Come Follow Me LDS - Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3

aaronic priesthood come follow me john the baptist melchizedek priesthood new testament sacrament the higher & lower laws Jan 27, 2019

-Why John the Baptist is mentioned and prophesied of so much in scripture.
-How the meeting of John and Jesus at the Jordan River represents the two priesthoods.
-Why there must be a separation of the Aaronic and Melchizedek Priesthoods.
-How the sacrament represents the two priesthoods.

Raw Transcript

okay so this is the come follow me

lesson for the New Testament which

focuses on Matthew three mark one and

Luke three calls prepare ye the way of

the Lord the focus of this is on John

the Baptist what we want to look at here

is why is John the Baptist such a

central figure in the story of Christ

first off what I'd like to do is if we

go back and look at a few scriptures

here we're going to see that John the

Baptist is mentioned either explicitly

or implicitly throughout the scriptures

constantly the authors of the books of

the scriptures want to bring up John the

Baptist and in fact we can even look

implicitly at Genesis 1:1 the very first

verse in the Bible and this is what it

says it says in the beginning God

created the heaven and the earth well

what are we saying here in Jewish

thought and in ancient Middle Eastern

thought what they are saying is not just

specifically to the earth and to the

heavens being created but rather to the

spirit and to physical creation so the

heaven would represent God or the spirit

or our spirits even and the earth

represents what is physical and so

Genesis opens up talking about this

duality of spirit and of physicality and

how they're going to work together and

then of course as it goes through the

creation story it's talking more and

more about bringing these two things

together and then eventually bringing

together man and woman we can look at

the priesthood in the same way you have

heaven and you have earth you have a

representation here of the Melchizedek

Priesthood which would be heaven and the

Aaronic priesthood which would be earth

Melchizedek Priesthood is focused on

spiritual things and the ironic

priesthood is focused on temporal things

or carnal things then we go back and we

can win - Isaiah this is going back to

about 700 BC we see Isaiah already

talking about a forerunner a precursor

to Christ and as you know Isaiah is a

really focuses on the Savior throughout

his writings and here he brings up John

the Baptist also it's very important for

him that this is laid out when talking

about the Savior and so in in chapter 40

Isaiah 40 verse 1 he says comfort ye

comfort ye my people saith your God now

comfort is can is a translation of the

Hebrew knock'em which really means

repentance so if we read this repent ye

repent ye my people saith your God we

get an understanding that this is a

repentance is a forerunner to bringing

in Christ when we repent we are putting

ourselves into a position to bring in

the spirit and to bring in Melchizedek

Priesthood functions and administration

of the Spirit so repentance is a no

Roenick priesthood function that is why

baptism by immersion is an ironic

priesthood function a priest can

baptized of the Aaronic priesthood but

yet the baptism of the Spirit is a

Melchizedek Priesthood function it's

when we received the gift of the Holy

Ghost that must be given by the laying

on of hands by somebody with them I'll

kiss it ik priesthood and there we have

heaven and earth in that combination and

then if we go another step further and

we talk about renewing our covenants

every week with the sacrament we have

the same representation of Genesis 1:1

and that is the heaven is the wine or

water that represents the spirit and

life and the bread is a representation

of carnal or of temporal of Earth going

down to Isaiah 40 verse 3 it says the

voice of him that crieth in the

wilderness

the ironic priesthood is the priesthood

of the individual it is focused on your

agency your behavior the commandments

repentance baptism these are all a

Roenick priesthood functions they're

talking about things that are focused on

you and your body whereas the

Melchizedek Priesthood it's not an

individual priesthood it is about

marriage and about family and then about

community but first you have to have the

ironic priesthood and here part of that

Aaronic priesthood as well is the

decision to preach the decision it's

it's freedom of speech it's the ability

to make your own decisions to obey or

not obey with your agency and to speak

and here you have a reference to John

the Baptist and to a function of the

Aaronic priesthood when it says the

voice of him that crieth in the

wilderness prepare ye the way of the

Lord make straight in the desert a

highway for our God now in ancient times

it was very important as in in the

procession of the king that first the

pathway would be cleared out so rocks

would be moved right that something

would be a stumbling block which is

referred to in the scriptures they try

and level out the pathway and and then

the procession of the king oftentimes

coming into the temple especially the

temple this is reminiscent of the temple

ceremony and festival that drama that

took place in Israel every year for

eight days during the time of the

festival of Tabernacles and first you

would need to clear the path before the

king came through and that's how the

John the Baptist is looked at he is

going to prepare the way

for the king who is Christ another

prophet in the Old Testament talks about

John and this is Malachi the last book

in the Old Testament and we go to

chapter 3 verse 1 behold I will send my

messenger and he shall prepare the way

before me and the Lord whom you seek

shall suddenly come to his temple even

