Losing Your Head over a Grudge | Mark 6 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] all right mark's gospel chapter 6 is where we are i'm going to read verses 14 down through verse 29 so follow along in your bibles if you have them open now to mark 6 starting at verse 14. it says now king herod heard of him him is jesus for his name jesus had become well known and he said herod said john the baptist is risen from the dead and therefore these powers are at work in him others said it is elijah and others said it is the prophet or like one of the prophets but when herod heard he said this is john whom i beheaded he has been raised from the dead for herod himself had sent and laid hold of john and bound him in prison for the sake of herodius his brother philip's wife for he had married her because john had said to herod it is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife and therefore herodias held it against him your attention for a moment held it against him if you have an esv translation it says and she had a grudge against john the baptist if you have an niv it says she nursed a grudge against john the baptist and rested verse 19 and wanted to kill him but she could not for herod feared john knowing that he was a just and holy man and he protected him and when he heard him he did many things and heard him gladly then an opportune day came when herod on his birthday gave a feast for his nobles the high officers and the chief men of galilee and when herodius's daughter herself came in and danced and pleased herod and those who sat with him the king said to the girl ask me whatever you want and i will give it to you he also swore to her whatever you ask me i will give you up to half my kingdom. so she went out and said to her mother what shall i ask and she said mom said the head of john the baptist immediately she came in with haste to the king and asked saying i want you to give me at once the head of john the baptist on a platter and the king was exceedingly sorry yet because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him he did not want to refuse her immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought and he went and beheaded him john the baptist in prison brought his head on a platter and gave it to the girl and the girl gave it to her mother and when his disciples heard of it they came and took away his corpse and laid it in a tomb wow well i've entitled today's teaching losing your head over a garage is it too soon i don't know we we gotta learn from this story so that's the title i've given it and if i were to give it a subtitle it would be and it's not worth it but let's pray first lord thank you for this time together in your word and in your house as we gather to worship you we pray that you would use this story to speak to us that we would learn from it that we would take to heart these things and we trust that as we have worshipped you in song and as we worship you in studying your word that you will be glorified and in the process we will be edified we will be strengthened and built up in our faith so be with us now as we study this together we love you we praise you in jesus name and everyone say amen well this story has all the elements of a hollywood movie it really does it's got seduction it's got family betrayal a high society cocktail party power greed revenge murder it's all here and it all centers around the royal family of the herod's and one innocent evangelist by the name of john the baptist now so that we understand leading up to this story in mark chapter 4 mark begins to tell us different things that jesus was doing that raised his popularity on the world scene in mark 4 jesus calms a storm on the sea of galilee that was raging with wind and waves in chapter 5 mark tells us that jesus heals another demon-possessed man that he heals a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and in mark 5 it tells us that jesus raised a girl from the dead now even though we're skipping those stories in the course of going through matthew mark luke and john we'll cover all of these things but for the moment skipping chapters the rest of chapter four and five what we learned though is that jesus is gaining popularity among people by virtue of all these different miracles and his his teachings such that people are beginning to wonder who exactly is this guy they're trying to figure out they're trying to understand who he is short of recognizing him as just outright messiah they're trying to figure him out what is this guy up to who is this guy and among some of the popular ideas and thoughts of the day some thought that he was elijah the prophet back from the dead some thought that he was one of the other prophets like jeremiah back from the dead remember in matthew chapter 16 when jesus takes his own disciples up to caesarea philippi he uses that scene to ask the question who do men say that i am and they say well some say that you're john the baptist some jeremiah and some elijah some a prophet of old that's the word on the street and jesus says well who do you say that i am and that's when simon peter says well you are the christ the son of the living god he makes that declaration about jesus being the messiah but they tell jesus what the word is on the street that's what we're finding out here as well some think that he's elijah back from the dead something that he's jeremiah or another prophet back from the dead and herod himself thinks that he might be john the baptist back from the dead the reason that herod thinks that is because herod had something to do with everything to do with