Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,
a ministry of Second City Church in Midtown Harrisburg.
It's our hope that these sermons will draw you
more into the life of following God, Father,
Son and Holy Spirit. Please consider coming and
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us online at SecondCityChurch .org and on Facebook,
Instagram and YouTube. We hope you enjoy this
sermon. God Bless. Oh, Lord Godden, you are the
light of the world. In your light, we see light.
We ask now that you would shine your light into
our hearts, that we would be able to perceive
the truths of this word, that we would go out
from here changed and loving you more. We pray
these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. Well,
friends, life is strange. We come here hopeful
and trusting in God, even though we come on this
day which commemorates one of the saddest days
in our shared history. I refer, of course, to
Malcolm Butler intercepting Russell Wilson with
less than a minute to play in Super Bowl XLIX.
Give it false stop heresy giving the Patriots
their fourth championship and extending Tom Brady's
reign of terror So as you know, the Super Bowl
is later tonight The Seahawks are playing the
Patriots. So it's a rematch of that game That
game honestly was it's right up there with the
worst moments in my life as a sports fan I'm
trying to learn to distinguish between Sports
fan life and regular life. I'm getting there
When that game happened I was teaching down in
North Carolina and The very next day the Monday
afterwards. I was giving a quiz and one of my
ninth graders said Man, I need to do a Russell
Wilson and pass when I shouldn't still too soon
Anyway We heard today the Super Bowl is happening.
I just looked up It's probable that somewhere
between 65 and 80 percent of Americans will be
watching at least a portion of tonight's game
Which is somewhere between two to four times
as many people as will attend church this morning
So interesting stuff if you're interested at
all in sports, you're probably thinking about
the game right now will Seattle put a spy on
Drake May the whole time? And if so, how will
they disguise their coverages? This is important.
Or maybe you're just wondering what kind of commercials
we're going to see tonight. I read that the average
cost for a 30 -second commercial tonight is $8
million, so they better be good. So you're thinking
about that, and then you come to the House of
the Lord, And you hear the texts that we read
together today, and it's a little bit of emotional
whiplash, right? The death of John the Baptist
is startling. But even though it is startling,
I think this is the right text for us as a church
today, and I think it's good for us to be startled
by the Bible. So what we've got here is shocking
political violence at a birthday party. So, my
title today, Get Ready to Party, is supposed
to be doing a few different things. So first
of all, it's referring to this banquet that Herod
throws for himself, which turns deadly. It seems
to me that Herod was not prepared for the party,
even though he was the one throwing it. And it
seems to me that John the Baptist was prepared
for the party, even though he was not exactly
invited. I also want my title to do double duty
and remind you that your Super Bowl party tonight,
which I hope will be a lot of fun, will go better
for you having come and worshiped the Lord in
his holiness here today. When we come to the
Lord's table regularly, all the other tables
take their proper significance in our lives,
I tend to think. So with that said, what can
we learn from the unpleasant end of John the
Baptist's I think we can look at John's story
with three sort of different lenses, and those
will be my three points today. Those are confusion,
clarity, and confidence. Let me explain. When
we From inside our own stories, as the Lord in
His providence is directing, when we try to understand
what God is doing, it can be very confusing.
The big picture is difficult to understand, so
that's point one. But in the particulars of our
lives, no matter what's happening, big picture,
very often we can know what to do. We can have
clarity as to what our next action should be.
So that's point two. And then finally, we can
rely on God to reconcile all of it, fix what
appears to be broken at the end of all things.