the messenger of the Covenant whom he

delight in behold he shall come saith

the Lord of hosts going over to the Book

of Mormon this is during Old Testament

times also this is somewhere in the 6th

century BC Nephi and he spake also

concerning a prophet who should come

before the Messiah to prepare the way of

the Lord this is in first Nephi 10 7 yay

even he should go forth and cry in the

wilderness so he's preaching it's his

speech prepare ye the way of the Lord

and make his paths straight for there

standeth one among you whom he know not

and he is mightier than I whose shoes

latchet I am not worthy to unloose now

looking more specifically at the

priesthood of the Aaronic priesthood we

see in Section 84 this is where we find

the oath and covenant of the priesthood

but the whole section here is very

important to understand why there is a

split in the priesthood that is why is

there an ironic priesthood in the

Melchizedek Priesthood and specifically

here we look at verses 26 to 28 says and

the lesser priesthood continued now what

they're referring to here is that Moses

when he went up to Sinai he came back

down with the commandments and the

covenant of the Melchizedek Priesthood

for everyone remember he said that the

Lord wanted all of Israel to be priests

well they rejected it the children of

Israel rejected the Melchizedek

Priesthood and it's availability for

everyone and so Moses then goes back up

to Sinai

gets new tablets that are and an ironic

covenant that is a lower covenant and

comes back down and that is where we get

the law of Moses and a lower covenant

that was made and mostly an ironic

priesthood functioning temple up until

the time of Christ so he says and the

lesser priesthood continued so they

stayed with the ironic priesthood which

priesthood holdeth the key of the

ministering of angels and the

preparatory gospel so again the

preparatory gospel the Aaronic

priesthood is the preparatory priesthood

not because young men are preparing to

receive the McKissack priesthood that is

a cultural fallacy it is a preparatory

priesthood because that is the progress

that each of us go through men and women

as we go through the functions of the

priesthood we first go through the

Aaronic priesthood just like in the

sacrament with the bread and then we go

through the Melchizedek Priesthood

functions of the water and we do that in

the temple and we do that in life we go

from an individual decision to creating

a family to becoming partner of the

larger community remember that in the

restoration wouldn't it have been so

much easier for Peter James and John to

come down and just give him the majestic

priesthood because of course the Aaronic

priesthood is an appendage of the

Melchizedek Priesthood but that's not

what happened first John the Baptist

came and gave the priesthood to Joseph

Smith and Oliver Cowdery so first they

received the ironic priesthood and then

later they received the McKissack

priesthood this is how the Lord works

this is a representation of the progress

that we all make going through the plan

of salvation and so it was apparently

very important to the Lord that this was

demonstrated and that this would be the

process in the restoration continuing in

verse 27 and 28 in Section 84 it says

gospel is the gospel of repentance and

baptism and the remission of sins and

the law of carnal Commandments if you

listen closely to the sacrament prayers

there is one big difference but besides

references to what we are partaking of

and that is that in the in the prayer on

the bread it talks about Commandments

because Commandments and decisions and

repentance and obedience are inner

Roenick priesthood function continuing

here in 27 which the Lord and his wrath

caused to continue with the house of

Aaron among the children of Israel until

John whom God raised up being filled

with the Holy Ghost from his mother's

womb that's John the Baptist again John

being mentioned again here for he was

baptized this is verse 28 for he was

baptized while he was yet in his

childhood and was ordained by the angel

of God at the time he was eight days old

unto this power to overthrow the kingdom

of the Jews and to make straight the way

of the Lord before the face of his

people to prepare them for the coming of

the Lord in whose hand is given all

power so we have the formula laid out

for us here again it is a preparation

first first the people must be prepared

first each of us must be prepared and

how do we prepare ourselves through

repenting and through obedience to the

commandments that's how we receive the

spirit skipping down to verse 33 this is

the beginning of the oath in the

Covenant it says for whoso is faithful

in unto of the obtaining these to

priesthoods of which I have spoken and

the magnifying they're calling are

sanctified by the spirit unto the

renewing of their bodies and then before

we get into the Gospels here skipping on

there over to Doctrine and Covenants

section 107 we see right here in the

first verse there are in the church two

priesthoods namely the Melchizedek and

Aaronic including the Levitical

priesthood

and when we hear Levitical priests that

were talking about going beyond just

ironic in a sentence in other words in

Old Testament times the sons of Aaron

only could become priests and yet the

men that were Levites Aaron was in the

tribe of Levi the men who were Levites

also held the priesthood but were not

made given the office of priests so

today we think about the Aaronic

priesthood and how it's separated by

callings or or offices and we have the

priest and the teacher and the Deacons

so you can look at the teachers and the

Deacons as the Levites they assist the

priests in the function the best example

of that would be the priesthood or the

the best example of that would be the

