The Great Commission and the Grand Annoyance

Jesus tells eleven disciples to go make disciples of all nations, and somehow that became a guy with a guitar in row 14. This episode, we dig into what the Great Commission actually says in Matthew 28, what "make disciples" meant to a first-century audience, and why the word translated "witness" in Acts 1 is the same word that gives us "martyr." Along the way: costly signaling, the medieval shortcut of just converting the king, and why celebrity endorsements are doing far more conversion work than anyone at baggage carousel nine. _______________________________________________ Get your Data Over Dogma merch at our online store: https://data-over-dogma-shop.fourthwa... _______________________________________________ Support Data Over Dogma and get every episode early and ad-free, plus exclusive bonus content — become a patron:   / dataoverdogma   _______________________________________________ Listen to the podcast on every app: https://pod.link/1681418502 _______________________________________________ Follow us: Instagram —   / dataoverdogmapod   TikTok —   / data.over.dogma.pod   Threads — https://www.threads.com/@dataoverdogm... X — https://x.com/data_over_dogma Facebook —   / dataoverdogmapod   _______________________________________________ Get Dan McClellan's New York Times bestselling book, The Bible Says So: https://static.macmillan.com/static/s... _______________________________________________ Chapters: 0:00 Intro 1:15 The Great Commission 1:41 Matthew 28, Read Aloud 2:52 All Authority, Daniel 7 3:42 From Commission to Annoyance 4:40 The Airport Evangelist 6:01 Was It Only the Eleven? 7:07 What "Make Disciples" Means 8:27 Convert the King 9:21 Evangelism as Identity Marker 10:33 Costly Signaling 12:03 Performing the Concern 14:28 When Kids Get Hurt 17:50 Witnesses in Acts 1 19:21 The Greek Word Is Martyr 20:13 A Good Example 21:22 Servers, Tracts, and Fake Twenties 23:00 God Gives the Growth 25:15 Does It Actually Work? 26:08 Celebrity Conversions 27:56 If the Dans Turned Heel 30:18 Coexist Versus Convert 31:50 The Official Stance _______________________________________________ #DataOverDogma #BibleScholarship #GreatCommission #Matthew28 #Evangelism