SERMON: The Sinful Results of Ignoring God | Mark 6:14–19
The Sinful Results of Ignoring God | Mark 6:14–29
Shaun Marksbury | Quacco Baptist Church
Sunday Evening Service | 13 August, 2017
We’re seeing what ignoring the Word of God allows in a person’s sin nature. Herod’s sin led to irrationality and fault (vv. 14–16), inconsistency of faith (vv. 17–20), enticements of flesh (vv. 21–25), and iniquity and futility (vv. 26–29).
I.
Introduction
II.
Herod’s Sin Led to Irrationality and Fault (vv.
14–16)
III.
Herod’s Sin Led to Inconsistency of Faith (vv.
17–20)
IV.
Herod’s Sin Led to Enticements of Flesh (vv. 21–25)
V.
Herod’s Sin Led to Iniquity and Futility (vv.
26–29)
VI.
Final Thoughts
Shaun Marksbury | Quacco Baptist Church
Sunday Evening Service | 13 August, 2017
Video:
Audio:
I.
Introduction
This is the only section in Mark that does not focus on
Jesus Christ. You will remember that
John the Baptist is the forerunner to Christ, and commentaries point out here
that John is also a type of Christ. John
preached repentance, like Christ. And
like Christ, John the Baptist faces persecution and death for it. That’s because this story about Herod is
about sin.
We are looking backward, but not necessarily that far
backward. Herod’s shift in focus to
Christ happens because John the Baptist is executed. So, we don’t know how close to a
chronological order of events this might be.
What we see is an ugly, twisted account.
We see incest, adultery, lewd behavior, and murder.
So, this evening, we’re seeing what ignoring the Word of God
allows in a person’s sin nature. Herod’s
sin led to irrationality and fault (vv. 14–16), inconsistency of faith (vv.
17–20), enticements of flesh (vv. 21–25), and iniquity and futility (vv. 26–29).
II.
Herod’s Sin Led to Irrationality and Fault (vv.
14–16)
14 King 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.” 15 But others said, “He is Elijah.” And others
said, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.” 16 But when Herod heard of it, he said, “John, whom
I beheaded, has been raised.”
King Herod I was appointed by Rome, so he wasn’t “born king
of the Jews” (cf. Mt 2:2). After he died
in 4 BC, Rome divvied his kingdom among four people. It appointed a tetrarch over Galilee and
Perea, Herod Antipas, the son of Herod the Great and Malthace, a Samaritan.
The Herods held their power tenaciously, having no reason to
believe God would protect their positions. Herod the Great even killed two of his own
sons and eventually disinherited another we read about here, Herod Phillip. When we consider Herod Antipas, though he was
tetrarch, we see that he wanted to be a king like his father (and Mark here calls
him king, somewhat tongue-in-cheek). As
one commentary notes, “Antipas’s ambition to secure for himself the official
title of ‘king’ resulted in his downfall under Caligula” (Hiebert, The Gospel
of Mark, 162).
Herod Antipas now hears about Jesus, possibly through the
disciples who are out preaching (6:7–13).
Herod’s Galilean residence was in Tiberias, and we don’t have an account
saying that Jesus had visited this city.
It may simply be that Herod wasn’t paying attention to Jesus since his
attention was still on John the Baptist, but now he hears, and trembles.
He hears that Jesus
may be Elijah. Scripture prophesied
that Elijah would come before the Messiah (Mal 4:5). Jesus worked miracles, and Elijah didn’t die
(2 Kgs 2:11), so some thought He was Elijah.
Jesus explained, however, that John the Baptist fulfilled that role (Mt
11:14; Lk 1:17). While this group of
people were confused, they still saw Jesus as prophetic and a worker of
wonders.
He hears that Jesus
may be a prophet. Moses prophesied
that a greater prophet would arise among the people (Dt 18:15). That insight into His messianic character
affirms the heavenly wisdom with which He spoke. Hebrews 1:2 says that God the Father has
spoken to us though His Son, the fulfillment of all prophetic ministry.
He hears that Jesus
may be John raised again. While the
other two explanations bore some rational explanation, this one didn’t. Herod had delivered John’s head over on a
platter (even though he was perplexed and afraid of John, v. 20). He knew that John worked no signs. But he still struggled, and we see this in a more
literal translation of v. 16—“John, whom I myself beheaded, he has been raised.”
He is troubled with guilt and fear in this confession.
