Download 9755 JOHN THE BAPTIST - THE PROPHET OF THE HIGHEST

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9755
JOHN THE BAPTIST - THE PROPHET OF THE HIGHEST - 1980
Speaker:
Bro. John Martin
Study #7:
What went ye out to see?
Reading:
Luke 7:19-30
My beloved brethren and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ.
That portable hand lamp, that burning and shining light, b&s, is going to be extinguished
this morning in our minds. But we're all going to go on in life and walk in the light and
the shadow of the true Light which came into the world, and lights every man, every
man that is, who had been affected by John. And you know, in this record which we
read this morning that we read from Luke, when we come to that section, I want to show
you that's exactly what happened. That the Lord Jesus Christ affected those only who
were affected by John. And Luke makes that point! and when the people flocked to the
Lord, and there are two classes there, those who believed John and those who didn't,
and those that believed John, believed the Lord, and those that didn't believe John,
didn't believe the Lord. And his mission, b&s, was fulfilled, and all that the Word of God
had spoken about that voice was true, and John, b&s, did not die, he did not die in vain!
and he left on earth, a people for the Lord to pick up, and to carry forward into the
kingdom. His work was magnificently done, and I have absolutely marvelled at Luke that
he should feel inclined to tell us, that that's exactly what happened, and I'm glad that he
did! because it shows us, b&s, that nothing done in the service of our Lord is in vain.
And though we may have to give up much, perhaps even our life, who knows? nothing
we do in His service is in vain. And John will arise, b&s, to learn that he contributed
enormously to the kingdom of God; and he will be satisfied in that day in the great
reward, not in the reward that God will give him, but in looking out upon the vast
concourse of people, thousands of whom, I believe, would attribute their salvation to
God through the work of John; and that will be satisfaction indeed, for that great
prophet, the greatest of them all!
He was the forerunner of the Lord in more ways than one, b&s, and it's intriguing to take
those records of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John concerning him, as we've tried to do,
and to weave together a composite picture of his life. And it's easy to establish the
historical period in which he died. It's remarkable when you consider when he died!
because if you remember, those of you who can remember your readings (we won't turn
all these passages up) but after his death, the disciples went and took that corpse and
buried it, and they hurried up to Jesus, who was up in the region of Tiberius on the
western side of Galilee, and the 70 disciples had come back from preaching the truth,
all buoyed up with enthusiasm, that the devils were subjected unto their name, and in
the midst of the hubbub of excitement, the grim news that John had been beheaded
was brought to our Lord. And none of us, b&s, could ever begin to imagine what that
meant to Him. Whatever feelings we may have, the sensitivity of that man would be so
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great, that none of us could even enter into His feelings. And He immediately ordered a
ship to go across to the other side of the lake, to escape the maddening crowd, that
over there He might contemplate what had happened. And we know the story, that as
they went across there, the crowd went around the top of the lake, to meet Him. They
went by foot, and when He got over there, there were 5,000 people; and He fed the
5,000 and John says, 'it was springtime'. That was the Passover, b&s, and when you
put all that together, we learn that John the Baptist died, at the time of Passover, almost
exactly 12 months before our Lord, the forerunner! And I could imagine the Lord hearing
of His death, and knowing what was coming up 12 months later. And the sadness of
that man's death was only complicated in our Lord's mind, because the shadow of the
cross, grew darker! And He would have thought within Himself, 'yes, he is my
forerunner, in every sense of that word!' And that's when John died.
He must decrease, and I must increase, that's what the Lord would have thought. But
the increase of our Lord, b&s, would itself spill over into death, but there would be no
decrease in His death; He would know that, that in His death there would be an
enormous increase. And He knew that too, and the wonder of that man's mind is a study
in itself, b&s, as we try and imagine what He would have thought when he got that news
at that very era of history, when Israel was preparing to keep the Passover feast. You
know, Mark as he often does in few words, captures for us the drama of John
decreasing and Christ increasing; you look at this chapter 6 and verses 29 to 30. Notice
how Mark puts these two things in juxtaposition to each other, in verses 29 and 30 we
read, 'And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse (that is,
John the Baptist's corpse) and laid it in a tomb; and the apostles gathered themselves
together unto Jesus and told Him all things, both what they had done and they had
taught'. And there, Mark, taking up his pen dramatically portrays the tremendous
contrast, John's disciples took up his corpse and put it in a tomb, at the same time as
the apostles of Jesus Christ were abounding in the teaching and in the performing of
miracles on behalf of their Lord. And so Mark records very dramatically, 'I must
decease' and as John was laid in that tomb, the apostles were increasing with the Lord
and carrying forward that glorious message that the voice had started, the good tidings
unto Zion.
And it's from this 6th chapter of Mark, I want to now deal with the imprisonment of John
and the reasons for that, which we saw so beautifully portrayed for us last night. In a
little play, b&s, which I felt was very tastefully done, not overdone, very tastefully done,
and the main elements of this story were beautifully portrayed and accurately portrayed.
And we're all thrilled with that! and I am pleased that you accepted that in the
seriousness with which it was presented, because that's the purpose of it. We come
now to consider that tragic end, or should we call it a tragic end? I don't know! certainly
a sad end of John the Baptist.
