1. "Worldly power does not guarantee spiritual wisdom and insight. In fact, it often hinders it. We get confused by our own self-interest."

2. "Pity the poor absolute rulers who terrify people around them so that nobody will speak the truth to them. They get to live out their folly on a world stage for all to see."

3. "John clearly feared the loss of Herod's soul more than the loss of his own life."

4. "A bad ruler fears the people instead of God. A good ruler fears God instead of the people. Herod was a bad ruler."

5. "Better the Baptist lose his head than Herod lose face in front of these guests. Herod Antipas was controlled by what he thought others thought about him."

6. "Following Jesus is free and it costs you everything you have, and it's entirely worth it."

7. "Sometimes when truth meets power, power just beheads truth."

8. "He may have lost his head on earth, but he was given a crown in heaven."

9. "Your sufferings are platforms in His grace God gives you to show you how valuable following Jesus is and a means by which you can show that to others."

10. "He was derided and mocked. Do we expect to be honored and esteemed?"

Observation Questions

1. According to Matthew 14:3-4, why did Herod seize John the Baptist and put him in prison, and what specific message had John been repeatedly declaring to Herod?

2. In Matthew 14:5, what two conflicting desires did Herod have regarding John the Baptist, and what was the reason he did not act on his desire to kill John?

3. What sequence of events at Herod's birthday banquet led to John's execution, as described in Matthew 14:6-8?

4. According to Matthew 14:9, what two factors motivated Herod to grant the request for John's head despite being sorry about it?

5. In Matthew 14:1-2, how did Herod identify Jesus when he heard about His fame, and what explanation did Herod give for Jesus' miraculous powers?

6. What did John's disciples do after his execution, according to Matthew 14:12?

Interpretation Questions

1. How does Herod's response to John the Baptist—simultaneously respecting him, imprisoning him, and ultimately executing him—illustrate the danger of being "driven by fear of man" rather than fear of God?

2. Why is it significant that Matthew presents this account of John's death as a "flashback" at this point in his Gospel, immediately following the rejection of Jesus in Nazareth (Matthew 13:53-58)?

3. How does John the Baptist's ministry and fate serve as a "preview" or foreshadowing of Jesus' own ministry and the rejection He would face from both common people and powerful rulers?

4. What does Herod's identification of Jesus as "John the Baptist raised from the dead" reveal about his spiritual understanding and his posture toward the kingdom of heaven that Jesus was proclaiming?

5. How does this passage demonstrate that the coming of God's kingdom in Jesus would be "surprising" rather than fitting the popular expectations of Israel, and why was this rejection theologically necessary according to the sermon?

Application Questions

1. John the Baptist feared the loss of Herod's soul more than the loss of his own life. Is there a relationship in your life where you have avoided speaking difficult truths because you fear the consequences? What would it look like to prioritize that person's spiritual welfare this week?

2. Herod was controlled by what he thought others thought about him, making a sinful decision "because of his oaths and his guests." In what specific situations do you find yourself most tempted to compromise your convictions because of what others might think, and how can you prepare to respond differently?

3. The sermon noted that following Jesus "is free and costs you everything you have, and is entirely worth it." What is one thing—a comfort, relationship, reputation, or habit—that you sense God may be asking you to give up or hold more loosely in order to follow Christ more faithfully?

4. Herod heard John's preaching and was "greatly puzzled" and even "liked to listen," yet his conviction eventually "slumped into irritation." How can you guard against letting initial conviction from God's Word fade into resistance or indifference in your own life?

5. The sermon encouraged believers that personal setbacks received as the price of gospel faithfulness can "burnish the beauty of the gospel to those we share it with." How might you reframe a current difficulty or loss you are experiencing as an opportunity to demonstrate the worth of following Jesus to someone watching your life?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Mark 6:14-29 — This parallel account of John's death provides additional details about Herod's conflicted respect for John and enriches our understanding of the events in Matthew 14.

