“So what's all this about speaking in tongues?” It was a question that a guest on our Alpha Course asked me. He was not happy. He had come to faith a couple of decades earlier and his former pastor had warned him about loosey-goosy charismatics who pushed speaking in tongues.
There's a lot of fear and reservations about this spiritual gift, both in and outside the church. I saw a quip when Zoom was first being used by businesses during the pandemic featuring a man joining a business meeting, as his wife sat nearby. The sound was all warbled which prompted the man to cry out in dismay, “What's going on? This isn't right! My boss is speaking in tongues! This is evil!”
His wife calmly replied: “No dear, we just have a bad wi-fi signal.”
Listening to the car radio on, I heard a DJ talking to another: “I know what you mean! My wife went to a church where people were speaking in tongues. Those people are dangerously disturbed!”
And it's not just those on the outside looking in. There's a cartoon picturing a couple sitting in a pew. The husband looks most unhappy and his wife has turned to him and saying to him: “Just because the preacher is from Alabama doesn't mean he's speaking in tongues!”
It's a mysterious spiritual gift to be sure! I was at a church once in which the pastor referred to it as God's white elephant gift to the church. It's just all so mysterious that many want to have nothing to do with it, or with those who practice it. So why does Paul spend so much time here talking about it?
Paul's extensive teaching on the subject includes no less than seven points. In David Letterman style, here they are, in countdown fashion. Number 7: Tongues are a precious gift worth pursuing.
Chapter 14 comes as the bookend on his three-chapter teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He writes about them in such length, and in his other letters, for two main reasons. One, the gifts of the Holy Spirit are for our own good and edification, to build our faith and impact, and two, because the church in Corinth, along with so many things, is misapplying them. Paul is clear: “You should desire these special abilities the Spirit gives! In fact, I wish you could all speak in tongues!”
(1 Corinthians 14:1,5)
That hasn't always been my mindset...! I could relate to the woman who told her pastor rather sternly, “Pastor, we don't want anything supernatural happening here!” That's where I was at, but that's a rather sad mindset to take because God IS supernatural! We can't see God, but we can sense his presence, experience his healing, his amazing timing, his love thru those around us. Nothing God does or gives us is bad but altogether good which has to mean, that the gift of tongues is for our good as well
Paul's Point Number 7? - The gift of tongues is a precious gift worth pursuing.
Point Number 6: Paul himself had the gift so we can learn from him. He writes: “What then shall I do? I will pray in the Spirit as well as in words I understand. And I will sing in the Spirit! I thank God that I speak in tongues more than any of you!” (1 Corinthians 14:15, 18)
It may sound like he's boasting but he's really not. He's writing to people all puffed up with their ability to pray in tongues. In order to set them straight, he lets them know that he too has the gift. That apparently wasn't common knowledge. Paul didn't flaunt it as they're doing but seeks to instruct them.
-2-
Paul's presenting his credentials. Since Paul himself had the gift they/we can learn from him.
Point # 5: As precious as the gift of tongues is, the gifts of prophecy and preaching are more so!
How so? Simply put, because the gift of tongues is primarily a blessing to the individual, whereas the gifts of prophecy and preaching are a blessing to the entire community. It's like my experience of watching the Chosen. I was moved watching it alone at home but the blessing of watching with others where we can share and explore it's meaning and witness collectively ups the ante dramatically.
Paul puts it like this: “A person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally, but one who speaks a prophetic word strengthens the entire church..., so prophecy is greater than tongues.”
(1 Corinthians 14:4-5)
Paul highlights three strengths of prophetic preaching. First, as noted, it benefits everyone all at once. Second, prophetic preaching makes known the mysteries of God's word, helping a community connect it with their context. Third, prophecy is key in helping seekers come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Peter was utilizing his prophetic gift on Pentecost when he explained the meaning of his and the other apostles being filled with the Holy Spirit to the people visiting the city that day. “Peter's words pierced their hearts, and they asked him and the other apostles, 'Brothers, what then should we do?'
Peter replied, 'Each of you must repent of your sins and turn to God and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then you, too, will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:37-38)
In this way prophetic preaching exceeds the usefulness of speaking in tongues because it edifies or strengthens the entire church, clarifies God's Word for their context & convinces seekers of the truth
Point # 4: The Gift of Tongues is particularly for seekers and unbelievers. We see this at work in an event recorded by Luke in Acts 10. A Roman centurion by the name of Cornelius invited Peter to his home to share the gospel with him and his family. Most of them were probably practicing pagans. While Peter is preaching a prophetic message to them, they're filled with the Holy Spirit. “The Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on these Gentiles too, for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God.” (Acts 10:45-46)
We've seen the same thing at Alpha retreats. I'll never forget the first time this happened. We were all in silent prayer when the young woman next to me suddenly started praying in an angelic language. I remember thinking, what's going on? I didn't sanction this! But she was so full of joy! It was a turning point for her as her faith in Jesus became central to her life. Her joy was contagious...!
