We tend to read the Bible and create a setting that is strangely like our day. Jesus and the apostles look like us, they speak English, and we’re sure they start the day with a latte. Part of this phenomenon is because the Bible is a living book. It doesn’t read like a dry, dusty work of literature that contains stories ranging from two to six thousand years ago!
It takes work to read a verse with which we are familiar and place it into its correct historical, cultural, and geographical context. One such verse is Matthew 16.18. We often read this verse and take comfort in the fact that the local church is God’s idea and that it exists in perpetuity. But what would that group of disciples have walked away with after this encounter?
The story takes place in Caesarea Philippi. Located in the foothills of Mt. Hermon, the place was a center of pagan worship dedicated to the god Pan. Originally known as Panias, the difficulty in framing the initial sound caused it to be known as Banias.
Growing out of the mountain, temples were erected to the goat-god, Pan with other deities. The Pan temple was built over what the locals believed was a bottomless body of water. Such bodies of water were viewed as gateways to the underworld – literally, a gate to hell / hades.
According to the Jewish mindset, Mt. Hermon and this surrounding area was the place where the fallen watchers, once cast out of heaven, came to set up their anti-God kingdom. The place was demonic – the antithesis to all that God desired. Carved into the side of the mountain were god-shelves where pagans bowed down, and burnt incense to the fallen watchers standing behind the idols. This is the place where Jesus makes the statement, “I will build my church…”
As you look at the gospels, it’s a fair question to ask, “Why did Jesus come all the way to this specific geographic location to make this statement?” We know that Jesus did not do things haphazardly or randomly. “In the volume of the book” it was written of Him, that He would come to “destroy the works of the devil.”
May I suggest that Jesus, in coming to Caesarea Philippi, came to the very headquarters of the enemy. Looking at the rock where all the temples and god-shelves existed, He promised that “upon this rock, I will build my church.” Literally, on top of all of the pagan worship centers, up on that rock, He would build something that the very gates of hell could not stop.
Jesus is making a declaration of war. He is invading the land occupied by the enemy and giving a promise. The assembly He would build would be victorious over all. The assembly He would build would not simply be on the defensive…it would also be on the offensive. It would not simply protect “its turf,” – it would go and claim new land through the power of the gospel.
Jesus declared war on the forces of hell. May we follow His example.