The Spirit and Baptism (4)

Okay, by now you are certainly tired of talking about the baptism in the spirit. Maybe you're not, hope you're not, but you could well be, and that would be understandable. This is our fourth study on what is typically referred to as the baptism of the Spirit. We have seen the more biblical term to be baptism in the Spirit, and the reason we've spent so much time on it is because it is such a confusing and hotly debated issue. And so we began looking at the confusion surrounding the topic. We've looked at some of the major passages that deal with the subject of the baptism in the Spirit. Then we kind of took our time to look through six elements of the baptism in the Spirit, who the baptizer is, who the element that we're baptized into is, it is Christ who baptizes us into the Spirit, baptizes us in the Spirit. It's four believers, it happens at the moment of salvation. And then we talked about the fact that it is not tied to our experience. In other words, the baptism in the Spirit is not something you pray for, you seek for, you hold out for, anything like that. It's not tied to experience, it's not tied to a certain level of growth and or progress in our Christian experience. It happens at the moment we're saved. And so we tried to clear up some of the confusion about that issue, but tonight we're going to tackle the most confusing topic related to the baptism in the Spirit, and that is spirit baptism and speaking in tongues. So remember this is in the context of a larger study we've been doing on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit or what the Bible teaches about the Holy Spirit and this particular subject is one of great interest to many people and I believe great confusion as well. Okay, let's begin by talking about the relationship between the two, talking about the relationship between spirit baptism and speaking in tongues. Charismatics, pentacostles or charismatic theology basically teaches that speaking in tongues is a direct consequence of what they call the baptism of the Spirit or baptism in the Spirit as we've seen is a more biblical term. Basically they would teach that that speaking in tongues is the evidence of the fact that you have been baptized by the Spirit or baptized the baptism of the Spirit. But what we're going to do tonight is we're going to look at the instances of speaking in tongues in the book of Acts. There are three instances and possibly a fourth one, but we're going to look at those instances and what we will find is that there is no relationship to baptism in the Spirit. In fact the two are not even mentioned together at least except in one passage in Acts 10 and the relationship is not real clear in that passage. In the other passages there is no mention of baptism of the Spirit. However it probably occurs because people are being saved at that time. So here's the issue. And once you get this there is no relationship between the two in the Bible except timing. They just both seemed to occur at the same time in the book of Acts but there's no cause and effect relationship at all. In any of the passages we'll look at and there's only one passage that even mentions the baptism of the Spirit or baptism in the Spirit related to speaking in tongues. So that's part of what we're going to do tonight is look at that. What I would say basically the only relationship between the two is that sometimes they happen at the same time. But there are other things that are happening in relation to the Spirit of God at the same time. On those same occasions people are being indwelt by the Spirit. On at least a couple of those occasions it is mentioned they were filled with the Spirit. So there are other things that are happening related to the Holy Spirit too. So there is not a direct relationship between baptism in the Spirit and speaking in tongues. Like is often is often taught. In these cases we'll look at they may occur at the same time but there's no cause and effect relationship at all. Let me take just a moment to clearly distinguish between these two. As we have seen in our study already the baptism in the Spirit takes place at the moment of salvation. What happens when you trust Christ one of the many things that happens is that Christ places you into the realm of the Spirit. That's the way that the scriptures speak of it. John the Baptist baptised you in water. Christ will baptise you in the Holy Spirit is what Matthew says and what Jesus himself said in Acts 1.5. So he will place you into this new realm. You are taken out of the old realm Romans 8. You're not in the flesh anymore. You're not in that old realm of living only in your simple nature. You are now placed in a whole new realm of the Spirit. So you are immersed Christ baptises you in the Spirit. Immerses you into this new realm of the Holy Spirit. Now at the same time that you get saved the Holy Spirit indwells you. He seals you. So there are several things happening but one of the things that happens is that Christ places you into this new realm. This new way of living where you're no longer living in the realm of the flesh. You're no longer the old man. You are now in the Spirit. And that's why Paul can say you are no longer in the flesh. Romans 8.9 but in the Spirit if you're a believer if any man does not have the Spirit of God then he does not belong to Christ is what he says. Now at the same time that placing you in the Spirit also unites you with Christ in his death-fair resurrection and places you in his body. We've seen all of that already in those elements of the Spirit baptism. All of those things are happening. Okay now that's that's baptism in the Spirit. Speaking in tongues on the other hand was a manifestation of the Holy Spirit's power for completely different reasons. It has nothing to do with baptism in the Spirit which basically is Christ placing you into his body and placing you in this new realm. But speaking in tongues the scriptures teach have three purposes. There are three particular reasons why people spoke in tongues in the New Testament. And we're going to look at the occasions