85. Israel Recap with James

Welcome back to the For Freedom Podcast. This is your host James Saifert today and I'm bringing you a special episode today of the For Freedom Podcast. That episode is going to be a recap of Israel. I had the opportunity to go to Israel. John's not able to be here with me today. He had some other things going on and so we are doing a solo episode. It's one of my only ones that I've done I think to my knowledge of just me on here talking with a microphone. And so I'm just going to share with you a little bit of our experience, what we did while we were there, and some highlights, some things that stood out to me, some places that were emotional for me, and just sort of share my heart with you today. And so buckle in, get ready, and here we go. Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, John Hollifield and James Saifert. Welcome, and so I am so glad to be able to come to you today to talk about this amazing experience. Myself and I believe 36 other people went to Israel on the RFP Israel trip. And when I say it was life-changing, when I say that it was emotional, when I say that it changed every aspect of the way I read my Bible, the way I interact with Jesus on a daily basis, it did all of those things. And so I highly recommend you going. We're actually planning a trip. Me and a good friend of mine, Brett Martin, who went with us, is planning a trip for the first week of March of 2024, March 1st through 9th. And we'll be having information that we'll put out on our Facebook page about that. And so if you're looking to go on a trip, we would love for you to join us. We'll have all the details and financial stuff out on our website here soon for you to enjoy that time with us. I'm talking John, trying to talk John into going with us and sort of having a little For Freedom trip to go. But, you know, he's a busy guy, and I don't know if he'll be able to do that. But I want to share some of the highlights with you today. I want to share some of the things that impacted me. So I'm just going to walk through each of our days and talk about each of the events we went to. We flew into Turkey and then Tel Aviv, and then we got on a bus late that night and drove to the Sea of Galilee, stayed in Galilee, a hotel there. And then the next day we woke up, and our first day was probably one of our busiest, most impactful days, as far as the amount of sites we went to see. We crammed a lot in that day, and of course they crammed a lot in for this trip because it was just pastors. And so they wanted us to get as much as we possibly could in the time that we were there. And so when we began that first day, we drove to Caesarea Philippi. This is where Jesus gave one of his famous sermons of how the gates of hell would not prevail against him as the rock. And when Peter answered, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, he said, this is the statement that is going to defeat hell, and hell cannot come against it. And so when we began to sit there and we saw this massive place, this rock-mounted area, it had a temple that was built there for the Temple of Pan, just where you could see in the mountains where they would have places where they would put their idols, where they would come and they would worship there. And Jesus is basically, when he's there, he's given this great, phenomenal point where he's saying, these idols are not the God that you should be trusting. You should be trusting in me, the Son of the living God, who's going to come to take away the sins of the world. And so what a powerful time we had there. From there, we drove to the Mount of Beatitudes. Some of the sites we went to were archaeological sites, such as the Caesarea Philippi. We knew that's where it's always been at. It was named after Philip, one of Herod's sons, I believe is what it was. And so those are archaeological sites. Some are traditional sites where people have said this is where it is, and then some are just speculative. We're just going to put a place there. And so we'll try to tell you that as we go. But we were able to go to the next place, which is the Mount of Beatitudes. This is where Jesus gave one of his famous sermons on the attitudes that we should have. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for their name shall be their namesake. And so he went through this, and it was on this theoretical mountain, and where they believed this would have been at. And so one of the things about this mountain in particular for me was to notice the amount of the streets and the roads that were so nearby it and how people could have come there and people would have seen this crowd gathering and would have naturally gravitated toward there. So Jesus picked places that people would have seen, people were at normally, and he began teaching in these places. And so the next place we went to was a place called Capernaum. This is the town where Jesus spent a lot of his time. It's called the City of Jesus. And so in Capernaum we see tons of archaeological evidence. There's a temple there from the 4th century Byzantine era, which would have been placed on top, and there's archaeological evidence that was placed on top of the synagogue. It was built on top of it that would have dated back to the 1st century synagogue where Jesus would have taught. When it said there, Jesus left the synagogue and went across the street to Peter's house and healed Peter's mother-in-law. So we were in the place where