followHIM - Matthew 28; Mark 16; Luke 24; John 20-21 Part 1 • Dr. Ross Baron • June 26 - July 2

Episode Date: June 21, 2023

Which is the greatest of all miracles? Dr. Ross Baron examines the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ, making all other miracles probable.00:00 Part 1–Dr. Ross Baron00:35 Introduction of Dr. Ross Baron02:18 What happens to us when we die?05:19 Prophets, apostles, and the scriptures testify of life after death08:24 Take away Easter and there is no Christmas09:55 Whom shall I send?11:45 The five themes of this reading block14:42 Luke 24 and the first day of the week17:14 Leviticus 23 and types of the Savior23:38 Women go to the tomb26:30 Judas wanting to sell oil for the poor29:42 What scriptures don’t I understand?30:03 The Second Coming parallels32:16 Priesthood power creates miracles35:06 What if they had gone to Galilee immediately?37:42 The dead are in the temple40:02 President Nelson gives a copy of  the Book of Mormon42:23 How many angels at Jesus’s tomb43:53 John waits at the tomb entrance/Peter’s role47:22 Elder Christofferson states John was the first to comprehend50:45 Distractions and Mary seeing the resurrected Lord55:02 Meaning of “Hold me not”58:34 Road to Emmaus1:00:27 Jesus refers to himself as Christ for the first time1:05:52 End of Part 1–Dr. Ross BaronPlease rate and review the podcast.Show 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

Hello, my friends. Welcome to another episode of Follow Him. My name's Hank Smith. I'm your host, and I'm here with my shining co-host, John, by the way. Welcome to another episode of Follow Him, John. Thank you. Am I shining? I got to daub myself here. Yes, we've got to get makeup in here. Makeup. In the stories we're going to read today, there's a lot of shining people. And so I thought, well, that's John. John fits right in with what we're going to read about today. Right back at you. We are going to have a lot of fun in these scriptures. We have a wonderful guest back with us, John, who's joining us.

Yes, we have Dr. Ross Barron back with us. And I'm so excited about this. I had a lot of people comment on when he was with us in those last chapters of Isaiah in our Old Testament podcast and some of the amazing things that he has done and stories he told being in Southern California. So we're really glad to have him back. I'm excited. I just know I'm going to learn a lot and I've got my pen and pencils ready. He was born and raised in Southern California, joined the church at age 18. He told us about that last time. Served a mission to Argentina. When he returned home, he met, fell in love with Kathleen Ann Bolton, and they were married in a

Los Angeles temple. They have nine children, five boys and four girls. He received a bachelor's degree from BYU Provo in finance, master's and PhD from USC in religion and social ethics. And after 12 years of being Institute Director and Coordinator, came to teach at BYU-Idaho in the summer of 2005. And I just love this part of his bio. He has this little section called, Unique Things I Have Done. He went on The Price is Right, won a stove, a mop, and a barrel sauna. That's awesome. Went on the History Channel to

represent the church. One of the things that we talked about on our last podcast is he led community firesides about the church where thousands attended, and some were featured on the website fairlds.org. Played drums with a group of Institute students at the Hard Rock Cafe in Los Angeles. But mostly, he loves to teach and learn, loves being in the classroom with students. And we're your students today. We're really glad to have you back. Well, appreciate it. Great to be back. Thank you, both of you. A lesson today is entitled, He is Risen. And these are some of the most incredible chapters in all of scripture. And we're going to cover a lot of them, not just one or two, but there is a handful of

amazing chapters here. So where do you want to go? So grateful that I have the opportunity and I actually feel humbled and privileged to be able to talk about He Is Risen. I mean, in some ways we can say Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20 and 21 are the capstones of the gospels. This is it. So I wanted to do a little thing with both of you in terms of kind of, as you know, I'm a convert to the church. I was born into Judaism and converted into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when I was 18 years old. And I was raised wonderful parents, wonderful family, taught good values. But my main question was, what happens when you die? That literally was my, even as a young age, I kind of was like,

hey, so what happens when you die? Now, Judaism is a big river and lots of different beliefs, but I'm going to read just a short quote of like what my rabbi's view was. And then I want both, John, I'd love for you and Hank to kind of imagine you're a 17 year old, you're sitting in synagogue. And your question is what happens when you die? And this is the quote you get. Now, this is actually from a quote from Richard L. Rubenstein in a book called The Making of a Rabbi. And here's the quote. Even as a child, I believed that when I died, the whole world of my existence would disappear with me. My world would last only as long as I did. I was convinced that I had arisen out of nothingness, and in the final analysis, omnipotent nothingness was Lord of all creation. We have nothing to hope for beyond what we are capable of creating in the time we have allotted to us. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, all things crumble away into the nothingness, which is at the beginning and end of creation, unquote. Wow.

So, John Hank, seriously, you're 17 years old. What are you thinking? My first thought is, this is so pointless. Like he said, there's nothing to hope for. That would be the hard part. Where's hope? Hank, any thoughts? It reminds me of a quote. It's an old quote from Euripides. He was mourning someone in death. He just cried out, come back, even just as a shadow, just as a dream, right? Anything at all. Give me some glimmer that you still live.

It sounds like that quote is saying, you don't have that glimmer. You don't have that hope. And you need to accept that. That's just tragic in every way. And it is. And so this is kind of what I'm being taught. But what's so fascinating is that within me, there's something saying that's absolutely not true. Now, I don't know that, but in my spirit, I said, that can't be true. That can't be true.

And I think what Satan tries to do is to convince us, not only is there not an answer, but maybe we can never know the answer. And the ringing testimony of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, modern prophets and apostles, the prophet of the restoration, Joseph Smith, is that not only is it true that we do have a life after death and that God lives and that there is a resurrection, but we can know it too. We can absolutely know it. And so I wanted to start off because for me, this is real. This is very personal. The resurrection accounts mean everything to me. I wanted to frame it. I know it was depressing and both of you should have seen your faces. I mean, you guys, I ended that quote and both of you were like, you know, because that's what that quote does. But what's so fascinating is I think a lot of the world might believe that right now, that that's the case. We have the opportunity today to talk about the fact that A, that's just not true. And B, we can know for ourselves one other interesting story. So this is now probably 25, 30 years ago. I'm married. I'm back from my mission. I'm a member of the church, but I'm driving in a car with a friend of mine who has this belief and his father had just died. We weren't talking. And then he finally said to me, how could all these people be driving on the freeway? How could the sun come up this morning? How could the flowers bloom? How could anything be living when my dad just died?

