Well, if I had to do it again, I would retitle this message. It's titled in your bulletin, I believe, "Conviction, Anger, and Death." You know what you do when you prepare a series like this, you study the sweep of a portion of Scripture until you are comfortable with it; you divide it up into reasonable sections for sermons, and you choose titles for those sermons. You do that months before you actually preach them. But the more you live in a passage of Scripture, the more you understand what it's about.
The Collision
And if I had the opportunity, I would title this evening's message, "The Collision," because I think in these two very different, little historical vignettes, you really do get a picture of something that's much grander and much bigger and much more significant than the size of this little passage. What you really see is this collision between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world, the Kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness, the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of self. There's a real way in which that is the war of wars; that's the war that takes place in every situation and every location and every circumstance between the first coming of Christ and the second coming of Christ.
I want to say this to you: you cannot live now with a peacetime mentality; this is not peace; this is war! And with the ongoing march of the Kingdom of God, there's a war against the things of God, and that war will finally be won, and there'll be a day when that war will cease, and we will live with Christ and reign with Christ in peace forever! Praise God! You ought to be thinking right now, "Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly." But that war goes on, and you really see that pictured in this passage.
First, if you notice in verses 7 through 12, you have this significant transition in the ministry of Christ and in the move of the Kingdom of God. For the first time, the disciples of Christ are no longer witnesses to the work of the Kingdom; they are now called to be participants in the work of the Kingdom. It's a very, very significant moment; and although their calling is very unique and very specific, this is the beginning of God's call to all of His people. If you are God's child, you not only have been welcomed into His Kingdom, but you have been drafted into the work of His Kingdom.
And that really begins in this moment where God sends out the twelve. Now, I want to just make a few observations here. The first thing you notice is that God gives them authority. You and I, in ourselves, have no ability to defeat evil--zip, nada, none. And so God would not be so unkind as to send His children out to do the work of His Kingdom without giving them the power necessary to do that work. And so Jesus now extends His power beyond Himself to these ones that He sends out in His name so that they are able, in their preaching and in their work, to do the work of the Messiah, the work of the Kingdom, that work of liberation and healing and the heart change of repentance.
The second thing to notice: Christ calls for these followers to not only preach the Gospel, but to live it. They are to live a life of faith. They are to live dependent on God, and so they don't take anything for their journey, no provisions, no money; they can wear sandals, and they can take an extra tunic, but that's it. And so the very faith that they would proclaim in God, they are called to live in their everyday experience. And isn't that the way it always should be that everybody who is in the work of Christ should be living the thing that they preach?
And in fact, it's very hard to give away that which you do not have. The passage also points us to the seriousness of the mission. Look at verse 10 that you read: "Whenever you enter a house, stay there until you depart from there. And if any place will not receive you and they will not listen to you when you leave, shake the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them." It's a bit of a weird directive for us. It really is rooted in a Hebrew custom. When a Hebrew person would travel beyond Israel, when they came back from foreign lands as they crossed the border, they would turn and shake the dust off of their sandals lest the pollution that they may have encountered there would be brought into Israel.
And this is a statement of the seriousness of this mission. When you hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ, when you hear the message of the Kingdom, when you hear that call to repentance, there is only one proper response--faith, belief, confession, turning. Every moment when you hear that message, you are being given awesome and amazing and specific grace, and that grace holds you accountable to respond. This evening, what we're doing is very serious because you have been chosen by God's sovereign plan to be in this room tonight, to hear the Word of God; and the very fact that Grace has drawn you here, now holds you accountable for what you hear.
What Will You Do With This Evening?
I would ask you, "What will you do with this evening?" This isn't a passive experience. You're not distant consumers; you're objects of glorious, specific, timely grace, and that grace calls you to a response. And then the fourth thing I would notice in this little vignette is the success of this mission. As these people went out in the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and they proclaimed faithfully that message of repentance, people were delivered from evil; the sick were healed. This is an exciting moment.
You see the Kingdom of God advancing, and this is the beginning of its world- wide advance until there are literally millions of people who represent the Messiah who are speaking in His name, ministering all around the world in various places. This is the beginning of that grand move of the Kingdom, but that's not all that's going on. Butted right up against this is a horrible story. Mark gets us into the story by talking about some of the confusion that still accompanied the identity of Christ. It was hard for people to embrace this message that this was the Son of God, this was the Messiah.
Some said, "John the Baptist has been raised from the dead; that's why He has these miraculous powers." Some said, "He's the Elijah that was to come." Some said, "He's a prophet like one of the prophets of old." Now Herod had his personal interpretation. It's the interpretation of a guilt-ridden, superstitious, pagan man. He was convinced that John had been raised from the dead, the John whom he had beheaded, and was there to trouble him. Now, here is the story. We get it in brief first, and then we get at a greater length in verses 21 through 29.
John had preached; John the Baptist had preached a message of repentance. And he called Herod to repentance--what a courageous act because Herod had committed adultery in marrying his brother's wife, and John didn't mince any words. That declaration outraged Herod's wife, Herodias. And she wanted John to be put to death. Herod knew that this was a righteous man, was unwilling to do that; and so to placate her, he put him in prison. And this unbelieving man was of a bit of a confused and troubled heart because, on one hand, he would imprison this man, and he would hate his message of repentance; on the other hand, he was strangely attracted to the message of John and didn't really want to do him harm.
That's the set up for what happens next. I don't know if I can get you to think about the scene that is next described; it's pretty tawdry; it's hard to imagine. It is a banquet with Herod and his military leaders and the nobles that served around him. It's one of those political military parties; these are the big guys; these are the power people. And at the end of the banquet, Herod's daughter-in-law dances in front of these men. Now the scene was probably this: these are probably a group of men who, by that time, had more to eat and more to drink than they should have.
Now, I couldn't imagine a father-in-law being comfortable with his daughter-in-law dancing to the delight of the crowd. But what is even harder to imagine is that the person who is most delighted by this girl's dancing was her father-in-law. And he is so taken with her dance scene that he says to her, "Ask me whatever you wish, and I will give it to you," and he said, "...even to half of my kingdom." Now it's an interesting promise because he had no ability to deliver his kingdom because he was a Roman protectorate, and he couldn't make that choice, but he's acting like he has that power.
And this is Herodias's moment, and she seizes the moment. Her daughter comes to her and says, "What should I ask for?" And she says, "Ask for the head of John the Baptist on a platter." Can you see this scene? This is sex, power, pride, and murder! And Herod, because in front of his military men and noblemen, although he's grieved of heart, doesn't want to be embarrassed, so he actually calls for the head of John the Baptist. Now why is this man being assassinated? Because he was faithful to the proclamation of that message of repentance no matter whom it offended.
The Head on a Platter
And on the very same platter that piles of meat would've been brought in an hour before, in comes the head of this righteous man. Let your mind grab ahold of this scene. And the daughter, hard to imagine, takes this bloody head to her mother. And the disciples of John take his now mutilated body and lay it in the tomb. You see, what you have here is the move of the Kingdom of God colliding with the darkness of the kingdom of this world, and that collision takes place on the body of John the Baptist.
Now I want to get you to think with me, "Why are these kinds of passages in the Bible? What is this meant to do for you?" I would like you to think with me for a moment, that Scripture says that all of the Word of God is written so that we would be "adequate and equipped for every good work." This passage is written not just to give you history; this passage is written to equip you to be what God has called you to be and to do what God has called for you to do. There is practical gospel purpose for your heart and your life in Mark placing this new move of the Kingdom of God right next to this horrible story of the martyrdom of John the Baptist.
Let me suggest some things that we ought to take with us. First, you should be warned again of the seductiveness and destructiveness of sin. Power is intoxicating and can distort the desires of your heart. Pride is a dangerous thing. Anger inventions will cause you to do things that you should never think of doing. Sex, as entertainment, is dangerous and addictive. Listen, sin never leads you in a good direction; sin never results in good things; sin never has a good harvest--never, ever, ever! It always leads to destruction; it always leads to death; it is not to be toyed with!
