Why come to church? We, God’s people assemble for one purpose – to worship God. Yes?
We come to worship Him by our prayers and singing (v. 15) by the teaching and preaching (v.3). Worship should result in bringing glory to God and a blessing for God’s people (v.3), and fear and conviction for sinners (vv. 23-25). But for these things to happen, Jesus Christ must be Lord of our lives, and we must yield to the Holy Spirit. If we come to church to display our spirituality, we will not only miss blessing ourselves but also cause others to miss the blessing. We come to honour Him. We also come to edify each other. A key word in this chapter is edification (vv 3-5, 12, 17, 26), which means ‘building up’. A worship service should lift up the Lord and build up
the saints, not puff up the participants.
We are all aware of the many different languages throughout this world. Indeed you only have to pause for few minutes and listen to people walking by in Park Street speaking, to realise that we have Polish, Lithuanian, Romanian, Asian, South African dialects going on in Camberley. One could say we need a present day Pentecost in Camberley, another Paul speaking in ‘tongues’ proclaiming the good news to all in Camberley’s Park Street. It’s certainly a challenge for churches in Camberley. How do we help the people from foreign lands express their faith in Camberley?
While I was working in other countries throughout the world, I encounter many different languages but I made sure I could order steak and salad and four white wines in the language needed that day. I hasten to add that the four white wines were not just for me! But most of the time we would get by with sign language and our crude attempt of speaking in the language and English.
The disciples were the first to speak in tongues on the Day of Pentecost. People often think that on that day the disciples were speaking human languages, because the people could understand what they were saying. The passage in the book of Acts writes about the many languages that were spoken on the day by the disciples. But there had to be something more than that because there were two different things taking place that day: the miracle of speaking and hearing: The first was the speaking in tongues. The second was the enabling of some to understand(interpretation) the tongues. Not everyone understood the tongues, because some onlookers made fun of the disciples and accused them of being drunk (Acts 2:13); this clearly shows that they did not understand the tongues. And the ones who did understand the tongues were bemused because each one heard only their own native language not the languages of the other people (v. 6). Each person who heard, the disciples praising God in their own language and they could not figure out how this was possible. Sometimes this happens today. The miracle was in the hearing of the people.
Speaking in tongues has been talked about in Christianity for thousands of years. Yet with all the talk about speaking in tongues, few understand what it's all about. It is the least understood subject among believers. People will be surprise to find that the Bible mentions speaking in tongues thirty-five times. That is a lot, so this subject should not be cast lightly aside as unimportant to the Church. God does not fill His book with things of minor importance.
Many people inaccurately define speaking in tongues as "speaking gibberish" or "talking nonsense." The truth is, speaking in tongues is the most intelligent, perfect language in the universe. Why because it is God's language.
What language do you suppose people speak in heaven? Languages are given their name
based on the countries they come from. For example, English comes from England. Spanish comes from Spain. Italian comes from Italy. Tongues are the heavenly language. It is what is spoken in heaven; the only difference is that the people in heaven understand what they are saying. Here on earth Paul says, "For anyone who speaks in tongues does not speak to men but to God. Indeed, no one understand him; he utters mysteries with his spirit" (v.2).
Jesus says that those who believe in Him will "speak in new tongues" (Mark 16:17). The word "new" means appearing for the first time. No one hadspoken these languages before. It is only appropriate that "new tongues" should be spoken by those of the "new birth." It is natural and normal to speak in the language of your birth. We are born again from above, we therefore should speak the language from above - that language is called "new tongues."
Why speak in tongues? Paul writes, "He who speaks in tongues edifies himself...I would like every one of you to speak in tongues" (1 Corinthians 14:4, 5). With this positive statement about tongues, why do so few Christians speak in tongues? The answer could be because there is very little sound, logical and scriptural teaching as to the scope and value of speaking in tongues.
So what does ‘speaking in tongues’ do for us, for you and me? It does exactly what the bible says it does. ‘He who speaks in tongues edifies himself." The word "edify" means to "build up" or "charge up"--much like charging up a battery. We all need a spiritual charge. All of us at times
feel spiritually drained. One of God's ways to charge your spirit is through speaking in tongues. Speaking in tongues is the physical, biblical evidence that one is baptised in the Holy Spirit. We should not settle for anything less than the scriptural evidence.
In our passage today, Paul is talking about public ministry gifts that are manifested in the church. He is not talking about tongues as the initial sign of the baptism in the Spirit, nor is he talking about tongues as a private, devotional, prayer language. You can recognise this by simply looking at the language Paul uses concerning speaking in tongues. In this chapter he calls
speaking in tongues "different kinds of tongues" (see 12:10, 28). "Different kinds" means "not the usual." The usual kind of speaking in tongues is a language no man understands or interprets. However, speaking in "different kinds" of tongues enables the speaker or someone else to recognise the meaning of the tongue and thereby interpreting it.
So when Paul ask the question, "Do all speak in tongues?", he is referring to the public manifestation of tongues which enables a person gifted in interpretation to speak out the meaning of the tongue. Not all have been given this gift of "different kinds" of tongues.
In 1 Cor 14, Paul corrects the misuse of tongues in the church. He tells them to stop the practice gathering "the whole church [so] everyone [can] speak in tongues" (v. 23). This clearly shows us that everyone in the Corinthian church was speaking in tongues. Most of them should have allowed those gifted in the "different kinds" of tongues to exercise their gift, and the rest should simply "keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and God" (v. 28).
Now, there seems to be an acceptance in many churches that charismatic gifts like prophecy
and speaking in tongues are for today. But are we actually seeing a desire to exercise them? How many of those who believe in the gifts of tongues actually pray in tongues every day? How many prophesy? I want to suggest that there is a discrepancy between Paul’s Church and the Church today, and I believe we’ve subconsciously believed certain untruths. The first is that the manifest
presence of God is an optional extra for God’s people. And the second untruth is that the gifts of the Spirit are optional extras for God’s people. Both of the untruths are refuted by Scripture. God’s gifts are for all his people and God wants each of us to have a desire to receive and use them.
The Gift of Tongues is for all and God is willing us to use the gift to edify ourselves and others as well as to worship Him and bring Him glory. A gift for private and individual use as well as for Corporate use and when used in a church setting should be used with caution and care – being sensitive to the Holy Spirit. Whether private or corporate to edify – build up. Should be not be exercising the Gifts of Tongues and Interpretation today? The Heavenly Language is not something we should be afraid of – indeed we should embrace the fact that God want to speak to us as individuals as well as a corporate body. However, we should always ensure that we enable God to speak without hindrance from ourselves. AMEN.
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