Unseen Barriers to Belief

INTRO: Why do people reject the Gospel of Jesus Christ? (That’s a loaded question, huh?)

I wonder if you’ve ever shared the gospel with someone and they seem to be distracted by all sorts of seemingly unrelated things…

Maybe they want you to explain Nephilim, where politics fit, the brokenness of the world, why there are so many religions...

Sometimes it seems like there is an invisible set of factors that are preventing the other person from seeing Jesus clearly. The reality is that these barriers are actually very common. And similarly to what we looked at a couple weeks ago with familiarity blinding the people of Nazareth, these barriers can hinder belief and have tragic consequences.

Now the challenge in our passage is that Mark does not tell us how we are to address these barriers. In fact, they come up in what seems like a detour from the earlier parts of the chapter.

He started with the sending of the disciples out, which we looked at last week, and then veers into Herod’s response to the news of Jesus and an account of John the Baptist’s fate.

This might seem odd. Why is Mark telling us this? And why now?

Is he demonstrating the price that a faithful witness to Christ may pay? That might be part of it.

Is he illustrating how a prophet can be honored in someone’s words, and yet dishonored through the same person’s deeds? Perhaps that is also an implication.

Yet, I believe that Mark wants us to see something more. Ultimately, Herod missed seeing Jesus for who He is - not because he lacked information or evidence, not because he was too familiar with his name, and not even because he was offended by the messenger. Herod missed Jesus because of unseen barriers in his thinking.

Let me remind you that John the Baptist was a prophet who called people to repent in preparation for the arrival of Jesus. This includes Herod. Herod was a man of power- called a king, but more like a tetrarch. His power was given by Rome to rule over the Jewish population as a Jew. Being a Jew meant that you acknowledged God as presented in the Law and prophets.

Herod took his brother’s wife and married her, and John boldly told him that this was against God’s law. This should not be controversial. But, as truth tends to be at times, it was offensive - especially to Herodias, Herod’s wife and ex-sister in law. As we see in the text, she hated John for revealing this sin. And she would go on to manipulate things in such a way that John was executed - no longer a voice of offense.

But all of this history regarding John and Herod are set here so that we can be made aware of just how easy it is to miss Jesus… Mark’s original audience would have recognized the implicit refrain: Here’s how Herod responded to the news of Jesus.… How will you respond to Jesus?

Moreover, this passage can help us navigate the rejection that can come when we share the news of Jesus with others - I will tell you that sometimes as messengers of the Gospel, being able to identify the barriers to belief can help up see how we might begin to work through them as we have been learning in our Apologetics class that we’ve done through the summer.

So, grab your bulletin and open to the sermon guide as we identify three unseen barriers to belief in Herod’s life and work to help others hear and receive the Good News.

Why did Herod reject the news of Jesus? Herod’s first barrier to belief was he was...

Committed to His Sin (17-20)

Herod’s second barrier to belief was that he was....

Constrained by His Pride (21-28)

Finally, Herod’s third barrier to belief was that he was...

Condemned by His Conscience (14-16)