Father, maybe it's only in times like this when we gather in your presence to worship you on the Lord's Day
that it sort of comes into our head that often we, too often, maybe always,
we flatter ourselves too much to detect or hate our own sin.
And we confess, Father, that we are way, way, way better at seeing little specks in other people's eyes
and we can be completely blind and unfeeling about the log in our own eye.
So we ask, Father, that as we now spend some time reading your word again and thinking about it,
we ask, Father, that the Holy Spirit would move with might and power and deep conviction.
And we give you permission with no qualifications, Father, for your word to come into the very depths of who we are,
for your word to speak and rule within us.
Father, because we know through the gospel that as your word rules within us,
it is for our good, for our healing, for your glory, for the good of the world.
And so, Father, we ask for this wonderful work of grace.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
So, I don't expect people to always remember what my sermons were the week before.
In fact, I don't know how much time I always remember them.
But for some of you who listened to the sermon last week,
you would have a very, very valid type of critique of me,
or at least potentially a very valid critique.
You'd say, George, last week you didn't tell the truth.
Last week you gave us completely false expectations.
Last week, George, the text that went just before this, just before this text,
you told us that if we sort of trust God's will and do God's will,
that our needs would be met.
In fact, George, you even used as an example tithing,
that part of what the purpose of tithing is,
is that if you trust, if you obey God and trust him
and give away some of your money, that your needs are going to be met.
And that's what you said the text was about last week.
And now we come to this text, and here you have a guy, John the Baptist.
He obviously did God's will, and his needs weren't met.
In fact, he gets beheaded.
He gets killed.
So I just want you to know, George,
I do not have a need to be spent to go to jail and then be beheaded.
That's not how I would understand having my needs being met.
So, George, what's going on?
In fact, some people might also say,
in fact, George, this is part of the reason I don't like Christianity.
I don't like religion in general, but I don't like Christianity in particular.
Because you seem to say one thing, and you try to cover up other things,
and you're not really honest, and it's just very, very confusing to understand.
And that's a very valid type of pushback.
It really is.
And, I mean, it's something that we need to really look at
to try to sort of figure out what's sort of going on
with these types of, you know, this question and these types of complaints.
So let's walk towards it.
And, in fact, actually, for some people,
if you're maybe here for the first time or you're watching for the first time,
one of the reasons that at this church we preach through books of the Bible
is precisely not to hide things.
It would be we want to go through it.
We don't want to just say,
oh, I'm just going to look at this little happy-clappy bit
and this little happy-clappy bit and this happy-clappy bit
and then this other bit that's really angry at all the people who aren't like us
and then another half.
No, no, we don't do that.
We go right through the book from beginning to end,
and so nothing's hidden.
So let's look.
And it's Mark chapter 6.
It would be a great help to you and to me if you follow.
I mean, the words will be on the screen,
but it's always a good help for you to look at the Bible yourself
and just see if I'm actually being fair and honest to the text
and to have your own questions.
So here's how it is.
As I've already said, what's just happened before this is that,
first of all, Jesus was rejected by his family and his home village
and his relatives.
Then Jesus sends out his 12 disciples for a ministry of proclamation,
and that's what happens just before this,
and now the story continues like this.
King Herod heard of it, for Jesus' name had become known.
Some said, John the Baptist or John the Baptizer has been raised from the dead.
That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.
But others said he is Elijah, and others said he is a prophet like one of the prophets of old.
But when Herod, King Herod, heard of it, he said,
John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.
Now, you just sort of have to pause here for a second.
One of the reasons that modern or Canadians have troubles reading the Bible
is that we're very used to lots of emotional descriptions.
And generally speaking, the New Testament doesn't give very many emotional descriptions.
It, in a sense, just records what happens,
and so what we need to do is we need to be able to, in a sense,
put ourselves into the story a little bit
and try to understand emotionally what's going on.
And so here's the thing.
In fact, just for a moment,
imagine that you were responsible for beheading an innocent person,
and then later on you hear that he's come back to life with miraculous powers.
Would you be happy or worried?
That's a stupid question.
That's the fundamental plot of almost every horror movie, isn't it?