Now he was preaching near Aenon, you remember, up there just at the end of the valley
of Jezreel, west of the river Jordan, about 8 miles south of Bethshan. And of course,
across the river Jordan, about 20 odd miles, I suppose 8 miles to the river, perhaps 10
to 12 miles, and on the other side was the region of Petraea and Herod Antipas was the
tetrarch of Petraea, and he ran foul of John. And this brought about, of course, the end
of John; I want to talk a little bit about that Herod, b&s, about his character, because it's
absolutely remarkable, and it is remarkable, how that the character of that man, is
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exactly the same as Ahab, king of Israel, in the days of Elijah, and the character of his
so-called wife, is exactly the same as Jezebel. It's hard to believe that two or four
people could be exactly alike as they were, and they were! And although God does not
arrange evil things, yet in the providence of God, and the all-knowing God, that He can
look forward, b&s, there was in His mind, as you can see, that John came in the spirit
and power of Elijah, and he fell foul of a couple, who were the exact counterpart that
Elijah fell foul of. And I've made a study of both men as you well know, and I've tried to
get close to these people, and I've tried to understand characters, and I think, b&s, in
God's grace, we've had a little bit of success. And I read there very plainly about these
people, that they were exactly alike. And John must have known that, he must have
known, but what he probably didn't know was this, that as Elijah was caused to escape
the clutches of those two, he was not going to escape their clutches. And as the
forerunner of the Lord Jesus Christ, he like his Master, b&s, cannot escape the end! as
Elijah was able to do. And there was the difference!
Now look at Herod Antipas! He was son of Herod the Great; his father Herod the Great
was an Edomite and his mother was a Samaritan. He had a glorious social background!
Edomite and Samaritan, and the Edomite in his father and the Samaritan in his mother
had produced exactly what you'd expect it to produce, a weak-kneed, wily, cunning,
deceitful, lying sneak! And if that's not his character, then I don't know what is, because
Jesus called him 'a fox'; you go and tell that 'fox', and that was perhaps the most
wonderful name to call him, it epitomized all that he was, cruel, rapacious, wily, cunning,
deceitful sneak; a weak-kneed individual, ruled by his passions and by his superstitions;
can you see Ahab in this fellow? It's almost like the reincarnation of that king of Israel!
exactly the same in character, 'go and tell that fox'. And being a weak-minded man,
b&s, dominated by his superstitions and fears, he was a man therefore, that could easily
be swayed. You know, some say that he was a Sadducean, and others say 'well, he
couldn't have been a Sadducean because when he heard of the miracles of the Lord
Jesus Christ, he thought that John had risen from the dead; and the Sadducees didn't
believe in the resurrection of the dead, therefore, he couldn't be a Sadducean! He was a
Sadducean! but you see, he was such a man that it wouldn't matter what his belief was,
if he went outside and saw a shadow of a spider on a tree or something, he would
believe it was the reincarnation of a ghost; that's the sort of mind that he had, he was so
weak and superstitious, he would believe anything! And his Sadducean belief went out
the window, when he heard about the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ and he was
haunted by the figure of John. As a matter of fact, Mark records in the 14th verse here,
and in the 16th verse, that he said that twice. 'And when king Herod heard of Him, for
His name was spread abroad, he said, 'that John the Baptist was risen from the dead'.
And in verse 16 again,'But when Herod heard therefore, he said, it is John whom I
beheaded; he has risen from the dead!' And both those phrases are couched in the
Greek as a continuous tense, as if he kept saying, 'it's John, I know it's John, he's risen
from the dead; no, His name is Jesus. No it isn't, no, it isn't! it's John, it's John alright, I
cut his head off, I know it's John! And the fellow's haunted by what he had done.
He had no character of his own, and men like that, b&s, don't need any punishment
from God, their own stupid mind, weak-kneed characters, and their superstition is its
own punishment, and his nightmares must have been enormous; and it served him
right! That's the sort of individual he was, but as weak as he was, as weak as he was,
his weakness, b&s, was more than matched by his so-called wife. Herodias, the
feminine of 'Herod', and 'Herod' you know, is a word which means 'heroic'; he was
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heroic alright, like a lot of husbands before their wives. I fear no man, and very few
women! but that's what their name means, heroic; and you know, she was a vicious
woman, no, I'll go further than that, I don't know what to call her. In our Christadelphian
language, there isn't anything left to call her! She's a monster, a monster of gigantic
proportions; you know, when you lock yourself in a record like you have to when you do
a study like this, you get to know people, I tell you, you really do. And you lock in there
and you don't have to use your imagination, you just have to read the record, you read
that, and you know what's doing. She was a monster of gigantic proportions and she
was in the truth, because the Herod family, b&s, when they were appointed the
procurators of the various districts, were appointed because they had an affinity with
Judaism. The Edomites had been converted by the sword of the Maccabees; you either
became a member of the Jewish race and accept Judaism or have your head cut off.
