Transcription of the Video: Total Commitment

The ancient land of Israel is a testimony and evidence of the greatness of what God did in that country, a testimony to the truth of the words that we find in the pages of the Bible.

On the shore of the Mediterranean Sea stand the ruins of one of the great marvels of the ancient world - Herod's city called Caesarea. It's a place we can go to remember how great Herod was. 

But it's a place that also helps us to understand what the Bible says is really lasting or what really matters. 

See. Here's a piece. Look how flat this is. This is a nice one. Look at that. And that too. You know that that's work by somebody because if it had been rounded just by the water, it could not have been that square on the edges and that smooth and flat on top. So that would be a piece of a sheet of marble or something. 

That could be one of those floor pieces or a step or a sheet of marble that you'd cover something with. That's a very nice one. 

Herod was notorious for wanting to build things that defied nature. He always built bigger than you would be able to. He built in places you shouldn't be able to - when you see his palace at Masada hanging out into space for example. And in this case, he actually built out into the Mediterranean, almost as if to say, "Even the Mediterranean isn't big enough to be against me."

Back here, they've discovered Herod had the typical Roman bath. There's a hot room, a cold room, and a luke warm room - whatever you wanted. And you see some of the Mosaic floors, although those floors from what I recently read were built over top of the one that was there in Herod's time. Herod's time floor probably was marble. And they found evidence of that marble here. But these floors were put on maybe by his son. 

But the crowning thing about this was this pool in the middle here. You can see basically the outline-- and it's full of rocks and things right now. But you can see where the far side was to it. So the pool ran from there to where the other side is. This is probably a later addition as you can tell. It's a different shape. So that was the pool. 

So you get a sense of the glory of Herod - the palace from back here all the way out into the Mediterranean. Over there on the other side of that wall, which is a later addition, he had a port, a small place where a ship could dock. You got off the ship and without ever even entering the city, you were inside of Herod's palace. You could have an audience with him or whatever.

That's incredible stuff. And I don't know if you can feel that. But from a construction point of view to have put this all together with that huge palace is absolutely fantastic really.

Welcome this morning - a beautiful morning - to Caesarea. The story of Caesarea, we could first set up by talking a bit about our geography again and remembering where we are and how this relates to the rest of the country. Geographically, we're on the northern end of the Coastal Plain today - the opposite end of the Philistine Plain. The Philistine Plain is down to the south. We're up here on the Coastal Plain in an area called the Plain of Sharon. Just to the north of here, not very far, you'll discover that the plain actually runs out as Mount Carmel cuts over to the Mediterranean and puts an end to the Coastal Plain. So we're right at the northern end of the Coastal Plain. 

In the ancient world, again, a very significant strategic area because that very important ancient road, the Via Maris, came from the east from Damascus and beyond from Babylon, Assyria, and Persia. It came out here to the Coastal Plain in order to head south and on by Gezer where we were that first night. You remember the Tel Gezer there, the guard at the road. So this was Via Maris country. This was a very important road of the sea, the Way of the Sea. And that made this a very significant area. 

The story, however, of this place really takes us out of the Old Testament period, out of the period of the kings and the Iron Age, into the New Testament period. You have to imagine yourself back about 40 BC. There's a governor of Galilee whose name is Herod. His father, Antipater, was an Idumaean. While this Herod had become the governor of Galilee. And the new emperor, Caesar Augustus, appoints Herod to be the king of Judea, and so begins a long and bloody and interesting period of time during which the Herod family is in control of the land that we call Israel. And during that period of time, the New Testament happens as we know it. 

Jesus was born under Herod. He died under a later Herod. And much of the early church - at least that read about in the Book of Acts - lived under one of the Herod sons or grandsons. So that Herod family tree is all throughout the New Testament and all throughout our period. And that's how it began. 

Now what did the Romans want from Herod. Really, they wanted three things as their king of this particular area. One, they wanted Herod to provide a buffer against those Parthians and Idumeans to the south. So Herod had to keep them out. 

Two, they wanted Herod to introduce Roman culture so that this truly could become a Roman colony. And three, they wanted Herod to provide an economic base here so that the Roman world out there across the Mediterranean could access what goes on this trade route that runs through here.

