As we continue in this series, we must recognize that our Lord Jesus uses our powerful natural ability of human speech as an extremely purposeful medium of division.

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“Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household.” [Matthew 10:34-36]

THE REAL AND THE UNREAL

It is otherwise overlooked. The vast majority of Christianity does not understand this or show any desire to do so. It is something that has been rejected and even denounced by most. There have even been many preachers, some very powerful and influential, who have gone so far as to say that “tongues are of the devil.” If this doesn’t cause someone to perceive that maybe, just maybe, there is a big masquerade going on in much of Christianity and that there really are two completely different “Christianities,” then I’m not sure what else may bring about the necessary enlightenment to see pure Scripture for what it is and accept it.

I remember hearing a sermon several years ago about the nature of Christians in general and their reluctance to embrace all the Lord has to offer. The minister painted a good picture of what often happens when the Lord calls His people to greater truth. Some people are interested right off and make a relatively quick move to receive. Others are somewhat reluctant but due to their trust in Him and feeling a sense of duty and obedience they move forward though somewhat timidly. Others simply rush right in. As the minister continued to illustrate this process He related it to a nice spacious house with large furnished rooms. He said the interior is often left, curiously, only to a few. The large living room, with plenty of good places to sit down and relax—many couches and chairs—often has several empty places due to so few getting that far. The semi-enclosed entry room, or small vestibule, on the other hand, has people all stacked in like cord wood from floor to ceiling with each person seemingly acting like such a thing is perfectly normal and per custom. For some reason that’s as far as they’ll go. They feel they are obeying the Lord’s directive to enter the house but otherwise resist going an inch further. The outside porch is also filled to capacity with people spilling out into the front yard which contains hundreds of people milling around, perfectly happy to be outside with no desire whatsoever to even look in the windows. And when someone peers up or down the block he sees a sea of humanity going through prescribed motions many of whom cannot even see the house at all much less approach it…

How does this happen? One should know the answer to this. It is usually due to denominational or church teaching and custom. For whatever reason, most pastors refuse to obey the Lord’s command to tell the entire Gospel truth and make disciples and are content with perpetual pew-sitting congregants. Spiritual growth and development is simply not a priority. Church attendance is, of course, as is making a commitment to the church and keeping one’s overall religious obligation including monetary support. Whoever may want to actually go beyond the mere elementary church teachings and break free of the controlled common denominator status quo can thus enter “the ministry.” Such individuals might have “the call.” But it must be “official,” of course. Such people must follow the correct protocol and eventually receive the official denominational church stamp. We can’t have anyone going it alone, you see. (You mean the way the Lord did?) But everybody else need not worry about reading the Bible in-depth or studying Holy Writ or getting into God or actually following the Lord Jesus as He commanded. These kinds of Christians put too much pressure on everybody else and make it difficult to keep a congregation in unity. It gets so bad in some places that whoever desires such is seen as some kind of weird church nerd who takes Christianity far too seriously.

A NEW KIND OF FOOD

But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” [John 4:32]

I remember when I was a rookie Christian. I was born again as a young adult. In my new church, the emphasis on reading the Word was certainly refreshing but somewhat curious in that it was relatively rare in my experience. Somewhat strangely, rather than appealing to church authority, my new church friends based their Christian beliefs on the teachings of the Lord and the written Word. They used the New Testament to verify their beliefs and practices. Now, I had been raised in a Christian denomination but it was one those which dissuaded individual Bible reading and study. Such a thing was confined to only a ridiculously small clergy class whose members supposedly devoted themselves to such study. Only they could ever know what Scripture really meant. Only they could decipher the actual teachings of the Lord. The 99% must therefore yield to them and their universal studied opinions and never seek to go their own way or question authority. Hence, there was no reason to read the Word which pretty much everybody was apparently okay with anyway.

When I became a real Christian, however, and was filled with the Spirit of the Lord just like the 120 at Pentecost, I suddenly had a great desire to read the Bible. I wanted to devour the teachings thereof. I dived right in. I didn’t wait around. I was never told to never do such a thing in my new church or that I was not qualified but was actually encouraged to do so as was everyone else there. Every day I read and read. I was doing manual labor at the time working in a warehouse and sometimes spent my lunch hours reading the Word instead of having lunch. I had somehow gone from having no desire to read something so outdated and ancient and difficult to understand and strange and boring and even grim to completely immersing myself in reading and study and deep research. Wild horses couldn’t drag me away.

I’m sure many of you have had this same experience. We understood as we continued reading that the written Word of God was actually spiritual food. When we were born again and filled with His Spirit we suddenly had a great need to feed our spirit. We never had this need before because our spirit was essentially dead and existed merely in seed form awaiting the proper ground to be planted in and the signal to open up and burst forth and thereby bring forth all the life within.

