3 Nephi 15-18

1

• 3 Nephi 15-18
• 3 Nephi 151-8 Could it be any clearer!
• The Law of Moses hath an end in me (v.8). The
  strict ceremonies, observances and offerings,
  peculiar to the Law of Moses.
• Note, it was Jesus Christ who instituted,
  fulfilled, and announced the fulfillment of the
  Law of Moses.
• Fundamental doctrines of the gospel did not
  change with the fulfilling of the Law of Moses.

2

• The doctrine of the atonement is unchanging, but
  the procedure for how we remember the atonement
  changed from sacrifice to sacrament. Keep in
  mind that the principles of the gospel of Jesus
  Christ are divine. Nobody changes the principles
  and doctrines of the church But methods change
  as the inspired direction comes to those who
  preside at a given time. If you will analyze
  that the fundamental doctrines of the church are
  not changing. The only changes are in the
  methods of teaching that doctrine to meet the
  circumstances of our time (Harold B. Lee,
  Ensign, January 1971,10).

3

• 3 Nephi 159 Behold, I am the Law, and the
  Light (Galations 316)
• You will not discover the superiority of the
  gospel over the law of Moses if you think the law
  of Moses was harder to live than the gospel.
• The following statement by Elder Neal A. Maxwell
  helps illustrate this
• One of the ironies which is fostered, at times
  innocently, in the Church, is the feeling we have
  that the spirit of the law is superior to the
  letter of the law because for some reason it
  seems more permissive or less apt to offend
  others. The reverse if true. The spirit of the
  law is superior because it demands more of us
  than the letter of the law. The spirit of the
  law insists that we do more than merely comply
  superficially. It means, too, that we much give
  attention to the things that matter most and
  still not leave the others undone (For the Power
  is in Them, 46-47).

4

• True enduring therefore represents not merely
  the passage of time but also the passage of soul
  --- and not merely from A to B, but amid mighty
  change all the way from A to Z. To endure in
  faith and do Gods will thus involves much more
  than putting up with a circumstance (Neal A.
  Maxwell, Men and Women of Christ, 69-70).

5

• 3 Nephi 1516-21 Other Sheep
• The Nephites are the other sheep of whom He
  spoke in Jerusalem (John 1016).
• One of the most familiar and beautiful sights of
  the East is that of the shepherd leading his
  sheep to the pasture.He depends upon the sheep
  to follow, and they in turn expect him never to
  leave them
• As he is always with them, and so deeply
  interested in them, the shepherd comes to know
  his sheep very intimately.One day a missionary,
  meeting a shepherd on one of the wildest parts of
  the Lebanon, asked him various questions about
  his sheep, and among others if he counted them
  every night. On answering that he did not, he
  was asked how he knew if they were all there or
  not. His reply was, Master, if you were to put
  a cloth over my eyes, and bring me any sheep and
  only let me put my hands on its face, I could
  tell in a moment if it was mine or not (George
  M. Mackie, Bible Manners and Customs n.d., 33,
  35).

6

• Elder Neal A. Maxwell, speaking about this
  personal care said
• Jesus is so personal in His shepherding and
  tutoring!...
• Jesus knows and cares for each individual He
  watches carefully over the seemingly smallest of
  things (That Ye May Believe 1992, 204-5).

7

• 3 Nephi 161-3 174 Who are the other
  sheep?
• Did not Jesus visit them (the lost tribes of
  Israel) after he ministered among the
  Nephites?... Of course he did, in one or many
  places as suited his purposes. He assembled them
  together then in exactly the same way he gathered
  the Nephites in the land of Bountiful so that
  they too could hear his voice and feel the prints
  of the nails in his hands and in his feet. Of
  this there can be no question. And we suppose
  that he also called twelve apostles and
  established his kingdom among them even as he did
  in Jerusalem and in the Americas (Bruce R,
  McConkie, Millennial Messiah, 216).

8

• He has other worlds or creations and other sons
  and daughters, perhaps just as good as those
  dwelling on this planet and they, as well as we,
  will be visited, and they will be made glad with
  the countenance of their Lord. Thus he will go,
  in the time and in the season thereof, from
  kingdom to kingdom or from world to world
  (Orson Pratt, JD, 17332). (DC 8851-61).

9

• 3 Nephi 172 The Gathering
• Their difficulty in understanding the gathering
  seems to have had more to do with their lack of
  intellectual understanding of the doctrine
  itself.
• 3 Nephi 174-5 2 Nephi 2911-14
• 3 Nephi 176-25 The Temple
  Endowment?
• v. 6-9 How many people was
  the Savior willing to heal?

10

• During his mortal life, Jesus never refused to
  heal a single person (Matthew 1523-28).
• Elder Richard G Scott said, I testify that the
  Savior will heal you as you choose to obey truth
  and use your agency according to His counsel
  (Ensign, November 1992, 62).
• Evidently the resurrected Lord appeared to all
  of the people who were to write these great
  spiritual witnesses (Three Great Spiritual
  Witnesses, Ludlow, 271).

