Until the End of the World

“...And, behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:20)

These are the last words written only in the Gospel of Matthew. The other Gospels end on different notes. Mark ends his Gospel on the ascension of Jesus, the Grand Commission and the apostles proclaiming the Gospel. (Mark 16:19,20) Luke ends his Gospel with the ascension and the apostles worshipping and praying in the temple. (Luke 24:50-53) John ends his Gospel with Jesus and His relationship with John. (John 21:20-25) Matthew is the only one to end with this promise from Jesus. As an eyewitness to the ministry of Jesus, a sinner who came to be one of the accepted chosen leaders, Jesus’ promise to His disciples was important. “And the names of the twelve apostles are these: First, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax-collector; James the son of Alpheus, and Lebbeus, whose surname was Thaddeus; Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.” (Matthew 10:2-4) Notice that Matthew singles himself out as a tax-collector, one despised by the Jews and known sinner and extortionist. It’s his testimony, as if he’s saying, “This is who I am, but now I’m privileged to be an apostle of Jesus, forgiven.” What is known about Matthew after the ascension is that he preached the Gospel in a region known as Ethiopia, but not the nation of Ethiopia as we know it, but a region south of the Caspian Sea, Persia, Macedonia, and/or Syria.

The words of Jesus in Matthew 28:20 is a beloved promise for believers. Jesus reaffirms His mission. “"Behold, the virgin shall conceive in her womb, and will bear a son. And they will call His name Emmanuel," which being interpreted is, God with us.” (Matthew 1:23) His presence is always with us through the Holy Spirit. The principle is that God is One. There is nothing that the Holy Spirit reveals to us that Jesus and the Father don’t know about and want us to know. “However, when He, the Spirit of Truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He shall not speak of Himself, but whatever He hears, He shall speak. And He will announce to you things to come.” (John 16:13) Through the Holy Spirit we can know the Father’s and Jesus’ will for us. And because we have the Holy Spirit and commune with the Holy Spirit, we are in the presence of the Father and Jesus always.

Jesus made us another promise earlier. “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there I am in their midst.” (Matthew 18:20) The physical manifest presence of Jesus is in the midst of us when two or three of us get together. It follows another promise. “Again, I say to you that if two of you shall agree on earth as regarding anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them by My Father in Heaven.” (Matthew 18:19) We gather in His Name and our petitions are heard by Jesus Who is present and granted by the Father. The end! We are not going into all the factors of why we don’t see the answer to our petitions. This is a promise from Jesus. We either believe it or not. No human reasoning and worldly interpretation can excuse all the rationale we may come up with for why our prayer wasn’t answered.

In talking to His disciples about the Holy Spirit Who would come and be their Comforter, Jesus said, “I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you.” (John 14:18) That word “come,” has many meanings, including accompany and appear. There are many things that Jesus said speaking of the future that the disciples didn’t understand or that could be taken various ways. In the disciples’ simple life and without the Holy Spirit, they didn’t consider anything out of the world that they knew. It was not until the Holy Spirit indwelled that they understood spiritual things as evident by the Scriptures.

The promise is until the end of the “end of the world.” One of the meanings is the end of the dispensation of the world. Every generation of Christians has thought they would see the end of the world, but there is so much to come before there is an end to this world. There is the rapture of the saints, the Second Coming of Christ, the Thousand Year reign of Christ, then the new heaven and the new earth. Even if the rapture were today, it will be at least a thousand years before there is an end to this world. So until then, Jesus will be with us. That’s a long time.