Good morning and good Monday. I hope you are genuinely excited to rise and do whatever it is that God has called you to do this week. I spent many years of my life in a job that I didn’t enjoy. I think there are seasons of life where you will have to experience this. I mean how can you truly know what you love until you know what you don’t. You won’t recognize that perfect job until you’ve had some bad ones and specifically say “I know I don’t want to do this anymore!” For me right now the blessing is that for the first time in my life I have allowed God to lead me like a lost puppy to the job He had for me. My friends, there is no greater joy than to be exactly where God wants you to be. I look back at the jobs that I didn’t enjoy, and I realize those were the ones “I found” or the ones “I wanted.” Sad to say but the choice was usually based on money or pride, both based in myself. I realize and recognize now that when we are basing deisions on ourselves and not God, we severely limit how He can bless us. We tie His hands as we are heading off down our own path seeking our glory and not His.
Saturday, I had another fantastic workshop at the Univerisity of Texas at Dallas and what a joy it was. Our great friends Ann, Jack & Bekah all serve at this campus and what a true joy to be able to serve along side dear friends we love so much. We had a great dinner afterwards and just talked life. Blessed fellowship is sharing the triumphs, challenges and trials of life with brothers and sisters and then recognizing that God is in control of them all. I know this already but how different it is to share it verbally with loving friends! I know the story of the last 120 days in my life better than anyone, but I still look back and sometimes wonder how in the world God lined this all up!
Today we’ll be looking at 1 Corinthians 14 which deals with speaking in tongues. This is one of those topics that kinda gets labeled as ‘taboo’ today. We don’t really speak about it much and I think it, like many other things in God’s Word is because we don’t fully understand it. We haven’t spent the time in God’s Word to study, research and pray for God to reveal it to us. Most often we get ‘societies’ interpretation of the topic which, more than likely, is tainted with a sprinkle of satan and sinful men. If you have questions about something in life today, seek the answer in the truth of God’s Word, it’s the sole thing we can truly trust.
So let’s boil ‘tongues’ down to a very simple definition based in God’s Word. Tongues is simply “speaking a foreign language held by a people group on Earth.” It’s ironic and actually a little sad, what I found when I did a quick Google search of definitions of “tongues”. I came across wording such as “unintelligible words”, “a Heavenly tongue”, “unknown language” and even this one from dictionary.com, “a person experiencing religious ecstasy utters incomprehensible sounds that the speaker believes are a language spoken through him or her by a deity.” You’d think that if you’re trying to define a ‘religious term’ from the Bible you would consult the context and meaning of it in the Bible. Seriously, I don’t think whoever wrote these definitions ever looked at the Bible!
Probably the most famous use and mention of speaking in tongues is the day of Penetecost in Acts chapter 2. At the end of Acts chapter 1 Jesus ascends into Heaven but before He does, He instructs the disciples not to leave Jerusalem for they would be “Baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” (Acts 1:5b) The disciples hung around and in Acts 2:3 we see this:
“and divided tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” Acts 2:3
Please note, this is the same Holy Spirit that we are all gifted with when we accept Jesus as our Savior. So what is the reason for the Holy Spirit? Well amongst many reasons, one of them is to prepare and equip us to effectively give out the Word of God. In this verse, it’s important to note that the Festival of Harvest in Jerusalem was going on. This was one of the major annual festivals in the Jewish religion and it was a ‘pilgrimage’ so all adult Jewish men from all over the land were required to be in attendance. It was a big deal. No school, businesses were closed, no work, it was a big celebration. Margie & I love the State Fair of Texas and near Big Tex they have a map of the US and people can ‘pin’ where they came from. The map ends up being engulfed in red pins! If they had done this at the festival of Harvest, you would have seen pins from all over the entire region.
So as you can imagine with people from all over there were many different languages and dialects present. You would have readily heard Aramaic, Greek and Hebrew on the streets and just as with English today there would have been distinct regional dialects that can greatly change the comprehension. (just get somebody from the Bronx, Cajun Louisiana and Alabama together and you’ll see what I mean!)
As the disciples started to each preach in a different language, we’re told:
“a multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing him speak in his own language, and they were amazed and astonished, saying, are not all these Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in our own native language.” Acts 2:6-8 And “we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God, and all were amazed and perplexed” Acts 2:11-12
So the result of the Apostles preaching in different tongues? Peter rises up and preaches to the great crowd and about 3,000 people were saved in that moment! (Acts 2:41) You see God’s timing is always perfect. He timed the arrival of the Holy Spirit with the Festival in Jerusalem and then gifted the disciples with the ability to preach in all the languages of the land so that lives could be saved. So you see this was not some ‘angelic languge’, ‘unknown language’ or ‘unintelligible sounds’, it was simply speaking to people in a language they could understand.
So God’s point to the church in Corinthians chapter 14? Cool it with this preoccupation with tongues. They were misunderstanding and mis-using tongues. The giving out of God’s Word should be clear and concise, if you are preaching in a different language and people can’t understand God’s Word, whats the point? Marge and I have been to an entire church service that was in Spanish. I could pick up about every 4th word, but overall I had no idea what they were saying. I surely did not understand God’s Word. Paul is telling the church at Corinth that if you are using tongues, have an interpreter so people can understand. If you have no interpreter don’t use tongues at all. The point is to clearly give out the Word of God so that lives can be saved. Don’t get all fancy and religious and try to look pious and bring attention to yourself. (1 Cor. 14:4) Simply give out the Word of God.
I hope and pray that this study this morning helps you to better understand what speaking in tongues is, using one reference and one reference only, God’s Holy Word. The speaking of tongues was used only a few times in God’s Word and it was always to proclaim the Gospel to someone in a different language. It’s fascinating to note that Jesus never spoke in tongues and there is no record of the Apostles speaking in tongues after Pentecost. To have the gift of tongues today would be like me going to China and starting to preach spontaneously in perfect Mandarin without any prior knowledge of the language. I’m not saying God can’t do this, but in this day and age God prefers to raise up and call someone that can already speak Mandarin. With over 7.6 billion people on the planet and an estimated 2.2 billion Christians, God has many tools in His tool chest that He can use to get out His Word.
Today there are people that need to hear the Gospel of Jesus on the street where you live. You speak their “tongue” and in that, you hold the message that saves. Share that message today.
God bless your journey today and may you have the opportunity to share the love!
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