FLDS Priesthood History for 3rd – 8th Grade Students

Taught by Warren Jeffs

Tape # 32 – March 14, 1996

Subject: Events Before the Crucifixion
I'm talking to a group of young people who have the gift of the Holy Ghost. If you don't
understand, it's because you're not reaching out. You have the right to it if you obey.
The story of Lazarus:
He was the brother of Jesus' wives, Mary and Martha. Jesus loved all three. When Lazarus died,
many of the Jews were there. . Jesus wept because of His love for His family and friends. Lazarus had
been dead four days. Jesus said "Lazarus come forth." What did the people do, who witnessed Lazarus
raised from the dead? Many believed, but those who loved evil, they knew he was the Son of God.
They saw it happen yet they didn't love Him. They ran to the wicked priests over the apostate church
and told them what they had witnessed. They were afraid Jesus would take the people away from the
priests. The chief priests said they must kill Jesus. Look what happened. People saw a miracle and
depending on what kind of person they were, they reacted good or evil. Seeing a miracle won't make
you good. It won't keep you faithful and make you love the truth. Only obedience brings love. Obey
the priesthood - then you love them. These people who were wicked in their hearts and loved evil,
they took that miracle and used it as a reason to kill Jesus. Those who were clean and obedient already,
that miracle strengthened their faith and they rejoiced in it.
The Savior knew what was happening. He no longer walked openly among the people until His
Father in Heaven sent Him. He went out among His friends for that short time before His death. That
event of raising Lazarus was the moving cause of the crucifixion. While Jesus was still in Bethany
where His wives were, His wife Mary took a pound of precious oil called spikenard. It was so
expensive. She performed an ordinance of the priesthood that a wife does for her husband called
the washing of feet. She took the oil and rubbed it on His feet and then took her long hair and
wiped his feet with her hair. That is an ordinance of the priesthood. That is why girls need long
hair. It’s very important in their relation with their husband. You’ll learn about that, especially
when we build the temples.
There was standing by, one of His twelve apostles, Judas Escariot. Before this, the Lord had told
Judas, "You will keep the money, and we will live unitedly." Any money the apostles received, they
gave to Judas. We find out that Judas was a thief. He loved money and what he could do with money.
He came up to the Savior and rebuked them: "Why did you waste this precious oil? We could have sold
it for three hundred pence, and given it to the poor." Judas really wanted it under his own control. He
thought this woman, this wife of the Savior, was wasting this precious oil on Jesus. His answer, "Let
her alone for she hath preserved this ointment until now, that she might anoint me in token of my burial,
for the poor people, always ye have with you, but me, ye have not always. I won't be here very long but
the poor will still be there. You can still give to the poor. He said, "The day will come when people of
all nations will rejoice that this woman annointed me with oil before my death."
So these were the events that took place to turn Judas away from the Savior. He got mad,
criticized the Lord and His wife. Then Judas went to the chief priests of the wicked church and betrayed
Jesus into their hands for thirty pieces of silver. Notice when he really turned against the Lord. It was
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when he complained. That's a warning to all of us. The easiest way to lose the spirit of God is to
complain. The Lord knew Judas would betray Him. The only way He could be taken is to have a
supposed friend betray Him.
Before His crucifixion, Jesus gave His apostles many teachings. At one of these events in
Jerusalem, He washed the feet of the twelve apostles. He said, "Ye are clean, but not all." What He
meant was, Judas was among them. He knew Judas was going to go gather up the soldiers and bring
them to take Him. While Judas was gone, Jesus continued some powerful, beautiful teachings.
How many of you could pass such a test, where you knew you would have to suffer. You knew
who would be your traitor and turn against you, and you willingly, to obey the father, would go and do
it. We can hardly endure each other without griping. How could you endure it? The only way is to know
you were doing the will of your father. I've seen people suffering with cancer - dying - and they were so
sweet. They said in my hearing, " I just want to do what the Lord wants. If this is His will that I suffer, I
will do it." You don't know what you'll be called to go through. Seeing a miracle doesn't make a person
good. Only obedience brings goodness.

