Learner Readiness
Objective: To help the listeners arrive on their own regarding message for them.
SAY: The First Great Commandment, By Elder Jeffrey R. Holland
"We have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love to the Lord."
Q: What is the first great commandment of the Lord?
READ Matthew 22:36-37
A - Mathew 22:36-38
Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
Q: How do you demonstrate your love for the Lord?
SAY: To start his talk, EH talks of the early dsiciples that walked with the Savior on the earth. At first reading one might not see some of the reasons why Elder Holland tells the story he tells.
- He talks of their inexperience walking with Lord for only three years being totally dependent upon the Lord.
- Not wanting to believe that the Savior would die and they would be left on their own.
- And then the unthinkable happened, the unbelievable was true, their Lord and Master was crucified.
- Witnessing Him in his resurrected state only added to their bewilderment.
- So, Peter and at least six of the remaining ten apostles go fishing. Back to the same thing the Lord called them from three years earlier.
READ B
B - But, alas, the fishing wasn’t very good. Their first night back on the lake, they caught nothing—not a single fish. With the first rays of dawn, they disappointedly turned toward the shore, where they saw in the distance a figure who called out to them, “Children, have you caught anything?” Glumly these Apostles-turned-again-fishermen gave the answer no fisherman wants to give. “We have caught nothing,” they muttered, and to add insult to injury, they were being called “children."
Q: Is the fishing good at those times in our lives when we have stopped doing God's work?
B - But, alas, the fishing wasn’t very good. Their first night back on the lake, they caught nothing—not a single fish. With the first rays of dawn, they disappointedly turned toward the shore, where they saw in the distance a figure who called out to them, “Children, have you caught anything?” Glumly these Apostles-turned-again-fishermen gave the answer no fisherman wants to give. “We have caught nothing,” they muttered, and to add insult to injury, they were being called “children."
Q: Is the fishing good at those times in our lives when we have stopped doing God's work?
READ C
C - “Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find,”the stranger calls out—and with those simple words, recognition begins to flood over them. Just three years earlier these very men had been fishing on this very sea. On that occasion too they had “toiled all the night, and [had] taken nothing, the scripture says. But a fellow Galilean on the shore had called out to them to let down their nets, and they drew “a great multitude of fishes,” enough that their nets broke, the catch filling two boats so heavily they had begun to sink.
Q: What is the message here?
Q: Why is it human nature to fall back into our old ways?
Q: What can we learn about doing our own will verses doing God's will?
[Read about being connected to the true fine and how it bears fruit.]
SHOW HOLLAND 6:56 - 10:19 (3 min 24 sec)
SHOW HOLLAND 6:56 - 10:19 (3 min 24 sec)
After a joyful reunion with the resurrected Jesus, Peter had an exchange with the Savior that I consider the crucial turning point of the apostolic ministry generally and certainly for Peter personally, moving this great rock of a man to a majestic life of devoted service and leadership. Looking at their battered little boats, their frayed nets, and a stunning pile of 153 fish, Jesus said to His senior Apostle, “Peter, do you love me more than you love all this?” Peter said, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.”10
The Savior responds to that reply but continues to look into the eyes of His disciple and says again, “Peter, do you love me?” Undoubtedly confused a bit by the repetition of the question, the great fisherman answers a second time, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.”11
The Savior again gives a brief response, but with relentless scrutiny He asks for the third time, “Peter, do you love me?” By now surely Peter is feeling truly uncomfortable. Perhaps there is in his heart the memory of only a few days earlier when he had been asked another question three times and he had answered equally emphatically—but in the negative. Or perhaps he began to wonder if he misunderstood the Master Teacher’s question. Or perhaps he was searching his heart, seeking honest confirmation of the answer he had given so readily, almost automatically. Whatever his feelings, Peter said for the third time, “Lord, … thou knowest that I love thee.”12
STOP, ask questions
Q: How does listening to this make you feel?
Q: What might be the message of this non-scriptural elaboration to us?
SHOW HOLLAND 10:20 - 12:31 (1:41 sec)
To which Jesus responded (and here again I acknowledge my nonscriptural elaboration), perhaps saying something like: “Then Peter, why are you here? Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world. So, Peter, for the second and presumably the last time, I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor and serve loyally until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.”
Q: What are your feeling when you listened to this
Q: What is EH's trying to tell us with his metaphore, our message not to be consigned to the ash heap of history?