That was the strength of their conversion, and because they had that nominal Judaistic
religion, they were accepted as the procurators of the Jews. She was in the truth! and I
am glad that she was, because she'll come to the light of day, I believe, and she's a
monster, and she's just exactly like Jezebel! And we know what it says about Jezebel,
'that Ahab sold himself, sold himself to do wickedly' that's what it says about Ahab who,
of course, was the enemy of Elijah. And do you know, b&s, that no one can sell
something they haven't got; and like Herod he had a smattering of truth in him, there
was a streak (I say a streak, a small streak) of conscience in both Ahab and Herod; they
were exactly alike, but they sold that to do wickedly because in the case of Ahab it says,
'because of Jezebel his wife who stirred him up', and that's the exact counterpart of
Herodias. We know what sort of a monster Jezebel was! and the Word of God, b&s,
describes her character, (and I believe we've got her counterpart here) so for all the
words that I might choose, perhaps this is the best way to describe Herodias! That when
Jezebel died you remember, the dogs came and ate her and they couldn't eat her head,
her hands and her feet, and the record of scripture tells us, that the scavenger, the dog,
who crept in from the wilds at night, used to scavenge around in the pits outside of
Jerusalem in the valley of Hinnom, and dig up the decomposed dead bodies that were
thrown there, and they'd eat the bodies and then vomit that up, and eat it again! Sorry if
I spoiled your lunch? Honestly, I'm not doing this to be funny, I'm serious about this,
because this is what God is trying to tell us, what he thought of Jezebel! So when she
died, b&s, that dog, who had a digestive system second to none, couldn't digestive the
foul mind, the foul deeds and the foul walk of that woman. That's what God thought of
her! and that's Herodias.
Nothing more could be said about Herodias than that, so there is her counterpart, and
there's her opinion of God of her! They couldn't digest that, it was too much for them!
Incredible isn't it? she had an evil mind, and hands that shed innocent blood and feet
running swiftly to do mischief, as Isaiah the prophet says and that was the character of
Herodias. Herod loved big buildings like his father; Ahab did to, didn't he? Had an ivory
palace and the two men were alike in that regard too, and they filled the land with all
their architecture, they were always doing that sort of thing. Herod had married a
princess, he married the daughter of Aretus, an Nabatean king; the Nabateans, of
course, were a desert tribe, right down in the south at Edom, who had come up on the
eastern side of Jordan, and conquered much of the land and established themselves
there, and they had rulers in Damascus, and this Aretas which produced the daughter
for this man's wife, was the very man who had the control of Damascus when Paul was
let down in a basket over the wall, and Herod had married his daughter. But on a visit to
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Rome, when Herod Antipas went to Rome on one occasion to report there, they had a
great feast, to which his brother Philip was invited, and he brought along his wife,
Herodias. And Herod fell passionately in love with her and he found a response in that
woman. And in turn, he divorced his Nabatean wife, which of course, brought forth a
war. Aretus went to war against him and beat him too, by the way, with great loss of life.
He divorced this poor woman, shot her into exile, and married Herodias.
Now he's in the truth, remember that, they're in the truth these people, when we say
that, we use that as a loose term as far as truth goes, they had accepted nominally the
Judaistic religion. They had agreed to live under the shadow of the Law, that's why John
condemned him! That's why John was so concerned because he gave lip service to the
truth; and you say, b&s, it was wrong, he committed adultery, he committed more than
adultery, that's his niece! And Leviticus 18 had strongly condemned marriage at that
level of relationship; it specifically mentioned that, because Herodias was his niece,
herself a descendant of Herod the Great. So he was in a incestuous union and an
adulterous union. And that's the sort of thing that was going on and he knew it was
wrong. His conscience was smitten over it, and he couldn't withstand John's words. And
John kept telling him, he kept telling him all the time, in chapter 6 of Mark and verse 18
we read, 'For John had said unto Herod, it is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's
wife', in the Greek, b&s, in the Greek text it reads, 'John kept on saying to him', he never
gave up! he kept at him all the time, he kept on saying to him, it's not lawful for you to
have your brother's wife. And it worried him, but it worried his wife more! and we read
this in verse 19, 'Therefore, Herodias had a quarrel against him' (see what the margin
says) 'she had an inward grudge', and it's rather interesting, b&s, to see what the Greek
says for that word, which is basically what the margin says, but it's a very strong term.
It 's a term which has in it compounded words which really mean, she cherished or
loved a grudge. She harboured and fed with love that grudge, until it grew and grew in
her, until it dominated her whole being. She hated him and she loved that grudge that
she had, but she was frustrated in her desire to get rid of him. And you know, b&s,
you've only got to see with your mind's eye, the triplet of people that are there, to see
what sort of grudge it was.
With all the pompousness of the court enshrouding Herod the Great, or rather the son of
Herod the Great, with all her paraphernalia as a daughter of royalty, married now to the
king, and you see this man, who's dressed in a camel's skin, the audacity of that
individual, 'who does he think he is, to talk like that about us'? And she harboured and
cherished and loved that grudge! and that's the sort of person she was; and she would
have killed him, it says, she would have killed him but she could not, why couldn't she?
Well, says verse 20, 'Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and a holy,
and he observed him'. And the margin says rightly, 'kept him and saved him', and he
did! And the margin, b&s, the delicate balance that existed there, as the conscience of
Herod sufficiently stirred to know what sort of man that was, because you see, he could
assess values, he knew what holiness was, if he didn't he wouldn't have recognized it in
John. He knew what just meant, if he didn't he wouldn't have seen it there; he was like
Ahab when Elijah caught him in the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezreelite, do you see the
absolute parallel? When Ahab got caught there, and Elijah brought home to him the
iniquity and the blood which was dripping from his hands, Ahab humbled himself and
Yahweh acknowledged it! because He could see that it was genuine; oh, it was a
fleeting moment in his life, just a fleeting moment, like a flash of lightning; but it was
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there! He had it in him, and you know, b&s, these two men could have been better, they
could have been, had it not been for their wives. And he observed him and saved him,
and he did it for two reasons because Matthew tells us (and we won't turn to it now) that
he also feared the people. So he's in a cleft state in many regards, he can't touch John
because he fears the people and he doesn't want to touch John because he respects
him for what he is. And there's his wife prodding him all the time with this fierce grudge
in her bosom. That man, b&s, wished they'd never seen John the Baptist!