2. Matthew 5:10-12 — Jesus' teaching on the blessedness of those persecuted for righteousness directly applies to John's faithful suffering and encourages believers facing opposition today.

3. Isaiah 52:13–53:12 — This prophecy of the Suffering Servant shows how rejection and suffering were always part of God's plan for the Messiah, explaining why Jesus' rejection was theologically necessary.

4. Matthew 21:23-27 — This passage shows the religious leaders' similar fear of the crowds regarding John the Baptist, demonstrating the pattern of rejection that extended from John to Jesus.

5. Revelation 20:4-6 — John's vision of those "beheaded for the testimony of Jesus" connects John the Baptist's martyrdom to the broader pattern of Christian faithfulness unto death and the promise of resurrection reward.

Sermon Main Topics

I. The Question of Conflict in Our World and the Search for Answers

II. Some People May Think That All We Need Is the Truth Declared (Matthew 14:3-5)

III. Herod Responds to John's Declaration by Defending His Sin (Matthew 14:6-11)

IV. The Messiah Rejected (Matthew 14:1-2, 12)

V. The Kingdom's Surprising Appearance and Our Call to Follow Christ

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Peace or strife?

Harmony or conflict?

Which is closer to your idea of this world?

Which is closer to your idea of religion, of Christianity in this world?

The Bible's picture of God's creation of this world is good. It's very good. The couple living in the garden in fellowship with God, an idyllic place that was for them home and office and church all rolled into one. But this complete harmony as beautifully as it may be depicted and as deep longings as it touches often us seems far removed from our experiences in this world.

Is that simply because our perspective is off, like our Buddhist friends would tell us? We just need to think of things differently to arrive at samsara?

Or is there something beyond our merely mental perception that has gone wrong and caused conflict on every level, social, military, physical, psychological, emotional, even spiritual.

In our study in Matthew's gospel, we come to a passage full of drama which is an example for us of popular and obvious answers to the conflicts that we all know and experience in this life. And at the same time, it gives us God's answer which was emerging as His rule and reign began coming near in the person of Jesus of Nazareth? What do you think is the basic answer to the conflicts that we experience today? Is it found in the wisdom of ethics and morality? Is it found in the power and coercion of politics?

Or is there something else, something more than many philosophers and politicians understand?

Let's turn to Matthew chapter 14 for our lesson today. If you're using the Bibles provided, you'll find it on page 820. You will be helped to open this and follow along. If you're not used to looking at a Bible, the large numbers are the chapter numbers, the small numbers are the verse numbers. We're going to be looking at chapter 14 of Matthew's gospel, verses 1 to 12.

Follow along as I read God's Word.

At that time, Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus and he said to his servants, this is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him. For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Because John had been saying to him, 'It is not lawful for you to have her.' and though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people because they held him to be a prophet.

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, 'Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter. and the king was sorry. But because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given.

He had sent and had John beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took the body and buried it. And they went and told Jesus.

How will a wrong world be put right?

Through truth declared? Through power exercised? Or through God doing something different, more surprising, in the sending of the Messiah, Jesus? I pray that as we walk through this passage, you will understand even more of what it means for you to follow Jesus and that you'll be willing to part with whatever it takes to take Him as the treasure of your life.

Three aspects for us to especially notice in this story. First aspect, some people may think that all we need to have is the truth declared. Here in our passage we see that John the Baptist is condemned. Herod's adultery is condemned first by John the Baptist in no uncertain terms. Look again at our passage beginning in verse 3.

What this is a flashback. You see he mentions this statement in 1 and 2 which assumes that John the Baptist is dead. But the last the reader of Matthew knows in chapter 11, John's in prison and he's sending a question to Jesus. So now when we hear this statement of Herod, It presumes that we know that John is no longer alive. So what happened?

So he gives us this flashback of something that had happened earlier. You see, John, if you just take your Bibles, look back in chapter 4 of Matthew's gospel. Excuse me. Let's do a quick John the Baptist scan.