Somebody who's been terribly treated,
and then all of a sudden they either come back to life
or they rise out of the whole mess,
and whoa, all of a sudden they can make fire,
they can do all these things,
and everybody runs,
and there's lots of screaming and lots of death
before the movie ends,
either on a happy note or a bad note.
This is like the standard plot of a horror movie.
All right there.
And so what you need to understand is
you have, if you're doing a movie of this scene,
you would have Herod in his mighty fortress,
and you'd have the scenes of his soldiers walking around,
maybe doing their exercises out front,
the servants and all the, you know,
the boot lickers and, you know,
butt kissers and all that sort of all fawning around him,
but he is there in the midst of all his pomp and glory,
deeply worried.
The man that he had beheaded,
the innocent man that he had beheaded,
has miraculous powers and is on the loose.
That's where Herod is in this particular thing.
Just as a bit of an aside,
but it's a very important aside,
much of the,
what we're going to see in this story
is actually validated by one of the most important historians,
non-Christian historians of the ancient world for that region
by the name of Josephus, who talks about John the Baptist,
talks about Herod,
and actually talks about some of the events
that take place in this story.
It's all part of what I say over and over and over again
is that when you're reading the book of Mark,
some of us might have a hard time with Mark
because it records miracles,
but what Mark is,
it's an ancient biography based on eyewitness testimony,
which the more that archaeologists know about the past,
the more they discover,
the more they see that it's historically accurate
to the point that it's not uncommon,
in fact, it's very common,
that Jewish archaeologists go to the Gospels
to get information to help them make archaeological discoveries.
And so what we're reading here is an historical account
of two people that are known in general history.
And so you have this picture of Herod brooding in his castle,
and now if this was a movie,
what you'd have is the flashback that brings him up,
that shows why he's brooding.
And that's what John does.
That's how Mark writes his book.
Look at what happens in verse 17.
It begins with a flashback.
For it was Herod, verse 17,
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.
For John, that's John the Baptist,
had been saying to Herod,
it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.
Now just sort of pause here for a second as well.
First of all, in the original language,
it's John the Baptist doesn't just sort of say it once
as a throwaway comment.
He says it over and over and over again.
He wouldn't shut up.
He said it many times.
And it sounds as if he said it before he got thrown in jail
and even after he was in jail,
he would continue to say that it was in fact against the law.
Now for many people,
reading this now,
I mean maybe for churches,
you know we're supposed to agree with it
and we're supposed to not have any questions
and we're supposed to not have any problems,
so it's you know,
blah, blah, blah,
let's just go on.
Of course it's all the right thing.
But let's just be honest for ourselves,
just even as Christians,
if I was to discover that one of you folks
were working on Parliament Hill
and you were making a big fuss
about the marital status of somebody,
some of you might say,
George, would you tell him to shut up
or her to shut up
or would you say,
no, no, no, no, no,
go into the fact that he's divorced
or would you say that that's just,
you know, don't you think, George,
that we Canadians are wiser and smarter
and we've understood
that you don't make a big fuss
about things like that,
sexual things like that.
You just don't make a fuss about it.
George, wouldn't you counsel
the staffer
or the person who works for the think tank,
you don't even bring up that stuff,
like, you know, move on,
get on with life,
don't make a big fuss about it,
don't ruin your career.
Isn't that what you would say, George?
Like, we Canadians are wiser.
But the problem is
when we think things like that,
that we're actually not really being,
in fact, actually,
to think that is to not live
in the real world.
I mean, good grief.
Has there been a greater time
over the last decades
when sex hasn't been a bigger issue?
I mean, good grief.
J.K. Rowling's been cancelled
from the whole Harry Potter thing
because she doesn't have
an acceptable view on sex.
Isn't that true?
I mean, the fact of the matter is,
because we occasionally talk about that,
we have to actually think through
whether lay people can get up
and be on YouTube
because they might get cancelled.
Because our culture
is unbelievably opinionated
and fixated on having the right views.
So this isn't an unrealistic story.
This is a very contemporary story.
And for a Christian or non-Christian
to think that they're making
a mountain out of a molehill
that has nothing to do
with today's world,
it has everything to do
with today's world.
