This is one of the largest and arguably the most important and beautiful churches in the whole world.
This is St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.
This magnificent church is named after Simon Peter, that rugged and impulsive fisherman
from a small village over a thousand miles away over 2,000 years ago.
How did such a rustic and uneducated fisherman come to deserve such an enduring honor and living
authority here in the city of Rome on the banks of the Tiber River? Are you ready for an adventure?
Let's go back to another place and another time and discover the friend of Jesus, the fisher of men,
the shepherd of sheep, and the keeper of the keys.
Wars have not destroyed it.
This is the land where God walked.
And his footsteps lead us back to the very history of salvation itself.
Join us as we discover the places and the people at the heart of the salvation story.
And follow the footprints of God.
Thanks for watching!
You know, when Peter was a little boy, the Sea of Galilee was not two miles walk away as it is today.
In fact, it probably came up right here at the base of this hill.
And these rocks are the foundation of an ancient city, the city of Bethsaida.
And this is the city where Peter grew up.
Let's get oriented. Israel is on the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.
It's a small country, only about the size of the state of New Jersey.
About 35 miles inland is the city of Jerusalem.
Following the Jordan River north about 60 miles, we find the Sea of Galilee.
Bethsaida is located just east of the northern shore.
When Peter was a boy, he lived in a house made of rocks.
In fact, in northern Galilee here, the houses were made out of basalt, a volcanic rock.
And you can see here, as it cooled, that it trapped the air bubbles.
You can still see the remains.
Where I'm sitting here is the foundation of what's called the Fisherman's house.
They call it that because in this house they found ancient fish hooks and weights, lead
weights and stone weights for nets.
They found needles for fixing the nets.
They kept their animals in the courtyard, and around the courtyard were the living quarters,
maybe the kitchen and storage areas, sometimes two stories high.
They would sit up on top on a nice day, and they would eat or they would pray.
Their animals would join them in the evening to be safe from the wolves and the wild animals.
Their lives back then were different from ours today,
and this is the kind of rough-hewn stone house that Peter lived in as a boy.
Who was Peter? What do we know about him?
And why did Jesus choose Peter to be his disciple instead of one of the trained scribes or Pharisees in the city of Jerusalem to the south?
That's why I'm standing here right now in the ancient city of Bethsaida to discover the answer to those questions.
Bethsaida is literally translated the house of the fishermen.
So it should come as no surprise that here in this one location,
more ancient artifacts of the fishing trade have been found than anywhere else on the coast of the Sea of Galilee.
We have these handcrafted stones with holes drilled through them.
They were used as weights for the long fishing nets.
On the top of the nets were cork floats,
and at the bottom the ropes would run through these stone weights
and they would sink the net into the sea.
So that when the fishermen would pull the nets in,
they would bring the fish with them.
We also have found here the fishing hooks, bronze fishing hooks of all sizes from large to small
from the first century found here in Bethsaida. These were the tools of the trade of those who
lived in this village and not far from here.
A significant artifact was uncovered in the mid-1980s, when the Sea of Galilee had receded during a drought.
It's an actual fishing boat from the first century, probably the kind that Peter and Andrew would have used.
The boat underwent a painstaking turn.
10-year process to preserve it.
And you can see it today in the Bet Yigal Alon Museum
in Guinness Arne.
And seeing this boat today takes us right back
to the time of Jesus and Peter.
Peter and Andrew learned to fish here.
They weren't trained in the law in Jerusalem. They were not doctors of the law.
In fact, we're told in the book of Acts
that they were considered to be ignorant and uneducated men.
In the law, that is. But why did Jesus pick these men?
Why did Jesus come here to find these rustic fishermen who smelled the fish
not of books?
Peter brought Jesus to this very town of Bethsaida because Peter cared for his family and friends
and those who were sick and diseased.
And on top of that, thousands came from all over Israel here to this very village to be
healed by Jesus.
But they did not have the same reaction to the hand of God that Peter had had.
They did not believe.
And even though they saw the mighty works, they turned their back and believed in the Messiah.
And Jesus' reaction to that unbelief was to say woe to you, Bethsaida.
For if those who are entire in Sidon had seen the mighty works of God that you had seen,
they would repent in sackcloth and ashes. And he cursed this town.
I just love these ancient ruins. They bring history to life.
We're going to leave Bethsaida now and go to Capernaum.
It's only about a three-mile walk across the Jordan River into another province.
In the time of Peter, to go into that other province, he would have had to pay a toll,
possibly with a Roman coin like one of these.
What was it like to be a fisherman in the time of Peter?
Or today, what was it like to sit at the feet of Jesus in the synagogue and hear
the gospel preach
and be called to be one of his disciples? Let's go to Capernaum and find out.
Peter was a Jew, and this is a synagogue in the center of the city of Capernaum, the village of Jesus.
