Come Follow Me LDS- 3 Nephi 17-19

'Hierarchy & Priesthood'
- Even words from Jesus need prayer and the Holy Ghost
- Re-Creation and Institution of Order, Priesthood, Hierarchy, Ordinances
- The Higher and the Lower Laws
- Part of the Doctrine of Christ is following His example
- The Intercessory Prayer of John 17

 

 Raw Transcript

all right
all right in this quick media come
follow me episode we are covering
third nephi chapters 17 through 19 this
will probably be a little bit shorter
than we usually have i apologize for the
delay on this
uh i'm dealing with some health issues
here that hopefully i can
i can overcome in the near the near
future here
but let's get into 17 here now i've been
talking a little bit about hierarchy
in this visit with christ well here in
17 through 19
it is hierarchy on steroids
right it is if we see what mormon is
doing here
in in bringing out the idea of
everything coming out from the center
from
christ and then going moving outward
through the
disciples through the people we have
angels
etc we see that there is this constant
reminder of of hierarchy it's it's very
obvious
that are that mormon is
is focused in on this that he is writing
it in this way
and perhaps this is the way that it did
unfold
right it's not just mormon adapting this
into
a framework of hierarchy and priesthood
and
order but this is how
things work right this is how things
work in the gospel
it's interesting we see in so many
visions
in the scriptures and other apocalyptic
uh
uh theophanies right and in a pop
apocalyptic literature
we see this idea of this order that
takes place with
god in the midst of of the disciples or
in the midst of a concourses of angels
and
you have the vision of beasts that might
be around the throne of god
all of that is based on a certain order
a certain hierarchy
that is taking place no different here
in chapter 17 through 19 as we get
the basically the the
reinstitution of the sacrament along
with baptism
and the holy ghost this makes a lot of
sense right
that you would have those together there
are two baptisms
the baptism of water and the baptism of
fire or the holy ghost
it's really one complete baptism and
there are two different emblems
that we partake of that directly match
correlate to that baptism by water and
the baptism by fire or the holy ghost
so let's get into this here first of all
i want to start off with something that
i think is is absolutely phenomenal in
chapter 17.
it is one of the greatest lessons for
acquiring truth
in all of scripture as far as i'm
concerned
that that we hear this over and over
again about the signs
and having faith first and then the sign
comes
not to be a sign seeker
but here christ brings something home
here
pretty pretty much right between the
eyes
says here right in verse 1 in chapter 17
behold now it came to pass that when
jesus had spoken these words
he looked round about again and on the
multitude and he said unto them behold
my time is at hand okay
so he's got to leave and then he says
this
i perceive that ye are weak
that ye cannot understand all my words
so let me ask a couple questions here
rhetorical questions
how good of a communicator do you think
jesus christ is
right how good of a teacher is he
and yet and yet he says
i perceive that ye cannot understand all
my words
okay there's a gap here there's a
problem even
jesus christ the resurrected jesus
christ with his wounds
there with these 2 500-ish people at
bountiful
right cannot fully communicate
what he wants to communicate right think
about that
then he says therefore gogy unto your
homes and ponder
upon the things which i have said okay
there is a process
of how to really gain truth and
understanding ponder upon the things
which i have said
and ask of the father in my name
that ye may understand and prepare your
minds for the moral
and i come unto you again again this is
phenomenal to me
right what a lesson this is even
jesus christ teaching them
is not the same as you going to your
home with his words
pondering on them and then being visited
and asking to receive an understanding
and then basically being visited by the
holy ghost
to understand what is being said here
that's how it works even with the
resurrected jesus christ
going over this with you now he then
says he's going to go off to
meet with the other lost tribes
so what i find interesting with that is
he's he's visiting a number of different
places perhaps
at once here right so so he had his
mortality in palestine
but he is visiting the americas and then
going off wherever else
to another place that appears like it
probably would be
daylight during the night time here in
the americas
but he's going to a certain place to a
certain people
who are the lost tribes now it's
important to understand here that
this group that he is speaking to the
the nephites lamanites here
at bountiful are a very very small
group of the overall nephite and and lee
lamanite nation right there's only 2500
people here
of hundreds of thousands right so
it could very well be the same thing
when we think about who are the lost
tribes
you know using our deductive abilities
here we can say
that okay maybe he is going to a place
but it may not be