the death of john the baptist and so this is haunting him he's thinking well i had john the baptist beheaded maybe john the baptist has come back from the dead and that's who jesus is i want you to notice again in the verses that we started reading here go back again and look at verses 14 15 and 16 because they're different from the rest of the story and i'll explain why verses 14 15 and 16 it says now herod heard of him jesus for his name had become well known and he said john the baptist is risen from the dead and therefore these powers are at work in him others said it is elijah and others said it is the prophet or like one of the prophets but when herod heard he said this is john whom i beheaded he has been raised from the dead all right and then verse 17 and on give us the back story so it's kind of like this you know how when you watch a movie and you see events unfolding in real time but then there's some reference to something that happened earlier and so then the movie scene switches to something that happened in the past so it brings you up to speed with current events that's what's happening in our story verses 14 15 and 16 are real time hera is going i think this is john the baptist raised from the dead and verse 17 on give us the back story of how john the baptist was executed and herod had everything to do with it and so what it tells us is herod is haunted by this maybe it's even better to say he's paranoid about this he had john the baptist beheaded and now he's thinking to himself this dude has come back this jesus character is really john the baptist raised from the dead and so verses 17 on give us the back story and here is the back story herod was a king appointed by the roman government to oversee this part of the roman empire namely judea or israel or the galilee region here and herod would serve as a liaison between the jewish people and the roman government between this territory and caesar so he was appointed by the roman government as a territorial monarch as a king over this particular region giving oversight and being a liaison but there were many herods in the course of history and several herods referred to in our new testaments so in order to kind of unpack this and unravel this i want to share with you a little bit about the herod family tree because it's a bit complicated there's some there's some mixing and marriaging marrying within the family here so i've actually put together a slide so that you can see it and i'm gonna unwrap it because it's uh it's about as complicated as a west virginia family reunion i'm from west virginia don't send me emails i already got one after the first service all right so here's the family tree we start with herod the great herod the great is the one remember who gave the edict that all the baby boys in bethlehem around the time of jesus birth age 2 and younger should be murdered because he was trying to eliminate jesus he was threatened as king that there was any other king that could possibly try to take the throne he was very paranoid uh he was very bloodthirsty here the great had some of his sons and a couple of his wives murdered one historian said it was better in that day to be one of herod's pigs to then to be one of herod's sons because he was quick to kill anybody that he felt was a threat to his reign very hyper paranoid very insecure man that's herod the great but herod the great at the same time with all of his faults being so bloodthirsty and a murder as he was was also the greatest builder in israel's history he was known for building caesarea by the sea as a place that we go on our tours we stopped by and see caesarea by the mediterranean he also built up masada this fortress in the middle of the desert down by the dead sea on top of this mesa this this uh high cliff mountain uh and he was also known for being the one who built the temple in jerusalem rebuilt the temple in jerusalem refurbished it made it beautiful and extravagant and he did it to ingratiate himself with the jewish people he's ruling over them he's the liaison between them and the roman government he wants to be on the good side of the jewish people he rebuilds their temple beautiful spectacular he dies around 4 bc but that's herod the great he has several sons by several wives i'm only going to give you the ones that are relevant to this story a son by a second wife was named aristobulus iv he had a son by his third wife named herod phillip he had his son by his fourth wife named herod antipas that's this herod in mark chapter 6. everybody with me so far what happens is aristobulus iv has a daughter whose name is herodias she's the herodias in our story mark chapter six she marries uncle philip you see why i'm telling you this is a little complicated she marries her uncle phillip but herod antipas likes her so he steals her from herod philip and she ends up marrying her and at the pass that's why i had to put it on a slide for you okay so now you know the back story this is the reason why when we're reading here that john the baptist confronts them and he says to herod antipas you have your brother philip's wife herodias you've stolen her to marry her and by the way history tells us that both herodias being married to philip and herod antipas was married himself they both divorced their spouses to marry each other so this is what is happening within the herod household and john the baptist confronts john the baptist had no problem confronting immorality in his day he had no problem confronting the political powers that be in his day even though it ended up getting him imprisoned and ultimately