Chapter 19
The twelve disciples
minister unto the people and pray for the Holy Ghost—The disciples are baptized
and receive the Holy Ghost and the ministering of angels—Jesus prays using
words that cannot be written—He attests to the exceedingly great faith of these
Nephites. About A.D. 34.
After Christ’s ascension, the multitude went to their homes.
“The reference to ‘every man’ returning home with ‘his wife and his children’
suggests that most of those present had come to the temple as families, an
unlikely scenario if those present were simply gathered to converse about the
destruction.”[1]
The word then went forth to all the people. They had seen
Jesus, He had ministered to them, and he would return tomorrow.
All who heard the word spent the night traveling to the
temple to be there when He returned.
In the morning they multitude gathered again. The Nephite
twelve stood among the multitude. They divided the people into twelve bodies. They
taught each of the multitude. They then had them kneel in prayer, praying to
the Father in Jesus’s name. In this, they followed the example Christ gave
during His first visit. “And it came to pass that when they had all been
brought, and Jesus stood in the midst, he commanded the multitude that they should
kneel down upon the ground” (3 Nephi 17:13).
After the prayers, the twelve ministered to the people. They
taught them the same words he taught them, after which they knelt again and
began to pray.
“Mormon made sure in his narrative that later readers would
know about this literal repetition of the sermon by explicitly defining in what
sense the sermon was given a second time in the ‘same words.’ Mormon tells us
that the Nephite twelve, under the command of Jesus, ‘ministered those same
words which Jesus had spoken,’ including the sermon, and then he makes sure we
do not misunderstand him by adding ‘nothing varying from the words which Jesus
had spoken’ (3 Nephi 19:8). Clearly, Mormon too was duty bound to record the
sermon in his compilation in the same words as it came from Jesus, ‘nothing
varying.’”[2]
Their prayer expressed what they most desired. That was for
the gift of the Holy Ghost. This had been promised them when they heard Christ’s
voice. “And ye shall offer for a sacrifice unto me a broken heart and a
contrite spirit. And whoso cometh unto me with a broken heart and a contrite
spirit, him will I baptize with fire and with the Holy Ghost, even as the
Lamanites, because of their faith in me at the time of their conversion, were
baptized with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and they knew it not” (3 Nephi
9:20).
When their prayer ended, the twelve led them to the water’s
edge. “Verily I say unto you, that whoso repenteth of his sins through your
words, and desireth to be baptized in my name, on this wise shall ye baptize
them—Behold, ye shall go down and stand in the water, and in my name shall ye
baptize them” (3 Nephi 11:23). Nephi went into the water and was baptized. Jesus
made its importance clear when speaking to John the Baptist, “Suffer it to be
so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he suffered
him” (Matthew 3:15).[3]
After Nephi was baptized, he baptized the remainder of the
Nephite twelve. When they had been baptized, the Holy Ghost fell upon them and
filled them with the Spirit and fire. “And again, more blessed are they who
shall believe in your words because that ye shall testify that ye have seen me,
and that ye know that I am. Yea, blessed are they who shall believe in your
words, and come down into the depths of humility and be baptized, for they
shall be visited with fire and with the Holy Ghost, and shall receive a
remission of their sins” (3 Nephi 12:2).
While they were encircled “about as if it were by fire” (3
Nephi 19:14), which came down from heaven. Angels also descended and ministered
to them. “And as they looked to behold they cast their eyes towards heaven, and
they saw the heavens open, and they saw angels descending out of heaven as it
were in the midst of fire; and they came down and encircled those little ones
about, and they were encircled about with fire; and the angels did minister
unto them” (3 Nephi 17:24).
While the angels were ministering to the twelve, the Savior
came and stood among them and He began to minister to them.
[1] The
Great and Marvelous Change: An Alternate Interpretation, Clifford P. Jones,
Journal of the Book of Mormon and Other
Restoration Scripture 19/2 (2010): 57.
[2] The
Problem of the Sermon on the Mount and 3 Nephi, A. Don Sorensen, FARMS Review 16/2 (2004): 141.
[3] “And Jesus, answering, said unto him, Suffer me to be
baptized of thee, for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he
suffered him” (JST Matthew 3:43).
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