It's great to be here with all of you this morning.
We have a wonderful crowd, and we're so thankful for that.
We have some visitors that are here among us from the community
and maybe other places of the congregations, and we say
welcome, and we're glad you're here.
As I have been announcing, this Sunday, we're going to begin a
short miniseries on the day the Kingdom came.
You remember that we just finished a series on the 40 days
from the time that the Lord Jesus rose from the dead until
he ascended into heaven in Acts chapter 1 and all the
significant things that actually happened over those 40 days.
The title of our lesson this morning though, as we begin our
series on the Kingdom is Baptism of the Holy Spirit and Speaking
in Tongues. Now I got to say, these are two
things that are very much misunderstood today.
You might remember that two lessons ago when I mentioned
some things in Acts chapter 1, when Jesus made a promise of the
Holy Spirit to be given to the apostles, He was talking about
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I just mentioned in passing,
there's a difference between the baptism of the Holy Spirit in
Acts 2 and Acts 10 and the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 and
verse 38. We talked about what those
differences are, but today we want to talk about the baptism
of the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues and how all of that
happened the day the Kingdom came.
Going back to the significance though, you remember of those 40
days, remember this, I'll be very brief, but sometimes a
number is just a number. That's true.
And as we said in great detail, 40 is just 40.
The significance of the number 40 with regards to days or years
in the Bible is God happened to choose this period of time of a
time of testing, trial, purification and preparation
leading to a new beginning, transformation or significant
divine action. That was examples in the Bible
of all those things concerning 40 days and 40 years.
That's the significance of 40. And while it's true that during
that period of time, from the time Jesus rose from the dead to
the time he ascended into heaven 40 days later, it's obvious that
was a period to prove his resurrection.
But it was also very significant because Jesus chose that time to
prepare his apostles for the greatest thing they will ever
do, and that is to take the gospel to the world and to talk
about their role in the coming Kingdom of preachers of the
gospel divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit.
Now regarding the Kingdom, very briefly, it's nothing new.
Daniel prophesied about this hundreds of years before the
events that actually transpired in Acts chapter 2, in Daniel
chapter 2 and verse 44. And in the days of these kings,
the God of heaven will set up a Kingdom which shall never be
destroyed, and the Kingdom shall not be left to other people.
It shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms and
it shall stand forever. I don't have time to go very
deeply into this prophecy, but let me just say this.
The Kingdom that's being referred to by Daniel in the Old
Testament is talking about the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
And it's talking about the greatest Kingdom in all the
world that will never be destroyed.
May I say, don't ever think the Kingdom of Jesus Christ is going
anywhere. It's going to stand forever.
Daniel said, and get this, Peter even said it's everlasting.
Meaning when Jesus comes back, those that are in the Kingdom of
Christ will be handed over to his Father, and therefore it
will be everlasting and it will never be taken away.
Salvation will have it, all those wonderful things.
But to be in the Kingdom, everlasting in heaven, you got
to be in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Now, Daniel prophesied about that a long time ago, but not
just Daniel, how about Joel and Isaiah?
They all prophesied about the establishment of the greatest
Kingdom in all the world, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
All right, let's Fast forward. Let's go into the New Testament
times. John the Baptist, the cousin of
Jesus, the forerunner of Jesus comes on the scene and says this
regarding the Kingdom. He said repent for the Kingdom
of heaven is at hand. 1 chapter Later after Jesus was baptized
in the river Jordan by John the Baptist to fulfill all
righteousness, he was tempted in the wilderness 40 days and 40
nights. After all that happens, he
begins his Galilean ministry. And in Matthew chapter 4, Jesus
picks up the baton if you will, and speaks about the Kingdom.
And he says he began to preach and to say repent for the
Kingdom of heaven is at hand. Two chapters later in the Gospel
according to Matthew, in the greatest sermon ever, priest in
the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus actually gave a model prayer,
which is often times referred to as the Lord's Prayer.
But nowhere in the Bible does it say the Lord's Prayer.