One may recall what happened to Adam and Eve: “But from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die” (Genesis 2:17). Well, they disobeyed and did eat from it and they surely did die. But they were still alive. What died? Their internal spirit died. Their body and soul, however, stayed very much alive and did not die. From that point forward human beings were composed of only two-thirds of themselves. Until Pentecost. The miracle of Pentecost brought about the resurrection of the human spirit. This is why Pentecost was never a one-time thing for a few but an all-time thing for everybody.

Also, when one’s spirit rises from dormancy it takes authority over the soul and body. It also instantly requires FOOD much as new babies do or animals just born. These little ones are ravenously hungry and are not quiet about it. They must grow! They must develop! They need food! If baby birds in a nest just out of the shell could talk, for example, they would be constantly screaming feed me, feed me, feed me! Once born again, one requires nutrient-rich spiritual ground and living spiritual water and spiritual light. Reading the written Word, especially and foremost the teachings of our Lord Jesus, obviously greatly assist us in getting almost all we need and are hungry for in our initial start in following the Lord and learning from Him. Prior to this, what had before been a mere dead letter and never-touched dusty tome became a surging life-giving stream that was essentially easy to read and not at all difficult though we may not have understood parts at the time. It never stopped one from reading on, however.

Therefore, even though present followers of the Lord Jesus only read words on paper instead of sitting at the Lord’s feet as did those greatly blessed ones of long ago, the written Word still contains great power though in seed form just waiting for one to plant it in one’s spirit (the only place it can be planted). As all this reading is going on though, a new believer is also listening to anointed messages from anointed ministers, and praying and hearing from God, and fellowshipping with other believers in the spirit. All of these work to develop the spirits of new believers which were, again, essentially dead and lifeless not too long before.

THAT’S WHAT I’M TALKING ABOUT

Now, what does any of this have to do with human speech? We know the simple answer. Before the Word was written it was spoken. Before it was spoken it existed within God Himself, in His Mind and Being. Indeed, the written Word tells us that the Word of God IS God. It tells us that God was manifest in the flesh—that He became a Human Being—and that God Himself in human form SPOKE to us:

He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. [John 1:10-14]

How much easier could He have made it? To this day that small portion of the overall world population that actually thinks about the concept of God and wonders if there actually is a God also likely wonders what it would be like if God became one of us and walked among us. Of course, real Christians have always known the answer to this: HE DID. And He left a record of His perfect teachings. And those who read His teachings are greatly blessed and enlightened even though they are only reading words on paper. The Gospel message therein brings about their eternal salvation. But it is only because the words of the Gospel were first spoken.

Now, at Pentecost we have this strange occurrence of “speaking in tongues” that most of the Christian world rejects experientially though they may acknowledge the true historicity of the account. Most Christians apparently cannot get past the strangeness and therefore never experience the magnificence. But it was never “strange” in the beginning except to unbelievers! How strange it is then that this “strangeness” has been applied to the experience by the majority of Christians! It is only “strange” by those who see it from afar, by those who never experience it, by those who were taught to reject it, but primarily by one’s own human nature that perceives the experience as absolute nonsense and something to be avoided.

Remember, when we were sinners apart from God everything spiritual was unknown to us because we were human beings with dead spirits. We were merely “natural” people with no awareness of spiritual things or desire for them unless we were hungry and searching. The apostle Paul was one such person at one time prior to His born again experience. Though a powerful intellectual well-studied Pharisee of high religious rank he was still just a natural man with a dead spirit. As a real born again Christian, however, like all real Christians, he saw life from both sides whereas the never born again only ever see one side and believe it is the only side:

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no one. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. [1Corinthians 2:11-16]

SPIRITUAL SPEECH

In Part 3 of this series we discussed the fact that human beings are extremely rebellious toward God in their sinful state prior to new birth and that those who desire to follow the Lord must overcome this natural rebellion and surrender to the Lord Jesus. We also learned about the most rebellious member of our body:

And because the tongue is the most unruly and rebellious member of the body it is the last to surrender.

Yet, like the illustration I used earlier in this article about the nice spacious well-furnished house with most Christians all piled up in the entryway and front yard refusing to go in one must also understand that a great many Christians do exactly the same thing regarding “speaking in tongues.” They may have otherwise completely surrendered to God but never surrendered the last member of their body to God. This means their speech never gained the spiritual quality God demands. It means their speech remains in the natural state.

Regarding what those initial real Christians did as recorded in the Book of Acts when they “spoke in tongues,” it is not at all “strange” if one understands what we have been discussing. These people, by surrendering all to the Lord including their tongue—their speech—they simply began praising God in a new language they had never learned. This proved the following:

(1) They fully surrendered their entire being and body to the Lord Jesus, as He commanded, including their tongue—their speech.

(2) To prove the tongue was fully surrendered, rather than speak in their normal language, the Lord verified the miracle and His direct involvement by having them speak in another language they previously did not know or have the ability to speak.

(3) The other languages they all spoke collectively (other tongues) were known languages heard by the crowd outside the Upper Room as their own languages spoken in the many parts of the world where they lived and from where they traveled.

