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Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/jason-wahls/speaking-in-tongues/
Acts chapter 2. A couple of references have already been made to Acts chapter 2 and tying along with what Frank was just saying about the importance of doctrine and we've heard of dangerous doctrines, primarily our brethren are referring to reform doctrine and I'm thinking a little bit more along the line of perhaps a charismatic doctrine, perhaps it's not as relevant or as strong as it once was but I would like to speak to you today about speaking in tongues and hopefully it'll be of an interest to you.
If you've never encountered a charismatic Christian or had a conversation with someone that believes in this gift, the existence of this gift, perhaps you will do so at some point in your Christian experience.
There's a bit of confusion regarding speaking in tongues and so it should be of interest to us at least because it was a divinely given gift at one time so we should at least be interested in what it was, how it functioned and how to be able to defend and to speak about this particular doctrine.
Let's just read in Acts chapter 2 and we're going to begin at verse number 1. Let me just read this passage before we really begin to look at this along with other passages in the book of the Acts. Acts chapter 2 and verse number 1 and when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting.
And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sat upon each of them. And they were filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
And they were dwelling at Jerusalem, Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language.
And they were all amazed and marveled saying one to another, behold, are not all these which speak Galileans? And how here we every man in our own tongue wherein we were born, Parthenians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers of Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia and Pontus in Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia in Egypt and in the parts of Libya and Cyrene and strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians.
We do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And they were all amazed and were in doubt saying one to another, what meaneth this? We'll just pause the reading there. And I see we're going to have to move rather quickly.
And what I would like to do first of all in the book of the Acts is just make some general observations with regard to this gift of speaking in tongues. Just for help of some that might be wondering just how to go about studying the Bible.
There are different methods or systems perhaps that have been suggested and one system would outline different steps to take when one is coming to the scriptures to study. And obviously the very first step would begin by reading the scripture.
But then the second step that this particular author outlines would be observation. Just observing what is there. And he gives a very helpful illustration. I believe it's a biology course in a university.
And if you've taken a biology course in university you would likely have experimented that you have to do a dissection. Well in this particular instance the professor strolls into the room and his students are gathered.
And before them on a tray is a fish. Now maybe you had to dissect a frog or even a cat or something of that nature at the college level. But there was this fish and the students and their instruments are there and they're ready to dive in and to begin dissecting to learn about the different systems of that animal.
And the professor just restrains them for a little bit and says today I just want you to sit, just sit, just look and just observe. Just study that animal. And the students perhaps a bit disappointed, they complied and they left that day and they came back and the next day it was the same thing.
Just sit and observe, just sit and look and observe that animal. A number of days the professor had the students do that before finally they were able to begin to dig in and to dissect. And he wanted to teach them the skill of just simply observing.
And so what I would like to do just in the very first part of the message is just very briefly, very quickly in the book of the Acts make some general observations with regard to the gift of speaking in tongues.
Just observations. And then what we're going to do in the very limited time that we have available is flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and we're going to look a little bit more expositionally at the gift of tongues.
So first of all just some very general observations. First of all you'll find that the gift of tongues is mentioned in three passages in the book of the Acts. The first mention is here in Acts chapter 2 when these individuals speak with the gift of tongues.
Then you'll come over to Acts chapter 10 and you'll find the second occasion when in the house of Cornelius when Peter preaches and the Holy Spirit falls upon all that heard the word and they began to speak with tongues and to magnify God.
The third and final occasion is in Acts chapter 19 where there is a unique group of people, those that had been baptized only with the baptism of John and had not heard about the Holy Spirit or had not heard that he had come and Paul speaks unto them, lays hands upon them and they speak in tongues.
There's only three occasions that are recorded in the book of the Acts where we have this gift of speaking in tongues. Now a second observation was as you come to this passage obviously the power has come from the Holy Spirit but the second observation would be very simply that these were in fact languages.
In fact take a look at verses number 6 and verses number 8 and you will see that it says that they were confounded because they heard each speak in his own language. If you have a Newberry Bible you would see that that is actually a dialect and in verse number 8 where it says tongue and we hear every man in our own tongue that is well as the same word.
It is a dialect. So it is in fact a language. Further down the word is language and it is actually the same word that is translated as tongue. These were dialects. Some of them at the very least were dialects.
So dialects are a little bit different than a language. Dialects, in fact there are numerous dialects in Mexico where we live. The primary language is Spanish but there are many indigenous people that speak a number of different dialects.
It is not always true but generally speaking dialects are not recorded or not written and if you ever tried to learn a foreign language you know that it can be a challenge within itself but to learn a dialect in my opinion would be even much more difficult because you wouldn't be able to look at it as it is written down.