11

• 3 Nephi 184-7
• And were filled
• Let us make that sacrament hour one of the most
  impressive means of coming in contact with Gods
  spirit (1946, David O. McKay).
• The sacrament is the only ordinance of the
  gospel that we do for ourselves more than once.

12

• No more sacred ordinance is administered in the
  Church of Christ than the administration of the
  Sacrament (David O. McKay, C.R., April 1946,
  112).
• Bread and water are the two most basic elements
  to sustain life. In a similar way, Jesus, who is
  the bread of life (John 635) and the living
  water (Jeremiah 1713), is the basic elements to
  sustain our spiritual life.
• Un-baptized children, being without sin, are
  entitled and expected to partake of the sacrament
  to prefigure the covenant they will take upon
  themselves when they arrive at the years of
  accountability (Bruce R. McConkie, M.D., 660).

13

• Commenting on this verse, President George Q.
  Cannon wrote
• In our Church numerous instances have occurred
  wherebread and wine (or water) have been
  partaken of as a meal, and not, as is usual when
  the Sacrament is passed in our general meetings,
  in the shape of small pieces of bread and a
  little sip of water It seems from this that in
  partaking of this ordinance they satisfied their
  appetites that is, they ate and drank until
  they were filled. This would be the proper
  manner to administer this ordinance now if
  circumstances permitted (Editorial Thoughts
  Passing the Sacrament, The Juvenile Instructor
  32 15 January 1897 52-53).

14

• Philo Dibble told Oliver B Huntington of an
  occasion in 1838 in Far West, Missouri , during
  which the Prophet Joseph Smith gave the people a
  true pattern.
• A pattern of the true manner of partaking of the
  sacrament. The people came together in the
  morning without their breakfast, to the bowery on
  the Public Square where there was prepared a
  plenty of good bread and a barrel of wine. The
  bread and wine was blessed, every person ate
  bread and drank wine as they wanted all day, when
  they wanted No one said less lets go and get
  a drink but with solemnity they commemorated the
  death and sufferings of Jesus No one was
  intoxicated during the day (Diary of Oliver B.
  Huntington, 1847-1900, part 2 Provo, Utah
  Brigham Young University Library, 1942, entry of
  4 September 1887).

15

• The Administration of the Sacrament
• B.H. Roberts insisted they (the sacrament
  prayers) were the most perfect forms of sacred
  literature to be found. To participate in them
  is to enter the Holy of Holies of the Atonement
  (Truth, Way, Light, 39).
• These prayers spiritualize the physical and
  physicalize the spiritual. They unite from mans
  mortal condition to an eternal family.

16

• 3 Nephi 1815-23 Which is Right
• And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my
  name, which is right, believing that ye shall
  receive, behold it shall be given unto you.
• The object of prayer is not to change the will
  of God, but to secure for ourselves and for
  others blessing that God is already willing to
  grant, but that are made conditional on our
  asking for them (LDS Bible Dictionary).
• The Savior reminds us that faith, no matter how
  strong it is, cannot produce a result contrary to
  the will of him whose power it is. The exercise
  of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is always
  subject to the order of heaven, to the goodness
  and will and wisdom and timing of the Lord. That
  is why we cannot have true faith in the Lord
  without also having complete trust in the Lords
  will (Dallin H. Oaks, May 1994, 100).
• 3 Nephi 1828-29 Take the sacrament
  worthily!

17

• In reviewing that day, it is impressive to note
  the cohesive, chiasmic nature of the messages
  that were delivered. Note the reinforcement and
  revealed unity of the manner in which this days
  experience began and the way it concluded.
• Christ descends (3 Nephi 118)
• He disperses the mists of darkness (109)
• He is the Light of the World (1111)
• The people fall at the feet of Jesus,
  worship him,
• and kiss his feet (1117, 19)
• Christ commands the people to
  arise (1114, 20)
• He gives power to baptize
  (1121-22).
• He is touched one by one
  (1115)
• The people see and feel the marks of the
  Atonement
• (1114-15)
• There are to be no disputations
  about baptisms
• (1122, 28)
• Beware the temptations of the devil
  (1129)

18

• 
  Repentance is the gate to baptism (1123)
  The significance of baptism (1121-34)
• Become as a little child (922, 1138)
• Build upon the Saviors
  rock (1139)
• Do no more than this (1140)
• Do no more than this (1813)
• Build upon the Saviors rock (1812)
• Behold your little ones (1723)
• Significance of the sacrament (181-32)
• Repentance and baptism are the gate to
• the sacrament (1830)
• Beware temptation of the devil
  (1815, 18)
• There are to be no disputations about
  the sacrament (1834)
• The people see and feel the spirit of the
  Atonement (1825)
• Christ touches one by one
  (1836)
• He gives power to bestow the Holy
  Ghost (1837)
• He commands the people to arise (1719)
• The people kiss Christs feet and bathe them
  with their tears (1710)
• Christ is the light unto the world (1824)
• Overshadowing of a cloud (1838)