Big moments in Jesus' life. That's our theme this week on Things Unseen. Yesterday we thought about

what happened in the River Jordan. And today I want to reflect with you in another big moment, one that

took place at Caesarea Philippi.

The name trips off the tongue so easily that we sometimes forget it's Caesar-Ea.

It's like Washington, D.C.

We say the names of these cities and sometimes forget there's a reason for them.

If we're Americans, then perhaps

Washington reminds us of the privileges of independence. But Caesarea reminded God's

people of the opposite. They weren't the land of the free. They were under the yoke of Caesar,

of Rome, and most of them certainly didn't feel they lived in

the home of the brave.

There were actually two Caesarea's.

One was the port of Caesarea, which was on the Mediterranean coast, about 65 miles away

from Jerusalem.

And there was this other Caesarea, in the north, in the highlands, in the territory of Herod's son Philip.

It had been earlier called Paneon, because the Greeks had built a shrine there to the God Pan.

And Herod had built a temple there, not dedicated to Yahweh, but to Rome and to Caesar Augustus.

It's a place where the remains of pagan worship can still, I think, be seen.

And it was here.

Perhaps not in the pagan-bestrued town itself, but as Matthew says, in that region, it was

here that another big moment a turning point took place in our Lord's ministry.

It had three elements.

...