Time-Outs for More Training

Interesting song that we we just saying And I noticed I know Jim thinks these things through very carefully that song has a verse above it from Matthew 16 will be in Matthew 16 tonight and We may not quite well know we won't quite get to that verse, but still the thought of Jesus saying take up your cross and follow me and the disciples needing to learn wherever he leads I'll go and Jesus at this point and juncture in his ministry is leading them in some kind of strange ways He's leading them in some ways that are difficult for them to understand difficult for them to grasp in fact We will see as this period of the Lord's life that is called the training of the twelve Progresses there is increasing confusion on the part of the disciples and increasing tension between Jesus and the disciples back we're going to see some of that tension come out tonight in one of the passages that We'll be dealing with because Jesus is now stretching the disciples in a direction they did not anticipate He's going to be introducing very soon to them The fact that he's going to die and they have not really considered that yet They've not understood that and they will not really grasp that till after the fact Tell after he dies But he's going to start introducing that and that's going to be part of the tension that's going to grow between them It's a very interesting time period in our Lord's ministry, but you can see our Lord the master disciple or the master teacher is Beginning to stretch them a little bit out of their comfort zone and as part of doing that He takes them out of Jewish area now there are a couple of reasons for that the crowd is Hounding him but for all the wrong reasons huge crowds following him, but for the wrong reasons and So Jesus is seeking to pull away some from the crowds although wherever he goes they will still gather and then the Pharisees and the religious teachers are descending on him like vultures Wherever they can find him and attacking him So Jesus is gradually pulling away Spending more time with his disciples and the title of tonight's Lesson is timeouts for more training. We're going to find two timeouts two times where Jesus says okay time out We're going to leave the crowds. We're going to go to places where I can be alone with my disciples and do some training And what you're going to find in this section of our Lord's life It really is fascinating when you think about it What you're going to find is that Jesus is taking everything that happens and using it as a classroom He's using it as a teaching tool to further instruct train prepare his disciples And it's just it's just a great time in our Lord's life to watch that interaction between Jesus and the disciples now last time we were in Matthew 16 that was a couple of weeks ago and I want to say a Huge thank you to pastor Jim for so capable of filling in last week appreciate you doing that Jim But the last time we were together in the life of Christ. We were in Matthew 16. So if we want to start there with Matthew 16 and Then we'll we'll move quickly, but if you find your place there in Matthew 16 You remember that Jesus had been well, let's go ahead and take a look at that map Jeff and and we'll see where he has been This is a satellite view of the land of Israel and pointing out some of the and there's so much sunlight in here tonight It's a little difficult to see this time of year, but decapolis. Thank you The capolis where Jesus has been in Gentile territory He has crossed back over just briefly into Jewish territory again into Galilee at Magdala or Dominoth and one of the gospel says and as soon as he hits the shore the Pharisees descend on him like a pack of vultures and say we we demand a sign and remember we talked about last time They were not asking for another miracle. They were asking for a spoken prophecy That would come true with in some period of time specified by Jesus To put the test of Deuteronomy 18 on Jesus that was that was supposedly what they were doing and so Jesus Says to them I will not give you any signs. I've already told you that's third time They've asked him to give a sign and he said I'll not give you any sign except for the sign of the prophet Jonah As he was in the belly of the whale three days three nights So so the Lord will be in the belly of the earth three days three nights He didn't say all that in this passage, but that's the the implication and that that is the only spoken prophecy He's going to give them from this point on that will come true and that is the resurrection and They will not believe it. They will not accept it, but he's not going to give them any more signs In fact, he says you're really good at detecting the signs of the weather, but you you're so spiritually dull You can't understand the signs that have already been spoken have already there are all kinds of spoken prophecies Already given in the Old Testament that you should already know and that's the reason he says you don't know the signs of the times The times if you had if you understood the spoken prophecies in the Old Testament About the time when Messiah should come like from Daniel mine You would already know that this is the time for the Messiah be here and you'd be looking and comparing the miracles and Old Testament prophecies But he said you're just too spiritually dull for that You know the weather better than you know your Old Testament and so what happens next is Notice in Matthew 