Welcome back to the course Seeking Jesus. My name is John Hilton. In our previous class, we looked at the writings of Paul and his testimony of Christ. Today, we'll focus on the testimony of other early Christians, both in the Bible and the Book of Mormon. Let's begin with an object lesson.
Look at this picture for the next five seconds and try to find as many things in the picture as possible that are red. Ready? Go. Now, I'm going to take away the picture and I want you to name to yourself everything in the picture that was blue. How did you do?
You probably missed many of these things because you were focused on looking for the red. This little object lesson teaches us an important principle. We often see what we are looking for. We can change the focus of our lives by changing what we look for.
My hope today is to find several ways we can live happier lives. by more clearly seeing Jesus as we look for him. Let's start with something that, at least for endowed members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is relatively common—the temple garment, formerly known as the garment of the holy priesthood.
For some of us, the garment could become so commonplace that we forget to look for Jesus in the temple garment. But if we look for him, he can easily be found. For example, do you remember what happened in the Garden of Eden? Satan tempted Adam and Eve, they partook of their forbidden fruit, and then tried to cover their nakedness by making fig leaf aprons. This can be seen as a symbol of their efforts to hide their sins from God.
In place of these aprons, the Lord made coats of skin for Adam and Eve. These coats of skin, represented by the temple garment, can be seen as a representation of Christ's atonement, which covers our sins. The garment reminds us that through Jesus Christ, our sins will be completely covered and atoned for.
as we repent and are faithful to our covenants. And that's not the only way we can see Christ in the temple garment. To make another connection, let's explore some background on ancient temples.
The Tabernacle, Solomon's Temple, and the Temple in the Time of Christ all had a similar design where there were different zones of increasing holiness. There was the outer courtyard where sacrifices were offered, and then a curtain or veil separating the outer courtyard from the holy place. In the holy place were some sacred items and only priests were allowed to enter this holy place.
Another curtain or veil separated the holy place from the most holy place, or the Holy of Holies. This is where the Ark of the Covenant was placed. It represented the place where God lives.
This part of the temple was so sacred that it was only entered once per year and only by the high priest. On this day known as the Day of Atonement, the high priest would sacrifice a goat and sprinkle the goat's blood in the Holy of Holies to make an atonement. atonement for all the congregation of Israel. Like the temple garment, the high priest's sacrifice represented Jesus Christ. As the author of the book of Hebrews points out, the high priest would enter the holy place year after year with blood that is not his own.
But these sacrifices can never take away sins. Instead, Jesus entered once for all into the holy place not with the blood of goats, but with his own blood, thus obtaining eternal redemption. What does all this have to do with the temple garment?
Note that the veils in the ancient temple separated holier places from less holy places, and that the holy places had restricted access. Keeping that context in mind, remember that when Jesus Christ was crucified, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom. What meaning could we make of this idea that the veil of the temple is torn in two at the death of Christ? Here's how Elder Bruce R. McConkie explained it.
The Holy of Holies is now open to all, and all, through the atoning blood of the Lamb, can now enter into the highest and holiest of all places, that kingdom where eternal life is found. The ordinances performed through the veil of the ancient temple were in similitude of what Christ was to do, which he, now having done, all people become eligible to pass through the veil into the presence of the Lord to inherit full exaltation. Does this idea make sense?
Before the veil blocked access to the holy place where God lives, but at the death of Christ, the temple veil was torn in two, and now all have access to God's presence through Jesus Christ. And we can take it one step further. In modern temples, there's a veil that separates the endowment room from the celestial room.
To enter the celestial room, which could represent the place where God lives, those participating in the endowment ceremony go through the veil. That idea takes on added meaning. when we remember that the author of the book of Hebrews says, Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say, his flesh.
So, in Hebrews, we see that the veil of the temple can represent the flesh of Jesus Christ. In an endowment ceremony, as we enter the celestial room, there's symbolism showing that it's through the flesh of Jesus Christ we can come into the presence of God. The veil of the temple is a powerful symbol of Jesus Christ.
