Following the Messiah: Episodes 6-10

his miraculous power to heal amazed his power to feed thousands excited [Music] and his power to raise the dead proved he was more than a prophet [Music] these feats were signs that demonstrated jesus was the son of god [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] there have always been people who claim to be able to perform miracles but when jesus started performing his miracles they were so numerous and the quality was just so impressive and when i read about those miracles i get a certain picture in my head my mind fills in the blanks with what's familiar to me as we read through the bible a lot of us have preconceived ideas about these locations or how these events actually took place by traveling around i think that going to a lot of these places will clear up a number of those misconceptions it's important to remember that jesus official ministry really kicked off with a very simple but potent miracle in canaan where jesus turns the water into wine and from that point onward the miracles increase in intensity and what he's doing is so different from what anyone else claims to be able to do the crowds just continue to grow [Music] we're wanting to talk about the miracles of jesus and there's a place over here on the eastern side of the sea of galilee that you're taking us what miracle did jesus perform over here this is the miracle of jesus casting the demons into the swine the site called kerzy we know this event happened directly on the sea of galilee because we know that the swines ran down a steep embankment and into the sea [Music] jeremy we've come to the eastern side of the sea of galilee and we've kind of climbed the hill a little bit and i did that because i wanted us to read a passage they came to the other side of the sea the country of the gerasenes and when jesus had stepped out of the boat immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit and of course we know this story as the story in which jesus has compassion on this gentleman and heals him of his demons now this is a really famous story this is the man that is possessed by legion and the other gospel accounts let us know that there were two men that were healed that day it was during that trip over here from capernaum when jesus calmed the storm and as soon as he finished healing this man they asked him to leave and so he sailed right back he came over here for two gentile men across the stormy sea which i think speaks a lot to the compassion of jesus we know that he cast the demons out of the man and into a herd of pigs and the herd numbering about 2 000 rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned into the sea and of course you can kind of picture that whole story happening right here it's not just a cliff that goes to the edge of the water there was a considerable distance at least a few hundred yards between the bottom of the embankment and the water's edge that just changes how i've always imagined that that herd of swine would have rushed down this really steep hill gone across this flat area and then run into the sea normally an animal has a sense of self-preservation and so even though it may have survived running down a steep embankment it would have stopped in the plane but these thousands of pigs didn't which further attest to the fact that there was something controlling them other than themselves jesus performed signs that demonstrated that he was from god that he had control over everything and everyone even spiritual forces like demons you know the details at the beginning of mark's account of this event are really helpful because they let us know the desperate condition that this man was in he was separated from his family he was living in the graveyard he was basically living as a dead person he was out of his mind out of control he was hurting himself showing these signs of deep distress and jesus takes care of all of those things so when the people come back out he's sitting he's clothed he's in his right mind it would have been a startling and a shocking sight for the people to come out of town and to see the aftermath of those animals drowning and to see someone who they had tried to help for so long finally healthy and in his right mind and something that's emphasized down through the text is the begging that takes place when jesus gets there and legion recognizes jesus he begs jesus to spare him and then later on you have the townspeople begging jesus to leave them because they're afraid of him and then you have the man who's been healed begging to go with jesus the man who's finally helped him and i think what mark is trying to help us do in that chapter is to challenge us with how are we going to respond are we going to be so afraid of him that we beg him to leave like they did or are we going to respond as the healed man and beg to stay close to him because of what he does for us [Music] jeremy we're standing on top of the archaeological site called etel and many people think this is ancient bethsaida now there's a number of different places that could be bethsaida in fact there's one right down in the valley that they're digging on right now we came up here because i wanted to read a passage to you and it says on the return the apostles told him all that they had done and he took them and withdrew apart to a town called bethsaida and this is the beginning of the account of jesus feeding the 5000 and that probably took place right here in this plane of bethsaida just down below the hill where we are now now it's helpful to put that feeding in context the disciples had come back to tell him all that they had done they had been sent out on that limited commission but the other piece of news that they brought to him was that herod antipas had just killed his cousin john the baptist down at his black fortress and what the other gospels reveal is that hurt and he was trying to get away to a desolate place to let them recharge and also for him to grieve the loss of his cousin and so they came across the sea over here toward bethsaida and the crowds saw that he was heading this way and so they ran around the north side of the sea of galilee and beat him here we need to appreciate the humanity of jesus he sees all of these people who aren't just there for the teaching but he sees people that need help they need healing and it says that he had compassion on them and so despite how he was feeling in the moment he spent that day taking care of thousands of other people and so jesus in this moment where he should have been grieving and having some privacy was surrounded by thousands of people and still took the time to care for them to heal them and by the end of the day to miraculously feed 5 000 of them and jesus looks at philip and asks philip where do we go and buy food for these people and i think the reason he pointed phillip out was because phillip was from bethsaida philip would know where to get food for these people phillips response is we don't have the money to buy enough food for all these people and of course we know that he grouped them into specific groups and then asked for food and one boy produced five loaves and two fishes so imagine if you will 5 000 people spread out across this plain right here and jesus performed the miracle where he was able to feed them all now john's emphasis is that jesus is actually able to miraculously produce food for people very similar to the way that god produced manna for the israelites in the old testament and so not just performing a miraculous sign but that that sign pointed to the fact that he was connected to the yahweh of the old testament it would have reminded them of moses and the wandering of the israelites and the fact that god miraculously provided food and manna for them this man from nazareth is doing what happened in the days of moses and moses prophesied that a prophet would come like him and they would have made that connection [Music] after jesus was rejected as nazareth he moved to capernaum and really set up this city as kind of his home base for his ministry in this area a lot of the miracles that are recorded in the gospel either took place here or just outside of here when he walked across the sea of galilee at night he was coming from the opposite side of the sea coming toward capernaum and if he hadn't intercepted the boat he would have passed by them and come here to this harbor we mentioned the the casting out of the demons into the swine well that started here and stopped here he took off from capernaum and then when he came back he came back to capernaum capernaum was a small village on the northern shore of the sea of galilee probably had a few hundred people in it and given the miracles that are recorded for us in the gospels of all the things that jesus did there obviously he would have been well known in the community anytime he came to capernaum people would have known about it now there are a lot of miracles that we could talk about but there's one that i think is extra special it's over in luke chapter eight and as jesus is coming into town jairus the ruler of the synagogue has a daughter across town who is very very ill and so he sends word asking for jesus to get to him and try to help his daughter and as he comes through town crowds start to surround him and in the midst of all of that is when a woman who has had a flow of blood for 12 years and has been spending all of her livelihood gone to all of these doctors to try to take care of that comes up to jesus and she just touches the edge of jesus garment and as soon as she does that she feels within herself that she's been healed and jesus stops and makes a comment about it and gives her opportunity to acknowledge what she's done and in that interlude the ruler's daughter actually dies and by the time he gets there the mourners are already there but of course he goes in and he raises her there's just so much about the facts in that miracle that testify to jesus and who he is and how compassionate he is you have this woman who for 12 years has been ceremonially unclean it's hindered her ability to be social and she has exhausted every possible way to heal herself she is hopeless there is nothing left she's so desperate that she's willing to try to sneak a miracle from jesus because her condition is such that it's a very delicate matter and what jesus does at first glance seems kind of cruel he draws attention to her it says the crowd was kind of jostling him and he asks who touched me and his disciples are a little indignant they're all these people what do you mean who touched you when he mentions it again she comes forward she tells him everything that happened and he says go in peace your faith has made you well and what he did you think about her situation if she had left that crowd without jesus having done that she would have felt like she had stolen something from god and she wouldn't have been as apt to have shared the news about it and she would have felt guilt over that instead jesus provided her an opportunity to be open and to come clean about it and to be more public with it and walk away feeling like she had been granted a gift not that she had taken anything the way that he interacted with her was so compassionate there's just so many details i always think about that miracle when i think about capernaum unfortunately after him living there and doing so much capernaum is one of the towns that he pronounces a woe on when he's done with his ministry because it says they didn't believe which is just so shocking to think look at all that he said and all that he did in that spot and the town didn't believe and i think that's a warning to us that we need to pay attention and we need to make sure that we pay attention to what jesus says and what he does so that we don't end up with the same world pronounced upon us [Music] we're actually driving through cana this is one of the two possible locations of the first miracle that jesus did where he turned the water into wine at the wedding feast the gospels record that cana is really where jesus ministry got started with that very first miracle so what we saw at the israel museum was some large stone jars that were used for holding water for ritual purification it was most likely that jesus converted that water into wine in canaan i don't think we have time to stop here today but it's interesting still to drive through this area it gives you a perspective of where it's located in relation to other cities and villages nearby [Music] visiting ancient jericho i really enjoy going there because you get a different perspective of the city we hear about jericho a number of times in the bible outside of jerusalem and maybe one or two other cities it's mentioned more times than any other city in the bible on a clear day when there's no haze you can stand on the tail and you can actually look across the jordan rift valley and see mount nebo jericho is one of if not the oldest longest occupied cities in all of the world and so there's just layer after layer after layer of historical events that took place there it is blistering hot out here well the thermometer says 103 degrees fahrenheit but that's because we're so far below sea level at jerusalem we're about 2 700 feet above sea level here at jericho we're nearly 800 feet below sea level we're down in the jordan rift valley and we're probably only five miles or so from the northern end of the dead sea and this time of year it gets really warm down here we're here because we want to talk about one of jesus miracles it's so powerful in mark the 10th chapter we actually read a scripture that says and they came to jericho and as he was leaving jericho with his disciples in a great crowd bartimaeus a blind beggar the son of timaeus was sitting by the roadside but if you look over at luke's account it says in chapter 18 as he drew near to jericho a blind man was sitting by the roadside begging so this appears at first glance to be a contradiction right mark tells the story and he says he was leaving jericho but luke says he was coming to jericho so which is it well actually it's both during the first century jericho was divided into two different parts residential jericho sat right around where we are right now administrative jericho sat about a mile and a half to the southwest of us this is where king herod had his palace so mark is telling this story from a jewish perspective as jesus was leaving jericho luke on the other hand is telling this from a gentile perspective as he was approaching jericho he's talking about administrative jericho and if you think about it that makes sense because if you were a blind man where would you want to be well you would want to be on the road between the two parts of the cities where the most traffic is he's placed himself on a crossroads besides just the logistics of the miracle itself jesus is on his way up to jerusalem from jericho making his way toward that last passover feast his final week before he's crucified and so anyone else they'd be thinking a lot about themselves he takes the time to heal one more person with a physical malady jesus already knew i mean he's the son of god he already knew what the man's problem was but he still gave him opportunity to identify it jesus asked him what do you want me to do for you and god wants to hear from us he already knows what our problems are he already knows what our struggles are but he wants that level of communication with us too he wants us to vocalize it and interact with him and jesus gave him that opportunity this man when he recognizes that jesus the son of david the king is coming he cries out all the more loudly and identified him as a descendant of david attaching the title of king to him and jesus responded by healing him on his way up to jerusalem the blind man bartimaeus is one of my personal heroes in the bible this is a gentleman who knew he had a problem he knew