to all of the lost tribes we think of
this idea that there's
tens or hundreds of thousands in some
group somewhere on the globe that isn't
really feasible
is it and granted this was a couple
thousand years ago
but that doesn't mean that there
couldn't be a
small group of the lost tribes
that he is going to visit just as it is
a small group here at bountiful
that he is visiting then he says but
before i leave
i i my heart breaks for you please bring
all of your
your your sick to me
i i he says i see that your faith
is sufficient that i should heal you so
again
he's recognizing the faith first just
like
he even he's being the sign
of everything that and he's there in
front of everyone he still wants
everyone to go home and ponder and pray
about it
right there there's a process so he says
i do see that you have the faith
necessary to be healed that's another
message that is driven home here
the resurrected christ is not going to
just go
and heal everybody he requires
faith healing requires faith
and then we start getting into this
hierarchical structure here the way that
this is
written by mormon and and if we pay
attention
we we can see how this happens and i
want you to keep in mind if you've
gone through the temple especially more
than a year or two ago
the idea of hierarchical structure with
priesthood
right how something is repeated over and
over and over again
to drive home the point that there is
delegation
that there is an order in in the
priesthood
there is elohim there is the sun there
is peter james and john
there are disciples uh there's further
priesthood right there's
there's a there's a process here there's
an
order he says here in verse 13 and it
came to pass
that when they had all been brought and
jesus stood in the midst
he commanded the multitude that they
should kneel down upon the ground
all right so he's talking about bringing
the little children to him
and then he starts to pray and he says
father i am troubled
because of the wickedness of the people
of the house of israel
and then he himself kneels upon the
earth
and behold he prayed unto the father all
right so
again we get these different layers here
of of what's happening
right now as he's as he's got the little
ones with him
right he's blessing the children this is
how chapter 17 ends it ends in a
a vision of sorts for all the people
right which is what we would expect
in a hierarchical uh narrative
here it says and as they looked to
behold they cast their eyes toward
heaven
and they saw the heavens open and they
saw angels descending out of heaven
right again the angels fill a position
in the hierarchy and they came down
and encircled those little ones about
and they were encircled about with
fire and the angels did minister unto
them
okay so as i said earlier in the chapter
here that that's very
common to see vision and and hierarchy
that's brought together and oftentimes
it's it's very much
grounded in temple imagery and then of
course at the end here in 25
we're told they were in number about 2
000 and 500 souls
and they did consist of men women and
children right so it's a very small
group
that we have here uh listening to jesus
christ right now right
now in chapter 18 we get the
reinstitution
some might say the institution or the
reinstitution of
the sacrament i'm not going to go into
what i mean by that necessarily right
now but
this is again it take keep in mind it's
kind of the idea of a new creation that
is happening here
everything is being brought together
anew
and under the under christ just like it
was in palestine
right jesus christ is not
just the savior even though that's kind
of everything
he's not just the savior we do not want
to forget
that he is the head of a dispensation
and when we say dispensation it is
exactly that it is
a dispensing of truth
and authority and ordinances priesthood
order right covenant
especially the abrahamic covenant and so
these things are all being reinstituted
under
jesus christ he is the head of this
dispensation
so he says and it came to pass that
jesus commanded his disciples
that they should bring forth some bread
and wine unto him
and then he commands the multitude to
sit down and then we get a clear
explanation of of the sacrament here
right he says
and when the disciples had come with
bread and wine
he took the bread and break and blessed
it
and he gave unto the disciples right not
the multitude
he has it he breaks it he's acting as
the priest here
he gave unto the disciples and commanded
that they should eat
i think about how we partake of the
sacrament where we have the person in
authority in the congregation
partake of the sacrament first there's
an
order there right and then when the
disciples had eaten and were filled
he commanded that they should give under
the multitude see
why the specifics on this again it's
order
it's it's it's very important to the
gospel
this is a reinstitution we're going to
get it all
right so the disciples then take
the bread and water the bread and wine
and they give it to
the multitude and then he comes back
again and he says now we're starting off
with
authority here this is going to be the
aaronic priesthood
authority now nephi here
