<p>14:27 <i>Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do I give it to you. Let not your heart be disturbed, neither let it be fearful</i>-&nbsp; &ldquo;&rsquo;Peace&rsquo; &lsquo;<i>shalom</i>&rsquo;- the usual Semitic greeting is my farewell to you&rdquo; is an example of how He seems to have almost purposefully delighted in using language in a startlingly different way. There are times when the Lord Jesus seems to have almost coined words. The gift of the Spirit would be the source of peace with God, which is how &quot;peace&quot; is commonly used in the Bible. Therefore they need have no fear before God, troubled thoughts about the outcome of judgment day; see on :1. The peace given would affect their heart; the gift of the Spirit in view was primarily internal, in the heart. &quot;My peace&quot; refers to the peace which the Lord had with the Father, with no barriers. This is another way of saying what He does so often in this section- that the Spirit was enabling them to have the same relationship with the Father which He had. His <i>shalom</i> peace was not as the Jewish world could give it; each time He called out <i>shalom </i>across the street or to the guys at work each morning, He meant it. And He perceived that it would take His death on the cross to really achieve what He was giving to them in His words. &nbsp;</p><p>The Lord&rsquo;s commission to His preachers comes along with a promise that He would &ldquo;be with them always&rdquo;. This is perhaps Matthew&rsquo;s equivalent to John&rsquo;s promise of the Comforter, who would abide with the Lord&rsquo;s people for ever. The promise of Holy Spirit support in the work of fulfilling the great commission is not necessarily fulfilled in the ability to do miracles etc. It was in the first century, but not today. Yet the promise that &ldquo;I am with you always, even as you fulfil my commission to preach unto the ends of the world&rdquo;, is surely fulfilled in the promised Comforter, who is to &lsquo;abide with us for ever&rsquo;. What does this mean? The Comforter clearly refers to the personal presence of Jesus, even though He is not visibly with us:</p><div align=center><table border=0 cellspacing=6 cellpadding=0>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>            <b>The Comforter</b></p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p><b>The   Lord Jesus</b></p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>Will come   into the world</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>Jn. 5:   43; 16:28; 18:37</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>Comes   forth from the Father</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>Ditto</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>Given   by the Father</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>Jn.   3:16</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>Sent by   the Father</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>Jn.   3:17</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>The   spirit of truth</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>The   truth Jn. 14:6</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>The   Holy Spirit</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>The   Holy One of God Jn. 6:69</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>The   disciples would know / recognize the Comforter</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>As they   knew / recognized Jesus Jn. 14:7,9</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>Would   remain within the disciples</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>Jn.   14:20,23; 15:4,5; 17:23,26</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>Declares   things to come</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>Jn.   4:25,26</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>Bears   witness, against the world</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>Jn.   8:14; 7:7</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>Not   accepted by the world</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>Jn.   5:43; 12:48</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=318 valign=top>            <p>Unseen   by the world</p>            </td>            <td width=319 valign=top>            <p>Jn.   16:16</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table></div><p>Because of this, the Lord made a clever word play by saying that &ldquo;&lsquo;Peace&rsquo; <i>shalom</i> is my farewell to you&rdquo; (Jn. 14:27)- when &lsquo;Peace&rsquo; was what you said when you met someone, to say &lsquo;Hello&rsquo;. His farewell in the flesh was His &lsquo;hello&rsquo;, in that His personal presence would be with them. This Comforter, this personal presence of Jesus, is given <i>especially in the context of fulfilling the great commission to take Him to the whole world</i>. He will be with us, there will be a special sense of His abiding presence amongst us, because we are witnessing &ldquo;in Him&rdquo;, and our witness is a shared witness with Him. Any who have done any witnessing work, not necessarily missionary work, but any witnessing to Him, will have felt and known His especial presence, as He promised. And we live in a time similar to that when John&rsquo;s Gospel was written- a time when the church were disappointed the Lord had not returned as quickly as they thought He would, when the eyewitnesses of Jesus in the flesh were not with them any longer. John&rsquo;s point is that through the Comforter, it&rsquo;s as good as if Jesus <i>is</i> here with us; and he brings out in his gospel how things like the judgment, eternal life, the coming of Jesus etc. all essentially occur within the life of the believer right now.</p>