So here you have all these individuals from different regions, from different areas and each one of them would have a specific dialect. A variation of a language that was very specific to them. The accent would be unique to that region.
The word choice, the grammar structure, everything very unique. Maybe this is carrying this a little bit too far but I would suggest to you that when these individuals heard them speaking in their language, in their dialect, that it was in such a manner that they could confuse them with native speakers.
I don't know if you understand what I'm trying to say but we live in Mexico obviously and occasionally we'll receive a phone call. We've lived in Mexico for 19 years and I will answer the phone and say bueno and with one word they will know that I'm not a native speaker.
They will know that I'm a foreigner. I would suggest to you that this gift was such that these began to speak in this dialect, in this language that even those that were natives would be marveling. They would be amazed that they would think that these were native speakers.
I'm not going to take the time to turn to the passages because I really want to get to 1 Corinthians 14 but you would understand that the people listening, this is another general observation, the people listening to those that were speaking in tongues understood.
They said we hear them speaking in our own dialect, in our own tongue, in our own language. They understood. They said they were amazed because they were speaking of the wonderful works of God and in 1 Corinthians 10, the Jews as they would see the Gentiles receive the spirit and they would hear them speak in tongues, they would say that they were magnifying God.
So they understood and that's an important point. So those are just some general observations. I'll come very quickly. Much more could be said about that but I have to leave that. Come very quickly to 1 Corinthians 14.
So just those general observations because you're going to eventually perhaps have conversations with individuals and they might try to tell you that these were heavenly, angelic languages that no one understood them and things of that nature.
So come to 1 Corinthians 14. Now in these first five verses are probably where the majority of the problems reside or the majority of the confusion is generated perhaps in these verses. We've just seen very superficially, very briefly, very quickly that in the book of the Acts speaking in tongues involves speaking a known language, a foreign language.
It involved that people listening could very definitely understand what was being said. But when you come to 1 Corinthians 14 there's some language and some different verses here that might generate a bit of confusion and we're going to try to deal with those one by one.
First of all, when we read 1 Corinthians 14 it says that it is an unknown tongue and we'll have to examine that to see what that means, an unknown tongue. It also says in the first couple of verses that no man understands.
No man understands. When the person is speaking in a tongue that there is no one that understands. So how do we reconcile that? We've just heard that in the book of the Acts they very definitely understood what they were saying.
It also says that he isn't speaking unto men but he is rather speaking unto God. How do we reconcile that again with what we saw in Acts that there were those that were understanding and listening to what they were saying?
Then further on in the chapter we would read that there is a gift of interpretation and if the man is unable to convey what he is saying that he should pray for the gift of interpretation. So let me back up just one step and ask you, the person that was speaking in an unknown tongue or in tongues, did they understand what they were saying?
Were they just rattling something off and had no idea? Or did they understand? I'm going to present the idea or suggest that they very definitely did understand what they were saying. But that lends to another difficulty.
If then, say I am speaking in a tongue and I understand what I am saying, why would I need an interpreter? Why couldn't I just tell you what I was saying? So those are some of the challenges. In fact, there is so much confusion about this that you would find different commentators, maybe perhaps not many, but one or two that would make the suggestion that perhaps there are two different gifts by the same name, which I don't find very plausible or very likely.
It would seem very strange. But I would like to try to tackle with you and I probably won't have time to do it, so let me just give you a very quick outline of this chapter. So in the first few verses we are going to see the perceived problems that I mentioned and then after that you will see the profitability, starting at about verse 6, what does it profit?
The profitability of speaking in tongues and the necessity of a translator. Then further on you would see the purpose of tongues in verses 21 and 22, that they were for a sign. Then you would see the practice of tongues in the latter verses, just how they were practiced, the guidelines that Paul gives.
I would just say this in case we don't get there, that regarding the practice or the guidelines, if you would take the practice and the guidelines that are given here in this chapter and use them as a filter for the things that you might run across on the internet, I wouldn't suggest wasting your time with some of those things, but if you would place those over as a filter it would eliminate the vast majority of the things that are out there in the charismatic world.
But I really want to deal with some of those perceived difficulties and problems. The first one that I mentioned, let's just read a few of these verses, the first four or five verses of 1 Corinthians 14, follow after charity and desire spiritual gifts but rather that ye may prophecy.
Maybe I should just say this for those that might not be familiar with this chapter, that this chapter is dealing primarily with two gifts, the gift of prophecy and the gift of speaking in tongues. Paul is presenting the superiority of the gift of prophecy.
