5-8 The Great Commission In John
John
John's Gospel frequently repeats the themes of the Synoptic Gospels,
but from a different angle and in more spiritual / abstract language:
| The Synoptic Gospels |
John’s Gospel |
| Mt. 16:19 the keys of the Gospel
of the Kingdom |
Jn. 20:21,23 |
| the more literal accounts of the
birth of Jesus |
Jn. 1: 1-14 |
| The great preaching commission |
Jn. 14:12; 17:18; 20:21; Jn. 15:8,16;
Jn. 17:23 RV |
| The Synoptics all include the Lord’s
Mount Olivet prophecy as a lead-in to the record of the
breaking of bread and crucifixion |
In John, the record of this prophecy
is omitted and replaced by the account of the Lord’s discourse
in the upper room. “The day of the son of man” in John becomes
“the hour [of the cross]… that the son of man should be
glorified” (Jn. 12:23). “Coming”, “that day”, “convict /
judge the world” are all phrases picked up by John and applied
to our experience of the Lord right now. In our context
of judgment now, we have to appreciate that the reality
of the future judgment of course holds true; but the essence
of it is going on now. |
| The three synoptic gospels all include Peter’s
‘confession’, shortly before Jesus’ transfiguration
on the mountain. |
In John’s gospel the account of the transfiguration
is lacking. Are we to assume that Thomas’ confession
in chapter 20 is supposed to take its place? |
| The need for water baptism
The account of the breaking of bread
The many quotations from the Old Testament, shown to be
fulfilled in the Lord Jesus.
The synoptics each give some account of the literal origin
of Jesus through giving genealogies or some reference to
them. |
Jn. 3:3-5
John’s version is in John 6:48-58. He stresses that one
must absorb Christ into themselves in order to really have
the eternal life which the bread and blood symbolize. It
seems John puts it this way in order to counter the tendency
to think that merely by partaking in the ritual of breaking
bread, believers are thereby guaranteed eternal life.
John expresses this in more abstract language: “The word
was made flesh” (Jn. 1:14).
John’s Gospel speaks of Jesus as if He somehow existed
in the plan of God from the beginning, but “became flesh”
when He was born of Mary. |
The transfiguration
is recorded in the synoptics, and their records include the idea
that it happened “after six days” (Mk. 9:2).
John speaks of the same theme of Christ manifesting God’s
glory, but he sees it as happening not just once at the transfiguration,
but throughout the Lord’s ministry and above all in His death. Interestingly,
John’s record also has the idea of the Lord manifesting the Father’s
glory after six days. The Gospel opens by describing events on four
successive days (Jn. 1:19,29,35,43), and then we read that “the
third day” [i.e. six or seven days after the story has begun], Jesus
“manifested his glory” (Jn. 2:1,11). Again in Jn. 7:37, it was on
the last great day of the feast of Tabernacles, i.e. on the 7th
day, that the Lord Jesus manifests Himself. Perhaps too we are to
pay attention to the six days mentioned in Jn. 12:1, after which
the Lord was crucified and manifested the Father’s glory.
In the same way as
John matches the more literal accounts of the birth of Jesus with
a more spiritual interpretation in Jn. 1, so he likewise refers
to the great commission, expressing it in more spiritual terms throughout
his gospel. I bring together here some comments that have been made
elsewhere in these studies, to show the number of allusions:
- Jn. 10: 32: “If I be lifted up from [RVmg. ‘out of’] the earth,
will draw all men unto me”. Straight after the Lord’s death and
resurrection the great commission was given, to bring all men
unto Him and His cross.
- God sanctified / consecrated Jesus and sent Him into the world
(Jn. 10:36). But this sanctification was through His death on
the cross (Jn. 17:19). Jesus was sanctified on the cross and sent
into the world in the sense that we His people would be impelled
by His cross to take Him into all the world. We would
be sent into all the world in His Name.
- As the Lord was sent into the world, so He sends us
into the world (Jn. 14:12; 17:18; 20:21)- the very language of
the great commission. Jesus ‘came down’ to this world in the sense
that He was the word of the Father made flesh, and ‘all men’ saw
the light of grace that was radiated from His very being. And
that same word must be flesh in us, as it was in the Lord.
