followHIM - Easter Part 2 • Dr. Anthony Sweat • Apr. 3 - Apr. 9

Episode Date: March 29, 2023

Dr. Anthony Sweat continues to examine the power, love, and triumphs of Jesus Christ’s last week and the knowledge that the day we will be reunited with our loved ones will come due to the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.00:00 Part II– Dr. Anthony Sweat00:10 Who is Jesus (Jesus’s arrest)?03:28 Jesus willingly goes before Pilate06:46 Jesus faces pain, humiliation, and death07:41 Holy envy and the suffering Christ10:20 First person account in Doctrine and Covenants 1913:02 “None Were with Him” by Elder Jeffrey Holland16:11 Sit in our Fridays and Saturdays but Sunday will come17:53 Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of Jesus, and Salome go to the tomb19:57 A physical resurrection22:04 Mary Magdalene is a first witness to the resurrected Jesus24:26 Jesus’s greatest miracle27:26 Bodily resurrection is glorious for all28:54 Witnesses of the Resurrection31:23 The temple as a symbol of the Resurrection34:38 Jesus Christ gives us joy39:10 Jesus heals the effects of the Fall42:07 Transforming Power45:16 How Jesus gives us hope during this season56 36 End of Part II–Dr. Anthony SweatShow Notes (English, French, Spanish, Portuguese): https://followhim.coFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/followhimpodcastInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/followhimpodcastYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/FollowHimOfficialChannelThanks to the followHIM team:Shannon Sorensen: Executive Producer, SponsorDavid & Verla Sorensen: SponsorsDr. Hank Smith: Co-hostJohn Bytheway: Co-hostDavid Perry: ProducerKyle Nelson: Marketing, SponsorLisa Spice: Client Relations, Editor, Show NotesJamie Neilson: Social Media, Graphic DesignWill Stoughton: Video EditorKrystal Roberts: Translation Team, English & French Transcripts, WebsiteAriel Cuadra: Spanish Transcripts"Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" by Marshall McDonaldhttps://www.marshallmcdonaldmusic.com/products/let-zion-in-her-beauty-rise-piano

Welcome to part two with Dr. Sweat. Easter. Where should we go next, Anthony? What do you want to do? Let's just look at his arrest back to this theme of who are you? Who is this? We can go to the Mark version. I want to try to touch on different gospels here. In Mark 14, arrest Jesus, take him to Caiaphas Palace. They're going to hold the trial in the night and bring in false witnesses. But I just love this in Mark 14, verse 60. And the high priest stood up in the midst and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing?

What is it which these witness against thee? But he held his peace and answered nothing. Again, the high priest asked him and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And ye shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power and coming in the clouds of heaven. Can you imagine that answer in that moment, by the way? When he finally just, I don't know how you visualize it, but looks it right in the eyes and gives that I am statement,

which has so loaded with meaning of being Jehovah and says, and you're going to see me sitting on the right hand of power. And he finally answers them directly, the question that they want to hear right from his mouth. Then the high priest rent his clothes and said, what need we any further witness? You have heard the blasphemy. What think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death. Now again, right there, Jesus reveals who he is. He says it plainly. This is who I am. And some people won't receive it. They don't want to receive it. Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, he'll say he senses that these chief priests and leaders of the Jews have delivered him for envy. Again, they're protecting their will. They want their will, their way in their understanding,

not the divine will, the divine way, according to God's understanding. So even though it doesn't seem like it, again, it's a submission of will, my way versus thy way here, even though Jesus tells them plainly to their face who he is. And then back to knowing him, we jump to Peter when Jesus tells Peter, hey, be careful before the night's over, you're going to deny me thrice. We know the story

where he's outside the trial and the people say, hey, I recognize your speech. You talk like him. You're a Galilean also, you're with him. And I'm just going to jump on the third time in verse 71, since we're in Mark 14, but he began to curse and to swear saying, I know not this man of whom ye speak. And the second time the cock crew and Peter called to mind the word that Jesus said to him before the cock crow twice thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he wept or in another version that says he wept bitterly. And maybe again, it's Peter sitting there saying, I don't know him. I don't know him. And we want to be careful here. We don't know all the factors that are going on. But there also seems to be this, I'm refusing to acknowledge who the Lord really is that leads to

ultimately these bitter tears. John, did you have anything for the trial or Peter? I just like verse 62 that you read, and Jesus said, I am. I know that in the Institute manual, it says this is as plain as it ever got. In other places, it was translated, I that speak unto thee am he or something. But just to have those two words, like you said, Anthony, with levels of power and meaning in them is very plain here. And that's why the high priest had such a reaction to it. For Jesus to say that too, helps us to realize and should help any reader to know this is not just another great moral teacher, but right here he's saying, no, I am. And you'll see the son of man, me, sitting on the right hand of power.