If you want to know what the Lord's Prayer was, you have to
look at John 17. You would have to look at a
prayer that the Lord actually prayed.
That would be his prayer. Jesus was giving a model prayer
before the Kingdom came. In other words, here's a way to
pray not not words to be regurgitated or repeated over
and over and over repetitiously. All right, Jesus says pray in
this manner. Our Father who art in heaven,
hallowed be your name. Then he said your Kingdom comes
or when the Kingdom comes your will be done on earth as it is
in heaven. Remember when we studied this
two years ago? Can't believe it's been 2 years.
Two years ago I looked in Matthew chapter 6 on this
passage. Remember it is inappropriate for
us to pray today for a Kingdom to come in the future.
That's already been established. However, the word Kingdom means
rain. Jesus said the Kingdom is within
you, meaning Jesus on the right hand of God on the throne is
reigning over the Kingdom. If the Kingdom is within you or
people, he's reigning in the hearts of baptized believers
that are his. So the only future reign of
Christ, it won't be another Kingdom.
It's already here. We don't pray for that.
It will be, though, in the heart of someone that is not a
Christian today, that becomes one down the road.
That's the only prayer that we pray for people to come to the
Kingdom. So the future reign of Christ in
their heart will happen when they come to Jesus.
We'll pray for a Kingdom to come that has already been
established. Jesus was talking about a model
prayer for a time before that. All right then, after the
resurrection and before the ascension, Jesus told his
disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come.
And he said, But you shall receive power when the Holy
Spirit has come upon you again. He's talking to to the apostles,
and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in Judea and in
Samaria and to the end of the earth.
So this here is talking about the baptism of the Holy Spirit
that was promised in Acts chapter 1 and verse 5 where
Jesus says for John truly baptized with water, but you
shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.
OK, after the ascension of Jesus in Acts 1, Matthias is added to
the 11 replacing Judas, and now you've got 12 men.
And these twelve men are ready for the greatest monumental task
of their life. And that brings us to Acts
chapter 2, when the day of Pentecost had fully come.
Most of you know about what Pentecost means, and Pentecost
actually means 50th and we get that.
We understand. And sometimes people use the
word Pentecost out of context to almost create or generate some
kind of a religion. But Pentecost was a Jewish day.
In fact, the word Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 is referred to
two different places, two different ways in the Old
Testament. It is actually referred to as
the Feast of Weeks in Exodus chapter 34.
It is also referred to as the feast of harvest in Exodus
chapter 23 and verse 16. In Exodus chapter 34 and verse
22, the Bible says you shall observe the feast of weeks of
the first fruits of wheat harvest and the feast of in
gathering at the year's end. It was a Jewish religious feast
day. That phrase or these phrases,
feast of weeks and feast of harvest by New Testament times
among Jewish people, were simply called or referred to only as
the Day of Pentecost, because it simply refers to what was
observed 50 days after the first Sabbath following the feast of
the Passover. How do we know that in Leviticus
23 beginning in verse 15? And you shall count for yourself
from the day after the Sabbath, from the day that you brought
the sheaf of the wave offering seven Sabbath shall be complete.
7 Sabbath 7 * 7 is 49. Count 50 days to the day after
the 7th Sabbath, and you shall offer a new grain offering to
the Lord. What a perfect time for the
Kingdom of Jesus Christ to be established.
You got a whole bunch of Jewish people.
They're there in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, 50 days
after the Passover. They were coming for the purpose
of a grain offering to the Lord. And scholars tell us there were
so many Jewish people there that day.
Some say even over 1,000,000 people perhaps were in Jerusalem
for this great event. You know, it's interesting. 50
days after the Passover would have landed on Pentecost Day,
which would have been on Sunday. Significant.
Yeah, I think so. Old Testament, significant day.
Sabbath day. New Testament, significant day.
First day of the week or Sunday accident?
Absolutely not. First day of the week.
Sunday morning. It was time for the Kingdom to
come. And what an audience they had of
all these Jewish people from all over the world.
