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BACKGROUND
Section 124 is revealed during the Nauvoo period of church history. Once again, quite a bit of time has passed since the previous revelations recorded in Liberty Jail-almost 2 years. In that time, the Saints have once again established themselves in a new location to start all over once again. They were pushed out of New York, they were pushed out of Ohio, they were pushed out of Missouri, but they don’t give up. Perhaps that’s one of the great messages of section 124. It shows the Saints resolve to not let the dark days of Missouri and Kirtland discourage them. This section is full of building instructions, new leadership, new temple ordinances. You really get a sense of optimism from this revelation, which really speaks to the resilience and the faith of these people. What began as a mosquito infested swamp on the banks of the Mississippi river, will become the beautiful city of the Saints which they will inhabit until 1846.
ICEBREAKER
As an icebreaker for this section I like to issue my students a challenge. I bring in three long sticks and invite one of my students to come up and set one of the sticks on its end and try to balance it so that it stays up. They won’t be able to do it. Then give them another stick and see if they can do it then. It’s not very likely that that is going to work either. Then you give them a third stick. With at least three sticks, they should find it easy to balance them together in a sort of tripod.
TRANSITION
In order to create real solid balance, you need at least three legs. There is something almost magical about the number three. Stability comes in three. Strength comes in three. In writing, there is something called the rule of three, where when you put three ideas together, or examples, or words, they tend to be more powerful and memorable. Like cool, calm, and collected, or blood, sweat, and tears. When it comes to the work of the church, it also comes in three. There are three major missions or works in the church. Section 124 is an ideal place to examine these works as they are all found here. In section 123, that we studied last week, we highlighted the phrase: let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power. Section 124 is a good illustration of the kinds of things that lie in our power. Regardless of the efforts of the adversary and those that uphold his work, these are three things we can do.
What are those three works that we can waste and wear out our lives involved in? See if you can find each one in the following verses:
124:29
124:88
124:143
124:29
The work here is baptism for the dead or (more inclusively) temple work—or vicarious work for those in the Spirit World. This is one of the most important works we can do in this life. God is a just God and all of his children need the opportunity to receive the ordinances of salvation. Temple work makes that possible.
124:88
In this verse, the work is “proclaiming the gospel”. We have a duty to share the message of the restored gospel with all that we can. We are commanded over and over again in the scriptures to preach his gospel and to take it into all the world. God loves and cares about all of his children, the living, and the dead. The worth of souls is great in the sight of God and there are many out there “who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it.” (123:12)
And finally
124:143
Our last work is perfecting the Saints. So not only does God care about spreading his word and bringing about the salvation of the dead, but the development and progress of his Saints is paramount to him. Remember his ultimate goal is to make us, his children, into beings like him. He is seeking to refine, and purify, and sanctify us. The church helps to perfect us. When Jesus said “Be ye therefore perfect”, maybe part of what he meant was “Go to church”.
When you look at that three-fold mission of the church, you see that all of God’s children are included in it. Every individual, living or dead falls under the umbrella of those three great works. And those three great works coincide nicely with God’s mission statement, His overall purpose. We all know that famous verse, Moses 1:39
39 For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.
Isn’t it great that our Heavenly Father includes us in his great purpose. I believe that Section 124 can basically be broken down into these three categories. I say basically because there is one other category that we could add here, and that’s the building of the Nauvoo house. This was to be a kind of hotel for visitors of Nauvoo to stay in. In section 124, these 4 categories kind of weave in and out of each other.
MARKING ACTIVITY
So to help my students see those categories, I sometimes like to have them do a marking activity. Here’s how I would do it. First, I have them choose four colors and make labels on the first page, like this. Then, I have them draw a line in the corresponding color down the side of the verses that cover that topic.
So here we go.