It primarily deals with the use of those two gifts in the assembly meeting. So let's continue with verse number two. For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue, speaketh not unto men but unto God. For no man understandeth him, how be it he speaketh, sorry, in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.
But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. I would that ye all speak with tongues but rather that ye prophesied.
For greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh with tongues except he interpret that the church may receive edifying. There's quite a bit maybe to unpack there and to notice very quickly concerning those perceived problems.
So the first problem that I presented to you was that there would be those that say see it is in an unknown tongue. So it's a tongue that can't be known, can't be learned, can't be understood. You notice to deal with that difficulty that the word unknown is in italics.
And I think the majority of us would know that when we find a word in italics in our Bible it is supplied by the translators. Now I am never critical of translators. It's a very difficult job. But obviously they have placed it there to try to help give some understanding to the text.
What that means is there is not a word in the original. For example in the New Testament in the Greek you would not find a word that corresponds to unknown. But as they translated this from Greek to the English language they felt that placing the word there that word unknown would help to make the text more understandable.
Now there are those that have taken that to mean that that is unknown to humanity. Or that it is a tongue that only God knows. Most likely what the translators had in mind is it is a tongue that was unknown to the speaker.
A tongue that the person hadn't studied, that the person hadn't learned. So it was unknown in that sense. The second problem that we mentioned is notice in verse number two that he says that he doesn't speak to men but unto God.
For no man understandeth him. And again those that would be in favor of the gift of speaking in tongues would say see right there it says that no one understands what he is saying. No one can understand.
It's impossible. Well again if you have a Newberry Bible it would say that no one heareth it. I would suggest as well that perhaps even a better understanding or a better rendering would be that no one gives an audience to.
No one is paying attention. So for example if someone stood up here that spoke a language that none of us understood then not a single person understood. We might try, we might try to focus the best we could but really we wouldn't be paying attention.
We wouldn't be listening. I remember moving to Mexico and we were motivated to learn Spanish and we were studying Spanish a little bit and we would go to a conference or a weekend of ministry like this at the very beginning when you hardly understood anything.
And you'd sit there and you'd be straining and pretty soon you'd be nodding off because you weren't understanding a thing. So literally what it says when he says that no man understands, he's not saying that it's impossible that there are people that could understand.
He's saying that because these individuals in this context in this setting of the local assembly in this particular meeting there are none in the audience that understand so there's none that are going to give him an audience.
So if somebody climbs up here and begins to speak in a tongue and no one understands they're not going to pay any attention to him. And so the question then that we also posed is does this man, this individual that's speaking in tongues, does he understand what he's saying?
A number of years ago when we lived in Anamosa we were having some gospel meetings trying to spread the gospel there and we opened and we rented the community center and it's been so long ago in the newspaper we took out an advertisement advertising the meetings and put our phone number and seats or texts were distributed and one day I got a phone call.
First question out of the man's mouth was do you guys believe in speaking in tongues? I said no sir we do not. He said well I speak in tongues and he became a little agitated right away. I speak in tongues.
I said can I ask you one question? I said it says here in 1 Corinthians 14 that verse number 4, he that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself. Could I ask you how are you edified? How are you edified?
And he became very agitated and just I don't know but I am and he hung up. See edification is the primary, the key word in this entire chapter and the primary purpose of all spiritual gifts is to edify.
Forgive the Spanish lesson but those here that speak Spanish would know that a building is called an edificio. You can see right away the words. The building up, the construction, edifying. And so now I would just mention this in passing.
If you are using the net Bible for example, they would suggest that the man edifying himself speaking in tongues might not necessarily be in a positive context. They would suggest that perhaps it has the idea that he's puffing himself up in front of the audience because no one is understanding him so it's not necessarily a positive thing.
I don't think I agree with that because when it is used regarding prophecy it's a positive context and always in this chapter it seems to be in a positive context of the building. But so I would suggest to you that the person speaking in tongues clearly understood what he was saying.
I don't understand what benefit the gift would be. I know it was for a sign and so it was a sign for the unbelievers but what benefit it would be if there was no personal edification. Now that takes us to the next point and hopefully you're following some of these perceived problems and that is interpretation.
If he understood, if he was speaking in a tongue and he understood what he was saying why would he need an interpreter? Why would he need to pray that he would be able to interpret because if he understood what he was saying he should be able to just communicate that to the audience.
I'm going to suggest to you that interpret in 1 Corinthians 12 and 1 Corinthians 14 might not have the same meaning or the exact meaning as sometimes we might take it to mean. For example, some of you young folks have been to the seed stores in Mexico and if you were there this last year there were devotions given and some young men spoke in English and Brother Shad and Brother Paul interpreted.
