I have many fond memories of my time at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School studying under D. A. Carson in the early 1990s. I cannot do justice here to the many ways in which I have learned from you, Don, how to be a godly scholar, clear writer, and minister of the gospel. Thank you for your life lived for the gospel and the church and for your investment in the life of this fledgling Austrian scholar. I would not be who I am today without you!

I wrote my doctoral dissertation on the mission theme in John’s Gospel under Don Carson’s tutelage. A revised version was published later by Eerdmans.¹Andreas J. Köstenberger, The Missions of Jesus and the Disciples according to the Fourth Gospel (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1998). In subsequent years, I continued to write on the mission theme. The following survey is largely based on the New Testament portion of my book, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth.²Andreas J. Köstenberger with T. Desmond Alexander, Salvation to the Ends of the Earth: A Biblical Theology of Missions, NSBT 53 (London: Apollos, 2021).

Before I delve into a survey of a New Testament theology of mission, let me say a few words about biblical theology in general. Biblical theology is as old as the Bible, as we find that many of the biblical writers in both Testaments refer to earlier texts and motifs in Scripture or provide the foundation for later texts. Looking backward, the psalmists frequently refer to God’s mighty acts in Israel’s history such as the exodus. Looking forward, Isaiah envisions a new exodus at the coming of the Messiah, and Jeremiah prophesies the establishment of a new covenant. So, we see that the biblical writers already practiced biblical theology, understood as the study of the interconnectedness of biblical texts. This involves well-known phenomena such as prophecy, typology, messianic fulfillment, and others.

Nevertheless, not everyone agrees what biblical theology is and how it should be conducted. For my part, I define biblical theology simply as the theology of the Bible itself, that is, the theology of the biblical writers. Through careful listening to Scripture, we determine what it is that the biblical writers believed and what they attempted to communicate about God, the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the church and its mission, and so forth.

Essentially, therefore, my method in biblical theology is inductive, drawing out from Scripture what the biblical writers have put there. I do not start out with a theological system of my own (though presuppositionless exegesis is admittedly impossible) that I then seek to prove deductively by way of proof-texting—that would be systematic theology—but I construct a biblical theology from the ground level up from the biblical texts themselves.³For a fuller treatment of the definition of and method in biblical theology, see Andreas J. Köstenberger and Gregory Goswell, Biblical Theology: A Thematic, Canonical, and Ethical Approach (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023), ch. 1. So, then, what does the New Testament say about mission?

1. A New Testament Theology of Mission

I. Howard Marshall has rightly characterized the New Testament writings as “the documents of a mission.”⁴I. Howard Marshall, New Testament Theology: Many Witnesses, One Gospel (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2014), 34. According to Marshall, “New Testament theology is essentially missionary theology.”⁵Marshall, New Testament Theology, 34. As Marshall observes, “A recognition of this missionary character of the documents will help us to see them in true perspective and to interpret them in the light of their intention.”⁶Marshall, New Testament Theology, 35. Due to space constraints, I will limit myself here to a discussion of Matthew, Luke-Acts, Paul, and John, which encapsulate the major contours of the New Testament’s mission theology.

1.1. Matthew

Matthew’s Gospel, while showing Jesus’s mission as focused on Israel, ends with the Great Commission, the risen Christ’s command to his followers to disciple the nations. In so doing, Matthew grounds the missions of Jesus and his disciples explicitly in Old Testament precursors. According to Matthew, Jesus the Messiah fulfilled Israel’s destiny as the representative Son of God, with the result that God’s blessings to the nations, promised to Abraham (Gen 12:3), come to fruition through Jesus in the mission of his followers.

Like the other evangelists, Matthew portrays Jesus’s mission as proceeding along salvation-historical lines: first to the Jews, then to the Gentiles. While, prior to the resurrection, Jesus’s followers are instructed to limit their mission to Israel (10:5–6; 15:24), the Great Commission extends their summons to all the nations. Occasionally in Matthew, Jesus does minister to Gentiles, but never at his own initiative (cf., e.g., 8:5–13; 15:24–27). Toward the end of his Gospel, Matthew refers to the future proclamation of the “gospel of the kingdom” as a witness to all the nations (24:14; cf. 26:13; Mark 13:10).

Matthew’s account, like the other Gospels, focuses on Jesus’s mission, which includes the preparation of his followers for ministry. Yet while Matthew refers to the fact that “some doubted” when seeing the risen Christ (28:17), he doesn’t end on a note of doubt; rather, he shows Jesus on a Galilean mountain, surveying the territory like a conquering general, assuring his followers of his unlimited authority in heaven and on earth and commanding them to spread the victorious, glorious news of the gospel to all the nations. Matthew thus ends on a note of triumph and joyous expectation: the community of Jesus, with its risen Lord at its side (28:20: “I am with you always”), is sent on a worldwide mission.

