Canst Thou Find Him?

People want to get close to those who are famous, to those who are iconic, as it were.

Back in 1964, as an example, an obscure musical group went on a TV show called the Ed Sullivan Show, and instantly gained fame in this country. They were called The Beatles.

And people went nuts about The Beatles. The young people, the girls would scream. The Beatles couldn't go anywhere without crowds following them. They came to Los Angeles, where I lived, in 1964, in August. And on the way to the Hollywood Bowl, people got sightings of them and called the radio station.

And the radio station would say, somebody actually saw them on a car. And John Lennon looked out the window at this girl and actually looked at her face. And she was so excited. It was reported that the hotel that they stayed in had a maid that went in after they left and actually found one of John Lennon's hairs on the pillow.

Can you believe it? People would pass out at the sight of The Beatles, wherever they went, great crowds would follow them.

So it was when Jesus Christ walked the earth, He became a very popular individual. People found out about Him and the miracles. And they sensed that this was a person not only of human greatness, but there was another link, possibly the Messiah. And great crowds from all over Palestine followed Him. Even the leaders from Jerusalem came up to the Sea of Galilee. And many of the encounters you read of in the Bible with the Pharisees and the Sadducees and even the leaders took place far from Jerusalem as great crowds and people swarmed Him and wanted to be around Him all the time.

The most popular always seemed to have something that people can attach to them. An image, a figurine, a doll, a symbol, a photograph, a drawing, a painting.

Some sight, if it's religion, it'll be a holy sight. Or it might just be some famous sight, like for Elvis, that you can go where he once lived or he once was.

There are shrines. There are things where people can make pilgrimages because they want to be in some sort of a connection or a close association to where somebody once was.

Humans have a need to get close.

Humans also have a need to be linked with their God or gods, small g.

Idols can refer to living people or former people or mythical gods, but they want something in their possession, something to hang on a wall, something to touch, something to look at, to where they can feel in some proximity, some link with the icon or the God that they desire. And so it is that there are temples, there are churches, there are buildings, there are paintings, there are various places and shrines and archaeological digs.

What is archaeology? Archaeology is a study of something archaic or old.

Why would somebody want to care about something that's old? They're trying to get back and have a link with something in times that were archaic.

The title of the sermon today is, Canst Thou Find Him? It's a question. You'll notice the archaic English I'm using, because it's about an archaic quest to go find him, to have some connection, some meaningful link to a person or persons in history. Now I'd like to give a disclaimer.

Some of the conclusions that I will draw about some events in the past and some archaeological sites are personal conclusions. These will not necessarily be the same as other archaeologists or other religionists or other tour operators. They are my own. I have a degree, a master's degree in anthropology, archaeology. I've studied for 20-some years. Biblical archaeology, I am not an expert. But one thing that I'm going to share with you today is sort of a summary of that experience in relationship to Biblical archaeology. You're welcome to listen in, but not necessarily hold my opinion, on some of these concepts.

I'd like to go with you on a pilgrimage today, as it were, and see if we can get close to some of the icons and the legends of old, and also try to find Jesus.

If we take a look, let's dim the lights, if you will. I'll dim them up here.

If you travel, as is common, some of the travels that we can go on are to very historic places. Places of old. And it's interesting to go back to old places. People travel to these all the time because it's interesting to go there. But when you go there, can you find him? Can you find him? Let's take David, for instance. David was a legendary figure in the Bible. He's an individual that archeology has had a tough time finding any record of, or any written record of, though there are some fragments and more and more things are coming to light.

But if we begin to look at David and the life of David, we see something very interesting about him in 2 Samuel chapter 5 beginning in verse 3.

Therefore all the elders of Israel came to the king in Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David over Israel. I'll give you just a little bit of background. The Israelites were very divided. It was a very divided kingdom, really, ever since they got into the Promised Land. There were jealousies and fighting. There was envy by the Ephraimites, who were the tribe that Moses and Joseph were part of. Saul was a Benjamin. David came along now. He's of Judah. He's moved the capital south into Jerusalem, or he will. The northern kingdom and the southern kingdom was really ripped apart. And so what this is talking about is David comes in, and he works it out to where everybody can be together, and for a short time Israel stuck as a nation.

And David was 30 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for 40 years. In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months, and in Jerusalem he reigned 33 years over all Israel and Judah. And the king and his men went to Jerusalem. Ah, you know what? When the Israelites came in to Palestine, land a Canaan, they didn't conquer at all.

There were lots of areas that the tribes hadn't conquered. In fact, Jerusalem at this point hadn't all been conquered. And so David came against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, He shall not come in here. He can't come into Jerusalem. No one has been able to take Jerusalem, not our part of Jerusalem, not the O'Fell.

The blind and the lame will repel you, thinking David cannot come in here. Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is the city of David.

David was able to pull something off that nobody had been able to pull off. The Jebusites were in a part of the city, I'll show you in just a minute, that was impenetrable. It was a little ridge that you couldn't attack because it was uphill. And they had a fort on top of the ridge. And they also had a water cistern coming underneath their walled fort. So they could stay in there indefinitely.

But David said, in verse 8, Whoever climbs up by the way of the water shaft and defeats the Jebusites, He shall be chief and captain. In verse 9, Then David dwelt in the stronghold and called it the city of David. And David built all around from the Milo and inward. Can we find him? Can we find David? Let's go to Jerusalem and see if we can get close to David.

