Come Follow Me LDS- Matthew 18, Luke 10 Part 1

'The Greatest, 7 x 70 & The Seventy'
- How to be 'the greatest' in the Kingdom of God
- 7 x 70 and forgiveness in the Spiritual Ecomony
- The Seventy as representatives to the world

I inadvertently said '1st, 2nd or 3rd century AD' in regards to producing the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible. The Septuagint was produced in the 3rd century BC, not AD.

 

 

Come Follow Me New Testament

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in this episode we're going to talk

about the greatest 70 times seven and

the seventy here we go

so we're gonna start in this episode in

Matthew 18 this is happening shortly

after the experience on the Mount of

Transfiguration and here we find Jesus

dispensing wisdom dispensing some of his

teachings to the disciples the disciples

come to him and ask him who is the

greatest in the kingdom of heaven I

think it's hard to know exactly what

they mean by that so we can't infer a

few different things one is they might

be asking amongst themselves we don't

know that though I don't think but we

they might be asking amongst themselves

here who is the greatest amongst us and

who has the highest level of authority

and Jesus makes it very clear the way

the hierarchical structure works in the

kingdom of heaven it's not necessarily

the same way that it works here on earth

and he says to them that he who is the

least among you who is the most humble

among you is the greatest among you and

he gives the example of a little child

and he brings a little child amongst

them and says if you humble yourself as

a little child then that is what makes

you the greatest in the kingdom of

heaven I think that thinking about who

humbled themselves the most it would be

of course himself Jesus Christ

he definitely lowered himself humbled

himself more than any person who has

ever lived or ever will live on the

earth and therefore he is the greatest

because he bore everybody else's burdens

because he humbled himself more than

anybody else ever will and that makes

him the greatest and so a poignant

lesson here to the disciples and letting

them know how that hierarchical

structure works in the Kingdom of Heaven

whoever is the most humble and again if

we go back to understanding what humble

means this is my understanding

is that it does not mean that you are

passive it does not mean that you are

weak

that is not humility Jesus certainly was

not passive and weak in Gethsemane or on

the cross yes he allowed everything to

happen to him but the point isn't that

he allowed it to happen the point is

that he chose to let it happen he did

not have to do that and he chose to

humble himself by doing the will of the

Father

in other words doing what was right what

was required and so we can humble

ourselves by simply bowing to eternal

principles and to the principles of the

gospel doing what is right bowing to the

Lord and his example and his teachings

that is humility and you can be very

strong at doing that I don't think

people would say that you know captain

Moroni for example was weak but perhaps

he was very humble in a number of ways

he bowed to certain principles and did

what he felt he had to do to preserve

the nation and to preserve the gospel

being taught amongst his people and to

preserve the people so that's how the

hierarchical structure works in the

Kingdom of Heaven and that's obviously a

principle that we should all learn to

bow to eternal principles and to the

principles of the gospel and then he

follows that up with what I think is

support for what he has just taught and

becoming the most humble and he says

here in verse 7 as he has been speaking

about children and becoming like

children he says woe unto the world

because of offences or sin for it must

needs be that offences come but woe to

that man by whom the offence cometh

wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend

thee cut them off and cast them from

thee it is better for thee to enter into

life halt or maimed rather than having

two hands

or two feet to be cast into the

everlasting fire so what would giving

something up that we really need a hand

and arm mean in principle it means

sacrifice I think it means giving

something up it means humbling ourselves

and sacrificing that part of us that

might hold us back from progressing and

from getting into the kingdom of God

obviously if we humble ourselves to the

principles of the gospel that's going to

require a great amount of sacrifice

because we're not built and born in this

world to be perfect and so we're going

to have to figuratively speaking leave a

hand leave an arm leave sometimes very

difficult things for us to give up

behind in order to be able to move

forward and then Jesus says something

interesting in verse 11 and this is a

message that he has given several times

but he words it a little bit differently

here he says for the Son of man has come

to save that which was lost

which seems obvious but aren't we

