Gift of Tongues – Background & Context

Transcript

GRM 981
5/27/2007
Gift of Tongues – Background and Context
I Corinthians 14; Acts 2,10,18
Gil Rugh


We're studying the book of I Corinthians together in our Bibles, and we're going to continue that study today. You could turn to I Corinthians 14, we're not going to actually be working through the text of I Corinthians 14 today, but that will be a place for us to move out into other scriptures.

We're talking about the matter of spiritual gifts, and Paul has been talking about this subject in his letter to the Corinthians since chapter 12 as we have it in our Bibles. You remember in New Testament times this was written as a letter, there were no chapters and no verse divisions. But it helps us to find our way around to have chapters and verses. In chapter 12 Paul gave a general overview of spiritual gifts, in chapter 13 he talked about the importance of demonstrating love in the exercising of our gifts. And apart from love our gifts can accomplish nothing. Now in chapter 14 Paul is going to come to the real issue that is dividing the church at Corinth and causing conflict in this area of spiritual gifts, and that is over the use of the gift of tongues. And evidently in the church at Corinth there were those who were promoting this gift and viewed having this gift as being on a more important plane or higher level than some of the other gifts. And so Paul has to deal with this in chapter 14.
As you are aware this whole subject of spiritual gifts, and particularly the gift of tongues, continues to be a controversial issue today, not only in this country but around the world. And the modern day Pentecostal or charismatic movement, the neo-Pentecostal movement as it is sometimes identified, charismatic movement, has a strong influence in our country and in other places in the world as well. I was noting in the paper, I think it was yesterday, a little article appeared in both the Omaha paper and the Lincoln paper, “The Baptist Mission Agency Softens its Prayer Policy.” The Southern Baptist International Mission Board has taken a small step back from its controversial ban on appointing missionaries who use a private prayer language or speak in tongues in private. Mission board trustees meeting May 7-9 in Kansas City, Missouri, voted overwhelmingly to turn the policies into guidelines instead. The board is still discouraging the use of private prayer language, but an attorney for the agency said adopting the term guideline means the provisions will be applied with a degree of flexibility, considering the circumstances of each candidate. It goes on. I read that just as a reminder that these differences continue, and this Southern Baptist missions agency has decided they will not make the use of tongues as a private prayer language or personal devotional language a reason for excluding people from serving under their mission board. What that does is open it up that if we don't have a firm policy on it, then more and more people will become involved in it. We have to look at whether this is biblical or not. I Corinthians 14:3 does say, but one who prophesies speaks to men for edification, in contrast to verse 2, the one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God. So if the contrast is that in tongues you speak to God and not to men, can that be a prayer language. And furthermore, verse 4 says, one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself. Does that mean tongues is valid for my own personal development and growth. We won't address these issues specifically until we work through the text of I Corinthians 14.

But one of the problems I think we have to deal with, and I note in some of what I read on the subject, is people want to come to I Corinthians 14 and quote verse 2 or quote verse 4 as we just read them, and then act like that establishes a position. If that is all we had, then we would have to look at it in the light of this is all we have on the subject. But it is not. So what I want to do today is review some of what we've done and remind you of certain things that will put I Corinthians 14 in its proper context biblically. And then we will be prepared when we work through the chapter, we will not have to keep reviewing these matters.

Before I take you to a passage of scripture, let me read you one other section. This comes from a person who identifies himself, Reflecting a Pentecostal Charismatic View. He is a professor in a school that would be Pentecostal or charismatic. And we're going to be looking at some other passages of scripture. And you see that you have to have your theology together, a biblical understanding of the scripture. Otherwise you will get into trouble. And this person is writing on a passage we're going to be going to in a moment, Acts 2. And he believes that the miracle gifts including tongues are present today because we are in the Kingdom, the David Kingdom. Christ is sitting on the throne of David and ruling today, and therefore the supernatural gifts are present in the church, which is His Kingdom. He says, in Acts 2 it is Christ who fulfills the Davidic promises and through whom the eternal Davidic reign is begun by pouring out the Spirit on all flesh. You see what he is saying, that Christ's Davidic reign begins on Acts 2, Christ as Davidic king. And the Davidic king, remember, is the king on the throne of David who was promised and prophesied in the Old Testament. Christ as Davidic king has accomplished what happened on the day of Pentecost. And this work will continue through the church over which He reigns. Now we have the church being the Kingdom over which Christ on the throne of David is reigning. Well what about Israel? The prophecies are that the kingdom is for Israel, Christ will sit on the throne of David ruling over Israel. So we have a real problem with the theology of the Kingdom.

