Theme: A Perpetual Promise                                         

Text: Matthew 28:20b (EHV)

Pastor Souksamay

Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come. – Rev. 1:4

Dear friends in Christ,

“And surely I am with you always until the end of the age.” (v.20b) These are some of the last words our Lord spoke before his ascension back to heaven. It is the culmination and completion of his life here on earth. And how would you describe that life on earth? God became man for us. God the Creator lived among his creation for some 33 years. During that time the Almighty did not always reveal his almighty power and glory. Rather the Sinless walked among sinners, looking like any mere mortal. He was tempted. He suffered abuse and rejection from those he came to save. He endured misunderstandings and misconceptions from friends and foes alike. He was betrayed, he was denied, he was ridiculed, he was abandoned. Even God the Father forsook God the Son as he hung on the cross to redeem us. That was our Lord’s life on earth.

I.

But now in this one verse, our Lord’s earthly pilgrimage is coming to a glorious conclusion. He has risen victorious from the dead. He is ready to ascend back into heaven: his human and divine natures still perfectly and forever connected. So, Jesus, our Lord, true man and true God, ascends back into heaven. This is how it should be. All is right for him now.

Aren’t you happy for our Lord? At last he will receive there in heaven what he should have always had. His human nature will share in the glory that his divine had before the beginning of time. No more holding back or hiding his almighty power and glory. No more walking among sinners but in heaven only being among saints and angels. No more temptations but in heaven perfection, sinless. No more abuse and rejection but glory everlasting. No more betrayal, no more denial, no more ridicule, no more abandonment, no more forsaking. Never again will he hang on that dreadful, terrible cross. He will now and forever enjoy the songs of the saints and the accolades of the angels. For all of this, aren’t you happy for our Lord that he has ascended back to heaven?

Yes … and No. There is one part of us that can say, “Yes. Good for you, Lord Jesus! This is right! You will finally be where you belong!” But now, there is the other part of us that says “No,”, the other part of us that is also a little bit sad. For don’t we also say this about our Lord’s ascension? “But now we cannot see you, Lord. If only you would stay just a little while longer, just as long as we are here on earth. It would be easier then to overcome our own temptations to doubt and all the other temptations that plague us our whole life long. It would be easier if you were still here with me.” We are sad, we don’t want him to go because we still need him and miss him: our Lord and Savior.

But our Lord Jesus anticipates this sadness. He knows that sadness and so he gives us these few words. Some of the last words he spoke while on this earth. And as always when he speaks to us it is with compassion, with love, with comfort … so astonishing and so far above anything we could have asked for or imagined. We see that already with that one word translated: “Surely.” It can also be translated: Behold, see. It’s a word used to make us stop and get our attention. For Jesus is about to say something important.

II.

After getting our attention, he simply says in today’s sermon text, “And surely I am …” “I am” What wonderful grace! What matchless love! Wouldn’t you think that our Lord would be glad to be rid of us? It is after all, for us and our sins that he came down to earth and endured: temptation, abuse, rejection, misunderstanding, torture, torment, that terrible cross, that death. Wouldn’t you think that he would be glad to be rid of us? But no! What does he say? “I am.” Who is that? He is our God and Savior, true God and true man. In his person as God and as man, he has all the attributes of God, including omnipotence, being all-powerful; that is, he miraculously and according to both his divine and human nature is wherever he chooses to be. He is God. Nothing is impossible for him. Nothing – neither time nor space – can limit or contain him in any way. So what he says here will come true? And what does he continue to say?

“And surely I am with you …” “With you.” Wow. With that phrase the gospel of Matthew ends where it began. Matthew’s first OT prophecy about the Savior was recorded in Matthew 1:23. There Matthew quotes from Isaiah 7:14. Remember that passage? “‘Look, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son. And they will name him Immanuel,’ which means, ‘God with us.’” WOW and what does Jesus promise here? What does Matthew end his gospel with?  “And surely I am with you always until the end of the age.” The Gospel of Matthew begins and ends with telling us about Jesus and his relationship to his people. He is God with us.  He came down to earth to live with us and to live for us. So even this ascension, as in all things with our Lord, all he does is for you, for me, for us! He did not ascend to leave us as orphans. He did not ascend to be rid of us. He did not ascend so that in eternity, he could forget about us. He did not ascend so that the noise of the world would be drowned out by the songs of the saints and the accolades of the angels. No, it’s just the opposite. He ascended for you, for me, for us. He ascended … so that he could and would always be with us.

And here’s the special thing about his always being with us. His presence, his being with us, is not a fractional or divided or partial presence. His words are plain and clear: “And surely I am with you …” He, who does not lie and can never deceive, gives us this amazing, perpetual promise. When you get up in the morning and go to bed at night and during every moment in between, before, and after, Jesus is there with you. He is there not partially, but wholly and completely he is there. For that’s who this “I” is: Jesus, true God and true man, one undivided person. Even before you pray at meal time, “Come, Lord Jesus,” Jesus is already there. When you open your Bible to read it, Jesus is right there with you. When you enter his house to worship, it is Jesus who invites you; it is Jesus who speaks to you in the order of service, in the readings from his Word, and in the sermon. When you come to his table, it is the real, the true, the living Jesus, true God and true man, who reaches out to you and feeds you with his real body and true blood. When you rejoice on good and healthy days in the company of friends and family, Jesus is there to share in the joy he has given you. When you are tempted and fall into this or that sin, Jesus is right there to pardon and forgive. When you sigh in sorrow over living a life in a sinful world, Jesus is right there to sustain you in his life. When you are hurting or in pain, it is Jesus who is right there with you to help and to heal. When you feel all alone and wonder if anyone is who cares, it is your Lord and Savior right there with you. When you need him the most, he is still there. “And surely I am with you always until the end of the age.”

Could there be anything more compassionate, anything more loving or comforting than that? His presence and his attention to you and to your needs is never interrupted by a phone call. No text message takes his eyes off of you. No phone notification takes his focus off you. The doorbell doesn’t ring to take him away from you. For your God, there is no one else more important than you. How amazing is that! How rare such attention is among us! His love and devotion is perfect, is constant, is without interruption. What could be more astounding! “And surely I am with you always until the end of the age.” This perpetual promise is exactly that: everlasting, always until the end of the age. These words are for you, for me, for us, for always, forever. They are our constant comfort as long as we are here on this earth … until we see Jesus face-to-face. So until that day, let’s conclude today with a prayer from the sainted Professor Daniel Deutschlander. He wrote:

“Preserve me to the end of my pilgrimage and in the hour of my death let me ascend to the home your work has prepared for me and that your Word has promised me.” In other words: Lord be with us now until we are with you forever. AMEN.

The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. AMEN.