Nicky Gumbel: Is there more to life?

I'm a clergyman in the Church of England and I love the Church of England I love the Anglican Church but while the Worldwide Church has been growing rapidly the Church of England has been in steady decline we've been losing so many people that some people have speculated that maybe even God has left the Church of England there was an article in private eye which was headed God to leave Church of England what it said was this following the example set by leading former Anglicans God has indicated that he too is to leave the Church of England Friends of God believe the issue of women priests have been behind the almighty sudden decision to convert to Rome according to sources close to God he's been unhappy for some time with a direction the Anglican Church has been taking and has now finally had enough a Church of England spokesman said losing God is a bit of a blow but it's just something we're going to have to learn to live with for much of my life I've not been a Christian I really I think had three objections to Christianity first of all I thought it was boring I found everything about Christianity religion the church so dull had sympathy was something that Robert Louis Stevenson once entered in his diary as if he was recording the most extraordinary phenomenon he wrote this I have been to church today and I'm not depressed that was my rest I found it so dull certainly I thought it was untrue I had what I called intellectual objections to Christianity I was describe myself as an atheist as you describe myself rather pretentiously as a logical determinist and I actually wrote an essay at school disproving the existence of God such was the state of religious knowledge in my school that they put it forward for the school prize for religious knowledge so I thought it was untrue and I also thought it was irrelevant to my life I couldn't think how someone who'd lived 2,000 years ago 2,000 miles away could have any relevance to my life today school we used to sing that hymn rather wonderful him actually Jerusalem and did those feet meaning the feet of Jesus in ancient time walk upon England's mountain's Green and we all knew the answer was no they did not Jesus never came anywhere near England and it just seemed totally irrelevant to my life at the same time I think I was actually quite ignorant I didn't know very much about Christianity at all and I think increasingly in our secularized society that's true for many one of the rows I have here is this diamond assist Sea chaplain to the Brompton Hospital and one of the things that we do is on a Sunday morning we go around and we offer people Holy Communion and sometimes when we say to people would you like Holy Communion we get some very odd replies one hospital chaplain wrote down some of the replies he'd had to that question one man said and answer the question would you like her to communion he said no thanks I'm Church of England another said no thanks I asked for cornflakes and a third said no thanks I've never been circumcised so I was very ignorant about the Christian faith but I think I can say now I didn't feel this at the time but now I can say looking back something was missing fascinating to me that one thing that Prince Charles and Princess Diana were agreed about was this Prince Charles spoke of his belief that for all the advances of science there remains deep in the soul a persistent and unconscious anxiety that something is missing and Princess Diana speaking of the charity event spoke of an overwhelming sense of loss and isolation that undermines many people's efforts to survive and cope with the complexities of modern life they know she said something is missing and that was my experience I said I didn't feel it at the time but looking back I can say it it was a reality because I was always looking forward to the next thing in life rather than living for the present in a sense I remember at school thinking maybe when I'm a prefect that will be what life's all about and eventually I was a very lowly prefect and it was great for about three weeks and then I thought there must be more to life than this I thought well maybe when I've left school that will be what it's all about and then I left school and that was great but after about three weeks I started to think there must be more to life this and I thought well maybe if I could get a girlfriend and somehow other I don't know how I managed it I managed to find a girlfriend and after about three weeks and I think for many people they go through life like that that all were always searching for the next thing and when we get there we find it doesn't satisfy and Jesus said I am the bread of life I'm the one person who can satisfy that kind of spiritual hunger that is in every human heart so that other things I have a good they may be relationships work hobbies whatever sport somehow they always leave us with this feeling that something's missing a Japanese woman put it like this idiot in Japan they need to eat rice said it's like it's like we've got two stomachs we got one stomach for ordinary food and one summit for rice and however much ordinary food meat potatoes fruit vegetables we eat we don't feel full we don't feel satisfied until we rice and I think if Jesus had been speaking to her he just said I'm the rice of life I'm the one person who can satisfy this other stomach perhaps the greatest columnist of our generation Bernhard Levin who often used to say he's not a Christmas time he said for the 14 thousand time I'm telling you I'm not a Christian but he wrote this countries like ours are full of people who have all the material comforts they desire together with such non material blessings as a happy family and yet lead lives of quiet and at times noisy desperation understanding nothing