Fiona and Terrell Givens underscore this point, saying,"...the rituals of the temple crescendo with palpable crucifixion imagery at the veil, that symbolic porous membrane joining heaven and earth. It is through the severed flesh of Christ that all find full incorporation in the temple." into the heavenly family. Let's take this symbolism one step further by noting the similarity between the veil of the temple and the temple garment. This might make more sense to those who have already been endowed, but there are connections between the temple veil and the temple garment with, as Elder Carlos A.C.
said, its several simple marks. The parallels between the temple veil and the temple garment suggest that the garment is connected to the veil, indicating that the garment itself is a powerful symbol of the body of Jesus Christ that he laid down for each of us. When we look at the temple garment, we can see a piece of clothing that we commonly wear, or we can see a coat of skins representing Christ's atonement, or we can see the veil of the temple, a symbol of the sacrificed body of Jesus Christ.
When we see the Savior in our temple garments, it can change the way that we view and treat them. It can also increase the power we feel from the Lord in our daily lives. Let's turn to another way we can live happier lives by more clearly seeing Jesus.
For a lot of us, when we think of happiness, we think about love. Maybe that's the love between a parent and a child, between friends, or romantic love. Ponder this question.
What is the greatest act of love that you personally have witnessed? I've asked this question to many people and received a range of answers. For example, one man said, watching my wife struggle through a difficult pregnancy and a very challenging delivery is the greatest act of love I have seen.
Another person said, Watching my mother work tirelessly to help refugees in need. One of my students shared how the greatest act of love she had seen wasn't a one-time event, but an ongoing act of love. She worked in a care facility and saw a woman come and visit her husband for several hours each day, even though he did not remember or recognize her. That's a beautiful manifestation of love.
For this student, seeing this act of love made her want to be more loving in her relationships. So, again, think about the greatest act of love that you have personally seen. And then, having witnessed that act of love up close, what impact has it had on you personally? These questions give us a window into what scholars sometimes refer to as the moral influence theory of Christ's atonement. Throughout this course, we've seen different aspects of the Savior's atonement, including the penal substitution model, meaning that Christ paid the price for our sins, and the Christus Victor model, meaning that Christ conquered Satan on the cross.
These models are not in competition with each other. Rather, they give us different lenses for thinking about different aspects of the Savior's infinite sacrifice. Here's the basic idea of the moral influence theory of the Savior's atonement. The greatest act of love in the history of the world is Jesus Christ laying down his life for us.
When we really understand what Christ did, we feel an immense amount of love and gratitude as a result. Perhaps when you were a child you thought something like, I have to be good so that God will love me. This is the opposite. It's saying that God loves me, and I really feel that. So now I want to be good, not so that God will love me more, but because He already loves me.
As 1 John 4.19 says, we love Him because He first loved us. Let's take a look at a few verses that highlight the moral influence theory of Christ's atonement. In 1 John 3.16, we read, We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us. and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. And 1 John 4, verses 10 and 11 says, This is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. Mosiah 5 gives us another example. In the previous chapters, King Benjamin had powerfully preached about Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice. As a result, the people said, we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually.
Because they came to deeply know and understand Christ's sacrifice, their hearts were changed. It's clear that the more we understand the Savior's sacrifice, the more we love Him. And the more we love Him, the more we want to follow Him, and the happier we will be.
This is one reason to learn everything we can about Jesus Christ and His atonement. How does this aspect of the Savior's atonement help us find more happiness? For one thing, it gives us a better perspective on love. Yes, we can learn a lot about love from different human relationships and find joy from them. But if our security is built on human love, we'll eventually be disappointed.
If my happiness is based on my children showing me kindness, my boss giving me a special recognition, or a friend showing me love on my birthday, eventually I will be disappointed. However, if my hope is completely centered in Christ, I will always have the courage to move forward. Better understanding the Savior's atonement also helps me put human relationships in their proper perspective, as I realize that Christ's love is enough.
