ISO a Biblically-Sound, Spirit-Filled Church: "Tongues" 11/13/2022

We’ve got some great questions to ask and answer about tongues today:

  • And I’ll open up for questions at the end… a brief time, because…
  • That said, my heart, soul, mind, and spirit are with you! But at 11:30, all that switches to my wife.  So let’s get to it!

 

How many types of tongues are in the Bible?

  • Not including the literal tongue and teachings that speak to how we use our tongues to honor the Lord in what we say, there are 3 types of “tongues” in the Bible.

 

1) Known foreign language(s) 

  • The most famous of course being in Acts 2 where “tongues of fire” came upon 120 men and women who had been patiently awaiting the Holy Spirit to come. 
    • Acts 2:4-11 says this 120 “were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.”
  • I would have loved to have been there! No Rosetta Stone. No Babbel.com. :) 

 

2) A Spiritual Language

  • Apparently a language known to God, but a mystery to men.
    • An “angelic” language 
  • 1Co 13:1  If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
  • or “Groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26), 
    • Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
      • Words not in English, spoken by the Spirit of God on our behalf
  • Or “Praying in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18 and Jude 20, 1 Cor. 14).
    • Eph 6:18  (Pray) at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.
    • And Jude 20 is in the context of v17 about how to live in the end times, and saying “But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God.”
    • We also see Paul use the phrase “praying in the spirit” in the direct context of teaching on the gift of tongues multiple times in 1 Cor. 14.
  • In Acts, we see this angelic language spoken by people while they’re accepting Jesus, and shortly after they’ve accepted Jesus, twice recorded (Acts 10 with Cornelious’ family, and Acts 19 in Ephesus).
    • That said, this puts to rest anyone who has been taught “Tongues” in the Bible is just foreign languages, and not also a “spiritual” language. 
      • The Bible disagrees with you.
      • It’s cool. Happens to me all the time. 
      • Make God’s normal your normal. Get used to it. It is very pleasing to God!

 

3) The interpretation of both foreign and heavenly tongues

  • The interpretation of Tongues is listed as its own, stand-alone spiritual gift.
    • I don’t have time to get into the specific gift today, but I will soon…
    • But let me say one thing: 1 Cor 14:13 says, “one who speaks in a tongue should pray that he may interpret.”
      • Nowhere in scripture are we taught that another person has to be the interpreter.