Come Follow Me LDS- Acts 1-5 Part 2

'Prisons & Consecration vs Forced Equality'
- Peter as the Brazen Serpent at the temple
- Authority- Learnedness vs Priesthood
- Law of Consecration vs Marxism/Communism
- The truth starts small and embattled

 

 

Come Follow Me

LDS Mormon New Testament Acts Bible

 

so in this episode we're going to talk

about prisons and consecration not

forced equality here we go okay in this

episode we're going to go through acts

chapters three four and five and in

Chapter three we start off with Peter

and John and they're going to go and as

we said previously as much as things

change things stay the same and here

Peter and John are going to the temple

to teach they're going at evening

prayers which is at 3:00 p.m. there

would be a number of people there at

that time that would be gathered

together publicly probably others that

are teaching there in the large outside

of the temple walls and outside of the

the courts there in the temple and here

they come across a man who is lame since

he was born and it sounds like he's been

put there at the gate day after day

after day and the gate that he's put out

here is called the gate of the temple is

called beautiful we don't know of any

other gates that are called beautiful

historically where the actual name is

beautiful but we might have an idea of

what gate this is I'm going to go over

that in just a minute and so Peter and

John walk by this man and he was

probably there during the times they

arrived at the temple with Jesus but

he's there and Peter looks over

at him he says here in verse 3 and the

man looks over at Peter and John hoping

to get some alms some money or

something to help him out but this is

what Peter does says here in verse 4 and

Peter fastening his eyes upon him with

John said look on us

we're gonna try and go through here a

little bit and see if Luke is trying to

give us a little message of what's going

on here little parallelism first of all

he's saying look right look on us so he

looks over and he says just look on us

and the man and he gave heed unto them

expecting to receive something of them

then Peter says silver and gold have I

none but such as I have give IV and then

he says in the name of Jesus Christ of

Nazareth rise up and walk

rise up and walk so we're going to see

some trigger words here if you will

going through here we saw look and now

we see rise up here and he took him by

the right hand and lifted him up and

immediately his feet and ankle bones

received strength and he leaping up

stood and walked and entered with them

into the temple walking and leaping and

praising God the man probably was not

previously allowed in because of his

disability or whatever the problem was

that he had here so this is probably the

first time he's able to go in to the

courts of the temple even so if we look

at this scenario here we can look at a

little bit of parallelism something I

think is happening here we want to look

oftentimes in the Book of Mormon and in

well in all of the scripture to refer

back to many things that happened during

the exodus and we've brought this up

several times before even with the woman

the adulteress with Jesus at it here at

the temple but we have words here that

would possibly move our minds to the

brazen serpent that was lifted up in the

desert again here's how I see this Peter

says to the lame man look on us just

like someone who needs to be healed in

the wilderness who's been bitten by one

of the venomous snakes would need to

look to the brazen serpent

to be healed and he says look upon us

and then he says something interesting

here that you might not pick up but he

says then Peter said silver and gold

have I none but such as I have I give

thee so he doesn't have silver and gold

so what does he have says he's gonna

give him something what does he have

well what he has is the authority of the

name of Jesus Christ he has the

priesthood and so he says in the name of

Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and

walk so he doesn't have silver and gold

but he has the name of Jesus Christ and

that authority

well the gate beautiful is likely the

knick orangade I'm not sure exactly how

to pronounce that or the gate of

Corinth is they would call it an oddly

enough this gate is one of few that is

not lay overlaid with gold and with

silver but it's overlaid with bronze so

here Peter says I don't have gold or

silver I'm here at the big beautiful

gate the bronze gate I don't have the

gold or the silver that we would find at

all the other gates that's not what's

here but here we have the brazen

gate if you will the bronze gate and he

says but what I do have is the name of

Jesus Christ that is just like the

brazen serpent the bronze serpent the

brass serpent that was lifted up in the

wilderness and then he says to him

afterward and he lifted him up right so

again raising up or lifting up he is a

term that is oftentimes associated

closely in scriptures with the brazen

serpent and of course the man is healed

not with the gold or silver that's

anywhere else but with the brazen

serpent with the name of Jesus Christ I

find that pretty interesting I don't

know what scholarly backing there is to

that but that's how I read that that's

what it looks like to me so then the

people there in the courts of the temple

are amazed at what has happened they

know who this

says this man has been lame since birth

