Who Is This Jesus?

Mark 6:14-16
Gregory Broderick | Sunday, May 03, 2020
Copyright © 2020, Gregory Broderick

¹⁴King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known. Some were saying, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in Him.” ¹⁵Others said, “He is Elijah.” And still others claimed, “He is a prophet, like one of the prophets of long ago.” ¹⁶ But when Herod heard this, he said, “John, the man I beheaded, has been raised from the dead!”

Mark 6:14–16

 

“Who Is This Jesus?” In Mark 6, we confront an important question—the most important question in the history of the world. It is the most important question for everyone who has ever lived, and the most important question for you personally: Who is Jesus Christ?

There are only two possible answers. The first is that He is Lord—the sinless Son of God, the God-man sent to pay the full price for our sin on the cross, the full price for all who would put their trust in Him. The second possible answer is that He is not—that He is a liar, that He is not who He claimed to be, that He is not God. And if that is true, then He is inconsequential. Indeed, He is worse than inconsequential if He is not the Son the God. If Jesus is not the Son of God as He claimed, then He is a fraud—the greatest fraud ever perpetrated on mankind, leading billions of people to waste their lives on an elaborate scheme cooked up in the backwaters of the first-century Roman empire.

There is no middle ground. Jesus is either God, as He claimed to be, or He is not. He is either the way, the truth, and the life, or He is not. He is either the exclusive way to salvation and peace with God, or He is not. He is either those things, or He is a detestable charlatan, to be held with the utmost contempt. He is either King of kings and Lord of lords, who must be obeyed as Sovereign and Lord, or He is irrelevant. And if He is not those things, He is simply a long-dead guru in a long line of long-dead gurus. He is nothing more than an interesting footnote from an ignorant and backwards age, if He is not who He claimed to be.

Now, rest assured, Jesus is no liar. He is no fraud. He is very God and very man. He loved and died for His people, that they may be redeemed through faith in Him. So as we consider this question this morning, let us look at our text.

Herod Hears about Jesus

Verse 14 says, “King Herod heard about this, for Jesus’ name had become well known.” We know, of course, that Jesus and His disciples had been doing amazing things. The previous verse tells us that the disciples drove out many demons and that they healed many sick people. They did all this at Jesus’ command, in His name, and by His authority. We know that earlier, in Mark 5, Jesus healed a sick woman in the crowd and raised synagogue ruler Jairus’s daughter from the dead. And despite exhortations to the contrary, we know that people surely spoke about these amazing events. Word was getting around. We know for sure that the demoniac who was miraculously cured by Jesus spread the good news. Mark 5:20 says, “[He] began to tell in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him.” It also says, “All the people were amazed.” So word was getting around.

We know that large crowds met Him as He went here and there. A large crowd met Him as He came back across the lake from healing the demoniac at the beginning of chapter 5. There was a big crowd in chapter 3, when His mother and brothers came to get hold of Him. The crowd was so large, it says, that Jesus and His disciples could not even eat. So there were people coming from everywhere. In fact, the crowds were so big that Jesus and His disciples could not even get away to the lake (Mark 3:7). It says a large crowd from Galilee followed them.

So word was getting around about this Jesus, and now it reaches Herod the king. This is no longer some minor local happening. Word had reached the palace, possibly in Jerusalem, although Herod probably had multiple palaces as a regional ruler. Jesus’ name had become well-known due to miracles and so on. But Herod likely also heard about Jesus from John the Baptist. We will hear more about the interactions between Herod and John the Baptist later on, but it is clear that they had significant contact.

This is the same John the Baptist, a relative of Jesus, who announced Jesus’ coming as the Messiah. So we can assume that Herod heard more about Jesus than that He was someone out there doing a lot of miracles. In fact, John was anointed by God to prepare the way for Jesus as Messiah, to preach the gospel of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1:4). John told all the people in the desert to repent, not to beat them up or beat them into submission, but to get them ready for the Lord Jesus, who was to come. He did so to convict them of sin and to prepare them for the Lord and Savior.

John told the people that Jesus was coming. In Mark 1:7–8 he says, “One more powerful than I is coming. I baptize you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” John told them, “I say, ‘Repent,’ but He will save you from your sins if you put your faith in Him.” And John, having told all these things to the people in the desert, surely told them to Herod as well. We get the idea from this chapter that John was in prison for some time, as it seems that Herod was unwilling to execute him, out of fear of John and fear of the people. But Herod was unwilling to let John go as well. Verse 20 says he liked to listen to John. Verse 18 says that John told particular things to Herod.

