What is the Meaning of the Great Commission

What is the Meaning of the Great Commission

Imagine receiving the last words ever spoken to you by the person you love and respect most in the world. Not casual parting words. Not a general farewell. Specific, deliberate, carefully chosen final instructions given with the full weight of everything that person is and everything you have shared together. You would not forget those words. You would spend the rest of your life trying to understand and live them out.

That is exactly the nature of what has become known as the Great Commission, the final words Jesus spoke to His disciples before His ascension into heaven. Recorded across all four Gospels and the book of Acts in slightly different forms the Great Commission represents the culminating mission statement of Jesus' entire earthly ministry, the distilled essence of everything He came to do and everything He was now entrusting to His followers to continue doing until the end of the age.

And yet despite the centrality of the Great Commission to Christian faith and mission it is one of the most misunderstood and most incompletely applied teachings in the entire New Testament. Many believers know the words. Far fewer understand the full depth of what those words mean, what Jesus was actually commanding, what it looks like to obey it in the real circumstances of everyday life, and why He was confident enough in a group of eleven ordinary people to entrust the continuation of His mission to them.

In this study we are going to explore everything about the Great Commission, its context, its content, its commands and its promise, and what it means for every person who claims to follow Jesus today.

The Context: On a Mountain in Galilee

Matthew 28:16-20 records the most complete version of the Great Commission. It took place on a mountain in Galilee, the same region where Jesus had conducted most of His public ministry, the same landscape where He had called His first disciples from their fishing boats, where He had preached the Sermon on the Mount, where He had fed five thousand people and walked on water. This was not neutral ground. This was the ground saturated with the memory of everything Jesus had done and said over three years of ministry.

The disciples had been instructed to go to this specific mountain by the risen Jesus Himself, Matthew 28:10 records Jesus telling the women at the tomb to tell His brothers to go to Galilee where they would see Him. The meeting was deliberate and appointed. Jesus was not improvising His final instructions. He had arranged this gathering specifically to deliver them.

Matthew 28:17 records something that is often glossed over but deserves careful attention: "When they saw him they worshiped him but some doubted." Even at this extraordinary post-resurrection gathering on an appointed mountain with the risen Lord standing before them some of the disciples doubted. The Greek word used here suggests a wavering uncertainty rather than outright unbelief, these were not people who rejected what they were seeing but people who were still struggling to fully comprehend it.

And it was to this group, worshipers and doubters together, the fully convinced and the still-wavering, that Jesus gave the Great Commission. He did not wait for everyone to have their doubts fully resolved before entrusting them with His mission. He commissioned imperfect, still-processing, not-yet-fully-certain followers to carry the most important message the world has ever heard. That should give every believer who feels inadequate or uncertain an enormous amount of encouragement about their own capacity to participate in that same mission today.

The Authority: "All Authority Has Been Given to Me"

Before Jesus gave any command He made a declaration that provides the entire foundation for everything that follows. Matthew 28:18: "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me."

This opening declaration is not a preamble or an introduction. It is the theological ground on which the entire Commission rests and without which the Commission makes no sense. Why should eleven ordinary people from Galilee go to all nations? Because the one sending them has all authority in heaven and on earth. Why should they baptize and teach with confidence? Because they are acting under the authority of the one in whom all authority resides. Why should they not be afraid of rejection, opposition or even persecution? Because the one who commissioned them has authority over every power that could oppose them.

The word all in "all authority" is absolute and comprehensive. Not most authority. Not authority in spiritual matters. Not authority over religious people. All authority. In heaven and on earth. The risen Jesus was declaring that His resurrection had established His universal Lordship over every domain of reality, spiritual and physical, heavenly and earthly, visible and invisible.

Paul expands on this in Philippians 2:9-11 describing how God exalted Jesus to the highest place and gave Him the name above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. The authority Jesus declared in Matthew 28:18 is the same universal authority Paul describes, a authority that is not still being established but that has already been completely and permanently established by the resurrection.

This matters enormously for how we understand and live out the Great Commission. We are not going into the world hoping to persuade people of something that might be true. We are going as ambassadors of the one who already has all authority, the one whose kingdom is already established and whose victory is already won. The mission is not uncertain. The outcome is not in doubt. The question is only whether we will participate in what is already established and already moving forward.

