The Pursuing God

 

¹³  Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴ And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others,  Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” ¹⁵ He *said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

 ¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are  the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

 ¹⁷ And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ I also say to you that you are  Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it.

¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” ²⁰  Then He warned the disciples that they should tell no one that He was  the Christ.       Matthew 16:1-20

 

Mark, who got much of is information from Peter, adds this:

³¹  And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ³³ But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”                                      Mark 8:31-33

 

Here are a two Greek words that help us understand this passage:

“Peter”: Greek petros, a stone

“Rock”: Greek petra, large rock; bed-rock

 

Matthew records that Jesus has been busy performing miracles. He

Feed 5000 people from two fish and five loaves,

Walked on Water,

Calmed a violent storm on the Sea of Galilee,

Feed 4000 people with seven loaves and a few small fish.

The next scene is the Pharisees approaching Jesus and asking him for another sign from Heaven, to back up His claims of being the son of Man.  His reply was simple: Understand the sign of the times.; look at what already has happened. Then finally “The only sign they will get will be the sign of Jonah”, who spent three days in the belly of a large fish and was resurrected to life.

He warned His disciples not to allow the suggestions of the religious elite to sway them and to remember what they have seen and experienced with Jesus.

Then Jesus took them far away from the Religious Jewish communities- up to the north to a place where the foothills of Mt Hermon rise up in significant rock formations, and where the water from the snowcap on Mt Hermon runs down forming waterfalls and underground streams that flow out.  This is the Greco-Roman cultic site of modern day Banyas, then known as Caesarea Philippi.

 

 

 

 

The communities in this area supported a location of altars and temples to the Greco-Roman gods that was active during the life of Jesus.

 

 

Banyas Temple drawing

 

The Temple to Augustus covered the mouth of a large cave where an underground stream surfaced and flow out. The cave is very deep and locals often referred to this place as the ‘gates to hell’.

 

 

Banyas Augustus Cave

 

 Next was the Court of Pan and the Nymphs, where rituals were performed honoring these gods - Often sexual worship.

 

 

 Banyas Court of Pan

 

To the right was the Court of Nemesis, a deep cave where archeologists have found thousands of pottery shards. Apparently, this was the place to write the name of an enemy whom you wanted Nemesis to curse on a pottery vessel, then throw the pottery into the cave, shattering it and activating the curse.

 Banyas Court of Nemesis

 

 

To the left of this was an altar to Pan, the organizer of the gods (‘pantheon’) and a place where there was a raised metal plate with a fire underneath, where the priests would shave the hooves of goats and throw them on the hot altar. They would begin jumping around (dancing), attempting to escape the hot surface. When they jumped off the circular plate, a priest would cut off a limb of the goat with a sword and throw it back on the grill. Now there was a three legged goat squirting blood trying to escape. When he did another limb would be cut off, and now there was a two legged goat dragging his body over the hot grill, finally expiring from the blood loss.

 

Banyas Dancing Goats Altar

 

 

Banyas Dancing Goats Altar Remains

 

It was here that Jesus took his disciples to ask them the final exam question:

“Who do people say I am?”

They replied “Some say John the Baptist; and others,  Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”

Then He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

 

This is the question that we all have to answer.

Who do we believe Jesus to be?

 

Peter blurts out “You are the Christ, the son of the Living God”.  From his later comments, it is obvious that Peter doesn’t really understand who Jesus really is.

He has accepted the common understanding that the Christ, the Messiah, would be God’s chosen instrument to kick out the Romans and reestablish the Jewish kingdom.

When Jesus informs them that He will be rejected by the religious authorities and killed, Peter tells him “That isn’t going to happen on my watch.”

 

Nevertheless, he makes this bold declaration, “You are the Christ, the son of the Living God.”

Jesus agrees with Peter, noting that God Himself revealed that to Peter.

 

This is a key for our understanding of the essential element in evangelism.

It is God Himself who is pursuing us, reaching out to us, revealing Himself to us.

Our recognition of Him will only come from Him.

 

Then Jesus makes a cryptic response. “You are a stone (petros), but on the large rock (or bedrock) (petra) I will build my church and the gates of Hell (Hades) will not overpower it.”

 

Biblical scholars and ecclesiastic leader have debated for centuries the meaning of this significant declaration by Jesus.

 

The Church in the Middle Ages was centered in Rome, and the accepted understanding was that this was the moment that Jesus declared that His church would be built on Peter and his ecclesiastic descendants, known as the Bishops of Rome, or “Popes”, who would rule over the churches on Earth with absolute authority.

 In fact, when the pope makes a declaration ‘ex-cathedra” it is considered to be an infallible statement- without error.

However, the scandalous lifestyles of the leaders of the Roman church in the 1500 and 1600’s prompted the leaders of the Reformation to rejected the leadership of the pope and his decrees. They were part of a movement that declared that the Bible is God’s Word and has ultimate authority over our lives, not the decrees, doctrines, and customs of the Roman church.

Now these

 ‘Protestants’ consider that the “rock” that Jesus was referring to was not Peter and his descendants, but rather the truth that Jesus is the Messiah, the Savior, the Son of Man and Son of God.

 

That is the “rock” that the church was going to be built on.

This seems like a logical conclusion and good interpretation of what Jesus is saying.

However when you come to Banyas, and are standing in at the entrance to the archeological park, one thing that is very obvious is a significant rock formation with a vertical cliff, where there is a large cave, a stream flowing from the area of that cave, and cultic sites carved into the face of the cliff and onto the surface of the rock floor in front. 

 

 It’s a very big rock!

 

Could Jesus have had another illustration for his disciples along with the truth that He is the Messiah and that the church will be built upon that truth?

 

Perhaps as they viewed this location of the cultic worship, and observed people coming to watch the slaughter of goats on the hot grill, others smashing the pottery vessels to curse their enemies, and still others participating in the probable sexual worship of Pan and the Nymphs, they might have had another thought:

 

Jesus is going to build His church right on top of the idol worship, and these people will become our brothers and sisters in the Kingdom of God, and there is nothing that satan can do to stop it.  

 

Many of you have had this experience. We all had our idols that we worshipped: Good times; Financial prosperity; Travel.; Professional achievement; Prestige; Influence over our friends; Power to do things we wanted to do; Fine cars; Fine homes; Many Friends.

Jesus came in and built His Church right on top of us and other idol worshippers.

It seems to be a historical trend.

It’s not often that the ‘religious’ people get saved, but those who pursued other avenues to personal pleasure and success.

 

Three Examples:

 

1.      Missionary Laura Uyeda

2.      Easter 1981 Vail Colorado

3.      Roger Bacon Memorial Kumulani Chapel

 

None of us came to Maui looking for Jesus. 

But He has always been looking for us!

 

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden.

 Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”  Genesis 3:8-10

 

For thus says the Lord GOD, “Behold, I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. Ezekiel 34:11

 

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.
⁶  Surely goodness and lovingkindness will follow me all the days of my life,
And I will  dwell in the house of the LORD forever. Psalms 23:5-6

 

rāḏap̱: to pursue, to chase,

God has always been pursuing, seeking us!

God is pursuing those family members that are lost.

He’s pursuing our friends who do not know Him.

He’s seeking out those with whom we have problems with- those who persecute us.

He seeking those least likely to be followers of Jesus.