But you know, such was the conscience of Herod, that not only did he save him but he
went and heard him. And in verse 20 again, 'he observed him and when he heard him,
he did many things, and heard him gladly'. Remarkable, isn't it? here he would seek
opportunity when his wife wasn't around, to visit that tomb. And he had imprisoned John
in Machaerus (see that map; now Machaerus was a prison fortress like a prison by the
palace and it was built on the other side of the Dead Sea, perched just up north a little)
and over on the east of the Dead Sea, a little bit north, Machaerus was built perched
right up on top of the hill with the Dead Sea clearly beneath it. And you could go up
there and look all around about you and you'll see nothing else but wilderness. It's just
exactly like that from the other side, and you look straight down on the Dead Sea, and
there he had John imprisoned, and when his wife Herodias wasn't looking or thinking,
he'd be in there with John, listening to him and hearing him gladly! And look what Mark
says, 'he did many things', what does he mean? He means that Herod went in there and
he listened to John; imagine listening to John close up, in the same dungeon! Couldn't
get away from him, and Herod's conscience drew him in there, and imagine John telling
him, 'what are your values?' and running his eye up and down him, and Herod running
his eyes up and down John.
'Where do you think you're going to stand? you who accepted the Jewish faith? What
are your values? And he restrained some of the worst forms of passion in Herod; he did
many things, by which Mark means, everything but one! He wouldn't get rid of Herodias!
That's what Mark meant, he'll do anything but that! And you know, b&s, haven't you ever
come across that sort of person? haven't you ever seen that in operation? Now I'm not
here to criticize anyone, I'm here to criticize human nature, and for your information, I
have been born of a woman. So I'm in it with you! but haven't you ever seen human
nature act like that? A person's got a problem, they come to you about their problem
and they ask you what they must do; it's very clear what they must do, it's very simple!
that's always the case. The problem's not difficult to define, the solution is hard to find,
not the problem! You sit and listen to their story and you examine the whole case and
it's very simple what they've got to do; and they will do anything but that! and I have
found that consistently; you put your finger on the nerve centre and say, 'there's your
problem' and they acknowledge that that's right and you ask them 'what are you going
to do about it?' Well, I'll do this and I'll do that but I will not do that! And that's what
Herod was like, he did many things, except that one, because he wanted Herodias.
They were a bestial pair, b&s, and well matched; and he wanted her, and so that's what
happened. And you can imagine as that man came out from that tomb, and he
obviously showed signs on his countenance that he had really been affected by John's
teaching, that that grudge got harder and harder in the bosom of that woman, as she
would despise John because of his impact upon Herod the tetrarch of Petraea. And she
would despise him the more!
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And so the day was coming when she had to get him! and she would watch every
opportunity; I believe she ate, drank and slept, John the Baptist. She would think of
nothing else! she would watch and wait for the opportunity to get rid of him, and then
came the day, verse 21 which Mark says was a convenient day; of course it was, a
convenient day! (I'm going to show you in a minute a verse of scripture which I believe
implies, that Herodias planned on that day, the death of John). It wasn't just something
which arose out of the occasion, she planned it! It was Herod's birthday and they get
birthday parties like we do, but with a difference! See, they had a reason for keeping
birthdays because it happened to be a Roman custom that the emperors always had
birthday parties. It wasn't a general thing in the Roman empire, it wasn't allowed to be a
general thing. People may have had them in private but public birthday parties reserved
for the empress; and because, of course, the kings and procurators and the tetrarchs
use to go to Rome, mixed with the court, they were permitted to have birthday parties
because they represented the emperor! Well, Herod's got to have a birthday party, he's
the representative of the emperor and so he imitated the custom of the Roman empire
and it just so happened that they had this birthday party in the palace.
And you know, b&s, it's rather wonderful to think about this! the man who had been
talking on the other side of the Dead Sea, about true values, is now over there in the
palace; and if ever there was a contrast in values, in was in that dungeon and in that
palace, because it was a palace fortress. And it had both dungeons and dining halls and
there, b&s, was an absolute contrast in values. And I believe, that because our
Heavenly Father in His wisdom, and in His love, knew that John must give his life, He
choose the occasion well, b&s, for John died nobly, he died a very noble death. Not only
because he stuck to the truth, but he died under the very shadow of all that he ever
condemned. And his very death proved a point, that he was separate from it and had
nothing whatever to do with it; had he died anywhere else, that lesson would not have
been so forcibly demonstrated, as he died in the din of revelry. And I think that's an
honourable thing, and I think God designed it that way, that he might live and die
condemning this world in all its materialism, pomp, pride, arrogance, passion and
revelry! He had nothing to do with it in life, and he had nothing to do with it in death. And
that's why God, I believe, had him killed there, because I do believe that in the
providence of our Heavenly Father, he died and that's why he died.