1.2. Luke-Acts

Luke, like Matthew and Mark, tells the story of Jesus and his salvation; the book of Acts then traces the movement of that salvation to the Gentiles. In comparison with Matthew and Mark, Luke portrays Jesus’s mission in more overtly universal terms, that is, as ultimately directed also toward the Gentiles. But like his Synoptic counterparts, Luke maintains the historical fact that Jesus didn’t actively reach out to Gentiles during his earthly ministry. Unlike the other Synoptic writers, however, Luke composes a second volume, and there makes clear that the boundaries still in place between Jews and Gentiles prior to Jesus’s crucifixion and resurrection are removed after the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost.

Luke’s second volume presents what “Jesus continued to do and teach” (Acts 1:1) by his Spirit through the early church led by the apostles. This establishes the subtle but vital point that Jesus, even after his ascension, has not disappeared from the scene; rather, from his exalted position at the Father’s right hand, he continues to direct and oversee the divine mission. Luke’s account traces the progress of gospel proclamation from Jerusalem—the center from which the word of the Lord goes forth—to Judea and Samaria, and even “to the ends of the earth” (1:8). In a major paradigm shift from a centripetal movement (men and women coming to Israel) to a centrifugal one (God’s people going out to others), Jesus’s followers are to serve as witnesses to Israel and subsequently Paul as a witness to the Gentiles.

Events with major significance for the mission recorded in the book of Acts include Pentecost and the universal outpouring of the Spirit (ch. 2), Stephen’s martyrdom (ch. 7), Paul’s conversion and commission (9:1–31; repeated in chs. 22 and 26), the gospel’s spread to Cornelius and the Gentiles (10:1–11:18), Paul’s first missionary journey (13:1–14:28), the Jerusalem Council (15:1–35), and Paul’s second and third missionary journeys and testimony before Roman rulers (15:36–20:38).

The Jerusalem Council has been dubbed the most important chapter in all of Acts since it describes a decisive breakthrough in Luke’s story. The threat to the expansion of the gospel to the Gentiles is turned aside so that the Christian mission now extends to Western Asia and Europe. Nothing can hinder the irresistible progress of the gospel, and God’s people, through his Spirit, overcome all obstacles. Paul and Barnabas continue the mission of the Servant, for they are now the “light for the Gentiles” (13:47, quoting Isa 49:6, a passage applied to Jesus in Luke 2:32). And while proclamation still begins with the Jews (3:26; 13:46; 18:5; 28:25–28), no distinction is now made between them and Gentiles concerning salvation and reception into God’s people: faith in Jesus is all that is required (e.g. 16:31). The conclusion of Luke’s second volume describes an open-ended mission to Jews and Gentiles (28:17–31). This reminds readers of an unfinished task and the urgency of being identified with the ongoing advance of the gospel of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. Truly, we now live in Acts chapter 29.

1.3. Paul

In the early church’s mission to the Gentiles, Paul was the indisputable leader. From the time of his conversion and calling on the road to Damascus, the proclamation of the gospel became the consuming passion of Paul’s whole life (Acts 9). His encounter with the risen Christ led to a paradigm shift in his thinking: rather than viewing Jesus as accursed and God-forsaken, he came to understand that Jesus was at the heart of God’s saving purposes as Israel’s Messiah, Son of God, and Lord of all. As the Crucified and Exalted One, Jesus bore the curse “for us” and thus fulfilled the law’s God-intended purpose. It had always been God’s plan that “the blessing given to Abraham might come to the Gentiles through Jesus Christ” (Gal 3:13–14).

The apostle understood his missionary activity to Gentiles within the context of an Old Testament expectation in which the nations would in the last days partake of God’s blessings to Israel. Paul knew that he was entrusted with God’s “mystery,” the end-time revelation that now Jews and Gentiles alike were gathered into one body, the church (Rom 16:25–26; Eph 2:1–3:13; Col 1:25–27). Yet while Paul was called and commissioned to be the apostle to the Gentiles (Rom 11:13; cf. 1:5), he ardently prayed for the salvation of his own people Israel. Although there was a temporary and partial hardening that led to the extension of the blessings of salvation to the Gentiles, God intends to bring his saving grace to ethnic Israel as well (Rom 9–11, esp. 11:33–36).

