- Ezra Institute - https://www.ezrainstitute.com -

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:

  1. Mark witnesses to the renewing power of the King.
  2. Jesus was often a source of offense to those around Him; the truth of the gospel confronts people in their sin and unsettles them.
  3. The mission of God will always meet with ungodly resistance.
  4. Jesus heals all that is unclean and sends out His disciples to spread this cleansing, healing power.
  5. Sin and guilt, not lack of evidence, prevent people from coming to Christ.
  6. 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.
  7. Herod’s guilty conscience led him to become gripped by a superstition, believing that Jesus was John the Baptist raised from the dead.
  8. 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.
  9. The righteous represent God’s justice, and so the unrighteous fear and despise them.
  10. 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.
  11. In contrast, Herod does not repent and he sinks into further superstition, rebellion, and hostility.
  12. 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.
  13. A guilty culture wants to silence those who speak the truth because of its hatred for God’s holy people.
  14. Arbitrariness is the basis of tyranny. Truth and legitimacy give way to self-will and power.
  15. Today people demand all manner of sexual sin as their legal right, seeking a total reversal of the Kingdom’s public judgment.
  16. 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.
  17. A culture overwhelmed by guilt and sin cannot resist this type of social and moral revolution.
  18. In 40 years sexual perversion has gone from crime to sacrament. The nature of truth and justice itself is challenged.
  19. 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.
  20. By denying Christ’s creating and redeeming Word, man seeks to obfuscate his own guilt.
  21. 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:

  1. Why did Jesus and his disciples face such opposition?
  2. What are the consequences of trying to rationalize our sin?
  3. Where do we locate the standard for what is true and right?