We know that John, while certainly not perfect, was a very bold preacher—bold to declare the word of God. This is the same man who harshly rebuked the Pharisees and the Sadducees. They were powerful men, but he called them a brood of vipers. He did not greet them deferentially or even as equals, but he warned them to flee from the coming wrath (Matt. 3:7-8). That is not a very seeker-friendly approach, but that was not John’s goal. His goal was to declare the word.

John also confronted Herod directly for Herod’s own sin of divorcing his wife and compounding that wickedness by taking his own sister-in-law as a second wife. It is bold to rebuke a powerful man at all. It is bold to rebuke him about his own sin. But it is extraordinarily bold to rebuke him about his wife. This rebuke landed John in prison and ultimately cost John his head, as we will hear later.

So it is likely that this John—so bold to preach to the crowds, so bold to rebuke the Pharisees and the Sadducees, so bold to rebuke Herod for his sin—also told Herod all about Jesus. “This is no mere man performing miraculous signs,” we can imagine John saying to Herod. “This is no mere man; this is the Messiah. He is very God and very man,” as was miraculously foretold to John’s mother. John probably said, “I leapt in the womb, and I saw the Holy Spirit descend on Him in physical form at baptism.” We can imagine John telling Herod all these things, and Herod also surely heard about what the disciples preached. So Herod heard about the miracles, he heard about Jesus from John the Baptist, and he also probably heard what the disciples preached. He had spies everywhere hearing what was happening.

So it is not just that Herod heard who Jesus was. It is not just that he heard what Jesus did. But he also heard what Jesus and His disciples preached. What is that he heard about? Verse 14 says Herod “heard about this,” and verses 12 and 13 tell us what “this” is. Verse 13 says, “They drove out many demons and anointed many sick people with oil and healed them.” That is the amazing thing. And verse 12 says, “They went out and preached that people should repent.” Surely Herod heard about this, that the disciples went out and told people to repent.

The call to repent is a critical component of any true gospel preaching. This was true, of course, of Jesus’ preaching. In Mark 1:14 Jesus Himself said, “Repent and believe the good news.” In Matthew 4:17 Jesus said, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” And in Luke 13:3 He said, “Unless you repent, you too will perish.” And, of course, it is this same Jesus who sent the disciples out to preach that message of repentance (Mark 6:12). Repentance is also in view in John 3:19 and 10:26.

So repentance was a core tenet of Jesus’ preaching. It was also true of St. Peter. No surprise, as a disciple of Jesus, he preached what Jesus did. In Acts 2:38, Peter says, “Repent and be baptized,” when the crowds asks him what they should do. This is also true of St. Paul. In Acts 26:20 he says, “Repent and turn to God, and prove your repentance by your deeds.”

Indeed, in Luke 24:46–47, the risen Lord Jesus—so not even Jesus the Messiah and future sacrifice, but the risen and glorified Lord Jesus—tells us, “The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead . . . , and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations.” So even the risen Lord Jesus says that is what the plan was for the Christ. He would come, He would suffer, and He would die, and repentance and forgiveness would be preached in His name—not just forgiveness, but repentance and forgiveness.

It is sad that we must teach and re-teach this elementary principle: that repentance is necessary. But this is where we are as a society and this is where we are as a church. Many, perhaps even a majority, in the so-called church world now says repentance is not necessary. And certainly a large majority underemphasize repentance, relegating it to the attic like a crazy uncle: “Repentance is over there. We really don’t talk about it one way or the other.”

It is for some a matter of shame, a doctrine for the unsophisticated, or for the people of the past but not for our modern, sophisticated time. Not so. We emphasize repentance because the Bible emphasizes repentance, because Jesus emphasized repentance. It is not that we come and preach our own words, that we come and preach our own ideas. No, we come and preach the Bible as the word of God.

Repentance is not a gloom and doom doctrine. Repentance is a matter of joy. Without Jesus Christ, without new birth, we cannot repent. We are slaves to sin without regeneration. But with Jesus, in His name and by the power of His Spirit, we can repent, we can be cleansed, we can be freed from our sin, we can have fellowship with God. We can say “No” to sin and “Yes” to righteousness by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So do not be ashamed of repentance. Repentance is God’s gift to you as a believer. We should not be ashamed of a gift that God gives us. No, repentance is not a cause for shame; it is a cause for great joy—joy for us, for we are redeemed and set free, and joy in heaven. Luke 15:7 says there is rejoicing in the presence of God, there is rejoicing among the angels, when a sinner repents. God loves repentance. It is the devil who hates repentance. And anyone who preaches salvation without the obligation to repent—that person is a liar, that person is an agent of the devil who hates repentance, that person is an agent of the devil masquerading as an angel of light. So do not fall for the temptation. Do not fall for the idea that repentance is not necessary. God says repentance is necessary.

