Transcript

When American astronaut Neil Armstrong, a devout Christian, visited Israel after his trip to the moon, he was taken on a tour of the Old City of Jerusalem by Israeli archaeologist Meir Ben-Dov.

When they got to the Hulda Gate, which is at the top of the stairs leading to the Temple Mount, Armstrong asked Ben-Dov whether Jesus had stepped anywhere around there.

“I told him, ‘Look, Jesus was a Jew,’” recalled Ben-Dov. “These are the steps that lead to the Temple, so He must have walked here many times.” Armstrong then asked if these were the original steps, and Ben-Dov confirmed that they were.

“So Jesus stepped right here?” asked Armstrong. “That’s right,” answered Ben-Dov. “I have to tell you,” Armstrong said to the Israeli archaeologist, “I am more excited stepping on these stones than I was stepping on the moon.”

It is amazing to think that God took on flesh and came to this earth to die for sinners. It is easy to understand Neil Armstrong’s excitement to walk where Christ did in Jerusalem.

The places, cities, and geography all over Israel line up exactly with the description and teachings of the Bible. This is especially true in Jerusalem. All this demonstrates why you can trust the Bible.

Luke 22:39-44: “And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.

“And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

“And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.”

The Garden of Gethsemane is at the base of the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem. You can go and see this Garden today.

The term Gethsemane means “oil press.” Being at the base of the Mount of “olives” and having olive trees in it, olives were crushed in a wooden olive press in this garden, out of which they would gather the oil for the purposes of cooking and using in lamps.

And just as olives were pressed here, so this is where our Lord was pressed and crushed within His soul, as He agonized in the hours leading up to the Cross.

Luke 22:39 that Christ was accustomed to going to the Mount of Olives and John 18:2 says of this garden: “for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with His disciples.”

When the Lord was in Jerusalem during His earthly ministry, He often went to this Garden. Luke 21:37 says that at night He abode and slept on the Mount of Olives.

Since this was His normal course of action to go to the Garden of Gethsemane and sleep on the Mount of Olives, Judas knew where to find Christ when he led the soldiers to Him on the night of his betrayal.

Knowing what Judas knew, Christ could have gone anywhere but the garden because that was the most obvious place where Judas would come to try and find Him.

But our Savior is not cowering Savior, not a hiding Savior, not a running Savior, but a majestically courageous Savior who willingly came to this world to die out of infinite love for you and me.

Thus, Christ went to the Garden that night and made it very easy for them to find Him and arrest Him, because this was the appointed hour in which God had appointed that His Son should die.

I like John’s account of the night in the garden when Judas and the band of men entered the garden with lanterns, torches, and weapons.

John 18:4-6 reads, “Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground.”

Our Savior knocked them to the ground by the power of His spoken word. He just said “I am” and the revelation of Himself as the I AM was so overpowering that all these men immediately fell backward, including Judas.

And this reminds us that that the soldiers didn’t take Him, He willingly went with them and willingly went to the Cross. The soldiers could have left their weapons at home, He wasn’t going to resist. He was going to the Cross to die for our sins.

Matthew 27:57-60: “When the even was come, there came a rich man of Arimathaea, named Joseph, who also himself was Jesus’ disciple: He went to Pilate, and begged the body of Jesus. Then Pilate commanded the body to be delivered.

“And when Joseph had taken the body, he wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, And laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.”

Another proof for why you can trust the Bible is because there are numerous rolling stone tombs dating to the first century in and around Jerusalem. Some of them still have circular rolling stones by their entrances.

This is the type of tomb that our Lord was buried in. As Matthew 27:60 tells us, Joseph of Arimathea laid the Lord’s body “in his own new tomb, which he had hewn out in the rock: and he rolled a great stone to the door of the sepulchre, and departed.”

This type of tomb, which was carved out of the rock, was for people of means and wealth.

And Matthew 27:57 tells us that Joseph was a rich man. It was a sacrifice for Joseph to give this tomb to the Lord. But, as we know, Christ only used it for three days.

Isaiah 53:9 prophesied of the Messiah, “And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.”

