August 6, 2023

The following transcript has been electronically transcribed. Any errors in spelling, syntax, or grammar should be attributed to the electronic method of transcription and its inherent limitations.

 All of God's word is rich and profound, and we know this to be true. All of God's word is inspired, and all of it contains truth that's vital for our life. But not all of God's word is equally rich. Some sections of God's word are just dripping with theological richness or points of application that are particularly more poignant than other sections of Scripture.

But usually it's the case that when we approach those sections, we know what's ahead of us. For example, I don't know of any expository of God's word that's going to open up John chapter one and be surprised and say, oh, wow, I just didn't know that there was so much richness in John chapter one or John 16 through 19, the upper room discourse with Jesus in his apostles, Ephesians one.

We said repeatedly as we were working through that, that this, we knew that we were in one of the richest portions of God's word. Genesis chapter one, or, , Colossians one, Romans eight, nine, and 10, all those sections of Scripture as we turn to them, we know that we are approaching a rich section of Scripture and we need to slow down and pay particular attention.

Sometimes though this happens infrequently, but sometimes God's word surprises us with its richness, particularly in the points of application. This section before us is one of those sections in which you might be taken off guard, which the, with the richness of the section before us, the section before us.

To which we'll turn today and next week, possibly a third week, but at least two weeks. The section that we'll turn to today is dripping with richness in terms of its points of application to our lives. And so we will slow down just a bit, take our time walking through this. This is a section of Scripture that will quite honestly disgust you.

It is a morally disgusting section of Scripture. This section of Scripture is the moral equivalent to seeing something disgusting or encountering a disgusting odor. Take that into the moral level, and that's this section of Scripture at multiple points. You on a moral and a ethical sense are going to say, Ooh, this is just.

Awful. So this is not a pleasant passage of Scripture, but this passage of Scripture like none other, at least in the gospel of Mark, is going to zero in on a number of things for us. The issue of the human conscience, it's going to zero in on that. It's going to zero in on the enlightenment.

Those who have received enlightenment and yet refuse to submit, it's going to zero in on so many of the sins of the heart, and it's going to expose some of these things for us in sometimes a very painful way. So with that brief introduction said, let's just begin by reading the section from verse 14 down through verse 29.

We'll make it through right around maybe verse 18 today. So beginning from verse 14, king Herod heard of it for Jesus' name had be had become known. Some said John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. Or John the Baptizer has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.

But others said he is. Elijah and others said he is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old. But when Herod heard it, he said, John, whom I beheaded has been raised for. It was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herod’s his brother, Philip's wife, because he had married her.

For John, had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. And Herod’s had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death, but she could not. For Herod feared John knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he kept him safe. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly.

But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday, gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee for when Herod's daughter came in and danced. She pleased Herod and his guests. And the king said to the girl, asked me for whatever you wish, and I'll give it to you.

And he vowed to her, whatever you ask me, I'll give you up to half my kingdom. And she went out and said to her mother, for what shall I ask? And she said, the head of John the Baptist. And she came in immediately with haste to the king and asked, saying, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to break his word to her. And immediately the king sent an executioner with others to bring John's head, I'm sorry, with orders to bring John's head. He went in and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, 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. This is a very unique portion of Scripture, and I always enjoy pointing out the unique aspects of passages of Scripture when we come to them. And this is a tremendously unique section of Scripture because this is the only passage in all of John's gospel that is not explicitly about Jesus, that does not have Jesus as explicitly as the subject, as the main actor, or at least be directly about him in some way.

This is a lengthy passage of Scripture that only on a side manner is about Jesus. If this is a passage of Scripture zeroing in on John the Baptizer, This man, Herod, king Herod is called here. His wife, the dancing girl, the guest, the head on a platter. We all know the story. We're familiar with the story, but its uniqueness is going to be striking to us.

As we mentioned earlier, this is probably the most morally disgusting passage in all of Mark's Gospel, one of the most ethically disgusting passages in all of Scripture. We can see the plain obvious reasons for that, the event, the events that take place. But there's much more even behind the surface because this is, this is far more than just a story of a pagan king executing one of God's prophets.

It's far more than that. This is a story that follows a pattern that we've seen since early on in God's word. The pattern is the, the pattern of God's anointed, prophet, confront, confronting the evil ruler, the evil, powerful man. It all started way back when Moses confronts Pharaoh and said to Pharaoh, in the name of the living God, I say, let my people go.

It went from that to. We remember, of course, Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-Nego as they stood before Nebuchadnezzar. And they, they said, they said in Nebuchadnezzar, what? Whatever you, you, you bow all you want, but you won't find us bow into no statue. You can throw us in a furnace and our God can preserve us. Even if he doesn't save us from the furnace.

You won't see us bowing before statute that goes on from there. Daniel, of course, confronting the mighty kings. We see Nathan, the prophet confronting David saying to David, you are the man Elijah confronting Ahab with his sins. We also, of course, recognize that all of this is culminating as Jesus stands before Pilate, and will say to Pilate, you have no authority over me whatsoever, had it not been granted to you from above.

And my kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. If my kingdom were an earthly kingdom, my people would be fighting, but they're not fighting. Because I am a king and my kingdom is a spiritual kingdom. So all of this will culminate of course as Jesus stands before Pilate. But then this is the last in a succession of mighty prophets of God who stand before the rulers, the secular pagan, unbelieving rulers of the people and will say to them, thus, says the Lord, the main point of the passage where there's several main points of the passage.

But I think the main, main point of the passage is plain to see. It's obvious. We'll go ahead and point this out as we begin. The main point of the passage is, God's kingdom cannot be stopped by any means of earthly oppression. Take off John's head and there's 12 people ready to replace him. That's what the story is pointing us to.

Along with other unique aspects as well. The beheading of John will not silence him. Instead, the kingdom not being stopped by any human opposition. We even get the sense that the one who lops off the head of John the Baptizer knows this. As he recognizes, of course, in John the Baptizer, he recognizes the spirit of John in Jesus.

So now with that introduction being, um, being given, let's just begin from verse 14. And as we begin from verse 14, we read this King Herod, and we'll stop there. So making it through a whole two words, let's just pause right here with King Herod, and let's just take some time. We like to do this from time to time when it's appropriate.

