Six Hours One Friday
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D. How did the people respond to Jesus’ miracle?
E. Did the people fully understand who Jesus was? How can you tell?
F. Why is it that believers today do not seem as intent on “spreading the news” about Jesus as were the people back then (v. 17)?
LIFE ANCHORS
A. Do you know someone who is dying or who has recently lost a person he or she cared about? What can you do to encourage him or her? Here are some suggestions—
1. Read him the last section of this book.
2. Spend time with her and listen to any of her fears.
3. Pray with him about those fears.
4. Commit yourself to pray for her and to keep in contact so she doesn’t feel abandoned.
B. Make a list of some practical things you could do to help someone who was dying. Some things to include are—
1. Help with meals and transportation.
2. Help with correspondence and communication.
3. Volunteer to take care of the children.
4. Offer to help make sure his or her financial affairs are in order, or identify someone who can.
Keep this list in a place of easy access so that when the time comes you are ready to help.
C. If you have never lost a loved one, you may feel uncomfortable around those who are grieving. A classic on the subject is The Last Thing We Talk About by Joe Bayley.
CHAPTER 16
THE SPARKLE FROM ETERNITY
MIND ANCHORS
1. Wallace had never known such helplessness. He didn’t know how to handle his pain. He was so accustomed to being strong, he didn’t know how to be weak. He assured all who called that his daughter was fine. He assured all who inquired that God was a great God. He assured everyone but himself.
A. Why do you think it is hard for “strong” people to show weakness? How is this sometimes a handicap?
B. Do you ever feel that God is not as great as you say he is? Explain.
2. Wallace began to weigh his options. Should he go to see the Teacher? “If I go and am recognized, it will mean my job. But if she dies and he could have done something . . .” A man reaches a point where his desperation is a notch above his dignity. He shrugs his shoulders. “What choice do I have?”
A. Have you ever reached a point of desperation similar to Wallace’s? What happened?
B. What is it about trying circumstances that often bring people to Jesus?
3. This Jesus looked too normal. He wore a corduroy jacket, the kind with patches on the elbows. His slacks weren’t new, but they were nice. No tie. His hairline receded a bit before it became a flow of brown curls. I couldn’t hear his voice, but I could see his face. His eyebrows were bushy. He had a gleam in his eyes and a grin on his lips—as if he were watching you unwrap the birthday present he just gave you.
A. If Jesus were to appear on earth today, do you think this description might fit him? Why or why not?
B. How do you normally picture Jesus?
4. Wallace regretted the words as soon as he said them. If he’s a man, then I’ve asked the impossible. If he’s more than a man, what right do I have to make such a request?
A. Where do you agree or disagree with Wallace’s reasoning?
B. What would the granting of Wallace’s request imply about the identity of Jesus?
5. Peace where there should be pain. Confidence in the midst of crisis. Hope defying despair. That’s what that look says. It is a look that knows the answer to the question asked by every mortal: “Does death have the last word?” I can see Jesus wink as he gives the answer. “Not on your life.”
A. Are you confident that Jesus has mastered death? Why or why not?
B. How does your answer to the previous question affect the way you live?
SOUL ANCHORS
READ MARK 5:21–43.
A. Why were large crowds always following Jesus? Had you been alive at the time, do you believe you would have been among them? Why?
B. What was important to Jesus about identifying the woman who had been healed of her affliction? Why not just overlook it?
C. What does Jesus’ declaration to the woman (v. 34) have in common with his instruction to Jairus (v. 36)?
D. What reasons can you name to explain why Jesus required Jairus to show faith, but not the distraught mother of Luke 7:11–17? What might this suggest about the way God works in the world?
E. Note how Jesus gave orders for the little girl to be fed after he raised her from the dead (v. 43). What does this tell you about Jesus?
LIFE ANCHORS
A. Did you notice how Jesus responded to Jairus’s request for help? Even though he was busy, Jesus didn’t hesitate: “Jesus went with him” (Mark 5:24).
How receptive are you to cries for help? Do your friends see you as a caring and compassionate person—someone they can call on if they are in need? Whom do you feel free to call on? Ask those people if they feel the same toward you, and why.
B. Look more closely at those people you cited as being willing to help. What qualities or characteristics do they have that make them approachable? Write these down and evaluate your own strengths in these areas. If you see that you need to change, you can begin the process by—
1. Praying that God will help you grow in those areas in which you are weak.
2. Choosing one or two characteristics you can begin to cultivate today. Decide how you can do that.
3. Asking someone to give you feedback on any changes he or she sees in you.
C. Why wait until someone asks you for help? What could you do today that would help or encourage someone? Go do it.
CHAPTER 17
“LAZARUS, COME OUT!”
