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Thank you for coming tonight, we are talking about hope. That is not a hidden thing, it's right there right now, it's huge (points to huge "Hope" sign). But we looked this morning at the same topic of hope and we saw actually that hope is something we need more than food, more than water, more than air. Hope is what we live off. One philosopher said this, and that's what we were looking at this morning, Louis Mumford who said, Look, we need hope. If we didn't have hope, we might die an even quicker time than food or water than air.

Without food man can survive barely thirty days; without water for little more than three days; without air hardly for more than three minutes; but without hope he might destroy himself in an even shorter time. [Louis Mumford, The Conduct of Life]

Which is a huge thing to say. It's a massive thing to claim. Right? And actually it was a psychiatrist, Viktor Frankl as well, who, coming out oif the Holocaust said it was:

Those that had hope, survived.[Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning]

It was those that still saw meaning and reason to live that survived. You know what? When he came out and he carried on his psychiatry practice, he found in the modern era, this to be true. He said the modern man has actually less hope than he did in the holocaust. He said, he realised today that:

People have enough to live by, but nothing to live for.[Viktor Frankl, Man's Search for Meaning]

That's a huge claim again, that he said (the modern man and woman) we have lots to live by, but nothing to live for. Hope really is the fuel for humanity to keep going in life. It is the future which you look forward to that changes your experience of the present. Desmond Tutu said this said this, hope is the light in the darkness:

Hope is being able to see the light despite all the darkness

It is that little bit of light that helps you walk through the dark and rough moments in life. It's the future that is real, that's coming that we look forward to. This is a good definition of hope as well, that hope is:

Trusting in a future, which is real, that makes today liveable

We said this morning, it can be something so small that can help us get through our daily living that can be dark and difficult. It can be something so small that we saidgoing after work for drinks with your friends, which helps you get through the mountain of emails you're facing. Maybe you've been facing a pile of work this week and it's the weekend coming that makes you realise "Oh, I can get through this". It's that little bit of light that shines in our dark day, our dark living, that helps us keep going forward. That's what hope is. And tonight I'm proposing something bold again - that Christianity is the strongest base of hope anybody could have.

And we looked and saw this morning that through Christianity, we find meaning is brought to our lives. We're not a random existence in a world that should never have existed. We're purposefully made and we see that that counters the hope-sucking pointlessness we can all feel at times. Oh, there's a point to our lives. A lot of people say the universe has a reason. Well, if the universe is all there is, there's no reason! Good news tonight, God is real and he has a reason and purpose for your life. There's meaning which brings hope. We also saw that there was forgiveness, and forgiveness can alleviate that hope-sucking guilt and shame that we feel when we've done wrong. And again, Christianity says those hope becausee there is complete and utter forgiveness, new life to those who trust in. Oh, Christianity is a strong, strong basis of hope. And look, the claims of Christianity get even bolder!

You might have seen the title "Life that doesn't end", that's pretty strong, Jake. That sounds pretty ridiculous! Well, perhaps, I think the biggest sucker of hope in our lives is death. Now, maybe you feel uncomfortable even with that word. Maybe seeing this on the screen right now, you're thinking "Oh, don't go there. Okay. Don't talk about this". And it, it should be uncomfortable because it's such a bleak thing, right? When we look at loved ones who we long for to be with us here, and we see that they're not here with us anymore, it's bleak. It sucks our hope away. Maybe when we see our own end nearing. We hate to think about it. We hide death as much as possible in our culture today in Britain. We don't even see anything. We just have a coffin, maybe a few times in our lives. We hide it because it is the darkest place, which we know no lights that could survive in it. It can feel hopeless looking at death, and yet, the claim of Christianity, which sounds absolutely ridiculous, is that one man has come back from the dead. One man has!

This is the claim of Christianity, which sounds absolutely ridiculous - that death is the end but hold on one man said he's come back from the dead! He says he can take us through it into life after. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the centre point of Christianity. And it is one of the most ridiculous sounding truths, but millions of people, billions actually all around the world today, believe this to be true. This one man really did come back from the dead, and that is a mixture of people from your average Joes, like you and me, to esteemed business men and women to top scientists in their fields, to even Nobel Prize winners (the cream of the crop) hold this to be true. Now what does that tell you? It doesn't tell you that it's true, but it tells you this for sure. And please listen to this, if nothing else. It tells you this for sure. It is worth looking into. If these people can believe it and then perhaps there's something to it. Perhaps there is.

J. Warner Wallace was a Cold case detective (that is someone who looks at old murder cases). There he is looking in his uniform, very smart. My wife actually just started in the police, which I wasn't supposed to tell you (because it's a secret apparently), but now you all know and it's on the internet, so there we go. You never know what I'm gonna say when at the front! But anyway, there he is in his uniform. He's a cold case detective and that is someone who deals with old murder cases. You know, one's way past their time and he looks at it afresh to see if he can see any new conclusion or maybe wrap up the case which was never solved. And he is prolific in this area. He has been all over the TV in America and all over the news because of his success in solving these old cases way past their time.

