Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to Come Follow Me.
Speaker: This week we are covering, well, it's March 13th through 19th this week, and we are covering from the New Testament curriculum, Matthew chapters 11 and 12, and Luke
Speaker: chapter 11.
Speaker: And these are really interesting chapters because as I would summarize them, basically Jesus is going around and he's trying to teach people and tell people who he is.
Speaker: And the scribes and Pharisees are giving him a hard time for doing miracles on the Sabbath.
Speaker: And he heals people and they're saying, oh no, you're healing people by
Speaker: power of Beelzebub, the prince of devils, and really just no one is believing Christ for who he claims to be or what any of the miracles or teachings that he's given are in these chapters.
Speaker: And it made me think about a conversation I had with some friends this week, friends who aren't members of
Speaker: of our faith and friends who don't really have a strong belief in God or Christ.
Speaker: And we were talking about what they do believe.
Speaker: And one of them was saying that, that he does believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Speaker: And he believes that Christ was a good person who taught, who taught good things.
Speaker: And those are the kinds of principles that he wants to live his life by.
Speaker: And I was just reminded of a quote from a general authority who was saying, I believe it was James E. Talmadge actually, who was saying that Christ's greatest teaching, and I paraphrase here, Christ's greatest teaching is about his divine identity and mission.
Speaker: And if we separate the teachings of Christ and the principles that Christ taught from that, then we're missing the mark.
Speaker: And ultimately, I think that Christ was able to teach what he taught and he was who he was because of his mission, because of his divine identity.
Speaker: And as we think about Jesus and as we give weight to some of the teachings that he gave us and some of the things that we're going to discuss from these chapters, we have to remember that
Speaker: They're all coming from Christ, the son of the father, Christ, the savior of the world, Christ, the redeemer, Christ, the resurrected Christ, the prince of peace, Christ, all the, all the titles that he has.
Speaker: And he is, he is so much more and can be so much more in our lives than simply a person who taught good principles of loving one another.
Speaker: That's awesome, Will.
Speaker: And I think that segues nicely into Matthew 11.
Speaker: The first couple of verses, really one through about 12, where John the Baptist sends two of his disciples to go and see Jesus and report back and find out if he is really the one that has been promised.
Speaker: And I think it's kind of interesting that John the Baptist would send two of his disciples to Jesus.
Speaker: And I think there's a lot of possible explanations as to why.
Speaker: And the answer is we don't really know.
Speaker: It could be because John the Baptist himself is struggling.
Speaker: He's in prison.
Speaker: He's seeking confirmation.
Speaker: But then at the same time, you know, John the Baptist and Jesus are cousins somehow related.
Speaker: So you would think that John the Baptist knows Jesus and he doesn't need confirmation.
Speaker: And so maybe it's for the benefit of these two disciples so that they can come to know Christ.
Speaker: But the thing that I really love is in...
Speaker: Verse four, Jesus, and it says, Jesus answered unto them saying, go and show John the Baptist those things which you do hear and see.
Speaker: And I like this because I think often, especially as we go
Speaker: grow up in the gospel.
Speaker: We rely heavily on the testimony of our parents, of the testimony of the people around us.
Speaker: And like John the Baptist, we grow up with this knowledge maybe of who Christ is and the role he plays in our lives.
Speaker: But I think at some point we all have to hear and see the things for ourselves.
Speaker: And it's not a passive hearing and seeing.
Speaker: These disciples had to go and find Jesus and hear and see those things for themselves so that they could report back their own testimony.
Speaker: And so how often are we actively going to find Jesus?
Speaker: And I think that's just a reminder to all of us that we have to develop our own testimonies.
Speaker: And speaking of going on to Jesus, if we go down a couple of verses in Matthew chapter 11, that's really the message that Christ is sending to these apostles, these disciples of John.
Speaker: Here he's telling them to go out and share what they've learned.
Speaker: But his original commission, and I really think the main starting and ending point that Christ gives us is to come unto him.
Speaker: And this great scripture comes from this chapter.
Speaker: It says, Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Speaker: Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find rest unto your souls.
Speaker: For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.
Speaker: And Cassian, I know you have some thoughts on Christ's main two commandments here, but I think just to kind of jockey into that, I think we can overcomplicate things a little bit.
Speaker: And going back to my point about separating Christ's teachings from Christ himself, I mean, the gospel of Jesus Christ is all about Jesus Christ.
Speaker: It's not about the commandments or the do's and the don'ts.
Speaker: Or even I think we can get lost sometimes in the principles and ordinances of the gospel.
Speaker: which are all very important and necessary.
Speaker: But at the end of the day, it's about developing a relationship with Christ.
Speaker: And we do that by coming unto Him.
Speaker: And that, I guess, is a deeper conversation in how do we come unto Him.
Speaker: But I think there is a strong aspect, going back to what my friend was saying about how following his moral compass and doing what he thinks is right.
Speaker: I think all that kind of comes together as we center our lives upon Jesus Christ.
Speaker: And as we learn what he said, you know, who he was, what he tells us that we should do.
Speaker: But if we think about these two disciples of John, go and tell John what you've what you've heard and seen.
Speaker: You know, we can't hear and see if we aren't if we aren't in the presence of Christ in the first place.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's awesome, Will.
Speaker: It reminds me of a conversation I had not long ago with a friend of mine who was struggling a bit with her testimony, not because of anything major, but because of small things, because she is increasingly bothered by small things, small and, as she puts it, inconsequential things, things that don't really matter at the end of the day.
Speaker: Yeah.
Speaker: or at least that I don't believe matter at the end of the day.
Speaker: And so I really love this scripture.
Speaker: And in the past, I always looked at it like, oh, give up your worldly things.