So there, Herodias has this convenient day; and Herod's got there, his lords, his high
captains and chief estates of Galilee, and you know, b&s, when you go through those
titles, lords (megas=officials 3173) of the court, his high captains=chiliarchos (5506 a
military term meaning 'captain over a thousand), all his officers of the army, and the
chief estates=the great landowners of Galilee) everyone of those classes, diametrically
opposite to that man in the dungeon, who was never an official of the court, who never
counselled those soldiers to do violence to any man, nor did he have any estate. And
everyone called to that feast was the absolute opposite to that man in that dungeon.
Incredible when you think about it! And do you know something else, b&s, I believe that
if those three classes had not been called to that feast, John would have been left alive
by Herod. Because Mark tells us that when he opened his big mouth, as a foolish
drunken man, ruled with passion, when he opened his big mouth it was because of
those lords, and captains and chief estates that were there, that he had to keep his
word, when he didn't want to! And the very thing that surrounded him in life, now
brought about his own downfall. I believe, that Herod's life after the death of John,
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wasn't worth a cracker. He was a haunted man for the rest of his life, and he can blame
his friends whom he brought around him, and he had to keep his word because of their
sake! You know, b&s, there's maybe a lesson for us today, we maybe not like Herod,
(pray God, we may never be anything like him) but there is in all of us, a streak of
Herod. There is in me, I'll tell you that now! and you get surrounded by people who
admire you because you're notorious in reputation, and you open your big mouth and
say things you can't do, and when you find you can't really do what you opened your
mouth to say, you dare not lower you colours in front of those people, so you've got to
do something and you go and do stupid and foolish things to coverup very often for
what you're not able to do.!
Well, he was able to do it, and he was caught by the very presence of those man. Now,
I read up a bit about those birthday parties. How they use to conduct them! Interesting! I
wouldn't want to tell you all that they did at those birthday parties. Roman holidays were
quite something, but one of the things they did, according to my authority, was that the
party always finished up with some erotic pantomime; when the wine had flowed freely,
at that climatic moment of the feast, when men were rolling around drunk with loud
raucous voices, 'riding in the daytime' as Peter says, at that moment of the feast, the
organizer would always have some erotic pantomime, the very opposite to what we had
last night. We built up to a climax through our children, unto the more serious items, and
then we had our play, which to us, was the very opposite to what they were doing. They
would build up quite differently to us; they would fill themselves with wine, coarse jokes
and everything that goes with that. And when they got to a climatic point, they would put
on some erotic pantomime, and the interesting thing about that is this, that it always was
the custom, always they say, that loose immoral women would put that on for them. And
here to my knowledge, (and I never read of this anywhere else) for the first time that I
know of, that pantomime was presented by the daughter of Herodias, who was a very
loose, immoral woman. But because of their estimation of men and women of status, no
way in the wide world, should that girl have every entered into that pantomime. She was
a princess, she was the granddaughter of Herod the Great, therefore, related to Herod
Antipas himself. The daughter of Herodias by Philip and therefore, his step-daughter by
marriage. She herself later on became the wife of a tetrarch, and the mother of a king.
What's she doing there? and it illustrates, b&s, the absolute debased nature of Herodias
who got her to do it. And here were men, not ordinary men, men of chief estate in the
nation, men who in saner moments were considered to be dignified, who would have
expected and at moment, a team of prostitutes on the platform, and they got a princess
of the realm there! Such was the character of Herodias! We might say, 'well, it wouldn't
mean anything!' IT DID MEAN SOMETHING! These were the customs of the times,
nobody would dare to that, but she would! because she wanted John the Baptist dead,
and she didn't care less about prostituting her daughter to get it done. That's why I say,
she's a monster! an absolute monster!
Now Mark says 'she danced', but Matthew says 'she danced in their midst'. It's one thing
to dance, b&s, on a platform away from men, it's another thing to get down in the
audience and twirl in amongst them. And far be it from me, to put any smirch on this
camp, to say what I think would have happened. I'll leave that to your imagination, and
shamelessly, that little wench went through that crowd of men, in their state, military
men, and you can just imagine the type of thing! And in that dungeon was a man, who
was absolutely separate from all that! You know, can't you see our Heavenly Father
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looking down through the roof of Machaerus; can't you? I can! I can see Him looking
right down through that roof, and looking at that room and looking at that room! And if
ever there was a contrast in values, there it was! You know, it was an absolute
incredible thing what happened on that occasion; a thing never to be forgotten, and I
can imagine our Lord Jesus Christ, sitting down like we're doing now, with a better mind,
thinking deeply about the contrast in that prison and what happened on that occasion.
Because we know the story, we saw it acted last night, Herod jumping to His feet, no
doubt, to draw attention to himself as being a great man of riches, with all the chiliarcs,
the megas, and the chief officers of his court, laughing and applauding and yelling out
obscenities, which they will and would do, and Herod leaping to his feet, probably
rocking back and forth, blind with wine and with passion. His own step-daughter
absolutely aroused by it, and in a great raucous voice, 'ha, ha, you little beauty; half of
my kingdom!' Half of his kingdom, where did he get that from, b&s? It was a common
saying, yes! but where was its origins; its origins were in the court of Ahasuerus, weren't
they? when Queen Esther had gone before the king, in her purity, in her virginity, in her
loveliness and had brought forth from the king, the admiration of a profoundly good
woman, 'half of my kingdom will I give to you'. And here's this beast, repeating his
words, as if he was the great king Ahasuerus, who of course, stamped upon the world
that was a greatness that was inherited by kings who boasted greatness among the
kings of Persia. And the very phraseology that he used, was as it were, 'I AM
ANOTHER AHASUERUS, I AM THE WORLD! And using the very terms which were
levelled against Esther, for that little wench, he ought to have his tongue cut out of his
head. Absolutely shameful, the things that were going on there.