Everything to do
with today's world.
And now,
I have to be careful,
I don't go down a rabbit hole,
but I need you
to give me a little bit
of a moment's mercy.
Maybe more than a moment.
The fact of the matter is,
is that this is talking about divorce,
which isn't a big issue
in our culture,
because in our culture,
our culture maintains a myth,
a whole pile of myths
about divorce,
of the happy divorce,
the divorce without consequences.
And I have to be very careful.
And I'm not,
what I'm going to say
in the next minute or two
isn't meant to make anybody
feel guilty,
although it might.
I mean,
the bottom line is
that the Bible is the,
that the gospel
is about restoration
and about new life.
It's about forgiveness.
And,
and no matter when
the gospels
talk about sin,
it's always in the point,
it's just like,
I often tell men
if their wives
are confronting them,
they confront you
to connect with you,
not to push you away.
They confront to connect.
And that's what the gospel
is doing.
The fact of the matter
is here that
every single one of us
has been affected by divorce.
Some of us have had marriages
that have almost ended in divorce.
Some of us are divorced.
Some of us are probably
divorced more than once.
Many of us,
if not all of us,
have siblings
who are divorced.
many of us
are children
whose parents divorced.
And so in some cases,
people here
know what it's like
to be abandoned,
abused,
or to have had your,
your spouse
commit adultery.
And it's also
probably the case
that some of us
who are here
were the one
who abandoned the spouse
or abused the spouse
or broke up
the marriage by adultery.
And my point here
is not to make anybody
particularly here
to feel guilty,
but I'm trying to,
it's very, very funny.
People will talk about
the Bible
not talking about
the real world,
but what often is happening
is that we don't want
to deal with the real world.
We don't want to deal
with the reality
of our heart
and the reality
of what we've done.
But the fact of the matter is
divorce does cause
deep wounds.
It causes deep wounds.
Maybe not for both,
but at least for one.
And often then
it expands beyond
to children
and to grandchildren
and to
parents
and parents-in-law.
it's not nothing.
And so we might not
particularly agree
on the surface
with John the Baptist
making a fuss about this,
but the fact of the matter
is we can't really
say anything about it
given how obsessed
our culture is
about the right
sexual views.
And actually,
even in this
particular context,
I'm going to tell you
something.
Remember I said
that this whole incident
is covered by
ancient historians.
Here's another thing
about this
in the real world.
This is what actually
happened.
It's not recorded
in the Bible story,
but this is what
we know from historians.
So what happened
is Herod
has a brother
and Herod's brother
is married to Herodias
and they have
the daughter
who's unnamed
in this story
and Herod
is also married.
And so Herod
wants to be married
to Herodias,
whether it's for
a combination
of just,
you know,
he's tired of
Model A
and he'd rather
have Model B
because Model B
is younger,
cooler,
hipper,
more pretty,
you know,
more pleasant,
more flattering,
whatever,
or it's also
going to maybe
help that his
career and her
likewise.
So he divorces
his wife
and she divorces
her husband
and they marry.
And so in the
mythology of our
culture,
of course,
there's no harm
that comes from it,
but actually
there's almost
always harm.
And the story
not recorded here
actually tells you
the harm
because you see
what historians
tell us
is that Herod
was married
to the daughter
of a king.
And the king
was the neighboring
area.
So they're all
under Rome,
but Rome
generally let
like kings
or other high
level people
manage territories
for them.
And so Herod
is married
to the daughter
of a neighboring
king.
And just
as we see
that Herodias
has a big
grudge in a
moment and
she's not
going to
forgive John
the Baptist
for questioning
the marriage,
well, the fact
of the matter
is, is the
king is really
bothered that
Herod just
dismissed his
wife like she's
just like garbage.
And he holds
a grudge.
And a couple
of years after
this incident,
this king
invades
Herod's kingdom.
Herod's kingdom
is ruinously
defeated.
And a couple
of years after
that, because
of the ruinous
defeat and
the discord
that Herod
has caused,
Herod is
deposed.
That's what
actually happened.
That's what
happened in
history.