of them in the book of Acts in just a moment but I'm trying to lead up to that. I want to take a moment to give you the three reasons for speaking in tongues in the Bible and they're very clearly stated by the way. Should be no question on this. The first reason that people spoke in tongues was it was to authenticate the ministry of the apostles. In other words it served as the credentials that the ministry of the apostles, this new ministry, this new preaching of the gospel, this new idea of the body of Christ composed of both Jew and Gentile. It was the sign, it was the credential that this new ministry was God's. It was valid, it was genuine. And so speaking in tongues along with other miracles served as the signs of an apostle. And that's clearly said in second Corinthians 12-12. Now this is verse can be on the screen. Paul in defending his apostleship to the Corinthians said I'm not in figuring it into the other people you think of as apostles. He said I persevered in demonstrating among you the marks of a true apostle including signs, wonders, and miracles. So the signs of an apostle, the marks of a true apostle, are these three signs, wonders, and miracles. All the miraculous sign kind of gifts were designed to show that the apostles were truly sent from God. They were uniquely tied to the ministry of the apostles. The apostles were unique men who were directly commissioned by Christ into the ministry. They had to have served with Christ from the beginning of his ministry or they couldn't even qualify. So there are no apostles today. Paul even said I'm an apostle born out of season. I came along later and God made an exception in my case. He said that in 1 Corinthians 15 because in order to be an apostle you had to have ministered on earth with Jesus from the beginning of his ministry. And you had to have been directly commissioned by him into the ministry. The apostles only lived in the first century. So the credentials of the apostles are only true when you've got apostles, which is the first century. Whatever current day speaking in tongues is it is not what 2 Corinthians 12-12 is talking about. It is not the mark of an apostle. There are no apostles today. The apostles died when the last one, probably the apostle John, died in the 90s AD. Okay so that was the first purpose to authenticate the ministry of the apostles. Second purpose of speaking in tongues was to be a sign of judgment on the Jews. It was to be a sign of judgment on the Jews. Paul said that in 1 Corinthians 14. Well, I know you're already reading the verse but if I can say this before you get too far into it, he was trying to correct the misuse of tongues in the Corinthian church. They were misusing it much as it's misused today. And so he says, I want you to know that tongues is not on the same par even in the first century when there were apostles. It's not on the same level as preaching. And here's the reason why he says in 1 Corinthians 14, in the law it is written. This is in Isaiah 29. With other tongues and through the lips of foreigners, I will speak to this people but even then they will not listen to me says the Lord. Now that passage comes out of Isaiah 29 and it's a warning on the part of Isaiah that as a sign of judgment on the Jews, I'm going to send them into captivity and they're going to hear people speak in a foreign language that they don't know. They're going to hear them speak with other tongues with other languages that they don't know. And that's my sign of judgment on them. That I'm done with Judah. I'm going to judge Judah and send her into captivity. So they're going to hear the Babylonian language. That's what that's talking about. With other tongues and through the lips of foreigners, I will speak to this people. So Paul quotes that from Isaiah 29 and then he goes on to say this look at the next site. Tung's then, the tongues that Paul's referring to in the Corinthians. Tung's then are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers. Prophecy however, the proclamation of the truth of God. Prophecy however is not for unbelievers but for believers. Okay, there's a lot going on here but one of the things that's happening is Paul is saying, tongues just like God did with Isaiah in the Old Testament saying I'm going to have people judged and they're going to hear other languages. Tung's in the New Testament were a sign of judgment on the Jews unbelievers for rejecting Christ. And so in the book of Acts you've got the gospel going out to other nations. And so you've got as we'll see in a moment the Apostles in Acts 2 speaking in the languages, foreign tongues that they've never studied and that's a sign that God has turned from the Jews and is taking the gospel to the Gentiles just like in the Old Testament he's judging the Jews because of the rejection of Christ. And the sign of that is these foreign languages that the gospel is going to go to just like in judgment in Isaiah's time. Israel's going to be judged by hearing foreign language. So Paul says that's the second reason why tongues were used in the first century was to be a sign of judgment on the Jews in that generation that rejected Christ. Okay, then there's a third reason and this is the reason we're going to really spend time one tonight and that is the third reason for tongues was to show the unity of the body of Christ in the book of Acts. To show the unity of the body of Christ. Now that's what we're going to prove with the four times, three times clearly maybe a fourth one that tongues are found in the book of Acts. And by the way that's the only time they're found. It's not every time somebody gets saved it's not every time someone is in dueed with power of the Spirit. It's not a sign and a common mark of maturity like some say it's only found three times in the book of Acts and possibly a fourth. So we're going to look at those and we're going to see that the purpose of them was to unify the early church and show that as the gospel went branched out to different people groups they were all the part of the same body. In other words the gospel is going to branch out