and here he's been healed in the name of

Jesus Christ and so Peter says to those

individuals around him he says the God

of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob the

god of Our Fathers hath glorified His

Son Jesus whom ye delivered up and

denied in the presence of Pilate when he

was determined to let him go we're going

back to that day of atonement scenario

remember where

Pilate presents Jesus as the pure goat

but he is the one that ends up being

sacrificed and it is the one that has

the sins that has let go it's Barnabas

that has let go

in verse 14 but ye denied the Holy One

and the just and desired a murderer to

be granted unto you Barabbas and killed

the Prince of life whom God hath raised

from the dead whereof we are witnesses

so he's going back and indicted several

of these individuals that are there at

the temple that would have been part of

that mob or those in charge that chose

to have Jesus sacrificed have him

crucified and then he says that these

individuals repent he's going to send

Jesus Christ repent accept that Jesus is

the Christ that he is the son of God and

that he is the Prophet that Moses had

spoken about that would be coming and he

continues with a theme of lifting up or

raising up he says here in verse 22 for

Moses truly said unto the father's a

prophet shall the Lord your God raise up

unto you of your brethren like unto me

him shall you hear in all things

whatsoever he shall say unto you and

then he comes back again and this is

crucial to understand and he says in the

following verse all the prophets from

Samuel and those that follow after of

course we know all of the prophets from

the time of Adam have said this but

those that follow after as many as have

spoken have likewise foretold of these

days

so this is something that has always

been given as a truth as a prophecy as

the prophecy in the church with the

people here with Jerusalem with the

covenant people and yet it had been

corrupted the idea of what was going to

happen had been corrupted the pure truth

of the most important event and the most

important person in mankind had been

corrupted of course and Peter and John

are speaking to the priest they're

talking to the captain of the temple who

would be it would have been in charge of

all the sacrifices and the rituals and

the personnel there and then the

Sadducees coming upon them and the

Sadducees were the ones that were

overall in charge of the temple and the

priesthood the high priests are

Sadducees Anna's and Caiaphas these are

all Sadducees and one of their false

doctrines is that they do not believe in

the resurrection and so Peter and John

start to preach about the resurrection

and so this is a soft spot for them

this is a sore spot they're not real

happy about this and so they lay their

hands on Peter and John they take him

put them into prison into jail and hang

on to him but Peter and John are able to

deliver truths that ring true to people

they're not educated they're Galileans

there's something again like from

Pentecost that people could recognize

these are poor people they're uneducated

they're unsophisticated they are not

from the Academy they are not from the

university system they're not coming out

of Alexandria they're certainly not from

Harvard and Yale and all these other

places these are low level low educated

poor fishermen or at least

unsophisticated that are speaking with

power and authority and convincing

sophisticated people and those at the

temple those are listening to them that

Jesus was and is the Christ and that

these this fullness of the gospel has

been brought to them and at the

resurrection

is a true doctrine says right after this

in verse 4 howbeit many of them which

heard the word believed and the number

of the men was about five thousand so we

can imagine this go back to even the

time at the beginning of the church with

Joseph Smith another unlearned Galilean

if you will unsophisticated unlearned

had to teach himself most everything or

find those that would help teach him and

yet he spoke with power and authority he

was a witness and he could speak truth

and so five thousand people here are

converted from these teachings at this

time from Peter and John and of course

from the miracle of the lame man being

healed and so then the following day is

there in prison then the high priests

and the elders and the scribes all come

as well and they hold maybe a little bit

of a council here a Sanhedrin or a mini

Sanhedrin impartial Sanhedrin perhaps

they're not happy with what's going on

here they're not happy that Peter and

John are providing miracles and

teachings about this Jesus who they

thought they had gotten rid of and so

they asked Peter and John by what power

or by what name have you done this and

Peter filled with a Holy Ghost said unto

them ye rulers of the people and elders

of Israel if we this day be examined of

the good deed done to the impotent man

by what means he has made whole be it

known unto you all and to all the people

of Israel that by the name of Jesus

Christ of Nazareth whom ye crucified

whom God raised from the dead even by

him does this man stand here before you

whole that's pretty powerful so you got

rid of this man well we are working in

his name and he resurrected from the

dead from the tomb that you sent your

servants to guard he escaped the tomb

as the stone was rolled away and he was

resurrected