We can have confidence that the judge of the
world will do what is right, as Abraham said
way back in Genesis. So that's point three. Let's
jump in. Point one, God in his providence is
confusing and John the Baptist is maybe the prime
example of how it's confusing to try to follow
the Lord or how, you know, the work that you're
putting in and the faith that you have and the
expectations that you have based on the Word
of God and the character of God can still sometimes
turn out very differently from what you had expected
or hoped. I think we can see that in sort of
concentric circles as we look at John here. I
want to stress that John's a big deal. Did you
know that Jesus' public ministry in all four
gospels is initiated or introduced by John? In
all four of them, it's John who's linked with
the prophecy from Isaiah, prepare you the way
of the Lord, and then the Lord, Jesus, shows
up. Mark begins with one introductory verse,
and then it says in verse two, it is written
in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger
before thy face, which shall prepare thy way
before thee. That's a prophesy from Malachi chapter
three. That's right before what we read earlier
today. Then verse three, the voice of one crying
in the wilderness, prepare you the way of the
Lord. That's the prophecy from Isaiah. And then
verse four, John did baptize in the wilderness.
There he is. That's how this gospel begins. It
links Old Testament prophecy to this specific
person, John, and John's purpose is to introduce
Jesus, and he does. So chapter one in this story
is the story of Jesus' baptism by John in the
Jordan, and we hear the very voice of God from
heaven saying, well done. This is exactly right,
you cousins. Good work. And that was like four
pages ago. in the text in front of you, right?
If you read your Bible like you read a novel,
and I think we should sometimes, this violent
exit of the character John from the plot is a
pretty surprising thing. And it's even more surprising
if you have some memory of the other gospel accounts.
This is concentric circle part two. We heard
in Luke, for instance, that John has a miraculous
birth. His birth is announced by Gabriel just
like Jesus' birth. We also see in that text that
John is the first person to leap for joy in the
presence of Jesus. He does so in Elizabeth's
womb. Then John goes out into the desert and
he starts this revival movement and is eating
locusts and honey. And he's the first one to
publicly identify Jesus as the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world. You may also
remember that in chapter one of the gospel of
John, people come to John the Baptist and ask
him, are you the Christ? And it says that he
confesses and does not deny, but he's not the
Christ. So what's really interesting is that
in life, John is mistaken for the Christ. And
then after John's death, Jesus, who is the Christ,
is actually mistaken for a resurrected John.
John's a big deal. His birth and his life are
both heroic, and now he's just abruptly dead.
So this becomes even more confusing, you know,
another concentric circle out, if you consider
John not just in the context of the Gospels,
but in the context of the Bible as a whole. So,
if you will, let's take another look at that
Old Testament text that we read today. If you're
following along in your Bible, you can just flip
back a couple of pages. to the end, the very
end of the Old Testament, page 955, Malachi chapter
four. I'll just read quickly again. For behold,
the day is coming, burning like an oven when
all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.
The day that is coming shall set them ablaze,
says the Lord of hosts. So it will leave them
neither root nor branch, but for you. who fear
my name, the Son of righteousness shall rise
with healings in its wings. You shall go out
leaping like calves from the stall, and you shall
tread down the wicked, for they will be ashes
under the soles of your feet on the day when
I act, says the Lord of hosts. Remember the law
of my servant Moses, the statutes and rules I
commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold,
I will send you Elijah the prophet before the
great and awesome day of the Lord comes. So John,
in our text, seems to think that he's inhabiting
the time that this chapter is referring to. He
seems to think that the great and dreadful day
of the Lord has come, and the Lord has come.
So he's at least partially right. So later on
in the book of Mark, by the way, Jesus, chapter
9, Jesus is going to say, people are going to
ask him, why does it say that Elijah must first
come? When people are identifying Jesus with
the Lord who is going to come, why do they say
that Elijah must come? In that text we just read,
and Jesus says Elijah did come. It was John.
So in two counts here, John was right about where
he is in the story. And so it's very obvious
that his confusion is sort of justified. Why?
Well, because in addition to saying that the
Lord is going to come, in addition to saying
that Elijah is going to come, it says, remember,
God is going to burn up all of the proud, right?
And the righteous are going to stomp on them
as if they were ash, right? So in the text that
he's reading, he's correctly seeing that it's
being partially fulfilled in his own time. And
yet, the wicked are not burned up, right? Almost
exactly the opposite is happening. John, the
righteous one, did you see that? that little
note here. Herod feared John knowing he was a
righteous and holy man. Herod knew that John
was righteous. The righteous is in jail. He's
totally vulnerable. He's the one who's like ashes,
right? The wicked can have him killed on a whim.