The door to these rock tombs were typically made of a heavy, circular-shaped stone, which could only be moved by several strong men. This was done to ensure that no one would disturb the remains.

In these types of tombs, the body was laid after being wrapped in linen cloth with ointments and spices. And then, customarily, the Jews left these bodies alone for a few years until they decayed down to the bones.

Then the bones were placed in a small limestone box called an ossuary. And the ossuary remained in the tomb with the remains of other family members.

Speaking of these ossuaries, a significant one was discovered not long ago in Jerusalem.

Caiaphas was the high priest in Jerusalem from A.D. 18-36. He was the high priest in Jerusalem at the time of Christ. The Lord stood before Caiaphas at one of the late-night sham trials before He was handed over to Pilate to be tried.

In November 1990, about two miles south of Jerusalem, workers constructing a road in a park accidentally broke through a first-century burial cave.

When archaeologists examined the tomb they found 12 bone boxes or ossuaries. One of the ossuaries held the bones of a 60-year-old male and was twice inscribed with the name of Caiaphas.

It is a highly decorated, intricately carved ossuary. Most ossuaries are plain and contain no inscriptions, but the Caiaphas ossuary is ornately decorated as would be the case for a high priest such as Caiaphas. This remarkable discovery provided the physical remains of an individual named in the Bible!

John Crossan, a scholar who is critical of the Gospels, even had to acknowledge that “[Caiaphas’s] name, and the names of the family interred with him, make it clear that the small shaft tomb was the family resting place for the high priest Caiaphas mentioned by name in Matthew 26 and John 18 for his role in the crucifixion. This is a direct link to the gospel stories of Jesus’s execution.”

Luke 23:33: “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.”

In 1968, in a Jewish neighborhood in northeast Jerusalem, building contractors unexpectedly uncovered an ancient burial site containing about 35 bodies.

An 18-inch limestone ossuary, or bone box, was found at the site, in which were the bones of a man between 24 and 28 years old when he died. The box gave the man’s name and had the Hebrew inscription, “Yehohanan the son of Hagkol.”

What was remarkable was that a 7-inch iron nail remained in his heel bone which showed that he had been crucified. Because of the value of iron and nails at that time, typically the nail would have been reused for other crucifixions. But the end of the nail was bent, making it difficult to remove, which probably explains why it was still in his heel.

He had been crucified anywhere between AD 7 and AD 66. Fragments of olive wood were found at the point of the nail, revealing the wood of the cross on which he died. This was the first archaeological discovery from Roman times of a crucifixion victim.

Today, the bone box and heel bone is displayed in a gallery at the Israel Museum alongside other artifacts from the period of Roman rule in Judea.

The Bible records that our Lord was crucified and they drove nails through His hands and feet. And this find is confirmation of Roman crucifixions from the time of Christ.

John 5:1-2: “After this there was a feast of the Jews; and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda, having five porches.”

I have so many “favorite” things in the Bible I lose track of them all! One of my favorite accounts in the Lord’s earthly ministry is the healing of the lame man at the Pool of Bethesda.

For many years, the pool of Bethesda was cited by critics as an example of the inaccuracy of the Bible, because no such place had been found in Jerusalem.

But those criticisms stopped when the pool was discovered about 300 feet north of the Temple Mount. It had been buried under centuries of rubble.

You have to look way down to see the pool. How far down it is shows how the city of Jerusalem has been built and rebuilt on top of things from the past.

Interestingly, along with the discovery of the pool, archaeological excavations discovered, that like the Bible says, the pool had “five porches.”

These porches are referring to covered walkways with columns. There were four porches surrounding the pool, one on each side, and a fifth one that cut through the middle. It’s exactly as the Bible says and as John described it.

Bethesda means “house of mercy,” and John 5:4 teaches how God in His mercy toward Israel had an angel stir the water of the pool from time to time, and whoever was first into the water “was made whole of whatsoever disease he had.”

Thus, understandably, there was “a great multitude of impotent folk, of blind, halt, withered, waiting for the moving of the water” (5:3). And this is why there are many hospitals named “Bethesda.”

The Lord, in keeping the law, was in Jerusalem for a feast day, and He visited the Pool of Bethesda. Stop and picture that in your mind.

