The Impact of Example

1 Corinthians 4:2.

What is required of the servants of the Lord according to 1 Corinthians 4:2?

It is required of stewards for a man to be faithful. A steward is a person who administers anything as the agent of another. Each one of us is a steward and all the children of the world will one day be stewards. It is required of each one of us to be faithful.

1 Corinthians 4:9-17

Name the group specifically selected to be examples.

The Lord has sent forth His Apostles to be examples to us and to show us the way of truth and light. The Lord sent us His Apostles to help us come unto Christ and to teach us to be followers of Christ.

How does being an example apply to more than this group?

Apostles aren’t the only ones who need to be examples. Each one of us needs to be examples, especially us as followers of Christ. The world is constantly watching us, and everything we do and it is our responsibility to bring souls unto Christ through the example that we lead. It is not enough to share with others what we know, but we need to live our lives in accordance with our beliefs.

Alma 39:11-12

Why is it not enough to just know what is right?

We need to live what is right and refrain from our iniquities. In Alma 39:11-12, Alma speaks of how our conduct can lead away the hearts of men to do wicked things. This is apparent all around us; such as drugs, pornography and families in crisis. We not only need to know what is right, but we need to live what is right and encourage and help others to live a worthy life as well.

3 Nephi 8:1

What additional power comes to those who live what they know?

Those who are cleansed from iniquity and who are followers of Christ, have the power to work miracles. Through the Lord, anything is possible, if we our lives in accordance with the gospel of Jesus Christ and strive to help others along this journey, we can witness many miracles brought by the hand of Christ.

1 Thessalonians 4. The Resurrection

The Lord will raise first those who have slept in the Lord, the righteous.

Those who are alive and righteous at the time of his coming will also be called up to meet Him.

3. We shall be caught up with the Lord and the spirits of the righteous in the air in the clouds.

4. The righteous saints will be there at the time of His coming right at the start, and those who were good but not members and saints will come afterwards.

5. At the Second Coming the righteous saints, prophets, church members who were faithful will be resurrected, and then those who were righteous but did not have the gospel will be resurrected afterwards.

6. It teaches that specifically, first the righteous dead would live again and be caught up, and then those who remain alive would also be caught up to meet with Him.

7. The heathen nations will be redeemed with the righteous, and they WILL survive the second coming. The rebellious and truly wicked, those who rejected the gospel and those found under great condemnation would not be redeemed or survive.

8. The aforementioned wicked dead would not be redeemed until after the end of the Earth itself.

Acts 13-14 Paul's First Mission

1. In Paul’s first first journey he started in the city of Seleucia and from there traveled to Salamis, Paphos, Attalia, and Perga.
2. Some advice I would give a struggling missionary is look at Paul and Barnabas in Acts 13:1-5. They after prayer and fasting were called to preach the gospel in a far-off land. They fasted and prayed, and were suddenly called spontaneously to go on a mission, when things were going well where they were at. Furthermore, they had to travel on old world ships, which were incredibly dangerous by today’s standards.
3. Barnabas means son of consolation. He was a man of great spiritual nature. Regarded as an apostle, though not of the twelve, he was informed of the spirit of Saul’s conversion and convinced the apostles that Paul was a sincere individual and his conversion was real. He suffered with Paul on many journeys, and was a strong missionary partner to Paul. Some great blessings in sending missionaries out by two’s is it makes their testimony difficult to dispute, and further, the companion cares for the others needs and they support each other.
4. Paul and Barnabas were teaching in Lycaonia when the people beholding miracles treated them like Gods and tried to offer sacrifices. Horrified, they spoke to the people and told them they were mortal men and such a thing should not ever be, and they barely stopped the people.
5. For Acts 14: 8-13 and 19-22 the situations were amazingly different and shows how vastly different the gospel response may be. In the first case, the healing of the lame man who wished to be healed brought such a positive response that the people went overboard and tried to offer sacrifices unto Paul and Barnabas believing them to be beyond mortal. In the case of the men from Antioch and Iconium it was blunt disbelief to the point they brutally stoned Paul without the city. Paul later taught the people of those cities again and taught them that through faith and suffering through tribulations would we enter the kingdom of God. Both of these experiences are examples of enduring through tribulation in different ways. Observing the overzealousness and willingness to commit to sacrifices shows the extreme human response the gospel or any other principle can have when taken to excess. The disciples suffered watching them try and twist the gospel to their old lifestyle. In the other case outright rejection in Antioch brought about the stoning of Paul, who likely nearly died. Yet Paul endured and was blessed with disciples in those cities and showed through his suffering that enduring to the end always brings reward and salvation in the kingdom of God.

Acts. 1 Special Witnesses of the Resurrected Savior

In Ether 12:39; Moroni declares that he has seen Jesus and that he would commend all men everywhere to seek Him out. In 1 Cor. 15:6; The Savior was seen and witnessed by 500 of the brethren. In D & C 6:37; the Lord revealed to Joseph Smith and Oliver Cowdery the wounds he received during His Crucifiction and commanded them to be faithful and keep His commandments. In each of these accounts the Lord revealed Himself only to the believing, never to the wicked, and each of these witnesses received His holy spirit and testimony, and were commanded to witness of the Lord and keep His commandments.

The author of the gospel of Acts is Luke the Evangelist, based on the fact that the book of Luke was written for Theophilus, which is also stated that Acts was written to Theophilus (deductive reasoning). It was written to record and certify to those who had witnessed the events, and also for those who were not privileged to know of them at the time they occurred and that the membership might be certain in their knowledge of the gospel.

The doctrine of the resurrection was central to the preaching of the gospel of Christ because without the doctrine the faith of all believers was vain. One of the centerpieces of the life of the Savior was his death and resurrection and without both it profited no one to exercise faith in the Lord.

The relationship between Christ’s death and resurrection is central to the judgment of humanity. A central part of the gospel is that these events happened, so mankind could return and be judged, according to the gospel, and without the two, the salvation of man fails, without the cross there is no return, and with it we may be judged fairly and return to heaven.

The Savior promised his followers that He would send them the Comforter or Holy Spirit prior to his Ascencion.

We can be modern witnesses of Christ through bearing our own testimony of Him, and also through following His example. An apostle was chosen first from those who were constant and steadfast, someone who was true to the gospel, and they then beseeched the Lord in prayer to know which individual it should be. The Apostles then voted on the one they felt was the right choice and majority vote chose. The Bible Dictionary gives additional information that an apostle should be part of a council of twelve, and be a special witness of Jesus Christ before the whole world.