1-14 Proclaim the gospel
15-21 Perfect the Saints
22-24 The Nauvoo House
25-55 Redeem the Dead
56-83 The Nauvoo House
84-87 Perfect the Saints
88-90 Proclaim the gospel
91-118 Perfect the Saints
119-122 The Nauvoo house
123-145 Perfect the Saints
THREE-FOLD MISSION OF THE CHURCH STATIONS
To better grasp the meaning of these three works, there is an activity I like to do with my students that I think is effective in helping them understand what this section has to say about them. This is also a good variety teaching technique that breaks up the pace of how you present your lessons. This is what I would call a “Stations” activity. I have four different activities for the students to do at different stations. My desks are arranged in such a way that my students sit in rows of four. Of course, the way you set this up is going to vary greatly depending on the number of students you have in your class, but you could divide them up into groups of four and put them in rows. If your class doesn’t divide up evenly into fours, that’s ok. A group could have fewer than four in it and the rotations will still work. You’ll just have an empty desk or two in that row. But you give your students about 5-10 minutes to work at each station. How much time you give them will also depend on the maturity and overall time you have available to teach. But each student does a different activity at the desk on their row. After the 5 or 8 or 10 minutes you say “rotate” and the students will rotate to a new desk within their row and work on the next activity. And then so on until everyone has completed all four stations. Then, you can correct the handouts with them. The four activities that I’ve prepared are
1. A “Proclaim the Gospel” Multiple Choice
2. A “Redeem the Dead” Crossword Puzzle
3. A “Perfecting the Saints” Matching Activity
4. And a “Path to Nauvoo” Maze
Let’s go through the answers to each of these activities. Even if you decide not to do these activities with your class, maybe you’re teaching adults and don’t think this is the right approach for them, this could still give you some ideas on what to teach. So here we go.
PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL-MULTIPLE CHOICE
1. Which of the following best describes a principle that is taught by 124:1?
A. God protects his missionaries with angels.
B. God can accomplish the work of proclaiming the gospel through the weak.
C. A missionary must be a strong and eloquent speaker in order to be successful.
D. A missionary must be a gospel scholar in order to be successful.
Answer: B
That’s one of the things I love about how our Father in Heaven works. He doesn’t feel the need to always relay on the famous, the strong, the rich, or the powerful. It’s the weak he often uses to accomplish his work. He brought forth the Book of Mormon and the restored church through a simple, fairly uneducated farm boy. He accomplishes his full-time missionary work through 18–20-year-old boys and girls. He runs his church on volunteer unpaid leadership. And does it work? It works beautifully.
2. Who should we proclaim the gospel to?
A. Kings and presidents
B. The honorable and high-minded
C. All nations
D. All of the above
Answer: D
These particular verses are talking about a special official proclamation the church was to make to the world about the restoration of the gospel and Christ’s church. It was to go to all leaders of all nations. That proclamation was never finished in Joseph Smith’s lifetime. The martyrdom will come first. But Parley P. Pratt will later finish that task and that proclamation will be sent throughout the world. If you’re interested in what that proclamation has to say, I’ll include a link to it in the video description below. (https://contentdm.lib.byu.edu/digital/collection/NCMP1820-1846/id/289)
3. According to 124:4-5, the gospel is to be preached in all of the following ways except . . .
A. By promoting an extraordinary scene of religious feeling
B. With meekness
C. By the power of the Holy Ghost
D. According to God’s will
Answer: A. That’s a phrase I lifted directly from Joseph Smith History describing the way the ministers and preachers of Joseph’s boyhood taught. That’s not how we are to preach. We don’t try to manufacture religious feeling or manipulate emotion. We do it with meekness, by the Spirit, and according to God’s will.
4. According to 124:7, the gospel is to be preached in all of the following ways except . . .
A. With loudness (or with urgency and resolution)
B. Without fear
C. Proving the truth by reason
D. With your testimony
Answer: C
That’s another way we don’t teach the gospel. We don’t try to prove anybody into the church. That’s not how the Spirit works. The just shall live by faith and therefore the gospel must be taught by faith. So we proclaim it with urgency and conviction. We are not afraid to share, and we do it by the power of our testimony.
