WWUTT 2026 John the Baptist Beheaded (Matthew 14:1-12)

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Herodias, the wife of Herod, wanted John the Baptist's head on a platter. Why? Because John the

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Baptist had a biblical view of marriage. And the world is going to hate us for that, when we understand the text.

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Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is committed to teaching sound doctrine and rebuking those who contradict it.

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Visit our website at www .utt .com. Here once again is Pastor Gabe.

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Thank you, Becky. And greetings, everyone. In our study of the Gospel of Matthew, we are on to Chapter 14 this week, today reading about the death of John the

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Baptist. This is Chapter 14, verses 1 through 12, which I'll read out of the Legacy Standard Bible.

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Hear the word of the Lord. At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, and he said to his servants,

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This is John the Baptist. He is risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.

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For when Herod had John arrested, he bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother

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Philip. For John had been saying to him, It is not lawful for you to have her.

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And although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd because they were regarding John as a prophet.

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

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Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.

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Now having been prompted by her mother, she said, Give me here on a platter the head of John the

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Baptist. And although he was grieved, the king commanded it to be given because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests.

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And 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.

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And his disciples came and took away the body and buried it, and they went and reported to Jesus.

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Now when Jesus heard about John, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself.

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And when the crowds heard of this, they followed him on foot from the cities. And I'll stop there for now.

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That was through verse 13. Chapter 14 is actually divided up into three parts. We have this story of the death of John the

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Baptist in 1 through 12. You have Jesus feeding the 5 ,000, then in verses 13 to 21, and Jesus walking on the sea to his disciples in the remainder of the chapter, verses 22 to 36.

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So we'll look at each one of those stories individually, each one of those episodes from chapter 14 this week.

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The story that we look at here, a very dark chapter in Matthew's gospel, but this was the kind of drama that you expected from the

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Herods. This particular marriage with Herod the Tetrarch, it would have been

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Herod Antipas, who had married his brother Philip's wife. This, of course, was adultery, but it was more than that.

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This was, in fact, an incestuous relationship as well. And I'll give more details on that here in a moment.

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We get some of those details from extra biblical sources. I'll try to recall those things as best as I can remember.

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So first of all, at the very beginning of this story, it says, at that time, remember, we finished up the parables in chapter 13,

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Jesus rejected in his own hometown. That was the very last story that we had at the end of chapter 13.

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That was verses 53 to 58. And so now we shift the action from Nazareth to Jerusalem.

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At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard the news about Jesus, the kind of miracles that he was performing.

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Now, remember, he could not perform any miracles at Nazareth in the sense that he couldn't do anything that would have persuaded the people to believe in him.

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It's not that he didn't do any miracles at all. Because as Mark's gospel tells us, this is in Mark chapter 6,

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Jesus did heal the sick there, but he didn't do anything beyond that. And nothing that he would have done would have been persuasive to the people.

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So he didn't do many miracles there, it says in verse 58, because of their unbelief.

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So we shift the action to Jerusalem, where Herod has heard about the miracles that Jesus has done.

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Now I said earlier, I said this on Friday even in the Q &A, the Pharisees could not deny that what

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Jesus did was miraculous. They would just try to come up with a different explanation for it.

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It's not that he's from God. In fact, according to the Pharisees, he was from Beelzebul. That's how he's able to do things like this, like casting out demons.

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And then of course, Jesus rebukes them and says, can Satan cast out Satan? He would destroy himself if that's what was happening, according to your claims.

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Herod has a different take on this. It's not that Jesus is from God, and that's how he's able to do these miraculous things.

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Herod thinks that Jesus is John the Baptist reincarnated. Or perhaps the spirit of John the

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Baptist came back and had, I guess, possessed the body of Jesus.

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That's Herod's explanation. Herod the Tetrarch heard the news about Jesus and said to his servants, this is

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John the Baptist. He's risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.

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Now a little bit later on when we get to chapter 16, Jesus asks his disciples, who do you say that I am?

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Or who do the people say that I am? And one of their answers is, some say that you're John the Baptist.

