In his sermon 'Considering suicide? Here is Hope,' Steve Hopkins addresses the grim statistics of suicide both in the United States and worldwide, emphasizing the pervasive sense of hopelessness and despair in a world perceived as meaningless. He highlights the Apostle Paul's argument in 1 Corinthians 15, which asserts that the resurrection of Jesus Christ provides ultimate hope and meaning to life. Without this belief, human existence appears purposeless, leading many to consider suicide as an escape from their suffering. Hopkins explains that the resurrection is not only a future hope for believers but also a present reality that transformed the fearful disciples into bold proclaimers of the Gospel. The sermon recounts the post-resurrection appearances of Jesus, as witnessed by over 500 individuals, and underscores the importance of sharing the message of hope and salvation through Christ's death and resurrection. Believers are called to spread this message to dispel the despair present in the world, asserting that peace and joy are attainable through faith in Christ.

If you would stand with me for the reading of the Word of the Lord. Let's read together. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept." Let's pray. Father, we trust your word that you give the Spirit to them that ask.

And we ask God that you would give us this day, the Spirit, the omnipotent Holy Spirit here, to do a work in your people that no man can do. That you would give the Spirit in power and truth, to open our hearts and to open our understanding once again as we open your word for we do ask it in the blessed name of our Lord Jesus amen let's be seated. 49, 476 people committed suicide in 2022. 49, 300, this is in the United States alone, 49, 300 committed suicide in the United States in 2023. 1.6 million attempted to commit suicide.

The statistics represent a 30% increase in suicide over the past two decades. I don't know what the numbers are yet for 2024 only this that hopelessness and despair plague the masses of the richest nation on earth. One in 14 suicides worldwide occur right here in the United States. Yet the statistics are no better for the rest of the world. Over 700, 000 people sadly in their own lives each year on this planet.

700, 000. No matter the expression that is painted on the face of the masses, at any given moment in time, something is dreadfully wrong, deep within the souls of men and women. And of course, no matter the outward expression, for the bulk of mankind, momentary peace is fleeting, and happiness is transient and elusive. And of course, for the masses, always related to present circumstances. When things are going one's way, there's momentary calm and contentment.

But when things are not, the masses of humanity are miserable. In a world where life is regarded as ultimately purposeless, meaningless, There is no hope. And where there's no ultimate hope, why would a person want to endure the pain associated with life? If there's no ultimate purpose for life, if we're all, as the evolutionists say, atheists say, all but collections of random molecules of spinning in time and space, if it's all ultimately for nothing and comes to nothing, then when the pain of life seems unbearable, rather than be miserable, many just take what they believe to be the easy way out. And multitudes of those who have adopted this kind of thinking and come to these kinds of conclusions have done just that.

But it's not like anything has changed since God spoke the universe into existence. It's always been this way. Apart from new birth, apart from regeneration, apart from the life of God in the soul of man, there is no ultimate meaning. Apart from the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in the life of a man or a woman there is only darkness of soul, valleys of depression, and a chasing of the winds of momentary peace, momentary happiness, unlasting and momentary pleasures, all of which end ultimately in hopelessness and despair. The well-known journalist and author, Ernest Hemingway, grappled with questions of life's meaning and purpose.

He once said, or once concluded, all thinking men are atheists, end quote. Which of course is another way of saying if you were a thinking man like me, you would reject any notion of God, ultimate meaning to life or an afterlife. Or an afterlife. One of Hemingway's biographers summed up his philosophy as, quote, a rejection of the idea of a divine, has to do with God, or transcendental order, embracing the notion of human existence as fundamentally meaningless. As fundamentally meaningless.

Hemingway took his double-barrel 12-gauge shotgun and committed suicide in 1961, the year I was born. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the apostle lays down the doctrine of the resurrection as the reality, apart from which there is no future hope. Yes, no future hope for for the world, but also neither for the Christian. Look at the passage here, First Corinthians, Chapter 15 in verse 19. If in this life only, Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15 19, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

What's he saying? Why is he saying what he's saying? Evidently there were there were some in the church who were questioning the resurrection, the very doctrine of the resurrection of the dead. Maybe it was under the influence of the Sadducees who say there's no resurrection, or more likely under the influence of the Gnostics that the apostles battled all the time in the first century. The Gnostics who taught that the body being material is evil and the spiritual world is good and thus a resurrection of a corruptible body was to them unthinkable.

