Extreme Church: The Gift of Tongues
Acts 2:1-13
Introduction
We are thinking about Extreme Church. Extreme Church is about learning to live and love like Jesus and attracting others to live the same way. This is not a job for religious nutters – so much of church life is about Christians self-indulgently doing their own thing come-what-may. No, this is a job for people who are extreme in the area of wisdom and balance! An extreme church is one that is extremely good at relating the good news to those around and, endearing though our nuutty Christian friends may be, they are useless at this!
This week: the gift of tongues...
Seven weeks after Mary had discovered the empty tomb of Jesus about 120 of his followers were gathered in Jerusalem. They had not dispersed, their faith was stronger than ever because during those weeks Jesus had shown in many convincing ways that he had overcome death and was the Saviour of the World.
Now Jerusalem was crammed with Jews from all over the known world for the feast of Pentecost when they would celebrate the harvest and remember the giving of the law on Sinai. The first Christians joined in the celebrations, but they were waiting for something else to happen: waiting for a promise to be fulfilled.
Three signs
The first indication that something was hapenning was the sound of a windstorm: not actual wind, just the sound. When God created the first humans he brought them to life by breathing into them(Genesis 2:7), throughout the Old Testament and into the New the words for ‘wind’ and ‘Spirit’ are the same, so these disciples know what is coming: the Holy Spirit of God – the Breath of Life. The sound of wind was the first sign.
Then there was fire – or something like it - these flames did not consume those they rested upon. Long before, Moses had listened to God speaking to him from within a burning bush, a bush that was not consumed by the fire, so the disciples knew who was coming: God himself was settling on each of them – blazing in their hearts but not burning them up. The fire was the second sign.
Sailors know how to harness the wind, they ajust their sails, point their boat in the right direction and they move forward. Now the Holy Spirit fills these Christians in the same way, and as they feel His power surge into their beings they are able to do something new, something they never thought possible: each of them begins to speak in another language. Foreign nationals in the city that day heard the believers worshipping God in their own languages – and they understood what was said! The gift of glossolalia or ‘tongues’ – that was the third sign and nothing like this had ever happened before.
The Gift of Tongues
But this is not the only time you read about tongues in the New Testament. There are several more occurences in the Acts of the Apostles, and Paul discusses the use of tongues in prayer and worship in his first letter to the Corinthians. It is a controversial area and all this may be making you feel very nervous: some of you are probably worried about what I will say this morning, “Extreme Church... tongues”, is this going to get nasty?
So it is time to put aside whatever we have picked up from tradition and experience and listen to God’s word: what it says and what it does not say.
On the day of Pentecost (c. AD 29) the church was born: we are here today because Jesus rose from the dead that first Easter and because sent his Spirit fifty days later. The new languages spoken that day were real intelligible ones (6 & 8) – it’s not surprising that they were ‘beside themselves with wonder’ (7). The purpose of tongues on this occasion was simple: to demonstrate the Spirit’s presence and communicate his message.
But the tongues spoken in Corinth had a different puropse altogether – take a look at 1 Corinthians 14:2-19. Here tongues were a vehicle for speaking to God (2): the purpose of tongues in the life of Christians in Corinth was worship and prayer. Tongues is a prayer-language which is unintelligible to the speaker and to the listeners.
Go a little deeper and you see that when the gift of tongues is given in Acts its purpose is to demonstrate that people really have received the Holy Spirit – this kind of confirmation was important at that time, especially when the gospel jumped the Jew-gentile gap (see Acts 10:44-46 for example).
Once again, things were different by the time Paul wrote to the church in Corinth (c. AD 52-54). Here tongues is one of the many gifts God gives to help the church to grow and Paul takes a moment to stress that not everyone speaks in tongues (1 Corinthians 12:30) – some do and some don’t. He goes on to encourage Christians not to place too much importance on this gift (14:18-19). Read the previous chapter and you see that Paul regards sacrificial love as a better indicator of the Spirit’s presence than the gift of tongues. Having said this, we must acknowledge that Paul valued the gift of speaking in tongues, especially in private prayer (18-19).