- In Jn. 12:23-26, the Lord foretold aspects of His coming sacrifice:
“The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground
and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much
fruit [spoke in the context of potential Gentile converts]. He
that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life
in this world shall keep it...if any man serve me, let him follow
me”. Here the Lord goes on to assume that His death, His falling
into the ground, would be matched by His followers also hating
their lives, that they might rise again. And He connects His death
with glorification. Soon afterwards, the Lord spoke of how his
followers would likewise “bear much fruit”, and thus glorify
God. And in this context He continues with words which can be
read as John’s record of the great preaching commission: “I have
chosen you...that ye should go [cp. “Go ye into all the
world...”] and bring forth fruit” (Jn. 15:8,16). Clearly the Lord
connected His bringing forth of “much fruit” through His death
with the same “much fruit” being brought forth by the disciples’
witness. It follows from this that the fruit which He potentially
achieved on the cross is brought to reality by our preaching.
And perhaps it is also possible to see a parallel between our
preaching and His laying down of His life on the cross, as if
the work of witness is in effect a laying down of life by the
preacher, in order to bring forth fruit.
- The whole world is to know the Gospel because of the unity
of the believers (Jn. 17:18,21,23); and it follows that a situation
will arise in which the extraordinary nature of true Christian
solidarity over linguistic, ethnic, social and geographical lines
will make a similar arresting, compelling witness as it did in
the first century. The Lord had prophesied that His followers
over time “shall become one flock” (Jn. 10:16 RV); they would
be “perfected into one, that the world may know” (Jn. 17:23 RV).
As the Gospel spreads world-wide in the last days, the unity of
the believers will become all the more comprehensive, and this
will of itself provoke yet more conversions. And once the fullness
of unity is achieved, our communal way of life will have hastened
the coming of the Lord (2 Pet. 3).
- Matthew and Mark record how the apostles were sent to
preach the Gospel and baptize, for the forgiveness of
sins (cp. Acts 2:38). Luke records the Lord stating that the apostles
knew that forgiveness of sins was to be preached from
Jerusalem, and therefore they should be witnesses to this. I would
suggest that John’s Gospel does in fact record the great commission,
but in different and more spiritual words: “As the Father has
sent me, I am sending you...If you forgive anyone his sins, they
are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven”
(Jn. 20:21,23 NIV). These words have always been problematic for
me, especially that last phrase. Can God’s forgiveness really
be limited by the forgiveness shown by fallible men? Yet if these
words are taken as a record of the great commission to go and
preach, and the ellipsis is filled in, things become clearer:
‘I am sending you to preach the Gospel and baptism of forgiveness;
if you do this and men respond, then the Gospel you preach really
does have the power to bring about forgiveness. But if you don’t
fulfil the commission I give you to preach forgiveness, then the
sins of your potential hearers will remain unforgiven’. Again,
the forgiveness and salvation of others is made to depend upon
our preaching of forgiveness. “Whose soever sins ye retain, they
are retained” becomes the equivalent of “he that believeth not
shall be damned”. Note that the Greek for ‘retain’ strictly means
‘to hold / bind’, and that for ‘remit’ means ‘to loose’. This
has evident connection with Mt. 16:19, where the keys of the Gospel
of the Kingdom (which we all possess) have the power to bind and
loose, i.e. to grant or not grant forgiveness. Jn. 15:8,16 also
has some reference to the great commission: “…so shall ye be my
disciples…that ye should go [into all the world] and
bear fruit, and that your fruit [converts?] should abide”. The
eternal life of the converts is a fruit brought forth by the preacher’s
obedience to his Lord’s commission. Likewise through the preaching
of John, he turned men’s hearts- the idea of repentance, being
brought about by the preacher (Mal. 4:6).
- “These are written [“in this book” of John’s Gospel] that ye
may believe that Jesus is the Christ…and that believing ye may
have life in his name” (Jn. 20:31 RV)- belief, life, “in his name”,
these are all references to the great commission. It’s as if John
is saying that he fulfilled it by the writing and preaching of
his Gospel record. John's equivalent to an appeal for baptism
may be his concluding appeal to believe that Jesus is the Christ,
and as a result of that belief, to receive life " in his
name" - into which we are baptized.
John's record of the great commission is not merely found at the
end of his gospel. When John records how the disciples were to proclaim
" the word" to the world (Jn. 17:20), he is surely intending
connection to be made with how " the word" had likewise
been made flesh in the Lord Jesus (Jn. 1:14); and how it was that
same " word" which Jesus had given to His men, just as
His Father had manifested that word through Himself. Our witness
is to be in our making flesh of the word in real life, just as it
was in the Lord. |