right the current nephi here he
obviously has the melchizedek priesthood
so why is he now going to be ordained
just to be able to do the sacrament
that's an aaronic priesthood function
again it's a re-creation
everything is being started new so he
says behold there shall one be
ordained among you and to him will i
give
power that he should break bread and
bless it and give it unto the people of
my church
unto all those who shall believe and be
baptized in my name
okay so it's going to be he's going to
give the authority
to one of the disciples
and then it's very clear and even as i
have done this and broken the bread and
blessed it
you're going to do the same thing right
that person who is ordained will do the
same thing
and then he says in verse 7 and this ye
shall do in remembrance of
my body all right again keep this in
mind as we go through this with the
higher and the lower laws
his body is the lower law
his body is carnal his body is mortal
or was and he says this will be a
testimony
unto the father that ye do always
remember me
again we've talked a lot about
remembering in the book of mormon that's
a major
message and here we we see that the
the major message one of the major
messages of the sacrament
on with both emblems is a remembering
right which means a focus to me that
means a focus
back to the higher and lower laws a
focus back to
the physical death and resurrection of
jesus christ
and the grace and mercy
of gethsemane
where he spilled his blood and then he
says
if you always remember me ye shall have
my spirit to be with you that's part of
the sacrament prayer
right so in other words remembering
is part of consider that kind of part of
the lower law
right it's what we do and in return we
receive
the spirit so then he goes on to the
wine
right and he says that they should take
the wine of the cup and drink of it
this is the disciples only and that they
should
also give under the multitude that they
might drink of it right so
from one level to the next perfect
reinstitution
of the covenants and the ordinances
then he gives an explanation here of the
wine he says and this
ye shall always do to those who repent
and are baptized in my name
and ye shall do it in remembrance of my
blood which i have shed for
you right so this is a memory here of
of his suffering not on the cross
necessarily although he did suffer there
too
with the anguish of the sins of the
world
but this is about gethsemane right this
is about taking the sins upon him
that ye may witness unto the father that
ye do
always remember me
and if ye do always remember me ye shall
have my spirit to be with you
so we get the function of the sacrament
right which is
is a recommitment to our covenants at
baptism
that is both water baptism
and fire baptism right
it's both and to remember and if we can
remember
what he's done then we can have the
spirit that's the key
we have to remember we have to focus on
what he's done
now he says that if we do this
that we will be built upon his
rock right instead of being on a
sandy foundation so
how you know how important is it for us
every week to partake of the sacrament
how important is it for us to remember
and to renew our baptismal covenants to
take on
his name i would also recommend
i've talked about this before that that
you think of the rock in
in terms of uh
the son of god in terms of
the temple in terms of
where you're going to right kind of like
the cornerstone of the temple
even the perhaps the ben ben stone of
the egyptians
the stone that is the represents the
earth that rises
out of the of the great abyss
the great flood in the creation
right it's it's about order it's about
priesthood as we're going over here
you know what what are you built on
just as he brings up when he's talking
about peter right peter is the same
we get the word peter from the same
source of
petrified right something that is made
into a rock
it's about the priesthood that's what
he's covering here
makes all the sense in the world to
bring up
being built upon his rock
now another part of this order here that
we're getting which is
sourced here basically with the savior
is not only is it a process of order and
hierarchy
and delegation that we participate in
right that's an important part of it we
participate in this
but it's also an example
of example right
it also is telling us this is what the
savior does
this is what we do right we should do
the same as him
we are a layer or two or three or four
or five away
on certain things with him but we are to
do the same thing that he does
and that is one of the beauties of the
doctrine of christ
when we fully understand it it is not
just that he paid the price for us it's
why he paid the price for us
so that we can grow so that we can have
a
fullness of glory and joy
and he says this here in verse 16 and as
i have prayed among you even so
shall ye pray in my church
right so this watch what i do and then
you go and do the same
he says behold i am the light
i have set an example for you
so if we think about genesis and the
creation story and the light coming
through the darkness and the void and
the abyss the deep
right that is the savior that is
god that is the spirit that is order and
