Sermon Tone Analysis
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Introduction
Alright, good evening everyone.
If you would start turning in your Bibles to .
Tonight we are going to push forward a bit in our narrative here and we are going to be talking more about respect and disrespect.
This morning we talked about the dishonor that Jesus was suffering at the hands of his own community and his own family.
How they had refused to believe and how this refusal was leading them down a path of hopeless and faithlessness.
And one of the key reasons that they had lost hope and lost faith was really tied to their making excuses and trying to cover up and squash the convicting power of the Holy Spirit.
They didn’t believe, not because it was impossible to believe, but rather because they just didn’t want to believe.
They fundamentally refused to believe.
Because if they did, then they would have had to accept that they were wrong and that they needed to do something about their sin.
And tonight’s message is really no different than that.
It is different people but the same old thing.
People being convicted of their sin and people making a choice to refuse to repent of their sin.
But this time it is the King and his family.
And it is not Jesus who is being DIRECTLY disrespected but Jesus being disrespected through the ultimate disrespect of John the Baptist.
So, if you have found , ’d invite you to stand with me as we read.
Matthew writes, starting in verse 1 . . .
Scripture Focus
Herod’s Amazement of Jesus (vs 1-2)
So, we see here first thing that we are dealing with King Herod and his wife Herodius, and her daughter Salome.
Now, we have to get our history in order first though.
This isn’t Herod the Great, who had all the babies killed in attempts to kill Jesus.
This is his son Herod Antipas.
And this Herod actually ruled until 39AD.
And consequently, what led to his downfall was this marriage to his sister-in-law (and niece).
Because Herod had been married to the daughter of King Aretes IV of Petra and he divorced her to marry Herodious, who was the wife of his brother Philip and also the daughter of his brother Aristobulus.
King Aretes was offended by Herod divorcing his daughter, and started a war with Rome over it and Herod was eventually killed.
So, this whole drama is sort of like Days of Our Lives on steroids.
But even as messed up this family was Herod was still somewhat amazed and puzzled by Jesus.
Matthew writes . . .
Now, for a very detailed account of this story you can also look at .
Mark gives a bit more detail and he writes . . .
Mark 6:14-
Now Herod did not believe or have an understanding of resurrection like we do or like any Christian does for that matter.
What Herod is relying on is some old Roman superstition rooted in ghost stories.
Herod was always amazed at the boldness and the power of John the Baptist.
And in some strange ways, Herod actually had a level of respect for John.
He knew that John was a man of God.
He knew that John spoke the truth.
He was just not willing to give in to the truth.
Instead of giving in to the truth, Herod instead ran from the truth.
He tried to cover it up, hide it under a rug, shut it up.
I can imagine that the conviction that Herod was under very pretty intense.
So intense that it drove everything that he did from that point forward.
But since the message of Jesus an the message of John were so similar.
And the things Jesus was doing compared to the things that John had did were so similar.
Herod concluded that Jesus was John raised from the dead to come back and haunt him for his sins.
But, just what was Herod’s sin?
Herod’s Sin and Conviction (vs 3-5)
Matthew writes this . . .
Now, Mark adds a bit more to the story here as well . . .
:
So, we see here there is more to it than just Herod being under conviction.
It is not only Herod but also Herodious.
The difference though is that if she had a chance she was going to kill John.
However, Herod had a bit more sense than to do that.
First, Herod understood that the people had a great deal of respect for John and if he just up and killed him, than there would probably be an uprising, which could ultimately have led to Herod’s death.
The second thing though is Herod himself feared John.
And he feared John because he knew John was a man of God.
And even Herod knew that you didn’t go against the God of Israel.
He knew that you lost every single time.
So, he wasn’t going to kill him.
The third thing is that Herod respected John and liked to listen to John speak.
He knew that John spoke the truth and he was so used to people just saying what they thought Herod wanted to hear, that it was refreshing to hear someone actually speak the truth for a change.
And that truth was that John was calling him out for being married to his sister-in-law and niece.
Now, people can say what they want about the difference in times and cultures, but it was just as wrong then as it is now to marry your niece.
If Philip had been dead, there would have been nothing wrong with Herod being married to Herodious, but the problem was that she was his blood relative.
The daughter of his other brother, which also means that Philip was a pervert for marrying her to begin with.
They were an entire family who was overcome by sin.
And someone comes along and calls them out on their sin and they reacted the same way we would.
Some will consider what they are being told and some will change their ways.
Others will do whatever it takes to cover that sin up and to shut that conviction up.
Herodious wanted to shut the conviction up.
Herod, however, was caught somewhere in the middle.
He was hearing his wife and he was definitely not liking the conviction he was feeling.
But he also had enough fear of God that he wasn’t going to kill John right out.
So, he tries to sort of ride the fence a little here.
Herod’s Attempt To Cover Sin (vs 6-12)
At first, he has John locked up in prison.
Sort of “out of sight, out of mind” kind of attitude.
John was alive, so the people held on to the hope that he may be freed someday and they didn’t risk revolt.
John was removed from Herod’s presence and had no audience to preach to, so he could push that conviction to the back of his mind.
And his hope was that it would calm Herodious down a bit and she would be satisfied with John being in prison.
However, it didn’t work out that way.
Herodious was so overcome with her sin that she could not let it go.
Remember, Mark tells us that . . . .
Mark 6:19
She was nursing a grudge against him.
And she fell victim to what many of us fall victim to when we let things fester up and we dwell on them.
When we “nurse grudges.”
They grow bigger and bigger and sooner or later lead us down a path that we don’t want to go.
Her’s led down a path of murder.
Mark writes . . .
Mark 6:21-
And in our text . . .
Matthew 14:
So Herod initially had no intentions on killing John.
He was content with keeping him locked up in prison.
But his wife had let that sin fester to the point that it was now boiling over.
The conviction was so bad that she had to do something about it.
And Herod’s birthday was the perfect opportunity.
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