In other words, not only is the Davidic reign central to Luke and Acts, it is central to the New Testament concept of Kingdom. In other words, empowering activity by the Spirit together with the diversity of the Spirit's work characterizes the Davidic reign of Jesus. In other words, we can expect demonstration of supernatural power, the supernatural gifts, because Christ is reigning today. And the church is His Kingdom, and so His power is on display in the Kingdom. Christ's resurrection constituted His enthronement as the eternal Davidic king and inaugurated His eternal reign. And going on to say, thus the Spirit's been poured out and these works of power.

If you've been here for any length of time you know that our view of the Kingdom is that it is yet future. I do not believe you can change the Kingdom. The Kingdom was promised to Israel, when the Kingdom comes in Jesus Christ will be upon the earth, sitting on the throne of David, ruling from Jerusalem. You can't decide well, we have Him in heaven on a throne and instead of Israel it's the church. Once you start mixing up your theology like that, you do have confusion.

I mention this because sometimes we try to deal with people on a subject like tongues and we have more issues to deal with than we can deal with in one or two discussions. Because if they think we are in the Kingdom prophesied in the Old Testament and Jesus is ruling on the throne of David, then it's natural that they think we have His supernatural presence being manifested in miracles and so on. The problem is, we are not in the Kingdom. The Kingdom is yet future. Matthew 25 tells us when Christ returns in His power and great display of glory and He sits on His throne, then He will tell people, enter into the Kingdom which is prepared for you from the foundation of the world. We are not in that Kingdom yet, Christ has not returned in power and great glory to this earth yet. We have to be careful, a mixture of theology confuses things and leads people astray. We're not going to go into the doctrine of the Kingdom, we've done that on other occasions, but want to be sure we work through some of the scriptures that are applicable to this issue of tongues, which will be the main issue that is before us in chapter 14. And it is the main issue in dealing with the modern day charismatic movement.

We have to begin in Acts 2, we've been here numerous times, but I am simply stirring up your pure minds by way of remembrance. We come to Acts 2 because this is the first place the gift of tongues is mentioned, the first place where tongues is happening as a display of the presence and work of the Holy Spirit. And we come here to find out what is tongues. There is a discussion and a division, we will note this further as we go along. Some believe that tongues are simply speaking in a heavenly language called ecstatic speech. Others believe, as I do and we hold as a church, that these tongues are earthly foreign languages. The gift of tongues was the ability to speak in a language that you had not studied or learned, but the Spirit was enabling you to use.

In Acts 2 the Spirit comes on the Day of Pentecost, and we're just going to take parts of this because we've done a fuller consideration of the passages we're going to look at on other occasions. Look in verse 4, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance. So you'll note, this is the gift of being able to speak in a tongue. Now what are we talking about, “in a tongue.” Are we talking about ecstatic kind of speech or are we talking about an earthly language. Well come down to verse 6, the end of the verse, each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language, dialectos, dialect. Verse 8, how is it that each hear in our own language. Now again this wasn't a gift of hearing, because we were told in verse 4, the Holy Spirit was enabling them to speak in another language or another dialect. In verses 9-11 he lists some of the varieties of languages and dialects that were being spoken. And at the end of verse 11, we hear them in our own tongues. And I don't believe I found any commentator that had any problem with recognizing these were earthly, foreign languages in Acts 2. There seems to be pretty general agreement on that point because the word translated language in verses 6, 8, dialect, that's all it means—a language. So a tongue and a language here are used in the context of referring to earthly languages. And we're told the different languages in verses 9-11. Obviously these are earthly foreign languages, dialects that were being spoken on earth. If that's the case, then tongues on this occasion, verse 4, they speak with other tongues and verse 11, we hear them in our own tongues, the tongue refers to an earthly foreign language.

Turn over to Acts 10, the next use of tongues. You'll note if you've been here for other studies, we're skipping Acts 8 because tongues may be implied there, but the word is not used. So we limit ourselves to those passages that use the word tongue. In Acts 10 the Spirit of God has supernaturally moved upon Peter through a vision, a repeated vision, to tell him to go and present the gospel to Gentiles. By the time we gets to Acts 10 the Jews, who received the Spirit of God in Acts 2, still have no concept that Gentiles could be saved in any numbers. So Peter in obedience goes to the house of Cornelius, a Gentile, who has assembled family and friends for the coming of Peter. Verse 44, after Peter presents the gospel, the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, those listening to him believe it. Verse 44, while Peter was still speaking these words the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter, those would be Jews. The circumcised believers, they are circumcised as a sign of their covenant between God and the nation Israel. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles. They can't believe it. Gentiles can get the Holy Spirit? For they were hearing them speak with tongues and exalting God. Then they are baptized.