Christ in His love and mercy walking among the sick, the infirmed, and the hurting. He cared about them all. He still does care about those who are sick and hurting. That day Christ made Bethesda a house of mercy by His personal presence.

Christ saw a lame man at the pool, who had been lame for 38 years, and He asked him, “Wilt thou be made whole?” (5:6).

And that is a great question we can ask those who do not believe, who need the Savior and salvation from their sins, “Do you want to be made whole?” Today, Christ makes people whole spiritually by faith alone in His finished work (Rom. 4:5).

The lame man didn’t understand that the Lord could make him whole. Instead he began explaining that he didn’t have anyone to help him get into the water first when the water was stirred (John 5:7). Your heart goes out to him as you read that!

The Great Physician then responded, “Rise, take up thy bed, and walk. And immediately the man was made whole, and took up his bed, and walked…” (5:8-9).

Christ saw his need; He knew the depth of that need, and He took the initiative to meet that need. It’s the same with each one of us in our great need of salvation, and Christ meeting that need by His Cross and resurrection.

John 9:6-7: “When he had thus spoken, he spat on the ground, and made clay of the spittle, and he anointed the eyes of the blind man with the clay, And said unto him, Go, wash in the pool of Siloam, (which is by interpretation, Sent.) He went his way, therefore, and washed, and came seeing.”

Like the Pool of Bethesda, some critics of the Bible also said there was never a Pool of Siloam. The pool was discovered during excavation work for a sewer in the autumn of 2004. The excavations also revealed that the pool was 225 feet wide on one side, that steps existed on at least three sides of the pool, and that it was in the shape of a trapezoid.

A portion of the pool remains unexcavated. Structures and land owned around it in the modern-day city prevent archaeologists from digging out the entire pool.

In John 9, the Lord healed a man blind from birth (9:1). The Lord spat on the ground, put the mud on this man’s eyes, and then told him to walk to the Pool of Siloam to wash it off.

When the man arrived at this public pool, he stepped down into it, splashed the water on his face, wiped his eyes and, for the first time in his life, he was able to see.

He could see everything he’d wondered about all his life. Everything was new. Everything was amazing. He saw everything clearly for the first time in his life.

This blind man is a picture of all mankind. Everyone born into this world is born blind, spiritually blind. The Lord Jesus Christ giving sight to this blind man is a picture of the Savior, the Light of the world (v. 5), bringing the light of life into a person’s soul when we trust Him.

Like the healed blind man, now we are not in darkness, we’re in the light. We once were blind but now we see. Old things are passed away and all things have become new.

2 Kings 20:20: “And the rest of the acts of Hezekiah, and all his might, and how he made a pool, and a conduit, and brought water into the city, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?”

Hezekiah was one of the kings of Judah. He ruled for 29 years and was a good and godly king. 2 Kings 18:5-6 says of him,

“He trusted in the LORD God of Israel; so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor any that were before him. For he clave to the LORD, and departed not from following him, but kept his commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses.”

In 2015, an archaeologist digging just south of the Temple Mount discovered a 2700 year old clay seal bearing King Hezekiah’s name.

In ancient times, a lump of soft clay would be used to seal documents. If a king was sending the document, he would press his signet ring into the clay.

The clay seal that was found read, “Belonging to Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz king of Judah.” And this corresponds exactly with what the Bible says of Hezekiah.

2 Kings 18:1 reads, “Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz king of Judah began to reign.”

During his reign, anticipating an impending siege by the Assyrians, led by King Sennacherib, King Hezekiah ordered a tunnel for water to be dug.

The Gihon Spring was outside the city, and this confronted King Hezekiah with a double dilemma: to provide water for the besieged city, and to deny the source of the water to the Assyrian army.

Thus, Hezekiah had a water channel chiseled and carved out of the rock beneath the city, secretly diverting and channeling water from the Gihon Spring into the walled city of David, where people could safely collect water during the siege.

2 Chronicles 32:30 reads, “This same Hezekiah also stopped the upper watercourse of Gihon, and brought it straight down to the west side of the city of David.”