Yeah. I do think it's important as we get to Jesus giving his life, it is important that we recognize that he gave his life. Nobody took his life from him. He voluntarily is going to give it. He's going to let this trial and arrest happen. Even when Peter smites the ear off the servant of the high priest and Jesus has to remind Peter, don't you know that I could have called down 12 legions of angels right now? I don't need you busting out your sword.

You need to let me submit and here's caiphus and eventually pilot and all these others feeling like they have power over jesus and he jesus is going to say when he's talking to pontius pilot i'm here reading in john 19 in john 19 10 to 11 then pilot then saate unto him, speakest thou not unto me? Like, don't you know who I am? Right. And you can almost picture Jesus going like, well, don't you know who I am? Pilate says, knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee and have power to release thee?

Jesus answered, thou couldest have no power at all against me, except what were given thee from above. It's almost like he gives a reminder here of like, hey, let's not forget who's in charge here. And I just think that's an important point to recognize that if Jesus had wanted to, he could have stopped this at any moment. He could have called down these legions of angels. He could have performed miracles. He could have walked through their midst and not let them take him like he did on the Mount of Precipice. But he is going to voluntarily submit and let them take his life from him for us. That's just something we should never overlook and forget this Easter as we're talking about the crucifixion and his death.

I'm glad you said that. I'd like to emphasize with my students that he said, no man taketh my life from me. This was a willing sacrifice. It also helps us not to try to play some sort of a who's really at fault or a blame game or something like that because we needed him to die for us too and in one of the gospels it says he gave up the ghost and i've always thought that's significant it's not they separated his spirit from his body it's like he even chose that time of when his spirit gave up the ghost and so this is something he offered as a willing sacrifice yes Yes. Well said. I love that he gave up the ghost. I can't imagine the steps as he goes through facing his own death. I mean, we read it and it's black and white, but we have listeners who have been given a diagnosis that the end of their

life is near. And I think only they, people like that can relate to this moment of, he knows what he's stepping towards, right? With each step, he's getting closer and how difficult and how scary that would be. Unimaginable. There's a couple of glimpses in that new series, The Chosen, where Jesus is walking and he sees a victim of crucifixion and he gives a look over there. Yeah. You just think, and yet you'll see him say, okay, guys, the son of man is going to be betrayed into the hand of sinners and scourged and crucified. And he set his face toward Jerusalem.

Let's go. And just think, wow. Faced it. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes in Latter-day Saint culture, we don't like to focus on the difficults i think it's good to see how difficult this was you know i love the restoration with my whole soul and know the divinity of this latter-day work but i don't think that means that we can't have

as it's been said holy envy for other faith faiths in some of their aspects that they have. Listeners might see this different than I do, and that's okay. And I really admire particularly the Catholic focus on the suffering Christ. Coming from the perspective of an artist, we don't have a lot of Latter-day Saint iconography and images that we celebrate of the death of Jesus Christ, of his suffering and of his pain, of this difficulty, of these steps after Pilate condemns him to death, the scourging alone. It can kill people, this being whipped and with pieces of bone and tearing the flesh. Horrible. Horrible, horrible. And Jesus willingly submits to it. And then to carry his cross and have to have help carrying his cross

from Simon and to go to Golgotha, the place of the skull and know what's coming. We would do well to remember that as Isaiah prophesied, he is a man of sorrow. He knows deep, deep pain, and he suffered grief and pain. And in life, I even did a painting one time, a little painting, and I just called it Man of Sorrows. And Jesus has his head down, and I did it a little more abstractly where the paint is kind of peeled off. And every one of us in this life are going to face deep pain and deep sorrow and deep anguish and fear and dread. And to know that our Savior himself faced that and felt that on levels unimaginable, I actually think makes it so that he becomes, this is part of what makes him a God, not just of sympathy, but a God of empathy. There's a great poem that I'm trying to remember off the top of my head by Edward Sillitoe.

And it says, you know, the other gods, they were strong, but thou did stumble to a throne and no other God has scars, but thou alone. Our savior is a God of scars. He knows what it's like to suffer deeply and painfully. And I think as we think on Easter again, let's not forget Friday and jump right to Sunday, because we all go through our Fridays and Saturdays before we get to the Sundays. One of the things that I appreciate so much about a section that you've already mentioned, section 19, is King Benjamin mentions that Jesus bled from every poor in Gethsemane. Luke does. But in section 19, we have the first person account. As I've pondered what you're talking about, the scourging, just the humiliation of all of those things. I thought, what gets him through this?