The Savior responds to that reply but continues to look into the eyes of His disciple and says again, “Peter, do you love me?” Undoubtedly confused a bit by the repetition of the question, the great fisherman answers a second time, “Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.”11
The Savior again gives a brief response, but with relentless scrutiny He asks for the third time, “Peter, do you love me?” By now surely Peter is feeling truly uncomfortable. Perhaps there is in his heart the memory of only a few days earlier when he had been asked another question three times and he had answered equally emphatically—but in the negative. Or perhaps he began to wonder if he misunderstood the Master Teacher’s question. Or perhaps he was searching his heart, seeking honest confirmation of the answer he had given so readily, almost automatically. Whatever his feelings, Peter said for the third time, “Lord, … thou knowest that I love thee.”12
STOP, ask questions
Q: How does listening to this make you feel?
Q: What might be the message of this non-scriptural elaboration to us?
SHOW HOLLAND 10:20 - 12:31 (1:41 sec)
To which Jesus responded (and here again I acknowledge my nonscriptural elaboration), perhaps saying something like: “Then Peter, why are you here? Why are we back on this same shore, by these same nets, having this same conversation? Wasn’t it obvious then and isn’t it obvious now that if I want fish, I can get fish? What I need, Peter, are disciples—and I need them forever. I need someone to feed my sheep and save my lambs. I need someone to preach my gospel and defend my faith. I need someone who loves me, truly, truly loves me, and loves what our Father in Heaven has commissioned me to do. Ours is not a feeble message. It is not a fleeting task. It is not hapless; it is not hopeless; it is not to be consigned to the ash heap of history. It is the work of Almighty God, and it is to change the world. So, Peter, for the second and presumably the last time, I am asking you to leave all this and to go teach and testify, labor and serve loyally until the day in which they will do to you exactly what they did to me.”
Q: What are your feeling when you listened to this
Q: What is EH's trying to tell us with his metaphore, our message not to be consigned to the ash heap of history?
Q: What is our message? [a new life in Christ]
SHOW HOLLAND 13:19 - 15:00 (1:41 seconds)
My beloved brothers and sisters, I am not certain just what our experience will be on Judgment Day, but I will be very surprised if at some point in that conversation, God does not ask us exactly what Christ asked Peter: “Did you love me?” I think He will want to know if in our very mortal, very inadequate, and sometimes childish grasp of things, did we at least understand one commandment, the first and greatest commandment of them all—“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind.”13 And if at such a moment we can stammer out, “Yea, Lord, thou knowest that I love thee,” then He may remind us that the crowning characteristic of love is always loyalty.
Q: How are loyalty and love connected?
Q: What does it mean to be loyal to Christ?
READ D:
Q: If we love the Lord why don't we stay steady, connected, as constantly progressing upward?
READ D:
D - “If ye love me, keep my commandments,” Jesus said. So we have neighbors to bless, children to protect, the poor to lift up, and the truth to defend. We have wrongs to make right, truths to share, and good to do. In short, we have a life of devoted discipleship to give in demonstrating our love of the Lord. We can’t quit and we can’t go back. After an encounter with the living Son of the living God, nothing is ever again to be as it was before. The Crucifixion, Atonement, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ mark the beginning of a Christian life, not the end of it. It was this truth, this reality, that allowed a handful of Galilean fishermen-turned-again-Apostles without “a single synagogue or sword” to leave those nets a second time and go on to shape the history of the world in which we now live.
Q: Have we all have encounters with the living Son of the living God?
Q: Are there rewards in this life for devoted discipleship?
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
SHOW HOLLAND 18:30 - 20:00 (1.5 minutes)
To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, “Do you love me?” And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, “Yea, Lord, we do love thee.” And having set our “hand to the plough,”17 we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Brethren, may each of us look at our discipleship and make a personal assessment for ourselves. Are we connected to the true vine? Are we enjoying the companionship of the Holy Ghost? Are we enduring to the end by keeping our hand to the plough? We show our love for the Lord as we serve him to the end, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, “Do you love me?” And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, “Yea, Lord, we do love thee.” And having set our “hand to the plough,”17 we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Brethren, may each of us look at our discipleship and make a personal assessment for ourselves. Are we connected to the true vine? Are we enjoying the companionship of the Holy Ghost? Are we enduring to the end by keeping our hand to the plough? We show our love for the Lord as we serve him to the end, in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
