The Word Made Plain

Guest (Male): Welcome to The Word Made Plain with senior pastor Tony Clark of Calvary Chapel Newport News in Virginia. Currently, Pastor Tony is teaching a study in the book of Acts. Please open your Bible to Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 13.

Tony Clark: I started thinking about this. Are our children in our home, are they echoing the gospel to their friends and to their classmates that they are around constantly? Could it be that they're not echoing the gospel because we're not giving them the gospel? We're allowing them to hear and to be a part of everything else the world has to offer, and we're giving them everything else but the gospel. I just wondered about this.

Look what it says there in verses 3 and 4. It says, "Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Not only was there an audio manifestation of God's presence through the sound of the rushing mighty wind, but there was a visual one as well.

Verse 3 says that there appeared divided tongues as of fire and sat upon each of them. Once again, tongues as a fire is not unusual because God appeared to Moses in the burning bush, according to Exodus 3:2-5. God guided the Israelites through the desert at night with a pillar of fire, according to Exodus 13:21. John the Baptist prophesied that Jesus, the Messiah, will come and baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire, according to Matthew 3:11. So fire being associated with God and God's presence is not unusual in the Scripture.

Now we see tongues repeated throughout the New Testament. It's not something we can ignore or something that some churches try to explain away. We see it throughout the New Testament. In 1 Corinthians 14:5, Paul said, "I wish that you all spoke with tongues," meaning that it is available to all, but there were those and some of them refusing to tap into this gift.

In Acts chapter 10 and verse 16, when Peter was in the house of Cornelius preaching the Word of God, he didn't even finish his message before the Holy Spirit came upon the believers, and they started to speak in tongues. In Acts 19:6, Paul led the Ephesians into a knowledge of Jesus Christ, laid hands on them, and the power of the Spirit came upon them and they spoke in tongues.

There are two types of tongues. Number one, there is a public use of tongues that require an interpretation that 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 talks about. Meaning that when we gather together publicly as a church, if a tongue goes forth, there must be an interpretation, according to 1 Corinthians 12:1-11. Few people possess this gift.

Then there's number two, a private use of tongues that Paul refers to in 1 Corinthians 14, especially verse 5, when he said, "I wish that you all spoke in tongues," meaning that it is available to all those who want to move in this direction. If you don't want to, then that's fine. It's not like when you get to heaven, God is going to ask you, "Did you speak in tongues?" and you say no, and then he says, "No heaven for you." No. Getting to heaven is dependent upon you using your tongue singular and repenting of your sins and confessing with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and resting on his finished work on the cross, according to Romans 10:9 and 10, and not whether you speak in tongues or not.

There are some people who say if you don't speak in tongues, you're not saved. That's weird. Bible doesn't teach that. And they love to go to Acts 2:38, repent of your sins and you should be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Well, there's nine gifts of the Spirit. Who said that that's speaking of tongues? Said the gift of the Spirit. And then they get weird and just put some trip on you. There was a guy who came here not just a few weeks ago. He asked, "Do y'all speak in tongues here?" Like tongues is the bomb gift, it is the gift to have. Cut it out.

That's why we teach all of the Bible so that kind of tomfoolery is not going to go on here. Verse 4 says, "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues," notice this phrase, "as the Spirit gave utterance." The Spirit was in control of the situation. The Holy Spirit gave them the utterance or the ability to speak in these languages. I put emphasis on languages because the Greek word for tongues in verse 4 is glossa. It is the word used for glossary, which is an arranging of words together.

Once again, please understand that it is the Spirit that gives the utterance, meaning that you can't go to a class to be taught how to speak in tongues. It's not like going and taking French or Spanish like you did in high school. The Holy Spirit will give the language. Someone cannot coach you into speaking in tongues. I need you to say this phrase, say it real fast, say "I rode a Honda." No, it's not that either. People in churches are fooling around with that kind of stuff. The Spirit gives the utterance.

To show you that tongues in Acts chapter 2 were languages, Luke is about to introduce us to the various people who were there at the time and the different countries they were from and the languages they spoke. Look at verses 5 through 13 so we can get the context. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in his own language.

Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, "Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how is it that we hear each in his own language in which we were born? There were Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God." So they all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?" Others mocked, saying, "They're full of new wine. They're drunk."

In these verses, we see that the many Jews who were scattered around the world came together to celebrate Pentecost, according to verse 5. When the sound came from heaven, these Jews heard the sound as well and they gathered near the upper room where the 120 were together. They were confused because they heard the people in the upper room speaking in their own language, according to verse 6. They were all amazed that they were speaking in the language of the people, and they asked in verse 7, "Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? How is it that we hear each in our own language in which we were born?"

Pay close attention. The Greek word for languages in verse 6 and in verse 8 is the Greek word dialektos. It is where we get our English word dialects, which is a form of language particular to a locality or group, according to Webster's Dictionary. The list of dialects are given to us in verses 9 through 11.

Now the question becomes, why would God do this? What is the purpose of all of this? One reason is Pentecost was a reversal of the judgment at the Tower of Babel, when God confused man's language, according to Genesis 11:1-9. God's judgment at Babel scattered the people, but God's blessing at Pentecost united the believers. At Babel, the people were unable to understand each other, but at Pentecost, men heard God's praises and understood what was said. Pentecost is a reversal of the judgment that God handed down at the Tower of Babel in Genesis chapter 11.

What can we learn from these verses about tongues? We're going to go into the other areas when we get into 1 Corinthians chapters 12 and 14 and places like that. But what can we learn from these verses? Tongues are directed to God, according to verse 11. It says, "We hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God." So tongues are not necessarily a message to the church. For example, a tongue goes forth and then someone interprets it by saying, "My little children love me." No. Tongues were directed to God.

1 Corinthians 14:2 confirms this by saying, "For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God." That's the first thing. The second thing that we learn about tongues is that they are in languages that are known to men, according to verse 8. It says, "How is it that we hear each in our own language," notice this prepositional phrase, "in which we were born."

But are tongues always a known language to men? No. Because Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:1, "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels." So the implication is clear. When people praise and worship the Lord in a tongue, it may very well be in a language unknown on the earth but known in heaven, a dialect of angels. These are just a couple of things that we can learn about tongues from these verses.

Am I on a tongues kick? You ought to know me by now. No. But I am on a Bible kick, and teaching about everything in the Bible, not avoiding subjects nor explaining subjects away like a lot of Bible teachers do. We've got to deal with every subject head-on. Verses 9 through 11 explain to us the 15 different dialects that are representative of the every nation under heaven that verse 5 talks about.

The first are the Parthians. The Parthians were in the area of modern-day Iran. The Medes were partners with the Persians in Daniel's day. You remember the law of the Medes and the Persians cannot be changed. Even though they were partners with the Persians in Daniel's day, they were also a part of the Parthians that dwelt in the area of Iran today. The Elamites, they lived in southern Iran. And those in Mesopotamia—the word Mesopotamia is a word that means in between the rivers, meaning that they dwelt between the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers.

Many Jews were deported there in this particular area by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. You remember when the Assyrians took the ten northern tribes into captivity in 722 BC? Well, they deported many of the Jews to this particular area of Mesopotamia. And then when Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians took the two southern tribes into captivity in 586 BC, they deported many of the Jews to the area of Mesopotamia. Judea covers the areas controlled by David and Solomon.

And then Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia were all regions of Asia Minor or modern-day Turkey. Egypt, especially the city of Alexandria, had a large Jewish population. Alexandria was a big-time city. It boasted of having a library of over 200,000 volumes. It is also the city by which the Septuagint, or the Greek translation of the Old Testament, had been produced.

Then there are parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene. They were west of Egypt on the African coast of the Mediterranean Sea. There were Jews in Rome as well. We know because in Acts 18:2, it said that the Emperor Claudius booted a bunch of Jews out of Rome, showing that a bunch of Jews were living there. There were also Gentiles or proselytes that were there as well. Cretans were from the island of Crete off the southern coast of Greece.