The Command: "Go and Make Disciples"

The heart of the Great Commission is a single imperative verb in the Greek original, matheteusate, which means make disciples. Everything else in the commission, going, baptizing, teaching, is grammatically subordinate to this central command. The mission of the church in its most distilled form is disciple-making.

But what is a disciple? And what does making disciples actually involve? These questions are worth sitting with carefully because the church has often reduced the Great Commission to something much smaller than Jesus intended, either to evangelism alone (making converts) or to church attendance (filling buildings) or to theological education (imparting information). The Great Commission encompasses all of these but is larger and more transformative than any of them individually.

A disciple in the first century Jewish context was not primarily a student in the academic sense. A disciple was someone who attached themselves to a rabbi, lived alongside him, observed his life, absorbed his teaching, adopted his values and practices, and was shaped over time to become like him. Discipleship was not primarily about information transfer. It was about life formation, the gradual transformation of a person's entire way of thinking, seeing, valuing and living through sustained relationship with and imitation of the teacher.

When Jesus commanded His followers to make disciples He was not commanding them to make converts who said a prayer and moved on. He was commanding them to make people who were genuinely, progressively, deeply formed into the likeness of Jesus, people whose entire lives were being reshaped by His teaching, His values and His Spirit.

This distinction between making converts and making disciples is one of the most important and most practically challenging implications of the Great Commission. A convert is someone who has agreed to certain propositions about Jesus. A disciple is someone who is actively following Jesus, learning from Him, being shaped by Him, living in accordance with His teaching, and in turn helping others to do the same. The goal of the Commission is not decisions made but lives transformed.

The Scope: "All Nations"

The scope of the Great Commission is breathtaking in its ambition. "Go and make disciples of all nations." Not some nations. Not the nations where the conditions are favorable. Not the nations where the people are receptive. All nations.

The Greek word translated nations is ethne, from which we get the English word ethnic. It refers not primarily to political nation-states but to people groups, the diverse ethnic, linguistic, cultural and tribal communities that make up the human family. The Great Commission extends to every distinct human community on earth without exception.

This universal scope represents a dramatic expansion from the specific focus of Jesus' own earthly ministry which was primarily to the Jewish people of first century Israel. In Matthew 10:5-6 when Jesus sent out the twelve He told them not to go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans but to go to the lost sheep of Israel. But now after the resurrection everything has changed. The death and resurrection of Jesus have accomplished what Israel's history pointed toward, a redemption that is for all people everywhere. The narrow ministry of the earthly Jesus has been fulfilled and the universal mission of the risen Lord is now beginning.

This universal scope has profound implications for how every believer understands their location in the story. You are not in your city, your neighborhood, your workplace and your family by accident. You are there as part of the Great Commission, as a disciple-maker in the specific human community God has placed you in. You may never be a foreign missionary. You may never preach to a crowd. But every human relationship you have is a context for the disciple-making mission Jesus commissioned. The Great Commission begins right where you are.

The Methods: Baptizing and Teaching

Jesus gave two specific methods for the process of making disciples, baptizing and teaching. These are not the entirety of discipleship but they represent the two bookends that frame the entire disciple-making process.

Baptizing: The Entry Point

Baptism in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit represents the public initiation of a new disciple into the community of Christ's followers. It is the moment of public declaration, the outward sign of an inward transformation, the visible mark of a new identity, the public testimony that this person's life now belongs to Jesus.

The trinitarian formula, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, is theologically significant as one of the clearest early expressions of Trinitarian theology. Baptism is not simply into a set of doctrines or into a religious institution. It is into a relationship with the three-personed God, the Father who created and loves, the Son who redeemed, and the Spirit who indwells and empowers.

Baptism marks the beginning of discipleship, the public entry point into the community and the mission of Jesus. But it is not the destination. It is the door through which new disciples enter the ongoing process that the second method, teaching, describes.

Teaching to Obey: The Ongoing Process

The second method is perhaps the most practically demanding and the most consistently underemphasized aspect of the Great Commission. Jesus did not command them to teach everything He had commanded. He commanded them to teach disciples to obey everything He had commanded. The distinction is crucial.

Teaching information is relatively easy. Teaching people to obey, to actually live differently, to have their behavior and priorities and relationships shaped by what they have learned, is an entirely different and far more demanding undertaking. It requires sustained relationship, personal example, accountability, patience with the slowness of real transformation and the willingness to engage with the messy reality of people's actual lives rather than simply imparting content in a classroom or sanctuary setting.

