Well, hello, everybody, and welcome back. This is Monday, but I'm recording this. It'll come out on Tuesday. Our day starts in a very sobering, sobering place called Yad Vashem, which is the largest Holocaust museum in Israel. I've just come out of an incredibly, incredibly poignant portion of the museum, the Children's Monument. 1.5 million children killed in the Holocaust. and you walk in and there's no photography, but there's this giant room full of lights, full of candles, and it's reflective, and it just keeps on going and going and going. And it's remarkable because it's just their names, their location, how old they were. Like, for instance, Misha Yazinski, who was 16 years old, 16-year-old girl, from the Ukraine, just remarkable. Behind me stretches out Jerusalem. It's an incredible view, but what a dark, dark, dark, dark, dark place. It's fascinating. There's so many different stories. of what churches did, you know, the hiding place, Cory den Boom in Holland, I believe it was, Christian family that hid Jews. Certainly we can read about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, his cost of discipleship, ultimately murdered for speaking out against the Jews. But that brings up a very interesting point. So at the time of the rise of the Third Reich, there were 18,000 churches in Germany. 3,000 went with Hitler, 3,000 stood against Hitler. So you do the math that leaves 12,000 churches and all they had to do was nothing remain silent I tell you all the time. I don't get into politics and you know, I don't but moral issues as Presbyterians, this is our calling we must we must we must we must and y'all this is not about anything with the Israel state, but Realize that the mayor of New York, the Intifada, has refused to decry the Intifada, the worldwide Intifada, global. That's the global persecution of Jews. Kill them everywhere you can. And that's New York's new mayor. When you see the anti-Israel stuff that is everywhere, calling Israelis colonizers, that kind of stuff, evil people, guilty of genocide, Y'all, I've been here. I've seen the supposed colonizers. I've seen those that are supposedly guilty of genocide. I've seen the fear that they live in here, but also the resilience. And it's really, really a poignant place. Certainly, they need Jesus. As I've told you, you want a sign of the end times? Romans chapter 11, Jews coming to know the Lord. But, y'all, there's a concerted effort to exterminate them still around the world, which is unthinkable. But nevertheless, places like this are so important to that reality, and I'm not trying to be political or anything, but it is a calling to us to stand up for that which is good and true and right and be children of the light, to walk in the light, as 1 John says. But again, such a sobering reminder, such a powerful place. Thank you for being here with me. Well, hello, everybody. I'm back again. It's probably pretty loud where I'm at, and it's for an interesting reason. I find myself in a place that is called the Garden Tomb. Now, you know, last night I came to you. Let me see if I can get over here. Came to you last night from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. There is a dispute. Why? Well, to be blunt about it, very, very early on, I mentioned that Constantine's mother, you know, Constantine, the great emperor of Rome, early, early, early 200-ish, 300 AD. His mother, Saint Helena, or Helena, came to Israel to find the different spots where all of the things of Christianity had taken place. And she worked extensively with locals, with Hebrews, with everybody around here, Christians as well that stayed here from the very beginning to say, where was it that Jesus was crucified? And where they identified was where we were last night, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, right there. When I get back on Wednesday night, I'm going to do a presentation. They have the rock where Jesus was laid after being taken from the cross and prepared for the tomb. And then they have the shrine of the tomb, which you saw in yesterday's Daily Devotional. The issue is that Protestants denied this because the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox had control of the Holy Sepulchral Church. As you know, there was the Great System that would come later. There was debate. And one of the things that they try to say is, and if you hear a loud beeping, they put a bus station over here by what they call Golgotha. I'm going to walk over here so hopefully you can hear me a little bit better. Great schism, lots of different things happened. Protestantism really denied the Roman Catholic spot. And y'all, it's a lot of messy politics. I talked to my tour guide, though, who's a native Israeli, native from Jerusalem, talked to a lot of other historians. One of the archeological finds is that they found another set of city walls, and they say, well, Jesus wouldn't have been buried here at the garden tomb because it's within the city walls. but they know from archaeology that those walls weren't built until the 7th century by the Ottomans. The original city walls, where the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is, would