but the fact that there is a hole inside them and however much food and drink they pour into it have any motorcars and television sets they stuff it with however many well-balanced children and loyal friends they parade around Edge's of it it aches Jesus said I am the bread of life I'm the one person who can satisfy that hunger now why is that jesus said I'm the way and the truth and the life first of all this Jesus brings direction to a lost world he said I am the way friends why when their children were younger they had a no Peggle this beggar was struggling to learn the English language and she hadn't quite mastered all the English idioms at one time there was a an argument going on between the children up in a room upstairs and this beggar rushed upstairs to sorted out and what she meant to say was what an after you do but what she actually said was what are you doing on earth now the questions she asked was a very good question what are we doing on earth where did we come from where are we heading who are we does our life have any ultimate meaning and purpose what happens when we die these if you like are the really big questions they're the first order questions of life and I guess many people on a kind of search they're trying to find some significance some meaning some purpose I was fascinated really a book by Leo Tolstoy read one piece and Anna Karenina but I never read this book could a confession in which he tells his life story his search for meaning for purpose he describes how he rejected Christianity as a child and then as he went on through life he became very ambitious first of all he thought well maybe pleasure is the answer just having a great time he entered the social world of Moscow and st. Petersburg drinking heavily sleeping around gambling living a wild life and he found it just didn't satisfy he thought well maybe money is the answer he'd inherited a large estate and sought to make a lot of money out of his books but he found even how much money he had it didn't satisfy these or maybe the answer is success fame importance he wrote what the Encyclopedia Britannica described as one of the two or three greatest novels in world literature but still he said it didn't satisfy so well maybe the answer is family life who give my family the best possible life he'd married in 1862 and had a happy family and 13 children which he says distracted him from his search for the overall meaning of life he said he'd achieved all his ambitions and was surrounded by what is considered to be complete happiness yet one question drove him to the verge of suicide and the question was this what meaning has my life that the inevitability of death does not destroy and he's tried to search in every field of science and philosophy to try and come up with an answer to this and the only answer you could come up with from philosophy or science was this to the to the question why do I live in the infinity of space and the infinity of time infinitely small particles mutate with infinite complexity didn't find that very satisfying so started to look around at his contemporaries and he found that many of them were just avoiding the issue they weren't really thinking about that and eventually he found in the peasant people of Russia the ants had been looking for in their faith in God through Jesus Christ hundred years later nothing's changed Freddie Mercury the lead singer in the rock group queen had amassed a huge fortune tracted thousands probably millions of fans but he admitted in an interview shortly before his death that he was desperately lonely he said this you can have everything in the world and still be the loneliest man and that's the most bitter type of loneliness success has brought me world idolization and millions of pounds but is preventing me from having the one thing we all need a loving ongoing relationship and ultimately there is only one relationship that is completely loving and totally ongoing and that is a relationship with God and Jesus said I'm the way to that relationship I'm the way to find the purpose for which were made so as people say what difference does that make in your life I sometimes use this analogy because in a way before I was a Christian I was perfectly happy with life as it was I wasn't searching for anything when we were children we had a black-and-white television set I don't think they have television sets that are as bad as this now but we have one of those sets that used to just go into lines like this and get it it was so hard watching it because I remember this really dates me but we actually watched a 1966 World Cup on that television and as England were about score goal it went into lines like that and we found that there were certain things that you could do to improve the quality of the picture you could put your hand around the back at certain points there are also certain floorboards that if you stood on them you could get a slightly better picture and then we discovered this what that television needed was an aerial when we put an aerial in we got these amazing clear pictures but if you like that describes the difference because once we'd experienced those pictures with the aerial we would never wanted to go back to how it was before and once someone has an experience or relationship with God through Jesus Christ it's like the Ariel this is what life's all about jesus said I'm the way certainly he brings reality to a confused world he said I'm the truth sometimes people said well you know it's great that he satisfies that hunger but I don't have a neat isn't it just the kind of crutch for weak people who need that kind of thing and if you need that kind of thing then it's lovely for you but it's not for me logically that can't be the case because if it's true it's true for everyone and if it's not