From Darkness to Light: The Transformational Power of Jesus at Caesarea Philippi

Prepare yourself as we journey through the shadows of ancient history, treading the unsettling paths of Caesarea Philippi and its worshiped deity, Pan. If possible, wait to listen to this one until the young ones aren’t around, as we dissect the twisted rituals of this region. However, this episode is not merely a look into the past but a profound exploration of transformation and hope found in Jesus!

As we are ushered to the gates of Hades, we see a symbolic representation of Jesus' triumph over the grotesque.  We also draw inspiration from Jesus' affirmation that His church, erected on a rock, would stand unscathed against the gates of hell and we examine their relevance in our lives today.

Finally, we turn to the profound words of Christ in Matthew 16:24-28; a testament to the fleeting nature of life and the significance of eternity.

As I explore the essence of Jesus's teachings in this episode, I encourage everyone to share the gospel as we journey towards eternity.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Yo, yo yo. What's up everybody. I am so excited to be back for another edition of the Windward Don't Come Easy podcast today. You guys, I have to throw a big disclaimer out right now and I will again after the introduction here in a minute. But if you have any kiddos in the car with you, like if you're driving on the I don't know when you're listening I know right now it's summertime but say you're driving your kids around to the pool, or maybe you found this podcast when school was back in session and you're driving your kids to school this is one of those I want you to skip until you're away from your kiddos. Just some heavy, heavy topics we're talking on today and a lot of stuff that one day they will be ready for, but not at this moment. So I would strongly advise you, if there's any kids around, please, please, skip onto the next podcast. But I'm so excited.

Speaker 1: 0:53

Today is going to be a powerful day. God just opened my eyes to his scripture the way I had never heard it before. Especially after going to Israel a few weeks ago and seeing it firsthand, I felt like I could not skip this passage. So powerful how God himself and took the disciples to the very place where the gates of hell, the gates of Hades, were, and he said that right there, that right there will not prevail. I will build my church on this rock. Wow, I'm gonna dive into all that and more right after this.

Speaker 1: 1:48

What's up everybody? Welcome back to the when Words Don't Come Easy podcast. I am Andy Howard. It is so good to connect with you. If it's your first time, welcome. In fact, if it's your first time, you picked a doozy, a doozy to join. I hope it won't be your last. But I am going to say this up front throw a little disclaimer up front, and this is normally not always the case, but I try to always do what God has in my heart. And for this particular episode, if you have any littles with you in fact, it's not just a warning I'd stop this episode now. As much as I love new listeners, listen when you can, when there's no kiddos around. This is a heavy topic today and, yes, just would not advise you listening around running the kids, and so, with that said, we are going to move on.

Speaker 1: 2:47

This is a podcast about hope and I generally will always, always have a guest on with me. That as someone who has a testimony or something to to just bring hope to people. Today's particular podcast is I wanted to go back to my trip to Israel and just give my own thoughts about it. I had some guests on a couple of weeks ago. You may have heard from Annie and Trevor Sorry, annie and Trevor and also Matt and Stephanie Just some dear friends of mine that were able to go on the trip with us and they shared some of their thoughts.

Speaker 1: 3:24

Today I had something burning on my heart and I wanted to touch about it, and it was actually man. It was from kind of a dark scene, a dark place where we visited, and in fact, there was a lot of people in our group, and rightfully so. I'm cool with it. They didn't even want to take pictures of this particular area, and I am kind of the opposite, and that's what makes us all beautiful.

