"I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS"
(Read Matthew 28:18-20)
The simple thing I want to do in this sermon is to ask two questions about the Lord's promise to be with us always. They are:
1. In what sense?
2. What guarantees the fulfillment of this promise?
Let's start with the second question. Why? Because as soon as w've understand what guarantees that the promise is fulfilled, it will automatically become clear in what sense the promise is being fulfilled.
So, what guarantees the promise?
I'll answer with three words: life, love, and might.
The LIFE of the Risen Christ guarantees that He is with us: He lives! Nothing can limit Him now.
John 5:21-- For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it.
John 5:26-- For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself.
Conquering death itself, God's Son is now, for those who've entrusted themselves to Him, the continual, inexhaustible source of life. "I am with you always"--yes, for He's always alive, and will eternally remain the incarnation of that Life that has given us new birth by God's love.
And that, it just so happens, is the second component of the answer to my question: what guarantees this promise? The first part was Life; the second is Love.
God is love. "For God so loved the world that He gave His Only-Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." "I am with you always." Yes, because He loves us, created us, redeemed us, gave us a second birth into His kingdom, and why? Out of love--pure, divine, original, all-preceding, holy, eternal love. It's God's love that draws us to repentance and then keeps us in covenant with Him.
Philippians 1:6-- Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
In that love, precisely, that in the unfathomable depth of timeless eternity abounds between the Father and Son. In that very love the Risen Son is working to present us to His Father for the joy of His beloved Father.
I think the apostle Paul, in the Spirit of Christ, deeply partook of this desire, and expressed this feeling when he wrote:
Colossians 1:28-29-- He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.
Ephesians 5:27-- And to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
"I am with you always", says the Lord. He declared it in the might of conquering Life, in the might of unquenchable Love. The Lord said these words in Might. That's the third component of the guarantee.
God keeps, maintains, realizes His promise because He is God Almighty. "Who then can be saved?", the disciples asked Jesus one day in bewilderment. And the Lord answered, "With man it is impossible, but with God everything is possible."
And mark well that the Lord, at the very moment He pronounced those words, already knew with fearsome lucidity what would be demanded of Him so that His Father could consummate, for us, this with-God-possible impossible....
Possible, but not easy. Possible, but not without cost. Possible, but demanding the Lamb of God's very last drop of love, might and love.
And we? We're the recipients of this gift, the gift confirmed by Christ's resurrection, the resurrection by which, in the words of the apostle Peter, "the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to magnificent mercy, gave us new birth."
His unconquerable Life, His unquenchable Love, and His indomitable might guarantee and comprise the force and power of these majestic words: "To me is given all authority in heaven and on earth...and, behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
All that remains here is to answer the first question that I asked: in what sense is Christ with us? In other words, what does this promise mean in our daily life? Well, in one word: MUCH! So much that I can't possibly sum it all up in one, or even a thousand sermons. But particularly during this time of quarantine, a time of isolation, maybe loneliness and melancholy, an anxious time full of concern for those near and dear to us, and not only, at such a time the Promise of Christ--that is, the personal word of assurance to us from the Risen, Returning King of kings Jesus--means that our isolation is filled with His presence, and not only His presence but His appointment, providence and fruitfulness.
The prophet Isaiah summoned the nation of his day: "Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near."
Who then, in Isaiah's day, could have imagined the unfathomable way in which God would make Himself Immanuel, God-with-us, always near, faithfully keeping His people, in the face of the Only-Begotten Son Jesus Christ?
We, however, don't have to "imagine" but abide--abide in the power of His promise, ceaselessly trusting ourselves to Him with that same confidence that rings in the words of the apostle: "I know Him Whom I have believed, and I am confident that He is able to keep that which I have entrusted to Him against that day."
Our God lives! Christ is risen!
