Right here on this hillside, archaeologists began to uncover this relatively small ruin, and they think it's the temple to Caesar built in the northern part of the country by Herod - the Herod of the Christmas story. And Herod built three temples to Caesar according to Josephus - two in the center of the country and one in the north. For years, they thought it was over there. But now it appears that it's actually right here. 

If you look at the quality of the work - the size of the stones - look at the coping here. It's very much like the work that Herod had in Jerusalem for example. Just Herodian quality. 

Imagine, a man here building a temple for someone who says, "I'm the son of God," at the same time that Jesus is born in Bethlehem and they both show up in history at the same moment. And then the Bible mixes them. The Bible says, "In the days of Caesar Augustus, in the days of Herod the king." This is so cool, because it's so new.

Now of course, you have to remember, it's archaeology. So there's a possibility that they're wrong. But it looks, right now, to the archaeologists as best I can tell from the reports, that this is the northern temple that Herod built to Caesar Augustus. Now what makes that amazing for our story here is they always debated where the road down there from Egypt to Persia turns to go east. It can't go past Mount Hermon over there because that's too big of a mountain. So somewhere, it has to turn east. And they always debated. There are probably several places. There are roads, but where's the main one?

Well if this turns out to be the temple of Caesar Augustus, you can be sure that that was one of the main roads right out there. And if that's one of the main roads, that would be the road called the Damascus Road, which of course enters our story. Because that's where Paul met Jesus. So that would be right in the shadow of this temple.

As a rabbi, Jesus prepared his disciples, his talmidin, for everything. That's the mark of a good rabbi. And one of the stories about Jesus and his disciples probably didn't make a whole lot of sense to them at the moment but was going to become critical later. Jesus was on the temple mount in Jerusalem, and someone came to him - Pharisees and Herodians - and said, "We know you are a man of integrity because you pay no attention to who people are, but you teach the way of God according to the truth. Should we pay taxes to Caesar or not?" Now that's not a great translation in my opinion. Because the word there is tribute, not tax like 10% out of my paycheck or 20% of my harvest. It's tribute. Every country had to give a certain sum of money - every person - every year to say, "We acknowledge that you're our lord. We acknowledge that you're our superior. We're inferior to you." That's tribute.

So they're asking Jesus, "Should we acknowledge the superiority of the emperor by paying tribute?" That's the question. Now remember, the emperor, in this case, in Jesus' day, it isn't Caesar Augustus; although, his temple is here. It's his adopted son, his son, Tiberius. "So should we acknowledge his superiority?" Does that make sense? 

Well the Jews had debated that. The zealots said, "No way. Nobody but God." 

The Pharisees turn to Jeremiah where he says, "I will hand over your country to the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. All nations will serve him and his son, because I give those things to him." 

So they said, "Well God gave it to Rome. We don't know why. We don't like it. But because God gave it to Rome, all we're doing is giving it back." Does that make sense? So they asked Jesus, "What do you think? Should we pay tribute or not? Should we give this money every year that says, 'Caesar is God'?"

Now he does a delightful thing. Because he says, "Who's got a coin?" Now that's funny, because you're not supposed to have a coin there. So the fact that somebody had one tells you that he got them to say what their point of view was. But he takes the coin and he says, "Whose image and whose inscription?" So he's pointing them to the picture and the inscription. Now I have one of those coins. This was the coin that was used to pay tribute when Tiberius was emperor. It's a silver denarius. The inscription says, "The worshiped son of a worshiped God." 

So here's Jesus with the coin, a worshiped son of a worshiped God. And Jesus takes that coin and he says, "Now you give to Caesar what's Caesar's. You give to God what's God's." 

What did he just say? "Caesar's not God." But his coin says he is. Think about that. "Give to Caesar what's Caesar's." In a sense, Jesus is saying, "God gave it to him. Give it back. And give God what's God's. But Caesar isn't God. They're different." 

Now that's the opposite of what this temple says. And that's going to get most of those talmidim of Jesus killed. Most of them are going to die because they'll obey Caesar in almost everything except that they will not accept that he is God. 

A talmid is someone who is consumed with a deep passion to become like the rabbi in his walk with God. That's the kind of a passion a talmid has to have. You have to be completely and totally devoted to becoming like the rabbi. You not only listen to him teach, but you watch him as he walks out into the world and you learn to interact with a stranger or the friend or the enemy like the rabbi does, following him wherever he goes, living with him every single moment I can. Because that's how I learn how to follow God.

Okay. We're at the edge of a hill that's known in modern times as Eremos Topos. Eremos Topos means a solitary or uninhabited place. Look how close we are to the sea. But when Jesus taught, he couldn't just walk through people's farms. So he used to go to what are called abandoned or uninhabited places - Eremos Topos in Greek. So you can imagine he's at Capernaum, which is just up the road here. He came to a place like this because here he could sit in these hills among these rocks and not disturb anyone's farm. 

Below us is a place called Magadan. And because of the hot springs that run in here just below us, certain kinds of fish came here, and people used this as a fishing village. So let me bring you to this story. The text says, "After a long, hard day, Jesus was somewhere along this shore." And I think it probably wasn't far from here. Either there or down that way a little. And he said to the disciples, "Get in the boat and go across." 

Now they had to be thinking at that point, "not across". Every time we go across, we get in trouble. We think of this as the abyss. Luke calls it the abyss. 