Yeah. How can life continue? How could this even be? And I said, the reason it can be, the reason the flowers bloom and these people drive and the sun came up is because your dad's not dead. Your dad's alive and you're going to be able to see him again. And man, you should see, just looked at me because I was so intent about it. Are you serious? I said, I'm serious with all my heart. That's why the flowers can bloom and the sun can come up

because otherwise it shouldn't. You're right. You are right. So anyway, I wanted to frame it because when we talk about this and sometimes when we talk about scriptures and we go into academic mode or we're teachers and we kind of slide into this mood, this is very real. It's visceral for me because I wasn't raised with it. John and Hank, I think, and a lot of our listeners, Easter was something you guys did. You were raised with it and kind of part and parcel of your lives. It wasn't for me. I wanted to also quote the prophet Joseph, maybe again to make sure that we're centered here. And you all have heard this.

This is from the teachings of the prophet Joseph Smith, page 49, quote, the fundamental principles of our religion, quoting the prophet Joseph, are the testimony of the apostles and prophets, both living and alive. He doesn't say that, that's my bracketing there, 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. Wow. Like, okay, there's the focus right there. And that's the privilege we have to talk about the fact that he died, he was buried and he rose again. There's nothing better. And then the elder Gary Stevenson from the last general conference, April, 2023, he's quoting NT Wright, who's not a Latter-day Saint, but he's a great Christian scholar. Take Christmas away. Do you guys remember this? And in biblical terms, you lose two chapters in the front of Matthew and Luke.

Nothing else. Take Easter away and you don't have a New Testament. You don't have a Christianity. Unquote. Wow. Isn't that great? Isn't that amazing? And we heard that repeatedly at General Conference.

Didn't we get that impression? We have got to make easter in our minds and hearts what it really is bigger than christmas you know oh that's right i was reading in the bible dictionary before we started and it says under miracles christianity this is 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. That all comes down to this.

That's exactly right. And I know this isn't in the gospels, but it's in the book of Romans. Paul, if we want to turn to Romans 1, I love this ringing declaration, which I find to be inspiring and I hope inspiring to others. So this is Romans 1. He says, Paul, I'm in verse 1, a servant of Jesus Christ called to be an apostle, separated, look at this, unto the gospel of God. I think Preach My Gospel missionaries know this, that it is the gospel of God the Father. There aren't two plans. The one question was the Father had wasn't how do I save humanity?

The question was whom shall I send to fulfill the terms and conditions of the plan? It is the gospel of God. And then I love this, verse three, concerning his son, Jesus Christ, the gospel of God concerning his son, Jesus Christ, verse four, and declared to be the son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness. How? By the resurrection from the dead. Gives me goosebumps, those four verses. Paul, in an inspired, such a succinct, crisp way, the gospel of God concerning his son, Jesus Christ, and declared to be the son of God. How? By the resurrection from the dead. If there is no resurrection, he's not the son of God. He's not the Christ. So I thought this idea of introducing kind of what we're talking about with this ringing testimony from Paul in

Romans, what a way to frame it. He's declared to be the son of God by the resurrection, and that is power. Now, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you guys have been doing the podcast now in the New Testament for a while, and we all know they have different audiences, right? Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John written at different times, different sources. There's all kinds of discussions about that. But I wanted to look through and find maybe some key thematic points in all of the gospels, if that's okay. Here's a common theme. Women come to the tomb early in the morning, the first day of the week, with a concern about the stone. Number two, angels are there, divine authorized messengers. Number three, there's an imperative from the angels to go tell the disciples and others, by the way. So if you read carefully, the 11 are mourning and

weeping, but there's others there as well. So it's like, you got to go tell them. The fourth common theme is unbelief. Now I know that sounds strange, but, and I'm going to talk about that more, but they don't believe it. The fifth common theme, of course, is the Savior shows up. Now, he doesn't just show up. He also goes through kind of an interesting process. Number one, peace be unto you. But then he's going to do some instruction. He's going to reprove them for unbelief. And then he's going to require, and I'm going to talk about this more too, that they physically feel him and he's going to eat with them and he's going to commission them. Because you might say, okay, so cool. He resurrected. Now what? He's going to be like,

okay, no, this is the deal. I am resurrected. The redemption is complete. Now you have to go tell the world. So there's these common elements, women at the tomb, early in the morning, first day of the week, there's a stone, angels are there. You got to go tell the disciples there's unbelief. The savior shows up, peace be unto you, a little bit of a reproof for the idea of you have not believed. And then what we're going to do is we're going to feel me. We're going to eat with me. And then I'm going to commission you. Isn't that interesting? So there's that kind of pattern that ties through Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

And of course, if we're thinking, it's 3 Nephi 11 as well. We might call that the fifth gospel in some ways. But there's that exact same kind of idea, that thematic elements that proceed through 3 Nephi as well, which is, again, a powerful testimony that we're all aligned. Now, there are nuances. Anybody who's read carefully the Matthew, Mark, Luke, John accounts knows that there's nuances and different sequencing a little bit, and there's some things, and we try to harmonize it. I'm not sure their intent was to harmonize it. I'm pretty confident it wasn't, but they all ring true on these basic powerful elements. That's okay.

I think that that's exactly right. We don't get caught up on details, one or two angels, what exactly did they say, but you've got these similar pillars through every single account, through every single story. Awesome. So I wanted to use Luke 24 in my class, I always call it. We're going to use this as the spine, meaning kind of we're going to use this as kind of we're going to guide us, but we're going to use the Luke account, but that's going to allow us to go to the Mark account and the John account and the Matthew account, if that's okay. And if we could just start in Luke chapter 24, verse one. Now, upon the first day of the week, very early in the morning, notice the time mentions. Every gospel writer, the first day of the week, so they want you to know it's Sunday morning. And then very early in the morning, so that's the second time reference.

