Jesus Christ is Greater Than Angels

In the Bible Dictionary under Epistle to the Hebrews: Analysis of Hebrews it talks of the Superiority of Jesus.

1-      It says he is greater than the angels. His words are greater than the words of Angels. Servants vs. Son.

2-      He is greater than Moses. Again, Servant vs. Son.

3-      As a high priest of Melchizedek, He is superior to the high priests of the law of Moses (Melchizedek priesthood is greater than Aaronic.)

Hebrews 1. Three truths Paul taught about the Savior Jesus Christ.

1-      Jesus Christ is God’s Son, the heir of all things and he made all the worlds.

2-      Jesus is the express image of Heavenly Father

3-      Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten. He is greater than the angels.

The following scriptures explain reasons the Son of God came to this earth to experience mortality.

Hebrews 2:7-18- Jesus Christ came to earth to suffer death of us. He was made lower than the angels so that he could taste of death for every man.

He came to earth so that we may all become sanctified through Him. He died so that the Devil could be destroyed and so that we could be delivered. He came to experience mortality and be tempted so that he could succor us when we go through those things as well.

Hebrews 4:13-16- Though without sin, he came here and was tempted of ALL things. He knows exactly what we are going through.

Alma 7:11-15- He came to take upon him all pains, temptations, afflictions, and suffering of man. He came and took upon death so that he could loose the bands of death. He took upon all infirmities so he would know how to succor us. He took upon our sins so that we might be clean through repentance and keeping our covenants.

D&C 122:8- He came to earth to descend below all things.

I know Jesus Christ is my Savior. He is the only begotten Son of the Father. He is greater than all things, but he came to this Earth to descend below all things. He suffered all manner of pain and afflictions so that he could take away our pains, illnesses, sins and all manner of our sufferings. Through him we can be whole and we can be clean. Through Him, we can live again and we can become like Him.

Live as Saints Should Live

In Romans, 13:11 it says, "...now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."
What must we continue doing to work out our salvation?
We must repent, keep the commandment and endure to the end. (Ezekiel 3:20, D&C 14:7)
In Romans 12-13, Paul gives counsel that leads us to salvation. The counsel that he gives includes:
    12:1- keep your self morally clean and give service
    12:2- follow the will of God and not the world
    12:9- love with a sincere heart, only do that which is good
    12:13- give to those in need, be hospitable
    12:16- be humble
    12:21- choose the right, avoid sin
    13:1- be obedient
    13:3- have love and respect for those over you
    13:8- love one another
    13:9- thou shalt not commit adultery, shalt not kill, shalt not steal, shalt not bear false witness, shalt not covet. Thou shalt love they neighbor as thyself.
Romans 14:1-13, 15:1-3
   In these verses, Paul gives some cautions about judging.....
We shouldn't judge because we all have a master to stand or fall to. He will be the judge of us. We shouldn't judge our brother because we will all stand before Christ at the judgement seat.
People may have different opinions and practices, but it is most important to remember that we should love and serve one another. We are given strengths to help others with weaknesses. We are all children of God.
  Some additional insight comes from D&C 38:25-27. It reads, "25 And again I say unto you, let every man esteem his brother as himself. 26 For what man among you having twelve sons, and is no respecter of them, and they serve him obediently, and he saith unto one: Be thou clothed in robes and sit thou here; and to the other: Be thou clothed in rags and sit thou there-- and looketh upon his sons and saith I am just? 27 Behold this I have given unto you a parable, and it is even as I am. I say unto you, be one; and if ye are not one ye are not mine.
  We need to love one another. We are all children of God. We should be unified in love. God loves us all and he wants to bless all of us. If we love and serve one another we will be blessed and God will have mercy on us.
Paul refers to the members of the church in his day as "Saints". This we must be as we seek to gain salvation. Saints do those things which Paul taught (humility, loving your neighbor, obedience, keeping the commandments). I hope we can all strive to follow Paul so that we may receive the mercy of God when we come before the judgment seat.

Baptism

Romans 6:1-13
     Before one is baptized, he must repent. His sins must be dead. Baptism symbolizes the death and resurrection of Christ. Our sins are dead and we are "buried" with him as we are immersed in water. Then we are "raised up" out of the water just as Christ was raised from the dead. Considering this symbolism this is why we are baptized by complete immersion rather than by sprinkles of water.
   These versus teach about how we can maintain the "newness of life". Romans 5:10-11 says, "For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. LIKEWISE reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. It then goes on in saying that we should not let sin reign over our bodies or to yield ourselves unto unrighteousness, but to yield ourselves unto God.

   Mosiah 3:19 states: "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."  Ideally at baptism, the part of us that would die would be the natural man.
   Romans 6:14-23
      We are servants to whomever we yield ourselves to. If we are obedient to sin we are servants of sin. When we are unclean, we are servants of uncleanness.When we are righteous, we are servants of righteousness....ultimately servants of God. When we are servants of righteousness, we are then free from sin.
    The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. The true source of freedom is being a servant of God. It is then, that we can receive eternal life.

The Impact of Example

According to 1 Corinthians 4:2 it is required of the servants of the Lord to be found faithful.
The group selected specifically to be examples in Corinthians 4:9-17 are the apostles. However, being a good example applies to more than just apostles because at the time this scripture was written, the apostles made up a much larger percentage of the church....at least MUCH more than they do now. So there needs to be more people being good examples as the church grows larger.
Alma 39:11-12 explains that it is not enough just to know what is right. Simply knowing what is right is not enough, and may even be damaging to others around us. We need to do good in order to help others know what is the right thing to do. If others know that we know the gospel, they may look to us as an example, and if we know the truth, but aren't living it, we may lead people away by our bad example.
Additional power comes to those who live what they know. In 3 Nephi 8:1 it talks about how those who are living righteously will have miracles work in their lives. I know this to be true. There have been times in my life where my wife and I were really striving to live righteously and at those times especially we have seen so many miracles work in our lives whether it be through financial blessings or spiritual blessings. It is definitely worth it to live righteously.