There were Arabs. They were Jews living in the kingdom of the Nabatean Arabs, located in the area south of Damascus. So they heard the 120 speaking in their own tongues or languages the wonderful works of God. What we see in verses 12 and 13 are the typical responses when the Holy Spirit comes upon and shows up and does something dynamic. You will have those who will say, "Whatever could this mean?" according to verse 12. Others will mock and say, "They're crazy. They must be drunk, drinking that wine. They've been getting a little too much communion over there."

No. See, we see an example of this in 2 Samuel chapter 6 and verses 16 to 23, when David was worshipping the Lord when they were bringing the Ark of the Covenant into the city. You have to understand how important this is. The Ark of the Covenant is not just something Indiana Jones was trying to look for. The Ark of the Covenant represented the presence of God for Israel. God dwelt in between the cherubim's wings, and it represented the presence of God.

And so David was excited that God's presence was coming into the city. So he worshipped the Lord every step of the way. He was worshipping the Lord, all excited. But then there was his wife, Michal. She was looking through the window at him. And when he got home, she gave him the what for. She said, "Didn't the king look all good out there, parading himself around all the young ladies?" Kind of sounds like what somebody would say today as well. "Parading yourself around all the young ladies."

David said, "I was doing this for my God." And because she mocked David, he never went in to her anymore and she remained barren. The same is true with us. There will be those who will mock you as you lift up your hands in worship, as you sit and weep in his presence and say, "Aren't you a little fanatical and dramatic today in church? Did I hear some gibberish come from your mouth? That's dumb, that's stupid."

See, there are church people with the Michal mentality who mock the things of the Spirit, like we see in verse 13. And even there are some churches and denominations that will call anything of the Spirit, especially the speaking in tongues, as demonic. They are the ones who will experience a barrenness and a dryness in their walks and in their churches. When we know about these churches, we call them the frozen chosen. They're sound in doctrine, but nothing is being done of the Spirit.

The Bible says let all things be done decent and in order. And you have most churches that fall into one of those categories. You have some churches where all things are done and it's a circus, and it's not decent and in order. Then you have those who are decent and in order and nothing is being done of the Spirit. The Bible says let all things be done decent and in order. This is why we teach all of the Bible so we can do all things, but do it decent and in order according to the Scripture.

And this is why you have those who would say, "That's demonic." I'm like, really, demonic? So the early believers were demonic? Well, no, but it's demonic today. Yes. That doesn't even make sense. But this is what you have many churches and many people believing, or they won't even talk about this subject at all. Won't even bring it up. The thing is, let us not be a church that gives lip service only to the things of the Spirit, but nothing is being done.

For a long time, we were easing towards that direction. It's like when Jesus said you draw near to me with your lips but your heart is far from me. We gave lip service to believing the gifts for today but nothing was being done. And I just pray that we won't be a church that will move in that direction, that all of a sudden the very people we used to call the frozen chosen, we have become one of them. And that is the danger for us to always be mindful of.

Let me conclude with this. Tongues or tongue. We saw that there are two types of tongues. Number one, a public use that requires an interpretation. And number two, a private use that is available to all believers. We saw that tongues can be known languages of men or tongues of angels. But the most important tongue is the one we use to repent of our sin and accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. Have you used your tongue singular to do this?

You can today. Or if you're open to the Spirit of God coming upon you in a fresh and new way, there's going to be some wonderful people available up front here to pray with you and for you. Here's the thing that I really want us to emphasize. I don't want us to leave here and not hear this, because this is critical here. Because there are many people who will say, "Yes, I believe in the gifts and I do this and I speak in tongues and all that kind of stuff," but then they will use their tongue singular and cut people up outside the church. Use it to slander, use it to gossip, use it to murder people with their murderous words.

James told us. In James chapter 3, he said, "Out of the same mouth proceeds blessings and cursings." He said these things are not to be. He said when you go to a water fountain, is there a button for sweet water and a button for bitter? No, just one type of water comes out of the fountain. So too there should be one type of worship and word that come out of our mouth. But so often we use our tongue and we slice and dice people up all week.