And there's in that first person account in section 19, he says, For behold, I, God, have suffered these things for all that they might not suffer. And I go, whoa, look at the motive. I love people and I would prefer suffering myself than to have them suffer. And I think it's also in 1st Nephi, I want to say 19 verse 9. They spit upon him and he suffered that they scourged him and he suffered. And then it says, because, and here's an answer to that question. What was going through his mind? Because of his

long suffering and his loving kindness towards the children of man. The power of his love for us, I feel like is what helped him endure that. At least that's what I see in those verses. Yeah, absolutely. I love that. Like, what is it? That's a great question to ask us. We're talking about difficult pain here, but what is it that carried him forward? And it was his deep love for God and his deep love for God's children that carried him forward. We would call that charity, by the way. Charity is the love of God and the love of his children. Maybe that's why it is the greatest gift of all is because it's the one that makes it so that we can bear all things as well and have hope despite our difficulties. Beareth all things, hopeth all things, believeth all things, even if all things are less than hopeful and seem less than bearable. Yeah. In Mark 15, 31, they're looking at him on the cross, the chief priests, and they're mocking him. He saved others, himself he cannot save. And if you just change that, he saved others

himself he will not save, or he chooses not to save. It's a really true statement. He is saving others by not saving himself. Wow. Yeah. It reminds me of what we learned about Jonah last year. Throw me off the boat so that all of you can live. Can be saved, yeah. And just this Savior put me through this, and then all of you can live. And I will voluntarily do that for you. There's a moment on the cross that Elder Holland talks about in a talk called None Were With

Him. And he says, I speak very carefully, even reverently, of what may have been the most difficult moment in all this solitary journey to atonement. I speak of those final moments for which Jesus must have been prepared intellectually and physically, but which he may not have fully anticipated emotionally and spiritually. That concluding descent into the paralyzing despair of divine withdrawal when he cries in ultimate loneliness, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He says the loss of Holland goes on to talk about, The father hath not left me alone for I do always those things which please him.

And he, Elder Holland goes on to talk about with all the conviction of my soul, I testify that he did please his father perfectly and that a perfect father did not forsake his son in that hour. But he goes on to say that he had to know what it would be like for us when we felt spiritual death. He had to know what spiritual death felt like, being separated from God. And doctrinally, I think, oh, okay, because we will feel that. And he descended below all things so that he would know everything we have felt. I mean, that's the Alma 7, 11, 12 thing too. Our pains, our afflictions, our temptation. I'm looking right as you say that. I just pulled up section 88, verse 6.

He that ascended up on high and also he descended below all things in that he comprehendeth all things. This is part of his divine comprehension. As you're saying, Alma 7, 11, Doctrine and Covenants 88, verse 6, so that he knows how to succor us in all of our difficulties. He's descended below it all that we can imagine. And I love that. The wrong way to look at it is, see, don't complain. I've been through it all. But another way to look at it is, oh my goodness, he knows. He knows everything we've been through, which gives But another way to look at it is, oh my goodness, he knows. He knows everything we've been through, which gives us such great hope and comfort. No, there's nothing that I felt that he hasn't also felt. And therefore he can sucker, he can help me.

That's what Elder David A. Bednar said in his talk when he said, sometimes we might be tempted, I'm paraphrasing him here, but we might be tempted to say, nobody understands me or nobody knows what I'm going through. But there is one who knows because Jesus has suffered at all for us. And not only has he suffered at all, he's overcame it all. And so he knows how to help us overcome and carry our difficulties because he's carried them before. That's the Easter thing. I have overcome the world. That's the joy and happiness of all of this. That is. I like what you said, Anthony, about letting there be a Friday and a Saturday and how devastating those days are for these people. What they thought, what they'd hoped would be their future

all comes crashing down on them. Yes, Sunday is coming. Yes, the resurrection is coming. But sit for a minute with people in their Friday, in their Saturday, where the great conclusion hasn't come yet. Yeah. Well, should we get to Sunday now? Have we sat on Friday and Saturday long enough? I think so. Yeah, I hope so. Are you speaking metaphorically? Are you speaking about just the... Many of our listeners will remember way back in 2006.

I know we're going way back here. Elder Joseph B. Worthland gave a kind of a landmark talk called Sunday Will Come. He talks about the Fridays of our lives. Each of us will have our own Fridays, those days when the universe itself seems shattered and the shards of our world lie littered about us in pieces. We will all experience those broken times when it seems we can never be put together again. We will all have our Fridays, but I testify to you in the name of the one who conquered death, Sunday will come. In the darkness of our sorrow, Sunday will come. No matter our desperation, no matter our grief, Sunday will come. In this life or the next,

Sunday will come. I testify to you, the resurrection is not a fable. Are we ready? You guys, let's talk about Jesus's resurrection. Where do you want to go? So Mark chapter 16, as we know, they're waiting for the Sabbath to be over so that they can finish his hasty burial that they have to put him in the tomb. And when the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of james and salome had brought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him and very early in the morning the first day of the week they came unto the sepulcher at the rising of the sun and they said among themselves who shall roll away the stone from the door of the sepulcher? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away, for it was great.