All right, notice now what happened when the day of
Pentecost had fully come. It says they, we're all with 1
accord in one place. OK, who's they?
They is very important here. You're going to hear they and
them very important. And if we can understand who
they and them are in Acts chapter 2 here in these
passages, then we can understand who actually gets the baptism of
the Holy Spirit, who actually can speak in tongues and all
that. It says they to understand the
context of they you got to go back to the previous chapter
because these were not written with chapter and verse breaks.
It was 1 continuous letter written by Luke to Theopolis the
recipient. And you go back to the very
verse before this was was in chapter 1 and verse 26 and it
says and they cast lots and the lot fell on the thighs.
This was the apostles when they just when they were replacing
Judas Iscariot and he was numbered with the 11 apostles.
So on the day of Pentecost, the apostles were with 1 accord in
one place, the same people that cast their lots where God chose
who Matthias was going to replace, He was going to replace
Judas and it was the apostles and only the apostles.
OK, what happened to them in verse 2?
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing,
mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were
sitting. All right, it's important that
we actually just read what it says.
Tell you what it doesn't say. It doesn't say the wind filled
the house. It also doesn't say very
important, the Holy Spirit filled the house.
It doesn't say that either. It says there came a sound from
heaven. What filled the house?
The sound. The sound filled the house.
What did the sound sound like? Didn't say, Didn't say there was
wind. It said it sounded like a
rushing, mighty wind. And why do I make that point?
Because some people believe that when the Holy Spirit
miraculously comes today, and some believe that He does, it
fills the house with wind and all that, and it fills the whole
house itself, floating around and say that, remember, the
apostles were the recipients. And notice it was a sound from
heaven as a rushing mighty wind. That's what filled the house.
OK, what happened to them? There appeared unto them again
them and they same, same people, apostles, what'd they get?
Divided tongues as of fire. And it sat on each of them, the
apostles. You know, divided tongues
doesn't mean fork tongue. Divided tongues actually means
to divide into parts and distribute what's being
distributed. The tongues.
We'll get to what that means in a minute.
Divide into parts and distribute themselves among the apostles.
That's what distributed themselves to the apostles when
they received the Holy Spirit miraculously was divided or a
division of or different parts of tongues going in different
directions. This is again the baptism of the
Holy Spirit. What does it mean to be filled
with the Spirit? They were all filled with the
Holy Spirit. To be filled with the Holy
Spirit in this passage means to be filled mentally or under the
full miraculous influence of the Holy Spirit.
According to the New Analytical Greek Lexicon, page 232, they
were filled or under the miraculous influence of the Holy
Spirit. Who was they were the apostles,
all right. And they began to do what?
Speak with other tongues. Now I want to make some points
here. I want to slow down here.
They were able to speak with other tongues.
Why does it say other? What is other?
According to Vincent, other tongues are language is strictly
different from their native tongues.
OK, well you might say, well that could be anything, right?
Give me an example, practical example.
I speak English. I'm now 59 years old.
I don't know another language. Any other language other than
English is another language. It is different than my native
tongue. When I was in high school.
Complete waste of time. I had to take two years of a
foreign language. Complete waste of time.
What I did, I should have taken. Spanish would have done me some
good. Wish I did.
You know what I did? I took French.
Worthless waste of time. You know why?
My sisters took French and my dad spoke French.
And I thought it was a way to help me through it.
I thought it'd be easy. Never used it.
And by the way, I still can't speak French.
I got through it so I can go to college.
I the day I was done with this class.
I still don't remember any. I'm done.
My point is, that was another language.
It was a language that was different than my native tongue.
Some people say, though, that these other tongues or other
languages are ecstatic Babel or gibberish that nobody can
understand. I've actually even heard it like
this. I've heard people say, well, it
is a heavenly language. I've heard people say it is a
special private language that God gives you when you're saved
to let you know that you are saved.
Let me tell you one of the saddest things I've ever heard.
I was studying the Bible with a young lady and she was really
sad. I said, I want to study with
you. I said, why are you so sad?
