The Gift of Tongues

Introduction

How many of you want God to give you the gift of tongues?

The LORD is here, and he is able to give you your heart’s desire. Do you believe it?

In the hearing of this sermon, may the Lord grant you the gift of tongues, may the Spirit birth the heavenly speech in your mouth, and let the melody of the Spirit rise from your lips, and ascend to the heavens.

Let the weight of Christ’s glory cover us, and let our fears and worries be subject to our will to glorify Him above all things. Let new prayers arise from the midst of Redemption Hill, prayers unheard of, and full of the Spirit’s unction.

[Pray with me now to the Gift Giver]

We have now spent a considerable amount of time on the subject of Tongues & Prophecy, seeking to understand Paul’s message to the Corinthian church regarding the matter.

There’s much that we have gathered from Paul’s statements, regarding the nature, outworking, and purpose of these gifts. As I’ve mentioned to you before, among all the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, tongues & prophecy have been the most controversial throughout the history of the church. The gifts of healings probably immediately following those.

And so, it makes sense for us to spend such a long time trying to understand what these gifts are. Therefore in these next set of sermons, I hope to systematically address tongues, prophecy and maybe healing, from the whole counsel of Scripture. Consider these next set of sermons as the concluding remarks in our study, on these most controversial of the gifts.

We start, with the Gift of Tongues.

Language

If we are to understand the beauty of this magnificient gift, we have to journey to the very beginning.

What is language ultimately other than the principle means of communion? It is the exchange of thoughts. It is a system that describes or defines the terms of communication. Whatever the type, all languages are fundamentally made up of meaningful units called words.

And we find that language existed as an inter-trinitarian reality - Genesis 1:26

Genesis 1:26 (ESV)

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...

We can argue that it was a component of creation.

Psalm 33:6 ESV

6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

Now, we must be careful in making these assumptions because it is quite possible that the nature of speech and communication are quite different from ours. All of this is anthropomorphic in nature. These are verses that communicate truth to us in humanly relatable or understandable ways, but may not in reality be seen in categories we know.

Jesus asks Nicodemus the question,

John 3:12 ESV

12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

The Tower of Babel

And so, that brings us to a time in the early genesis of this world, to Babylon.

Genesis 11:1 ESV

1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.

There was a time when the world was united in one tongue, a singular language spoken among the people.

Men, women & children of the entire world united by a common speech.

Genesis 11:2–4 ESV

2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.”

Let us make a name for ourselves. Here is the picture of the human’s desire for self-sufficiency and independance. A fundamental rejection of God’s sovereignty.

As R.C Sproul notes, “The same arrogant pride that inspired rebellious Eve and Adam to rival God’s knowledge (3:5) and the ungodly Cain to build his city (4:17), now inspires ‘the whole earth’.”

This city would be erected with its top in the heavens, as a challenge, a rebellion that man can ascend to the heavens. Such was the unity of the world at that point, and their trust in themselves and their ability.

The social and technological stage of the world at that point were tools of evil among a corrupt people.

Many since, across history, even to our day, make this same claim, although not with the building of physical towers, but with intellect and arguments, raise lofty towers in their mind against God.

lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. The people fundamentally did not want to do what God wanted them to do. The biblical expectation was that the people would multiply and disperse to the ends of the world. Genesis 9:1

Genesis 9:1 ESV

1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

Genesis 11:5–6 ESV

5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.

There is a tone of irony to these verses, and again, an anthropomorhpic nature to them. The omnicient (all-knowing) God does not need to come down in order to see the city. This again is a humanly relatable way of accounting the story.

But the irony is seen in God having to come down to a people who think to highly of themselves.

God acknowledges the danger of a united people. And we must observe here the role the singular language plays in this unity. They are one people, having one tongue.

and this is only the beginning of what they will do. This great evil is only the beginning of a corrupt people united in this way. And if they are left to their own devises, nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Here again, I find this an anthropomorphic language since it is clearly perceivable that non can actually build a tower to the throne of God, and none can ascend to his glory. But the point is well made here that a united mankind can build, pursue and perform everything they set their mind to within the confines of natural possibility.

In no way, does this verse suggest that God was threatened by the rise of humanity. There is only one for whom nothing is impossible - and that is God (Luke 1:37). It is rather his acknowledgment of the danger of a corruptly united world.

Again, R.C Sproul points out that rather than conflict with the doctrine of divine omniscience (cf. 6:6 note), this anthropomorphic description of God’s activity serves to emphasize that divine judgment is always according to truth.

Genesis 11:7–9 ESV

7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

And so God divided them and dispersed them over the face of all the earth. How? By multiplying their tongues, by dividing their language.

God struck them with the judgment of tongues, and they could not understand one another’s speach. The building of the great city ceased, the tower left hanging, incomplete, and the pride of mankind broken. None may ascend to the heavens.

The Lord confused the language of all the earth. To the Babylonians, Babel meant the “gate of god”, but the irony is that the word in Hebrew means “confusion”.

And that is how this world we live in became the world of many tongues, many languages. And so the world multiplied and the generations were fruitful to disperse to the ends of the earth.

When God came down again

A great many centuries later, a group of people united by their love for Christ, and of the Gospel of his grace, gathered in the upper room, and raised a very different kind of tower. Not a tower of pride, but a tower of humble praise. A tower of prayer, ascended to the throne of God, carried by the Great Intercessor who sat on the right hand of the Almighty. For this Intercessor is the only man who ascended into the heavens by his own will.

