Herodians

There are other groups that our readers are going to run into.

So we've got Sadducees, Essenes, Herodians.

Yes.

Pay attention to those, but the Pharisees are really going to be kind of the biggest players and the biggest opponents to Jesus.

And this particular scribe, he approaches Jesus because he heard of Jesus' brilliant answers.

Last week, we saw the Pharisees and the Herodians and the Sadducees.

They were all trying to trap Jesus with questions.

And then Jesus kind of maneuvered those questions masterfully by proving and proving like in his masterful wisdom, proving his authority over heaven and earth.

The scribes devour widows for their own financial gain.

And this widow likely went without a meal so that she could give all that she has for the gain of others.

after meeting throngs of people in the streets, after being confronted by the Pharisees and the Herodians and the Sadducees and the scribes, she stands as the grand finale in this section of Scripture as an example of what it looks like to be a disciple, what it looks like to obey the greatest commands, what it looks like to have rightly ordered loves.

We are called to love God fully, love God truly, and love others selflessly.

Mark chapter three, [clears throat] and, uh, we're gonna read verse six down to verse 20 again like we did Wednesday night, but look at a, a new subject here in the text that, uh, I hope [clears throat] will help you.

In Mark chapter three, [coughs] beginning in verse six, the scripture says this, "And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him.

But Jesus withdrew himself with his disciples to the sea.

And a great multitude from Galilee followed him, and from Judaea, and from Jerusalem, and from Idumaea, and from beyond Jordan.

It does not.

It means belonging to Christ in just the same way that the Herodians, so Christian Herodian, the Herodians were people who belong to the political party of Herod, right? It's just, it's this two Latin words put together, Christ, belonging to Christ.

I don't know where that rumor got started, but it persists.

So if all of us know this, then maybe we can put it, put an end to it, but it's not hard.

And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, he saith unto the man, 'Stretch forth thine hand.' And he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other.

And the Pharisees went forth, and straightway took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him." And so, [clears throat] you'll notice the close of chapter 2 we looked at Sunday night, and the opening of chapter 3 both have to do with Sabbath offenses.

And there's no doubt [clears throat] that the Lord knew how to put his finger on the nerve of the religious establishment and send them over the moon, and he does that intentionally.

Now, the thing that's amazing is they knew they're looking for a mistake because his miracles ha- has proven that he's approved of God.

Some people love ignorance more than they love the truth.

The Bible says verse six, "The Pharisees went forth." So again, the restoration of this man's hand leads to their evacuation, and look who they go to.

It says, "They went forth and straightway," in other words, immediately, that same day, "took counsel with the Herodians against him, how they might destroy him." So they're plotting to kill him on the Sabbath day.

He had asked him, he said, "Is it, is it lawful to heal a man, to save a man's life or to kill a man?" And, uh, don't tell me that didn't register with them.

Even throughout the course of his ministry and early on, there's this harassment, but that harassment and that opposition is now all concentrated in the final week of Jesus' life.

In the series, we cover Matthew 21, where the Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, chief priests, scribes all confront Jesus.

And that's that ultimate rejection of him.

That, hey, we're not about this renewal that you're talking about.

Then the Pharisees went out and laid plans to trap him in his words.

They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians.

Teacher, they said, we know that you are a man of integrity and that you teach the way of God in accordance with the truth.

You aren't swayed by others because you pay no attention to who they are.