This was a thriving Jewish community, even though most of northern Galilee was Gentile and under Roman rule.
Peter and his family and friends would gather here on the Sabbath to listen to the readings of the Scriptures.
They were waiting for the Messiah.
Capernaum is only about three miles southwest of Bethsaida, right on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Even though he would have had to cross the Jordan River, this would have been a short, easy walk for a rugged man like Peter.
This Jewish synagogue was not built by a Jew, rather it was built by a Roman centurion.
He loved the Jewish people, and out of the love of God and the Jewish people, he built the synagogue for them here in Capernaum.
The remains we see here today are actually from the magnificent 4th century white synagogue
which was built on the site of the 1st century synagogue where Jesus taught.
The city of Capernaum is situated on the via
Amaris, the Way by the Sea, a main thoroughfare along the Sea of Galilee.
Travelers in the area would have seen the Jewish synagogue in the center of town and
stopped here to rest or to take part in the services.
Jesus had recently left his childhood hometown of Nazareth.
Actually, he barely escaped with his life.
And as he was walking along the Viamaris, he would have seen this Jewish community with its synagogue.
He stopped in, joined them on the Sabbath, and was invited to teach.
Peter and his fellow villagers were amazed by Jesus and his teaching and his authority.
He stood here and quoted from Isaiah that this was Galilee, the land of the Gentiles,
and that there would come, Isaiah said, a great light to this land.
Jesus proclaimed himself that great light right here in this synagogue.
Imagine Peter sitting here, the rough, rugged fisherman,
bulging mussels, smelling of fish again, and here walks in this Jewish rabbi who
very softly, I would assume, begins to read from the book of Isaiah and teach
the Scriptures.
And Peter had a soft heart, a rugged body, but a soft heart.
And that soft heart responded to the words of the gospel.
They responded to the words of the prophet.
And as Jesus expounded and opened the Old Testament, Peter's heart melted within him.
And he believed in this Messiah.
And it changed Peter's life.
It changed the world.
A tender and responsive heart, inside a rugged body, what a perfect image of Peter.
He would have needed strength and ruggedness to earn a living as a fisherman here on the Sea of Galilee.
It was hard and dangerous work, and as any modern day fisherman here will tell you, it still is.
This is my friend Shimi Cohen. He's a real fisherman here on the sea, and last summer he took me out for the night fishing in his boat.
It's a small sea, but it's very, very dangerous.
In the winter, it needs to be up to two meters, two and a half meters.
That's about eight or nine feet high at times.
Peter certainly had a lot to contend with in his line of work, but what about his life?
How did Peter live? Let's pull into shore and find out.
Ever since my first adventure in Israel, this city of Capernaum has always been one of my very favorite sites in the whole country.
This is the house of Peter. He lived here with his family.
Not only is it the house of Peter, but it's also correct to say that it's the house of Jesus.
During most of the three years of his ministry, Jesus lived right here in this rock house.
Today above it is a modern structure, an octagonal eight-sided church.
That's to replicate a church that was built here.
in the fifth century. Peter's house is only about a hundred feet from the synagogue, the
synagogue where Jesus taught and where the people of Capernaum gathered on a regular
basis for meetings, for teaching, and for worship.
This house was where people came from all over Israel to be healed.
In fact, in the Gospels we have stories of thousands of people lined up and pressed against the door of this house
to get access to Jesus so that Jesus could heal them.
We have the story of the paralytic man, and the crowds here being so dense that his friends had to crawl up on top of the stone house, remove part of the roof, and lower him on a stretcher into the room below.
We're Jesus.
forgave him his sins and healed him. That happened right here on this very
location. I just can't believe it when I'm here and I think of those stories
from the scriptures and I just have to share it with people because it is so
exciting. This is where Jesus walked. The very footprints of God were here in this
location for three years in the first century.
Why would Jesus pick a rugged muscular fisherman instead of one of the scholars down in Jerusalem?
Shimi reminds me a little bit of Peter. He's got a good heart and he's gentle.
I think Jesus saw in Peter something he had seen earlier in his mother.
She was very quick to say yes. Mary gave her life to God.
Peter did the same. He loved Jesus, was quick to drop even his career to follow
him, and as we'll see later, even to lay his life down. We're on our way north to
Caesarea Philippi. We're gonna go there to learn about how Jesus called and
commissioned Peter to lead his church. Peter was ready for the job.
Sailing in this boat takes me back to the time of Peter.
A small sailing ship is often called a bark.
That's where we get the term, the bark of Peter,
which is one of the titles of the church.
What a powerful image, the church.
as a ship, voyaging through life's waves and storms, carrying its passengers to the safe
harbor of heaven. Remember that Jesus taught from Peter's boat long ago, and still teaches
us today from the bark of Peter.
Even though fishing is much the same today as it was during the time of Peter, a lot of things have changed.
The wood boats have been replaced with fiberglass.