killed he was still unafraid to confront political powers of his day just a minute note to self right here you might get killed gary all right note to self all right that's just what happens now herodias herodius is angry that john the baptist has confronted her and herod about their lifestyle she is so angry the text tells us we read it a moment ago that she wanted to kill him but she was not able why was she not able to kill him look again in your bibles at verse 20 because herod feared john knowing that he was a just and holy man and he protected him so herod at the past he didn't he didn't like what john the baptist was saying but he didn't want to kill him so he imprisoned him that's where john the baptist is when the story is happening john the baptist is in prison so herod wants to silence him but he didn't want to kill him because he knows that john the baptist is a just and holy man he has some respect there plus you have to remember herod antipas doesn't want to you know ruffle any feathers john the baptist is popular he doesn't want to have the guy killed because then it would threaten his political career so he's trying to walk this political tightrope he has him imprisoned herodius wants him dead but herod is protecting him in prison until until one day herod has this birthday dinner party the story tells us and he throws this party for himself and he invites all the bigwigs and you know the the a-list people in town all the nobles all the chief officials and and they come for this big birthday bash this big feast and part of the evening entertainment involved herodius's daughter from a previous marriage tradition tells us her name was salome herod had herodias daughter from a previous marriage dance as entertainment for the night in front of all these big shot guests okay and so there she is dancing with the stars doing this routine thing and she's wowing the crowd and among those wild is herod himself he's like wow what a great dance routine this is lovely here and herod makes a promise that he will later regret but he makes a huge promise which tells us that he had to have been a little tipsy here you know to offer up to half your kingdom there had to have been a little moonshine flowing at this dinner party i say moonshine because if you're going to marry your niece by taking her from your brother there's got to be moonshine involved here at least wine right we know that there had to be there's a flowing of food and and wine all right and so he makes this promise to her in verse 23 as a reward for a wonderful dancing ask whatever you wish you know he's got to be hammered here ask whatever you wish up to half my kingdom up to half my kingdom is what he offers her well not only do you have to be a little bit crazy to offer something like that but you have to be a little bit crazy to refuse it there's also got to be something wrong with you if you don't accept the king's offer when would this opportunity ever come around again it's not every day that somebody offers you half of their kingdom why in the world would you pass it up she ends up passing up this offer of half the kingdom why would she end up passing up the offer of half the kingdom because she consults her mom herodias who is filled with bitterness and resentment and herodia sees it as an opportunity to kill john the baptist so when the daughter asks her mom what should i ask herod for as a reward for my dance routine mom without hesitation and verse 24 says ask for the head of john the baptist and this is what the girl does now herod's in a difficult position isn't he because in front of all of his big shot dinner guests he has promised her whatever she wants up to half his kingdom whatever you want up to half my kingdom she comes back she says i want the head of john the baptist on the platter he didn't want to kill john the baptist that's what verse 20 says he was trying to protect him but now he's between a rock and a hard place because in front of all his dinner guests what is he going to do so he's caught and so he obliges and he has an executioner sent to cut off the head of john the baptist now why would herodius the mother of the dancing girl here why would she insist on the head of john the baptist because she harbored resentment against him for the way that he had confronted her and herod about their lifestyle look again in your bibles at verse 19 because in verse 19 it says therefore herodias held it against him she held it against john the baptist now as i mentioned earlier if you have an esv translation it says she had a grudge against him niv goes so far as to say she nursed a grudge against him the greek word in the original language is an echo and that goes from two greek words n meaning in and echo meaning to hold to own or to possess think about what a grudge is because this is what was happening with her she held in an echo she held in this resentment until she owned it she possessed it but what ends up happening is it owned her and that's what happens when we hold a grudge it ends up owning us she was filled with resentment and bitterness and she held a grudge now let's get a working definition of what a grudge is it's harboring feelings of bitterness anger or resentment towards another that's what she was doing she was harboring it she was owning it she was possessing it and so therefore it began to own her and there are four things that happen when you hold a grudge and the first one is it dominates it dominates because she had resented john the baptist so deeply she was now dominated by bitterness it had consumed her and it ruled her again the niv