MIND ANCHORS
1. A life wasted pacing up and down in a self-made cell of fear. It is shocking. It is tragic. It is a pity. And it is also very common.
A. Give several examples of what this passage describes.
B. Have you ever wasted part of your life “pacing up and down in a self-made cell of fear”? How did you escape?
2. Jesus wept. He wept not for the dead but for the living. He wept not for the one in the cave of death but for those in the cave of fear. He wept for those who, though alive, were dead. He wept for those who, though free, were prisoners, held captive by their fear of death.
A. How can someone be “alive” yet “dead”?
B. What does Jesus’ weeping tell you about his character or personality? How does this affect your perception of him?
3. Jesus saw people enslaved by their fear of a cheap power. He explained that the river of death was nothing to fear. The people wouldn’t believe him. He touched a boy and called him back to life. The followers were still unconvinced. He whispered life into the dead body of a girl. The people were still cynical. He let a dead man spend four days in a grave and then called him out. Is that enough? Apparently not. For it was necessary for him to enter the river, to submerge himself in the water of death before people would believe that death had been conquered.
A. How was Jesus’ resurrection different from the boy’s, the girl’s, or Lazarus’s?
B. Do you believe that Jesus has conquered death? Why or why not?
SOUL ANCHORS
Read John 11:1–44.
A. How could Jesus say in verse 4, “This sickness will not end in death,” when he knew very well that Lazarus would die?
B. How was Jesus glorified through this incident, as he predicted in verse 4?
C. In what way are verses 25–26 the heart of the gospel? How do you respond to Jesus’ question here?
D. What was Jesus doing that caused the Jews to say of his relationship to Lazarus, “See how he loved him!” (v. 36)? How do his actions color your picture of him?
E. Compare Martha’s words in verse 27 to those in verse 39. Does her faith remind you of your own at times? If so, how?
F. What is the strongest impression you get of Jesus from reading these three stories of his resurrecting the dead?
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nbsp; LIFE ANCHORS
A. Make an appointment to visit a funeral home. Ask the funeral director questions about how he arranges funeral details, how he deals with those in grief, the differences between “religious” and “secular” services, his personal view of death, etc. When you return home, write a page or two describing how your visit affected your views of death and Christianity.
B. The next time you see a movie or television show which includes scenes of death, ask yourself how the show’s producers depict death. Do they see it as final? Triumphant? Glorious? Frightening? Then sit down with a family member or friend and try to imagine how you, as a director with a Christian viewpoint, would have staged those same scenes. What would you do differently? The same?
CHAPTER 18
THE CELEBRATION
MIND ANCHORS
1. “Why are you crying?” An uncommon question to be asked in a cemetery. In fact, the question is rude. That is, unless the questioner knows something the questionee doesn’t.
A. What did the questioner know that the questionee didn’t?
B. Of what significance is this knowledge?
2. Jesus doesn’t leave her wondering long, just long enough to remind us that he loves to surprise us. He waits for us to despair of human strength and then intervenes with heavenly. God waits for us to give up and then—surprise!
A. Why do you think Jesus “waits for us to despair of human strength”?
B. Have you experienced any of God’s surprises? Describe them.
3. “Miriam,” Jesus said softly, “surprise!”
A. Why was worship Mary’s correct response? What does it mean to worship?
B. What is the correct response to Jesus today? How are you responding to him?
SOUL ANCHORS
READ JOHN 20:1–18.
A. What was Mary’s concern when she saw the stone rolled away from Jesus’ tomb?
B. What was remarkable about the items Peter and John found in the tomb (vv. 5–7)? What made John “believe” (v. 8)?
C. Three times Mary expresses her belief that someone has carried away the dead body of Jesus (vv. 2, 13, 15). What makes her change her belief (v. 16)?
D. What task did Jesus give Mary to do? What did she do?
E. Are you glad that God is a God of surprises? Explain your answer.
LIFE ANCHORS
A. Since God invites us to share in his work, and since he is a God of surprises, plan and give a surprise party or event for a friend who wouldn’t expect it.
B. Keep a personal journal for two weeks in which you record any surprises God springs on you during that time. At the end of the two weeks, take your journal and go someplace quiet where you can thank him for these special works in your life. Pray also that you might respond well to any surprises that aren’t so welcome.
C. Celebrate the resurrection with your family or friends. Some ideas include:
1. Have communion and a time of worship.
2. Present a gift to someone who cannot return the favor.
3. Attend a theatrical performance or rent a movie that highlights Jesus’ victory over death.
4. Identify an unbelieving friend and ask that person to read and give his or her reaction to one of the chapters in this section of the book.
