaching and healing and word spread.

And as we read this narrative, John the Baptist has already died. But this is the first time that this is recorded.

In our passage, the author Matthew is explaining how his life came to an end. But before we zero in on that, let's focus on Herod Antipas and his great fear.

His fear is a big focus of this sermon. As we look at a man who is shameful compared to a man who is worth admiring.

As we already read, Herod Antipas is responsible for putting John the Baptist to death. And even someone as evil as him can know the difference between good and evil.

As we will see in a little bit, Herod did not like the righteous John the Baptist. And he knew that he was not deserving of death, but he put him to death anyway.

And as we see in our text, Herod has been looking over his shoulder ever since he put John to death.

As a ruler of Israel, he knows that his government will not prosecute him. He's got too much power.

He can do whatever he wants. But as a Jew by ethnicity, he knows that there is one who is above him and that is

God. And this God brings down justice on those who are evil.

Herod, even though he is not sorry about the things he has done, knows that it was wrong to put

John to death. In verse nine, we read that he was sorry that he had to do it. And when he finds out that a man named

Jesus is preaching in the region and doing many mighty acts, Herod thinks

John the Baptist must have risen from the dead. He is worried.

I have put him to death, but he's not dead. Revenge is upon me. It may be that Herod thought

John the Baptist would seek that revenge or that God is telling Herod by raising supposedly

John from the dead, that justice is coming for you. Either way, John the

Baptist, this revelation of Jesus' teaching makes him think

John's around and execution will come upon me in the future. Judgment will come upon me for the wicked

I have done. Those who are very wicked live in this miserable way.

They wake up in the morning thinking of all the evil they can do. And in the back of their mind, they live with the fear that they will be found out.

They live with the fear that justice will finally come upon them. Isaiah 57 -21 says, there is no peace, says

God, for the wicked. The righteous can live with a content, restful spirit, but the wicked cannot.

They fear judgment. They fear death. They fear what might come upon them. They want to get away with their crimes forever.

Herod's thought process reveals this very interesting truth about the wicked. How much better to follow

God and realize that there is not judgment waiting for you, that you don't have to fear being found out, that you don't have to fear death.

Only the cross of Jesus Christ makes this possible. To the one who humbles him or herself and believes in Jesus and begins to pursue righteousness, this is the person who lives a life of peace forever.

As we look at the world and we see evil powers in charge, as we see powerful people who are above the law, who can do whatever they want without any consequence, we must realize that these are not happy people.

These are people who, like Herod, are greatly distressed. Even though they lie to themselves that they will get away with their evil forever, in the back of their mind is the fear that justice will finally come.

If justice for the evil does not come in this life, what we must understand is that it will come in the next life.

Sometimes that's how it works. You know what the Lord says in Romans 12 .19?

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written,

Vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. Justice has come upon Herod Antipas as it will on all the wicked, because he's dead.

Justice finally has come for this man. It will come upon everyone who does not trust in Jesus Christ.

So we are to pursue a life of integrity that trusts God no matter what the cost. And the first observation of these two men is that Herod feared eventual justice for his past transgressions.

Here's our second observation. John feared God and not man.

Okay, so we are to pursue a life of integrity that trusts God no matter what the cost. And John feared

God and not man. Let's read verses three and four again. For Herod had seized

John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife.

Because John had been saying to him, it is not lawful for you to have her. Let's stop and think of what great risk this was for John.

If he says what he is supposed to say, this might mean his life.

John the Baptist is calling out Herod Antipas. As I mentioned earlier, the three sons of Herod the

Great were no better than their father. And this is saying something considering how wicked

Herod the Great was. He ordered the execution of every child under two in the city of Bethlehem.

Not all of Herod's sons made it. You know, we know that Caesar Augustus, the

Roman emperor during this time of Herod the Great once joked, it is better to be Herod's pig than his son.

These three sons of Herod made it past their father's death and reigned over Israel, but their behavior was much like their father.

So what is it that John the Baptist is calling out here? As we read in this account,

Herodias was the daughter of Herod Aristobulus. Okay, so one of the three sons.

And she married his brother, Philip. So she married her uncle. This is the sin of incest that Leviticus 18 condemns.

But it gets worse. What Mark 6 .17 tells us is that Herod Antipas persuaded

Herodias to leave her uncle, Herod Philip, and so she married her other uncle,

Herod Antipas. So this is incest times two. This is family dysfunction on steroids.