So that's all confusing. And that's my first
point, right? And because of this confusion that
this text I think should give us, I think we
in our own lives are justified in having sort
of an emotional gentleness. with ourself, a generosity
with ourself when we're confused or sad about
the way the world is or about how we're being
treated. We don't have to be all smiles all the
time. This is a text, this is a record saying
that bad things do happen and we don't need to
be thrilled about it. So that's all point one.
However, while this outcome is sad, And even
startling, as I say, I do think we can have certainty
on a few things in this text, starting with this.
Even though John ends up dead in this text, he's
not the loser in this text. So on the surface,
this is kind of a story without winners, right?
But Herod is absolutely the loser in this text.
Even on his own... terms, even according to what
he thinks is important. He's the loser. Look
at the way the text portrays him. So Jesus is
out there doing the works of God and Herod responds
by saying, oh yeah, that's John the Baptist.
He's risen from the dead. He's here to bother
me. Herod is seeing ghosts. This guy has a bad
conscience. And what does this mean for Herod?
Well, it means he cannot see Jesus clearly. His
bad actions made him unwilling to hear John when
John was saying, repent. And now his fears make
him unable to hear the message that is his only
real hope, right? And that message is that Christ,
who John was pointing to, saves. That's the message
we need to hear and Herod cannot hear it because
he can't stop thinking about himself. Herod is
startlingly like Claudius from Hamlet, I think.
He married his brother's wife. He got to be king.
He's got everything he wants. But he can't rest
easy. His power does not make him happy. Oh,
my offense is rank. It smells to heaven, says
Claudius. And Herod would say the same if he
could think clearly. So Herod has the money and
the political clout to throw these big parties
to try to make himself look good. This is verse
21. An opportunity came when Herod on his birthday
gave a banquet for his nobles and military commanders
and the leading men of Galilee. It's his birthday
and he gives this feast and he ends up looking
like an idiot. His daughter -in -law comes in
and dances and he promises he's gonna give her
anything she wants, up to half of his kingdom.
I'm guessing he's drunk. You don't make promises
like this, if you're sober, right? And she goes
to her mom, who sounds like a total class act,
right? And she says she wants her enemy John's
head. And Herod doesn't want to do it, but yet
he feels like he has to. Why? Because of the
guests and his oaths. That's verse 26. And so
he has John killed. Okay. Can you imagine? the
way these nobles and military commanders and
leading men of Galilee are feeling as they exit
this party. Great party, Herod. Happy birthday.
Love the way you had that innocent guy killed
on a whim, even though you didn't want to and
knew it was a bad idea. That inspires confidence.
So Herod is doing this for his reputation, and
his reputation does not look good. Herod is a
figure for mockery. In Oscar Wilde's play, Salome,
which we get that name for the dancing girl from
Josephus, some people are trying to tell Herod,
in this play, people are trying to tell Herod
about Jesus and how he can even raise the dead.
And this is the way he responds, I do not wish
him to do that. I forbid him to do that. I allow
no man to raise the dead. This man must be found
and told that I forbid him to raise the dead.
He's this contemptible little king who's trying
to impose his own will on God. Let's make sure
we're not doing the same, yes? By the way, just
to be clear, this is not the same Herod who tried
to have Jesus killed as a baby. That was a different
guy. He was called Herod the Great. Biblical
commentators suggest there were no less than
six. Different Herod's mentioned in the New Testament.
What's interesting to me about this is that the
biblical authors don't seem to care much about
distinguishing between them. Pick a Herod, any
Herod. They lump them all together. They don't
think any of them are great. It makes me think
of C .S. Lewis's great quote, how monotonously
alike all the great tyrants and conquerors have
been. How gloriously different are the saints.