have been outside of the city walls of Jerusalem. There's a whole host of other reasons why that is the valid place, and where I took you last night is the valid place that he was laid. There's some speculation here about this place being Golgotha. I'm going to walk over, and I'm going to show it to you for just a second. First, I'm going to show you what's in front of it, and that is, it's a bus station now, but back behind me here is where they call Golgotha, and apparently, you know, that's supposed to be one of the eyes, another one's over there. Is this the place? I don't think so, but as our tour guide just now so eloquently said, it doesn't so much matter. where Jesus died, but why Jesus died, and that is to be the sacrifice, the atonement for the sins of all those who would trust in him to redeem his people. As the guide said, he's the only one that's ever lived the perfect life, and he laid down his life willingly so that he could be your substitute, Christian. So is this the place where that happened? I don't know. I'm gonna go to the garden tomb in a few minutes, starting out here behind me at Golgotha. or what they say is Golgotha, but really that's just a guess. Again, A, B, C sites. A sites being absolutely 100% it happened there. B sites being 90% C sites saying, well, it happened somewhere. This is much more of a seaside. It's obviously a big tourist trap. A lot, a lot of people here. It's beautiful. They've done a good job, but I'm also reminded of the poignancy of being in a city like this full of Jews and Muslims. Jews much more respect Christianity than others, but Muslims, that's a minaret right behind me. So it's fascinating. Could this be Golgotha behind me? I'm, I'm supposed that it could be, but it makes so much more sense for so many other reasons. So many reasons why last night where I was, where I came to you from, uh, the church of the Holy Sepulcher, why that's the genuine place. But nevertheless, it's still a surreal thing to be here in this place. Thank you for being here with me. Next, we'll go to the garden tomb. Okay, everybody. There's a little tie down here. Well, hello everybody and welcome back. As I said, I would be coming to you from the Garden Tomb. The video that you are about to see is actually walking in. You know, is it? Is it not? I don't know. I don't I really don't think so. But nevertheless, as our tour guide just said, and he's a follower of Christ from England, the point is not if this is the tomb. The point is, is that you don't see Jesus in there. Why? Because unlike every other religion on earth, our Savior lives. Jesus Christ is risen. Did you just say he is risen indeed? I hope you did. But nevertheless, he is not in the tomb. He is alive, seated at the right hand of God, interceding on behalf of his people. Whether it's authentic or not really is of little import. Having the opportunity is such an amazing thing. I hope this is a blessing to you. Hello everybody and welcome back again. I just left you from where they say the garden tomb is where Jesus arose and now we've gone back to the very beginning of the story. I'm actually in Bethlehem. Actually right outside of Bethlehem. Bethlehem is that town right there beside me. I'm in a different place. I'm not going to bother to pronounce it in Hebrew, but behind me is two very important things. Number one is Boaz's field where Boaz met Ruth. And of course you have the whole story of Ruth and we know that Ruth is important because Ruth and Boaz had a son named Obed and then Obed had a son named David, King David. And then it's in the city of David, Bethlehem, the house of bread as a matter of fact, but it's in the city of David that we find our Lord and Savior being born. So we've gone from his crucifixion and his resurrection to the place of his incarnation. Now, right where I am, perhaps you can hear the tour taking place. It's really fascinating some of the things that have been shared with us. So is this fountain back behind me over here. I'll take some pictures. So Wednesday night when I'm back, not this Wednesday, but next, I'll actually do a presentation. I hope to get everything together for that. But, but all of that being said behind me right over here is the caves where the shepherds took up residence. And not only is this Boaz's field, this would be the field where the shepherds are supposedly that this is a place where the shepherds were greeted by the heavenly host. So think about the sky behind me opening up and seeing the angels of heaven and all of their glory and hearing those words. glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace, goodwill toward men. What's fascinating is why they would have been here. And that is Bethlehem is in very close proximity to Jerusalem. The sheep that they were raising would have been used for sacrifice. And of course, just across the way in Bethlehem, Jesus, the perfect spotless lamb was born. Y'all, there's so much symbolism in the Nativity story. I don't want to talk about all of it now because very soon we're going to be celebrating Nativity. Right now we are walking towards the Shepherd's Caves and I hope to