In this sermon titled 'An Evangelistic Message', Mike Davenport explores the biblical accounts of Herod's interactions with John the Baptist and Jesus, drawing from Mark 6 and Luke 23. The sermon emphasizes the themes of a 'day of visitation', the stirring and eventual searing of Herod's conscience. Davenport outlines four main points: a crisis solved, a conscience stirred, a curiosity spurned, and a conscience seared, using Herod's story as a cautionary tale. Herod's initial protection of John the Baptist, despite recognizing his justness, is contrasted with his eventual role in John's execution, illustrating a crisis where Herod chose face-saving over righteousness. The sermon warns young listeners about the danger of ignoring spiritual convictions, likening a seared conscience to a smoke detector disabled in the face of a fire. It urges them to respond to God's call and not put off repentance, lest their 'day of visitation' pass them by without finding peace in Jesus Christ.

Well, if you'll turn in your Bibles to Mark chapter 6, Mark chapter 6, I want to give a gospel message. It may be different from what you're assuming it may be, but I think it's an important message, one that I'm really focused on the young people that are here in our midst that week in and week out hear the Word of God taught and preached, hear it in your homes all throughout the week. And I think there's a warning here in this passage. We're going to be looking at Mark 6 and also at Luke 23, the two of those combined. And the title of this message is, When the Day of Visitation Passes.

When the day of visitation passes. So look with me at Mark 6, beginning of verse 14. Mark 6, 14. Now King Herod heard of Him, that is of Jesus, for His name had become well known. And he said, John the Baptist is risen from the dead and therefore these powers are at work in him.

Others said, It is Elijah. And others said, It is the prophet or one like one of the prophets. But when Herod heard, he said, This is John whom I beheaded. He has been raised from the dead. For Herod himself had sent and laid hold of John and bound him in prison 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 knowing that he was a just and holy man and he protected him. And when he heard him, he did many things and heard him gladly. Then an opportune day came when Herod on his birthday gave a feast for his nobles, the high officers, and the chief men of Galilee.

And when Herodias's daughter herself came in and danced and 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 me I will give you up to half 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, yet because of the oaths and because of those who sat with him, he did not 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 his head on the platter and gave it to the girl and the girl gave it to her mother. When his disciples heard of it, they came and took away his corpse and laid it in a tomb." And then you may want to hold your place there, and if you want to turn over to Luke 23, Luke 23. Here in Luke 23, we have Jesus being passed over from Pilate to Herod. Jesus has been arrested.

He's already appeared before Pilate, and Pilate finds out he's Galilean and says, I'll let Herod take care of this. And so we pick up the reading, same Herod in our first text, Luke 23, 6. When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, He sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. Now, when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad, for he had desired for a long time to see him, because he had heard many things about him and he hoped to see some miracle done by him.

Then he questioned him with many words but he answered him nothing. And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him. Then Herod with his men of war treated Jesus with contempt and mocked him, arrayed him in a gorgeous robe, and sent him back to Pilate. That very day, Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other. I just want us to consider four points from these texts, four points.

First, a crisis solved, a crisis solved. Second, a conscience stirred, A conscience stirred. Thirdly, a curiosity spurned. A curiosity spurned. And fourthly, a conscience seared.

A conscience seared. So first, a crisis solved. And we see this in Mark 16 beginning in verse 17 to 29. I'm gonna do something a little out of the ordinary. My first point comes from the second part of the text.

My second point comes from the first part of the text. And I think you'll see why, because we have something in the first part of the text starting in verse 14, something that's happening here and now that Mark's describing, and then verse 17 goes back to what happened. He's giving you the rest of the story. And we're starting with that rest of the story in order to bring out this point, a crisis solved. So we note in verses 17 to 29 a crisis that arises.

John the Baptist finds out about this marital infidelity of King Herod that he has his brother's wife. And this did not make Herodias the wife happy. She was quite angry. She wanted John dead for the biblical accusations that he brought against her and her new husband. And because Herod sought to protect John, Herodias concocted a way that she could have her way.

And so sending her daughter to dance there before Herod and the other courtiers, Herodias gained what she wanted. Herod's willingness to grant the daughter whatever she wished, up to half the kingdom. And so, springing upon the opportunity, Herodias tells her daughter, ask for the head of John the Baptist. Well, herein is where the crisis came to the surface. Herod was made sorrowful.

