Truth and Consequences

Mark 6:14-29

If you brought your bibles turn with me over to the Gospel of Mark chapter six. The Gospel of Mark chapter six, and I want to begin this morning by reading this passage to you. It is a lengthy story that has to be taught as one unit. So, lets read Vs. 14-29 of the Gospel of Mark chapter six.

Mark 6:14–29 KJV

And king Herod heard of him; (for his name was spread abroad:) and he said, That John the Baptist was risen from the dead, and therefore mighty works do shew forth themselves in him. Others said, That it is Elias. And others said, That it is a prophet, or as one of the prophets. But when Herod heard thereof, he said, It is John, whom I beheaded: he is risen from the dead. For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had married her. For John had said unto Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife. Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him, and would have killed him; but she could not: For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly. And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee; And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in, and danced, and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt, and I will give it thee. And he sware unto her, Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it thee, unto the half of my kingdom. And she went forth, and said unto her mother, What shall I ask? And she said, The head of John the Baptist. And she came in straightway with haste unto the king, and asked, saying, I will that thou give me by and by in a charger the head of John the Baptist. And the king was exceeding sorry; yet for his oath’s sake, and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her. And immediately the king sent an executioner, and commanded his head to be brought: and he went and beheaded him in the prison, And brought his head in a charger, and gave it to the damsel: and the damsel gave it to her mother. And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse, and laid it in a tomb.

Heavenly Father,

I thank you for Yor Word!! I pray You would give us clarity, wisdom, and understanding from Your Word!!

I pray You would Make the difficult ways easy, and the crooked ways plain. I pray You would teach us what you would have us to see and if there be any here among us who do not know you, Father, I pray You would draw them to You!!

In Jesus Name I Pray, Amen!!

 Our passage this morning is the only unit of scripture in the gospel of Mark, where the name of Jesus is not mentioned.

But, the truth of Jesus and His power, go before Him and play an important role in this story, because they are haunting the conscience of King Herod.

There are many parallels in this story to the Old Testament. For example, King Herod reminds me of King Ahasuerus in the book of Esther, who when she pleases him, he tells her, “he will give her anything she wants, up to half his kingdom.”

King Herod also reminds me of King Ahab, who was a weak king, led by his wife. And Herodias is a parallel of Jezebel, who would do anything to get what she wanted, even murder and kill innocent people.

 But the one parallel that stands out to me the most to me, is between John the Baptist and Elijah, because both spoke the truth to power.

And both John the Baptist and Elijah are compared to Jesus in this story, and that tells us a lot about the way Jesus taught.

Jesus taught in a way that stood up for truth and righteousness no matter what the consequences were He faced.

We live in a world today where truth and righteousness are under attack. The world wants to redefine truth. They believe if they just redefine sin and immorality, then they are not responsible for what they do.

But, it doesn’t work like that. God has already defined truth and righteousness in a person, Jesus Christ, and we do not get to make it up as we go.

If we are going to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ, we have to stand up for truth. And that is what we see John doing in this passage.

It is no accident that the story of John the Baptist is placed at the beginning of Mark’s gospel. He was the greatest of all the disciples. In fact, he was not a disciple at all, but he was the forerunner of Christ.

He came to prepare the way for Jesus. John pointed the disciples to Jesus and said I must decrease so that He can increase. So, it should not surprise us at all that at the very beginning of Mark’s gospel, John is arrested, put in prison, and eventually killed for what he stood for.

In this Chapter we are given a glimpse back in time. We get to look over the shoulder of King Herod, into the past and learn what happened to John the Baptist and why.

And what we learn from this story is; as followers of Jesus Christ we are to stand up for truth no matter what the consequences are we face.

The first thing I want you to see in this story is;

I. Truth Has the Power of Conviction Vs. 14-16

Truth has the power of conviction even in the life of an unbeliever.

  Notice Vs. 14 says, “King Herod heard of Him.” But who did King Herod hear of? He heard of Jesus. He heard about what Jesus was doing in the world and the power that was at work with in Him.

He heard of the miracles Jesus was performing. How the sick were being healed, the blind were given sight and the lame could walk again!!

 It is important we understand, this is King Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great who we read about in the book of Matthew.

If you remember, from the Christmas story. At the time of the birth of Jesus, Herod the Great had all of the children in Bethlehem killed, because he was trying to prevent the birth of Jesus.

And in our story this morning, we see that the apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree, his son is a murderer as well.

 But his son was not really much of a king. He was a tetrarch, which means quarters. When Herod the Great died the kingdom was divided into four parts and each section was given to one of his sons.

And they were all named Herod. This is Herod Antipas, and he was the ruler of the area of Galilee, under the Roman authority, the entire life of Jesus.   

And in this story, we see how incredibly arrogant he was. Everyone in the world is a sinner. It doesn’t matter if you are rich and poor, or weak or strong, but the sin of a king is more flagrant.

Herod has all of the power, wealth and privilege of a king. He has wives and mistresses, but nothing is enough. He is never satisfied. He lusts after his brother Philip’s wife and with a snap of his fingers, he takes Herodias’ for his own.

