Matt 14:14-21; 15:32-38. The Feeding of the Multitudes.

1. The Savior provided two similar miracles.

Matt 14:14-21

• How may people were present?

5,000

• What did they need?

to be fed

• What were they able to offer in an effort to meet that need?

5 loaves and 2 fishes

• What words or phrases describe the Savior’s feeling toward the multitudes in their time of need?

“moved with compassion toward them and healed their sick.”

“they need not depart; give them to eat.”

• What words or phrases describe what the Savior was able to provide for the multitudes?

“healed their sick”

“they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the fragments that remained twelve baskets full.”

Matt 15:32-38

• How may people were present?

4,000

• What did they need?

to be fed

• What were they able to offer in an effort to meet that need?

7 loaves and a few fishes

• What words or phrases describe the Savior’s feeling toward the multitudes in their time of need?

“I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, least they faint in the way.”

“he healed them”

• What words or phrases describe what the Savior was able to provide for them.

“and they did all eat and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.”

“And great multitudes came unto him and cast them down at Jesus’ feet; and he healed them.”

2. In each story, the available food was insufficient to fee the multitude, yet with the help of the Lord the insufficiency was overcome. Read Romans 3:23, and explain in writing another way human effort is insufficient in receiving the glory of God. According to Ether 12:27, how does the Lord help us overcome this insufficiency?

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

The multitude thought they had nothing, at least what they had was insufficient to feed 5,000 people. They had a little and the Lord took what they had and made sufficient and there was even extra. All of the multitude ate and were full. Romans implies that we all have sinned and we all need God. He can make more of us that we can do ourselves. We need to take what we have to him, even though we think it is little and he will make more and it will be sufficient, and possibly more. I think of this in my own calling as the Young Women’s President. How I have so little to offer the girls or the Lord, however if I take what I have to the Lord he will magnify me. Ether 12:27 States:

“And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness, I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all me that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.”

In this scripture it says “weakness” not weaknesses (plural). It was suggested to me once by a an institute instructor at the University of Montana that weakness suggests, mortality. That we were sent here to live a mortal life and that is our weakness. Wither or not that is accurate, it is worth pondering. In v 35 it says that if gentiles have not charity because of their weakness it will be taken away from them. If we do not show charity because of our weakness, or because the Lord has made “weak things become strong unto us” then those things that we have been given will be taken from us and given to those who shall “have more abundantly.” So as the Lord takes what we are and make more, we must use what we have been given to show charity and give back to the Lord or it will be taken from us. What a sobering thought, but what a beautiful concept.

John the Baptist

Matthew 11:1-19; Luke 7:18-35.

1. What did the two disciples of John the Baptist ask Jesus Christ?

*Art thou he that should come, or do we look for another?

The Savior told them to go back to John and tell what they saw and heard.

After reading these accounts, explain three things you would have told John if you had been with those two men.

1. I would have told John how I felt when I was with the Savior.

2. I would have told John the miracles that I saw

3. I would have said he is the promised Savior

1. Read the Institute manual commentary for Matt 11:2-3 “DId John Doubt that Jesus was the Messiah?”

Explain why John wanted his disciples to go to Jesus Christ.

• John did not doubt that Jesus was the promised Messiah. John’s disciples were reluctant to leave John and follow Jesus Christ. John knew Jesus was the Messiah because of a revelation he had had. “John’s motive in sending the two disciples to Jesus as one of persuasion for them, rather than of reassurance for himself. The question they were put to Jesus was for their edification, not for his own”( p 65).

3. Read the institute student manual commentary for Matt 11:11, “No Greater Prophet than John the Baptist”.

What did the Savior say about John the Baptist in Matt 11:11 and Luke 7:28?

*Luke- Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist

*Matt-There hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of Heaven is greater than he.

Provide three reasons given by Joseph Smith why John the Baptist is considered among the greatest prophets.

1. He was entrusted with a divine mission of preparing the way before the face of the Lord.
2. He was entrusted with the divine mission to baptize the Son of Man.
3. John was the only legal administrator in the affairs of the kingdom there was then on the earth and holding the keys of power. Jesus ;fulfilled all righteousness in becoming obedient to the law, thereby magnified it and made it honorable, instead of destroying it.

1. What does John 3:30 suggest about John the Baptist and his attitude toward the Savior?

*John said he must increase and I must decrease. John had a clear understanding of who he was and why he was on the earth. John was a great man who loved the Savior and understood his divine role.

Describe how we could apply a similar attitude in our own lives.