supposed to be just like him and aren't

we supposed to be working on those that

are lost it's easy I think I've

certainly fallen into this trap before

to feel like you have your comfortable

position in the church you're in the

club and other people that are like you

and have the same you've

accepted a goal in mind that you have

for your future and for your family and

perhaps there are others that are not as

active that don't accept that goal right

now or don't live in a way to pursue

that goal that same goal and it's easy

to just stay with what's comfortable but

here Jesus is saying the reason he's

here is for those that are lost it's

like the parable of the prodigal son

right and the father getting so excited

about this

that was lost coming back or him sitting

with Jesus sitting with the sinners and

saying that the healthy do not need a

physician so the whole purpose of Jesus

Christ is to help the sinners and of

course that's all of us

some of us might be a little bit more

down that road but his whole purpose is

to save those that need saving and I

think the environment here of the

Pharisees Sadducees the Jews in power is

that they've excluded everybody else and

if you're not exactly like them perhaps

that fellowshipping isn't happening that

charity and love is not going across to

those that are not following exactly

what they're supposed to be doing

perhaps in or under the law of Moses and

so he gives the parable of the lost

sheep and here's how it goes in verse 12

how think ye if a man have a hundred

sheep and one of them be gone astray

doth he not leave the ninety and nine

and goeth into the mountains and seeketh

that which has gone astray and if so be

that he find it verily I say unto you he

rejoiceth more of that sheep than of the

ninety and nine which went not astray

again just like the prodigal son so

Jesus’ mission is to go after the one

and of course there's many more than one

where all the one aren't we we're all

lost we're all fallen we are all the one

that is lost out of the mountains and

what a wonderful message to know that

that's what his whole mission is to

save us as individuals to save us which

have strayed and have fallen and then he

delves right into again the spiritual

economy that he loves to talk about we

hear him talk often about payment or

debts or money and he uses this example

of the man-made economy to compare

it to the spiritual economy which is

real and exists and this is how he does

it he says

gives the parable of the man that came

to the Lord who owed the Lord his Lord

is master a lot of money and the servant

begged him for forgiveness and the

master said okay you're forgiven

and he is a large debt was forgiven

because he came to him and begged for

hid for it for help and then that same

servant turned around and somebody owed

him a smaller debt but he would not

forgive the debt of the person that owed

him and so Jesus says look understand

that this is how it works you're going

to ask your Heavenly Father for a lot of

forgiveness throughout your life you

have a massive debt that you have got to

pay or that needs to be forgiven and so

if you go out and do not forgive others

their debt then you're going to have a

hard time in the spiritual economy and

you're gonna have a hard time with the

father and this is what he says and his

Lord was wroth and delivered him to the

tormentors till he should pay all that

was due unto him so likewise shall my

Heavenly Father do also unto you if ye

from your hearts forgive not every one

his brother their trespasses like the

Platinum rule instead of the golden rule

it is do unto others as you would have

God do unto you because that's how this

economy works that's how this debt works

if you're going to ask for forgiveness

from God you're going to need to give

forgiveness to others and if you can't

do that if you can't forgive others

their trespasses then you're not going

to be forgiven and you're going to have

to go through a lot because that that

forgiveness is not going to be there for

you so the spiritual economy here is I

receive

of payment really from the Savior by

proxy and I can be forgiving of my debt

and then I can turn and I need to

forgive the debt of others as well by

proxy and so by sharing each other's

burdens by offering forgiveness then

everybody is made whole but if I receive

in the middle here I receive that

forgiveness and then I turn and I don't

offer the forgiveness then that

forgiveness for those people is not

given to them they are not made whole

and I am not made whole either it's a

two-way street forgiveness is a two-way

street and this discussion about the

spiritual economy was triggered by a

question that Peter had to Jesus he says

up in verse 21 then came Peter to him

and said Lord how oft shall my brother

sin against me and I forgive him till

seven times so what if this heck keeps

happening

how often do I forgive and Jesus saith

unto him I say not unto thee until seven

times but until seventy times seven