Speaker 1: 3:51

Right, god created us all different. He created us unique in our own way to respond differently. That's why he's such a creative artist. He's a beautiful artist, and I mean this as respectful as I can, and I respect every single person man, I do, but I've always been drawn to stuff like that. I don't know why I've been drawn to, to the train wreck. It's like I can't look away and it's it's really my compassion, it's my passion for people. It's not that. It's not that I want. I hope this comes across right. I hope this makes sense to you. I really do. The last thing I want to do is confuse anybody. It's not that I wish any ill will towards anyone or I want any bad things happen, but generally, like when something awful happens, like I want to know more, I want to know why, I want to see it myself, I want to put my hands on it, I want to be there like museums, like we got to go to the Holocaust Museum there in Israel. It's gosh, it's so moving. It is so moving. It just touches my heart, it breaks my heart and I want to learn more, I want to know more about it. The same with the memorial in New York for 9-11 breaks my heart and I moved many times throughout the Holocaust Museum, throughout the 9-11 memorial, I moved to tears and I just want to know more. So one of the stops for us was that a Caesarea Philippi.

Speaker 1: 5:35

For those who don't know, I'm going to try to educate you, I guess, for lack of better words, this was an area where they worshipped the God of Pan. If I'm saying that, right, I guess it's just pan, like D A N, but it's P A N pan. He was this. How do I, how do I describe him? He was this being, this half human, half goat, like being that they created, that they worshipped, that they believe, and this is I'm trying to be as respectful as possible, but this is what they believed in and there's no better way to this call of pan, there's no better way to describe this other than he was. They were very, they were very messed up people, right, they believed in this God and please, that's why I didn't want kids around but when they believed that they would have this very area, right, it would be very common for them to have goats and they would have these very perverse sexual acts, with orgies, with all these humans, with human to human, human to goat. There's no other way to describe this. It was very sick, it was very perverse, but they believed so much that this God was what would? Their hope was in all. Their hope was in him, right, and this, and what's so heartbreaking about it is there's a no-win situation. And so they would even come and they would, and the way it was set up.

Speaker 1: 7:22

This was the very this place happened. It was about 18 miles north of Capernaum Capernaum I always get that word wrong, so please forgive me that town where Jesus was from, and it's the very beginning of the Jordan River. And there was this rock, where I saw the rock, this stone, this big stone, round circle area where they would bring their babies and they would offer them as sacrifices to this God who's not even, not even a real God, and I don't know why these. It always amazes me how people can get so blinded by something they believe that it's not even real, but they offer these sacrifices. And the myth, the legend, was that if this God, if the God of Pan, if he accepted their sacrifice, then when the rivers would flow, they would be clear, but if the rivers were turned red, then he did not accept their sacrifice, and so they would keep, keep sacrificing, keep sacrificing, seeking, seeking his approval, I guess. And it was set up where there. It was a no-win situation because the stream flowed downhill from there. It was on top of this mountain, the Jordan River began and it would flow downhill from there, and every time they would sacrifice their baby on this stone, the waters would come and the blood would turn red. Just horrible, absolutely terrible. No win, no win situation. They were set up for failure, and so why am I even telling you about this?

Speaker 1: 9:00

You're probably already confused, and I hope you, I hope you stick around to the end, because this is, this is a very sick, perverse people here. These are the very people that God wanted. And we look at our world today. Right, we have. We have a very sick, perverse world that we're living in. I think I wanted to say, before reading up on this, that our world is about as sick and perverse as ever before. But after reading about some of the things these people did here at Caesarea Philippi and I may not be saying that right either, bear with me, bear with me, gosh after reading about some of the things these guys did, maybe we're not as sick as I thought we were, but no, I do think we're living in some of the most perverse times of just look around, look around. Yet these are the people that Christ came to die for, these are the people Christ loved, and I'm going to give you some facts on that. So if you would turn to Matthew in your Bible, or just trust me, I'm going to read straight from the Bible, from the ESV version. So yes, matthew 16. And now that you know a little bit about what was going on in this area, I hope this portion of Scripture is brought to light differently for you, because I've read this many times before as well.