The cotton nets are replaced with nylon.
And the oars have been replaced with motors.
Very soon, Peter is going to replace his fishing boat with the church.
This water is cold. It flows right out of the base of the mountain.
For thousands of years, this water has sustained the people of God in the Land of Israel,
making it lush and green and full of life.
It flows about 30 miles to the south and empties into the Sea of Galilee.
This is one of the headwaters of the Jordan River.
Those headwaters originate in Caesarea Philippi, which is known today as Banyas.
This is a dramatic and beautiful country filled with rocks and streams and wildflowers, but don't let the scenery fool you.
This is a rugged and mountainous region, and traveling here from Galilee would probably have been anything but easy.
This is such an amazing spot. I can see forever. I can almost see to the Sea of Galilee 30 miles beyond.
I'm on the rock here in Caesarea Philippi.
And this is the place where Jesus came on a two-day journey with his disciples.
He brought them to this very rock to teach them.
It's probably 500 feet long and over a hundred feet high, and Jesus brought his disciples
all the way up here to use this as a backdrop for an important teaching he had to give him.
Jesus usually liked to have something in his hands or to point to something on the ground
or have something behind him to make his point when he taught, and probably there's no greater
backdrop for his teachings than this massive rock.
Consider Matthew 16, one of the most important passages in the Bible.
We read that it was here in Caesarea Philippi where Jesus asked His disciples the question,
who do men say that I am?
Simon answered, not from his own mind, not from flesh and blood,
but by a revelation from God, he spoke for all of them and said,
you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Peter defined Jesus, and it's a definition we still use today, 2,000 years later.
When Jesus heard Peter's words, he turned to Peter, and he defined Peter,
and he said, You are rock, and on this rock I will build my church.
Peter's name had only been Simon, but now he's given a new name.
We lose some of the meaning in the English.
When we say, you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church.
But those original listeners would have heard Jesus say,
you are Kefa, and on this Kefa, I will build my church.
Peter is the rock. He is the foundation. It's Jesus who is the builder.
This name change was no small matter. In Semitic culture and in the Bible itself,
a change of name is a very significant event redefining a person's purpose and identity.
Take Abraham, for example. He was called Abram, which in Hebrew means father.
But when he was given the covenant, God changed his name to Abraham, the father of nations.
So when Jesus gave Simon the new name Peter, or foundation rock, it meant a world of difference to the disciples who heard it.
It defined who Peter was and determined his place in the church.
Take a look around. Look behind me. What do you see?
Now use your imagination. At the time of Christ, this was the side wall of a huge temple.
In fact, you can still see the niches and the indentations in the wall where they enshrined their idols.
This was a beautiful temple gleaming white in the sun seen for miles away.
In fact, we have an image of that temple on this coin minted right here in
Caesarea Philippi in the first century.
You can see the roof and you can see the pillars.
This was a unique site not only in the Near East but probably in the whole Roman Empire.
Pagan worship was taken place right here. People came from thousands of miles
to worship at this place.
At the back of the temple was this cave and the cave was full of water in fact
Josephus tells us it was a horrible precipice down into the water bottomless
no one could find the bottom it was here that the pagans came to offer their
sacrifice they would walk through the temple and they would throw their living
sacrifice into the water it may have even been viewed as the gates of hell the
entrance into the netherworld
This for the pagans in this site was their holy of holies.
Josephus tells us in the first century that this temple was built by Herod in honor of Caesar Augustus.
People came here to offer sacrifice and to proclaim Caesar as the Lord.
was a problem for the early Christians, because we say even today in our creed that we believe
in one Lord, Jesus Christ, to deny that Caesar was a Lord was an offense punishable by death.
It was here that Jesus proclaimed that Peter would become the rock.
The foundation of the church and the contrast is clear.
We have here a false temple built on a false rock to a false Lord.
But Jesus said that the true church would be built on the true rock of Peter
and he, Jesus the builder, would be the true Lord.
Not only do we learn something of Peter being the foundation of the church, but at
this site we also learn something of his being the shepherd. At this site the God
pan was worshiped. To this day you can still see the niches that were carefully
carved into the rock face here. Niches at once held the statues of pan, one of the
pagan gods of Greece.
We even have a coin that was made right here in Caesarea Philippi with an image of the
God Pan.
In fact, before this city was named Caesarea Philippi, it was called Panius after the
God Pan.
Do you know what the God Pan was the God of?
The God Pan is the God of sheep and shepherds.
The irony of this location wasn't lost on Jesus or the disciples.
Of all the places he could have come, Jesus brings his disciples here to choose and appoint the shepherd who is going to lead his flock.
to the pagan city of Panias,
home of the false God of shepherds.
In contrast, Jesus shows himself as the true God,
and he chooses Peter as the true shepherd
and leader of his flock.
This location really holds a special place in my heart.