16 verse 4 at the end of verse 4 Jesus then left them and went away and notice what he does verse 5 says he'll go across the sea He immediately leaves after just this little foray back into Galilee he immediately leaves and will go across to Beth said He doesn't immediately go into the town something happens first that we'll see in a moment But he'll he'll eventually get to Beth say to where he'll perform another miracle Let's take a look the next picture the plane of Beth said it. This is the northern shore You can barely see the sea of Galilee northern shore the sea of Galilee. This is the plane of Beth said and the city of Beth said along in this area. This is the area where Jesus is going to be Briefly before he takes his disciples on another excursion out of Galilee out of Jewish territory Okay, so that kind of gives us the setting of where he is now Let's turn over to to Mark chapter 8 because the next story takes place in Mark 8 Okay, Jesus is crossing the sea And as he's crossing the sea and as they hit shore Jesus is going to teach them he's gonna take advantage of this opportunity as to what's happened with the Pharisees and the Pharisees Challenging him to give a sign. He's gonna take the opportunity to train to teach and so the Jesus is gonna capitalize on that opportunity and it's really interesting what what he does here in Mark 8 verse 13 Then he left them got back into the boat and crossed to the other side and this seems to be a quick departure No preparation made for it. He had just landed on the shore Pharisees Does send on him and ask those questions about a sign and then he turns right around leaves and so There's it's kind of a quick entry into departure. So look at verse 14 The disciples had forgotten to bring bread except for one loaf. They had with them in the boat And then Jesus says in verse 15 be careful Jesus warned them watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and That of Herod so the first thing that happens here is the warning of The leaven now Jesus with drawing across the sea First of all warns them about leaven or as the an ivy translates at yeast Obviously as you are aware Leaven or yeast is that and I'm no cook but from what I understand it is that ingredient in dough which causes the dough to rise am I okay so far? Okay, it kind of permeates the dough and spreads through and causes it to rise causes it to swell All right now that's what yeast does Jesus is going to use this idea of leaven or yeast as as an idea to teach them about Corruption and that's often the way leaven is used in the Bible Corruption that can permeate through something so you got to be careful He's going to warn them about some very subtle Corruptions that can penetrate and and Infiltrate they're thinking if they're not careful and He says I want you to watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod and the Bible says In Matthew's gospel he also included the yeast or the leaven of the Sadducees so three dangerous Influences he's going to warn them against the yeast of of the Pharisees the yeast of the Sadducees the yeast of the Herodians What is he talking about here? Let's just real quickly Talk about the different kinds of of yeast this three kinds of dangerous pervasive Influences that he wants them to watch out for just had this encounter with the Pharisees and Matthew's gospel is going to tell us that they will understand in a few moments that he's talking about the teaching of The Pharisees Sadducees and Herodians so what do you think? The bad corrupt teaching of the Pharisees is that he's warning them about where you think that would be Come on, I know you know there's some of you know Legalism okay That's that's part of it. What what else might be included in corrupt teaching that could infiltrate permeate their minds of the Pharisees Top things are not in the old Top things were not in the Old Testament law and Elevated into the level of authority of the law said this is how you must live when the Bible didn't say that Sure, they did that What what do we call that by the way? What they taught that they made equivalent to the Old Testament law is What does Jesus call it in Matthew 15? We just saw a couple weeks ago for three four weeks ago tradition tradition Yeah, and Jesus said you do violate the word of God with your traditions So tradition legalism both of those things are true. What else? I'm sorry hypocrisy yes Yes hypocrisy what what else Salvation by works Self-righteousness Remember Jesus told the parable and Luke 18 about the the public and the the Pharisee that went into the temple to pray and The Pharisee prayed thus Lord. I think that I'm not like other men are a fast twice in the week. I give ties. Well, but I possess not even like this Tax collector over here self-righteous works way of salvation and Remember the public and the tax collector said the Lord have mercy on me a sinner Show me the mercy of the blood on the mercy seat. I'm a sinner and and Jesus said he's the one that went to his house justified so yes self-righteousness salvation by works put all that together and what you have that is the very dangerous teaching of the Pharisees is hypocritical religion and It includes all the elements that you talked about hypocritical religion it includes tradition Things that are elevated to the level of scripture the authority of scripture that the Bible never teaches But we just have as traditions Pharisees didn't awful lot of that with their scribal