Lessons From The Death Of John the Baptist

Date: May 25, 1997-A.M.
Speaker: Harvey Porter
Main Scripture Reference: Mark 6:17-29

You know, we don’t think about John the Baptist very much. He’s listed in the first part of three of the Gospels—the Synoptic Gospels [“synoptic” means “to give a comprehensive, or overall, view”]. But Jesus made a statement about him that I think is really worthy of our consideration. Matthew 11:11 says, “And He said in an authoritative way, ‘Of them that are born of woman…,’” That’s everybody! “‘…Of them that are born of woman, there has not arisen a greater than John the Baptist…;’” Then He qualifies this statement. He says, “‘…but he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.’” That’s a paradoxical statement. Everybody is born of woman. But then Jesus says, “‘…but he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than John.’”—is greater than all the rest who have been born.

The answer is, as you well know, John was not privileged to be in the kingdom. He’ll be saved, and there will be those written about in the Old Testament who will be saved if they lived according to the plan of God under which they found themselves. But now, Jesus has established a kingdom that’s worldwide—that’s eternal in its nature. And the kingdom is the church. And He’s the head of the church. And He’s the king of the kingdom. And He’s the divine Son of God, and He becomes our “elder brother” is the way we describe it, because all of us are heirs of God, and joint heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ. So, we’re in God’s family, and we are brothers and sisters of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has made all of this possible. Well, that’s a beautiful play of words that Jesus has there. “…of all of them that are born of woman, there is none greater than John the Baptist.”

How much contact did Jesus have with John? Well, there’s not a lot recorded. But you must remember that he’s a cousin of Jesus. So, there’s no telling how much contact they had while they were growing up. John the Baptist…

John knew he was going to die, and he wasn’t afraid to die. We have, in all three of these accounts, the fact that John was put to death by Herod. And a Herodian family is listed in about four different men that are found in our New Testament. And they are all descendants of Herod the Great. He’s the one who tried to kill Jesus when Jesus was born, [Matthew 2:13]. He was a vile and wicked man! He had six wives—possibly ten wives. And he had a number of sons and daughters.

What we’re going to find is that John preaches something that one of these daughters takes offense to because she has married her uncle, who is also in the bloodline. John says, “it’s not right for you to have her,” [Matthew 14; Mark 6; Luke 3]. The Old Testament condemns adultery. “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” [Exodus 20:14; Leviticus 20:10; Deuteronomy 5:18, etc.]. The New Testament condemns adultery, [Matthew 5:27-28, 32; Matthew 19:9, 18; Mark 10:11-12, 19; Luke 16:18, Luke 18:20; Romans 13:9-10; James 2:11]. It has never been a popular subject for preaching. Our country is filled with adultery. Adultery means you have married someone that it is not lawful for you to have—somebody else’s wife or somebody else’s husband. It’s been a common practice, I guess, since the human family’s been here.

But John is going to get into trouble because he denounces the adultery of Herod and Herodias. They are head of the province of Galilee. He’s the king. And you don’t say that to a king. Let me read to you from Mark’s Gospel, and he records this, I think, quite well for us. I’m beginning with Mark, chapter 6, and verse 12: “They went out and preached that people should repent. They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil, and healed them. King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ Name had become well known. Some were saying, ‘John the Baptist has been raised from the dead; that is why miraculous powers are at work in him.’ Others said, ‘He is Elijah,’ and still others claimed, ‘He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.’ But when Herod heard this, he said, ‘John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead.’”

What would that do for you? Well, that would terrify you, no doubt about it. Many of the people were very superstitious in that time, but the Jews had, by this time, a belief in resurrection—to some degree—not ALL of the Jews, but some of them. But our Lord will certainly teach resurrection all during His personal ministry, and this would become the heart and theme of preaching the Good News to people that are dying. Through Jesus Christ, Who’s our Savior and has been resurrected, YOU may be resurrected, too. You may live again. In fact, ALL the dead will rise in Jesus Christ, some under a resurrection of eternal life and some under a resurrection of eternal punishment, [Matthew 25:31-46; Romans 2:5-11; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18].

[Continuing to read from Mark 6, beginning with verse 17: ] “For Herod himself had given orders to have John arrested and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. For John had been saying to Herod, ‘It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.’ So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled; yet he liked to listen to him.

“Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee…” I hadn’t noticed this until I studied for this lesson. The leading men of Galilee would be Jews! They went to Herod’s birthday celebration. Now, here Herod is, he’s NOT a Jew—he’s a Gentile—and he comes from a family that all the Jews hated. Herod was hated by ALL of them. He was oppressive, he was hard, he was mean! He was a sinful man to the core. There’s no doubt about that, and his whole family has been that way. And SO, these “men of Galilee” went to this birthday, and I’m surprised at that.