We like to take some time and just understand the historical context surrounding this passage because this passage has a richness of historical context behind it. Context that has to do with this man called King Herod. That has to do with Herod’s, that has to do with John the Baptizer, others involved in the story.

None of those things do we need to understand in order to understand the point of the passage. None of the things that are not given in the text are necessary. The points plain and obvious. We don't need to understand anything not given in the text in order to see the point of the text. I hope we all understand that.

However, with that being said, it is nonetheless helpful to fill to, to sketch out, to fill in the background on a number of events and characters in order to, should we say, put more color or more vividness into the point that the passage is already making. So let's just take a little bit of time and talk about this historical context behind.

First of all, king Herod. So, king Herod Mark here is making a sideways jab. He's making a pejorative insult to this man king, or he's call as he calls King Herod. However, that would all miss us. We would that would be lost on us. Had, did we not take a little bit of time and understand what Mark is saying as he begins this passage by saying, King Herod Mark is the only gospel writer that will call him by the name of King Herod.

Matthew and Luke both relate the same story, but neither of them call this man King Herod. In fact, nowhere else in all of history is he called King Herod. He is called instead Herod Antipas. So we'll get to that in just a little bit, and then in doing so, we'll see what exactly Mark is doing by calling him two times in the passage, the King.

So let's just talk for a few minutes about Herod, because Herod can be a confusing character in Scripture because, well, for the, the main reason is there's so many of them. There's no less than five Herod’s in the Bible. And all these Herod’s can get a little bit confusing to us if we aren't clear on who's who and who's not who.

So let's just begin by understanding who the Herod’s are and who the Herod’s are not. The reason there are so many Herod’s in our New Testament is because Herod. Was a family name, not, not so much a personal name. It was a family name and it was the name of the dynasty known as the Ian Dynasty, which replaced the Hasian Dynasty.

If you think way back from your ancient history, high school or college courses, the Hasmonian Dynasty was replaced by the Ian Dynasty. So a dynasty, as we know, will be a family of successive rulers over a particular area. So the Herod and Dynasty took over as the rulers in the land known as Palestine, and it all began with a man by the name of Herod, the great Herod, the Great born in 78 BC.

He ruled all of Palestine up to the year four BC. So he ruled the largest area, which would include a Judea par, , Samaria. I. Galilee, even parts of the Decapolis, he ruled all, or not all, but he ruled the largest section of what was the ancient kingdom of Israel. And he did all this under the rulership of the Roman Empire.

The Roman Empire, of course, was the dominating force in the land of Palestine as well as all of the developed world at that time. And as Rome did in many places, they appointed rulers or puppet rulers in place of themselves in particular areas. They found that that worked a whole lot better than direct rule themselves.

So they appointed King her, or carried the great as the ruler of all this land. Now, Herod the Great was a man who was eth ethnically called an Idumean, meaning he was from the region of Idumea. Idumea is a land that was populated by what we know of as what used to be called the. Edomites, the Edomites were the descendants of that incestuous relationship between Lot and his two daughters.

Remember that back from the story in Genesis. Keep that in mind. That'll become very important next week that Herod and all of his family. Their family ethnically came from an incestuous background. So this Idumean man by the name of Herod, he was a nasty person. He was a violent, he was blood thirsty. He was a very effective person at seizing power and holding power and holding it violently.

He was a murderous person. He was very, very much unlike he was the one in Matthew chapter two. If you recall, of course, that when it comes to his attention that a king has been born, he does that little thing pretending he wants to worship. But then what he is really seeking to do is kill, , the, the one who's supposed to be the king, and he ends up killing all the, the baby boys.

That was this Herod, that was the blood thirstiness of this Herod. He was very much hated. He was the head of this Herod and family and blood thirsty. He was, he set the tone for the rest of his children. So he killed the, the baby boys in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas. He was known for that. He was the one on his deathbed, he issued a order to, to round up 3000 of the leading Jewish citizens, which they did.

They rounded up 3000 businessmen, politicians city councilman type figures. 3000 innocent people, put them in jail under orders that as soon as he died, they would be executed because Herod did not want Jerusalem to celebrate when he died. And he knew that when he died there would be a party, and he didn't want that.

So he said, round up 3000, kill then when I'm dead. It that'll keep him from, from celebrating. Fortunately, the, the order wasn't carried out, but that's the type of man with whom that we were dealing. So Herod, the great nasty fella on the inside and the out. He had some 10 wives. I tried to find out if any of those were simultaneous.

I don't know if any of those were simultaneous or if they were all sequential, but 10 wives. By those 10 wives, he had some 15 children. Now, those children were a mess in and of themselves. His oldest three children. They, at first, didn't get along with one another, but then they figured out that they hated their father more than they hated one another.

So his three oldest boys teamed up and they conspired together to kill their father and take over their father's kingdom. He found out about it and killed them instead. He later on of his 10 wives, his favorite of his 10 wives, he began to suspect her of conspiring against him. So he killed her and her entire family as well.

That's the type of man with whom that we're dealing. Herod the Great. So on Herod's deathbed, he had a will in place and the will stated that his entire kingdom would go to one of his sons, a man by the name of Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas is the main figure in the passage today. Herod Antipas was named in his will and Herod the greats will as the sole successor of his entire kingdom.

However, mysteriously on his deathbed, his will was rewritten. Nobody really knows how, but it was rewritten to, not to say that not only was Herod and Tepa, not the sole inheritor of the kingdom, but instead he would share it with two of his brothers. Actually two of his brothers and one of his sisters, a sister by the name of Salome, she never actually ruled anything.

So we don't know exactly what happened with that. But he and two of his brothers, one brother by the name of Philip Herod, Philip, or, and another by the name of Herod Archaleus. So the will, of course, was contested upon his death as naturally would be the case. Even today, if somebody changes their will.

A week from death, then that will is going to be contested. So it was contested. They took the case to Caesar. At the time, it was Caesar Augustus. Caesar. Augustus ruled in favor of the will, the present will, and he said that's what's going to stand. The kingdom will be divided among three. So that was the first Herod.

