The Garden Tomb

A Testimony by Joycelyn Chng

I thank God for laying upon our beloved Pastor, Rev Dr Timothy Tow, and Mrs Ivy Tow the burden to initiate another pilgrimage to the Holy Land. I also thank God for enabling me to go for this 13th Holy Land Pilgrimage from March 3-16, 2008, and for providing good and godly leaders in Rev Dr JeffreyKhoo and Mrs Jemima Khoo.

We went to many of the places where Jesus had been while He was on earth. On the morning of 10 March, we went to the Garden Tomb, which is most likely the place of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus Christ. There is a rocky hill resembling a human skull, giving strong evidence that this is the true Golgotha (in Hebrew) or Calvary (in Latin), which means “place of a skull”, the place where Jesus was crucified. There is also a tomb cut out of solid rock nearby, further strengthening the idea that this is indeed the site where Jesus was crucified and buried.

It is a most beautiful and serene place. There are no churches built on this site, unlike many other sites where churches (mainly Roman Catholic or Greek Orthodox) had been built to venerate the place. The presence of a water system and winepress in the area indicated that this place was a garden and vineyard at the time of Jesus. And so, instead of building a church on this site, a simple yet beautiful garden is planted in the area, giving us a clear picture of what the place of crucifixion and burial of Christ might have looked like.

I thank God for His perfect timing and guidance while we were at the Garden Tomb. After the guide had taken us through the place and explained to us, we were supposed to enter the empty tomb to take a look, and thereafter, a short worship service would be conducted by Dr Khoo. However, as the place was crowded with people from churches from other countries trying to enter the empty tomb, Dr Khoo decided to conduct the worship service first.

I really thank God for impressing upon Dr Khoo to conduct a short worship service and Holy Communion at the Garden Tomb. We found a good and quiet spot near the empty tomb, and had a most blessed time of worshipping the Lord, reading His Word and singing praises to Him.

Dr Khoo read from The Gospels in Unison, and started off with the account of the institution of the Lord’s Supper by Jesus (Matt 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:14-20) and we sang the hymn “Lead Me to Calvary”. The crucifixion account was next read (Matt 27:35-44, Mark 15:24-32, Luke 23:33-43, John 19:16-24), after which the Holy Communion was conducted. It was really wonderful to be able to spend time at the place where Jesus was crucified, in prayer and silent meditation of my Saviour’s wondrous love for me, enduring the mocking and suffering, dying for my sins on the cross, that I might be reconciled to Him and be called a child of God. As we sang the hymn “Alas! and Did My Saviour Bleed?”, my heart was much moved with thankfulness to the Lord.

We then listened to the burial account being read by Dr Khoo (John 19:31-42, Matt 27:57-60, Mark 15:42-47, Luke 23:50-56), followed by the account of the resurrection of Jesus Christ (John 20:1-10, Mark 16:1-8, Luke 24:1-7). We ended the short worship service most appropriately by singing the hymn “He Lives”. I could see that every one of the pilgrims was much ministered to spiritually as we all sang the hymn victoriously and with all our hearts.

As we went to enter the empty tomb after the worship service, we realized that the crowd had gone by now and we had the whole area to ourselves! I was immediately reminded of our Lord’s goodness to us. His timing is indeed perfect and we need only to wait upon the Lord and keep our faith and trust in Him. This was yet another manifestation of our Lord’s sovereignty and of His guidance of us each and every step of the way in this pilgrimage. We certainly had the Lord going before us wherever we went and leading the way!

I entered and saw the empty tomb. On the way out of the tomb, there is an inscription “He is not here – for He is risen”. Truly, without the resurrection of our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, our faith will be an empty one, and will be no different from the other religions! It is indeed the resurrection of Christ that sets us apart from the other religions, where the people worship idols which are really dead objects. We have a living God who is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. He is perfect and so are His words. And it is His perfect Word that tells us how He died for our sins on the cross and it is also by His Word that we know that Christ is indeed risen.