What we see here is a pile of rocks. And then panning back, we see this pile of rocks is downhill from what we know as the Temple Mount. See the wall, the ancient wall of Jerusalem, the Temple Mount here, the Mosque of Omar in the middle, panning around.

You can see the valley here and coming up to where we're standing is the Mount of Olives. Now, at this point in time, we look back here and what do we see? We see a pile of stones. This is the foundation of David's palace. When we read in verse 9, David dwelt in the stronghold and called it the city of David, and David built all around from the Milo and inward. This is what David built. Can you go to where David was? Actually, you can't. That's just the foundation. One small part of the foundation that's been discovered.

It's been all torn down. It's been built on through the years. There is no place that you can go in Jerusalem and really find David. So, in my opinion, a pilgrimage to Jerusalem to find David won't happen. But can you find someone else? How about Daniel and Babylon? As we look at this drawing, this artist's rendition of the city of Babylon, one of the central features of Babylon was the gate. This is called the Easter Gate.

It's spelled I-S-H-T-A-R. It's pronounced Easter. You'll notice the link with a holiday that's common today. But as one came into the city, this beautiful gate was tiled. It was astounding. To the right and the back, you can see some of the hanging gardens of Babylon. You can see the palace of Nebuchadnezzar depicted here. What about Daniel? He was a legendary person. Can we find him? Can we go to Babylon, ancient Babylon, which has been excavated in part? Can we get close to Daniel? We find that it says here in Daniel 2, verse 48, The king promoted Daniel, gave him many great gifts.

He made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, chief administrator over all the wise men of Babylon, and also Daniel petitioned the king. And he set Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego over the affairs of the province of Babylon. But Daniel sat in the gate of the king. Wow! We've got a location. The gate. We're assuming the Ishtar Gate of the king. How close can we get to Daniel?

Well, you know, the Ishtar Gate has been found. And let's take a look. Let's take a look at what's been found and see how close we can get. Now, in another artist's rendition, here we see this Ishtar Gate.

I want you to notice the gate itself and the towers have some animals to the side. And you can see the design of the gate. Let's go to where those tiles are. They are ceramic tiles, glazed. And they exist right here in the museum in Berlin, Germany. This gate has been reconstructed in part from tiles that German archaeologists in the last century or the century before recovered from Babylon.

Now, the interesting thing about these tiles is, if you go to that museum, you can walk right up to the tiles. And Daniel sat somewhere in the gate. Was this the gate? Well, we don't know. The gate of the king? Not sure. Where would he have sat along this gate? I don't know. My wife and I in the Knudsen's have been to this museum in Berlin. We, unfortunately, didn't find Daniel.

This exhibit was closed that day, and we couldn't go into it. But we've been to the museum that houses it. Sadly, we didn't get to see the wall, just the photos. But you know what? If you walk up there, you can see something Daniel saw, but you can't actually find Daniel, or know specifically where he was. Now, look again. Notice here on the bottom left side, there is a wall coming up to the gate, and there are animals in relief there as well.

Those animals I saw a couple of weeks ago in Istanbul, ancient Constantinople. Here we see those very animals from that section of the wall. It's pretty neat to go there, you know? We need to realize that this stuff is six, seven, eight hundred years, B.C. You can even touch it. You can reach right out, and you can touch the glazed stones, the glazed bricks. But you can't find Daniel.

No record of him, not even in history. What about the Apostle Paul? The Apostle Paul went on many different trips, and one of them was in Athens. How close can we get to the Apostle Paul in Athens? Here we're looking over the city of five million people from the top of the Acropolis, where the Parthenon is located.

Now, Paul was up here, and somewhere he saw these things. It says, Now while Paul waited for them in Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. And looking down, you see idols and statues and bases and temples throughout that area, including this temple of Zeus up in the top left corner.

You can go up on the top of the Acropolis and you can see statues of various goddesses.

Paul went on to Mars Hill, which is also called the Areopagus. So we spin around from the top there, the Acropolis, and look down. See that rock outcrop there? Small rock outcrop? It's got some people walking around. That's Mars Hill. That's the Areopagus. That's where Paul went. In fact, we can read about this. Let's read Acts 17, verses 17-34.

Acts 17, beginning in verse 17. Therefore he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshippers, and in the marketplace daily. We don't know where the synagogue was in Athens. We don't know where the marketplace was in Athens. But here it begins to get a little closer. Verse 18 of Acts 17, then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him in some sin. What does this babbler want to say? Another said he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And so they took him and they brought him to the Areopagus, to this little rocky mount. It's not a big rocky mount. It's just a clump of uneven rock. And then he says, what's this new doctrine you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears, and therefore we want to know what these things mean. Verse 22, Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, Man of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious. For as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. Now, as I've heard, there were so many gods in the Greek culture that there was a law there could be no more. Because there were just too many. It was getting out of hand. So they just made one more and named it the Unknown God to cover all the rest. And they only did that after there was this outbreak of disease, and worshipping all the other gods didn't cure the disease, so they figured we must have missed one. So they named it the Unknown God, and sure enough the disease stopped. So Paul couldn't come along and legally preach another god. So he said to them, I was passing by, verse 23, considering the objects of your worship, and even found an altar with the inscription to the Unknown God. And therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, to him I proclaim, God who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. And he went on and he taught them. He taught them important things going on through verse 34. In verse 34 we read, However, some men joined him and believed, and among them Dionysius, the Areopagite, a woman named Damaris, and others with them. So Paul did a work here. Can we find him? Can we go stand where Paul stood? It's interesting if you go to this clump of rock, you can walk around. I'm not sure if it was level in the day. If it wasn't, why didn't they level it? You can go here and there. You can look around, but there's no marking that says Paul stood here. Paul went to Corinth, and this is a diagram of what Corinth looked like in the day.

