Christ's Appearances to His Prophets   The Pearl of Great Price Lecture 03 by Hyrum Andrus
Channel: Light and Truth
Date: 2016-07-17

Hyrum L. Andrus
All rights reserved January 25-27, 1996
LECTURE - 3 THE MINISTRY Of CHRIST TO HIS PROPHETS
This period I would like to concentrate on Christ’s appearances to his prophets, and we need to center this in something about which we have already said a few things. Let me begin with this basic statement. Glorification in the Father gives Christ the divine indwelling relationship with the Man of Holiness, which is the key to a true understanding of Christ as the only Begotten Son.
Let me turn over to John, chapter 14 where Jesus is with his disciples and Philip, bless his heart, very naively, asked him a question. It was one of those questions where you look at a person and you kind of beat yourself on the head and say, where have you been? Haven’t you picked up on it yet? It was one of those kinds of experiences and Jesus did it very graciously, but rather pointedly.
In John, chapter 14 we are dealing with things from verse 8: “Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it suficeth us.” It was at that point that Jesus said, hey, kid, where have you been? “Jesus said unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”
I know how we used that in the mission field, and I would still use it that way because the application is correct, but it is an application. It is one of these things where a scripture in application means something different than what it means in reality. Now an application: it says, I am so much like the Father that if you were to see me you would see him, and why are you talking about showing us the Father? Don’t you know I am exactly like him?
In the First Vision Joseph said that the two beings exactly resembled each other, and we use that in the missionary work and it is a legitimate use to show that Christ is exactly like the Father. Christ is the revelation of the Father. If you have seen him you have seen the Father.
That is the application. That is not what he was saying. What was he really saying? You can’t understand what he was saying until you understand the divine nature and until you understand the indwelling. The fact that the Father is in Christ, again we said, draw a big circle and let that represent the Father. Draw another one and let that represent Christ. Then put a transfer, it is like a huge electrical circuit, then an arrow back through so that the Father is in Christ and Christ is in the Father, and there is a great indwelling relationship, but it is not electrical power which is tremendously energetic, and shocking, to say the least, but it is the power of truth and intelligence.
The person in whom it dwells is independent by the nature of truth and acts independent, but he still possesses the fulness of the Father. When Christ was conceived on earth the divine nature of the Father was centered in him. He wasn’t just a physical being walking around on earth. He was God, he was Immanuel, which means God with us.
As Abinadi said in his great commentary on the prophetic biography of Isaiah 53, which he includes in Mosiah, chapter 14. The whole of the chapter is Isaiah 53. Then in Mosiah, chapter 15, Abinadi’s great commentary where he begins by saying: “I would that ye should understand that God himself shall come down among the children of men, and shall redeem his people.”
It is not Elder Brother, it is God himself. When he came down on earth, the Father was in him. He was the Father by reason of the indwelling of power and glory of the divine nature. So he says to Philip in John, chapter 14, verse 9: “Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?”
Then note his explanation, verse 10: “Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me?” It isn’t an issue for many of us whether we believe or not, we don’t even know about it. “The words that I speak unto you (He is talking about what he is giving and he is not giving it by his own intellectual nature, he is giving it based on the flow of revelation within himself, and revelatorily it is the Father that is giving it.) I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.”
The Father and the Son have an indwelling relationship and you take these two circles and transfer the fulness of light and glory here over to this person here, and it doesn’t destroy his will, it doesn’t disrupt his agency, it doesn’t set it aside, it is truth. This person loves truth to the extent that he is willing to subordinate and surrender his will to the Father. As a result he grew up in the Father, with the Father in him and he in the Father.
ThereÖ Get the full transcription from www.hyrumandrus.com!