My 15-year-old son recently started driver’s education. Last week while riding with him, I noticed that after making a turn, he was feverishly turning the steering wheel in the opposite direction to straighten the vehicle out again. I explained to him that he really didn’t need to do that. He could just keep his hands lightly on the steering wheel to guide it and keep control while the car straightened itself out as he picked up speed. I had not thought about this technique for years, even though I practice it dozens of times most days. This basic component of driving has become “second nature” to me.

The first post in this series called on us to consider the importance of the foundational passages on missions in the Bible. We should spare no effort in making sure that the five Great Commission passages become “second nature” to us—part of our fabric as followers of Jesus.

This article is slightly technical with applications at the end. Later posts will examine the content of the words of Jesus in each statement, but it is important to give some attention to the different contexts in which Jesus gave these commands.

Our Lord gave these instructions on multiple occasions in various places during the forty days between His Resurrection and Ascension. In other words, the five commission passages in the Gospels and Acts do not give five different perspectives on the same event. Instead, they narrate different events.

On the evening of Resurrection Sunday, Jesus appeared to His disciples in a room where they had gathered and gave them the words of John 20:21: “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” Thomas was  absent on this occasion (20:24). [i]

Mark records that Jesus appeared to “the eleven” as they were “reclining at the table” (16:14). This took place after He had appeared to two disciples “while they were walking along on their way to the country” (16:12). This is likely a reference to the two on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13ff), who met Jesus on the road on the same day of the Resurrection. If the reference to “the eleven” is intended to be precise and include Thomas, then the Commission in Mark would have been given sometime after Resurrection Sunday (perhaps on the next Sunday when Thomas was present). If “the eleven” is simply a general way of referring to the group of disciples, then it is possible that the appearance in Mark 16 is the same as the one mentioned above from John 20.

Later Jesus appeared to His disciples on a mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16). This trip to Galilee likely took place after the second appearance in John 20 with Thomas present. There Jesus assured and commissioned His disciples in verses 18–20:

18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Luke 24:36–43 certainly took place on Resurrection Sunday, but verses 44–49 apparently refer to a later occasion or occasions after the disciples returned from Galilee. Some suggest that the verses are a summary of various occasions. Jesus commanded them in verse 49 to “stay in the city [of Jerusalem] until you are clothed with power from on high.” I believe that command requires that the teaching in Luke 24:44–49 be placed after their trip to Galilee in Matthew 28. The disciples would not have left Jerusalem for Galilee after being told to stay in Jerusalem. The Commission is in verses 46–49:

46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day, 47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem. 48 You are witnesses of these things. 49 And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

The final commission passage records what Jesus said to His disciples immediately prior to His Ascension from the Mount of Olives, outside Jerusalem (Acts 1:12): “but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth.”

Taken together, these five passages record at least four occasions in four different places: (1) The room on the evening of Resurrection Sunday (John and perhaps Mark), (2) A mountain in Galilee, at least a week later (Matthew), (3) Somewhere in Jerusalem after returning from Galilee (Luke), and 4) The Mount of Olives immediately prior to His Ascension to heaven (Acts).

We do not know all that transpired during the 40 days between the Resurrection and the Ascension. We don’t know all that Jesus taught. But we do know what the Spirit chose to record for us. The post-resurrection material makes crystal clear how important to Jesus was the commissioning of His followers to take the Gospel to the world. What was on our Savior’s heart during these 40 days? At least four times, as He fellowshipped with them and taught them during those weeks, He commanded them regarding their global task:

• On the evening of His Resurrection: “I am sending you.”
• On a mountain in Galilee: “Go make disciples of all nations.”
• Sometime later in Jerusalem: “Repentance for the forgiveness of sins must be proclaimed in all nations.”
• Right before ascending to heaven: “You are my witnesses to the remotest part of the earth.”

Consider two applications of this repeated emphasis:

1. If this theme was so dear to Jesus, so close to His heart, shouldn’t it be primary in our hearts as well? How often is your own heart drawn to this emphasis? Not simply your understanding. Not simply your words. Not simply in your formal ministry capacity. Your heart. Does your very soul burn with enthusiasm for the Great Commission?
2. Of the relatively little material that the Spirit of God recorded for us about the 40 days between the Resurrection and the Ascension, He chose to highlight this repeated emphasis in the Lord’s teaching of His disciples. This fact ought to inform our teaching of others. We do need to give the whole counsel of God. We don’t want to press every passage into our preferred mold. But it would be hard to overemphasize evangelism and the Great Commission. People need to be challenged again and again about the need, the command, the privilege, the responsibility, the joy, of having the nations of the world on our hearts and of doing all that we can do, by the grace of God and through the power of the Spirit, to make disciples among all those nations. Say to the newest believer, the youngest disciple in your family or in your church: “You are a witness of Christ Jesus, and in the power of His Spirit, Jesus could send you to the remotest part of the earth. Make it your ambition. Long for it. Pray for it. And start where you are right now.”