Author Timothy Keller wrote, If you love anything at all in this world more than God, You will crush that object under the weight of your expectations, and it will eventually break your heart. For example, if your spouse and his or her love of you is more important to you than God's love, then you will get far too angry and despondent when your spouse is failing to give you the support and affection you need, and you will be too afraid of your spouse's anger and displeasure to tell the truth. Only if God's love is the most important thing to you will you have the freedom to love your spouse well.
Learning more about Christ's atonement can also change our view of ourselves and our motives for following God. Consider another insight from Timothy Keller. He wrote that when we really understand Christ's love, we want to turn away from any sin or thing that displeases our Father. We no longer do so out of fear of punishment or out of need to prove ourselves.
Those motives are exhausting and inevitably create narrowness, self-righteousness, and hardness of heart. Instead, Out of grateful joy and sheer desire to resemble, delight, and serve the one who saved us, we amend our lives with new effectiveness. And on the other hand, the fears and anxieties and insecurities that haunted us begin to dissipate. Success and failure in our work neither puffs us up nor devastates us. We are not driven by unhappiness over our looks or our status.
We are not deflated by criticism as we were before. Our self-image rests in a love we can't lose. As we come to internalize the love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for us, most clearly expressed in the Savior's atoning sacrifice, we can have new relationships with ourselves and others.
I'm not dependent on others or my own accomplishments to feel valued, because, as Keller says, my self-image rests in a love I can't lose. Let's now look at a big-picture theme that appears throughout Scripture. It has to do with expectations. Have you ever had really high expectations and then been disappointed? Like having a vision of making a beautiful snowman with a child, only to have less than ideal results.
Or expecting a beautiful family picture, only to have it not turn out the way you had hoped. While I was reflecting on the importance of expectations, I came across a humorous image. At the top it says, the key to happiness is low expectations. Then dropping down a couple of lines, it says lower.
A couple more lines down, it says, nope, even lower. And then at the bottom we read, there you go. What's your reaction to this image?
When I share this with friends on social media, I got a variety of responses ranging from absolutely disagree on so many levels to I really do believe that the less we expect, the happier we are. Obviously, your reaction to this meme depends on how you define terms, what are expectations, and in what context you are using them. Expectations for me, for others, for the next movie I see. Your reaction also depends on your current expectations, how you're feeling about them. and your ability to set high goals and still feel good about your efforts, even if you don't achieve those goals.
Expectations taken to either extreme will clearly have negative outcomes. If I have low expectations for myself, then I will likely not achieve my potential. Personal expectations that are too high can lead to paralyzing perfectionism. These are not the paths to peace.
And if I set my expectations for others too low, I won't help them attain what they could become. However, setting my expectations for others too high can lead to feelings of disappointment on both sides. Although in some aspects of life, it is helpful to have high expectations, many of us might be happier if we lowered some of our expectations. Authors of a study involving 18,420 participants wrote, Momentary happiness is a state that reflects not how well things are going, but instead whether things are going better than expected.
In fact, the lead researcher said, Lower expectations make it more likely that an outcome will exceed those expectations and have a positive impact on happiness. One area in which some of us develop inappropriate expectations relates to what God will do for us. Once I was giving a talk and shared the principle that those who keep God's commandments will prosper in the land. Afterwards, a woman handed me a note which said in part, If the righteous are blessed and find success, how come I have failed in every aspect of my life, no matter how hard I've tried?
and how good I've been. I realized that in my talk, I hadn't acknowledged the important reality that keeping the commandments does not necessarily mean that we will prosper in the land today, right now, in the way we want. The expectation that things will always work out for the righteous is inaccurate and unhelpful. In fact, the Apostle Peter said, Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you.
Sometimes we feel this way, right? I'm paying my tithing and then my car breaks down and I think, What? I paid my tithing. This is so strange.
Why is this happening to me? No, no, no. Peter says, do not be surprised when you experience fiery trials, but rejoice inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
Sometimes when we see trials, we see evidence that God doesn't care. Peter tells us not to be surprised by trials. They happen even to the best of people.