5. Which of the following best describes one of God’s roles in missionary work according to 124:9?
A. God will forgive missionaries of their sins.
B. God can soften and prepare people’s hearts to help them be more likely to accept the gospel.
C. God will cut down the wicked that stand in the way of his gospel.
D. God inspires missionaries with the right words to say.
Answer: B
It’s not the God takes away the agency of other people and makes them accept the gospel, but he can help to prepare their hearts. He can send experiences, promptings, and guidance that can help move them in the right direction. He can help to create the circumstances of conversion, but then leaves the actual choice to follow to the individual.
6. Which of the following is NOT a blessing of missionary work mentioned in 124:18?
A. God will bear you up
B. Glory
C. You will baptize many people
D. Honor
Answer: C
God never promises success to the missionary. In fact, I’ve known missionaries who had little to no success as far as baptism is concerned. I’m sure we would all love to have a Wilford Woodruff type mission experience where you baptize hundreds. But that’s just not reality. What God does assure the missionary though, is glory, honor, and the promise of his help to bear you up as if on eagle’s wings.
7. According to 124:88 a missionary should preach with all of the following EXCEPT:
A. A loud voice
B. With great joy
C. As moved upon by the Holy Ghost
D. With sharpness
Answer D. It doesn’t say to teach with sharpness in that verse. But we should teach with great joy, and sense of urgency and as moved upon by the Holy Ghost.
8. Which of the following is NOT a blessing of missionary work mentioned in 124:90?
A. A multiplicity of blessings
B. Your testimony will be strengthened
C. You will not be forsaken
D. You will never beg for bread
Answer: B
Now I do believe that the Lord will strengthen the testimony of the missionary. It’s just that that particular blessing isn’t mentioned here. The others are promised here.
REDEEM THE DEAD CROSSWORD
As I’m sure you know, the Saints are commanded to build a temple. Temple work is going to become a major focus of the revelations we see coming out of Nauvoo. Almost every single one deals with temple work in some way. It’s in Nauvoo that we really see the doctrines of work for the dead, eternal marriage, and the endowment being revealed and clarified. Each of the clues in the crossword will help the students understand more about the temple.
2 Across
God __________ commands his people to build temples. (124:39) ALWAYS
Temple building has always been a part of God’s plan and gospel. Whenever Saints gather, they gather with the intent to, at some point, build a temple.
4 Across
Temples are places where God can reveal his ____________________ to us. (124:40) ORDINANCES
Nauvoo was the place where many of those ordinances are going to be revealed and restored.
5 Across
A blessing of the temple. (124:34) HONOR
Temples are the place where God can honor his Saints with knowledge and instruction.
8 Across
A blessing of the temple. (124:36) REFUGE
We’ve talked about this one before. The temple provides us with a refuge from the evils and the worries of the world.
9 Across
God would allow them to perform some baptisms for the dead outside of a temple only until they had had ______________ time to build one. Then, they would not be acceptable after that point. (124:33) SUFFICIENT
God did allow baptisms for the dead to be performed before the construction of the temple, but he gave them a deadline. He didn’t want them procrastinating on the temple but was also understanding that it would take some time. Once that time was deemed sufficient, then their baptisms would no longer be valid.
10 Across
A blessing of the temple. (124:34) GLORY
Next week will discuss the temple as a house of glory, and why God describes it as such.
1 Down
As soon as the ordinance of baptism for the dead was revealed, many church members rushed out and started performing them in the Mississippi River. Men were baptized for women and vice versa. Section 124 clarified this doctrine for the Saints. They learned that baptisms for the dead are meant to be performed in a __________ _____ in the temple. Otherwise they are not acceptable to God. (124:29-30) BAPTISMAL FONT
Work for the dead is a work that is reserved for the temple. For baptisms to be valid, they must be performed according to the Lord’s instructions.