In fact,
all of a sudden
now you'd say
if John the
Baptist is
saying,
listen, dude,
you divorce
her, you're
going to bring
about a ruinous
war, and
not only is it
going to
lead to you
being deposed,
but the fact
of the matter
is, is that
when there
is a ruinous
war,
generally
speaking,
it's not
the king's
or prime
minister's
kids who
die in the
war, but
working class
and middle
class and
the poor
who die
in the war.
And all of a
sudden we
think, whoa,
maybe John
the Baptist
was on to
something.
We
shouldn't
have
dismissed
it.
But now
we're actually
dealing with
the real
world.
The way
the world
actually works
is how
the Bible
is talking,
and the
Bible is
holding up
a mirror
to us
and giving
us a
window into
what the
world is
really like.
And now,
actually,
the very next
thing,
it's really
interesting,
what immediately
happens after
verse 18,
which we've
just read,
is two
deeply human
moments,
if we're able
to see
ourselves
in it.
Deeply,
deeply
human.
Look what
happens in
verse 19.
So remember
verse 18,
you know,
he's been
saying,
you shouldn't
be married,
you shouldn't
have taken
your brother's
wife.
Verse 19,
and Herodias,
that's the
new wife,
the current
wife of
Herod,
had a grudge
against John
the Baptist
and wanted
to put him
to death,
but she
could not
yet.
for Herod,
verse 20,
feared John,
knowing,
and feared,
probably the
better word
for feared
there,
when some
of your
versions might
say perplexed,
knowing that
he was a
righteous and
holy man
and kept
him safe,
when he
heard him,
he was greatly
perplexed and
yet heard him
gladly.
And this is
very,
very interesting
because the
fact of the
matter,
this is what
the real
world is like,
isn't it?
You do
something and
somebody hates
you for
the rest
of your
life.
Isn't that
just like
real life?
In fact,
maybe some
of us here
right now,
if we're
honest about
it,
somebody's
done a
wrong to
us and
we hate
them still.
One year,
five years,
ten years
later,
we still
hate them.
And in
fact,
actually,
that's often,
there are
many people
who hate
Christians.
I mean,
if you think
about it,
it was only
a year ago
that 50
churches were
burned,
or defaced,
and virtually
nobody in
the chattering
classes were
upset with
it.
Yeah,
the Bible
has nothing
to do with
the modern
world,
nothing at
all.
And the
other thing
about Herod,
I mean,
I'll be
honest,
the year
processed
before me
becoming a
Christian,
in many ways,
I was
Herod.
I was
both really
drawn to
Christianity
and repulsed
by it.
Drawn and
repulsed.
Drawn to it
because there
was something,
gosh,
when I was
with Christians,
there was just
something there.
I felt a
presence.
At the same
time,
I was repulsed
by it.
it would
mean that
I was
never going
to be a
cool kid.
It would
mean that
I,
it would
make me
have to
believe things
that weren't
going to
make me
fit in.
And so,
in many ways,
if you think
about it,
Herod or
his wife
are us.
Now,
one of
the things
about the
divorce,
and I'm
not going
to go
into it,
actually,
down the
road,
we're going
to talk
about divorce
because it's
going to
come up
in Mark's
gospel later
on.
But one
of the
things that
Christians need
to understand
is that the
fact of the
matter is,
is that we
are the
inheritors
through the
Bible of
a 3,500
year sexual
revolution.
A sexual
revolution which
is deeply
wise,
that goes
right back to
the giving
of the Ten
Commandments,
and it's
deeply wise.
And it
constantly is
countercultural
to the
world,
and constantly
the church
has to be
drawn back.
The church
becomes a
thing of
horror when
it forgets
the Bible
and is
shaped by
the world,
and we
constantly
need to be
brought back
to hear the
Bible afresh,
to speak
wisdom into
us about
the sexuality
of things.
And one
of the
things which
you're going
to see here
in the story
is part of
the wisdom
of the
Bible,
part of
the 3,500
year
perpetual
sexual
revolution that
the Bible
launched and
continues to
be.
Look what
happens in
verse 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.
So three
groups.
He brings
his nobles,
he brings
the military
commanders,
he brings
the leading
men of
Galilee,
all men,
it's an
all-male
gathering.