*If we all had a clear understanding of our divine heritage and why we were hear on this earth we could better fulfill our roles. In my personal life, I would always be magnifying the Savior, I would want him to have the glory and all I do would be to glorify and magnify the Savior. John the Baptist did this and died for this cause also.

Miracles Are Evidence of Faith and God's Power

Matthew 8-9; Mark 2. Miracles Are Evidence of Faith and God’s Power

1. Using the following references, fill in the chart below by writing in the second column a brief description of each miracle the Lord performed, then in the third column list those who exercised faith for the miracle to occur.
2. Explain in writing how it affects your faith to know that God has this kind of power.

Reference: Matt 8 1-4

Miracles of the Lord: Leper was healed by the Savior

Who demonstrated Faith: The Leper

Reference: Matt 8: 5-13

Miracles of the Lord: Centurion cam to Jesus to heal his servant but didn’t feel his home was worthy to have the Savior in it.

Who demonstrated Faith: The Centurion

Reference: Matt 8: 14-15

Miracles of the Lord: Jesus saved Peter’s mother

Who demonstrated Faith: Peter’s Mother

Reference: Matt 8:16

Miracles of the Lord: Many came and all were healed

Who demonstrated Faith: Those that were healed and the Savior

Reference: Matt 8:28-34

Miracles of the Lord: The Savior cast devils out of men and the possessed swine

Who demonstrated Faith: The Savior

Reference: Matt 9:20-22 Mark 5:25-34

Miracles of the Lord: A woman touched the hem of Jesus garment and was healed

Who demonstrated Faith: The woman

Reference: Matt 9:27-31

Miracles of the Lord: 2 blind men sought Jesus and he healed them

Who demonstrated Faith: blind men

Reference: Mark 2:1-12

Miracles of the Lord: 4 men broke the roof to let a boy sick with palsy down into the room where the savior was and he healed him

Who demonstrated Faith: 4 men with the boy with palsy

How it affects my faith to know that God has this kind of power.

It affects my faith tremendously! As I was pondering upon this and upon my role in ward council I silently wished the savior could come now and see those people who are sick or afflicted with all manner of afflictions. He would know what to do with them, he would know how to heal them and help them come back into the fold. However I learned this week that even if he came we would still need to believe. Those people who were healed believed he could heal them. They showed great faith in him. I love the Savior and hope he will help me believe.

John 2: Water to Wine and Cleansing the Temple

Choice #3 John 2. Water to Wine and Cleansing the Temple

Why Jesus addresses his Mother as “Woman.” In the course manual it concludes that the title “Woman” as the Savior uses it in the scripture found in John 2 is a term of respect.

(4-11) John 2:4. What of Jesus’ Addressing His Mother as “Woman”?

“. . . The noun of address, ‘Woman,’ as applied by a son to his mother may sound to our ears somewhat harsh, if not disrespectful; but its use was really an expression of opposite import. To every son the mother ought to be preeminently the woman of women; she is the one woman in the world to whom the son owes his earthly existence; and though the title ‘Mother’ belongs to every woman who has earned the honors of maternity, yet to no child is there more than one woman whom by natural right he can address by that title of respectful acknowledgment. When, in the last dread scenes of His mortal existence, Christ hung in dying agony upon the cross, He looked down upon the weeping Mary, His mother, and commended her to the care of the beloved apostle John, with the words: ‘Woman, behold thy son!’ Can it be thought that in this supreme moment, our Lord’s concern for the mother from whom He was about to be separated by death was associated with any emotion other than that of honor, tenderness and love?” (Talmage, Jesus the Christ, pp. 144–45.)

How much constitutes a “Firkin”?

A firkin is about nine gallons. Thus each of the six water-pots contained around 18 to 27 gallons of water, with the result that Jesus then created between 100 to 150 gallons of wine—a miracle showing that the wedding celebration was quite large.

What impresses me the most about the miracle found in John 2:1-11?

I think it has to be when the Savior says to his mother, as found in the JST, “Woman, what will thou have me to do for the? that will I do: for mine hour is not yet come.” I love that he did that for his mother, and I also am impressed that she was able to know to tell his servants, “Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it.” And they did it.

How does the institute student manual help in understanding why Jesus Christ would refer to his mother as woman?

The student manual describes it as a term of respect, referring to when the Savior hung dying in agony upon the cross, commending her to the care of the apostle John. “Woman, behold thy son!”

In what ways are Jesus Christ’s actions in John 2:13-16 symbolic of what He desires of each of us?

Jesus’ actions were that he made a whip and drove the money changers out of the temple. From that I get that we are all to enter the temple and leave our worldly possessions behind, even our worldly attitudes. That we should all keep the temple pure and undefiled by the world.