intelligence
and it's the light that we are supposed
to follow
we get the same example in john 1 and
that's very important here coming up
right the same kind of talk that john
has about the word the logos
being made flesh and then his
intercessory prayer the savior's
intercessory prayer
in john 17. right these things are
brought together in a common theme john
to me
is pulling very closely to something
that that mormon likely has here as well
and and perhaps jesus here is pulling
from as well
that has to do with the creation that
has to do with order
and light and being one
he tells us here in 24 therefore hold up
your light
that it may shine unto the world behold
i am the light which ye shall hold up
that which ye have seen me do behold ye
see that i have prayed unto the father
and ye all have witnessed
and then he says this and this is now
again that idea
so we're to do that now we're to go and
turn around
and do the same to our fellow men
he then says and ye see that i have
commanded none of you
should go away right in other words
follow my path but rather have commanded
that ye should come
unto me that ye might feel
and see right this is temple imagery
here to me
the path of the temple you have the
gates of the temple that's baptism
and then going in through the pathway
through the endowment
this is the path the narrow path
headed toward the tree of life perhaps
headed toward
the rock even so
shall ye do unto the world and whosoever
breaketh this
his this commandment suffereth himself
to be led into temptation
okay so again we're all to do this
regardless of priesthood or anything
else we follow his example
and then we turn around and we ourselves
become the light
to the rest of the world all right and
then
all the way down in 35 right now i go
unto the father because it is expedient
that i should go unto the father
for your sakes again it's just it's that
constant
uh um he's being an inner in and
intercessory for us right and he's
showing us how that fluid hierarchy
works
he needs to go to the father he has
something he
has to look to also just like we look to
the savior
and he has to set an example for us but
before he goes he says
and it came to pass that when jesus had
made an end of these sayings
he touched with his hand the disciples
all right think about a priesthood
ordination here
the disciples which he had chosen one by
one
even until he had touched them all so
this is all 12
and spake unto them as he touched them
and the multitude heard not the words
which he spake
therefore they did not bear record but
the disciples bare record
that he gave them power to give the holy
ghost
and i will show unto you hereafter that
this record is true
so this is the melchizedek priesthood
right so up above here at the beginning
of the chapter it's the aaronic
priesthood that is given
the ability to bless the sacrament
right so that we can remember him and
receive the holy ghost
here at the bottom now it is the
melchizedek priesthood that they
received and again
all of these disciples may have already
had the melchizedek priesthood
doesn't matter it's going to be
reinstituted
from scratch so
we have the bread and then we have the
wine
we have the aaronic priesthood being
given and then we have the melchizedek
priesthood being given
we have the higher and lower laws here
given in both contrast
and in a synergetic style here
as always right the sacrament
and the gift of the holy ghost baptism
by water and baptism by fire
so then the savior ascends again to
heaven at that time
now finally here in chapter 19
we continue on with priesthood
ordinances and this higher in this lower
law
and this next day here nephi gathers
everyone he gathers the 12 disciples
the multitudes that are there the
multitudes
has grown right because a lot of people
have now take turns
as the light and gone out all night
and run and gotten other people other
villages other cities
and more more of the the the nephite
especially population probably
and brought them back to bountiful so
there's a much larger multitude today
and so they break off into 12 different
groups
each led by one of the 12 disciples
and then again you know beating a dead
horse here they go through the same
thing
verse 6 and the 12 did teach the
multitude
and behold they did cause that the
multitude should kneel upon the face of
the earth
and should pray unto the father in the
name of jesus
all right and then the next verse and
the disciples did pray
unto the father also in the name of
jesus
and what are they praying for they're
praying for the great precious gift
of all receiving the holy ghost
so there's a process to go through that
first right
well we're going to reinstitute that
process here
we're going to start from scratch verse
11
and it came to pass that nephi went down
into the water and was baptized
of course he had already been baptized
he's going to be baptized anew
and he came up out of the water and
began to baptize others
so first he does it then he's going to
go out and baptize others
and he baptizes the twelve disciples
and then the holy ghost did fall upon
them what does that exactly mean
not sure exactly how that would happen
is that a natural thing is that an