In 1838, Hezekiah’s tunnel was discovered. The tunnel winds through 1750 feet of limestone bedrock. The pick marks of Hezekiah’s workers are still visible on the rock walls and ceiling of the tunnel. And knee-high to waist-high water still flows through it, just like the purpose for which it was built 2700 years ago.

Matthew 4:5-7: “Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

“Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”

Evidence for the existence of the temple in Jerusalem is abundant. There are ruins of storefronts from the time of Christ that were used for the selling of lambs and doves for sacrifice in the temple.

From the area of these storefronts, you can look way up the high wall to see what has been considered the pinnacle of the temple mount. This area near the temple was a busy, bustling section of Jerusalem in the time of Christ, and from this high point in the temple is where trumpets were blown and announcements were made to the people below.

It is likely here where Satan took the Lord “up into the holy city, and setting Him on a pinnacle of the temple, And saith unto Him, If thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee: and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone” (Matt. 4:5-6).

The devil quoted Psalm 91:11-12 and used this Scripture to tempt the Lord. Don’t let it escape your notice that the devil used Scripture. Even today, he misuses it to tempt and deceive.

Satan tempted the Lord to throw Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple into this busy courtyard of the temple, and then by the angels gathering Him in their arms so that He’d come down to a nice, soft landing, He would demonstrate to all that He was Israel’s Messiah and the Son of God.

Christ’s response to the devil was, “It is written…Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God” (Matt. 4:7). To have tested the Father in this way would have been to question the Father’s love, not prove it. Christ came to do the Father’s will and that was not it.

The Father’s will was the Cross. Christ would demonstrate beyond a doubt that He was the Messiah and the Son of God by His death and conquering death by His resurrection.

In this area is a pile of huge boulders and limestone blocks that were used by Herod for the construction of the temple mount buildings. When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in 70 AD., however, they dismantled and destroyed the buildings on the temple mount, and they pushed these blocks off the mount to the street below.

Near the Colosseum in Rome is the Arch of Titus. This is a 50 feet tall Roman Triumphal Arch built to honor Titus’s victory over the Jews. Titus was the commander of the Roman soldiers who conquered Jerusalem in 70 AD.

Inside the arch is a carving that depicts the Romans parading valuable items taken from the temple in Jerusalem through the streets of Rome. And the depiction includes the golden seven-branched lampstand and table of shewbread that was in the Temple. It further shows trumpets and other items from the Temple being carried through Rome.

On the southern side of the temple mount in Jerusalem, is the important find of the flight of steps that led up to the temple mount. These steps were there in the time of Christ.

There is no doubt that Christ walked all around this area and up these steps when He
visited the temple.

This is a powerful place to visit because you are truly walking in the footsteps of the Savior, the Creator, the very Son of God. This is where Neil Armstrong felt overwhelmed to walk where Christ walked.

The arched entryways at the top of the steps are called the Huldah Gates. They were named after a prophetess who dwelt in Jerusalem during the reign of King Josiah. These gates are on the Southern Wall of the Temple Mount and they gave entrance to the Temple in Christ’s day. They were walled up during the Middle Ages.

Also, at the top of the steps, in a corner, another gate is visible which has been identified as a possible location of the Beautiful Gate. You can see a little bit of what’s left of it.

Over the centuries, the gate was closed and a wall was built into it. It was called the Beautiful Gate for a reason: it was an ornate gate leading into the temple.

Following the in-filling of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, Peter healed a lame man in the power of the Spirit “at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful” (Acts 3:2). As Peter and John were going into the temple, the lame man asked an alms of them.

Peter responded, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (v. 6).

Instantly, the lame man was made completely whole, and he proceeded to enter “into the temple, walking, and leaping, and praising God” (v. 8). Peter healed the lame man “in the name of Jesus Christ.”

Performing this miracle in Christ’s name and authority gave witness to the Lord’s power, life, and resurrection, and it confirmed His identity as the Messiah of Israel, which the gospel of the kingdom required of people to believe at that time in order to be saved.

The ruins in Jerusalem give abundant proof that the Temple stood in Jerusalem and they also confirm the places and locations in the Bible, showing that in every way you can trust the Bible.