Now the second, third, and the fourth Herod are the three brothers. The one brother Herod anal Antipas, who is the central figure in our story today. We'll talk about him in just a little bit. But another of his brothers was Herod, Philip Herod. Philip received just a tiny little bit of land to rule way up in a corner in an area that we've talked about recently called the Decapolis.

So he had this little inconsequential little area to rule. He went up there to rule that area. Nothing ever happened. He never did anything. In fact, He was such a do nothing sort of rule ruler that history really isn't even Sure. There's a, there's another man by the name of Herod ii and we're not even sure if it was the same person as Herod Philip because he did so little.

He so little known. But he rules this tiny little area in the corner of the kingdom that's referred to as the Decapolis, a section of the Decapolis, but then another brother by the name of Archelaus, he was given the part of the kingdom, which was Judea and Samaria and Idumea. So we recognized those three parts of the kingdom.

But mainly Samaria and Judea. Judea of course, is where Jerusalem is, and we recognize Samaria. So Archelaus takes control. And if we, if we thought his father was blood thirsty, then Archelaus is 10 times more blood thirsty. Within a few days of taking power, one of the first things that happens is a delegate comes to him and they say, Archelaus, the people were just really burdened by taxes.

Can we sit down and talk about how much taxes we're paying and can we possibly get some relief from taxes Archelaus’ response? Kill 3000 people.

So he rounded up 3000 people that he thought was responsible for this delegation to ask for tax release, the fact tax relief and killed him. Well, that upset a few people, as you might imagine.

So they send the delegate to the Caesar. The, at the time it was still Caesar Augustus. They send the delegate to Caesar to say, we want direct rule from Rome. Instead of this this man Archelaus ruling of verse, he is so mean, he's so bad. He's so violent, he's so murderous. We want Rome to rule us directly.

Rome denied that. And sub subsequently. Of course, Archelaus was none too happy about the delegation. So what did he do? Murder some more people. And so there was a sequence of murders and protests and riots, more delegates to the Caesar. More murders, more protests, more murders, more delegates. Soon the Caesar finally agreed and, and instead he takes, he takes Alais off the throne, and instead he puts direct Rome, a direct rule over the region of Judea and Samaria under Roman rule, by appointing a man by the name of anybody.

Guess the direct rule of Rome over Judean Samaria, Pontius Pilate. That's how Pontius Pilate came to be in control of Judea for trial of Jesus of Nazarus. You might have wondered why it was that other parts of Israel were ruled by. These sub rulers, these puppet rulers. But instead, Jesus stands before Pilate, who is direct, a direct ruler of Rome.

And it's because of Archelaus and all the trouble he caused. And so they put a, the Roman ruler in place by the name of Pontius Pilate. Pontius Pilate stays in power for several decades, about four decades in Judea and Samaria. AR is then taken out. He is then banished to a place by the name of Gaul, which we would think of as present-day France.

So that was another brother. Then we talked about Philip. So now Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas is at the center of our story today. So we'll be talking about him quite a bit today. But just a little bit about Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas was the son of, , Herod the Great, and he had a Samaritan mother. So Herod Antipas had a Edomite father and a Sameritan mother, which of course put him in good graces with the Jews that he ruled over, of course.

So Herod Antipas was given the, the area known as Galilee and Perea, he takes control in four BC, which is following the death of Herod, the Great. Now remember, Jesus is in Egypt at this point, and then the dream comes to Joseph saying, the one who wanted to kill you, he's dead. And so Joseph returns, but told that Joseph was afraid to go back to Judea.

Why was he afraid to go back to Judea? Because who's in charge in Judea? Archelaus is even more murderous than his father. So instead he returns to Nazareth, his hometown. So Jesus, from his earliest memory, Jesus never had a memory and a human memory of any time of his life in which Herod Antipas was not the ruler of the region in which he lived virtually Jesus' entire life.

Herod Antipas ruled the area in which Jesus lived. So this man, Herod Antipas, he was blood thirsty as well, but he was more savvy with it. He was more of a, he was more of a politician than either his brothers or his father. He was smart enough to, to read people, to know the people that he ruled in such a way as to get what he wanted without necessarily being quite so murderous about it.

For example, one of the things that Herod and Tepa did was he was the first and only of the Herod rulers or the, the Roman rulers, for that matter, who did not mint coins with their image on it. Because he understood that that was a hotspot for the Jews. The Jews hated that. They hated having to use coins that had the image of the ruler on it, because they associated that with idolatry and rightfully so.

Because we might ask, well, does that mean that our coins today are idolatry? Now it doesn't because it's a totally different context. The Jewish coins and the coins minted by the Herod leaders, they had explicit statements of divinity associated with particularly the Caesars. And so it wasn't like a quarter with George Washington's picture on it.

It was like the picture of the, the ruler with words claiming divinity for him. So it really was a violation of the first commandment for the Jews. And the Jews hated that. Herod TPO understood that. And so he didn't push that button. He accomplished a number of things. He built some cities. Tiberius was the best known city that he built.

Tiberius, of course, we recognized that the Sea of Galilee. Was really named the Sea of Tiberius. That was the more common name because that city was on the sea of Tiberius. So Herod Antipas, he rules for about 43 years, and as we noted earlier, mark calls him King Herod. Now what's the big deal there? Here's the thing.

When Herod Antipas was given his kingdom by Caesar Augustus, he petitioned Caesar Augustus for the title. King Caesar Augustus denied it, and Herod Antipas seethed over that for the rest of his life. Herod Antipas was a man that was extremely interested in what people thought about him. That was what made his boat float.

He his besetting sin as we'll see through the passage. His besetting sin was the fear of man. He was extremely concerned about what people thought of him. And so he wanted the key, the title, king Herod Caesar knew that and to keep him in check, denied him the title. Now, later on about the year 36 or 37, another Herod, we'll get to him in just a minute.

Another Herod's going to come along by the name of Agrippa. Agrippa was one of the grandsons of Herod. The great Agrippa is going to be given a kingdom by the the Caesar that's in charge. Then a man by the name of Gases and Gases is going to give Agrippa the title. You guessed it, king Agrippa, because he's referred to as King Agrippa in the Acts.