He had protected John And he didn't want to execute him. Now, he wasn't necessarily happy with John either. It was because of what John said that he put him into prison, but he still heard him gladly. He did not want to execute him, but he had made a promise that the entire court had heard. All had heard his thoughtless promise to grant whatever was wished up to half the kingdom.

Well, Herod never expected that the death of John the Baptist would be what was asked for, what was requested. So that he would not lose face with those in his court, And so that he could keep some semblance of peace with his wife Herodias, he caved to the wicked request, and John was beheaded and his head brought to Herodias on a platter. But I would like for your attention here to be drawn to Herod's attitude toward John. It's highlighted in this passage. Although John did not draw back from condemning the sin in Herod's household, yet we read in verse 20 that Herod knew that he was a just and holy man.

And when Herod heard him, Herod did many things and heard John gladly. Matthew Henry points out that Herod did many of those things which John in his preaching taught him, but it is not enough to do many things. We must have respect to all the commandments. Herod respected John till he touched him in his relationship to Herodias. Now John's gone too far.

I really liked listening to John. His fiery passion, the truth that he brings. He's a holy man, he's a just man, he lives out in the wilderness, eats strangely, dresses strangely. What a character. But preach man, preach.

I want to hear you preach. I like it." Until he put his finger on Herod's hand. It's like, okay, wait a minute here. That's what landed John in prison. But Herodias wanted more.

She wanted him dead. But Herod protected this man. He protected him. Commentators Jameson, Fawcett, and Brown comment how this illustrates the working of contrary principles in the slaves of passion. But this only shows how far Herodias must have wrought upon Herod as Jezebel upon Ahab that he should at length agree to what his awakened conscience kept him long from actually executing.

And I want to have a heart-to-heart talk with you young people. I fear that your conscience could be a lot like Herod's, irritated and stirred up at times when the preaching seems to hit a particular area, a particular nerve, but at other times convicted and making outward changes and on some level having a sense of enjoyment regarding coming to church and maybe regarding hearing the preaching of the Word, certainly enjoying the atmosphere of a healthy and loving church. But you're not at rest. You're not at rest. Your sin will not let you be at rest.

Children, you all know what a smoke detector is, right? Do you all know what a smoke detector is? You probably have one in your home, especially if your home's been built in the last however many years it's been, that's required. You have a smoke detector in the ceiling. What's that smoke detector for?

It's there to make a loud noise that you won't like. That's what it's there for. It's to make a loud noise that you won't like. But the thing is it's there so that if a fire breaks out in your house and the smoke rises to that smoke detector, it'll go off. And you may be asleep and not even know there's a fire in the house and it'll go off.

It's telling you, wake up, you need to get out of the house there's most likely a fire in the house what if you didn't like what that's my old they actually sometimes at work we they have some loud ones at work and these things they test them every once in a while to make sure they're working. I leave the building. I don't even stay inside because you can't I can't work. I've got it's too loud. Well what if you ripped that thing out of the ceiling?

Took the wires out? Took the batteries out? You wouldn't have to worry about the noise ever, but you'd have to worry about something greater than that, a fire. That just doesn't hurt your ears. It's a dangerous thing, right?

But that can happen. And you don't want to detach that smoke detector. But you see, that's what Herod did. He, as it were, ripped the wire and batteries out of the smoke detector instead of dealing with the fire of sin that raged in his heart. He solved the crisis, but it was going to prove very devastating for him.

When the Word of God convicts you, young person, deal with what's there. Deal with the fire. Don't rip the smoke detector, the sin detector. Don't rip it out of the wall or out of the ceiling. Deal with what's uncovered.

And so our text tells us that this had already occurred. It's looking back in time. This is what happened. He had, as it were, ripped the wiring right out of the sin detector that God had given him. And that sin detector was aroused because of the preaching of John the Baptist.

And that's done. And now this crisis is brought though to the forefront again, and That's what this text is telling us in verses 14 to 16. It's telling us about a conscience stirred, a conscience stirred. The crisis was solved, but now the conscience is stirred again. What happened?

Well, King Herod heard of Jesus, for Jesus' name had become well known, and he said, John the Baptist is risen from the dead, and therefore these powers are at work in him. But when Herod heard, He said, this is John, whom I beheaded, and he has been raised from the dead. See, Herod began hearing about the things that were happening by Jesus Christ, And those words and works sounded just like John the Baptist. It sounded like what he would do. And as a side note, what a testimony that an ungodly man would find similarities between what John did and what John's Savior did.