this way but but God is showing this is still part of the same trunk. Okay this is part of the same body. So he's going to tie by experience by something that's visible something that's heard he's going to tie what happens in Samaria and with Gentiles and with Old Testament believers who were disciples and John he's going to tie all that back to what happened in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. Okay that's exactly what happens with the gift of tongues in the book of Acts. It is to prove that as the gospel branches out to new people groups it's the same thing that happened on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem and so the same thing happens so you can see how it all ties back together. Okay? Does that make sense? A lot of blank stairs. Okay hope so. Okay let me pause for a moment I've rattled on questions comments before we actually look at the four instances in the book of Acts. Okay? No questions I must have thrown too much at you here to get started. Okay yes David. Assign a wonder or a miracle in a sense all three you know Paul says they were assigned in the sense that they were designed to show something that was happening. They were a wonder in the sense of God's amazing power which caused the word wonder means to cause awe and amazement and so they were a wonder in the sense of how people responded to them but then they are also a miracle in the sense that as we'll see in Acts 2 God was miraculously giving the apostles the ability to speak in language as they've never studied. That's a miracle. I mean if I were suddenly start speaking to you in Russian that would be miracle. I'm not going to do that because I'm never studied Russian but that's exactly what happened in Acts 2 so really they kind of fit all three categories day that's a good question. Tommy? Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of controversy over that term. It's a great question. In many of your Bibles many were trans-approved by the King James version in in in first Corinthians 14 talks about the use in the Corinth Corinthians church of an unknown tongue but you'll you'll see the word unknown is in italics which means it was not in the original Greek which is misleading. It was just a tongue it was a language and I think my other people differ on this but my my view is is that the tongues in first Corinthians 14 were the same thing as as in Acts it was just another language and it had to be interpreted to be legitimate but but the Corinthian church had gone wild with it and had taken it too far and was going all kinds of directions with it Paul was trying to rain it back in. It says it has a particular purpose you got to stick to that purpose okay now really yes cheering well it fits in with what we're going to see in Acts 2 and also fits in with the last one I mentioned that it shows the unity of the church in Acts 2 we'll get there in just a moment in Acts 2 it gives the gospel a head start because it gets the gospel out in a bunch of languages all at once but then in the other instances it's designed to show that what's happening in other regions with other people groups is tied back into that Acts 2 experience so it's the same church same body unity so yeah it kind of goes along with the third one I mentioned okay here's here's really the point here my point in going to this length of discussion about the purpose for tongues is to show that it's not tied to baptism in the spirit at all none of those purposes have anything to do with baptism in the spirit and so people who say okay if you're baptized in the spirit or if you the baptism of the spirit means you're gonna speak in tongues you don't get that out of the Bible speaking in tongues is only clearly mentioned in the book of Acts 3 times boy we have experience and it doesn't refer to speaking of the baptism in the spirit except there's there's the same thing mentioned in one of them we'll get to that in a minute in Acts 10 but there's no relationship between the two so that's not it's not biblical to say that there is a cause and effect relationship there so baptism in the spirit is one thing Christ placing us into a new realm when we get saved in the spirit uniting us with his death bear resurrection putting us in his body that's baptism in the spirit speaking in tongues is a totally different thing for totally different reasons the purposes are completely different than speaking or then baptism in the spirit so the two are not related at all okay that that was my point for going into those reasons for speaking in tongues they have nothing to do with baptism in the spirit there are two different things okay yes gee okay what what calls the speaking in tongues today if it's not what was truly seen in the Bible okay we're jumping ahead of ourselves a little bit but I will try to answer that question just a little what we're gonna see first of all when we get to Acts 2 is that in the Bible speaking in tongues was not some kind of unknown language or heavenly language it was a known foreign language that people understood when they heard it but the people speaking it had never studied it they didn't know that language that was the miracle okay so any kind of speaking in some kind of unknown heavenly language or I don't want to be unkind or or costic here gibberish is comes to mind but I don't want to be unkind to folks who speak in tongues that's not what happened in Acts 2 so it's not the same thing so if it's not what happened in the Bible then what is it that's your question where's it come from well there are any number of things that and I want to be kind because there are wonderful believers who are Pentecostal or Charismatic they are brothers and sisters in Christ and I'm not trying to be critical at all I just want to be biblical with this concept and with the material here but I want to be kind and gracious to our brothers and sisters who practice speaking in tongues so I'm not going to say what I've heard some people say it's demonic I don't I can't say that I think there may be some instances where that could be true it is historical that there have