Obviously, John the Baptist, as a righteous man, is outraged. The righteous hate evil as God hates evil.

And John was a very righteous man. Remember we heard what Jesus said? No one born of women was greater than John the

Baptist. John is a prophet of God. And when he sees evil in the leadership of his nation,

God's covenant people, Israel, he can't stay silent. This is why

John says in 14 .4, it is not lawful for you to have her. You will notice that the

Greek verb says sane. What this tells us is that John the Baptist repeatedly told

Herod Antipas, it is not lawful for you to have her. You need to stop doing this.

And even though Herod heard this over and over again, he did nothing. He continued in his sinful life.

And for John the Baptist to confront Herod, he put a tremendous amount on the line.

But he did not care what it cost him. John feared God and not man.

This is what led him to confront Herod Antipas with his sin. John's not thinking, you know what,

I want to live a long life. I want to have a nice retirement. If I say too much here, it's going to cost me.

He's not thinking of those terms. He's thinking, I am a man of integrity. God has saved me. I fear

God, not man. And so he tells him, it is not lawful for you to have her. In our

September newsletter, I wrote an article about the state of the American church and how the problems come largely from Christian leaders in America.

And what I wrote is relevant to this point. So I'm going to read it right here. I said, John the Baptist type faithfulness is foreign to most of the

American church. Most American Christian leaders today would not call out evil like John the

Baptist did because of the uncomfortable consequences. The problem with American Christianity is that most

Christian leaders are calculated in what they say. They soften Christianity in order to get the world to like Christianity.

But what they are doing is drawing people only to a perverted understanding of the Christian faith.

True Christianity loves what is good and hates what is evil. True Christianity has a righteous anger towards sin.

True Christianity calls evil for what it is even when there will be blowback. True Christianity is willing to be ostracized from mainstream society like John the

Baptist was. True Christianity trusts God to take care of you even though the world despises you.

True Christianity is so unlike the world that is passing away. True Christianity is rare air in America.

But even though this is the reality, may we make it our aim to please God in this troubled land. May we remember that the world's opinion is so fleeting, but God's opinion is eternal.

May we long to hear the words, well done, good and faithful servant, as we stand with Him in a world that opposes

His followers. John the Baptist feared

God. It is too easy to fear man. Even among ministers of the

Gospel. And please pray that I don't. It's a temptation for every pastor to do that.

Every Christian leader and every Christian should be thinking what Jesus said earlier in the Gospel of Matthew.

Matthew 10, 28, He says, Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul. Rather, fear

Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. At the end of the day, only

God's opinion matters. He eternally protects His own. How foolish it is to fear man.

To fear man is to fear dust. God created man from dust. Imagine going to a graveyard and seeing all those gravestones.

When we fear man, we are fearing that which is mortal. That which is weak. That which is passing away.

But there is only one we should fear, Almighty God, who is the holder of our eternal destiny and He will take care of us as we stand with Him.

What can man do to you? That's what our mindset needs to be. That's our second observation as we strive to pursue a life of integrity.

Trusting God. Here's our third observation. Herod feared man and not

God. So it's the reverse. Herod feared man. We'll see this in verse 5, 8 and 9.

Starting with verse 5, And though Herod wanted to put John to death, he feared the people because they held him to be a prophet.

Let's go down to verses 8 and 9. Prompted by her mother, she said, Give me the head of John the

Baptist here on a platter. And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given.

What we already learned in verse 3 is that Herod put John in prison because he called him out for his sin of incest.

But Herod did not want to go any further as the second half of verse 5 tells us.

He feared the people because they held him to be a prophet. Herod would have been glad to put

John to death, but he didn't want to go there. Too much backlash. When John the

Baptist came on the scene, he took the world by storm. People were flocking to him from everywhere to be baptized.

He was like Jesus. He was the forerunner to the Messiah. He was the talk of the town. And Herod knew this.

And he thought if he puts John to death, he would have a major uproar in his hands.

So he didn't want to kill him, but he was content. You know what? I'll just put him in prison. But Herod was also met with a problem on the other side that exposed his fear.

And that's what I just read. He wanted to please the party. They wanted John dead. And when

Herodias' daughter says to him, I want John the Baptist's head on a platter, the party's there in front of him.

And so what does he do? He doesn't say, not going to go there. That's wrong. He says, okay, we can do that.