traditions outward rituals That were done simply to impress people Remember Jesus said when you pray don't be like Pharisees they pray in public just to be heard by people just to impress people Outward religious ceremonies just to impress people Okay, that was hypocritical it was not from the heart It was it was not anything to do with the heart passion for God it was all hypocritical and then of course Self-righteous pride all of those things were involved in the the leaven or the the yeast of the Pharisees and Jesus told his disciples Beware of that Which indicates it's possible for Christ followers for those who know Christ and follow him disciples of him to be infected with hypocritical religious legalistic self-righteous religious activities It's possible That to happen so we need to be careful about that. Okay The leaven or the yeast of the sagesys. What do you think that would be? You remember who the sagesys were and what they taught Pardon me No resurrection. Yes Yes, it's it really is more what they didn't teach what they didn't believe than what they Thought in the scriptures that is dealt with they did not believe in the resurrection Scriptures New Testament makes that clear Anything else you know about the sagesys that might be what Jesus will be warning about They did not believe in any spiritual world. That's true. They did not believe in angels They did not believe in any kind of spiritual world everything was here Yeah They did not believe in the miraculous in other words the the sagesys their false teaching was the false teaching of rationalism In other words, they put human reason above the Bible much like liberal theology does today They put human reason above the Bible They were a religious group in Israel, but they denied the supernatural they denied miracles They denied the existence of angels in the spirit world. They denied the resurrection. They had a logical explanation for everything And so whatever Happened they had a reasonable logical human mind explanation for it rational thinking was their God and so Jesus warned them Weren't his disciples be careful of that Leaven now that that can happen to us in a couple of ways Explaining away the supernatural in the Bible explaining away the miraculous Which is what liberal theology does any time human reason is made superior to the Bible Whatever the Bible says If man in his reasoning and thinking conflicts with that you got a choice to make You've got a choice to make and thankful thankfully One of the blessings of Men who spend their lives studying the intricacies of the Bible real biblical scholars is that they they study Original languages and they study the history of the time and the culture of the time and they've been able to come up with many reasons why Some of the apparent contradictions and scripture and historical inaccuracies and so forth Explanations for why those are not inaccuracies. We ought to be thankful to those kind of people We dealt with some of those when we were in the doctrine of the Bible But anyone who has a choice to make about is the reasoning of man or the supernatural revelation of God going to be what I'm going to believe be careful Of the false teaching of the Sadducees But there's another way that it affects us. That's a little more subtle and that is rationalistically Reasoning away what the Bible says well, I know the Bible teaches that but You don't know my situation. Well, I know the Bible teaches. I shouldn't do that or I should do but I'm it's really hard for me right now We can rationally rationalize and reason away clear commands of scripture by thinking our situation is unique rather than trusting God To go ahead and live by what the Bible says and he will bless that and honor that and Sometimes Christians fly right in the face of scripture Because they've got a reason why they can't do what the Bible teaches I See it all the time when I'm asking people who are wanting to get married Are you living together? It's one of the four or five questions. I ask every couple Are you living together now? That's a tough one because if they are living together they need to get married So I want to marry them to get them out of that But I always tell them they need to separate until the wedding And oh, I've heard every kind of reason in the world why they can't do that I've heard everything economically Logistically Family wise every rational explanation in the world While that's not the right thing to do but the Bible says that's the right thing to do And we're guilty of the leaven of the Sadducees if we rationalize away clear commands of scripture So you see it it's a little bit a little bit closer to us than just liberal theology You know we're we can be very comfortable and we can say oh, we're not liberals We believe in the supernatural we believe in the miraculous we believe in the word of God But do we rationalize it away? And if we do we are just as guilty of the sin of the Pharisee or the Sadducees the leaven of the Sadducees well I Quit teaching gone the meddling there. So let's let's move on to the leaven of the leaven of Herod Jesus talks about the leaven of Herod here in verse 15. What do you think that is? Pardon me Worldliness, okay, all right very good Well Tell me why you would why you would tie a worldliness with Herod He was party animal. Yeah You got that right All of the herds were basically You know Jesus may have been foring not not specifically to Herod even though He may