Half the kingdom, of course, it was only an exaggerated term, no body ever got half the
kingdom; you never find history recording that they gave away half a kingdom; but it
was an exaggerated term meaning, within my limits, whatever you ask! wealth untold, I
will do it, that's what it meant; it was an exaggerated term meaning just that! And
Matthew records in chapter 14, and here's that verse that I promised to show you.
Matthew chapter 14 and verse 8, he records, 'And she, being before instructed of her
mother, said, Give me here John Baptist's head in a charger'. Now she had before been
instructed of her mother, in the Greek however, b&s, it means 'she was being urged on
and pushed by her mother'. And I believe, implied in that term was this fact, that she
had been before instructed of her mother. She had gone before Herod the Great, she
had made her request, but she had balked at that request; her mother had told her what
to ask, when she got to the point where she could have the request so she balked at it,
so she went back to her mother. And I believe her mother got hold of her arm and said,
'Now listen, girl, get in there, that's what I want; get in there!' and the little girl, having of
course, overcome any trepidations whatever she had, Mark says, 'she went straightway
with haste'. She was just like her mother really, she went straightway with haste.
And look at the request, b&s! She not only wanted him killed, did she? she wanted his
head on a plate! A charger, of course, means a plate, a term used for a large dinner
dish. Why did she want that? I believe there were three reasons for that: there could
only be three reasons, (I've plumed the depths of that, because I thought if I could find
out why she wanted that head on a plate, I'd know more about her character). See this
is what you've got to do; you pick that up and you think to yourself, why on a plate? Now
you plum that, why? and you think about it, and I could only think of three reasons. And
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here they are, and it will tell you a lot about Herodias! You may think of four or five, I can
think of three; first of all, she would want to look into those eyes and make sure it was
him, because you see, they were not behind deceiving each other (Herod and
Herodias). And it wouldn't have been behind Herod to have that man whipped out of
that dungeon, rushed out into the wilderness somewhere, and incarcerated somewhere
in the wilderness. Wouldn't be behind him to do that! She must know he's dead, that
will tell you the depth of the feeling in her heart. Secondly, I believe, the fact that it was
on a plate, she would be able to receive that in front of all those men; and looking out
upon the chief of estates, the landowners of Galilee, and upon all the military captains of
the realm and the officers of the court; my credit! it would be her triumph. That will tell
you something else about her character. And to cap the bestiality off, there's only one
other reason why she'd want him on a dinner plate; they were having dinner and it
would be a lovely, gruesome, joke. A tidbit for the feast! She's a monster! I can only
think of those three reasons, and to me, they must have been them, because that's how
she wanted it. That woman, b&s, that woman is doomed, there's no doubt about that
whatever.
And what about Herod? Verse 26 tells us about what he thought! Mark says in verse 26
of chapter 6, Mark sees it this way! 'And the king was exceeding sorry; (I'll say he was
sorry! you know in the Greek, b&s, that's a very strong term; so strong that it's only used
in a few places, and if you want to know how strong it is, that's the very term that's used
in the garden of Gethsemane when the Lord Jesus Christ knelt on the ground, and as
He said, 'my soul is exceedingly sorrowful unto death'. That was the feeling of Herod,
and you know, there's a poetic justice in this; that the agony of mind and anguish, that
was in the Lord Jesus Christ as He faced death for the sins of the world, that same type
of agony and anguish, the same Greek word describes the torture of conscience of
Herod Antipas. And I can imagine, and I can believe this, b&s, I think in a moment, in a
twinkling of an eye, he would have been sober! I've seen that happen in my lifetime
before I came into the truth, of men made sober by realities in a flash! And I can well
and truly imagine that king coming out of his befuddled state, with a shattering impact,
and his whole soul revolted against that thing. But then, he would momentarily feel that
way, he would feel sick at heart, because he heard John gladly; he was a just man and
a holy man and he did many things that John had told him to do; but I believe the king
would compose himself very quickly, and look around, and he had to assess, b&s, his
values, he had to assess his values! And he assessed them, the chief of estate, the
landowners, were important to him. The captain of thousands, military men were
important to him; the nobles of the court were important to him; John the Baptist was
very important to him, but where were his values? And as his eyes swept those men,
and he thought about his own verbal promises to that girl in their hearing, he assessed
his values according to this world!
