All Over the World" was written by Jeff Lynne and featured in the 1980 film Xanadu which stared Olivia Newton John, Gene Kelly and Michael Beck. This song featured prominently in the trailer for the Simon Pegg science fiction comedy movie Paul and also played at the end of the film before the credits.
Everybody all around the world
Gotta tell you what I just heard
There's gonna be a party all over the world
I got a message on the radio
But where it came from I don't really know
And I heard these voices calling all over the world
All over the world
Everybody got the word
Everybody everywhere is gonna feel tonight
Everybody walkin' down the street
Everybody movin' to the beat
They're gonna get hot down in the USA
(New York, Detroit, LA)
We're gonna take a trip across the sea
Everybody come along with me
We're gonna hit the night down in Gay Paree
All over the world
Everybody got the word
Everybody everywhere is gonna feel tonight
London, Hamburg, Paris, Rome
Rio, Hong Kong, Tokyo
LA, New York, Amsterdam
Monte Carlo, Shard End and
All over the world
Everybody got the word
Everybody everywhere is gonna feel tonight
Everybody all around the world
Gotta tell you what I just heard
Everybody walkin' down the street
I know a place where we all can meet
Everybody gonna have a good time
Everybody will shine till the daylight
All over the world
Everybody got the word
Everybody everywhere is gonna feel tonight
All over the world, everybody got the word
All over the world, everybody got the word
All over the world, everybody got the word
Here's another upbeat song from the ELO stable, in which a celebration of the gift of life ("A party all over the world") will take place. Featured in the critical and box office disaster Xanadu, it didn't make much sense in the film, but it was still a huge hit on the charts. The song is about a simultaneous world wide party that happens all around the world.this seems a bit far fetched but when you mine the meaning and read into it a bit more it's about a message that is received about world wide phenomena on an epic scale. Everybody is effected.
This sense of world wide phenomena on an epic scale is also something that we see at the very end of Jesus mission, before the ascension. We read in Acts 1 about this world wide message on an epic scale from the mouth of Jesus to his disciples.
Acts 1:6-11 "6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” 7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority. 8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” 9 And when he had said these things, as they were looking on,he was lifted up, and a cloud took him out of their sight. 10 And while they were gazing into heaven as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white robes, 11 and said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into heaven? This Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven.”
The words that Jesus uses are "Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Jesus clearly saw his work was going to be completed by the followers of Jesus after the the ascension. the task would involve those early disciples taking great risks to accomplish a nearly impossible task. We need to judge history to see if they were successful. There are over 2 billion believers all over the world in 2015. Perhaps the early disciples have much to be thanked for. The message of Jesus still has an world wide scope on an epic scale. God has not finished with this world yet and he still has work for the disciples of Jesus in our age as he has had in every age and generation.
There is still a great challenge for the followers of Jesus today. Jesus' words still ring true for us as they did for the disciples of the early church "To the Ends of the Earth" It is significant that in 1910 there was only 600 million beilevers and that had risen to 2 Billion in 2010. That means in the last 100 years we have seen a world wide phenomena on an epic scale. The number of Christians around the world has nearly quadrupled in the last 100 years
The gospel mandate is still clear for those who will see it. The fractured world in which we inhabit is still in need of a relationship with the living Jesus. There is still an overwhelming task to accomplish. We have a big God with all that we need to do so. May God encourage each one of us to play our part. when Jeff Lynne sings "All over the world everybody got the word" This would be my prayer today.
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