And entering into the sepulcher, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed in a long white garment, and they were affrighted. And he saith unto them, Be not affrighted. Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified. He is risen. he is not here behold the place where they laid him but go your way tell the disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee there shall ye see him as he said unto you and they went out quickly and fled from the sepulcher, for they were trembled and were amazed. Neither said they anything to any man, for they were afraid.

Now, I just love that moment. You've been to the Holy Land. We've been fortunate enough to have been there. At that garden tomb, they have that sign that says he is not here he is risen wherever you fall on the debate of the authentic tomb i don't care when you're in that tomb that represents and you see that sign oh those words are so powerful because it does testify to you that the resurrection is real. The resurrection is not a myth. It's not a fable. We are beings bound for eternity, eternal life in bodily form with bodies of flesh and bone. I love when he appears to the apostles in Luke 24, 36 to 39. He says, handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bone as you see me have. We don't believe in resurrection in the sense of your influence or your essence or your consciousness or any other form of eternal life in that sense. We believe in a bodily, physical, tangible, glorified resurrection.

And that is powerful to me. It should be powerful to us all. I love when the Apostle Paul just, and maybe we can talk about 1 Corinthians 15, the great chapter on resurrection. But I just love when Paul says, if Christ be not risen, then our preaching vain and your faith is also vain. Ultimately, it's the resurrection that is our testament that Jesus is the son of God, that he is the Messiah, the savior of the world.

Other people perform miracles. Other people walked on water. Other people healed. Other people taught marvelous truths. No one else has conquered death. No one else has risen from the grave. That, the resurrection, is the symbol of his divine sonship. There is something in 3 Nephi that him saying again to those people when they handle his body that he says, feel these prints, thrust your hands into my side that ye may know that I am the God of Israel. It's the resurrection. I'm paraphrasing Elder Bruce R. McConkie, but he said, how do we know that Jesus was the son of God? It's the resurrection.

And how do we know he was resurrected? Because of witnesses. And then he went on to bear his witness. And one of the things I just love is all the witnesses of his resurrection. Here's just some that I put together. Obviously, the very first will be Mary Magdalene. And we can talk more about her being the very first witness, if you'd like. Then Peter is going to see the Lord. Luke 24, 34 says that. Then the two disciples on the road to

Emmaus will see him. Then the apostles, minus Thomas. Then eight days later, Thomas and the apostles. Paul will tell us in 1 Corinthians that there's some sort of meeting where 500 people see him at once. That's 1 Corinthians 15, 6 to 8. About 2,500 people in the Americas see him. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, I have seen him. In the Book of Mormon, 1.15, Mormon says that he was visited of the Lord. And even Moroni, Ether 12.39, Moroni says that he saw Jesus. Obviously, Joseph Smith in the Sacred Grove, but above all in section 76, when Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon in section 76 says, and this is the testimony last of all that we give. Last of all means we're adding to this list. It doesn't mean it's the last one. Most recent of all, that he lives, for we saw him even on the right hand of God. And then I grabbed this from President Henry B. Eyring, one of our current special witnesses of Jesus Christ.

Quote, this is May 2013, Enzyme, so coming from his April talk, coming to me. Quote, I am a witness of the resurrection of the Lord, as surely as if I had been there in the evening with the two disciples in the house on Emmaus Road. That's powerful. He goes on to say, I know that he lives as surely as did Joseph Smith when he saw the Father and the Son in the light of the brilliant morning in a grove of trees in Palmyra. Just one testimony of many of our current special witnesses of Jesus Christ as well. And what they're special witnesses of a lot of things, but in my belief, they're special witnesses of his resurrection in their own way.

I'm not pretending to know how, but it's the resurrection that shows us his divine sonship. In the Bible dictionary, if you read under the heading of miracles, there's a statement right in the beginning. First paragraph, Christianity, the world's largest religion, is founded on the greatest of all miracles, the resurrection of our Lord. And then this statement, if that be admitted, meaning if you and I believe in the resurrection, other miracles cease to be improbable. If we believe in this, if he was resurrected the way we believe he is, which all three of us are both feet in on the resurrection, then what else can he do? I love that. Yeah. If you can't figure out water to wine well what about coming back to life after yeah i've had people say you know do you really believe this the joseph smith story seems a little far-fetched or jonah or the great flood whatever do you really believe that and i'll say do you

believe in the resurrection and they'll say well yeah i'm like well then everything else is everything else everything else is on the table. Yeah. Once you believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, every other miracle becomes kind of small potatoes at that point. Yeah. I'm just momentarily going to jump over to 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul is preaching on this. 1 Corinthians 15, 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Like Paul wants us to see that we're eternal beings and that we're meant to rise with the Lord because of his resurrection. But now, I'm in verse 20, but now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept.