So Agrippa, the grandson or the nephew of Herod the Great is going to be given the title King, and that's going to sit even worse with. Herod Antipas now. And so he will go back a second time and petition the Caesar once again for the title King, and he's going to do all that at the prodding of his wife, Herod’s.

We'll talk about her in just a minute. So he's going to go and in the midst of going there, his nephew again, Agrippa is going to convince the Caesar Gaius. He's going to convince him that Antipas is plotting a revolt because he's got an army built up. We'll talk about his army in just a minute. That'll come into play when we talk about Herodians.

But he's going to convince Agrippa, the nephew is going to convince the Caesar that Antipas, he's planning a revolt when he really wasn't. So he comes and he pleads with the Caesar, the New Caesar. Once again, please give me the title of King. Well, not only does he not give him that title, but he then takes his kingdom from him and banishes him to gall as well as his wife odious.

Now we see why it is that Mark calls him King Herod, don't we? Because Mark is writing to Romans and nobody knew the story like Romans. They knew all that. The story about Gaas, they knew the whole story about Augustus, and they knew the whole story about Agrippa and how he was given the, the Title King and how, , Antipas wanted the title his whole life.

And it was the wanting of that title. That was his downfall. Do you see why? What mark's getting at here, king Agrippa. And then later on he's going to make sure to throw that king in one more time. And twice he's going to say, I'll give you up to half my kingdom. He didn't have a kingdom. He wasn't a king. And so Mark is making this sort of backside sort of stab at him.

You see how just beautifully wonderful the word of God is put together. So this man Agrippa is the ruler over Galilee and. Pariah. During Jesus' lifetime, he will be the most significant of the Herod’s. In all of the New Testament, he will make three very important appearances. This is one in connection with the execution of John the Baptizer.

He will make another very important appearance when Jesus makes that reference to him. When he, when the Pharisees come and they say, do you know that Herod's plotting to kill you? And Jesus will, for the only time in all of Scripture, make a pejorative statement about a person? He'll say, you go and tell that fox this and that.

Okay? That's this Herod Antipas He speaking of. He will make a third appearance in Luke's gospel when, as you remember, he now rules the region of Galilee. Well, in Jesus's trial, you remember how that went about, went about Pilate. Pontius Pilate was trying to get out of the whole thing. He knew Jesus wasn't guilty.

He was trying to get out of the whole thing and wash his hands of it. And you remember how Luke tells the story that Pilate learned that Jesus was a. Galilean. And then Pilate said, oh, well what am I doing here? He's not even my subject. And so he sends him to Herod Antipas and he goes to Herod Antipas.

You remember the story? He goes to Herod Antipas and Herod Antipas is beside himself with joy because Jesus is coming to see him. Luke tells us that Herod had long wanted to meet Jesus, and he long wanted to see these mighty acts of Jesus. So Jesus comes to Herod and to pass, and Herod says to him, I just do something, make, make something appear, or disappear, or levitate, or do something.

He's just beside himself wanting to see. And you remember what Jesus does. Jesus refuses to say a word. Now, that in itself is, that's a whole sermon in and of itself. If somebody wants to write a sermon about that, that's a good one. That Son of God, the Messiah of the world. Is standing before him, and Jesus refuses to say one word to him.

That's profound. So Jesus refuses to speak. Herod finally gets tired of that game, sends him back, dresses him in funny clothes, sends him back with a message saying he's a moron, but he's innocent. So then he comes back to Pilate and Herod dumps him back onto Pilate's lap. That's the third appearance of Herod inter Tepa in the Scripture.

So he's the most significant Herod. He makes the most appearances in the Scriptures. So we'll return to Herod in Tepa just a little bit because he's at the center of the story today. But just real quickly, let's just see and recognize the other two Herod’s that are found in Scripture. The other, the, the, , fourth Herod would be Herod Agrippa.

Herod Agrippa was one of the grandsons of King Herod the Great Herod Agrippa is the one who shows up. Early on in Acts. Remember he's the one who kills James. And then we're told that he fa he saw, he realized that killing James pleased the Jews. So he arrested Peter and it was the Passover. He, he intended to kill Peter.

And then what happened? You remember the story. The angel comes and sets Peter free. And then Peter says that the angel, that God has saved him from Herod. And then later on, a little bit later in the next chapter, there's this disagreement with this delegation from Tire and Siding. And Herod Agrippa, also known as a grip of the first Herod Agrippa, puts on his robes and sits down.

And these people are saying, glory, glory. And then he takes the glory and then he dies. And the worms eat his body. That's that. Was that, , that Agrippa, well, his only son who is now a great grandson of Herod, the great. Was a man by the name of Herod ii. Herod II shows up in the end of the story of Acts, acts 25 and 26, because Paul goes before that Herod, that Agrippa, that Agrippa called Agri of the Second.

And that's the Agrippa that remember Paul says, Agrippa, you, you believe the prophets. I know you believe the prophets. So, , this Agrippa, he was one who believed in the Jewish way of faith. He believed in the Jewish prophets. He believed in the Jewish scriptures. And Paul appeals to that. He was the one that said, Paul, you would convert me in a day.

So that was Agri of the Second. He ruled a tiny little speck of land, which coincided with Herod Philip way up in the Decapolis. So those are the Herod’s of the Scriptures. The Herod family, very prominent in the scriptures. But our focus today is this particular man, Herod and Tous. The Herod, who is known, , known as in Mark's words here as King Herod.

So now to begin again, verse 14, king Herod heard of it for Jesus' name had become known. So what did King Herod or Herod and Antipas, what did he hear of? So here we see the connection, and this is why Mark has placed this here, because Mark's having a flashback. We're not having a flashback. He's writing a flashback.

He's flashing back to something that happened previously and the connection for the whole thing is Herod heard of what he heard of Jesus. How did he hear of Jesus? Well, Because of the 12 that were sent out, that's what we just studied, the 12 that were sent out. They go throughout the villages declaring this message of Jesus.

And that's what precipitates Herod hearing of this. Certainly Herod has heard of Jesus and he has heard of what Jesus is doing because Herod was a ruler that was in touch with the people that he ruled. He things didn't slip by him. So he had certainly heard about Jesus, but now he's hearing a whole lot more because of the 12 that were sent out previously.