have been referring to the Herodians the political party in Israel that Followed the way of Herod and so the leaven of Herod was lived out in in Israel culture Through the Herodians the Herodians were not a religious party. They were pretty much a political party in Israel But basically they went along with the Romans that they said okay If you can't beat them join them, you know if you can't beat the Romans just throw your lot in with them and be one of them and That's the that's what Herod did that was Herod's Philosophy Herod was a puppet of the Romans and the Herodians basically said Forget about Spiritual solutions to our problems. We got to cooperate with the Romans and do it their way and it was It was living life from a worldly philosophy From man's philosophy rather than saying God has the solutions to our problems if we pray and wait upon him He'll send those solutions and he had sent the solution in the person of Messiah of course the Herodians missed it completely So what Jesus is warning about here. I think is secularism or I think Walt's word Worldliness would still work just as well The idea that we're going to live a completely secular life all of our answers are found in our realm of living and not from heaven Okay, so Three very subtle errors that Jesus warns his disciples about the yeast of Pharisees Sadducees and of Herod Very strong warnings now see what Jesus is doing He's taking the opportunity from what has happened. He's had a run-in with the Pharisees and As they're going across the lake and the landing on the other side Jesus is now taking advantage of that opportunity to teach them Guys, you know what you just heard do you realize do you understand the philosophy behind what you've just heard Be careful about that be careful about the the false teaching of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees and of the Herodians Because all three of them will bite you so be careful about that Jesus has taken the opportunity to teach them and trained them and Then there is a warning about spiritual insensitivity because look at what the disciples do in verse 16 They discussed this with one another see Jesus has said You know he warns them about the the yeast the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees and Herod So they discussed this with one another and said it is because we have no bread We forgot to bring bread and we're getting called on the carpet for not having bread And Jesus Quite honestly now if you understand the tone of these questions Jesus lights into them What he's doing is he's warning them about their spiritual insensitivity and spiritual dullness He fires Boom boom boom boom boom eight straight questions at him I mean, I'm it's like that it's like they're in the ring with Jesus and being hit by right crosses and left hooks And they're just staggering about what in the world is going on here eight straight questions Jesus hits them with I mean these are Forcible questions these are in your face questions look at what Jesus says aware of their discussion Which indicates that maybe they were kind of doing this under their breath kind of you know mind is back aware of their discussion Jesus asked them Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see and ears but fail to hear? Whoa question number four is a question that was already At statement that was already made about the crowd remember The crowd who had turned against Jesus and Jesus said quoting from Isaiah they have eyes but can't see ears but can't hear and Jesus is now saying are you doing that too my disciples? Question number five and don't you remember When I broke the five lows for the five thousand how many basket full of pieces did you pick up? 12 they replied and when I broke the seven lows for the four thousand how many baskets full of pieces did you pick up? They answered seven and then question number eight. He said to them. Do you still not understand? Wow What a flirt what an interchange here between Jesus and the disciples now I Think the disciples must have been stunned I think I think They're probably staggering mentally emotionally and spiritually trying to figure out what is going on here But again Jesus is teaching them he's teaching them he's training them He is really going to stretch them in the next few weeks and the stretching sometimes is going to be through hard questions and The stretching is going to be sometimes through Gracious encouragement and the stretching is sometimes going to be through hard teaching and Teaching about things they haven't heard about but right now it's some tough questions Come on guys. We don't have much time. You got to catch up. You got to speed up your thinking process Your two doll spiritually come on guys catch up now keep up with me. That's kind of the challenge. It's going on here and Jesus is Kind of bringing them up short with these with these sharp Rebuking questions that Really calls them to start thinking a little more deeply You know Jesus reminds them of the two miracles right of the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 The question is not enough bread They're thinking oh we didn't bring enough bread with us and Jesus is saying don't you understand I can make bread But the quest there's no problem with bread. I'm not talking about bread I'm talking about and Matthew 1612 says then they understood that he was talking with them about the teaching of the Pharisees So they begin to catch up they begin to