Conscience

Mark 6:14-29
Length: 19:56

This is a message given on July 12, 2009 at the Bowdertown United Methodist Church.

“Conscience”

Our scripture starts off with King Herod hearing some exciting news about Jesus of Nazareth. Many people during this time truly believed in resurrections, but they had some false notions about it.

For example, they believed that the spirit of a dead person could come back in another person. They is why some people thought Jesus was John the Baptist or Elijah. It appears as though King Herod believed this as well, as he kept saying “John, whom I beheaded, has risen!”

By this confession, Herod proved that he could not forget the evil he had done. This shows that he too had a conscience that plagued him with guilt. Obviously, though, his desire for power was greater than his conscience.

In verse 17, Mark launches into a flashback of the events that led up to the beheading of John the Baptist.

As we know, John the Baptist was not a soft-spoken kind of guy. He was direct and rigid with his messages. He spoke out against Herod’s illegal and illicit marriage as well as other ungodly activities.

See, Herod was married to the daughter of the King of Arabia. After a while, Herod took a trip to Rome and stayed with his half brother Phillip. While in Rome Herod fell in love with Phillip’s wife, Herodias, and got married.

Herod’s first wife got word of this and escaped and told her father about the situation. The reaction is typical of any father and the King of Arabia declares war against Herod. Rome steps in to the picture and bails Herod out of the mess.

As I mentioned the marriage was illegal and illicit. Illegal because Herod was married already and Herodias was married too, even though she technically got a divorce. It was illicit because Herodias was his half-niece so they were technically related.

Even though Herod enjoyed listening to John preach and teach, he could not let anyone speak bad of him. So Herod had John arrested and put into prison. Herod’s wife wanted John dead, but Herod knew John was a righteous man and no doubt had him protected while in prison.

A while later, Herod throws himself a birthday bash. Part of the entertainment featured a “special” dance by his step daughter. Herod is so “impressed” by the dance that he offers up to half of his kingdom to the girl for her “performance”.

The girl is urged on by her mother to ask for the head of John the Baptist. Herod agreed and had John’s head brought to the girl on a platter as requested. Herod felt bad, but wanted to save face in front of his guests so he gave the order.

Once again we see Herod’s desire for power quiet his conscience. What a sad story this is, but it typifies people even today as they make wrong choices in their life.

Herod had John the Baptist killed. This plagued him personally and publicly. His conscience made him believe that Jesus was empowered by John spirit. And, of course, the public was outraged that a righteous man was killed for nothing.

Second, his marriage to Herodias ruined not only his marriage, but his brother’s marriage as well. It brought warfare from another country and forced Rome to get involved to settle the conflict.

Eventually, Herod continued to screw up and was stripped of his power by Rome and he was banished to Gaul with his wife.

It is indeed sad. The even sadder part is the fact that we still see this type of thing happening today. People are more focused and concerned with money or political power that they are willing to shut down their conscience and focus on their greed, lust, and desires.

When I think about listening to your conscience I always think of a couple of Old Testament men. Listen to the word’s of David in 2 Samuel 24:10:

“And David’s heart condemned him after he had numbered the people. So David said to the Lord, ‘I have sinned greatly in what I have done; but now, I pray, O Lord, take away the iniquity of your servant, for I have done very foolishly.’”

David sinned against God and his conscience convicted him of it. There was no escape. To ease his conscience he had to confess his sin to God and repent of it. David was a servant of God and he screwed up quite a bit, but he always came back to God deeply sorrowful for the things that he did.

The story from the Old Testament that I think about when someone mentions the word conscience is the story of Joseph. I am sure you are all familiar with the story. His brothers were jealous of him and left him for dead, but decided to sell him and make some money instead.

Years later, in Genesis 42:21, the brothers said to one another, “We are truly guilty concerning our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear therefore this distress has come upon us.”

The brothers knew like David did. Their conscience convicted them of their sin. They knew their sin and they knew they would be punished for it. It needed to be confessed and repented of.

We too need to listen to our conscience today. That little voice in your heard is there for a reason. God put it there and uses it for his purposes.

The conscience is our internal warning system. It allows us to think about our motives and actions and determine right from wrong. Of course, in order for it to work properly, we need to have it filled with the Word of God, which gives us the absolute right and truth.

Our conscience should accuse and convict us of our sin. Don’t ignore it, but embrace it and repent of your wrongs.

Our conscience isn’t all bad though. Yes, it convicts us of our sin, but it also should affirm in you that you are a believer. It did for Job, it did for Paul, and Peter. It will for you as well.

Remember, only the blood of Christ can purify us (Heb 9:14) who offered Himself without spot to God for our sins. Only He can cleanse us to serve the living God.

Knowing this, we should walk obediently with Christ. Then our conscience will affirm to us that we are believers in the true and living God.

Living in this world can indeed be a challenge today. There are many distractions and things to draw us away from a godly life.

We are to “conduct ourselves in the world in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God.” (2 Cor 1:12)

What does your conscience say? And more importantly are you listening and obeying it? Think about it this week. Pay attention to your conscience and seek to glorify God with your actions.


Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time in your Word this morning. We thank you for the lessons that we have received. We thank you for faithful men like, David, Job, Peter, and Paul. Help us to live out our faith and walk in this world as these men did. We thank you for our conscience, we ask you to send your Spirit to purify it and make clear to us what is right and what is wrong. Give us the strength to do what is right and honorably and glorifying to you. In the precious name of Jesus. AMEN.