says she nursed a grudge against him i like the imagery of that language because the idea of nursing you know when you think of a mom nursing a baby you think of the idea of the mom coddling the baby right this is the idea behind holding a grudge she's coddling it she's taking it in she's tucking it away in her heart she's rehearsing it over and over because to nurse a grudge is to rehearse a grudge she's rehearsing it over and over again i can't believe he did that you know and she's it's it's festering in her and it begins to dominate her spirit rehearsing it over and over again until the only thing that would satisfy this longing of her heart this evil longing of her heart was if something terrible happened to the one that she thought did something terrible to her now john the baptist hadn't done anything terrible at all he's innocent in the story he's just being faithful to god to tell her the truth but as you know the saying when you don't like the message when you don't like the message what do you do you kill the messenger so this is what she wanted to do i don't like the message of john the baptist so i want to see the messenger killed regardless it illustrates for us the terrible power of resentment if we don't dominate it it will dominate us l.a times ran a story a few years ago quoting from science magazine which published the findings of research done by scientists from the university of zurich and at the university of zurich in switzerland they studied brain activity with a pet scan when people were getting revenge so they kind of set up this laboratory setting the study was done based on a monitored game that people played between each other and this is the way it went if player a did something that player b perceived as unfair then player b could get revenge by taking money away from player a and so they did pet scans when revenge was was being uh exacted and what they found was when when the the person in the study was engaging in revenge a part of the brain that they could see with the pet scan that measures pleasure called the dorsal striatum would light up on the pet scan and scientists said that it had the same reaction similar reactions revenge activates the same reward circuitry of the brain that is fired up when this is according to the study the same parts of the brain fired up with revenge as when sniffing cocaine or having sexual attraction for another person it's the the dorsal striatum is the pleasure center of the brain and it would light up on a pet scan when people were getting revenge in other words it this is intoxicating it's like a drug it is it is a high that people get when they get revenge on someone and so it's even that much more of something we have to be aware of because of its intoxicating nature you can't go there you you can't you can't be a person of revenge you can't hold a grudge here's something else that it tells us here number two it deprives it deprives us of better things in life when we hold a grudge and we have resentment it deprives us of better things in life herodias forfeits half a kingdom for her daughter in order to feed the appetite of her own revenge half a kingdom how many people are held back from wonderful things in life because they traded the good life for a miserable life of bitterness and resentment i know people i'm sure you know people sadly you might be one of those people who have squandered their lives living under the bondage of bitterness and you know the problem is you can always spot somebody who's bitter but usually the person who is bitter can't see it in themselves it has so dominated their thinking and dominated their life that it becomes almost a part of their persona they alienate everybody else around them because who wants to be around a better person but they can't understand why nobody wants to be their friend because they can't see bitterness in themselves this is what happens it deprives us job 21 25 says another man dies in bitterness of his soul never having eaten with pleasure never having really enjoyed the good things of life just dying in the bitterness of soul how tragic what are you depriving yourself of because of a grudge number three it also defiles listen to this verse in hebrews 12 15 you don't need to turn but just listen you can write down the reference hebrews 12 15 see to it that no one misses the grace of god and that no bitter root grows up causes trouble and defiles many listen that again hebrews 12 15 see to it that no one misses the grace of god and that no bitter root grows up causes trouble and defiles many you see holding a grudge is like drinking out of a bitter well and then passing the cup around to everybody else to drink from because it not only poisons you but it poisons everybody else that you come in contact with it defiles that's the nature of it and you don't even have to act on the resentment or the bitterness that you have in your thoughts just keep plotting it in your heart how to get even or talk about how you wish trouble for someone who has done you wrong and that will be enough to cause bitterness to take root in your hearts i can't tell you how many times i've seen this scenario somebody is hurt offended wounded because of what someone else has done or their perceived thought of what someone else has done so they're hurt they're upset they're offended okay they get bitter about it then they start talking about it with other people can you believe what this person did or said and then they poison everybody else that they're talking to now here's what sometimes happens by the grace of god the person the original