I’m visiting Israel at the end of October 2022 with a church tour group. I am meditating on the cities we’re going to so I can grasp something of the history of the place. We are starting at Joppa, next to Tel Aviv, and making a circuit counterclockwise around the land, ending at Jerusalem. Here is one meditation.
CAESAREA was the setting for presenting the gospel to two different classes of Gentiles, the military and the nobles. Peter went to Cornelius the centurion in Acts 10, and Saul/Paul to King Agrippa and Bernice in Acts 23-25.
In both cases, the hand of God brought His trained servants to each group. Peter had his gospel training with the Lord, and Paul throughout his missionary journeys. They were men faithful in the Word and mighty in the Spirit.
Interestingly, Caesarea means “severed.” Both men had their gospel testimony severed, the former by the Spirit falling on them in the middle of Peter’s talk (Acts 10:44), and the latter by the governor Felix cutting off Paul’s defense (Acts 24:21-22). Peter and Paul had both severed their connection to the world, preferring to die to the old life and live for the Lord.
Peter’s foray into Caesarea resulted in the Spirit breaking out with power to the Gentiles for the first time. But over Paul’s time spent in Caesarea, Paul was able to share with many the fullness of the kingdom of God and his personal, life-changing experience.
Caesarea presents a paradox. For so long, Satan has tried to sever the light of the kingdom to keep it confined to a few believers in the tiny nation of Israel since the Law was given. At last in Caesarea the light has dawned upon many, who found the bonds of the strong man severed, permitting them to enter into redemptive liberty by a Spirit-gifted faith in Christ Jesus.
