Context adds meaning to the story!

David Lawson is our bus host. He writes Inductive Bible Studies for Precept Ministries. He's been camped in Matthew for the past year, studying, pondering, and writing. The Matthew study will be coming out soon and he shared an insight with us today that was powerful! Above in the first picture you see Angie and I standing in front of the "Gate of Pan" in Caesarea Philipi. The word 'Pan' in Hebrew means Hades and 'Pan' was a pagan God, so Angie and I are literally standing in front of the gate of Hades the shrine to a pagan god. In our hands, we have a rock. That rock symbolizes our confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Over the centuries that rock, that confession of Christ as God, has been the foundation on which the church is built. That pagan god, Pan, who sat in the gate of hades, is gone, powerless. The church endures, not on Peter, but on the rock, that little rock of faith. In the second picture you see the wall of Caesarea Philipi that is covered with little niches for little pagan gods. The people were literally surrounded by idols.

Context adds texture and meaning to a scripture.

Matthew 16:13-19. "When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?" They replied, "Some say John the Baptist: others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."

Jesus pressed in and asked, "But what about you? Who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."

Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon Son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 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. I will give you the keys to 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."

Application: We too live in a world in which we are surrounded by little pagan gods. Jesus asks us today, "Who do you say that I am?" Will you choose other gods or will you choose Me?