Great Commission
The Great Commission in Christian belief is something that Jesus told His followers. This happened after His resurrection. Jesus told his Twelve Apostles to go all over the world and tell everyone about Him. The most well known version of the Great Commission is in Matthew 28:16 to 20. Jesus meets His followers on a mountain in Galilee. He tells them to make disciples of and baptize everyone in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Earlier Jesus had sent out 70 of His followers to preach and heal, but only to the Jews (Luke 10:1-20). However, Jesus Himself had healed some non-Jewish people before. At the beginning of His public work, Jesus spoke to His own people. After rising from the dead, He made it clear that His message was for everyone. This “commission” is very important to missionaries who believe that God wants them to go to every country in the world and preach about Jesus.
Great Commission in the Bible
[change | change source]Here are the Bible places where the Lord Jesus commanded His followers to spread the Good News, quotations taken from the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Holy Bible:
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 behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)
Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. And he said to them, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover.” (Mark 16:14-18)