Influence

Introduction

Good morning. It is a true pleasure and a wonderful delight to be here this morning and see so many friendly faces, some that are new to me, but many that I remember from many years ago. I look out and I see so many people that are so special to me, and there are so many of you, you know who you are, that I just feel delighted and honored to be able to speak with you all and study with you all from the master’s pages. The word influence means the effect that something has. We all have influence.

Being rejected at Nazareth and then sending out the twelve. And as he sent out the twelve and was at uh had done many wonderful works and such, King Herod thought that Jesus was John the Baptist. Now, if you’ll turn to Mark chapter 6 and look at the 15th verse, it was the powers that Jesus had seen, the powers that Herod had seen in Jesus that made him assume it was John the Baptist. Now, if you’ll look along in verse 15, it says, Others said that these powers that were at work were not Jesus, and were not John the Baptizer, because they knew John the Baptizer was dead. They said, It’s Elijah. Or others said it’s it’s the prophet or one of the prophets. Someone like them, maybe Jeremiah or something.

You look to verse 16, it says, When Herod heard this, he says, This is John who I beheaded. He’s been raised from the dead. Now I want us to think this morning, what would that mean? What would that mean if John had such a great influence that through everything John had preached and taught and directions and information that he had given to Herod, what would that have been like for Jesus to be mistaken for someone else? Herod himself had sent and laid hold of John and bound him in prison, verse 17, for the sake of Herodias, 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. Therefore Herodias held it against him and wanted to kill him, but she could not.

For Herod feared John. Herod respected John, knowing that he was a just and holy man. We need to be just and holy with our influence. And he protected him. And when he had heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly. Then an opportune day came when Herod, on his birthday, had a feast. He held a feast for his nobles and all those high officials and the chief men of Galilee. And when Herodias’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, I will give to you up to half the kingdom. My kingdom.

So she went out and said to her mother, What shall I ask? And she 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. You hear that? He didn’t want someone to die that had great influence. He didn’t want someone to die that was holy and just, but yet because of situations that he had placed himself in and relationships he was in, that is what happened. Because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he didn’t want to refuse her. Immediately the king sent an executioner and commanded his head to be brought, and he went and beheaded him in prison.

Brought it on a platter, and you can read the rest of the story. A right influence is so important. We need to be people that have a right influence. We need to make sure we have a right influence. This time of year, people remember a very influential man. Jesus. This time of year, if you were to just pull people all around, not those even in this assembly, but all around, driving, going golfing, opening up gifts, doing all sorts of things. Jesus is influential to them. Maybe only one time a year that Jesus is influential. It’s important to remember not just his birth in a manger on an unknown date, as I believe is mentioned in the article that I read as I was coming in from the foyer.

But it’s also nice to know that he forgave our sins on the cross, all of our sins, and we’re able to be free from sin. We have an ability to live forever up in heaven. How blessed is that? How wonderful is that. The importance of the influence of Jesus to be here every first day of the week so we can remember the death of the Lord, so we can partake of a memorial service regarding his life that he gave for us. He never had a funeral, remember? Only one woman caught that, Mary, who uh anointed his feet with oil. And so we look at this and we recognize very clearly that this time of year is a good time to talk to people about the gospel.

1. A Right Influence Can Haunt Those Guilty of Sin

It’s important to talk to people about the death and the burial and the resurrection. But here in this chapter, we learn of the resurrection. We learn of the resurrection that is oh so important. The resurrection that was mistaken. The resurrection of John the Baptizer. Herod thought someone who was a preacher had risen from the dead. He was like, No, no, no, no, no, no. Jesus can’t be, this can’t be Jesus. A right influence haunted him because he was guilty of sin. But let’s look at another thing in verse 15 and 16. If you’re taking notes, verse 14, a right influence can literally haunt those guilty of sin. But look at verse 15 and 16. Good influence can last beyond one’s own life. Look at those two verses right there at 15 and 16.

