The Turning Point in Jesus’ Ministry

At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus’ disciples began to truly understand His identity and His mission. Today, Sinclair Ferguson identifies the turning point in Christ’s ministry that took place here.

Big moments in Jesus’ life—that’s our theme this week on Things Unseen. Yesterday, we thought about what happened in the river Jordan, and today I want to reflect with you on another big moment, one that took place at Caesarea Philippi.

The name trips off the tongue so easily that we sometimes forget it’s Caesar-ea. It’s like Washington, D.C. We say the names of these cities and sometimes forget there’s a reason for them. If we’re Americans, then perhaps Washington reminds us of the privileges of independence. But Caesarea reminded God’s people of the opposite. They weren’t the land of the free; they were under the yoke of Caesar of Rome, and most of them certainly didn’t feel they lived in the home of the brave.

There were actually two Caesareas. One was the port of Caesarea, which was on the Mediterranean coast, about sixty-five miles away from Jerusalem. And there was this other Caesarea in the north, in the highlands, in the territory of Herod’s son Philip. It had been earlier called “Paneon” because the Greeks had built a shrine there to the god Pan. And Herod had built a temple there, not dedicated to Yahweh, but to Rome and to Caesar Augustus. It’s a place where the remains of pagan worship can still, I think, be seen. And it was here, perhaps not in the pagan bestrewn town itself, but as Matthew says, in that region, it was here that another big moment, a turning point, took place in our Lord’s ministry. It had three elements.

The first was Simon Peter’s confession that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God. And you’ll remember how Jesus made a point of telling Simon that he hadn’t actually worked this out on his own—although knowing Peter, he probably thought he had. No, the heavenly Father had opened Peter’s spiritual eyes, with the rest of the disciples. They now knew who He was, even if it soon became clear that they didn’t really understand what that fully meant.

The second element was Jesus’ declaration. He makes a manifesto-like statement: “I tell you,” He says. It’s got the ring of His “Amen, amen,” sayings about it. “I tell you,” He says, “on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). But let’s not be sidetracked today on the details; it’s the big picture that’s important at the moment. What Jesus is saying is, “Here, where Satan has ruled at Caesarea Philippi, I am announcing My manifesto: nothing on earth or in Hades will be able to prevent Me from building My church.”

And the third element, well, it’s this: it’s that this marked a significant turning point for Jesus. We’re told that now He began to show the disciples that they were beginning a journey to Jerusalem, which would end in His suffering, His judicial execution, and then His resurrection. In one sense, it’s clear that Jesus’ true identity was beginning to be recognized by the disciples. And so, Jesus knew it was time to explain His purpose. They needed to know that His ministry would not be fulfilled in the way they wanted, but in the only way possible if He was to be their Savior.

You remember how vigorously Simon Peter resisted the whole idea. He actually seems to have virtually manhandled Jesus in expressing his opposition. Jesus was well and truly building His church on enemy-occupied territory. No sooner were His plans known than Satan opposed Him through His own chief disciple.

It’s clear from the Gospels that the disciples looked back on those days as a big moment in Jesus’ life. In fact, Luke, the author of the third gospel, must sometime have interviewed somebody who remembered that it was shortly after this that they all began to notice something seemed to have changed in Jesus’ whole demeanor. From this point, Jesus set His face like flint to go to Jerusalem.

Our Lord didn’t go straight from His incarnation to heaven or even straight from His baptism to His crucifixion. No, it was a progression, and part of that progression was the hard work of helping His disciples understand and yield to the way of the cross. Part of it was being willing, patiently, to go through with the Father’s plan, and that plan involved the buildup of opposition to Him and, at the same time, the perfect timing of His crucifixion and resurrection.

I don’t begin to understand how our Lord bore both of these tremendous strains with such grace and dignity, but I know He did it day by day for me, for us. The big moments were for me. So, let’s be thankful today for the obedience of our Lord Jesus all through His life and not least in these big moments.