Maybe they were influenced by the Gnostics. Either way the the Apostle dealt with the question thoroughly and Paul says look the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of believers go hand in hand. If there is no resurrection of the dead, 1 Corinthians 15, 13, just back up a few verses, then is Christ not risen? And if Christ is not risen, be not risen, then believers should be pitted above all the people on the earth. Why?

He says, consider the consequences. Have you considered the consequences of a dead Christ? All the religions of the world have dead men that they go and visit their graves. Only Christianity has no grave to visit. Paul says, have you considered the consequences of a dead Christ, that he's still there, buried somewhere in a tomb or was taken out somewhere and hidden somewhere?

Have you considered the consequences of that? Paul says, listen, if Christ didn't rise, here are the implications. These are the consequences. First, our preaching is in vain. It's worthless.

Your faith in Christ is also vain, useless, worthless. All of us who have preached Christ risen from the dead are false witnesses, false witnesses of God, he says, because we made a claim about God because we testify that God raised up Christ from the dead, whom He raised not up, if it's true that the dead rise not. Heavy consequences. Fourthly, if Christ be not raised, not only is your faith useless, you're still dead in your sins. Have you considered the consequences of a dead and buried Christ who has not risen from the dead?

You're still dead in your sins if there be no resurrection. And all your loved ones and everyone else who died in the faith are forever perished. Our hope, Paul says, in Christ is not only in this life but in the life to come. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, then we are the most miserable lot of people who ever lived and should be pitied above all men. But bless God, He did rise.

He did rise. But now, the passage before it says, now is Christ risen from the dead and become the firstfruits of them that slept, that is of those who died trusting in Him. Acts 17 verse three tells us it was necessary for Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead. There is a future resurrection of the people of God to life everlasting because Christ died for our sins and he rose again. That's the gospel message and Paul is saying look if he didn't we won't but he did so we will.

Paul is already before this go back and begin Verses four and five of first Corinthians 15. He's already listed the many eyewitnesses to Jesus resurrection and it's an overwhelming number Look at first Corinthians chapter 15 in verse 5 He says first of all he was that he was seen of Cephas. It is Peter. And that's not just throwing that out there. Well, he was seen by Peter.

Peter, who tradition tells us, would later seal his testimony of Christ's resurrection from the dead, being martyred on a cross upside down outside of Rome. You remember when Jesus was alive, Peter was told by Jesus, he said, look, when you were young you dressed yourself and you went where you wanted to go, But when you're old, he was predicting his death, he said, someone else is going to take you by the hand, and they're going to dress you, and they're going to take you where you don't want to go. And you're going to stretch out your hands. He predicted that he would also be crucified. And of course, tradition tells us that he didn't want to be crucified like Jesus, and so he requested that he be crucified upside down.

He then says of the 12, the 12 apostles, referring to the 11 plus Matthias, remember? It was added to the number of apostles who were eyewitnesses of Christ's resurrection after Judas committed suicide. Thanks in Acts chapter one, verses 20 through 22. After that, this is the most amazing thing. And I know you've heard this before, you've heard this preached before, but just feast on this again for a moment.

After that, he was seen of above 500, not five, not 50, That'd be enough, but above 500 people, brethren, at the same time, and get this, of whom the greater part remain alive under this present day. That is a staggering mass eyewitness account. You get 500 people together who see the same thing, who agree that they saw the same. You can't even get two people in a car wreck to agree that they saw the same thing. You get 500 witnesses together who see the same thing at the same time.

We all saw it, we all saw him at the same time. You got something. And Paul says the greater part of the 500 who saw Jesus at the same time are still alive. They're still alive with us today. That is, at least 251, right, of the 500 eyewitness accounts or witnesses that saw Jesus alive in one single setting were still alive when Paul wrote this to the Corinthian church.

And this is 20 years after the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. And so he's saying, listen, if you don't believe in the resurrection, ask one of the 250 plus eyewitnesses to Christ's resurrection. They're still with us here. They all saw Him alive. Go ask them.