It's hardly even worth figuring out which Herod
we're dealing with here, but when you meet John
eating locusts in the desert, you know you've
got something special. So that's all part of
my second point. Even though it might be confusing
where we are in God's story sometimes, we can
know what kind of part we want to play in that
story. We want to play a faithful part. We want
to be more like John than like Herod. And so
why is John in prison? It's because he was willing
to speak the truth of God's Word, even if it
made powerful people unhappy. And here's an interesting
thing. So even though Herod was a moral disaster
as a person, as we've sort of outlined here,
it looks like he might not have been an awful
ruler, practically speaking, at least compared
to some of his other peers. A scholar from the
biblical archaeology society says that Herod,
unlike his brother, took care not to offend the
religious sensibilities of his Jewish subjects
with graven images and pagan temples." And also
that the economy of his time was doing quite
well. All that to say, there were probably well
-meaning Jewish people who, when John was out
there preaching against Herod, were saying, hey,
don't make that guy angry. He's on our side.
He's the kind of king we want. But John would
not have listened to this. John treasured the
moral law of God over and above party politics.
And I tend to think that we, as Christians in
our day and place, we desperately need to learn
from John on this point. John knew what was right
and wrong without being confused by the political
situation and party loyalty. Friend, do we treasure
God's Word over and above party politics? And
I'm not saying this to either major political
party in particular. I think both need to be
ruled by our morality and our morality needs
to be ruled by the Word of God. Is our moral
compass shaped by God's word or by political
commentary? If I am unwilling to say that a bad
thing is bad because it's done by somebody who's
on my side, I am in desperate confusion. So I
know there's some people who would call me naive
on this, some very smart people who I trust,
and I want to be patient with that. But I think
the question this story is calling us to ask
ourselves, would I rather be politically naive
with John or would I rather be politically sophisticated
with Harry? So I think we need to retrain ourselves
to view the moral landscape in terms of God's
revealed will before we even think about party
politics anymore. Are you ready to party? Okay
that was part two. Our individual moral acts
don't need to be confusing. We can have clarity
about how we should act in the world. We should
act as people whose consciences are captive to
the Word of God. And actually we see a good humble
example of this at the end of our passage in
verse 29. When John's disciples heard about his
death, they came and took his body and laid it
in the tomb. They knew that wrong had been done
and they mourned. They show appropriate respect
for their beloved religious figure. And this
in itself, you have to think, this is a little
bit brave, right? If Herod and his wife are sort
of out of touch enough to kill a guy at a birthday
party because they disagree with him, who's to
say that they won't come after these guys? But
regardless, they know what's right, and they
do it. So here's a sub point. There's a good
reason to have clarity as to our moral actions
and it's simply that it looks like there's a
pretty good chance that our actions might have
some tangible result in the world, right? We
see this in a positive way in these disciples
showing bravery. We see it in a very negative
way, inherits happy little family, right? Think
about poor Salome. She gets asked to come out
and do her dance routine for her stepfather and
his cronies. And then he creepily asks her what
kind of reward she wants. She goes to her mom,
which shows she does want to please her mother
by her actions, right? And then the mom makes
this disastrous moral ask. I want John dead.
I want John's head. And she not only goes through
with it, but in fact, it looks like it's her
suggestion that it comes out on a platter. She's
the one who adds that detail in verse 25 there.
So she kind of one -ups her mom's horrific demands.
So constant badness has created a situation in
which she is extravagant in her badness. Friends,
may our homes and our lives be the opposite.
Might we demonstrate goodness consistently? so
that goodness becomes habitual and valued around
us. And maybe those little moral alternate ecosystems
will show up against our broader culture. So
all of that was on how we can have clarity in
our actions. And if you notice, I was just trying
to give practical, even secular rationale for
why we can have clarity. John is admirable. Herod
is despicable. John knows what is good and is
willing to suffer for it. Herod appears to know
what is good and is willing to actually go against
his own conscience in order to do wrong. Think
about that little detail in verse 26. The king
was exceedingly sorry, but he did it anyway.
So Herod is a wretch in this text, even from
a secular standpoint. But now I want to move
to a different motivation to do good. And that
is a religious stance. And that is this. God
is not only in control during this life, but
he's in control after this life. And he will
reward his servants and he will punish his enemies.