And what
does a
very,
very rich
tyrant do
when there's
an all-male
gathering and
there's going
to be a
feast?
There's lots
of alcohol.
Okay?
And sorry
to offend
vegans,
lots of
meat.
Okay?
And all
the things
that go
along with
that.
Verse 22,
for when
Herodias'
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.
And he
vowed,
whatever you
ask me,
I will give
you up to
half of
my kingdom.
Now,
pause here,
and I'm
going to
be X-rated.
This is
his niece
and his
stepdaughter.
And the
word for
girl is
the same
word in
chapter 5,
talking about
Jairus'
daughter around
12.
It's the
same word.
She does
a sexually
provocative
and arousing
dance that
pleases all
the men.
It almost
makes you
want to
vomit.
It almost
makes you
want to
vomit.
And him
and the
men,
his niece,
his 12
to 14
year old
niece and
his step
daughter,
does this
dance.
And they're
all so
aroused and
clapping,
he makes
this rash
promise.
See,
one of the
things that's
at the
very heart
of the
Christian
sexual
revolution
that's
constantly
having to
deal with
our natural
inclinations,
and we can
really see it
very powerfully
today,
one of the
problems with
today's world
is that
everything is
sensualized,
everything is
sexualized.
And as
everything becomes
sexualized,
it gets harder
and harder for
there to be a
place just for
a kid to be
a kid,
for a dad
just to be a
dad that
doesn't take
any type of
sexual advantage
on others
or his
family or
neighbors.
others.
But, you
know, in
the ancient
world,
everything was
sensualized,
everything was
sexualized,
worship was
sexualized and
sensualized.
In the
coliseum of
the day,
in the
coliseums of
the day,
to the
roaring of
the crowd,
bestiality was
practiced.
That's the
world that
John the
Baptist lived
in and Jesus
lived in.
That's the
world that
the gospel
was first
proclaimed.
And one of
the major
religions of
the world
thinks it's
fine for
underage girls
to get
married.
And there's
a problem
with sex
slaves and
trading of
young daughters
all over the
world.
In the midst
of this,
the constant
sexual revolution
of the
integrity of
the male and
the integrity
of the
female,
and that
sexual knowing
is to be
restricted to
sexual knowing
between a
husband and
a wife in
the covenant
of marriage.
It's a
profound
revolution,
and we are
in the
after stages
of the
Me Too
movement,
reacting and
rejecting to
the centralizing
and sexualizing
of everything,
which always
benefits the
powerful at
the expense
of the
weak.
Always.
bald.
I
have to
watch the
image.
leasen
carefully because
what we
actually see
next isn't
entirely honest,
not that the
Bible's lied,
but you need
to understand
that the
Bible records
the way
somebody Say
good to
ask and
think if
that's
actually
accurate,
if his
self-perception
is true.
Look what
happens in
verse 24 to 26.
So he's promised up to half her kingdom.
And she went out and said to her mom,
what should I ask for?
And the mom said, the head of John the Baptist.
Friends, if you're here today
and you are nurturing long-term hatred of another person,
this is the day for you to repent
and ask for God's help
to give up your anger and your hatred.
She said the head of John the Baptist.
Verse 25, and she came in immediately with haste,
that's the young girl,
and said to the king, I want you to give me at once
the head of John the Baptist on a platter.
And the king was exceedingly sorry,
but because of his oaths and his guests,
he did not want to break his word to her.
And that is a lie.
Come on.
If she'd said, I'd like half your kingdom.
You have four fortresses.
I'd like two of them.
You can keep the rest of the fortresses in the land.
Even in arousal,
and even with a lot of alcohol under him.
The reptilian eyes would focus on her.
And said, would say, no matter all the oaths,
you better change your request.
Isn't that what he would do?
That's what he would do.
But you see, the fact of the matter is,
is that John the Baptist is just a little person,
and little people don't matter to the powerful.
Little people do not matter to the powerful.
Little people can be just inconvenient,
like gum on a hot day stuck to the bottom of your foot,
or that you just scrape off.
So if she'd actually asked for something that mattered to Herod,
he would have said,
I don't care about my oaths.