and the man you killed it's by his power

that this lame man here stands here hole

and then Peter goes into something

pretty interesting this chapter has

somewhat of a theme of psalm 118 in

psalm 118 as a messianic psalm and it

has themes of salvation of the Messiah

this verse here in 11 this is the stone

which was set at nought of you builders

which has become the head of the corner

in other words you ignored Jesus

completely and pulled him away from the

building here of the Church of the

temple of the priesthood and yet he is

the head of the corner he is the

cornerstone that comes from psalm 118

and then he says with the theme of

salvation neither is there salvation in

any other in psalm 118 you get a lot of

lines in there about the name of the

Lord and about salvation coming through

the name of the Lord so he's saying

through the name of Jesus Christ of

Nazareth we are performing these

miracles he is the Messiah of psalm 118

and we're doing this in the lord's name

in his name he's the lord he is Jehovah

and then here in verse 13 just like it

would have been with those around joseph

smith Luke says to us in verse 13 now

when they saw the boldness of Peter and

John and perceived that they were

unlearned and ignorant men they marveled

and they took knowledge of them that

they had been with Jesus so this is not

common for them right this is not how

does someone speak like this if they

have not been educated in the right

circles how do they have these truths

this ability to argue these points and

this authority and I find it very

interesting that the council here that

is judging them are using education as a

figure of authority

as compared to the authority of Jesus

Christ that they are doing this with

they're saying they're marveling that

they're able to do anything or say these

things because they don't have the

authority of an education and that's

contrasted with the true authority that

they have which comes through Jesus

Christ and so they finally say fine you

guys can go but don't preach or heal in

the name of Jesus Christ anymore we

forbid you to do that and so they let

them go so they go back to Peter and

John go back to their the church two

members of the church and to their own

company it says and they tell them what

had happened and there are there is some

shaking of the earth that happens as

they speak in there they're filled with

the Holy Ghost is they recount the

preaching and the miracles that have

have just occurred and then we get

something interesting here that Luke

inserts in verse 32 he says and the

multitude of them this is the church

that believed were of one heart and of

one soul or one mind

that's Zion now we've gone over this

before about the progression through the

four phases of the priesthood and that

highest phase the fourth phase is the

one I call Zion and that's what is being

stated here by Luke I believe he's

talking about he's showing that the

fullness of the priesthood is in place

and even though Jesus is gone the church

has the fullness of the priesthood and

so he's going he's talking about Zion

and immediately after that he gives the

number one attribute besides saying

there of one heart he gives the number

one attribute of Zion and he says

neither said any of them that ought of

the things which he possessed was his

own but they had all things in common so

the law of consecration that is

the biggest attribute of the fourth

phase of the priest of the highest phase

of the monistic priesthood and Luke

wants us to know that the fullness of

the gospel is restored here with the

church and he finishes off this with a

little bit of a comparison this and a

verse of chapter four he runs into

chapter five but it says in verse 36 and

Joseph who by the Apostles was surnamed

Barnabas don't confuse him with Barabbas

Barabbas is the one that was also going

to be crucified but was let go by the

people

this is Barnabas and Barnabas having

land in verse 37 sold it and brought the

money and laid it at the Apostles feet

so he was a good disciple he sold his

land he brought the money and he put it

at the disciples feet that's the

positive example going over to chapter 5

then we get the negative example in the

the contrast with Barnabas and with

Ananias and Sapphira and Ananias and

Sapphira here in chapter 5 they go and

they sell assets and they bring money

and they give it to the disciples but

they have held some of it back and this

was a no-no apparently because both

Ananias and Sapphira are both died

they're struck dead by God according to

this chapter now what does that actually

mean can you imagine that happening

today because I don't know because you

went and you paid nine percent

instead of 10% of your tithing I think

there's a point that's being made here I

don't know I'm sure not like I try

really hard with these things not to be

a Monday morning historian because it's

really easy to do but I wonder if this

is exactly how this happened regardless

it is a comparison that is being made

between Barnabas giving everything

Barnabas giving everything and Ananias

and Sapphira holding back from God and

dying because of it so the message is

obviously

that you should give your all and if

you're in the law of consecration you

should be giving all to the Lord I don't

know that the consequences are always

going to be the same but the message is

given here to fulfill the law of