sacrament where the Deacons passed the

sacrament and the teachers have prepared

the sacrament it's the same thing that

happened with sacrifices on the altars

when there was an animal that was

brought for a sacrifice it would be the

Levites that would help prepare that and

that would distribute the meat etc but

it was the priests who actually made the

sacrifice and we can look at the

sacrament table as an altar it's the

same idea they're going down to verse 14

then in Section 1:07 we read this why it

is called the lesser priesthood is

because it is an appendage to the

greater or the Melchizedek Priesthood

and has power in administering outward

ordinances so it is not the spiritual

priesthood it is the the temporal

priesthood it is the checklists and then

verse 20 gives us a little bit more

information where it says the power and

authority of the lesser Aaronic

priesthood is to hold the keys of the

ministering angels and when we say

ministering angels we're really talking

about that when we say ministering here

we're talking about speech just like

John the Baptist crying in the

wilderness

and basically preaching repentance

that's what that is happening here with

the ministering angels so again it holds

the keys of the ministering of angels

and to administer outward ordinances the

letter of the gospel we read about this

in the New Testament about the letter of

the gospel versus the spirit of the

gospel one is represented by the Iranian

and one is represented by the

Melchizedek Priesthood in this time

anciently this was not something that

was just part of the culture of the

Israelites it was a part of the culture

of other Middle Eastern societies so for

example in Egypt on one wall that says

this the following is inscribed in front

of the ankh figure and it says opening

the sacred roads for the king of the two

lands that's Upper and Lower Egypt

opening the roads for the King of the

South for the purpose of seeing the face

of the gods in the white chamber that is

a temple reference in Egypt that is you

open the ways and then you get to see

the face of God and then you get to the

Holy of Holies or the celestial room but

first you go through an ironic

priesthood function and in front of the

wasa figure that's lwas figure on this

wall it says smoothing thy paths in the

approach to the temple of the Divine

Mother so again it's the idea of a

preparatory function before the king who

represents all things spiritual comes in

two to the temple here now now let's go

to the Gospels and remember that it's in

every one of the Gospels Matthew Mark

Luke and John

that John the Baptist is mentioned so if

we go to Matthew three we're just gonna

work through Matthew here and we're

going to go through verses 1 through 12

here quickly to conclude in those days

Came John the Baptist preaching in the

wilderness of Judea and saying repent

for the kingdom of heaven is at hand now

think about that verse first of all he's

crying repentance he's crying in the

wilderness

he's crying to people that mostly have a

different tradition in the desert by the

way outside of Jerusalem that are

probably a little bit more prepared for

the message of Jesus Christ but he says

repent ye for the kingdom of heaven is

at hand again think of royalty what

would the kingdom be well it's

represented by the king the spiritual

king who is Christ

so first prepare yourselves that is

repent because the kingdom or the

Melchizedek Priesthood and the king and

the spiritual things are at hand

- verse 3 for this is he that was spoken

of by the Prophet Esaias that's the

greek version of isaiah saying the voice

of one crying in the wilderness prepare

either way of the Lord make his paths

straight and the same John had his

raiment of camels hair and a leather

leathern girdle about his loins and his

meat was locusts and wild honey then

went out to him Jerusalem and all of

Judea and all the region round about

Jordan we can get understanding of how

great John was because of you know

everybody knows who he is and his

preaching is obviously very spiritual

and very compelling and there are so

many people that are being baptized and

converted to John's teachings and to the

teachings of the Messiah to the

teachings that hate Jesus Christ is here

with us and were baptized of him and

Jordan confessing their sins but when he

saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees

come to his baptism that's two of the

Jewish sets he said unto them o

generation of vipers who hath warned you

to flee from the wrath to come bring

forth therefore fruits meet for

repentance remember that John the

Baptist was called not only to prepare

the way but he was

actually called to overthrow the Jewish

Kingdom so when he says prepare you the

way for the kingdom of heaven is at hand

he's talking about overthrowing the

temporal kingdom that is there he was a

real threat to the Jews who were in

power there

the Romans were a little too powerful to

worry about this probably as much

although that's what the Jews tried to

convince the Romans of but the Jews who

were in power at this time became very

concerned about John the Baptist and

then of course the same concern a

greater concern once Jesus Christ

started to preach and people understood

who he was that he was this king that

John the Baptist had been talking about

with this new kingdom that was coming

about that was coming to overthrow them

and think not to say this is verse 9 and

think not to say within yourselves we

have Abraham to our Father for ice and

to you that God is able of these stones

to raise up children unto Abraham I'm

gonna go over this in a different

podcast but this is important this is

written down for a specific reason and

it has to do with lineage verse 10 and

