This past Sunday, I led us through the four great commissions in the four gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.  I thought I would share my word study notes for those who are interested.

Matthew 28:18-20

¹⁸And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. ¹⁹Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, ²⁰and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

• Authority – Greek,Gk. exousia, (Latin,Lt. auctor) – Matt: 7:29 – Jesus taught as one having authority – root of the word author – it means originator or one who has the capacity to speak on the subject with direct insight
• Disciples – metheteuo – to become a pupil, learner: the focus on “becoming” is vital
• All nations – ethnos – people, not geographic boundaries, but all peoples of ages, nations, and races
• Baptizing them – baptizo – Christian baptism, immersion,initiation, and incorporation; different meaning than bapto which also means immersion and used in NT.  (Usage explained: Nicander 200 AD, in his recipe for pickles – “bapto” is to immerse quickly in hot water and bring back up, nature unchanged; “baptizo” is to immerse in the vinegar brine that leads to permanent, substantive change in the cucumber – it becomes immersed and nature is different)
• Teaching them – didasko – causative, prolonged of learn – process long term… impart, instill, discourse – emphasis on long term process, not a single moment of single learning
• To observe, obey – tereo – military term to guard from loss to prevent from escaping, hold fast

Mark 16:15

15 And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the good news to the whole creation.

• Go – poreuomai – to traverse, travel, lead over toward
• Proclaim – kerysso – to herald as a public crier, preach, proclaim – carries with it authority and formality which must be listened to and obeyed, proclamation is major theme of Mark
  • Mark 1:4, 7, John the Baptist proclaiming in the wilderness as a herald,
  • Jesus in Mark 1:14 – Jesus came into Galilee proclaiming the gospel of God saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”
  • Mark 1:38 – Jesus says, “Let us go on to the next towns, that I may preach there also for that is why I came out. And he went throughout Galilee preaching in their synagogues and casting out demons.
  • Mark 1:45 – the leper was told to say nothing by Jesus, but he went out and began to talk freely about it and spread the news – “talking” in v.45 is the word “kerysso” – proclaim, the leper is a herald and proclaimer in his talking about the intervention of Jesus.
  • Mark 6:12 – went out and proclaimed repentance
  • Many other examples of “kerysso” in Mark as a focus for Jesus

Luke 24:46-47

46 and he said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, 47 and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

• Repentance – metanoia – a change of mind, a turning to a new direction (baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins was John’s baptism Luke 3:3)
  • Luke 3:8 – bear fruits in keeping with repentance
  • Luke 5:32 – not come to call righteous, but sinners to repentance
• Forgiveness – aphesis – pardon, freedom, deliverance, liberty – cancellation of a debt – but not only limited to justification status before God…much more implied in Luke’s gospel (see Luke 4 below)
• Proclaimed – kerysso – herald the message
• To all nations – ethnos – every tribe, pagans, Gentiles ALL

Luke 4:18-21

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

• Anointed me – chrio – consecrating one for the office with the powers necessary to accomplish the job – lit. smearing with oil
• Proclaim – kerysso
• Poor – ptochos – one who crouches, beggar, poor – hopeless and powerless to accomplish an end, not “spiritually poor” but literally without the proper resources needed
• Sent me – apostello – set apart and sent out for a specific purpose (proclaim the kingdom of God, teaching, repentence, forgiveness, proclamation, and presence)
• Release is same word as Forgiveness – aphesis – forgiveness, pardon, deliverance, remission, release from bondage
• Captives – aichmalotos – a captive of war – from the tip of the spear
• Blind – typlhos – cloudy, smoky, looking through a fog – blind both literal and figurative
• Oppressed – thrauo – to crush, bruise, break, shatter
• Free – aphesis – again, the same word from chapter 24 for “forgiveness”.  In Luke’s gospel, aphesis means forgiveness, liberty, freedom not JUST from spiritual sin, but also from powers of captivity and oppression that affect the real world people live in.
• Favor – dektos – acceptable by God – this fullness and wholeness of “aphesis” is what is acceptable to the Lord.

John 20:21

21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”

• Peace – eirene – the root “to join”, to become one literally and figuratively, set at one again.  Look at John 17 and Jesus’ prayer of unity.  Not just that the disciples be one (v.11 “that they may be one, as we are one”), but that they also be one with Jesus as Jesus is one with the Father (v.21-23, “that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, [some ancient texts say “one in us”] so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me
• Sent me – apostello – (same phrase in John 17:18) not just “to send” but to send out properly on a mission specified, this means we are not just “sent out” as Jesus was “sent”, we are sent out in the same way Jesus was sent out into the world. As the Father sends Jesus to be he presence in the world, we are sent to be the presence of Christ in the world, the substance of Christ in the world, the Body of Christ and each members of it. (1 Corinthians 12:27)
• I send you – pempo – different word…to send something with someone, to thrust something forward through someone – to transmit and to bestow.  The usage here means we are not simply sent with a mission, but sent loaded with something transmitted through us – something thrusting through us.

Each of the four gospels has a unique commission that all fit together to form our one, Great Commission to invite and incorporate, to teach a lifelong process of learning, to proclaim and herald the Good News, to reconcile and set free those who are oppressed the fullness of forgiveness, and to be sent into the world to be the Body of Christ transmitting the presence of Christ to the world!

Hope this word study is edifying to you as we seek to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world!