He wants to please man. He fears man. Many people were too afraid to do what

John did. But John did it. He called him out. And Herodias thought, how dare you tell me how to live?

Does that sound familiar? We hear this in society. Those religious people are so judgmental, telling me how to live.

And by the way, there is some judgmentalism out there. But usually when they say it, it's like, you know what? This sin's wrong.

It dishonors God. It's an abomination to God. You're judgmental. No, we're not. We're just calling evil for what it is.

That's not judgmentalism. But as I already mentioned,

Christians should be those who call out evil. I've been thinking about abortion lately.

Since 1973, 64 million babies have been aborted in this land.

And let me say this frankly. The Christian who does not call out this fears man.

The Christian who does not call this is cowardly. There was a pastor who retired a few years back who pastored in New York for several decades.

And what I've heard it said is that he never once called out abortion. Because in New York City, not a conservative place, abortion in America is the holocaust of our time.

And let me say that a mom who has an abortion through repentance is forgiven in Christ. I want to emphasize that.

And let me say also that every pro -life cause should care for the mother as well as saving the baby. Which Options for Women does.

The organization that our church is closely connected with. But abortion is murder and it should be spoken out against.

And please understand the evil powers at work in the world led by Satan. They love to deflect from the real crises that are going on.

I mentioned the systematic problem of abortion. The other systematic problem that you hardly hear about is human trafficking.

Do you ever wonder why you don't hear about human trafficking? Or hardly hear about it.

You probably do a little bit, but not as much as you should. It is because many powerful people around the world and in our country are involved in it.

They love manufactured crises because it distracts people away from the true evil that they are taking part in.

Satan is a master deceiver. And may we not be fooled by his schemes, but many have fallen for the lies.

Many fall for the distractions, but let's be consistent about calling out the evil that is out there.

If you were to ask someone who isn't really following the facts, but just following what the media is saying, what would you say is the most heard about problem in America?

You'd probably hear systemic racism, wouldn't you not? Now, in 1960, yes.

Yes, it was there for everyone to see. Obvious, it was self -evident.

In 2021, no. Doesn't mean that racism isn't out there.

But let me say this again. 64 million babies have been aborted since 1973.

That's over one million babies every single year. What sports team is going to take up that cause?

What corporation is going to take up that cause? They're not. Why? Because they're chameleons.

They're cowardly. They're not righteous. And they'll call me a

Christian nationalist probably. So what? They can slander me. I have these moments where I'm just thinking, don't go there,

Pastor. I'm going there. Okay? Satan is a master deceiver.

Herod did not fear God like John the Baptist did. He feared man. And when you fear man, you don't work on God's agenda.

And let me say one more thing about human trafficking. Do you realize that every single day this is happening? And it's happening under our nose.

And there's people's lives that are being ruined every single day. And you wonder why more people don't talk about it.

It's shameful. Herodias hated

John because he called out her evil. He made her feel bad. He probably shamed her in public and she wanted revenge.

So when Herod asked her daughter that he would grant whatever she wanted, Herodias told her daughter, give me the head of John the

Baptist here on a platter, as verse 8 says. Herodias' daughter said this publicly and as one who fears man, he of course folded to the pressure.

Verse 9 tells us that the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given.

Did you see that? He feared what his guests would say. He should have said don't do it, but he did it anyways because he feared them.

But the one who fears God would not do this. Herod was a wicked politician.

And man's opinion controlled what he did. Where are the votes going to take me? Right? Do we see that so often?

To the one who fears man, this is a horrible place to be. The one who fears man cares too much what the world thinks and not what

God thinks. The one who fears man wants to be liked. Wants to be accepted.

Wants to be comfortable. Wants to survive by constantly folding to pressure.

By the way, I want to hear what the politician says. You know what? I'm going to go to Washington and I'm going to tell the truth.

And I'm going to get blown out in the next election. I don't care. When's the last time we've heard that?

Even people we somewhat respect don't say that. We've got to get the independent vote.

That's what they think. But this is a good word for us. Do not fear man, but fear

God. It is so freeing to fear God. And all of us can grow at this, right? This is a part of maturity.

This is part of maturing in the Christian faith. I don't care what they think. I care what God thinks.

If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8 .33 We live in a time when this will be tested more and more.

