The work of the Great Commission continues

This is the sixteenth in a series of blog posts in which we are seeking to answer one overarching question—is a properly qualified administrator essential to valid baptism? The first post introducing the series can be found here.

In our last post, we examined a number of texts in the Gospels and Acts that record certain commands given by Christ, after his resurrection, regarding the proclamation of the gospel to all nations, throughout the entire course of the present age. For the past few centuries, these commands have often been referred to as the Great Commission.

We asked the question, who was the Great Commission given to? After carefully reviewing each relevant passage, we found that Jesus is consistently represented as addressing the eleven apostles. In Matthew 28 in particular, we discovered that the text unmistakably identifies the recipients of the Great Commission as “the eleven disciples” (v. 16). In that passage, Jesus is commanding the eleven apostles to go, to make disciples of all nations, to baptize them, and to teach them.

However, this naturally raises some important questions. Is the work of preaching and baptizing to be performed only by the apostles, or is there some way that this work will be continued by others? If the work of preaching and baptizing will be continued by others, exactly how will this mission be conveyed to them?

To begin to answer these questions, we’ll turn to the best inspired commentary on the Great Commission—the narratives of the Book of Acts.

Of course, the apostles themselves are frequently recorded as preaching in Acts. Peter preached to the Jews in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost (2:14-41) and later at the temple (3:12-4:4). Even after being arrested and threatened, the apostles continued to preach “daily in the temple, and in every house” (5:42), and here for the first time in Acts, Luke uses the Greek verb euaggelizo, meaning to evangelize, to proclaim good news. Peter and John preach in the region of Samaria (8:25). Finally, Peter preaches to Cornelius and his family and friends in Caesarea (10:34-48).

After Paul’s miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus, he also immediately begins to fulfill his calling as the apostle to the Gentiles, preaching in the synagogues of Damascus (9:20-22) and then throughout the Roman Empire.

Although no apostle is ever explicitly represented in Acts as physically baptizing converts, Peter does play a unique and foundational role in establishing baptism as a duty for all believers. When those who heard Peter’s message on the Day of Pentecost asked what they should do in response, he commanded them:

Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call. (Acts 2:38b-39)

Peter commanded those who received the gospel message by repentance and faith to be baptized. Furthermore, this remains a standing rule for all believers, both Jews and Gentiles, as it extends to “as many as the Lord our God shall call” (2:39).

In time, any remaining doubts about the appropriateness of baptizing Gentiles were forever settled by Peter’s experience in the house of Cornelius. When the Holy Spirit fell on those Gentiles, right in the middle of Peter’s preaching, he knew what needed to happen next:

Then answered Peter, “Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?” And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. (Acts 10:46b-48a)

Although Peter isn’t said to baptize these Gentile believers personally, he did establish a binding precedent that Gentiles who believe ought to be baptized (see also 11:1-18).

The question remains, however, whether anyone besides the apostles ever preached and baptized. According to the Book of Acts, the answer is yes.

The first non-apostle that Luke represents as preaching is Stephen, a man full of the Holy Spirit, wisdom, faith, and power (6:3, 6:8). Although the narrative is somewhat compressed, it’s clear that Stephen publicly proclaimed the gospel of Christ. His witness to the people, which was also attended by “great wonders and miracles” (6:8), was so powerful that several influential Jews in the synagogue rose up to oppose him. Nevertheless, “they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake” (6:10). After a trial before the Sanhedrin, he died a martyr.

Stephen’s preaching, trial, and execution in Jerusalem then became the occasion for an episode of great persecution against the believers there (8:1, 11:19). As a result, “they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria” (8:1), with the exception of the apostles who remained in Jerusalem. Although this was a terrible trial, it did result in the further propagation of the gospel. We simply read:

Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the word. (Acts 8:4)

Again, for the second time in this book, Luke uses the Greek verb euaggelizo, to evangelize—the very same word he had earlier used to describe the preaching of the apostles. (He uses euaggelizo in connection with them again in 11:20.) Thus, we find here a number of unnamed believers who are publicly preaching the gospel. And of course, none of these are apostles, since the apostles are explicitly said to have stayed in Jerusalem (8:1).

These anonymous believers preached everywhere they went (8:4). This included the regions of Judea and Samaria (8:1), as well as Phoenicia by the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, the island of Cyprus, and even as far north as Antioch in Syria (11:19-21). Some of these men were originally from Cyprus or from Cyrene, a city in North Africa (11:20).

These unnamed disciples preached to the Jews only (11:19), and this later came to include the Hellenistic Jews in Antioch (11:20). In fact, through their preaching, a “great number” of Jews were converted in Antioch before the church at Jerusalem ever even heard of it (11:21-22). Their initial disciple-making laid the groundwork for what would become one of the most influential churches of this period—the church at Antioch.

All that being said, we do know the name of one of these scattered believers who preached publicly—Philip. After Luke writes of those who “went every where preaching the word”, in the very next verse, he begins to record the ministry of Philip in the region of Samaria. Philip therefore serves as one specific example of the broader group of scattered disciples.

Like Stephen, Philip was a man “full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom” (6:3). Philip also preached openly to the people, and his ministry was also attended with miracles, including healing and casting out of demons (8:5-7). Luke uses the Greek verb euaggelizo to describe Philip’s preaching several times (8:12, 8:35, 8:40).

Philip’s preaching included an exhortation for believers to be baptized, because that’s precisely what they did:

When they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women. (Acts 8:12b)

We also know, as we have written before, that Philip physically administered baptism. After he preached to an Ethiopian eunuch and the eunuch expressed his desire to be baptized, Luke affirms that Philip personally baptized him:

They went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him. (Acts 8:38)

In a later narrative in Acts, Luke refers to this same Philip again as “Philip the evangelist” (21:8).

We asked earlier, is the work of preaching and baptizing to be performed only by the apostles, or is there some way that this work will be continued by others? The three examples we’ve just seen—Stephen, the scattered disciples, and Philip—furnish more than enough evidence to answer the question.

Clearly, the work of preaching and baptizing was never intended to be tied exclusively to the apostles. It was always Christ’s intention that these works of ministry would be carried on by others as well.

But that still leaves our second question on the table. If the work of preaching and baptizing will be continued by others, exactly how will this mission be conveyed to them? We’ll seek to answer this question in our next post.