Throughout the history of God's people place has been important. The gospel is grounded in history and as such it not only works in the lives of people, but uses places to bring about the circumstances for gospel growth. One such place is Caesarea Maritima. It is from this Roman port city that Pontius Pilate ruled Judea. It was to this city that Paul fled in safety before heading on to Tarsus. And it was in this city that the Roman ruler Diocletian persecuted the church and the library of Christian teaching it was building.

Place continues to matter to us. The gospel works in where we find ourselves today, as well as providing opportunity for gospel growth in the future. Learning from Caesarea Maritima demonstrates God's continued gospel initiative in brining people to himself through time and place.

The Life of the Church - Learning our Church History is a teaching series from Annalong Presbyterian Church. For videos and handouts visit www.annalongpc.org/midweek.

The podcast was recorded using Ecamm Live. Start your free trial at https://www.ecamm.com/mac/ecammlive/?fp_ref=david97.

Well, we're returning to this series, The Life of the Church,

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and in the weeks that have gone by,

I've been reading more and enjoying

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more, and tonight's a little bit

different, but, um, I'm hoping it'll

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be something that'll help us maybe

more in our personal lives to recall

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of how good the Lord has been to us.

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And it's part four.

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It's entitled Caesarea by the Sea.

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It is a place that we're

familiar with in Scripture.

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Um, but really I wonder do we

understand fully its significance.

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And really the theme for tonight

is about places that are important

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or about a place that is important.

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And without yet flicking to the other

side of page three, don't do that

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yet, you'll come to your questions.

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But one of the questions for tonight

is, where, what or where is a

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place that is significant for you?

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Whenever it comes to faith and

matters of faith, where is a

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place that is significant for you?

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Because whenever we look at Caesarea,

Uh, we will discover that it is

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a place of great significance.

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And again, it's all about God

doing His work in a particular

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place at a particular time.

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That's the significance.

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It could have been anywhere, but it's in

a place that God chose to do His work.

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And so when we have that study of church

history, there will be people, and

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we've already looked at some of those

people, and if you have missed any of

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the handouts of the first three nights,

they're up here on the stage for you.

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You can take them, they're all there on

the church website as well, that you can

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look at them at home and see them there.

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But there's people, there's events,

and there are places, all significant.

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Sometimes all three come together in

one, and at other times they're separate.

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There might be specific people who will

have a key moment, or there might be

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a key event where it's, it's not just

one person, but a group of people or a

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movement of God at a particular moment.

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Or as we'll see tonight, a particular

place that has a long heritage

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of being involved in Scripture.

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And we've seen that in

recent church history.

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Whenever you think of the

Reformation, the, the two places that.

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Where things happened, where Wittenberg

and, and Geneva, two places where

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God used, not just in a moment, but

in the ensuing years, where study

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would grow, where theology would

develop, where, where really what it

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meant to be reformed was, was teased

out and worked out and lived out.

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But it's nothing new because we've

seen it in Scripture again and again.

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You've places like Bethel, Gilead,

Bethlehem, Jerusalem, all places that

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at certain times play different parts

in the great story of salvation.

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And as we come to Caesarea, although

it may not be the most familiar in

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scripture, it does play a significant

part for as we look at how the church

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came to be and its significance for today.

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Um, and so we begin by thinking

about the significance.

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And so there's a place for you,

uh, on your, on your handout.

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It's also on the screen.

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It's, it's now a national

park in, uh, Israel.

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You can go and you have your holiday.

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If you look north there, that's the

holiday resort of Caesarea today.

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But in that center part where it just

looks like brown earth or, or, or

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desert, that's the original Caesarea.

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And if you actually look, you can see

some Roman fixtures, the amphitheater.

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Or a great, um, athletic

track, or baths, Roman baths.

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So this was a true Roman city.

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It was a port city.

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And it was a city of great significance.

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Not just for us in the church,

but also for Rome itself.

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Because it was here that the

Roman rulers had their palace.

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Remember, Pilate came to Jerusalem.

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Well, where did he come from?

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He didn't come from Rome.

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He came from his headquarters.

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in Caesarea Maritimi,

which is its official name.

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He was the fifth of the Roman rulers.

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Um, basically Caesar had got

fed up with the Herodian family.

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They were puppets now, very much more so.

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And it was more these Roman

bureaucrats who would come in,

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Pilate being the most famous of them.

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And he does have a

significant place in it.

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And what they did was they settled

themselves in Herod's Palace there.

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They'd get rid of maybe some of the royal

trappings, give them a small apartment,

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but for the real seat of power in Herod's

Palace, the Roman officials would be.

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And that's where Pilate was.

