Should every Christian expect to speak in other tongues?
Hi, welcome to Little Lessons.
Today we're gonna continue talking about speaking in other tongues, which is certainly a biblical
topic.
You can find it from the lips of Jesus in Mark Chapter 16.
You can find it throughout the Book of Acts.
You can find to in First Corinthians Chapter 12 and 14.
And speaking in tongues is something that millions upon millions of Christians around
the world today would say, "That's something that I've experienced and it's something that
I do on a regular basis during my prayer and devotional times."
And those who are within tat tongue talking camp are often trying to persuade all the
rest of us that it is God's will for us too to speak in tongues and we should be praying
that God would give us that ability.
I've listened to those people and lo and behold it happened to me too back in 1976.
So I'm in that tongue talker camp.
Whether we agree or we disagree, I must say first of all we need to remember that we should
love each other, right?
Right.
Paul wrote about the importance of love right in between two chapters in First Corinthians
about speaking in tongues and spiritual gifts and so forth.
And I think there's probably a reason that that chapter on love is right in between those
two chapters.
Because this can be a very divisive issue and it shouldn't be.
It's not more important than loving each other.
But, again, I speak for my own experience.
Once it's happened to you, it's such a blessing.
Once you had that blessing and being able to speak in a language you've never learned
by the power of the Holy Spirit and you can use that in your daily prayer life, you just
want to share.
You want other people, other Christians, to experience that blessing.
Now, those who would object to the idea that it's for every Christian have some scripture
to support to their objection.
Usually they'll go to First Corinthians Chapter 14 and Verse number 20 where Paul asks some
rhetorical questions.
It starts off actually a couple of verses early, "All are not apostles are they?"
Paul asks and answer is no.
"All are not prophets are they?
All are not teachers are they?"
And he keeps going and it finally gets down to, "All do not speak in tongues do they?"
And the answer is obviously no.
And the final question, rhetorical question, is, "All do not interpret do they?"
And, again, the answer is no.
And so folks will point to that and say, "See, not all speak in tongues and so don't be trying
to persuade me that this is something for me."
Well, remember that we don't wanna base our theology just on one verse of scripture.
We need to take what the whole Bible says on this subject.
Again, Jesus said one of the signs that will follow the believers.
H didn't say a small percentage of believers or anything like that.
He didn't say a few, he said it'll follow the believers, "They will speak with new tongues."
That's in Mark Chapter 16.
One the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit fell upon the early church, 120 people all
spoke in other tongues on that day, and people heard them speaking in their own languages.
I'd you'd ask a question that day, "Do all speak in tongues?"
The answer would have been yes.
Now there's other places in the Book of Acts just like that.
You go all the way to Acts Chapter 19.
Years and years after the day of Pentecost and Paul's laying hands upon some new disciples.
And when he does, the Holy Spirit comes upon them, they begin speaking in tongues and prophesying
and it seems to indicate that they were all doing that.
So you'd ask a question that day, "Do all speak in tongues?"
They would have said, "Well, here now, yes."
So how can we possibly reconcile this?
Well, those within the Pentecostal/charismatic camp will tell you that although speaking
in tongues is speaking in tongues, there's different uses of speaking in tongues.
And there is a speaking in tongues that is used as prayer to God and then there's speaking
in tongues when God speaks through one of us as a message to a gathering of believers.
And that's what Paul is clearly talking about in First Corinthians Chapter 12 and Verse
number 30 when he says, "Do all speak in tongues?"
And the answer is obviously no.
It's in the context of how God uses different people in public ministry to edify the entire
church.
Okay?
So although you could attend a Pentecostal/charismatic church and perhaps everybody, or the large
majority of people, can speak in tongues any time that they so desire as prayer to God,
not all of them will be used by God to be given that gift of tongues where suddenly
the Holy Spirit anoints them to speak out in tongues.
And there would be, of course, the accompanying gift of the interpretation of tongues so that
people would know what God, what the Holy Spirit is trying to say, just said, to that
congregation.
And the reason you can come to that conclusion that I've just shared with you from First
Corinthians is that we have people in the Corinthian church Paul was correcting that
they were speaking in tongues out publicly in the gatherings and no one was interpreting
it.
And so Paul's saying, "Well, what's the point of that?
You're all coming together speaking in tongues and nobody knows what anybody's saying.
There's no interpretation."
People who don't speak in tongues are going, "What?"
So you're not really walking in love towards one another.
This is not according to God's order.
And so if you don't ... There's no interpreter, be quiet and speak ... Do that at home.
Speak in tongues at home.
All right.
The question then would be, how did people speak out in tongues if God them the gift
to speak in tongues?
That is that God wanted to give a message to the congregation, why would God ever give
someone that gift and they're not being the accompanying gift of the interpretation of
tongues?
Well, the answer is God, of course wouldn't do that.
God would not anoint someone to speak in tongues without there being an interpretation when
it's the gift of tongues given by the Holy Spirit to edify the congregation.
But yet the Corinthians were speaking in tongues and there was no interpretation.
How was that possible?
They were using what charismatics and Pentecostals often refer to as their prayer language, which
is not really a biblical phrase, but it's a biblical concept because of what we read
in First Corinthians.
That Paul says, "I thank God I speak in tongues more than you all."
So he was a major tongue talker.
Okay?
Because the Corinthians were talking in tongues like crazy, so, "I thank God I speak in tongues
more than you all.
However, in the church, I'd rather speak a couple of words in a known language than 10,000
words in a tongue."
So that's what he's emphasizing.
Do that at home and that's a good word for all folks who speak in tongues.
So anyways, as you pursue the truth on this subject, think about that when you read First
Corinthians Chapter 12 and Verse number 30, "Do all speak in tongues?"
Make sure you take the context into consideration.
Don't let that rob you of something that perhaps, and I believe not even perhaps, that God would
love to do for you.
Okay.
There's more information about speaking in tongues on our website, davidsservant.com.
You can just put in the search bar "speaking in tongues" and you'll find a lot more there.
These are just Little Lessons.
Thanks for joining me.
God bless you.