hi my name is John Hilton and I welcome you to the course seeking Jesus this course is comprised of 28 videos that are focused on Jesus Christ and how we can draw closer to him throughout this course we will explore Jesus Christ across the scriptures with a focus on his ministry in the New Testament we'll also focus on a variety of approaches we can take to learn all we can about the Savior president Russell M Nelson said The more you learn about the Savior the easier it will be to trust in his Mercy his infinite love and his strengthening healing and redeeming power these are powerful promises that come from learning about Jesus Christ my hope is that this course increases your knowledge of Jesus Christ and equips you with several tools to deepen your future studies of him in this first video we will discuss the savior's Central role in The Plan of Salvation and the power and meaning of his name let me take you back in time to when I was in the Missionary Training Center when I first arrived as a brand new missionary I was so excited to be in class with my new District then the MTC teacher asked us a question she said who would be willing to come up to the chalkboard and draw out the Plan of Salvation I thought to myself that kind of rings a bell but I wasn't 100% sure what she wanted in fact no one in my district raised their hand because we were all uncertain if we really knew what the Plan of Salvation was test yourself and see how your knowledge compares to mine as a brand new missionary take a minute and draw out the Plan of Salvation to the best of your ability and if you have no idea what to draw that's okay I was a missionary and I had noidea idea but if you want pause this video and do a quick sketch of what the Plan of Salvation should look like and then come back I'm a big fan of Plan of Salvation drawings and over the years I've collected several this one is interesting it has a lot of information on it some of which might not be scriptural but there's a lot of detail I like this image it also has possible inaccuracies but it's just kind of fun right if you want the really simple version we could have something like this I think this is the most common drawing something with circles and Minds one of the things that's interesting about each of the drawings I just showed you is that they are all missing Jesus Christ there's no Jesus and any of them in your drawings of the Plan of Salvation did you make an explicit connection to Jesus Christ Jesus is at the center of the plan and I think it's interesting that in some of our visual depictions of God's plan we leave Jesus out I love this image that shows how Christ is at the center of every aspect of the Plan of Salvation thinking about how Christ is sometimes left out a Plan of Salvation drawings makes me wonder if sometimes we aren't as focused on the Savior as we should be for example consider a stereotypical example of a child bearing testimony I want to Bear My Testimony that I what's the child going to say next I want to Bear My Testimony that I know the church is true what comes after that I'm thankful for my family and that might be the end of the testimony I'm not trying to be critical but let's consider what Joseph Smith called the fundamental principles of our religion he said that the fundamental principles of our religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets concerning Jesus Christ that he died was buried and rose again the third day and ascended into heaven and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it now please don't misunderstand me the church is true and that's really important at the same time Jesus shouldn't be left out of the testimony he should be Central to it I was recently talking with a friend of mine he's in his 60s so he has kids in their 40s which is my age he was talking to me about one of his children who had recently left the church because of some struggles with church history my friend said that what was really discouraging to him was that not only did his child leave the church but that child no longer believes in God or Jesus Christ my friend said I can understand my child struggling with church history and maybe even leaving the church but how could he leave Jesus as he was reflecting on this he said John I wonder if when we meaning people in their 60s were teaching you people in their 40s we focus so much on the church is true that we didn't focus enough on Jesus is real and there is power in him he is your savior reflect for a moment on your testimony is it deeply rooted in Jesus Christ consider another example of how Christ is at the core if you would have asked me 10 years ago what does it take to get a temple recommend I would have said well live the law of chassity pay tithing follow the word of wisdom and that's all true and important but the first two questions on the temple recommend interview are do you have faith in and a testimony of God the Eternal Father his son Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost and do you have a testimony of the atonement of Jesus Christ and of his role as your savior and Redeemer upfront in the temple recommend interview is a testimony of Jesus all of this helps us understand moroni's message as he concludes his words to Future readers of the Book of Mormon consider how important last words are as Moroni bids readers farewell he tells us seek this Jesus and that's what this course is all about seeking Jesus I should mention that throughout this course we'll explore what the scriptures living prophets and modern Scholars have taught about Christ we'll also explore a variety of other ways we can seek Jesus but obviously we won't be able to cover every aspect of the life and teachings of Jesus Christ that's why as an important part of this course I'll be sharing numerous resources you can use to extend your understanding for example we'll have a video later in the course that focuses on the SA parables in that video we'll dive deep into a few of the savior's Parables but there's no way we can discuss all of them but in the additional readings section of the course I will point you to books articles and podcasts that you can use to deepen your understanding of Christ Parables beyond what you've previously thought possible I'll also have suggested pre and post-class readings now you don't have to do any of these but if you're interested you can find the course website with all the additional resources in the link in the