Now, keep your finger here. Again, we're going to go. Go to Mark 16. And in Mark 16, look at the time reference. Now, keep your finger here. Again, we're going to go. Go to Mark 16. And in Mark 16, look at the time references. It's fascinating. So we're in verse 1, Mark 16. And when the Sabbath was passed, time reference 1, Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James and Salome,

had bought sweet spices that they might come and anoint him. Very early in the morning, second time reference. First day of the week, third time reference. They came under the sepulcher at the rising of the sun, fourth time reference. And by the way, we'll just use Luke and Mark in that case. Matthew brings it up three times. John brings it up twice. They want you to know it is the first day of the week. It is very early in the morning and they're coming to do this thing. Clearly, we have symbolism here. And I think of the day dawn is breaking, hymn 52. We've got the death of the old day, the dawning of the new day.

An old dispensation is folding away. A new dispensation is coming in. And also what's super significant, and I love making Old Testament connections, is the idea that it's on Sunday. You guys know that the Sabbath in the Holy Land is a big deal, right? I mean, it's Saturday, right? It's a big deal. But this is happening on Sunday. And some people are like, what's going on? jest that this idea of the gospel writers mentioning the time it's the first day of the

week it's early in the morning and the and it's going to brighten as the day goes right and the revelation and again elder bednar you know sometimes it's super bright right away but sometimes it's gradual it seems like this is a gradual one even though this is the most astonishing and astounding things that could possibly happen. This is a gradual kind of unfolding as the darkness goes to dawn and as the day increases, the realization of what has actually happened. But I'd love to make another connection here. In Leviticus 23, it has essentially the holy calendar. So this is the holy calendar that goes on. And if we can turn to Leviticus 23, how many times have you been asked to turn to Leviticus 23 in your life? I tell my students

it's going to be their favorite chapter when we're done doing it in class. So Leviticus 23 goes through the holy calendar. Now there's something super interesting here. So you have in verse five, it says in the 14th day of the first month. Now the first month in the Hebrew calendar is not January. This isn't a modern calendar. It's spring. The other thing they have to understand is that the Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar. So dates can shift a little bit. So Passover can be late March, early April. It's not some fixed time. So they have the Passover. And then right the next day, verse 6, on the 15th day of the same month is the feast of unleavened bread. Now look at this. In the seven days, you must eat unleavened bread. Now, John and Hank, tell our listeners, what's unleavened bread? It doesn't have yeast in it, so it doesn't rise.

Right. And the bread, they call it, it's matzah. And you've had matzah. Well, it's not great, but I figure you put enough butter and cheese on anything and we can eat it. But the matzah is the unleavened bread, right? And in fact, they're so concerned with the leavening idea. It's seven days that there's traditions about getting the leaven out of your house and all these kind of interesting things. And even in some ideas that if you eat leaven during the Passover, the feast

of unleavened bread, you are cut off from among the people. Okay. That's how serious this is. But like you brought up, it's the rising agent of the bread, right? It's the yeast. The next holy day. So we go to verse 10, speak unto the children of Israel and say unto them, when you become into the land, which I give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof. Now, the first harvest in spring is going to be barley and wheat that was sown in the fall. And now this is the first harvest is barley and wheat. When you come into the fall and now this is the first harvest is barley and wheat when you come into the land which i give unto you and shall reap the harvest thereof then shall ye bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest under the priest now notice this

verse 11 and the priest this authorized messenger of god he shall wave the sheaf offering before the Lord to be accepted for you, underline asterisk, triple exclamation point on the next line, on the morrow after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. Literally, let's think in our minds what this priest is doing. He's taking the first fruits of the harvest from the fall. Now we're reaping it in the spring. And he's going to actually lift it up and wave it before God. What day of the week is he doing that on? Sunday. On the morrow after the Sabbath. So Paul, 1 Corinthians 15 says, verse 20,

but now is Christ risen from the dead being the first fruits of them that slept. He's directly tying it back to Leviticus 23. Jesus is the first fruits. There was no resurrection before Christ's resurrection. None. People were brought back from the dead, but they had to die again. Sometimes my students are a little confused. Like, well, Lazarus was resurrected. No, Lazarus was not resurrected then. In John 11, that's Lazarus.

His spirit had to come from the spirit world back into the mortal body, and then he lived, but then eventually had to die again. What this is pointing to, and again, all things point to Christ, Mosiah 13, 2 Nephi 11, they're teaching us that the law of Moses is a type and a shadow for Christ and the plan. This is amazing. Now, wait, I'm not done. The next holy day, he's going to say this, verse 15, and you shall count unto you from the morrow after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought the chief of the wave offering, seven Sabbaths shall be

complete. Even unto the morrow after the seventh Sabbath shall you number 50 days. Again, the seventh is going to be on Sunday. And you shall offer a new meat offering, but look in the middle of verse 17, they shall be bacon with leaven. In the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, no leaven. In fact, if you have leaven, you could be cut off from among the people. Then we do the wave offering. We raise it up. And then we have the day of Pentecost, 50 days later.

And now your sacrifices are going to have leaven. Why? Well, before Christ hasn't ridden the passover and the feast of unleavened bread is his atonement and his death the wave offering is the resurrection the feast of panic pentecost outpouring of the holy ghost now you keep leaven in it jesus is risen from the dead isn't that awesome yeah that's fantastic So the first day of the week. So I'm making this big deal. Luke 24, 1, Matthew, Mark 16, 1, Matthew 28, 1, John 20, verse 1.

Because all the gospel writers talk about it. And you have to be thinking, it's cool that they're talking about it. Mark brings it up four times. Four time references. This is Sunday. It's early in the morning, right? I mean, the Sabbath has passed. This is Sunday. It's early in the morning, right? I mean, like the Sabbath is past. This is what's going on. I wanted to kind of make that connection because I think it's important.

And I think it's a beautiful tie to the Old Testament. Beautiful tie. Yeah. Thank you. For years, when Paul said the first fruits of them that slept, I mean, it made sense without knowing, oh, that that's that actual feast and then him tying to hey this is the first jesus is the first being ever to be resurrected so thank you for mentioning the paul reference too because that he clearly saw it too i love that thank you because paul is so connected maybe more than anyone to being able to see Jesus through the old Testament. But now as Christ risen from the dead, being the first fruits of them that slept.