In fact, there might be a place in my dungeon prepared for you.
But because John the Baptist is a little person,
well, what happens?
Let's look.
Verse 27.
And immediately the king sent an executioner
with orders to bring John's head.
The executioner went and beheaded John in prison,
and brought John's head on a platter,
and gave it to the girl,
and the girl gave it to her mom.
And when his disciples heard of it,
that's John's disciples,
they came and took his body,
minus the head,
and laid it in the tomb.
So the sermon began is,
the sermon began
with a very valid type of,
an understandable, I should say,
maybe not valid,
very understandable pushback about,
last week I talked about how,
you know,
what was going on there was,
when Jesus sends his disciples out,
and he says,
don't bring any, you know,
money,
and don't bring extra clothes,
and, you know,
don't bring swords,
and, you know,
just basically have nothing,
and go and proclaim,
and do works of healing,
and do works of deliverance,
and,
and really the messages,
it's just like that Hudson Taylor's famous line,
God's work done in God's way,
will receive God's supply.
And that's one of the many places in the Bible,
you could have got that saying,
God's work done in God's way,
will receive God's supply.
And I said,
God's needs,
you will,
God's,
he will meet your needs.
And now here we see this story,
where,
a person,
and you'd have to say,
but,
I mean,
doesn't Jesus say later on in chapter nine,
that,
like,
John the Baptist is like Elijah?
Doesn't,
doesn't he say that,
doesn't the,
the Jesus in other places say that,
John is the greatest of all the prophets,
and all that?
So how,
how does that fit,
George,
with this?
And that's a very,
very good question,
and if you could put up the first point,
it would be very,
very helpful.
Here's the first point.
Remember,
the Bible is a mirror,
and often what it shows us,
if we're willing to let it show us something,
is something not very pleasant about myself and yourself.
You cannot walk the way of truth,
or of love,
or of goodness,
without the real risk of suffering.
You cannot.
You cannot walk the way of truth,
or the way of love,
or the way of goodness,
without the real risk of suffering.
You can't.
Eventually,
you will come face to face with a lie,
a lie held by a person who has lots of power.
At some point in time,
you might have to say to your boss,
that's just not true.
At some point in time,
you might have to say to the government,
that's just not true.
And you know that if you say that to your boss,
or you say it to a powerful person,
there might be consequences.
And so what we think of in our own minds,
is on one hand,
we want to do the two things,
and we're just not aware of it.
This is the mirror.
The mirror is,
I'd like to have as my self-image,
that I am a man of the truth,
that I am a man of love,
that I am a man of goodness.
But at the same time,
I want to say to myself,
well,
there's no point making a fuss about that truth.
There's no point making a fuss about love in this case.
There's no point making a fuss about goodness in this case,
because if I do,
I'm screwed.
But I'm a man of the truth.
Well,
in this world,
you cannot love without suffering,
or at least the risk of suffering.
You cannot truly be good
without the risk,
at least,
and probably the actuality of suffering,
small or big.
And boy,
if we were ever a time in our culture
where to actually speak the truth,
and to be a person of the truth,
and to live not by lies,
might have consequences,
we are in that time right now,
brothers and sisters and friends.
And so the fact of the matter is,
is that our complaint
about the apparent contradiction
between these two texts
flows out of the fact
that we aren't honest about ourselves.
We aren't honest about ourselves
and the world that we live in.
Jesus says to go out and bear witness,
and your needs will be met.
But the fact of the matter is,
if you bear witness,
you constantly have the risk of suffering
for the truth,
for goodness,
for justice,
for mercy,
for love.
I mean,
that's the world we live in,
friends.
What about this whole thing
about divorce and sex
and all of that?
Like, George,
shouldn't just religion
just be about spiritual things
and not,
like,
about that type of stuff?
Well,
here's the thing.
If you could put up the next point,
that would be very helpful.
Jesus is the Savior and Lord
of all of who you are.
Jesus is the Savior
and the Lord
of all of who you are.
He's not just the Savior
of the spiritual bit of you.
He's not just the Savior
of the emotional bit of you.
He's the,
you know,
you are a person
and I am a person.
We live in a physical world.