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And here we have one person who thought that, that was Herod. He thought that Jesus was

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John the Baptist, that he'd come back from the grave. This is John the Baptist. He's risen from the dead, and that's why he's able to do these miraculous powers.

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Remember John didn't do any miracles. We don't have anything about John the Baptist doing miracles.

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It could be that because of the baptism of Jesus, and so many people were there to witness the baptism of Jesus, it wasn't just John and Jesus by themselves.

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The coast of the Jordan would have been full of people that were listening to John the

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Baptist teach, and then coming to him to be baptized. We understand that all 12 disciples, and even more than they, had been present at Jesus' baptism, because one of the requirements for taking

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Judas' place, according to Acts chapter 1, is that the person who took Judas' place had to have been a witness to Jesus' ministry from the time of his baptism until his ascension into heaven.

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They had to have witnessed those two events especially, Jesus being baptized and then ascending into heaven, and there were two men that qualified.

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So it was more than just the 12 that had witnessed Jesus' baptism. There were other disciples that had seen this as well.

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So it could be that because of what happened at Jesus' baptism, the heavens opening up, the

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Spirit of God descending like a dove, the voice of God that comes from heaven saying, this is my beloved son.

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It could be that because of that, then word got around that John the Baptist was doing these miraculous things.

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That's just one possible explanation. But John the Baptist didn't do any miracles, at least according to the gospel accounts that we have.

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He just preached, and the people went out to hear him preach, because what he spoke was amazing, and he rebuked the rulers in the synagogue, and the teachers, the

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Pharisees, and all of that. This man spoke with such boldness and conviction and truth that the people were convicted to go out and hear him, and were even convicted by his preaching and were baptized by him.

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All of this in preparation for the Messiah that was to come. But John the Baptist himself didn't do any miracles.

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He was the voice crying out in the wilderness. He was not one performing these miraculous signs. Jesus comes performing these miracles.

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Herod thinks the reason he's able to do the miracles is because of some miraculous power that has brought

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John the Baptist back from the dead. But Herod doesn't fear God. He doesn't see

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Jesus as being the son of God. This is a man whose heart is very dark and very rebellious against the

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Lord. The Herods were a terrible people, in fact, a terrible family.

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You've probably read some things about Herod the Great. Just about every Christmas that rolls around, I talk about Herod the

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Great. I wrote about him in my book, 25 Christmas Myths and What the Bible Says. By the way, you can still get that on Amazon.

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But in that book, I tell the story of what was going on with Herod, even at the time that the wise men came to visit him.

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Herod had given that order to kill all of the boys that were two and under in Bethlehem and the surrounding region, that period that we refer to as the slaughter or the massacre of the innocents.

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There were a lot of things that were going on in Herod's life even beyond that. He was dying. Even at the time that the magi came to visit him.

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We're talking about Herod the Great here, not Herod the Tetrarch or Herod Antipas.

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That is the Herod here in Matthew 14. But I'm just kind of giving some light on the darkness that was in this family.

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So Herod the Great was dying. He was very sick at the time that the magi came.

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If he were to die, there was going to be a great festival. There was going to be people rejoicing in Judah because Herod was just such a horrible man.

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So to prevent the people from rejoicing and to instead make sure that they were going to mourn when he died,

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Herod had rounded up all of the most influential people in Judah and had put them in the

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Hippodrome at Jericho. And his orders were that when he died, all those deeply influential people in Judah were to be put to death so that there would be national mourning instead of a party.

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But when Herod died, his order was never carried out. Even his soldiers were going, yeah, forget this.

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We're not following that order at all. And they let the people go. But this was how reprehensible this family was.

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Herod the Great was probably the worst, but then his own children were still terrible people as well.

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His children and his grandchildren and on it went. Now here it says in chapter 14, verse 1, that he's

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Herod the Tetrarch. And this is Herod Antipas once again. He is one of 14 children of Herod the

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Great. Herod had 14 children with eight wives. And I believe he killed some of his kids and even his wives.

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And he killed some of his own kin as well, some of his own blood. But Herod the

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Tetrarch or Herod Antipas rather, was one of those that came to assume the throne of his father.

