Who was the Great Commission given to?
This is the fifteenth in a series of blog posts in which we are seeking to answer one overarching question—is a properly qualified administrator essential to valid baptism? The first post introducing the series can be found here.
After carefully reviewing every instance of baptism in the New Testament, we concluded in our last post that there is no implicit scriptural command that baptism must be performed by an administrator who has been authorized by a local church.
Next, we’ll be considering the proposition that this is an explicit scriptural command that arises from the Great Commission. Some Baptists have argued that:
The Great Commission was given to the local church as an institution.
The Great Commission is an exclusive mandate which prohibits anyone else from carrying out its directives.
Baptism is commanded in the Great Commission.
Therefore, only local churches may authorize the administration of baptism.
In this post, we’ll begin addressing the first premise of this argument by asking, who was the Great Commission given to?
The phrase “the Great Commission” is not a scriptural term, but it has been used in English since the late 16th century to refer to commands that Christ gave to the apostles after his resurrection and prior to his ascension. Although the phrase has most often been associated with the last few verses of the Gospel of Matthew, the Great Commission in its broadest sense describes an age-long period of worldwide gospel proclamation, and it involves a number of important passages.
In terms of New Testament chronology, there are three distinct events which are relevant to the Great Commission. Mark 16:14-18, Luke 24:33-49, and John 20:19-23 record an appearance of Jesus to his followers in Jerusalem that occurred in the evening of the very same day of his resurrection. Matthew 28:16-20 relates a later appearance of Jesus to his disciples on an unnamed mountain in Galilee. Finally, Acts 1:1-9 describes commands given by Jesus in Jerusalem immediately prior to his ascension.
We will now briefly review each of these passages, with a special emphasis on who Jesus is addressing. We’ll begin with Mark 16 (in accordance with the text found in nearly all extant Greek manuscripts):
Afterward he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.
And he said unto them, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe; in my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.” (Mark 16:14-18)
In this passage, Jesus is said to appear to “the eleven” (v. 14)—that is, the twelve original apostles, minus Judas. Although others were surely present on this occasion, what Jesus says here he says to “them” (v. 15), a pronoun which can have no other antecedent than “the eleven” just mentioned in the previous verse. Therefore, Jesus is here commanding the eleven apostles to go into all the world and preach the gospel.
In Luke 24, Jesus appears to the eleven and other disciples right as the two on the road to Emmaus were explaining how he had just appeared to them:
And they rose up the same hour, and returned to Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered together, and them that were with them, saying, “The Lord is risen indeed, and hath appeared to Simon.” And they told what things were done in the way, and how he was known of them in breaking of bread.
And as they thus spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith unto them, “Peace be unto you.” …
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures, and said unto them, “Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.” (Luke 24:33-49)
In this account, it is clear that more than just the eleven apostles are present—we have not only “the eleven” (v. 33), but also “them that were with them”, as well as the two additional disciples who had encountered Jesus on the road. The subject of Jesus’ address beginning in verse 36 is just the ambiguous pronoun “them”. Is he speaking here to all of the disciples, or just to the eleven?
There are good reasons to understand Jesus as specifically addressing the eleven apostles. The first clue is Jesus’ statement in verse 48 that “ye are witnesses of these things.” While it’s true that all of the disciples present were seeing this appearance and would no doubt tell others, the apostles were witnesses of the resurrection in a special sense. It is in this sense, for example, that Peter insisted that a replacement for Judas must be “be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrection” (Acts 1:22).
We find another clue in Luke’s allusion to this same event in the beginning of Acts. There he writes, “And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me” (1:4). As we will see later, the antecedent for “them” in this verse can only be “the apostles whom he had chosen” (1:2).
John 20 also records this appearance of Jesus to the disciples on the day of his resurrection:
Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, “Peace be unto you.”
And when he had so said, he shewed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.
Then said Jesus to them again, “Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you …” (John 20:19-21)
In this passage, specific terms for “the eleven” or “the apostles” do not appear. Nevertheless, Jesus’ statement that “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” recalls earlier sayings of Jesus in John’s gospel which have special relevance for the eleven apostles.