5. Discuss as a group how your lives would be different if the resurrection had never happened.
CHAPTER 19
THE FINAL GLANCE
MIND ANCHORS
1. My dad left me with a final look. One last statement of the eyes. One farewell message from the captain before the boat would turn out to sea. One concluding assurance from a father to a son, “It’s all right.”
A. The phrase “it’s all right” pops up frequently in this book, even in this story of a dying father. What’s the point?
B. For whom does the phrase “it’s all right” fit? For whom does it not fit?
2. For a long while the centurion sat on a rock and stared at the three silhouetted figures. Their heads were limp, occasionally rolling from side to side. The jeering was silent, eerily silent. . . . Suddenly the center head ceased to bob. It yanked itself erect. Its eyes opened in a flash of white. A roar sliced the silence. “It is finished.” It wasn’t a yell. It wasn’t a scream. It was a roar, a lion’s roar. From what world that roar came the centurion didn’t know, but he knew it wasn’t this one.
A. What was “finished” in this story? Why was it said so forcefully?
B. Many Christians find great hope and comfort in these three words, “It is finished.” Why?
3. Had the centurion not said it, the soldiers would have. Had the centurion not said it, the rocks would have—as would have the angels, the stars, even the demons. But he did say it. It fell to a nameless foreigner to state what they all knew. “Surely this man was the Son of God.”
A. If the centurion fully understood his words, what course of action should he have taken?
B. If it is true that Jesus is the Son of God, what course of action should you take? What is your relationship to him?
SOUL ANCHORS
READ MARK 15:33–39.
A. What statement was God making by causing darkness to fall over the land for three solid hours during the height of the afternoon?
B. Read through Psalm 22:1–18. This portion of Scripture was written hundreds of years before Christ was born, yet it contains detailed descriptions of what would happen at the crucifixion. What details presented in Psalm 22 can you match with the gospel account in Mark 15?
C. What prompted the centurion to say of Jesus, “Surely this man was the Son of God!” (v. 39)?
D. Who do you think Jesus is? On what basis do you give your answer?
LIFE ANCHORS
A. Pick a favorite spot where you can be alone and think. Go there and spend some time reflecting on how this book has challenged you to change certain aspects of your life. What specific changes is God asking you to make in:
your family life?
your work life?
your church life?
your relationship to friends?
your reading habits?
your recreational time?
your spending priorities?
your giving patterns?
your use of time?
your conversation or vocabulary?
other areas?
B. Write a letter to a close friend, expressing how this book has changed your view of God. Be as personal and specific as possible.
NOTES
Chapter 2: God’s Formula for Fatigue
1. Matthew 11:28
2. Matthew 11:29
Chapter 3: Two Tombstones
1. This story is found in John 4:1–42.
2. John 4:28–29
3. John 4:35 TLB
Chapter 4: Living Proof
1. Romans 8:31–32 (emphasis mine)
Chapter 5: Flaming Torches and Living Promises
1. Genesis 3:1
2. Jeremiah 34:18
3. Genesis 15:18
Chapter 6: Angelic Messages
1. This story is adapted from the book A Man for Others by Patricia Treece.
Chapter 7: Remember
1. John 20:19
2. Matthew 28:17
3. Luke 24:52
4. Luke 24:53
5. Acts 2:36
6. 2 Timothy 2:8
Chapter 8: Fatal Errors
1. Romans 6:23
Chapter 9: Cristo Redentor
1. John 8:1–11
2. Psalm 139:13
Chapter 11: Come Home
1. This story is popularly attributed to Harry Emerson Fosdick.
2. Luke 15:11–27
Chapter 13: The Eleventh Hour Gift
1. Matthew 27:44
2. Luke 23:39 TLB
3. Luke 23:40 TLB
4. Luke 23:41
5. Luke 23:42
6. Luke 23:43 TLB
Chapter 14: God vs. Death
1. 1 Corinthians 15:51, Jerusalem Bible
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2. Hebrews 2:14–16 (parentheses mine)
Chapter 15: Fantasy or Reality?
1. Luke 7:15
2. Luke 7:16
Chapter 16: The Sparkle from Eternity
1. Based on Mark 5:22–43; Matthew 9:18–26; and Luke 8:41–56
Chapter 17: “Lazarus, Come Out!”
1. John 11:1–44
Chapter 18: The Celebration
1. John 20:1–18
2. “Miriam” is the Aramaic form of “Mary.”
3. 1 Corinthians 2:9
Chapter 19: The Final Glance
1. John 19:30
2. Luke 23:46
3. Mark 15:39
STUDY GUIDE
Chapter 2
1. William Hendriksen, The Gospel of Matthew (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 1973), 504–5.
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