that there was only one person that could fix it and that's jesus and he wasn't gonna let anybody stand in his way that's the approach that we should take with our lives that's right [Music] there's a wonderful story of jesus having compassion on a blind man in john the 9th chapter in which he tells the man to go down to the pools home and wash his eyes it's just a beautiful place and i just love the story now there's a picture that i have in my mind that i've seen since i was a kid and it shows this pool of water off to the right and some stairs going up to the left that's the image i've got stuck in my head was that accurate for many many years there was a misunderstanding about exactly where the pool salon was located this is actually the picture that you've seen this is a picture of a pool that sat underneath a byzantine church built around the 4th or 5th century it's at the exit of hezekiah's tunnel which comes out the western side of the eastern hill here in jerusalem and it wasn't until recently that they found the real pelosi law they found it while doing some excavations they were digging for a sewage line in town and what they found was a first century roman herodian style pool and it was in the right area so they knew they'd finally found the hula solo during one of jesus trips to jerusalem his disciples saw a blind man and had the question who sinned this blind man or his parents that he's blind and jesus in answering their question actually bent down spit in some clay rubbed it on the man's eyes and sent him to wash now where that miracle took place was somewhere in between here and there where are we walking we are on a first century road that leads from the temple mount area behind us all the way down to the pool of salon we're about 15 or 20 feet underground but they have excavated this with just within the last couple years and after he would have washed and realized that he was miraculously healed he likely would have gone back to the temple and it's possible he would have come back up this exact same road this would have been the main road between the pool of siloam and the temple mount as you get closer to the pool of siloam they've uncovered more of the width of the road so it's actually much wider in the first century than it is when we're walking on it so if you can picture it at least six seven eight times wider than what we actually see this was a major thoroughfare going through town this is a beautiful artist representation of what the pool of siloam would have looked like in the first century the pool is so much larger than i imagined it to be i mean it's almost the size of a swimming pool yeah during the first century especially among the jewish people there was a practice of ritual bathing before you did anything of a religious nature and so there were a number of these pools or mikvahs around the area and sometimes they were much larger like the pool salon and so this pool would have been a pool that people would have gone to to go through the practice of ritual bathing before they went up to the temple barry we've come out of the tunnel and we look to be on some steps so i'm assuming we've reached the pool of salome we have this is an active dig site they're still digging here they're still doing a little construction here they've only actually exposed one side of it and what you have is the typical herodian style with step step step flat area another few steps another flat area the rest of the pool salon probably 90 of it actually sits behind us but it's on private property and that's good and bad it's bad in the fact that we can't see but it's good in the fact that we know it's there and it's protected this pool which is mentioned over in john 9 with the healing of the blind man is a significant part of that event you have this man who's been born blind and they want to know whose fault was that was it his parents or did he do something really similar to the question that job's friends asked him in the old testament is there such a thing as innocent suffering is all suffering a direct result of someone's personal guilt and jesus answer was no it wasn't the result of him sinning it wasn't a result of his parents sinning we live in a world that's been broken by sin and as a result of that people get sick there's disease we see death we see natural disasters so it answers that question i don't always suffer because of a direct result of my own personal sin but i live in a world where it has been cursed and even in the midst of that god is able to be glorified and how we respond to that innocent suffering it's a rich rich text it's powerful to think about what did he see for the first time as he came down to this pool and washed that clay away all of a sudden he was able to see when for his entire life that was not possible the rest of the chapter is just how everyone in this man's circle responds to the fact that he can see now his neighbors have questions about it the religious authorities have questions about it they bring his parents in to ask them questions about it and by the time you get to the end of the text the point that john is making from the sign of the miracle because all the miracles were signs this man who had physically been born blind was the one who spiritually saw jesus for who he was a righteous man who was able to work miracles and the religious leaders who had physical sight were spiritually blind they weren't able to recognize jesus for who he was so at the end of the chapter they've rejected jesus as the son of god and it's the blind man who's wanting to follow him i love visiting the pool of salon jesus has such compassion on people to me it's a vivid reminder of the love that jesus has for everyone not only this blind man in the first century but for me as well we just left jerusalem the pool of salome where we hadn't we're heading to the tomb of lazarus in bethany this is a pretty significant miracle i mean he personally knows the people involved the story even tells about how he went this was someone very close to him but he used the opportunity to show the power of god in doing what he did have you been there before i actually haven't been there before so i'm looking forward to being there but i've seen a number of pictures and a number of videos about it we're probably gonna have to get down our hands and knees and crawl a little bit it's gonna be dimly lit low clearance and it should be real adventure i'm looking forward to being there this is a difficult place to get to now a number of years ago they put up the separation wall between jerusalem and israel and the west bank and a lot of tourists don't come to this area anymore we don't know exactly which tomb lazarus was in but we know that those tombs are first century tombs so they're a good representation of what lazarus would have been laid in when jesus came to raise him from the dead when jesus heard it he said this illness does not lead to death it's for the glory of god so that the son of god may be glorified through it in this moment leading up to his triumphal entry into his rejection and to his crucifixion as he gets closer to lazarus's tomb everybody that he encounters is saying if you had been here you could have stopped this from happening if you had been here he wouldn't have died he's already raised people from the dead and so part of what jesus is wrestling with as he approaches the tomb is these people that i'm closest to still don't understand and so when it says that he was greatly troubled it's possible that what he was greatly troubled with was the people closest to him still didn't fully understand who he was and that hurt him deeply and he wept when you get into the vestibule there's a rectangular opening in the floor that gives you access to just two or three stairs and then you have to get on your hands and knees and crawl into the actual tomb area itself [Music] wow barry this is really tight down here it is it's very stale air it's not moving at all no we're probably 10 15 feet underground here it looks like over here there's a niche behind this block wall you see people have left prayers written on pieces of note paper the entrance we took in is a 16th century entrance they're saying the original entrance would have been in a different spot that's right but in one of these niches is where lazarus's body would have been laid he would have been laid according to tradition over here on this side of the room here jesus would have been outside in the vestibule area when he called lazarus to come forth and of course lazarus rose from the dead and came out to me jesus now lazarus had been dead for multiple days jesus intentionally waited after he heard that he was sick to give him time to pass away he knew what he was going to do even though the disciples didn't and by the time he got here one of his sisters was concerned about the odor that would have been there because he had been dead for four days now according to jewish tradition one of the significant things about the four days is that jews believe that after so many days of death your spirit finally departed your body and so for jesus he waited that long so that they would have had that understanding that his spirit was already gone he was for certain dead before he called him out of the tomb but lazarus comes out and he doesn't look like someone who has been buried for four days and so it astonished everybody now all of this is really significant especially in john's gospel because the raising of lazarus happens in john chapter 11. in john chapter 13 you're into jesus final week and so you have the raising of lazarus leading up to the death burial and the resurrection of jesus himself so it wasn't just a miracle pointing toward his divinity but it was a foreshadowing miracle about what would happen to jesus himself the raising of lazarus was the event that really sent the jews over the top because once lazarus was alive and he was being seen by people in the city they wanted to quiet jesus the text even emphasizes that they were actually seeking opportunities to have lazarus killed so this man that had just been miraculously raised from the dead they were ready to kill him again to get rid of him as evidence to jesus and jesus lifted up his eyes and said father i thank you that you have heard me i knew that you always hear me but i said this on account of the people standing around that they may believe that you sent me and when he had said these things he cried out with a loud voice lazarus come out the man who had died came out his hands and feet bound with linen strips and his face wrapped with a cloth jesus said to them unbind him and let him go you know this is possibly one of the tightest spots that we've crawled through to get to see something but it was so worthwhile to come down here following the chronology of jesus time on earth he's foreshadowing his impending death burial and resurrection if jesus from nazareth has the power over life and death then death is not the end and we have hope after john the baptist was arrested by herod antipas he sent some of his disciples to jesus with an interesting question in luke chapter 7 and verse 20 it says when the men had come to him they said john the baptist has sent us to you saying are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another in that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits and on many who were blind he bestowed sight and he answered them go and tell john what you have seen and heard the blind received their sight the lame walk lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear the dead are raised up the poor have good news preached to them and blessed is the one who is not offended by me what jesus did to encourage john the baptist in that moment was to point to the fact that he was able to perform miracles to a degree and in a measure that no one else ever could and the gospels call those miracles in multiple places signs those signs pointed to something from the very first sign that he performed in cana turning water to wine to the raising of lazarus and eventually to the sign of his own resurrection the miracles of jesus point to the fact that he was the son of god who came to die for us all [Music] jesus taught with authority he taught about the heart his words his examples using a coin talking about water he taught simple yet profound lessons that convict and apply even today [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] one of the things that really gets me excited when we talk about the life of jesus is the teaching that he did people have described him as a master communicator and one of the things that really stands out is his ability to say such powerful things in such short spans of time with such simple illustrations jesus teaching was so simple however there's some hidden nuances in a lot of things he taught that we don't fully appreciate because we're separated by time when he's telling the story of the good samaritan he doesn't describe the road it's because the people of that time understood how dangerous that road was and we've talked about paying taxes to caesar he talks about the daenerys to us that's just a coin but to the people that time they understood everything that was involved with that coin so you're saying that there's a cultural and historical gap between the people who originally heard jesus teaching and ourselves and if we come to be more familiar with their history and with their culture that we'll have a better understanding of what jesus was communicating to them [Music] we're at the church of the beatitudes which is on the northern side of the sea of galilee it's built on top of a site that was established in the 4th century and i wanted to bring you up here because this is the possible location of one of the most famous sermons that jesus ever spoke in matthew 5 verses 1 it says seeing the crowds he went up on the mountain and when he sat down his disciples came to him and of course we know this as the beginning of the sermon on the mount now whether it happened exactly here or somewhere near here the geography of the area fits the description of the bible very closely it has fantastic gardens as soon as you walk up you're just greeted by these flowering bushes and trees and shade and the rest of the hillside doesn't have that so to walk up to such an incredibly beautiful place is special this area would have been very important for jesus not only did he live here but there's a strategic importance as well the via mars ran from egypt all the way up to mesopotamia and so anybody traveling through this area would have listened to the teaching of jesus or heard some of the stories about some of the things he did and we've been able to carry the news of that throughout the world jesus sermon on the mount matthew takes up three chapters to cover that matthew 5 6 and seven luke also takes up quite a bit of the beginning of his gospel and there are a lot of people that have talked about what that sermon meant there's some people that view jesus just as a political revolutionary there's some people that see him as just a good moral teacher like aesop and his fables but really jesus doesn't leave any room for those kinds of ideas he's not speaking as just another teacher he's not speaking as a rabbi he's speaking with authority in chapter five you have him repeatedly say you've heard it said but i say to you and then when you get to chapter 6 he's helping them understand that there's a difference between how people are practicing their religion to be seen by others and how you really need to get to the heart of things over in chapter 7 he puts himself in a position of being able to judge at the end of time he set himself up as much more than just a man to read through his sermon you can't just go through and say well this is a list of good things to do or these are good suggestions jesus is speaking from a position of authority