do some video inside that you'll see and hopefully enjoy. Thanks very much. Sit down, please. for me. Amen. The silent stars go by Yet in thy dark streams shine The everlasting light The hopes and fears of all the years are within thee tonight. As those words came alive in him, Brooks began to come alive. And in the next 24 hours, I'll be ready to show them. We will be at 8 o'clock in the morning. I'll go there then. Yeah, but we'll be there. I'll take a picture for you. Follow me. Hello again, everybody. What I've just shown you in the previous video is the Shepherd's Field Church. It's spectacular artwork, a lot of Second Commandment violations. But nevertheless, it's not exactly our thing. But as you can see, the angel behind me singing those praises is fantastic. Thank you. Well, I'm back, everybody. And it's the end of the day. I made it back safely to our hotel. I'm actually standing out in the hall. Very interesting day starting out at the end of things with Jesus' crucifixion and the garden tomb and then kind of ending the day at the beginning of things there in Bethlehem. Never made it to the Church of the Nativity. It's not exactly safe right there these days. You know, Bethlehem is a fascinating study. 700 years before Jesus was born, it was prophesied, Micah chapter 5, verse 2, read it. It names Bethlehem Ephrath as the one that would be the place of hope for out of you, Bethlehem, would come the Messiah. It's fascinating that name Ephrath, right? What does it mean? It means ash heap, right? So out of the ashes comes the Messiah, comes the Savior. And y'all, it's so sad. You know, as glorious as today is, it's so sad. Bishop Robert Stearns, who is one of the leaders of this trip, was talking about how he came here first in 1991. 85% of Bethlehem said that they were followers of Jesus Christ. Now today, what is that? 25, 40 years, 30 years later, 35 years later-ish. Sorry. Theology major, you do the math. But nevertheless, not even a generation after, around 7% of people in Bethlehem are Christian. The rest have converted to Islam. Church of the Nativity is not a safe place to go. Interestingly enough, Bethlehem is not in Israel. It is in Palestine. So we crossed into Palestine today. It was a very interesting experience. It's fascinating how Bethlehem is just a few miles, really just a few miles from Jerusalem, but It's like a tale of two different worlds when you cross over into Palestine from Israel. But y'all still such a wonderful, impactful day. There's so many things, so many things that I learned today that aren't in books that I can find. It's certainly not something that I was trained about in seminary and so much perspective from the Jewish people, especially from the Christian people. that have been here since the very beginning. One of the oldest Christian communities in the world is the Bethlehemites, the people that started the church very early on. Like, for instance, the fact that the shepherd didn't need the star. The star was for the wise men. It never says that about the shepherds. Shepherds knew exactly where Bethlehem was, and they were told how they would know the Savior, that he would be wrapped in swaddling clothes. I found this fascinating. Women in Bethlehem don't normally wrap their babies. Normally they cover them if they need to be covered, but they don't wrap them up. But you know what they do wrap in Bethlehem? I made reference to this before. They're so close to Jerusalem, the shepherds, whose cave we were in just a little while ago, and I hope you'll allow some Christmas music before Thanksgiving. That was our group singing. But nevertheless, they don't wrap children in Bethlehem, but as soon as male lambs are born, the firstborn male lamb, they wrap it immediately in swaddling clothes. Why? So that it won't break any bones. It's fascinating that the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords would be born in a manger, right? A place in a manger used to feed animals, in a stable. Because there was no room in the inn. Even the word for inn is more like living room. And there's a lot of fascinating things that I hope to preach about this Advent season. But nevertheless, they would recognize the Christ child because he would be wrapped just like one of those new first male lambs that were born of sheep that were dedicated for sacrifice. From the very beginning, they don't wrap babies, but they do wrap people that are dead. From the very beginning. including what is echoed with the wise men, frankincense and myrrh, spices for the dead of great worth. You know, we see that Jesus was born to die, but he came all the same. He came willingly. Nobody took his life. He laid it down as a sacrifice for his people. So again, what a rich, wonderful day this has been. I hope that you've enjoyed the sights and sounds. And tomorrow's going to be interesting. I don't know what I'm coming to you with. I'm actually going to be meeting with the equivalent of the Speaker of the House for the nation of Israel and some other officials. But nevertheless, it's going to be a fascinating day. I'm really looking forward to it and we'll see how things go. Take care.