now also the axe is laid unto the root

of the trees therefore every tree which

bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn

down and cast into the fire again he's

talking about preparing the way right

are you a person who is making the right

decisions and if you're not you need to

repent and get ready for the spiritual

things I indeed baptize use of verse 11

with water unto repentance it's very

important that Matthew and Mark and Luke

and John they're saying water

specifically here because they're

talking about the Iran ik priesthood

function of baptism again verse 11 I

indeed baptize you with water unto

repentance but he that cometh after me

is mightier than I whose shoes I am not

worthy to bear he shall baptize you with

the Holy Ghost and with fire whose fan

is in his hand

and he will thoroughly purge his floor

and gather his wheat into the garner but

he will burn up the chaff with

unquenchable fire

let me back up to verse 11 here and so

that we can understand what is happening

all these prophets from Nephi to Isaiah

to Malachi to Moses everybody has

prophesied about the Messiah and for all

we know all of them prophesied about

John the Baptist as well wouldn't be

surprising and it's because of this very

moment right here we oftentimes think of

the New Testament as we read it that its

primary message well we know its primary

message is about Jesus Christ's

atonement his sacrifice and about his

teachings but we oftentimes overlooked

the fact that the New Testament and the

and the Jesus coming to John here is a

representation of the full restoration

of the gospel the full restoration of

the priesthood Jesus Christ just like

Joseph Smith and Abraham and Noah and

Adam Enoch

sits at the head of a dispensation and

the word dispensation the reason we use

that term is because it is a dispensing

of keys it's knowledge also but it's

primarily a dispensing of priesthood

keys and this is the way the authors in

each of the Gospels are telling us about

the restoration the full restoration of

the gospel and the full restoration of

the priesthood John says i baptize you

with water in other words I hold the

right the ironic priesthood but that's

it he who comes after me is greater than

I not just because he is Jesus Christ

the Savior but because he is the new

Melchizedek he rep

since the Melchizedek Priesthood which

is the priesthood of Jesus Christ so

when he says in verse 12 excuse me verse

11 that he that comes after me is

mightier than I right he just said that

he baptizes with water but he that comes

after me is mightier mightier than I and

he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost

and with fire that is him saying he

holds the Melchizedek Priesthood and

this is a representation of a full

restoration of the gospel and this is

why you should all be excited about what

I am preaching about because all of the

ordinances and all of the priesthood

Authority are now restored through Jesus

Christ being here now going down to

verse 12 quickly we say whose fan in his

hand and he will thoroughly purge his

floor and gather his wheat into the

garner but he will burn up the chaff

with unquenchable fire so think back

here about for example King Tut it's a

crook really it's a crook that he's

holding and then in the other hand is a

fan or a what are they calls I got a

thrash a Thrasher so to speak and what

it is is it's kind of like it's a rod

with a tied to another rod or several

other rods at the end that would be used

to hit the wheat on the ground that

would separate the wheat from the chaff

and so a that's what he's saying here is

that whose fan in his hand it's a

representation of judgment so in

conclusion my primary message is why

John the Baptist is such a central

figure it's because he represents the

Aaronic priesthood and you have to

separate the Aaronic priesthood from the

Melchizedek Priesthood that's the way

the Lord always does it

we don't combine the prayers

we don't combine buying the water and

the band and the bread of the sacrament

for a reason we first go through an

erotic priesthood function and then we

go through a Melchizedek Priesthood

representation same thing with baptism

baptism is baptism first by water with

the ironic priesthood and then baptism

by fire and the Holy Ghost with a monk

ascetic priesthood they are two separate

ordinances from two separate priesthood

so as you read the scriptures you're

going to find this theme more and more

if you keep it in mind a higher law and

a lower law just as it says in Genesis

1:1 a representation of heaven and a

representation of earth those are the

McKissack and ironic priesthoods in John

the Baptist is and Jesus Christ are the

central figures that the authors of the

Scriptures use to represent the two

different priesthoods

Come Follow Me LDS

New Testament Bible

"I Take This Every Day!"

Learn more about why I accepted Cardio Miracle as a sponsor and why I take it every day!

- Greg Matsen

Learn More!

Cwic Study Group

Checkout our weekly Cwic Study Group!

Delve deeper!

Learn More

Stay connected with Study Tips & Updates!

Cwic Week

Donate

Be a part of our mission! Help us help others increase their understanding of the scriptures and increase their faith.

Donate

Cwic Merch!

Check out our Merch Store! Apparell and Accessories.

Shop!

Cwic Audio Player

All of the Cwic Media podcast episodes on one page!

Cwic Audio Player

Come Follow Me LDS - Matthew 3, Mark 1, Luke 3

"I Take This Every Day!"

Cwic Study Group

Checkout our weekly Cwic Study Group!

Delve deeper!

Stay connected with Study Tips & Updates!

Donate

Be a part of our mission! Help us help others increase their understanding of the scriptures and increase their faith.

Cwic Merch!

Cwic Audio Player

All of the Cwic Media podcast episodes on one page!

Two Step