Just because we're doing what's right, does not mean things will always work well in the short run. There are lots of examples of this principle, including Peter and Paul. Think about how their lives ended.
Peter spent decades proclaiming the message of Jesus Christ and, according to Christian tradition, was crucified upside down in Rome. Paul was also put to death as a Christian martyr. In fact, there are dozens of scriptural examples of good, faithful, amazing people whose lives did not turn out the way that they had hoped. Often we focus on the positive. We think about Alma the elder who prays for his wayward son and Alma the younger repents.
What a great story. But what about Lehi who continually prayed for Laman and Lemuel and they never came around? We celebrate Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who escaped from the fiery furnace. But what about Abinadi who wasn't so lucky?
Or we might celebrate Rachel who overcame her struggle with infertility. But what about her sister Leah who always felt like the second-class wife? My guess is that for every miracle story we find in the scriptures, there are multiple stories where things didn't work out the way an individual would have hoped. Let's explore this idea by looking at two early Christians from the western hemisphere, Mormon and Moroni.
How did life turn out for them? Mormon was born in the year 8310. By the time he was 16 years old, he was leading an army of Nephites against the Lamanites in battle. He spent the better part of the next two decades engaged in warfare.
He also attempted to preach to the people but found that their hearts were already too hard. On multiple occasions, he described the deep sorrow he felt because of the sin and death that surrounded him. Mormon writes, My sorrow did return unto me again. I saw thousands heaped up as dung upon the face of the land. My heart has been filled with sorrow all my days.
My heart did sorrow because of my people. Mormon spent much of his life focused on two major objectives. Number one, protect the Nephites from the Lamanites. And number two, persuade the Nephites to repent.
Sadly, he failed on both counts. Of course, Mormon had some incredible long-term successes like the eventual publication of the Book of Mormon, but these came long after mortality. For the most part, Mormon's life was full of bitter disappointment. Even though he poured out his soul in prayer all the day long that his people would repent and be spared, this prayer wasn't answered in the way Mormon hoped.
Picture Mormon at the final battle between the Nephites and the Lamanites. He was 74 years old. He had spent nearly 60 years of his life trying to protect the Nephites. Picture him as a 74-year-old man.
Mormon watched a million Nephites slaughtered. He wrote, My soul was rent with anguish because of the slain of my people. Shortly thereafter, Mormon was murdered by the Lamanites.
There was no happy ending in mortality for Mormon. What about his son Moroni? Did things go better for him?
Nope. One of the big struggles many people have today is loneliness. Moroni can relate.
think about his words, they are gone. Whether they will slay me, I know not. Whither I go, it mattereth not. I am alone. My father hath been slain in battle, and all my kin spoke.
I have no friends, nor any place to go. How long the Lord will suffer that I may live, I know not. Moroni felt a depth of loneliness and uncertainty that most of us will never experience.
Even those of us who feel isolated probably have at least one person we can reach out to. For Moroni, Every human being he met wanted to kill him. He was totally alone.
One thing that's inspirational about Moroni is that he didn't quit. During this time of utter abandonment, he wrote 10% of the Book of Mormon. From Mormon, Moroni, and many other scriptural heroes, we learned that we can replace the false expectation that if I keep the commandments, everything will always work out the way I want it to work out with an eternal expectation.
As I focus on Jesus Christ and keep my covenants, everything will work out. whether in this life or the next. Mormon, Moroni, and others like them focused their eyes on Jesus Christ and found hope in their eternal expectations. During difficult times, Mormon declared, have hope through the atonement of Christ and the power of his resurrection.
He wrote to his son Moroni, may Christ lift thee up and may his sufferings and death and the hope of his glory and of eternal life rest in your mind forever. Moroni was the same way. As he was completely alone in extreme hardships, he wrote, seek this Jesus. I, Moroni, will not deny the Christ and come unto Christ. For reasons known only to God, some very good people face extreme trials that are never fully resolved in mortality.