If you notice point 1 there, that's the Temple of Zeus. There were many temples in Corinth. We have two books in the Bible about Corinth. In the next verse of what we were just reading, we see that after these things in Athens, Paul went to Corinth. A couple weeks ago, my wife and I did the same thing. We left Athens and went to Corinth. I found a certain Jew named Aquila, born in Pontus, who had recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla. Verse 3, because he was the same trade, he stayed with them and worked, for by occupation they were tent makers. Somewhere in town here, Paul, Aquila, Priscilla had a tent-making operation.

And in verse 4, he reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and he was there for quite some time, and persuaded both Jews and Greeks. Let's go into Corinth and see if we can find where Paul was. Wouldn't it be neat to just sort of go into the synagogue and stand there and say, if Paul stood here, or go to the tent shop and say, Paul and Aquila and Priscilla were here. This would be a great little pilgrimage going to Corinth. So off we go. Here is what Corinth looks like. Remember that temple of Zeus? It's right there in the middle. And I'll pause that right there and continue reading in verse 5. When Silas and Timothy had come from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit and testified to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. They opposed him and blasphemed him. And verse 7, he departed from there and entered the house of a certain man named Justus, who worshipped God, and whose house was next door to the synagogue. Wow! All we've got to do is find the synagogue. We've got Justus' house next door. We can find where Paul talked. We're on a roll. Paul was told in a vision, be strong, no one's going to hurt you. Verse 11, he continued there one and a half years, teaching the word of God among them. And there were some issues that took place there. Paul, verse 18, still remained there a good while, etc., etc. Now, what about these things? Can we go and enjoy those places? Moving on. As we look through the city, we see many buildings. Where's the synagogue? Where is the tent-making shop?

Well, as we look around, we do find this one thing. It's a bit of, some people would call it graffiti, because it's not a very well-made sign. Actually, just a second here. Let's go back just a second, because I'd like to pause on that.

Right. A little more. A little more. Right there. If you look at that, it is a sign that says, synagogue. This way. Synagogue. That way. It's a partial sign. It's only a fragment, but it's talking about the synagogue. Somebody probably got frustrated, because nobody could find the synagogue. And so they scratched out on some wall or building or something. Synagogue. That way. But, notice. Notice where this thing sits today. It sits in a courtyard by the museum entrance. Stuck on the side of a building, because they don't know where it came from.

They don't know where the rest of it is. They don't know where the arrow part. That way. Never found it. You can go all the way through the city of Corinth. There's no indication that a synagogue is there. You can look high. You can look low. You can see a lot of buildings that were there at the time of Paul.

It was a good-sized little city. You can walk the colonnade entryway, the main entrance to the city. Maybe Paul walked on those stones. Probably did, if you lived there a year and a half. But, wherever you look, you can't find Paul. And then Paul came to Ephesus, and he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews. Now, here we are in Ephesus. Ephesus is really a neat town, because unlike some of the other excavations, Ephesus is a little taller. They found more of the buildings, more of the structures, and they've been putting them back together. So, some of them are just facades, but nevertheless, here's a main thoroughfare right down to the library at the end. And around the corner is another major thoroughfare we'll go to. Paul probably walked there. Can we find Paul? Can we find the synagogue he taught in? In Acts chapter 19, in the first seven verses, it says it happened while Apollos was in Corinth that Paul, having passed through the upper regions, came to Ephesus. And, finding some disciples, he said to them, Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed? Some things happen here at Ephesus that were very interesting.

The first instance of rebaptism took place. The first instance of anointed cloth took place here in Ephesus.

In verse 8, When he went into the synagogue, he spoke boldly for three months, reasoning and persuading and concerning the things of the kingdom of God. But when some were hardened and did not believe, but spoke evil of the way, here's the first time the church was named. It was in Ephesus, the way it was called at that time. We live God's way. It's a path we follow. People began to call it the way.

He withdrew from the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Terenas. All we need to do is find Terenas' school, and we can find Paul taught daily right there.

And all this continued for two years.

So we look around town.

We can find various things, but no synagogue. You can't find the synagogue in Ephesus. Thus you can't find the school either of Terenas. We just know that Paul was in town somewhere.

There are some interesting things that happened. I mentioned Anointing Clause, verse 12. Then there were individuals in verse 13 who weren't in the church, but they saw Paul casting out demons in the name of Jesus Christ. And so several of them, I think it was about seven of them, they took it on themselves to call the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits and said, we exercise you by the Jesus whom Paul preaches.

They weren't members of the church, but they were already getting left out of the casting out demon business. So whoever it is that God that Paul, in the same way that he does it, we cast you out. Verse 15, there were seven sons of the priest.

And the evil spirit answered and said, Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?

And then that man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them and overpowered them and prevailed so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. Here come the seven sons of the priest running down the street naked after having tried to do something in the name of the God that Paul worships.