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Now, I want to pause there for a moment, and I can't help, this is the church history and doctrine teacher in me, with the doctrine and covenants. I think sometimes as Latter-day Saints, we don't emphasize enough the power and beauty of our doctrine that all will resurrect, all, and that all will inherit a kingdom of heavenly glory. Because of the grace of Jesus Christ and his conquering of sin and death, we believe that all, all mankind who have been on this earth, with the small exception of the sons of perdition that I'm

not even going to talk about, all your friends, all your neighbors, all your loved ones, all your children, all your parents and grandparents. Everybody is going to be delivered from the grave and bodily resurrect into a kingdom of heavenly glory. They will receive an immortal body that surpasses all understanding i'm not sure so much when joseph saw the vision of the three degrees of heavenly glory let's not forget that paul says there are celestial bodies terrestrial bodies telestial bodies so also is the resurrection of the dead these whether you want to call them kingdoms, but when Joseph says it surpasses all understanding, I think it means that our bodily resurrection, even a telestial body in immortal, eternal glory is going to surpass all understanding, let alone a celestial

body. Elder James E. Talmadge said, mortal mind cannot comprehend the beauty, glory, and majesty of a righteous woman. He was talking in context of women, of a righteous woman made perfect in the celestial kingdom of God. I hope that applies to righteous men as well. I assume it does. I just don't think we can celebrate that enough and praise that enough. In section 76 of the Doctrine and Covenants, three times it literally says, He saves all the works of His hands. All. That's our doctrine.

That's what we believe. That's what we're celebrating in resurrection. All will rise. All will have immortality. All will rise. All will have immortality. All will go to a kingdom of heavenly glory because of what Jesus did this Easter season. Well said, Anthony. I think it would be fun if we can to go to John chapter 20 because I mentioned all these witnesses of his resurrection. As we know, Thomas wasn't there when he appeared to the

apostles at first. So, go to John chapter 24. But Thomas, one of the 12 called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. By the way, talk about missing out. Could you imagine that? Where were you? And Thomas had FOMO forevermore. I know. I had to stop at the store. What happened? Yeah. Oh, man.

That should be a lesson to not miss a meeting right there. Yeah. The Lord will probably come back at like a state conference Saturday adult session. That's right. Oh, man. Verse 25. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side i will not believe and after eight days again his disciples were with them so thomas does make it to this meeting then came jesus the doors being

shut and stood in the midst and said peace be unto you then saith he to th, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. And I don't want to go off on doubting Thomas because we know he's believing Thomas when he's ready to go to Jerusalem and die with all the apostles. I don't want to cast any dispersions on Thomas here. But I do love this idea that we are grateful that there are literal witnesses of his resurrection. But I love this teaching from the Lord that blessed are those that have not seen and yet have believed because that's probably the case for the vast majority of us.

That being said though, I think as we're celebrating Easter, keep bringing back this theme in, who is this? Who is this? Who is this? That really what we're trying to do through the restored gospel of Jesus Christ is to come to know him, submit our will to him, and become witnesses of him and know him. This really is the metaphor of the temple, of the holy temple that you guys know I love to talk about. The holy temple is inviting us in a dramatization, in a sacred ordinance to come to know the Lord and to be able to have our own witnesses of him. I love that Joseph Smith taught this in 1839. Joseph said, quote,

For the day must come when no man need to say to his neighbor, Know ye the Lord? For all shall know him from the least to the greatest. How is this to be done? It's to be done by this sealing power, an other comforter, which will be manifest by revelation. I'm not going to go into this other comforter right now,

but I think the point of it is we can be our own witnesses. Section 93 verse 1 promises us that every soul, every soul who forsaketh their sins, calleth on my name, obeyeth my voice, and keepeth my commandments, shall see my face and know that I am. I love that promise. And I want to emphasize in section 88, the Lord tells the same things to the school of the prophets. That their goal is to sanctify themselves. And the day will come that he will reveal his face unto you.

Now here's the key. It shall be in his own time and his own way. And according to his own will. We don't dictate it. We get back to our will and his will. We don't control it. And there is more than one way to see the face of God. But it's my deep testimony that if we will live the gospel of Jesus Christ, if we'll

come to know him, if we'll submit ourselves to his will, if we'll strive to be aligned with his teachings and His commandments and to live them and implement them out of love for Him, not out of trying to earn heaven, but to learn heaven, as it's been said. I really think He will reveal Himself to us. And in our own way, this Easter season, let's all be witnesses. We'll all be able to say, I've come to know the Lord. And when somebody says, who is this? We all be able to say, I've come to know the Lord. And when somebody says, who is this? We'll be able to say, I'll tell you exactly who this is. This is the Son of God. This is the Messiah. And just like Peter in Matthew 16, if somebody says, how do you know this?

