Sunday, March 13, 2016

The Atonement and Missionary Work - Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

The Atonement and Missionary Work
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
Member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
(Seminar for New Mission Presidents, June 2007)

So why do we want the missionary to bear testimony of Christ as Savior, as Redeemer, as Atoning Lamb of God? Because that invites and taps into, literally becomes part of, the divine power of testimony borne by God the Father Himself, by Jesus Himself, and by the Holy Ghost. That is very good company to keep, elders and sisters. That is the fire a missionary kindles when he or she bears testimony of Jesus-a flame of truth reinforced by the members of the Godhead themselves. What a magnificent circle into which a missionary can step! Such a divine testimony of Jesus is the rock upon which every new convert must build.

So said the Son of God Himself, before any other teaching to that eager Nephite congregation. Only this testimony of the anointed one, the victorious one, will prevail against the gates of hell.

Presidents, encourage your missionaries to study the scriptures conscientiously and become familiar with those passages that teach and testify of Christ's redeeming mission. I have said to missionaries all over the world that they make or break their mission from 6:30 to 9:30 in the morning. There are lots of reasons for that, not the least of which is simple obedience to mission rules, but one of the great reasons is that this is when they get to study the gospel and nothing will so touch their hearts and stir their souls like the truths of which we have been speaking.

In their companionship study and individual study they become “God's investigators.” In those morning hours it is the studious, prayerful missionary who receives the Father's record of the Son, borne with fire and the Holy Ghost to the heart of the missionary. Later in the day, it can then be to the heart of the investigator. That is why we want them up on time. It is no more complicated or mysterious than that – we want them to be able to prepare, to receive the Spirit of the Lord, to receive anew their witness of the work of salvation in which they are engaged – to renew that every single morning of their mission; they are to seek a witness of salvation every morning – the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. So if they don't get up and don't study? Jeremiah records the Lord's own disappointment, “I spake unto you, rising up early and speaking, but ye heard not; and I called you, but ye answered not” (Jer. 7:13, cf 7:25).

I would particularly ask you to have your missionaries study from and teach the Atonement of Christ out of the Book of Mormon. I say that in a very biased way, because it was on my mission that I came to love the Lord Jesus Christ through the agency of the Book of Mormon. It was in that text that I found the majesty of the Son of God for my life and for my future. I want that for you. In its unparalleled focus on the messianic message of the Savior, the Book of Mormon is literally a new testament or (to avoid confusion) "another testament" of Jesus Christ. As such, the book centers upon that which scriptural testaments have always centered since the days of Adam and Eve – the declaration to all that through the Atonement of the Son of God, “as thou hast fallen thou mayest be redeemed, and all mankind, even as many as will” (Moses 5:9). And, everyone has fallen.

“And the world ... shall judge him to be a thing of naught; wherefore they scourge him, and he suffereth it; and they smite him, and he suffereth it. Yea, they spit upon him, and he suffereth it, because of his loving kindness and his long-suffering towards the children of men.

And [he] ... yieldeth himself ... as a man, into the hands of wicked men, to be lifted up, according to the words of Zenock, and to be crucified, according to the words of Neum, and to be buried in a sepulchre, according to the words of Zenos ....

And the rocks of the earth must rend; and because of the groanings of the earth, many of the kings of the isles of the sea shall ... exclaim: The God of nature suffers” (I Ne. 19:9-12).

“And now, my beloved brethren, after ye have gotten into this straight and narrow path, I would ask if all is done? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; for ye have not come thus far save it were by the word of Christ with unshaken faith in him, relying wholly upon the merits of him who is mighty to save.

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.

... And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (2 Ne. 31: 19-21).

And this from Nephi's remarkable brother Jacob, who gave a two-day sermon on the Fall and the Atonement!

“I know ... that in the body he shall show himself unto those at Jerusalem, ... for ... he suffereth himself to become subject unto man in the flesh, and die for all men, that all men might become subject unto him. For as death hath passed upon all men, ... there must needs be a power of resurrection, and the resurrection must needs come unto man by reason of the fall; ...
And he cometh into the world that he may save all men if they will hearken unto his voice; for behold, he suffereth the pains of all men, yea, the pains of every living creature, both men, women, and children, who belong to the family of Adam” (2 Ne. 9:5-6, 21).

And now this from King Benjamin in his great sermon?

“... The Lord omnipotent ... shall come down from heaven among the children of men, and shall dwell in a tabernacle of clay, and shall go forth amongst men, working mighty miracles, such as healing the sick, raising the dead, causing the lame to walk, the blind to receive their sight, and the deaf to hear, and curing all manner of diseases.

And he shall cast out devils, or the evil spirits which shall dwell in the hearts of the children of men.

And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people....

... And even after all this they shall consider him a man, and say that he hath a devil, and shall scourge him, and shall crucify him.

And he shall rise the third day from the dead ... (Mosiah 3:5-10).

As a last example, at least for tonight, this from the great patriarch Lehi; a message to missionaries if ever there was one.

“Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise.

Wherefore, he is the first fruits unto God, inasmuch as be shall make intercession for all the children of men; and they that believe in him shall be saved” (2 Ne. 2:8-9).