been through church history many cults and even false religions that have spoken in tongues that has been well documented by BB Warfield the great Princeton theologian Princeton University when they had a good seminary back in 1920s he wrote a book called counterfeit miracles and he documented not only speaking in tongues but other miracles that were done by pagan religions so that that can be one explanation but I would never say okay all Charismatics are guilty of that that's just that's not true and that's that's unkind and un-Christian to say that sometimes it can be as a result of emotion many services where this happens are highly emotional and emotions are whipped into a frenzy those of you that have been in services like this you you've seen that sometimes not all the time again I don't want to over generalize but many times it is an emotional state of getting worked up I know on in some cases this can be a third reason sometimes it's learned I have known of people that actually practice what they're going to do when they speak in tongues and it is a learned way of speaking now could there be something supernatural happening yes but if it is supernatural I would be very concerned about where it's coming from because it is not it is not what the Bible's talking about the Bible very clearly is speaking of the ability to speak in languages foreign languages that you've not studied that's the biblical speaking in tongues Margaret okay okay it can be for show again we don't want to be unkind to folks I'm guilty of doing some things for show sometimes I'm sad to say it but I have been guilty of that myself it may not be speaking in tongues but I've done things sometimes in the flesh to be recognized by other people and so I'm not gonna we don't want to condemn people but that that can be you're right that can be a reason why well let me let me hasten to say that it was not just apostles who spoke in tongues but the miraculous gift was given sometimes to other people to show that the message of the apostles it was being preached was legitimate so it was not just apostles themselves that spoke in tongues we're gonna see an ax 10 it was Gentiles okay so it was not just the apostles who were doing the speaking but it was always took to show that the message they were speaking was legitimate now the whole thing in Corinthians deserves more attention than I can give it tonight I taught a master's level class at ABC 40 hours on spiritual gifts and we spent probably a whole day eight hours talking about this very thing and we went first by verse through 1 Corinthians 12 to 14 I don't have time to do that tonight so there's a lot going on in 1 Corinthians 14 that I don't really have time to touch on that Paul deals with but in general terms it it was it was a misuse totally out of control and used too much of speaking in tongues and Paul was trying to rain it back in and say focus on preaching he said I would rather speak one word of prophecy of preaching the 10,000 words in a tongue so he was trying to say quit this okay he wasn't encouraging it at all yeah and they may have may have been for show it may have been for some others to think I'm more spiritual or whatever so Paul was saying come on cut it out yeah you don't Tommy's asking if someone interprets how do you know the interpretation is right I don't I wouldn't know I read an instance of that in Harry Arnzeid's commentary on 1 Corinthians Harry Arnzeid was pastor Moody Church in Chicago and he writes in his commentary on 1 Corinthians 14 that earlier in his ministry he went to a tent meeting with a missionary who was a missionary to a very rural tribe in a part of the world and someone got up and started speaking in tongues and the missionary punched Harry Arnzeid and said we got to get out of here and Harry Arnzeid looked at him and so they had left and when they got out the missionary said the language that person was speaking in was the language that one of our tribal groups uses it's a very rare language and that person was blaspheming God in that language now I won't tell that story again very carefully I'm not saying every occasion of speaking in tongues is that I said earlier one of the possibilities for the current phenomenon of speaking in tongues could be that it's coming from not the Holy Spirit but another spirit a false spirit that could but if that's not I don't want that to be a blanket statement that's not all speaking in tongues that's not what all people are doing but it it is a possibility and I think in some cases has been documented that that's what was happening okay real quick Steve and then Max while both of those are loaded questions Steve and and we could take a lot of time on them actually in a sense tongues did go out of vogue in early century but in the 200s there was a false prophet named Montenus who was put out by the church Montenus resurrected speaking in tongues but he was recognized as a false prophet by the early church and was discredited for some false views false teachings so it did pop up occasionally in the 1500s there was another group in Germany that began using tongues but it really did as you said come back into vogue in 1906 in the Azusa Street meetings in Los Angeles that's where the Pentecostal movement began and in those meetings that's where speaking in tongues kind of was resurrected and began to be used again that was the kind of the beginning of Pentecostalism in America and that's where it began to gain traction again and and rise to popularity so it has not been practiced consistently through church history you're correct Max Paul deals with that in 1st Corinthians 14 and again I don't have a lot of time to get into it and it really wasn't I hadn't thought back through that passage to remember clearly the argument the Paul deals with that in 1st Corinthians 14 in what's called a prayer language or speaking to God and and what we have to remember is that none of the spiritual gifts were for personal edification none of them the whole purpose of spiritual gifts and Paul makes that clear in 1st Corinthians 12 and it's the reason he