So that's how the whole thing is connected. So Herod heard of it for Jesus' name had become known. Some said John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. And some others said, John the Bap―I'm sorry, others said he is Elijah and others said he's a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.

So King Herod has heard of it. The name has become known. And then we're given this. This statement about what people seem to be saying. Some are saying he's, he's John, meaning Jesus. Some are saying that Jesus is John the Baptizer back from the dead. Why are they saying that? Because of the miraculous powers that that Jesus is doing, which is in and of itself quite an odd thing because the scriptures are playing that John the Baptizer never did any miraculous work.

The miraculous signs, the miraculous works that were done by Jesus and the apostles, we've said this on a number of occasions. The purpose behind those was to validate the message, to validate the words, the message that was being given. So what was John the Baptizers message? His message was, Messiah's coming.

That's what he would say. I'm, I'm just a finger pointing to the Messiah. I'm just a voice calling out. Messiah is coming. He's right behind me. So the validation of John's message was, Jesus himself. Jesus was the validation of John's message. So therefore, John the Baptizer did no signs and wonders because his message, his words, needed no validation because Jesus was the validation of his message, because his message is repent, make the way straight because Messiah's coming.

So it's odd that they would associate Jesus with John the Baptizer on the reason of Jesus' miraculous works because John did know miraculous works, but nevertheless they do. We'll talk about that more in just a second. So some are saying John the Baptizer, some are saying, or he's been raised, some are saying that is Elijah.

Others are saying, one, the prophets of old, so that that rings a familiar bell with us, doesn't it? That rings the familiar bell. We'll get to it in chapter eight, or much more well known is Matthew 16, where Jesus, of course says who the men say that I am. And we see the same answer. Well, some say you're John the Baptist.

Others say you're Elijah. Others say you're one of the prophets. Same exact misunderstanding or lack of clarity on Jesus' identity. So the same sort of thing. This seemed to be something that followed Jesus throughout his entire ministry. This not so much, this confusion about his identity, but this mistaken identity and giving him, assigning to him an identity that was one of these, either John the Baptizer or Elijah or one of the prophets.

So we can understand Elijah, we can understand that because there's a connection. Malachi four in verse five tells us that that Elijah will come and Elijah's coming will come. As this precipitation for the coming of the day of the Lord. And so we can see the connection. We can see how people associated John the Baptist with Elijah, and we can see how people associated John the B or Elijah with Jesus of course, as well.

We can see the connection there. We'll talk a little bit more about those connections as we go a little bit further this morning. But then the one of the prophets of Old, we can also understand that one of the prophets of Old, we recognize the fact that Jesus not only was one of the prophets, Jesus. Is the prophet he, he is the premier prophet.

He's the prophet to whom all the other prophets pointed to because he is the one who supremely speaks for God. He himself being God. So we can understand that. But this confusion in his identity just seemed to always persist throughout his entire adult ministry. Which brings us to the point of the, of saying this, it is an, isn't it amazing how people will believe nearly anything about Jesus' identity?

Except what he plainly said is his identity and what he plainly showed through his works in his teachings. Isn't that amazing how in Jesus' day, all the way up until this day today, people are willing to believe nearly anything about who Jesus is except who he plainly said he is, which is to say the Son of God and the Messiah of the world.

People are willing to believe anything about his identity, even to associate him with John the Baptizer on a basis of doing miraculous works, and we say, How do you make that connection? Because John did know miracles. How? How do you make that connection there or one of the prophets? All of these things say to us that of course, Jesus' teaching absolutely validated who he was.

Jesus' works absolutely validated who His was, who he was. Jesus' words about himself. We've seen that over and over in John's gospel already. Or I'm sorry, in Mark's gospel already that Jesus says to us in plain and simple and straightforward terms, who he is. The demons say who? The demons know who he is.

Jesus is proclaiming his identity. Mark is proclaiming his identity, and yet even to this day, we are willing, we are more willing to believe that, that Jesus is really Elvis brought back to life than who he really is. We would believe Jesus is an alien visiting us before we would believe that Jesus is the Messiah of the world.

We are willing to believe anything about his identity except who he really said that he is. So some say you're John, some say you're Elijah. Some say that others say you're one of the prophets of verse 16. But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, whom I beheaded has been raised. So if you want to take a, a pen or a pencil and you want to underline that word I, or circle that word I to give it emphasis, that's exactly the way Mark wrote it.

Because Mark puts great emphasis on the I. So it would read something like this. John the Baptist, whom I even I beheaded, Herod is saying this. John has been beheaded and it wasn't HEROs that be, that beheaded him. It wasn't the dancing girl that beheaded him. It wasn't the guests at the party that beheaded him.

It wasn't even the executioner that he sent who beheaded him. He says, I even I, this John, whom I beheaded has been raised. Verse 17, for it was Herod who had sent and seized John. And so now Marcus flashing back to an episode months in the past, verse 17, for it was Herod who had sent and seized John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herod’s his brother, Philip's wife, because he had married her.

Verse 18 for John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. So we're familiar with that part of the story. Odious. Here's another Herod figure. Only this time, it's a female odious and the fact that John had been proclaiming that this marriage wasn't lawful and they didn't quite like that too much, so that's why they threw him in prison.

Some say that John the Baptizer was in prison for even up to a year prior to his beheading, but this is sort of the, the impetus of the whole story right here, this casting in prison of John on the basis of what John had been proclaiming about Herod and his marriage, and then the eventual beheading. And we'll talk about more about the beheading and the circumstances of that.

That'll fall into play next week. But let's now familiarize ourself a little bit with this person, Harus, because this will again, I think, help to just fill the story out in great, much greater detail for us. So Herodius was, of course, as we see married to Herod at this time, Herodius was a granddaughter of King Herod.

So if you are quicker than me at putting together family relations, which that's one of the things that I've always struggled to put together in my head, family relations, so you're probably faster than me. You've already put together the fact that Herod was her uncle. She was married, as the text says to Herod's brother Philip.

So if you're still putting this together, if you're still putting two and two together, means that she, her first marriage was also to her uncle. You see how the story is getting more and more disgusting as we go. So she had been married to Uncle Philip. Uncle Philip was her half uncle. , Herod’s Again, she was a granddaughter of King Herod the great, just by the way, her grandfather, or I'm sorry, not her grandfather, her father, her father was one of the three.