Verse 18, many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds. Many of those who practiced magic brought their books together and burned them. And they counted up the value of those books and a total of 50,000 pieces of silver. Paul had quite an effect on these individuals. A belief. Getting rid of the pagan books and bringing in true things. So that happened there in town. It was pretty neat. But can we get close to Paul? Well, if we look here and... Let's see, we just go back just here. Look right here. And you see this nice avenue, colonnades, going on now in verse 23 through 29. About that time there arose a great commotion about the way. For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Diana, brought no small profit to the craftsmen. Somewhere along here, probably, were these silversmith shops and they're banging out these statues. Icons for Diana. Want to get close to your goddess? Want to get close to, really, Semiramis and one of her, you know, kind of revisions down through time? Well, you can take one home. You can get real close to your god of fertility, your goddess, the queen mother of heaven. You can take one home.

You know, people, they want to be close to famous people and their gods are goddesses. So this was quite a business.

And they brought them no small profit. Verse 25. He called them together and said, Man, you know that we have our prosperity by this trade.

And so Paul, they're complaining that he's turning people away from worshipping Diana and getting rid of the books.

Verse 28. Now when they heard this, They were full of wrath and cry out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. So the whole city was filled with confusion. And they rushed, they rushed here, right down the street, at the end of the road, is the amphitheater, or the arena, or the, let's see, it's called theater.

They seized Gaius and Aristarchus and Macedonians, Paul's traveling companions. And when Paul wanted to go in to the people, here they are, they rush into the theater, they take his two traveling companions, they're all in there. Let's go in with Paul, right? Ready? We're going to run in there, we're going to stand where Paul stood. And Paul, who wanted to go in to the people, found that the disciples would not allow him. Verse 30. Paul didn't go there, didn't go in. Some of the officials of Asia, who were with his friends, sent to him pleading that he would not enter the theater. Now maybe he went there sometime and watched the show, I don't know. But he didn't go there the day where they had the great problem of greatest Diana, the Ephesians, and they yelled that for hours to drown out any defense of what Paul was doing. But we do find in verse 35, the city clerk quieted the crowd and said, Hey, we've got a problem here. This is a Roman province. They're Roman soldiers here. They don't like revolts. And verse 40. For we are in danger of being called into question for today's uproar, there being no reason which we may give it to account for this disorderly gathering. And when he had said these things, he dismissed the assembly. And after the uproar had ceased, chapter 20, Paul called the disciples to himself, embraced them, and departed. So we can't find Paul in Ephesus either. Paul went to Rhodes. It came to pass. When he left there, he departed from them, set sail, set a straight course, and came here to Rhodes. Here's the harbor at Rhodes, where Paul had to come in. This is the small harbor.

It didn't look exactly like this in Paul's day, but you can't find Paul. What about Paul in Caesarea?

Caesarea Meritima is a town created on the coast of modern-day Israel by Herod the Great. And what it was was a port where the Romans, the Roman legions, the Roman leaders, and everybody could sail into a protected port and then travel by land to Jerusalem or other places.

So the brethren brought him down to Caesarea at some point. What about Caesarea? Here's an artist's rendition of Caesarea in ancient times. You can see how nicely built up it is. They found the ruins for all of these things. You can see a temple and back over on this corner in the green area, just the edge of Herod's palace. You can see the protected harbor. Let's go to Caesarea and see. Can we find Paul in Caesarea? Modern-day Caesarea here is panning that very harbor, what it looks like today. It's not so grand. You see just a little bit of rubble in the water, the tips of some of the foundation stones that were part of those old ruins. When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the church. Now, the church is in the building, is it? We can look around and see a bunch of buildings. Where did the church meet? Where did Paul go? Where were they?

There's no record of a church, of God, of the way. Paul meeting with them anywhere in Caesarea. It's quite a large place with many, many, many ruins.

What about when he was incarcerated by the Romans? This actually gets quite a bit closer. We look here, we're looking at the Temple Mount, the way it looked in Christ's time and in Paul's time.

You can see the Temple Mount, the temple up there on the left. To the right is Fortress Antonia, named by Herod after Mark Antony, whom he wanted to kiss up to a little bit after not supporting him. On that Temple Mount, Fortress Antonia provided the Roman soldiers with a garrison right at the temple. So anytime anything of the Jews started getting out of hand, out they went. That's where Jesus was taken into and received his stripes before being crucified. He was beaten by the soldiers and made fun of, and a crown of thorns put on his head.

The Apostle Paul would be in a similar situation, I believe, in that very fortress. As we read in Acts 23, verse 13, we find he's going to be here and then go back to Caesarea. Acts 23, verse 13.

Now, when there were more than 40 who had formed a conspiracy, Paul here is being interrogated, and there was a conspiracy to kill him as he was brought back for interrogation up to Fortress Antonia. They came to the chief priests and elders and said, We have bound ourselves under a great oath that we will eat nothing until we have killed Paul.

So, you therefore, together with the council, suggest that the Roman commander that he be brought to you tomorrow as though you were going to make further inquires concerning him. We are ready to kill him before he comes near. So, when Paul's sister's son, his nephew, heard about this ambush, he went and entered the barracks and told Paul. There's the barracks. He told Paul, don't come down tomorrow. This is what's going to happen. Paul put the word out and warned them. Verse 22, So the commander let the young man depart. It wasn't Paul, but Paul's nephew warned him. In verse 23, here's what happened. And this commander called for two centurions, saying, prepare 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen to go to Caesarea at the third hour of the night. So, that is what the Romans did for a Roman citizen to protect him from being killed from the Jews. 200 soldiers, 70 horsemen, and 200 spearmen. That's a lot of Roman army to trek out of here and head way back up into northern Israel and off to the west to Caesarea. But that's precisely what they did. And when Paul was up there, he was safe, as it were. In verse 24, we read, he was brought safely to Felix, the governor. If we go back to Caesarea, where Paul now is taken, we can look the other way, spinning around. We can look off over to where Herod's palace is, off in that point. And here today are the ruins of Herod's palace and some of the area, the praetorium, where he was kept. But after two years, the porcous festus succeeded Felix, and Felix, wanting to do the Jews a favor, left Paul bound. Paul was bound somewhere around here. Can you find him? Can you go where Paul was? Can you figure it out? Can you figure out what is either on top of the water or out there underwater, where Paul would have been held? You can go to Caesarea, but the problem is, once you get there, you really can't stand on the place or find the exact location where Paul was.