March 15, 1996

Subject: The Crucifixion
This great being, a God, willingly came into this mortality, took upon Him the flesh. He was
perfectly faithful and obedient. Because Father Michael became Adam and partook of the forbidden
fruit, all people were lost. We had no hope except another God came and paid for the fall. Punishment
requires suffering and that is what our Savior did. Young people, you've been told to have a testimony
of our Lord Jesus Christ. This story today is what you must understand the most.
In the garden of Gethsemane, the weight of the sins of all mankind were coming upon Him and
He, feeling this great weight and pain, was praying for strength to endure it. I know you've all felt pain.
Your body has been injured, you've been cut or scraped, but there is a greater pain that even affects the
body. It is an inward pain. Your parents feel it slightly - compared to the Savior, I'll call it slight. When
their children do wrong, this inward pain is very great. They hurt and why? Because they love their
children. This is the nature of the pain our Savior had. He was perfect in love and because He loved all
of Heavenly Father's children, that's why the pain came upon Him. Through His love, He endured it.
Heavenly Father, the God over Jesus, caused that He would go through a suffering of His spirit and
body that was more than man could suffer. It started in the garden of Gethsemane.
He prayed with all His might, "Father, if this cup can pass from me, nevertheless, thy will be
done." His body began to sweat blood. That's how great His suffering was. When the soldiers took
Jesus away, to the house of the high priest. Somehow, John the Beloved was able to get into that house
and he brought Peter there. They watched what was happening. The priests' servants were beating the
Savior, spitting on Him. They brought witnesses that accused Him of evils and crimes. Jesus answered
them nothing. He didn't argue or fight back. He sat quiet. He acknowledged that He was the Son of
God. He told the truth. The high priest said Jesus was worthy of death. Peter denied three times, that he
knew Jesus. He looked up and there was Jesus watching him, and he walked away weeping because of
what he had done. Now, we don't condemn the prophet Peter. You must understand this was fulfillment
of prophecy. Our Heavenly Father required that Jesus would stand alone, where no one would stand
with Him. Peter was forgiven easily - it was just words. You need to understand more things, because
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Peter had not yet received that baptism of fire and the Holy Ghost, so he did not commit the great sin.
He easily repented of that, but it was showing us the greatness of the test of our Savior. Even the man
who stood next to Him forsook Him at that moment, and it was according to the will of God.
The next morning, Jesus was taken before Pontius Pilate, who in turn sent Him to Herod, where
he was beaten, spit on, and a phony crown put on him, mocked Him, etc. Young people, this is the God
who made us and this world. Look how they were treating Him. When He didn't respond and perform a
miracle, they beat him and sent him back to Pilate where he was questioned more and more witnesses
heard. Pilate's wife told her husband to do no harm to Jesus. Even his wife was warned and Pilate was
warned. They knew Jesus was innocent. Jesus taught Pontius Pilate the truth, who then told the people
he found no wrong in Jesus. Remembering that at the feast of the Passover every year, he would release
a prisoner of the Jews, he said he would release Jesus. The people cried out "No, Crucify Him instead
of Telease Barabas”, who was a murder and a thief, a leader of the Jews. Pilate washed his hands of the
matter. He allowed the soldiers to take hold of Jesus. The persecution continued. The Roman soldiers
beat Him. They made a cross and had Him carry it through the streets of Jerusalem. Jesus was taken to
the hill called Calvary. The way the Romans killed people who committed crimes was to hang them on
a cross until they starved and thirsted to death. The Savior was different. They took Him and laid Him
on the cross and pounded nails into His hands and feet. He hung with those nails holding Him on the
cross. All this time, He said nothing. He didn't complain even once. My, oh my, how we gripe when we
get a scratch.
Why else would he go through this except He loved His Father and He loved us, Heavenly
Father's children. His family, his wives came near. They held up their little ones. His little children saw
Him. His own mother stood there watching. The twelve apostles and other friends stood there watching.
He told John the Beloved to take care of His mother. For three hours He hung on the cross, suffering
not just the pain of being nailed to the cross, but the weight of the world rested upon Him. As the great
creator of this earth suffered and trembled, on this land where there were only people who had heard
the gospel, the destructions started. As His body trembled in pain, the earth went wild - earthquakes,
tornadoes, winds, storms, until the great cities were buried and the mountains were burned with fire.
While he hung on the cross, He was praying for the righteous. He caused that the righteous,
under the prophet Nephi, were lifted up off the earth, during that time while this great destruction took
place. There was an earthquake felt eventually, over in the land where He died, but the great
destructions didn't happen over there because there were many people who didn't have the privilege to
hear the gospel yet. It wasn't time for them to be destroyed, but the Nephites, they had the gospel for six
hundred years, until most of them rejected it and were destroyed.
While Jesus was hanging on the cross, something happened that caused Him to cry out.
Heavenly Father withdrew His spirit of protection. When the spirit of God left Him, He was all alone.
He stood the test of all because He loved us. This great creator went through that willingly to do the
will of His Father. Finally, He could tell He was dying and He said, "It is finished." When He died, the
earth shook all around them, shaking the city. A terrible wind and storm came. The captain of the guard
who crucified Him said this was the Son of God.
Our Heavenly Father loved us enough to fall and become a mortal man to give us bodies. Our
Lord and Savior loved us enough to be born here, suffer, bleed and die on the cross for us. He did it
because He loved us. Shouldn't we love Him in return, by obeying Him? We obey Him by obeying the
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prophet. Joseph of Arimathea secretly went to Pontius Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, and was
allowed to do so. He was afraid because he didn't want the Jews to get the body and tear it apart and
destroy it. They remembered that Jesus had prophesied that He would rise the third day. They quickly
wrapped the body in a blanket and quickly put some herbs on the body, then put it into Joseph of
Arimathea' s cave dug out of the rock, where no man had ever been buried, then they rolled a stone in
front of the cave. The Jews had Roman soldiers assigned to guard the grave of what they called the
imposter, so they would know whether He would rise the third day.
There are many more details. I encourage you to read the story. I rejoice in the testimony I have
in the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is my life and hope, and I can reach Him only through His
servant, President Jeffs, today. All the prophets have suffered. They have been innocent and clean and it
seems that the perfect people seem to have to suffer, but if they do it without complaining, doing the
will of their Father in Heaven, they will get the greatest reward. That is the example. He didn't
complain. We will receive these bodies back forever, if we're obedient. Everyone will be brought out of
the grave and we will be judged. The savior conquered death and made it so we could have eternal life
through His suffering. One of the prophets said He was bruised for our iniquity. With His stripes, we
are healed. That is so true. Go to Him in prayer this day, and thank Him for what He did. You ought to
do it just out of gratitude.

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