which makes him to be divine all the way through the sermon on the mount he's trying to explain what it looks like when people belong to his kingdom this spiritual kingdom starting with beatitudes what it means to pray making sure you do things with your focus on heaven and not trying to please men the golden rule which almost everyone is familiar with and then he closes it with a three-part invitation and that last part is where he's challenging people to think about what they're building their lives on are they going to build their lives on anything other than god which is like building your house on sand or are you going to build your life in your house on the authority of jesus and his teaching as the son of god and if you do that you're like someone who builds your house on a rock that's going to be able to weather whatever kind of storm life may throw at you i would have loved to have been in the audience when he got through they were amazed at his authority to think about being at the top of the mountain from jesus perspective and looking down and seeing all these people that were so spiritually hungry finally being fed is just overwhelming and the fact that we're able to sit at his feet today and experience the exact same thing no matter where we may be sitting or no matter where we may live we can experience the exact same teaching at the very end of the sermon on the mount it says that he left the mount and he went down to capernaum and if you look over my shoulder you can actually see capernaum just down the hill from where we are it's a wonderful illustration of what we read in the bible we know jesus did a lot of teaching on the northern side of the sea of galilee there's that triangle up here on the north between three cities where he did 80 percent of his ministry now where would we go from here to see some of those places well we want to go down to the cove of the sewer this is where he pushed off into the water just a little ways so he could speak to the people on the hillside well i think this is right you can correct me you have never led a tour group down to the cove of the sewer no and why is that it's almost impossible to get to okay so it was amazing to go to it was a lot of work it was worth the work but the average person coming to israel is not going to make that stop now from the place that we found a park that we could access it it was probably 45 minutes hike over rocks it was very difficult to get there jeremy we've come to the northern shore of the sea of galilee and as you can tell there's a natural cove here in the shoreline just behind us in the mid-1980s there was a drought in this area and the water level dropped and exposed a number of harbors around the sea of galilee we know from luke chapter 5 that one of the times jesus was coming along this side of the sea there were a lot of people crowding around him trying to hear him and when he got to some spot around here he got into a boat with peter and pushed back from the shore and spoke up to the people that were still on the land now standing here in this cove you can turn around and see it forms kind of a natural amphitheater and it's really easy to imagine jesus this is his stage as he turns and faces the people and speaks up to them many people have questioned whether or not jesus could actually be heard by a large group of people if he's a few feet off the shoreline let's do an experiment let me go up the hill a little ways when i get up there i want you to read the parable of the sower in a natural but loud speaking voice and let me see if i can hear it sounds good okay jeremy i'm in position go ahead and read that passage and let me see if i can hear you all right i'm going to read from matthew 13. that same day jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea and great crowds gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat down the instant he started talking i thought for a second he was still using the intercom i could hear him perfectly no doubt if i was twice as far away i could have heard him easily and the whole crowd stood on the beach and he told them many things in parables saying a sower went out to sew and as he sowed some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil but when the sun rose they were scorched and since they had no root they withered away other seeds fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain some 100 fold some 60 some 30. he who has ears let him here [Music] the parable of the sower really marked the beginning of jesus using parables in his ministry that that one really paved the way and you finally get to the end of the parable and jesus has this invitation he who has ears to hear let him hear explaining even to his disciples afterwards who didn't get the parable that we need to make sure that we're paying attention and allowing jesus to teach us what he wants to teach us and that we're going to hear and allow his word to go deep into our lives [Music] we had the opportunity to go out to the wilderness today and the overlook was amazing from the vantage point that we had if you look to your left which have been to the west you could have seen the top of the mount of olives and if you look to the right you'd be able to see jericho all the way down and so we're able to visualize the road that went between jerusalem to jericho it's hard to put into words what the vista looked like there are times where barry wants to take me someplace where he hasn't been before and this was one of those places so when you get to the top of a hill and you hear barry catch his breath you know you've found something really special [Music] when jesus was teaching in parables there's a certain parable that he gave when a lawyer came to test him and he was asking him what he needed to do to inherit eternal life jesus asks him well how do you understand the law and he answers with well love the lord god all your heart soul mind and strength and the second law which is like it is to love your neighbor as yourself and jesus says you've answered correctly the lawyer says i've done all of those things and then the lawyer was seeking to justify himself and ask him another question who is my neighbor trying to prove that he's good and righteous he answers that question by telling the people a story a man was going down from jerusalem to jericho and he fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed leaving him half dead we're on a road between jerusalem and jericho jerusalem sits about eight miles to our west here and you can see it up on the ridge jericho sits behind us about six or seven miles and i want you to look at this road in this area it's desolate totally desolate i think it's interesting that jesus doesn't describe the road at all the people at that time knew about this road they knew how dangerous it was the road between jerusalem and jericho would have been really hot and dry and dusty it was a place you wouldn't have wanted to have stayed for very long this was not a hospitable place on top of that to have been wounded and left on the side of that road exposed he was in really dire straits and eventually would have died if he didn't receive help and so jesus has set him up he needs someone to assist him and then starts to give several people that were in that position to assist and chose not to there are several people that pass him by there's a priest that sees him and passes by on the other side of the road there's a levite that sees him and passes by and the person who finally stops which would be so offensive to a jew is a samaritan and he stops and he takes care of him he takes him down to an end he pays for his wounds to be bound up it was this person that finally stopped which would have shocked everyone that was listening to jesus at that point jesus is taking the next step from the time of abraham the israelites were god's family this was his chosen people and i think by including the samaritan in this story and by especially making the samaritan the good guy he's expanding that to tell the full story that he was coming to save not just the jewish people but everyone and jesus just wraps up with a question then who proved to be a neighbor making the point that loving your neighbor has nothing to do with proximity but opportunity to do good to somebody who's in need in john the fourth chapter we have recorded this wonderful conversation between jesus and this woman from samaria the scriptures tell us that took place at a well in the city of sycar sykar is modern day nablus well i want to take you to the city of annapolis because there's a greek orthodox church there in which contains jacob's well that we read about in the bible it's an hour and 15 minutes north of jerusalem it's right in the middle of the west bank as you approach nablus you have the opportunity to drive through what we refer to as samaria in the new testament times and one of the things that strikes you immediately is how hilly and how mountainous that area is imagine walking that it would be very very difficult and the scriptures even say that jesus when he approached his well he was thirsty that's why he stopped there [Music] i wanted to bring you here and show you this because there is very very good historical evidence to show that this is the actual hole in the ground that was dug by jacob and his men over 3 500 years ago we're not able to say that very often no we're not but the historical evidence here is very very strong the fact that you had a well of that nature that depth through that type of ground it makes sense that they'd be able to keep track of that over such a long period of time so if that was the well jacob doug this is the same location where jesus had this conversation with the samaritan woman let me read a couple of verses here from john the fourth chapter so he came to a town of samaria called sycar near the field that jacob had given to his son joseph jacob's well was there so jesus wearied as he was from his journey was sitting beside the well and it was about the sixth hour to have jesus in samaria in the first place and to initiate this conversation with a samaritan woman is pretty significant the woman went into logistics how on earth are you going to get any water the well is really deep i tell you what why don't you draw some water for us [Music] very good okay jeremy there's one other thing i want you to do for me i want you to dip a cup of this water and pour it down the well and i want to be real quiet i want you to listen so you can see how deep it is how high up is that it's amazing isn't it it's got to be well over 100 feet deep wow yeah there are nuances to the story about the depth of the well that we would just gloss over well of course the well is deep so going to that place and playing with the water really highlighted a seemingly insignificant line in this interaction between jesus and the samaritan woman and there are things like that all through the bible and they emphasize these were real people and real places and even those small details are important and connect us to reality jesus stops and interacts with a samaritan but not just any samaritan he interacts with a woman which is culturally not normal and he interacts with a woman of disreputable character i mean she's had multiple husbands he's never met her before but he understands what her character has been and he has this long verbal exchange with her and at the conclusion of it he's able to talk to her about who the messiah is and how to worship god what jesus was trying to get to as he interacted with this woman was to make the connection that he was providing living water to her and they go back and forth with this dialogue the topic changes quickly over the course of a very short conversation but jesus is moving it to a very important point there are a couple of passages at the end of that exchange where the woman said to him i know that messiah is coming he who is called christ when he comes he will tell us all things and jesus said to her i who speak to you am he and so jesus reveals to this samaritan woman that he's the long-awaited messiah and she runs into town and tells everybody what she's experienced they all come out and he spends a couple of days there and helps this entire town come to realize who he is so many biblical events happened right here there's just so many layers of history to this one spot [Music] i love the old city of jerusalem i love the alleyways and all the hundreds of little stores and everything the shops and the old city are buried you have so many different types some are just like a couple of feet and then some are full blown shops you can walk 20 feet into them and i know a guy who sells antiquities in town and he's got a coin i think we want to look at hello jeremy earlier today you had asked me about the daenerys i did i want to introduce you to zach nice to meet you he's got a store here in the old city he has a denarius you're talking about the tribute penny when jesus said show me dinner that's exactly right yes because you know this is a specific dinor that was used by then by cesar tiberius please there it is oh look at the impression on that that's a beautiful coin the coin itself was not that large probably about the size of a dime just a little bit bigger than a button on a shirt the one he had was very well maintained it still had a beautiful shine to it and the relief on both sides was still remarkable it's very light it's a lot lighter than i would expect similar to aluminum obviously much sturdier than that it's a low silver it's not like sterling silver they did not have enough fire to make as good silver as we have today you know romans were very professional in making coins and then we when we understand coins it opens very big windows in the new testament you know this is the image of tiberius and who have seen the image of tiberius have seen him so they won't trick him you know i know shall we pay taxes or not you know just like to embarrass him when we look at the dinner we need to understand what is written it's written here tiberius t caesar diva like divinity in caesar tiberius which is against the jewish law the second side written in a tiberius augustus like he has he's the highest it's even more against the jewish law but what's more shocking is his nickname you can see here his nickname is pontiff maxime like the highest priest it was enough embarrassment for the jews or for the pharisees specifically there you're holding a coin for someone calling himself the highest priest it's unkosher point to be carried and jesus teaching so much by using the impression on a coin whose face is on the stand this belongs to that person render to caesar the things that are caesar's and the god the things that are god's so that's why they left with no talking and the story ended up over there and his ability to use a simple coin and a face on a coin to teach all of that says a lot about jesus ability to teach yes he was tough yes he was a strong man that raised the furnaces and embarrassed them on the spot yes well in all of these things rooted in the antiquities help us understand that jesus was real these events were real the coins that he spoke of were real zach thank you for everything yeah see you again yes sir absolutely thank you bye-bye from now on every time that i read that event of the disciples asking jesus about paying taxes i'm gonna be in zack's shop with him pulling out that denarius and pointing out the inscription and the words around the side we've been talking about jesus and the teaching that he did in the galilee area we know that he spent a lot of time around capernaum and on the north side of the sea of galilee but we also read about him going to a place called the decapolis is there anywhere that we can go that would show us what that looks like well the decapolis was ten cities they were of greek and roman heritage and most of them were located on the