Paul says, if I've done anything wrong, persecute me. But otherwise, at the bottom, I've appealed to Caesar. And the council festus says, then to Caesar you will go. And from there, we find that they took off, entered the ship, and we put to sea.

The last time Paul was here, he sailed right out of this harbor and began his journey to Rome, where he would die.

Can you find him? We're not having a lot of luck here. What about finding Jesus?

If we look at traditional Jesus sites, and there are many of them throughout what we might call the Holy Land, these sites weren't nailed down when Jesus was alive. In fact, once he was gotten rid of, the Jews wanted to get rid of any reminders of him.

And in particular, in 70 AD, the Romans came in and kicked all the Jews out of all of Israel. The diaspora, they dispatched them, they dispersed them into other countries, and they would not let them back in.

For hundreds of years, the Jews could not go back in. The Romans renamed the area Palestine.

Palestine was actually the name. It was a reference to offend the Jews.

Palestine meant the area of the Philistines, the land of the Philistines, just a real stench in the Jews' nostrils.

And then they renamed all the cities. They renamed Jerusalem, and they named by Roman names. And they tore down everything. Tore it all down. Then they built up gods of the Roman gods, formerly the Greek gods and the Babylonian gods and temples to them.

Some 300 years later, an 80-year-old woman came back to that area that was very different 300 years later, and established traditional Jesus sites, including his birthplace, sites at his life events, his crucifixion, his burial.

These things were not only done 300 years, but later as well, as we'll find out by other groups, associated with or given that authority by the Catholic Church.

But they came back to an area that was unknown, where nobody knew what took place or where, that had changed dramatically.

These sites give religious pilgrims an emotional experience to go back and reconnect at certain sites. But can we find him at these sites, or what sites can we find him at might be the best question. If you go to Israel today, you'll find, for instance, the Temple Mount.

Let's go up to the Temple Mount. In Mark 13, verses 1 and 2, we'll find our first challenge in finding Jesus on the Temple Mount.

When I say finding Jesus, finding where he stood, where he was, where he did something, to stand in the same spot, to go have an emotional connection with where he was. Mark 13, in the first two verses, this is a beautiful area. King Herod had built this thing up. The temple shone white. It had gold on it. When the morning sun hit it, Josephus described it as one of the great wonders of the world.

It would seem quite common for individuals to make statements. It actually should be 13, verses 1.

To make statements like this, This is breathtaking.

Jesus said to them, Therein lies a problem when you go into Jerusalem looking for where Jesus stood.

It's all been dismantled. Not one stone that was visible.

Some foundational stones underground, yes, but not one visible stone, he said, would not be thrown down.

Now let's go to Jerusalem. Remember this photo right here. Remember what this looks like. Here's what it looks like today. Where did everything go?

It was all thrown down and it's been rebuilt in various ways through the centuries.

That's what it looks like today. A very, very different place.

Nothing original. No spot original.

It's a bit of a shock, a bit of a challenge. People want to get close. For instance, if you notice right here in this corner that's closest to the bottom of the screen, had the blessing of being on an archaeological dig here back in 1971 that wrapped that corner from that first little wall sticking out down to the bottom and around the corner. We dug deeper and deeper and deeper, going back through civilizations.

Just to the left of that area, the first wall, just to the left of that first wall, is what's called the Wailing Wall or the Western Wall.

The Jews today come there, men on the left, women on the right, to get close to God. It's their pilgrimage. As close as they could get to the Holy Place, the Holy of Holies, where God was. The rest is built up underneath the city. But they've excavated down to where they found some old stones that Herod laid of the foundation of the Temple Mount, and that's where they can get to God. There are signs all around there that say, you are approaching, or you are in the presence of the divine Spirit in this location. Now, in recent years, somebody's tunneled up underneath there and gotten even closer underground to a few pieces of rock, and a little trail is about as wide as this lectern, and you can get in there under the ground, and you can even get closer, and you'll find some people praying there. We're even closer to where God was.

But, as you can see, there's not a lot of original places you can go to. We look here, this moss, it's over a close proximity to where the old temple was. They don't know exactly where it was. They think maybe a little bit to the left. The wall in the front isn't the original wall. That was rebuilt. This corner right there, if you can see it in the shadow, the corner pointing to the left, is where Jesus Christ was taken up by Satan and said, cast yourself down when he was being tempted. The only problem is, that's not the exact corner. All that was torn down. So today you can only go where someone else, in this case, King Suleiman the Magnificent in 1540, rebuilt that part of the wall. There are some things in town, as you look, that are mentioned in the Bible, the Kidron Valley coming up the hill. An interesting concept is here in the shadow and the foreground are graves, because we're on the Mount of Olives. And here's a reverse thing. People want to be close to what happened in the past. They also want to be close to what's going to happen in the future. Jesus Christ is going to stand on the Mount of Olives, right? So they want to be buried as close to the top as possible, so they'll be the first to be resurrected. Now today it costs one million dollars to be buried near the summit. A million dollars per coffin to be buried near the summit.

