Lo, I am with you
By Richard P. Joseph
7/9/2026
After Jesus had risen from the grave he met with his disciples multiple times for the next 40 days. Matthew and Mark, for some odd reason that I can’t figure out, only recorded a short abbreviated account of this important time period, while John and Luke give a much more robust description of the same events. If someone has a good explanation, please share it with me. However, today, I would like to focus on Matthew 28:19-20
19 [g]Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to [h]follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you [i]always, to the end of the age.”
Jesus told his disciples that he would be with them always, even to the end of the age. I hear this passage used today as if it applies to us. Of course they can do that because most people believe that the end of the age is still upon us. So, is Jesus with us today or not?
There are two immediate problems with that belief. The first and most obvious is the question of when was the end of the age. Anyone who has read my past articles already knows that the end of the age was the time between the resurrection and the fall of Jerusalem in AD70. The evidence for that is undisputable and therefore I will not spend any more time in this article hashing over it. The second problem comes from what Jesus actually said..
Matthew 26:11 For you always have the poor with you; but you do not always have Me.
Jesus told his disciples that the world will always have poor people but they will not always have him. So, what really was Jesus telling his disciples about his presence with us?
It is my belief that he was commissioning his apostles with what we might call the charismata. The apostles had spiritual gifts that we do not possess today. They were able to perform all manner of miraculous deeds that we simply do not see today. This leads me to the conclusion that Jesus was with the disciples until they left this earth in a way that he is not with us today. We have the Holy Spirit with us but we do not possess the charismata that the apostles once had.
1Corinthians 13:8
8 Love never fails; but if there are gifts of [a]prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with.
Paul reminds us that those gifts will fade away and they have. No one today has the ability to write scripture or to raise the dead. However, the Holy Spirit can help us interpret scripture and pray for healing. God still has that ability but we, as individuals, do not. So, while miracles still happen, they are done randomly by God and perhaps by prayer but not as a gift of any one individual. All is for the glory of God and not of man.
