Who do you say I am?

Yesterday, we departed from the desert and drove north. We passed through the West Bank, got to experience an Israeli security check point, and ended up stopping to spend the night by the Sea of Galilee. We will spend three days here, diving into the area in which Jesus conducted so much of His ministry. The harshness of the desert has been replaced with what the Bible calls "a land flowing with milk and honey". We now see green pastures, beautiful mountains, plenty of water, and lush vegetation.

We started our morning with a devotion as we stood by the sea. So many of us never realized how you can see so clearly across the sea. The names of the towns that we read about so often in the Bible are easily viewed across the horizon. Towns like Tiberius, Magdala, Capernaum surround the sea. As we explore these areas, Terry reminded us that we will be walking in places where we know that Jesus walked. I looked over to see us crowded around Terry, listening intently on his words, and it was easy to imagine the large crowds that would come to hear Jesus speak, the crowds that would get so large by the Sea of Galilee that Jesus would have to stand up on a boat and push out a bit from the edge of the sea in order to speak to everyone.

We headed north into the Golan Heights for our first stop of the day. The Golan Heights was annexed from Syria during the 1967 war. The road we traveled was on the east side of the sea which was right near the current border with Syria. We went into a place called Katzrin. This place was an old village that had been restored to be a proper replica of what a village would have looked like during the time of Christ. This was just a lot of fun. We got to dress up, make pita bread, feed some goats, and walk through the village. We all entered a home there and crowded into the main room. Terry climbed onto a ladder and delivered a great lesson that we have declared "The Sermon on the Ladder".

Terry taught from Mark chapter 2, which is the story of the friends who cut a hole in the roof of a home to lower their friend to Jesus. In the story, the room is so full, but they know that if they can just get their friend to this man named Jesus, then something incredible will happen. As we sat in that room, crowded together, it gave a whole new perspective to that classic story.

"And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven." - Mark 2:5

Some of the religious leaders of the day were sitting in that room, listening to Jesus teach, and they accused him of blaspheming because Jesus was making the claim that He had the power to forgive sins. This is something that only God can do. As Jesus continues to address them, He makes it clear that He is the messiah. But He didn't just make the claim, He then used miracles to verify the words He was speaking.

Terry helped us take away a couple of applications from this lesson. He asked us what it would look like if we had the attitude that these friends had, what would it look like if we would do anything to help people get to Jesus. He also challenged us to think about whether or not we had friends that would do that for us. Who do we have in our lives that would take those risks, carry us when we need it, be there for us in times of need. This is love, this is a gift, this is what the Church is meant to be.

We continued to walk through the village and stepped into the old synagogue where people would gather to worship, read the Word, and come together as a community. When the Jewish people constructed a town, they would build everything around the synagogue, not the areas of commerce like we do now. Terry encouraged us to take wisdom from the people of these ancient of days. See how they centered their lives around their faith, developed strong communities, engaged in story telling with their kids, and taught the next generation their ways. This is not something we can do by coming home each day and shutting the garage door. It takes us being intentional and it takes us centering our lives around the Church.

We then drove further north to Mount Bental. If you look at a map, you will see this mountain sits at the very north end of Israel. As we stood up at the peak of the mountain we looked down to our right and saw Syria and to our left and saw Lebanon. Only a few months ago, the land we looked down upon was an active war zone with the Assad forces of Syria battling Al Qaeda forces. The spot we were standing was an army post, you can understand the desire to have this strategic position for military purposes. The scenery was beautiful, but it was also heart breaking to think that only a few miles away from us, so many civilians have lost their homes, lost loved ones, and are struggling to survive in the Syrian civil war. And then to our left, the land of Lebanon is being controlled by Hezbollah. We were safe from where we were, but it hurts to know that so many others are not, for no fault of their own.

We then drove a short distance away to an area outside of Caesarea-Philippi for one of the most memorable experiences of the trip. The place we went looked into the mouth of a massive mountain cave. Greek soldiers came upon this place and called it Banias, which means "Place of Pan." Pan was a Greek God. He was half man and half goat. He was the God of the wild, the shepherds, and he was very lustful. Some of the sexual cultic aspects of the Greek culture involved Pan. What the Greeks constructed on this mountain, next to this cave was dark and mysterious. To make it even more alarming, the Greeks believed that Hades, the underworld, was a real place that people would go once they died. They also believed that there were certain places on Earth that were entrances, or portals, to Hades. This cave in the side of the mountain was believed by the Greeks to be one of those places. In short, they believed that this cave was a gate to Hell. At this point in the lesson, storm clouds roll in and it begins to rain on us.

We sought shelter underneath some trees and Terry continued his lesson. He read to us from Matthew chapter 16, where Jesus is addressing His disciples at the place we were standing. He was addressing His disciples within view of the gate to Hell. He asks Peter, "Who do you say I am?" Peter responds and tells Him that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus replies to Peter and says:

"And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

We don't believe that it was a coincidence that Jesus used these strong words as they were looking upon that cave. A cave that was such a symbol of the consequences of a fallen world at the time of Christ.

Jesus teaches so much in this chapter of Matthew, however, there are a few claims He makes in this statement that Terry wanted us to pay attention to. That Jesus is the son of God, the Christ, the Messiah, our savior is the fundamental confession of the Christian faith. And faith in Him, in His church, is what He uses to overcome every major power structure of a fallen world. It is faith in Him that overcomes the power of oppressive governments, which was comforting as I thought back to what we witnessed at the peak of Mount Bental. It is faith in Him that overcomes the power of the culture, just think about how closely what the God of Pan represents and mimics our culture today. And lastly, as we looked into that cave which the Greek thought was a portal to Hell, we were so blatantly reminded that it is faith in Him that even overcomes the power of death itself. As the rain poured down on our heads, Terry finished this last point, and on perfect cue, thunder roared all around us. It is as if God himself put the exclamation point on what we had just experienced together. It is something we will never forget.

We finished the day by taking a trip to the ancient city of Dan. Dan was one of the 12 tribes of Israel and they had formed a city to the North. The rain was beating down on us as we walked past a gate that once was used by Abraham himself. Inside this excavated city, we got to walk around the remains of a temple that appeared to be sized to almost the same dimensions of Solomons' temple in Jerusalem. Walking through the walls of a place where sacrifices were placed on a high altar and seeing the steps to the Holy of Holies (inner Sanctuary of the temple) was moving. As the rain kept pouring we walked through the old stone structure of the city and we went through the gates. The rain cut short our lesson, so we will pick that up first thing in the morning.

The gates of hell shall not prevail against His church. What a bold statement, what a bold promise. Luckily for us, all we have to do is look back on all of the other promises that He made to us and delivered to us for us to know that this promise is also true. He used the desert to teach His people to trust, to build their faith. Today we got to properly understand the power that lies in the faith He has given us.