It was here that Jesus said to Peter,
you were rock, and on this rock I'll build my church.
But he also made a second promise here.
He said, I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven.
This is the language of kings and kingdoms, monarchies and hierarchies.
In the Western world we've rejected such things,
and we've even lost the language that goes along with them.
But to the people of Jesus' day, who lived under the rule of kings and emperors,
and to the Jews who understood the Scriptures, the image of the keys was powerful,
and it would have been well understood.
In the Roman times, they had small keys such as this one that was worn on a finger.
But in the times of the ancient Jews during the kings, the keys were long and worn over the shoulders.
So, this site offers us a key to understanding the teachings of the Catholic Church.
Did the Apostles understand the full implications of this magnificent site and the prophetic
words of Jesus?
What did this play out in the early church?
How has the Catholic Church embodied these teachings for the last 2,000 years?
Just wait to see what we discover next in Galilee and then Jerusalem and all the way
to Rome.
Peter likely returned to his hometown of Capernaum,
but on at least two occasions that we know of,
Jesus required Peter to make the journey to Mount Tabor
about 20 miles to the Southwest.
This was probably a one or two day trip,
and I could tell you that climb up the mountain was not easy.
Jesus told his disciples to meet him up here.
Those must have been some tough guys.
We're standing at the top of Mount Tabor,
about 1,600 feet above the valley below.
This is where the transfiguration took place,
where Peter and James and John witnessed Jesus transfigured before them,
with Moses and Elijah, who came to speak with Jesus about things
sooner to take place in Jerusalem.
Then after the crucifixion resurrection, which took place not even a hundred miles to the south
in Jerusalem, Jesus commanded his disciples to come back to this mountain.
The Bible doesn't tell us this for sure, but I'm convinced that Jesus, when He taught,
like in Caesarea Philippi, like to have a backdrop.
He liked to have an example of the teaching.
And He brought them here because of this magnificent vista.
You can see across the land of Israel, and you can imagine as far as Jerusalem.
Peter and the Apostles had a job to do, and Jesus brought them here to give them an idea of the extent of their mission.
The apostles were to go out into all the world making disciples of all nations,
baptizing them and teaching them.
And Jesus promised to be with the apostles until the end of the age.
Like the rest of the apostles, Peter had a tough job to do.
And scripture and history tell us that he did it well.
We have one more meeting with the resurrected Christ before we take the long trek back
to Jerusalem for the ascension and the beginning of the church, but right now let's scramble
back down this mountain and head northeast back to the Sea of Galilee.
A very important clue awaits us there.
Jesus wasn't finished with the apostles yet, and He certainly wasn't through with Peter,
who traveled more than 20 miles back to the Sea of Galilee.
As He prepared to obey Christ's great commission, He returned to the only livelihood He had
known, fishing.
It's nothing like a good warm fire first thing in the morning before the sun comes up.
We're sitting here in the Sea of Galilee.
The sun will probably rise in about a half an hour to an hour.
Even now there are fishermen out on the sea starting to come in, bringing their catch
of fish in for the morning.
We're sitting here cooking some fish, by the way.
These are Amnonfish.
These are the most common fish in the Sea of Galilee.
They're commonly referred to as St. Peter's Fish.
With the fish cooking and the boats bobbing up and down just offshore, I think of Peter
and the Gospel of St. John, chapter 21.
Just as day was breaking, Jesus stood on the beach.
Yet the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to them, children, have you caught any fish?
And the answer said no.
He said to them, cast your net on the other side of the boat.
And you'll find some.
They obeyed Jesus and miraculously caught a great number of fish so many they
couldn't haul the net back into the boat recognizing the Lord Peter jumped
into the water and swam ashore
Jesus said to them, bring some of the fish that you've just caught.
So Simon Peter went aboard and hauled the net ashore full of large fish,
153 of them. And although there were so many, the net was not torn.
Why is John so specific about that number, 153?
St. Jerome believed that that was a number of nations and languages in the known world
and saw Peter dragging in the net, representing the church, filled with the 153 fish, representing
all the people.
of the world. And isn't it interesting that John says the net was not torn. The Greek word for
tear is schizo, from which we get the word schism. So Peter is commissioned to bring in the net,
filled with peoples from all nations and languages, and presented to the Lord at the end of time
without tear or schism.
Jesus then cooked the Apostles some fish for breakfast, just as I'm doing, right here on the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
Jesus asked Peter, do you love me?
When Peter answered, yes. Jesus said, feed my lambs.
Jesus asked him a second time, and when Peter answered, yes, he said, tend my sheep.
He then asked him a third time, and when Peter assured him of his love, Jesus said, feed my sheep.
Why did Jesus give Peter three opportunities to affirm his love?
Because just a short time earlier, when Jesus was on trial,
Peter had denied him three times.
Jesus and his mercy was allowing Peter to make up for those denials.
But there's more.