And he lost his head; that's what he did, he lost his head! And you know, b&s, in death
John kept his! he kept it well and truly; it wasn't John on that day who was beheaded, it
was Herod the Great. No doubt about that whatever, he lost his head, he assessed his
values wrongfully. And John died on the altar of pride, and deference to great men! and
there was no fitter altar for John to die on. I believe that, b&s, I'm not trying to be
dramatic, I believe it; I believe that God had it that way; that if John had to die, that's
where he had to die, on the altar in deference to great men of this world. In the 15th
year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, when all these Herods were tetrarchs of Abilene,
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Trachinitus, Lysanius, and all of them. When Annas and Caiphas were the high priest,
THE WORD OF OUR GOD CAME TO JOHN IN THE WILDERNESS AND HE DIED ON
THE ALTAR OF THOSE GREAT MEN OF THIS WORLD. He couldn't have died a finer
death a more noble death; he died, b&s, as being opposite to those men, as he lived
opposite to them. And if we could die like that, we would die happily! And I believe he
did die happily, he was a wonderful man, was John, and when they came and picked up
that corpse, headless though it may have been, b&s, his head was out preaching the
gospel! He will be crowned with the head of his body, the Lord Jesus Christ, and he will
see in that day, what true value is all about! and he will be, b&s, a chief of estate, a
landowner of this world. He will be a captain of thousands of saints to go forth and fight
the forces of evil. He will be an official of the court of the Lord Jesus Christ, and if
James and John requested to sit on Lord's right and left hand, and they were never
given an answer, I don't know where John will sit but I wouldn't be surprised if he's not
one side or the other, or if not, very close to it. He had nothing in this life, b&s, God gave
him nothing; he came into the world with nothing, he went out with nothing, he owned
nothing. He had none of our food, wore none of our clothes, lived none of our lives or
comforts. This life gave John nothing, what do you think God has for him in the next?
And if you think about that, what do you think God has for us in the next, who of this life
have been given everything? and if we make the kingdom, and sit upon the doorstep of
God's temple, we will weep with thankfulness that we got that far, because we've lived
in opulence, and in luxury in this world.
And would any of us look at John the Baptist and say, 'why should he be there?' Curse
the thought! and we will see in that day, b&s, a great man, and we won't see him in
camel's hair, we'll see him in the purple of the kingdom. A king and a priest in his own
right, crowned with immortality by our Lord Jesus Christ by the power of His Father, and
we will be with him, we pray, in that glorious day! What a man!
And now I want to take you back in history, and I've done this deliberately. Take you
back one step further, that we might finish this camp with the words, not of John the
Baptist, but of the Lord Jesus Christ, and ask Him 'what think ye of John?' John was
asked, 'what say you of yourself?' He said, 'I'm a nobody' We're going to ask the Lord
Jesus Christ what did you think of John? And out of the mouth of the Son of God, b&s,
on rare occasions came commendation of men and women, for their faith and their trust
in God. Every time the Lord commended anybody, it was brief and to the point and
never overdone. Our Lord never eulogized men for the sake of eulogizing them; we
know that, He was the Son of God, and there is no eulogy in the Word of God or out of
His mouth anywhere like that of John. Let's listen to them! If John felt he was nothing,
that's not what the Lord said. And it was because he was nothing that the Lord had such
a tremendous regard for John, a marvellous eulogy, and I want to relate to you now, the
circumstances which brought forth that eulogy.
I want you to come with me, b&s, all of you and I want to journey back to that Land, and
I want us all to listen to this exhortation, because this is what we're going to take home.
We're going to take home the words of our Lord, and we're all going to take it on the
chin, because we need to before Christ comes; it's urgent! The whole matter is urgent,
because John died in urgency; his message was one of urgency. I send you a light of
the prophet, and John came in his spirit and power, before the great and dreadful day
of Yahweh, LEST I smite the earth with a curse, and the Lord was driving that home to
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the people, because He knew how true that was. Now you listen to what happened in
Luke chapter 7, and just follow the circumstances up to just what happened before John
died, and they are marvellous circumstances.
The Lord is working up in Galilee, He's performing many miracles. And in Luke chapter
7 and verse 16, Luke had this to say about the impact upon the people. 'And there came
a fear on all: and they glorified God, saying, That a great prophet is risen up among us;
and, That God hath visited His people'. They are the words of Zacharias, the father of
John the Baptist. Now you think of that, and it's Luke that records it, and it's Luke that
recorded his words in that prophecy of thanksgiving, 'that God hath visited His people'.
What Luke is trying to tell us here is that people were looking at the Lord Jesus Christ
and they were confounded by His power and His might, they were absolutely
bewildered by the man's power, and they remembered the words of Zacharias, God has
visited His people. And John's disciples heard it.
Verse 18, 'And the disciples of John showed him of all these things', and hurrying back
down over Jordan, back over to Machaerus where Herod had allowed, of course,
visitors to John. I believe he would do that courteously, because he would know, that
John needed comfort; he honoured the man, he respected the man, he would let those
disciples in readily, I believe, and John would have the comfort of his disciples when he
wanted them, and they went in there and they showed John these things. And they said
to John, 'do you know John, God hath visited His people; he would answer, 'yes, my
dad said that, why? 'because this man's doing that and he's doing this, I've never seen
anything like it, John; it must be God, God only could do that, God has visited His
people'! And John's mind would go back to his father's words, but you see, b&s, John
had been languishing there for a long time, perhaps months in that prison. And you
know, I want to say something now, I want to try and put this record straight! there are
many brethren and sisters who have a towering admiration for John, who find it difficult
that John could doubt in those circumstances; and they say, 'well, when John sent those
two disciples saying, 'Art thou He that should come? or do we look for another?' that he
was sending them to educate those disciples. You know, I'd like to believe that, but
there is just nothing in that record to support that view! And I'm sorry to say that, but
there isn't!