And you know what's interesting? You search the historical records and there's no record of even one Jewish leader taking the apostle Paul up on his challenge. They're right here with us. You say Jesus didn't rise from the dead? Over half of the 500 who saw him at one point in time are still here with us.

Go ask them. No record. Nope. Zip. No, we're not doing that.

Why? Because Jesus rose from the dead. Go ask them. After that he was seen of James. This is James, by the way, son of Alphaeus, who was the half-brother of Jesus.

So same mother, not the same father, right? This is the one we read of in John 7-5 along with his other half-brothers that didn't initially believe in Jesus. They didn't initially believe. But later he would be a witness all the way to death, a witness into martyrdom. Historians tell us that James was brought to Jerusalem and tried.

And then before the people, He was commanded to deny Christ. They took him up to the pinnacle of the temple of Jerusalem. The people are gathered and they said, "'Deny Christ, deny Jesus, deny this one who you say was dead but is now alive, that he rose from the dead and he refused to, and they threw him down from the pinnacle of the temple. And when he fell, the fall didn't kill him, it only broke his leg, but the people rushed in with just a madness about them, an anger, and they clubbed them to death. Half-brother of Jesus.

He was seen by James, by the way. Then again on the following day, Paul says, of all the apostles, all the apostles saw Jesus again the following Lord's day. And then Paul says something rather remarkable, and last of all, he was seen by me also. So the next time you hear somebody say, I had an apparition of Jesus. Sorry.

Last of all, he was seen by the Apostle Paul. I had a near-death experience and I saw Jesus. Jesus appeared to me. No, last of all, he was seen by the apostle Paul. Last of all, Jesus was seen by the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus, remember?

Last of all, last of all. As one born out of due time, he said, like one born prematurely, Paul, you know, didn't walk with Jesus for three years before being discipled by him like the other apostles. He goes straight from persecuting Jesus to preaching Jesus. Pretty amazing. Said he wasn't even worthy to be called an apostle, puts himself in last place among the apostles of the Lord, attributes everything to God's grace.

He says the grace of God was not bestowed upon him in vain. Whether you heard the gospel from my lips or from the lips of one of the other apostles of the Lord, you heard it preached, Christ died for our sins and then he rose again the third day and so you believed. You believed, so you all believed. So last of all, Paul sees it, but Let's back up a moment to the day of Christ's resurrection. Okay, so you need to turn your Bibles to John chapter 20.

So we're gonna go back to the evening after the morning of Christ's resurrection. And what I want you to notice here, first off, is I've just talked about all these who have gone to their death for Christ. James and Paul and Peter, all the apostles that were martyred, not to mention all those that you read of in the Fox's book of martyrs, but the apostles. Look at their, what we've just witnessed is their boldness. No, I'm not going to deny Christ that he died for our sins and rose again the third day, off the top of the pinnacle of the temple he goes.

No, I'm not going to deny him before Nero, the Apostle Paul, they cut his head off. No, I'm not going to deny him upside down on a cross, nailed Peter. But as we back up to the day of Christ's resurrection, actually the evening after the morning of Christ's resurrection, the boldness that we just heard from the pen of the apostle Paul, the boldness that we see from Peter and James and John and all the apostles of our Lord wasn't the case after Christ was crucified and laid in the tomb before they realized that he had risen from the dead. You understand what I'm saying? The scripture tells us in Mark chapter 1450 that on the night that Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, what did they do?

They all boldly went out and proclaimed Jesus everywhere. No, they all forsook him and fled. And we like to think, well, if I had been there, I wouldn't have done that. No, we probably would have done the exact same thing. These are the apostles of the Lord that walked with him for three years and saw all of his miracles.

They all forsook him and fled. They all abandoned Jesus, all of them. And on the evening of his resurrection, he's already resurrected from the dead. They don't know it yet. And the apostles, the disciples we read in John chapter 20 are all gathered together and they're fearful.

In verse 19 we find them gathered, it says, in fear with the door shut in an upper room at Jerusalem. Probably the same upper room where Jesus instituted the Lord's Supper, by the way. But here, now the disciples of Jesus are hiding out. It's the evening of the resurrection day. Jesus has already risen from the dead.