Peter was at. Lots of his disciples, many disciples came from the city of Capernaum, which was just a stone's throw away from Galilee, just a stone's throw away from Tiberias, just a half a day walk around the Sea of Galilee. And so very close, very close to each other in the sense of where it was at. And this was where tons of things happened in Capernaum, and it was great to be able to see that and stand on a place where Jesus was at. We went to where they believe the feeding of the 5,000 happened, where they had Peter's recall to ministry, where they believe that Jesus would have broke bread that morning, and he called Peter and said, do you love me, feed my sheep, that famous intercourse there between those two. And this is the belief sites there where we went to. And then the last two things we did that day was we went to the city of Magdala. This is where Mary Magdala was from. This was one of the sites on this day particularly that impacted me very, very much. It was a site that, when it was uncovered back in the 70s, I believe, it was a site that had not really been touched since the first century. And there was a synagogue that was there. One of the scroll stones where they would have laid the scrolls out was discovered. I think it was one of only three that have ever been discovered. And this was a place, a synagogue, where it says in the Bible, where Jesus taught in all the synagogues surrounding the Sea of Galilee. This would have been a synagogue that Jesus taught in. And they began to see the wealth that was there in Magdala, where Mary Magdala was from, began to see just how people lived, the architectural, the stones, the tiles. I mean, just the amazing amount of intricacy that was done in this time was so incredible to see. But it was humbling to know that Jesus stood in that synagogue. He taught in the synagogue that was there that has recently been uncovered. And then the city there where Jesus would have walked through those streets, would have talked to people through those streets, would have been incredible. And it was incredible for us to be able to walk on those same places. The last thing we were able to do that day, we wrapped up that whole day. We went and got on a boat, and we sailed out into the middle of the Sea of Galilee. And the Sea of Galilee is not as big as what we would imagine. You know, around here, I've got lakes that are two, three, four times the size of the Sea of Galilee. You can pretty much see any point of the Sea of Galilee from another point on the Sea of Galilee. And so we're out there, and a couple things that stood out to me. One, the city of Tiberias was over to our left. We've got a picture of it on Facebook. And this Sea of Tiberias, I'm sorry, Tiberias was lit up. And my first thought was that would have been the site where Jesus said a city on a hill could not be hid. And Jesus gave a practical illustration there of this city that couldn't be hid. And then being out there, seeing all the other places that were around the Sea of Galilee, again, you can see the size of how these places were so close to each other, where the fame of Jesus, the word of Jesus would have spread so quickly during trade and commerce when people were interacting with each other. And the last thing, as we were there on the Sea of Galilee, Nathan Cravat got up and was able to give a sermon on fear and not being fearful in our walk with Christ. And just an amazing, powerful way to end the day there on the Sea of Galilee. And so just a great time there. The second day we got up, we went to the first stop, which would have been the Galilean boat. This was a boat that was discovered just a couple of years ago, 20, 30 years ago, I think, or maybe 40 years ago. I'm not exactly sure on the date. And it took 14 years to excavate it, but it was discovered during a drought season in the Sea of Galilee. And these two brothers had discovered this boat that dated back to the first century, which gave us a huge picture of what the boating architecture would have looked like when Jesus would have been there, when it said Jesus pushed out a little further from the sea, from the bank to be able to get away from the crowds, to teach the crowds. This would have been one of those boats. And so we got to see that. We went to the Mount of Precipice. This is the Mount, which is in Nazareth, right outside of Nazareth, where Jesus taught in the synagogue. And then the people rejected him for teaching that he was the Son of God. His own town rejected him. And they took him up to the Mount of Precipice in order to throw him off, in order to kill him. And they said Jesus miraculously passed through them. And while we were up there, J.C. gave a sermon where it said, or he made this statement, and it stuck with me ever since. I've shared it with other people, but he said this. He said Jesus was the Savior that they needed. I'm sorry, Jesus wasn't the Savior they wanted, but he was the Savior that they needed. And that's so powerful to think about. They wanted someone to come and overthrow Rome. They wanted someone to come and be the military leader. That's what they were wanting. And Jesus came, and he preached a message of peace, a message of forgiveness, a message that said, if a Roman soldier comes to you, and he asks you to carry his bag, pick it up and take it another mile. Take it another mile. And encourage them to serve the people that were around them. And this is the place where he was at. The historical