Like any true gospel, the gospel that Herod heard from the disciples and from John the Baptist included, and, in fact, was led by, a call to repent. So now we know that Herod heard. We know that he heard what Jesus did, the amazing things. We know that he heard who Jesus was—the Messiah, the Chosen One, the sinless Son of God. The God-man. And we know that he likely heard what Jesus taught: Repent, believe, be saved, and follow Me.

Herod’s Response

What did Herod do with this information that came to him? Having heard all about Jesus, Herod is confronted with a critical question, and it is really the critical question for everyone: Is this true? Is this for real? Is this Jesus who He claims to be?

In the text, we see a number of answers posited for who this Jesus is. “Some were saying, ‘John the Baptist has been raised from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in Him’” (v. 14). Now, we notice from this answer that there is no debate that miraculous powers were at work in Him; there is no debate that something amazing was happening. Everyone agrees on that.

In our time, ignorant people say that Jesus did not exist or did not do any miracles, and they say we should cross out those parts of the Bible that say that Jesus did many miracles. Or they say, “Jesus existed, but He was just a great teacher or a philosopher to whom miraculous powers were later attributed.” That is what ignorant people say in our time. But that is not what His contemporaries said. That is not what the eyewitnesses said. That is not even what His enemies said at the time.

They all acknowledged His outstanding miracles. They all sought some explanation for those things. They did not say He was a fake. They did not say He was a trickster. They did not say it never happened—that He never raised that person from the dead, that He never cured that sick person, He never unshriveled that person’s arm. They did not say these things. They sought an alternative explanation. There were too many witnesses to deny the facts on the ground. So some, looking for the alternative explanation, said, “John the Baptist has been raised from the dead.”

Others, as we read in verse 15, said, “He is Elijah,” returned. Now, that is quite a lofty office, quite a lofty attribution for most. Elijah was a powerful prophet and a preacher who performed miracles. (GTB) He shut up the heavens. At his command, there was no rain for at least three years, as we read in 1 Kings 17. Elijah miraculously provided for the widow of Zarephath and raised her son from the dead. And he defeated four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal at Mount Carmel, all by God’s miraculous power at work in him. He parted the Jordan River with the strike of his cloak (2 Kings 2). And he is miraculously ascended directly into heaven without death in a chariot of fire. It was said of Elijah that he would return and that his return would herald the coming of the promised Messiah (Matt. 17:10).

So being called Elijah was intended as a high compliment, as a recognition that something unique, something powerful, something great, something amazing had happened, and further amazing things were about to happen. So we see again that no one denied Jesus’ existence or His miracles at the time. No one says it is fake or a myth. No one says He did not exist. They just looked for a different answer.

Still others, we are told, claimed that He is a prophet like one of the prophets from long ago. Now, it is true Jesus was like those prophets in a number of ways. After all, He preached repentance like Jeremiah. He condemned idolatry and sin in Israel, including among its leaders, as did the bold Ezekiel. He performed outstanding miracles like Elijah and Elisha. He proclaimed the restoration of Israel, like Isaiah. He confronted them in their sin like Joel and Amos. He preached about the day of judgment like Micah and Zephaniah. He said, “Return to the Lord,” as Zechariah did. Indeed, He spoke like them because they spoke about Him. So it is no surprise that Jesus speaks like a prophet from of old. They were speaking about Jesus. They were foretelling the coming of the Savior.

Again, notice, even these people who said He was like a prophet from long ago acknowledged His godliness. They conceded that something special was happening. There were not too many prophets like the prophets of old, and there had not been one for a long time at the time these people were wondering who Jesus was. And there had been a famine of the word, really, for centuries by that time.

These were their answers, and we can see from their answers there was universal agreement that Jesus was real. There was universal agreement that Jesus was godly. There was universal agreement that something amazing was happening and that miraculous powers were at work in Him. But among these answers, among these suppositions as to who Jesus was, even those that might sound honorific or complimentary, was another unspoken universal consensus: they all agreed He is not the Messiah, that He is not who He claimed to be, that He is not the sinless Son of God, that He is not very God and very man.

