The Apostolic Commission

W. Carl Ketcherside

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     Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age.

     This is the final paragraph of the account of the Good News as penned by Matthew, a former imperial customs-officer at Capernaum, who abandoned his office and political appointment to follow Jesus of Nazareth. The quotation is as it appears in the Revised Standard Version, and it is an improvement over the rendering given by the scholars selected by King James to produce a revised version which he could authorize to be read in Anglican churches, of which he claimed to be the titular head.

     The King James Version has Jesus saying, "All power is given unto me," but the original for power is exousia which properly refers to delegated authority. Universal authority belongs to the God of the universe. He bestowed it upon His Son when he was raised from the dead. The reign of Jesus is not timeless either as respects its commencement or termination. It will continue only until he has subdued all his enemies. The last one to be destroyed will be death. "God has put all things in subjection under his feet" (1 Cor. 15:27).

     "Make disciples" is far better than "teach" as found in the King James Version. The original is the word for enlisting, enrolling or signing up students. It was a recruiting word, a term for soliciting and securing students to be taught in a scholastic institution.

     On the night before his betrayal, Jesus informed his disciples that after he was raised up he would go before them into Galilee (Mark 14:28). Accordingly, the angel at the empty tomb told Mary Magdalene and the other Mary, to inform the disciples that they would see him in Galilee. On the way, Jesus met the women and said, "Go tell my brethren to go to Galilee and there they will see me."

     The eleven went to the mountain in Galilee which Jesus had previously pointed out as a meeting place. We do not know why he chose to give his authoritative instructions in Galilee, but it was familiar territory for the eleven, all of whom were Galileans. Jesus was born in Judea, and the only Judean among the apostles was Judas Iscariot. The last word is a form of Ish Kerioth, meaning "man of Kerioth," a city in Judea. Judas was no longer with them.

     There are a lot of conjectures about what Jesus said to the apostles upon this occasion, and a good deal of hazy thinking, as I view it. It is generally designated "the great commission," but no inspired writer ever so referred to it, and the expression is certainly unscriptural, although it is not anti-scriptural. It is almost universally assumed that it was given to the church, and that we still operate under its terms, but a little calm reasoning will show that this assumption is without warrant and groundless. The church could not carry it out if it had been given the responsibility.

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     The fact is that it was given to individuals, the apostles, and they completely fulfilled it during their lifetime, as special ambassadors to every nation under heaven. It was the second commission given to them. The first was also given in Galilee. It was limited in scope because Jesus was not yet in authority. He was operating under authority. Since he was sent "only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24), he said to the apostles, "Go nowhere among the Gentiles, and enter no town of the Samaritans, but go rather to the lost sheep of Israel" (Matthew 10:5, 6). They accomplished that mission. "And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere" (Luke 9:6).

     The second commission was given to the same group of men. The church is no more under it than under the first. The church had not even been planted when the apostles received the two commissions. Jesus had been raised from the dead before the second was given, and with universal authority he could direct his ambassadors to enroll disciples or followers from all nations. In order to do this they would need the ability to speak foreign languages which were new to them. God never commissions anyone to do a thing without empowering him to do it, so the ambassadors were empowered to address any people in their language.

     Jesus associated intimately with the apostles whom he had chosen for forty days after his resurrection. He assured them they would receive the necessary power for universal testimony. He said, "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth." This was spoken only to the apostles and never to anyone else. Accordingly, when the Holy Spirit came upon them they received the power to equip them to communicate verbally with and to enroll disciples of all nations. "Devout men from every nation under heaven...each one heard them speaking in his own language" (Acts 2:5, 6).

     The command to the ambassadors was to "Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to all creation." Mark, who according to Eusebius, the father of church historians, wrote "the memoirs of Peter" said, "And they went forth and preached everywhere." Jesus told them to go, and they went. The apostles had to fulfill their commission during their lifetime or they did not fulfill it at all. I am as firmly convinced they carried out the second commission as I am that they carried out the first.

     When Paul wrote to the Romans, he affirmed, "So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes by the preaching of Christ." Then he asks, "Have they not heard?" His answer is, "Indeed they have, for their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world" (Romans 10:18). When he wrote the Colossians he specifically said the gospel had been preached to every creature under heaven (1:23). All the earth! The ends of the world! Every creature under heaven! This represents completion of the apostolic commission.

     It had to be thus because Jesus declared that the gospel should be "preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations" before the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of the Jewish system of worship (Matthew 24: 14). The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob had selected Jerusalem as the center of His worship. The temple had been built at his authorization. His Shekinah, or glory, rested there. He was unwilling for all this to be destroyed by alien hands until every nation had ambassadorial notice that the rule of heaven had been established and the king had proclaimed, "Neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, shall men worship the Father."

     Jesus gave full instructions to his followers about what to do when Jerusalem was besieged by the Roman armies. In answer to the question of the apostles, "Tell us, when shall these things be?" he replied, "And the gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come."

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     E. M. Zerr in his commentary says, "The end means the end of Jerusalem, as the climax of the war. That event occurred in 70 A. D., and the Gospel was to have been offered to all nations of the (civilized) world by that time. Hence the great commission of the apostles was fulfilled in the first century."

     B. W. Johnson, commenting on the statement of Jesus, writes, "The gospel was preached throughout the Roman empire, the world of the New Testament, before A. D. 70." He says the end refers to the end of the Jewish state. Albert Barnes calls it, "The end of the Jewish economy. The destruction of the temple and city." J. W. McGarvey, in his Commentary on Matthew and Mark has an explicit note which you should read in full. He says the end referred to the destruction of the temple, and that the gospel had been preached in all the world before that event. This has always been my position since I began the study of Matthew 24. I have read nothing to influence me to alter it.

     To summarize, let me repeat again that the commission under consideration was not given to the church, but to the apostles as individuals. We do not operate under it, because it was fulfilled by those who were charged with it. Only those who were empowered to speak all the languages of the earth could go into all nations and proclaim the good news. I am quite convinced that the apostles could speak in other languages than those they had learned, and that these were new tongues to them. I am just as convinced that no one today can communicate with people in all languages, dialects and tongues, directly and without assistance. The apostles were unique. They were ambassadors of the King and I respect their authority as received from Him. As a matter-of-fact I am built upon them as a foundation with Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone.