Lord God, your word is wholesome, renewing our spiritual strength. It's also clear, pointing out the way in which we can glorify you. As we turn to your word now, may your Holy Spirit open our eyes that we may see wonderful things in your law. And may the words of my mouth and the thoughts of all our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen. So let's read first of all from Luke chapter 22 verse 66. At today break the counsel of the elders of the people, both chief priests and teachers of the law, met together and Jesus was led before them. If you are the Christ, they said, tell us. Jesus answered, if I tell you, you will not believe me, and if I asked you, you would not answer. But from now on, the Son of Man will be seated at the right hand of the mighty God. They all asked, you are then the Son of God? He replied, you are right in saying I am. Then they said, why do we need any more testimony? We've heard from his own lips. Then the whole nation rose and led him off to Pilate, and they began to accuse him, saying, We have found this man subverting our nation. He opposes payment of taxes to Caesar and claims to be Christ the King. So Pilate asked Jesus, Are you the King of the Jews? Yes, it is as you say, Jesus replied. Then Pilate announced to the chief priests and the crowd, I find no basis for a charge against this man. But they insisted. He stirs up the people all over Judea by his teaching. He started in Galilee and has come all the way here. On hearing this Pilate asked if the man was a Galilean. When he heard that Jesus was under Herod's jurisdiction he sent him to Herod who was also in Jerusalem at that time. When Herod saw Jesus he was greatly pleased because for a long time he had been wanting to see him. From what he had heard about him, he hoped to see him perform some miracle. He plied him with many questions, but Jesus gave him no answer. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were standing there, vehemently accusing him. Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. That day, Herod and Pilate became friends. Before this, they had been enemies. Now back to Mark chapter 6 verse 14 on page 1008. This is the passage we are going to be thinking about in a moment. King Herod heard about this for Jesus name had become well known. Some were saying John the Baptist has been raised from the dead and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him. Others said he is Elijah and still others claimed he is a prophet like one of the prophets of long ago. But when Herod heard this, he said, John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead. For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested and had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife. So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him but she was not able to because Herod feared John and protected him knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John he was greatly puzzled yet he liked to listen to him. Finally the opportune time came On his birthday, Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests. The king said to the girl, ask me for anything you want, and I'll give it to you. And he promised her with an oath, whatever you ask, I'll give you up to half my kingdom. She went out and said to her mother, what shall I ask for? The head of John the Baptist, she answered. At once the girl hurried into the king with the request, I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter. The king was greatly distressed but because of his oath and his dinner guests he did not want to refuse her. So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John's head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison and brought back his head on a platter. She presented it to the girl and she gave it to her mother. On hearing of this, John's disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb. Amen. What sells tabloid newspapers? They're in hard times, but what sells them well? A scandal always goes down well with the punters. And if that involves sex, religion, and royalty, well, sales will soar. And in Mark 6 verses 14 to 29, the passage we're going to look at this morning, we have all these ingredients which would make a tabloid editor believe that all his Christmases and birthdays had arrived on the same day. It's a scandal involving sex, religion and royalty. It's about how King Herod, that's the royal bit, entered into an adulterous and incestuous marriage with Herodias, that's the sex bit, and about how when John the Baptist reprimanded him, that's a religious bit, Herod locked him up and then eventually killed him. Now some people have suggested that this incident interrupts the flow of Mark's story of Jesus' life. If you look back to verses 7 to 11 Jesus had sent the twelve out on their mission and in verses 11 and 12 we're told how they went and then in verse 30 where we're told that Jesus holds a debriefing session with the 12 when they came back on their mission. And verse 30 would seem a natural follow-on from verses 7 to 13, but it's interrupted by verses 14 to 29, apparently interrupting the flow of the story. And we ask, well, why did Mark put this story into his account of Jesus' life? And here's the reason. Some have given, seriously, they have given this. They say that Mark had almost reached the halfway point of his book and he sensed that his reader's attention was beginning to flag. So in order to grab their attention once again and to keep them reading, he threw in this spicy tale of a royal sex scandal with a bit of religion thrown in to beef it up a bit. I don't think so. Let me suggest to you that actually verses 14 to 29 aren't an interruption to the flow of the story. In verse 11 Mark gives us a reference to shaking the dust off the disciples' feet. Jesus telling them that if people didn't accept their message they were to shake the dust off their feet. He's telling the 12 that their message about Jesus' kingship isn't going to be accepted by everyone. There's going to be people who are going to say, I'm not interested, or even worse, be hostile and aggressive against their message. He's saying that people will respond negatively to it. And what Mark gives us in verses 14 to 29 is an example notwithstanding an extreme one, but an example of a negative reaction to Jesus. And Mark is using Herod as a warning to us about having a negative reaction to Jesus when the gospel comes to us having this negative response. So what does Mark have to say about a negative response to Jesus in using Herod as an example? Well, here's the first thing I want you to notice. A negative response to Jesus is caused by rebellion against Jesus. You'll notice there at the start of verse 14 that Mark refers to Herod as King Herod. Now, there are three Herods in the Bible. There's Herod the Great, the one who tried to kill Jesus. Okay? There's his son, Herod Antipas and then there's his son Herod Agrippa and he's the one who died by being eaten up by worms in Acts chapter 12. So there's three Herods in the Bible, Herod the Great, Herod Antipas and Herod Agrippa and we're dealing here with Herod Antipas. Strictly speaking, he wasn't a king. His technical title was Tetrarch of Galilee and Pera. Herod the Great had three sons, at least three sons who were alive when he died. He was quite prone to bumping off his family members who he thought they were trying to steal his throne. But anyway, three sons who were alive, and he divided his kingdom into three. Tet, an orc as ruler. So he was sort of like the third part ruler here of these places and certainly Galilee. But Herod Antipas wanted to be known as King Herod. So he gave himself this title even though he was not a king in the proper sense of the word. For three seasons in the mid-2000s a Dutch striker played for Celtic in the Scottish Premier League and his name was Jan Vennegaar of Hesselink. I don't think many people had his full name on the back of their shirt so it would cost too much money. He was known as Vennegaar of Hesselink and his name gives the impression that he was a Dutch aristocrat. Crooks of Campbeltown, that sort of thing. Vannegor Hesselink. He was a Dutch aristocrat but he was nothing of the sort. It was just a title he gave himself. That's what Herod was doing when he was calling himself King Herod. He wasn't really a king but he wanted to be known as King Herod. But this word King is highly significant in the book of Mark. Mark's purpose in writing his account, as he tells us in the very first verse, is to show us that Jesus is God's promised king, who had come to set up his kingdom. And everything that Mark has written is pointing clearly to this fact that Jesus is King. He's got kingly authority over creation and evil and disease and death. He teaches with kingly authority. And then all of a sudden, everything's about Jesus' kingly authority. And then all of a sudden, Mark introduces us to King Herod. And here is someone Marcus saying to us who is trying to set himself up as king in opposition to Jesus. Here is someone who is in rebellion against Jesus kingship. And it was this that caused Herod to respond negatively to Jesus. He didn't want Jesus to be king in his life. He wanted to be his own king. He wanted to be King Herod. And this is what causes every one of us to respond negatively to Jesus. It's rebellion against Jesus' kingly claims. That's why people aren't Christians. They know that Jesus wants to control their lives and fill them with the benefits of his kingly rule. But they want to control their own lives. They want to be king of their own castle. And they're rebelling against Jesus. And they won't surrender to Jesus. This is why even as Christians we respond negatively to Jesus when he speaks to us in his word. We don't want to submit to his control. We like to have a little bit of control over our lives. And this is why people respond negatively to Jesus. This is why we respond negatively to Jesus. We're in rebellion against him. And the interesting thing about Herod, or the shocking thing about Herod's rebellion is that it is wide-eyed and deliberate. He just didn't happen to be rebellious against Jesus. He deliberately was rebellious against Jesus. In his adulterous marriage to Herodias, Herod intentionally went against the Bible's clear teaching. Herodias had been married to Herod's brother Philip, verse 17, and God's law explicitly stated that you could not marry your sister-in-law, Leviticus 18, 16. But Herod just threw God's standards into the gutter and he did what he wanted to do. And worse than that, his marriage was incestuous. Herodias, as her name suggested, belonged to the same family as Herod. In fact, she was his niece. And God's law also expressly forbade an aunt marrying her nephew, Leviticus 18, 13, and by implication an uncle, his niece. But once again Herod shook his fist at God and his law and did what he wanted to do. Herod was going to be king in his own life. And he showed his rebellion against Jesus in a wide-eyed way by deliberately going against God's word. And that's how people show their rebellion against Jesus today. They refuse to do what God says. They try to hide the fact maybe by being religious or respectable, although many just don't even bother with that today. But the bottom line is that they will not do what Jesus says. They will not obey him. They will not turn to him and do what he says. They say no and they do it deliberately and