Wow. That's Leviticus 23. That is the harvest. That's the way of offering he's brought up and it's on the Sabbath. It has to be on the Sabbath. Okay. Next thing we've got women coming to the tomb early in the morning. One of the women who's mentioned in all four is Mary Magdalene. Not in the Luke account, but in Mark 16, 9 and in Luke 8, 2, so back in Luke, it says that Mary Magdalene is a woman out of whom came seven devils. I want to be super careful here. I want to be super careful. I don't pretend to know why she had been possessed of seven devils. I don't know any of that,

but I do know this. The arc of her life ended up having her being one of the greatest believers and the first person to see a resurrected being. So anybody who thinks, man, I've gone too far. I've done too much. There's no redemption for me. There's no repentance for me. Mary Magdalene, again, and I think we'll get one day the great full story, but what we know is she went from a woman out of whom came seven devils to being one of the closest associates of the Lord Jesus Christ. So whatever that entailed, I believe it's like the message of Alma or any other message. If they can repent, I can repent. If Mary can, I can. And I think that's a powerful message.

The other thing too is that women are there. Now, this is where Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are going to turn maybe some expectations on our heads. Why are they going to the tomb? They're going to the tomb to anoint his body. Apparently, they don't get to fully do it because we're rushing a little bit after the crucifixion and we're putting it in the tomb of Arimathea, Joseph of Arimathea, and we're rushing a little bit. So we don't fully get to anoint his body. And so the women are coming early in the morning because we got to finish the job now, but they're coming to anoint his body. And in a way that's a form of unbelief. I know that's weird that I'm saying

that. And I, and I admire these women. They're amazing. They're faithful, but what don't they get? He's not there. He's not going to be there. He's not going to're faithful, but what don't they get? He's not there. He's not going to be there. He's not going to be there, but they don't. That's, and again, I'm not blaming them, but I want to make a, I think a point here. So they're thinking we've got to go anoint his body and it hasn't entered into their mind or heart that he's not there. I want to contrast this with a story in John 12, if we can. So can we go to John chapter 12? In John 12, Mary, the sister of Martha and the sister of Lazarus, does something that's fascinating. We all know this story. They're in Bethany. Then Jesus, I'm in verse one, then Jesus six days before the Passover came to Bethany.

Okay. So that's where Lazarus is raised from the dead and Martha made him stuff and they're all there. Verse three, then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly and anointed the feet of Jesus, wiped his feet with her hair and the house was filled with the odor of the ointment. So she anoints him. Now, in the John account, we get the idea, verse four, then saith one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, which should betray him. I wish John wouldn't have kept spoiling that. Let us have some tension here. I always feel like he's like, every time he mentions Judas's name. You know, why was not this ointment sold for 300 pence which is a year's salary by the way a year that ointment that she's putting on his feet would be like a

years for a laborer that would have been a fill year's pay why wasn't it given to the poor verse seven then said jesus let her alone now there's a a Joseph Smith translation, 7 footnote A. For she hath preserved this ointment until now that she might anoint me in token of my burial. I guess I want to ask this question. She gets something that the apostles don't get. She is anointing him for his burial. And I want to understand why did she get it, but others didn't? Why would this woman understand, but the 11 don't or the 12 don't, others don't, but she gets it?

Any thoughts on that? I don't know. I've thought about that before. I've thought she seems to understand. John, you've mentioned this. John the Baptist seems to get it. Behold the Lamb of God, the sacrifice of God. But the apostles don't seem to. They don't seem to get it. And I'm not, again, I'm not trying to criticize the apostles. I'm not saying I would have got it. But I think there's an interesting juxtaposition here. And I want the juxtaposition to be that Mary, again, the sister of Lazarus and Martha, who apparently the Lord loved very much, spends time in Bethany with them.

She gets it. But at the tomb, the women don't get it. The apostles don't get it. No one gets it. No one gets it. Isn't that interesting? So we do get it here. She's open.

She's listening. She's anointing for his burial. But when we get to the tomb scene, every gospel writer, no one gets it. Doesn't John say himself? This is John 20, verse 9. They knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. It seems so obvious. That's one of those things that helps us see that the gospels were written after the fact.

And it always makes me think, yeah, he did say that. And he did say that. What you said before about the women, I've made the same observation in class, but only that the women seem to know what was going to happen. Don't know why. Maybe they listen better, more sensitive. I don't know why, but they seem to have understand at least against the day of my burying has she kept this. And it sounds like she kept that ointment, preserved this ointment until now, the JST says, because that's a very expensive thing to keep around the house. That's right.

And I love it. I love what you're saying. I mean, she got it. She was in tune. I want to think to myself, what don't we get? What are apostles and prophets and the Holy Ghost and the scriptures teaching me? And what don't I get? What a great question.

What will look obvious in time? It's going to be like, no, duh. How did I miss it? Exactly. I keep thinking about the second coming of the Savior. And I'm not talking about like the timing. I'm not. But there's aspects of the second coming.

There's probably even aspects of us going into the spirit world or of the restoration and its growth. President Nelson seems to be kind of wanting to peel back our eyes to say the glorious aspect, like the most important work is the gathering of Israel. Nothing's more important than that work. And I think we're like, yeah, yeah, that's cool. That's awesome. But what don't we get? Because I want to get it. I want to be Mary and Bethany. I want to get it. I guess I'm asking all of us to think clearly, maybe to think a little bit and ponder in prayer. Heavenly Father, help me get what I'm asking all of us to think clearly, maybe to think a little bit and ponder in prayer. Heavenly Father, help me get what I'm supposed to get. That's kind of red-faced.

Oh, yeah, he did say that. And I'm thinking about the Book of Mormon when Jesus is like, didn't Samuel prophesy that I was going to rise from the dead and appear in dominion? Oh, yeah. Why isn't it here? Yeah, we'll write that down. He did say that. Even the angels at the tomb say, as he said, right. As he said, no. And in fact, the angels of the tomb are like, remember? And they're like, oh, we remember now. He did say he was going to raise their day. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. I mean, I just think we blow by these verses but this is critical right like

this is so important the interesting thing is in luke 24 when you get to verse 2 it's a joseph smith translation and i'd like us to kind of look at that so i'm in luke 24 verses 2 through 4 in terms of the Joseph Smith translation. And they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher. This stone issue is an interesting issue. In the Mark account, on the way, they're like, who's going to roll the stone away from us? That's like something, they're like getting there early in the morning. They're like, oh, wait, there's a massive stone. In fact, archaeologists believe the stone is going to weigh anywhere from move the stone, right?

We all have these kind of sealed off things in our lives. We think that's going to be impossible. And then what does it take? It takes angels. It takes priesthood and power and authority because the stone gets rolled away, right? I mean, I think that is so awesome. So verse two, they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher and two angels standing by it in shining garments.