We have responsibilities
for,
you know,
cleaning the house.
And if you've been,
if you've been blessed
with a house
or,
you know,
cleaning your apartment,
washing the dishes,
you know,
some of us have,
you know,
obligations towards family
and friends
and those things
are important
and partly how we get our identity
and we have to make money
and we have to spend our money
and we have to save our money
and we have sexual desires
and we have imagination
and we have creativity
and we have,
we have willpower
and we have minds
and we have all of these things
and all of these things
and we have a history
and we have a future
and all of these
are the things
that make us us
and when Jesus comes
he takes the place
of all of who I am
and all of who you are
with nothing left over
and you don't go to heaven
you without a mind,
you without a will,
you without an imagination,
you without creativity,
you without responsibilities,
you don't go,
you don't go to heaven
without all of those things,
you're not even a human being
if you don't have those things.
He dies for all of who you are
and if he dies for all of who you are,
he is lord of all of who you are.
It means,
it means that it's not in tithing
that you say something like,
well, 10% of your money belongs to God,
90% belongs to you,
no, 100% of it belongs to God.
All of it belongs to him.
How much of my imagination belongs to him?
All of my imagination.
How much of my sexuality?
All of my sexuality belongs to him.
How much of my body?
All of my body.
It all belongs to him.
He's lord of all of it.
He's the same one who's created all things.
He is the same one who dies for all things.
He is the same one who will restore
and remake all things
in the new heaven and the new earth.
And we are wiser and stronger
and taller when we bow to him.
But the text isn't just a mirror
to help me understand who I am.
As I said,
it's also,
we see here a bit of a window
because it's describing,
helping us to understand better
what Jesus does.
And there's an even greater window,
which this and the next point
would be a bit briefer,
but very, very important.
If you put up the next point,
it's this.
John the Baptist's death
is a good example.
Jesus' death
is the good news.
John the Baptist's death
is a great example.
It's a great example.
But Jesus' death
is good news.
You see,
apart from the gospel,
John the Baptist's death
is a good example,
worthy of emulation.
But at the end of the day,
if you think about it,
Herod lives and John dies.
The powerful continue to live
and the weak die.
And it might be that,
in hindsight,
John the Baptist
has a better reputation
than Herod,
but you know what the fact of the matter is,
is a lot of people say
it doesn't help you
when you're dead.
And if Jesus was just an example,
well,
then you still have
the Roman power,
his enemies in power,
him dead.
But the fact of the matter is,
is this is preparing us.
The story of John the Baptist,
on one hand,
is looking back
to help us as disciples
understand,
well, you know what
it's helping us to understand?
If you come to receive communion
on the pieces of bread,
if you get one of the little pieces
of unleavened bread,
there's a cross
indented on both sides.
And in a sense,
what we're being asked
to realize
when we take the bread
to eat it,
to feed on Christ
spiritually,
we're being asked
as if to say,
on one hand,
in me,
all your needs
will be met.
In a sense,
on one side
of the one piece of bread,
on the other side,
the cross is reminding us,
pick up your cross
and follow me
and die.
And it's the one piece
of bread,
mindful of Christ's death
that we partake of
and we think about
and we feed on spiritually.
But it has those two sides,
the cross on both sides.
All of your needs met.
Take up your cross
and follow me.
You see,
Jesus' death is good news
in the most unbelievable sense
because in the case of Jesus,
he also dies
like John the Baptist.
John the Baptist
is foreshadowing
both Jesus' death
and what is vastly greater
about Jesus' death,
that Jesus also dies
at the hand of his enemies,
the innocent,
at the hand of the evil
and the wicked,
the people who do not love truth
and do not love goodness
and do not love justice
and do not love mercy.
And he dies
at their hands.
But he doesn't just die
as himself.
He dies.
As God,
he can die for everyone.
And as man,
he can die for you
and for me.
And so his death
is a death
as my representative.
It is his death
as my substitute.
And in his death,
all of the things
which have kept me
separate from God
and all of the consequences
they have
with my alienation
from others
and with God
and with the universe,
they all are laid on him.
And he
tastes all there is
to taste of death
as my representative
and my substitute.
