YEar 2 Day 282

Year 2 Day 282


Pray (ACts)


Read - Mark 6:17-20


Message - Alan Burke
None of us like our sin being pointed out, when it is we often try to excuse it, we try to make excuses saying  things like “sure nobody’s perfect”. Well Herod’s sin was so obvious, so blatant, so clear, that there was no excusing him and John called him out for it. It’s like me calling Boris Johnston out for his sin, but let’s be honest that’s not going to make waves, he’s an easy target and I’m a nobody. Rather it’s like say the Archbishop of Canterbury actually starts preaching the gospel and then calls out Boris for his sin publicly, well that’s going to cause a bit more of a stir. 


Well John had brought Herod’s sin into the public arena and had humiliated him, this was a bitter pill to swallow for a man who held such power and it left him in a predicament. Herod needed to shut John up to keep him quiet, he simply could not afford to have John reminding everyone of his sinfulness. Notice thought Herod didn’t kill him, he could have, but he found a half way house, left him in prison to rot. Herod had imprisoned an innocent man for telling the truth as well as knowing in his heart that what John was saying about his sin was true. We are even told that Herod liked listening to John, and we learn from the other gospels that John had been in prison for almost a year before he was beheaded. 


It seems so contradictory, Herod wanting to keep John quiet but yet he recognised something in John, something that drew him and caused him to want to hear what John had to say. That’s often the case with the gospel, people can understand it to be true, they hear it, they want the best for their kids so they send them to Sunday school, BB and GB because they will get it there, they will be taught the right way to live but they don’t want it for themselves, it’s ok when the gospel is at arms length, but not when it costs us, impacts the sin in our lives. 


It is only as we repent and believe that the sin in our lives with be dealt with. Sadly Herod had a year of listening and talking to John but despite this, he did not take the opportunity to repent of his sin. Instead of repenting from his sin he continued on it it. He heard but did nothing. Here’s a question, what have you done with the gospel that you have heard? Do you hear but do nothing with it? Or do you hear it and respond, knowing it to be true living in response to it, practicing repentance in your life, practicing belief?


Pray (acTS)


Sing


WSC
Q44 What doth the preface to the ten commandments teach us?
The preface to the ten commandments teacheth us, That because God is the Lord, and our God, and Redeemer, therefore we are bound to keep all his commandments. (Luke 1:74–75, 1 Pet. 1:15–18)
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