Euaggelion (Greek, yoo-ang-ghel’-eeon) A good message.
Euggelizo (Greek, yoo-ang-ghel-id’-zo) To declare or bring good tidings. To proclaim or herald the gospel.
In the next few posts we will explore the implications and the anticipation involved in the mandate of Jesus Christ, which He gave to His disciples: make disciples of all the nations. We will discover how to reflect the achievement of the cross as well as how to live in and toward the consummation of God’s kingdom – where evil will be destroyed and replaced by a creation of justice, beauty, and peace. We shall begin with an expanded version of Christ’s charge / commission to His disciples as derived from the writers of the four Gospels.
“I grant you peace (an inner life that is whole and confident and at rest from the urgency of this tyrannical cosmos)! What I am about to tell you is spoken from an inner awareness that I possess all power in heaven and on earth. I speak with ultimate authority, capability, and control. Just as my Father sent me, I am sending and commissioning you. I am blowing my sacred breath into you; this is the Holy Spirit. He is the Comforter and the Teacher. When He comes to dwell and abide in you, you shall receive the supernatural strength and a powerful, divine capacity to become witnesses (the Greek root word implies a martyr) on my behalf. You shall give living evidence of me in the whole world.
Go and teach all of the nations. Proclaim the good news of repentance (a revolutionary new way of thinking and living) and of the remission (deliverance, pardon, freedom, liberty) of sins to every nation, tribe, and people group. Proclaim it to all of the created cosmos. Baptize (fully immerse, overwhelm, cover wholly) them in the authority and the character of the Father, the son, and the Holy Spirit. Teach (make pupils, train, enroll them as scholars) them in order that they might observe (guard from loss or injury, build a fortress, keep pure) all things that I have commanded and charged you to do. And I will always be with you, even to the completion and the consummation of the ages.”