"What think ye of Christ?" With those words Jesus
confounded the Pharisees of His day.
With those same words I asked my fellow Latter-day Saints
and other Christians what you really believe about Jesus
Christ and what you are doing because of that belief.
Most of my scriptural quotations will come from the
Bible because it is familiar to most Christians.
My interpretations will of course draw on what modern
scriptures, notably the Book of Mormon,
teach us about the meaning of Bible scriptures so ambiguous
that different Christians disagree on their meaning.
I address believers but others as well.
As Elder Callister taught us this morning, some who call
themselves Christians praise Jesus as a great teacher but
refrain from affirming His divinity.
To address them I have used the words of Jesus Himself.
We should all consider what He Himself taught about who He
was and what He was sent to earth to do.
Jesus taught that He was the Only Begotten Son.
Said He, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not
perish but have everlasting life.
For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world
but that the world through him might be saved."
God the Father affirmed this.
In the culmination of the sacred experience on the Mount
of Transfiguration He declared from heaven, "This is my
beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
Hear ye him." Jesus also taught that His appearance was
the same as His Father's.
To His Apostles He said, "If ye had known me, ye should
have known my Father also.
And from henceforth ye know Him, and have seen Him.
Philip sayeth unto him, Lord, show us the Father and it
sufficeth us.
Jesus sayeth unto him, Have I been so long time with you and
yet hast thou not known me Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." Later the Apostle
Paul described the Son as being the express image of God
the Father's person.
The Apostle John wrote that Jesus, whom he called "the
Word," "was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him, and without Him was not
anything made that was made." Thus, under the plan of the
Father, Jesus Christ was the Creator of all things.
During His ministry to His people in Palestine, Jesus
taught that He was Jehovah, the Lord God of Israel.
Later, as the risen Lord, He ministered to His people on
the American continent.
There He declared, "Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the
prophets testified shall come into the world.
I am the God of Israel and the God of the whole earth."
At a stake conference many years ago I met a woman who
said she had been asked to come back to church after many
years away but could not think of any reason why she should.
To encourage her, I said, "When you consider all of the things
the Savior has done for us, don't you have many reasons to
come back to church to worship and serve Him?"
I was astonished at her reply:
"What's He done for me?"
For those who do not understand what our Savior has
done for us, I will answer that question in His own words and
with my own testimony.
The Bible records Jesus teaching, "I am come that they
might have life and that they might have it more
abundantly." Later, in the New World, He declared, "I am the
light and the life of the world."
He is the life of the world because He is our Creator and
because, through His Resurrection, we are all
assured that we will live again.
And the life He gives us is not merely mortal life.
He taught, "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall
never perish.
Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand."
Jesus also taught, "I am the light of the world.
He that followeth me shall not walk in darkness." He also
declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He is
the way and He is the light because His teachings light
our path in mortal life and show us the
way back to the Father.
Always Jesus honored the Father and followed Him.
Even as a youth He declared to His earthly parents, "Wist ye
not that I must be about my Father's business?"
"For I came down from heaven," He later taught, "not to do
mine own will but the will of Him that sent me." And the
Savior taught, "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." We
return to the Father by doing His will.
Jesus taught, "Not everyone that sayeth unto to me, Lord,
Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that
doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven." He
explained, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name?
and in thy name have cast out devils?
and in thy name done many wonderful works?
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you.
Depart from me, ye that work iniquity."
Who then will enter the kingdom of heaven?
Not those who merely do wonderful works using the name
of the Lord.
Jesus taught, but only "he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven." Jesus showed
us how to do this.
Again and again He invited us to follow Him.
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow
me."
He gave priesthood power to His Apostles and to others.
To Peter, the senior Apostle, He said, "And I will give unto
thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever thou
shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in
heaven."
Luke records that "the Lord appointed 70 also, and sent
them two and two before his face into every city and place
whither he himself would come." Later these 70 joyfully
told Jesus, "Even the devils are subject unto us through
thy name." I am a witness of that priesthood power.
At the close of His earthly ministry Jesus taught His
Apostles, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom
the father will send in my name, He shall teach you all
things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I
have said unto you," and "He will guide you into all
truth."
He also guides us by His commandments.