Further down, you can get a price break, because you won't be just right there. I'm telling you, people want to be close, somehow have a connection to God, either in the past or in the future.

As we look on down through that... Well, anyway, here we see the Wailing Wall, women's on the right, men's on the left, people trying to get close to their God, and the old prayers stuck in those rocks. Now in the lobby out here, we have a reproduction of that western Wailing Wall.

The walls in the lobby are made with the chiseled edge, like the Herodian stones, and this is kind of a replica, as it were, of the Wailing Wall. And if you go outside on some Sabbaths, you'll find that little pieces of paper are crammed in there, and people even here will write little prayers or little notes and jam them in between the rocks, because they want God to hear them. They're trying to find where God is, and how can I somehow get close to Him?

Now this is an aerial view looking down at the top of the Temple Mount, and we see B is the Mosque of Omar, and if you notice to the right, the letter A, I'll show you some video from the point A. We'll go down on this Temple Mount and have a look around.

Here's what you see. If you're going to look for a place where Jesus was, you're going to have a problem, because this is all Arab, it's all Muslim, it's all been built up largely, it's much higher than it ever was, nothing here is original. You know, the Jews don't even bother coming up here, because there's nothing original. We can zoom in across over to the Mount of Olives, you can see the old Intercontinental Hotel, you can see some of the gravestones up there, people wanting to be close, Christians who want to be close when Christ returns, but alas, we don't find Him.

Now this is looking down at that corner where we did the archaeology, you can see an old remain of a bridge that used to come across, everything's dug out, you can see how deep you had to go into the ground just to get back to the period of when Christ lived. But there's nothing here that's original, these are all later dated from the Omiide period that we're looking at here.

Or if you could go around the corner to the right a little bit, just beyond that wall, it'd come to this area. And these are steps that used to go up to the Temple Mount at some point, and you can see the remains of a gate right there.

Could that be gate beautiful? Well, turns out these walls and gates were rebuilt by Suleiman the Magnificent in 1540. So even when the tour guide points over here and says, oh, some people think these three gates that are sealed, that was the gate beautiful, where Jesus told the man to go down and wash himself in the pool of Siloam. That ain't it. Now, how about this? When Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean cloth, and he laid it in a new tomb, which he had hewn out of the rock.

Joseph did it himself. This was 31 A.D. This thing had just been completed. Nobody had been put in this tomb yet. And he rolled a large stone against the door of the tomb, and he departed. And Mary Magdalene was there, and the other Mary was there. Wouldn't it be nice to go to the tomb and see where they laid Jesus and know that you're in the place where Joseph and Mary and the other Mary were there? Let's go, shall we? Tour guide will take you there. This is the Garden Tomb.

Now, this is the Garden Tomb that some feel is the place where Christ was buried. Was buried. I had the opportunity of going to the place where Christ was buried in 1971. As a young man, it was quite an emotional experience to walk right up, go through that door, actually look over the iron fence into that door, and see where Jesus Christ's body was. You can't do that today. You could only do that back then. You see, archaeology today realizes that this was actually 500 years old when Christ was alive. Archaeology has gotten better at dating through the years, and so now all you can say about the Garden Tomb is, it wasn't new, it wasn't made by Josephus, and definitely Jesus Christ was never anywhere around it.

But, nice try. In fact, you can see it's kind of round. It's got a big stone. That thing could have been really big. Can't you just see it? And if you go there, there's a little channel in front that you and I would put a big stone there. And we'd roll it back and forth. And we'd feel good about this, as people did, actually, for a long time. The only problem is that little channel wasn't for stones. It was a little water channel, because just to the right up in the rock, there's a little artesian well that trickles out there.

And so they made that little channel in front of the building to direct the water. And just to keep it away from the house a little bit, they made it on an angle to kind of make the water go to the outside of the channel.

So if you did put a stone in there, it would simply fall out on the ground. Oh, and by the way, the channel was made in about, I think it was 1500 AD, about 14-1500 years after Christ lived. Hundreds of years, anyway, may not have that exact. So this was not the tomb. There was no stone that was ever rolled in front of that.

And that water channel didn't exist at any time when Christ was alive. Nice try, but you can't go there. What about where they have the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Holy Sepulchre, where Jesus was buried? You know, it says in Hebrews, I believe it's Hebrews 12, that Jesus was crucified outside the wall, outside the gates of Jerusalem. The Holy Sepulchre is right in the middle of the old city, right in the middle of the old city walls. And the only thing that was interesting about that, as we'll see maybe in a little bit, it used to be the temple of Astarte, and it was converted at some point into a Christian temple, just like the old Babylonian, Greek, Roman gods were converted into the people and the saints and the gods of modern Christianity.

So we don't find Jesus, unfortunately, but it was quite an event. Go there in 1971, I'll tell you. It was a fake event, but nevertheless, it was quite a pilgrimage. Here is actually more what the tomb of the day looked like. Here my wife is looking in one, and as we look in there you can kind of see it's small, has a rolling door, has a place to lay a body out and some place to gather the bones to.

How about that? Could that be it? That was made about ten years ago for tourists, as an example. What about the Via Dolorosa? Can you go to where Jesus walked with the cross? Can you make that pilgrimage? Well, you can find some good things to eat along that way. But you have to remember that all of this has been reconstructed, and the Via Dolorosa goes from the wrong location to the wrong location.