Chapter 3 is where John the Baptist baptizes Jesus. Chapter 4, look at verse 12, right after the temptations, we read chapter 4 verse 12. Now when he heard that John had been arrested, ah, so that's where John's arrested. He withdrew into Galilee and leaving Nazareth he went and lived in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, so that what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled, the land of Zebulun, the land of Naphtali, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, the Galilee of the Gentiles, the people dwelling in darkness, that's the land of the Gentiles, has seen a great light. And for those dwelling in the region and the shadow of death, on them a light has dawned.

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So Jesus, His ministry becomes more prominent with a message very much like the message of John the Baptist when he is arrested. And it seems like for most of these year or two that we've been studying Matthew from chapter 4 on through chapter 14 now. John's been in prison. That's why then in chapter 11, if you look back at chapter 11, John is in prison.

Chapter 11, verse 2, Now when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ, he sent word by his disciples and said to him, 'Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?' Now if you know your Bible at all, you realize, wait, John the Baptist is the one who told everybody Jesus was the one who was coming. That was his whole role. So why is he asking this question? Because John had been in prison for a year or two. And the common thought at the time was that the coming of the Messiah meant everything is solved now.

So the basic thing Jesus was teaching from his baptism to his crucifixion was that he would come twice. There would be an initial coming in which he would come and be rejected and actually be crucified as a substitutionary sacrifice, thus bringing salvation to His people. And then there would be another coming when He would come, the end of the age, He calls it, at which time everything will be put right. But friends, if He had come merely with that second coming, when all the judgment we sometimes long for in our flesh would come, that would mean hell for all of us. It was a really good thing he had two comings.

It was there in the Old Testament, people weren't understanding it, they weren't understanding how to put their Old Testaments together. Jesus taught this, this is basically what he's teaching in his ministry about himself. This is what we've been seeing in these teachings of Jesus in Matthew's Gospel. So John the Baptist had been confused about this, he sent his question in chapter 11, and now here in chapter 14 we have this flashback instructing us about what had happened. Look again here in chapter 14, verse 4.

That's Matthew signaling us. We're going back in time. We're going to explain now how it is that John is no longer in prison, but he's dead. For Herod had seized John and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Because John had been saying to him, It's not lawful for you to have her.

And though he, Herod, wanted to put him, John, to death, he, Herod, feared the people because they held him, John, to be a prophet. Now, as I say, Jesus' public ministry actually seemed to begin soon after John had baptized Jesus, and Jesus had heard that John was arrested. And Jesus' public ministry began We know from John chapter 3, while John was still baptizing, so there was some overlap, but largely fairly early on, we don't know exactly when, for the last year or two, it seems like Jesus' ministry had been carried out, not along with John's, but subsequently after John was effectively silenced by this arrest that Herod had performed. John's earlier words in reference to Jesus were being fulfilled when John said, He must increase, I must decrease. That's what was happening.

Herod the Tetrarch, as he called here in verse 1, arrested John. Now to be a tetrarch just meant to be ruler over a fourth of a kingdom. When Herod the Great had died in 4 B.C., he left his kingdom in various parts. And to Herod, Antipas, Herod the Great had 15 sons, all of them called Herod, very unhelpful or historians. But great for future PhD dissertations.

Herod Antipas was the ruler of the Tetrarch over a fourth of the kingdom, and it was the kingdom of Galilee and down the east side of the Jordan River. This is the Herod here who arrested John the Baptist. And yet that power to arrest didn't guarantee the power to understand. He may have had authority, but he didn't have insight. Worldly power does not guarantee spiritual wisdom and insight.

In fact, it often hinders it. We get confused by our own self-interest. Perhaps it's John's languishing in Herod's prison for a year or two that began to give him questions about the Messiah that he then sent to Jesus back in chapter 11. But Jesus explained the nature of His mission at the time wasn't to bring judgment. Like at the ages end, but to bring salvation by those who would come to know Him by faith.

