Press me to select my favorite spot in Israel, and I will refuse. "It can't be done," I will tell you. "There are too many! The Garden Tomb. The Via Dolorosa. The Sea of Galilee. The Wailing Wall. How could a person select one over the others?"
Yet you insist. You want me to winnow the list down to one location. Finally, I sigh and say, "Okay." I open a map of Israel and lead you and your imagination some 29 miles north of the Sea of Galilee. The site is called Caesarea Philippi.
While the area is radiantly beautiful, its history is shadowy. Caesarea Philippi has long been associated with idolatry. One god received more attention than any of the others—Pan, a Greek deity who was thought to have lived in the cave. Worship of Pan involved unspeakable sexual perversion.
It's no surprise, then, that an inscription designates the cave and the spring as the "Gate of Hell."
It was here, in this location, that Jesus asked his followers the watershed question: "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" (Matt. 16:13)
Jesus then asked for their opinion.
"But what about you? Who do you say that I am?" (v. 15).
It is as if Jesus deliberately set himself, a humble woodworker, against the religions of the world, in all their splendor, in all their glory, and asked, "Who do you say that I am?"
On one occasion while touring Israel, a dozen or so of our tour group were standing together on the grounds. I asked if each of them would be willing to receive and then reply to the question of Jesus.
So, I asked each person: "Who do you say that Jesus is?" And each person, in his or her own words, affirmed the confession made by Peter: "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God" (v. 16 NCV). Jesus, upon hearing the words of Peter, declared, "On the rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it" (v. 18 NKJV).
Two thousand years later his pronouncement still stands.
This is the wonder of the land where Jesus walked. This weary world is in desperate need of a Savior. Thank God we have one.
We can walk where he walked and ponder the promises he made. May you hear him as he speaks to you. May you be changed as you journey in the footsteps of the Savior.
This message is at the heart of my Bible study, In the Footsteps of the Savior. If you're looking for a study to go through in the days leading up to Easter, I hope you'll sign up. You'll get a free Holy Land art print along with some other free resources and six teaching videos filmed on location during my most recent visit to Israel. Please consider joining the study today.
~Max
No comments:
Post a Comment