Title: What is Speaking in Tongues
Text: Acts 2:1-13
Time: March 2, 2008
Last week I talked about the baptism and the filling of the Holy Spirit, as the topic came up in relationship with Acts 2. Today, I’d like speak on the question, “What is speaking in tongues?” Why tackle these super controversial topics? Because they come up in Acts 2. We’re studying the Book of Acts and these kind of topics pop up from time to time, especially in respect to the early Christian church. It’s impossible to ignore them, they must be faced head on, even though they generate a lot of controversy and risk causing division because of all the different views and opinions surrounding them. Last week, I hope I was helpful in making the distinction between the filling of the Holy Spirit and the baptism in the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. This week I would like to try again to make a distinction between the different types of speaking in tongues mentioned in the Bible, because just as in the case with the distinction between the baptism and the filling of the Holy Spirit, it’s important to make a distinction between the different kinds of speaking in tongues found in the Bible. I know this is very controversial. Some Christians see all speaking in tongues as all one kind of thing, while others see differences in the kinds of speaking in tongues found in the Bible. But I don’t just want to do theology or teach a point of doctrine, I’d like to also show how all of this applies to our Christian lives today. What difference does it make whether speaking in tongues is possible today as it was in the early church? If there are different kinds of speaking in tongues and these are available today, what difference does that make in the believer’s life? Starting around the beginning of last century the modern Pentecostal movement began at Azusa Street in California. From there, speaking in tongues caught fire and spread to all parts of the world. The major denomination that came out of that Pentecostal revival is called the Assemblies of God, but there are other denominations that also trace their origins to the start of the 20th century at Azusa Street. Pentecostals have been speaking in tongues for over one hundred years. Yet a more recent movement has sprung up in the last 50 years known as the Charismatic movement. It started in the late 50s and early 60s in Washington State with an Anglican priest named Dennis Bennett whose church began to practice many of the things traditional Pentecostals had been doing, except instead of the people leaving their church, as was the usual reaction to the filling of the Spirit and speaking in tongues, they remained in their own church and brought renewal to it and other main-line denominational churches. So the modern day Charismatic movement is a movement of spirit-filled Christians who remain in their own main-line denominational churches, instead of leaving to go to traditional Pentecostal churches. The result of all this has been that now many or even most people in Christianity today have heard of the baptism and filling of the Holy Spirit, and also, most people have heard of speaking in tongues. There are still sharp divisions within Christianity concerning the filling and baptism of the Holy Spirit and also speaking in tongues, but it’s not as bad as it was in the past. Fundamentalist churches of all types tend to reject speaking in tongues as something that happens or should happen today, while most main-line denominational and evangelical churches now recognize the filling of the Spirit and speaking in tongues does, and in some cases, should occur in the church today. Let me see if I can explain what the Bible says about the subject of speaking in tongues, in order that we might think clearly about this and also that we might act accordingly. Let me ask, and then try to answer three questions. (more…)