[Machine transcription]
Calling two of his disciples to him, John sent them to the Lord, saying, Are you the
one who is to come, or shall we look for another?
You may be seated.
In the name of Jesus, Amen.
Dear Saints, I think this sermon has three parts.
Part one.
I remember talking to a group of pastors a few months ago, maybe a couple of years ago
now, and I was lamenting with them about how the ancient martyrs were suffered and were
persecuted because they confessed Christ as Lord.
The Caesars said, you must say Lord Caesar, and they said, no, we will say Lord Jesus.
Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, and we worship Him and we worship Him alone.
And I was lamenting that while the ancient martyrs got to suffer for confessing Jesus
says, Lord, we have to suffer in our own day for confessing God as Creator. They were second
article martyrs. We’re first article martyrs. We have to suffer the ridicule of the world
because we say that God created the heavens and the earth. Or we have to suffer the ridicule
of the world because we say that the Lord created Adam and Eve and gave them to each
other as husband and wife, and that’s what marriage is. Or even that just saying marriage
is a man and a woman, or that a man is a man and a woman is a woman, that’s the trouble
that we get in now.
And I think I was lamenting this and said I, you know, it’d be more fun to be a second
article martyr than a first article martyr, and one of the pastors I was talking with
rebuked me.
And he said, Brian, remember John the Baptist.
He was right.
John the Baptist was in prison because he preached the Sixth Commandment, because he
said, you shall not commit adultery. And he said this to Herod Antipas, the great adulterer.
Here’s the back story. Remember, I mean, John was there preaching repentance. We heard
that in the gospel last week. And he would⦠No, it didn’t matter who came to him, great
or small. He would preach God’s law, first commandment, second commandment, all the commandments,
sixth commandment, seventh commandment. And he preached the sixth commandment to Herod.
Now, Herod was the⦠the Herod that we’re talking about who arrested John was the son
of Herod, and just to prepare yourselves, everybody in this whole story is named Herod.
Even his wife is named Herodias, you know. I mean, it’s⦠So Herod the Great is the
one who built all the stuff, and he was king of⦠he’s the one who sent the soldiers
to kill the babies in Bethlehem. He died about 2 AD or so, or 2 BC, sorry, 2 BC, and four
of his children took over. Herod Antipas is the one we’re talking about. He was the
Tetrarch, the ruler up north in Galilee and on the east side of the Dead Sea, where John
was serving and where John was preaching.
He was married to a woman who was a prince, a princess, excuse me, but he wasn’t content
with his wife.
And his brother, whose name was Herod Philip I, was married to Herodias.
Herodias had turned out to be the half⦠the daughter of his half-brother, which I
think makes Herodias the half-niece of Philip and of Herod Antipas.
They by the way had a daughter together named Salome, and she comes into the story a little
bit later.
It’s Salome who was dancing and so pleased all the people that Herod promised to give
up to half of his kingdom, whatever they asked, and that’s when they asked for the head
of John the Baptist on a platter.
Salome, by the way, would end up marrying her half-uncle, also her dad’s half-brother.
They were just paganing to the full extent of the whole thing.
But Herod Antipas, the guy we’re talking about, was married, but he was discontent
with his wife.
I don’t know what happened to his first wife.
His dad would kill all the wives he became discontent with, but I don’t think history
tells us what he did.
But he instead goes to Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, and convinces her to marry
him to leave Philip and marry Herod, and so she does.
So he takes her as a second wife, and they move there to somewhere in the Galilee, all
their palaces around there, and they’re⦠they’re living there, and John⦠everyone
knew that this was a scandal, that this was wicked and this was wrong, but it was John
who stood up and said it.
You shouldn’t do this.
You’re breaking God’s commandments.
And he spoke clearly to it, and so Herod had to⦠had to shut his voice, had to shut the
voice of the preaching of God’s law that condemned him.
So the church from beginning to end, I mean from Genesis until right now today, the church
has stood up and preached the sixth commandment, you shall not commit adultery, which is that
we should fear and love God so that we live a chaste and decent life in word and deed
and husband and wife love and cherish one another.
This is the clear confession that all people should know but the world seems to have forgotten
And so we in the church have to talk about it, maybe even more than we want to, but to
say that and to confess clearly that our sexuality is a gift from God that requires a careful
stewardship.
So the Lord has spoken plainly all the way through the Scriptures.
He requires of every person, and we Christians know this, that the Lord requires of us chastity.
Chastity before marriage, which is abstinence, and chastity in marriage, which is faithfulness.
And anything departing from this is dangerous and damnable.