3 Down
When we build temples, we build them with the best things. We build them out of __________ materials because we want to always give God our best. (This descriptive word appears three times in these verses)
(124:26-27) PRECIOUS
Temples are always made out of our best materials. Since almost everything about the temple is symbolic, I think we can find some meaning in this as well. What does God always want from us? Our best. Therefore, his house is always built of the finest materials. In fact, I even have personal experience in temple construction. When I was a teenager, I actually worked on the construction site of the Vernal temple. My crew was responsible for waterproofing the foundation of the building. It was the most intricate system I’d ever been involved in. I remember my supervisor saying that the kind of system we were installing was the type of thing you would see on a building in the Pacific Northwest, but this was Vernal, out in the desert basically. And I thought to myself, “Wow, the Church really does spare no expense when it comes to the House of the Lord.” These buildings are meant to last through the millennium. They had better be able to stand the test of time.
6 Down
The building of temples is a sign that we are _____________ in all things God commands us (124:55) FAITHFUL
Temples are physical manifestations or monuments of our faith in God
7 Down
How many different temple purposes do you see mentioned in this verse? (124:39) SEVEN
Just look at all the great opportunities temples provide us with.
39 Therefore, verily I say unto you, that your anointings, and your washings, and your baptisms for the dead, and your solemn assemblies, and your memorials for your sacrifices by the sons of Levi, and for your oracles in your most holy places wherein you receive conversations, and your statutes and judgments, for the beginning of the revelations and foundation of Zion, and for the glory, honor, and endowment of all her municipals, are ordained by the ordinance of my holy house, which my people are always commanded to build unto my holy name.
Well, as I said earlier. We’ll be talking a lot more about temples and the ordinances we perform in them in the coming weeks.
PERFECTING THE SAINTS
Section 124 is full of instructions to individual members of the early Church. But within those instructions we can find messages that can help US to become more perfected as well. I went through 124 with a fine-toothed comb and pulled out all the instructions and promised blessings to individuals. The list was much too long to include everything in one activity, sand o I picked out the ones that I felt were most unique and relevant for this handout. Surely there is some relevant counsel for each of one of us in at least one of these instructions. So for the matching activity.
:15
Have integrity and love what is right
:20
Be without guile and love your testimony
:21
Seek to bless the poor
:87
Trust in God and keep the commandments
:96
Bear record of the things God has shown unto you
:110
Hearken to the voice of the Lord
:113
Prove faithful in all things that you are entrusted with
:116
Repent, be charitable, cease to do evil, and don’t slander. (That’s what the Lord means by “lay aside all your hard speeches.” Perhaps this was a person who was struggling with criticizing his church leaders. That’s something we’ve got to strive not to do)
:119
Be a believer of the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants
So the next instruction they are given is to examine that list of counsels and choose the one that is most relevant to them. That they feel they most need to implement into their lives.
Then it asks:
What is your plan for implementing that counsel more deeply into your life? And they can fill in their personal answer in the box.
Then there is a second section to this activity. The blessings and promises.
They’re instructed to read through this list of blessings and promises found in section 124 and to mark their two favorites.
Then they will explain why they liked those two promises in the box below.
Let’s review those briefly.
:13 A multiplicity of blessings
:13 You will great in God’s eyes
:17 Crowned with blessings and great glory
:18 Borne up as on eagle’s wings
:18 Glory and honor
:19 Received up to God
:86 Rest from your labors
:96 Your name will be had in honorable remembrance forever
:97 Receive of the Spirit which shall manifest unto you the truth of all things
:98 You will perform miracles
:110 It shall be well with you
:113 Made ruler over many things
:114 Exaltation
Well, as you can see, there is so much that our Lord has to offer to the obedient. He really is gracious to those who follow his counsels.