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He wasn't the only one. But at this particular time, he's sitting on the throne of Herod the

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Great. Now he's called the Tetrarch because that was a title for a governor of Rome.

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Herod Antipas was assigned this particular position. In fact, the Herods all together, they had received the favor of Rome so that the

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Romans put the Herods in charge of a particular region, in this case,

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Judah. The Herods were not Jews though. They were

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Edomites. They were descendants of Esau, not

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Jacob. Therefore, they didn't really have the right to the throne because of whose line had the right to the throne?

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It was David's line of the tribe of Judah. And the Herods were not of the tribe of Judah.

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They weren't even of the tribe of Israel. They were of the descendants of Esau. But nonetheless, politically, they had gained favor with the

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Romans. So the Romans give them their authority and power. So you have Herod Antipas that is sitting on the throne at this time during the life of Jesus.

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Now sometime before Jesus' ministry began, Antipas had journeyed to Rome to visit his half -brother

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Philip, and Philip's wife was Herodias, and they had a daughter named

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Salome. Antipas had known Herodias since she was a child. She was actually the daughter of one of his oldest brothers, and there was about five years age difference between them.

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After Herod the Great had killed Aristobulus, who was Herodias' father and happened to be one of Herod the

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Great's sons, so yeah, you're seeing like they're all related here. She became the wife of Philip, and she was likely a teenager about the time that they got married.

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Now if you're following the Herod family tree, then you'll recognize that Philip was actually

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Herodias' uncle. And so therefore, Herod Antipas was also

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Herodias' uncle. So you see how there's incest happening here, in addition to the fact that Herod Antipas is marrying his brother's wife.

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We don't know what sort of drama had happened there. At some point, Herodias leaves

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Philip and marries Herod Antipas, and we don't know what Philip felt about any of this.

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The Bible doesn't tell us. There's not any extra biblical sources that tell us this, but we just know that at some point,

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Herodias divorces Philip, and she marries Herod Antipas. And this is the thing that John the

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Baptist opposed, because this was contrary to Scripture. This was contrary to the law, which

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Jesus had even cited in the Sermon on the Mount, and we're going to hear from him again later on in Matthew 19, that if a man divorces his wife for any reason other than sexual immorality and marries another, then he has committed adultery.

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And if she marries another man, then he causes her to commit adultery. So Herod Antipas and Herodias are committing adultery against the law, and this is what it was that John the

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Baptist opposed. He said, it is not lawful for you to have her, in verse 4.

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So when Herod had John arrested, he bound him, put him in prison because of Herodias, the wife of his brother,

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Philip. Apparently, Herod Antipas really wasn't all that offended by all this. He may have just shrugged it off, like, he's a crazy guy out in the wilderness.

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What do I care what he's saying? That may have been Herod Antipas' feeling about the whole thing.

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He was even somewhat amused by John the Baptist. And it was because of Herodias that Herod therefore had him arrested and bound.

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For John had been saying, it is not lawful for you to have her. And she's the one who was deeply offended by this, angry at this.

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And it's from this that John the Baptist eventually is beheaded, because John the

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Baptist is calling out Herod, the family of the Herods, for their unbiblical views of marriage, and he loses his head over it.

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And so, my friends, we should not be surprised that the world hates us when we have a biblical view of marriage, contrary to what the world believes that marriage can be.

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Even an open marriage. You know what open marriage is? Open marriage is when the husband and the wife agree with one another that they can see other people outside of the marriage.

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That's still adultery. It doesn't matter whether the two of you come to an agreement on it. You're both committing adultery.

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And I have said things like that publicly, that have received scorn from people in the world.

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Who are you to say? Who are you to pass judgment? If two people want to agree on this, then what's the problem with it?

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Well, because it goes against what God created marriage to be. One man and one woman. For life.

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And again, as Jesus said, if they divorce for any reason other than sexual immorality, and they go off and marry another, then they have committed adultery.

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And that is what Herod Antipas and Herodias are guilty of, and what they just don't want to hear. So Herodias, angry at John the

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Baptist, has her husband arrest him and then will later convince him to kill him as well.