Speaker: Those are the things that burden you and come unto Christ and follow Christ.
Speaker: Like our sister last week went into the MTC to go on a mission.
Speaker: And so she's given up
Speaker: her other life in a sense to follow Christ and preach his gospel for the next 18 months.
Speaker: So there's that, but reading it again this week, I just...
Speaker: feel like some of these things that we're heavy laden with and some of these things that are burdening us are things that we put upon ourselves.
Speaker: They're things that we do in an effort to be more like Christ.
Speaker: Sometimes they impede us because I think we get in our own heads a bit.
Speaker: I think that really there are two great commandments.
Speaker: One is to love God.
Speaker: One is to love your neighbor.
Speaker: Everything else, I believe, is secondary.
Speaker: And so we can't let those secondary things, which are often really good things, you know, reading your scriptures and conference talks, and there are so many different resources that we have available to us.
Speaker: All of those are really great things, but we shouldn't let
Speaker: what we feel as deficiencies in those areas or feeling like we're not quite living up to the mark in some of these other things, stop us from coming unto Christ and obeying his first two commandments.
Speaker: Because at the end of the day, how you get to one and two, the first two commandments, it matters less than the fact that you are obeying them.
Speaker: No, absolutely.
Speaker: Totally, totally agree.
Speaker: Um, you know, there's a lot of, in these, in these chapters, there's a lot of deep stuff of Christ talking about the power by which he is casting out devils and he's refuting the Pharisees and the Sadducees and, and everyone who's, who's doubting his, his power and ability and saying, you know, if, if your sons are doing or casting out devils, um,
Speaker: you know, by what power are they doing it if I'm doing it by the, by the power, by the prince of devils.
Speaker: Um, but I think Christ doesn't, he doesn't really want to talk about these things.
Speaker: The only reason he's talking about these things is because these people are, are questioning on him and they're prying into these things and, and they're not, they're not believing.
Speaker: But when he, when he talks to people who are, who are humble and who have sincere hearts, um, you know, what he's talking about is, is, is the milk and honey.
Speaker: He's talking about the, um,
Speaker: the principles that are, that are really, you know, centered around love and service and, and doing good.
Speaker: Um, and it's, it's those aspects, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker: No, go ahead.
Speaker: Well, I was, yeah, I was just going to say it's, it's, uh,
Speaker: it's less, you know, doctrinally centric as it is like, um, active and less passive about going out and doing good.
Speaker: Um, and I think we, we come across those strong principles and we come across those, those good virtues, um, not by trying to, not by trying to pull out like the, the, the, and separate the religious from the unreligious and the divine from the, um, from the non, the non-divine, but from, um,
Speaker: actually getting acquainted with the divine son of God, the divine savior.
Speaker: Yeah, I think that's great.
Speaker: You know, I think when I, as a younger person in high school growing up, when I read the New Testament, I always thought of the Pharisees and the Sadducees sort of as the villains of the story.
Speaker: But as I've matured a bit, I've realized that I don't think they are.
Speaker: I think there are a lot of people who are trying to obey God and be like God.
Speaker: They're just going about it in the wrong way.
Speaker: And so I think like we give ourselves grace, we have to give them grace, but also learn from their mistakes and learn from...
Speaker: Learn from Christ and that he's trying to teach them.
Speaker: It's not that hard.
Speaker: It's very simple.
Speaker: Come on.
Speaker: Let go of these other things that may have helped you in the past, but are now impeding on your ability to follow him.
Speaker: That's a great point.
Speaker: It connects to verse six of Matthew 12, where the Pharisees see the disciples of Christ on the Sabbath day plucking corn from a field and eating it.
Speaker: And they're saying, like, how is it lawful that you let your followers do this?
Speaker: And Christ goes first to the Old Testament and he says, don't you know that David, when he was in need, he ate the shoe bread and it was given to him by the priest.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: But and then he references the law.
Speaker: Right.
Speaker: and talks about how priests profane the Sabbath on the law and are, you know, blameless.
Speaker: Uh, but then he says the, really the main point to them, which you mentioned that they're really missing out on, um, in verse six, that in this place is one greater than the temple.
Speaker: Um, and the, the priests, like you said, that they're so focused on, on trying to do their best to, to follow God.
Speaker: And maybe there's some, uh, there's probably some hypocrisy and some, um,
Speaker: some other things that play there outside of, you know, just trying to do their best to, I mean, there's probably a lot of pride there as well, but at the root of it is them trying to, trying to follow God the way that they were raised to know how.
Speaker: And Jesus just comes in and says, that's not how you do it.
Speaker: Like I am, I'm the son, I'm the savior.
Speaker: I'm what the law is all about.
Speaker: And I'm here with you.
Speaker: So, so listen to me and believe and believe me and understand that it's, it's, it's simpler, but it's also, it's also, it's also deeper than, you know, all the, all the statutes of, of the law of Moses.
Speaker: Anything else there, Cassie?
Speaker: Should we, should we wrap up here?
Speaker: I'm good to wrap.
Speaker: Awesome.
Speaker: Well, I think this is nice.
Speaker: We got a little bit into the more meat of these chapters, but I think we're able to focus a little bit on the main idea here, which is coming unto Christ, loving Christ.
Speaker: And I think as we come unto Christ, as we get to know him and who he is, all things will be added unto it.
Speaker: And we'll be able to see that really it is about those two main commandments that Cassie touched on.
Speaker: loving God and loving our neighbor.
Speaker: That's what the gospel is all about.
Speaker: And I'm grateful for Christ and how simple those teachings are that, as it says in these chapters, that it confounds the wise sometimes and the babes are the ones who sometimes have true wisdom and true knowledge.
Speaker: So thanks for joining us, all those who did, and we hope to catch you next week as well.