So we have these authorized messengers of God. They're standing there. And by the way, what a cool calling. Can you imagine that in premortality? Hi, I'm Hank. We'd like you to be the angel at the tomb. Will you accept that calling? Yeah, I'm Hank. We'd like you to be the angel at the tomb. Will you accept that calling? Yeah, I will.

Thank you. I appreciate that. I mean, those two, we don't know who they are. You know, one day we will, but what a calling, what a privilege. So the two angels are standing there

and then it says they entered in. So the women go inside the sepulcher and not finding the body of the Lord Jesus, they were much perplexed there about they're just like whoa man verse four and were affrighted and bowed down their faces to the earth but behold the angel said unto them i love this okay angels speak by the power of the holy ghost second ephi 32 3 right wherefore they speak the words of christ why seek ye the living among the dead? Now, we've been taught by Elder Bednar and others, inspired questions. Why seek ye the living among the dead? What a question

that would have penetrated their hearts, caused them to think then, and can you imagine over the course of years and decades later as they taught others, as they reflected on that inspired question? Why seek ye? Why are you acting? In other words, this goes back to my point. Why did you come to the tomb? You guys brought spices? You were going to anoint his body?

Wait a minute. Verse six. He is not here, but is risen. And then John and Hank, your point before, remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee? Remember? That's right. So this idea of he's risen, this is the announcement, the glorious news of everything. He didn't just come back from the dead, the resurrection. And I think some Protestant friends and some of our Christian Catholic friends, there's some, maybe some nebulousness about what it is for Latter-day Saints. The resurrection is simply the reuniting of the spirit and the body, never to be separated again in its glorified, perfected state, inseparably connected, no blood, spirit and body, immortal.

Why seek you the living among? He's not here. He's risen. Remember? It's like if they would have been paying attention attention they would have gone to galilee the moment he died exactly because no that's my point he told you he was going to meet you there yeah and i get this impression everyone's like weeping and wringing their hands and mourning and it's over and the women included who are there and by the the way, again, I'm not trying to criticize them. They're there with the best intentions.

They love the Savior. They're going to anoint the body. And they might even be thinking, oh, the resurrection's this abstract philosophical concept. One day. It's going to be, yeah, it's in a thousand years. And then the next point, so you have authorized messengers.

And of course, Hank, you brought up a little earlier, one messenger, two messengers. All the Joseph Smith translations make Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have two angels there. And I think, again, in the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every word be established. And I think you also have a nice Old Testament Deuteronomy 19, you've got to have two witnesses. I think that's kind of cool. And I think Deuteronomy 17, verse 6, you've got to have two witnesses. I think that's kind of cool. And I think Deuteronomy 17, verse 6, you've got to have two witnesses. These two angels who are authorized messengers testify to the women. Why seek ye living? He's not risen. He's not here. And then the imperative, go tell the others. You've got to run and go tell the others. Now, I want to quote S. Kent Brown. I love this quote. The Galilean women become the initial witnesses of Jesus's resurrection, learning of it from two divine messengers. Moreover, by carrying the words of the angels, they in effect become messengers or heralds of the news to others, including to the apostles. Unquote.

Love that. The women become the witnesses to others, including to the apostles, unquote. Love that. The women become the witnesses to the witnesses. And then this is something I love too. All four gospels show Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary, the mother of James and Joseph, Salome, and the other women disciples accompanying Jesus to his death, anointing and burying his body, viewing the empty tomb, and experiencing his risen presence. That the message of the resurrection was first given to women is regarded by many biblical scholars as compelling evidence for the historicity of the resurrection accounts. Had these texts been fabricated by overzealous male disciples, they would not have included

the witnesses of women in a society that rejected their legal witnesses. So I think that's pretty neat, this idea of, again, women and then these divine messengers who are angels who testify to them and then they testify to others. If you were going to make this stuff up, you wouldn't have these women be the first witnesses. No, that would have been such a breach in first century culture in the Mediterranean. Like what, what do we care? So who's Mary? Why do we, why do we care? There were times when I went to the cemetery to just not really see my dad, but be there. And I had that impression, don't come here. Go to the temple.

You want to feel your mom and dad close if they've passed. You don't have to come here. I appreciate it, but go to the temple. And that's where the living are. I love that. Thank you. I think that's so great. And I love that there's been this subtle change in the temple.

We don't say who is dead anymore. Because they're living. And it always goes through my mind because they're alive. I remember I was in a meeting with Elder Scott in Glendora, John. He said, the people on the other side of the veil do not like to be referred to as dead. And I thought, well, he would know. I don't have firsthand experience with that, but he would. Okay, verse 11 in Luke 24.

So they go to the apostles and the 11, and their words seemed to them as idle tales, and they believed them not. That is so rude. Oh, my word. The women are like, we saw angels. He's not here. He's risen. There's's nothing better we're so excited and they're like no and in fact i'm a hebrew guy i'm not a greek guy but i looked up the word for idle tales in the greek it's laros and it means this nonsense an incredible story or twaddle

yeah you guys get to use the word twaddle in some, I want to challenge you to use it somewhere later today in a conversation. That is twaddle. So you said that's rude. In a way, it's even ruder if you understand the word. They actually were like,

no, that is nonsense. That is 100%. That can't be the case. How demoralizing to have the news of a lifetime that may be having your head how people are going to react. They're going to be so excited. No. Yeah.

