He Was There
I don't always like making promises to my kids. I'll say something like, 'I will try my best'; but just as soon as I promise, something beyond my control comes up. I've had the best intentions, but something happens and my schedule and plans go right out the window. I've been in several car accidents over the past decades, gotten calls about unexpected funerals, had my own medical emergencies - something big comes up and changes everything and my good intentions mean nothing.
Now sadly, that's just a part of life. I'm not in control of events. I can't predict the future. Sometimes I'm surprised, and I can't always keep my promises. Fortunately, we serve a God who's never surprised and who always keeps His promises.
There's one promise I want us to look at that can help when things don't always go as we've planned. We find this promise from Jesus right at the end of the Great Commission...
Matthew 28:18-20 (NIV)
Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. (19) Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (20) and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
That's a pretty big promise to make - "I am with you always." I couldn't make that promise. I'm limited. I can't be everywhere. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. But Jesus can make that promise.
When Jesus said, "I am with you always" - that's not just something He casually threw out there. I want to explore that promise and its implications. Because when we step back and look at the whole story of Scripture, we discover something remarkable. When we pay close attention to scripture, we see, He was there...
I. In the beginning
Most of us naturally think about the story of Jesus beginning in the New Testament. We picture Mary, Joseph and the baby in the manger at Bethlehem. But that's not where Jesus began. In fact, Jesus didn't begin at all.
Jesus didn't simply show up in Bethlehem. He was there - before Bethlehem. He was there - throughout the Old Testament. And if we go all the way back to the beginning - Jesus was there...
A. In creation
I've shared this before, but I like it so much - and it's essential to our understanding of who Jesus is...
Genesis 1:1-3 (NIV)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (2) Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. (3) And God said, "Let there be light," and there was light.
Did you catch that? God said. God spoke - and creation happened. Now look at that same beginning recorded from another perspective...
John 1:1-3 (NIV)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was with God in the beginning. (3) Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
And then John tells us exactly who this Word is, in John 1:14 (NIV)...
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John is teaching us something absolutely incredible! The Word who was with God... The Word who was God... The Word through whom all things were made...became flesh.
Jesus didn't just show up in the New Testament. Before there was a Bethlehem... Before there was an Israel... Before there was an Abraham or Moses or David... Before there was a world - Jesus was there! And John isn't the only writer who tells us this. Paul says it even more explicitly, speaking about Jesus, in Colossians 1:15-17 (NIV)...
He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. (16) For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. (17) He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
That is who Jesus is! And in order to grasp this more fully - we need to understand - The Bible is not just a collection of unrelated stories. It's one story. - Years ago, my sister gave my daughter Josie "The Jesus Storybook Bible". I want to read just a short passage from that book for you...
"The Bible isn't a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It's an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back His lost treasure. It's a love story about a brave Prince who leaves His palace, His throne - everything – to rescue the one He loves.
You see, the best thing about this story is – it's true. There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves His children and comes to rescue them.
It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of this story, there is a baby. Every Story in the Bible whispers His name. He is like the missing piece of the puzzle – the piece that makes all the other pieces fit together, and suddenly you can see a beautiful picture.
And this is no ordinary baby. This is the Child upon whom everything would depend. This is the Child who would one day – but wait. Our story starts where all good stories start. Right at the very beginning…"
That's a beautiful way to think about Scripture. Because Jesus doesn't suddenly just appear in the New Testament, He was there...
B. In the Old Testament
Now, when we read the Old Testament, we find prophecies about the coming Messiah. And those prophecies matter. The coming of the Jewish Messiah, the Christ, was foretold hundreds of years before Jesus' birth. For example, it says this in Micah 5:2 (NIV)...
But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.
The birthplace of the Messiah was prophesied as Bethlehem and Jesus was born in Bethlehem. And Jesus would have been very familiar with those words written by Micah when He spoke the words, 'I am with you always.' Because the Jesus who spoke those words had been there long before Micah ever wrote his words. And one more passage from the Old Testament, a prophecy from the book of Psalms 22:16-18 (NIV)...
Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet. (17) I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me. (18) They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.
And of course, we find in the New Testament that Jesus was executed by crucifixion, His hands and feet pierced, and that soldiers cast lots for His clothing. The Old Testament was pointing forward to Jesus long before His birth.
But I want us to go one step further. Jesus wasn't only prophesied about in the Old Testament. He was there. And one of the most fascinating places we see this is in the book of Isaiah...