Now one person........ Let me read you two quotes from two different commentators, reputable commentators, scholarly men, recognized widely for their scholarship and their commentaries and so on. One writes this, the gift of tongues at Pentecost should probably be understood as distinguishable languages because they were immediately recognized as dialects then current. So there can be no doubt that we are talking about recognizable earthly languages in Acts 2. Then he goes on, we should probably view what was here expressed in Acts 10 as being ecstatic utterances as later described in I Corinthians 12-14. Now he gives no evidence for that, he just says, well the tongues in chapter 10 are ecstatic utterances and not languages like chapter 2.

Another commentator says this, Luke fails to explain whether the Gentiles expressed themselves in no languages or in ecstatic speech. Well then I would take it we would assume and understand that the tongues in Acts 10 would be the same as the tongues as Acts 2. Can you imagine Peter and these Jews who did not even think it was right to go and present the gospel to Gentiles would accept the fact that the Gentiles had received the Holy Spirit like the Jews had? When the Jews received the Holy Spirit and spoke in recognizable languages and now the Gentiles are just babbling in ecstatic speech. The Jews would have immediately declared a hoax. You understand ecstatic babbling speech was practiced in the pagan religions of the time and before New Testament times. Jews would have never accepted ecstatic speech as a genuine evidence of the coming of the Spirit. That could have been part of the Babylonian mystery religions, could have been part of other pagan systems. That wouldn't have been a proof of anything to these Jews. Verse 46, they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. They understood what they were saying. May well be that these Gentiles began to speak in Hebrew and the Jews understood them, understood what they were saying.

In Acts 11 the leaders of the new church, now remember it is only really established in Jerusalem and also Samaria, but the leadership of the church is in Jerusalem. When they hear Peter has gone and preached the gospel to Gentiles, they call him on the carpet in Jerusalem and want to know, what are you doing going to Gentiles with the gospel? So Peter shares who the Lord gave him a vision and how he went and preached the gospel. And then verse 15, as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them, now note this, just as He did on us at the beginning. Peter said the same exact thing that happened to them, happened to us Jews in Acts 2. So I recognized that they, too, had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I don't think there can be any question at all that the tongues of Acts 10 are the same phenomena as Acts 2, speaking in discernible, recognizable, earthly languages.

Come over to Acts 19. This is the third clear reference to speaking in tongues in the book of Acts. Paul was on his Third Missionary Journey, he comes to the city of Ephesus, he meets some disciples of John the Baptist who had heard the ministry of John the Baptist but had left the area and had not heard that the Messiah had been there, suffered, died and been raised from the dead, and the Holy Spirit had been poured out. So Paul shares that with them, they believe that message. Verse 6, Paul laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, they began to speak with other tongues and prophesying. You see the Spirit comes on them, they begin to speak in languages. Why would you say it's anything different than the tongues, the languages of chapter 10 or the tongues and languages of chapter 2? Same result, they are praising God, they are exalting God. So I would take it that the use of tongues in the book of Acts is foreign languages. And a number of commentators hold that, but they then say the tongues of Corinthians will be different. It's ecstatic speech at Corinth.