May we have such a testimony that our words and works are just like our Lord's. Well, these reports stirred up the conscience of that old fox, Herod. That's the nickname Jesus gave him, that old fox. Everybody else pointed to the prophets, but Herod's conscience had him convinced This was John the Baptist raised from the dead. And the stirring of his conscience seemed to be those last convulsions and twitchings of a man whose life is ending.

This may well have been the last time his conscience would work to convince and convict him. Having silenced John himself, now Herod would silence that inner voice of conscience. And there seems to be no more continuation in the things that John had preached. Those had fallen by the wayside when the crisis was solved. Luke's gospel account of this scene indicates that Herod, through some means, he came to understand that this was actually Jesus.

Whew. He thought it was John. It's just Jesus. Whew. Those last wires are undone.

The conscience that was stirred is not going to stir much longer. So he came to understand this was Jesus and this stirring of conscience was short-lived. He returned to his normal ways. My dear young friend, if today you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers, God says, tested me, tried me, and saw my works. Forty years.

Therefore, I was angry with that generation and said, they always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways, So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest." If God's gospel is working today, don't unhook the wires, don't remove the batteries, deal with it. Don't be like Felix whom we read about in Acts 24 and after some days when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, who was Jewish, He sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith of Christ. Now, as he reasoned about righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and answered, go away for now. When I have a convenient time, I will call for you. Meanwhile, Felix also hoped that money would be given him by Paul, that he might release him.

Therefore he sent for him more often and conversed with him. But then we read, but after two years, Porcius Festus succeeded Felix and Felix, wanting to do the Jews a favor, left Paul bound. A more convenient time, Paul, more convenient time. My friend, is your conscience stirred today? Today is it stirred.

This very moment don't wait for a more convenient time. For Felix, for Agrippa, for Herod, that convenient time never came. Never. The day of visitation passed, Gone. Now flip over to the Luke 23 passage as we move into our final two points.

Having seen a crisis solved and a conscience stirred, We find thirdly a curiosity spurned. A curiosity spurned, verses 6 through 10. When Pilate heard of Galilee, he asked if the man were a Galilean. And as soon as he knew that he belonged to Herod's jurisdiction, he sent him to Herod, who was also in Jerusalem at that time. Now when Herod saw Jesus, he was exceedingly glad.

That sounds great, doesn't it? He was glad, for he had desired for a long time to see Jesus because he had heard many things about him and he hoped to see some miracle done by him. Then Herod questioned him with many words, questioned him with many words, But Jesus answered him, nothing. And the chief priests and scribes stood and vehemently accused him. And so Pilate here, having arrested Jesus and finding out that he was a Galilean, sent him on to Herod.

The day, the moment Herod had been longing for was now here. We discover earlier in Luke's Gospel, chapter 9 verse 9, that after Herod had determined that these new reports he was receiving were actually having to do with Jesus and not a resurrected John, we read, So Herod sought to see him. So when Herod saw him, he was exceedingly glad, we read here. He desired for a long time to have seen Jesus. Herod had heard about Jesus.

Herod had heard about his ministry. Herod had heard about the miracles. Jesus has come to you, my dear friend, my young friend. He's declared who he is. He's calling you to repent and believe the Savior of the gospel.

Your conscience maybe has been stirred before, but you have been able to address the conviction of the hour, unhook the wires, and remain content for the day. But maybe you maintain a curiosity of Christ in the gospel. You like Herod claim you want to know more, you want to see more, you want to be convinced just a little bit more. You demand something of God as if He were on the stage to perform whatever you would have Him to do. Convince me.

Convince me. As if He were the one standing at the bar of your judgment, whether he is who he says he is and whether his claims and demands are valid. This was Herod. He was so excited to see Christ. Excited.

He would... Young people he may have been more excited to see Christ on that day than you were to come to church this morning. How excited were you? Jesus is coming in the preached word. Maybe I'll see something great.

I'll hear something from him in the word today maybe you don't have as much excitement as Herod did Herod was excited this was his day but what do we read Christ answered him, nothing, nothing. You see, my friend, this is not the Christ of the Bible to have to perform before you to do and act at your bidding. He may prove himself gracious many times, but there comes a time as it did with Herod that Christ will answer you not a word. That day can come. Christ had come to Herod again and again and again through the preaching of the Word of John.