You see, there is no doubt that these were Jesus’ claims about Himself. John the Baptist proclaimed Jesus as Messiah. Jesus called Himself Son of Man and Lord of the Sabbath (Mark 2:27–28). In Luke 4:21, He told the people that He was the fulfillment of the Scriptures. In John 8:58, He said, “Before Abraham was, I am,” a clear claim to be God. In fact, people tried to throw Him off a cliff because He claimed to be God (Luke 4:29). In John 10, the Jewish leaders tried to stone Him, and when He asked them why, they said, “Because you, a mere man, claim to be God” (John 10:33). So there is no doubt of what He claimed about Himself, and there is no doubt that people understood the claim He was making.

But just as there is no doubt about who He claimed to be, there is no doubt that the people in our text rejected His claim. They rejected His claim to be Messiah, to be God. Now, you might say they accorded Him high status, high honor, calling Him a prophet of old, Elijah, or John the Baptist raised from the dead. Such suggestions might be honor for anyone else. But they are an insult to Jesus Christ. He is no mere man. He is not merely a great man. He is God. He is very God and very man. Hebrews 1:3 makes is clear. He is “the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being.” He is of the same substance as God the Father. He was with God in the beginning, and He was God, and He is God (John 1:1). He was perfect in holiness and sinless as only God could be. When you demote Jesus to the station of any man, no matter how great the man, it is an insult, a great insult. Indeed, becoming man was a great humiliation for Him, a great lowering of Himself from His status as very God to His status as God and man, all for our benefit.

But the suggestion that He is a great prophet or Elijah or John is insulting not only because it lowers Jesus, but for another reason: you are calling Him a liar. Jesus did not say that He was John the Baptist. He did not say that He was a prophet of long ago. He did not say He was Elijah. He did not even intimate any of these things. He said in clear terms that He was God, and His hearers understood it that way. So it was not that He was giving confusing messages about who He was. It is not that He was silent about who He was or coy about who He was. He said in plain terms who He was.

So in calling Jesus something else—anything else—speculating about who He really is, necessarily rejects His claim to be God. You necessarily call Him a liar: He says He is the God-man; you are saying He is not. You necessarily reject Him as Lord and Savior. He said He is Lord and Savior, and speculating that He might be something else is necessarily saying that He is not Lord and Savior.

Just look at Herod in our text. He heard all about Jesus from John and others. He agreed that Jesus had miraculous powers working in Him. He concluded that Jesus was John reincarnate. Herod never believed that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior. He never put his faith in Jesus Christ. No, he rejected Jesus’ claims. He rejected Jesus as God-man, as Messiah, as Lord and Savior. In fact, Herod would later see Jesus personally. Jesus was brought before Herod after His arrest. And what did Herod do at that time? He ridiculed and mocked Jesus (Luke 23:11). It says that Herod and others vehemently accused Jesus, made fun of Him, and mockingly put Him in a purple robe and sent Him back to Pilate to die.

Whatever admiration Herod may have feigned in our text, he showed his true colors later on—unregenerate, mocker, wicked, and damned. And I would point out that he died unsaved and is in eternal hell even now, deeply regretting his foolish rejection of Jesus Christ.

So that is Herod. He heard but rejected Jesus Christ. What about you? My third point is “Who do you say that I am?”

Who Do You Say That I Am?

What is your conclusion? Who do you say that Jesus is? Is He the one and only Savior, as He claimed? Is He the sinless Son of God? Is He the one and only Son sent to save all who would believe in Him—sent out of God’s great love for this world, sent to atone for our sins, sent to pay the otherwise unpayable infinite debt of sin? Is He the risen Lord, full of glory, seated at the right hand of the Father to receive His people into eternal heaven? Is He the Lord walking among the lampstands, His churches, with eyes like blazing fire and a sharp double-edged sword in His mouth? Is He the King of kings and Lord of lords? What do you say?

What do you say? Is He those things? Or is He something else? You see, those are the only two choices. He is either God made man, sent to save the world by His obedience, by His death and resurrection, or He is not. Those are the only two answers, and you must choose. He is either God or He is a fraud. He is either the perfectly sinless God-man or a charismatic huckster from the backwaters of the Roman empire who fooled people into thinking He was something else.

I want to tell you that you must answer this question one way or the other. He asks every person, “Who do you say that I am?” He directly asks this question to His disciples a few chapters later in Mark 8:29. He says, “What about you?” And at the time He asks you, there is no dodging the question. You cannot say, “I don’t know.” In fact, the Pharisees tried just this tactic in Mark 11, and Jesus rejects their duplicity, refusing to speak to them further.

