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Baptism and the Great Commission - Mark 16
Baptism and the Great Commission - Mark 16
Why do you in the church of Christ preach on baptism so much? Because the rest of you don’t.
There is some truth in that, but the answer is because people need to hear it! Is it part of the Great Commission? Yes, even if one would exclude Mark 16! But, let us look again at this commission.
Matthew 28:18-19: 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,
Luke 24:45-47: 45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, 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.
Then of course, there is Mark’s recording of the great commission: “15 And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 "He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned” (Mark 16:15-16).
You will notice that none of these is identical to any of the others, they are all unique. Matthew’s account instructs them 1) to make disciples, 2) to do so by baptizing them, and 3) to teach them to observe all the Jesus had commanded. Luke on the other hand only mentions preaching to them about repentance and forgiveness of sins. Mark is yet different in that he records preaching to them, believing the gospel, being baptized, and the result is to be saved.
So, what were the apostles to do with this? They could choose to ignore all of them and make up their own agenda, which of course they did NOT do. They could have chosen one account and ignored the other two! Or, they could have combined the three accounts and thus fulfilled all of them. The first sermon they preached is recorded in Acts 2. Here they preached that Jesus was raised from the dead and is now both Lord and Christ. Then, when asked how they should respond to this, the people were instructed: “38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 "For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself." (Acts 2:38-39).
Notice the elements that make up the preaching of the apostles and which gospel account such is from:
Preach (Mark and Luke, Matthew = make disciples); Believe (Mark); Repent (Luke, Mark); Baptized (Matthew and Mark), Saved (Mark and Luke). They combined ALL of the commands from ALL of the accounts and thus preached the full message. We are told that “as many as received their word were baptized (Acts 2:41) and that 3000 who had done this were “added” (to the number of disciples). [Below is a simple chart that illustrates this.]
Is this the gospel message you heard, believed, and obeyed? If not, why not do so today.
Hugh