2. Good Influence Can Last Beyond One’s Own Life

Look down at your Bible and look at that good influence that John had. Influence at life’s wonderful, special events, is to be something we all do. Something we all express. We need to affect the world with our influence all the time. Our influence can last so long that even once we’re gone, we’re still influencing people. Oh, what would grandma have done there? What would grandpa have done there? What about great grandma or great grandpa? We remember those names. Every single one of us has someone who has influenced us or impacted us through our life, right? Now what do we look at here? We look at a situation where John is mistaken for a living person. John’s already dead. Can you imagine? Just I know it’s not in the Bible.

I know we don’t know the day of the Lord’s return. But just imagine if the Lord was to return, and everybody looks up in the sky, you’ve already passed away. You’ve already passed away, right? You look up in the sky, and as you’re rising from the grave first to meet the Lord in the air. Someone looks up there and looks at the Lord and says, hey, that’s you. That’s the same principle that’s going on in this passage if you’ve never noticed. That’s the exact same thing that’s happening. It’s not resurrection in that sense, but that’s the way he’s looking at it. Let me tell you a story about how influence can affect someone through one’s life. The story is told of an old man, who’s quite old, who traveled some 400 miles out of his way to visit his granddaughter-in-law.

Over 400 miles out of his way. He travels that distance, and as he travels that distance, he eats her breakfast meal. Her husband eats the breakfast meal. Says, These are great biscuits. You cook great biscuits. Then takes the milk gravy and goes, she looks at him like that. She tastes the milk gravy and goes, he takes every bite, eats it slowly, and oh, that husband’s feeling a little nervous. He hasn’t said anything about the milk gravy, eats every bite, and then afterwards says, Would you like to learn how to cook milk gravy? She goes, Okay. The husband felt that the right influence haunted him. He did the wrong thing. He says, that’s awful. Don’t serve that. Would you like to help? Would you like to learn?

3. A Wrong Relationship: Find the Right One

Love is patient, love is kind. Love does not envy. Love does not boast. Love does not seek its own. Rejoices with the truth and not with iniquity. Love believes all things, bears all things, hopes all things. Here’s the word, endures all things and it never fails. 1 Corinthians 13. Our influence must grow in wisdom. We look at Herod and Herodias and Philip. We look at the situation they were in there. Many commentators believe that this was akin to the modern dance and not a ballet or not a 1700s presidential ball, not that type of dancing at all. They believe it’s like our modern dances. It would have been, if you look at the situation of most commentators that are conservative, they will tend to say that the Eastern women would not have been without some sort of covering before Herod.

Therefore, the fact that she was dancing before him shows that the type of dancing it was was not like mom and dad in the kitchen with the boys or girls doing the hokey pokey in a circle. Okay. Dancing is something that a husband and wife can do. Okay? There is a time to dance and a time to refrain from dancing. That’s clear. It says it in Ecclesiastes. But in this situation, it costs one’s life. It’s very important that we remember to do what God says at every age. Just think about that. If your influence is just and holy, even your enemies will respect you. Point 4. Just and holy, John the Baptizer. Just and holy? Righteous? John the Baptizer. We know what Matthew 19 and 9 in that passage says.

We could turn there for just a moment. Have you not read from the beginning that they made you male and female? That means man for wife and wife for husband. And said, for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. So then they’re no longer two but one flesh. Therefore, what God is joined together, let not man separate. Then he said to them, Why did Moses command a certificate to give of divorce and to put her away? He said to them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery.

And whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery. They were in a wrong relationship. Herod and Herodias. It should have been Philip and Herodias. And Herod was in the wrong. Young people, it is so important this time of year that you remember whoever you are dating. Think about it. If they’re going to lead you closer to heaven, stick with them. If they’re going to lead you farther away from heaven, make sure you know that the person you are with is going to help you get to heaven. Ask people. Ask your parents. Ask your grandparents. What do you think? We trust their wisdom in other decisions. How do I get to such and such? I don’t know how to get there. However, where do I go there?

