Light on the Hill

Guest (Male): Coming up next on Light on the Hill.

James Kaddis: I want to make this statement and I think it's critical. This is a very, very important statement to make. John the Baptist was called by Jesus the greatest prophet that ever lived. He was the greatest prophet that ever lived, yet he gave his life because he stood up in the political arena.

John the Baptist died while making a proclamation in the political arena, while involving himself in that arena. And here's the thing, folks, I need all of us to understand this. He is a perfect example and a model for what God's will in our lives is, in that we stand up for truth, we stand up for righteousness, no matter what the cost may be and recognize what it all means. I think it's critical, I think it's important and I think we've got to wake up.

Guest (Male): Some claim that Christians and pastors have no business in politics, maybe you believe that too. Well, today on Light on the Hill, consider the life of John the Baptist, who Jesus called the greatest prophet who ever lived. He took a stand in the political arena and even lost his life because of it.

Most, if not all, of the prophets we read about in the Bible engaged with the political leaders of their time. Here's Pastor James Kaddis with more in Mark chapter six.

James Kaddis: Alright, we jump right into verse 14. Now the one thing that I want to say as we get into verse 14 is that Jesus is in essence during this time what he has become in this world in the modern day. And here's the thing that we should know.

Before I make any statements regarding what I'm about to say, I want everybody to understand that it has never been different. It's never changed. It's never been dynamic, in other words, it's never moved. The position has always been the same. Jesus Christ is Lord. He's the one that is the creator of the universe. He is the one that was there before we ever existed, before we were thought of in our parents' minds. The Bible actually tells us that before the world was actually created, Jesus was already there doing the work.

So when we look at the fact that Jesus Christ is Lord, we understand who he is to us when we examine these issues that relate to our identity in him. The one thing that we can look at always is that he never changes, but the world seems to change on a regular basis.

The thing that's really interesting about the time of Christ, in the time that he was actually walking on the Earth, is their attitude towards him was very much the same that it is today. The difference between today and what we saw back then is that we see a much greater glimpse of what it actually looks like in living color and in real-time because of the technological advances that we've seen with respect to communication, with respect to recording information, that kind of a thing.

So we get to see people outright and openly rejecting Christ in very vivid and very ugly ways. At the same time, we also get to see people receiving Christ in some very powerful and life-changing ways. But the one thing that seems to be so interesting as you look at the beginning of this story and you carry it into the world today is in the world today it would seem as though we are less aware of the spiritual implications of everything that's going on, even though the spiritual realm is more active than it ever has been.

I think that that's so remarkable because we have come to a place in this world, especially as it relates to Jesus, that we are using Christ, that we are using God as a tool to back away from confronting the culture. We're using it as a tool to hide ourselves from what's really going on. We're using it as a tool to keep ourselves from speaking openly about what the truth is.

Unfortunately, there have been a lot of people in ministry that have bought that lie hook, line, and sinker. There's a mindset that says amongst the church that our job is to be quiet and to be peaceful people who don't say anything about the world around them and we are supposed to mind our own business and just worship God while we all sort of allow the world to pretty much go to hell in a literal handbasket.

The reality of it is God says the exact opposite. God says that he calls us to engage in this world. God says he calls us to take our biblical worldview and to apply it to the world in which we live. God tells us that he calls us to bring out all the information that he's equipped us with and to put it into a practical dissertation in every single thing that we contact and every single thing that we do and every single thing that we touch.

The thing that's very difficult about this situation, as I'm speaking about it to you in front of you, is the fact that so few people understand it and discern it because the leaders of the church have been nothing short of lazy. They've just been outright lazy. They demonstrate what it's like to take good shortcuts, how to sell the shortcuts and make the shortcuts look like they're actually hard work. They go out of their way to make sure they do not confront what is difficult because the confrontation of what is difficult actually requires a certain level of laborious function that they're not willing to give.

The worst part about all of it is they are not living the true call that God has placed upon their lives. Perhaps one of the most significant ways that this tends to show its ugly face is when pastors come out and say we have no business in politics. To that, I would just simply say this. If you say you have no business in politics, let me just respond by saying you have no business in ministry. Quit. You have no responsibility. You literally do not have a call to be in this if you feel like your job is to steer clear from it.

Why do I say that? I'll make one simple statement. The fame of Jesus is growing at this point. The fact that people are seeing him and watching him do the things that he's doing is absolutely short of miraculous to them. They are seeing him be something that they cannot figure out. He can do things nobody can do. He can raise people from the dead. He can predict what's going on in people's minds and hearts. He's got a different way of thinking about things, acting about things, looking at things. He understands things that people don't know and people are beginning to gather around thinking that he is supernatural and there's something about him that's different.