She said, you know what, I wanted to be saved so long ago
and somebody told me if I couldn't speak in tongues like
they were, I'm not saved. So I completely left every
concept of God in my life. I got completely away from the
Lord because I figured if I couldn't speak in tongues, I'm
not saved. Why bother?
What's the use? Nowhere in the Bible does it say
that tongue speaking. We're going to get to what that
actually was. But nowhere in the Bible does it
say that tongue speaking was a sign that you're saved.
Nowhere other people say that these other languages or other
tongues refer to heavenly or angelic language.
And do you know why this is what happens when you take passages
out of context, You make the wrong application.
And because of this passage, they take this passage out of
context and say that I'm just speaking the tongues of angels,
angelic heavenly languages, when I do this gibberish.
But this word here, tongues, is a Greek word, glossa, which
means normative language. It is normal languages.
I'm going to prove that to you and I'm going to prove their
understanding of it and all that.
But that's what the actual word means.
Remember in verse 4, tongues is not gibberish.
Tongues is normative language by definition.
All right, because of the misunderstanding though, about
people thinking, well, it's the tongues of angels.
It's this passage right here in First Corinthians chapter 13,
verses one through 3, the apostle Paul context.
What's the emphasis? The emphasis is the motive
behind the act, and that is love.
That's the context. And what he's saying is, as he
speaks in hyperbole or an extreme exaggeration, he's using
extreme exaggeration to prove that even if I can do a whole
lot of these great magnificent things, if I don't have love or
that's not the motivating factor behind it, I'm nothing.
In fact, he says this in hyperbole or extreme
exaggeration. After he said this in this
first, I'm going to get to it in a minute.
He said if I can understand all mysteries, is it possible for a
human being to understand all mysteries?
No, he's speaking in extreme exaggeration.
He's saying even if I knew all mysteries and understood it all,
He said even if I had all knowledge, no, that's for the
Lord. Nobody understands that, right?
And then he says this. And even if I had all prophecy,
if I could do that, and even if he said I had faith, that was so
great that I can move mountains. And by the way, sometimes, like
in Matthew 17, when the phrase move mountains, it's talking
about mountains of difficulty in a figurative sense.
OK, in First Corinthians 13 one through 3, when it talks about
faith moving mountains, it's talking about literal mountains
because he's speaking in hyperbole and extreme
exaggeration. What he's saying is this.
Even if my faith was so amazing, I can literally move a mountain,
if it is not based upon love, it profits me nothing.
Keeping that in mind, let's look what he says about angels and
tongues of men and angels. He says, though I speak with the
tongues of men and of angels, He's saying, exaggerating the
point. Even if I can speak all the
tongues of men and even if I can speak all the tongues of angels,
I can do that too. If I have not love, I am nothing
but empty noise. That's the context.
But because it says the tongues of men and angels, people have
said, well, that's what I do when I go into this little
gibberish or Babel or whatever I'm doing.
I'm not making fun, folks. I'm really not, which some
people believe. They go into something that
nobody can understand. They say, well, I'm just
speaking angelic words like Paul did.
All right, OK. By the way, all of this
historically comes because of the influence of the charismatic
movement in 1960. And by the way, when I say
charismatic movement, it's not a particular church.
The charismatic movement was a movement that affected religious
affiliations in the United States.
Its origins actually started. The movement started in 1960.
But what's amazing is in research, it actually goes back
to some roots. They go all the way back to 19 O
6IN Los Angeles, CA at some big revival meeting they had where
all of a sudden people claimed they got the baptism of the Holy
Spirit that they got, that the apostles got next to and they
spoke in tongues. And the tongues that they said
they spoke were those angelic languages that nobody could
understand. The movement though, and by the
way, I didn't write this, you can Google it, you can look at
the encyclopedias. This is this is fact, a prime
force of the education and popularization of this movement
is called the Full Gospel Businessman's Fellowship
International. This organization has grown from
a small beginning in 1952 in Los Angeles to many thousand
adherents, always boldly advocating it's experiential
religion with emphasis on Holy Spirit, baptism and speaking in
tongues. The thrust of the movement has
been accelerated by spectacular claims of flamboyant
personalities through multimillion dollar television
ministries. Healings of all kinds of claim
lengthen, legs straightened, spines cancer removed,
miraculously, even puppies raised from the dead, washing
machines healed, empty gas tanks supernaturally filled.
Wouldn't that be great? And one lady reported been given
the new your belly button. I didn't write that and I'm not
making fun. I'm reading what I read.
Then there was a book written. There was a book written
entitled Why Should I Speak in Tongues by Charles and Francis
Hunter and this is what they claimed.
Anyone who questions tongue speaking today or other aspects
of the charismatic movement is condemned and lined up with the
Pharisees who criticized Jesus and accused him of doing His
work by the power of Satan. And if Jesus baptized with the
Holy Spirit yesterday, then surely He will continue today
and tomorrow. I want to notice with you,
though, the reason for these tongues or languages.
First of all, they did it as the Spirit gave them utterance.
The Spirit gave them utterance, OK?
They were guided miraculously by the Holy Spirit.
Now when you ask the question, well, why, why, why did they
actually speak in tongues? Well, we have some obvious
answers that are running through our heads right now, and it's
with the revelation and confirmation of the Word and all
that. That's all true, but do you ever
stop to consider the practical benefit of why they had to be
given the gift of these normative languages that they
never studied in the presence of a vast audience of a million
people? Why one scholar put it this way?
The miraculous ability to speak this is practically now in
tongues was necessary for a group of uneducated apostles to
preach to all nations. When the gospel was completely
revealed and written down, the need for miraculous ability to
speak in foreign languages ceased.
How do I know that it ceased again?
That love Chapter First Corinthians 13.
Here we go again. Love never fails.
Well, whether there are prophecies, this is miraculous
prophecies, spiritual gifts, and we're going to get to that
later. Whether there are tongues,
whether they are knowledge, it will vanish away.
All those things are going to happen and tongues that we're
talking about are going to cease when 1st Corinthians 13, nine
and 10 for we know in part and we prophecy in part by the way
in part is talking about the temporary use or the temporary
need of the miraculous spiritual gifts.
There was a time for it, absolutely a time for it.
That's which was in part now miraculous gifts.
Really quickly. There was a need for miraculous
spiritual gifts before the Word of God was completed.
When the apostles went somewhere and preached the Word, or
somebody else went and preached the Word and people were saved
and they were baptized for their mission to bear sins and added
to the Kingdom. Right when they left, they left
people behind and there was still no New Testament.
The only way that they can continue to authenticate the
messenger, authenticate the message, and prompt a response,
which was the reason for miracles.
The only way they can do that is through spiritual gifts and
leaving miraculous things behind.
The only ones that can do that were the apostles, and they
would come and lay their hands on them and somebody would have
the gift of miraculous prophecy without the Bible.
Somebody would have the gift of healings without the Bible.
Somebody would have the gift of tongues without the Bible and so
on and so forth. All of that would be done away
with. When what?
When that which is perfect is come.
Please understand this is not Jesus because one interpretation
is this is Jesus. In other words, all this stuff
is going to continue until that which is perfect, which is
Jesus, comes back at the end of time.
No, that which is perfect is found in James 125.
But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty, that's
the word of God and continues in it, and is not a forgetful
hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what
he does. OK, when the word of God was
completed, that miraculous gifts has ceased.
Why is it called the perfect law of liberty?
It's called that because it makes us free from our sins and
gives us the spiritual liberty that cannot be from any other
source. So to sum up so far, tongues
will ease. Language is given to apostles
miraculously through the baptism of the Holy Spirit in Acts
chapter 2. It was not gibberish or ecstatic
Babel that could not be understood.
They were also given later temporarily through the laying
on of the apostles hands to confirm the word of God.
Spiritual gifts, but they're going to cease when the word was
completed. And that task was accomplished
by the close of the 1st century. Now I got to make a point here.
I've been wanting to make this point because of the influence
of the charismatic movement on Christian professing religions,
or I'm just going to say on Christianity as a whole.
