Amen.

let us pray may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight oh god our strength and our salvation amen please be seated reading this morning, Jesus and his disciples are near Caesarea Philippi, which is 15 miles north of the Sea of Galilee.

It is in the occupied Golan Heights of Syria, taken by Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967.

In ancient times, Herod the Great had built a temple there to Caesar Augustus.

You remember he's the Caesar, the Roman emperor who was ruling when Jesus was born.

And Herod the Great built a temple there, and then his son Herod Philip greatly expanded the village into a city, adding his name to Caesar's, hence Caesarea Philippi.