Now that's where the story begins for us here. Because Herod lacked a good sea port. So Herod selected this location to build the largest manmade port that had ever been made at that time, a port to rival that of Alexandria and to, in a sense, be kind of a balance as a Roman city to the Jewish city of Jerusalem. And that city became known as Caesarea. He started building it in 22 BC, and he named it after his friend Caesar, and he called it Caesarea after the Caesar who had put him in power.

One of the things he put in this city was the magnificent structures necessary for culture. And you're sitting in a 4,000-seat theater. Now you need to know that the theater itself has been, to a certain extent, reconstructed. But at the very least, you're sitting in the framework of the structure that was a 4,000-seat theater. It was designed in such a way that the wind from the Mediterranean would bring the voices of those who were on stage off the stage and up to the audience so even in the very back row, you can hear the voices of people.

Just beyond the wall that you see is a large palace that Herod built actually sticking out into the Mediterranean. To the north of that slightly is a large amphitheater just being discovered and being excavated - huge where the Olympic style games could be carried on, which Herod instituted in this part of the country. 

To the north of that is the city itself with a grid of streets that are laid out in a beautiful pattern almost like they would be in a modern city. Sewers under all the streets that Herod designed in such a way that the water from the Mediterranean could sweep through those sewers and actually flush out the city. 

To the north of that yet, running water. Herod built aqueducts that went all the way from this city nine miles to the north to the base of Mount Carmel and then six miles of shafts and tunnels in the mountain itself to bring running, fresh water so that this city would have fresh water.

In other words, a spectacularly modern city in biblical times to rival any city in the world in all of its glory - even maybe Rome itself. 

Herod the Great died in about 4 BC or somewhere around there shortly before the turn into the common era or into what we call the Christian era. Herod died and his son became the king or at least the tetrarch of this particular part of Judea.

Now there's a story told here about his son Herod that goes like this. "Herod went from Judea to Caesarea." This is a different Herod, but it's the same Caesarea and the same Judea. "He stayed there for a while. He had been quarreling with the people of Tyre and Sidon. They now joined together and sought an audience with him. On the appointed day, Herod wearing his royal robe, sat on is throne and delivered a public address. They shouted, 'This is the voice of a god, not of a man.' Immediately, because Herod did not give praise to God, an angel of the Lord struck him down and he was eaten by worms and died. But the Word of the Lord continued to increase and spread." (Acts 12:19-24)

So you have an example here of a son of Herod whose life was very much like his father's. He was also a great builder but at that point was unwilling to acknowledge God, and so he was struck dead here.

After Herod's death, this city became more of a cosmopolitan city. It was largely Gentile. It had a fairly small Jewish population. And it became the regional governor's place including the governor, Pontius Pilate. 

The city, then, becomes a sea port and access to the Roman world. Now for us as Christians, there's a different focus on this particular city. Because this city becomes the place where the message of God's Gospel and God's salvation moves from its Jewish roots out to the Gentile world. 

Apostle Paul leaves from this particular port city on some of his missionary journeys. Not all of them, but at least some of them. So we can honestly say that much of the Gospels going out to the European world came through here. Then he comes back here from having been across the sea and he goes to Jerusalem, and he's accused by the Temple authorities of desecrating the Temple in Jerusalem by bringing a Gentile into the courts of the Temple where a Gentile didn't belong.

Well he's arrested. His life is threatened because there's a plot among those Temple authorities to terminate Paul's life. So Paul is brought here by the Centurion who's in charge in Jerusalem.

"The soldiers took Paul with them. The cavalry arrived in Caesarea. They delivered the letter about Paul to the governor and handed Paul over to him. The governor read the letter and asked what province he was from. Learning he was from Cilicia, he said, 'I will hear your case when your accusers get here.' Then he ordered that Paul be kept under guard in Herod's praetorium." (Acts 23:33-35) Or Herod's palace. Paul, then, proceeds to have audiences with three different individuals: Festus, King Agrippa, and Felix. Festus and Felix, Roman governors. Agrippa, the grandson of Herod the Great. 