And God came down again, to see this tower, and he was pleased. Acts 2:1-4

Acts 2:1–4 ESV

1 When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

They were together in one place. United in Christ and in prayer.

There came from heaven. Out from the heavens, from the throne of God, from the heavenly places came, a sound like a mighty rushing wind. The power of God flurried across the chasm that lay between heaven and earth, and this power was not a impersonal force. This was no ordinary wind. The word for wind in the NT is often synonymously used for the Spirit of God. This mighty rushing wind was the Holy Spirit of God himself that descended from the heavens in glory and power, ushering with him the new age of God’s outpouring - the era of the grace of Jesus Christ.

And the sound and wind filled the entire house where they were sitting. Imagine the experience beloved. The bleeding of the heavenly things into these earthly things. Glory filled the place where they sat, for God the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity unveils his power in their midst. No, they did not perceive this merely through some spiritual assent, the people there experienced this physically.

And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. Here again, appears to the people tongues - divided tongues. A significant resemblance don’t you think? The Holy Spirit manifests tongues or languages of fire, divided and it rested upon each of them.

God condemned the world once by dividing the tongues of men and scattering them across the face of the earth, but now God sends his disciples to the ends of the earth, to gather to himself people from every nation, tribe, and tongue.

they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. They spoke in many tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. This gift of tongues was the redemption of the curse of tongues in Babel. The historic event at Pentecost was a reversal of sorts of the event at Babel.

If Babel, was man’s attempt to ascend to the throne of God, to heaven, then Pentecost, was heaven coming down to man.

Notice that God does not just reverse all manking back to a common tongue. The dispersion was God’s divine intention since the beginning, and so he carries on from that mission to now enabling his disciples to cross lands, deserts, mountains and seas to reach all people everywhere with the good new sof the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Acts 2:5–13 ESV

5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.”

If I may put it this way, if the one language of the earth in Genesis was a rebellion against God, one that separates us from God, our communion with him, then the gift of tongues, is God’s gift of grace that brings us closer to God, and intensifies our communion with Him.

The Gift of tongues is not merely an evangelistic tool, but a sign of the heavenly promise that God intends to unite us under Christ. Not as a proud people, but a humble people. Not as a self-sufficient or independant people, but as a dependant and Christ abiding people. People who acknowledge God and their desperate need for him.

The Variety of Tongues

Now from our study of 1 Corinthians 12-14, we fundamentally find that the gift of tongues described there goes beyond the evangelistic use of Acts 2.

1 Corinthians 12:10

1 Corinthians 12:10 (ESV)

... to another various kinds of tongues...

The variety in the kinds of tongues here is not subject to being just human languages on the earth. There are many reasons, as we’ve been seeing these past few weeks.

This gift is primarily for self edification

It is a gift of prayer and praise offered to God

The existence of the gift called the gift of interpretation is suggestive of the fact that this is not fundamentally evangelistic in nature. Why would a local church have one person gifted in speaking the German tongue, and another person given the gift of interpreting German, when none in the church speak German?

Paul spoke in a tongue without interpretation, and he spoke in tongues more than anyone else.

There is a variety of tongues, which includes languages of this earth, and also languages of a heavenly nature, where 1 Corinthians 14:2

1 Corinthians 14:2 (ESV)

..one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God;.. no one understands him, but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.

I repeat, the gift of tongues is a divine manifestation of God’s intention to draw us closer to him. His Holy Spirit has come and filled us with tongues, languages, the system of communion with God.

The common critique

One of the most common criticisms against the speaking of such tongues, is the weirdness that surrounds it. Anyone can utter such mindless gibberish, they say, and I disagree with them. I do not believe people can say mindless gibberish, they can say mindful gibberish. But the gift of tongues is speech that bypasses the mind. That is not humanly possible. It is a spiritual experience.

It is the glorious antithesis of demonic speech. A person possessed by a demon may speak the words of the demon who has him chained down by force and subject to its horrors. Yet a person indwelt by the Spirit and gifted with tongues is able to speak at will words that are not his own, and words the edify the self and build up the person in Christ. We are not possessed by the Holy Spirit, we are gloriously united with him in Christ.

It is God putting utterances of his words in our mouth. This is an intimate taste of God’s communion with man.

Another common critique is the language itself, and its often limited vocabulary. And my response here is that we again make the mistake of over emphasising the anthropomorphic nature of it all. There is no reason for heavenly languages to be structure according to human categories of human languages. During the feast of King Belshazzar in Daniel 5, when the finger of God wrote these words on the plaster of the wall, “MENE, MENE, TEKEL, and PARSIN.”

And when the enchanters and astrologers could not interpret what was meant, the Queen tells the king in Daniel 5:11

Daniel 5:11 (ESV)

11 There is a man in your kingdom in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.

And Daniel interprets these four words as follows, Daniel 5:26-28

Daniel 5:26–28 ESV

26 This is the interpretation of the matter: Mene, God has numbered the days of your kingdom and brought it to an end; 27 Tekel, you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting; 28 Peres, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”

Conclusion

The reduction in the tongues of Acts 2.

1 Corinthians 14:26–29 ESV

26 What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. 27 If any speak in a tongue, let there be only two or at most three, and each in turn, and let someone interpret. 28 But if there is no one to interpret, let each of them keep silent in church and speak to himself and to God. 29 Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others weigh what is said.