Speaker 1: 10:25

Never knew, never knew, I guess, the full effect of it until after our recent trip to Israel and seeing this for myself. We literally saw this place right here where they would sacrifice their babies, where so many perverse actions were happening right there on these. What would have been at the time would have been a platform there, but now there's just remnants remain. We literally saw the gates of hell the gates of Hades as they were described right there on the outer parts of this mountain. Hades was this very dark area inside the mountain and that term was called the gates of Hades. In my head I always thought this was just a metaphor for hell itself. But here it is. Jesus literally takes his disciples. They march march, that's probably the wrong word, march. They take the trip 18 miles north of where they were staying, estimated at 18 miles, so when it took a full day of travel. So obviously Jesus never did anything by accident, right, never does. He didn't do this by accident. He wanted them, he wanted them to see it. They knew what it was right.

Speaker 1: 11:45

Everybody had heard of this area. Nobody went there, right? This is like that part of town that you know is like off limits. It's like the perverse area. Bad things happen there. You don't want to get caught there. You don't want to be there. This is it. So I just want to give you the image before you read this. This is the most perverse area. It's the most icky. Unbelievable acts are happening here. I haven't even went to detail. You can go find out. If you want more, you can go find it. It's available for you. I mean statues that are just. I can't describe these statues. Unbelievable sickness is what I'm trying to tell you. So anyways, matthew 16, 13. Now Jesus.

Speaker 1: 12:32

Now, when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea, philippi, he asked his disciples who do you say the Son of man is? They said some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them but who do you say that I am? Verse 16, simon Peter replied you are the Christ, the Son of the living God In Jesus answered and blessed are you, simon, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven, and I tell you you are Peter comma, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I want to pause there, but I want to finish this so we can get to finish his part. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatever you lose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. Wow, so that's so much to it.

Speaker 1: 13:31

If we go back to verse 18, and this is some deep thought, and I don't know that I'm foreign enough to give you this answer, but I just want to let you hear what I felt was revealed to me. Maybe it's right, maybe I need to go do some more research and dig into this, maybe this will cause you to do more research. But verse 18, he says I would tell you you are Peter comma. Then he says and on this rock I will build my church. So my whole life I thought Peter is the one he is building his church on because he said you are the Christ. And I love that about Peter. I relate to Peter so much Because so many times we see where it's easy to say man, peter got it wrong. In his ambition, in his anger he got it wrong, but yet he was so bold, he was willing to do whatever. And I love that about Peter. I was thought it was on Peter.

Speaker 1: 14:24

It could it be that in the very beginning he took them. Verse 13 says he took them to a Caesarea Philippi. He took them to that place of perversion right in front of the gates of Hades. Could it be that he's saying upon this rock, with the very rock where they're offering the most perverse sacrifices of their kids to this God who's not even real, just so desperate, so desperate for hope that they're willing to offer their babies? Could it be that that's the very rock that he said on this rock, I will build my church? Now he is saying I am the God of these people, just like I'm the God for you, I'm the savior for you. I'm the savior for the most perverse person out there as well, and I feel like it's a call for us as Christians man my heart, this last three weeks has been just awakened to so much more. Am I doing enough? Do I witness enough? Do I minister enough about who my God is, about my savior?

Speaker 1: 15:29

Because we went to Africa and, man, my heart was woke, awakened for doing more, as we got to minister to kids who, a lot of them, had never heard of Jesus for the first time. And then we got to go to their families and a lot of them had never heard of Jesus for the first time. And it was brought to my attention that there's a lot of Americans right here who have never heard of Jesus. And I have the opportunity. I have the opportunity to present it to them. He takes them on this field trip, so to speak, because Jesus was such a creative communicator, y'all. He was phenomenal. He was a phenomenal, the best communicator of all time. We were there, right. We were there in Israel where he spoke to thousands on his sermon on the Mount, his sermon about the Beatitudes, the one of the most important speeches of all time.

Speaker 1: 16:23

And I saw how he created this amphitheater out of the hillside, how all those. They say 5,000 men, but gosh, not something we can't do. That's not even counting women and children. They estimate thousands, over 10,000, 15,000 people. And how did they hear? A man with no microphone? It was booming. It was incredible how they create all these amphitheaters back in the day where you could stand and just talking a normal voice, but the way the acoustics were surrounding it it carried Well. He had a built-in amphitheater right there on the Mount where there's a part where he's there and you can just see it. You can see how he's at the bottom, by the waves, by the Sea of Galilee, but the mountains surround him. A built-in amphitheater where everybody would have been. It was incredible, absolutely incredible, and so I am moved.