times so in other words as much as it

takes and if you think about it as

difficult as that would be right you

don't want to be trampled on and you

don't want to have to forgive a lot of

different people that's a hard

thing to do I mean that's tiring

it's tiring it takes a lot out of you to

forgive people really is difficult think

about what the Lord had to do and has to

do he has to take that burden he has to

forgive everyone and so he's saying

you're going to want forgiveness as many

times as you need it and it's going to

be often you need to turn around and

offer forgiveness as many times as it's

needed seventy times so and so we go

from the seventy times seven in Matthew

18 to the seventy in Luke 10

and this is where the 70 are called

so just like we have the 70 in the

church today the 70 were called in the

Church of the early church by Jesus

Christ now 70 is an interesting number

and this comes up a few different times

but back in the time of Moses there were

70 that were called they were brought

together and they were put together as

part of the priesthood and they were

able to come up to Mount Sinai up to a

certain point but not all the way so

they had a position in the hierarchical

structure of the priesthood why 70 well

possibly it is because there were 70

families that came from Noah and so what

this would represent is all of the

families of the earth would be

represented by the 70 and so you would

have the twelve that we're over you know

the 12 judges of Israel would be

structured on top

you'd have twelve princes of the tribes

you have Twelve Apostles here with Jesus

and then you have the seventy which

would be going out to everyone

eventually and that would make sense

right into the 70 have always been had a

focus based in scripture on missionary

work and so they would be ones going out

to the Gentiles out to the world to

preach the gospel I remember when I was

growing up there was a quorum of 70 in

my ward you know everybody had a quorum

that was I think I think it might have

been centered in the stake but you would

have you know the men would go to the

the men would go to the elders quorum

they would go to the 70s meet with the

70s or they would go with the high

priests now we've brought that all the

way down to one here recently but the

70s were all in charge of missionary

work and then they kind of rolled that

up and made that up into only up into

the seven quorums of the seventy which

are both the general

authorities in the area seventy I think

it's the first and second quorums of

the seventy are in the General

Authorities and the other

quorums of the seventy are area seventy

but seventy is consistent with that

there were also seventy angels that a

lot of the religions in the ancient

times would have and they would have an

angel one of the seventy angels would be

over each one of the peoples and there

were 70 or 72 or 71 there 70 71 the

Sanhedrin has 71 they're not always

always that way maybe there were 70 or

72 but that's 70 71 72 that number is

very consistent as part of a

hierarchical structure both in the

priesthood and in in a secular manner

just like with a Sanhedrin those that

went to Egypt from Jerusalem to

translate the Hebrew Bible into Greek

into the Septuagint in 1st or 2nd

century AD more or less 2nd or 3rd

century AD there were 70 I believe 70 72

of them that when and did that and again

it's going into Greek it's going into

the Gentile language that would go out

to everyone that's why it's called the

Septuagint it's 70 and so the 70 go out

and they preach and they perform

miracles and they heal and they say that

even the Devils are subject to them

these are all practices of the

Melchizedek Priesthood why because the

Melchizedek Priesthood is the priesthood

of the son of God is the priesthood of

Jehovah it's the priesthood of Jesus

Christ and he gives the power over all

of those things and so they all come

back to Jesus just overjoyed because all

of they're able to do all of these

things in his name and Jesus says to

them I beheld Satan as lightning fall

from heaven and I wonder if this was

part of a vision that he had at his

baptism and he says behold I give unto

you power

to tread on serpents and scorpions and

over all the power of the enemy and

nothing shall by any means hurt you and

so this is seems to be a clear allusion

to genesis 3:15 which talks about the

having the power to crush the head of

the serpent and that is through Jesus

Christ of course and then it's through

his priesthood that is given where they

are able to accomplish all of these

things so his church is being built out

so that it can be administered and so

that it can grow and it grows very very

quickly it's really very similar to what

happened in the last days and with

Joseph Smith was line upon line and

precept upon precept office upon office

in the priesthood these things happened

in sequence and eventually started to

build out the kingdom of God

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