What is the Great Commission in the Bible?

Matthew 28:16-20 records Jesus's last recorded words to his eleven remaining disciples, spoken on a mountain in Galilee after his resurrection. Having declared that "all power is given unto me in heaven and in earth," he commissions them: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you." He closes with a promise of his ongoing presence: "lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." This passage - traditionally called the Great Commission - has functioned as the foundational mandate for Christian missions and evangelism throughout church history. Similar commissioning statements appear at the close of the other Gospels (Mark 16:15, Luke 24:46-49, John 20:21) and in Acts 1:8, where Jesus tells the disciples they will be his "witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" - a geographic outline that Acts itself goes on to follow.

Key Passages