We trust them in some things. Trust them in the very important things. If it’s the only thing that is one that keeps two people united as one. It’s the only thing I can think of in the Bible that puts two people as one. So if you’re one, you can’t separate one. There is no separation between one. It’s supposed to be together. I know there’s an exception. Let’s not talk about the exception. Let’s talk about what God intended. Joined. One. Now, when you leave mom and dad, you leave a family of three, or perhaps brothers and sisters, and you leave a big family to be one. You learn how to work together. And so make sure whoever you are dating, and whoever you become engaged to, and then whoever you marry is going to help you get to heaven.

Find the right one to be with, to be yoked with before you say those very important wedding vows. I love this time of year. This time of year is special. I didn’t wear an engagement engagement ring, but my wife did this time of year, years and years ago. Okay, good. She’s smiling.

This time of year is special to many, many people for that. And it’s so very important that we recognize that good influences are our ability. We have the ability to be an influential person. And Herod had the ability to learn more from John. And it may have been the situation. It may have been the reality that if he hadn’t been in a situation with Herodias, then he certainly wouldn’t have been not in a situation where Herodias’ daughter was before him. And if he wasn’t with Herodias and wasn’t with Herodias’ daughter, then he could have listened to more teaching from John. And maybe with study, maybe with much love. He would have learned more. But he was very grieved in heart that his dear friend had to pass away so early.

4. Just and Holy Influence: Even Your Enemies Will Respect You

And so was God. It is your influence that needs to be just and holy. We all don’t have to do the evil things, verse 20. But we can be just, we can be holy, and even our enemies will respect us. They will. We know that from the Proverbs. Even your enemies will be at peace with you if you live righteously before the Lord. John the Baptizer and the Lord. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never thought any time in my life that anybody would ever mistake me for Jesus. But that’s wrong. People need to walk around to every single one of us, every single one, and say, they’re unique. They’re different. First Peter, they’re peculiar. Who are they? They don’t look like anybody else in the world.

They don’t act like anybody else in the world. They don’t talk like anybody else in the world. In fact, they don’t even seem like they belong here. That’s right. For we are strangers and pilgrims and sojourners. And this world is not my home, I’m just a passing through. Our home is heaven. For our citizenship is in heaven, for which we eagerly wait and long to go to. That’s where we want to go. And so, unless we sound so deliberately biblical, unless we choose to do that, people would never be in the same situation as Herod here. This lesson is not specifically about Herod and Herodias. This lesson is not about Herod, Herodias, and Philip and divorce and marriage, nor is it a lesson about dancing. Those are just side notes of the passage.

The lesson is about Jesus being mistaken for a man who was not just all God and all man, but a man. Imagine what it meant when he said, This is the Elijah, the one who is to pave the way for Jesus. Someone exists before the world of Jesus’ life to basically be recognized as the Son of God. Influence. We need to impact the world. And brethren and friends and family, we can. Amen. And how do we do it? Hear and understand the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is God’s all. Last verse of Ecclesiastes. To know sound wisdom and instruction, the wise sayings, the dark sayings, the enigmas and their riddles, to figure out the proverbs, to understand what I like to call life’s fortune cookies.

That’s really what those proverbs remind me of. You just pick a proverb, you try to figure out which one applies for what situation, and you say, look at all that wisdom. Look at all that advice. There’s so much of it. I can’t even try to decipher between it. And it’s not even all doctrine, it’s just wisdom and knowledge. And the world that we live in doesn’t even know that it’s right in the middle of the Bible. They don’t know. What is our responsibility then? Oh, evangelize, teach the laws. Tell everybody about the gospel. We’ve got to evangelize and tell everybody. Hey, what’s your name? How are you doing? You doing good? Let me tell you about the gospel. Here’s a gospel card. Uh come to a gospel meeting invitation, and here is a card for wait a minute.