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That's where he would go.

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And it would be where other Roman rulers,

as we'll see, would take their seat.

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If you're not familiar with what it looks

like, there's a map over on page two.

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Can't go by too quickly

without getting a map.

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But, just to show you, whenever you see

it on a map, there's really only two

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ports in Biblical Palestine that are used.

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It's Joppa, which is down at the

south, where the A of Jerusalem is.

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or at Caesarea.

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Most went through Caesarea.

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It was the bigger of the ports.

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It was the established Roman

city or, and Roman port.

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And so all trade went from there.

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And by the way, this is This

is Paul's journey to Rome.

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It's his third missionary journey,

and then his journey to Rome.

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So you can see that it, it was

close to where the known world

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was, and so it was a center of

trade, of busyness, of Roman life.

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You couldn't get more Roman in

Palestine than Caesarea Maritima.

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And so this is a place that

was significant in its day,

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in its own right, but as we'll

get to see, it is significant.

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For us as we understand ourselves as

the church today and to do that we're

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going to begin by reading 1st Timothy

chapter 6 and verses 11 to 21 we're

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going to read two passages this evening

This is the first of them, because

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the significance actually is of, at a

particular moment, a person who was there.

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And so here we have for us in Scripture,

in 1 Timothy 6, verse 11 through to

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verse 21, where Paul says, But as for

you, O man of God, flee these things,

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pursue righteousness, godliness,

faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness.

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Fight the good fight of the faith,

take hold of the eternal life to

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which you were called and about

which you made the good confession

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in the presence of many witnesses.

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I charge you in the presence of God

who gives life to all things and of

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Christ Jesus who in his testimony before

Pontius Pilate made the good confession.

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To keep the commandment unstained and

free from reproach until the appearing

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of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he

will display at the proper time.

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He who is blessed and only sovereign,

the King of kings and Lord of lords,

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who alone has immortality, who dwells

in unapproachable light, whom no

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one has ever seen or can see, to

him be honour and eternal dominion.

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Amen.

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As for the rich in this present age,

charge them not to be haughty, nor

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to set their hopes on the uncertainty

of riches, but on God who richly

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provides us with everything to enjoy.

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They are to do good, to be rich in

good works, to be generous and ready

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to share, thus storing up treasure

for themselves as a good foundation

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for the future, so that they may take

hold of that which is truly life.

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Old Timothy.

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Guard the deposit entrusted to you.

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Avoid the irreverent babble and

contradictions of what is falsely

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called knowledge, for by professing

it, some have swerved from the faith.

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Grace be with you.

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Amen.

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So why read a passage like this?

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Well, at the center of it, there is a name

that we would think shouldn't be there,

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and it's the name of Pontius Pilate.

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This is a significant moment.

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In the canon of scripture, the man who

washed his hands of Jesus gets quoted.

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And actually, whenever you look at

it, he gets quoted in a good way.

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Because if it hadn't been for

Jesus before Pilate, then the whole

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events of Jesus giving the good

testimony would not have happened.

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And of course, in the great

and grand providence of God,

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it had to happen that way.

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But it's very significant that

this person, Pontius Pilate, is

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mentioned here in 1st Timothy.

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And gathered around him is the example

of Jesus as he spoke to this Roman leader

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about the things that must be heard,

that the church must continue to hear.

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And so, this Gentile first hand

received the gospel from Jesus Christ

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as close as anyone could from that

great salvation moment of death on the

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cross and resurrection from the grave.

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And Pilate was sympathetic,

that's why he washed his hands.

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If he was unsympathetic, he would

have sent Jesus to the Jews, without

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issue, done what they wanted him to do.

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But he washed his hands, saying

I've nothing more to do with it.

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And of course, trying to get himself out

of it, he said, well, who do you want?

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Barabbas, who was known to be a thief

and a murderer, or Jesus, the man who

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really we can't find anything wrong with?

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He was putting them to

the test, but it failed.

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But of course, it had to.

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It had to fail, because

Jesus had to go to the cross.

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If you don't think that Pilate is

significant in the story of the

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crucifixion, then read it again.

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Because not only does Paul mention

him here in 1st Timothy, but he gets

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a mention in the Apostles Creed.

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Suffered under Pontius Pilate.

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The only Gentile to get

mentioned in the Apostles Creed.

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And so there's great significance of what

Pilate, or who Pilate is and what he does.

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But the reason why we're attracted to

Pilate this evening is because of what's

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there at the bottom left of your picture.

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It's called the Pilate Stone.

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And this is how God works.

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In 1961, this stone was

found as excavation was being

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done in Caesarea Maritimi.