But don't leave Acts 19. Here we have the third clear use of tongues as a manifestation of the Spirit's presence. And I take it as we've noted, it would be languages. Now look in Acts 18. Paul's Third Missionary Journey that brought him to Ephesus began in chapter 18 verse 23. But you know where he was at the end of his Second Missionary Journey in the first part of chapter 18? Go to chapter 18 verse 1, after these things he, referring to Paul, left Athens and went to Corinth. And there he preached the gospel. Remember I Corinthians 1? Paul says, when I came to you I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Verse 11 tells us he spent a year and six months there, teaching them the Word of God. That's when the church at Corinth was established and grounded in the Word of God. That's when the Corinthians would have received spiritual gifts—in the context of Paul's apostolic ministry and their receiving the Holy Spirit. So it's important to understand that the tongues talked about, about five years after establishing the church in Corinth, Paul wrote the first letter to the Corinthians that we are studying. Now you'll note when Paul established the church at Corinth, it was in the context of the book of Acts. And later people are going to received the Spirit and speak in tongues which were other languages in Acts 19. What do you think the tongues would have been that would have been received in the church at Corinth in Paul's ministry earlier? I take it, it was the same kind of tongues that happened in chapter 2, that happened in chapter 10, that happened in chapter 19. Why would we say the tongues at Corinth would have been different? Different than the tongues at Ephesus in chapter 19? Why? Well it was later. No, it was earlier. When Paul writes back to the church at Corinth five years later, the gifts are already flourishing. He began, remember, in chapter 1, telling the Corinthians that you come behind in no gift. Now he comes to talk to them about the gift of tongues and its proper use in chapter 14. Why would I think the tongues that occurred in chapter 18 at Corinth would be different than the tongues in chapter 19 at Ephesus? Or the tongues earlier in chapter 10 or chapter 2.

So it seems to me the evidence of Acts points toward tongues being ane arthly language. The clearest explanation of what tongues involved when the Spirit came upon a person is found in Acts 2, and almost everyone agrees that Acts 2 has to be a discernible foreign language. We have to have awfully good evidence and biblical support to say that somewhere along the line tongues just became ecstatic speech like the pagans used in their worship system.

Okay, let's look at some other evidence. The word tongues, glossa is the Greek word. We're familiar with it because we talk about glossalalia, glossa means tongue, alalia from the Greek word to speak. To speak in tongues is glossalalia. But we have to decide, what does it mean to speak in tongues? Well we saw the language evidenced in Acts. What about the use of the word tongue? I took some time and went through my counts, the countings I am going to give you are approximate because I didn't want to keep double checking myself. So I counted and then I just put about that, in case I missed one. So these are within one or two accuracy. The word tongue is used about 50 times in the New Testament. I counted exactly 50 but I may be off one or two. Fifty times the word tongue is used, tongue or tongues in the New Testament. About half of those uses are in the passages we've looked at in Acts and in I Corinthians 12-14, so about 25-26 uses. So we leave them for now. If we are going to move outside of these passages in Acts we just looked at and outside of I Corinthians 12-14, we have 25 or so uses of the word tongue or tongues in the Bible. You know what? Everyone of those uses either referred to the physical tongue in your mouth or to a language being spoken by the tongue. None of them referred to some kind of babble or ecstatic speech. I mean, passages like Jesus touching the tongue of a man who was speechless. James talks about the tongue in James 3 and what a small part of the body it is. But it can do great damage by the things that it says. And we use the word tongue as a synonym, we use it for language. What is your native tongue? We start to say something and the words don't come out right we say, oh, you're tongue-tied. We all know it is a figure of speech, it doesn't meant your tongue is literally tied. It means you can't get the words out. So it's the same in the Bible. It's either used for your physical tongue or the words. And it's always a langauge.

We're going to limit ourselves just to the book of Revelation because that's the book that uses the word most often other than the passages we've looked at in Acts and Corinthians. Come over to Revelation. We're looking at the word we translate tongue, glossa, and its use in the single or the plural, but that basic word. It's used eight times in the book of Revelation. You'll see seven of those will refer clearly to discernible earthly languages and one of them will refer to our actual physical tongue. Revelation 5:9, the heavenly throng declaring to Christ, worthy are you to take the Book and break its seals, for you were slain and purchased for God with your blood men fro every tribe and tongue and people and nation. Everyone recognizes the word tongue here stands for the various languages. Every tribe of people, every language of people, every kind of people, all nations. The context is clear.

Chapter 7 verse 9, after these things I looked and behold a great multitude which no one could count from every nation, all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne. What does that mean? Well obviously you talk about it in the context of nations and tribes and peoples, the tongues refers to the languages that are spoken around the world. Chapter 10 verse 11, and they said to me, you must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings. Chapter 11 verse 9, those from the peoples and tribes and tongues, languages, and nations. Chapter 13 verse 7, it was given to him to make war with the saints to overcome them, authority over every tribe and people and tongue or language and nation. Chapter 14 verse 6, I saw another angel flying in midheaven having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue, language, and people.

