Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends around the world,
Words and languages are very powerful, aren’t they? I had an unusual experience this past Sunday following the worship service my wife and I attended. We were saying goodbye to friends and someone I’d never met approached me asking if I had ever been to a particular country. When I said yes, they immediately began speaking in the language of that country and I responded in their language because I had grown up there as a child and I love that language. All around us were English speaking people and they looked at us not understanding what we were saying, but of course with great interest as they could tell we both knew exactly what we were saying to each other!
That’s not a very rare experience anymore if you are in a major airport or even any major city in the world. Thousands of languages are spoken around the world, and languages can very quickly UNITE people who don’t know each other but obviously have something very significant in common. Languages can also DIVIDE people, as I experienced Sunday morning, for all around me were standing my English-speaking friends who suddenly felt locked out of the experience because I was speaking a language of someone I had just met.
Now why would I begin our “Walking with Jesus” time together today with that personal story? Because in our continuing journey with the apostle Paul, as he is writing his very important letter to his Christian friends in the great Greek city of Corinth, we’ve come to Paul’s 14th chapter dedicated almost entirely to the power and problem of languages!
Paul is dictating and I think Timothy is likely his scribe writing the words Paul speaks, so let’s join them… “Follow the way of love and eagerly desire gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. For anyone who speaks in a tongue [language] does not speak to people but to God. Indeed no one understands them; they utter mysteries by the Spirit. But the person who prophecies, [as led by the Holy Spirit] speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort. Anyone who speaks in a tongue [language] edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church.” (1 Cor. 14:1-4)
Corinth was a great city in the first century with people from all over the known world. Many different languages were spoken in Corinth, just like most big cities anywhere in the world today. Perhaps you remember 10 days after the Lord Jesus Christ ascended back to heaven from Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit of God came powerfully upon 120 people who were followers of Jesus and had gathered together to do what Jesus had instructed them… wait! Wait for what? Wait for the Holy Spirit whom Jesus promised would come powerfully upon them.
Jesus had promised (Acts 1:4-8) that they would be baptized by the Spirit into relationship with Christ; empowered by the Spirit to obediently accomplish whatever Jesus assigned them; and sent out by the Spirit as witnesses to the world of Jesus and His Gospel.
Acts 2 records that remarkable event for us and please note that Jerusalem was filled with thousands of pilgrims who’d come for the Pentecost festival from all over the world. When the Spirit came upon these Jesus followers, they suddenly began proclaiming the story and Gospel of Jesus to these visitors in Jerusalem… but the miracle was that these Galilean friends of Jesus were empowered by the Holy Spirit to speak to these foreigners IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGES!
Acts 2:7-12 tell us it was a shocking and amazing experience! It was also a confusing experience because neither those who were speaking in languages they had never known, nor those who heard these Galilean friends of Jesus speaking their languages, could explain what was happening!? It was a Holy Spirit miracle of languages for the purpose of both proving the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon them and communicating the Gospel of Jesus very clearly, in the mother tongues of these visitors.
Now, when I began speaking in a foreign language the other day it was NOT a Holy Spirit miracle! I know that language because I spent the first 12 years of my life in the country where that language is spoken. Because many people from that country live in the region of America where I now live, I occasionally have the opportunity to speak with them in their mother tongue.
But a few other times, in the book of Acts, we find people experiencing this Holy Spirit anointing and ‘speaking in tongues’ which means they spoke in a language they did not know but a language known by someone who heard them. (Acts 10:46; 11:15-18)
In Corinth, it appears, this Holy Spirit anointing was occasionally happening among the Christians but there was also a distortion. Some people were speaking words which were unintelligible to anyone. No one in Corinth understood what they were saying, and those who were speaking were evidently claiming it was a supernatural anointing of the Holy Spirit and they were speaking a language known only to God?!
Paul was refuting that concept, calling these early Christians to be careful not to make a mockery of the special languages anointing gift of the Holy Spirit. The test of the legitimacy of this ‘tongue’s gift of the Spirit’ would always be two things: First, someone would understand the language spoken and be able to explain what is being said; and secondly, whatever was being spoken would always be God honoring and in full alignment with Scripture truth.
Did you notice, in 1st Corinthians 14, that Paul was urging them to seek a different Spirit gifting which Paul called ‘prophecy‘. For the Jews, prophets were well known and profoundly respected people, both men and women, in Israel’s history. Some of them not only spoke powerful words from God to the people, they even wrote their messages for the generations which would follow. You recognize these great prophetic books of the Bible: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. And do you remember these less famous ones: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obediah, Jonah, Micah etc.? And there were some very famous prophets of God who did and said amazing things, like Elijah and Elisha, who did NOT write prophetic books of the Bible. And yes, women were also given this prophetic gift by the Spirit of God. Do you remember Deborah (Judges 4,5) and the four daughters of Philip, one of the Seven? (Acts 21:8,9)
We know that these prophetic words were sometimes profound predictions of God about things in the future. The latter 1/2 of the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation are examples of this. Much of the time, however, these prophets were speaking great truths from God to His people about the fact that they were drifting morally and spiritually away from God and God was calling them back and warning them of His pending discipling or judgment if His people did not repent and return to God. Much of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and most all the shorter prophetic books of the Bible are such messages from God to His people.
Now in closing today, I have a question for us: Why would Paul urge the Corinthian Christians in the mid first century to pray for the gift of prophecy from God rather than a spiritual gift of tongues or languages? I think it’s because the adventure of salvation from sin offered by Jesus Christ and the potential lifelong adventure of the Holy Spirit living within a person, guiding and teaching and empowering them was so new that Paul was confident God had much to say to and THROUGH new Christians all over the world, which would help them and us understand this new life IN Christ!
That’s why Paul wrote: “Anyone who speaks in a tongue edifies themselves, but the one who prophesies edifies the church!” (1 Cor. 14:4) That would be especially true if the person was speaking a language unknown to anyone as compared to the person who was able to give a fresh, helpful word from God which was instructive and perhaps corrective to all Christians.
Now once again let’s pause and ponder. I wonder what you see happening among the Christians in your part of the world. Is this matter of ‘tongues’ confusing and divisive? What about this ‘gift of prophecy’, and I don’t mean predicting the future, I mean sharing a fresh word from God? May I ask us my friends, when we talk with God about the gifting of His Holy Spirit upon us, do we ask God for His spiritual anointing in ways that will be very helpful to us, to our families, to our church and even to our cities? Have you considered that God may have an important message for your extended family or your church or even your city and God is waiting for your heart to be pure and right with HIM so He can give you that message?
Now let’s ponder that as we worship with this song, and I’ll meet you right back here tomorrow as we continue in 1st Corinthians 14.
Today’s Scripture is 1 Cor. 14:1-4.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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