Encounter the Truth

Jonathan Griffiths: Where is the word of God confronting you in your sin today? To repent, to ask for forgiveness. When God's word, when God's messenger calls us out in our sin, in an area of our life that's just wrong, we can easily become angry. That's one of the first reactions.

Steve Hiller: Welcome to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths. I'm Steve Hiller and glad that you are with us today. Jonathan, you're so right. Sometimes when we're confronted with our sin, our first reaction is to get angry. But why do you think that is?

Jonathan Griffiths: Well, I suppose one of the reasons for that is that we know full well that we've done wrong, and our conscience has been telling us that, and we've been trying to suppress our conscience and convince ourselves that what we're doing is perhaps not wrong and is just fine.

But when someone calls it out and tells us what we know already is true, that provokes a strong reaction. I think we all know something of that experience. But we see it in the gospel story so clearly and so profoundly in the ministry of John the Baptist and in the ministry of Jesus Christ. As John calls out sin, it actually leads to his death. As Jesus calls out sin, there's an angry reaction, and ultimately, he ends up on the cross of Calvary because he has exposed the sinful human heart.

I think we need to reckon with this reaction in our own hearts. We need to see it and, with the help of the Spirit of God, we need to be humbled before the word of God, humble about our sin. We need to be brought to a place each one of us of true repentance. It's when we reach that point, we move past the pride and the anger and we move to repentance and humility, that's when God can deal with us and that's when we're able to respond to the grace of Jesus Christ.

Steve Hiller: Well, let's continue to look at this. We're in Matthew chapters 13 and 14 as we continue a message called "The Prophet Who Offends." Here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: A wonderful story is told about the Queen and her sense of humor. One of her close aides recalls the time when he escorted her on a walk in the hills in Scotland, near Balmoral, her country home. As they were walking, they came upon some American tourists and stopped to have a chat as the Queen would.

The Americans got talking and told her and this aide all about their travels, where they'd been, where they were going. After some time of talking about their own travels, they eventually turned to the Queen and asked her where she lived. She said, "London, actually," but she had a holiday home just nearby. The tourists then said, "Well, you must have met the Queen if you have a holiday place nearby." They knew there was a castle nearby.

She said quick as a flash, "Well, I haven't met her, but my companion here, he's met her." And so they turned to the aide and they said, "Well, what's she like?" Well, he said with a twinkle in his eye, he knew her well, "You know, she can be a bit cantankerous at times, but she's got a good sense of humor." At that point, one of the Americans put his arm around the royal aide and handed his camera to the Queen.

He asked if she would mind taking a picture of them. Eventually, the aide said, "You should get a picture with her too." So they had a picture with the Queen and they went on their way. As they walked along, the Queen commented that she'd love just to be a fly on the wall when those Americans get home and show their pictures to their friends and someone tells them.

It's possible, isn't it? It's possible to see someone but not to see them, to meet them but not to meet them. It's possible to fail to see even a great monarch for who they are. The Lord Jesus Christ, he came to us in humility, even in humanity. He walked among us as a common man. He lived among us, and the humility, the simplicity of his life, that can actually be our stumbling block in recognizing him for who he truly is.

He did not wear a crown of empire upon his head in the streets of Nazareth. He did not appear in blazing glory or in unapproachable light in the carpenter's shop. But we must make no mistake: Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I wonder, have you recognized him today? Do you know who he truly is? Have you seen him as he really is?

Those poor tourists, they must have felt so foolish when the penny dropped. I guess they wished they could go back and redo the encounter, but of course, it was too late. The opportunity was gone. For those who do not recognize Jesus Christ for who he is now, a day will come when the penny will drop. A day will come when you will appear before him, when he is seated high above on his judgment throne, and there you will bow the knee to him.

Let me plead with you: do not go into that encounter in shame and embarrassment. Go in worship and in wonder. Recognize him now that you might be welcomed by him then. I think the Queen herself had an appreciation for the dynamic that we're considering here, the obscurity and yet the majesty of Jesus Christ.

She once said this in one of her Christmas broadcasts, and I quote: "Jesus Christ lived obscurely for most of his life and never traveled far. He was maligned and rejected by many, though he had done no wrong. And yet billions of people now follow his teaching and find in him the guiding light for their lives. I am one of them," she said.

The Queen herself bowed the knee to that greater ruler. She recognized the Carpenter of Nazareth to be the King of Kings. Have you seen him? Do you know him? Have you bowed the knee to him yourself? It's possible to fail to see him because of his humility and his humanity, but it's also possible to fail to see him because of another level of familiarity. And that is the familiarity that comes from growing up in close proximity to him.