That Herod the Great killed one of the, one of his first three sons that, so her father was killed by her grandfather and her grandmother was the favorite wife of Herod, whom he also killed. So her father was killed by King Herod and her Herod the Great, and her grandmother was also killed by her grandfather.

Isn't this a really picture, pretty picture of a nice, little sort of 1950s Mayberry family, right? So this is, this is the world in which Jesus lived. We could absolutely make a movie of this and people wouldn't believe it because it'd be too much, it'd be too far of a stretch. It'd be too much intrigue and too much moral grossness to the whole thing.

But this is the actual story in which this took place. This woman's father, this woman's father and grandmother were killed by her, were murdered by her grandfather. She now a granddaughter of. Herod the great, first of all, marries her Uncle Philip. So as the, as secular history tells us, Herod Herod’s, I'm sorry, and Philip were married, and Philip you remember, was the one who got the tiny little kingdom up in the Decapolis and he wasn't really making a whole lot of himself.

And in fact, Herod took him out of that rulership role pretty quick and returned him to just a regular citizen of Rome status. So as the story goes, the secular history story goes, Herod Antipas, the center of our story today, wanted to visit Brother Philip in Rome. So Antipas goes to visit Brother Philip there in Rome, and which time he meets his niece, Herodius, also his brother's wife, Herodius.

They meet and we're told by secular history that they fall in love at first sight. Now you. I am sure are just as are, just as biblically astute as myself enough to know that the Bible teaches us that there is no such thing as love at first sight, does not exist, never has existed. There's no such thing as love at first sight.

There's lust at first sight and there's interest at first sight. But love understood properly cannot possibly exist at first sight by its very nature. So there's lust at first sight and interest at first sight and intrigue at first sight and desire at first sight. And so which of those happen while probably some lust at first sight?

But here's the other thing that's probably going on at the same time. You remember Philip, who was a little bitty ruler of a little bitty kingdom who now is the ruler of nothing. Here comes Uncle Antipas, who is not only still a ruler, he's the ruler of a much bigger kingdom. That's what I think was really going on between Herod’s and Antipas.

I think that there was some lust going on, and I think that there was the opportunity for power, a power grab. And so Herod’s and Antipas get together and they say, let's both rid ourselves of our present spouses. So Antipas at the time was married. He was married to the daughter of another king, a king by the name of ERUs.

The story just gets better and better wait till next week. But he was married to the daughter of a king by the name of ERUs. He was the king of Nabatea, which was the kingdom of Arabia. It bordered Antipas territory. So he had married the daughter of an Arabian king. He puts her away. Now you can guess the next part of the story.

Daddy didn't like that too much. And so when your daddy is a king and another king mistreats daddy's daughter. What do you do? You go to war. And that's exactly what they did. He raised an army, brought an army against Herod Antipas. Herod Antipas raised another army and they fought, they warred and they battled for the rest of Antipas rule, which explains the reason why Herod Antipas had an army.

When he went to talk to Caesar Gaius and his nephew, Agrippa fooled the Caesar into thinking that the army is because he's about to revolt against you when it was really this other war going on with the Arabian King. You see tons of intrigue in the story, right? Did you know that there was this much behind the story?

So he puts his first wife away, Herodius puts Philip away, and then they get married. And now you see why it is that John was saying, and the verb tense there is imperfect. He didn't just say it once, he was saying. Over and over. It is not lawful. So this was much more than just a, a, an adulterous affair. This was much more than just a divorce, an unrighteous divorce.

This was much more than just one woman putting away her husband and another man putting away his wife, and then they get married. This was much more than even the fornication that took place before they were married. This was a direct violation of God's law in Leviticus, which says, you shall not uncover your mother's nakedness.

You shall not uncover your sister's nakedness. This was a marriage that existed between blood relations, and this is why John was adamant to say, this is not lawful. Now, you can also see why we're told that Herodius took such a deep grudge against the man because if John the Baptizer was just going around saying, you know, Herod and his wife Herod’s, they're really not very nice rulers.

They really don't follow God's law very well. That'd have been one thing. But to go around and repeatedly draw attention to the fact that you married your uncle, that you fornicated with your uncle and then you divorced your other uncle to marry this uncle, that was something that she clearly wanted to lop his head off over, which is what we're told in the passage.

So this is the reason we're told in verse 18, four. You see the connection there for this is the reason, this is, this is the, because this is the why for John had been saying in the imperfect, John was saying and kept saying to Herod, so he, John's not saying this behind his back. He's pronouncing it to Herod, to Antipas.

This is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. So because of this, because of John's preaching against the sinful adulterous and incestuous marriage of Herod and Herod’s, because of that, Herod had put John in prison. And as we will, we won't get there today, but as the story goes, that eventually ended in Herod Antipas agreeing to take John the Baptizers life.

This is why we're told Herod said he's John. John whom I beheaded. He's back, John whom I, I even I. Me, I did it, John, whom I beheaded is back. It was a common belief in the day. That God could resurrect one from the dead in order to enact judgment upon the living. And this is where. Herod Antipas gets this idea, John, even I, I did this.

I beheaded him. He is back. Herod's guilty conscience is weighing so heavily upon him. He is tormented by this tremendously guilty conscience. The anguish, the torment of his conscience has him declaring probably at every turn. This is probably not the first time that he has imagined that John the Baptizer is back.

Maybe he's seen John hiding behind the curtains. Maybe he's, he's seen John in the night as he was walking through the dark hallway passages of his palace. Maybe he's, he's imagined that John is following him on the streets, but his conscience will not leave him alone. And so now he makes the connection.

This is John the baptized back from the dead to haunt me. The guilt and the torment of a conscience of Herod. We see in numbers chapter 32 in verse 23, but if you will not do so, behold, You have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out, or Luke 12 and verse two. Nothing is covered up.

That will not be revealed or hidden. That will not be known. Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 14, for God will bring every deeded into judgment, every secret thing, whether good or evil. That is what Herod is living under here because Herod Antipas is the example of one who has received enlightenment. His conscience has been enlightened to the truth of God, yet he is still a slave to his sin, which places him into such a position of inner torment, of inner anguish and inter inner anxiety because though he's still a slave to his sin, his conscience has been enlightened by the truth of God.