J. Warner Wallace started to look at Christianity when he was 35. He thought it was a hoax. He thought it was ridiculous, and so he assessed it as a cold case. And so he started to look at this old death to see if it could be true. And this is what he said when he's presenting evidence to a jury in court for a case past their time. He says:

We aren't looking for what's possible, but for what's reasonable...Beyond a reasonable doubt.

Because many things are possible in this world, but not many things are reasonable given the evidence. And he said, we need to look and speak to the jury and prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this conclusion is the case in light of the evidence. And so let's try and do that very briefly tonight with the resurrection. Okay? There's a bold thing to try and do, but let's do it. Let's have a little look and see if we can show if it's reasonable that this man could actually have risen from the dead. So starting pretty simply, let's talk about four basic facts that any historian would grant about Jesus, whether they're believe it or not, whether they're skeptical about faith or whether they're a Christian. Four facts, which any historian would grant you. One, that he was real. Jesus was actually a real person who worked, walked on the Earth 2000 years ago. Second, that he was crucified on a Roman cross. He was actually killed on a cross. That is historic. And then three, the tomb was empty. No body has ever been, shown or revealed. And then four, that his disciples and followers claimed that he was alive and people started to believe that he was God.

These are four basic facts that any historian would grant you. If you know of any historians, Bart D. Ehrman may ring a bell. He would grant these as well (one of the most skeptical Christian historians). And we can see this from historic evidence in and out the Bible. Tacitus, who is a Roman historian. He, talks about Jesus, that he's real. He talks about how he died on a cross and he talks about how his followers went and believed that he was risen from the dead. We see Pliny the younger as well, who was a Roman magistrate talking about how the followers believed that he was God and that he rose from the dead. Josephus, who was a Jewish Roman historian (and this is even the most conservative reading of Josephus), talks about how people, believed he was alive and how people believed he was God. And then Thallus (who's a Samaritan historian), talks about how he was real, he died on cross. And that, people again were saying that he was alive and that he was God.

And nobody in the entire, his entirety of history has ever produced a body. One of the best things they could have done to have quashed Christianity at the beginning (and trust me, they wanted to get rid of the Christians because he was annoying. The Romans didn't like them) and the best thing they could have done to stop Christianity from day one is gone "Look here, Is Jesus dead in the tomb. Here's his body. He's not alive". But they didn't. That's because the tomb was empty. And again, historians will grant you that as well.

So, what we get from those four facts is not the resurrection, but what we get if we boil it down, is to three outcomes that are possible. Which one is reasonable? The outcomes we get when we look at Jesus's followers. Now we need to look at his disciples and followers closely because these are the people who are saying that he rose from the dead. So, what are they doing? Is this true? Perhaps? Okay, here's the possible outcomes. Perhaps the disciples lied. Okay, it was they tricked history. One big hoax. Perhaps they were tricked themselves. They were confused. They thought they saw Jesus, but they didn't. Or perhaps finally, it's truthful. It's all true. Maybe.

First one, 'but maybe they tricked history'. What if they just lied about it? Jake. You know that I could lie that I've seen someone fly yesterday and tell you. So why could they not have just lied? One big game on history. Let me tell you a little reason why. The disciples stood absolutely nothing to gain from lying about Jesus coming back to life but they stood everything to lose, and they did lose everything. 10 out the 11 disciples were martyred. They were killed because of what they were. And listen to this, nobody dies for a lie which they know is a lie. Many people throughout history have died for lies, but they thought they were true. No one dies for a lie which they made up themselves. They stood nothing to gain. And look, even if they had a bit of life before they were killed, it wasn't a powerful life. The morals Jesus taught were to be self-sacrificial and generous. They did not gain any kingdom from saying they've seen Jesus risen from the dead. They only stood to lose and they lost everything. So when we look at the evidence, okay, it's possible they lied, but is it reasonable given the evidence that they would lie about this? It wouldn't stand up against the jury. That's not reasonable.

Okay, next one. Perhaps they were confused. Perhaps they tricked themselves. Maybe they saw something. Maybe they hallucinated seeing Jesus risen from the dead, because let's admit it, people do hallucinate people who just died. About 7% of our population say that they see a loved one at the end of the bed when they've just lost them. It's possible this happens. But the problem we face is that the disciples didn't claim to just have a glimpse of Jesus one night after waking up in the middle of the night. They claim to have group encounters with him, group experiences. And so now we're talking about as a group, they hallucinated, they thought they saw something which wasn't true. Now we're getting into the realm of this is not reasonable. Hallucinations do not happen in group experiences. Dr. Gary R. Collins writes about this actually, he's a doctor in psychology, and he says:

Hallucinations are individual occurrences. By their very nature only one person can see any given hallucination at a time. They certainly are not something which can be seen by a group of people. Neither is it possible that one person could somehow induce a hallucination in someone else. Since a hallucination exists only in this objective, personal sense, it is obvious that others cannot witness it.