He's already appeared to Mary Magdalene. But Mark tells us in Mark chapter 16 and verse 10, verses 10 and 11, that Mary had come back to this room where the doors are shut and they're hiding in fear in the upper room and they are mourning and weeping and she tells them that she saw Jesus alive but nobody believed her. Nobody believed her story. Maybe they thought Mary didn't get enough sleep the night before. Maybe she was seeing things.

Or maybe they think, you know, she's unstable after witnessing Jesus' crucifixion and death. It's understandable. Maybe they think she's been overtaken by wishful thinking. We aren't told. All we're told is they didn't believe her.

They didn't believe Mary Magdalene. And so that same day at evening, John chapter 20, beginning with verse 19, tells us the disciples are gathered in the upper room and they have the doors shut. Look at your Bibles. Your version may say locked, which is a better translation. The Greek word means to be shut up as being locked in, bolted.

There's no boldness in this room. There's no preaching out in the streets of Jerusalem, not yet. There's weeping, we read in Mark, where Mary comes and she tries, she's knocked on the door and they've opened and she's told him he's a lie that'll believe there's there's weeping and mourning there's no rejoicing and there's no boldness And the scripture tells us the doors were shut, and the scripture tells us why the doors were shut. The doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews. They're afraid.

Someone recorded once that 356 times in the Bible, in one way or another, God says, don't fear. Fear not, fear not, fear not, fear not. They're afraid. They're afraid. And we probably would have been afraid too, right?

But they're afraid. They're assembled for fear of the Jews and they've got the door bolted. Would they be next? What if there's another knock on the door? The Jews handed over Jesus to the Romans to be crucified, are they coming for us?

Back in verse 9, after Peter and John had witnessed the empty tomb, we read that John believed, not that Jesus was risen, but that the tomb was indeed empty as Mary Magdalene had said. How do we know that? Because it says in verse 9, as yet they knew not the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. John didn't even realize it. They didn't know the meaning of the words.

It just hadn't sunk in yet. And so the disciples are all here, they're all gathered in the upper rooms. I said probably the same upper room where Jesus had the Lord's Supper, the last Passover meal. And these disciples are all gathered in the upper room and the door is shut, it's bolted, for fear that the Jewish leaders may come for them next. And look at what happens.

And suddenly, suddenly Jesus comes. He just appears, the door's bolted shut. He just appears in the room, inside the locked room, and stands in the middle of them, in the midst of them, and listen to these gracious words. He says, Peace be unto you. Peace be unto you.

And what does he do? There's no talking here going on that's recorded. They're stunned and he says, "'Peace be unto you, be calm.'" And he shows them his hands and he shows them his side. They see the scars from the healed wounds inflicted on Jesus by the nails and the spear. Indisputable, irrefutable evidence is displayed and the apostles are eyewitnesses of it.

And then look what we read here. Then were the disciples glad. Look at the text. Then were they glad when they saw the Lord, When they realized it was Him, they knew here He is, He's alive. And brothers and sisters, glad may be an understatement as it's translated here.

The same word is used back in chapter 16 where the disciples had questioned Jesus' words where He said, in a little while, you're not gonna see Me. And then in a little while after that, you're gonna see Me again, because I'm going to the Father. They didn't know. And Jesus, knowing that they were questioning what he meant said, verily, verily I say unto you, listen to this, that you shall weep, we're coming up on that same word here, it's translated glad. Verily I say unto you that you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice." Same Greek word in verse 20, 20, glad.

The tables would be turned, even though they didn't understand Jesus' words yet. Ye, that's plural, and as all of you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow is going to be turned into joy. And that's what's happening right there in that upper room. That's what's happening in the upper room. The doors are bolted, fear is on every side.

The disciples are gathered and weeping and lamenting the death of their Lord. The world is outside rejoicing. That's the word Jesus used. They're outside rejoicing at Jesus' death. The Jewish leaders are glad.

The powers of hell have been dancing in the streets while the disciples of Jesus are fearful, sorrowful, weeping, and lamenting. And then the tables are turned and in an instant Jesus appears alive from the dead in the room with them, right in front of them, out of nowhere. And he gives proof to them by the scars in his hands and in his side that he who was crucified dead and buried is risen, he is risen indeed. The tables are turned. The tables are turned.