Well, and I think, again, I want to place myself. I want to do a Lord is an I. So just like, what am I not getting? I also want to think like, so what are modern witnesses saying to me that I'm kind of brushing off as idle tales? Like you said, Hank, and how frustrating that would be for the messengers and any missionary who served a mission or anybody who's taught the gospel to somebody where they haven't

accepted it or they've been like, yeah, that's cool. Thanks so much. You remember that story when President Nelson gives the Book of Mormon to one of his associates, and the guy comes back and says, hey, thanks so much. And President Nelson says, what? That's not the right response. Sorry. And he tried to give him the book, and he goes, no, I'm giving you the book back because that's the wrong response. And the guy goes back, reads it, and ends up getting baptized. Wow. That's the wrong response. And the guy goes back, reads it, ends up getting baptized. Wow. That's the wrong response. You don't understand. Here, take the book back. You have to understand. So I think that's a very interesting thing. And so by the way, Luke then records this super interesting thing where he then says, okay, Peter gets up, runs to the sepulcher,

looks in, sees the linen clothes laid by themselves, and he departs. And it says he's wondering in himself that which was to come to pass. Now, that's just a one verse little deal. But this is crazy amazing because John, of course, the book of John, will expand this account. Because now Luke, just so we kind of get going here in Luke chapter one, verse two, Luke is in my view, he's like a story and going to the different people collecting the accounts. He himself wasn't an eyewitness, but he is authorized to do this, but he's like interviewing people. And I have a feeling John might've read Luke and been like,

oh, that was good, but I got gotta tell this story that's good but man we got to expand that version so can we go to john chapter 20 and let's look now john 20 mary magdalene runs we know this verse 2 she runneth and cometh to simon peter and to the other disciples whom jesus loved john and saith unto them they've taken away the lord out of the sepulcher and we know not where they have laid him now her report there isn't the glorious report yet so you can imagine that they're going to be really upset with that like something nefarious has gone on they're messing with a dead body is Is John telling us here that Mary has yet to see the angels that are talked about in the other chapters? Are we just going to be okay with them not lining up? No.

Okay. So in John 20, verse 1, which I didn't read, footnote D, a Joseph Smith translation, tells us, and two angels sitting there on. But there's no declaration yet. The stone's just rolled away. She sees these angels that he's not there. If you were asking me to harmonize it, I would say Mary went first, had this experience, goes back, tells Peter and John, they run, and then she then comes with the other women. They're difficult to harmonize and we can be okay with that. That's okay, exactly.

But the Ross Barron School of Harmony Management is that Mary goes first, stones rolled away, there's angels there, but we don't hear any declaration. She is so perplexed and freaked out by it. She runs back. Peter and John run. She then comes back with the other women. Peter and John are now back home. Does that make sense?

What I just said, right? To me, that's how that works. So they go. And then I love John is such a, an interesting writer and he loves details, right? So they ran together and the other cycle did outrun Peter. What an interesting thing. I'm faster than Peter. I just got to get that in the standard works forever and ever. Amen. I'm faster than Peter. I just got to get that in the standard works forever and ever.

Amen. I'm faster than Peter. I'm faster than Peter. And I want to let you know that I'm the beloved. Just so you guys know. The disciple that Jesus loved. It doesn't narrow it down that much unless, because he kind of loves everybody. Unless it's John talking about himself, which is fun.

Yeah, exactly. It is pretty fun. And he came first to the sepulcher and he stooping down, looking in, saw the linen clothes lying, yet went he not in. Now, this is interesting. So he doesn't go in, then come with Simon Peter following him and went into the sepulcher and see if the linen clothes lie. Now, I'm going to tell you, I'm going to quote, this is from Russell M. Nelson from April 1993. He says, when Simon Peter and John the Beloved ran to investigate the report that the body of their crucified Lord had been taken from the sepulcher, John, being younger and swifter, arrived first, yet he did not enter. He deferred to the senior apostle who entered the sepulcher first elder nelson makes the point that the savior had taught them the order that there was an order in the kingdom and that john was

it wasn't just a kind of a throwaway he's trying to help you understand the order i think that's interesting again that president nelson back in 1993 would have brought that up and if you know anything about the way the 12 operate, and I think a lot of people do, it's very orderly and they defer to the seniority and all those kinds of things. So anyway. I'm so glad you said that because I remembered somebody saying that. And I remembered, now I've got the note there, but I remembered the church made a movie years ago called lamb of god and i think this coming up is like my favorite scene but it shows peter and john running in kind of slow-mo and i remember john stopping and letting peter go in and for some reason i remembered that statement but i

didn't know who said it about i've've always just said, perhaps in respect to the senior apostle, but now I have the footnote to let Peter go on, which is wonderful that Jesus taught them even that sort of thing. Is it okay to say, Ross, that John sees Peter differently now? Exactly. He has a different role and that the Savior, you know, remember in previous Come Follow Me's, he's talked about leadership and that if you're the servant of all, and we know at the sacrament where Peter is sitting, he's the servant in the triclinium. But the Savior's taught them this order and that John is respectful of that order. And then it says, and this is this other part of the Lamb of God movie, verse 5, and he's stooping down, looking in, he saw the linen clothes lying, yet went on in. Verse 6, then come a Simon Peter, following him, went into the sepulcher, see if the linen clothes lying it went on in verse 6 then come a simon peter following him went into the sepulcher see if the linen clothes lie and the napkin or the headcloth that was about his head not lying with the linen clothes but wrapped together in a place by itself

then went in also that other disciple so john now comes in which came first the sepulcher and he saw and believed so john tell us about the Lamb of God, that part you like. That's my favorite scene. I have a hard time watching that movie because of the scourging and the crucifixion. But this is my favorite scene because they depict those clothes folded and a thief never would have folded the clothes if they stole the body. They show these clothes so carefully folded. And boy, when they show that scene right there and the realization hits Peter and John of what has happened, that's the best scene in the whole thing. And I heard Brother Jeffrey Marsh talk about it occurred to him once as he was leaving the temple and folding his own clothes.

He said, it occurred to me that these are the clothes that I will be buried in one day. And he was folding those clothes and it brought to mind all of this thing. I thought, wow, that's a wonderful application of our belief in the resurrection. Let me add this. This is from D. Todd Christofferson from April 2014. And he makes this interesting comment about John. He says, John apparently was the first to comprehend the magnificent message of resurrection. He writes that, quote, he saw and believed, unquote, whereas the others to that point, quote, knew not the scripture that Jesus must rise again from the dead, unquote. That's from April 2014.

So Elder Christofferson seems to be implying, and I think the text says it at the end of verse eight, that John, he saw and believed, and I love your insight, John, there from Brother Marsh about the clothing folded in a particular way that perhaps even they recognized and that no thief would have taken that away or done it that way. Thief isn't going to fold up the clothes? No, absolutely not. And the Romans certainly would not have done that. Then it's interesting, verse 10, then the disciples went away again under their own home. Great. So they go back. Now, to me, this is again, verse 11.

This is where I think John is filling out. Now, John is, of course, dated the latest of all the gospels. And my opinion is that John read Matthew, Mark, and Luke and felt good about them, but kind of wrote to a different audience and felt like there was some gaps that needed to be filled in. And he writes now, so Mary now comes, but Mary stood without at the sepulcher weeping. I'm in verse 11. So clearly she's come back. So she ran and told Peter and John, they run and then she comes back. And then verse 12, she sees two angels.

