Matthew 28:20 Archives - Word of Grace Studies

Apostle (ἀπόστολος)

An apostle (ἀπόστολος) is a messenger who is sent out on a specific mission; however, unlike a regular messenger who delivers a message, an apostle is sent with a specific task to perform while giving the message.

Christ sent out the 12 apostles to the Jews during His earthly ministry to proclaim the message of the kingdom of the heavens, Matthew 10:5-42. They were not to take any provisions with them for their journey or go into any city of the Gentiles nor to the Samaritans, for they were sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. Herod sent forth men with a specific mission to slay all the children in Bethlehem who were two years old or younger after the Magi left the region, having been warned by a messenger, failing to report where they found the King of the Jews, Matthew 2:16.

In a single act of expressing love towards the inhabited world, God the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world, 1 John 4:14. He sent Him on a specific mission so that through Him we should have life, 1 John 4:9. In this we know love, for God sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins, 1 John 4:10.

When Christ ascended, He gave gifts to men for the edification of the Church to bring us to a oneness of the faith so that we are no longer tossed around like inarticulate babblers by every wind of teaching by the trickery of men, Ephesians 5:8. Of these gifts were the Apostles, Ephesians 5:11. Twelve of them to the Church. These twelve laid down the foundation of the Church, built upon Christ, giving us the entire revelation concerning the […]

Why the Great Commission is not so Great

At the end of the book of Matthew it is recorded that Jesus instructed His disciples to go and make disciples. As a result of this command, this verse has been used as the battle cry for missionaries. Taking the gospel around the world! However, the verse does not actually say that, and when we understand what it in fact states, we see that the Great Commission diminishes what Jesus said.

From the ESV, although most modern translations are basically the same, Matthew 28:19 states, “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.” This is basically the same translation as the King James version even though the ESV claims to take the original language into account. Why is this important? Let us walk through the original statement so we can see.

When it comes to translating Scripture from the original Greek, we need to pay attention to the type of verb that is being expressed. For commands, we typically find these in the imperative. Therefore, it is necessary, urgent, or required that we do the statement. In Matthew 28:19 “Go”, in our translations, is expressing an imperative. However, there is an issue with this, because the word for “go” is not in the imperative in the original language; rather, it is the word “make disciples” that is the imperative. So why does this matter? Well, you see, the disciples were not commanded to “Go”, they were commanded to “make disciples”. Is not the meaning basically the same? Actually, it is not. Let us look at the word “Go” and see. “Go” is not a normal verb, it is actually a participle. […]