eastern side of the jordan river however there was one city that was located on the western side that's the city of psychopolis that is also the same site of the old testament city of beit shawn is that sean similar to some of the other villages and towns that we've visited so far like capernaum no it's not and i think that's one of the reasons why i think it's important for us to go this was a roman city during the time of jesus and it had a totally different look than a jewish village [Music] we're in beijing which in the first century was known as cytopolis the decapolis was a group of 10 greek and roman cities one of which fell on the western side of the jordan river realizing that jesus came to greek and roman cities helps us to appreciate the truth of john the baptist's observation when he saw jesus behold the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world the city of bethan is steeped in biblical history even before the israelites came into the land the canaanites lived there even before that the egyptians lived there for a while it's best known to bible students as the city where king saul's body was hung after being killed over on mount gilboa and it's so different from the northern towns here in galilee when we think about capernaum or even bethsaida they just seem so rural compared to how refined and large and big city upscale yet shan was most of the cities that jesus taught in around the sea of galilee were nothing more than really than villages a few hundred people centopoulos would have been a community of several thousands this was a roman city with a cardo running north and south with theaters with bath houses with thousands of different people that live there usually when i think about jesus going into a village or going into a town and teaching and preaching he's preaching and teaching in a jewish synagogue and so it's actually kind of jarring is the word that i would use to think about jesus and his galilean apostles going into such an industrialized metropolitan place and how much these men would have stood out when they went in that just leaves such an impression on me we read about a number of situations in the scriptures in which jesus came into a town and immediately the people flocked to him my impression of when he walked into a place like bethshan he would be at some level and unknown they wouldn't know who he is until he started teaching all through jesus life there are these little snippets that hint at the fact that he is a universal savior when his cousin john the baptist in john chapter 1 encounters him and acknowledges this is the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world that meant everybody these little snippets where he passes through a greek or roman town of the decapolis really highlight that truth from the age of 12 years old jesus impressed people and made them marvel at his ability to teach and to communicate such profound truths about god in such simple ways people were amazed with his authority and his conviction now the hebrew writer gives us a unique perspective looking back on jesus ability to teach when he said long ago at many times and in many ways god spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world he is the radiance of the glory of god and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power when people heard jesus talking and teaching he wasn't just another rabbi he was the son of god he was divine so the next time that you're studying through the teachings of jesus really think about the invitation that jesus extends when he says he who has ears to hear let him hear [Music] the passover is filled with meaning remembering how god delivered his people from bondage [Music] for jesus his last passover meant so much more once again god was going to provide deliverance for everyone [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] whenever you talk about the life of jesus you get to the most important part you get to his death burial and resurrection and each gospel writer has a slightly different focus and it can get confusing trying to harmonize all of those accounts the story of jesus's final days are recorded by four different men in four different ways and it is easy to kind of get lost what i'd like to do is take a very close look at the final week of jesus life and especially those final hours i want us to retrace his steps by visiting these places i think you can have a different perspective of many of those events and it'll help you understand the scriptures even more there's just so much to take in there you have his betrayal you have his arrest you have the various trials that he goes through over a very short period of time so to keep things straight and maintain a continuity we're just going to go from start to finish from his triumphal entry down through his death burial and resurrection to do all of that without stopping is going to help us comprehend where he was what he was saying and what was happening around him in luke the 19th chapter it tells us about jesus leaving jericho after he had visited with zacchaeus and the people there and going up to jerusalem and of course he did this knowing that this would be the last time he would do that and we were able to go to a location about halfway between jericho and jerusalem and look over the wilderness the entire path would have been 14 15 miles and you gain nearly 3 500 feet in elevation and there's no trees so you are fully exposed to the sun the entire time so this would have been a very difficult walk even under the best of circumstances as we crested a path along the top of a hill the whole valley just opened up and all at the same time it was beautiful and desolate [Music] there's a passage in luke the 19th chapter that i really love it talks about how jesus left jericho and went up the hill to jerusalem it's a simple verse but when you know the road that he took it causes you to think more about what's in that verse i've done a lot of hiking and i know that a lot of times it's hard to walk and talk at the same time so my guess is as he was going up that hill he didn't do much talking he probably did a lot of thinking i wonder what he thought about as he walked and he probably thought about the week ahead of him and he probably thought about his family and his friends and he probably thought about you and me and the sacrifice he was gonna have to make for all of us just a few miles up the road is the mount of olives and we know that after he crested that hill on his way down was the triumphal entry everybody was excited to see him but we understand from other passages that he was anticipating their final rejection of him at the end of that week he understands what's waiting for him on the other side of the mount of olives and even though he's coming up and getting ready for the triumphal entry where everybody is celebrating and they're getting ready to remember the passover they're still a part of jesus that is apprehensive because of what he's looking forward to felt a sense of wonder as i looked at just how beautiful it was and i also think i felt a sense of foreboding because i was trying to put myself in jesus position and imagining what he had to look [Music] forward [Music] do as jews traveled toward jerusalem for passover there's a series of psalms that we have recorded for us in the bible called the psalms of ascent and they were the psalms that travelers would sing to each other as they traveled toward jerusalem and they're excited as they climb that road cresting the mount of olives and they're excited about the temple and the temple mount and god's presence and so all of that anticipation is building as they crest that hill barry we've made it to the top of the mount of olives up from jericho this was a momentous event for jesus this is his last passover he's used to coming here but this one's extra special for him that's right we typically call this the triumphal entry and it's interesting in verse 37 of luke 19 it says and as he was drawing near already on the way down the mount of olives the whole multitude of disciples began to rejoice and praise god can we go and follow this path down into jerusalem similar to what jesus did we can of course the road that he went down is long gone but there is a road that leads from the top of mount of olives down to the kidron valley and that's where i'd like to go right now let's do it [Music] now on that day jesus sent a couple of his disciples into town and they came back with a donkey's cult for him to come and ride down this road on they threw some cloaks on the donkey people were throwing down palm fronds and they were celebrating the coming of the king they quote zechariah 9 9. there are some people that tell jesus to get the disciples to be quiet and stop saying things like that and jesus comment was if these people didn't cry out then the very stones they were walking on would recognize who he was in response you can imagine them coming into the city and this beautiful view that they would have had the temple would have been right there in front of them they've been able to see that as they were coming down the mountain it would have been really beautiful now there's a very big contrast between jesus coming into jerusalem on that day and that triumphal entry and the triumphal entry of say a roman general after a military victory he's humble he's not riding a beautiful war horse he's riding on a donkey's right with people's clothes as the saddle you have jesus continuing his humble unassuming entry into jerusalem there's a church that marks one of the spots that jesus wept over jerusalem during the triumphal entry and so in the midst of all that jubilation jesus is actually sorrowful because he's anticipating the rejection he's going to experience in just a couple of days jeremy this is the dominus flevit church dominus please latin for the lord weeps and of course we know the lord wept many times over jerusalem there are several times where he does that the one that most people think of is at the end of that final week of jesus where he's been teaching he's been in the temple mount but during that triumphal entry when everybody is celebrating about their king arriving in his city he's actually weeping as he's riding that donkey down into town because he's anticipating their rejection of him at the end of the week let's just go in here and take a look around jesus had visited jerusalem many times over his life in fact when he was growing up of course his family would have come to jerusalem three times a year and so it's probable that he had been to jerusalem more than 50 or 60 times during his entire life but of course this trip was different he knew what lay ahead of him and he knew what he was going to have to go through he knew what was about to happen [Music] [Music] we've got a great opportunity tomorrow because we've been approved to go up on the temple mount i've been up a number of times it's a wonderful place to visit the buildings up there are beautiful and we've actually been given the opportunity to go in a couple of those buildings and so this is really kind of a once-in-a-lifetime situation but when we go up there we need to be respectful of everything they're doing and we want to make sure that the things that we do uh are appropriate and we've been told the different types of cameras we can bring and so i think maybe did you bring some of those well just like the jordan river have a gopro with you keep that on you you can hold it out and get both of you in the same shot we'll be capturing footage of us but then you all will have the smaller dslrs we'll probably just have something like this as far as audio we won't do traditional mics like you guys have been doing right these mics can actually plug straight into your phone right you'll have one and jeremy will have one you'll hit record put it in your pocket we'll just kind of walk around i think that'll be fine we'll get what we can get that's right [Music] there are three major monotheistic religions in the world and they all have a claim to this spot and so everybody is just from day to day you don't know what kind of access you're going to have it's a very sensitive area and you have to be very polite and understanding of everything that's involved in going up there okay you ready yep all right jeremy we're walking up the steps on the eastern side of the dome of the rock it's a beautiful building the mount of olives will be behind us i think the temple mount is interesting from our standpoint this is the place where the temple was came up here taught many times there were a couple of reasons we wanted to come here one was the original location of the first century temple being here but also it's pertinent to the life of christ all during his ministry any time he came to jerusalem he would spend time in the temple area right and teaching at the temple talking to people about the things that he came to talk about [Music] [Music] inside the dome of the rock there's a large stone called the foundation stone it's original rock and christians and jews believe that it's at this location where abraham offered isaac on mount moriah they arrive at that conclusion because in second chronicles the third chapter tells us that solomon built the temple on the top of mount moriah the very same place where abraham offered isaac as a sacrifice is the same place where solomon built his temple that's the same place of course where herod rebuilt the temple in the first century seeing the foundation stone and thinking about those connections makes me imagine what jesus was thinking of as he came up here and thought through all of that history thinking about how god spared abraham from actually offering his son but he would follow through with offering his own son we just came down from the main platform we're just about i don't know 80 yards away from the dome of the rockets right in front of us now the reason we're up here is because during the final week of jesus life he would crest that hill behind us and come here to the temple mount and do a lot of teaching he told a lot of people that last week up here he came up here to cleanse the temple we have a recording of that it was a huge honor to be able to come up here it was let me just keep walking down the sidewalk here that sounds good yeah [Music] we're standing outside of the lions gate sometimes it's called saint stephen's gate because uh this is the traditional place where they brought stephen out to stone him that we read in the book of acts but we just came off the uh the temple mount temple mount yeah right now the adrenaline level is lowering going down a little bit foreigners especially christian foreigners don't get to do that very often so it was a treat john the baptist identified jesus as our passover lamb who takes away the sins of the world so for jesus coming to the temple mount as our passover lamb and witnessing and participating in everything that foreshadowed what he was here to do that final week would have been huge and it was hard for him because all of the people around him didn't understand that those symbols and all of those things that that foreshadowed him they didn't understand the connection until afterwards right and so it must have been a huge emotional toll on him to understand what he was about to do and at the same time people didn't understand what he was about to do [Music] i think jesus last supper with the disciples is a big question mark to western readers hardly any of us have ever experienced a full passover meal obviously it was important to him he explained to his disciples that he had looked forward to doing this with them and it was something that they did on an annual basis so to have something that was so integral to his last week and the night of his arrest is really something we need to spend some time and try to figure out and barry found a place where we were able to go and