My third point is this. We can have confidence
in God in the long run. And that's a point that's
not actually found here. Sort of an implication.
And it's also something we confess every week.
He will come again to judge the living and the
dead, right? I bring this up because my second
point might not actually be all that convincing,
right? Even as I'm saying, Herod is bad. John
is good. Part of you might have been thinking,
well, yeah, but John is dead. Herod is at a party.
I think I would rather be at a party. I mean,
there's something to that. Unless you consider
the long term. The very long term, the fact that
when our stories in this life are over, as happens
to John in verse 27, they are not over entirely.
Though our bodies will die, we perdure. I have
that quote in your bulletin from Plato, or rather
Socrates, Plato quoting Socrates, saying it's
better to suffer wrong than to do it. So these
are pre -Christian thinkers, but their argument
is that Since your soul will last forever, you
need to not injure your soul. If you do injury
to your soul by doing moral bad in this life,
well then you enter eternity with an injured
soul. They know that the best argument for not
doing bad things is because there's a life to
follow this one. And as Christians, this should
be our mindset as well. One pastor says this,
quote, And good and evil are just categories
of power or distinctions between friend and enemy.
Well, that's one thing. But if there is an all
-seeing God and Jesus is alive, then the judgment
seat is quite different from public opinion.
Well, there is an all -seeing God. And Jesus
is alive. And John, even if he didn't know all
the details, knew that judgment was coming. And
though he faced death, he knew God's truth would
be vindicated eventually. Somehow, you think
about that quote from Malachi again, the day
is coming, says the Lord of hosts, when all the
proud and those who do wickedly will be burned
up, but you who fear my name, the son of righteousness
will rise with healing in its wings. And you
will leap like calves from their stall. So though
John is dead, shockingly, his head is on a platter.
He will jump for joy again as he did once in
the presence of his his savior And Herod in his
arrogance will be smashed down finally never
to do irresponsible violence again Where do we
see this in the text? We don't not quite what
do we see? We see after this episode is over
it picks up with the story of Jesus right That's
how this whole thing happened, right? Now King
Herod heard of, back in verse 14, the stuff that
Jesus was doing. And some said, John the Baptist
has been raised from the dead. That's actually
how we first hear that John was dead. And then
once the story has been told, the gospel writer,
he just moves on. He goes back to Jesus and the
work that Jesus is doing. And that's the answer
for us. Two, we can get confused by what's happening
in the world. We can be saddened by what's happening
to us personally or those that we love. These
disciples bury John's body. There are deep sorrows
that happen in a world marked by sin. My pipes
froze last night. Sometimes the wrong team wins
the Super Bowl, but Jesus is still doing his
work. John called it correctly back in chapter
1, there comes one after me and he will baptize
you with the Holy Spirit. Jesus goes forward
on his mission to seek and to save the lost and
because of that we can have confidence that John
is, that God, is going to right all of the wrongs.
The Lord will heroically deliver his people.
He will bring judgment on those who have wronged.
His people. Earth has no sorrow that heaven can't
heal. And that's what we have to remember. John's
story ends abruptly, but that's okay, even for
him, because he's not the main character in his
own story. Because Jesus is the main character,
this is just the end of John's earthly story,
and there's more story to come. And the epilogue
is going to be a feast way better than Herod's
feast. And John is going to be the big shot then.
John will be a guest of honor at the feast of
the true King. And friend, if we remember that
Jesus is the main character in our stories as
well, we also will be guests of honor at that
party. And our time here is to help us to be
remembering that party. Get ready, right? Please
pray with me. Oh, Lord God, we live in a world
in which your treasured people die tragically,
sometimes violently. We live in a world where
things don't often make sense, but we praise
you that you are good, that you are bringing
all things to glorious completion in Christ.
We praise you for your mercy. We praise you that
the son of righteousness will rise with healing
in his wings. Help us Lord to fix our eyes on
that. Make us people who desire you and desire
that day spring above all else. We pray all this
in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for listening
to Second City Sermons podcast. We hope this
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God bless.