But Matthew does give us more background of the arrest and seizure here in verse 3. It was because of Herodius. We learn here in verse 3 that Herodius had been Herod Antipas' half-brother Philip's wife. This is a long and complicated story. But I can simply say that at some point, and we don't know when, we don't know a date, Herod Antipas went to Rome and stayed with his rich half-brother, Herod Philip.

And he really liked Herod Philip's wife. He was already married, his brother was married, but an affair began. They agreed to divorce their spouses and Herodias came to live with Herod Antipas and came back to Galilee, which was absolutely scandalous. Well, this was the adulterous union that John the Baptist had boldly condemned publicly as not lawful. Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20 expressly forbid these kinds of unions.

And John was fearless of Herod and his punishments. He didn't spare Herod criticism because Herod was powerful and wealthy, John would have no partiality like that. Because of his position, if anything, Herod needed the truth more than most people did. Pity the poor absolute rulers who terrify people around them so that nobody will speak the truth to them. They get to live out their folly on a world stage for all to see.

The verb here in verse 4 is imperfect. It suggests that John didn't simply say this once. But that he repeatedly, maybe even continuously, was bringing up Herod's horrendous public immorality. And it was John's fear of the Lord that caused him to include Herod in this call to national repentance that he was going around making. John clearly feared the loss of Herod's soul more than the loss of his own life.

Can you imagine fearing man so little that were you put in this position you would do the same as John?

Perhaps some here today have already known something of what it's like to be persecuted for telling the truth. Truth isn't always popular, is it? And yet we find, especially in the parallel passage over in Mark's gospel, in Mark chapter 6, more indications of Herod's esteem for John and his message. Herod feared John because of this, it seems, He also, though, worked to protect him. He would go so far as to imprison John as a restraint, as a punishment, as a warning, as an inducement to be quiet, but he didn't want to do anything else.

So Herod was imprisoning him, but by imprisoning him and silencing him, he was also kind of protecting him from something worse. He would imprison him, in part, I'm sure, to please Herodias. She did not like this public criticism. But that's how he also kind of protected him because Herod knew John, we read in Mark 6, he knew John to be a holy and righteous man. He may not have liked what John said, but he couldn't deny John's character, nor could he deny, it seems, the power of his words.

In Mark 6:20 we're told that when Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled. He began to doubt, perhaps, the very way that he had lived. He was disturbed by John's words. He was moved by his message. He was troubled by his talk.

John perplexed and confounded Herod, and yet it says in Mark 6:20 that he liked to listen to him.

There's something about the unvarnished nature of the truth that John was providing that Herod could tell, and as messed up as Herod's spiritual palette was, he had some taste left for the truth. And he could tell that man, there was something about that man. So he had this odd relationship with John. Even so, in the contest between John and Herod, John's criticism was unsustainable. Maybe helped to realize the prison he's in is down, if any of you have ever been to Petra in Jordan, that was the capital of the neighboring kingdom.

And John, rather Herod, Antipas, had initially married the daughter of that neighboring kingdom, king, as a kind of political alliance. That's whom he had divorced in order to marry Herodias. So he had also brought political trouble on himself. Because that was not popular with the neighboring king when he divorced her to marry Herodias. So he was very nervous about this criticism out in public.

So he had thought about killing John. We read here in our passage in verse 5, Herod Antipas wanted to put him to death.

When I was reflecting on this, it just struck me that John's ministry was a preview of Jesus' ministry. In so many ways. He ministered in such a way as to make the authorities nervous and concerned that He be silenced, even in the rejection by the powerful. John is the forerunner of Jesus whom the religious leaders would want to put to death. But they too would be withheld by their fear of the crowds who took Jesus to be a prophet.

We read almost exactly these same words in Matthew 21, said of them about Jesus and the crowds. Well we read here of Herod in verse 5 that he feared the people. A bad ruler fears the people instead of God. A good ruler fears God instead of the people. Herod was a bad ruler.