understand a little bit Jesus is prodding them pushing them stretching them to Think with him Come on catch up. Let's think come on. I'm not talking about bread I'm not rebuking you because you forgot to bring bread. I can make bread like I did for the 5,000 4,000. It's not the issues not what I'm talking about. I'm not concerned about that I'm concerned about your spiritual dullness and insensitivity. That's what I'm concerned about Come on guys sharpen up catch up. It's kind of that, you know jerking them up Kind of atmosphere in these questions pretty pretty tense Okay questions Comments before we move on to a miracle that is briefly noted in the text here Okay Verse 22 The healing of a blind man They come to Bethesda They've landed on the shore just just outside of Bethesda they come to Bethesda and Some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him Again, this is strange healing look at what happens verse 23 He took the blind man by the hand and let him outside the village I remember he did that with the last healing that he had done Took the man away from the crowd Middle the verse when he had spit on the man's eyes and Put his hands on him Jesus asked do you see anything? I remember the last time he did this it was evidently to Encourage the man to understand what Jesus was about to do this was the the death and mute man and he Put spit on the man's tongue and touched his ears and remember we talked about the fact that it was Jewish Cultural perception that spittle had curative powers healing powers That's not what your mother taught you. I know but that was Jewish Cultural perception and tradition and and remember we talked about last time. It's not that Jesus bought into that But especially with the death mute man. That's the only way the man could understand what he was trying to do When Jesus touched spit to his tongue and touched his ears He would understand healing curing tongue ears Yes, whether he was doing that again here not really sure Because this man is is blind he can hear obviously what Jesus would say but at any rate he Put spit on his eyes Put these hands on him Jesus said do you see anything now look at this interesting response verse 24 He looked up and said I see people they are like trees walking around So he could see but he couldn't see clearly right could see to see vaguely just see People like trees walking around seen a few people like that too, but He just he couldn't see clearly Verse 25 once more Jesus put his hands on the man's eyes Then his eyes were opened his sight was restored and he saw everything clearly Jesus sending him home saying don't go into the village what is going on here? Why does Jesus do this healing in two stages? Any ideas Did he mess up the first time just not do it completely but didn't quite have enough power To do it all the way is that what's going on here? Please don't say yes What do you think's happening with this I was hoping somebody would give an answer because the commentaries don't have much to say about this about why yes, Steve Spiritual salvation With the two stages Maybe the first being the physical healing second being the completed Possibly it's hard to know exactly what was going on in the man's heart Disciples were slow learners Okay, he did it in two processes maybe as an object lesson of what the disciples were going through John You You know, it's interesting that most Commentators and I don't have the full use of my library now most of it's boxed up But most commentators See it in those terms That Jesus was actually reinforcing for the disciples again everything he's doing now is to teach the disciples train the disciples He was reinforcing for them the fact that They were not seeing things clearly and they needed His touch They needed him to help clear things up for them and he illustrates it with the healing of this man now Whether or not that's what Jesus was doing the text does not clearly tell us that It just tells us that he did the miracle in two stages We do know that it was not because of a lack of power It was not because divine power mispired or for something like that Oops, didn't quite do it right. Let's try again. It wasn't that we know that But whether or not Jesus was still teaching the disciples you see what's wrong with you men You're not getting the full picture here and Then finishing up the job. I don't know could be could be Possibly Possibly Maybe it was a test of this man's faith. I mean who knows exactly with Bible just doesn't tell us why and all that we're doing He is kind of speculating Conjecturing it is interesting that it That it comes right on the heels of Jesus rebuking the disciples for not seeing clearly spiritually and now he Does a healing in two stages where a man first of all cannot see physically clearly and then sees clearly Who knows but I'll leave that to you to figure out anybody else got a Study Bible or an iPad can help I don't think the text says that clearly at least here Matthew doesn't give this Record so it's the only account we have and it doesn't tell us for the news blind from birth But the fact that he site was restored means that what he what he did not have he now had It could mean that he could see at one point He came blind and now had he sight restored I'd have to look up the word a little bit more carefully Yeah Yeah, right if he's never seen before Maybe there was just something about the gradual process of his sight clearing up, but Jesus does Put his