Who is our allegiance to? Is it to man? Is it to our comfort? Is it to our own survival? Or is it to God?

Stand for Christ. Stand for truth. Stand for what is right. And the one who does this realizes that God will take care of you.

The worst they can do is kill you. Then you get to go to heaven for following Jesus. It truly is a tragedy to see how much man's opinion mattered to Herod.

And many are like Herod in this world, right? They're just holding on to this life. They're trying to live heaven on earth. Just make my life as comfortable as possible.

I just need people to like me. I can't get in trouble. I can't face consequences.

That's what fear of man does to a person. Be willing to lose your job.

Be willing to lose friends. Be willing to be thrown behind bars if you have to.

Pursue a life of integrity that trusts God no matter what the cost. And the third observation is that Herod feared man.

And not God. Here's the fourth observation. Herod is a sobering example of unrestrained evil.

And this is so obvious as we read this text. We just looked at one way Herod's evil was shown.

And that is that he feared man more than he feared the living God. It is evil to fear man. But the heights of his wickedness is hard to comprehend.

We first see this in the sin he was engaged in. He committed incest with his niece

Herodias. If this was not perverted enough, the daughter of his niece, so his great niece, danced before him in an inappropriate way.

This should be utterly sickening, and yet he enjoyed it. The end of verse 6 says that he was pleased by her dancing.

Then he agreed to put John to death because this is what Herodias and her daughter requested. The rest of the text in verses 10 and 11 explains that Herod was not only given over to sexual perversion, but he was also a murderer.

And he was willing to murder in the most grievous manner. It was requested that John's head be delivered on a platter.

So the depths of his evil led him to do something that anyone else less than a psycho would say, this is too far.

There's different degrees of evil. Some people are willing to go so far. Herod's willing to go very far as we find here.

Yet Herod is without remorse. The beginning of verse 9 says that he was sorry.

But this was not because he didn't want to put John to death. This is not repentance. He was only sorry because he was concerned what the crowds might do when they found out that he put

John to death. Herod had no real remorse for his actions. Herod was just like his father.

Herod the Great, who executed every child in Bethlehem under two years old. What this shows us is the depths that one's sinfulness can take one.

It is worth it for us to reflect on this for a moment. Every human is capable of doing egregious things.

People think that people like the Herod family, Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, Jim Jones, Timothy McVeigh are an anomaly and that most people are good.

The truth is no one is good. Romans 3 .10 There is no one righteous.

Not even one. If the Spirit of God does not restrain someone, the potential for evil is unimaginable.

We see this in our world. I mentioned abortion a little bit ago. About 64 million babies since 1973.

Their hearts have been stopped. A government that allows this is an evil government.

Do not be fooled by people. The potential for evil in everyone's heart is frightening. But by the grace of God and Jesus Christ, people can be transformed.

But that is the only hope for the sinful race of humanity. It is true that unbelievers have some decency to them.

But this is only because of God's common grace. That He has restrained people from being as bad as they really could be.

People like Herod are a lesson to how much the world needs Jesus. We haven't done things to the heights that Herod has done.

But we have all done bad things. And we would be afraid to learn of the potential where our sin can take us without God intervening in our lives.

Today we have a baptism. It's a story of, Lord, you rescued me from myself. I was on the way to hell, and you rescued me in Jesus Christ.

Baptism is a celebration of that. You come to life in Christ. You have a new power, new life in Christ.

Through the process of sanctification, He makes us more righteous as the

Holy Spirit goes with us through our lives. And one day, everyone who knows Christ as their Lord, Savior, and treasure will be fully righteous.

But when we look at Herod, it's a warning. This is where sin can take someone.

And with gratefulness, we should say, Lord, thank you that that's not my story. In Christ, you are a child of glory, not a child of destruction.

So we are to pursue a life of integrity, to trust God no matter what the cost. And the fourth observation is that Herod is a sobering example of unrestrained evil.

Here's our fifth observation as we seek to pursue a life of integrity. To trust

God no matter what the cost. And it is this. John's friends stood by him to the end.

And we're going to end on a sweet note this morning in verse 12. As we see, his disciples came.

So John's disciples came and took the body and buried it. And they went and told

Jesus. Thus far, we have seen the positives and the negatives of two men,

John the Baptist and Herod. Now we see the positive of the ones that were influenced by John.

When I read this, it reminded me of Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph of Arimathea is one who asked for the body of Jesus after his crucifixion.