Then you have Herod being introduced to us and Herod is about to feel extraordinarily scared of Jesus because within his mind, he is going to think that Jesus is the one who is actually appearing from the dead because of his guilty conscience concerning what he did to John. Now I'm going to go back to that in just a second because the story that we're going to read is very, very important.

But I want to make this statement and I think it's important. I want to make this statement and I think it's important. I want to make this statement and I think it's critical. This is a very, very important statement to make. John the Baptist was called by Jesus the greatest prophet that ever lived. He was the greatest prophet that ever lived, yet he gave his life because he stood up in the political arena.

John the Baptist died while making a proclamation in the political arena, while involving himself in that arena. And here's the thing, folks, I need all of us to understand this. He is a perfect example and a model for what God's will in our lives is, in that we stand up for truth, we stand up for righteousness, no matter what the cost may be and recognize what it all means.

I think it's critical, I think it's important and I think we've got to wake up. We've got to recognize what it all means and what it's all about because there will come a point in time in this country, maybe not in the next four years, maybe not even in the next eight years, I don't know unless something radically changes. We could have said this a year ago and we could have been very confident that it could happen within the next few months. But there will come a point of time in this country where people will be killed for sharing their faith.

There will come a point of time in this world where all of the world stands together against the things of Christianity and God. The question is this, what are you willing to do in order to stand up for the very thing that you know has saved you from eternal damnation? Here's the thing that I want everybody to understand. When the world gets to the point where it stands together to come against all that is righteous, when the world comes together to stand against all that is true, that will be the result of the church being raptured.

When the church is raptured, there will no longer be a restraining force. There will no longer be a group of people that will stand up against the unrighteousness of the government, the unrighteousness of the people who are leading in the name of wickedness. And what we will begin to see is we will begin to see the manifestation of those things which is dark and completely evil. We need to understand the obligation that has been set forth in front of us until we get to that time.

So when we learn of this story, I want you to open up your eyes. I want you to consider and meditate on these meanings. I want you to understand where all of this goes. Because look what it says here, and it's important. There's a lesson that we can learn from it. Look at what John does, look at how Herod feels, look at all of the variables involved in this. And I think it will change the way you look at how you should understand the scriptures and what you should do in making representations concerning it.

Look at this in verse 14. It says this, "And King Herod heard of him," this is referring to Christ, "for his name was spread abroad. And he said that John the Baptist was risen from the dead and therefore mighty works do show forth themselves in him." So this is interesting, he's actually thinking that John the Baptist was risen from the dead and remember there's a guilty conscience that goes with this. There's a very guilty conscience that goes with this and I'll explain it in a minute.

Verse 15, "Others said that it was Elias," meaning Elijah, "and others said that it is a prophet or as one of the prophets. But when Herod heard thereof, he said, 'It is John whom I beheaded. He is risen from the dead.'" Kind of interesting. It's understandable to see why people were calling him Elijah. Some people thought that he may have been Elijah simply because of the prophecies that surrounded Elijah and this idea of this revisiting of Elijah.

When in reality, the association with Elijah would have more been along the lines of John the Baptist. John the Baptist was in essence the Elijah Part 2. He was the one that was making the way for Christ and this is something that there was a lot of confusion that surrounded this subject, especially people that were well-versed in the Old Testament and understood the ministry of Elijah and what happened to him prior to Elisha coming into play.

So there's a lot of questions about that and a lot of people that were really wondering what that was. There's a lot of rumor mill going around around who Jesus was, but Jesus said who he was. It wasn't very difficult to be able to understand that. But Herod, being completely ignorant of the scriptures, really not understanding things the way that God intended for them to be understood, is basically believing that John the Baptist is reincarnated in Jesus. That's what he's saying here. He thinks that this is John the Baptist, in essence, coming back to bring vengeance.

So he says he's risen from the dead. Look at this, and this is the detail that Mark gets into, what happened here. "For Herod himself had sent forth and laid hold upon John and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her." So just so you guys get this, this is an adulterous relationship that Herod enters into with a family member. We don't have to get real specific about this. By the way, there's a really interesting story that goes along the lines with all of this that even Josephus touches up about with respect to the line that happens here, what ends up taking place. But nonetheless, it's a very, very Jerry Springer-type story if you know what I mean.

It is just wicked. It's not a good situation. So Herod has now married the woman that he committed adultery with. She's a very angry woman, obviously. But look at this verse 18, "For John had said unto Herod, 'It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.' Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him and would have killed him, but she could not. For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man and holy and observed him. And when he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly."