Isaiah 6:1-5 (NIV)
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. (2) Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. (3) And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
(4) At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. (5) "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
Isaiah records that he saw the glory of God! Now, fast-forward about 700 years. Jesus was teaching in Jerusalem, and the Apostle John quotes Isaiah's words about people who would see but not really see, and hear but not really understand. And then John makes this remarkable statement...
John 12:40-41 (NIV)
"He has blinded their eyes and deadened their hearts, so they can neither see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, nor turn - and I would heal them." (41) Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him.
Now stop there for a moment. Who is the "Him"? John just quoted Isaiah, then he tells us why Isaiah said these things: because Isaiah saw His glory and spoke about Him. - The 'Him' is Jesus! John is talking about Jesus! John says Isaiah saw His glory - hundreds of years before Jesus was born! That's an astonishing statement! But that fits perfectly with what John has already told us about the Word becoming flesh.
I love moments like this in Scripture. Because sometimes you'll read something in the Old Testament and think, 'That's interesting.' But then you get to the New Testament and suddenly another biblical writer picks up that same passage and says, 'Let me show you something you might have missed.' It's almost as though Scripture folds back onto itself...
Genesis tells us what happened. John takes us back to the beginning and helps us understand Who was there. Isaiah tells us what he saw. John tells us Whose glory Isaiah was seeing. And suddenly these passages that were written hundreds of years apart help us understand each other on a deeper level.
Jesus was there in creation. He was there throughout the Old Testament. He was there in Isaiah's vision. And when He physically came to earth, He made a promise...
II. He will be there
And here's where this gets personal - The One who was there in the beginning came to be with us!
The incarnation - God in the flesh - is incredible! God didn't simply send us a message. God didn't just send another prophet. God didn't merely give us a list of rules and tell us to do our best. God came to us! He knew we couldn't reach up to Him, so "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us."
The same Jesus who was there in the beginning promised...
A. He is with us
Think about what that means. The One who was there when the universe was created...was there in Bethlehem. The One who was there in Isaiah's vision...was there in a manger. The One who created the world...walked on the roads of Galilee. The One who was eternal...experienced death. And He did it because He loved us.
And now back to the promise we started with, that second part of Matthew 28:20b (NIV)...
And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.
Do you hear that differently now? Jesus isn't just making a sentimental promise. He's telling us who He is. He is God with us.
And the One who says, "I am with you always," is the One who has always been there.
And that's important for us because life doesn't always go the way we think it should. We make plans. We have good intentions. And then something happens. An accident. A diagnosis. A funeral. A financial problem. A broken relationship. Something we never saw coming. And suddenly our plans change.
And many times we don't understand why. Sometimes we don't know what God is doing. Sometimes we may even wonder where God is.
But Jesus says, "I am with you always." We may not know what tomorrow holds. But Jesus does. We may not understand what's happening. But Jesus isn't surprised. We may feel alone. But we aren't alone. He is with us.
He will be there. He will be with us, and...
B. He is coming back!
Shortly after Jesus gave His promise that He will be with us always, we find the events of Acts 1:9-11 (NIV)...
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight. (10) They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them. (11) "Men of Galilee," they said, "why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven."
Notice those words - "This same Jesus." The Jesus who was there in creation. - This same Jesus. The Jesus who was there throughout the Old Testament. - This same Jesus. The Jesus who came to earth.
- This same Jesus. The Jesus who died on the cross. - This same Jesus. The Jesus who rose from the grave. - This same Jesus is coming back! The story isn't over.
And that's important because sometimes life can make us feel like 'this' is all there is. But the story of Scripture reminds us: He was there before any of 'this' began. He was there throughout the history of His people. He came to be with us. He was there at the cross. He rose from the grave, and - He is coming back!
So What?
So what does all of this mean for us? It means that when Jesus says, "I am with you always," we can believe Him. And that's why, when our plans fall apart, we don't have to assume that God's plan has fallen apart. When we don't understand what's happening, we can remember - He was there.
So if you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior, keep the faith! Keep looking forward to His promised return and live like people who know that there is more than just this life!
And if you haven't accepted Jesus, then perhaps the most important question you can ask isn't simply, "What do I believe about Christianity?" It's, "Who is Jesus?" Because if Jesus really is who the Bible says He is...
then He isn't merely someone who lived 2,000 years ago. He was there in the beginning. He was there throughout God's plan. He came to be with us. He died for us. He rose for us. He is with us now. And He is coming back for us!