1282. Continuing The New Testament Manual, Chapter 2, Matthew 1-4.

 Chapter 2, in New Testament Manual

I really want to continue what I started last week, after our Prophet Russell M. Nelson counseled us to have a new normal, in which we turn to our Savior Jesus Christ, and always remember Him in our thoughts and actions.

Today is Chapter 2, in the New Testament Manual, which I am studying.  We also are studying the Book of Mormon in “Come Follow Me.”

Last week, I suggested that we could read Matthew, chapters 1 through 4.  This week I will write about those chapters, and what we can learn from them.

Early Christian writers have all agreed that the book of Matthew in the New Testament was surely written by Matthew, the apostle of Jesus.  He may have used Mark’s Gospel, and Mark relied on Peter’s accounts of the Savior’s life.  It was written around 70 to 90 A.D.  Which means that it was about 35 to 45 years after Jesus died.  Matthew wrote a lot to the Jews, and many times he referred to previous prophecies of the coming of the Messiah, with which the Jews were familiar.  He also gives the lineage of Jesus through Joseph.  We know that Mary, the mother of Jesus, and also Joseph her husband came through lineage which was from King David, and Abraham. Jews really believed that their Messiah would come from that lineage.  Luke gives another pedigree which will be discussed later.    

Moses and Jesus haves been compared in several ways.  Both were saved as infants from attempts of a wicked king to kill them, and many other babies were killed at those times.  Moses was a prophet which also came out of Egypt, and Moses gave the Ten Commandments, and Jesus gave the higher law.  President Gordon B. Hinckley said: “I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the eternal, living God.  I believe that he was born of Mary of the lineage of David as the promised Messiah, that he was in very deed begotten of the Father.”  Joseph was a righteous man, and the betrothal, or engagement, to Mary was very significant, with a covenant between them.  Joseph had a dream in which an angel told him who Jesus would be, and to name him Jesus.  Later Joseph had a dream that warned him to go to Egypt to escape Herod, and also he had a dream that told him when to return, and another dream to told him to go to Galilee, where the town Nazareth was.  

Matthew is the only Gospel wherein the Wise Men are mentioned, and the number isn’t actually given.  Elder Bruce R. McConkie said “It would appear they were true prophets, who were in possession of ancient prophecies telling of the rise of a new star at his birth.  The fact they had an inspired dream in which they were warned not to return to Herod after they had found Jesus shows that they did receive revelation, and were familiar with prophecies of the Messiah.  President Wilford Woodruff said that there are a great many things taught us in dreams that are true, and whenever you have a dream that you feel is from the Lord, you should pay attention.

John the Baptist was the forerunner to the Messiah, and he taught that confession of sins was an important part of repenting and preparing to receive Jesus Christ, through baptism.  Jesus Christ’s baptism is one of at least four times in the New Testament, we are taught about the Godhead, in which we hear the voice of the Father, and there are only a few times when the voice of the Father is recorded in Scripture.   Jesus was there, and the Holy Ghost was present, and mentioned.  

After His baptism, Jesus Christ went into the wilderness to be with God.  We have that cleared up in the Joseph Smith Translation, which clarifies Jesus was in the Spirit, at that time.  The Bible says that Jesus went into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.  Elder Bruce R. McConkie says “Righteous men do not seek out temptation.  He went ‘to be with God’ “.

President Howard W. Hunter said “Soon after his baptism Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wild, uncultivated wilderness.  There he remained for forty days and nights, preparing himself for the formal ministry which was then to begin. The greatest task ever to be accomplished in this world lay before him, and he needed divine strength.  Throughout these days in the wilderness he chose to fast, that his mortal body might be completely subjected to the divine influence of his Father’s Spirit.”

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said “Fasting, coupled with mighty prayer, is powerful.  It can fill our minds with the revelations of the Spirit.  It can strengthen us against times of temptation.  Often when we fast, our righteous prayers and petitions have greater power.  Testimonies grow. We mature spiritually and emotionally and sanctify our souls.  Each time we fast, we gain a little more control over our worldly appetites and passions.”

Pres. Hunter said that Satan’s temptations are often strongest when we are vulnerable and least prepared to resist the insidious suggestions he makes.  The three types of temptations Jesus faced cover nearly every given temptation that comes to us as (1) a temptation of appetite/ (2) a yielding to the pride and fashion and vanity of those alienated from the things of God, or (3) a gratifying of the desire for the riches of the world, or power among men.

Pres. Spencer W. Kimball taught that showing interest in sin can make us more vulnerable to being tempted.  “It is extremely difficult, if not impossible for the devil to enter a door that is closed.   He seems to have no keys for locked doors.  But if a door is slightly ajar, he gets his toe in, and soon this is followed by his foot, then by his leg and his body and his head, and finally he is in all the way.” 

After Jesus’s temptations each time he said to Satan, “It is written ....”  Christ’s knowledge of the scriptures was part of what had prepared and strengthened Him to turn aside from temptation.  The Savior later taught: “Whoso treasureth up my word shall not be deceived.” Elder Merrill J. Bateman noted the strength that scripture study provides against temptation.  "There are certain blessings obtained when one searches the scriptures.  The power to resist temptation increases and spiritual weaknesses are overcome.”

I liked what Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said, seeing a modern application of the early disciples had, in leaving their nets and following the Savior.  “They were fishermen before they heard the call.  After Jesus spoke the simple words, ‘Follow Me’, they straightway left their nets, and followed him.  We might define a 'net' as anything that entices or prevents us from following the call of Jesus Christ.  Nets in this context can be our work, our hobbies, our pleasures, and above all else, our temptations and sins.  In short, a net can be anything that pulls us away from our relationship with our Heavenly Father or from His restored Church.”  He went on to mention how valuable a computer can be but if we allow it to take our time with vain, unproductive, and sometimes destructive pursuits, it becomes an entangling net.  "Also watching athletic contests could be if it causes us to neglect our families, or ignore the opportunity to render acts of Christlike service, etc. they could be an entangling net. ... But if we are sincere in our desire to follow Him, we must straightway leave the world’s entangling nets and follow Him.”

For the coming week, we will be studying Matthew Chapters 5 through 7, which is the Sermon On The Mount.  We have recently been studying the Sermon at the Temple in Bountiful, in the Book of Mormon.  They are very similar, but in the Book of Mormon, there are subtle changes which are more correct, and help us get a deeper understanding.

So I invite you to read those chapters for the coming week.  I will probably write next week on Wednesday, as I will be gone this week to visit my daughter in Mesa, and her family – two great granddaughters I haven’t seen yet!  One will be one year old, and the other 2 months old.  I am excited for this!