video description you might be thinking to yourself well I already do come follow me and participate in church meetings why should I engage with this course the main reason is to focus more of your attention on Jesus Christ consider these promises from president Russell M Nelson if you proceed to learn all you can about Jesus Christ I promise you that your love for him and for God's law will grow beyond what you currently imagine I promise you also that your ability to turn away from sin will increase your desire to keep the Commandments will soar you will find yourself better able to walk away from the entertainment and entanglements of those who mock the followers of Jesus Christ in both ancient and modern scripture the Savior has invited learn of me learning of Jesus isn't something that just comes automatically it takes effort president Russell M Nelson taught as we invest time in learning about the Savior and his atoning sacrifice we are drawn to him as we seek to be Disciples of Jesus Christ our efforts to hear him need to be ever more intent it takes conscious and consistent effort to fill our daily lives with his words his teachings his truths these statements encapsulate the purpose of this course it's intended to give us a structure to invest time in learning about the Savior I think all of us want to do that all of the time but it's hard we have competing commitments we want to learn about Jesus but we also want to watch Netflix and do many other things this video course and its Associated learning materials are designed to help us invest time be ever more intentional and put conscious and consistent effort into learning about Jesus so that we're drawn to him and Trust more fully in his redeeming power the scriptures provide many other reasons why a course specifically about Jesus Christ can be beneficial one is that there is no other way for salvation than through Jesus king Benjamin taught there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come unto the children of man only in and through the name of Christ the lord omnipotent another reason to focus on Christ is found in a benedis phrase that Jesus is the founder of Peace if you and I want to have more peace in our lives there's no better source to turn to than the Prince of Peace I also love the phrase in Hilman 3 where it describes how the people waxed firmer in the Faith of Christ unto the filling their souls with joy hel and taught his sons remember remember that it is upon the rock of Our Redeemer who is Christ the son of God that ye must build your foundation that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds ye his shafts and the Whirlwind ye when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the Gulf of misery and endless woe because of the rock upon which you are built which is a sure Foundation a foundation where on if men build they cannot fall I highlight these three words ye must build each of those words is important ye meaning you you and me we have to build Our Own Foundation hel doesn't say well your mom can help you build this Foundation you are the one who needs to build it then there's the phrase you must it's not you should or it'd be nice if you could get around to it it's something you must do finally the word build connotes action it's not like our foundation built on Christ is going to magically appear we've got to work at it here's another reason I think a course on Jesus Christ is important I don't want to make too big a deal about this but recently I noticed in the scriptures that our testimony of Jesus is specifically connected to the kingdom that we inherit like the temple recommend questions if you had asked me a few years ago what does it take to get to the Celestial Kingdom I'd have saidwell repent be baptized and shared other action items those things are accurate and they're in section 76 but notice section 76: 51 which is talking about those who go to the Celestial Kingdom it's specifically says that it's for those who receive a testimony of Jesus verse 74 which is talking about those in the terrestrial Kingdom says that those in the terrestrial Kingdom either receive not the testimony of Jesus in the flesh but afterwards received it or in verse 79 they were not Valiant in the testimony of Jesus verse 82 which describes those who go to the testial kingdom says these are they who received not the testimony of Jesus to me this pattern highlights the centrality of Jesus Christ Our Testimony of him is connected to which degree of Glory we receive of course this shouldn't be our primary motivation to study him and in fact some of us might be struggling in our testimony of Jesus Christ if so I see these verses as encouraging it's not to say uhoh I'm in trouble but rather Jesus Christ is an area where I can really focus on strengthening my testimony and that will bless me now and in eternity Elder deer F uorf taught we cannot depend on the testimonies of other people we need to know for ourselves the core of this testimony will always be the faith in and knowledge of Jesus Christ and his Divine Mission when it comes to focusing on Jesus Christ sometimes it's easy to miss the mark consider John 5:39 when Jesus says search the scriptures for in them ye think you have eternal life and they are they which testify of me true or false what Jesus is telling the people in this verse is that you should search the scriptures this is actually false although we tend to focus on the phrase search the scriptures we miss what comes next in them you think you have eternal life let's look at a couple of different Bible translations that could help clarify what Jesus is saying you search the scriptures because you think they give you eternal life but the scriptures point to me in context Jesus is talking to a group of people who are rejecting him but they frequently search the scriptures what he's saying is you're missing the mark You're so focused on the scriptures that you can't see that they are testifying of me here's an even pler translation from the message you have your heads in your Bibles constantly because you think you'll find eternal life there but you miss the forest for the trees these scriptures are all about me and here I am standing right before you and you aren't willing to receive from me the life you say you want now just to clarify is it good to search the scriptures absolutely that's just not what Jesus is teaching in this specific passage what he is saying is that the scriptures