When Jesus said, feed and tend to my sheep,
he was charging Peter with the teaching, governing,
and spiritual care of his people, the church.
So Peter is now not only the fisher of men, but he's given a new office, shepherd of sheep,
and if a shepherd is responsible for tending the sheep, then the sheep must respond
by following that shepherd, obeying him, submitting to him, and learning from him.
I've enjoyed the warmth of the fire here this morning.
I enjoy the warmth of the scriptures too as we read it here on the Sea of Galilee.
But now we're going to the exact spot where Jesus said these words.
It's the Church of the primacy of St. Peter built over a rock called the men's sacristi, the table of Christ.
And it is here that tradition tells us Jesus and the disciples actually ate the fish and the bread.
Feed my sheep and tend my lambs.
This is the very spot where Jesus spoke those words.
We're in the church of the primacy of St. Peter.
And this is the mensa Christi, the table of the Lord, where Jesus fed Peter and the apostles.
It was in this very place at this rock that Jesus appointed Peter to be the shepherd of his universal church.
This is a beautiful little lamb.
Her name is Prosper.
She's still nursing from her mother.
She would have made a perfect sacrifice down in Jerusalem.
But Peter's not going to Jerusalem to sacrifice the Lamb, he's going to Jerusalem to assume
his new role as the pastor of the Lord's flock, to feed and to tend and to lovingly
govern such as these and such as these.
This is one of the most beautiful panoramic views of Jerusalem, the city of David.
I could live here, I just love you.
Jerusalem, the sparkling capital city in the heart of Israel, and in the hearts of its people for thousands of years.
Jerusalem lies about 80 miles south of the Sea of Galilee.
For Peter, probably a three to five day trek, depending on the route he took.
It's a trip he had made many times with the Lord.
While most of the journey would have been relatively flat and easy, Jerusalem itself rises over 3,000 feet above the valley floor.
No wonder the phrase up to Jerusalem appears over 20 times in the Scriptures.
Actually, David lived just south of these walls on that southern slope.
God had promised David a throne that would endure forever.
And up there on the top of Mount Zion is the traditional site of the tomb of David,
venerated for centuries by the Jews.
This was the place of kings and kingdoms.
The kings of these eastern domains, like David, had royal officials.
Much as the President in the United States has a vice president and a cabinet.
The highest ranking official here was the royal steward, and he was the keeper of the
keys.
The royal steward was invested with the full authority of the king, and in the king's absence,
he ruled the kingdom.
What happened to that throne, that eternal throne of David that he was promised?
Let me tell you about that.
About 2,000 years ago, an angel named Gabriel came to a young Jewish girl named Mary
and he told her that she was going to bear a son and a son would be named Jesus
and he would sit upon that very throne of his father David.
King Jesus is now on that throne.
And he has chosen his royal steward to rule in his place while he is preparing a place
for us.
And that steward is Peter, the rock and the keeper of the keys.
One of the promises that Jesus made to Peter at Caesarea Philippi, remember the big rock,
was that he would give him the authority to bind and to loose.
These are some of the most common phrases used among the rabbis in the time of Jesus.
In other words, whatever Peter decided upon, or taught, or judged, here on earth, would
be ratified by God in heaven.
Isaiah 22 provides the scriptural and Jewish backdrop for this promise.
Shebna is succeeded by Eliahchim, who then takes up on his shoulder the keys.
And Isaiah tells us that whatever Eliahchim opens, no man would shut, and what he shut, no man would open.
This is the backdrop for Matthew 16.
With these keys, Peter and his successors are granted exclusive dominion to rule in the kingdom of God.
And as Jesus said, those who hear you, hear me.
of God. They lead right here. This is Jerusalem. The city where God dwelled with His people
in the temple, in the holy of holies. And this is the cynical, the traditional sight of the upper
room. This is a most holy and sacred sight for Christians.
During the Mass, we say Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.
In this very room, before the crucifixion, Jesus instituted the sacrament of the Eucharist and the priesthood.
Then he also taught Peter how to be a humble servant when he washed the feet of the disciples.
After the resurrection in this room, Jesus instituted the sacrament of reconciliation, confession.
When he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit.
Those who sinned you forgive will be forgiven, and those who sinned you retain will be retained.
After the ascension, 120 people, including Peter and Mary, were gathered together in the
upper room in prayer, waiting for the promise, and it came.
The Holy Spirit of God rushed into this room, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit,
and tongues of fire fell upon their heads.
They went out, and Peter spoke to the Jews that had gathered, and he told them to repent
and be baptized for the remission of their sins.
Peter opened the doors of salvation and the waters of baptism to the Jews.
But there's still the problem of the Gentiles.
Malachi prophesied in the Old Testament that they would come a time when the nations from
east to west would offer a pure offering to God.
And this was referring to uncircumcised Gentiles.
How is God going to use Peter to help bring the Jew and the Gentile into one body of Christ?