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Now, from the Enlightenment onwards,

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overtook the belief of, uh, of people

rather than faith, um, the Enlightenment

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said, well, nothing in the Bible

is true because it can't be proved.

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Did David exist?

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The Enlightenment says no,

there's no record of a King

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David outside of Scripture.

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And there wasn't at that time.

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And so in 1961, whenever they

discovered the Pilate stone, anyone

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who questioned the, the account of

Scripture and the crucifixion of

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Jesus had to take a second look at it.

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Because on this inscription, which, if

anybody can read it, let me know, um,

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but here you basically have his name.

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And governor of Judea.

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You have a man named in stone, found in

a place where he should have been, and

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it completely agrees with Scripture.

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A place is significant, even 2, 000

years later, to prove the gospel

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and to prove the truth of the death

and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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God doesn't make mistakes.

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God doesn't make things

happen by accident.

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Time and place are important,

because what they do in human

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history is keep a continuity of

the grand plan of redemption.

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So, this Pilate's stone.

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That Pilate is mentioned not only

here in the scripture passage, but

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also, as archaeology discovers him and

can verify his true existence today.

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So that's Pontius Pilate, who we

perhaps don't think an ally of the

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faith, but yet God would use this man

to prove the faith through history, and

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indeed, as professed, a real person.

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At a real time, when Jesus would

die and rise again, not only as Paul

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writes, but also in the creed that is

recited by Christians around the world.

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But the next thing we want to think about

this place is, it was the place of Paul.

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If you were to go to the maps that show

the first and second missionary journeys

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of Paul, Caesarea is there because it was

a good point for Paul to either launch or

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come back from his missionary journeys.

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It was the main port

through which to travel.

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It was a microcosm of the

known world at that time.

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It was a center trading post.

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It was if you wanted to get your goods

by sea from what was the old Babylonia in

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the east you had to come across and either

you'd go by land which was risky because

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of attacks or you'd you'd go by sea and

so everything would come to Caesarea

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Maritimae and from there head on with

most likely a final destination in Rome.

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Of course, that's That's

what happened with Paul.

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But this is a place

that was good for Paul.

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It was a place that served in many ways.

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He spent two years there as a pioneer

in mission, uh, sorry, a prisoner in

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mission in Acts 24 verses 22 to 27.

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He was a prisoner for the faith.

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He had to stay there because they

couldn't seal as they'd wanted to.

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He came to know that city very well, he

knew its people, he would baptize, he

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would see converts, he would see a church.

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But it's to Acts chapter 9 and verses

26 to 31 that I want us to turn for

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our second reading for this evening.

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Because in Acts 9 we learn that actually

Caesarea became a place of refuge.

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Not when he was imprisoned,

but when he had to flee.

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So if we read there in

Acts 9 and verses 26 to 31.

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We're told, and when he had

come to Jerusalem, he attempted

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to join the disciples.

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And they were all afraid of him, for they

did not believe that he was a disciple.

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But Barnabas took him and brought him

to the apostles and declared to them how

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on the road he had seen the Lord, who

spoke to him, and how at Damascus he had

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preached boldly in the name of Jesus.

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So he went in and out among

them at Jerusalem, preaching

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boldly in the name of the Lord.

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And he spoke and disputed

against the Hellenists.

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But they were seeking to kill him.

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And when the brothers learned

this, they brought him down to

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Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

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So the church throughout all Judea

and Galilee and Samaria had peace, and

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was being built up, and walking in the

fear of the Lord, and in the comfort

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of the Holy Spirit it multiplied.

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Caesarea becomes a place of refuge.

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It's not a place where Paul simply goes

and gets on the ferry and off he goes.

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It didn't happen that quickly.

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He was sent there first to get away

from the pressures of what would

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happen, of what potentially could

have happened to him in Jerusalem.

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He was annoying the

Hellenists, the Greeks.

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He was challenging them about

their pantheon of gods rather

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than worshipping the one true God.

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And they were getting

really worked up about it.

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And so he had to be sent away and he

would eventually make it to Tarsus,

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his hometown, but before that he

would spend a little time in Caesarea.

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There it was a safe haven for him.

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There it would preserve him when

years later he would be found and

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brought back to begin the ministry.

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See, not only was it a launch

pad for the missionary work,

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Caesarea became a safe place.

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It became a place where Paul

could be preserved for the work

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that God would have for him.

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And again, a place plays a

significant role in one person's life.

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As they flee, a significant place that God

would use so that they would come back and

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we then could see the mighty work through

whom God would use to build the church.

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It's not only a place of Paul,

it was also a place of Peter.

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He knew the city because he baptized the

Roman Saturnian Cornelius at Caesarea

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and we have that in Acts 10 in verse 1.