This is why genuine discipleship has always happened most effectively not in large group settings but in small, close, sustained relationships, the relationship of a mentor and a mentee, of a more mature believer and a newer one, of a spiritual parent and a spiritual child. Jesus made twelve disciples not by lecturing crowds but by living with twelve specific people for three years, eating with them, traveling with them, answering their questions, correcting their misunderstandings, demonstrating by His life what His teaching looked like in practice.

The Great Commission calls every believer to be both a disciple, someone who is still being taught to obey everything Jesus commanded, and a disciple-maker, someone who is helping others to do the same. This is not the responsibility of professional clergy or trained missionaries alone. It is the calling of every person who bears the name of Jesus.

The Promise: "I Am With You Always"

The Great Commission ends not with a demand but with a promise, and it is a promise that transforms the entire nature of the mission from a daunting obligation into an empowered partnership. Matthew 28:20: "And surely I am with you always to the very end of the age."

This promise is the answer to every objection, every inadequacy, every fear and every discouragement that anyone who takes the Great Commission seriously will ever face. You are not adequate for this mission on your own, but Jesus is with you. You do not have all the answers, but Jesus does and He is present with you. You will face opposition, rejection and difficulty, but the one who has all authority in heaven and on earth is with you in it. You will not finish the task in your lifetime, but the one who commissioned you will be present with every generation of disciples until the very end of the age when the task is complete.

The promise is personal and continuous, I am with you. Not I will occasionally visit you. Not I will be available when you pray. I am with you, present tense, continuous, unbroken, uninterrupted. The same presence that was with the disciples on that Galilean mountain is with every disciple who has ever lived since and will be with every disciple who lives until the end of the age.

This promise connects the Great Commission directly to the name given to Jesus in Matthew 1:23, Immanuel, which means God with us. The story of Matthew begins with the promise that God will be with His people in Jesus and ends with Jesus promising that He will be with His people always. The entire Gospel is bracketed by the promise of presence, and that presence is the power that makes the mission possible.

Other Versions of the Great Commission

While Matthew 28:18-20 is the most complete and most frequently quoted version of the Great Commission each Gospel and Acts adds something unique that enriches our understanding of the mission:

Mark 16:15 emphasizes the proclamation aspect: "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." This version highlights the evangelistic announcement of good news as the foundational content of the mission.

Luke 24:47-49 emphasizes repentance and forgiveness: "Repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. I am going to send you what my Father has promised." Luke connects the mission directly to the promise of the Holy Spirit as the empowering gift for the task.

John 20:21 grounds the mission in the pattern of Jesus' own sending: "As the Father has sent me I am sending you." This version reveals that the shape of the disciples' mission is modeled on the shape of Jesus' own mission, servant, sacrificial, world-oriented love.

Acts 1:8 provides the geographical progression: "You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth." This version shows the expanding circles of mission, from your immediate community outward to your region, to your neighboring communities and ultimately to the ends of the earth.

Together these five versions of the Great Commission paint a complete picture of a mission that is proclamatory, transformative, empowered by the Spirit, shaped by servant love, geographically universal and personally witnessing.

What Does the Great Commission Mean for You Today?

The Great Commission was not given only to the eleven disciples on that mountain in Galilee. It was given to every person who would ever become a disciple of Jesus, including you. The "you" of Matthew 28:19-20 extends through every generation of believers to every person reading these words today. You are included in both the commission and the promise.

1. You Are Already in the Mission Field

The Great Commission does not require you to travel to another country to be a participant. Acts 1:8 begins with Jerusalem, where the disciples already were. Your Jerusalem is wherever you are right now, your home, your neighborhood, your workplace, your school, your community. The mission begins there. The people God has placed in your immediate sphere of influence are your first mission field. Disciple-making begins with the relationships you already have.

2. Every Believer is Called to Make Disciples

The Great Commission was not given to apostles, pastors and missionaries exclusively. It was given to disciples, and every person who follows Jesus is a disciple. Making disciples does not require a theological degree, a pulpit or a mission organization. It requires a life being genuinely transformed by Jesus and the willingness to invite others into the same journey. It looks like mentoring a newer believer, answering a friend's questions about faith, living so visibly differently from the world around you that people ask why, and being willing to share honestly about the difference Jesus has made in your life.