Perhaps because of that, often times Christians, in an attempt
to get away from the charismatic movement or the influences of
the charismatic movement, have gone way too far in the opposite
direction, almost to the point where people sometimes become
robotic in their service. The Bible says Spirit and truth,
and sometimes because we want to get so far away from the
charismatic movement that we take the spirit out completely,
even to the extent where people say the Holy Spirit doesn't do
anything today, He's done. You know what didn't make sense
to me? Now his work in revealing the
word is completed. But what never made any sense to
me is why is it we believe we all believe this because the
Bible teaches this. There's three in the Godhead
God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. They're all deity, they all work
together. We all get that right?
Everybody will say, well, God's working in my life.
I pray to him all the time. I need God, Oh, I need Jesus.
So God and Jesus are working in my life every day in some
capacity, even in some capacities that we can't
understand or describe or explain, but we know what's
happening. We're good with that, right?
Oh, but the Holy Spirit's just been sitting this one out since
the 1st century. He does nothing.
That never made any sense to me at all.
That's not the topic of this sermon, but I'm just going to
tell you, God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit all work in our
life. I'm just going to leave it right
there. Do without what you want.
Maybe that'll be a sermon for another time.
One man actually said the Holy Spirit's dead.
That scares me to death. Why would you say that?
That's a deity. No, he's not dead.
Again, I'm not saying miraculous stuff.
I'm not saying charismatic stuff.
Please don't put words in my mouth.
Hear what I said and let's leave it at that.
Let's move on. Verse 5.
And then we're dwelling in Jerusalem.
Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven.
Obviously because of the feast of Pentecost, you got a large
number of Jews there present, right?
And the Bible says from every nation under heaven, why would
there be Jews from every nation under heaven?
This phrase right here, Jews in a plural sense describing them
from every nation under heaven is talking about the Jews of the
dispersion that were dispersed or they were asked to flee or
made to flee from their native land or the land of their
ancestors of Israel. It's also called the Diaspora
Jews. It's also called that the Jews
of the dispersion. So the phrase is used to
describe Jewish people scattered from their homeland.
Keep that in mind because look at verse 6.
And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and
were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own
language. Does that sound like gibberish?
Does that sound like ecstatic Babble that nobody can
understand whatever was being spoken of?
Remember, verse four is talking about normative languages.
Now we're going to get to what this word means right here.
Language in verse 6. They were confused because they
heard them speak in their own language.
Now, Diaspora Jews in the Roman Empire mostly spoke Greek.
In the East they spoke especially Aramaic.
Yet many Diaspora Jews would also be familiar with local
languages and dialects spoken in the areas where they live.
In fact, this word language here is a different word than glossa
of tongues, which means general, regular, normal languages.
This word is more specific. This word is the Greek word
dialecto. And by the way, that's where we
get the word you know it's coming dialect.
They heard them speak not only in languages that were real, but
they actually heard them in their own dialect.
Notice the reaction to that. Now they were all amazed and
marvelled, saying to one another, look, are not all these
who speak Galileans? There's two reasons why this
response. First of all, they're marvel.
Wait a minute, these guys are Galileans.
Number one reason. First of all, these guys were
country boys. I don't know how to put them
down. These guys were hay seeds.
I guess there was. They weren't linguists.
These guys. Galileans, according to Vincent,
were blamed for neglecting the study of even their own language
and charged with errors in grammar and ridiculous
pronunciations. You've even known that guy that
always mispronounces all the words.
What if one of those guys is always mispronouncing all the
words? OK, what if that guy all of a
sudden start speaking 5 different languages and dialects
in addition to that? That was perfect and flawless
and people were hearing what he had to say in their own language
and in their own dialect. Oh wait a minute.
That's pretty amazing isn't it? That's what they were doing.
They said. Whoa, wait a minute, what's all
this stuff? These uneducated guys, aren't
they all galileans #2 reason. Zur says Galileans generally
spoke in a tongue that was particular to themselves.