We're talking about many groups that claimed to see Jesus alive. They could not have made it up. They could not have hallucinated it. So now we think "Perhaps the groups lied Jake". No, no. We've dealt about the lie. That's not reasonable remember! They can't have lied about it. Hallucinations in groups don't exist. We've had 0% of cases that show it. So now we're getting into the final option, which is 'Perhaps they were telling the truth'. Perhaps they were. Now a thought I'm sure is going through your head and I hope it is, what if it's just the Bible that's been confused over the couple of thousand of years? Maybe the disciples never said this. Well, that's not also reasonable either, given the evidence. The Bible has more evidence for it than most of ancient history and we can trace back through that evidence, as to what we were saying in the first and second century, to what we say now and what we see is that they were saying, Jesus rose from the dead. What we say now, Jesus rose from the dead. There hasn't been a confusion over time. It's the same message come through.

And again, even the most skeptical historians will grant you that. So now we're on the last option. Are they telling the truth? And what we find and what I've come to believe is it's all true! Jesus actually did rise from the dead. They actually saw him. And what we see throughout history is absolutely amazing. We see this tiny group of fishermen and rag tag people in the first century explode throughout the millennia to millions and billions now, believing this to be true. From a tiny few voices in first century Palestine to complex philosophies and ethics which dictate our society today, all centered through the truth that Jesus rose from the dead. Is it all true? I think the evidence is pointing to it reasonably being true. I wonder, what do you think tonight? As we already said, don't let this lie. If you're wanting to think about this more you can. Please look into it. Please do.
J. Warner Wallace, after his many years of looking into this ancient cold case of the death of Jesus, and he looked into it far more rigorously than I did tonight with you in eight minutes, but at the end of all his years of assessing it, he became a Christian, because he came to realise it's all true. This man really did rise from the dead and if he rose from the dead, I need to follow him with all my life because he is someone special. He's not a human, but perhaps he's the God he's claiming to be, behind the universe. And now he goes around the world trying to tell people and show people what he's found. I wonder, what do you think tonight? We read that little encounter of Mary with the risen Jesus, and she was grief stricken, right? Because this is her great teacher and friend who'd helped her through so many difficult times. And she was so sad, grieved that he was dead and that his body was gone. The tomb was empty. And when this man who turned out to be Jesus was talking to it, she thought it was the gardener. Because Mary's not an idiot. She knows dead people do not come back to life. And it was only when she realised through Jesus speaking her name and seeing him clearly, that her grief was turned to unspeakable joy. Her hopelessness was filled with hope as she saw Jesus risen and alive.

There's hope in the face of death. And that is the effect of the resurrection on those who believe and know Jesus. That death is not the darkness without light, but there is a light that shines in the darkness. There is a hope that we can hold onto because we've seen that one person has come back from the dead and Jesus (it's said in the Bible) is the image of the invisible God. He's the evidence of the existence that there's a God behind the universe, that he made it, he designed it, and he came into this world to show us and fill our lives with hope. And that's the effect of Jesus. I wonder, what do you think about him tonight? Do you think this is ridiculous? Still I hope at the very least, you can see it's reasonable. Look into it more. Don't let this lie. This is truly a message which brings hope to hopeless situations, light to the darkest of circumstances. So now that with Jesus in my life, I know that I have a hope that goes beyond death because one man has come back and said there is more. And he says, "If you trust me, I'll take you there with me".

There's this incredible story from one of my own friends actually. When I was twelve or thirteen, one of my best friends was diagnosed with a rather horrible condition. He had a tumor on his brain, and it was just a horrible thing, right? That's the darkness of life. Where's the hope? And we didn't feel much hope when looking at my friend in this situation, just a little kid, twelve, thirteen years old. But when he went to his doctor who told him that there is not much time left, the conversation was recorded, and you know what he said? He said this to the doctor who said, "Look, David, I don't think you're gonna last much longer". And David looked at him and "It's okay because I have a friend and his name is Jesus, and he's been through death and he promised to take me through with him". The nurse in the room just burst into tears, but do you see the effect of knowing Jesus? Do you see the hope of the gospel? Even a little boy looking at death squaring the face has hope, ad you can know that same hope tonight. Many of us in this room do too. It's true, one man has risen back to life - and it's Jesus. I wonder, do you know him tonight? You can. Please look into Hope Explored the course that is running soon. Only three weeks - why not? Do it. Go for it. Don't let it lie. Let me just finish in prayer tonight before I hand back to the incredible band and ruin the rest of my voice that is left:

Thank you, Father, that you are a real God that showed yourself to us in history through Jesus. Thank you that death is not the end. Thank you that you are the light that shines in the darkness that fills our life with hope. And I pray for anyone seeking, anyone looking tonight, that you'd reveal yourself to them. I pray that we wouldn't let these thoughts and inspirations lie here tonight, but we'd take them further and question it further. Thank that you bring hope to dark and hopeless situations. I pray we know you tonight in Jesus name, Amen.