3. The Promise Makes the Commission Possible

Whatever inadequacy you feel about participating in the Great Commission, whatever lack of confidence in your ability to speak about faith, whatever fear of rejection, whatever sense that you do not know enough or are not good enough, the promise of Jesus' presence is the answer to all of it. You are not doing this alone. The one who has all authority in heaven and on earth is with you in every conversation, every relationship, every stumbling attempt to help someone take a step closer to Jesus. He takes responsibility for the outcome. You take responsibility for the faithfulness.

Conclusion: The Mission That Will Not End Until He Returns

The Great Commission is the organizing mission of the entire church from the day it was given until the day Jesus returns. It is not optional, not peripheral and not the exclusive responsibility of a specialist class of religious professionals. It is the calling of every person who has been transformed by the grace of Jesus, to go, to make disciples, to baptize, to teach obedience and to trust the presence of the one who promised to be with us always.

The disciples who received this commission on that mountain were imperfect, still-doubting, not-fully-certain ordinary people from Galilee. And they turned the world upside down. Not because they were exceptional but because the one who commissioned them was with them. That same commission is yours today. And that same presence is yours with it.

Reflection

Who is in your Jerusalem right now, the person or people in your immediate sphere of influence who are furthest from Jesus and most in need of a disciple who will walk alongside them? What is one specific, practical step you could take this week to begin the disciple-making process with that person, not a grand gesture but a simple act of genuine relationship and genuine faith-sharing? And how does the promise "I am with you always" change the way you feel about taking that step?

Share your thoughts and reflections in the comments below!

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is the difference between evangelism and the Great Commission?

Evangelism, the proclamation of the Gospel and the invitation to faith in Jesus, is an essential component of the Great Commission but it is not the entirety of it. The Great Commission encompasses the full disciple-making process from initial proclamation through baptism and ongoing teaching to obey everything Jesus commanded. Evangelism makes converts. The Great Commission aims at making disciples, people whose entire lives are being progressively transformed by Jesus. Evangelism is the beginning of the Great Commission not its completion.

Why is it called the Great Commission?

The term Great Commission is not found in the Bible itself, it is a traditional title given to these final instructions of Jesus that emerged in Christian usage over the centuries. The word great reflects both the magnitude of the task, all nations, to the end of the age, and the authority behind it, all authority in heaven and on earth. It is great in scope, great in authority, great in promise and great in the transformation it aims at producing in every person it touches.

Was the Great Commission only for the original disciples or is it for all Christians?

The Great Commission is for all disciples in every generation. This is clear from the internal logic of the commission itself, Jesus promised to be with those He commissioned "to the very end of the age." Since the original eleven disciples did not live to the end of the age the promise and therefore the commission must extend beyond them to every subsequent generation of disciples. The commission belongs to every person who follows Jesus in any era and in any place.

How do I make disciples if I am not a preacher or teacher?

Most disciple-making throughout history has happened not through formal preaching or teaching but through personal relationship, one person living out their faith authentically and intentionally in the presence of another and inviting that person into the same journey. Disciple-making looks like honest conversation about faith over a shared meal, like answering a friend's sincere questions about God, like living so visibly and genuinely differently from the world that people ask about the hope you carry. It looks like Jesus, walking with people in their ordinary lives and pointing them consistently and lovingly toward the Father.

A Short Prayer

Lord Jesus thank You for the Great Commission, for entrusting ordinary imperfect people like me with the continuation of Your most important mission. I confess that I often feel inadequate for this calling, uncertain of what to say, afraid of rejection, unsure if my own life is a compelling enough demonstration of Your grace. But You gave this commission to doubting people on a mountain in Galilee and they turned the world upside down by the power of Your presence. So I receive the commission and I receive the promise, go and make disciples and I am with you always. Show me my Jerusalem Lord. Show me the person in my life right now who most needs a disciple willing to walk alongside them. And go with me as I take the next step. Amen.

Continue Reading: The Great Commission calls us to go, but going requires the same courage that Jesus demonstrated when He set His face toward Jerusalem knowing what awaited Him there. Discover what that determined journey reveals about faithful obedience by reading our full study on Jesus Journey to Jerusalem and be challenged by His unshakeable commitment to the Father's mission.

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