Understanding Jesus' Message at Caesarea Philippi

And again, we're asking this question: Why does Jesus walk all the way out

into the middle of nowhere where there's nothing else around there, finds

this one rock, points at the rock and goes, "The gates of Hades will never

prevail against my kingdom"? This is the thing I've been waiting, like,

three or

four years to get into a sermon, and I can never find a time- ...

until now. So Caesarea Philippi, that's where Jesus

pulls the disciples out into the dadgum middle of nowhere.

There's nothing out there, and He goes, "I will build my church, and the gates

of..." And this is very interesting. It does not say the gates of Hell.

What does it say? The gates of...

Hades.

Hades.

Yeah.

Okay, now bookmark that. There's a reason for that,

that most people, they've never

seen this. So Jesus apparently points to some rock.

I wonder what rock.

And then He goes, "The gates of Hades will not prevail

against it." Now, when you

go out to Caesarea Philippi at the bottom of Mount Hermon, there is one

spot, and one spot only, that people are like, "This is probably

where it was," because this rock formation is there.

Hmm.

It's the only spot around there where there's some prominent rock location.

Now, dude, here's what's nuts. So this is the bottom of Mount Hermon.

Now, you gotta remember, it's 1st century.

This is Greco-Roman Empire-

Hmm

... with all the Greek and Roman gods.

Now, dude, the tradition at that time when Jesus is alive, this

spot right there, that cave at the bottom of Mount Hermon,

was the

dwelling place in their minds of the Greek-Roman god Pan,

which, oh, by the way, was associated with fear,

which, oh, by the way-

Hmm

... is where we get the English word panic.

To this day, where we get the English word panic

is from

their belief that any time you saw the god Pan,

that you would just be consumed by an irrational,

controlling spirit of fear. And bro,

Jesus walks all the way out to that dadgum rock,

points at that rock. People are terrified of Pan.

They're being controlled by panic.

That's what's going on in their head, and Jesus points at that rock.

"On that rock-"

Hmm

"... I'm gonna build my church." Essentially,

"I'm gonna dunk on that god." "On

this rock, I will build my kingdom." And what He was saying is the god

of Pan, the god of panic, shall not

prevail. Why? Because the Prince of Peace is here.

Wow. Oh, man.

You will no longer be controlled by a spirit of fear but

by a spirit of power and of love and of a right mind because when

you know the Prince of Peace, you can have peace.