sites at the top of this mountain, our God said this would have been Jesus' background, backyard. It's where he played at. And to be able to see that and to experience that was an amazing, an amazing sight. You can't read the Gospels and then be the same after being there. Next, we went to Gideon Spring. This is the supposed spring of where Gideon's army came to narrow them down to 300 people before that awesome battle there. And this is an actual natural spring that comes up from underneath the wall, underneath the rock there. And just an amazing place to be able to experience that, where Gideon's army would have been at that long ago. One thing I noticed, I'll sort of interject this. One of the guys said, you know, America's only 400, 500 years at most of historical evidence here in America where we can go back. We were seeing places that were 4,000 or 5,000 years old that were over in this location of Israel. And which leads us to this next one, Bet-She-han. We went to a place called Bet-She-han, a village that dated back to 7,000 years ago. Many, many years before. They said this is one of the places where the first people would have lived at. The last time that people lived here was in 790 A.D., after Christ. An earthquake had hit this town, and they evacuated it, and no one ever returned back to this town. So when we began to open this up, this town, and began to see some first-century architects, and to be able to see architects that dated even before that, and even the historical evidence of where Saul and his sons were hanging from the walls of this place. This is that town. And so we were able to see so much in there, so much that really blew our mind of the ability to see what people did during their time, and how they so cared about what things looked like and the safety of those things. Next, we went to the last place, which was the Jordan River. This is the baptismal site that they allow people to be baptized in the Jordan River. And we got to see several of our group, I think 19 people were baptized there, a great rededication of their life. And then one of the awesome parts, we were there, three Nigerian people showed up while we were baptizing, and they were looking to be baptized. And so Brian or Nathan or someone, maybe it was Marcus, began to talk to them about the gospel, made sure they understood the gospel. And they said, yeah, we love Jesus. We understand Jesus. We just need to want someone to baptize us. And so we had the opportunity of being able to baptize right then and there in the Jordan River, these three brothers in Christ. We actually ran into them later on. We've had pictures taken with them. Just an amazing time to see brothers from all across the country meeting together in one location for this awesome experience. Mr. Craig Edwards shared an amazing word there of the servanthood of Jesus there in the Jordan River. It blew my mind just to think of the analogy that he gave there. And so hopefully you'll be able to hear that on the RFP podcast here soon. The next day, that was only two days. All right. So I'm trying to talk fast. I'm trying to cram all this in for you. Two days so far, it feels like I've talked through almost so many different sites. But day three of touring this journey was our last day in the Sea of Galilee, in that area in the Galilean region. We started our day off by going to the Valley of Megiddo, the Mount of Megiddo. This was a very strategic mountain that has been a strategic mountain all throughout the history of the Israelites. Many battles were won here. Many battles were lost here. And this is the Valley of Armageddon. This is where the final battle is going to take place. This place was very emotional for me because as we stood there, as we were going to talk through some things, our guide Amir made the statement that even the Jewish people believe that the final battle of the world is going to take place on this mountain and in this valley. And as I stood over and as I began to look and see these people riding their cars around in this valley, in no care of what's going to happen, it broke my heart. Because I know that the Battle of Armageddon is going to happen there. I know that God's going to come and He's going to speak a word and the battle's going to be over. It's not even going to be a battle. It's going to be a moment in time. And these people believe also this battle's going to happen, yet they don't have any care. They drive by it like it's just another day, another sight in their mind. And so it was very humbling for me to see that and just to be able to walk around in this place that was used by so many different people. Next we went to the Mount Carmel. This is where Elijah called down fire from heaven, the supposed site that is believed, where this happened at. And then we went to a place called Caesarea Maritime. Right on the Mediterranean Sea, King Herod had built a strategic port on the Mediterranean Sea in between two towns. And so these two towns were separated by about a two-day journey of sailing. And so he just put this port right in the middle of a one-day journey. And so he was able to strategically place this amazing port city that was all man-made, just the walls and the ability that he had to build this docking system for these boats, and then the amount of entertainment. The stadium, the hippodrome, the amphitheater, all the different places was there. And some historic sites here, this is where Pontius Pilate would have had