The entire book of 3 Nephi is a story of spiritual maturation and of ascent. Beginning with the depths of darkness and the earthquakes, the early chapters in 3 Nephi are tumultuous—not only physically, but also politically. Why did the events of 3 Nephi begin with so much darkness? Why did it begin with Satan reigning with blood and terror, with political upheavals, and the whole government essentially collapsing? The old society that Nephi and the other apostles had grown up in was now completely obliterated. The newly appointed leaders who had survived the cataclysmic events were starting from Ground Zero, and the next step was to embody a priesthood brotherhood.
Nephi, as the leader of these people, had been able to prophesy. Through revelation, he knew of things that were going on in Galilee and in Judea as they were transpiring. He was able to teach, and some believed. It is my belief that the twelve men that Jesus called as his disciples had already been through the fires of temptation and trial together. They had experienced hardship and the testing of everything that could stretch a person to the limit. They had seen Nephi raise his brother from the dead, but they had also seen people being butchered and killed.
As these men were instructed by the Lord, they would have brought to the Lord their own needs arising out of these past experiences—needs for comfort and assurance. They would have had new levels of understanding and expectation explained to them. As they heard the words of Jesus throughout 3 Nephi, and as they experienced new covenants and ordinances, were ordained and given power, and brought up through the progression of one principle of the gospel leading to another, they must have felt the Lord’s hand, guiding, directing, reassuring, and establishing his Kingdom on earth.
Jesus knew the hearts of the Twelve whom he called. He knew that they were absolutely trustworthy and that he could reveal to them even greater things pertaining to God’s Kingdom on earth—some revelation that the multitude would not receive. As the people trusted in these disciples and as the Twelve trusted in the Lord, they would grow in strength to handle the burdens that would be placed upon them. Even though they had been given great power and authority, the disciples observed and experienced the Savior ministering to them with mercy and love. These men would have learned to model their life after what the Savior had done.
When the New Testament is read alone without Restoration scripture, some people, including many scholars, are uncertain whether Jesus actually ordained twelve apostles and how He did that. In 3 Nephi in the Book of Mormon, we know that Jesus laid His hands upon the heads of those twelve men and gave them power first to baptize, and later that day to give the gift of the Holy Ghost, and later yet to administer in all the ordinances of the Priesthood.
Interestingly, as a priest made a sacrifice under the Law of Moses, He would lay His hands upon the sacrificial animal. That act would transfer to the sacrificial animal the impurities of the person for whom the sacrifice was being made. The sacrificial animal would vicariously carry away and suffer the burden of that person’s uncleanness and sins.
What we see here, of course, was the laying on of hands by Jesus on the heads of these disciples, symbolically making them sacrificial animals. The Twelve were to sacrifice their lives, if necessary. As they administered in the ordinances of the new order of the priesthood, they would be able to carry away the sins from people—sins and problems that the people could not remove by themselves. However, the Twelve disciples would only be able to do that if they, themselves, were willing to sacrifice all things unto the Lord.