I mean, I lean on the fact that it’s the power and the purpose of God that is behind everything. And the promise of power comes in the promise of presence. Do you see that? I am with you. I am with you…no less than I Myself. And when He went away He said, “I’m going to go away but I will come to you.” Remember that? “In the form of the Spirit, I will come to you.” The Lord is with us. He is in us. And He is empowering us. Oh what power. “I, no less than I the resurrected Christ with power over death am with you.” Isn’t that great? This is the one who has power over demons, power over disease, power over sin, power over death. He’s with us.
You say, “Yeah, but how often?” You tell me. How often? “All the days,” the Greek says, “All the days…all the days.” Literal days, all the days, He’ll be with us all the days until the consummation of the age. Not the word “end.” “End” just means something stopped. Consummation is the word sunteleia means to translate…consummation. That is the consummation of many diverse elements into a grand finale.
Now what does He mean by this sunteleia? What is this? Teleos means the ending, sun means to come together…so the coming together of all the ending events. He uses it here and three other times, those other three times are in Matthew 13. And in Matthew 13, the three times he uses it it always speaks of the Second Coming. So what the Lord is saying is so wonderful. He’s saying, “I’m with you all the days until my Second Coming.” You say, “But what about that…what about after that?” Well, after that He’ll be here, that’s not a problem. Until I’ll get here, I’ll be here, is what He’s saying. Don’t worry about it, I’m coming again and until I come again I’ll be here.
The end of the ages is the Second Coming to be followed by the Kingdom of Christ. So He says until I come in My Kingdom, I’ll be there in My presence. Isn’t that great? So the task of reaching the world is a task that is made possible by the power of Christ who is present in us…in us. And no wonder Paul says, “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all he can ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” And no wonder Matthew said “Amen…so let it be.” I mean, I can get into this great commission now. I understand that what God wants out of me is availability. What He wants from me is a worshiping heart that’s totally centered on Him and not the junk of the world. What He wants is a submissive spirit that says, “Whatever You ask, Lord, I’ll do it.” And then when I hear it, He wants obedience. And what He gives me in return is not only all the commands and all the orders and all the right instruction, but the power of His own presence to pull it off and make it happen. So let it be. Let’s bow in prayer.
And with your head bowed, I want you to listen to something. A few years ago I shared this with you and I want you to hear it again because I think it’s so profound. It’s a little story.
On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little lifesaving station. The building was just a hut and there was only one boat but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea and with no thought for their safety went out day and night, tirelessly rescuing the lost. Many lives were saved by this wonderful little lifesaving station. So it became famous.
Some of those who were saved and various others in the surrounding area wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and crews were trained and the little life station grew.
Some of the members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt a more comfortable place should be provided, as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots and beds and put better furniture in the large building.
Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely because they used it as sort of a club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions so they hired lifeboat crews to do the work.
The lifesaving motif still prevailed in the club’s decorations and there was a liturgical lifeboat in the room where club initiations were held. And about this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast and the hired crews brought in loads of cold, wet, half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was considerably messed up. So, the property committee immediately had a shower house built outside the club where the victims of shipwrecks could be cleaned up before coming inside.
At the next meeting there was a split in the club membership and most of the members wanted to stop the lifesaving activity because they were a hindrance and unpleasant to the normal social life of the club. Some members insisted on lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out they were still a lifesaving station after all. They were finally voted down and told if they wanted to save the lives of various kinds of people shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast…which they did.
As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that occurred in the old. It evolved into a club and another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself and if you visit that coast today, you’ll find a number of exclusive clubs along the shore, shipwrecks are still frequent but most of the people drown.
It’s easy for the church, isn’t it, to lose sight of what it is…so easy. How about you?
Father, I pray for every person here that each of us because we have heard all these many years the gospel of Jesus Christ, that in faithfulness we will stand with those people on that hillside in Galilee and hear the great commission and willingly go as they went. And we are the fruit of their going. O God, may there be a generation who are the fruit of our going. Help us to deal with our lives, our time, our money, our opportunities, everything for the sake of the Savior and eternity and to know we’re here for one reason, to miss that is to miss everything. Work in every life and we pray in Christ’s name. Amen.
“This article originally appeared here at Bible Bulletin Board.”