So this is very interesting because this is a very complicated relationship that John ends up having with Herod. Herod apparently somehow had some kind of an arrangement with John where Herod was listening to John, hearing from John, and John was beginning to have some kind of an effect on Herod. And of course, Herod had enough of a relationship with John or rapport with John where John felt comfortable telling him, "You're committing adultery and that's wrong and you shouldn't be doing that mess with your brother's wife."

And Herod actually didn't want to do anything about that because he knew it was true and he knew that it was something that was wrong, but also at the same time, I think he feared John. And he did not want to experience the political consequence of what could happen if he had killed John or done something like that. But he also was somewhat superstitious, I guess, for lack of a better term, and was fearful of what type of repercussion would be brought upon him.

But this is interesting because what we're seeing already is that the greatest prophet that ever lived has already engaged in the political arena, that he's speaking to Herod on a regular basis. By the way, I just want to point this out because I think it's really important to say. I would challenge anybody to introduce me to a prophet that you can read about in the Bible that did not interact with a king or some type of political leader. Maybe, maybe the only exception to that rule would be Enoch because we don't know enough about Enoch.

He was, of course, regarded as a prophet, but I'm just going to simply say this. He might be the only prophet that we know about that did not have interaction with a leader or a political leader in one way or another. And actually, don't get me started on who Jesus interacted with. Jesus interacted with the greatest politicians of the time, who of course were the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And of course, they had a lot more political clout on many levels than even many of the Roman officials that were living during that time.

So let me just make myself very, very clear when I say this. The political implications of all of this are very deep. They run very deep. And so when we say that the church should not be involved in these things, let me reiterate one principle that I think is very important and I think I can biblically establish it. Politics emanates from the pulpit. Let me say that again. Politics emanates from the pulpit. And whatever the pulpit communicates, the politics that are represented by that discussion from the pulpit will always be the politics that you see displayed in front of the whole world.

And when the church chooses to compromise, especially in a nation like this, concerning what the real biblical and spiritual truths should be, then you will begin to see that flood the world. You will begin to see that affect the whole nation. And when pastors are not speaking boldly and when they're not speaking out and when they're not standing up for righteousness and when they're not doing the things that they should be doing, then you will begin to see lots of compromise taking place and lots of very, very broken ideas begin to come forth. And you will begin to see a self-destruct mode like you've never seen before. And I think that that's a very, very important thing to understand and notice.

But look what it goes on to say because this gets really interesting. It says this, "For Herod himself sent forth and laid hold upon John and bound him in prison for Herodias' sake, his brother Philip's wife, for he had married her. For John had said unto Herod, 'It is not lawful for thee to have thy brother's wife.' Therefore Herodias had a quarrel against him and would have him killed, but she could not. For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a just man, holy. Notice this, holy, observed him. And when he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly."

Look at the next verse, "And when a convenient day was come, that Herod on his birthday made a supper to his lords, high captains, and chief estates of Galilee. And when the daughter of the said Herodias came in and danced and pleased Herod and them that sat with him, the king said unto the damsel, 'Ask of me whatsoever thou wilt and I will give it of thee.' And sware unto her, 'Whatsoever thou shalt ask of me, I will give it to thee unto the half of my kingdom.' And she went forth and said unto her mother, 'What shall I ask?' and she said, 'The head of John the Baptist.'"

By the way, this is really interesting. I want everybody to remember this. When you read the other account of this story in the Bible where it tells us exactly what happened and we get a little bit more detail, understand and know this: this was pre-planned. Herodias had already arranged with her daughter. Herod himself got inebriated. That's the picture that I think is an easy one to draw, that it's obvious that he was inebriated because he's having his stepdaughter basically dance provocatively in front of him.

And in his inebriation, he makes a promise because he's impressed with what she's actually doing and then within that promise, then she goes, because the other account actually tells us that this was pre-planned as they had previously discussed. She goes back and she asks for the head of John the Baptist on a platter. By the way, what a sadistic, ugly picture that's being drawn here. Like can it get any uglier than that? Give me John the Baptist's head on a platter. Could anything be more satanically inspired? Is it not obvious that this is a satanic inspiration? It's very obvious what's going on here.

I think there's also a lesson as into what inebriation will do to somebody. When you allow yourself to become inebriated, when you allow yourself to become intoxicated, it takes away from your critical thinking capacity. It takes away from your awareness of the things that are going on. And guess what? That inebriation keeps you from being everything that God wants you to be.

By the way, one of the number one intoxicating variables that exists besides alcohol, besides a consumption of drugs, those obviously are very obvious things, is sin. If you allow yourself to be given to sin, then you will cause yourself to become inebriated in a way that you can't even possibly imagine. That's what sin does. Herod's got it all. Herod's walking in a sinful practice. Herod is very likely inebriated with alcohol. And of course, he just says, "I'll give you half my kingdom," like a reckless baboon. And instead, what does he have to do? He takes the head off of John the Baptist, puts it on a platter and delivers it. It's very, very sad to think about that.