I want to tell a little story that’s true. There was a preacher who was told essentially, I want you to go and talk to the gospel. Teach the gospel to someone. And he goes, and the man is sitting in his vehicle, and he’s reading the Bible. And as he’s reading the Bible, he’s reading Isaiah. I think by now you know where I am in the Bible, Acts chapter 8. He’s reading Isaiah, and it says he was led as a sheep before the slaughter, and as a lamb before his shears is silent. So in his humiliation, his justice is taken away, that passage back in Isaiah. And Philip comes up to him and he says, Understandest thou what thou readest? King James Version, do you know what that’s saying?

And he says, Well, how can I unless someone guides me? And he says, okay. And we always jump to that passage or very frequently that he goes down into the water and comes back up, but look at the verse carefully in the same chapter. He invited him up into the chariot. We have to look for those opportunities of people who invite us up to the chariot to hear the message of the Lord. We can’t just force the gospel on someone. We must look for those golden opportunities. But when it happens, we better know the scriptures enough to tell them what it says. Because that’s important too. Acts chapter 8. And so that’s your lesson. Influence, your effects on the world. A right influence can literally haunt those guilty of sin, verse 14.

5. Haste or Impulsiveness Reduces One’s Influence

A good influence can last beyond one’s own life, verse 15 through 16. An unlawful marriage can have a bad influence on you, verse 17. But if your influence is just and holy, even your enemies will respect you. And last but not least, we’ll conclude with just an extra two minutes. Haste or impulsiveness reduces one’s influence. Because when I stated in Acts chapter 8 that Philip, the evangelist was invited into the chariot of the Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8. Look at Mark chapter 6, verses 22, 25, and 27. And there you see senses of impulsiveness, haste, and it reduced the influence. I’ve been told it is your custom here at this place, this wonderful assembly with so many great faces, so many uh old acquaintances and uh uh treasured friends uh to give a prayer at the conclusion of this lesson.

Conclusion

And following the prayer, I believe Brother Klein has an announcement he’d like to make uh regarding classes, and so let us approach the throne of God. Lord of hosts in heaven, captain of all the good angelic armies, we thank you so much that you have given us this opportunity to influence the world. While we sit here in these pews and we listen to lessons from your word, the reality is most of those who are here know these lessons already. And so it is our hope, our desire, and our lovely aim that you will help us find those opportunities where we may influence and affect others in the world. Lord, we know that sometimes we sin and we are all guilty of sin, for there is none that sin without frequency.

For we sin so much. Sometimes we we don’t just do things we shouldn’t do, but we leave things undone. And with our influence towards the world, that’s really the type of sin that we sometimes have. We leave the undone things lingering. Lord, forgive us for that. Hold those sins not to our charge and help us to see those opportunities, so that when that great day comes, and Jesus is up in the air, and the dead in Christ rise first, that all we who are alive together can meet Christ in the air, and that we can always be comforted with the knowledge that at times like these, when we come together to worship, the aim and the principle is to encourage one another, so that when we continue our walk with you, and when we continue our service to you, that when we go out into the world, you are our God, you are our influence, and the world can see Christ living in me.

We ask that you help us in these efforts. Bless the good church here at Bumby. Bless the elders, every single one of them, and every single deacon and their families, as they both oversee and manage the flock. But not just them, bless every member. For every single one of them is important to you, Lord, from the youngest of the young to the oldest of the old to everyone in between. For they all are special, they all are important, and every single one of them has you that they can always turn to. As we talk to you right now in prayer, Lord, as we are actually talking to you, we are so impressed by the fact that you would actually listen to us. But Lord, we are also very thankful and very grateful that when it seems like we don’t know your answer, we don’t seem this seems like how long, Lord, or when will we hear a yes, or when will we hear a no?

That at those times of puzzlement, anxiety, and burdens, we can go to your word and know that its fullness and its grandness is you talking to us through the ages, through the pages, and through all eternity until we meet you one day. Thank you, Lord, for this assembly. Please go with us into our classes and help us to be able to study more deeply, study with a really true heart and with an attitude that seeks for peace. Thank you, Lord, for Jesus the Christ. It’s in his holy name we pray. Amen.