And then he appeals to Caesar or has appealed to Caesar so he gets on a boat out here and sails out of Herod's court, out into the Mediterranean and to Rome, where according to church history, he's killed. So this becomes, in a way, the last chapter of Paul's life just like I think in some ways it's the first chapter of his ministry.

Up until this very moment when Paul left here, Christianity was Jewish. Now it becomes Gentile. To me, it so incredibly impressive that God takes a man as glorious and spectacular as Herod-- I know it's a reconstruction, but imagine the glory compared to what you saw from Hezekiah even. Look at the glory of this man. That sea port is a huge sea port, the largest sea port in the world. It's bigger even than the sea port in Rome or Piraeus, the sea port in Athens. And God uses that so that you could be included in this community of people who believe. 

Now think about the God who so carefully works in history that at the right moment when he was exactly ready to say, "My Gospel will move from its Jewish base to its Gentile application," without losing its roots of course. At that very moment, Herod was in place so that there would be a sea port and a city here to support the sea port so those missionaries could go out. Think of all the things that God has created that we have access to which could become our tools to reaching the world for Jesus Christ.

I get goose bumps just standing here thinking about all of this with all its glory -Herod was a glorious, great builder - being God's way of saying, "It's now time." Galatians says when the time had fully come, Jesus came into the world. And a big part of the time fully come was Herod.

This remains a metropolitan Hellenistic city, the New York city, if you will, of Israel. Then in 64 AD, there was a riot here. There had been some confrontation and conflict between the few Jewish people who lived in this town and the area around and the Gentiles. And they had gone back and forth over a number of things. And one day in 64 AD, there was a riot here. And the Hellenistic, the Greek, the Roman community rose up and said, "We've had enough of these Jewish people always creating these problems for us." And there was a slaughter of, for the most part, innocent Jewish people here by Roman and Greek citizens. It started what we know as the Jewish revolt. And it resulted in finally the Roman army coming here through this sea port and from Syria and from Egypt and slowly, methodically destroying the country of Israel including in 70 AD, the Temple in Jerusalem and in 73 AD, Masada.

When the Roman soldiers came here, they looked at this city with all of its beauty and glory, built by Herod the half Jew/Idumean and they said, "This city is a symbol of Jewish arrogance. This city stands as a monument to great Jewishness. It's where the great revolt began. We're going to terminate this city." And so today, when you walk on the beach, you will see literally millions of the tiny pieces of Herod's dream. 

I have two stones here. This piece of marble is something that washed up out of the Mediterranean sometime in the past after the Roman soldiers had thrown it there. And that's all that's left of Herod's dream. And you come here to think about Herod and you remember Herod, probably about the only thing you knew about Herod is that he killed those babies in Bethlehem about 2,000 years ago. And the reason for that, I think, is that Herod built for Herod. He wanted the world to know how great Herod was. He wanted people to admire his ability, his construction. He wanted to advance his political agenda. 

And so what's left of Herod? His ruins. Because Herod lived for Herod. 

This other little stone isn't nearly as authentic, but it's a stone like you'd throw in a sling. I'm thinking of a little place to the south of here a ways and a little bit east called Elah (or Ella) Valley. And in that valley, a little boy - about 10/12/13 years old took a sling stone like this and he through it and Goliath fell dead. And God's plan of salvation was saved. But the interesting thing is you will never forget it. Because one of the first Bible stories you have every learned was about the greatness of David. 

And the difference was not the kind of stone they built with. The difference is what the Bible tells us and that is David did it so that the whole world would know who was God. 

So what we pick up on the Mediterranean today are the broken pieces of Herod's dream. Because Herod built for himself and his glory.

Now my thought for you is this. Some of you have been given marble. You have incredible talents. You have positions and jobs that affect lots of people. You have opportunities to interact with important people in life. Some of us might say, "Well, I'm more a limestone kind of person. I have a pretty ordinary life. And I see a few people." But you see, that's not the key. The key is who will you live for?

And I wonder that after I'm gone and people walk along and look at what's left of my life, whether they will pick up the pieces of my dreams and say, "Pretty interesting. But he lived for him."

Or will they say, "It's really amazing what happens when you live for God." So I'd like to challenge you with that today. I'd like to challenge you to think about what God's given you in your life and what you've built or what you've done and just ask you that simple question. Who is it for?