person who was offended forgives the offender but let me tell you what happens the people that they've poisoned along the way are still bitter they've taken your offense towards that person and now all these other people that you've talked to about your offense are now bitter towards the person that you've now forgiven but now it's too late because they're all embittered you see how this works it defiles people this is why hebrews 12 15 says see to that no one misses the grace of god that no bitter root grows up causes trouble and defiles many because that's the nature of bitterness when you hold a grudge in resentment it becomes poisonous to other people who are around you and what does it mean when it says there in hebrews 12 15 see two that no one misses the grace of god because of this here's why when someone has wronged you or offended you and you handle it in a right way which means you forgive them okay then when people see that you have worked through it and they ask you how did you manage to work through that you can say honestly legitimately by the grace of god by the grace of god this didn't come from me this came by god this was the grace of god you see you don't miss it when you do it the right way when you forgive then you are recipients of the grace of god and you can act on that grace toward others but let me tell you what happens when you don't handle it the right way you harbor resentment bitterness you hold a grudge it begins to dominate you it deprives you of the best of life it defiles you and now you're missing the grace of god because you're not extending forgiveness in the same way that you were forgiven and therefore you're bound by it now you you're not able to flow in the grace of god because you're bound with this kind of resentment and bitterness let me tell you what it says in jonah chapter 2 verse 8 listen to what jonah would write in jonah 2 8 those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs you say wait a minute how are you attaching idols to the idea of bitterness because an idol is not just something that is beautiful that you worship in place of god it can also be something terrible that dominates your soul that you are more consumed with instead of god and that can be bad things when you cling to worthless idols like bitterness it's a worthless idol when it dominates you when it takes over your thoughts and your mind it consumes you even more than god does it's become an idol and those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs it defiles and number four it devastates i wonder how devastating it was for herodius's daughter thought to be a teenager at this time to get the chopped off human head of a man on a platter i want you to think about that for just a minute it's easy for us sometimes to read stories in the bible and disassociate ourselves from the human emotion well that was a long time ago you know they probably handle trauma differently than we do let me tell you something this is a real life story with real life people real life events and it's a story about how a mom used her daughter to get revenge because of a grudge and that grudge was so potent that the mom had no problem traumatizing her daughter in the process to fulfill her own desire for revenge she's traumatizing her daughter here because verse 28 in the story tells us that the executioner went cut off the head of john the baptist verse 28 says and gave the head on a platter to the girl and then the girl gave it to her mom so i don't care if you're if you were living in the first century a.d or you're living in the 21st century a.d somebody hands you a human head that's been severed on a platter you're gonna have nightmares for the rest of your life i don't care who you are teenage girl a fully grown man that kind of a thing can be traumatizing it's devastating what the mom did here because of her own selfishness this horrible devastating thing but this mom is too selfish to recognize how her own bitterness is devastating the people around her that she claims to love so much not to mention of course how devastating this was for john the baptist himself somebody's grudge results in his death what had he done wrong nothing he was faithful to just tell the truth he gets imprisoned for it and then because one person has this deep seat of bitterness and resentment she takes advantage of an opportunity to get him killed that's what bitterness does it's devastating that's what happens when we're in the grip of a grudge so look in the last couple minutes we have left what do we need to do about it leviticus 19 18 i'm going to give you old testament and new testament so that you understand this is all throughout god's word leviticus 19 18 says do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people but love your neighbor as yourself i am the lord this is not just new testament you know living under grace stuff this is even old testament leviticus 19 18. do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people but love your neighbor as yourself i am the lord here's new testament ephesians 4 31 get rid of all bitterness rage and anger brawling and slander along with every form of malice get rid of it bitterness is destructive so how do we do that in a word forgiveness forgiveness god calls us to forgive in order to release the grip of a grudge now listen this is where some people have a problem with forgiveness because they think well if i forgive it means i condone what they did no it doesn't forgiveness does not condone the behavior of another person whether it was intentional or unintentional whether it was real or