But he said, "Go across to Bethsaida." Now Bethsaida is right along this shore. You remember it, right? Bethsaida is right along the shore. 

So they're thinking, "Ooh." Now put yourself in a boat with 12 guys in it - maybe some of them fairly young - after a long, hard day, and the teacher isn't with you. Now you've got the picture. They're having a good time I would guess. The Bible says Jesus went up the hillside to pray, which in Hebrew means more than pray. It means to worship. So picture him up here somewhere worshiping.

The disciples started out. They began rowing. It says that the wind came up, and they were against the wind and a storm. And in the storm, they get in trouble. The waves are there. They're in danger not only to them of drowning but the abyss is that added danger of what happens if we go down in here.

And the text says, "Jesus watched them all night." Just picture it a minute. Here he sits, the boat is out there. They're working like crazy to row, they're upset, they're worried, they're yelling at each other, "Keep rowing." And he's watching.

And then what I think helps us to appreciate the delightful teaching of Jesus - his miraculous power of course - but also his shall we call it rabbi sense of humor? Because the Bible says, "At the fourth watch of the night," which is probably 4:00 in the morning, "Jesus went out to them, walking on the water."

Now I suppose that's kind of funny when you think back on it. But listen to the next line. "He was going to walk on by. 'Hey guys. How are you doing? It's good to see you out here tonight.'" And he goes walking out on the water right past those guys in the boat. They react as you would expect. They say, "It's a ghost!" This is the abyss after all. So it's a ghost. 

Jesus stopped. Somebody said, "It's Jesus." 

And Peter said, "If that's you, I want to come to you walking on the water."

Now let me ask you a question. Do you really think Peter thought he could walk on water? I mean really? We don't know for sure of course. But he's a fisherman. Every time he had ever gotten out of a boat anywhere, he sank like a rock. I don't think he thinks he can walk on water, but why did he get out of the boat? He wants to be like his Rabbi. Do you understand? He wanted to be like the Rabbi so badly that he was willing to drown to be like Jesus. How bad do you want it? You see, if you're going to follow a Rabbi who walks on water, you have to get out of the boat. You cannot stay in the boat. He will stretch you so far outside your comfort zone, you won't even be able to see it anymore. 

His friends had to be shocked, and there he stands. "I did it." And then it says, "He saw the wind and he became afraid, and he began to sink." 

Jesus reached out his hand, pulled him up, and said, "Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?" Doubt who? I always wanted to make Peter doubt Jesus. He doesn't doubt Jesus. Jesus is still standing there. Who does Peter doubt? Peter loses confidence in who he is as a talmid. If we are going to be disciples of the Rabbi, it's not only about a passion in our chest to be like him, it's not only the conviction that he believes in us so we can be what he calls us to be. But it's also an awareness that we have to believe in ourselves, that we can, by the power of his spirit and the direction of his word, be what Jesus wants us to be. 

I don't know about you, but I've had enough of staying in the boat. I don't want to stay in the boat anymore. I want to get out and walk like the Rabbi. 

Say these words after me. Whoever is in Jesus must walk as Jesus walked. These are the very words of God. 

So that's discipleship. It's Rabbi, it's text, it's community, it's passion, it's wanting to be like Jesus more than anything else in the world because he believes in us. But I need to show you one more thing, one more place we need to go. Come.

What do you think? Isn't it amazing that Jesus grew up 12 miles from here? And every time he went to Jerusalem, he walked through this valley. He could have heard them cheering in the theater on his way to the Temple in Jerusalem.

Let me tell you something. Jesus picked people from Korazin to come here. Think about it. He picked people from this tiny little cluster of stones with their Torah and their synagogue. He picked them to say you've got something they don't. Tell me that makes any sense to you. Wouldn't it be the other way around? Wouldn't you come here to send teachers to Korazin? Look at it and tell me you aren't impressed with those disciples that they could come to a city like this and say, "We have something they need." 

Tell me you don't look at it and say, "They had nothing to offer these people. They're rich, they're powerful, they're happy." Look at it. 

Now tell me another thing. Tell me this doesn't impress you. Do you know why it impresses you? Because we're impressed with what people do. We walk right by this big, beautiful mountain that God made. And we're blown away by something that human hands can do. That's the world they went to. It's the world that totally blown away by what people can do. 

And tell me this isn't where you and I live. You could live here much easier than you could live at Korazin. You look at Korazin and you say, "Where's the water? Where do they go to the bathroom? Where do they lay down? How do they stay clean?" 

You come here and you say, "I could live here." That's why this discipleship is such a powerful thing, because if I come here and I'm not a disciple, I become one of them. And there's nothing simple about this. This is beautiful. 

But there's a worldview down here that says, "It's all about me, all about wealth. It's all about power. It's all about fame. It's all about being successful. It's all about number one. It's all about big." And there's no place for God.

You can take people out of Korazin and send them here, but you better not take the Korazin out of the people. Because if you take the Korazin out of the people, this is going to eat you alive. And I love it when you folks who are in college and high school or working to see this. Because this is what drives education and kids. They want to be this. 

Now believe it or not, if I multiply this times 10, now you've got Asia. And he took these kids out of noplaceville who didn't even cut it in somebody else's rabbi school and he walked them into this world and said, "That's where you've got to go." 

It's a text. It's a community of people who share the passion. It's a fire in your soul to be like the Rabbi. If you lose any of that, you're just another one of them with a different God. 

Modifié le: jeudi 27 août 2020, 12:31