Many will suffer immense heartbreak. This pain is a part of life, and it's okay to be sad. Nephi's wife shed tears during her bitter trials. Nephi watered his pillow by night, and you might as well. When we have unmet expectations, we can ask ourselves, what outcome am I expecting that I am not receiving?
How could I alter this expectation to focus on the Lord? on the eternal expectation of a future day when God will wipe away all my tears. Let me put this a little differently.
We often talk about things we hope for. We hope for good grades, a good job, a nice house. These are great things to hope for. But as generally used in the scriptures, hope isn't a list of temporal things that we want.
Instead, hope is a belief that Christ is real, that the blessings made possible through his atonement are efficacious, and that we will be resurrected to eternal life. True hope is less that we will be able to afford a new house and more that Christ has prepared for us heavenly mansions. True hope is less that our children will make good choices and more that Christ's atonement is strong enough to reach them, now or in the future.
True hope is less that our allergies will go away this week and more that we will be resurrected and have no more allergies in a future day. While a home, children who make moral choices, good health, and many other goals are worthy desires we can strive for. We should work to convert our worries about these things into a hope centered in Jesus Christ. Consider these scriptural phrases. The Lord will be the hope of his people.
Lord, my hope is in thee. Happy is he whose hope is in the Lord. Is our hope focused on Christ? Ultimately, as we consider Mormon and Moronites'focus on Christ and their extreme suffering, let's remember one thing. Jesus Christ is the answer.
I know we probably think that in our minds, but As I talk to people sometimes, what they'll say is something like, Jesus plus finding my eternal companion. That's the answer. No, no, no.
That's not what it is. And it's not Jesus plus a really good job. It's not Jesus plus my children making good choices.
Many of us may struggle with unmet expectations because we're looking for Jesus plus something else to bring us happiness and fulfillment. The solution comes when I realize deep in my heart that Jesus Christ alone is the answer, not Jesus Christ plus something else. Jesus is enough. The Savior, too, went through excruciating challenges.
He knows what that's like. On the night before his crucifixion, he said, I am not alone because the Father is with me. He also said, I will not leave you comfortless.
I will come to you. These words are true. I want to talk about one other way we can live happier lives by more clearly seeing Jesus, and it has to do with the book of Revelation. The first time I heard about the book of Revelation was when I was about 11 years old, and my Christian neighbor asked me if I had heard about the number 666 and the Antichrist. I had never heard about those things, and I started to read the book of Revelation to learn more.
I wish I had known then that the most exciting part about Revelation isn't what it says about the Antichrist, but what it teaches about Jesus Christ. My friend David Butler wrote a book called The Redeemer, where he introduces the book of Revelation in a fun way. Let's take a listen to an excerpt from his audiobook.
If you ever get sleepy reading scripture, just open up Revelation. It'll wake you right up. It's filled with sea monsters, animals with wings, tons of eyeballs, a mysterious book that can't be opened, and a wild woman who rides on the back of a beast leaving destruction in her path.
One of the creepiest creatures from the book is a giant red seven-headed dragon with horns topped with crowns on its head. He seems to be the ringleader for the bad guys. It whips its tail up into the stars and snatches a third of them and thrusts them out of the heavens as it chases a pregnant woman in the woods, determined to eat her unborn child. Yowzas!
One of the major themes from the book of Revelation is about a war between good and evil. A quest for victory that seems at times to be heavily favored on the dark side, especially with the red dragon at the lead. But the good guys have a war leader too. You're first introduced to him in the beginning of the book. When the rider comes across a problem too big for him, he cries in defeat and fear.
Then an angel reassures him by announcing their hope. Weep not. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed. In my mind, I see John lift up his head to look and see his champion.
The one who will prevail over the problems, the monsters, the beasts, and the dragon. If I were filming a movie of it, I would have the doorway filled with a smoky mist and play dramatic music to build up suspense and drama of the hero's big entrance. You would hear the footsteps and see the shadow cast into the room as he approached. And then, through the doorway, he appears.