You'll say, flesh and blood has not revealed it to me. I know this by revelation and by experience because the things of God are only understood by the Spirit of God. So even though we have witnesses of his bodily resurrection, we can all be witnesses of his divinity and to know him, to truly know him. There's a part in the manual that I just, the more I read the scriptures, the more I keep noticing and loving this word, and that's just the word joy. The Christmas story is glad tidings, great joy. And this little section in the manual says, Jesus Christ gives me hope and joy. And then a statement from Elder Garrett W. Gong. He testified that the resurrection gives hope to those who have lost limbs, those who have lost ability to see, hear, or walk,

or those thought lost to relentless disease, mental illness, or other diminished capacity. He finds us. He makes us whole. Also, because God himself atoneth for the sins of the world, he can with mercy succor us according to our infirmities. We repent and do all we can. He encircles us eternally in the arms of his love. I love that he said he finds us. He wants us to find him, but he'll come and find us as well. Yeah, I love what Elder Gong's saying there. In my own life, as I've tried to come to know the Lord for myself, as I've said, who is this? We talk a lot about how Christ can help us.

Christ understands us. Christ can heal us. He cleanses us from sin. And in some of my teaching and writing, I've put together this acrostic that's been helpful for me of six things to remember as we celebrate his grace this Easter, his atonement, his redemption. And the acrostic is, I use his title of Christ. As we know, Christ is not a last name. Christ is a title. It means the anointed one, the anointed one to save what's he anointed to do well he's anointed to cleanse us heal us restore us identify with us strengthen us and transform us let me say those again and you can see the word christ in there if you take the first letter of each, cleanse us, heal us, restore us, identify with us, strengthen us, and transform us.

Those powers are real. We've experienced them. If somebody says to me, how do I know that Jesus is the Christ? I would probably take those six things and start to tell stories about how Christ has done those. And maybe a brief definition of each to help if people didn't understand. By cleanse us, it means that Jesus has the power to cleanse us spiritually and to make us pure. He can justify us and sanctify us. He can forgive all of our sins perfectly, purely. There is no Carfax report

with an asterisk next to our name that there was an accident in 2007. He wipes our record clean. He cleanses our soul. I'm so grateful for that. He heals us. We know that Jesus has the power to heal physically, but Jesus heals our souls. He heals us mentally, spiritually, soulfully. Sometimes, by the way, this is important with the healing power of Christ. I think it's Wendy Ulrich who has written, there's a difference between healing and cure. Cure returns us back to where we were before. Healing involves a reweaving of our life into a more mature and accepting position. Christ is the healer. He's not the cure. And often when we speak of healing, I don't diminish that he can heal limbs and legs and eyes and ears. We know

that. But eventually all of us are going to debilitate and we're all going to suffer pain. The woman with the issue of blood surely suffered other issues in her life later. Lazarus, even though he was brought back, died again. Mortality is going to take over all of us. But it's my testimony that Christ can heal our soul as we're learning to deal with the difficulties of mortality and help us learn how to handle those with grace and still have joy amidst the difficulty. The restoring power, I don't think we emphasize this enough. The restoring power is that Jesus has the power. When I say he can restore us, he has the power to make all the wrongs of life right.

And he writes a great Anglican scholar. He said that one day Jesus will enlarge Easter on a cosmic scale. Or that Easter is a glimpse into the grand work of what God's going to do overall. When we say that Christ is the atoning one, Christ is going to recompense us from all the effects of the fall. He is going to make all wrongs right, all injustices just. He'll not only conquer sin and death, he's going to conquer unfairness. He's going to conquer sickness and pain and ignorance and fracture and everything that's effect of the fall, even the things that we didn't choose. And he is going to do that through his great atoning work, which continues.

That work continues in the spirit world with taking the gospel to all his children to give everyone the opportunity to accept him. It's not going to conclude at his second coming, by the way. His second coming will be the beginning of really his triumphal atoning work in the sense of making everything whole, everything heal. And for a millennium, that long period of time, that thousand years, Christ is going to work to overcome all the effects of the fall until at the end of them, he has trampled all enemies under his feet, including the enemies of injustice and unfairness and ignorance and sin and death and the devil, and he'll make this world heaven. Then he will present it to the Father. And really then he'll say the work is done.

That's exciting, meaning that you and I need to have faith in the power of Jesus to be the restoring one. His promise is he'll restore us. He'll identify with us. We've already talked on this and touched on this, but this means that Christ, because of his divinity and his life, he has the power to understand and empathize and guide us in mortality. Strengthen us. I testify that Christ has the power to strengthen us beyond our own natural capacities. He can give us strength to overcome sin. He can give us strength to bear our burdens, and he can give us strength to do and become greater than we could become on our own. That is just a truth. I think we've all

tasted that. Even when I did my PhD, by the way, I remember my PhD dissertation chair said to me, you have your five chapters of your dissertation. All of that needs to be very factual, very data and driven. He said, the only place where you can say whatever you want and you don't have to justify it at all is your dedication at the very beginning. So on my dissertation, I wrote Alma 2612 that through his strength, I can do all things. You can say whatever you want. Yeah, that's great. Yep.