not experience the full three four hour passover feast but a very condensed passover piece having the opportunity to sit down and have the same dishes served to us and explained their significance and meaning was very beneficial hello we serve what we call biblical meals here i'm one of the main people who leads passover meals we basically are very shortened approximately half an hour presentation that is integrated with the food and the symbolic foods that we have passed down to us by tradition to this very day there is actually often all kinds of singing involved in passover families get together it's a family event and so the first element this is the plate with symbols in it near to the beginning of the meal we begin tasting things you know even though we may not eat traditionally for an hour or two we start tasting stuff just so people don't get too antsy and so we've got the sprigs of parsley sprig of parsley a symbol of life and also of the hyssop that was used to smear the blood on the doorposts dipped into the salt water representing the tears of the children of israel because of the slavery in egypt and partially with salt water [Music] that's really salty it is the brownish stuff is actually sweet and it represents the mortar so we know that they built two whole cities for the pharaohs it says in scripture it's sweet generally this is interpreted that even though you work hard hard work is actually good for humans and then finally we have the bitter herbs and it's supposed to be hot enough that when you taste it it makes you cry again this idea of relating to the children of israel and egypt and their slavery thank you what we do is first we taste the bread on its own so we have a sense of what it's like to eat unleavened bread on its own this stuff is really nice but the stuff that we actually normally didn't pass over it's kind of like a saltless cracker so we taste the bread then we taste it with the bitter herbs which is very important because the bitter herbs are actually commanded to be eaten and so we take some of the bitter herbs hopefully this is sharp enough to make us cry a little bit wow then we have a tradition not something commanded in scripture of mixing uh the symbol of mortar with the symbol of suffering and so we basically only kind of put them together and we eat it [Music] it's definitely bitter there's some bitter in there [Music] they complement each other a lot they do they do and finally the shank of a lamb this is purposefully looks like it's been fired because the lambs are supposed to be cooked over live fire and not boiled in water or anything else and this reminds us of course of the original lamb in egypt that the children of israel slaughtered and used the hyssop to smear the blood on the doorposts and the lentils of their houses and also then the perpetual sacrifice that was supposed to go on every year at the temple or the tabernacle to remember every year sacrifices were made at the passover in remembrance of the original passover in egypt so you were mentioning some of these elements over here you mentioned the bitter herbs that was a part of that during jesus passover meal it mentions that he dipped his hand in the dish what was that referring to my my impression of my memory says that it was some kind of sop usually salt was some kind of vinegary mixture we see an example this also in the book of ruth where when she's invited by boaz to partake there's some kind of vinegar sop there that is part of their daily meal so i think that's what that would have been however it's possible that maybe one of these elements also could have been the case when we celebrate a passover meal there's a sort of an order service that i will go through the cup is pretty primary there's four cups of wine that we drink right and they're based actually on the text in exodus that's full of i wills god says i will take you out of slavery i will free you i will take you unto myself etc and it's interesting that traditionally the third cup after the meal is the cup of salvation and it seems that jesus picks up after the meal the cup and establishes what we call communion with a cup of salvation which is what he's about to accomplish that night and the next day on his death on the cross so that's very significant the symbol of the vine one is actually not mentioned in exodus but we have it by tradition and of course when jesus with his disciples sit down to celebrate the passover meal in what we call today the last supper there's wine present of course on the table and in juice tradition wine has a few meanings first is a symbol of joy and of god's provision but also especially because of the color it's also associated with it with blood and so this thing that jesus does i believe that is already established as having a connection to blood then we also have this interesting setup with the unleavened bread we have three pieces of bread that are separated by linen and this is a specific thing that's related to the passover celebration and so we have a very curious tradition it's not really clearly explained and that is we take the third of the matzahs that is in here and at a certain point in the service we break it and we take half and put it back together between the other two pieces again this was the middle piece and then we take half and we wrap it in another piece of linen and this is hidden away by the master of the banquet who's doing the presenting and the children go on a treasure hunt after dinner is over and this has to be found he will redeem it either by money or a gift and it will be eaten as a final dessert even if mother created all kinds of dessert unleavened of course this will be eaten at the end afterwards and nothing basically else will be eaten that night everyone of course has stuffed a big meal this is very significant it has a curious name afikoman which seems to be a greek word one possible meaning is i have come this is curious this is hidden away and then it's brought back redeemed and then it is partaken of and so as a messianic jew i believe that this is a wonderful symbol for jesus notice he's in in the middle father son and holy spirit perhaps right his human nature he dies and he's wrapped in linen and buried away but his eternal nature cannot die and so it remains with god and god resurrects him and jesus takes the bread and he blesses and he gives it to the disciple says take and eat of this this is my body broken for you and we see this connection with the new testament very beautiful because all the other explanations for this and jewish tradition leave something to be desired so those are the basic elements of the passover meal and just in brief their significance according to tradition [Music] i think there were three layers that we really tried to have explained to us the first layer was understanding the original setting in which they observed it so going back to the exodus going back to when the israelites experienced the angel of death passing over their home and the fact that they had sacrificed a lamb and put its blood on the lentil and that spared the life of their sons and then understanding how first century jews partook of the passover meal what traditions had they developed and how did they practice it and then the third layer was how toward the end of the meal jesus made the connection between some of the most important elements of the meal and what he was about to do in becoming our passover lamb and the fact that toward the end of the meal jesus took this meal in a slightly different direction may have caught them off guard a little bit they didn't understand what exactly he was doing now would jesus have acted as the head of the passover meal that last night good question very likely since he was the master and he was the teacher and we see him taking these elements and renewing them you might say right and so he redefines the cup and he says this is reflexive this is pointing to me and the sacrifice of the lamb the shank bone right i am the lamb as john identifies jesus of course the lamb of god the bread from heaven right he's been reframing this symbol of bread the bread of heaven the manna from heaven the fact that he has come from the father to give life to the world it's obvious from everything on the table just how important remembering things was to god and he wanted people to keep in mind the past deliverances that he had accomplished for them and i think it really stands out that jesus during that last passover meal is making connections for them trying to help them understand that he has become the lamb of god that he's about to sacrifice himself and he's connecting himself with salvation and the disciples never would have thought of a passover meal the same way again and i think it's interesting throughout what we refer to as old testament history all those feasts were a series of reminders whether it was the deliverance from the bondage that they had in egypt or the struggles that they had in the wilderness during those 40 years or just the fact that god had delivered on his promise to bring them into the land all of those things foreshadowed jesus and the perfect fulfillment of them was in christ i want to experience a full meal i mean at some point in my life i'd love to experience what a full first century passover meal would have been like and this first experience was just phenomenal and from the text we know that at the conclusion of that meal after they sang some of the psalms the hymns that are associated with the passover they finally left that meal and went out to the mount of olives he had been in this garden before it was a quiet place to pray [Music] but this night would be different it would begin the culmination of god's masterful plan [Music] jesus wrestled with what was to happen yet he submitted and said to god not my will but yours be done [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] jeremy we've come to the church of all nations which sits on the traditional site of the garden of gethsemane on the eastern side of jerusalem now obviously it's closed it's dark we're not going to be able to get in and it looks a lot different than it would have when jesus was here we've got modern city streets cars lights but if we can imagine what that would have been like after jesus final passover meal with the disciples they have sung their songs jesus has prayed for them as recorded over in john and then they come up here for jesus to pray multiple times what's one of the reasons that coming out at night is so important especially looking back to jerusalem well understanding that when jesus and his disciples were here it would have been dark they didn't have the lights that we have today they would have been able to see the walls of jerusalem and they would have been able to see the gates and john tells us about the army coming out with their lanterns and torches and weapons jesus would have been able to see that from here now that's really heightened by this dark atmosphere it's going to be great to get in there and see what that looked like we'll do that tomorrow [Music] jesus had the reputation of going to that spot to that garden to pray and he knew what was happening that night during the passover meal he actually sent judas out to do what he was going to do for anybody else if they knew what was going on they would have gone to an alternate spot they would have gone to a spot that was different than the routine to be safe and to keep themselves from harm but jesus didn't vary his routine he still went through with where he normally went knowing that that's where judas would find him [Music] i was a little disappointed we couldn't get into the garden of gethsemane at night i understand why but it's exciting to go back yeah they had a special prayer service going on being there in the daytime we'll have even a better perspective we'll be able to see things even clearer than we did last night it's such an emotional place i mean jesus was so vulnerable when he was in the garden praying the night that he was arrested i don't even know how to anticipate what that's going to be like to be there jeremy we've entered the courtyard of the church of all nations which sits on the traditional location of the garden of gethsemane this building was built in the 1920s and it was built on top of the foundations of a 4th century byzantine chapel and a 12th century crusader basilica in the first century there was an old press here of course in aramaic the word gethsemane means oil press during the time of jesus this would have been the area where they would have crushed all of the olives that come from the olive trees from what we known as the mount of olives there are some cultural ideas about the various numbers of olive pressings you'd put the olives in and press it and the first pressing went to this and the second pressing went to this the third pressing would be used for this and so the fact that jesus was in an area known for its olive press and that he prays and pours himself out under intense pressure three different times is very significant this was a place where he was known to go to for just some solitude and so this is a place where on the night he was betrayed he felt it was a good place for him to go and talk to his father and he carried some of the disciples there with him to be able to walk into a grove of olive trees especially one as old as the one that we went to is really special that whole area is really only about the size of half of a football field if the church building or the olive trees aren't sitting in the exact location it's very close jesus prayed all through his life prayer was something special for him he set aside time to make sure to communicate with the father this night was especially significant for him it's just before his betrayal it's just before his arrest he comes here to pray three times to ask god if there's any way possible that he could avoid the cross and everything that went along with the cross the gospels tell us that jesus prayed that he had a habit of praying that he would go off by himself to pray but it's not very often that the gospels give us the words of his prayers and so to have those words on the eve of such a momentous day is really really special and then to understand that it was several times that he offered a very similar prayer that's how intent he was on it and the answer was given to him with the light of the torches coming down the answer was no this is the way and he submitted himself to god's will when he was done with that third prayer he gathered up his disciples and he made a statement matthew and mark recorded for us he says rise let us be going for my betrayer is at hand now how does he know that well i think there's a possible explanation in john the 18th chapter in verse 1 it says when jesus had spoken these words he went out with his disciples across the brook kidron where there was a garden where he and his disciples entered now judas who betrayed him also knew the place for jesus often met there with his disciples so judas having procured a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the pharisees went there with lanterns and torches and weapons you remember when we were here last night and it was dark now picture yourself in that environment with regards to this passage the gate that you see across the valley here is the eastern gate now that gate was built in the 6th century but it sits on the foundations of an earlier gate now think about that a band of soldiers with lanterns and torches coming in at night jesus could have easily looked across that valley and seen those people coming he had the opportunity to do something but he didn't he stayed right here for you and me and we don't know exactly which gate those soldiers came out but that gate seems logical given its location jesus clearly would have seen them maybe for as much as 10 minutes before they arrived there in the