a place that he stayed at. There was a stone that was engraved for his name. This is where Paul confronted Agrippa to his face and proclaimed Jesus to him. This would have been one of the sites where he went. This was a site where many Christians were martyred. Many Christians died for their faith in this hippodrome. Many Christians contended for their faith. And Paul was imprisoned here at this place of the Caesarea Maritime. Just a very historical site and a site where many, many believers risked their life for the gospel's sake. And so just an amazing time to bring that in. And then the last stop we did there was the aqueducts. And these aqueducts, this was a 20-something mile aqueduct system that brought fresh water to the Caesarea Maritime that Herod had built. And while we were there, Brian gave a powerful sermon on the Christians that had been killed there. And the love that we need to live the gospel out at all costs. And just an amazing, amazing challenge for us that these Christians lived and died for the gospel. And so often we take the gospel for granted. We don't talk to our friends and neighbors about it. We're embarrassed by what they say about it. And God said he's given us freedom. He's given us life so more abundant and yet we hold it in. We hold in the greatest news that's ever been given. And so an amazing challenge here that Brian gave us. And I challenge each and every one of us to go and to share the gospel. Share it with our friends. Share it with our neighbors. Give them, for the name of the podcast, the freedom to live for Christ. Because they're dead in their sins. And they need Christ in their life. And how are they going to hear without us telling them? And so that's our challenge there for that one. Next day, day four, we left the Sea of Galilee. We did all of our Galilean stops. And we began to make our trek, our journey to Jerusalem. We began to go and see these different sites here. And our first stop, we went to the top of the Mount of Olives. And this is where Jesus in Isaiah is going to come back and split the Mount of Olives. And split it in half where he touches down. And this massive movement of the earth is going to happen because of the glory and the sanctity of who Jesus is. And his purity. We went from the Mount of Olives where we were able to see the entire city where Jesus had his disciples. And we led down to the Mount of Agony, Chapel of Agony where Jesus cried over the city because they were rejecting him. And then we went to, in my mind, the most impactful place of the entire journey. The most impactful site was, for me, the Garden of Gethsemane. As we made our way down this trail where Jesus and his disciples would have went. And then we went into this garden that dates back to the first century. It's always been a garden, they said. And they said it will always be a garden. But there's cars going around. There's people that are just driving by, honking horns. And just experiencing life. And not really experiencing the site where they're at. And J.C. got up and just shared a short devotion on where his disciples fell asleep. And one of his disciples betrayed him. And he asked us, he said, are we sleeping on Jesus? Are we not living our life for Jesus? And just such an amazing, encouraging time there. Other brothers began to share about the relationships. And then we had about 50 minutes just to walk and pray and get a hold of God in this garden. And as I got over to one of the trees and sat down and opened my Bible to Mark. I began reading this account where Jesus went to his disciples and began to pray. And began to be in agony over what he was experiencing. And overwhelming emotion came upon me. I told my wife, I said, it was no different than me going in my backyard and praying. But it was just something about knowing that I was in the same place where Jesus prayed. And I'm praying his prayer. And I'm praying that God's will would be done in my life. And that I would follow him. And then I got to the point where I read about Judas' betraying him. And how he came into the garden. And I just imagined in that moment where I met, seeing these soldiers. And this man that I love. This man that I care about. This man that spent three years with me. Betrayed me. Turned me over to the enemy for the sake of my death. For just the wages of a common slave. And as I began to experience that and emotionally. I mean I cried for like 30 minutes. I couldn't help but to have emotion over top of me. At one point I began, I actually went over with Jake Carlisle and Josh Posh. Two of the guys that were there with us on this trip. And we prayed together. And I prayed for the sake that we're all fathers. And that we would be the examples to our kids in that moment. And just one of the most powerful moments of the entire trip. We left there. We made our way to the Lion's Gate. Over by the Pool of Bethesda. We got to see where Jesus healed the man that was lame from birth there at the Pool of Bethesda. And then we went to a chapel. That is a chapel for worship. That is designed for worship. We went in and there was a couple there. A group there from the Church of England. The Apostolic Church of England from Africa. And they were worshiping and singing. And oh man, just an amazing time that we got to worship with them. And then our group got up and we sang. We were nowhere near as good as they were. They were awesome. And then the last of our first journey was where we went to the trial