Day 5: Caesarea Philippi

the cave is considered the Gates of Hades, and the rock mountain above it bears much significance. Read down!



Besides Caesera Philippi, we visited a bunker built into a mountain on the Syria-Israel border. It was intense! This me coming out of the door!



I had a lamb shwarma wrap for lunch today - in a massive pita. It was incredible, and the size of my head.

-----Day 5-----

Peter's Confession of Christ

13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" 14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?" 16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,the Son of the living God." 17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[d] will not overcome it. 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.

Hello Everybody!
Today, the highlight of the day was visiting Caesarea Philippi - the place described in the passage above and visited by Jesus with the disciples. For more on the location see this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caesarea_Philippi.

I learned today that the passage you just read is very very real. See, if you look at my picture in the next post with the cave - this cave was held by the people of this village as the GATES OF HADES (or the gates of hell!). The cave has a fresh water spring inside of it, and is the place where they would sacrifice goats, etc. It was a lavish resort-type place in the days of Jesus, and a sin-hole for sure. Jesus brought his disciples here as a test of sorts. And what he told them is revoltuoinary.

He told them that "on this rock I will build my Church." Well, if you look above the hill you basically see a mountain of rock! THIS is what Jesus was talking about. Often times we hear pastors jump from this passage to the good 'ole parable of the person who built his house on sand, rock, etc; and then they preach about building on the rock. That's not theologically bad or anything - but the meaning Jesus gave to the rock was much more tangible. Basically he was saying that at the gates of Hell, in a world of sin, he would build his church and NOTHING would defeat it.

That's us folks. That is OUR charge.

Pray on that and rejoice in the truth that the Church is built on the Rock, and it will never be destroyed!