Jesus was not crucified within the city walls. He certainly wasn't buried there either, according to the Bible. And after leaving Nazareth, Jesus came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is by the Sea of Galilee. This is interesting because this became his home for quite some time. And if we zoom across the Sea of Galilee, which is just a lake, we see the little city, the ancient town of Capernaum, that has been dug up, as it were.

And this lake is a little smaller than Lake Havasu. It's not a large lake, but violent storms do come up there. If you go across, you can find these ruins. Let's notice in Mark 4, verses 17-23. Mark 4, beginning in verse 17.

Mark, am I in Mark 4? Just a minute here while I figure out where I'm supposed to be. We'll back up here just...oh, I think it's Matthew 4. I'm sorry, it says Mark. Let's go to Matthew 4, verses 17-23. From that time, Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. So here is Jesus. He comes to this area, Capernaum, in the Sea of Galilee. And this is where some amazing things start taking place. He's preaching repentance. He's preaching the kingdom of God.

Walking by the Sea of Galilee, in verse 18, he saw two brothers. Simon called Peter and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Right down here on the coast, right in there somewhere. He can go where Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew. Except we don't exactly know where the boats were, do we? Somewhere along that coast. And he said, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they left their nets and followed them.

And going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James, the son of Zebedee, John and his brother, in the boat with Zebedee, their father, mending nets. And he called them, and they left their nets and they followed him. And Jesus went about Galilee, about the Sea of Galilee, in the area, the region of Galilee up there, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, healing all kinds of sickness, and all the disease among the people.

And his fame went throughout all of Syria. So, this is quite an area. Maybe we can find him here in Galilee, Capernaum. Some incredible events happened there. Now, one thing that he did was he taught in the synagogues. Here's...if you go there with your tour guide, they'll take you to the synagogue. I went here in 1971.

I was so incredibly inspired to walk where Jesus taught where Peter was, where Andrew was, where John was. You know, it was so great to just be right there. You didn't want to leave. Archaeology's gotten a little better. You can't do that today. This, turns out, isn't a synagogue. It's a temple. It's a pagan temple. After the Romans tore the synagogue down, remember when they ejected the Jews?

They tore the synagogue down. They built this pagan temple. You can notice all the kind of Roman designs, etc., etc. Now, just so you know, this time it wasn't quite so exciting to go back and find out this wasn't a synagogue, but evidently it's above the site of the old synagogue. And they know that, or they think that, because they have found one stone that may have been a foundation stone for the synagogue.

That's as close as you can get. That's as close as you can get. Now, there's other things you can see there that they say. They can go to Peter's house, which is actually another temple, but anyway. Say la vie. What else can we find in Capernaum if we can't see him in the temple? Well, here's the remains of the town.

Peter lived here. Jesus healed Peter's mother-in-law somewhere. This is foundation stones, once again. There's just nothing left. There's not much there of any consequence. We don't know where anything took place. But, of course, people want a pilgrimage, and so if you go, they have traditional sites for everything, including where this net was cast, where that fish was caught, things like that.

Now, backing off and looking around a little bit further, let's notice something here. If you take the book of Matthew, seriously, let's just look at the book of Matthew. Chapter 4, here we find that at the end, he calls his disciples, chapter 5, the Beatitudes, going on through. He begins to talk about the commandment being expanded, the law being expanded, doesn't he?

Magnified. In chapter 6, he teaches us the model prayer. Very important stuff. Seeking first the kingdom of God. Chapter 7, he tells us to build on the rock. Chapter 8, he does many miracles there, right in Capernaum. He has all 12 apostles. He sends them out from there to heal the sick, and they come back. He teaches with parables. In just a rough assessment, I would say more parables of Jesus Christ were given right here than any other place. It's a powerful place to come to and realize that upon one of the hills around there, he gave the Beatitudes. In fact, back a little bit further, see those mountains in the back?

One of those may have been the place where he was transfigured in front of John and Peter and James. Before then, this is quite an area that is just fantastic. He declared himself the Lord of the Sabbath. A parable of the sower and the seed. Many, many, many parables about the kingdom of God. After John the Baptist was beheaded, he walked on the sea. This is the place where he was in the boat and the tempest came up, and he calmed the sea. This is also the place where, after he was resurrected, he came back and he met his disciples once again.

Remember he called to them and told them to throw the net on the other side of the boat, and it about broke the net?

Going on through, Pharisees and the Sadducees healing the great multitudes, the loaves and the fishes, twice, by the way, two different groups.

Taking up our cross and following him, Chapter 17, predicting his death and resurrection.

Right on into Chapter 18, all the way through 18, various parables.

Chapter 19, verse 1, it came to pass when Jesus had finished these sayings that he departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea.

He headed on down to Jerusalem, where he would be betrayed and killed.

Galilee was a huge part of his life, and it's a beautiful place to go to.

Many events happened here, again. Here are some of them.

The interesting thing is, we don't know where any of those took place.

And when they had crossed over, they came to the land of Geneseret.

There were events that you'll read that took place over on that eastern shore of the lake as well. Now, it's a challenge finding Jesus. Many people have had this challenge.

Constantine's mother was the lady who established the original traditional sites.

She was nearly 80 years old. Constantine was the emperor of Rome.

Constantinople is Konstein-Antinople. It was named after him. It was the second capital of Rome.

He was dwelling there. That's where the Council of Nicaea was.

That's where Rome really began to separate out the current Christian religion from that of the Bible.