  This is a direct violation of the law of Moses, but it gets worse. This is incest because not only is Herodias his sister-in-law, but she is his niece.

She is the daughter of his other brother: Aristipolus. So, this is not only a violation of law, but it is a violation of nature. This reminds me of something you would read standing in line at the grocery store.

(Pause)

In the bible,  Sin is defined as missing the mark or falling short of God’s will and God’s law. But, Herod’s sin reaches a whole different level. He is reckless with his power and privilege and there is no end to his depravity.

Tradition has it that he murdered his own children to prevent them from gaining power. He is cut from the same mold as villains in history as Nero, Genghis Khan, and Adolf Hitler.

But I want you to notice in this story; even though he is a murdering, blood thirsty king, he comes under conviction when he hears about Jesus.

No one is really sure about who Jesus is yet. Some are saying He is a prophet. Others are saying He is Elijah, but Herod is convinced He is John the Baptist raised from the dead.

Why? because of what he has done to John the Baptist. Look at Vs. 16, But when Herod heard of it, he kept saying, “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”

The verb tense of Vs. 16: “he kept saying,” tells us he was doing this over and over again. He kept telling himself, this is John. He is haunted by his conscience because of what he has done.

That is because right and wrong are woven into our DNA. We are not animals that act on instinct. We know what is right, and we know what is wrong. We know there are boundaries we should not cross.

We can’t bury our head in the sand and pretend we do not know we are sinning, because our conscience will convict us of truth.

It is important to understand, Herod has a choice at this moment. When he hears about Jesus, he can go and fall at His feet. He can ask for forgiveness and God’s grace would be poured out into his life. He could be forgiven. He can take responsibility for his actions and he can be changed.

Now, we know Herod did not do that, because In Luke 23:8-9, when Jesus was on His way to the cross, we read how He meets Herod for the first time. It says:

     “Now Herod was very glad when he saw Jesus; for he had wanted to see Him for a long time, because he had been hearing about Him and was hoping to see some sign performed by Him. And he questioned Him at some length; but He answered him nothing.” (Luke 23:8-9)

Jesus refused to speak a word to Herod. In the same way Herod had rejected Jesus in his life, Jesus was now rejecting Herod before the cross.

So, what we see in this story is a stark warning for us. We are responsible for the way we respond to Jesus. Each one of us have the same opportunity Herod was given.

We can repent and be forgiven, or like Herod, we can reject the truth, ignore the truth, and live haunted by our past.

There is one thing we all have in common. We have all made mistakes in life. Nobody is perfect. There is not one person sitting here that has not looked back on their life and said, “I wish I would have done that different.”

We all have the opportunity to respond to Christ when we feel that conviction. The question is, how do you respond?

When you know the Holy Spirit is convicting you of sin, Do you repent, or do you ignore it?

Jesus came and died on a cross, that we might be set free. Your responsibility is to respond to that message. Don’t let the greatest regret of your life be that you failed to respond to Jesus!!

 So, the first thing we see in this passage is; The truth has the power of conviction even in an unbeliever.

It may seem like people of the world do not care about what they do or say, but I want you to know even the most vile of men, understand they will answer for what they have done.

When Herod heard about Jesus, it reminded him of what he did to John, and he felt conviction in his heart.

As Christians we are called to stand up for truth no matter what the consequences. The second thing I want you to see in this story is;

II. Truth Takes Courage.  Vs. 17-20

John had the courage to stand up for truth.

Notice Vs. 17, “For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John, and bound him in prison for Herodias’ sake, his brother Philip’s wife: for he had married her.

You see the problem was; John spoke the truth to power and power did not like it.

But, make no mistake Herodias was the one in power, not Herod. She was a wicked woman with an agenda. She would stop at nothing to get what she wanted. All she needed was a weak man in authority and she found that in Herod Antipas.

 But, John spoke the truth to them, without fear and without favor. He gets called onto the carpet for what he has been saying about the kings marriage, to his brother’s wife, and he doesn’t back down. He doesn’t compromise.  

Notice Vs. 18 tells us that “John had been saying to Herod, It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother’s wife.”  In other words, John was telling Herod the truth and he was doing it over and over again.

He tells him what you are doing is wrong. He stands up to him and his wife, and he speaks the truth no matter what the consequences.

That took courage. He did not water down the message, he delivered it.

Let me ask you this; where are the Christians like that today? Where are the Christians who are willing to stand up and call sin, sin. If we are going to be faithful ambassadors of the Kingdom of God, we need to have courage.

After all, none of us are standing before a king, who is threatening to kill us. Most of us are just too afraid to share the gospel with our neighbors, or our co-workers, or our friends.

Most of us are just too afraid of rejection to walk over and hand someone a gospel track. They might think we are bigots. They might think we are promoting hate speech. But nobody is threatening to kill us for that, at least not yet.

By the way, telling people the truth, doesn’t mean you hate them, it means you love them enough to tell them the truth. And we need to be bold and have courage.