Whether from duplicity or ignorance, Jesus will not let you take this easy way out: “I do not know.” He demands an answer. He says, “I am calling you today.” He says, “Now is the time of salvation.” He says, “Today is the day” (2 Cor. 6:2). He says, “I hold out my hands. I offer you salvation for free by grace through faith. Trust in Me now,” He says. “Follow Me now,” He says, “and be saved.” In the face of such an offer and command to believe and repent, “I do not know” is just a polite way of saying, “No.”

So if you find yourself in this “I do not know” camp, I say, “Find out. Figure it out.” This is the most important question you will ever answer. It has eternal consequences. I urge you and I urge you today to put your faith in Jesus Christ. This is the one thing needful in this life. If you get everything else wrong, and you get this right, you are a success. If you get everything else right and you get this wrong, you are a failure, an eternal failure.

He is God, as He said. He is the only way to the Father, as He said. He is the way, the truth, and the life, as He said. And He is faithful. He will receive you if you come to Him in faith. You see, He promised that He would never turn away anyone who comes to Him in faith, even Herod. If Herod had come to Him in faith, he would not have been turned away. Whoever you are, wherever you are from, whatever you have done, go to Him, call out to Him, fall down and be saved. He will receive you. It is a promise. He guarantees it.

So do not avoid the question. Do not avoid the question by saying, “I do not know.” Do not avoid the question with some other pleasant rejection such as, “He was a great philosopher,” or, “He was a great social justice advocate,” or, “He was a great moral teacher,” or even, “He was the greatest man who ever lived.” Those are all polite rejections. Those are all nice ways to say, “No,” to say He is a liar, to say He is not God, to say He is not the Savior.

Do not be deceived. These answers are simply “No” in sheep’s clothing. They are no different from those who said He was Elijah or one of the prophets of long ago, or Herod’s conclusion that He was John the Baptist raised up from the dead. These answers seeking a middle ground or a third way are simply rejections of the truth—rejections of Jesus, rejections of His offer of salvation by faith, rejections of His offer of peace with God and of eternal glory.

I want to tell you one more thing. One day you will admit the truth. You will admit that He is Lord. You will confess that He is God, as He claimed. You see, He came before, but He is coming again, not as a man, not as a sacrifice for sin, not as a humble carpenter or a helpless babe in the manger. No, this time He comes in glory. This time He comes to judge all things and all men. And there will be only one question at that time. Not, “Are you good enough?” Not, “Did you live a moral life?” No, the question will be, “Did you put your faith in Me? Who did you say that I am when you were confronted with that question?”

You see, the secret is, nobody is good enough. We are all sinners. We all must be saved by grace. We all must accept His invitation as the only way of salvation, to put our faith in Him, to trust in Him, to be saved and to walk with Him.

So that will be His question: “Who did you say that I am?” You see, at that time we are told that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil. 2:10–11; Rom. 14:11). But at that time, if you have not confessed Him as Lord and Savior in this life, it will be too late to confess Him savingly. You will confess Him all right, because He will be there to confront you, and you will speak the truth that He is God. But it will be too late to be saved at that time.

So I say, friends, do not wait for that day. Confess Him today while there is still time to be saved, while there is still time to be redeemed, while there is still time to be moved from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light, while there is still time to be rescued—rescued from slavery to sin and Satan—and set free. Set free to what? Set free to glorify God and enjoy Him forever, to fulfill the purpose for which we were made.

Do not be like Herod. You see, he heard all about Jesus, but so have you. He met with Jesus’ representative, John the Baptist, who told him to repent and be saved. He met with Jesus’ representative, and so have you. Herod heard from Jesus personally, and so have you, in a way, for wherever Jesus’ gospel is preached, it is He who is speaking. Herod rejected the free offer of grace and he is doomed to an eternal hell of agony, misery, and great regret. Can you imagine the regret in eternal hell? “I had the opportunity, I heard the word, and I rejected it. I was such a fool.” But it will be too late. Do not do it.

Instead, confess Him today. Believe Him today. Put your faith in Him today. Be saved today. You will not regret that. You will regret it if you do not, but you will not regret it if you confess Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. You will not regret it in this life. It is the life of greatest joy. You will not regret it in eternal heaven, which is even greater joy, ultimate joy. You will not regret that. Rather, you will rejoice. And He will rejoice over you, and we will rejoice with you. Indeed, all heaven will rejoice at the sinner who turns from Satan and puts his faith in Jesus Christ.

So do not reject Him. Do not come up with some other answer. Believe Him. Put your faith in Him and be saved today, and rejoice—rejoice with us, rejoice with God, rejoice with all heaven. Hallelujah. Amen.