that Jesus happened. That Jesus was at. We went to the Via Del Rosa where the Church of Flagulation was at. Where the Via Del Rosa leads to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. And then we walked that path and we walked to that supposed site there. And then the last site that we went to on this day was we were going to go to Bethlehem. But instead we went to a town of Shiloh or Shiloh. And this was a surprising stop. We weren't planning to go here on the original itinerary. But we went here because of some things that are going on in the country. And this was rediscovered in 1973. And the historical, biblical, archaeological, and cultural evidence was all discovered here. Four big keys that lead these people, lead the archaeologists to believe that this is the exact site where Shiloh was at. And they discovered this because of the Bible. And what the Bible says. And how they were able to use the scripture to uncover where the tabernacle would have been at. Well, this was the first site of the permanent tabernacle. And how it was placed there in a specific spot, in a specific place with the dimensions that we so often overlook and overread. But yet the Bible had it there for a reason. For us to know exactly where it was at. And just to be able to see that this was an amazing place. And now the vineyards are being replanted and regrown in Shiloh. And that's one of the things, I believe, in Jeremiah where it says the vineyards will one day regrow in Shiloh. And they just planted vineyards again for the first time in Shiloh. The next day we went, we started at the city of David. This is David's house, David's place of residence. They were able to discover this because of the defining parts where David said he built his house on terraces. And they found the terraces. And so they excavated down and found out the living quarters of where David was at. From here we traveled to underground into Hezekiah's tunnels to Gihon Spring. The Pool of Shalom is where we went to the next. And so the Pool of Shalom, up until about 10 years ago, had never been discovered, had never been found. And they uncovered the steps and the half of the Pool of Shalom. And so when they uncovered this, they began the excavation of it. And then they knew that there was an eastern walkway that led from Shalom up to the mountain. So they had a grounding point to be able to begin to excavate these stairs to figure out where they were at. And they've uncovered 80% of this path to lead from the Pool of Shalom where Jesus healed the blind man to the eastern steps or the eastern gate where Jesus would have went to. And so we know this is exactly where it happened at. And it was awesome to stand there and to be able to have scripture read and to be able to step on stairs that Jesus walked on. To be able to be at the exact place where Jesus was at. Then we went to the western wall area, got to see the history behind it. We went up to the top of the Temple Mount where we were able to go on to the top of the Temple Mount to see that what was up there and to be able to get close to that Dome of the Rock, that very, very historical site, very iconic site for Jerusalem. We were able to go to the Holder Gate steps. These are the steps that Jesus taught on after leaving the temple where crowds would have gathered and he began to teach the gospel to them. And then the last place that we went, not last place, but two other places that we went, we went to the Garden Tomb. This was also where the site of the Golgotha is at. I never realized how close these two were together. We got to see Calvary. We got to see the place of the skull. And then we went and saw the empty tomb where they believed that this tomb was at where Jesus was buried at. And it was only there for just a couple of days and the stone was rolled away. And a very historical site there. There's a garden there. There's a wine press there. Just some sites that lead them to believe this is where it's at. And there's a chapel there in between the two. And we got to worship. Brian gave an amazing talk on communion. And then we took communion together there in the garden. And just an awesome experience with the brothers and the sister that was there with us during that time. The last stop we did that day, we went to the underground city streets underneath the Muslim district of the Western Wall. And then we got to go to the Western Wailing Wall as well. The last day, and I'm wrapping this up very quickly. Thank you for tuning in and staying with me today as we go through these different things. Like again, I would love for you to join us as we go on this. But the last day was a day of just sort of, there was not a lot of, I don't want to say biblical sites, but sites that are in the Bible. But sites that were so powerful to see Christians living out their faith. Believers living out their faith in these areas. And so the first place was the place of Masada. This was a story of the Jewish nation who, about a thousand of them, were seeking religious freedom from Nero and the Roman Empire. They escaped to this place of Herod's getaway home. And they committed murder-suicide in the event of not being taken as slaves. Under the attack of 12,000 different men, soldiers that were trying to kill them. Two women and five kids were left. They weren't killed. They were taken. They had escaped from the slaughter of their murder-suicides of their husbands in order not to be taken into captivity. We don't