So they would speak in English a phrase or a sentence and they would repeat them in Spanish. That would be what we would call interpreting. If you were to take something from one language to another in written form that is called translating.
And there are those that have obviously translated the Bible. But notice in the words that are used here. Look very quickly at 1 Corinthians 12 and verse number 7, 1 Corinthians 12. This is where a list of different gifts are given.
Let's skip down to verse number 10. To another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another diverse kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues, to another interpretation of tongues.
Now, the word there used for interpretation, I've never studied Greek pronunciation. It's on my bucket list. But it might be pronounced a little bit like this, ermineia. Those of you that have studied the Bible might say, hey that sounds a bit like ermineutics, ermineia, ermineutics.
You would know that ermineutics and if I understand correctly they come from similar words, they are similar in structure. You would know that ermineutics is the methodology, the study of the interpretation of the Bible.
So even in perhaps your English 101 composition class and different occasions you've been assigned to read some poetry and then you come in your class discussion and you're grappling with and you're trying to dissect and to understand and interpret what the author is really saying and you get that discussion going.
Well, ermineutics is the interpretation, the science or the methodology, the interpretation of the Bible, usually related to the Bible. And there's different rules and different approaches taken into consideration, the time period, the audience, the context, the language, the grammar, and all these things to come to interpretation.
Come over to 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and you'll find a different word and it's used in chapter 14 verse 5, 13 and 27 and it's translated here, interpret. I'm going to suggest to you that really the idea is to expound.
Now why would I say that? Well it's actually the very same word that is used in Luke chapter 24 when the Lord Jesus is walking on the road to Emmaus with those two and it says that he expounded unto them in all the scriptures things concerning himself.
He expounded. You imagine getting that lesson in typology and those different types and different pictures and we could all use a little help on some of the offerings and some of that typology. It wasn't just that he was maybe talking about them.
I feel like he was expounding. He was breaking it out. And so my suggestion is that when we come to the gift of interpretation, if the man, individual in fact, understood what he was saying, because you can understand what you're saying, but it's a whole completely different thing to expound upon it.
To be able to break it down and we appreciate deeply our brethren that can expose it and can really expound upon the scriptures and break them apart and teach us. And I would suggest that this gift of tongues, it was primarily for a sign, but we did read and whether Paul is speaking hypothetically or not, he says, how be it in spirit he speaketh in mysteries.
Perhaps it was used as part of revelation as well when the Bible was being written. So those would solve some of those perceived problems. And they would be in agreement with what we read in the book of the Acts.
I need to sit down and leave 20 minutes for somebody else, but just notice very quickly a couple of points. First of all, verse 19, Paul says, In the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others in ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.
I don't think Paul was prone to exaggeration. Five words. I've often thought of the example. Five words, Christ died for our sins. Just five powerful words compared to a bunch of speaking that no one would understand.
Then notice the purpose of tongues was for a sign. We don't have time for that. I do want to mention very quickly the practice of tongues. Notice verses, let's see, verse 27. This will suffice. If any man speak in an unknown tongue, let it be by two or three at the most.
So there's a limitation. And that by course would mean to take turns. So there's order. And let one interpret. There has to be the interpretation, the exposition of what is being said so that it might be profiting and edification.
And notice that they're in control. If there's no interpreter, keep silent. I'll leave those for you to look at, but you look at those different things. Now, one last thing, because you come down to the second to the last verse, and it says, wherefore brethren, covet to prophesy and forbid not to speak with tongues.
And there would be those that would say, see, there it is, forbid not to speak in tongues. Why is it that that is there? Well, if you turn back over to chapter 13, and verse number 8, charity never faileth, but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail.
Whether there be tongues, they shall cease. Whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. So I think that's the answer there as to why he says forbid not. Because this gift was temporary. It served as a sign, as we mentioned, without time to go into that.
And when it had served its purpose, it faded off the scene. If any of the younger folks have questions, I know we went through that very, very quickly, but if you have questions about that, I'm happy to talk to you about it.
I just feel like this is something important, because at some point in your life, you'll likely run across individuals that believe in this. Just close with this story. The first lady that was saved, or one of the first ladies that was saved in the work that we were in, she was born Catholic, raised Catholic, and at some point their family converted to a charismatic background.
Then, long story short, in one of the first series of meetings that we have, she was saved. One day I went to visit her, and she said to me, Jason, I have this quick question. Why is it that before I was saved, I could speak in tongues?
But now that I'm saved, even if I wanted to, I can't. I'll leave that for your consideration and your contemplation, but we pray that this would be for your edification.