We've got the angels sitting there and then they have this interaction with her. Woman, why weepest thou? Verse 13, because they've taken away my Lord. I know not where they have laid him. She's so upset. And then the savior shows up and she doesn't know it's Jesus. Woman, why weepest thou? He asked her, whom seekest thou? This is called an incluso in literature. In the first question that Jesus asks, remember when John testifies that's the Lamb of God and then James and Andrew are following and others. And he turns around, he says, whom seek ye? So now you got these nice bookends.

And so he asks her, whom seek ye? In effect, whom seekest thou? And this is in fact, the Lamb of God. So she doesn't see him clearly. I'm keeping this theme of, is he appearing to me and I'm not seeing him clearly? Is the Holy Ghost manifested to me? How many times have Hank, John, you guys have had students, you know, how do I know when I'm feeling the Holy Ghost? And I kind of want to say, you have.

You are. I promise you have. I promise. You are. You have. to say you have you are i promise you have i promise exactly you know you are you have and i think this idea so she's standing in front of the resurrected lord she doesn't see who he is well you know what's going on and and why so why don't you think she sees him because it's the same question i have is why don't the nephites at Bountiful understand the voice? It takes a while.

It takes a while, right? So there's distractions. We're in a worldly way. It's unexpected. I just think, man, I'm reading my scriptures. I'm studying them. I want to see with spiritual eyes. I go to the temple.

I don't want to sleep through a session. I want to see with spiritual eyes. I go to the Holy Land with people. I want to see their stuff that is more than, I guess, physical sight. And so we have to remove distractions. And I think what we do, and I think in Come Follow Me in a home-centered, and I think a lot of parents love the idea, but they're like, how do I do? And I always just say, create the environment for the Holy Ghost to be there. Well, how do I do that? Well, what do we do?

You're going to sing a hymn. We're going to have a prayer. We're going to be focused on text. We're going to try not to be distracted. That's going to allow us to see, if you will, in a way that maybe we wouldn't have otherwise. So what's Mary distracted with? I think Mary's distracted with, and again, I'm not trying to criticize her, to anoint his body. Yeah. Where's the body?

Where's the body? And where did you take him so that I can finish what I came here to do? She probably doesn't want him buried in some unknown location. That's all legitimate, right? Those are all legitimate concerns. But my point with the text in Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, and John 20 and 21 is that it's turning everything on its head because no one gets it. So I'm not just blaming Mary. The 11 don't get it. She doesn't get it. The two guys on the road to Emmaus don't get it. No one gets it. And then of course, we all know this so powerful verse 16, Jesus saith unto her, Mary, she turned herself and saith unto him, Rabboni, which is to say master.

And then I have this quote from James E. Faust. This is from April, 1985. One, only one person could speak her name that way. With that single word, all doubt, confusion, and uncertainty was swept away. Mary in that instant came to the grand, sublime realization that he for whom she mourned, even Jesus that was crucified, had risen from the dead, just as the angels early that very morning had testified, he is risen. I love that the first words at the opening of this dispensation were Joseph. I always say, what does the Book of Mormon open with? Well, Nephi, right? It's his name. I, Nephi, having been born of goodly parents. It opens with his name. This dispensation opened with Joseph. And I think it's so interesting that the resurrection is announced by Jesus with an individual's name, Mary. And now she knows. And like President Faust says, all doubt, confusion, and uncertainty swept away. One word. Wow. So good. Then this famous thing, Jesus saith unto her, touch me not.

The Joseph Smith translation says, hold me not, for I'm not yet ascended to my father. Now, side note, and I can't help myself, but when Jesus is on the cross, some of our evangelical friends will use the idea of when he says to the thief on the cross, today you're going to be with me in paradise. And they'll use that to say, see, all he had to do was confess Jesus and he was in. And I had an interesting interaction

with some theology guys down in Southern California. And this one guy brought it up. He said, well, clearly all we have to do is confess Jesus, brought up a thief on the cross. And I said, do you believe heaven is where the father is? And he the cross. And I said, do you believe heaven is where the father is?

And he said, yes. I said, awesome. I said, well, then where he promised that the thief would go wasn't heaven. And the guy said, oh, that can't be. I said, please turn to John 20. So we went to John 20 and I said, Jesus, three days later has not yet ascended to heaven. So clearly that's not what he was promising the thief. It's an interesting thing. We all need to kind of make that connection. I like that connection

from our point of view. She then verse 18, she goes and tells the disciples she'd seen the Lord. In other words, she's now again, the emissary, she's the witness. She goes. When I was a kid, I did not like that verse, touch me not, touch me not. I thought, what's wrong with him? I remember asking my primary teachers, why can't she touch him? And they would say, we don't know. Can we just go get your parents and have you not be here anymore? I just say, I think he should wait until he can be touched. And it's nice when you read some of the other translations of that verse. It's not don't touch me. It's, you got to let me go. You're holding onto me and I've got to go.

We know it's not bad for you to touch a resurrected being because when Jesus goes to the righteous in the new world, he lines them up. But that's going to be one of my themes in the resurrection accounts is that not only is it okay, I believe he requires it. Yeah, he wants it. It's not just a, okay, this is like critical. So I love, I thank you for sharing that, Hank. That's pretty cool. You know, your teachers, I don't, we don't know why, but this idea in the Joseph Smith translation is no, no, no, don't restrain me.

You know, you've got your hug in, but I got stuff to do. I got to go. So that's the John edition of Peter running to the tomb. We get John going. We get that all that thing. Then we get Mary. Now she's the first person to see a resurrected being. Now, by the way, interesting thought here.

No one actually sees the resurrection. They see the evidence of the resurrection. They see the resurrected. They see the resurrected. Exactly. resurrection they see the resurrected they see the resurrected exactly they don't no one no we have no record of any mortal seeing jesus resurrecting but we see him resurrected so i just think that's an interesting kind of thing if we're careful in our text here okay now let's go back to luke 24 because luke will add a story that mark alludes to, but that is expanded in Luke 24, which I think is a fabulous story.