consecration now another thing about

this that's interesting is that we never

hear again after this after this period

here about the law of consecration you

don't see it in the letters of Paul you

don't see it in book of Revelation you

don't see this anymore

in the New Testament it's as if it's

gone as if you even have references to

funds that are being put together like

like a welfare fund for people instead

of the law of consecration so it seems

to have not worked and we know how that

is right we know the Israelites with

Moses could not handle even the

Melchizedek law at all we know that with

Joseph Smith as we tried to implement

the law of consecration things didn't

work out very well and it was withdrawn

it was pulled back now there's still the

spirit of that we still commit to that

but actual practice of that is not in

place and it looks to me like it may not

have worked out very well for the early

Saints here either it's a tough deal I

do want to make a comment about the

difference between the law of

consecration and socialism or Marxism

communism and this is I think a very

important point because we hear this

often times that either inside or

outside of the church just either

questioning or actually trying to argue

for some type of Marxism that well that

Christians taught it and they practiced

it or inside of our own church well wait

a minute don't we believe in the law of

consecration how is that different from

communism and Marxism some massive

difference massive difference and what

the difference is actually going

through those four phases of the pre

and that is that the law of

consecration first and foremost is going

to go to the first step in the ironic

priesthood which is individuality and

agency you can never get rid of that

once you pull individuality away then

you are you have pulled away the law of

consecration it's not consecrated

anymore once you take things by force

then you are taking away the gift you're

taking away the ability to give and

you're taking away the meaning of the

gift you're taking away agency and so

where the state runs everything and the

state owns these things and assets to

begin with then there is no law of

consecration happening you never have it

in the first place and it's done by

force so if you go back to the

pre-existence and in the book of

Revelation and you see references to the

war in heaven to me it's very similar to

this you have one side that is accepting

the plan of Jesus Christ which is based

on struggle and merit and works and

repentance and grace but you have to

have all of those things in place but

you're going to be responsible for your

works you're going to be responsible to

grow and to progress and to reach out to

God it's not all grace you have to have

the ability to repent and to try to

follow the example of the Savior whereas

the other side we're saying well wait a

minute that's not fair we don't want to

have to go through that we want everyone

forced to be equal an equality that is

forced and what that does is it removes

the ability to progress for anyone

automatically and it gives the glory or

we can say the power to the state or in

the case of the pre-existence the power

to Luke

give me the glory he said and the way

they fought that is accusations and we

can see the same thing today from either

side of the aisle when you're looking at

a collective that is trying to make

someone part of just a group a

collective mentality which removes your

individuality and removes your agency

that's how I see it and so Marxist

communism on one side law of

consecration on the other it all has to

do with the individual and if you remove

that out of the equation then you've got

somebody else's plan completely and so

then the apostles continue to teach in

the name of Jesus Christ despite being

told not to they continue to heal and

you have people that are lining up

around where Peter was walking just so

they could get into a shadow hoping that

they could be healed by Peter so Peter

Specialists becoming this new figure

this new healer like Christ as he goes

around preaching and healing in the name

of Jesus Christ and they're adding

multitudes were told of new converts and

of course someone's not happy about this

or some people are not very happy about

this and of course some people are not

very happy about this and so as these

miracles are performed just like in the

time of Jesus when the miracles are

performed and these teachings are put

out there you are basically kicking the

hornet's nest is what's happening and so

the Sadducees which is the sect of the

of the high priests are furious so they

again take Peter and so they again take

the Apostles and put them into a prison

and the Lord comes at night the angel of

the Lord comes at night and opens the

door and they miraculously are let out

of the prison now thinking about this

this is the second time just in this

episode that they've been put in prison

and are released we again we see the

same thing with Joseph Smith this is a

pattern

this is how truth works this is how

goodness works

it starts off small and grows and is

beaten down from all sides of a mortal

world mortal rules mortal establishment

they don't like it they want to fight

against it they want to extinguish this

goodness and so Joseph Smith was put

into jail and accused of everything you

can think of Under the Sun legally he

was tarred and feathered he was beat and