A departure from God’s intent in creation, a departure from God’s design, a departure
from God’s order, and a departure from God’s instructions and His clear commands.
sense. Sexual immorality is not to be committed or even spoken of amongst the Lord’s people.
It is wrong and it is dangerous.
Now, I’ll often have people say, well, now Pastor, aren’t all sins equally dangerous?
And the answer is in one way, yes. James says it this way, if you’re guilty of one⦠breaking
one part of the law, you’re guilty of breaking all the law. If you break one commandment,
you’ve broken all ten. One sin is enough to cause us to be guilty and deserving of
God’s punishment. But in a very important way, all sins are not equal. Sins haveâ¦
different sins have different consequences. Different sins have different dangers. And
sexual immorality amongst all of the sins is set apart in the Scripture as a uniquely
dangerous sin. Here’s how Paul says it. I’ll read you 1 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 18
and following. Paul writes, flee sexual immorality. Every other sin that a man does is outside
his body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Do you not know
that your body is the temple of the Spirit? You were bought with a price, therefore glorify
God with your body.
Sexual sin, it seems, does more damage to the body, to the mind, to the conscience and
has more severe consequences than other sins.
Now we’re spending some time on this for two reasons.
I’m going to change that.
We’re spending time on this for three reasons.
Number one, so that we would have this absolute clarity, this wisdom of God’s law ourselves
us as we fight the world,
the flesh, our own sinful flesh,
and the devil who comes to
tempt us to sin
against the Sixth Commandment.
We want to know no matter
what station we are in life,
that the Lord has spoken
clearly and what he’s commanded of us,
so that we would know how we ought
to live as the Lord’s people.
But number two, so that we would know
that the Lord Jesus forgives all sins,
especially to know that
sexual immorality as it does
damage to our own conscience, we should know that God the Holy Spirit works in His Word
to cleanse us, to purify us, to forgive all of our sins, to absolve us and to declare
us white and holy and clean.
Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow.
And then third, as we are mocked and ridiculed by the world and derided by the world for
our convictions which seem backwards to the world or even dangerous or restrictive or
whatever it is to the world regarding marriage and sex and man and woman and whatever, when
we are afflicted or mocked for these things that we would remember that John the Baptist
was in prison for the same thing. The world hated him before it hated you. It locked him
up long before any of us have been locked up, and so we know that there are consequences
to preaching the Sixth Commandment.
And that should make us, if nothing else, that should just make us bold.
Here’s what the Lord says, and we say it no matter what the consequences are.
Part two.
John is in prison for preaching the law of God and the Sixth Commandment, and he’s having,
it seems, a tough time.
He’s getting reports of Jesus, he’s doing all of these miracles, he’s healing all of
these people.
Lepers are being cleansed, the lame are walking, the blind are seeing, the deaf are hearing,
even the dead are being raised.
And John the Baptist I think is in prison waiting for the Lord to fulfill Psalm 145.
We sang it in the intro.
He set the captives free.
What about that promise?
When are you going to fulfill that and do that miracle?
Am I going to sit here forever?
Now, this is a tough textual question about how John was feeling or what John was thinking
when he was there in prison, and the scholars have kind of debated and they’ve come up
with two options basically. On the one hand, maybe John was just doubting if Jesus was
the right one altogether. Are you really the one? Did I preach right when I pointed people
to you? Are you the coming Messiah or not? Or on the other hand, people will say, no,
no, John didn’t doubt at all. He was sure, but he wanted his disciples to go and hear
hear from Jesus, that Jesus was the one. I think there’s a⦠probably a more realistic
way to think about it and something in the middle. John is just like you and I. He believes
and he doubts all at the same time. It’s all mixed up. And probably because John is
hearing so much of the kindness of Jesus and the mercy of Jesus and the love of Jesus and
how Jesus is coming to forgive, and he says, what about the judgment part? What about
gathering all people and casting out the wicked. When is that going to happen? Is that your
work too? Or is another one going to come along and do that work? And so John, as he’s
there in prison, is wrestling through this. The dark night⦠the old theologians called
this the dark night of the soul. And all of us know something of this. When we know that
God is God, that Jesus is our Savior, and yet we doubt. The devil comes to us and plants
those seeds of doubt in our own heart.
Now, Philip Melanchthon, remember Philip Melanchthon?
He was the, kind of the number two guy in the Reformation in Wittenberg.
He taught at Wittenberg University with Martin Luther.
He wrote the Augsburg Confession and the Apology and all that.