By that, I mean the familiarity that comes from growing up in the church, in a Christian family, surrounded by the people of God and under the constant sound of the word of God. I don't know, but that may be your story precisely. As it were, you grew up with Jesus in your neighborhood, even in your home. You've always heard him. You've regularly seen him in the people around you. You've always felt that you've known him on some level, but here's the thing: you've never actually accepted him personally. It's all familiar, but it is not personal.

He's known to you, but the truth of the matter is he is unknown to you. If you're being totally honest about it, your attitude is not unlike the people of Nazareth. You hear the teaching of Jesus Christ and it actually kind of gets your back up. It gets under your skin. Sometimes it makes you mad. You don't really want to hear it, if you're being honest, and you don't want to know.

You're here, actually, you're listening. We're glad you are, but you're doing so to please other people. You're doing it out of some kind of sense of duty, but in your heart of hearts, there is a resistance to Jesus Christ, even an offense at his teaching. Perhaps that's you today. I expect it will be a number, actually, among us. No doubt there will be a number who are truly living in rebellion against Jesus Christ, even though he has been so close and he has been so familiar throughout your life.

If that is you, let me invite you to look at the reaction of the people of Nazareth to Jesus Christ, and look at them as a mirror to your own soul, for that is what they are. Ask this question: is this a reasonable response to Jesus? Is it reasonable? Does this make any sense as you analyze what is going on here?

Can you see the folly of their rejection of the prophet of God, the messenger of God, the Savior, his Son? You see, proximity to Jesus is a tremendous gift. Growing up knowing him if you have, that is a tremendous privilege. But don't take that privilege and allow it to turn sour in your heart, as it can, and lead then to scorn and offense and ultimately the rejection of the Savior and King whom God sent from above to serve us.

It's very sobering, isn't it, to see the results of people's rejection of Jesus in his hometown? Just notice that with me, verses 57 and 58: "And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, 'A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household.'" And here's the result: "And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief."

Friends, you and I, each one of us, we are a people in need of a miracle from Jesus. That is our reality. We are a people desperately in need of his mighty work of healing of heart and of restoration of soul. Each one of us is born in sin and in alienation from God. Our hearts are diseased, our future is hopeless, our condition before God is that of guilty sinners facing the bleakness of condemnation, and our only hope is this: a mighty saving work of Jesus Christ.

He went to the cross to pay the price of our sin. He shed his blood for our cleansing. He gave his life for our healing. Each of us needs this miracle of salvation to be applied to our lives. But here is what verse 58 is saying to us, and please don't miss this: Jesus' saving power is not applied and will not be applied where he is rejected. That's the bottom line. Jesus' saving power will not be applied to those who are familiar with him but who reject him in their heart. Don't be that person. Please don't be someone who is familiar with the Savior but who takes offense at him and pushes him away. You need his saving power. You need his healing touch.

Steve Hiller: You're listening to Encounter the Truth with Jonathan Griffiths and a message called "The Prophet Who Offends," part of our series "In the Presence of the King." We're going to pause here, but we'll get back to the message in just a moment. By the way, if you joined us late, have to leave early, or ever want to go back and listen to a broadcast again, you can do that at our website. Just come to encounterthetruth.org.

While you're there, I hope you'll also check out our links to social media. You can connect with us that way. You can also check out our weekly e-devotional and sign up for the newsletter. That way you're in the know of what's happening here at the ministry. There's that and a lot more at the website, encounterthetruth.org. Let's get back to the message. Again, here is Jonathan.

Jonathan Griffiths: Next, we see the offense of frankness, and here we turn to John the Baptist and the story of his very untimely end. The connection points here are a little bit winding, but I think we follow easily enough. Chapter 14 and 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's been raised from the dead. That is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.'"

Herod the tetrarch, he is son of Herod the Great, whose kingdom was then split between his sons. Herod the tetrarch had been made Roman ruler over Galilee, the region where Jesus lived. When he hears about Jesus, some mixture of religious ideas, probably some pagan ideas about spirits returning from the dead, prompts him to think that this great teacher is actually John the Baptist back from the grave. Now, because of that connection in Herod's mind, we have a flashback. Herod may well have been having some bad dreams, even nightmares, about what he did to John. The story is ugly.