point to Jesus Christ that's why we study them Nephi taught the same principle when he wrote We labor diligently to write to persuade our children and also our Brethren to Believe In Christ and to be reconciled to God for we know that it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do and we talk of Christ we rejoice in Christ we preach of Christ we prophesy of Christ and we write according to our prophecies that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins these passages make it clear that the purpose of the scriptures is to point us to Christ Here's a thought question my colleague Josh Sears recently posed to me what if instead of scripture study we focused on Christ study sometimes it's easy to get into a checklist mentality with scripture study we might think well I got to get all my come follow me curriculum done or I've got to do this or that the goal of our scripture study whether it's come follow me or something else is to connect with Jesus Christ come follow me reading the book of morning each day and so forth those are vehicles for connecting with the Savior and if we can keep in the Forefront of our minds why we're reading the scriptures then the way we approach scripture study can change thus far we've been discussing the importance of Jesus Christ and his centrality in the Plan of Salvation and our testimonies let me shift to a related topic by sharing a story when I was 13 years old I was sitting in Sunday school and the teacher asked a question I raised my hand and answered the question by saying it's Jesus and that was the correct answer by the way but then one of my classmates turned to me and said John Don't Say the Name Jesus that's not respectful I still remember feeling embarrassed that I had said the wrong thing in later years I've reflected on this experience and I invite you to think about it as well what's your experience specifically with the name Jesus is this the name that you use frequently in your life I think what my classmate had been taught was that we should avoid too frequent repetition of the name of Jesus as suggested in Doctrine and Covenants section 107:4 it's true that we don't want to be casual with the savior's name at the same time there are dozens of passages that specifically encourage using the name of Jesus consider just a few examples call upon the name of Jesus whatsoever you do do all in the name of the Lord Jesus pray in the name of Jesus have faith on the name of Jesus believe on the name of Jesus be willing to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus I wonder if maybe some of us in order to avoid using his name too frequently have swung to the other side and don't use his name enough there is power in the name of Jesus especially when we know the meaning of this name when the angel visited Joseph he said Mary shall bring forth a son and thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins a simple definition of the name Jesus is to save by the way Jesus during the time period of the Savior was a common name just like how in some countries today Jesus is a common male name Jesus was a common male name in Jerusalem in Galilee where Jesus was growing up the English word for Christ comes from the Greek word Christos which means anointed similarly a Hebrew word that's translated into English as Messiah has the same meaning as Christ so Christ and messiah mean the same thing the anointed one Christ comes from Greek and the Messiah comes from Hebrew what does the anointed one mean well to anoint refers to putting some oil on a person to set them apart or consecrate them for a specific mission in the Old Testament times prophets priests and kings were anointed so when we think of Jesus as the Christ it's saying that God is setting Jesus apart for a specific mission to be our savior to be clear Jesus Christ is not a first name and last name Christ is not like Smith it's a title that's why you sometimes see the savior's name expressed as Christ Jesus that's like saying the anointed one Jesus instead of Jesus the anointing one it's interesting to see how important the savior's name is to him consider what the Savior says in the Book of Mormon I worked with some colleagues to create a database that allows you to search the Book of Mormon electronically to see how often specific individuals use given words so instead of searching and finding how a certain word appears in first Nephi or Alma it tells you how many times a person in the Book of Mormon said that word well if we use this database and search the word name we can see that Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon says the word name 64 times and this rating of 10 means that this is statistically unusual Jesus says the word name more than anyone else you might notice that Mormon says the word name 110 times which is more than Jesus said 64 but Mormon writes about a third of all the words in the Book of Mormon whereas only 5% of the words in the Book of Mormon are directly attributed to Jesus Christ himself in other words the rating of 10 says that in proportion to the total number of words he spoke in the Book of Mormon Jesus uses the word name way more than any other speaker by the way if you're interested in learning more about this database you can click the link in the description to see the additional resources associated with this lesson let's look at a few additional examples of Christ's focus on his name blessed is this people who are willing to Bear my name ask of the father in my name they Who Shall Believe on my name shall become my sons and daughters an interesting illustration of the savior's focus on his name is found by comparing how he and Mormon describe baptism Mormon frequently uses the phrase baptized unto repentance but in contrast Jesus says he that is baptized in my name to him the father will give the Holy Ghost baptize in my name name and come unto me and be baptized in my name Christ's consistent connections between baptism and his own name can deepen our appreciation for the nature of our baptismal covenants it may also Aid Us in taking more seriously the concept of baptism when we realize how personal it is for the Savior given how closely he Associates the ordinance with his own name here's another example showing how the savior's name is important to him in 3i 27 Jesus asked his disciples what they wanted from him I would have been tempted to say something like how about a new car but what the disciples wanted