Speaker 1: 17:18

I we see so many perverse people today who have just absolutely warped ways of thinking. These are the very people that God is saying here in my heart of hearts. I feel he's saying Matthew 16, verse 18. He's saying these are the people that I will build my church on, cause I got news for you. He didn't just come to die on a cross. Such a heart, heart, death. We're just those with the little bitty white lies sins man. He died for every single one of us, cause he loved us and he wants us to know the truth and he wants us to be set free and he doesn't want us to judge anybody. Dude, I know I'm the chief of sinners and I fall, I mess up, but he loves me. He tests me off and he pulls me close to his arms and says I love you and I died for you. He loves every single one of you. Listening to my voice right now. He cares about you. He's got hopes for you. He declares dreams over you, plans for you in a future, for you.

Speaker 1: 18:22

I think sometimes we put so much, so much hope into this short little life we live in. It's so little into our afterlife. What's funny is this life is like a vapor man. This life is here today and gone tomorrow. This life doesn't last. It will be over in a blink of an eye, but one day we will live forever, and that's the man, that's what matters the most.

Speaker 1: 18:48

What we do on this earth means I don't want to say means nothing, because obviously we have to make it count but our own earthly winnings, our own rewards here on earth. I'm, I mean the corporate ladder, whatever success we have here on earth, and I'm all for success. You can do a lot of good things with money, you really can. So I'm all for doing your very best, but it means nothing, nothing. One day it will be gone and all that will matter is what you did with your life by spreading the gospel. So check this out, verse 24.

Speaker 1: 19:23

And in the Greek there's a word used that says he, uh, I don't put this. He began to shout this. So remember the setting. We're right here in the middle of the um place of perversion, see Caesarea, philippi, and I'm probably still butchering that, please forgive me Right there. And so, now that I've seen all this um, it's wild picturing the scripture. That's why it's so important. If you ever get an opportunity to go to Israel, man, uh, do it, it will change your life, it will Absolutely All the things we've seen. I, I can't, can't, get those images out of my head now.

Speaker 1: 20:01

But we're at this place of perversion and he begins to get so passionate. It talks about a loud, booming voice, a screaming voice. Picture the old vein popping up down the middle of his forehead. As he's passionate, as Jesus is, is saying with a loud voice and I wish I could, I'm, I'm still recovering from my sickness a few weeks ago, but just congested. But, but bear with me. But he says with a loud voice.

Speaker 1: 20:28

And Jesus told his disciples if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? For what shall a man give in return for his soul? For the son of man is going to come with his angels in the glory of the father, and then he will repay each person according to what he has done. Truly, I say to you there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the son of man coming in his kingdom.

Speaker 1: 21:10

Wow, I don't know. I'm just so moved. There's there's so much here and this could probably go into episode after episode of this podcast. I'm going to try to wrap it up here, though. There's so much to digest One that he's moved with passion. He's moved with bonus over all these people who many would just say they're cast offs, they're too far gone, they're perverse, sick people, no hope for them. They've crossed the line. He's still crying out to them.

Speaker 1: 21:41

I saw sharing to his disciples man, it matters nothing, matters nothing about what you gain here in this life, only thing that matters is what we do for heaven, for eternity. So just keep that with you, man. Carry that with you. Yes, I have goals. I'm all about goals. If you follow this podcast long enough, you know I have my own goals. I have my own reason. I'm always pursuing more. There's always more right, but don't lose your perspective. Keep your perspective of what matters most. And my heart is for the broken, my heart is for those who may be stuck in a perverse way of thinking. Maybe they've fallen for a lie. Because let me tell you something, man, the enemy will. The enemy will sell you anything he can to win you, to steal you, to kill you and to destroy you.