Now, would John's brave truth-telling put things right? Well, let's go on. The second aspect we should note here is in verses 6 to 11 where Herod responds to John's declaration by defending his sin. That's what we see here. Herod was ensnared in the deception of sin, and so he used the power that he had to defend his sin.

He's a living illustration of what Jesus had taught them about hearing the Word. Herod heard, but then the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choked the Word that he had gladly heard. His conviction slumped into irritation. And so, unstable as he was, driven by fear of man not to kill John when he wanted to, he became driven by fear of man to kill John when the circumstances changed. Look again at our passage beginning in verse 6.

But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, 'Give me the head of John the Baptist here on a platter.' and the king was sorry. But because of his oaths and his guests, he commanded it to be given. He sent and had John beheaded in the prison. And his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl.

And she brought it to her mother.

Let's spend a couple of minutes just walking through these verses to make sure we're understanding this bizarre tragedy that quickly unfolded. It begins with Herod mis-spending his birthday badly. On our birthdays we should thank God for the time He's given us. We should confess our sins of misusing the time that He's given us. And we should pray that He takes us safely home.

Guides us, helps us to persevere all the way to home. But that's not the kind of birthday remembrance going on here at Herod's palace. No, after all, Herod understood himself to be a great man, and great men deserve great celebrations, right? So here we have the men at a birthday banquet being entertained by the certainly sensuous dancing of Herodias' 18 or 19-year-old daughter. I mean, who but members of that royal family, which if you read the histories, you realize what an utterly disgusting family they were on just about every level, who but members of that royal family would so degrade themselves as to provide such public entertainment to the men?

I'm assuming her mother encouraged her to do this. What bitter fruit is yielded in children's lives from the folly of the parents.

Then in verse 7, Herod makes that careless, drunken pledge and he seals it with an oath, we read.

And I have the idea that in verse 9 it says, Because of his oaths and his guests, I'm thinking if there were no guests, he wouldn't really care that much about the oath. But because he made the oath in front of the guests, we're back to the fear of man that we know from earlier that ruled him. Anyway, he makes this careless drunken pledge with an oath and the girl counseled by her extremely able mother Herodias asks for Herod's pledge to her to be made good by giving her... well, again at verse 8...

the head of John the Baptist on a platter. Herodias didn't simply want John's criticisms permanently silenced. She seemed to want a terrible trophy of her triumph. So this platter, almost certainly a fine piece of craftsmanship used at a royal banquet like this, made no doubt of silver or even of gold, was bedecked with the head of John the Baptist. Why would Herod do this?

Well, again, you read the answer right there in verse 9. Because of his oaths and guests. Better the Baptist lose his head than Herod lose face in front of these guests. Herod Antipas was controlled by what he thought others thought about him.

That's always the danger for politicians, isn't it? Achieve notoriety and popularity by giving the people what they want. But even the temporary celebrity you purchase by such political means lasts only for the briefest of times.

D.C. is full of people who've been both elected and completely forgotten.

Ironically, the only reason anyone has heard of Herod today, beyond just a handful of scholars of antiquities, is because of his connection with John the Baptist and Jesus. Other than that, No one sitting here would have even heard of Herod Antipas, as great and powerful as he was.

So we read here in verse 10, Herod had John beheaded.

What was it Jesus had taught in the Sermon on the Mount?

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on My account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven. For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. You see how Jesus was constantly reminding the Jews of this theme? Why was he doing that?

He was preparing them to understand that even if he himself, the Messiah, were rejected, that didn't mean that he wasn't the Messiah. In fact, maybe that's the typical pattern that we see of Israel dealing with her prophets. Maybe that's almost a kind of confirmation. In fact, when Jesus comes to Jerusalem that last week, do you remember how he describes Jerusalem? The city that kills the prophets.