The game has changed. The victim, the innocent victim, has been shown to be the victor. Christ has triumphed over the grave. And now the disciples are glad and all their fears are calmed. In all their sorrow, overcome with joy.

The calm and beautiful morning has come to them in the evening. Their sorrow, just as Jesus predicted, would be turned into joy, and it was. And when the world finds out, when the Jewish leaders realize what has happened, they will be the ones who are lamenting and stricken with fear. Jesus is alive. The strife is o'er, the battle is done.

The victory of life is won. The song of triumph has begun. Hallelujah. The powers of hell have done their worst, but Christ, their legions, hath dispersed. Now let shouts of holy joy outburst, hallelujah.

The tables have turned, Christ is risen, evictor from the dark domain. The trembling, sorrowful souls of the disciples in the upper room are now calm and cheerful, glad and rejoicing. The three sad days have quickly sped. Christ has risen glorious from the dead. All glory to our risen head.

Hallelujah as the hymn says that we sang earlier. Now what? And now what? Well now their job is to take the good news that Christ died for our sins and rose again from the dead the third day into all the world. They've been commissioned now to do so, given authority to do so.

On Christ's authority go. Jesus says to them, peace be unto you. As my father hath sent me even so send I you peace be unto you now go now go now go the the Commission is given to the apostles to preach Christ crucified and risen from the dead and that's exactly what they do. He closed, tell them that he closed the yawning gates of hell. The bars from heaven's high portals fell.

Let hymns of praise, His triumphs tell. Hallelujah. Brothers and sisters, as we come to a close here, we live in a world where for the masses life is meaningless. There's no absolute truth in their world and their minds. There's no universal moral ethic.

There's no loving God and dwelling and inflaming the souls of the vast majority of men and women and children of the world. There's no expectation of a future resurrection of the dead, life in the presence of God, the glory of God. There's no hope for the masses. And where there is no hope, where there's no ultimate meaning or purpose in life, for so many there's no reason to endure the pain and trials associated with life. If in the minds of men and women there is no afterlife, no God to give account to, if it's all ultimately for nothing and comes to nothing, Then when the pain of life seems unbearable, rather than be miserable, many follow Judas off the cliff, put the noose around their necks and throw themselves off and are crushed on the rocks below.

Our job is to proclaim Christ and Him crucified, buried and risen from the dead. Our job is to proclaim to a world without hope that there is hope in Jesus. There is hope in Jesus. That Jesus came into the world to save sinners. That Jesus died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that everyone who repents of their sins and puts their trust in him will live with him forever.

Peace be unto you, " Jesus told them. Go. You realize that if you're not a believer here today, peace can be yours. Your griefs and sorrows can be turned into joy. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life.

He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. For those who are believers, we were to take this gospel into all the world. The crucified and risen and exalted Savior. We're to tell them that God proved that Jesus died for our sins by raising him from the dead. There's no grave in Jerusalem.

There's no place to go and visit the bones of Jesus. God proved that Jesus died for our sins by raising him from the dead. We need to be telling the world that because he rose from the dead, that because he rose from the dead, we know his word is true, that we who are united to him by faith in him shall also rise at the resurrection of the dead. We have a glorious future. He was raised and so we will be raised.

There is hope and it is a certain hope grounded in the fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead for all who believe. Tell your neighbors, tell your lost family members, shout it from the rooftops to all the world, Jesus is risen, He is risen indeed. Let's pray. Father, we praise and thank you, God, that no matter how dire our present circumstances may be, no matter our present grief, sorrow, depression or pain, no matter the number of our sins or the greatness of them. Though our doors may at times be bolted on account of fear, Jesus is in our midst.

We thank you God and we see him with eyes of faith, the scars in His hands and in His side, and we believe. We thank You, God, for faith to believe. We believe that He died for our sins and that He was buried and that He rose again the third day. We thank You, Father, that peace has come to us through the Prince of Peace. All our sorrows have been turned to joy.

Thank you Father for the gift of your Son. Thank you for so great a salvation and so great a Savior. Amen. Amen.