But in any case, we now focus on John the Baptist for a few moments. Herod, a married man, had fallen in love with his half-brother's wife, whose name was Herodias. Herod ultimately divorced his wife and Herodias divorced her husband and they were married. It was at this point that John the Baptist comes into the story. Verse 3: "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.'"

Evidently, John lacked the political instinct of so many religious leaders throughout time who learned to bury their principles and shelve their convictions when a powerful person wanted to do something unsavory. Rather than find justification and invent a way to condone this evil, John the Baptist did the politically and personally suicidal thing of actually calling out the sin. "This is wrong, Herod. You cannot do this, Herod. You must not do this, Herod. It is unlawful."

The prophet of God, he comes, he speaks God's truth boldly and without compromise. He's frank about sin. He pulls no punches here. Herod wants to put him to death on the spot, verse 5, but the people rightly recognize that John is a prophet of God. Herod is nervous about the political fallout. Herod may not be a good or morally upright man—he is not—but he has some functioning political instincts. Killing God's prophet may not help in the public opinion polls in Galilee. Better just grit your teeth and put up with the guy for now.

Herodias, on the other hand, has neither forgiven nor forgotten John's offense in speaking against her and her new husband's grimy alliance. Opportunity for vengeance soon presents itself. On Herod's birthday, there is a party, there is a gathering at the palace. Herodias's daughter dances before the crowd. Herod is pleased and impressed and very rashly, verse 7, promises on oath to give her whatever she wants as a little reward.

The girl goes to her mother and says, "I need some advice. I've had this offer." Here's what takes place, verse 8: "Prompted by her mother, she said, 'Give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter.'" That's the request. Herod's not particularly enthusiastic. He'd already decided against this course of action, but now he's made a public promise on oath and he's got to carry through, verse 10: "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."

John the Baptist, a prophet sent by God, he was in a real sense the last of the great prophets of the old era. He spoke God's word and he deserved a prophet's honor and a prophet's welcome. But here is the horror of the manner in which his earthly life ends: beheaded at the request of an ignorant girl, prompted by a vindictive and an immoral person, his head delivered on a platter, made a spectacle in death before a room full of feasting nobles. It's unspeakably awful. It's terribly dark. It's pure evil. Why did this happen?

How could it have happened? John the Baptist was a good man. He was a man of integrity. He wasn't violent or dangerous or dishonest or untrustworthy. How could anyone behave in this way toward him? But you see his offense was actually very, very great. His actions were not just annoying to Herodias, they were intolerable. What did he do? Well, he spoke with frankness about right and wrong. He spoke with simple clarity about sin. He called unapologetically for repentance.

That right there, that is the heart of his offense. That is the thing that got his head placed on a platter. He did the one thing that invites fury from every sinful heart: the exposure of sin, the calling out of sin, the demand of repentance. Friends, you and I, we may not seek anyone's head on a platter, but we need to honestly recognize that the fury and indignation we see within the heart of Herodias is to be found in your heart and in mine as well.

We hate it. We hate it when God's messenger, when God's prophet, when God's word calls out our sin. We hate it, don't we? It exposes our wrongdoing, demands our repentance. We hate that because, although we know full well that we're so often wrong and so often sinful, our conscience tells us that all the time, we like to try and convince ourselves that we're actually okay and we're in the right. We're busy doing that.

We especially love it, don't we, when we find those around us who will help us justify our sin and will give us license and encouragement just to keep going in sin. We may be very, very effective, actually, in gathering around ourselves, in surrounding ourselves with people who will say exactly what we want to hear when we want to hear it, who will confirm us in our desire to keep on doing whatever it is we are doing and living however it is we are living.

But the word of God, it always confronts us in our sin. The messenger of God is sent to call out transgression. The prophet of God is sent of God not to pander to our selfish desires, but rather to be frank and honest with us. That's what John the Baptist did. It's what the word of God does. It's what faithful messengers of God will do today.

Friend, I don't know your situation, but it may well be that you are today living in a way that you know is wrong. It may well be that you are angry today because you know that God's word is calling you to repent, to stop, to turn, to make a fresh start. As that happens, it makes you so cross. It makes you so angry. Perhaps a Christian believer has said something to you, a believing parent, a friend. Maybe you've heard me or another pastor saying something from the pulpit and, you know what, if you're honest, it just makes your blood boil.