Jesus perplexed Herod (Lk 9:7). They both preached repentance, and he
couldn’t shake the image of John somehow haunting him. As Matthew Henry said, “Those who most wilfully disbelieve the truth, are commonly most credulous of errors and fancies.”[1]
Sin and guilt causes us to imagine false scenarios. This is one reason why some people in the
church become convinced that someone is out to get them when there’s actually
considerable evidence to the contrary. They
live with unforgiveness, fear, control issues, or some other state of iniquity that
clouds their perception.
We needn’t live in that state. God says, “If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness” (1 Jn 1:9). Trusting
Scripture, you can then “be transformed by the renewal of your mind” (Rm 12:2).
III.
Herod’s Sin Led to Inconsistency of Faith (vv.
17–20)
17 For it was Herod who had sent and seized John
and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife,
because he had married her. 18 For
John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s
wife.” 19 And
Herodias had a grudge against him and wanted to put him to death. But she could
not, 20 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.
Herod Antipas’s house was a nest of sin. In Josephus’s Antiquities, we read that Herod arrested John to avoid political
trouble (18.2), but we see here that there was more to it than that. As one study Bible says, “According to the
first-century Jewish historian Josephus, Herodias was a granddaughter of Herod
the Great. Her first husband (Philip) and second husband (Antipas, who is
called Herod in this text) were both sons of Herod the Great by different
mothers, making them her uncles as well as her spouses (Josephus, Antiquities 18.109–10, 136).”[2] So, this was an incestuous marriage.
To add another wrinkle to this, Herod Antipas was already
married to the daughter of King Aretas IV of Nabataen Arabia. Once she saw how the adulterous Antipas was
betraying her, she fled back to her father.
That later sparked warfare and a defeat for Antipas.
John the Baptist had every right to call this out as a
prophet. John repeatedly pointed to
Scripture, which forbade taking a brother’s wife to oneself. Perhaps he cited Leviticus 18:16—“You shall
not uncover the nakedness of your brother’s wife; it is your brother’s
nakedness;” perhaps he cited Leviticus 20:21—“If a man takes his brother’s
wife, it is impurity. He has uncovered his brother’s nakedness; they shall be
childless.” The repentance he preached undoubtedly
called on Herod to give Herodias back to Philip. Perhaps John did this publicly on a few occasions,
but v. 18 says that he spoke to Herod,
meaning that he also preached face-to-face.
That sparked two responses within Herod’s house.
An embittered
Herodias sought to kill God’s messenger.
We could read v. 19 to mean that she “had it in for him,”[3]
and the imperfect indicates that she held this murderous grudge for a
while. It seems that she wanted to
remain where she was; Herod the Great had disinherited his son Philip, so
Philip was living in Rome with Herodias as a private citizen (Hiebert,
165). It appears that Herodias was happy
to be stolen from her husband by an ambitious king, and she wasn’t happy that
John dares question her morality and shame her.
That some guy from the desert would come spouting Bible verses about sin
threatened her spiritual and social status, and she wanted to silence him
permanently.
A concerned Herod
sought to keep God’s messenger. Herodias
was a true Jezebel, focused on her own well-being above all, but Herod was more
like Ahaz. He was inconsistent. Herod feared John and protected him from
Herodias. He knew John was “a righteous
and holy man” (v. 20). Even though John
filled him with uncertainty, he “heard him gladly.”
Don’t be deceived: the second response is no better than the first. While God’s message might cause you great
emotion—fear, confusion, gladness—that doesn’t mean it has penetrated your
heart. In Herod’s case, he never
repented of his illicit marriage, and we’ll see in the following verses that he
allowed Herodias to get her way. Genuine
faith will produce good works; otherwise, it’s a false or dead faith (Js
2:14–26).
Know that being close to church and the Bible won’t help in
the Day of Judgment. If you are in an
unlawful relationship, end it now for the sake of your soul. Repent (turn from your sin to God) and
believe that His gospel message will save you.
IV.
Herod’s Sin Led to Enticements of Flesh (vv. 21–25)
21 But an opportunity came when Herod on his
birthday gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders and the leading
men of Galilee. 22 For
when Herodias’s daughter came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests.
And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give
it to you.” 23 And
he vowed to her, “Whatever you ask me, I will give you, up to half of my
kingdom.” 24 And she
went out and said to her mother, “For what should I ask?” And she said, “The
head of John the Baptist.” 25 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.”
Herod throws a feast for his birthday and invited all the
key political, military, and social leaders under him. Alcohol is a factor, and Herodias sees an
opportunity to finally take John the Baptist’s life. So, she conspires with her daughter to
circumvent his protection of John. Consider
that for a moment: she makes her child as much a child of hell as she is.