hands on his eyes again to complete the miracle Okay, interesting Right Certainly the Bible does talk about our spiritual perception not being very clear doesn't it? James chapter one the reference there herb that you're referring to that Sometimes we look in a mirror. We forget what kind of people we really are Talking about the Bible of course in James 1, okay? I'm not sure that we will solve that tonight. I'm not sure that it's important really to solve it, but At any rate we know that Jesus did this miracle in two stages Whether it was for the benefit of the man whether it was a further clarification or a rebuke to his disciples Who knows we do know it was not insufficient power of Christ That's obviously that would be inconsistent with who he is and the portrayal of his miracle power in the the Gospels Okay, the next story is Extremely significant. We're gonna go back to Matthew 16 for this one and we're just gonna introduce it tonight Because this is one of the most significant passages and stories in the life of Christ and it really Signals it's kind of a benchmark in Jesus training of the disciples Sometimes Jesus trains with Rebuking questions Sometimes he trains with questions that are designed to draw out what's in the heart and Jesus is gonna ask two questions in this next passage that are designed to draw from the heart What the disciples believe about who he is now there's a whole lot going on here remember that Jesus has just been besieged by crowds that are coming at him for the wrong reasons and Pharisees who are demanding Assign and so he's pulling away to train his disciples He's really gonna pull away this time 25 or 30 miles north from Bethesda to he's gonna go 30 miles or so north to a place called Cessaria, Philippi Matthew chapter 16 verse 13 When Jesus came to the region of Cessaria, Philippi he asked his disciples who do people say The son of man is they give some answers and then he says in verse 15, but what about you? He asked who do you say I am? Okay, let's take a look at the map first and see where Jesus is taking them This is really quite a track. I want to show you this map because it gives kind of a color diagram of the different Provinces in the area. There's this Galilee This is where Jesus has spent a good bit of his ministry on the northern shore of Galilee around Copernum Using that as a home base remember you had just been in Magdala and gone across to Bethesda where we just saw the the miracle of the healing of the that blind man and now he takes them far north to Cessaria, Philippi near Mount Hermann Let's look at the picture of Mount Hermann Mount Hermann is a majestic peak That is the the tallest mountain in this whole region I remember Standing in northern Israel in June of 1984 taking a picture of Mount Hermann middle of June In the 90s and it still had snow on the top you've seen that haven't you John in the summer has it still has snow on the top It is absolutely incredible This is probably the spring of the year and you can still see the snow cover on top of Mount Hermann It's it's like something out of Colorado Like something like that um At the foot of this mountain because of all the snow melt are the springs and water sources for what will eventually become the Jordan River one of the tributaries that flows into the northern Jordan River and becomes a Jordan River comes out of this area from the The snow melt off of Mount Hermann. Let's go to the next picture one of the most interesting things About this area is at the base of the mountain is a cave Called the grotto of pan and you see some cutouts In the the mountain here. Let's go to the next picture some of those sacred niches This area was a chief pagan worship area of the God pan um Pan was a half-man half goat he was one of the gods of Rome one of the mythical gods of the Greeks and Romans and he was worshiped here along with others this was a a pagan center of religion to appease the Romans um The herds had built a a temple to Zeus here a shrine to the god pan and they considered this a holy place Now I think is the is the video next Jeff, let's go ahead and watch this video. I'm gonna show you a video from the glow Bible I don't know if you're familiar with the glow Bible. It's a digital Bible that has a lot of interactive features to it and This is one of the interactive video presentations Which I think will help you understand it will take you to the actual site Some of the excavation and the ruins the archaeological dig that has gone on there and it will also give you a picture Of what the temple would temples and buildings would have looked like in Jesus day From archaeological excavations and renderings of what we knows there and was there from historical records It will it will give you a picture of what Jesus would have seen and The Bible teacher here is going to talk about why did Jesus go to this area To ask his disciples who do you think I am? It's really of the setting itself is one of the most interesting features of this whole thing It's gonna work My next travel to one of the most northern locations Jesus visited Cessaria, Philippine In Jesus day, it was a very pagan area filled with idols and sacrificial authors to gods Why of all places would Jesus come here and ask the others the true behind its identity? Well the place was called Cessaria to honor the Emperor of Rome in the local language or in their language Caesar and his name to the rear this was named after the son of her