And on the third day,
he emerges on the far side
having defeated death,
having defeated that
which causes death
and having defeated
all hostile,
spiritual,
social,
worldly powers
in his resurrection.
And because he does
all of this
in my place,
when I put my faith
and trust in him,
I share in his victory
over sin
and evil
and injustice
and hatred,
over death
and all hostile
spiritual powers,
weak me
and weak you.
When we look to him
and ask him
to be our savior and lord,
he rushes across
that infinite distance
and takes you
into his arms.
And his death,
you share in his victory.
Could you put up
the final point?
Doing
to become
ends in either
image management
or despair.
The gospel
teaches you
to grow day by day
in the security
that Christ
has done everything
that is needed
to be done
for you
to be reconciled
to the triune God
and be unfailingly
in him
and him in you.
You see,
that's the power
of the gospel.
You see,
religion says,
if I do,
I become something
acceptable to God.
And as I do
and I do
and I do,
if I'm becoming
acceptable to God,
then all these good things
will happen to me
and that's the way
to do it.
And the Bible says,
no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
If you try to do that,
all you end up doing
is image management
or you get into despair.
The Bible completely
and utterly,
that's why this is good news.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
You see,
Jesus has done everything
for you.
He's the one
who's defeated death.
He's the one
who carried your sin.
He's the one
who clothes you
with his new life.
He's the one
who gives you everything.
He's the one
who gives you
the security
that you are now
the child of God,
that the Father,
the Son,
the Holy Spirit,
they dwell in you.
He dwells in you.
God dwells in you.
They will never leave you.
They will never forsake you.
Jesus is your hope of glory.
And out of who you have become
in Christ,
you begin to take
the baby steps of doing
in the security
that he will never leave you.
He will never forsake you.
He will only love you.
He will never forsake you.
Never.
Nothing you have done
is so bad
that he didn't die for you.
Nothing that you will do
in the future
is so bad
that he will change
his mind of you.
He died for all of you
from the moment
of your conception
to the moment of your death.
He died for the depth of you.
And when he takes you
as his child,
he will never leave you
or forsake you.
And it is out of that security
of who you've become
in Christ
that you can begin to do
and pick yourself up
when you fall.
Thankful for his grace
and mercy.
Week by week,
pledging once again
that you are his.
That is good news.
And it is good news for you.
It's good news for you.
There's no better time
than today
to give your life to Christ.
Say, Jesus, take me.
I want you to be my Savior
and my Lord.
And I thank you
that you will never let me go.
And I know that I don't deserve it.
Thank you.
Just take me.
There's no better time
than today
to pray it.
And for those of us
who know it,
there's no better time
than today
to once again
say, Jesus,
some of us might say,
this has been a pretty good week.
And others will say,
Jesus, I am so glad
you died for me
knowing how bad
this week would be.
And I recommit to you.
I recommit to you.
Let's stand.
I invite you to stand.
In standing,
let's bow our heads
in prayer.
Father, we give you thanks
and praise for Jesus.
We thank and praise you,
Father,
that he died in our place.
He died for all
that makes each one of us
us.
That he is my hope.
He is the sinner's hope
for glory.
Give you thanks and praise,
Father.
It's not about my righteousness.
I am, Father.
I'm just one beggar
telling another beggar
where to find the bread of life.
And, Father,
thank you for that bread of life
that makes us alive.
Ask, Father,
you know how hard it is
to be a person of truth,
to be a person of goodness,
to be a person of love,
to be a person of justice,
to be a person of mercy.
You know, Father,
how selfish we can be
and flatter ourselves
when we give in to the lie
or we give in to hatred
or indifference
or injustice.
And, Father,
you know how hard it is.
And we thank and praise you
that it's not you
looking at how well we do,
but that you want us
to live out of the freedom
and the fullness
that Christ has won for us
to be shaped by the gospel
so that we can,
day by day,
increase in being
a person of the truth
and a person of love
and a person of goodness
and a person of justice
and a person of mercy,
a person of compassion.
So, Father,
grip us with the gospel
that we might begin
out of the strength
of the gospel
to live for your glory,
for our good
and for the good
of this city and the world.
And we ask this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.