Constantine said, don't let anything of the Jews or of the Bible come into Christianity.

We want Sunday not to touch Saturday. It's separated by six hours.

We want Easter never to get near the Passover. If it does, it's put backward a week.

The forbidding of Sabbath observance came with the sentence of death, if anyone was found keeping the Sabbath day.

What had been persecuted by the Romans, largely because of his mother, Helena, which she became known by many things, Helena of Constantinople, Saint Helena.

But Helena, the mother of Constantine, was given full access to the treasury of Rome to go back to the Holy Land and establish the holy sites, because people needed a pilgrimage.

These were people who were used to foreign gods, gods, temples of this, Jupiter, Zeus, Apollo, and all these various gods.

This had to be repackaged. It had to be redone.

The holidays of Romans, the Romans came to cherish and love the festival of Baca, Saturnalia, Easter, the goddesses, the queen mother of heaven, and so many of the other gods.

Constantine himself worshipped to his death. His favorite god was Apollo.

These had to be repackaged into this Christianity and rolled out as a syncristic, multiple polytheistic religion into a queen mother, Mary, and Jesus.

His mother did quite an amazing job when you think about it.

Consider that she went back there 300 years after the events happened, and no one was around that knew anything, and there was no historical record of anything.

Here's what she came up with at age 80.

She found the site of the burning bush near Sinai, where Moses saw the burning bush.

She found the true cross.

Pieces of it. The true cross. The original one. It's amazing.

Today you can see pieces, or at least you can see the box it's in at the basilica of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem.

I say the true cross because that's what they named it, the true cross. I'm not saying it's the true cross.

We found Jesus' birthplace. Amazing, wasn't it?

Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

Instead of being out in a manger, turns out it was in a cave, and there's a hole you can go to today.

Found the location of his ascension.

Isn't it amazing? There's a church where you can go and find where he ascended.

She was able to determine that the church of Aphrodite, the temple of Aphrodite, that the Romans had built on a crossroads, north-south streets, they had built this temple, was actually where Jesus was buried.

Underneath. Wasn't that amazing? Just happened to find that.

It's now the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

Amazingly, also 300 years after Christ died, she found the nails that were driven into the cross.

A cross that, surprisingly, looked a lot like the one that had been worshipped since ancient times, from Egyptian days, with the crosspiece on it.

And the nails that went in. Amazing that the iron had survived 300 years in the ground. But she found them.

She also, I mean, it gets better. She found the holy tunic that he was wrapped in when he was laid in that site there in the middle of Jerusalem, next to where he was crucified.

And for a fee, you can tour these places, too. And many, many more, by the way.

Pilgrimage to the Holy Land had become very, very popular. Remember, that's what the Crusades were about. They were pilgrimages by Europeans.

They had been taken over by the Islamic people. And so now the Europeans wanted to go down and pay a pilgrimage. They couldn't.

So they would send armies down to various types to open it up so people could go in and get close to God.

So you can't get close to God in some cathedral. You can get close to a priest who may be close to God. But you can't get close to God. But if you can go back there, you can get close to God. You can maybe find Him. Sure enough, if you go there for a price, you can find all kinds of places.

The Pope granted the administration of the holy places in Jerusalem to monks.

Now, this was 1300 years after Christ died. You now had the monks who were given the administration. They began to find some even more interesting places, like the 14 stations of the cross.

Going on the wrong way. Actually, when the 14 stations of the cross were determined by the Church, there were many routes that were popular with pilgrims that were coming there. Everybody had an idea. Somebody had to pick one. They found where He gave the Sermon on the Mount up in Capernaum. There's a church there today. It gets even better. Today, you can visit the Church of the Visitation. They know where the angel talked to Mary. The Assumption location. The Ascension.

The Church of the Loaves and the Fishes. As I said, Peter's house marries well. The room where the Last Supper took place. It's amazing how all of that modern structure that is there today is tens of feet above what used to be. But they have found up here the room where they had the Last Supper. It's quite amazing. I'm sure you want to go see it.

They've found the Church of Mary Magdalene. They found Mary's tomb. Isn't that amazing? Now, if you need to take a pilgrimage to find Jesus, tours are available. And tour guides are waiting. Now, as we look here, begin to conclude this, here's what Mary said. It's kind of like a dilemma of a pilgrim today. Only a little different. But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping. And then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? And she said, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. People do not know where Jesus was. People do not know where the events were that happened to him. She was asking that from a different perspective. But it's interesting, though, that people today do not know either where they have laid him. Here is my, I don't know if it's educated, I think it's somewhat educated conclusion. Every site is a myth from his birthplace to Calvary to the tomb. You cannot find Jesus in antiquity. In fact, I dare you to find him even in written form anywhere in history. It's almost as if God wants us to have faith. And God wants us to actually have a relationship with him, not with some spot he was in 2000 years ago. And so, there are no authentic sites that exist where Jesus was. What can we do? Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and they said, Woman, why are you weeping? Because they have taken away and we don't know where he is. Where can you and I find him? Where can we find him? Let's look in the Bible and see. Where can we find Jesus? We won't find him in these temples, we won't find him in churches, we won't find him near a wall, we won't find him in some historical ruin, we won't find him by jumping around or peeking around in tombs. Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him. God will come to us. We don't have to go to him. There's where God is. He's in there. And in there. And in there. God lives inside us, the temple of the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? So if you have the opportunity to go out and do some touring and look at archaeological sites, be sure and take God with you because he lives inside.