And maybe you are far, far from Herod and Herodias, but every time you give way to something that's outside of God's boundaries; you step into danger and destruction. And I'm afraid we're worn down by a culture that no longer takes sin seriously. And so the Bible is shockingly honest. It puts it in your face so you see it again, so you remember, so you would be warned. There's a second thing you ought to remember--that the Gospel is an offense. The Gospel causes you to think things about yourself you don't want to think.
The Gospel teaches you that life is not all about you; that you are not in the center of the universe; that God is; that you do not have the right to write your own rules and to live however you wish to live. The Gospel puts you in a world that is ruled by an authority--the Lord--that has boundaries that He has put into His world. You don't belong to you--that's what the Gospel says. And the Gospel teaches you that your biggest problem in life exists inside of you and not outside of you; that you have something inside of you apart from grace that is destructive that will lead to your death - sin.
And the Gospel teaches you that you can't do anything about it apart from the personal rescue of the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's a hard message. Many of us, even though we've embraced the Gospel, still have struggles believing that the Gospel defines us as it does; you know you do. Often when someone begins to point out a weakness and failure, what happens to you? You don't say, "Thank you, I am a sinner; I need to be reminded of this again and again; thank you, how sweet it is to have people in my life who remind me of my sin and drive me to the cross!"
The Gospel Still Offends You
I don't think that's often your response. Often your response is to rise to your defense and argue for your righteousness! That's because the Gospel still offends you! It's hard for you to embrace its ongoing message. Listen, you need that grace as much tonight as you did when you first believed because you are still a danger to you, and you will still be a danger to you as long as sin still lives inside you. The third thing this passage points us to--the sovereignty of God. This move of the Kingdom and its collision with the kingdom of darkness is not a surprise to God.
It's predicted all throughout Scripture. And the life of this righteous man was ordained by God; it was ordained that he would prepare the way for Christ; it was ordained that he would speak this message that was so offensive yet so necessary. God is not shocked in this moment. And you need to remember the things in your life that surprise you do not surprise your Lord. He knows all things; He plans all things; His dominion rules over all. You're shocked because you're not sovereign! There's a fourth thing: it is the unstoppable plan of redemption.
God's Kingdom will not be thwarted; and it's an amazing thing in the face of this good man's death; the Kingdom is now exploding at the very same moment because God's Kingdom will come, and His will will be done, and whenever you give yourself to the work of God's Kingdom, no matter how futile it seems at the moment, you are giving yourself to something that's true and sure and will be successful. One more thing (well a couple more things). This passage really does foreshadow the cross of Jesus Christ because John the Baptist prepared the way for another Righteous Man who would be brought to death, the death of a criminal, by another leader who knew He was innocent, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus would not die for His own crimes; He would die for ours; and in His death, there is the promise for us of forgiveness and life eternal. Finally, this passage and passages like it should make you long for eternity, long for that final victory where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord. Sin will be forever defeated; death will die. The kingdom of this world will be finally crushed forever! And we will live in the new heavens and the new earth forever and ever and ever in righteousness and holiness and truth and peace.
What's the call of this passage? Be aware of the war. Be aware of the collision. Where does this war take place? This war between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world, this war between the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of Light, this war between the kingdom of self and the Kingdom of God, this battle is fought on the turf of your heart. There were probably times last week, maybe you can reflect on them, where you were tempted to take life into your own hands, to do what seemed best to you, to act like you were autonomous and self-sufficient, to forget your redemption and your calling.
There were times maybe where the things of this world looked more attractive to you than the things of God. There were maybe times when seductive lies were whispered in your ear, "God doesn't care. God doesn't know. God doesn't understand. He's not with you. He's not faithful to you. His promises aren't true." And this is a call to humility and seriousness and war. Would by God's grace, we would be good soldiers, and would we find greater joy in the Kingdom of God than whatever pleasures any other kingdom could ever offer us.
Let's pray: Lord, we thank you for the practicality of Your Word, that even these two very different stories placed together teach us very important things about the struggle in the 'here and now,' and about the power and glory of Your Grace and Your Kingdom. May we love Your Kingdom more than we love our own. In Jesus's name, Amen.