 Paul tells us in Romans 3:4, “let God be true and every man a liar.” Truth is found in the Word of God. Unfortunately, even Christians today do not believe that.  

One study shows that:  67% of adults in the world say there is no such thing as absolute truth. Then when you compare that to the church, it gets worse, Over 75% of professing Christians reject the idea of absolute truth.

George Barna describes Absolute Truth like this - “God has communicated a series of moral principles in the Bible that are meant to be the basis of our thoughts and actions, regardless of our preferences, feeling or situations “

The virtual disappearance of this cornerstone of the Christian faith is probably the best indicator of the weakness of the Christian church in America today.”

Think of it, the church does not have itself anchored to the Word of God, So, there is almost no difference between what the world believes about truth and the church.

What you hear the most today, is that all truth is relative. What that means is; Your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth. We can believe whatever we want to believe.

But, consider the law of gravity. Whether you believe it or not it’s true. If you jump off a building you are going to learn that it’s true. The same principles apply to God’s Word. It governs our lives whether we acknowledge it or not.

We can redefine sin and call it by different terms, but the consequences are the same as jumping off the building. The truth is the truth, and it is absolute.

(Pause)

 It took courage for John to speak the truth to King Herod and his evil wife Herodias, but notice the affect it had.

Look at Vs. 20, “For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and an holy, and observed him; and when he heard him, he did many things, and heard him gladly.”

 You see, Herodias wanted to kill John, but she couldn’t, because her husband was afraid of him.

King Herod knew John was right. He knew that he was telling him the truth. He enjoyed listening to him, even though he did not like what he had to say.

The lesson in this for us is; knowing truth is pointless if you do not act on it. Herod heard the truth but refused to change. Do not let that be you.

Hear the Word of God. Let it penetrate your heart. Let it make a difference in your life. Act on what you hear

 So, the second thing we see in this story is that truth takes courage. We need courage to stand up for what we believe in. As Christians we are called to stand up for truth no matter what the consequences.

The third thing I want you to see in this story is;

III. Truth Comes at a Cost. Vs. 21-29.

Notice Vs. 21 says, “And when a convenient day was come.”

I want you to know the devil always has a convenient day in your life. There is always a day when Satan is going to try and get his hooks in you and drag you down the spiral staircase of sin.

And the bible tells us the wages of sin are death. In other words, Death is always the result of sin in our life.

For Herod this was the day. This was the day he was going to be trapped in a position he did not want to be in.

For John, the truth came at a cost. It cost him his life, but for Herod, the truth cost him his soul.

Today Herod is in hell. Eternally separated from God. Meanwhile, John may have lost his life, but he is spending eternity with God in heaven.

Jesus said, “what does it profit a man to gain the world but to lose his soul.” And the answer is nothing. There is no prophet in the loss of your soul.

 Notice, All of this took place on Herod’s birthday. He throws a big party and invites all the important people in his life. Everyone he is trying to impress. Then, he brings his step-daughter in to dance the dance of prostitutes for them.

But, she does more than dance, she pleases him and his guests. You talk about a sick individual.

So, the king in all of his pride and arrogance, pledges she can have whatever she wants, up to half the Kingdom.

Which is really pretty funny considering he was not even a real king, and he did not have a kingdom, it all belonged to Rome.

 So, the girl goes out and she goes to the real king; her mother, who is the spawn of Satan, and she has been waiting for this moment.

Finally, she is going to get her revenge. She knows that Herod cannot refuse the girl, not in front of his friends. Herodias wants the head of John the Baptist.

(Pause)

And just to show us there are no innocent people in the story, and so we do not begin feel sorry for this young girl. She adds, “bring me his head on a platter.” That is what the word “charger” means here. It means platter.

 The evil wicked heart of Herodias has rubbed off on her daughter. The only innocent victim in this story is John the Baptist himself, who stood for truth and righteousness.

He came in the world as the forerunner of Christ, preparing the way, preaching the message. And he would go out of the world the same way; an innocent man, blameless and holy, who died because of the truth.

In many ways his life and death are symbolic of Jesus.

Conclusion

 There are three important things I want you to take away from this passage.

1. Truth has the power of conviction. Even in a wicked unbeliever like Herod. His conscience was seared when he heard about Jesus, because he was haunted by his mistake.

What are the mistakes you are haunted by? Wouldn’t it be better to bring them to Jesus, lay them down at the cross and be forgiven?

2. Truth takes courage. John spoke the truth without fear or favor. He did not back down and compromise. If we are going to be faithful followers of Jesus Christ, we need to have courage.

We need to have boldness and deliver the message. After all, we are not facing a blood thirsty King. We are only facing the court of popular opinion.

3. We learn; Truth comes at a cost. For John, it cost him his life, but for Herod the truth cost him his soul. As Christians we are called to stand up for truth no matter the consequences.

Lets pray together,

Heavenly Father, We thank You for Your Word. We thank you for your forgiveness and grace. We ask my God that you would fill us with courage to stand up for truth and be the men and women of God you have called us to be.

Lord, allow us to look beyond the consequences to the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. We pray these things in His holy and precious name, Amen!!