Can you see today how ugly is the reaction? How ugly is the reaction of the sinful heart that would go so far as to put the head of the prophet of God on a platter? This ugly story, and it is so ugly, it presses upon each one of us an urgent question and here it is: where is the word of God confronting you in your sin today? Where do you need to own up to your wrongdoing? Where is it that you need to respond in humility to the word of God, to repent, to ask for forgiveness?

When God's word, when God's messenger calls us out in our sin, in an area of our life that's just wrong, we can easily become angry. That's one of the first reactions. As a pastor, I've seen it myself. I've learned over time. I've learned over time that when folks sit down with me and tell me, "I'm having some doubts now about my faith. I'm not sure I can believe anymore. I think I've grown past this now, become too sophisticated," when they sit down with me and especially if there's an edge of anger there as there often will be in those conversations, I've learned that the issue is almost never that they can't believe what the Bible says about God and who he is. That's usually not the issue at all. The issue is almost always that they won't accept what the Bible says about them and how they should live.

I've often recalled the story of the evangelist Billy Graham and his associate Chuck Templeton. You probably heard it before, but some haven't. It carries weight, I think, so I'll share it again. In his early years, Billy Graham had an associate preacher, a Canadian actually, by the name of Charles "Chuck" Templeton. Chuck was intellectually gifted and he was a capable speaker; in some respects his gifts perhaps exceeded Billy's. They carried out their evangelistic campaigns together and it was very effective.

But over time, Chuck became increasingly uneasy, began to have doubts. One day he sat down with Billy and he said to Billy, "I can no longer accept the Bible as being the true word of God. It doesn't intellectually add up, Billy." Chuck drifted further and further away and years later, he wrote an influential book entitled Farewell to God: My Reasons for Rejecting the Christian Faith.

Billy gave a fascinating interview where he spoke about Chuck and he made the bold observation—and this is the point I just wanted to draw out—Chuck said he had a problem with the faith that was intellectual. Billy, in his simple and I would say prophetic way, said it was not intellectual. He said the problem was moral. Chuck did not want to accept the moral teaching of the Bible. He was on his third marriage, I think, by the time the book was released, and Billy said that was the issue, not anything else.

The public rejection of God in the release of that book, it okay, it wasn't John the Baptist's head on a platter, but it was an aggressive public rejection of God and his word. When God's word challenges us, calls us from sin, the reaction of the sinful heart can be very, very angry, and it can be very, very ugly. Knowing that that is true, let me ask you: is there anything in God's word that you have read of late, anything you've heard from a faithful messenger of God—a Bible teacher, preacher, a believing friend or a family member—is there anything that has just got your back up?

You've heard it and it's made you angry. Teaching on honesty, or integrity, or sexual conduct, or financial stewardship, or self-control. Is there something that has given rise to anger within your heart? If so—and only you will know—if so, please do not ignore that. Please don't gloss that over. Pay attention to it. It is probably the very place where you need to do business with God.

It's probably the very place where you need to address your sin and seek forgiveness in Christ, which he is only too ready to give. Maybe for some among us, it is the very prompt that you need today. There is an urgent matter that you need to address before the Lord. Don't delay in that. Make it your business to deal with that, not this week or this month or this season, make it your business to deal with that this very day.

The prophet of God, the message sent from heaven, the gospel of grace, it can evoke the most bizarre reactions from the world: scorn, contempt, offense, anger. We should not be surprised; the Bible has warned us. But our main concern should not be the surprising reaction of the world all around us, actually. Our main concern should be this: to ensure that in my heart and in your heart the word of God finds a ready reception, a willingness to repent, a joyful acceptance of the gospel of grace.

Steve Hiller: Jonathan Griffiths here on Encounter the Truth, wrapping up the message "The Prophet Who Offends," part of our series "In the Presence of the King." If you ever miss a broadcast in the series, you can come to our website and you can listen there. The website address is encounterthetruth.org.

One of the things that I think a lot of Christians will wrestle with is that our hearts can tend to grow cold in our love for Christ. We can just kind of drift away and our faith can become almost more of a formality. Well, there's an answer to that, and it's the same regardless of your feelings or situation. You need to stare long and hard at what Jesus did for us at the cross.

Paul Mallard helps us take a look at what Jesus did on the cross in fulfilling Psalm 22. He writes about that in his book An Anchor for the Soul, and this book is our thank you for your financial support this month. You can find out more or give online at encounterthetruth.org or call us at 1-833-99-TRUTH. That's 1-833-998-7884, or again the website is encounterthetruth.org.

For Jonathan Griffiths and our producer Mark Breda, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time.