Chapter 16, now here is your physical tongue reference, not your tongue, but the physical tongue reference in Revelation. Verse 10, and we are under the most severe judgments of the coming seven-year tribulation. You talk about a horrible time to be on the earth. Look at verse 10, the fifth angel poured out his bowl on the throne of the beast and his kingdom became darkened and gnawed their tongues because of pain. Did you ever bite your tongue, how that hurts. You're chewing something and all of a sudden you bite your tongue, that hurts. People are going to be chewing on their tongue to try to get some relief from the pain. Now obviously here, they're talking about their physical tongue.

Then you come to chapter 17 verse 15, the waters which you saw where the harlot sits are peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues or languages. This is just a sample of the book of Revelation. There are uses of the word in James as we referred to, other passages in the gospels and so on, fewer passages. But basically this is what we're talking about. So if you're going to exclude the references in Corinthians and Acts for a moment, all the other references either refer to your physical tongue or to a language, a discernible language used by people on earth. And then we saw that in Acts, that's what it means. So we're just left with Corinthians, have to discern whether it is an actual language or not.

Come over to I Corinthians 14. Within the context of I Corinthians 14 there is evidence. We're not going to get into detail on this, but to draw that tongues are a language. Look down in verse 21. Paul quotes from Isaiah 28:11, he says, in the law it is written. And the law is a reference to the entire Old Testament. The Jews sometimes used it. The first five books of the Old Testament are what we call the Law, the Mosaic Law, the Law of Moses. We sometimes refer to those five books as the Law. But sometimes that word is used to refer to any portion of the Old Testament as it does here, refers to Isaiah. By men of strange tongues and by lips of strangers I will speak to this people. We'll get into this when we do the details of chapter 14, but you know what Isaiah was talking about in Isaiah 28:11. The Assyrians were going to conquer the Northern Kingdom, carry the ten tribes into captivity. That was the strange tongue, the strange language the Jews would hear—the Assyrian language. The Assyrians would be the strangers whose lips are speaking to them in this strange language. But it is a discernible earthly language. So even in the context of I Corinthians 14 that's how tongues is used. So we're going to have to have good evidence that tongues has become some kind of ecstatic speech in certain references in chapter 14 if we're going to accept that as a valid interpretation.

The gift of tongues was the ability to speak in an earthly foreign language that you had not studied. The gift of prophecy that he is going to contrast it with involved receiving direct revelation from God and speaking it forth. And we'll get into the distinctions here and what happened in the communication that took place.

Another thing to keep in mind when we come to chapter 14 is this is chapter 14. We shouldn't come to I Corinthians 14 like it's chapter 1 or it's the only chapter. You know there are things leading up to this. So when I read verse 2 of chapter 14, for one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God and verse 4, one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, in contrast to the one who prophesies, he edifies the church. Paul has led up to this chapter by stressing how important it is that we not focus on ourselves but focus on ministry that will build up and develop others. Back in chapters 8-10 Paul talked about the use of our liberty as believers. And he made clear that our liberty is restricted and defined as far as its boundaries by how it can be used to help others. Chapter 8 verse 11, the knowledge we have, through your knowledge he who is weak is ruined, the brother for whom Christ died. Instead of developing and building him up, you ruined him. That's an improper use of your liberty. And in so doing, you not only sin against that weaker Christian, you sin against Christ, he said in verse 12.

Come over to the end of chapter 10 verse 23, draw together some of these matters on the use of our liberty. Verse 23, all things are lawful but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful but not all things edify. Let no one seek his own, or his own good, as we have it, but that of his neighbor. Look at verse 33, just as I please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of the many, that they may be saved. So you see in that section he stressed, you don't look out for yourself, you don't do what you think would be good for yourself, you don't do what might help develop you, you do what would be best for the other person. You build them up to maturity.

In chapter 12 as he entered into the discussion of the spiritual gifts his emphasis was, the gifts are given for the good of others. Look at verse 7, but to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. Now beginning in verse 12 he used the analogy of the human body to show how the gifts are to function in the church. And the human body is one body with many parts, and each part of the human body functions for the good of the body. My hand doesn't run off and do what would be good for the hand, the hand does what contributes to the welfare and good of the body. So in the church the different spiritual gifts function for the common good, for the good of the body, the development of the body of Christ. We grow and mature together. Down in verse 25, his intention is that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. That focus.

Now we would expect as we come to chapter 13, we spent some time here, the chapter on love, what is its context, how we use our spiritual gifts. Always in love, which means what? Doing it for the good of others, totally selfless. Down in verse 5, love does not act unbecomingly, it does not seek its own. We noted as we went again and again to different passages of scripture, that's the outstanding characteristic of this agape love. It does not seek its own, it's not self-centered, it's not self-serving.