Herodias led her
daughter into debauchery. Her name
is Salome, Herodias’s daughter with Herod Philip, now Herod Antipas’s
daughter-in-law. Salome didn’t come with
a ballet performance, as this wasn’t the kind of dancing in which respectable
women engaged. Queen Vashti refused to
allow herself to be ogled in a similar situation (Est 1:11–12), but Herodias
doesn’t seem to have qualms with her daughter’s striptease at this drunken
feast.
Herodias led her
daughter to murder. The best
possible spin on this is that Salome doesn’t hold personal animosity toward
John the Baptist and that her mother forces her. However, she’s complicit in the crime because
of her mother, and there’s no indication that Salome wasn’t influenced to share
her mother’s hatred. Indeed, the words “immediately
with haste” in v. 25 emphasize “the eager haste with which the murder was
pushed.”[4] She adopted her mother’s murderous frame of
mind and understood that she had to get back before Herod sobered himself. Even though she didn’t wield the
executioner’s axe, because of her mother, she also bears the responsibility of
John’s murder.
Sinful parents lead their children astray in many ways,
tempting them to sin. Though the
resultant consequences may linger like the violence in David’s household (cf. 2
Sm 12:10), the Lord thankfully forgives parental transgressions. God can grant you repentance and change your
heart, and He can do the same for your children. Until the Lord changes them, consider
Ephesians 6:4—parents must not provoke children but “bring them up in the
discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Even so, we want to consider Herod’s sin. The oaths he gives also reflect the Book of
Esther, where King Ahasuerus promised Esther the same (Est 5:3, 6). Mark writes highlighting the irony of the
situation—Herod wasn’t a “king” because he had no “kingdom.” Moreover, his debauched marriage and
womanizing opened him to the kind of heinous sin no man—king or otherwise—should
fall. It’s clear that both Herod and
Herodias loved their station in life, and those temptations opened him to what
comes next.
V.
Herod’s Sin Led to Iniquity and Futility (vv.
26–29)
26 And the king was exceedingly sorry, but because
of his oaths and his guests he did not want to break his word to her. 27 And immediately the
king sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. He went and beheaded
him in the prison 28 and
brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to
her mother. 29 When
his disciples heard of it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
One thing is clear: Herod did not want to kill John the
Baptist. No matter how depraved a person
allows himself to be, he always comforts himself with that certain line he
would never cross. Nonetheless, a life
devoted to sin will take people places they never wanted to go, and Herod’s
resistance to crossing the line of iniquity proved futile for two reasons.
Herod fell to his
temptations. Lust was obviously a problem for Herod, for he
stole his brother’s wife. Herodias knew
this and paraded her daughter in a way no mother should. Still, Herod knew this was his daughter-in-law,
and at least as a leader, should have
kept himself in check. Yet, filled with
lust, he not only promised her his favor (v. 22), he fervently swore it to her
(v. 23).
Herod feared
men. Gathered are the key political,
military, and social figures of the region.
They all witness this pleasing dance and hear Herod gush vows to this
lovely young woman. That should not
matter when it comes to questions of right and wrong, but Herod felt that his
oaths in front of these men were irreversible.
He made a fool of himself over a pretty face and felt that turning her
down would make him a bigger fool.
All of this comes down
to what Herod really worshipped—himself.
Herod loved his station in life more than the life of God’s
prophet. Proverbs 29:25 says, “The fear
of man lays a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is safe.” First Corinthians 6:13b says, “The body is
not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the
body.” Herod became a picture of someone
interested in the truth, who felt guilty for his sin, but who ultimately
worshipped himself.
VI.
Final Thoughts
So, here are some of the results of unchecked sin in a
person’s life. Actually, since this
account begins after the fact, we could change the order of the points. Herod’s sin lead to his inconsistency of faith
and really, more sin. His sin led to further
enticements of the flesh. As sin
festered in his heart and life, Herod’s sin led to more iniquity and,
eventually, futility. Finally, since it
remained unconfessed and unrepentant, his sin led to irrationality and personal
fault. Really, only one of Herod’s acts
of sin would have done all of this, but this is the result of the sin nature when
it’s allowed to fester within our souls.
Herod was sorry that he had to murder John the Baptist, but
understand that this is not true repentance.
In 2 Corinthians 7:10, we read, “For godly grief produces a repentance
that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.” None of the good feelings he had toward John meant
that Herod became a Christian, and his regret over John was the same as anyone
would feel when they are caught doing something wrong. It didn’t lead him to true repentance before a
holy God.
[1] Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible: Complete and Unabridged
in One Volume (Peabody: Hendrickson, 1994), 1789.
[2] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA:
Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Mk 6:17.
[3] A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press,
1933), Mk 6:19.
[4] Marvin Richardson Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, vol.
1 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1887), 194.