Look at this verse 26, "And the king was exceeding sorry, yet for his oath's sake and for their sakes which sat with him, he would not reject her." Isn't that amazing? Isn't that amazing? Look at this verse 27, "And immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought and he went and beheaded him in the prison and brought his head in a charger and gave it to the damsel and the damsel gave it to her mother." Isn't that a terrible, terrible picture?

And look at this in verse 29, "And when his disciples heard of it, they came and took up his corpse and laid it in a tomb." I just want to stop for one second to talk about the cost involved for John. I really want to do that. I want us to examine the type of life that John lived. I want us to think about the type of man that John was. He was very different from everybody else. He did not fit the mold that everybody wanted him to fit into. He didn't talk like everybody else, he didn't look like everybody else, he didn't act like everybody else. He just was not like everybody else.

But the one thing that John knew, and I think the one thing that John understood and the one thing that John was completely aware of, was that God made him a specific way and God made him that way for a specific purpose. And he knew what that purpose was and he took that completely to the fullest.

I want to just throw this thought out at you and I want to stop here because there's so much more to examine and we can get there next week. But I want to throw this thought your way and that's this. What is it that's happening in your life right now that you are not allowing yourself to complete or go through or walk in its fullest because you're listening to the pressures around you? What are you ripping yourself off from? What are you keeping yourself from experiencing? What are you cutting yourself short from doing? That's a very important question to be asking.

Because here's the thing that I'm learning and I've been learning it. I've known it my whole life. It's something that I've walked very comfortably in for a long time. Yes, I'm being confronted with it on multiple occasions again and again and again, and I'm being asked the same thing and God is requiring me to answer it the same way. But here's the question. What is it about you that's keeping you from becoming everything that God has called you to be? What are you denying in yourself to become through your actions in the current moment and in the current day?

Are you allowing yourself to compromise in a very specific area because you just don't want to deal with it? Are you allowing yourself to go down a different road because you don't want to go down the road that you know will bring confrontation? Are you walking in fear? Are you saying I don't want to do this because I don't know what the next step is going to bring? What is it in your life that's keeping you from moving forward in the very thing that God has called you to move into?

Guest (Male): We'll leave you to think that over. You're listening to Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis and his message, Politics Got This Prophet Killed. Hear it again at lightonthehillradio.com and share it with someone you know too.

Pastor James, today you made some compelling points on why we should engage in the political realm, just as the prophet John the Baptist did. With the midterms rapidly approaching, we have a golden opportunity to do that. But other than voting, what are some ways Christians can get involved?

James Kaddis: I think it's really important to understand that politics emanates from the pulpit. And when the pulpits choose to remain silent, well then we in essence enter into a state of, for lack of a better term, decline in this country. Our founding fathers believed that, they understood it. And so perhaps one of the most important aspects of what we do, especially as pastors, is make you aware of the fact that this great republic can't exist unless virtue is there, unless it's amongst the people.

One of the things that we can do besides voting is to recognize the fact that it is deeply predicated upon our decision to choose to follow God and start engaging with people on that level, to tell them that their biblical worldview has to control how they view the political arena. We have to constantly go out of our way to align ourselves with people who politically will carry out the responsibilities that reflect the greatest morality in line with the scriptures. That means making phone calls. That means door knocking. That means looking for ways to engage in being able to make a difference, including bringing accountability to those that need it. We have to get more involved. It cannot be passive. We have to get more involved. Praying is another way to do it. No matter what we do, we need to look to the Lord to find us opportunities to do that because our nation is in trouble without it.

Guest (Male): Those are great suggestions. Thanks, Pastor James. Not long ago, Pastor James released his new book on the first half of Revelation. It's entitled "The Last Book." He points out that Revelation isn't a book of fear, but rather a book of hope. Pastor James will help you understand the world we live in and current events through a biblical lens, preparing your heart for what lies ahead. Get a copy by going to lightonthehillradio.com or through Amazon.

We're so grateful for your support. Each donation that's sent in is an investment in what God is doing over the radio and internet. Lives are being impacted daily for the glory of God as a result. If you'd like to stand with us through providing either a one-time donation or ongoing monthly support, please visit lightonthehillradio.com. While you're there, you can also send us an email. It would be great to hear from you and have you share the station you listen to as well. Just visit lightonthehillradio.com and then click on contact.

Remember, you are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Light on the Hill with Pastor James Kaddis is brought to you by Calvary Chapel Signal Hill.