garden of gethsemane he would have had plenty of time to run imagining what you're asking us to think about the nighttime prayers and being able to see those lit torches from the group that were coming up with weapons to arrest him and then thinking about the journey that jesus has already taken he's already come from heaven come to earth taken on flesh he came all the way down but this was a trip that he easily could have made if he wanted to when he saw the threat of danger coming he could have run off he could have gone to bethany over across the top of the mount of olives he could have gone to bethesda he could have gone back to jerusalem he could have done any number of things but he didn't take that journey he stayed and he allowed himself to be arrested and crucified in the israel museum they have a number of things that relate to the life of jesus but one in particular is the ossuary of caiaphas the high priest during that time when jewish people died they would have laid them in a burial chamber and wrapped their body and after a year the body itself has decomposed in what's left of the bones they would take those bones and put them in an ossuary a bone box and they found the ossuary of caiaphas they have several ossuaries in that wing and so you can actually compare there are some that are very very simple there's actually the ossuary of a crucified man that has a remnant of his ankle bone with the nail still in it that ossuary is very plain compared to caiaphas anus and caiaphas they were the high priests and i say that because really annis was the high priest according to the jews that was a role that you held for the duration of your life but from the roman perspective that was a title they passed along to different people the way that that political family maintained that role was to make sure that from the roman perspective different younger men within the family would rotate the title but functionally annis was the one behind all of that pulling the strings in the background what the gospels explained to us is that the men in that family had actually prophesied that jesus would die for the nation and they had been looking for opportunities to arrest him and kill him well judas provided that opportunity for them he approached them and said that he would be able to give jesus over to them identify him for them and so that's exactly what happened in the garden of gethsemane and of course jesus then was arrested and he was brought to the house of anus and caiaphas which would have sat on the western hill in the city of jerusalem it was a place that was high on the hill important people of the city would have lived there and that's the location that we visited after jesus was arrested in the garden they would have led him up this way to the home of annis and caiaphas to begin that night of series of trials to condemn him now we're in a spot that you think is really important to that story we're at the church of saint peter and golly kantu and god kantu is latin for the crowing so this is the traditional location of where the house of anderson caiaphas was located the same location where peter denied christ while he was here now from this spot i can see the amount of olives in a spot just above where the garden of gethsemane was there's an ancient looks like a first century road behind us how would that have played a role in that night that road led from the upper city to the lower city here in jerusalem if you'll notice in the scriptures andes and caiaphas and the people that were here did not seem to be surprised that jesus showed up in the middle of the night well it's because they could see him coming from here you would have the vantage point of being able to see the torches in gethsemane and then as they led jesus here and this road that's behind us was probably a road that jesus was led up both annis and caiaphas could have looked out from their house and they would have seen those torches go to the garden and then start making their way back toward them and they would have known that their plot to arrest jesus and ultimately kill him was in motion there are some things inside this building that i think give some credibility to this being an approximate location jeremy look at this door it's a picture of jesus and he's instructing peter that he's going to deny him three times and of course we know peter does that come on inside jeremy one of the reasons why they feel like this could possibly be a location of the house is the fact that they found these 5th century byzantine mosaics here and if the byzantines built a church here they must have thought this site was important as well jeremy here's a hole in the floor that sits above this holding cell down here a prisoner would have been let down with ropes into this area when we get down there you'll be able to look up and see this from below so you're saying that the byzantine church was built on top of this first century dungeon there are a couple of hours when his trials with annas and caiaphas were completed and before the sanhedrin could meet in the morning it's likely he could have been held in a place like this even for important jewish leaders it would have been out of the ordinary for them to have a holding cell down in the bottom of their house whoever lived here was someone of importance who would have been in a position that they would have had the need to hold prisoners for either a trial or some sort of hearing on top of that you have a number of mikvah religious baths on the front of the property which indicates that this person is a person of means they're a religious person and other than ordinary people they have what they perceive to be a need to hold people and restrain them down in the basement jeremy we're down in this holding cell underneath the bottom of this church you can see up above there's a hole that we saw earlier this would have been the whole that they would have let down a prisoner into this holding cell this hole was originally a mikvah which was a ritual bath but it's obvious that it's been cut deeper for the purpose of holding a prisoner down here how ironic that a place where they would have been coming down to get ceremonially clean as a place where they would have lowered a prisoner and held them for a while this would have been a very dark lonely place for anybody who would have been down here i've done work in prisons and in almost every prison there's a place that they send them for isolation to cut them off from everybody else and for anyone who had been lowered down through here the only way out a whole ceiling 20 feet up they would have felt completely isolated and we know jesus felt similar to that having all of his closest associates run away from him and give up on him it would have been a very haunting experience and imagine any prisoner that had been lowered down in here with the ropes tied underneath their arms how uncomfortable that would have been and of course once a prisoner got down here they would have left the ropes up there and so if they looked down and saw the prisoner was sleeping or something like that they could have jerked on the rope and of course woken them up it's just another way of torturing them now there was something else that we walked past on our way down a room that had some ropes on the side now what was that that was a place where they could have punished prisoners if they wanted to they could have stretched them out with ropes tied on each arms and on each legs where they could have whipped a prisoner or done whatever they wanted to do with them we know that jesus was mistreated during his trials with anus and caiaphas we know that they spat on him we know that they struck him there was more that was going to happen to him when he was turned over to pilate and to herod but he wasn't treated well when he was with anderson kaifus by any means no he wasn't we need to try to put ourselves in jesus position he's been on for a full 24 hours at this point this is probably one of the first moments being lowered down if he were put in a place like this where he's finally calm into himself but how isolated he would have felt how tired he would have felt and how these trials were the first time during this process where they had finally physically abused him and what that would have felt like to have been so rejected by the people he was coming to save there's a passage over in psalms that might help someone relate to how jesus may have been feeling in that moment but i o lord cry out to you in the morning my prayer comes before you o lord why did you cast my soul away and why did you hide your face from me afflicted and close to death from my youth up i suffer your terrors i am helpless your wrath is swept over me your dreadful assaults destroy me they surround me like a flood all day long they close in on me together you have caused my beloved and my friend to shun me and my companions have become darkness it's really easy to imagine jesus feeling that way in the morning hours prior to being sent over to pilate into herod as all of his apostles scattered from him and he had been mistreated and was getting ready to be sent over regardless of whether or not this is the exact location of where this happened it's still a vivid reminder of everything jesus went through for you and me it was also during this period just on the heels of the conclusion of the illegal trials when judas comes back into the story it's my personal opinion that judas never really anticipated that this would progress as far as it did i think he assumed that jesus would be able to walk away from this unscathed really similar to how he walked through the mob that was trying to throw him off the hill in nazareth when they rejected him there and that when he realized that it had progressed to the point in the morning where the sanhedrin found him guilty of blasphemy and they were going to take him to pilate is when he rushes back to give the money back and feels such guilt over that and they refuse to take it that he throws it at their feet and then he goes out and hangs himself i really believe that judas didn't think it was going to go as far as it did the story of judas is interesting and sad one of the overlooks that you have there at the church looks over the southern side of the hennem valley and there is a portion of land over there that's been divided off and that's the traditional side of the field of blood the field that was purchased with the money that judas threw down at the priest's feet when he realized what was happening the other thing that's interesting about judas is the fact that we have other people during the time of jesus's crucifixion who did things they shouldn't have peter denied christ all of the other disciples fled however all those other disciples came back to jesus judas had that opportunity as well he had a choice he could make he could have easily have come back to jesus and said i'm sorry but he didn't there's a lesson for all of us than that but it's a sad lesson that we have to learn in that one spot you're reminded of peter's denial and you can see the potter's field where judas chose a very different response to his guilt he chose alienation from christ and just wallowing in his guilt instead of coming back to a gracious lord who forgave the one who denied him later on i think it's a powerful place when jesus trials at annis and caiaphas's palace were concluded in the morning they took him over to the sanhedrin to be tried there and one of the likely places for that was at the temple mount behind us now when that trial was all wrapped up they took jesus over to pilate because the jews didn't have the authority to condemn someone to death now one of the likely places for that is over to place called herod's palace [Music] we went to the kisla which is part of the tower of david museum on the western side of the old city of jerusalem very close to the jaffa gate this compound is built on top of where the palace of herod would have been in the first century this is the probable location of where pilate and herod antipas were located during the trials of jesus a number of years ago in the city of caesarea they actually found a stone which talks about pontius pilate being the prefect of judea which is very interesting because of course it's an extra biblical reference that confirms what the bible says about pilate it had been removed from its original site and then reused as a step in the amphitheater there in caesarea maritima there were some people that had questioned the existence of pilate and they had questioned his role as described in the bible and so to find this stone that mentions that he was the prefect which was a role they had been questioning just helps substantiate the biblical text [Music] [Music] wow this is beautiful this is incredible this room is called the kisla in the 1940s it was a prison but after israel gained its independence in 1947 they were able to come in here and do some excavation works and they found civilizations going all the way back to the first century you can actually still see the remnants of the prison bars in the roof where they cut them out this is really a great space what we have at the very top are the layers from the 20th century when the prison was here and as they began digging they found ruins that dated back to the crusaders in the 12th century and then the byzantines in the fourth and fifth century and of course what we're most interested in is what they found here in the very bottom which dates back to the second temple period or the first century a.d this would be the foundation of king herod's palace that's out here on the western side of jerusalem so that would be a herodian section dating to the same time as that first century road over by the temple mount that's right so you just keep marching down through the centuries and you get to the time of jesus and something that was pointed out to us is that on either side of that wall are tunnels that run in opposite directions and knowing herod the great and how paranoid he was he had built these tunnels for escape purposes primarily to move water but also to get away in case he needed to so just above that was where the trial of jesus took place what i had always heard is that jesus trial before pilate and herod actually took place over at the antonia fortress connected to the temple mount but you're saying that it's more likely it took place here at herod's palace on the other side of town well it is possible that was a military barracks during the time but it seems more natural to me that pilate would have been here most of the time he had been ruling in caesarea maritima which was the roman administrative capital of this area but because he's a political figure and because he wanted to be near the people he would have been in town for the passover same way with herod antipas he normally would have been in tiberias but of course he had come to town as well in mark 15 it tells us that after he was arrested and taken to anderson caiaphas into the sanhedrin that he was then led to the palace to the praetorium which would have been this location right here and i think people need to realize the difference between the two spaces antonia fortress is a smaller military barracks herod's palace here on the other side of town was a large estate so it makes sense that the roman governor for the area would have taken one of the largest most beautiful places as his in-town residence when he came to jerusalem we also read in the scripture in matthew 27 that pilate's wife was here it seems unnatural to me that she would have been over at the military barracks she would have been here at the palace pilate knows that they're coming and he comes out of the palace to meet them and they're trying to get him condemned before pilate there's a mob forming pilate takes jesus back into the palace and has a dialogue with him one-on-one what