knowingly. It's not accidental. They want to control their own lives. So, a negative response to Jesus is caused by rebellion against Jesus. In the second place, a negative response to Jesus leads to enslavement. Herod had been sold a pup. He'd fallen for the old trick the devil has been using ever since the Garden of Eden. And that trick is to say to people, if you throw off Jesus' rule, if you don't do what Jesus says, you will experience freedom. But far from bringing him freedom, his rebellion against Jesus led to his enslavement. For starters, he was a slave to lust. It wasn't love for Herodias but lust after Herodias that had caused Herod to steal her from his brother. And that lust continued to control him as verses 21 and 22 of Mark 6 make clear. It was his birthday! In echoes of Esther chapter 1, Herod threw a party to which he invited all the leading lights in the area under his jurisdiction. After everyone was well fed and watered, Herod put on some entertainment for his guests. On top of the bill was some dancing by Herodias' daughter. We're not specifically told what kind of a dance it was but it's not hard to imagine what kind of a dance it was because it went down a treat with Herod and his male-only audience. Mark is making it clear that Herod, far from being free, is a slave to his lust. He's also a slave to other people's opinions. Herod's marriage to Herodias might have scandalized everyone, but everyone said nothing about it. Well, everyone except John the Baptist, who fearlessly condemned Herod for what he had done, verse 18. If Herod was mad at John, Herodias was ballistic. Verse 19. And she nagged and she nagged and she nagged and she nagged Herod to do something about John until eventually, probably in an attempt to shut Herodias up, he had John arrested and thrown into jail. Verse 17. Do you not see what's going on here? Do you not see the irony and even the dark humour that's going on here? Here is a man who wanted to be known as King, but he wasn't even the boss in his own house. It was Herodias who wore the treasures and Herod was completely under her thumb. Here was a weak man whom others could manipulate, especially his wife. And here we have a throwback in this passage to Elijah, who you remember confronted a weak king, Ahab, and his manipulative wife, Jezebel. And here is John the Baptist, the new Elijah, confronting a weak king, Herod, and his manipulative wife, Herodias. Herod, far from being free, was a slave to other people's opinions. When they said jump, Herod asked, how high? And then Herod was a slave to pride. She may have nagged her weak husband about into locking up John the Baptist but what Herodias really wanted, verse 19, was for John to be killed. However, Herod was strangely admired John and protected him from his spiteful wife, verse 20. But Herod's birthday bash presented Herodias with the opportunity for revenge that she desperately craved. After her daughter had finished dancing, Herod, in a moment of drunken boasting, promised that he would give her anything she liked as a reward for her entertainment. The girl left the room to consult Herodias, who immediately replied, verse 24, the head of John the Baptist. And without so much as a whimper of protest, the girl rushes back to Herod with a gruesome request, and she even embellishes Herodias' words, asking for the head of John the Baptist right now on a platter. And although Herod was distraught, he couldn't back down. He would lose face. His pride wouldn't allow him to lose face in front of his dinner guests. And so he had the girl's gruesome requests carried out. And far from being free, he was a slave to pride. Folks, Herod really had been sold on a pup. Far from bringing him freedom, his rebellion only led to enslavement. He wasn't the first person to fall for that lie of the devil. And he's not the last person to fall for it. And Mark is saying to us, you don't fall for it. The devil will tell us that if we disobey God, we will be free. But that's a lie. It only leads to greater and greater and greater enslavement. The third thing we notice about a negative response to Jesus is this, and this is the most dreadful thing about it. A negative response to Jesus leads to rejection by Jesus Strange as it may seem, verse 20 informs us that Herod would often fetch John the Baptist from his prison cell to preach to him. But every time John preached, the same thing happened. Herod's conscience was shredded. As John reminded Herod of his rebellion against God's standards and called on him to change his ways, Herod would feel guilty. His conscience told him that John the Baptist was right and he was wrong and he needed to change his ways. But Herod didn't change. Every time he heard God's voice through John the Baptist, Herod would respond by saying, look, I'm not quite ready yet for all this. Not now, but maybe later. Maybe sometime in the future I'll do it. I'll talk to you again about it. And is that not the same with us at times when God speaks to us? We know what is right. Our conscience tells us as we listen to the word of God that it's right. But like Herod, we put it off. We don't do anything about it. We say, I'm not really ready now. Not just now. But maybe. Maybe. Maybe later on I'll become a Christian. Maybe later on, when it's even more opportune, I'll do what God wants me to do. But not just now. Do you know what happened every time Herod put off doing what he knew was right? He didn't realise this was happening but do you know what happened to him? Every time Herod's conscience became more and more deadened and deafened to God's voice until one day He didn't hear God's voice at all. He couldn't hear it. That literally happened to Herod because the last time