So we have that as a background when we come to chapter 14. And I want you to note the repeated emphasis that flows through chapter 14. We'll be doing the details when we move through this chapter together. But note the emphasis on the importance of building up the church, of looking at what will profit someone else. Verse 4, the contrast is the one who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church. Verse 5, the end of the verse, what you do, you want to do so that the church may receive edifying. Verse 6, Paul wants to do what he does in light of what will profit you. So I have to evaluate my use of tongues, my use of prophecy. What will I profit you? Verse 12, seek to abound for the edification of the church. Verse 17, you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified. Verse 26, let all things be done for edification.

So we keep this context of scripture, the context of tongues, these things in mind and that will prepare us then when we move through the details. We can't handle each statement as though it stood on its own and there was nothing else to enlighten it. So let me review six points I have here, and then we'll be ready for our study when we move into the details of chapter 14. These are the things that will help us in understanding and clarifying the issues with tongues and prophecy. And prophecy is used as a comparison with tongues, to show the place that tongues should have and must have.

1) First thing we noted. The clearest explanation of the meaning of tongues is found in Acts 2. There it is certain that the tongues involved were speaking in an earthly foreign language, something that the speaker had not learned, but was a result of the Spirit of God coming into their lives and producing this supernatural result. 2) Secondly, the other references to tongues in Acts in chapters 10 and 19 also involved speaking in discernible, foreign, earthly languages. They were the same activity that happened in Acts 2. The same event occurred, the Spirit of God came into their life and the same result occurred. They spoke in tongues. And we noted in Acts 10, and Peter in chapter 11 stressed the fact that it was the exact same thing that happened to us in Acts 2. 3) The founding of the church at Corinth in Acts 18 which happened prior to the tongue-speaking in Ephesus in Acts 19 would indicate that the tongues at Corinth were also discernible foreign languages. We just moved in time, so we oughtn't to think that Corinth is a later event outside the framework of the book of Acts. It is not. The establishing of the church at Corinth and Paul's year-and-a-half ministry happened in the context of the book of Acts, it happened before the tongue-speaking of chapter 19. 4) All the uses of the word tongues outside of Acts and I Corinthians refer either to the physical tongue or to discernible, normal earthly languages, foreign languages like are described in Acts 2 and like are referred to in the book of Revelation as we looked at. And if you take a concordance and look up the word tongue, you'll find that the other references also follow that pattern. 5) Paul's instructions to the Corinthians up to this point, up to chapter 14, has emphasized that they should be concerned for others, not themselves. This was true of the discussion of Christian liberty, it was true concerning his general overview of spiritual gifts in chapter 12, it was true in the discussion of love in a special focused way in chapter 13. 6) Finally, this same emphasis on building up others permeates chapter 14, and we just highlighted some of those references.

So this we have as a background. Now when we come to chapter 14 we walk through these passages and we have to deal with the passages as they are here in chapter 14. But they are not here in isolation, they are not isolated from the overall discussion of gifts in chapters 12-14. Nor are they isolated from the emphasis and the context of the letter to the Corinthians. Nor is this the only reference to speaking in tongues as a result of the Holy Spirit's activity in a life in the New Testament, because the book of Acts gives us that. And furthermore, there is one clear passage that defines what speaking in tongues as a result of the Spirit's ministry in the life meant. It mean speaking in discernible languages that you had not learned, according to Acts 2. And then we must always be functioning in a biblical way, with a focus on others and a desire to build them up.

Hopefully this will help us in our evaluation of this very important area.

Let's pray together. Thank you, Lord, that you have loved us, that you have sent your Son to redeem us, that by our grace there is salvation, salvation in no other person. But we need no other Savior, He is the Savior of the world, He died, He was buried, He was raised from the dead, He is alive. Lord, through faith in Him we are given life and we are given the Spirit. And with the Spirit we are given gifts. And our desire is to function together as a local church in such a way that the exercising of our gifts in love brings honor and glory to you and that you are pleased by your grace through the ministry of your Spirit to mature us, to build us up, that we might more fully and more beautifully manifest the beauty of your character in all of our actions, in all of our doings. Lord, I pray for any who may be here today who do not know this wonderful Savior, that they might pause to consider that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. What love! That they might turn from their sin and place their faith in Him. The one in whose name we pray, Amen.