was to know what they should call the name of the church notice the savior's response how be it my church save it be called in my name for if a church be called in Moses's name then it be Moses's church or if it be called in the name of a man then it be the Church of a man but if it be called in my name then it is my church if it so be that they are built upon my gospel ye shall call whatsoever things you do call in my my name therefore if you call upon the father for the church if it be in my name the father will hear you can you see how much the savior's name matters to him that passage took place in about .34 jump forward in time 1,800 years we know that in the beginning of the restoration the name of the church was the Church of Christ and it was later changed to become the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints so is what happened that they just added the phrase latterday Saints actually no although the store church was originally called The Church of Christ in 1834 the church voted to change the name of the church to the Church of the Latter Day Saints did you notice what was taken out the name of Jesus in fact if you look at the 1835 Doctrine covenants the title page says the Church of the Latter-Day Saints the same name for the church also appears on the Kirtland Temple so when Jesus reveals in 1838 thus shall my church be called in the last days even the Church of Jesus Christ of latterday saints he was n adding in latterday Saints he was restoring his name to the name of the church isn't it interesting to see how history repeats itself in the October 2018 General Conference president Russell M Nelson taught the following about the name of the church I feel compelled to discuss with you a matter of great importance some weeks ago I released a statement regarding a course correction for the name of the church I did this because the Lord impressed on my mind the importance of the name he decreed for his church even the Church of Jesus Christ of latterday saints this is a correction it is the command of the Lord the name of the church is not negotiable when the Savior clearly states what the name of his church should be and even precedes his declaration with thus shall my church be called he is serious and if we allow nicknames to be used or adopt or even sponsor those nicknames ourselves he is offended what's in a name or in this case a nickname when it comes to nicknames of the church Church such as the elas church the Mormon church or the Church of the latterday Saints the most important thing in those names is the absence of the savior's name to remove the lord's name from The Lord's church is a major victory for Satan when we discard the savior's name we are subtly disregarding all that Jesus Christ did for us even his atonement these past few minutes we focused on the name of Jesus Christ we've seen what it means and we see that it's important to the Savior whether we're talking about how frequently Christ refers to his name in the Book of Mormon or how he connects it to baptism in the name of his church it is clear that to the Savior the name Jesus matters the principle of focusing on the name of Jesus might have different applications for each of us for some of us it might mean spending more time pondering what it means to take upon us the name of Christ it could mean that we should judge our actions to see if we're comfortable doing them in the name of Jesus Christ for others of us it might mean to use the name Jesus more frequently in conversation consider this Insight from one of my former students she said I served my mission in the Bible Belt and I met people who would frequently use the savior's name and were very genuine in their expressions to me it was cool to see people's genuine emotion behind frequently using his name in the October 2020 General Conference Elder Neil L Anderson described how in the United States and Europe there are fewer and fewer Believers in Jesus Christ he said you and I speak of Jesus Christ but maybe we can do a little better if the world is going to speak less of him who is going to speak more of him we are along with other devoted Christians perhaps using the savior's name more frequently is part of that process truly there is power in the name of Jesus Elder rasband counseled try just saying the name Jesus Christ just calling upon Him by name with reverence can make a difference in a difficult moment here's an application example for my own family recently my wife and I noticed that the Savior was not mentioned very often in our family prayers the most common phrases we heard were dear heavenly father we're grateful for this day and bless us food to nourish and strengthen our bodies and I'm not saying that those phrases are bad but we notice we rarely mentioned the Savior by name recognizing this has changed the way we pray in our family or consider another example if I were to scroll through my past 20 social media posts how many of them connect to Jesus do any am I publicly communicating my belief in him I'm not saying you have to talk about the Savior on social media and I'm certainly not suggesting we should become mechanical and how often we say the name of Jesus I'm simply suggesting a few possible applications to the principle that the name of Jesus Christ is important to him ultimately the spirit will guide each of us in making specific applications we've talked today about how Jesus Christ is Central to God's Plan of Salvation indeed he is Central to our lives Jesus is the rock upon which we must build our foundation he's at the center of our testimonies and learning about him is the reason we study the scriptures his name is important to him and it should be important to us I hope I've been able to communicate a few of the reasons why it's important to have a course specifically focused on Jesus Christ remember moroni's words seek this Jesus My Hope Is that over the next 27 videos we spend together that your knowledge of faith in and love for Jesus Christ will grow I testify that Jesus Christ lives I am so grateful for his power in my life I hope this course will help you connect even more more deeply with Jesus Christ thanks for staying until the very end I want to make sure you know that there are pre-class readings for each of the videos in this course as well as additional resources to explore after watching each video click the link in the description to access these additional learning resources [Music] [Music]