Thus He commanded the Nephites that they should have no more
disputes concerning the points of doctrine for, He said, "He
that hath the spirit of contention is not of me but is
of the devil, who is the father of contention.
And he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger,
one with another.
Behold, this is not my doctrine to stir up the hearts
of men with anger, one against another.
But this is my doctrine, that such things should be done
away."
He also challenges us to focus on Him, not on the
things of the world.
In His great sermon on the "Bread of Life," Jesus
explained the contrast between mortal and eternal
nourishment.
"Labor not for the meat which perisheth," He said, "but for
the meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the
Son of man shall give unto you."
The Savior taught that He was the Bread of Life, the source
of the eternal nourishment.
Speaking of the mortal nourishment the world offered,
including the manna Jehovah had sent to feed the children
of Israel in the wilderness, Jesus taught that those who
relied on this bread were now dead.
In contrast, the nourishment He offered was "the living
bread which came down from heaven." And, Jesus taught,
"if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever."
Some of His disciples said this was "an hard saying," and
from that time many of His followers "went back and
walked no more with Him." Apparently they did not accept
His earlier teaching that they should "seek first the
kingdom of God." Even today some who profess Christianity
are more attracted to the things of the world, the
things that sustain life on earth but give no nourishment
toward eternal life.
For some His "hard saying" is still a reason not to follow
Christ.
The culmination of our Savior's mortal ministry was
His Resurrection and His Atonement for
the sins of the world.
John the Baptist prophesied this when he said, "Behold the
Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Later
Jesus taught that "the Son of man came to minister, and to
give His life a ransom for many." At the Last Supper,
Jesus explained, according to the account in Matthew, that
the wine He had blessed was "my blood of the new
testament, which is shed for many for the remission of
sins."
Appearing to the Nephites, the risen Lord invited them to
come forward to feel the wound in His side and the prints of
the nails in His hands and His feet.
He did this, He explained, "that ye may know that I am
the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have
been slain for the sins of the world." And, the account
continues, the multitude fell "down at the feet of Jesus,
and did worship Him." For this the whole world will
ultimately worship Him.
Jesus taught further precious truths about His Atonement.
The Book of Mormon, which elaborates the Savior's
teachings and gives the best explanation of His mission,
reports this teaching.
"My Father sent me that I might be lifted up upon the
cross that I might draw all men unto me,
that they may be judged according to their works.
And whoso repenteth and is baptized in my
name shall be filled.
And if he endureth to the end, behold, him will I hold
guiltless before my Father at that day when I shall stand to
judge the world.
And no unclean thing can enter into the Father's kingdom.
Therefore nothing entereth into his rest save it be those
who have washed their garments in my blood, because of their
faith, and the repentance of all their sins, and their
faithfulness unto the end." And so we understand that the
Atonement of Jesus Christ gives us the opportunity to
overcome the spiritual death that results from sin, and,
through making and keeping sacred covenants, to have the
blessings of eternal life.
Jesus issued the challenge, "What think ye of Christ?" The
Apostle Paul challenged the Corinthians to "examine
yourselves whether ye be in the faith." All of us should
answer these challenges for ourselves.
Where is our ultimate loyalty?
Are we like the Christians in Elder Maxwell's memorable
description, who have moved their residence to Zion but
still try to keep a second residence in Babylon?
There is no middle ground.
We are followers of Jesus Christ. Our citizenship is in
His Church and His gospel, and we should not use a visa to
visit Babylon or act like one of its citizens.
We should honor His name, keep His commandments, and "seek
not the things of this world but seek first to build up the
kingdom of God and to establish His righteousness."
Jesus Christ is the Only Begotten and
beloved Son of God.
He is our Creator.
He is the light of the world.
He is our Savior from sin and death.
This is the most important knowledge on earth, and you
can know this for yourself as I know it for myself.
The Holy Ghost, who testifies of the Father and the Son and
leads us into truth, has revealed these truths to me,
and He will reveal them to you.
The way is desire and obedience.
As to desire, Jesus taught, "Ask, and it shall be given
you, seek, and ye shall find, and knock, and it shall be
opened unto you."
And as to obedience, "If any man will do his will, he shall
know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I
speak of myself." I testify of the truth of these things in
the name of Jesus Christ, amen.