God's International Speech: Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.

I recently entered a Toastmasters International Speech Competition and I presentented "God's International Speech".

After His arrest, conviction, crucifixion, burial, and resurrection, Jesus Christ says to His disciples:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt 28:18b-20)

This command from the resurrected Jesus Christ has been followed now for the last 2,000 years. To this day, churches around the world baptize men, women, children, and cute cuddly little babies in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

We live in an age of positive thinking. So I would like to point out Jesus Christ’s international speech is a much more positive international speech than the international speech given by God at the time of Noah when God sent an international flood to kill off all creatures because:

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. (Gen 6:5)

Not only was Jesus Christ prophesied by the prophets, but even the international nature of Jesus Christ’s ministry was prophesied. The prophet Isaiah, in Christian interpretation referring to Jesus Christ, says:

I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.” (Isa 49:6b)

The prophet Daniel says of the Son of Man:

He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (Dan 7:14)

At first, Jesus Christ’s ministry is not international, as when He sends out His twelve disciples, saying:

““Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.” (Mt 10:5b-6)

But God’s international speech is represented by Jesus Christ going to Samaria and speaking with a Samaritan woman, and telling her:

“You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.” (Jn 4:22)

Jesus Christ documents that God’s international speech predates His ministry by pointing out events that took place 900 years before His incarnation. Jesus says:

“… no prophet is accepted in his hometown. I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. And there were many in Israel with leprosy in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” (Lk 4:24b-27)

It is in Tyre and Sidon (located in Lebanon) that a foreign woman comes to Jesus Christ to have her daughter be healed by Him and He tells her: “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel,” and, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” The children in Jesus’ analogy are the Jews and the dogs are the Gentiles. But when she humbly retorts, “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table,” Jesus heals her daughter (Mt 15).

God’s speech takes on an international flavour because the Romans were governing Judea at the time of Jesus Christ’s ministry and their empire spread from North Africa to Europe to the Near East. A Roman centurion comes to Jesus to have his servant healed. Jesus tells the centurion He’ll come and heal him, but the centurion replies, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed.” (Mt 8:8) Jesus Christ replies:

“Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Mt 8:10b-12)

After his resurrection, Jesus Christ says to his apostles, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth,” (Acts 1:8b) and after this, God’s international speech reaches Greece, Turkey, and Italy, with the efforts of the Apostles Paul and Peter.

God’s international speech is later represented by the Apostle Paul who gives a speech to the Ancient Greeks at the Areopagus. When referring to the Ancient Greeks’ lack of knowledge of God, Paul says:

“In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to everyone by raising him from the dead.” (Acts 17:30-31)

The book of Revelation, the final book of the Bible, announcing events at the end of the age, makes many references to the fact that God’s speech is international and applies to, “persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.” (Rev 5:9, 7:9, and 13:7)

Two thousand years later, God’s international speech remains the same. Jesus Christ says:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” (Mt 28:18b-20)