 Good afternoon Pastor David. Welcome everybody to Unfiltered. You can see that we're in a different location. We're actually in the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias and so we've been on tour and we are obviously in a different location but yet we wanted to connect with you and and join us as we are doing a special edition of Unfiltered. So today Pastor gave a devotion at this place called Caesarea Philippi and it comes out of Matthew chapter 16 where Jesus takes his disciples away from everybody from their ministry and they go to a place of rest but Jesus spent some time with them pouring into them and and it's interesting because we wonder why he took his disciples so far north. You know that was a question that was brought up today but Pastor what was the important thing that Jesus was teaching them in Mark Matthew chapter 16? Well there was a I guess just to set the the question up I probably should speak a little bit about the setting. The setting was that it was in a place called Caesarea Philippi which was a up into the north and but it was like a resort during the time of Christ and so he took his men up there as he often did in the Gospels to spend time with them and minister to them and while he was there he asked them what I call is the most important question because as he's there with the men and he's proceeding into his ministry going further on further in he's wanting to bring them to a place of understanding just who he really is but in order to do that he asked them a question he said who do men say that I the Son of Man am and I was sharing today in that particular area that at one time there were there were many monuments to to both men and gods they had temples a temple that had been erected in honor of Caesar Augustus they had different temples that were set up to worship Baal and so in in the midst of man worship and and just pagan worship foreign worship demonic worship Jesus asks the question who do men say that I am so in the center of all of this activity and all of the things that are part of being Caesarea Philippi he asked them the most important question so they began to answer well some say John some say Jeremiah the Elijah they give different answers one of the prophets and all and so while we were there I wanted to encourage the people to realize that that question is still being asked and I broke it into a couple of things they said one it is very common for people to have opinions about Jesus Christ and you can have people in churches with their opinions even though they don't really know him through scripture they have their opinions as to who he is you see a lot of that in the church today where people attend churches but don't even know the reason they're there and so people can influence other people as it regards to the things related to God they can have their opinions about God and so we're going to be influenced by those opinions whether they're friends or whether they're people on television or whether they be instructors in our schools they're going to have opinions and so those opinions they have have a tendency of influencing the way we see and if you're even in a church but you're not reading the Bible then you're going to have your thoughts formed by people who don't know Christ and so we asked the question who do men said say that I am but he supplied the answer even to the question because he said the son of man well that's out of Daniel 713 where it speaks concerning the son of man as a messianic figure so he said I am Messiah even in his question that's what he was saying so when they start answering they begin to answer concerning you know men like John and Elijah and Jeremiah or prophet they they put Jesus in in a category of a superior person you know when anointed by God to declare the things of God and all of that but Jesus said to them but who do you say that I am and that was the most important question because you know in in in the midst of all the opinions what do you believe and so when Simon Peter spoke up on behalf of the others and said you are the Christ the son of the living God that was the proper answer you know you are Messiah you are the son of man you are the one who has been anointed to set us free and so that's the way he answered and that's when Jesus said bless it are you Simon Bar Jonah for flesh and blood has not revealed this unto you but my father in heaven has and so he's saying to him this revelation that you've received didn't come from just from your own carnal mind this is a thought and an understanding that was provoked by the spirit of God himself and so as I was there sharing in this place and Jesus has said to Simon you know Simon you're Peter I'm and to you I give the king keys to the kingdom of heaven and all when he began to speak to them he had said the kingdom that is being established not even the gates of hell will prevail against it well right directly behind us where we're doing the devotion is what was called during the day of Christ the gates of hell which was a cave there that they said the nature god pan sprang into existence in and so he's saying all the demonic all the false all man's opinions concerning how great man is all of those things combined are all wrong and the only thing that is right is what you just said Simon Peter and by the way that wasn't something you initiated or thought of yourself that is something my father has has given to you that's a knowledge and understanding that only can come by the spirit of God and when he said I given to you the keys the kingdom he wasn't giving him to Simon Peter alone because later on he has the same commission for all of the apostles what he was saying is your declaration of faith the understanding of who I am is what I'm going to bless not you as as the first pope if you will but you have just declared on behalf of all believers who I truly am and the keys to the kingdom will be the proclamation of the gospel and so we see that key handed to him when he on the day of Pentecost preaches a gospel message yes and opens up the door so people can enter in and so that's what we did today we were there in Caesarea Philippi had a real long day today but I think it was a very very rich you know and one of the things I just want to close with pastor there's a lot of Christians who call themselves Christians nominal Christians who don't even know who Jesus is and that's why the question is so important who do you say that I am yeah it's not what your mom said right it's not what your Sunday school teacher said what do you say amen well pastor thank you so much for that want to remind our church family that on Wednesday evening we have a guest speaker West Bentley services start at 7 p.m. invite your friends and family to come on out and then on the 19th there'll be a guest speaker Mike McIntosh yes Michael who's going to come out and join in those services are 830 and 1045 and then on the 22nd you know kind of looking forward you're planning to be back as we celebrate communion we'll be back we'll do communion I'll be teaching out of romans too yes and it'll be a great time so invite your friends and family to come out and join us thank you guys for joining us and we want to say good god bless you from Tiberius Israel next time we see you will be in Jerusalem that's right god bless you guys pastor David thank you so much thank you