After the institution of the Lord’s Supper and the departure of the traitor Judas, Jesus speaks intimately with the eleven. He tells them “ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning” (15:27). The concept of witnesses who have been with Jesus from the beginning mirrors Peter’s description of the apostolic office in Acts 1:21-22.
As Jesus prayed for the eleven in John 17, he said, “As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world” (17:18), which is perfectly parallel to his later statement “as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you” (20:21).
He goes on to say, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word” (17:20). This points to the apostles’ unique role in bearing verbal witness to the resurrection, which was ultimately fulfilled in the writing of the New Testament. Indeed, it is still true today that everyone who comes to believe does so through the word of the apostles.
The last five verses of Matthew 28 record a meeting of Jesus with his disciples at a mountain in Galilee:
Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain where Jesus had appointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some doubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, “All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” Amen. (Matthew 28:16-20)
Here, Jesus is explicitly said to address “the eleven disciples” (v. 16). Some have speculated that many other disciples may have also seen Jesus at this time, and this Galilee meeting does seem to be a good candidate for the occasion when, according to Paul, Jesus “was seen of above five hundred brethren at once” (1 Corinthians 15:6).
Nevertheless, even if hundreds of other disciples were indeed present, Jesus specifically addresses the eleven in this text. We read that “Jesus came and spake unto them”, and the only possible antecedent for the pronoun “them” in verse 18 is “the eleven disciples” in verse 16. Jesus is commanding the eleven apostles to go, to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them, and to teach them.
Furthermore, Jesus’ command to teach believers “to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you” also points uniquely to the apostles. It alludes to the years of intensive personal instruction that the apostles had received directly from Jesus. From now on, their job will be to publicly convey to others what Christ had privately conveyed to them. For example, this would include the observance of the Lord’s Supper, which according to all three synoptic gospels, Jesus had instituted only with the twelve (Matthew 26:20, Mark 14:17, Luke 22:14).
Finally, in Acts 1, Jesus commands the apostles just before his ascension:
The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach, until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen: to whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God: and, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, “ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”
When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, “Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel?”
And he said unto them, “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”
And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. (Acts 1:1-9)
This passage begins with a clear statement that Jesus “had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen”. At a minimum, this would include the command to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit, but it likely indicates the entire complex of commands we’ve just been reviewing. Later, Peter simply says that “he commanded us to preach unto the people” (10:42). Regardless, the commands in view here were given to “them”, which can only indicate “the apostles” (1:2).
“The apostles” remains the antecedent for the remainder of this passage. It was the eleven apostles who asked Jesus about the restoration of the kingdom, and they were the ones who Jesus answered. He tells the apostles yet again that, after being empowered by the Holy Spirit, they will be “witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (v. 8).
A little later on, the angels refer to them as “men of Galilee” (v. 11), which would also indicate the apostles, and then each of the eleven apostles is listed by name in verse 13. The remainder of the chapter relates the selection of a new apostle “to be a witness with us of his resurrection” (v. 22), a phrase using the very same word for witness that Jesus had used in his charge just a few verses earlier.
We began by asking, who was the Great Commission given to? As we’ve just seen, whether we consider the Great Commission in the narrowest sense of the specific commands contained in Matthew 28:16-20, or in the wider sense encompassing all of the passages we’ve just reviewed that speak of an enduring gospel witness to all nations throughout the entire course of the present age, it is consistently represented in scripture as a work that will be carried out by the special witnesses chosen by the Lord Jesus himself—the apostles.
This raises many questions, of course. If the Great Commission was given to the apostles, did they complete it during their lifetimes? Did they convey it to others? How are we to understand Jesus’ statement that “I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 16:20)? Does the Great Commission continue in any sense in our own day? If so, who should do the work of evangelism today?
These are all good questions, and ones we hope to begin to answer next time. Nevertheless, we must begin with the exegetical bedrock we’ve just established—the Great Commission was given to the apostles.