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1762  |  Matthew 28:13
with the el­ders and de­vised a plan, they gave the sol­diers a l ­ arge sum of money, 13  tell­ing
them, “You are to say, ‘His dis­ci­ples came dur­ing the n
­ ight and s ­ tole him away ­while we
were ­asleep.’ 14 If this re­port gets to the gov­er­nor,  k we will sat­isfy him and keep you out of
trou­ble.” 15 So the sol­diers took the money and did as they were in­structed. And this story
has been widely cir­cu­lated a
­ mong the Jews to this very ­day.
The Great Commission
16 Then the eleven dis­ci­ples went to Gal­i­lee, to the moun­tain ­where ­Jesus had told them
to go.  l 17 When they saw him, they wor­shiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then ­Jesus came to
them and said, “All au­thor­ity in heaven and on ­earth has been given to me.  m 19  There­fore
go and make dis­ci­ples of all na­tions,  n bap­tiz­ing them in the name of the Fa­ther and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit,  o 20  and teach­ing  p them to obey ev­ery­thing I have com­manded
you. And surely I am with you  q al­ways, to the very end of the ­age.”  r
at the tomb was designed to thwart! Should
news of all this reach Pilate, the Jewish au-
thorities would satisfy him, no doubt with a
very large bribe, in order to keep the soldiers
out of trouble.
28:16 – 20  These verses include the Great
Commission (vv. 18 – 20). The uniquely Jewish
mission of 10:5 – 6 and 15:24 now gives way to
the mandate for worldwide, multiethnic min-
istry. As many as possible, Jew and Gentile
alike, must be given opportunity to become
part of the “people who will produce [the]
fruit” of God’s kingdom (21:43).
28:16  the eleven disciples. The Twelve mi-
nus Judas. mountain. No record is given of
Jesus’ previous instruction about a specific
mountain in Galilee. Perhaps it is the (also
unspecified) location of the Sermon on the
Mount (chs.  5 – 7).
28:17  they worshiped him; but some
doubted. Could also be translated “they
worshiped, but they doubted.” For such an
unprecedented event as a resurrection, it is
easy to envision any or all of the disciples
both acclaiming ­Jesus’ deity and being very
perplexed as to what exactly had happened
and wondering if all this was real.
28:18 – 20 As a result of his faithfulness to his
mission, ­Jesus once again has returned to his
exalted position as divine Son of God with
“all authority in heaven and on earth” (v. 18).
Christ’s program of missions for his followers
flowed from this: to “make disciples of all na-
tions” (v. 19). It involves