November 6, 2016
Mission and Martyrdom
The righteous represent God's justice to a culture in rebellion; thus they are feared and must be eradicated.
Scripture: Mark 6:1-29
Sermon Notes:
- Mark witnesses to the renewing power of the King.
- Jesus was often a source of offense to those around Him; the truth of the gospel confronts people in their sin and unsettles them.
- The mission of God will always meet with ungodly resistance.
- Jesus heals all that is unclean and sends out His disciples to spread this cleansing, healing power.
- Sin and guilt, not lack of evidence, prevent people from coming to Christ.
- Instead of believing Jesus’ own claims, the people invented a theory that Jesus was a resurrected prophet; likewise today, our culture will accept that Jesus was anyone or anything other than the Son of God and the sin-bearer of the world.
- Herod’s guilty conscience led him to become gripped by a superstition, believing that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead.
- John rebuked Herod directly for adultery according to Lev. 18:16, 20:21; Herodias was enraged and wanted to destroy John; Herod knew John had God’s approval so he respected John.
- The righteous represent God’s justice, and so the unrighteous fear and despise them.
- David responded with true repentance when he was confronted with his adultery and murder (Ps. 51). Until he acknowledged his sin, David was sick with guilt.
- In contrast, Herod does not repent and he sinks into further superstition, rebellion, and hostility.
- The consequences of rejecting John’s rebuke are: 1) madness and superstition; 2) destruction of his army; 3) he displeased the Jews by killing John; 4) he was exiled.
- A guilty culture wants to silence those who speak the truth because of its hatred for God’s holy people.
- Arbitrariness is the basis of tyranny. Truth and legitimacy give way to self-will and power.
- Today people demand all manner of sexual sin as their legal right, seeking a total reversal of the Kingdom’s public judgment.
- We seek to turn sin and vice into the good, and thus seek to destroy marriage. Tools of political compulsion are used to enforce acceptance of sexual perversion.
- A culture overwhelmed by guilt and sin cannot resist this type of social and moral revolution.
- In 40 years sexual perversion has gone from crime to sacrament. The nature of truth and justice itself is challenged.
- People want to be treated in terms of how they define themselves; but God’s justice requires that each created being be treated in terms of its God-given nature.
- By denying Christ’s creating and redeeming Word, man seeks to obfuscate his own guilt.
- The road to recovery is to confess our sin and confront our guilt directly, turning to Christ for cleansing, healing, deliverance and freedom from sin.
Application Questions:
- Why did Jesus and his disciples face such opposition?
- What are the consequences of trying to rationalize our sin?
- Where do we locate the standard for what is true and right?
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