And I'm like, I can say whatever I want, then I'm saying this. And then last, the T is the transforming power. And I'm using transforming, but what that means is that Jesus has the power to change us. He can change our very natures and our very dispositions. Hank and John, you probably remember when we were growing up, I don't know if wherever you guys grew up, but there was the trend around mine where people would say, don't ever change. I would write that in our yearbooks, like, sweat, bro. Man, don't ever change, buddy. And that's the worst teenage advice I've ever heard in my entire life. If anybody needs to change, it's a teenage Anthony Sweat, that's for

sure. And I like to joke that if Jesus had written in my yearbook, he would say, Sweat, bro, for all of our sakes, please change. And then he would have wrote, P.S., I'll help you. And I'm grateful that Jesus has changed me and continues to change me in my very nature and to be hopefully becoming a better person. He can take bad to good. He can take good to great, and he can take great to making somebody like God. That's his divinity. So as we're celebrating the resurrection this Easter, his conquering of sin and death. I hope that we can also see how his atonement, his at-one-ment, these powers, cleansing, healing, restoring, identifying, strengthening, transforming. He is the Christ in our lives. This is the Christ. And

I just testify that these powers are real. And that's how I personally know of his divine sonship and his divine nature is because I've seen these at work in my own personal life. Beautiful. That was fun. Thanks for doing that, Tony. That was really good. Yeah. I think if anybody wants to hear Anthony talk more about that, these are basically the chapters of his book, Christ in Every Hour. And so I love that. And I particularly, if you don't mind, just the restore us comment, because you use this word, and I'm so glad you did. Because sometimes if we think, let's see, God is a God of justice and also of mercy, pick one, we would say, I think mercy. But what you emphasize so beautifully is that things happen to all of us

that are so unjust through no fault of our own. Things happen to children that are so unjust through no fault of their own. And a God of justice will not let that stand. And that is so wonderful to know. I become more of a fan of the God of justice when I think of it that way. That so many have suffered things through no fault of their own and God of justice will reverse that and restore us. And so thank you for emphasizing that today, Anthony. You're welcome. Anthony, we have had such a great day today.

Thank you for all of this. I'm sure we've got listeners everywhere in their cars or folding laundry. I had one guy in my ward said, I listen to the podcast when I snowboard. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah. Just a shout out to my friend Ryan in my ward who listens to us while he snowboards. Don't get hurt, Ryan. Two celestial things, snowboarding and listening to follow him. There you go.

How does he get better? I ran into a woman who told me she, I think they call them the winter wanderers that walk during the winter, go out and they all listen together. And I just thought, wow, is that wonderful? So we're grateful. So many things you could listen to, but we hope we're giving you some hope and some faith in Christ as you walk around.

Yeah. As you walk around your neighborhood. Thank you. We have listeners out there who Easter can be tender for them. Those who have lost loved ones who just miss them so much. I know that experience. You both know that experience. What can we offer as a gift to them? What can we say that would be helpful to them from what we've talked about today? I think you set it up right there, Hank.

The gift is the gift of his son. That's the gift. Isn't that the gift of Easter? Is that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whoso believeth in him shall not perish, but shall have everlasting life. Like that's the gift that we're celebrating. And it's not diminishing the difficulties of mortality. But I think this is what the gift of hope is. When we read in the scriptures, Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf talked about how hope is not a wish. The gift of hope in scripture is to know of Jesus' promises and then to have a personal assurance that those promises can be ours.

I love that definition of hope. It's the difference between God answers prayers, that might be faith, but hope is God answers my prayers. The gift of faith might be God loves his children, but the gift of hope is God loves me. And I just think this Easter, the gift has already been given through his son. He is the way, he is the truth, he is the life. I just would invite us all to continue to learn of him, to get to know him. Who is he? To do, to walk in the ways that he tells us to walk, because then we will have peace. That's his promise. Then you can have peace in me. Not as the world giveth, as he said in the book of John, but I give unto you a different kind of peace.

