Rev. David Holwick ZG "Questions People Ask" topical series
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
October 27, 2002
1 Corinthians 14:1-19
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I. Strange prayer.
A. Stories by Billy Graham about the gift of tongues:
A leading minister in the Church of Scotland lay in the
Intensive Care Unit of a Glasgow hospital.
He knew that his life hung in the balance - at any minute he
might be seeing his Lord face to face.
And so, he began talking to Him.
As he did, he found himself praying in a language he had never
heard before.
After confiding this to a friend, he never mentioned it again.
He recovered to serve his Lord for several more years.
B. A Sunday School class.
A Sunday school class was studying the person and work of the
Holy Spirit.
The church was in a neighborhood where speaking in tongues had
become a divisive issue among believers.
After one particularly exciting meeting the college Sunday
school teacher was asked to speak on the Holy Spirit.
One by one the students shared their experience with this
phenomenon.
The teacher, recalling the class some months later, mentioned
three people who stood out in his memory.
One, whose testimony had the ring of truth to it, for a few
months after his experience became totally preoccupied with
tongues.
He spoke of little else and did his best to see that other
believers had the same experience.
Eventually, however, he leveled off, realizing the Holy Spirit
had been given to enable us to glorify the Lord Jesus in
differing ways.
Today he is a uniquely gifted minister of the gospel.
A second class member, who also claimed to speak in tongues,
was expelled from his college a few weeks later for open,
repeated, and unrepentant immorality.
A third who stands out in the teacher's memory was a recently-
converted street-fighter from one of our large cities.
After the class, he had taken the teacher to one side and
confided that he had been at a meeting where he had
recognized the language spoken.
When the teacher asked him what language it was, he replied,
"The language I used to hear when I assisted my grandmother
who was a spirit medium."
The teacher told Billy Graham he thought these cases illustrated
three sources for what are called tongues:
1. the Holy Spirit.
2. psychological influence.
3. satanic influence.
[1]
II. The fastest-growing movement in Christianity.
A. It began on the Day of Pentecost, A.D. 30.
1) It ended with the Montanist movement of the second century.
2) A few tiny groups practiced it on fringes of Christianity
for the next eighteen centuries.
3) Then there was a revival in Los Angeles in 1900 at the Azusa
Street revival. Tongues invaded the twentieth century
Church.
B. Typical in Third World, even among Baptists.
1) It is practiced many groups in America.
a) Even Catholics and mainstream Protestants have been
affected.
b) It has revitalized many dying liberal churches.
2) But it is limited among Baptists in America and Europe.
C. Controversial.
1) Necessary sign of Spirit and salvation? (Pentecostalism)
2) Limited to the past and forbidden today?
III. We all have a desire for transcendence.
A. Transcendence: breaking through to the presence of God.
1) For many, Christianity is powerless and stale.
a) Parents force us to go to get some morality.
b) Church doesn't seem real or interesting.
2) We search for the real thing.
a) Some choose witchcraft over Christianity.
A new college has started in Austria that has serious
courses in witchcraft and occult.
Student witch Katharina, a bespectacled middle-aged
librarian by day, said she was drawn to the course
because something was missing from her life.
"I was looking for direction.
Christianity was too narrow for me and didn't give me
the answers I needed." #22323
b) One reason Halloween has become so popular - linked to
supernatural realities.
c) Tongues has a similar appeal.
B. Tongues offers a direct link to God.
1) Young people are especially interested in it.
a) It would affirm to us that God is real and we are not
making our faith up.
2) Goes against our over-emphasis on rationalism.
3) A touch of the miraculous, and deep emotions.
C. Simple solution - what does the Bible say?
IV. Ecstasy in the Bible.
A. Saul and the school of prophets. 1 Samuel 10:5-12
1) Literal ecstasy. compare 1 Samuel 19:19-24
B. Jesus' prediction of tongues.
1) (only in a text that most scholars think is a later
addition to Mark) Mark 16:17
2) His advice: don't get excited about spiritual powers - get
excited that your name is in God's book. Luke 10:20
C. The original Pentecost. Acts 2
1) Actual known languages.
a) Jewish pilgrims all heard their languages spoken.
b) Must all tongues be known languages?
c) Scientific studies have shown tongues are not known
languages (unless speaker has been exposed to them)
but are gibberish.
2) Yet elsewhere in Bible tongues seems to be ecstatic
language, what Paul calls the "tongues of angels."
a) Paul says the speakers themselves do not know what
they are saying.
b) Actual human language is not necessary.
c) Even in Bible, tongues are assumed to be gibberish
unless there is a supernatural interpretation.
d) Note different groups brought into church in Acts,
whose tongues seem to be ecstasy like Saul's.
D. A sign of the end. Joel 2:28-32 / Acts 2:17-21
1) Peter's sermon at Pentecost interprets the event in light
of Joel 2.
a) Joel says ordinary people and not just prophets would
have visions and supernatural experiences.
b) Then there would be heavenly signs - a precursor to
coming of the Messiah.
2) The heavenly signs did not happen at that time - does
resumption of tongues mean Jesus is coming soon?
a) The original Pentecost was only a foretaste.
V. Further information in 1 Corinthians.
A. Tongues are only mentioned by Paul because of problems.
1) The worship of the church was out of kilter.
a) One-up-manship among leaders.
b) "I am more spiritual than you."
c) They bragged about their spiritual gifts.
2) Yet Paul reveals - uniquely - he practices it a lot himself.
B. Passed away with perfection? 1 Cor 13:8-10
1) Popular interpretation among evangelical Baptists.
a) "Perfection" is said to be completion of New Testament.
b) We no longer need tongues.
2) But this interpretation not supported by passage.
a) Paul says we will know as we are known by God.
1> Obviously not true now, even with New Testament.
b) Perfection must be our glorification in heaven, not
completion of New Testament.
C. Tongues have limits within church worship.
1) Understandability is key.
2) Tongues are possible even in church but emphasis is put
on supernatural interpretation of message so hearers
will know what it is about.
3) Otherwise visitors will think you are nuts! 1 Cor 14:23
VI. The place for tongues.
A. Private devotions.
1) Pray in your spirit.
a) Irrational, but reminds us God is beyond our reasoning.
2) Does not produce spirituality by itself.
a) ALL Christians have at least one spiritual gift from
God, and it does not have to be tongues.
b) Having a dramatic gift does not mean we are close to
God - King Saul himself turned out to be a loser.
B. Special missionary setting?
1) Cannot deny the possibility of miracles, so that a
foreigner could understand a message in tongues.
2) But early Pentecostal missionaries to Asia found Chinese
understood tongues as well as Baptists do.
a) They decided to learn Chinese the normal way.
C. Tongues in church? In a Baptist church?
1) We cannot forbid it.
a) Some here practice it privately, which is fine.
2) But not our normal practice in corporate worship.
a) Would cause consternation.
b) If you desire it for normal everyday worship, you would
probably be better off in a local charismatic church.
VII. However we speak to God, He wants to speak to us!
A. God speaks to our hearts through our minds.
B. Genuine fellowship and prayer can bring us to the experience
of transcendence.
C. Have you had this experience?
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SOURCES FOR ILLUSTRATIONS USED IN THIS SERMON:
[1] "The Holy Spirit," by Billy Graham, pages 167-68.
#22323 "School Demystifies Witchcraft," by Julia Ferguson, Reuters, from
America Online, October 8, 2002.
These and 20,000 others are part of a database that can be downloaded,
absolutely free, at http://www.holwick.com/database.html
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