The Pulpit Commentary - Matthew 28:16-20
Our Lord appears to the disciples in Galilee, and gives them a commission to teach and baptize. read more
Our Lord appears to the disciples in Galilee, and gives them a commission to teach and baptize. read more
The great meeting in Galilee. I. THE APPEARANCE OF THE LORD . 1 . The place. This was the one only meeting by appointment. The other appearances of the risen Saviour were sudden and unexpected. Both St. Matthew and St. Mark tell us that the Lord, just before his agony, had announced to his apostles that, after he was risen again, he would go before them into Galilee. After the Resurrection the angel first, and, then the Lord himself, had made the same appointment. Evidently... read more
Jesus came. Some medieval exegetes have deemed that this verse refers to the time of the ascension; but there is no valid reason for dissociating this portion from the rest of the account. If we do this, we lose the great reason for the oft-enjoined meeting on the Galilaean mountain, which seems to have been expressly and with much care arranged to notify at large the fact of Christ's Resurrection and of his supreme authority, and to convey the Lord's commission to the apostles in the... read more
Power in the risen Christ's hands. I. No one of us needs proofs of the fact of our Lord's resurrection from the dead. Yet that resurrection remains an unsolved mystery. No one can explain it, but we inquire concerning its significance. One point only now engages our attention. Everybody who dies lives after death. Our dead friends are not dead. We never think of them as dead. They are dead in the sense of ceasing to respond to their present environment, but they are not passed out of... read more
The great commission. This is the grand missionary charter. Here is more than our justification for urging on missionary work, more than our encouragement for maintaining it; here is our positive duty to evangelize the world. Let us look at the source, the object, and the encouragement of this great commission. I. ITS SOURCE . The authority and commandment of Christ. 1 . The authority of Christ. Jesus speaks these words after his resurrection. He is now to be exalted to the... read more
The commission. The angel at the sepulchre directed the women to announce the resurrection of Christ to his disciples and summon them to meet him in Galilee. Jesus himself afterwards appeared to them and repeated this instruction. The eleven accordingly repaired to the appointed place, and with them probably the five hundred brethren (see 1 Corinthians 15:6 ). "Some" of this number—some of those who had not seen him, like Thomas—"doubted" of the reality of the Resurrection, until they were... read more
Go ye therefore ( οὖν ). The illative particle is perhaps spurious, but it is implied by what has preceded. It is because Jesus has plenary authority, and can delegate power to whom he will, that he confers the following commission. He is addressing the eleven apostles, of whom alone St. Matthew makes mention (verse 16); but as they personally could not execute the grand commission in all its extent and duration, he lays his commands upon their representatives and successors in all... read more
The threefold Name. "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost." Sometimes the Name of the Lord Jesus only is mentioned in the formula. Here our Lord gives one Name with three sounds. Each separate Name giving a distinct relation of the one Being to men. Our Lord did not say, "in the names," but "in the Name." However we may present the threefoldness, we must keep it manifestly consistent with the Divine unity. "The union of the three names in one formula (as in the... read more
Teaching ( διδα ì σκοντες ) them ( i.e. all the nations) to observe all things , etc. The word for "teaching" is quite different from that used in Matthew 28:19 , and there wrongly translated. Instruction is the second necessary condition for discipleship. In the case of adults, as was said above, some teaching must precede the initiation; but this has to be supplemented subsequently in order to build up the convert in the faith and make him perfect; while infants must be... read more
John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Matthew 28:20
Verse 20 Matthew 28:20.Teaching them to observe all things. By these words, as I have formerly suggested, Christ shows that, in sending the apostles, he does not entirely resign his office, as if he ceased to be the Teacher of his Church; for he sends away the apostles with this reservation, that they shall not bring forward their own inventions, but shall purely and faithfully deliver from hand to hand (as we say) what he has entrusted to them. Would to God that the Pope would subject to this... read more