So, going back to the gospel of Mark, I need to state again, that it is now accepted that those last verses of it are authentic. (Mark 16: 9-29) I say this because the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, or baptism the with the Holy Spirit is not ended, God restored it definitely to the Church at the beginning of the twentieth century, called the latter rain. But most of the established, humanised Church, did not accept it, including Evangelicals! What the Jews did with the Law, the church, as it likes to be called, this unholy establishment, did with the Gospel; it violated it by replacing its power with precepts of men, Yet, Jesus clearly teaches that men can never, not even the Pope, never mind the country curate, forgive sins, for they are direct acts of rebellion to God! This, they try to do, yet in spite of it, mighty manifestations were/are seen, and experienced in many parts of the world, and millions of Christians have been, since the early days of the twentieth century, and are to this day, baptised with the Holy Spirit, of which the initial evidence is speaking in tongues unknown, but real!

So, Luke ends his gospel with the manifestation of the risen Saviour and His last words to His disciples: ‘This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms. THEN he opened their minds so they could understand the Scriptures. He told them: This is what is written: The Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses to these things! I am going to send you what my Father promised; but stay in the city (Jerusalem) until you have been clothed with power from on high.’ (Luke 24: 44-49) These statements, Luke takes up again in the Book of Acts, so we shall learn more about the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the effect it had on the disciples. Jesus ended his presence on earth, and hundreds of disciples, witnessed His ascension, and in heaven, before the Father, He represents every believer. Jesus remains forever, the greatest example to what true commitment to the service of God, and His glory, means. ‘Not my will, but thine be done.’

Thus, having commented what I did on how Matthew, Mark and Luke ended their gospels, we find that the apostle John begins and ends his quite differently, for it seems that he concentrates mainly on the last few days and hours that Jesus spent with His disciples. Therefore, I shall spend some time with it, because he takes two whole chapters to bring his Gospel to an end; he does it in a most unique fashion, expressing, in His special way, how lovingly Jesus restored His dispirited and gloomy disciples! We see, that, finally, all the disciples really find their mission in the first chapters of Acts, as commented by Luke. The apostle John remains true to his favourite subject, which he expresses so perfectly throughout his Gospel especially in the last two chapters, how Jesus loved the disciples, during the years they followed Him, and then he mentions how lovingly Jesus appeared to them all, and to Peter in a very personal, special way. Peter denied Jesus three times, three times Jesus waited for His confessions in response to very searching questioning, which he ended as it is written: ‘The third time He said to him: Simon, son of John, do you love me? Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time: Do you love me? He said: Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you! (John 21: 17-18) More or less, Peter said: ‘Lord you knew that I would deny you thrice, whereas I was so sure of myself, so now, I am sure that you know whether I love you or not. With what was to happen to him during his life time and with what death he would end His time on earth, Peter needed the strength of true love, for Jesus said to Him: ‘I tell you the truth, when you were younger you dressed yourself and when where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you don’t want to go. Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then He said to him: ‘Follow me’. (John 20:18-19) These very words he heard Jesus said to him three years or a bit more, when he called him, on the shore of the sea of Galilee: ‘Follow me’ That Peter died crucified upside down, as some believe, is an assumption that cannot really be proven.