which Filipus took over and become the root of this area So the rear is still alive The passage in Matthew 16 says Jesus asked in Cessaria, Philippine What do people say the Son of Man is they replied some say John the Baptist of the say Elijah and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets But what about you he asked who do you say I? It's the location of this question that intrigues me. Why would Jesus bring his followers here? To a Jewish person a good Jewish person at the time for a century Would they come to the area it would be very hard for a Jewish person to come to this area and face these things that have so far From here is the different concept What are the gods that were worship right here? The 50th to answer is for Jesus he the head of the hunter and now you better have a temporary in every world Pan represents a wise power of nature and Associated with greens that we have here associated with strong sources of water that we surely have here As for Namesis we're not sure because of a name wrote passing through here and lots of for army campaigns came true So that might be the association with Namesis as a goddess of victory and revenge and power Why didn't Jesus ask this question on the Mount of Olives overlooking the temple or by the sea of Galilee where he did great miracles Jesus chose the most vile location to ask a hard question and The response is buried Some thought John the Baptist had resurrected or maybe a spirit infiltrated another man Other thought Elijah had returned in a bodily form or Jeremiah Jonah Moses Ezekiel any of the prophets take your pick Jesus seemed to ask the question of his identity and says re-ebiliate To draw comparisons to the pagan gods worshiped here Jesus is saying I'm the God of all power not the god Namesis. I'm the creator not pain I'm the god of gods not Zeus Today our world does the same thing reducing Jesus to simply a prophet or a suitsayer a great magician the teacher a Historical figure a ghost only one description does surprise Simon Peter answered you are the Christ the son of the living God the answer please Jesus I Think what Peter said the ancestry of Philippi the major Jesus gaping was They came to the self-discovery without Jesus banging him over the head of who Jesus really was because Jesus wasn't flashing his credentials as I said he wasn't pulling back his shirt and showing the big G in his chest He was just making covert claims Trying to draw them out get them to see get them to believe that showed the Peter head insight that showed the Peter was getting the point That he used not only the Messiah, but the Messiah is also God Jesus replied to Peter Blessed are you Simon son of Jonah, but this was not revealed to you by man But by my father in heaven and I tell you that you are Peter and on this rock I will build this church and the gates of Hades will not overcome it Cessar a Philippi is the perfect location to make this proclamation Surrounded by temples built on rock Jesus said he will build his church on the solid foundation of faith in him So much as if Jesus is saying his identity is rock solid and The large cave here also gives us further insight into Jesus' statement The cave seems as if it is in miles of the underworld Once the cave was the source of water that supply one of the main tributaries of the Jordan River People relate to it as a passage to the underworld the gate to head us and most probably the reference in the Scripture refers to this place the mouth of hell because of that and because it is the center of evil The taken warships that were the practice here so much sent again for belief in God Jesus chose Cessar a Philippi to say that those gods doubles and demons won't destroy his identity This area is nothing but ruins to a lost religion. It slipped away. I Don't see these earth temples around where I live I believe Jesus chose Cessar a Philippi to say that his identity will withstand any religion or practice that tries to come to the ginseng Days after this incident in Cessar a Philippi to further solidify his identity Jesus took Peter James and Joe Very interesting setting for Jesus to Teach his disciples by asking them questions Who am I and I think if by the way if you would press Dr. Geyser he would change his statement on that being self-discovery It was not self-discovery obviously Jesus will say man has not revealed that to you God has revealed that to you And I know Dr. Geyser would believe that but interesting place isn't it the place where false gods were worshiped pagan center of religion and The place where that large cave was considered by people to be the opening to Hades the opening to hell And Jesus is going to use that very gripping object less than the that location to talk about who he is We'll get into the text itself a little bit more next time But I think that the location itself the disciples would have seen so much more to that than what we typically see Today all right, let's pray Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for our savior Thank you father for His teaching His stretching and even as he did the disciples we know that he seeks to stretch us to teach us To cause us to move beyond where we are now and our understanding of him and his purpose for us Help us to be willing to go through sometimes the tough questions the tough issues of life to be able to learn from him What he wants us to know Pray that you would Encourage us in your word we ask in Jesus name amen