And one of my favorites, and it's the road to Emmaus. Now, we have struggled knowing where Emmaus actually is, and there's lots of debate. And at the Jerusalem Center, when we take students, we actually don't take them to Emmaus because we're not convinced we know where Emmaus is. There's a place there called Emmaus. Correct. There is a place called Emmaus. We're not just- But it could have been named much later.

Exactly. So we're not, there's some argument about that. We don't want to get that. So these two guys, I mean, Luke 24, verse 13, they're going to Emmaus, which is not super far, but it's 12 kilometers. So a little over six miles, seven miles from Jerusalem. And verse 15, it came to pass that while they communed together and reasoned, Jesus himself drew near and went with them. Wow.

Verse 16, but their eyes were holding. And if you look at your footnote, they have the Greek, their eyes were restrained. I think that's another interesting question, why that would be the case, that they should not know him. So he asked them, you know, what's going on? What manner of communications are you guys having? Why are you so upset? John 19.25, many people, and I tend to agree with this, that's Jesus's uncle. Oh, really? So that is Mary's sister's husband. Isn't that interesting? John 19.25.

So that's the uncle of the Savior. And I think it's interesting that his eyes are restrained. And that's what that foot reference, footnote 18a, John 19.25. And he says, are you a stranger in Jerusalem? You have not known the things which come to pass in these days. And he's like, what things? What a great teacher. No, what a great teacher.

What are you guys talking about? Share, share, share, share, share more. And then they talk about Jesus of Nazareth, a prophet mighty indeed. I'm in verse 19, et cetera, right? The chief priest in our role has delivered him. He's been crucified. We trusted. Look at this, verse 21. We trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel. Oh, these poor folks. See, that's sad. He did redeem Israel. To a certain degree,

there's a veil. They didn't see it clearly. And again, my theme today, what are my erroneous expectations? What don't I get? I'm back to that. What am I thinking where I have an expectation? The expectation doesn't get fulfilled. It's a false expectation. So then I get all crazy, right? In my mind, I've always seen this walk to Emmaus is kind of like, I've lost my faith and I'm giving up. I'm walking, I'm going home. I thought it was true. I'm going home. And then the Savior meets you on that road and says, let's have a talk about what you thought should have happened versus what did happen. And it's kind of interesting. You were probably just going to get to this. This guy, Jesus, who knew nothing about this, what things?

I don't know anything about this. The moment they say, we thought it was him. nothing about this, you know, what things? I don't know anything about this. The moment they say, we thought it was him. He's like, you fool. Right. He calls them fools. I was once teaching a seminary class. This was an early morning seminary class years and years and years ago. I volunteer and I kicked a kid out of class. And the mom called me later and said, Jesus would never kick anyone out of class. And I said, well, he would have kicked your kid out of class. Now, I want you guys to know, I called him. I told him I loved him. And by the way, he never missed a class. We became fast friends.

But he needed to be kicked out of class, if that makes sense. And I think it's interesting that the Savior, like you said, you know, they're like, oh, what things? You know, who's this guy? And then, boom, he just starts in on them. Oh, fools, slow of heart to believe in verse 25. All that the prophets have written. Now, there's something you need to notice here. Verse 26, this is Jesus talking.

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? This is the first time in Luke that Jesus refers to himself as Christ. All the times before that, others have said he's the Christ and the word Christ has been brought up, but not in his own mouth. And I think it's interesting that, again, he's kind of talking third person, right? But he is referring to himself. He is the anointed one. And then verse 27, and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning him. I think it's interesting that he says Moses, the law, and the prophets, and all the prophets.

And later, he'll talk about the Psalms. I think you know this, but the acronym that Jews use for the Hebrew Bible is the Tanakh. And the Tanakh is T-N-K, which is Torah, which is the law. The N is Naveem, which is the prophets. And the K is Ketuvim, which are the writings, like the Psalms and those kinds of things. It's interesting that he took the whole text. And can you imagine I'm sitting there as he weaves this beautiful tapestry as they're walking, he's weaving it through and making connections for them in the law and in the prophets and in the writings and the Psalms concerning. We thought he was going to redeem Israel. He didn't. And Jesus is teaching them from the scriptures that, in fact, they had a misaligned expectation and that this, in fact, had to happen. Should have happened. Exactly.

Needed to happen. And in fact, again, Old Testament connection, the very first thing that God does for Adam and eve after the fall the very first thing is he makes them coats of skins because they have a fake covering on they have plants covering them and we all know i think we know again the word for atonement in the hebrew bible is translated from a hebrew word kafar which means to cover and so they have a fake covering on. So the very first thing the Lord God does for Adam and Eve, he gets coats of skin. Why? Because blood has to be shed. An innocent thing has to die for them to be properly covered. So the very first thing that Adam and Eve have happened is they're going to be pointed to Jesus Christ. I'm sure he's talking about premortality, mortality, post-mortality, and how this had to happen.

Just like- Psalm 22, Isaiah 53. Exactly. Probably going through all of them. And Adam and Eve, coats of skins. An innocent had to die for you to be properly covered. I love that. He's teaching them from the scriptures. I want to say one other thing too about this.

He expounded unto them in all the scriptures. He didn't use just one verse. I think sometimes we'll use one particular verse. And I love that he expounds all the scriptures. All the scriptures are one in his hand, Ezekiel 37. He's going to take it all. He's going to take the Torah. He's going to take the Naveen.

He's going to take the Ketuvim, and he's going to weave them together. And I think we as Latter-day Saints need to be careful to not violate that principle. Paul, for example, 1 Corinthians 15, 29, else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead? If the dead rise not at all, why are they then baptized for the dead? Sometimes Latter-day Saints will say, well, Paul is giving a sermon on work for the dead. No, Paul's giving a sermon on the resurrection. He's using baptism for the dead as evidence for the fact that there was a resurrection. So we should be careful to

contextualize if that makes sense and to expound all the scriptures. So I love that. And I think that it reminds me of 3 Nephi 26, when Jesus does the same thing over there. He did expound all things, even from the beginning until the time that he should come in his glory. Well, in 3 Nephi 23, 14, and now it came to pass that when Jesus had expounded all the scriptures in one. That's the one I was thinking of. In one. Which they had written, he commanded them that they should teach the things which he had expounded unto them. Yeah, that would have been a nice meeting to be in. That would have been a great meeting.

He's going to make connections and weave it all together. And when he's done, your jaw is going to be open and thinking, wow, that was amazing. Please join us for part two of this podcast.