Herod Antipas appears in the Bible was in the passage we read, Luke 23, 6-12. And what happened is pretty scary. In an attempt to wriggle out of having to make a decision about Jesus, Pilate sent Jesus to Herod because Jesus was from Galilee and therefore technically under Herod's jurisdiction. And Herod was delighted to see Jesus. He was hoping to get a cheap laugh at Jesus' expense. And Luke tells us that Herod asked him lots of questions. And then Luke tells us this in Luke 23 verse 9. Jesus gave him no answer. Now think about it. There was God literally standing in front of Herod. But Herod didn't hear God's voice anymore because Jesus didn't speak to him. Why? Because although Herod saw nothing in Jesus to amuse him, even more tragically, Jesus saw nothing in Herod, only a conscience that had constantly rejected God's word. Herod had constantly rejected God only to be rejected by Jesus. It is possible to so squash Jesus' warnings and commands through constantly putting off obeying him that our conscience has become dead. It's possible to so continually reject Jesus' kingly claim to control our lives that we end up being rejected by Jesus. If Jesus is speaking to our consciences, warning us, telling us to do something, then do what Jesus says and do it right away. Don't reject Jesus because you run the risk of deadening our consciences. It's pretty scary. Let me ask you two questions as we finish off. Here's the first one. Who was really free? Herod or John the Baptist? When I preached this sermon in Beaver somebody shouted out the answer and she was right. She understood that physically John the Baptist was not free because he was locked up in prison. While physically Herod was free because he had done the locking up. But who was really free? It wasn't Herod. He was a slave to his lust and his pride and the opinion of others. It was John the Baptist who was really free, even though he was in prison. And why was he really free? Because his life was under God's control. And it's doing what God wanted him to do that John the Baptist discovered freedom. Herod, discovered he was a slave because he didn't do what God told him to do. Doing his own thing didn't bring him freedom. But doing what God wants brings freedom. And the other question is this. Who was really alive? Herod or John the Baptist? Well physically at the end of the story John was dead with his head served up as a macabre final course at Herod's birthday banquet and physically at the end of the story Herod might have been distraught but at least his head was connected to the rest of his body and he was breathing. But who was really alive? It wasn't Herod He was spiritually dead with his conscious hardened and deaf to God's voice. It was John the Baptist who was really alive. He might have been dead physically, beheaded by Herod's executioner, but he was very much alive in heaven with Jesus because those who trust in Jesus as John did, death doesn't have the final say in our lives. Mark makes the point in a very clever way. Under the Holy Spirit's supervision he constructed Mark 6 verses 14 to 25 in a way that parallels Mark chapter 15. The story of John the Baptist's execution and the story of Jesus' execution are written by Mark in parallels. There are parallels between the two passages. Let me point them out to you. Herod's admiration for John, Mark 6.20, corresponds to Pilate's admiration of Jesus, Mark 15.5 and 14. Herodias' ruthless hatred of John. Mark 6 verse 19 parallels the Jewish religious authority's ruthless hatred of Jesus. Mark 15 verse 10. Herod gave in to pressure and had John executed, Mark 6.26. Just as Pilate would give in to pressure and have Jesus executed, Mark 15.15. And John's disciples recovered his body and gave it a decent burial, Mark 6.29. Just as Jesus' disciples would recover his body and give it a decent burial, Mark 15.42-47. And with these parallels, Mark is trying to get us to move from John the Baptist's death to Jesus' death. And in doing so, he's reminding us that death does not have the last word in the lives of Jesus' followers. Because Mark 15 is not the final chapter of Mark's account of Jesus. Mark 16 is the final chapter, and what's Mark 16 all about? It's about Jesus' resurrection. And Mark is saying that after death, for those whose lives are under Jesus' control, those who are in union with Jesus, those who are Christians, after death there is resurrection. That was the pattern for Jesus, death, then resurrection. And so he's saying it's the same pattern for John the Baptist. He died, but he was raised to life again in heaven. There was death and resurrection. And that will be the same for us if we trust in Jesus. We will be in heaven. We will know death, but after that, we will know resurrection. and we will be very much alive, even though we might be physically dead. This is what turning from our rebellion and trusting in Jesus, by obeying him, by handing him control of our lives, this is what it does for us. As John the Baptist experienced, We find true freedom. We find eternal life. Be trusted in Jesus. Are you obeying Jesus as he speaks to you about something in your life? Trust in him. Obey him. because your conscience, educated by God's word, tells you it's the right thing to do, and it brings freedom and life. Let's pray for a moment. Lord Jesus, the only true King, as we surrender control of our lives to you, our prayer is, make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. Lord Jesus, the gracious King, as we give you our hearts promptly and sincerely, our prayer is that we might experience the perfect freedom and the eternal life that comes the way of those who obey your teaching. And we ask this so that you might be glorified in us. Amen.