We'll discover that next as we go to Japa and Caesarea and see where the Holy Spirit of God was released into the world.
Peter's first stop on this mission was Japa, now a carefully preserved district in the
large modern city of Tel Aviv.
The 35 mile journey would have only taken Peter one or two days on foot, just a short
trip.
But as we'll see, it took Peter a world away from the exclusively Jewish church and the
life he had known until then.
Peter couldn't have eaten this lobster.
This is a crustacean, forbidden eating to the Jews.
The Mosaic law imposed strict dietary rules.
There were clean foods and unclean foods.
There were also clean and unclean people.
The Gentiles were unclean, uncircumcised.
They were outside the covenant without God
and without hope in the world.
But that was about to change.
We're at the house of Simon the Tanner, here in Japa.
At noon Peter went up on the roof to pray and while he was praying God gave him a vision
of a sheet coming down full of unclean animals.
The voice from heaven said, Peter, arise, kill and eat.
And Peter said, no, I can't eat an unclean animal, I have never eaten one in my life.
The voice said, what God has cleansed, do not consider unholy.
This vision was to prepare Peter for one of the most significant events in the
saga of salvation. God had big plans for Peter and I have big plans for this
lobster.
It's a beautiful day, very warm here, but the breeze off the Mediterranean feels real good.
Peter came about 35 miles up this coast from Japa, maybe on a day just like today.
When he saw this beautiful city off in the distance, it was probably a sight for sore eyes,
and for sore feet.
This is beautiful. I just love this.
Look at here.
These are pieces of ancient marble slabs.
Part of this great complex.
Biggest port city in the Mediterranean at its time.
This is Caesarea by the sea.
The Roman capital of the province of Judea.
Located some 35 miles north of Japa,
Caesarea was once the crown jewel of the Mediterranean.
Herret had built the city in the grand Roman style.
with a surrounding wall, a large theater, temples, aqueducts, and more.
Roman troops were garrisoned here.
Caesarea's huge shipping port made the city famous throughout the empire.
Impressive, it sure was.
But Peter was brought here by a more powerful force to accomplish a more impressive mission.
Cornelius was a Roman centurion. The title centurion means that he was a
commander of at least a hundred men.
and Cornelius was also a Gentile. Not even five or ten years earlier, this same Roman army had
been involved in the crucifixion of Jesus in Jerusalem. But even though he was a Gentile,
Cornelius was a God-fearing man, and in Acts chapter 10 we learned that he prayed constantly
and gave alms to the poor.
An angel from God appeared to Cornelius and told him that his prayers and alms had ascended
before God as a memorial.
He was to send a japa for a man named Peter.
When Peter arrived and began to speak to them of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit fell upon the whole household and they were immediately baptized.
Even though Paul was the apostle to the Gentiles, it was important that Peter, as head of the church, be the first to open salvation and the waters of baptism to the Gentiles.
Theaters are for the telling of stories. This is the theater built by King Herod here in Caesarea.
And there's no doubt that thousands of stories have been told here over the centuries.
Luke tells the story of Cornelius three times in the Acts of the Apostles.
Luke, the author of Acts, is a Gentile himself.
So would it surprise us that he would emphasize this watershed event in salvation history?
Let's follow Peter as he takes this crucial revelation back to Jerusalem and watch the
Gentiles take center stage.
Peter's journey, back up to Jerusalem, took him away from Caesarea's mild coastal climate
and natural beauty and sent him walking more than 50 miles back up to Jerusalem.
It only takes 30 minutes or so in this helicopter when it's probably taken Peter three or four
days, but Peter had great news to relay.
While praying here with the Jews, it would be easy to get lost in this massive structure
of rock walls, but not lost in God's eyes.
I'm wearing a Yomica right now.
It's required dress here at this site.
It's a sign of respect and humility before God.
During the time of Christ in the second temple period, the glorious and beautiful temple
of God was just above and beyond this wall.
Almost adjacent to the wall on the other side was the Holy of Holies.
The temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.
But because the Holy of Holies was so close to this wall,
this is for the Jews, the most holy sight in the whole world.
In the first years of the early church, the Christians didn't worship in church buildings.
They worshiped in the temple.
In fact, we learn that they worshiped in Solomon's court.
Solomon's portico is porch.
It was here that Jesus had taught the people and that Peter now taught in his name.
Here at the temple and in Jerusalem, Peter raised the dead and healed people, yet there
were still signs around the temple prohibiting Gentiles from coming anywhere near on penalty
of death.
Peter and the Apostles could enter the temple, but Gentiles remained outside, so Peter was
now faced with the reality of the wall of separation between Jew and Gentile being spiritually
torn down.
Just how were the Gentiles going to be assimilated into the formerly Jewish church?