is this about the accusation about you being the king of the jews and during that questioning pilate learns that jesus is a galilean and so pilate decides i have found a solution i'll give him to someone else and so he sends him across the courtyard over to herod antipas and so in verse 8 when it says when herod saw jesus he was very glad for he had long desired to see him because he had heard about him and he was hoping to see some sign done by him and i think we need to put ourselves in jesus shoes jesus and his family fled to egypt to escape being put to death by herod the great herod antipas father and herod antipas was the herod who had killed his cousin john the baptist and now he's standing in front of the killer of his cousin and this man is really only interested in seeing jesus perform parlor tricks jesus knows he's not going to get a fair trial in front of this man i think it helps to understand the mental pressure and anguish that jesus was going through and the exhaustion that he was under and then he's sent back to pilate his wife says have nothing to do with this innocent man you know i've suffered a lot because of dreams he performs this perverse form of mercy he has him beaten he has him flogged he's mocked by the soldiers and then he leads him back out and says behold your king i find no fault in him and they still cry out for him to be crucified and then they actually ramp up the charges against him over in john when he comes out and tells him look i don't find any guilt in him the jews answered we have a law and according to that law he ought to die because he has made himself to be the son of god not only has he claimed to be king but he's made himself to be divinity and so pilate quickly grabs jesus comes back into the palace talks to him some more and from verse 12 then on pilate sought to release him but the jews cried out if you release this man you are not caesar's friend and so everything is escalating the mob is getting unruly there's a possibility that pilate could be charged with being against caesar which would be death for him we know what happened he ends up washing his hands and turning him over to a centurion to be crucified [Music] one of the best views of jerusalem the old city is from the top of the lutheran church well over 100 steps in a winding staircase all the way up but once you get up there it's one of the best views of the old city of jerusalem [Music] how gorgeous yeah i'll let you catch your breath for a second i brought you up here because i wanted to show you something okay the two blue domes are the top of the church of the holy sepulchre that church sits on the traditional location where jesus christ died was buried in a rose the big dome on the left sits on top of the edicule where they said he was buried and the smaller dome on the right sits on top of where they think is calvary where he died what a great perspective a great view of the old city it really is i love coming up here and seeing this as nice as this view is actually there's something i want to show you that's down below the church below back down all the stairs all the stairs in the basement of this church are a number of things they found archaeologically the main thing i wanted to show him was the remains of the first century wall of jerusalem so mark tells us that jesus was led out to be crucified and then john specifies that he was still near the city so what do both of those passages have to do with where we're standing interestingly enough where we're standing is outside the city now how do we know that well behind us is part of the wall from first century jerusalem everything on the other side of this wall would have been inside the city everything out would have been outside the city the church of the holy sepulchre which we believe is the traditional location of jesus crucifixion would have taken place about 200 feet in that direction we can imagine people coming through the gate of this wall to access the point in golgotha where jesus was crucified that's correct right in front of us according to what i've been reading is this shaft that goes down about 40 feet back in the early 70s they did some excavation and they actually hit quarry bedrock from the time of herod the great what can you tell us about the layers in this shaft well you're right down at the very bottom there is a quarry from the time of king herod he used rocks from this quarry to build the walls and the other structures inside the city probably another 10 to 12 feet above that is a garden layer that actually dates to the time of jesus so about 30 a.d and another 10 or 15 feet above that is a large section of basically residue it was just a dumping ground during the time of hadrian around 135 a.d so if we can imagine going back to that second layer that layer of garden and imagine it right up against this wall about this wall extending down another 30 35 feet down to that garden layer where jesus was let out to be crucified it helps us imagine how large this wall was and how much history has taken place in between now and then and it was out into that garden layer that jesus was led to be crucified at golgotha what barry was able to do for us was show us more evidence that helps us understand that our bible and the descriptions of the crucifixion are accurate just in that one stop barry was able to point out the traditional crucifixion site of jesus was outside the city walls there was also a garden in that same spot and the bible talks about both of those things it makes the bible come alive to see things like that [Music] we're on our way to the church of the holy sepulchre what's the route that you're taking us we're currently on the via dela rosa we're in the muslim quarter of the old city via dela rosa is latin for the way of sorrows it marks the traditional path that jesus took between his condemnation by pontius pilate and golgotha now between here and the church of the holy sepulchre are called the nine stations of the cross inside you've got five for a total of 14. there are there's a number of those stations that aren't really even biblically based they're more traditional than anything and the path of the via delaware has changed many times over the centuries the current path of course even if it's accurate is still about 20 feet or so higher than the first century jerusalem whatever path jesus took from pilate to the cross it would have been hilly the whole way which of course is just one more layer of the suffering that he went through for all of us it's helpful to think about what would have been going through his mind as he was led through those trials as he was led outside the city as he carried and dropped his cross as simon of cyrene was enlisted to pick it up and carry it the rest of the way to realize that i was near the places where those events took place and that people kept track of those locations for thousands of years because it was so important it was a very sobering moment [Music] for god so loved the world [Music] that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish [Music] but have eternal life [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] barry where are we right now we're in the courtyard in front of the church of the holy sepulchre in the christian quarter of the old city of jerusalem this is the traditional location of where jesus died and was buried and of course where he rose from the dead when constantine became emperor of rome in the fourth century he established christianity as the religion of the roman world and his mother made a trip to israel for the sole purpose of trying to identify locations associated with the life of jesus she would ask the locals and this is where everybody said those events took place it was also noteworthy that the romans had basically demolished that area to a degree because they knew of the importance that spot held to christians cultural cleansing is not a new concept and so when the romans came through they tried to remove those locations and reminders of things that they didn't want the people to associate with jesus so this structure behind us is on top of those locations it is is there anything special that we need to do when we go in well we need to observe reverence when we go in so we'll remove our hats okay [Music] i think one of the things that will catch anybody who visits the church of the holy sepulcher for the first time is when you walk in through that double door the very first thing that you see on the floor is the spot where they say they prepared jesus body for burial and that specific rock is not the rock that rock has actually been replaced several times because it's been worn down from people touching it and kissing it and placing things on it if you can stand in that entrance way and try to use your imagination and remove the ceilings and remove the walls and just look at heights to your right where the cross would have stood is a hill climbed up these steps here to an elevation a little higher than the rest of the building here and we're standing in front of the traditional location of calvary which is where they believe jesus christ was crucified and underneath the glass behind us what you see is some exposed bedrock and what they believe is that this is where the cross actually went into the ground so this is the traditional location where jesus was crucified with robbers on either side of him it would have been very very visible to have those three crosses there the floor that you reach by those stairs is not very large you can't fit a large number of people up there so if you imagine those floors are gone it shrinks the area where those crosses were it really makes it plain that jesus crucifixion was a public crucifixion they were making an example of these men they were taunting him and taking advantage of the fact that he was finally stuck and he was exactly where they wanted him to be and so there was a huge lack of respect shown to him by those who were there again we can't say for certain that is the exact spot my personal opinion is this is the general location right now whether or not these specific spots are exactly correct i don't know and the topography over time has changed i mean originally this was a hillside and now you've got this large structure on top of it to imagine jesus and simon carrying that cross coming outside of that city wall coming down to golgotha and having his cross placed here and then at the finale of the crucifixion having his body removed and placed in the tomb down beneath us right what most people don't realize is how close this spot is to the rock of anointing just below us and then the edicule over the tomb where jesus was buried we're talking less than a football field to contain all three of these locations they're really close the scriptures even tell us that in the area where he was crucified there was a garden right and so this is this is a very close location here just around the corner over there in the same building is the edicule which is the traditional location where he was buried we were able to talk to somebody at the front door yeah and we weren't sure how much we were going to get but they're trying to work it out so that we can go down inside by ourselves for just a couple of minutes which is a huge honor yeah it is what they refer to as the edicule here is this huge building that's inside the church of the holy sepulcher and it sits on top of the traditional side of the tomb so it's a super structure over to protect whatever is left they've actually done some renovations here for the first time in years there's not scaffolding in brackets they took all that down about three or four months ago and so it's actually really beautiful now until then you didn't have a clear view of the edicular self right thinking about the death burial and resurrection of jesus the resurrection of jesus is the cornerstone of christianity and so to be in a place that traditionally marks that event is enormous yeah very special very special [Music] doing my research about the edicule every time you see pictures of it or videos of it it is jam-packed crowded i mean there are people that will wait for hours trying to get in there for just a couple of seconds i have visited the church of the holy sepulchre probably eight or ten times and i have never been able to go inside the edicule and the reason is exactly that there's usually a line of hours to get in there we were really blessed to go just before one group started their time at the entrance of the edicule and we were told to wait that as soon as they were done there would be this brief window of time so we just stood there and we waited and we watched them perform their service and after a few minutes we were finally allowed in but we took as much time as we could to try to soak in as much as we could of the space when you first walk in you go through a door into a square room and in the center of that room is a pedestal with glass case and what i understand is that the rock inside that glass case is supposed to be a remnant of the rolling stone that actually closed the tomb and directly opposite the entrance is another smaller door that leads into a much more confined space okay jeremy we're inside the edicule and this right here this flat slab is where they believe they laid the body of jesus christ after he died now this slab is on top of what remains of that we don't see any original rock left no the original cave and everything is long gone centuries ago it was destroyed but they built this edicule over this area to help protect it this spot was established by queen helena in the fourth century when she came here and the people of the area said this is the location where it took place the tune that his body would have been laid in would not have been large no it wouldn't have been large it was very much similar to the church of the nativity where everything is protected and you have the structure built over the top of it but you still get the idea of i'm going underground and there's a shelf here where a body would have gone and it's just around the corner from a hill where a cross would have been placed and that was just really special it's hard for people who aren't familiar with first century burial practices to picture what a first century tomb would have looked like and frankly going into the edicule doesn't help a whole lot with that but barry knew that there was a place just on the back side of the edicule where we could go and see an example of first century tombs and the location of the tombs is important and gives more credibility to the location of the church of the holy [Laughter] sepulchre jeremy we've crawled into a hole here back behind the etiquette of the church of the holy sepulchre but i wanted to show you these niches in the rock here these are first century jewish tombs what's significant about this is that we are literally 20 feet from where the edicule is and so that shows that jewish people bury people in this area you can see how a body would be placed inside each one you've got the chisel marks where they carved it out and as opposed to the edicule you can actually see the natural rock you can see what it would have looked like now from what i understand after about a year of a body laying in here they would bring it out and then they'd put the bones in those small bone boxes the ossuaries and it would be reburied again seeing this helps us to imagine what it would have been like when they placed jesus body in the tomb they would have placed his body in they would have rolled a stone in front of it and closed it off right [Music] there are a lot of times where the location is really important even in the old testament god specified a place for his people to worship and it was in jerusalem when you go to the church of the holy sepulchre you see people from all over the world coming to this place and it's important but i think it's