PATH TO NAUVOO MAZE
The path to Nauvoo maze is just that. A maze. I find that this is good to give the students at least one station that is a little easier than the others. A bit of a break. You could even make this a little contest and time the students when they get to that station. Whoever logs the fastest time by the end of the lesson could get a little prize or treat. If they finish earlier than the other students in that station, you could give them a little quiet free time, or a break, while they wait to advance to the next activity.
FINAL SHARE ACTIVITY
When all is complete, I have one final suggestion for this activity. You could ask your students to share with a partner or with the class as a whole the most important thing they learned today in their study. I’ve found that’s a nice way to conclude the day and gives them a chance to reflect on what had the most impact on them in the lesson.
NUGGETS OF TRUTH
Now that’s probably how I would approach section 124 with my students. It’s a nice and effective way of covering a large block of scripture and still learning a lot from it. Still, there are just a few other insights from this section I’d like to share with you briefly. Just a few additional nuggets of truth you might consider sharing.
124:49 REQUIRE THAT WORK NO MORE
I hope this thought isn’t too controversial. And please understand that I’m not making some definitive statement here or that this the right way of interpreting this verse. This is just some food for thought. Something to consider as a possibility. There is an interesting principle to be found in verse :49. It says
49 Verily, verily, I say unto you, that when I give a commandment to any of the sons of men to do a work unto my name, and those sons of men go with all their might and with all they have to perform that work, and cease not their diligence, and their enemies come upon them and hinder them from performing that work, behold, it behooveth me to require that work no more at the hands of those sons of men, but to accept of their offerings.
A couple of weeks ago we talked about empty lots in our lives, and I showed you a picture of the temple lot in Independence that still remains empty to this day. I know that many in the Church believe that one day, the Church will build a temple at that spot and that the headquarters of the Church will eventually move to Missouri preceding the Second Coming. This is because of prophecies in the Doctrine and Covenants that declare Jackson County as THE gathering place for the Saints in the last days. I’m not 100% sure about that and part of my reasoning is this verse here. God released the Saints from building a temple there, so I’m not sure that we are ever going to need to build one there and moving the headquarters of the Church to modern day Missouri doesn’t make much rational sense to me either. It would be a logistical nightmare. Now, it’s true. I believe that God can accomplish anything he wants to and if He wants a temple in Jackson County before He comes, then there will be a temple in Jackson County before he comes. But to me, the command to build temples, the command to gather Saints together, the command to preach the gospel and redeem the dead and perfect the Saints—those are the commands that are most significant. The actual specific locations of things are secondary in importance, in my mind. God never released them or us from those commands. Those are eternal. Once the Saints were kicked out of Missouri, they continued to follow those higher purposes. They did build Zion. They did it in Nauvoo, and they did it in Salt Lake, and we continue to do it all over the world in the stakes of Zion in all nations. So when I go to Independence and see that empty temple lot. I don’t get too bent out of shape or upset that we don’t own that specific piece of land. I believe it stands as a powerful lesson and warning to us.
Once again, who am I to say what is actually going to happen and how. But I quote this verse as a possible explanation for us to consider. There is no temple there now because of the actions of the Saints themselves and the hindering of their enemies. Perhaps that means exactly what it says, God doesn’t require us to build a temple there anymore.
124:56-83 STOCK IN THE LORD’S HOUSE
If you’ve read section 124 in its entirety, you know that there is a large portion of the section that is dedicated to instructions regarding the Nauvoo house. The Nauvoo house was to be a hotel of sorts for visitors to Nauvoo. It was to be a “delightful habitation for man and a resting-place for the weary traveler” (124:60). A place where a person could “contemplate the word of the Lord” (124:23) and the “glory of Zion” (124:60). Whenever I visit Nauvoo, I try to keep those two things in mind. It’s a place where we should contemplate his word and the glory of Zion. There’s a little phrase that is repeated many times in this section that caught my attention this time as I was studying. I always thought that part of the section was a little mundane and not very applicable, but the phrase “put stock” into that house kept coming up. It made me ask myself if I have put stock into the works of God. Putting stock into something means to make an investment. We are making a sacrifice in order to receive some kind of higher return in the future. Oftentimes we don’t see those returns until far into the future. But they come. When we put stock into the works of God, when we are willing to invest in his projects and his promises and his works, there is always a high return in the future. Imagine if you had that kind of guarantee with real stocks. That if you invested in a certain stock, you were guaranteed a high return. Who wouldn’t want to invest in that? God provides great blessings to those who put stock into his kingdom. Have you invested? How’s your spiritual portfolio?
