Welcome to the St. Martin's Prime Timers Adult Bible Fellowship.

You are invited to join us each Sunday in the Payne Education Center, rooms 207-209, from 10:10 to 10:50. We are studying the gospel of John this quarter. Come and ask questions just as the disciples asked questions of Jesus in these farewell discourses.

Prime Timer News

Life After Death

Richard Cruse taught the Prime Timers this week, leading us through the story of Lazarus. This is the end of Jesus' public ministry. While he brings life back to Lazarus, this is the event that convinces the Jews that they must condemn Jesus to death.

Our reading begins with Lazarus sister Martha going to see Jesus as he arrives in Bethany. Lazarus was already dead four days. Martha seems to say that Lazarus would not have died if Jesus arrived earlier, and Jesus says that Lazarus will rise again. Martha interprets this in the Jewish sense of rising on the last day, misunderstanding what Jesus is proposing. Richard pointed out that the common people and the Pharisees believed in resurrection, while the Sadducees did not. The Sadducees challenge Jesus in Mark 12:18 with a "riddle" of what happens to a woman, who must marry the brother of her husband, when there are seven brothers who all die! Mark 12:23-27 "At the resurrection whose wife will she be, since the seven were married to her?"
   ²⁴Jesus replied, "Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God? ²⁵When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. ²⁶Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, 'I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob'? ²⁷He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!"

There is not much in the Old Testament about the end times, although Richard used this passage from Daniel 12:1-3: "At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered. ²Multitudes who sleep in the dust of the earth will awake: some to everlasting life, others to shame and everlasting contempt. ³Those who are wise will shine like the brightness of the heavens, and those who lead many to righteous-ness, like the stars for ever and ever.

Another is this from Ecclesiastes 9:1-2 "So I reflected on all this and concluded that the righteous and the wise and what they do are in God's hands, but no man knows whether love or hate awaits him. ²All share a common destiny—the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not."

Or read the sadness and hopelessness of this man who draws near death in Psalm 88.

Jesus message is one of love and hope. The Jews of the time wanted a Messiah like David, a King who would conquer their enemies and restore their rightful home. Jesus message is still very much alive two thousand years later. Many "conqueror kings" have proven to be false prophets. Isn't Hitler an example of someone giving false hope to the German people and leading them to hell?

Richard led the class in our intercessory prayer and then dismissed the class.

Prime Timers Contact names and numbers

Mentor

Rev. B. Massey Gentry
mgentry@stmartinsepiscopal.org

Leaders

You never know what's going to happen at the St. Martins Shrove Tuesday Pancake Supper. From last year here is our rector, the Rev. Larry Gipson as Elvis!

The Raising of Lazarus by Rembrandt, 1630, oil on panel, now at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, California.

Seven Christian Habits:

1.  A personal, intimate relationship (through the Holy Spirit) with God as He is revealed in Jesus Christ in which I believe and trust in Him and His love for me and for my salvation in this life and the life to come.

2.  Daily personal prayer and weekly worship of God in His Church by which I receive the renewal of my emotional-spiritual energy which I need to live my life.

3.  Regular study of the Bible to understand how God has related to His people and what His will has been.

4.  Adjusting my will to the will of God for me as revealed in Scripture, prayer, worship and my relationship with Him.

5.  Service (which is ministry, which is love, which is doing good to God, others and self):

a. At home to family and friends.
b. At work to co-workers.
c. At Church.
d. In the world, especially by leading others to God in Christ.

6.  Fellowship (renewing relationship) with Christian people.

7.  Stewardship of my resources:

a. Of my relationships.
b. Of my time and talent.
c. Of my money, giving to God and His work my tithe (as I calculate it).

The Lesson for Sunday, February 18th is titled "A Guide for Life"

Key Verse:  John 14:6

Focus of the Lesson:  We all at some time have been lost of needed direction, either physically or spiritually. Where can we turn for guidance at those times? Jesus says he is the way and all other directions for life are to be found through him.

The reading is John 14:1-14. This text is from the New International Version^®.

   ¹"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. ²In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. ³And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. ⁴You know the way to the place where I am going."

   ⁵Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"

   ⁶Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. ⁷If you really knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him."

   ⁸Philip said, "Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us."

   ⁹Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? ¹⁰Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. ¹¹Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. ¹²I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. ¹³And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. ¹⁴You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

NIV®

Photos of religious work by great artists of the past is courtesy of the Web Gallery of Art.