Israel always rejected the true prophets. Now Herod was fulfilling that terrible role.

You know, sometimes when truth meets power, power just beheads truth.

I wonder if you fear to follow John here.

We know from John the Apostle's vision in Revelation 20 that others would follow John the Baptist's example of faithfulness.

John the Apostle referred to the souls of those who've been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus.

Back to our narrative. There was the ugly conclusion of the matter in verse 11, His head was brought on a platter. Herod is the savage son of the butcher of Bethlehem's baby boys. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. But as with his terrible father, This Father was not to be the one who would finally sentence the Messiah to death.

It was not time for that yet. Jesus must teach more first. There was more to be done.

Friends, as you reflect on this gloomy incident, I wonder what's the closest thing you're likely to come to losing your head for faithfulness this week.

A cross word with somebody you work with?

Losing a close friend, maybe even a family member, over gospel faithfulness?

My non-Christian friends, I have good news for you today.

Following Jesus is free and it costs you everything you have, and it's entirely worth it. God has come to bring you a relationship of love with Himself. He can offer you forgiveness for all of your sins because of what Christ has done. The righteousness of Jesus becomes your entryway to God, not your own cruddy righteousness. You can know forgiveness if you'll repent of your sins and trust in Jesus Christ.

He's offered Himself on the cross literally as a sacrifice in the place of everyone who will turn and trust in Him. Friend, that could be you. If you want to know more about what that would mean for you to follow Christ, to know this new life of forgiveness, talk to one of us at the doors on the way out. We would love to talk to you more about that. If you would come to Christ today, though, you will need to count the cost.

My Christian friends, our brothers and sisters in China are counting the cost. How many of us know various individuals that we've gotten emails from over the last three or four months telling us like, oh, several police turned up at our meeting. Oh, I was interrogated. Oh, I was taken into the station. Oh, our church has been told not to meet.

A handful, scores of stories like that. And of course many places around the world it's even worse. If faithfulness seems easier here for a while, well, that's all to the good. That's a stewardship that we can use. Let's use it while we've got it.

But if the very Word of God coming to John didn't protect him from rejection by the rulers then, I'm not sure why we would think it would keep us from such rejection today. If Jesus Christ Himself was humbled And if He was humble to raise us up, it's no surprise that before glory there will come suffering. It's up to God to allot the time and the place and the severity and we will trust Him to bring us through it, as we've sung in some of our hymns already today. But it's good for us to count the cost. It's good to see God's salvation.

It's good for us to love our neighbor. It's good for us to trust Christ. And it's good for us to count the cost.

I love how Spurgeon reflected on the price that John the Baptist was called to pay this day. Spurgeon said, It was a foul murder, but to the Baptist it was a happy release. He was not left to pine in solitude. His work was done. Thus the man of God left his prison for paradise by one sudden stroke of the sword.

He was no longer in the power of Herod or Herodias. He may have lost his head on earth, but he was given a crown in heaven. How many Christians down the ages have enriched the worth of the gospel proclamation by the testimony of their own lives? Again and again, other Christians have been strengthened by Christians giving all they have to follow Christ. The gospel has spread through everything from the persecution of the church in Jerusalem in Acts 8.

I mean, literally, that persecution caused the Christians to leave there and go other places. To Paul's imprisonments all over the Mediterranean world, which the Christians were always scared, oh no, this is going to kill us. And Paul quite confidently would say, no, no, this is meant for the advance of the gospel. He knew the gospel would go forward through this suffering. Our personal setbacks, received as the price of gospel faithfulness, only burnish the beauty of the gospel to those we share it with.

Oh, so following Jesus is worth that? Oh, and that? Oh, and even that? Yes. Your sufferings are platforms in His grace God gives you to show you how valuable following Jesus is and a means by which you can show that to others.

It is a thousand times easier for me to say that than it is to live it. I want to acknowledge that. Please don't hear by the emotional force with which I say that that you should kick yourself like a stupid idiot for not living perfectly like that. Friends, we're all ensnared in our sins and we struggle with this. We're in a fallen world.