perceived forgiveness does not mean that you are condoning their behavior or even denying the pain associated with it here's what forgiveness does mean though it means you will no longer be defined by it that's what it means you're not denying what they did nor are you denying the pain that was inflicted but you are saying with the grace of god i forgive so that it will no longer define me or keep me bound that's forgiveness i'm going to give you a verse out of colossians 3 13. i'm going to give it to you from the niv i think it says it beautifully here's what it says colossians 3 13 bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another forgive as the lord forgave you that's an important last sentence there because the only way that we're going to be able to forgive is with is if we understand the kind of forgiveness we have received when you realize that the forgiveness that you've received from jesus is forgiveness that you don't deserve because of your sin and offense against him nevertheless god in his mercy forgave you and you cherish that and understand that then in a similar way you can forgive someone you say well they don't deserve it well neither did you you see but you forgive as the lord forgave you well i don't have that ability i know you don't but with the grace of god he will give you the ability to forgive and forgiveness is not necessarily one and done i prayed one prayer i forgive because sometimes it's a process where you have to just work through forgiveness but there's a beautiful thing that i want to read to you from corey ten boom i know i quote her probably more than anybody else but i really admire the life that she lived and if you aren't familiar with the ten boom story they were a family who gave uh shelter to jews who were being killed during the time of nazi germany the ten boom family lived in amsterdam they were eventually discovered they were arrested they were imprisoned in nazi concentration camp at ravensbrook but corey ten boom would be the only survivor from her family to live through it and then later would travel the country with the ministry talking about her life and how she survived nazi prison camp and and she wrote about a key issue in her life that she had to always work on which was the subject of forgiveness and corey ten boom would write this quote forgiveness is the key which unlocks the door of resentment and the handcuffs of hatred it breaks the chains of bitterness and the shackles of selfishness if you have ever seen a country church with a bell on the steeple you will remember that to get the bell ringing you have to tug a while once it has begun to ring you merely maintain the momentum as long as you keep pulling the bell keeps ringing forgiveness is letting go of the rope it is just that simple but when you do so the bell keeps ringing momentum is still at work however if you keep your hands off the rope the bell will begin to slow and eventually stop end quote the idea is you know sometimes when you work through the issue of forgiveness it's like pulling a bell the rope you know it's ringing it's ringing it's ringing when you let go of the rope still the momentum means there's still going to be a little residual effect from this but eventually as long as you don't keep pulling on the rope the sound of the bell will stop and forgiveness in a similar way will eventually be played out in your life if you just don't keep pulling on the rope so questions become do you want to be free from a grudge do you want the lord to bring healing in your life do you need god's grace in order to to forgive someone as god has forgiven you well then let's pray and ask him let's pray father as we close our bibles we don't close our hearts to what you want to do right now because there are some people right here or watching online or later will hear this by podcast and they're struggling with bitterness or resentment they're in the grip of a grudge and they don't want to be there anymore but it's so hard lord sometimes to forgive and yet you want us to be free you don't want us to be defined anymore by the resentment or bitterness you want us to be free and so i pray that you would help them to forgive as you have forgiven them to extend mercy as you have extended mercy to us in the same way lord when you forgive us you're not condoning our sinful behavior as we forgive others who have offended us we're not condoning what they did against us but we are simply releasing them to you [Music] to be free from the bondage of bitterness lord you know who needs that right now and as we pray and as we seek your face we pray that you would do a good work in the hearts of those who need you right now to help them be free from a grudge even as david would write in psalm 86 give ear o lord to my prayer and attend to the voice of my supplications in the day of my trouble i will call upon you for you will answer me so lord in the day of our trouble as people are crying out to you right now answer them and help them as they release that offense that wrong whether real or perceived as they release it to you lord that you will do a good work in their hearts to be people who forgive even as you have forgiven us that we might be free in the name of jesus and all god's people said amen and amen god bless you all

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

Views: 77,023

Keywords: Cornerstone Chapel, Calvary Chapel, Gary Hamrick, Biblical sermons, leesburg va, cornerstone chapel leesburg virginia, great sermons by great preachers

Id: Hb2N54gYD_4

Length: 38min 22sec (2302 seconds)

Published: Mon May 17 2021