124:99 ON EAGLE’S WINGS
There is a phrase that I absolutely love in verse 99. In a promise made to a man named William Law, the Lord assures him that if he will humble himself, then “he shall mount up in the imagination of his thoughts as upon eagle’s wings”. That has to be one of my favorite descriptions for receiving personal revelation of all time. For some reason, we seem to have emphasized the phrase “burning in the bosom” to describe how the Spirit speaks to us. I suggest we use this one instead. Maybe sometimes you’ve felt like the Lord has lifted you up in the imagination of your thoughts as upon eagles’ wings. When I study the scriptures, I often have this kind of experience. When I take the time to slow down, and ask questions, and ponder, the Spirit speaks to my imagination. I picture the characters and stories that I’m reading. I ponder the significance of the symbols and figurative language. I imagine how promised principles and blessings might be applied in my own life. The Spirit helps me to see these things in my mind’s eye. And it’s powerful. Imagination can be a powerful tool of the Spirit. Many of the thoughts that I share on this channel have come in that very way. So my suggestion to you would be to give the Spirit a chance to speak to your imagination when you study the scriptures. Use your imagination. If you do, your mind will soar with the eagles and lift your perspective to the heavens.
124:61, 123-145 A GIFT
I noticed something really interesting about the way in which the naming of the Church officers is done near the end of the section. At first glance, it looks just like a big list of names. But one word kept coming up that caught my attention. I want you to see if you can find it.
What word is used to introduce the names of the leadership of the church? Does the Lord ANNOUNCE them to the church? Does he DISPLAY them to the church? Does he CALL them? Does he ORDAIN them? What’s the word that comes up over and over again in verses 123-145. Just scan it and see if you can find it.
It says, “I give unto you”. I give unto you Hyrum Smith to be a patriarch. I give unto you my servant Joseph. I give unto you my servant Brigham Young. The leaders of the church are a gift. God has given them to us. And as long as we’re talking about symbols for church leadership, we could add verse 61 to this discussion also. There the Lord gives us two more. They are “plants of renown” and “watchmen upon her walls”. Each one of those symbols is ripe with meaning.
You may ask your class how they feel church leaders are like those symbols.
To me, they’re like gifts because they’ve been given to us by a loving Father in Heaven who wants to help and bless us. We didn’t have to work for them, or earn them, or be worthy of them, they’re just given to us through no merit of our own. Gifts. Sometimes general conference can feel like Christmas morning, if we have the proper attitude. I can’t wait to hear what the prophet is going to say. Or, oh, oh, Elder Uchtdorf, or Elder Holland is about to speak, I’m so excited.
To me, they’re like “plants of renown” because they are firmly planted in the soil of faith. Both Jesus and Alma compared faith to a seed that can grow into a tree of testimony. The testimony trees of our church leaders are like giant Redwoods of faith. We can rest in their shade and enjoy their fruits.
They are like watchmen on the walls in that they have a higher perspective than we do. They can see coming dangers that we aren’t always aware of and warn us to be prepared. The counsel of prophets may sometimes seem out of place or hard to understand. Some will criticize this by saying that they are with the times. If that’s the case, it’s not because they are behind the times, but because they’re ahead of their time. They are the watchmen who see further and clearer than the rest of us. We would do well to trust their warnings.
To liken the scriptures, you could ask your students when they’ve felt a church leader has been a gift, a plant of renown, or a watchman to them.
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