How Was Jesus “With Them” Until the End of the Age?
It’s a common assumption that when Jesus said this just before His ascension, He was referring to the Holy Spirit’s presence in the heart of all believers. But does the Bible actually support this idea?
The first thing we must address is the elephant in the room: the age in which Jesus spoke these words. In the Olivet Discourse, Jesus describes the consumation of the then-present age as being concurrent with the destruction of Herod’s temple. Hebrews and other passages back up Jesus’ words with no uncertainty. Prophetic texts like Daniel, which Jesus quoted in the discourse, support the same.
What’s this all mean? Simply put: Jesus promised he “would be with” the listeners at His ascension, and anyone He inserted into the group, until the destruction of Herod’s temple …which would end the then-present age.
Now unless you believe Holy Spirit that those early believers received in response to their salvation was to leave them in AD 70, we must look for a different form of Holy Spirit presence.
Let’s look at Acts chapter 8:
4 Now those who were scattered went about preaching the word. 5 Philip went down to the city of Samaria and proclaimed to them the Christ. 6 And the crowds with one accord paid attention to what was being said by Philip, when they heard him and saw the signs that he did. 7 For unclean spirits, crying out with a loud voice, came out of many who had them, and many who were paralyzed or lame were healed. 8 So there was much joy in that city.
I’d think you’d agree with me that Philip was doing things that we Christians today, as much as we’d like to, just aren’t capable of performing. But to make people THINK we could do such would require the same type of magic tricks that a contemporary of Philip we call Simon the Sorcerer was pulling:
9 But there was a man named Simon, who had previously practiced magic in the city and amazed the people of Samaria, saying that he himself was somebody great. 10 They all paid attention to him, from the least to the greatest, saying, “This man is the power of God that is called Great.” 11 And they paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magic.
But Simon got out-“magic’d” by Philip, and being so impressed by both the signs Philip was doing and the message he was preaching, with its transformative effect on his audience, Simon himself got saved.
12 But when they believed Philip as he preached good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. 13 Even Simon himself believed, and after being baptized he continued with Philip. And seeing signs and great miracles performed, he was amazed.
And what happens when one gets saved? That’s right, you receive the Holy Spirit, as Simon did. But wait, that wasn’t enough Holy Spirit for the believers in Samaria, for look what happened next:
14 Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent to them Peter and John,15 who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Catch that? They had “only” been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Isn’t that enough to receive the Holy Spirit? I mean, that fulfills BOTH the Baptist, and the church of Christ requirements. That’s good enough for both John MacArthur and Irenaeus. They should have been more than good, right, when it comes to Holy Spirit filling?
Here’s the key: there’s 2 types of Holy Spirit filling: the first is the indwelling upon salvation, and the second was a supernatural gift to perform signs that gave power to the testimony of the early church. It was transferred by the laying on of hands from the apostles. See the scripture:
17 Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. 18 Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,19 saying, “Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.”
You see, the man who had made his money with magic, immediately fell into the sin of coveting this miraculous presence and power, as he saw the potential to substantially increase his earnings.
Could this miraculous power to enhance the message of the gospel possibly have been the presence that Jesus was referring to when He said, “I am with you to the end of the age?”
I believe we can find a convincing answer by studying the parallel gospels, which each give various details of the conversation just before the ascension of Jesus. Let’s start in Luke 24:
50 And he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them. 51 While he blessed them, he parted from them and was carried up into heaven. 52 And they worshiped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, 53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.
One could make the case here that lifting of hands by Jesus and the blessing may have been the imparting of that miraculous presence and power, but it’s not exactly a “slam-dunk” passage to prove that point. It is however interesting to see the hands, the blessing, and the temple being mentioned in light of what we’ve already established. Still, I think we can do better. Let’s look at Mark 16:
15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” 19 So then the Lord Jesus, after he had spoken to them, was taken up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.
There’s the slam dunk passage worthy of ESPN’s highlight reel. Notice that the signs were the Lord working with them. This should clear up any and all confusion you may have ever had about the miraculous powers that many early believers received. And now you know exactly why they don’t exist today. All we had to do was look at the Bible!