ordinance but it says the holy ghost had
fall upon them and they were filled with
the holy ghost
and with fire and then we get the angels
coming back down
among the multitude and ministering
under the people
again part of that vision of hierarchy
here and then finally
jesus after the angels come right now we
move
more to the center more to the core he
comes and stands in the midst
of the multitude and ministers unto them
and then what does he do he commands the
multitude that they should kneel down
again
upon the earth and then also
that the disciples should kneel down
upon the earth
right mormon is always separating this
jesus
is separating this all of the steps of
the order
and then he commands the disciples to
pray
and they did pray unto jesus this is
different here
calling him their lord and their god
they're praying to jesus there
in a manner of worship because he's
there with them
it's not a prayer as we think of it
right he's there with them and then
jesus departs from them in the midst of
them
and he goes off a ways and bows himself
to the earth right again
think about gethsemane right
the group of disciples all go up toward
the mount of olives
and then eventually it's the 12 more
than likely and then eventually it's
just
peter james and john and then finally
it's just
christ that ends up by himself same idea
here
same thing happening and then we're told
in 22 exactly what i had said it says
they pray unto me this is jesus speaking
to the father
because i am with them right so it's a
it's a form of worship
but it's not a prayer as we would think
about praying to the father
now here we're going to start getting
into a little bit more of a theme of
john 17.
and it's a good idea if you took a look
at that chapter the intercessory prayer
there
where we understand more about what it
means to be
one with god this is where we get
a lot of um
talk from christianity broadly right of
credo christianity
about the trinity because we're told in
john 17
that jesus and the son and the father
are
one right they're one god
the problem with that explanation and
understanding
is that jesus then turns around just
like we're going through the hierarchy
here
it does the same thing in john 17 and
says i'm praying for my
apostles here and i pray that they can
also
be one with us just like
you father and i are one
so unless you think that 12 apostles are
being brought into the trinity somehow
right that idea of one god being a
trinity makes zero sense
right when they're talking about one god
they're talking about one purpose
they're talking about a different idea
of probably echad
which which is hebrew one which really
means
more of a unity and that was even even
hellenistic
ideas of one oneness meant
unity as well we think of the idea of
adam and eve right where adam needs to
leave his
parents and cling on to his wife and
they become
one flesh unity
so he says here in 23 and now father i
pray unto thee
for them and also for all those who
shall believe on their words
right that's the next layer that they
may believe
in me right so again if we're thinking
of hierarchy here we see
he's going out he's touching each of
these groups here that's getting further
and further away but it's bringing right
back to himself
that's how this works
that they may believe in me that i may
be
in them as thou father art in me
that we may be one
right so fluid hierarchy even though
there are is separation of layers in
different ways
and authority and and message
and time period and genealogy
all these layers in a hierarchy
ultimately it is a fluid hierarchy
because we can all become
one we are all given the opportunity to
be
co-heirs with christ
and then he finishes off this chapter
here again with this idea of faith
and signs it says here in 35 and it came
to pass that when jesus had made an end
of praying
he came again to the disciples and said
unto them so great
faith have i never seen among all the
jews
wherefore i could not show unto them so
great miracles
because of their unbelief right again
there's a law in place jesus can't break
the law on this
faith has to exist verily i say unto you
there are none of them that have seen so
great things
as ye have seen neither have they heard
so great things
as ye have heard so
in these few chapters here and
throughout the visit of jesus christ
here the resurrected jesus christ
we see this hierarchical structure that
is
painstakingly divided up
layer by layer by mormon and and by
jesus christ
there is a reason behind it it is this
is how it's got to be it has to be
reinstituted exactly the way
it needs to be done and so when we think
about
temple experience for example and that
idea of hierarchy
over and over and over again right where
we get
the different layers of this order of
this priesthood hierarchy in place
it's just drilled home to us the same
thing is put in place here
this is like a new creation it is a new
dispensation of the fullness of the
gospel
the fullness of the order of the
priesthood the fullness of its covenants
and ordinances and it's got to be done
exactly right i'll talk to you next time

Come Follow Me LDS
Book of Mormon 3 Nephi

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