important to remember what jesus said to the woman at the well there was going to come a time very shortly where it wasn't in jerusalem or in samaria where you would worship god that god was looking for people to worship him in spirit and in truth it's not the location and after his death burial and resurrection and especially after pentecost jesus provided a way for worshipers of god through him to worship anywhere and i think it's important to remember that i enjoy taking people to the church of the holy sepulcher and i enjoy trying to help them understand what the building is and what probably happened there after we've walked through the building i always try to bring people outside and gather them together and try to remind them that this isn't just a tourist stop there's a very important event that happened in this location they're the most important things to ever happen in the history of mankind from the creation of the world going forward this is what all of history was working towards and from our perspective looking back it's all been influenced and shaped by that to say that the crucifixion and burial and resurrection of jesus was the pivotal moment of history is not an exaggeration we're west of the old city of jerusalem we've actually come to a tomb from the first century we wanted to show what a tomb from the first century would have looked like joseph of arimathea was a rich man so he would have had a rich man's tomb this tomb would have been very similar to what joseph of arimathea would have had [Music] coming up to the tomb i was surprised i wasn't expecting the landscaping to be what it was we're in this nice garden area there are these trees providing shade and some flowering bushes i wasn't expecting that so it was beautiful it kind of put me in the frame of mind of the women on the first day coming into the garden area where the tomb was i think it helps give that feeling jeremy what we have here is a rolling stone tomb from the first century king herod of course built his tomb out the herodium but his family's tomb was built right here in jerusalem this arch doorway because it says they stoop down in is this doorway in normal height yeah this is very typical of a first century tomb like this it would have been this short and we read that in the bible when john and peter came to the tomb they had to stoop down to look into it and there's this massive metal door in the way we can't get in we can see this rolling stone and it's just massive it's longer than my forearm yeah look how wide it is it's really easy to imagine the women being concerned about how they were going to get this rolled out of the way when they were gonna be the first ones to the tomb to get to jesus there's there's no way they could have rolled it i mean it's that heavy there was the earthquake the angel moves the stone back and that starts the whole post resurrection appearances the women run out to tell the disciples they come back john beats peter in this foot race to the tomb mary still struggled with believing in the resurrection even after peter and john run back she runs back with them and they look in and believe and take off and mary's left in the garden and she begins weeping assuming that the body has been taken and that's when she has her encounter with jesus and assumes that he's the gardener to think about that this was a wealthy person's tomb this has a much different feel than those first century tombs we saw in the church of the sepulcher that were just niches where they would replace the bodies right this is a complete tomb the niches that you saw in the holy sepulchre would be inside the tomb area right here it's beautiful isn't it it's amazing this is amazing one of the things that we need to remember when we come to a site like this and we're trying to envision and imagine what it must have been like on that morning all of the disciples have assumed that he's died they don't understand that he's going to be raised and they're not expecting that which from our perspective is kind of shocking because multiple times before the arrest and the trial and the crucifixion he flat out told them that he was going to be crucified and that he was going to come back on the third day and this is the third day and they're still shocked they think that this has been a failure all of the apostles have fled peter has denied christ the women are coming to prepare his body for final internment they expect his body to stay there and so they would have been an absolute shock to have found the tomb empty and all the jewish leaders had to do was to produce a body if he was not raised then everything that he taught was wrong it was false he was either lying or crazy and so this moment and the fact that it actually happened is critical to all of christianity [Music] trying to follow the sequence and the order of that last week of jesus life was so hectic there were so many things that happened in such a short period of time we're finally back up here in galilee on the shore of the lake the feel is entirely different it is so much more relaxing it's almost like you can take a breath and slow down we're in the city of tabga which is a location on the northern side of the sea of galilee and this is the traditional site of where the events of john 21 occur this is the conversation that jesus has with his disciples early one morning after they had been fishing all night if you remember jesus had appeared to a number of people in jerusalem but had instructed the disciples to go to galilee and from there he would give them further instructions now we're about eight days after the resurrection he's appeared to several people down there in jerusalem he's appeared to the disciples on a couple different occasions he's already appeared to thomas they're up here getting back into the swing of everyday life but they haven't been told when he would arrive and so they're basically waiting for jesus to show up and while waiting they decide to go out for a nighttime fishing trip before we go too much further into john 21 i think we need to add a layer of perspective if you remember just around the corner from here is the cove of the sower what luke does for us is he explains over in luke chapter 5 after jesus finished teaching the parable of the sower he tells peter to push back further into the sea and to go fishing peter explains to him we've been out all night but at your command i'll do that and so he and the people on his boat lower the nets down into the water and bring up such a large catch that the boat starts to sink it's in that moment that peter makes a startling declaration about jesus peter falls on his knees and says depart from me because i'm a sinful man peter starts to acknowledge something and confess something about who jesus is we come back to john 21 they were all so discouraged at the crucifixion of christ peter denied jesus three times they go out for a nighttime fishing trip and they haven't caught anything and then they see someone walking along the shore and they don't know who it is and the person from the shore tells them to throw their nets in on the other side and they have such a large catch of fish that peter has flashbacks to that moment in the cove of the sower and jumps into the sea to get here as quickly as possible they sit down with jesus and have a meal with him and of course later on after they had finished breakfast jesus had a conversation with peter and in that conversation he asked peter three different occasions about the love that peter has for jesus peter responds by saying he does love jesus probably a reflection of the three times that peter denied christ i think it's amazing that jesus provides for an opportunity back where he spent so much quality time with the apostles away from the hustle and bustle of jerusalem he comes up here and has a quiet down moment with them and provides a slower opportunity to help peter work through what he had done and to understand that he had been forgiven for that all of the post-resurrection appearances by jesus were important whether they were to his disciples or to just people in general there's one more that we really need to take a closer look at but to do that we need to go back to the mount of olives after jesus meets with the seven disciples in john 21 and has breakfast with them on the shore of the sea of galilee they go up to a mountain somewhere in the galilee area where they received the great commission that we read about over in matthew 28 and then following that they head back to jerusalem and they're in that area for a couple of weeks before jesus ascends from the mount of olives and so just a little over a month after his crucifixion they're back in the area where that whole thing took place barry we've arrived top of the mount of olives we're talking about the ascension and there's a passage that you like to read i think the best text to look at is actually from luke the 24th chapter in verse 50 it says when he led them out as far as bethany and lifting up his hands he blessed them while he blessed them he parted from them and was carried up into heaven they worshiped him to return to jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple blessing god now they've just come down from galilee and they have some questions about the nature of the kingdom is jesus gonna restore the kingdom right it's really easy from this spot to imagine them standing here they're at the top of the mountain there's a part of me that wants to imagine it in the garden where he prayed because he had a habit of going there and he was known for going there to pray so there's a part of me that wants to romanticize that and think that that's where it is but either way no matter where it was as he went up into the sky and was taken from their sight as they turned they would have seen all of jerusalem laid out before them i wonder if they had thoughts running through their head about just a month and a half ago this is where the triumphal entry took place just 40 days ago he was in a tomb on the other side of town just so much has happened it's been an intense three and a half years jesus starts ascending up into the sky and what ax records for us it has more detail about the ascension it tells us that jesus goes up he goes beyond their sight behind a cloud and a couple of angels appear to them and ask them why do you stand here looking off into heaven now that was a really natural thing for them to have done i can imagine myself gazing off trying to figure out where he went and is he coming back down anytime soon they let him know that jesus will come back in a similar manner he's coming back in judgment while they're waiting for him they're told to go back in jerusalem and wait for the day of pentecost when they would receive the promised holy spirit right there was a part of them that probably wondered what now not only had they been given the great commission but they'd also been promised a comforter someone that would come and help them in all this i'm sure they were confused because their concept of the nature of jesus kingdom has been shaken a couple of different times and we know that they were asking him about that during that stop on the mount of olives and jesus said it's not for you to know when i'm going to restore my kingdom go back to jerusalem and wait i think there was a transformation of the disciples going on during this period and then of course when you look a little further ahead into the book of acts you really see it especially after the day of pentecost but i'm sure this was a period of a lot of questions but a period of looking forward to the future because everything jesus had told them over the last three years had come true during the triumphal entry they were excited they thought that the kingdom was imminent and so they would have been riding this incredible high they didn't understand that jesus was going to go through what he went through they weren't anticipating that even though he had warned to them several times they've just had all of these ups and downs and so i just kind of picture this moment that's recorded over in acts chapter one where they've kind of steadied themselves i don't think they're as over confident necessarily as they had been at the triumphal entry they're still excited they're still hopeful there's just this quiet peace about them as they wait to see what jesus is going to do next [Music] as our time in israel journeying together draws to an end there are two important passages that i'd like for us to read together the first is over in matthew chapter 28 and this is jesus second to last appearance after his resurrection it says when they went to galilee to the mountain to which jesus had directed them when they saw him they worshiped him but some doubted and jesus came and said to them all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit teaching them to observe all that i have commanded you and behold i am with you always to the end of the age it's our hope that as you've taken this journey with us and witnessed all of these places where jesus lived and taught and died and was raised that you would become convicted that he really did exist that he came from heaven that he became a man that he died on the cross and that he rose from the grave and he did all of that to atone for our sins to grant us forgiveness and to bring us into a relationship with our heavenly father and if you've not yet been baptized because of that belief we hope that you'd respond to what jesus instructs his apostles here now the second passage that we want to pay attention to is over in first john chapter one our second hope is that for those of you that have taken this journey with us that you would realize that you've been able to see things that not everyone gets to see and that it helps ground your conviction that jesus was real what john tried to emphasize is that because he had spent those three years with jesus he had interacted with him he had heard him he had witnessed the miracles he had witnessed the post-resurrection appearances because of all of that it built this fire inside of him to tell others about christ we hope that in some small way that you feel the same way after having seen these places going with us listen to what john has to say that which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the word of life the life was made manifest and we have seen it and testify to it and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the father and was made manifest to us that which we have seen and heard we proclaim also to you so that you too may have fellowship with us and indeed our fellowship is with the father and with his son jesus christ and we are writing these things so that our joy may be complete i'm craig and i'm stu and we're the founders of appian media we really hope that you've enjoyed the content that you've just seen this was only made available through the generous donations of so many of you we believe that the world should have biblically accurate visually engaging content about the bible and it should be free for everyone we would encourage you to visit the membership page of appianmedia.org and consider becoming a reoccurring member everything that you donate to appian media is tax deductible however you decide to donate we really appreciate your support you

Channel: Appian Media

Views: 230,043

Rating: 4.8376384 out of 5

Keywords: Appian Media, Bible Study, Bible, Christian, Christianity, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jeremy Dehut, Barry Britnell, Craig Dehut, Jesus Crucifixion, Jesus Burial, Golgatha, The gospels, the gospel of Mark, the gospel of Luke, the gospel of John, the gospel of Matthew, Jerusalem, Bible lands, Israel, Church of the holy sepulchre, 1st century Jerusalem, Free Bible videos, Apostles

Id: wzfZPQpKTKg

Length: 139min 35sec (8375 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 18 2021