I could name you at least 6 solid reasons why that is not so. And it will come out while
we expound these verses. Sufficient to say this, b&s, the exhortation of the Lord was to
John, not to those disciples, furthermore, John's disciples were clinging to him, because
of John. And John is their master, they accepted every word that fell from his lips,
whatever John said, they would do except one thing, leave him! I could scarcely
imagine John thinking that if he kept drumming into their ears to leave him, to go to that
man over there, and they wouldn't do it by his word, I can scarcely imagine John
thinking that he's going to send them to the very man in question, and that man's going
to convince them, if John can't! And he had been consistently trying to convince them;
that in itself I think is just so logical, but apart from that the whole record is couched in
terms, inescapable terms, that the doubt was John's and it'll come out as we go through
it, and you watch for it. But I'm not here to prove that, b&s, I'm not here to prove that
John doubted, (I don't want to prove that he doubted, that is so evident) but I want to
show however, that it wasn't a doubt or disbelief as we would understand it; it was
something that all of us could feel at various times. And it's foolishness, and I use that
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term advisably, without being critical of any brother or sister really, because I do respect
other points of view; and I do respect it more so because it's in a defense of John. And
I've often been the subject of criticism because they say that I say ignoble things about
noble people. I don't mean to do that, but I want to be genuine with that record. If you
can't understand why John doubted in that prison, then I can't really understand you!
And when you go back over the scriptures and you think about noble men and women,
you take Mary! You sisters out there, would understand this more than the brethren.
Mary has got a child in her womb, and she hasn't known any man; and when the boy's
grown up and she as his mother, on one occasion, wanting to drag him off the streets
because she was embarrassed, thinking He was making himself a madman. Could you
ever forget what had happened in your body? Of course, you couldn't and neither did
she! but the forgetfulness is not the question; it's a question of not remembering the
importance of what happened! What about Abraham, he's the father of the faithful, I'm
not here to run Abraham down, b&s, what I'm trying to illustrate is that there's no perfect
man. Abraham didn't only lie about his wife once, he did it twice; far be it from me to
criticize him, because in those circumstances I'd have lied about anything. I would have,
because I'm a coward! And you can go through the list of the heroes of scripture: Elijah
racing down the valley of Jezreel, brown with dust because of no rain, hair streaming in
the wind because he thought, 'here at last the king of Israel had repented' and as the
herald of the kingdom, racing down that valley to proclaim Ahab now, a converted,
virtuous king! And the very next verse tells us that he fled down the valley because he
ran away from Jezebel, and frightened of her, flopped down beneath a juniper tree. Can
you understand him? Well, I can, and I've never been able to understand those who
can't. I can understand it.
I can see John, languishing in that prison, in that desolate landscape, looking out over
nothing, but the Dead Sea and all that it spoke about and all the desolate wilderness.
And hanging there in that dungeon, I could image him, b&s, not saying to himself, 'I
don't believe or I doubt it' but he wanted some reassurance, wouldn't you? Of course
you would! and the fact that it is John's little waiver there, is unmistakable in that record.
So let's get it very clear, so we might appreciate (and the reason I want this clear is
because you won't understand the exhortation of the Lord if you don't see it that way)
because it doesn't really make much sense, unless you see it in that context.
And you know, John sent his request back to the Lord, in typical forthright fashion; he
never changed, not even in the dungeon. 'Art thou He that should come or do we look
for another?' That was always John's method, direct! Not an appeal for help or comfort,
John couldn't do that! he was direct. 'Art thou He that should come or do we look for
another? And he got a very, very indirect answer. You know, that's interesting, and the
fact that he did get an indirect answer, was furthering his education, to think a little more
deeply perhaps than he'd ever thought before, in circumstances of great trial, that his
mind might now plum the depths of the purpose of God in his life, that when John had
come to the thing himself by his own thinking, he might be strengthened to face the
ordeal to the very end; and I believe he did!
So back they come! And in verse 21, they came back and repeated the question of
John, 'art thou He that should come or do we look for another?' And verse 21 says, (the
Lord, now just imagine what He did) He heard the question, 'Lord, John wants to know
and he wants an answer; now look, are you the One to come, or do we look for
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another? Now we want an answer? And I can imagine the Lord Jesus Christ standing
there and looking at them compassionately and yet firmly and saying nothing. And after
perhaps a little bit of silence, He says, 'Come with me!' and going out among the people
the disciples of John following Him, He takes a leper, a poor wench, flesh all eaten
away with the ulcerations of leprosy, 'son, thy faith has made thee whole' (swish! and
the leprosy is gone), John's disciples look at that; the lame, the bones are strengthened,
the blind they see, the deaf they hear. And after a period of this as Luke says, 'In the
same hour He cured many of their infirmities, of plagues and of evil spirits, and to many
that were blind He gave sight'. And after a period of this, the question's still hanging in
the air, 'art thou He that should come? or do we look for another? He turns on John's
disciples, in a delayed action you might say and says, 'Now you go and tell John what
you have seen and heard', and the two words 'seen' and 'heard' b&s, were lifted by our
Lord Jesus Christ right out of the 52 chapter of Isaiah's prophecy; in the 52 chapter of
Isaiah the prophet appealed to the people to listen to what they'd seen and heard, 'for to
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? who hath believed our report and to whom is the
arm of the Lord revealed? Now you can only believe something by hearing it, and you
can only see the arm of the Lord revealed by seeing it, You go and tell what you've seen
and heard'. Isaiah 53, b&s, and John had to do, b&s, ..................