The music would stop. Err. the camera would zoom in and the hero would let out a, It's a lamb.
Can you picture the look of disappointment on everyone's faces? A lamb? I thought you said the lion of the tribe of Judah, he might say. How is a lamb going to win the day?
But that is the hero John presents in the battle story of the book of Revelation. And it is a hero who wins. The capital L Lamb appears 28 times in the New Testament. Two of these are in the book of John, when John the Baptist refers to Jesus as the Lamb of God.
The remaining 26 occurrences are in the book of Revelation. Come with me to Revelation chapter 5 and notice an adjective that's used multiple times throughout the book of Revelation to describe the Lamb. In Revelation chapter 5 verse 6 we read, I beheld, and lo, in the midst of the throne, and of the four beasts, and in the middle of the elders, stood a Lamb, as it had been slain.
Notice that the Lamb is dead. He's been slain. It's bad enough to have a lamb for your war leader, but to have a dead lamb, that's even worse, right? We see this again in verse 12. Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might. This idea of a slain lamb is one that you'll see frequently in Christian churches.
This particular image is part of the Ghent Altarpiece in Belgium. It depicts Revelation chapter 7 verses 9 through 17, which are powerful verses about the lamb. John says, after this, I looked. and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and people and languages, standing before the throne, and before the Lamb, robed in white, with palm branches in their hands. They cried out in a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God, who is seated on the throne, and to the Lamb.
And all the angels stood around the throne, and around the elders, and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne, and worshipped God, singing, Amen. blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen. Then one of the elders addressed me saying, who are these robed in white and where have they come from?
I said to him, sir, you are the one who knows. Then he said to me, these are they who have come out of the great ordeal. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
For this reason, they are before the throne of God and worship him. night and day within his temple. And the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
They will hunger no more and thirst no more. The sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat, for the lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to the springs of the water of life. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Has anyone ever wiped away a tear from your eye? I'm guessing if that's happened to you, it was someone that you were close to.
I doubt that you were crying at Burger King and a stranger came up to you and was like, oh, hey, excuse me, and, you know, wipes away your tear. You just don't see that. Isn't it interesting that the wiping away a tear from your eye is an intimate gesture? It's reserved for someone who knows you deeply and personally. That's our relationship with God.
He will wipe away the tears from our eyes. As we'll see in a future class, this lamb is firm and fierce in battle. In Revelation chapter 12, verse 11, we read, they overcame the devil by the blood of the lamb. and by the word of their testimony.
Later, we read about a beast and a dragon who will fight against the followers of Christ. But Revelation chapter 17 verse 14 tells us,"...the Lamb shall overcome them. For he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and they that are with him are called and chosen and faithful."We'll explore Revelation further in our class on the Second Coming, but I hope this brief overview of the Lamb helps you see that even, and perhaps especially during challenging times, You have divine support. I began with an object lesson, and I want to conclude with one more. This one involves a lamb. Not the capital L Lamb, just an ordinary lamb.
One day, a friend gave me a piece of wool. I don't know if you've ever held lamb's wool. It's kind of fun.
But for it to be useful, I have to do something with it. I have to card it, spin it into yarn, and then weave it into clothing that will help me stay warm. The raw wool is fluffy.
I rub it on my cheek. I think, oh, this feels nice. But if I were to put it on my head as a little hat to keep me warm, it's not very useful.
I would walk outside, the wind would blow, it would be gone. But if I can work with this wool, I can turn it into a hat that won't fall off when the wind blows. I sometimes feel like with all these videos, I'm giving you a raw piece of wool.
Hopefully you enjoy it and it feels nice, but soon you'll go off to your next thing and it just blows away. My hope is that with the different principles we've talked about, not only today, but throughout this whole course, that you act on them in a way that lets them enter deep into your hearts so that when the storms come, the foundation you built on Jesus Christ will be firm.