With great boldness, Peter stood up at the council in Jerusalem about 49 AD, the prototype
of future church councils, and he confounded those who said the Gentiles could not be saved
unless they were all circumcised first and obeyed the law of Moses, all 613 of the commands.
Circumcision was a real problem, from a practical standpoint, because to tell the Gentiles they all had to be circumcised,
I think it would be a real hindrance to evangelism.
But Peter took his stand among the apostles and among the presbyters, the priests.
And he said, brothers, by my hand and by my voice, God brought the first Gentile in.
and he made a ruling at that point that the Gentiles would not need to be
circumcised and obey all of the laws of Moses, but they could be brought into
the church, incorporated into the church, and saved by faith. This was a radical
thing. It seemed to contradict the old covenant, and yet it says that the whole
crowd fell silent.
Peter had assumed his role as the head of the apostles and the head of the church.
Yet we learn in paragraphs 880 and 881 of the catechism that Peter and the apostles worked together in a collegial way.
They made decisions as a council with Peter at its head.
Decisions that were binding upon the church.
In the letter sent to announce Peter says start to Cree about the Gentiles.
It says that it has seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.
This was a prototype of the papal authority which continued blossoming
in the following centuries and of the church councils that were to take place.
The most recent of which was Vatican II.
How do we know that the chair of Peter and those keys are to be handed down to other men?
Is there such a thing as papal succession?
And what about papal primacy and infallibility?
These are tough questions, and the answers await us on the other side of the Mediterranean
in the eternal city of Rome.
These ancient cobblestones were laid by the Romans in 312 BC.
This is the Via Apia, the queen of the Roman roads.
In fact, you can still see the grooves worn in the rocks by the Roman chariots.
No doubt, Peter himself walked down this very road on his way into Rome.
Today, the streets are lined with beautiful trees, but a hundred years before the time
of Peter, this street was lined with crosses, as 6,000 of Spartacus' troops were crucified
as a warning to anyone who would defy Roman power.
Peter was no doubt terrified from the Gospel of John, it's recorded that Jesus had already
predicted that Peter himself would be crucified.
Let's follow the opia all the way into Rome.
Peter's journey from Israel to Rome covered a distance of roughly 2,000 miles over land
and sea.
Depending on the wind and weather, his journey could have lasted as long as a month.
And despite the expression, all roads lead to Rome, it's likely that Peter entered the
eternal city on the Via Apia, Rome's main link with its expanding empire in the east.
The Via Apia led all the way to the center of ancient Rome, but we have to
travel a bit further across the Tiber River. St. Peter certainly crossed this
Tiber River many times. In around the year 200, Tertullian compares the
baptisms of Peter here in the Tiber with the baptisms of John the Baptist in the
Jordan River.
In 1994, my family and I crossed the Tiber River, which symbolically means that we converted
to the Catholic Church.
Our destination is straight ahead, St. Peter's Basilica.
We have finally reached our destination.
Behind me is the Basilica of St. Peter.
And we're standing here in the middle of St. Peter's Square.
We've just come up, conciliation boulevard,
reconciliation with God,
and the colonnade
the great arms of the church reach out to embrace us as we come into the square.
We have the fountains here, which are like the labor in the temple,
used for cleansing and to remind us of the need for baptism.
and the obelisk, which is a witness to all of salvation history.
In fact, Peter himself was crucified in his very shadow.
The evidences are all around us.
Ahead of us a bit more are St. Peter and St. Paul, huge statues.
St. Peter with the keys to welcome us.
as we come into the church and on the top of the facade of the church is Jesus and John the Baptist
and the Apostles. They're here to greet us as we come to the monument to the death of Saint Peter
and as we enter into the house of the Lord.
Here we are inside the Basilica, St. Peter's and Rome.
This is one of two beautiful holy water fonts with the angels.
Let's take a look around the church.
This is the bronze statue of St. Peter made as early as the sixth century.
Millions and millions of pilgrims come here to touch this feet and pray at the entrance of the
nave of the church so much so that you can see his toes are worn down. Notice also he's holding
the keys and he's giving the pilgrims a sign of peace as they come and grow in their travels.
Part of the Basilica of St. Peter's was built over the circus of Nero.
And this happens to be the exact geographical location where Peter was crucified with his head down.
Of course Michelangelo's breathtaking dome is the famous external focal point of the church and it certainly draws the eyes
heavenward, but it also draws the heart toward Peter. If you drop the plumb line straight down from the top of the dome,
do you realize that the end would point right to the place where the bones of St. Peter were laid to rest?
Right beneath the main altar, in the fourth century, Emperor Constantine knew where Peter
was buried and literally moved a mountain, Vatican Hill, so that he could build the first
large church over Peter's grave.
Yet despite all the evidence, there are still those who refuse to believe that Peter was ever in Rome.
But the historical evidence for Peter's presence in Rome is so overwhelming, the skeptics simply have no case at all.
As we've seen, this basilica is more than just a church.