And yet we know the glorious truth that Christ is worth whatever he would call us to pass up, to give up, to turn from. And those are opportunities he gives us to be able to communicate that to others. That's what John the Baptist gave testimony to here. But friends, at the end of the day, this passage is not about John the Baptist's preaching or even Herod's beheading. It's about Jesus Christ.

Even as all of our conflicts today pale in comparison with the most basic ongoing conflict on earth, which is the conflict between us and God. So the real story that's going on here is what's going on with Jesus Christ. And this is the third main aspect I want us to notice, which is at the end and the beginning of our passage, where we see the Messiah rejected. We see in verse 12, Jesus and His disciples, presumably, learned of John's death. Look at verse 12.

And His disciples, that's John's disciples, came and took the body and buried it. I love the fact they don't say they buried John. John wasn't there. Our newspapers used to be better at this. They used to say that the mortal remains of such-and-such person were buried.

Now these days they often, and I think carelessness because they're secularism, they just say, the person they give the name was buried. That's not a Christian view of it at all. We understand the body, the mortal remains of so-and-so were buried. The person is not there. So I love the way Matthew puts this.

His disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Jesus. So that's how Jesus heard that John had been killed. But you look back at the beginning of our passage, verse 1, at that time Herod the Tetrarch heard about the fame of Jesus and he said to his servants, this is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.

Now do you understand what that means? That's the important thing out of these 12 verses. It's right there.

The moment Herod identifies Jesus as John the Baptist, how does Herod feel about John the Baptist? Well, Mark, he liked hearing him preach. He beheaded him. At the end of the day, he beheaded him. He wanted to kill him and he finally killed him.

So he saw John the Baptist as a threat. Now, if John the Baptist somehow managed to be reincarnated or raised himself from the dead, is that in Herod's eyes going to make him more or less of a threat?

I would opt for more of a threat.

So if even beheading doesn't stop this guy, then surely his criticisms are not going to stop now. And in fact, they'll be given more authority by the fact that he's been raised from the dead. That's how Herod was reasoning. So the operative fact for us at this point in Matthew's Gospel is that Herod is rejecting Jesus. And honestly, with this assertion of reincarnation of a beheaded prophet, Herod is no more confused than the Nazarenes of the previous passage.

The Nazarenes who just thought, oh, it's just Joseph's boy. Nothing special here. They were just as confused about who Jesus is as Herod is, though in an opposite direction. When Herod identified Jesus with John the Baptist, he was identifying him with someone he had imprisoned for years, had wanted to kill, and finally did have beheaded. Jesus would later teach his disciples I tell you that Elijah has already come and they did not recognize him, but did to him whatever they pleased.

So also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them of John the Baptist. But, friends, Herod's opposition to John the Baptist not only foreshadows the rejection of Jesus by the powerful, it's actually the beginning of that rejection.

So at this point in Matthew's gospel, many of the crowds may be liking Jesus, but you'll notice we've seen the religious leaders turn against him. Now at the end of chapter 13 and the beginning of chapter 14, we have this pair of rejections, opposite in so many ways, but finally united in their verdict. The common villagers of Nazareth, his hometown, rejected Jesus. And now the king of Galilee, was rejecting Jesus. Together this pair served as a kind of marrism.

That is when you use two opposites to speak of the whole. I've searched high and low, meaning I've searched everywhere. That's what Matthew is communicating here. The common folk of humble Nazareth, the very king of Galilee, both are rejecting Jesus. Do you know who that means is rejecting Jesus?

Pretty much the whole kit and caboodle. He is being rejected.

Now if that's the case, even given this fresh rejection, would Jesus' disciples still be able to see the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven in Jesus and His ministry?