labors it so much the purpose of spiritual gifts was to edify others not me he makes it clear in 1st Corinthians 12 7 through 11 and then beginning in verse 12 with the whole body concept it's it's to minister to the body it is not for my personal edification that was never the reason for any of the spiritual gifts and so anybody that says well I just use tongues to edify myself is violating the purpose of the gift as it was given to start with clearly Paul makes that point in 1st Corinthians 12 so there are a lot of people who say that I've heard that many times why I don't I don't speak in tongues in public it's just my own personal devotional prayer language well that may be true but it violates the purpose of a spiritual gift again here's the key element the key element is are we going to to bind ourselves to what the Bible teaches or are we going to go about what experience gives us because if if I'm going to put my faith and I'm going to trust in my experience then I can say well all kind of things happened and they were genuine and you can't deny this it happened I can't deny experiences for sure but the truth is I'm not going to base what I believe on experience I'm going to base what I believe on the Bible and we don't have time to get into the examples in Acts now but I think you'll see once we get into the examples in Acts it's very clear what was going on with tongues if you just stick to what the Bible says it's very clear what was happening and should not be any confusion it was never designed to be a personal thing prayer language heavenly language never designed for that okay enough on the relationship between the two there really is no direct relationship between baptism in the spirit and speaking in tongues and I think it was important for us to understand the biblical reasons for tongues in order to separate the two make sure that they're not unbiblically merged okay we've got four minutes that's enough to deal one minute each on these four passages okay you can turn to them that fast right let's let's at least look at Acts two and we'll get started here just enough to wet our appetites a little bit here's the point I want to make it would be not getting me further than this here's the overall point for these four passages and that is the gospel is going to different people groups in these four passages we're looking at all four of them are different people groups and that's key to understanding why tongues pops up in these instances in Acts two it's Jews in Jerusalem okay but also people that here are from many different nations but they are Jews they're from many different nations but they're Jews who have come to Jerusalem for the for the feast and so they hear this and the gospel is going to Jews in Acts eight it's going to Samaria for the first time it goes beyond Jews in Acts 10 it goes to Gentiles and then in Acts 19 Paul stumbles on in Ephesus a group of believers who'd never even heard of the Holy Spirit who'd never been baptized in Jesus name and name the father son Holy Spirit all they knew was the ministry of John the Baptist so you know who those are their old testament believers you see they haven't learned anything yet about the cross and and about Christ's death they haven't even gotten that far they've just gotten to John the Baptist ministry so they're still in God's way of looking at things because the church started after the ministry of John the Baptist they're still back in Old Testament times so in the book of Acts you still got people who are kind of being reached who are still in a sense Old Testament saints and they've got to be brought into the church this new body in the book of Acts okay so what we're gonna see in the book of Acts these four passages all have to do with the gospel going to a different people group and so I think that makes it clear and we'll see it especially in Acts 8 and 10 that the reason the apostles had to be there was to show the tie-in with those new people groups and what was happening in Jerusalem with the Jews in other words we don't have a Jewish church a Samaritan church a Gentile church and a John the Baptist church okay we got one church and all of those groups are in one body and so and that early beginning of the church when there could have been and and was a lot of confusion about the one body concept God was demonstrating that every time the gospel goes to a new people group in this early stages of getting the gospel out we're gonna show that this is the same thing that happened in the day of Pentecost same body same work okay so that's what we're gonna see in the book of Acts next week we'll we'll get into Acts 2 because this is the gospel going to Jews to start the church it's the beginning of the church and what I really want us to see there is it it identifies what speaking in tongues work clearly it lists the different languages that were being spoken and the people who heard them and understood their language being spoken this was not some heavenly language at nobody knew this was not some unknown tongue it was known languages and that's the big thing we'll see in in Acts 2 okay our time's up we better pray father thank you for your word and that it is a guide to us a lamp into our feet light into our path to help us know how to walk but also help us to know how not to stumble into error to keep our our minds and hearts and lives focused on your word Lord we know that all of us are are capable of error and misunderstanding your word and I pray that you'll help us to understand clearly to study diligently as you told Timothy and second Timothy 2 to divide rightly the word truth but also to depend upon the enlightenment of your spirit to guide us into all truth as we study your word so we pray that we would be dependent totally upon you for we're not capable in ourselves of understanding your word rightly help us to love all our brothers and sisters even if we may disagree and differ on this issue help us to love one another realize we're all in the same body but help us to also seek to come to a clear understanding of your truth we ask in Jesus name amen