true then it's not actually lovely for those who believe something that isn't true because they're in a way they deluded CS Lewis put it like this he said Christianity is a statement which if false is of no importance and if true of infinite importance the one thing it cannot be is moderately important so that's the question is it true jesus said I am the truth I don't think I had realized how much evidence there is one of the things that we do on Alpha is to look at the historical evidence for the life death and resurrection of Jesus Christ the resurrection is the lynchpin of Krissy it's fascinating to me how many people who are are kinda be used to looking at evidence who come to the conclusion it's true one former professor of history at Oxford University described the resurrection as the best attested fact in history I hadn't realized how many of the pioneers of modern science were believers Descartes Newton Kepler Galileo Locke Copernicus Faraday Boyle Mendel Kelvin Pasteur Lister Maxwell Simpson professor James Simpson the brilliant scientist whose discoveries paved the way for safe painless surgery someone once asked him professor Simpson of all these discoveries you've made which of them was the greatest he's the greatest discovery I ever made was the day I discovered Jesus Christ lawyers perhaps the greatest lawyer of the second half of the 20th century was Lord Denning Lord Denning towered really over the legal profession for 50 years he was also the president of the lawyers Christian Fellowship he looked at the evidence and comes to the conclusion it's true but when Jesus said I am the truth he was talking about more than just a kind of intellectual truth the Hebrew understanding of truth was truth as experienced and there's a big difference between a kind of intellectual knowledge and a personal knowledge between the head and the heart if you like again forgive me for using an analogy but I've been married to my wife pepper now for nearly 25 years but supposing before we were married before it even Mehta I went into a bookshop and there was a book about her called PIPA the amazing woman and I thought hmm that looks interesting I'll pick it up and have a look chapter one her sparkling personality Chapter two her extraordinary intelligence Chapter three her infinite patience chapter four her potential to be a long-suffering wife Chapter five her cordon bleu cooking skills chapter six her sporting ability quite a short chapter but not as short as if it was about my sporting ability I hasten to add and if I'd looked at this book and thought wow she sounds an amazing person that is intellectual knowledge head knowledge now I can tell you she's an amazing person that's personal knowledge that's the experience of 25 years of marriage and when someone says I know Jesus is the truth they're talking not just about being convinced of the evidence they're talking about experiencing a relationship with the Risen Jesus Christ Jesus said I'm the truth thirdly he brings life in a dark world he said I'm the way I'm the truth and I'm the life Jesus came to set us free from the things that spoiled our lives the things that are wrong in our lives there's a big difference from the things that we do that are wrong and the mistakes that we make we all make lots of mistakes stakes can be relatively harmless or even amusing I came across you know they published after the GCSE exams some of the mistakes that students have made and I came across some of the ones that they published one person wrote this in the first book of the Bible guinnesses Adam and Eve were created from an apple tree one of their children Cain asked am i my brother's son another wrote this Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea where they made unleavened bread which is bread made without any ingredients at all Moses went up on on Mount cyanide to get the Ten Commandments he died before he ever reached Canada another redness the Greeks were a highly sculptured people and without them we wouldn't have history the Greeks also had myths a myth is a female moth another wrote Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice they killed him Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock after his death his career suffered a dramatic decline another wrote this Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul the Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made King dying he gassed out t he Brutus and finally this Johan Bava wrote a great many musical compositions and had a large number of children in between he practiced on an old spinster which he kept up in his attic both died from 1750 to the present bark was the most famous composer in the world and so was handled Handel was half German and half Italian and half English he was he was very large so the mistakes that we make can be relatively harmless but the things that we do wrong really matter there is such a thing certainly in my case as true guilt the great Russian novelist and Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn said this the line separating good and evil passes not through States nor between classes no between political parties but right through every human heart and through all human hearts the message the Christian message is good news that's what the word gospel means and the good news is this God loves you and he loves you and me so much that he came in the person of his son Jesus Christ to live and to die for us and on the cross Jesus took everything you and I have ever done wrong said wrong thought wrong he died in our place he died for you and he died for me in fact if you had been the only person he would have done it for you or for me he loves us that much and because of that it's possible for our guilt to be taken away he came to set us free from guilt he came to