DCW week 7 Jesus takes a field trip

Part 7 DCW-

Good morning One River,

We’ve been on a journey to understand something called the Divine Council World view. This again, is the belief that there is more to the Supernatural world than simply God, angels, and demons.

We’ve spent the last several weeks looking at the nature of sin in the world. We’ve also looked at the system of elohim and other supernatural creatures. Some of them Yahweh installed as rulers, sometimes called Princes to govern over the territories of the earth and help humanity.

However, as is always the case of anything with free will, some of these elohim decided to rebel. They chose to serve themselves and turned humanity to worship them instead of Yahweh.

In these different cultures they took on the roll of gods, lowercase g. They claimed to have Yahweh’s power and they turned the people to worship them. They created origin stories and the like to compete with Yahweh.

We've skipped around in the OT for the first several weeks. But last week we started to answer some of the questions we’ve all been waiting for, what did Jesus think of all this. We looked at his address to several OT examples of sin entering the world. We saw that Jesus came, not to do battle on earth with humans to reclaim physical freedom. He, in fact, came to set us free from supernatural oppression. Piece by piece we looked at Jesus and how he walked through our failed trials only to emerge victorious.

Today I want to start looking at specific things Jesus taught. Things that maybe have a different spin than we’ve been taught, if we look through them with our newly minted Divine Council Worldview. We’re going to look at a specific story in Matthew and see if we can examine Jesus’ points, if we take into account the historical context of it. Let’s just jump in and we can flesh out the questions as we go.

Matthew 16:13–20 (NIV)

Peter Declares That Jesus Is the Messiah

13 When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

14 They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

15 “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

17 Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. 18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” 20 Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

I think, too often, we ignore the location of some of the events in scripture because we don’t know the lay of the land out there. I know, for myself, it was very hard to remember where all the different towns were before I was able to spend some time there and see them.

We’re gonna call this week “Jesus takes the disciples on a field-trip.” What do you all know about Caesarea Phillippi? This area is at the far northern tip of Israel during Jesus’ day. It was almost off the map. This was a multi-day affair to get to. It’s 49 miles from Bethsaida. Which is the closest city we can guess Jesus was at. Matthew tells us in the previous story that Jesus was walking along the Sea of Galilee. I’m going to assume he planned this trip out, and you’ll see why in a bit. But even if he was at the northern tip of the Sea, it would still take at least a day, probably two, to get to Caesarea Philippi. So, to go to this location was quite intentional. It’s not on the way to anywhere. Jesus and the boys didn’t just drop by.

You can see it here on the map, this area falls under the territory of Bashan. Caesarea Phillipi is also called Bania, or Pania. In Jesus day under Roman occupation and with the introduction of the Grecco-Roman pantheon this was also called the Grotto of Pan. We’ll get to that in a minute. In the OT it was associated with Ba’al. There was a practicing Ba’al cult here and Ba’al, if you didn’t know, was considered lord of the dead amongst his worshipers. Beelzebub is another name for Ba’al and Satan, Ba’al-ze-bub. They considered him lord of all, because everything dies and because of that everything, eventually, falls under his domain.

This area of Mt Hermon was looked at as a doorway to the underworld.

If we look at the next slide, we’ll see this cave. This area has a bunch of streams running through it and various pools of water. You can see from the outside why this would look like a grotto for the god pan. From here the streams gather into a small river and go back into the cave and drop off of a huge underground waterfall. It looks like it falls into hell. No one could see the bottom. So, it came to be believed that this was a gateway to the underworld.

This area was traded from one elohim to the next. First to Ba’al. It was the home to King Og, whom we find in the book of Amos to be a Rephiam. He is described in Amos and in the Psalms as a giant, like a wall. It was also thought that the Elohim Yahweh banished to the underworld traveled through this gateway to hades. It was traded to Pan under the influence of the Greeks and Romans. The area was rededicated to Caesar and his son Philip and dubbed Caesarea Phillipi. As the Roman Caesars took on the mantle of god and demanded worship from their citizens. One evil after the next.

Now if we look back at the passages we just read from Matthew. It starts with the field trip. Jesus takes his disciples to, what at that time, would have been known as “The Gates of Hell”. Sometimes Hades, or Tartarus. This would have been extremely uncomfortable for them. I promise no other Rabbis were taking their disciples on this kind of a field-trip. This area was reserved for ancient evils and debauchery. Just the ground they were walking on would have been considered unclean by Jewish standards. No one of any religious piety would consider going here. So why did Jesus.

Let’s dig into the text a little bit. The first question Jesus asked is “Who do people say I am?”. He gets the general “you’re a prophet” answer. Then He asked Peter, “Who do you say I am.” Peter gives him the divine answer. “You are the Christ, the son of the LIVING GOD.”

Jesus says, “This answer comes from God himself.” Paraphrasing here. Why? What does this exchange tell us?