Nineteen centuries later the gift of tongues is controversial – Christians argue about it and the great divide between ‘charismatic’ and ‘non-charismatic’ churches is partly defined by what those communities do with tongues. We are going to try and get a clear picture of the Bible’s teaching in this.
First, it is sometimes useful to clarify what the Bible does not say. Let’s do that now:
The Bible does not say that when someone recieves the Holy Spirit they always receive the gift of tongues. Tongues is proof of the Spirit’s activity in a number of passages of Acts, but by the time Paul writes to Corinth it is only one of a menu of gifts God may choose to give a Christian so that he/she can serve the church. Paul asks, “Do all of you speak in tongues?” expecting the answer, “No”. So if you don’t have this gift you are not a second-rate Christian!
The Bible does not say that speaking in tongues is necessary in order to ‘release’ the church into spiritual worship. Paul explains this for us (14:3-5) and points out that tongues is usually a vehicle for self-edification. Now some of us have been in churches when the worship has been, let’s say, ‘hard work’, and then someone has spoken in tongues and the whole community has lifted off into a beautiful flowing period of praise. This happens, but let’s not make our personal experience into a law for the whole church.
The Bible does not say that ‘prayer in the Spirit’ is the same as ‘speaking in tongues’. You could run away with that impression from 1 Corinthians 14:14-16 but if this was Paul’s meaning only those with the gift of tongues could pray in the spirit but elsewhere he encourages us all to do that (Ephesians 6:18). No, prayer in the spirit is that which is directed and led by the Spirit of God whether you pray in tongues or not (see Romans 8).
Finally, the Bible does not say that tongues are the most important spiritual gift. I have never heard a Chsistian say this but have very frequently heard them imply it. Actually Paul almost says the opposite (14:5 & 19).
So what is the point of tongues? Here we come to what the Bible does say:
The Bible does say that tongues is a gift from God. This gift certainly does the speaker some good (4) and it can do the hearers some good too if the language is interpreted (6 & 12-13).
That being the case, we ought to pray for this gift and, when it happens, welcome it. The most likely habitat for tongues-speaking is prayer and worship so what do we do if someone speaks in tongues in a cell group or a public meeting? Here are some pointers:
- First, we should give thanks to God for it – at least one person is being encouraged!
- Second, let’s pause for interpretation – it may be that God wants to use this to encourage everyone so we give the Spirit space to work.
- If someone does come out with an interpretation, give thanks, worship God, weigh it up and work out what it means. If no-one interprets, it is not the end of the world, at least the speaker has been blessed!
- However, if people keep on speaking in tongues, but no interpretation is forthcoming, that might be time to recognise that we ought to be using the gift in private rather than in public (14:26-28)
It is common sense really, and there is absolutely nothing to be lost and everything to be gained from people who feel that they want to bless others with their gift of being able to speak in tongues provided that the language is interpreted. Otherwise the gift is best used for private prayer and worship.
Missing the Point
We Christians argue about this because we are so good at missing the point. Let’s go back to Acts 2 and discover what God really wants to say to us. Here at the birth of the International Jesus Movement the most obvious thing is the most profound: the gospel is to go to all the nations and the Spirit is given to equip us to achieve that task (9-12).
Nelson Mandela once said that if you teach a man to understand your language you will speak to his head but if you speak to a man in his own language you speak to his heart.
Listen, when Christ was crucified pilate had a plaque with the title ‘King of the Jews’ nailed to the cross. The words were written in Latin, Greek and Aramaic. From the beginning this gospel was intended to be translatable, to communicate from heart to heart. Here is that truth again on the day of Pentecost as believers speak their heart-love for the Saviour to the hearts of those yet to fall in love with him. And so it goes on right up to the present time.
That is our job here in the city of Sunderland... heart-to-heart.