And that's exactly what they shot old Peter with when Peter
was there denying Jesus. And they said your speech
betrays you. In other words, you're a
Galilean speaking in the in the language that's particular to
yourself. Then verse 8 and how it is that
we hear in our own language. This is the same word as verse
6, dialecto meaning dialect or subgroup.
Give you just a quick example. OK, In the Philippines, all the
years I went to the Philippines, people come up to me after when
I get home back in America because they just don't know.
And they say, hey, do you speak Filipino now?
There's no such thing. There's no such thing as speak
Filipino. There's Tagalog, There is all
different other dialects and you can go to point, you can go to
one place or one province and that dialect in that area is
their own language. In fact, even the Bible, you got
to get a Bible in that dialect. It doesn't read the same at all.
We went to talk about an incredible thing that was
happening to the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
These apostles, these Galileans, they're speaking in languages
and dialects which are subgroups even of those languages.
Amazing. What languages?
Parthians, Medes, Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia,
Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt and
Parsa. Libya, adjoining Cyrene,
visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and
Arabs. We hear them speaking in our
own. There it is, languages.
That's how they understood it. What did they hear?
The wonderful works of God. At least seven different
languages, by the way, and numerous other dialects of those
languages were being spoken and they all understood.
Now, one more thing regarding speaking in tongues, please.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit only happened in Acts chapter 2
and Acts chapter 10. It was given to the apostles In
Acts chapter 2, when the Kingdom came and the audience being
Jewish, Jewish, that was there and they were able to speak in
languages that were understood. That is the baptism of the Holy
Spirit. In Acts chapter 10, the baptism
of the Holy Spirit happened again.
In that case, it happened to the Gentiles with the household of
Cornelius, and they spoke in tongues too.
Why did they speak in tongues? Why did they have the baptism of
the Holy Spirit? One reason as a sign to show
Jewish Christians now that God accepted the Gentiles into the
same body. Isn't that beautiful?
Ephesians chapter 3 says that it was the mystery or the plan of
God. It was always in existence in
the mind of God, but not yet revealed.
It is now that Jew and Gentile would be alike in one body
together. Amazing.
Only time the baptism of the Holy Spirit happened in both
cases. Real normal languages.
And in both cases they were both understood without
interpretation. Why is that important?
And I'm going to have to mention one final thing or else it'll
come up as a question. What about the spiritual gifts
that we talked about before? What about the spiritual gifts
that we spoke of earlier through the laying on of the apostles
hands? What about them?
If in Acts 2 and Acts 10 they spoke these languages and they
understood it without interpretation, then all of a
sudden what about or what was different about the spiritual
gifts, the miraculous spiritual gifts by the laying on of the
apostles hands as the Kingdom grew and before the Word of God
was completed. What about that?
Well, let's look. Acts 19 and six, when Paul had
laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them and they
spoke with tongues, languages and prophesied.
That was a gift of tongues. You know what else they got?
1st Corinthians 12 and 10 To another, the working of
miracles. To another prophecy, to another
discerning of spirits, to another, different kinds of
tongues. To another, the interpretation
of tongues. I'm not trying to insult you,
but you know what interpretation means.
It comes from the word hermanuo. It's where we, by the way, get
the English word hermeneutics. It's the way that we interpret
Scripture, right? It means translation.
What's that mean? It means to interpret or
translate is to take one language and put it into its
equivalent, into another language.
In other words, when they spoke in a language they never
studied. Chris Osborne, I don't know if
you speak anything but English. So all of a sudden you get the
gift of Spanish. No, let's do this.
You get to get to German. I don't think anybody speaks
German in here. And let's give old Terry
interpretation. He, I know he's never spoken,
he's never studied German. Don't you think you get the
attention of people that just maybe they're speaking from God?
Before the word of God was complete, That's what it was
for. That's the reason for it.
Word of God complete. No more use.
What did they interpret, though? I want you to notice.
What did they interpret? They interpreted different kinds
of tongues. You know what the word kinds
means? The word kinds is the word
genos. It's where we get that word in
biology. Even I remember that from high
school. Biology, genus, wasn't it like
Kingdom, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species?
