Is Jesus still with us today?

The short answer

Jesus promised he would not leave his friends alone. He told them the Father would send the Spirit of truth to live in them, and he said, “I am with you always.” Acts tells how that Spirit came on them at Pentecost.

What the record says

On his last night, Jesus told his friends he was going away. Then he made them a promise:

I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever: the Spirit of truth

John 14:16 to 17

He told them this Spirit would not be far off. “You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you” (John 14:17 to 18).

Matthew ends his Gospel with the same promise, spoken on a mountain in Galilee:

Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.

Matthew 28:20

Acts says about one hundred twenty of his followers waited and prayed together in Jerusalem. Then, at the feast of Pentecost:

Suddenly there came from the sky a sound like the rushing of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. Tongues like fire appeared and were distributed to them, and one sat on each of them.

Acts 2:2 to 3

They went out into the feast crowd. People had come from many countries, and Acts says “everyone heard them speaking in his own language” (Acts 2:6).

Jesus had already told them where to look. “God’s Kingdom is within you,” he said (Luke 17:21).

How Third Day tells it

Third Day is a novel. In the novel he goes by Yeshua, the name his family would have called him. In the last chapter, “The Fire,” one hundred and twenty people sit in an upper room in the summer heat and pray. Their prayers don’t match. No answer comes that anyone can name. Then:

The presence came without sound.

Mary of Magdala lifts her head. Across the room Thomas does the same. Andrew laughs out loud. They go down the stairs into the crowd, and all that afternoon the good news moves through borrowed words, one language handing it to the next. The book ends with no angel and no speech. A girl has fallen by an animal trough. Mary leaves the preaching and kneels beside her, and a stranger brings water in his cupped hands.