The first primary task included within the scope of Paul’s missionary commission was evangelism. Paul’s ambition was to go where the gospel had not yet been proclaimed and to proclaim the gospel there as a herald of good news (Rom 15:20–21; cf. Isa 52:15; 66:18–20). His strategy focused on preaching and evangelizing Jews as well as Gentile worshipers and God-fearers in local synagogues. As the apostle proclaimed the gospel, God converted both men and women. But Paul also founded churches as part of his missionary task. Paul’s aim was to establish Christian congregations in strategic and mostly urban centers from where the gospel could spread further to the surrounding regions. Conversion to Christ meant incorporation into him and thus membership within a Christian community. Through his practice of residential missions and his nurture of churches by teaching and admonition, Paul sought to bring men and women to full maturity in Christ (Col 1:28–29).

Paul’s writings wrestle with Jewish unbelief, the relationship between Jews and Gentiles in the church, the nature of the gospel in relation to the law, and the implications of Christ’s death and resurrection for the life of the believer. The mission motif is not equally prominent in all of Paul’s letters. In certain instances, Paul had to focus primarily on internal struggles or believers’ lack of maturity (e.g. Galatians, 1–2 Corinthians). In other instances, Paul involved his recipients more directly in mission work, such as in the case of the Philippians, whom he calls “partners” in ministry (Phil 1:5, 27; 2:16; 4:10–19). In relation to the spiritual warfare in which all Christians are engaged, he urged his readers to stand firm against the onslaughts of the evil one and his forces, which involves resisting temptation (Eph 4:27) and announcing the gospel of peace in the power of the Spirit (Eph 6:10–20, esp. vv. 15, 17). In his letters to Timothy and Titus, finally, Paul emphasized that God is the Savior of all (1 Tim 2:3–4; 4:10; Titus 2:10–11; 3:4). He also provided the post-apostolic church with instructions regarding the organization of the church and qualifications for church leaders.

1.4. John

Of all the Gospels, John provides the most conscious theological reflection regarding the relationship between the missions of Jesus and the disciples. John’s trinitarian mission theology is Christ-centered, focusing on Jesus, who, as the sent Son, fulfills his redemptive mission in complete dependence on his sender, God the Father (e.g. 4:34). While the first half of John’s Gospel depicts Jesus’s rejection by Israel (1:11), the second half narrates Jesus’s preparation of his new messianic community that will continue his mission following the crucifixion and resurrection (chs. 13–17). In anticipation of his exaltation to the Father, Jesus promises to answer prayer offered in his name (14:13–14) and promises to send “another helper,” the Holy Spirit (14:16). He calls on his followers to glorify him by “going” and bearing fruit (15:16) as they testify to him in the power of the Spirit (15:26–27) as a loving, unified community (13:34–35; 15:12, 17; 17:20–26).

In the commissioning narrative, the crucified and risen Lord turns sender. He breathes the Holy Spirit on the disciples and charges them to proclaim forgiveness of sins in his name (20:21–23). In keeping with the wording of Jesus’s commission, “As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you” (20:21), his own relationship with the Father serves as the paradigm for the disciples’ relationship with Jesus in pursuit of their mission. The Gospel’s declared purpose is that the readers might believe in Jesus (20:30–31). Jesus’s followers are to serve as his representatives, proclaiming him as the one through whom those who believe can receive forgiveness and eternal life. John also offers a profound reflection on the way in which Jesus’s followers remain associated with him after his exaltation. Through the Spirit, they are vitally connected with Jesus in an organic relationship that enables them to bear fruit (ch. 15) and to serve as Spirit-filled witnesses (15:26–27).

2. Conclusion

In this era between the “already” and the “not yet,” we are a body of pilgrims and resident aliens. We suffer and are persecuted for the sake of Christ’s name, but amid this we are to follow his example, demonstrating patience and a gentle spirit and showing that, ultimately, we do not belong to the world. If the gospel is to be proclaimed persuasively and with God’s saving power, it must be preserved pure. And we should adorn that gospel with our godly lifestyle and proper, God-honoring relationships.

Continuing the mission of Jesus in our world today also involves the nurture and pastoral care of men and women by feeding them with the word of God so that those who have come into a saving, living relationship with Christ will be brought to maturity in him and will be able to stand before their Lord on the final day. As we await our Lord’s certain and soon return, let us aspire to live godly lives and engage in mission to a lost world that has no other hope apart from Jesus. He is “the way, and the truth, and the life,” and no one can come to the Father except through him (John 14:6).

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