he was put into prison over and over

again and here the angel of the Lord

lets them out of prison actually

something I'm kind of proud of my

great-great-great grandfather was one of

the men that helped Joseph Smith escape

from Liberty jail pretty cool pretty

cool and so the angel tells them to go

to the temple and teach again go back

and keep teaching and so you can imagine

there are multitudes of people remember

these temple courts were massive huge

they could hold thousands and thousands

of people and so they go back there and

they keep teaching and so the high

priests go back send the people the

captain of the guard back to get the

Apostles from the prison and they're

gone and so they find out that they're

at the at the temple they send the guard

there to go get them and to bring them

back but not until again they have

converted many many more people here at

the temple and so you can imagine what's

going on in the high priests the

Sadducees the elders the scribes the

Pharisees all their minds what's going

on here they thought they had gotten rid

of this problem when they killed Jesus

Christ but now those that are acting in

his name are continuing on and are doing

the same works that Jesus did

just as Jesus said that they would and

they brought the Apostles back to see

them but without violence why without

violence because they're afraid of the

people it's just like when Jesus was

there remember there are thousands of

disciples probably at this point tens

and tens of thousands of converts to

Christianity which really for them

they're not describing themselves as

Christians they're just describing

themselves as we have the fullness of

the gospel back they're still Jews

they're still Jews and they're probably

still following through on practicing

most everything except for maybe

sacrifices but they are a new sect of

Jews that are emerging and here as the

high priests say they are filling

Jerusalem with their doctrine but just

like when Jesus was crucified there were

probably tens of thousands of followers

perhaps that were there during Passover

that were the ones laying out the

branches went for the procession coming

into Jerusalem and that we're listening

to him and his teachings there in his

last week of life so we only hear about

a few of the Apostles and few of the

other leaders of Christian dearly on but

this is a large large group at this

point and the Jews that are in power are

not very happy about this at all

Peter responds to them saying yes we're

still teaching we're still healing in

the name of the Savior the name of Jesus

Christ and he refers back again to psalm

118 and some of the these scriptures

that are there as Luke continues with

this theme of psalm 118 you might want

to go back and read that chapter of

psalm 118 and then look at chapters 4

and 5 of Acts and so they're taking

counsel together it says like the

Sanhedrin or at least a part of it and

what they decide to do is to kill him

just like they were gonna just like

with Jesus because they don't know what

else to do but one among them whose name

is gamma Leal who happens to be actually

the I think he's the teacher of Paul so

gamma Leal is a doctor of the law and

he's a Pharisee and he says that he

commanded to put the Apostles forth a

little space and said unto them ye men

of Israel take heed to yourselves what

you intend to do is touching these men

and he basically says look they'll talk

a little bit and then things will fizzle

away if we kill them now he's probably

saying we're gonna make new martyrs just

like we did of Jesus Christ and that

obviously didn't work so let's just let

them go when things will settle down

it's kind of what he's putting out there

I mean so they call the Apostles back in

and they beat him they're thugs

basically and they command that they

should not speak in the name of Jesus

and let them go so they again say stop

this and then it says something kind of

interesting here in verse 41 they say

and they departed from the presence of

the council the Apostles rejoicing that

they were counted worthy to suffer shame

for his name so that's kind of

interesting they are joyful they're

happy that they were able to suffer

isn't that interesting would you be

joyful to suffer for the name of Jesus

Christ and it reminds me of Lehigh's

vision remember is they those that get

up to the Tree of Life which is a

representation of the Savior and they

partake of the fruit and then they look

across the way there and there is the

just like we have the JSB at BYU it's

the GSB right the great and spacious

building and those inside are throwing

shame out at those that are at the tree

and making them suffer and they're

saying they're grateful to be in that

position that they can take that on

because they know that's how it works

they know that in order for goodness to

succeed they have to go through this to

be able to overthrow it to be able to

overcome it and so to them they

countered his victory they countered as

maybe taking on a small amount of what

the Savior took on and then of course

lastly again just like we ended the last

episode in verse 42 and daily in the

temple and in every house they ceased

not to teach and preach Jesus Christ

so the Sadducees telling them to stop

teaching in the name of Jesus didn't

really work too well and they continue

to do so in the temple

especially I'll talk to you next time