And maybe the only thing I remember from biology, but I
remember that in high school I got that one.
Don't you see, folks, please listen to me.
It means family, group, race, and nation.
You can't have a family of ecstatic Babel.
You can't have a group or a race or a nation of ecstatic Babel,
but you can have national languages and racial languages.
OK, why was it important that they all understood First
Corinthians 1423? Therefore, if the whole church
comes together in one place and all speak with tongues, and
there come in those who are uninformed and unbelievers, will
they not say you're out of your mind?
The King James, the old King James says, Will they not say
you're mad? I don't know.
You know what I'd say when they all say you're nuts?
You got all this going on? It's chaotic.
Everybody's doing their own thing.
You don't think God's brilliant normative languages, even though
they were real languages, they had to be understood by way of
interpretation or else people that came into the assembly.
If everybody's speaking in all these different languages and
nobody understood, the uninformed and unbelievers going
to say, man, these guys are out of their mind.
The Lord's brilliant, remember, it was for a purpose.
Authenticate the messenger, authenticate the message and
always, please. Miracles were always to prompt a
response. They were never for personal or
private benefit. Ever Find one passage that says
that I'm wrong and please tell me after services always for
that reason. So you've been wonderful.
Thank you for your kind listening.
So in conclusion, what did we learn?
We learned the Holy Spirit baptism was promised to the
apostles. We learned that promise was
fulfilled in Acts chapter 2. It was promised over here, by
the way, by John the Baptist and also Jesus.
It was fulfilled in Acts chapter 2.
They, the apostles, spoke in tongues or languages over 7
languages and also a number of specific dialects.
And those present all understood them.
They all heard and they all understood about the wonderful
works of God. Our final passage.
Here's their their immediate reaction and response.
Acts 212 and 13. So they were all amazed and
perplexed, saying one to another, whatever could this
mean? Others mocking said they're full
of new wine there. There's always those guys.
Some say, what could this mean? They've already admitted we've
heard the wonderful works of God.
They've already admitted we heard it in our own dialect and
language and all that stuff. We heard it all.
What could it mean? And there's always some guy,
There's always that guy. These guys are drunk.
They're full of new wine. Next lesson, we have some guest
speakers coming up. But when I speak again, it's
Part 2 and I'm going to call that Peter's masterful sermon.
This was the introduction to lay the foundation of the day.
The Kingdom came through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and
the speaking in tongues. We never close a time where we
preach the Word of God without extending an invitation.
I don't know how it is here with you today.
Are you hearing you're not a Christian?
The steps to become a Christian are very simple.
The first thing you got to do is hear the Word of God.
Romans 10/17 So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word
of God. We've done that today.
Then what? You got to believe with all your
heart. Hebrews 11 and 6.
Without faith it's impossible to please Him, for he who comes to
God must believe that He is, and then He is a rewarder of those
who diligently seek Him. Then what?
I got to change my life. It starts with changing my mind.
I got to repent of my sins. Truly these times of ignorance
God overlooked, but now commands all man everywhere to repent.
Then what? I got to be able to say the
greatest thing I will ever say, that Jesus Christ is the Son of
God. Acts 837 Then Philip said if you
believe with all your heart in your may.
And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. These are prerequisites.
They lead toward the point of salvation, but the point of
salvation is to be baptized for the remission of sins.
Mark 1616. He who believes and is baptized
will be saved. He who does not believe will be
condemned. And folks, baptism is not an
outward sign of an inward faith. It is not a confirmation of
what's already happened. It's what saves us.
How do I know that One final passage first Peter 321 the like
figure where the even baptism does also now save us, not the
putting away the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good
conscience toward God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
If you have never taken those steps of obedience, we would
love to assist you in that today.
Maybe you have. Maybe there's just something in
your life that's not what it should be corrected today.
Repent of that, confess it. We'll pray with you and for you.
God will forgive and restore. If you want to be the class,
come forward while we stand while we see.