He had come to him again and again and again through all the reports that had been circled about. He knew about this man. He knew about the miracles. As we said earlier, he knew Jesus, but he didn't know Jesus. He knew about Him.

He knew of Him, and he wanted to know more about Him. Christ answered him, not a word. And you have walked away each and every time declaring that you will maybe take it up again at some more convenient season. My dear unconverted friend, when you determine the season has come, you may find Christ silent You may find him non responsive You may find him spurning your curiosity and laughing at your calamity Go read Proverbs 1 Your place is not to question not to demand not to cast judgment Your place is to kiss the Son who sits on God's holy hill of Zion, lest he become angry with you and you perish in the way when his wrath is kindled but a little." Fourthly and Finally we see in this text a conscience seared. It's gone from being stirred, now it's seared.

A conscience seared, verses 11 and 12. Then Herod, Because Christ answered not a word, then Herod with his men of war treated Jesus with contempt and mocked him, arrayed him in a gorgeous robe and sent him back to Pilate. And that very day, Pilate and Herod became friends with each other, for previously they had been at enmity with each other. The conscience that once had been stirred is now seared. You know what seared means, young people?

It means burned to the point that you can't feel. I don't know if, hopefully, you haven't. But if some of you young children have accidentally touched something hot and it burns and it blisters up, after it's done, it's like you can't even feel when you're touching it for a time until you get new skin it becomes seared it can't it's without feeling all the nerves see your hands got all kinds of nerves in it so that you can close your eyes and you can tell, yep, I'm touching it, yep, yep. You can feel it. You've got nerves there.

But all the nerves of his conscience had died. It can't be, as it were, it can't feel anything from God coming to it anymore. It's seared. That's what we mean by seared. Herod finds himself at the point of no return.

His conscience lies dead. It lies unmoved, calloused, hardened. It can feel nothing any longer. The same Herod who at one time sought to protect John now treats John's Lord with contempt and hatred. Have any of you young people, any of you children, worked at something long enough to actually develop calluses on your hands or fingers?

That's another idea of Seared is, you know, if you play the guitar long enough, you actually get a callous on your hand or maybe if you garden, some of you young ladies might garden, you can do things long enough with your hands. This is what happened to his conscience. Over and over and over, he had refused the Word of God. So it is with the soul. It can be calloused.

It can be seared each and every Sunday, each and every Wednesday, each and every day during family worship. Your conscience may be slowly building up calluses, slowly being seared by the heat to the Word of God, to godly counsel, and to the promptings of the Spirit. And one day that conscience, if you don't come to Christ, there may come a day when that conscience will be seared and irrecoverable. There's no turning back. Listen to the words of Christ found in Luke 19 41 to 44 as he comes to the end of his earthly ministry and he's made the triumphal entry into Jerusalem and he goes up and he looks across the city and he says these chilling words.

We read now, as he drew near he saw the city and wept. He wept over it saying, if you had known even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your Peace. But now they are hidden from your eyes. For days will come upon you when your enemies will build an embankment around you, surround you and close you in on every side and level you and your children with you to the ground and they will not leave in you one stone upon another because you did not know the time of your visitation." Dear ones, this is the words of Christ and he says them weeping because he says in another place, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one that kills the prophets, how many times would I have gathered your little ones under me like a hen gathers her chicks? But you would not.

You would not." And he says, you just didn't get it you didn't know this was your day this was the day that would make for peace And it's gone Gone the day of visitation is over and now Destruction waits There's no turning back the clock. There's no taking back the destruction prophesied. It's going to happen. So I'm exhorting you today, pleading with you today. Don't put the eternal well-being of your never-dying soul off for another day, for a more convenient time.

Repent of your sins. Trust in the sufficiency of Jesus Christ. Hear the Word as it's preached to you today and don't unhook the wires. If that sin detector is going off, do something about the fire of sin raging in you and there's only One way that that can be extinguished, one way it can be put out, go to Jesus. Go to Jesus.

Go to Jesus. Trust in the sufficiency found in Jesus Christ and believe on Him with all your heart. And may that day of visitation not pass without you resting in Him. Let's pray. Oh, Father, you know the burden of my heart.

Lord, you know that there are some sitting here who don't know you. Lord, I pray that they would not put it off today, but that they would come in this, their day, the day of their peace, and may they come. In Christ's name we pray, amen.