It tells us, Peter is standing on the temple of the god of the dead. He is declaring Jesus to be the Messiah, and Son of the living God. The God, Yahweh, of life. If you open your own bibles and you look at the side notes for Mat 16:16, you’ll see about 12 different scriptures linked to this passage. They almost always coincide with places Yahweh is called the living God, and they’re always juxtaposed against things of death, demons, hell, wickedness, sin.

They’re standing on the top of the mountain dedicated to the worship of Satan – in several forms over a thousand years. This is the very important back drop. This is the stage for the discussion Jesus is about to have with the boys.

What does Jesus say next?

Matthew 16:18 (NIV)

18 And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.

Ok, there’s a few things here. First, Jesus is standing on the rock of the underworld. He’s making this declaration to the boys, and through scripture, to us. He’s telling us, He’s come to bury the underworld. He’s come to overturn the power given to the ruler of the underworld and earth. He’s taking it back and he’s ending death. Jesus is telling us, he’s here with the kingdom of God to defeat death.

Now the second part of the sentence, I don’t like the English reconstruction often used. The gates of hades will not overcome it. Although the NIV here, is better than most others. In Greek that negative association to Hades is not there. A better format for sentence structure in the Greek would be something like.

On this rock I will build my church, and the Gates of Hell will not be able to withstand it.

The emphasis for survival here should be on hell, not on the church. Jesus always wins.

The Rock here has a double meaning. It’s been clearly identified, both in Ephesians and church history to mean Peter, and by proxy the movement of disciples. We always say, “the church is people”, well this is kinda the verse for that. Jesus is declaring that church to be the disciples, starting with Peter – No argument about whether or not he was the first Pope. But it’s clear Jesus is playing off Peter’s name, the rock.

He’s also playing off the literal rock, Mt. Hermon, where they are standing. He’s telling us that he’s building his kingdom on the literal gates of hell, and if we follow him, and believe he is the Son of God and the Messiah, the Gates of hell cannot compete with is power. Death has no chance of survival for Jesus followers.

Imagine your pastor taking you to the local brothel. It’s exactly the kind of place you’re thinking of right now, with one caveat. It’s run by and directed to the worship of the Satanic temple.

Once inside we walk around, and he explains that God has given him a message to start a ministry from inside this place. We’re going to cure all the diseases of the world. Right here starting with this brothel.

It’s not a foolproof analogy, but this is something like what the disciples must have felt like being in this place and hearing this kind of news.

No self-respecting Jew would be caught dead here. Charise-there’s my dad joke for the year.

Jesus took his disciples to the gates of Hell to tell them that his father’s kingdom will be built on top of the entrance to Hades. He’s taking back the power of the fallen elohim and satan and conquering death. This imagery would have been clear to the disciples. It would have been another mind-blowing experience. Something only Jesus could do, as the Messiah and the incarnate Son of God.

This goes back to what we talked about last week. Why did Jesus need to be fully man and fully God. This is why. Yahweh couldn’t hand the keys to the heavenly kingdom over to someone that was only human. They needed to be elohim as well. And we all know how the Nephilim thing worked out. Yahweh needed to bring something different something better. That’s Jesus. Something different, something better.

I think in part, the full authority of Jesus was still unclear to the disciples. They knew he was the Messiah. They knew he was the Son of God, but I don’t think they fully appreciated what that meant.

The next story in Matthew is Jesus telling the boys he must die. He rebukes Peter and explains a little bit about his crucifixion. From there we have Matthew 17.

The Transfiguration

17 After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. 2 There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. 3 Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

4 Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

5 While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.” 8 When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

9 As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus instructed them, “Don’t tell anyone what you have seen, until the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

10 The disciples asked him, “Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?”

11 Jesus replied, “To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. 12 But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.” 13 Then the disciples understood that he was talking to them about John the Baptist.

Here, the setting here has moved. We’re no longer on Mt Hermon at the Gates of Hell. We’re now on top of Mt Tabor. This is in the Jezreel Valley. In the plane of Megiddo. This is the proposed future site of Armageddon. The Apocalypse. Jesus climbs this mountain with the boys, and they fall asleep. He in turn, upgrades to full God-mode. Has a chat with Moses and Elijah and the boys hear the voice of Yahweh. “Listen to my son. I am well pleased with him, and he knows what’s up.”

We’ll get into the specifics of this in a few weeks. But the boys have had a rough week. They’ve just been told in the span of 6 days that, they, in fact, are to launch Jesus’ church, after Jesus dies conquering the underworld and setting all things right. They’re shocked because Jesus is dying. Enough so that Peter tries to rebuke him, and Jesus slaps him down.

Now, on the steps of the mountain top of the site of the apocalypse they find out Jesus is not Just the Messiah, not Just the Son of God. He is God.

I’m sure these children are struggling to catch up. They can’t possibly appreciate everything that’s just happened. We know this from the Crucifixion accounts. But in hindsight it becomes clear. Jesus was never here to set them free from Rome. He’s here to set everyone free from sin and death.

OK, who’s lost? What questions do we have?