He wrote a little document as an appendix to Luther’s small cult articles, and in there
he gives what I think is the most beautiful but also terrifying description of worship
that I’ve ever heard. Melancthon says this, worship is faith fighting despair. Now think
about that. Faith fighting against despair. These two forces are in conflict in your own
heart and in mine as well. The Lord puts his word there and we believe that word and yet
Yet the devil and our own sinful flesh are always causing us to doubt, and these two
are wrestling back and forth with one another.
That’s why you’re here this morning.
That’s why you’re here week after week.
That’s why we open our Bibles and why we pray, so that faith would fight against despair.
And that’s just what it means to be a Christian.
So John knows the preaching of Jesus and the promises fulfilled in Jesus, and yet he sees
his own affliction as he sits there in prison and he says, and this is exactly the perfect
thing to do. He says to his disciples, would you go to Jesus and get a sermon from him
for me, please, before I die. He, John, does exactly the right thing and exactly the thing
that we should do when we are going through this wrestling and this despair. In other words,
we should look to Jesus. And Jesus sends back the disciples of John with these, with a report
of these great signs, these miracles that fulfilled the promise. And then Jesus says, blessed
Blessed is he who’s not offended because of me.
There’s a dividing line that runs right through humanity, and on the one side are
those who are offended with Jesus and on the other side are those who are not, and those
are the blessed ones.
So they leave and report to John, and I think that that sermon must have been for John,
his support as he sat in the dungeon and as he heard the footsteps of the swordsman coming
to slice off his head.
God. John knew that he would one day see Jesus.
Part three. Jesus then, after the disciples leave, preaches this about John, this sermon.
And it’s quite amazing. He says, what did you go to see, a reed shaken by the wind?
What did you go to see, a guy dressed in these fancy clothes? If you want to see the guys
in the fancy clothes, you look in the king’s palace, not in the king’s prison. That’s
where they are. What did you go to see, a prophet? And Jesus then says, yes, in fact,
not only is John the prophet, he’s more than a prophet. John himself is the greatest person
who has ever been born in the history of the world. That’s what Jesus said. No one, yet
I tell you, among those born of women, none is greater than John. But then Jesus, and
we ended with this strange thing, then Jesus says, yet the one who is least in the kingdom
of God is greater than he. Do you know who Jesus is talking about? The one who’s least
in the Kingdom of God, who’s also greater than John? Do you know who he’s talking about?
He’s talking about you. He’s talking about me. You are part of the Kingdom of God. You’re
Christians. That means you’re part of the church. You belong⦠you’re baptized. You’re
part of this Kingdom. And Jesus is saying of you today, he’s talking about you, and
And he’s saying that you, in fact, are greater than John who is the greatest ever.
Now what does this mean?
What could this possibly mean?
What is Jesus talking about?
Now here, I would very much invite your wisdom on this, but here’s my best crack at this
riddle from Jesus.
John was the last of the prophets, and part of what it meant to be a prophet was that
you got to see the Messiah, the work of the Christ, from a great distance.
You got to see it far off, like looking at the top of a mountain from the plains down
below.
Now, John was the prophet who got the closest so that he could even point his finger to
Jesus and say, behold the Lamb of God who comes in the name of the Lord.
But it was not for John to see with his own eyes the fulfillment of what he promised,
the death and resurrection of Jesus.
In fact, as far as I can tell, John is the only person who dies in the Gospels and Jesus
lets him stay dead.
Every other person who dies, Jesus raises from the dead, but not John.
John could haveâ¦
Jesus could have gone to John and set him free from prison.
Jesus could have gone to John after he was beheaded and put his head back together and
raised him from the dead if He wanted to.
Jesus could have prevented him from being killed and so that John could have beenâ¦
And can you imagine John’s joy to have been there in Jerusalem when Jesus was being crucified
and then to be visited by Jesus when He was raised from the dead?
But it was not for John.
He was a prophet.
He had to watch those events unfold from the mezzanine, from the heavenly court.
But you and I get to see it.
So that we, even from childhood, we could confess Jesus was suffered under Pontius Pilate.
He was crucified, dead and buried.
He was raised on the third day.
And by this, by this gift of knowing the death and resurrection of Jesus, you are in fact
greater than John.
Because the Lord has given you this great gift.
The knowledge of his crucifixion, the knowledge of his resurrection, and the confidence of
your salvation that comes from it.
So God be praised.
God be praised for the clarity that he gives us in the law, especially the sixth commandment,
you shall not commit adultery and may God grant his Holy Spirit so that that commandment
has its way among us.
God be praised for John the Baptist in prison and his faith fighting despair and how he
shows us what we ought to do when we are in that midst.
And then God be praised that Jesus preaches about you today.
And he says that you are greater even than John because you know him who is life eternal.
May God grant you this comfort in the name of Jesus, amen.
And the peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
