Beheaded

Mark 6:14-29 · 2024-09-08 · Jason Wolin · Gospel of Mark | Cross and Crown

Mark 6:14-29 · Doubt. Beheaded — sermon from Cypress Bible Church on BibleSlides.

Beheaded Download discussion questions (PDF) Slideshow for this message can be viewed HERE Introduction Today we are going to be talking about doubt. We think of doubt as bad thing but in and of itself it is actually neutral. In fact, it’s essential to our decision making process. For example, if I told you that God gave me a dream last night and he told me that he wants all of you to give me 1/4 of your net worth. That’s what he said. You’d better doubt me. Doubt plays a pretty important role in us making good decisions. That’s an example of a type of doubt that needs to be heeded. You need to listen to that doubt. But there’s other types of doubt that need to be silenced. For example, “If you board an airplane and begin doubting the pilot’s ability to get you to the destination safely, that’s a type of doubt you need to silence. The pilot airline safety standards are impeccable and the pilots have all been expertly trained. How do we know when to listen to our doubts and how do we know when to ignore them? The basic principle is that we have to apply reason to deal with our feelings of doubt. This is especially true when it comes to doubting God. Many experience doubt in God as a result of a crisis. Something really bad happens to them or they experience a really significant loss and they doubt God. Why would God allow that? I’ve always believed that God is loving but this experience of mine does not square with my conception of a loving God. And that doubt can lead to a faith crisis. How do we deal with doubt? How do we resolve doubt? What we are going to do today is kind of zoom out and look at the character of John the Baptist and look at the character of Herod. They are both fascinating men. What’s fascinating about this passage is that here we have John the Baptist in prison. We have Herod Antipas as tetrarch of Perea and Galilee. And they both experience doubt for different reasons. Herod doubted that Jesus was God come in the flesh. John did believe that Jesus was God come in the flesh. So they believed opposite truth claims. But here’s what’s crazy. They both began to doubt. They both wondered if what the other person believed was actually true. In the end, they both resolve their doubt but in entirely different ways. One leads to life and the other to death. John dies but ultimately lives eternally. Herod lives but ultimately dies eternally. So let’s dive in and take a look at these fascinating characters. Here’s our outline. 1. The disruption that creates doubt. 2. The feelings that magnify doubt. 3. The facts outside of doubt 4. the choice that diminishes doubt. Doubt almost always begins with crisis. It could be through a piece of data that doesn’t fit into your worldview. It could be through a tragedy. But something creates a crisis. C…

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