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And so the gospel in Caesarea grew.

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Influential people came to faith.

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And it was a place where

the gospel would grow.

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And so much so that whenever we come to,

uh, our church history in 260 through to

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200, uh, or sorry, um, I have 260, 265.

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That's not quite right.

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It's 160 to 265.

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We have this gentleman called CBS and

Eusebius is the father of church history.

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Church history is what we're looking at.

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But how do we get here?

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Someone had to write it down.

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And Eusebius was the most

concise of the early church.

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But he was born in Caesarea.

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And in his book, The History of

the Church, Eusebius records really

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what happens in that Roman city.

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And it's through him that we

learn of great persecution.

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And in that persecution, we understand

that it happened by Diocletian.

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Diocletian was the ruler of the time.

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And what had grown up in Caesarea

Maritima was a great library.

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And so housed in that library was a

great, the great works of the church.

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So that they would be kept, that they

would grow, and that they would continue.

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And they indeed would spread so that we

have the faith in which we stand today.

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It was a repository for the faith

with many manuscripts there.

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And it was to the one who'd

gathered all of these, Pamphilius,

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that Diocletian persecuted.

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And because of that persecution,

it went far and wide throughout

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the church of what was here.

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And so many would come, they would

learn, they would spend time, indeed,

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Jerome, who would come a few centuries

later, who would translate the

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Vulgate, which is the Latin version

of the Bible, of which many, uh, texts

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take their translation today still.

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He would spend time there

to ensure that there was an

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accurate recording of scripture.

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Other significant figures, Gregory

and Basil the Great, spent time there.

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So that they would grow, and other

aspects of our theology would develop.

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Theology that we still believe today, that

has remained unchallenged from those days.

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And so Caesarea Maritimi became

a shining light, almost like

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that lighthouse on the coast.

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Shining out into the world, because God

would use that place to proclaim his

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truth, and keep it for the generations.

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The generation of us today

who still benefit from it.

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And we shouldn't be surprised that he

does this, because in Galatians chapter

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4, verses 4 5, again speaking of Christ,

but taking these words which I absolutely

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love, this is why we think of these

things, because in the fullness of time,

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at just the right time, God sent forth his

Son, born of a woman, born under the law,

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to redeem those who are under the law, so

that we might receive adoption as sons.

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God works in a place, in a time, to make

sure that the gospel of Jesus Christ

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continues so that we will know it today.

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Our church history benefits us to

look back and see this place, once

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a bustling city, now in ruins, but

yet at a time served the church

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and served it well so that we can

remain faithful to the word that was

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stored there for us and kept for us.

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And you see, the gospel does need

to be set in a particular place.

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at a particular time because the

gospel is grounded in history so that

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as we've heard it from those who've

gone before so we can pass it on and

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that's what we must do because today

this place plays a significant role.

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You see we have to be attentive to how God

is leading us here and now for the good

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of his gospel and the good of his kingdom.

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We may not get our name in a creed

like Pontius Pilate who ruled from

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Caesarea Maritima But we are each to

get involved in Kingdom work because our

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faithful living for Christ and serving

Him will bring blessing in this age,

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in this place, and in eternity to come.

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So what does Caesarea by the Sea teach us?

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It teaches us that every place

is important in its time.

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Be it that place 2, 000 years ago,

be it on Calvary's cross 2, 000

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years ago, or be it here and now.

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This is a significant moment for the

continued proclamation of the Gospel.

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And that's what our questions are

going to take us to this evening.

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To talk about, well, what has

been a significant place that has

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shaped your faith in Jesus Christ?

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Where is part of your testimony?

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Where's the one place that you recall

with fondness where you grew, or

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perhaps you heard the Gospel for

the first time, or where you came

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to faith, where you remember it as

a significant place that God used?

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Secondly, how do we see where we

are now as an opportunity to be the

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blessing in this age and in eternity?

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And then thirdly, in what

ways can we shape this place?

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And I don't necessarily mean

this building or this church,

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but it might be, but simply the

place in which we find ourselves.

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How can we shape that place

to be significant for the

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gospel in the years to come?

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So some things to get us thinking, some

things to really get our minds into.

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So let me pray for us as we

begin to talk about this.

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Our Father God, we do thank you

that place plays an important part

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in the great story of the gospel.

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So we would ask that as we know

ourselves to be here and how important

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places have been throughout our church

history, may we know the significance

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of this time and this place.

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That we may faithfully serve you as those

who have gone before us did so well.

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So be with us in our discussions

and help us to think these things

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through as we desire to live them

out well for you in Jesus name.

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Amen.