So real quickly, what is our conscience? Our conscience, as we've said before, is a, an aspect of the image of God, which we bear. God created us in His image, and part of that image is this thing that we refer to. The scriptures refer to as our conscience. We think of our conscience like an inner compass, an inner compass that is supposed to be geared or directed toward the magnetic north of God's righteousness.

And so it's an inner conscious, it's part of us. It's not outside of us, it's part of us. And because it's part of us, it's also what fallen. Just like we are, our conscience, just like us, is fallen and being fallen. It's imperfect and being fallen. It's also subject to our sinful activity. The more we sin, the more we tolerate sin, the more we subdue that conscience, the more we pervert that conscience.

But the more that we feed our conscience with the word of God, which the word of God is not part of us, it's outside of us. Therefore it's objective, not subjective. Our conscience is subjective. The word of God is objective. So when our conscience is subjective to the objective word of God, it tunes it. It calibrates it back to magnetic north, back to the righteousness of God.

So Herod has had his conscience tuned by what John the Baptizer. Over and over and over and over. We get the picture here that as John is wallowing in prison, that Herod is coming to him regularly to listen to him, listen to how it's put to us in verse well verse 20, for Herod feared John knowing that he was a righteous and holy man.

And he kept him safe. When he heard him. When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed. What does that mean? That means that John's words didn't just go in one ear and out the other. That means that when John's words entered into Herod's ear, it stayed for a while and he thought about it. He turned it over, he considered it.

He was perplexed. He didn't understand it all, but he tried to. He was perplexed by it. So when he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he heard him gladly. Isn't that an enigma right there? How it is that John the Baptizer is proclaiming it is not lawful for you to have this incestuous marriage, and yet he hears him gladly.

Can you make sense of that? That would be a tough thing to make sense of. Had we not spent so much time in chapter four, understanding the parable of the soils because you remember the soil. Herod is not the hard soil. He is not the hard pack soil. You remember the rocky soil? The shallow soil? Jesus tells the parable and he says, the shallow soil, the rocky soil, the soil that's got soil on the top, but it's got this hard layer underneath, and so it's shallow.

It receives the seed or it receives the word. What does Jesus say with joy?

Herod's a living illustration of that. Herod is a living example of the shallow, rocky soil that hears the word with gladness. Why? Because there's some soil there. It's not hard packed, and so it lands, and as Jesus tells the parable, it springs to what appears to be like life, but the root of that plant can't get to the heart because of the hard layer underneath.

And so though it springs to life and it appears to be alive and no, that nonetheless quickly dies. Though it was received how with joy. You see how Mark is putting this together so, so perfectly for us now. Now, I don't know if we should say Mark, or we should say Peter, because again, mark is writing the memoirs of Peter.

Ultimately, of course, it's the Holy Spirit putting this together. But you see how beautifully this is put together now. Now we have in, we have in chapter four, the premier parable that Jesus told. He himself said, this is the foundational parable by this parable. You understand all my parables. And then in the, and then about a chapter and a half later, we see this living illustration of one of the fundamental soils that Jesus talks about, which is the soil that's shallow.

It will receive the seed, it'll be greatly perplexed. It'll listen to it. It won't just. Write it off like the Pharisees. Remember how the Pharisees listen to Jesus in the temple, or I'm sorry, in the, in the synagogue. They're sitting over there watching, waiting to see what he's going to do. He's teaching.

They're not hearing a thing. They're waiting for him to do something that will offend them. They're waiting for him to say something that will offend him. They're just waiting to pounce on him when he says something like, your sins are forgiven. So he's not listening like the Pharisees are listening.

He's really listening. He's really receiving it and taking it in. And what he's taking in is light that is calibrating his conscience. But the problem is he has this hard layer underneath. Or to put it another way, he is still a slave to his own sin, which results in this most tormented of conditions because he has received light and yet, He's refusing to yield to that light.

Has it not been a major theme of Mark all along since early on in chapter one, has this not been one of Mark's major themes, the theme of receiving enlightenment, yet refusing to yield to it? Mark has been hammering this since, at least since chapter two. It was his focus in chapter three. It was a central focus of the parables.

In chapter four, mark has hammered this theme over and over again of those who receive the word and understand something about the truth of the word. They understand something about who Jesus is and what's being said about him, yet they refuse to yield to it. They refuse to surrender to it. They refuse to submit themselves to it.

Along comes Herod, and now we see in this picture of this man, Herod. Just what a tormented, mental and spiritual state this produces. As he says, John, whom I, I beheaded him. He's back. If Herod's heart were the hard-packed soil, he wouldn't be saying this. He wouldn't care. Jesus, what do I need to do to take care of him?

Is he a threat to me? If he is, I'll take care of him. If not, I, I'll just ignore him. That's what Herod, how he would react if his heart was hard soil. But Herod has not yet completely seared his conscience. He has not yet completely destroyed his conscience to the point that his conscience is no longer receiving light from the truth that John was teaching him.

And so therefore, he's in such a state of conflict. Have you ever known someone in such a state of conflict in their life, such a state of moral conflict? This anguished conscience that is, has been awakened by the truth, but yet at the same time is rejecting the truth. Now, lastly, let's just notice one last thing and then we'll wrap up our time today.

Let's just notice the inconsistency. The inconsistency that is so evident in John in Herod Antipas and his actions. So as we see here from the story, we could look at the actions of Herod Antipas and we could come to a conclusion about his moral state. First of all, we could, we could look at Herod and we could notice that he listened to the word of God and he didn't just listen to it in a disinterested way.

He was interested. He absorbed it. And not only did he absorb it, he thought about it deeply. He was perplexed by it. He considered it well. He didn't just ponder a little bit and then move on to something else. It weighed heavily on his spirit, and not only that, he heard it. Often we get the sense here that John is imprisoned and Herod seems to be going to him on a regular basis to hear more of what John has to say.

So he's hearing the word, he's receiving the word, and not only is he receiving the word and considering the word carefully, but he's glad to hear it. Hearing the word brings him gladness. There's a certain sort of odd, I guess you could say, gladness in hearing the truth that John the Baptizer is proclaiming, which is condemning his own sin.