So it is that Paul writes: “So you see that speaking in tongues is a sign...for unbelievers.”
(1 Corinthians 14:22)
Point # 3: The Gift of Tongues is not intended for public worship. Paul concedes that there may be exceptions to this if and when it's known that someone in the church has the gift for interpreting but even then, it should be the exception to the rule. The reasons Paul gives for this is for the sake of orderly worship and even more importantly for the sake of the guests and visitors at worship that day.
“If unbelievers or people who are new and unfamiliar to you and worship come into your church meeting or hear everyone speaking in an unknown language, they will think you are crazy!” (1 Corinthians 14:23)
There's a photo on Facebook of a Keanu Reeves, with the caption: 'The first-time visitor's face when the lady next to them starts speaking in tongues', and he's making the face - What?! (cf my door)
-3-
This highlights part of our focus in worship – to create an environment in which guests & seekers are put at ease and welcomed and where God's Spirit-filled word may reach their ears and draw them to our resurrected Lord without our behavior becoming a stumbling block. As Paul so eloquently puts it: “If you praise God only in the spirit, how can those who don't understand you praise God along with you? How can they join in if they don't understand what you're saying?” (1 Corinthians 14:16)
It's like the guest, standing at the door talking to the pastor, who says, “Good service, preacher. I didn't understand a word you said, but you said it pretty well.” That's a no-good!
Point # 2: The Gift of Tongues takes three forms – through an unlearned human language, an angelic language or through angelic singing. It's the first of these manifestations that took place on Pentecost, when those gathered in the upper room were “filled with the Holy Spirit and began speak-ing in other languages as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability...and those in the streets from different nations, heard their own languages being spoken by the believers.” (Acts 2:4,6)
Most often, though, this gift takes the form of an angelic language. Paul mentioned it in our reading from last week in which he calls for the gift to be used in love: “If I could speak in the various tongues of men or in the tongues of angels but didn't love others, I'd be full of noise!”
(1 Corinthians 13:1)
Why would God give us the ability to speak in such a way? We're getting to that, but suffice it to say, to enable our ability to pray and praise more freely. If you don't have to think of what to say or worry about how you're saying it frees you up to pray and praise without inhibition or time restraints. As Paul notes: “If I pray in tongues, my spirit is praying, but I don't understand what I'm saying.”
(1 Corinthians 14:14)
The gift may also be released in angelic singing. I'll never forget experiencing that for the first time at Holy Trinity Brompton in London. The worship leader led us in a couple of praise songs but before transitioning into the third song he began, what sounded like, vocally improvising... Before I knew it scores of others were doing the same thing. It's the most beautiful thing I've ever heard. It was as if I'd suddenly slipped into heaven. There was such joy in the room. It was amazing/moving...!
That brings us to Paul's Point # 1: The Gift of Tongues strengthens personal faith. And that's what it's all about! God gives the gift, particularly to seekers, to help them experience the joy of the Lord and the presence of his loving Spirit. And being that it's a new prayer language, it can be a powerful tool in ministering to others. When I heard how Jackie Pullinger used the gift of tongues to help morphine addicts come clean in Hong Kong, I began to wonder if I shouldn't ask for it myself.
When I returned to Holy Trinity Brompton for an Alpha Leadership Conference, I went forward at the end of one of the worship services to ask the lead pastor, Sandy Millar, to pray for me. He did, but it seemed like nothing happened. He encouraged me to keep asking... That night, the conference ended and a number of us stood around outside talking. At one point, one of the women turned to me and said, “I'm getting the sense we're supposed to pray for you.” I don't remember any more what they prayed, but I do remember getting goosebumps and a warm tingling through my body.
That night when I got back to my flat, I was so full of gratitude...that I prayed aloud in my room and found myself praying in words I didn't understand. It was a powerful experience. Ever since then when I get a chance to pray for someone, I often ask if they're comfortable with my praying for them in tongues. On a number of occasions, when I've done that, God has uniquely, powerfully blessed them.
-4-
One guy I prayed for was so full of the Spirit that the heat coming off of him felt like my hands were near an oven burner. Another time, someone who had been angry with God started praying and praising God in tongues themselves. Not long ago, in a circle of friends, we prayed for Brenda and she started laughing and wound up being healed of some deep, long endured inner woundedness.
God is so fun! And one way He shows his love and his sweet sense of humor is by releasing the gift of tongues to us. As with all the gifts, he gives this gift to edify, sensitize and exemplify – that is to edify and strengthen our faith, to sensitize us to his presence and to exemplify his radical love for us!
“Let love be your highest goal! Desire (and seek) the special abilities the Spirit gives..., (knowing) that a person who speaks in tongues is strengthened personally (and powerfully)!”
(1 Corinthians 14:1,4)
Would you like to receive? Maybe He'd like to fill you right now! Let me pray for you...!