It's a monument to St. Peter, a living memorial to the man who is hand-picked by Jesus to be the shepherd of his flock.
Peter was in Rome. He was the first bishop of Rome.
And the chair of St. Peter and his successors is still in Rome today.
Many people mistakenly think that St. Peter's is a cathedral of Rome, but that's not the case.
The word cathedral means the church with the chair, the cathedral.
Every diocese has a bishop, and the bishop
has a chair, the Cathedral in the Cathedral.
This is the Cathedral of the Bishop of Rome, the Pope.
This is the Church of St. John Lateran,
and as the signs on either side of the entrance remind us,
this is not only the mother church of the city,
but of the world.
The Pope's chair is right inside.
Let's go see it.
In many ways, Christianity is Jewish.
The Catholic Church grows right out of the Jewish root.
The New Testament blossoms from the old.
This is the Pope's chair here in Saint John Lateran.
The sign of the Pope's unique authority
when he exercises the carerism of infallibility.
He teaches with infallible authority and interpretation.
This Charism is clearly explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church in Paragraph 891.
The authority of this chair is rooted deep in Jewish history
and authority that has passed on to whoever rightfully occupies this chair.
When Jesus chose Peter and appointed him as his royal steward, he created an office, and there is always a man
sitting on a chair of St. Peter. When Peter died, he was succeeded by Linus, and Linus by Cletus, and
Cletus by Clement, and so on.
In the first century, Clement wrote a letter to the Corinthians.
In it, he wrote that the apostles, in their foreknowledge, had said that when these bishops died, other men were to succeed them in their sacred office.
What is the evidence for the authority of the chair and the Jewish roots of Catholicism?
It's right here.
We're back in Galilee and this is the chair of Moses.
The original chair was excavated right here in the ancient synagogue in Corazim and it's
now in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
And boy, does this chair have a story to tell.
In Exodus 18, we learned that Moses took his seat, that he sat among the people.
From morning until night, the people came to this divinely inspired teacher to learn
what God wanted them to do.
Before Moses died, he was told by God to take Joshua before the high priest and
to lay his hand on Joshua and that the authority and dignity in Moses would go
into Joshua and that Joshua would lead the people so that God's sheep would not
be without a shepherd. In the Mishnah we read in the fathers of Vot that the
Torah was given to Moses.
and then passed on to Joshua, and from Joshua to the judges and the judges to the prophets and the prophets to the great assembly.
In Matthew 23, Jesus acknowledges the authority of the chair.
He says that the scribes and Pharisees, they sit in the chair of Moses.
In the original Greek, the word is cathedra.
They sit in the cathedra, or the chair of Moses.
Remember the word cathedra?
And Jesus said, therefore do whatever they tell you.
Don't always do what they do because they're often hypocrites.
But as they sit with authority in the chair,
you should do what they tell you to do.
So Jesus recognizes the authority of the chair.
And when he establishes the new Israel, the church,
he appoints Peter to assume that chair.
A newly established Israel and a newly established chair.
St. Macarius of Egypt in the 4th century wrote that Peter inherited the chair and thus the
authority of Moses.
So in a very real way, the Pope in Rome today sits not only in the seat of Peter, but also
in the seat of Moses, so that for 3,500 years the people of God have been able to hear and
trust the words, thus saith the Lord.
So here we are back in Rome at St. John Lateran Church in the very presence of the Pope's chair.
Pope John Paul II has faithfully filled the chair of Peter as a 264th successor.
From Rome, a single faith shines brilliantly throughout the world.
By the grace of God, the water appeared doctrine and truth continues to flow from the rock
of St. Peter's office and the church built upon him.
The pope said faithfully filled the chair as Peter's successors.
Within the conditions of infallibility, no Pope has ever taught error.
The Catholic Church covers the whole world.
We Catholics are over a billion strong.
The papacy is the oldest existing institutional office in the world.
Kingdoms and empires have come and gone,
but the gates of hell have never, will never prevail against the Church.
The Catholic Church and her shepherds will stand by God's grace
until the end of time when Jesus comes again.
And so our journey comes to an end.
But what an amazing journey it's been.
We first met Peter in Galilee,
where he was made a fisher of men.
We followed him to Jerusalem,
where he stood among the flock as the shepherd of sheep,
and we leave him in Rome,
where he is forever memorialized
as the keeper of the keys.
Join me again as we go on another adventure to faraway times and faraway places and where
we follow the footprints of God.
This presentation is just one episode of the 10-part series, The Footprints of God.
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You'll see the saga of salvation through the eyes of the church,
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read Steve Ray's best-selling book, Upon This Rock, published by Ignatius Press.
Haled by critics is a tour de force of compelling evidence and objective opinion.
Upon this rock tackles the tough issues and is a must-read for anyone desiring a deeper understanding of Peter and the primacy of the papal office.
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