Obviously, we can't go on reading scriptures tonight (though I would really enjoy that even if you didn't). I wanted to make a point. You may have recognized that these passages were all taken from just the first 75 pages of the Book of Mormon. What an introduction of all that is to follow, including (and obviously) the entire miracle of the messianic visit recorded in 3rd Nephi which we didn't even come close to touching! Does this help you sense the urgent, rich, impressive theme of Christ that runs through this sacred record from beginning to end? With its declared title-page purpose of testifying that Jesus is the Christ, little wonder that the Book of Mormon was the first –and is still the greatest – of all the missionary tracts of this dispensation. As Lehi says to you and to me and to all missionaries, "How great the importance to make these things [of Christ and, the Atonement] known unto the inhabitants of the earth.”

Almost everything I have said tonight has been an aid directed toward the missionary process, ultimately toward helping an investigator somewhere in one of your missions. May I close now with an extended testimony about how the Atonement helps the missionary.

Presidents, you will have occasion to ask, and your missionaries will have many occasions to ask, why is this so hard? Why doesn't it go better? Why can't our success be more rapid? Why aren't there more people joining the Church? It is the truth. We believe in angels. We trust in miracles. Why don't people just flock to the font? Why isn't the only risk in the mission field that of pneumonia, just being soaking wet all day and all night in a baptismal font? Why isn't it easier, President? Why do the people not understand, President? Why do they reject us, President? Can't they see? These are things that a nineteen and a twenty and twenty-one year old will ask. They are things I have asked.

I have thought about this a great deal. I offer this as my personal feeling. It is not Church doctrine per se, it’s just my feeling to you as you prepare to go into the mission field. I am convinced that missionary work is not easy because salvation is not a cheap experience. Salvation was never easy. We are the Church of Jesus Christ, this is the truth, He is Our Great Eternal Head. Why would we believe, why would we think, that it would be easy for us when it was never, ever easy for Him? In turn, how could we possibly bear any moving, lasting testimony of the Atonement if we have never known or felt anything of such an experience? As missionaries we are proud to say we are disciples of Christ – and we are. But mark my word. That means you must be prepared to walk something of the path He walked, to feel something of the pain He felt, to at least occasionally some time during your mission shed one of the tears of sorrow that He shed.

Now please don't misunderstand. I'm not saying you have to look for suffering, and I'm not saying that we experience anything anywhere near what Christ experienced. That would be presumptuous and frankly, sacrilegious. But I believe that missionaries and investigators to come to the truth, to come to salvation, to come to repentance, to come to know something of the price that has been paid, will have to pay a token of that same price – it will only be a token, but I believe it has to be paid. I don't believe missionary work has ever been easy nor that conversion is, nor that retention is, nor that continued faithfulness in the Church is. I believe it is supposed to require something of our soul. If Jesus could plead in the night, falling on His face, bleeding from every pore and crying, “Abba, Father, [Papa], ... [remove] this cup from me” (Mark 14:36). Well little wonder that salvation is not a whimsical or “easy” thing for a missionary. This is the Living Son of the Living God saying, “Isn’t there some other way?” So, presidents, if your missionaries wonder why this isn’t easy, they should remember they are not the fist ones to ask that. Someone a lot greater and a lot better asked it a long time ago. He asked if there were not a less excruciating way – and for Him, there wasn’t. So, perhaps, for us in token and symbolism, there won’t be an entirely easy way either.

Presidents, if the missionaries can come to love and appreciate it, the Atonement will carry them perhaps even more importantly than it will carry their investigators. You let them know that when they struggle, when they are rejected, when they are spit upon, and cast out and made a hiss and a byword, they are standing shoulder to shoulder with the best life this world has ever known, the only pure and perfect missionary that ever lived. They have every reason to stand tall and to be grateful that the Savior and Redeemer of the world knows all about their sorrows and their afflictions and that for a moment or two in their lives they will understand what He went through for them. The only way to salvation is through Gethsemane. The only victory is the victory at the summit of Calvary. Welcome to the journey of the disciples of Christ.

I testify that the Living God is our Eternal Father, and that Jesus Christ is His Living and Only Begotten Son in the flesh. I testify that this Jesus, who was slain and hanged on a tree, was the chief Apostle then and the chief Apostle now, the Great High Priest, the chief cornerstone of His Church in this last and greatest of all dispensations. I testifiy that He lives, that the whole triumph of the gospel is that He lives, and because He lives, so will we.

On that first Resurrection Sunday, Mary Magdalene first thought she saw a gardener. Well, she did – the Gardener who cultivated Eden and who endured Gethsemane. The Gardener who gave us the rose of Sharon, the lily of the valley, the cedars of Lebanon, and the tree of life. I declare Him to be the Savior of the world, the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls, the Bright and Morning Star. I know that our garments can be washed white only in the blood of that Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world. I know that we are lifted up unto life because He was lifted up unto death, that He bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, and with His stripes we are healed. I bear witness that He was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities, that He was a man of sorrows acquainted with grief because upon Him were laid the transgressions of us all.

I testify in a very personal way from the depths of my own heart that I have sought and felt the gift of the Atonement and the joy of spiritual redemption. It was for me as much as any other in the world, and certainly any other in this room that, as the hymn says, “He hung and suffered there.” Whatever I am or in eternity ever hope to be, was purchased and given to me, the price being the innocent blood of the Lamb.

I bear witness that Jesus came from God as a god to bind up the broken hearted, to dry the tears from every eye to proclaim liberty to the captives, and open the prison doors to them that are bound. In the spirit of that testimony, I promise that because of your faithful response to these mission calls He will bind up your broken hearts, He will dry your tears, and set you and your loved ones free. This is my apostolic witness to the world and my missionary promise to every one of you, in the sacred name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.











                               

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