Mark 15 .43 describes the noble action that he took part in. Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus.

What we must remember about the death of Jesus is that everyone abandoned him, even his disciples. It was not popular to be associated with the man who died a criminal's death.

But Joseph of Arimathea remembered Jesus' ministry and believed that he was from God and he was one of his followers.

And at this point, he was private. He was privately a follower. But of course, someone who's privately a follower, you can't stay private forever.

God is going to lead you to proclaim your faith publicly. After Christ's death, he wanted to give him a proper burial.

So he asked for the body and he buried the body in a tomb that he owned. In a similar way,

John's disciples found his body at a high risk and they buried him. They followed him when the crowds pursued him and they loyally stood by him after he was brutally murdered.

So they were with him when he was popular. They were with him when he was taboo. That's a friend.

That's loyalty. That's integrity. What application might we take from this?

Will we stand by each other no matter what? Even when it's not popular. John the

Baptist is certainly one who was persecuted. He was martyred for his faithfulness to God.

If someone is wrongly accused, will we stand with the person against loud and hostile voices?

Chameleons go where it is comfortable and will not stand with the one who is persecuted. Not stand with the one who is wrongly accused, but those who fear

God in our courageous will. There's a pastor in Osceola right now who has taken a biblical stand on some issues that are not popular in society and he is receiving much heat for it from hostile people.

They actually formed a Facebook page for his demise. You see that in sports, right?

Fire this coach. They make a website. They formed a Facebook page for this pastor's demise.

If his name is brought up in public, will we stand with him? Or will we cowardly say,

I don't do Christianity that way. I see a lot of that happening. Pastors in Canada right now who are put in prison for challenging the excessive restrictions where they couldn't even meet to worship with their people.

There's other Christians in Canada who are saying, if they just follow the rules, they wouldn't be in prison.

That's cowardly behavior. That's chameleon behavior. We should be saying, you know what,

I'm praying for this guy. I respect him. He's standing for what is right. We're commanded to meet.

And if they say 10 or less people and you can't meet, use precautions, yes, but we have to meet.

We must not care what the world thinks, but only what Christ thinks. We should be loyal and stand with our faithful brothers and sisters in Christ when they experience hostility.

This is the word we need to hear because this is happening right now. It is only going to increase.

I'm often the bearer of bad news, okay? That's my job. But it's the reality of it.

And we see how the story is going to end. Things are not going to be pretty for Christians as the world moves fast toward the return of Christ.

Okay, so if you want to be liked by the world, if you want to be popular, if you want to be a chameleon, then know one thing, don't be a follower of Jesus Christ because that's not how it goes.

Remember Jesus said, if anyone will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.

That's the calling on our lives. Pursue a life of integrity to trust God no matter what the cost.

We have seen five observations in the lives of these two men, John the Baptist and Herod. We have seen

Herod feared eventual justice for his past transgressions. John feared God and not man.

Herod feared man and not God. And Herod is a sobering example of unrestrained evil. John's friends stood by him to the end.

It's the last observation. So what we have seen is two lives that are polar opposites.

One is a tragedy. I mean, think about it. Herod Antipas, he's recorded in history. It's a tragedy.

His life ends in destruction. But then there's the other life where it's such a triumph.

The life of John the Baptist and he is an inspiration to us. May we give

God praise for John. John was a sinner like us, but was one who was redeemed and transformed.

And may we be encouraged to follow in his faithful steps. And I remind you that the story, the hero of the

Bible is never a man. In some sense, John is a hero in this passage.

But the God who transformed this man is the real hero. Let us remember that. Let's give praise to God for his work in this man's life.

And may we follow in his steps. Now next Sunday, we will see Jesus do another miracle that will blow us away.

It's going to be another miracle where it's impossible, humanly impossible that this could be accomplished.

And yet he does it because he is the God man. So we will see that next Sunday. But at this time, let's bow our heads in prayer.

Father in heaven, thank You for Your Word. It is timely,

Lord, that we go through this Gospel. That we see the cost of following Jesus. That we see an example like John the

Baptist. And there are so many John the Baptists -like people. In the Old Testament. In the New Testament.

Down through church history. Lord, may we be like that. We might never lose our life for Christ.

But there is a cost. May we be those who are willing to lose something because we followed

Jesus. Strengthen us in this, Lord. And it's in His name we pray,