Speaker 1: 22:33

So I know this episode, this podcast man's been hard. We went back to some very sick ways of thinking. They just literally moved about half of our group, moved them to tears. I think we were all in tears but moved some of them where they couldn't even go over to that side to walk that area, didn't want to take pictures, didn't want to be there. I'm one of the, I guess, sickos who couldn't look away from the train wreck because I was moved with passion, and that's why, of all the things I saw, I wanted to share this with you, and I'll share more. Man, I wanted to do a podcast every single day there, but our schedule was just so jam packed. We would leave early in the morning, get back late in the night, and it was just just wasn't time, and I apologize, but I did take a lot of notes. I will be sharing a lot of different episodes of different days. In this particular day, though, it would be the most.

Speaker 1: 23:31

So I pray for you today. If you don't know Christ, if you've never met him, and if you don't know what it's like to surrender your life to him, please email me at info at AndyHowardcom. Either me or someone from my team will get back to you and we will help you come to know him. But I would recommend you find you a good church, somebody who you can grow your faith with, who you can trust and follow, and if they're not following Jesus, that's not the one, because Jesus is the only way. So you have to find you a good church, and I will help you even with that. I'll do my best to help you find you a good church where you can grow your faith in.

Speaker 1: 24:16

Thank you guys so much for being on today and for I hope this has been a blessing to you. I hope it's moved you as much as it's moved me. We have a calling to not just look past the perverse. These are the people God will build his church on, and it's not just the perverse, I'm just saying it's on the losts in general, people who haven't found Christ. Those are the people we have to go for them.

Speaker 1: 24:47

I pray this encourages you. I pray this motivates you to share the good news, to share the gospel. You can't reach everybody, but you can reach one. God has put someone in your heart, in your path, and as you do that, it gets easier and easier. And as you reach one more you can reach another. And it gets easier the more you exercise your faith. I thank you for your time today. I thank you for tuning in. I pray this has been a blessing to you. God bless, wow. Thank you guys. Man, that was heavy. That was a little heavy, heavier than what I usually do on this particular podcast. I pray it made sense to you. I pray it came across the way I received it, because that was a lot of hard, hard things to hear in there. But, yeah, christ's love, man, god is love for all of us, so thankful. So thank you for joining Again.

Speaker 1: 25:45

Last week I started this thing. I'm trying to find a hundred sponsors, a hundred partners with me, or at least I'm trying to sponsor a hundred kids. So I'm not going to limit you. God may put five on your heart, he may put all hundred on your heart. I know Tiffany and myself we sponsored 40 of them. But if you would like more information, if you missed last week's episode, I go back and listen to that first because it's going to give you a lot more information on that. But I will send a signed copy of my book if you're interested, for everyone you sponsor.

Speaker 1: 26:21

So if you sponsor a kid, even if you already have the book, you can bless somebody else with the book. The book is about hope. It's about overcoming obstacles in your life, overcoming depression for me but there's so many other factors in it it's about finding the beauty and the broken, and for me that just means finding the positive and the negative, and there's so many different chapters that I dive into that with. But I would love to partner with you as you help me, help those kids. If you'll sponsor them, send me that. You can get more info at info at Andy Howardcom. Just email me there. Or, once you do sponsor a kid, if you'll send that to info at Andy Howardcom, I will get your information and send you a signed copy of the book just as a token of appreciation for what you're doing. So thank you so much Again. If you haven't got the book yet and you want more info there, you can do that at Andy Howardcom.

Speaker 1: 27:17

Amazon it's available on Audible as well as Kindle, and I truly, truly thank you guys for being a part of this. If this podcast has been a blessing today, please share it with somebody. And also my big ask for the day will you leave a review? If this podcast is blessing you, please leave a five star review. That will help more listeners find this podcast, and I appreciate you so much. God bless everybody. Thanks so much for tuning in. If this episode helped you in any way, it would mean the world to me If you would leave a review and share it with somebody else. Thanks so much. I'll catch you next time.