It seems like the parable of the sower had taught them to understand how Herod's rejection of the truth It didn't mean there was anything wrong with John's preaching of it. And the fact that the Kingdom of Heaven could appear as small as a tiny seed or as insignificant as some leaven, they were beginning to understand. The fact that the Kingdom could be coming now and that there would still be weeds and bad fish like Herod, and that they would still be there until the end of the age. Well it made sense with what Jesus was teaching them.

And the fact that someone like John the Baptist was making an enriching choice in choosing the treasure of being faithful to God and telling the truth, even if it meant laying down his life, had been shown them in the two parables of the treasure in the field and the pearl of great price.

And the explanation of the Old Testament Scriptures, including their predictions of the coming of Elijah being fulfilled in John the Baptist's ministry in preparation for the coming of Jesus and of the suffering servant in Isaiah 52 and 53. All showed that the signs of the kingdom's coming in Jesus, which were there, the healing of the blind, the healing of the sick, the restoration of the forsaken, they shouldn't be discounted. They shouldn't be set aside. All that was happening was accounted for in what Jesus had been teaching them. In chapter 13, and that He would continue to teach them until in chapter 16, verse 15, Peter would lead the disciples in recognizing Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God.

Friends, this whole passage was full of evidence against believing in the presence of the Kingdom of Heaven coming in Jesus' ministry, as the Kingdom was popularly conceived among the people of Israel at the time.

Most people then thought that if the Kingdom had really come, the King would not be adulterous but righteous. God's prophets would not be killed and the Messiah would not be rejected. But guess what? The King was adulterous and God's prophet was killed and God's Messiah looked like He was being rejected. So did that mean the Kingdom of Heaven was not coming in Jesus?

Jesus was teaching the disciples that the kingdom's appearance would be surprising. But even this surprising appearance of it was necessary. And here we're in the deepest knot of the theology in this passage, so bear with me. Here, in the Messiah's rejection, that was necessary for the purpose of the Messiah's first coming to be fulfilled. That is, the saving substitution that had been foreshadowed in all the sacrificial system, from the Passover to the Day of Atonement, to the statements about the suffering servant in Isaiah, only in being so thoroughly and completely rejected would Jesus be taking on the penalty that we, we have deserved for our sins.

Okay, that's the deepest bit of theology in this sermon. Just take that in for a moment.

So what I'm saying is that the rejection of the Messiah by the people who knew Him in Nazareth, by the great King, as He called Himself, Herod Antipas, and everybody in between, was horrible and terrible and wrong, and in the mysterious providence of God was part of Jesus bearing the sufferings for sin that He never committed, but that we have committed.

Even His rejection and him suffering that as part of his humiliation was part of his effectual love for you and me.

So taken with the rejection in Nazareth by the common folk that Jesus was simply one of them, now paired with the king's misunderstanding of Jesus as a resurrected prophet whom the king had already killed once, these together show the complete misunderstanding of Jesus' identity.

And friends, we just have to ask, if Jesus were so misunderstood, what will likely happen to us if we follow Him?

If Jesus was so misunderstood, what will likely happen to us? If we follow Him.

He was derided and mocked. Do we expect to be honored and esteemed?

Of course, that's the true state of our world. Not our church, here in our church we mean to honor Jesus. We intend to be with those who recognize and esteem Jesus as our King and so we recognize and honor and esteem all those who follow Him. We are those who mean to observe all that He has commanded us, even the proclamation of His death through the celebration of His Supper, which is a preview of the celebration that will be when the end of the ages does finally come. And the kingdom is celebrated in all of its fullness.

All of that is here for us in this table today if you are in Christ.

Let's pray.

Well, God, we pray that you would encourage us in our following of the Lord Jesus today.

Encourage us by youy Spirit.

Encourage us by youy Word.

Encourage us by youy church.

Encourage us by youy gospel.

Encourage us by the promise of youf return, the end of the age.

Encourage us even now by this table, you, table set for us at such high cost, free to all who will come by faith. We ask in Jesus' name, Amen.