set us free from addiction the things in our lives that we hate that get a grip of us he came to set us free from fear the fear of death and all the fears that go with it because Jesus not only died for us he rose again from the dead he conquered death he set us free to know God to have a relationship with God he set us free to change to be the kind of person that deep down were longing to be he sends his spirit to live within us to begin to change us the fruit of the Spirit begins to grow love joy peace patience kindness goodness he set us free to love with a new dimension because when we've experienced God's love for us being poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit that gives us a totally new love for everybody else for God and for the world around us so it's not just about having some great feeling it's about going out and making a difference in a world that so desperately needs transformation now it's not easy necessarily I don't think it's easy to be a Christian today I think today certainly living in this part of the world I think it's much harder to be a true Christian than not to be a Christian as fascinated to see an interview in the Sunday Times with Alice Cooper the rock musician what it says is this that Alice Cooper has a dark secret the 53 year old rocker is a Christian and in this interview Alice Cooper describes his conversion to Christianity but it hasn't been easy combining religion and rock this is what he says it's the most rebellious thing I've ever done drinking beer is easy trashing your hotel room is easy but being a Christian that's a tough call that's real rebellion it's not easy but no is it boring it's not untrue it's not irrelevant to our lives it's exciting it's true it's relevant because Jesus said on the way and the truth and the life now didn't how you respond to what we've been looking at this evening I guess there are a number of different possible reactions some of you may say absolutely I've never been in this place before never heard of the Alpha course but I know exactly what you're talking about I have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ and it's the most wonderful thing that's fantastic and it doesn't matter it may be you come from a Catholic Church or a Methodist or a Baptist salvation or it could be any part of the church I don't think which part of the church is the most important thing the most important thing is that you have that relationship with God through Jesus Christ others might say well I'm not so sure but I do have that relationship when Paul went to Athens and spoke about the good news about Jesus and the resurrection there were three different reactions some sneered and if you're here tonight sneering please don't think I'm standing here judging you because I went to talks about the Christian faith and I sneered at them so it may be not the right moment for you other people when they heard him said hmm not convinced but I'd like to hear more I'd like to investigate further and if that you're in that category I would really encourage you to investigate further there are lots of ways you can do that you could do it totally on your own just get hold of a New Testament and read it for yourself you might say well I need a bit of help well you could go along to any Church in the country Catholic Anglican Methodist Baptist and say could you help me is there a course that I could go on alpha is one course which is a practical introduction to the Christian faith but it's not the only one we're not saying that it's the best one it's just one way of doing it it's running now in thousands of churches around the place and you could probably find one if you don't come from this area in a church near you or if you'd like to come here we'd love to have you here but that's not the point the point is that if it's true it's of infinite importance and it must be worth spending say 10 Wednesday evenings investigating to find out whether you think it is true third category when Paul went to Athens is some believed they only heard once and they said I'd love that and it may just be one person here tonight who says I'd love that I would really love to have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ the good news is you can experience that right now it's a very simple thing it's turning away from the things that we know wrong saying sorry thanking Jesus for dying for us putting our faith in Him and then saying please please come and fill me with your spirit sorry thank you please and I want to make it possible for anyone who's who'd like to pray that prayer to do so I'm gonna ask you to be very kind I'm gonna ask anyone to prayed out loud but in the silence of your hearts God can hear the prayers in our hearts Jesus is here he's risen from the dead but to make it possible for someone who would like to pray to pray would you be kinda just maybe for a moment just close your eyes for or by your head for a moment just so that we to give that person who would like to pray the opportunity to do so in a dignified way Jesus is here he's alive you can speak to him tonight just echo this silently in your heart Lord Jesus Christ I'm sorry for the things in my life that have been wrong if anything comes to mind ask his forgiveness I now turn away from everything that I know is wrong thank you that you died for me on the cross I now receive your forgiveness I trust you with my life and I ask you please to come and to fill me with your spirit to be with me forever thank you Lord Jesus Christ I mean

Channel: Alpha USA

Views: 37,464

Rating: 4.8793969 out of 5

Keywords: alpha, alphausa, nicky, gumbel, christ, Jesus Christ (Deity), love, questions, life, Christianity (Religion)

Id: tChNP98HlmQ

Length: 34min 41sec (2081 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 14 2013