The night before going to the Garden Tomb, I had meditated on God’s Word in John 20:1-10, and verse 8 struck me the most. John 20:8 says, “Then went in also that other disciple, which came first to the sepulchre, and he saw, and believed.” John saw the empty tomb, and he believed. I thank God that we have in our hands today, the perfect Word of God. God has told us in His Word that the Lord is risen. Thank God that we do not have to travel all the way to the Holy Land to see the empty tomb in order to believe!

Although I do not have to see the empty tomb to believe that Jesus is risen, for we believe by faith, I thank God for this most wonderful privilege to be able to see the empty tomb for myself! Words are not enough to describe the joy, love and thankfulness to my Lord for all that He has done for me. Being there at the Garden Tomb, worshipping the Lord, was really a highlight for me. Seeing the empty tomb just warms my heart and it reminded me that just as what the Bible says about the past is already fulfilled, whatever is written about the future will surely come to past too!

I thank God that I believe in and serve a risen Saviour!Will those of you who have not also believe in Him too? “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved” (Rom 10:9).

All praise and glory be to God!

Report on Brisbane Bible-Presbyterian Church’s First Thanksgiving Anniversary (15-16 March 2008)

Dear Rev Dr Timothy Tow and the Session of True Life BPC

We greet you in the name of our risen Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

We thank God and praise the Lord for His grace and blessings upon our First Thanksgiving Anniversary (15-16 March 2008). We thank God for the blessed ministry of Eld Dr Boaz Boon in our midst.

Saturday (15 March): We had dinner fellowship at our home with Eld Boon, Sis Cheryl, Amoz, and Abel from Calvary Tengah BPC and Patrick and Jenny from Berean BPC. In Brisbane, we had Andrew and Winnie (Patrick’s friends), Robert and Karen, Tim, Anne, and Zac, Eric, Linda, Hannah and Emma, Joanna (student, from True Life BPC), Benjamin (student, from Philadelphia BPC), and our family. After that Eld Boon conducted our Bible study on “Spiritual Blessings” (Ephesians 1:1-14). We were all encouraged by the exposition of God’sWord.

Sunday (16 March): We had lunch fellowship together at our home (12:00 pm) before going to church together.

We started our Prayer Meeting (at 2:00 pm) and our Worship Service (at 3:00 pm). Thank God for the encouraging and challenging message “Enlarge the Place of Thy Tent” (Isa 54:1-5) by Eld Boaz Boon. We thank God for the two beautiful special items presented by Eld Boon and his son Amoz. We thank God for the presence of Aunty Dzung, Stephanie, and Joanna (Anne’s friend), Robert and Karen, together with Eld Boon’s family, Patrick and Jenny, Tim’s family, Eric’s family, Joanna, Benjamin and our family. After the Service, we had some photos taken and then had dinner fellowship at Buffet Garden in Sunnybank.

We were so much encouraged and thankful for the greetings, prayers and kind support from our mother church and like-minded churches in Singapore (their greetings were read to our brethren in the Service):
True Life B-P Church: AUD$695.00 ($200 to Brisbane BPC, and $495 to Pastor Hien’s family).
True Life B-P Church Young People Fellowship: S$500.00 to Brisbane BPC.
Calvary Pandan B-P Church: AUD$500.00 to Brisbane BPC.
Calvary Tengah B-P Church: AUD$100.00 to Brisbane BPC.
Berean B-P Church: AUD$100.00 to Brisbane BPC.
The offerings on Sunday worship Service totaled AUD$1,420.00.

We greatly thank God and praise the Lord for His grace and blessings upon us and thank you very much for your prayers, encouragement and kind support. Please kindly pray for our first Easter Camp in Hervey Bay (21-24 March) with the Theme: Our Bible Presbyterian Faith.

We do remember you all and FEBC in our prayers and may God strengthen you, sustain you and bless you and your ministry mightily until our Lord Jesus Christ comes back again.

A Blessed Easter to you all.
Faithfully yours in Christ,
Rev Hien Nguyen