First Corinthians 10-11, The Sacrament

Readings: 1 Corinthians 10:16-21; 11:20-29.  3 Nephi 18:6-11,28-29.
Read Luke 22:19 and identify the important word  Luke used in describing the sacrament that Nephi also used but Paul did not.
   The important word that Luke and Nephi used in describing the sacrament that Nephi also used but Paul did not is the word "given". They say how the sacrament is broken and given. I think this is cool because the sacrament really has been given to us. It is a gift from Christ.
  The difference between 3 Nephi and 1 Corinthians regarding counsel about when to not partake of the sacrament is that in 3 Nephi we are told to not let others partake of the sacrament if we know they aren't worthy, whereas in 1 Corinthians it says let each man look at himself and decide if he is worthy. 3 Nephi is asking us to help share one anothers burdens in making tough decisions.
I don't think this means that we need to or should be passing judgment on everyone in the congregation, but if there are things we know about, we need to help people decide if they are doing the right thing by partaking of the sacrament.
 Partaking of the sacrament unworthily, according to Paul, makes us "guilty of the blood and body of the Lord". To me this means it is as if we are the ones who drove the spikes into Chirst's hands, beat him, tortured him, mocked him, and hung him on the cross. If we partake of the symbol of his blood and body unworthily, it is as if we are remembering the death we caused, and not the liberations that the atonement bring us when we partake worthily.
 In order to make sacrament a more meaningful experience in my life both on Sundays and during the week I can spend time on my knees before sacrament truly repenting of my sins so when I partake of the sacrament I will know that I am clean and that the ordinance is really working in my life. I can also spend time during the week thinking about the atonement and repenting daily. While I am partaking the sacrament I can think about Christ administering the sacrament as well as when he died for me.

Paul's Counsel for Members.

Attributes that Paul counseled members to improve:
    Increase and abound in love one to another and all men
    Follow the teachings and examples of the missionaries/leaders
    Abstain from fornication and possess your body in sanctification and honor
    Don't defraud thy brother in any way (don't take advantage of anyone)
    Don't despise others
    Love one another (again)
    Be hardworking and honest
    Watch and be sober
    Put on armor of God- faith, love, hope of salvation
   *Comfort yourselves together and edify one another (footnote: exhort, console, encourage)
    Look after those which labour among you and are over you, esteem them highly and be at peace (respect    and love your leaders)
    *Warn the unruly, comfort the feeble-minded, support the weak, be patient toward all men
    See that none render evil for evil (an eye for an eye)
    Rejoice evermore (Have Joy!)
    Pray without ceasing- have a prayer in your heart
    Give thanks in everything
    Quench not the spirit (are there things I am doing that chase the spirit away?)
    Despise not prophesyings
    *Prove all things (examine them, put to the test)
    Abstain from all appearance of evil.
    Pray for missionaries to be protected and that the gospel can spread rapidly
    Be directed into the Love of God (again love)
    Withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly
    Again, work hard (don't be a busybody)

*Three attributes that I want to work on and improve in my life are:
   -Comfort yourselves together and edify one another. When I was reading this, I looked in the footnote and it said to exhort, console, and encourage one another. I think I could do better at this especially with my wife. When she is in need of comfort or help, I often tend to just try to fix the problem or I don't see it as a big deal. I am going to work hard on taking the time to sit down and really listen to her and console her, encourage her when she is down and exhort when needed. I think that we will both feel edified if we put faith in one another and lend a listening ear and words of encouragement to one another.
  -Be patient toward all men. I am a very logical, solution-minded person. Sometimes I have a hard time being patient with those I feel are thinking irrationally, who may struggle with mental illnesses, or just seem very different. In order to be patient with all men, I will try to consciously remind myself that they are children of God and try to see them as such. I think if I can begin to see them as Heavenly Father sees them, I will be more patient with them. I know my Heavenly Father is patient with me.
 -Prove all things. I would like to spend more time proving and testing what I am taught. I will plan to study things out more, and put them to the test. For example: to gain a better testimony of fasting, I will fast each fast Sunday with a specific purpose.

   
 

Pentecost

Briefly describe the meaning of the day of Pentecost.
Pentecost in Greek means fiftieth. It came 50 days or seven weeks after the Passover feast. It is the celebration of the disciples receiving the Holy Ghost after The Savior was taken up to Heaven.

List 2 or 3 of Peter's teachings on this day

Peter teaches of the resurrection. He tells the men of Israel that they have slain The Savior, and that God has raised him from the dead. He tells them that by Jesus being resurrected, the pains of death have been loosed, and that it was not possible for death to hold Jesus for forever.

Peter tells them how to gain Salvation. When Peter confirmed that Jesus, the man they crucified was the Christ, I imagine these people were horrified. When they ask "What shall we do?" They must have been so comforted when Peter told them they could receive a remission of their sins though baptism in Jesus' name. Peter also told them they would receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and be saved.

In what ways did Peter fulfill his role as a special witness of Jesus Christ?
A witness is somebody that says what they know to be true in order to help others realize the truth. Peter was a special witness as he testified of Christ because he testified of Christ with such power and conviction, and regardless of the consequences.

What gifts of the spirit were made manifest on the day of Pentecost?
Gift of tongues
Gift of interpreting tongues

How did the people respond to what occurred on this day?
At first they thought that the men were drunk and just speaking gibberish. Then Peter stood and testified, and asked the men to repent and be baptized. They were pricked in their hearts, repented, and baptized..