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Verse 5. Although Herod wanted to put him to death, he feared the crowd because they were regarding John as a prophet.

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

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Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked.

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Now, there isn't any dialogue that goes on here between Herod and Salome.

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In fact, we know her name Salome from extra biblical sources. That name doesn't come up here in scripture. But anyway, in Mark's account, there's actually an exchange between them.

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And so that Herod says to her, he's pleased with her dance, and the king said to the girl, ask me for whatever you want, and I will give it to you.

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Now, he's probably lusting for this girl, who is his niece. But of course, with all the other scandal that's been going on in the family,

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I mean, why should that surprise anybody? He's married to his brother's wife, who he's also related to by blood.

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And then their daughter, his niece, is somebody that he's apparently lusting for here.

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So he promises that he'll give her whatever it is that she asks for. And he swore to her, whatever you ask of me,

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I will give it to you up to half of my kingdom. Now, he's being hyperbolic there.

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This is according to Mark's account. That was Mark 6, 23. But she goes out and says to her mother, what shall

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I ask for? And Herodias said, the head of John the Baptist. And so according to Mark's gospel, immediately she came in a hurry to the king and said,

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I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter. All of this is transpiring during dinner, which is really disturbing.

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The king was very sorry, yet because of his oaths and because of his dinner guests, he didn't want to refuse her.

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So immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded him to bring back the head of John the Baptist.

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And they 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. And then Matthew 14, 12 tells us his disciples,

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John the Baptist disciples came and took away the body and buried it. And they went and reported it to Jesus.

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And my friends, this is a picture once again of how much the world is going to hate us because we believe biblical things.

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Because we love God's word and his law and desire to obey it.

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The world is going to hate us for that. As Paul said to Timothy, he who desires to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

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Not, hey, if you go out into the public square and you preach the gospel, they'll hate you for that.

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I mean, that's certainly going to be the case. People will hate us because we're out there preaching the gospel. But here, Paul just simply said to Timothy, if you desire to live godliness, you desire godliness in Christ, the world is just going to hate you for that.

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You don't even have to preach the gospel to them. They'll hate you because you desire righteousness.

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That was why Cain rose up and killed his brother Abel. Abel was righteous, Cain was evil.

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And with hatred for righteousness, Cain struck down his brother

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Abel in the first murder that we have recorded in scripture. In first Peter chapter four, verse three, we read for the time is already past.

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That's sufficient for you to have worked out the desires of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sensuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries, which by the way, those things were going on at this party that the

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Herod's were having. In all of this, Peter goes on to say, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excess of dissipation and they malign you, but they will have to give an account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.

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So we shouldn't be surprised when the world hates us for these things. They are children of Satan and Satan hates the righteousness of God.

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But we must continue on in doing those things that God has commanded for the sake of his name, for the praise of his glorious grace, no matter what the world thinks about it.

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Don't soften the gospel. Don't twist the commands of Christ into something that will be softer for the people of this world to be able to handle and deal with and maybe tolerate.

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Don't do that. Love God and his word and desire to obey it. The world will hate you for it, but you will be richly rewarded in Christ.

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As we read in John 3, 36, he who has the son has life, but he who does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

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God will pour out his judgment on the wicked and reward the righteous in his good timing.

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Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here, this narrative account of what happened at the end of John the

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Baptist's life. And I pray that we, like John the Baptist, would stand on the word of God.

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We would love God's word, even though the world hates it, even though they would threaten to kill us because we would have a biblical view of marriage.

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Yet we love God and his word and the way that you have created things to be and have said, this is how

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I made it. So honor me with this. And we desire to do so because you are a good

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God and worthy of our praise. Because through Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins and rose again from the dead, we have been clothed in his righteousness, all who believe in him.

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So may we walk the righteous path until the day of Christ's return. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

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Amen. Thank you for listening to When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabe Hughes. If you'd like to support this ministry, visit our website, www .wutt

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.com and click on the Give tab in the top right corner of the page. Join us again tomorrow as we continue our