And I hope that we can get that peace. We can have that hope, that personal assurance that the resurrection will be for my loved ones, for me. Redemption will be for me and my loved ones. That these promises can be mine, regardless, black, white, bond-free, male, female, Jew, Gentile, all are likened to God. These promises are extended to us all. And I hope this Easter we can just go grab them to get that hope and that peace that can only be found in Christ. Pete Beautiful. I remember Joseph Smith saying, I don't remember it. I wasn't

there, but I remember reading that Joseph Smith said, we mourn our losses, but we do not mourn as those without hope. Without hope. Yeah. We do not mourn as those without hope. And I hope everybody listening can say, yes, I can mourn my losses, but we do not mourn as those without hope because of all we've talked about today. Share that hope this Easter. Share it with your friends, with your family, with your loved ones. preach of him and prophesy of him and rejoice in him the spirit of god will testify of him and of these promises so i hope this easter i said it before i'll say it again i hope we unabashedly celebrate jesus christ and celebrate him and these promises yeah the sacrament kind of Yeah. my father and my mother when my brother lost an infant baby. And I used to think, what can I remember about Jesus's body? And it turned out that I just think that it was not there,

that he had risen. And that means I get my mom and dad again, and my brother gets his baby boy again. And that makes me not only willing to take upon me the name of his son, but I'm eager and anxious and honored to take upon me the name of Christ and wear that. And that's why this is such a joyous time to remember that that tomb was empty. I love it. And you did make me think of one more Joseph Smith quote related to that. Because, John, you just preached the gospel. We talk about a lot of things, and there's a lot of things connected to the church and its programs, maybe its history, doctrinal things, interesting teachings, mysteries. There's a lot. But I love when Joseph Smith just reemphasizes,

points us right back to the gospel, to Easter. 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. Because what you just preached right there, that's the gospel. That's the good news. That's the core. That's the essence that we should never lose sight of and get lost. And if we are losing sight of it, let's refocus on that central message of the gospel. A personal story here, just as we close. I was invited once to write an article for a book called His Majesty in Mission.

And I decided to write on that quote of Joseph Smith, Mourning with Hope. So I wrote this article on mourning. It's free. You can find it on rsc.byu.edu. I wrote this long article on mourning with hope and what the sting of death is like and dealing with death and how other cultures deal with death. And I wrote on the resurrection. This week, as we've been preparing, I went back and just kind of read my own article here, not realizing that the Lord, in giving me a chance to write this, prepped me for the death of my own family members, because I wrote this before that happened. Here I am reading this with totally

different eyes now than when I wrote it. To me, just that little personal experience of writing something and feeling that little tender mercy of, hey, I wrote this in preparation. The Lord saw what was coming in my life. All these deaths that would be coming just, I think, a year or two after I wrote it, is a testament to me of his individual love. What did you say, Tony? He identifies with us. And I wrote, can I quote myself here? Is this weird? No, read what you wrote. I think it's awesome. Yeah. So I told the story, you guys know it, of my wonderful father-in-law, Rod, and losing his wife. And then I just wrote this.

Mourning with hope means celebrating the time spent in mortality with those we love. It means looking forward with anticipation to joyful reunions. I do. I look forward to the day I get to sit down with my brother, my father, my mother-in-law. Oh, just pondering those reunions brings just floods of joy. I had a friend of mine one time when talking about the second coming, people were talking about their thoughts on the second coming. And all he said was very humbly and quietly and so sincerely. He said, I'm excited for the second coming because I'm excited to see my mother again. Yeah.

Or golf with my dad, right? Mm-hmm. I continued. It means we look forward with anticipation to joyful reunions, both in the spirit world and in the resurrection. Mourning with hope means placing all your hope in the power of the Lord Jesus Christ to return you and those you love to your heavenly home. It means acting in faith upon his commandments until you regain the presence and behold the face of your heavenly Father. And I love the hymn, when I leave this frail existence, when I lay this mortal by, father, mother, may I meet you in your royal courts on

high. Then at length, when I've completed all you sent me forth to do with your mutual approbation, let me come and dwell with you. And we might add because of the power of the Lord, because of our Savior. Anthony, thanks for being here today. Thank you, brother. So good to be with you. Just, again, nothing better than to sit down with dear friends that I just love and respect and to talk about the Savior. I mean, it just doesn't get much better than this. So, thanks for giving me the privilege to be with you. And even though I don't see your audience,

grateful to spend a few hours with your audience as well. And I hope something was beneficial and helpful for them as they worship and celebrate the Savior this Easter season. Pete Beautiful. Now, wherever you are, like we said, in your car driving or snowboarding, just know that we're grateful that you would spend time with us. John, what a great day. Yeah. There's hope smiling brightly before us because of Christ. Well said. Well said. We want to thank Dr. Anthony Sweat for being with us today. And we want to wish him and all of you a happy Easter. We want to thank our executive producer, the wonderful Shannon Sorenson.

We want to thank our sponsors, David and Verla Sorenson. We always remember our founder, the late Steve Sorenson. We hope all of you will join us next week. We're going to be back in the New Testament on Follow Him. Today's transcripts, show notes, and additional references are available on our website, followhim.co, followhim.co. And you can watch the podcast on YouTube with additional videos on Facebook and Instagram. All of this is absolutely free.

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