There's a certain gladness, so he hears the word. He takes the word seriously. He enjoys hearing the word and the word brings him gladness. Secondly, we're told in the passage that he fears John. So he fears the man of God. Isn't that consistent with so many of the stories that we, that we read, particularly from the Old Testament, how there'll be a man of God and the people feared the man of God.

Think of Samuel. When Samuel comes to the people and the people say, are you here on a mission of mercy? Or are you here to destroy us? Or think of Daniel, or we think of Nathan when he confronts David, or we think of Moses. There's a certain aspect in which the prophet of God was feared by the people.

Herod fears, John. Furthermore, Herod. Herod takes political steps to protect the man of God. We are told in the story we'll get to here next to this next week, but we're told in the story that Herod’s wants to kill John, but she's prevented from killing him because Herod protects him. So he hears him gladly.

He receives his words. He's, he ponders his words. He protects the man of God. He fears the man of God. Now, tell me, if someone of that description, oh, I don't know, passed away and we held their funeral, we would proclaim then to be a great Christian, would we not? Here's a man. This man loved hearing the word of God, and he took the word of God seriously.

He treasured the word of God and he went out of his way to protect people of God. We would see that and we would say, what a great man. What a great Christian. But now let's now look at the other side of Herod, the other side of Herod's conscious, or the other side of Herod's soul. Herod is like, Herod is like a scriptural.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Anybody read Robert Lewis Stevenson, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde? Anybody ever read that wonderful little short story that will give you marvelous insight into the soul? From a Christian perspective, wonderful little story. Much but much better than the Bugs Bunny version. But he's like this, this scriptural, Dr.

Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. So let's look at the Mr. Hyde part. So he hears the word of God joyfully, seriously, takes it seriously, protects the man of God. But then at the same time, he consents to his murder and we're told that the reason he consented to his murder was because all the people heard his oath. Do you remember what we said earlier about Herod?

What his besetting sin was? His besetting sin was what people thought about him. He was deeply concerned that people thought highly of him. So next week we'll talk about the party and what goes on in the party and how Herod got into that position. But suffice to say for today's purposes, he makes this oath, this vow, everybody heard it, we're told earlier what the guest list was.

There were military commanders, leaders of the city, business people. They hear it and he's got no choice. His back's against the wall because he will lose face. Either John loses his head or Herod loses face, so he's not going to lose face. So you see how one sin pushes him into another sin. The sin of fearing man pushes him into the sin of murder.

We also see. In addition to that, that he takes this ridiculous oath. He takes this other man's wife, not to mention the sexual sins that have been going on, not to mention the incestuous relationship. We'll talk more about that next week. But suffice to say, aren't we shown a picture here of a man who is in great conflict?

A man whose ethics and whose morality is completely at odds with itself, a man's whose moral positions are completely and utterly inconsistent. This is a result. Of having an enlightened consciousness or a conscience, an enlightened conscience that regards and understands the truth of God, and yet at a fundamental level rejects it.

That necessarily puts us into a position of having such great moral inconsistency as this. Have you ever known such a thing? Have you ever known someone to have such a moral inconsistency? Have you ever known someone who was capable of doing such acts of moral good on one day, and then the next day doing such acts of moral evil?

Anybody ever seen somebody like that? Oh, I don't know. Let's name, well, let's just say our most recent former president who was capable and had and did some things of significant moral value, the fact that the ridiculous constitutional protection of the right to murder unborn babies. Has now been, at least from the court's standpoint, removed, that was a, that was an act of tremendous moral good.

And yet, do I even need to make an argument for the man's moral failures? Such a picture of moral incons, consistently inconsistency is consistent with the person who has received some type of enlightenment. Their conscience has been enlightened or awakened in some way, yet they're still a slave to their own sins.

And so this picture of inconsistency is the picture of Herod. Proverbs 21 in verse eight. The way of the guilty is crooked. The way of the guilty is crooked. There's a picture in Scripture of another man who is in a similar position as Herod Antipas, and that is another king by the name of Saul. Remember Saul?

Now there's some scriptures in your notes here. I won't take the time to read those, but we, you could read through the whole story of Saul. Particularly once the conflict started with David, and you'll see a perfect picture of a man at war with himself. You'll see the perfect picture of a man who has ethical inconsistency, moral inconsistency, because literally on one page, he will bless David, he will put David in charge of a thousand troops.

He will swear to David, no one will harm you. You may eat at my table and no one will touch you. And then in the next chapter, he's throwing spears at him again. And then David finds him in the cave and cuts off a piece of his robe and shows him, I, I could have killed you. And he just bows down, oh, David, you're much more righteous than me.

You're so much more righteous than me. The next chapter, he is trying to kill him again. Or when he finds him in another cave and, and puts his spear beside him and says to him, you, you know, Abner, you should have been protecting your king. I could have killed your king. Oh, you're so much more righteous than me.

And then the next chapter, trying to kill him once again, a perfect picture of moral inconsistency because he's a slave to sin. So I wonder if you know someone of this nature, I wonder if that might be you. I wonder if you might see some aspect of moral goodness in you and yet also see yourself capable of such moral, evil.

And you know that the scriptures say to you that we are judged by our fruits. Our fruits cannot lie. But when Jesus says that we, you may be judged by your fruits, what he means is the consistency of your fruits. What he doesn't mean is that you cherry pick this fruit over here and that fruit over there, and you sort of ignore all the rotten fruit.

What he means is the consistent fruit that your life produces. Because the heart that's been enlightened and changed the heart that has not only been awakened in its conscious, but been changed by the word of God into a new creation, that's the heart that will be a consistent heart. Look at Romans chapter two and verse 15.

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them. That's what Paul's getting at there. Speaking of the Gentiles and how the Gentiles have received some light, some enlightenment about God by way of the natural law, Yet the light, the understanding that they have received, it bears this conflicting nature in their conscience.

Or look at James chapter four and verse one. What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? This is a picture of Herod Antipas, and we're going to see the picture get even darker and grimmer, and even if it can, and it will even more morally and eth, ethically ugly because we haven't even started looking at Herodius yet, and we haven't even gotten to her daughter yet.