For the fully detailed, verse by verse
study guide, please refer to the two part “Sermon on the Mount” sections which
will be available on this blog later in the New Testament section.
Christ is teaching the Nephites the
Fullness of His Gospel. They have just
received the Second Comforter but were then commanded to be baptized (again); so
the order of these ordinances may not matter the way we think it might, but all
the components are vital and are taught by Christ during His Nephite
ministry.
READ 3 Nephi 12:1-2
What covenant will they enter into by
being baptized?
What might motivate them to keep
Christ’s commandments?
READ John 14:15-24 and D&C 130:3
How will the Lord know when a person
truly loves Him?
What will the Lord do when someone truly
loves Him by keeping His commandments?
A Post-Resurrection Preamble to Christ’s
Great Sermon
Are we blessed if we give heed to the
words of those who have been given power and authority by Christ to minister,
and why?
What if they have no authority in the
Church or are perhaps not even members of the Church?
Are we blessed if we give heed to the
words of those who have authority in the Church but have never met, been called
by, or heard the words of Christ?
How does Christ define one who
“ministers to you” with power and authority and how is that different from how
the Gentiles do it?
How does Christ differentiate baptism by
water from baptism by fire?
What happens after being baptized by one
who has been given power from Christ to perform the ordinance?
Why would someone be
“more blessed” not to see Christ but to believe in the words of those who have
seen Christ, rather than to actually see Christ themselves?
Even as I Am
God lives in a glory defined and enabled
by the eternal laws He abides by perfectly.
Truth produces glory in and around those who accept and live it. The higher the truth, the more the
glory. We must first hear the truth,
then live it, to gain the glory to be able to abide His presence. The law of the gospel, which comprises Jesus’
commandments under the new covenant, deals with the perfection process that we
must undergo after we have “entered the gate” and have gained a remission of
our sins through the baptisms of water and fire. Christ is the prototype of the saved being;
to be saved is to be precisely as He is.
The commandments codify Christ’s attitudes and behaviors – they define how
He is, for us to be precisely like. Commandments are not a burden to bear but a
roadmap to follow. If salvation comes
through Christ, it comes through yielding our hearts to Him, completely and
fully. That is how He can “finish” us
without violating our free will (see Isaiah 64:8). But you can’t yield your heart to someone you
don’t know.
So, how do you get to know the Lord?
READ 3 Nephi 12:3-10
The baptism of fire delivers a mighty
change of heart; in the Beatitudes, Christ describes the behaviors that flow
from one who has experienced this mighty change and is beginning to live as His
Lord does – what are they?
What are the blessings Christ will give
to those who embody the behaviors of the gospel or “attributes of the saved
being”?
READ 3 Nephi 12:13-16 and 3 Nephi 18:24
Why are we salt and light?
What is the salt and light we are to be?
READ 3 Nephi 12:19-20
What is significant about these laws and
commandments being the Father’s?
What is the purpose of the Nephites
receiving the Father’s law and commandments?
Can we not enter the kingdom of God
without keeping all Christ’s commandments?
READ 3 Nephi 12:23-24
What is the “spirit” with which one must
keep the commandments?
READ 3 Nephi 12:21-22, 27-28, 31-32,
33-37, 38-42
How is this
sermon a call to a higher righteousness?
What are the
differences Christ lays out between the Terrestrial Law and the Celestial
Principles?
READ 3 Nephi 12:43-45
Why is this principle the real test of our Christianity?
What is the end result of our keeping
His commandments?
READ 3 Nephi 12:48
Why did Christ say to the Nephites “be
perfect even as I, or your Father who is in heaven is perfect” while in Israel
He did not include Himself (see Matthew 5:48)?
READ 3 Nephi 13:1-6, 16-20
Why does the Lord want us to serve or
sacrifice anonymously and pray in secret?
READ 3 Nephi 13:7-15
If God already knows what we need before
we pray, why are we commanded to pray?
READ 3 Nephi 13:21-33
Reading all these verses as a block,
what is the Lord saying about our treasure?
Why did He turn only to the Twelve to
give them the charge to seek first the Kingdom and not to worry about the
temporal?
READ 3 Nephi 14:1-5
Why should we not judge and attempt to
fix others?
READ 3 Nephi 14:7-11
Why can we be sure that God will give us
good gifts?
READ 3 Nephi 14:12
How does the Golden Rule encapsulate all
of the commandments or “the law and the prophets”?
READ 3 Nephi 14:13-14 and D&C
132:21-25
Why do so few find the strait gate?
READ 3 Nephi 14:15-23
What is the fruit of the true prophet?
READ 3 Nephi 14:24-27, 2 Nephi 32:4-7
and Alma 42:27
Why is the wise person “wise” and the
foolish person “foolish”?
READ 3 Nephi 15:2-8
How is Christ the fulfillment of the Law
of Moses?
READ 3 Nephi 15: 9-10, 24
What must you do to be given eternal
life?