(4) This phenomenon thus also served as a Gospel witness because everyone in the crowd below was an Israelite and they heard the Upper Roomers, whom they referred to as Galileans, “speaking of the mighty deeds of God” (Acts 2:11). In Acts 10:46 when Cornelius and the first Gentiles were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues others who understood the languages heard them “exalting God.” In Acts 19:6 in Ephesus when former followers of John the Baptist that had never heard of baptism in the Name of Jesus were filled with the Holy Spirit they were speaking in tongues and also “prophesying.”

We see then that the very first words these people spoke with their new “tongues”—spiritual speech—were words of great praise and exaltation of God! And we know this by the direct witness of the thousands of Israelite travelers who heard them speak in their own languages. As newborn babes they spoke that which was first, foremost, and closest to their hearts—that the Lord God was always to be praised! We see an echo of this with what happened during the Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem during the last days of His ministry when He revealed Himself as King:

But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that He had done, and the children who were shouting in the temple, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they became indignant and said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” And Jesus said to them, “Yes; have you never read, ‘Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies You have prepared praise for Yourself’?” [Matthew 21:15-16]

We also see it here:

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. [Romans 8:12-17]

This latter statement about suffering puts the entire “tongues” question in proper perspective because we see it as yet another reason why the Lord created the phenomenon. Just as it is when new believers are water baptized in the Name of Jesus, it signifies a separation from the world. And this separation causes a new believer to be subjected to the worst forms of misunderstanding, insults, mocking, and scorn, and for some, even physical persecution and death. And all the while the real Christian is taught by the Lord to weather such persecution as it is part of a disciple’s “reasonable service” (see Romans 12:1).

In other words, the world is filled with sinners on their way to hell who have no understanding or care of spiritual things and will always engage in what comes natural against those “strange” people who engage in “strange” practices. This obviously includes much of Christianity.

I used to be one such sinner but I never mocked Pentecostals until the Lord sent a couple to witness to me, a couple I was formerly very close to, close friends, who somehow got weirded out and joined some strange church. I had heard about them and what they had done a few weeks before they came to witness to me. I thought they had gone off the deep end and I pretty much lost all respect for them though I had few details. When they called and wanted to come over and tell me about it I was very open to the visit and had a great attitude. It was good to see them. But when they began “witnessing” to me and I felt a little pressure, my good mood eventually changed and I told them if they didn’t stop they should leave. They left. But they didn’t stop.

They and their church began to pray for me. Much prayer went forth. I didn’t see them for quite a while. After three months they invited me to church again. In the meantime the Lord had been slowly destroying me from the inside out to prepare me for what was likely my last chance at salvation and the infilling of His Spirit. Long story short, it was soon my turn to become one of those “strange” people at that “strange” church. I then knew a joy I had never known before. My entire life changed for the better in every way. I met the Lord Jesus! But on the flip side, a veritable cascade of insults and mocking came my way by those who used to like and respect me. Like anyone truly born again I had then experienced life from both sides, from the non-spiritual and the spiritual, as an unbeliever and believer. I experienced the very sword of separation the Lord spoke about. Funny how that works.

Some may think such an occurrence is only in the extreme and not normal, yet real Christians worship a God who is the most loving Person who ever lived. Imagine the greatest times in His ministry when He was loved by tens of thousands. Then imagine Him all alone and rejected and beaten and bloody and nailed to a cross hearing all manner of horrendous insults and mocking from His own people. Is that not extreme? Well, so is it extreme when the Lord Jesus is at last given authority over a sinner’s tongue. It was possibly or even likely the case that some of those very people hurling insults at Him while He hung there dying were, seven weeks later, among those milling around the streets below the Upper Room greatly convicted at heart at Peter’s preaching:

Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” [Acts 2:37-39][1]

That very day another three thousand Israelites were immersed in water in the Name of Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit. Though Luke’s account does not say so specifically we know from the context and by what they did afterwards that the massive group had their own Upper Room experience though it was actually a Streets of Jerusalem experience.

And the great sound of their many new voices carried throughout the city. They were praising and exalting God with all their hearts, each in a new language with a new tongue and an entirely new perspective. No one there could deny the great miracle. The Lord Jesus was bringing salvation to the believing remnant of His people!

But He also brought a sword of separation.

© 2023 by RJ Dawson. All Rights Reserved. [To Be Continued…]

[1] Unless otherwise noted all Scriptures are taken from the New American Standard Bible, © 1960, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Real Christianity is Acts Chapter Two—Acts Chapter Two is Real Christianity: THE SECRET PLAN (1)

Real Christianity is Acts Chapter Two—Acts Chapter Two is Real Christianity: MIRACULOUS TONGUES—A SIGN (2)

Real Christianity is Acts Chapter Two—Acts Chapter Two is Real Christianity: WHO CAN TAME THE TONGUE? (3)