know why they were spared. But they went to Josephus Flavius in order to tell their story about what had happened here. And that's the only way we have this account. And so Rome did not succeed in winning this war, this amazing, powerful victory. They failed it. But yet we have an awesome account of believers, I believe, Christians who escaped from the tyranny of oppression in order to live out their faith in this place. The next place we went to a place called Qumran. And this was the site of the 11 caves of the Dead Sea Scrolls. And to be able to see the historical evidence of these men who devoted their life to translating and writing scripture and giving commentaries and preserving scripture that we have today was absolutely breathtaking. To see their place of living was humbling. To see what they did every day of their life in order to preserve scripture, write scripture, and what they did in order to preserve the scriptures that we have. And to be able to see this scripture given this great care. And then also seeing that there was that one scroll that was the most intact scroll they had, the scroll of Isaiah, that 95% of it matches perfectly with this scroll, with the book of Isaiah that we have today. It was a 24-foot-long scroll, I believe. And 85% of the Dead Sea Scrolls match up perfectly with our Bible that we have today in the Old Testament. And the other ones are just, you know, common punctuation errors and things like that. But to see that 900 books were found, 600 of them were found in cave number four, which is the first cave that was discovered. I don't know why they numbered them 1, 2, 3, and 4 when that was the first one discovered and they named it number four. But we were able to see that and they said that 600 of those books were found and discovered there in that cave. And it was just an amazing, an amazing discovery that was done just years ago, not long ago. The last place we got to go was the Dead Sea. And we got to float in the Dead Sea. We got to experience the minerals of the Dead Sea. And I am not one that can float naturally in water. And so it was an amazing experience for me to float and just to be able to take that in on that last day there. And then we traveled back to our hotel. We left out the next morning to go home. And some of my biggest takeaways for me were just walking the same places that Jesus walked. Experience the Holy Lands. Experience in the Holy Lands with brothers and a sister that was there with us in Christ. The worship that we had at these sites. It's the historical knowledge that was imparted to us from these sites. And just understanding the Bible so much more now than what I did when I left. To see the proximity. To see the locations. To see these different places were just so breathtaking. To know that Jesus traveled on foot to these places. Maybe by horseback in some places. But to know that his disciples were in dedication to go to these different locations. To tell them about Jesus. In knowing that persecution was going to happen. In knowing that they would give up their life just as Jesus did. They still continued to go and share the gospel. In a way that we don't understand. Because we can get in our car and be somewhere in just a couple of minutes. They intentionally had to walk this location. Not knowing whether they were going to survive from leaving that location. And so we were able to see just a powerful, powerful working of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Specifically my life. I can speak for myself. Of revealing truth to me that I never realized in the Bible. And so I guarantee you, you go to this trip. You go on this journey. Your life will not be the same. And I'm speaking for myself. Speaking for some of the men that I've talked to. The camaraderie of brotherhood that we have now is a great, great asset that I cherish in our group text and other things. And you will not be disappointed if you ever get a chance to go. Whether it's with me or someone else. I encourage you. Go to Israel someday. Experience the whole lens. And if you don't, research. John says it all the time. I say it too. Context is king. And context is just more than understanding what's around the verses. But it's understanding the times that it was written. And so I challenge you, if you read the Bible, research a little bit. Understand the context of the people that were around. Who it was written to. The location that it was written in. Where it's at from where Jesus had walked from. Or Peter had walked from. From Jerusalem. Research some of those things. And it will uncover so much more truth that is in our Bible than what we know today. And so I thank you for this one time little solo episode. I pray that God's blessing be upon your life. And it was an awesome, awesome journey for me. And so until next time. To God be the glory. I found my new name. I found that good grace. I found that healing. And the tears fell down my face. When I found my beginning. That has no ending. I found that second chance. I found my best friend. I found my forgiveness. I found my happiness. I've been singing ever since. I found my freedom in you. Thanks for listening to the For Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed the content of the podcast. Please do us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing the podcast. On whatever podcast platform you listen to. I will find myrew. Thank you.

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