Acts 2:7-11-the gift of tongues is speaking in a language a person does not know in order to minister to someone who does speak that language. 

It is always a real language. 

 

What is the point of tongues?

Tongues were a way of God communicating with His early church. When reading the Bible, it is always important to look at the context. When the gift of tongues was being used, the Bible was not complete. All the Christians had to go on, was the Old Testament. And,  since Christianity, was supposed to be based on new ground, the Old Testament wasn’t quite sufficient, in the way it revealed God. They couldn’t draw on the Scriptures in the same way we can, so God had to communicate with them directly, and for this, He used tongues and prophesy.

 

Most of the early church, were Jewish converts, so the tongues not only served as a direct communication between God and the Church, but they were also a sign to the Jewish believers, and Jewish unbelievers who may have been among the congregation at the time, that God was now working in power in the Church, rather than still working with the Jews themselves. Tongues and other miracles were proof of God's work. Wherever these acts of power happenend would be where God was working. Any Jew walking into a Christian company would have seen these acts and power and would have convicted that this was were God was working. As Paul says “tongues are for a sign” (1 Cor. 14: 22), but how do we know tongues were specifically aimed at the Jewish people?

 

 

Look up:

Isaiah 28. 11–12 

 

Tongues were a warning to the Jews (who sought signs-1 Cor. 1:22)

It is said time and time again in the Gospel, and then by Paul in Corinthians, that the Jews sought after a sign. They needed proof that Jesus was who He said He was. Now, God had used many miraculous signs in the Old Testament to bring the Children of Israel to their senses after going astray. One of these signs was that mentioned in Isaiah 28. 11–12

 

Back in Isaiah's time, God was going to judge the Jewish nation, by bringing in armies from other nations, whose language they did not understand, to destory them. Every time the Jews heard somebody speaking in a different or strange tongue, they would be reminded of this solemn prophesy. So the tongues in the New Testament had a two point purpose. First they would confirm that God had indeed set Israel aside for the moment, and was now focussing His attention on the Church, (as the many miraculous signs would have been a testimony to) and secondly, they were a warning to the Jewish nation that God was going to bring in governmental judgment upon them for rejecting and crucifying His messiah - the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

 

Look up:

Luke 21: 5, 6, 20, 24

 

This judgment eventually came upon the Jews in AD 70, when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and the Jews were effectively lost their homeland. God was warning His people through tongues that this judgment was coming, and coming quickly. Every time the Jews heard the strange tongues spoken about in the early New Testament, they would have been reminded that God judgment was hanging over them.

 

But perhaps the biggest question is, are tongues still around today?

 

Look up:

1 Corinthians 13:8

 

It is interesting that in this passage there are two, different, words that talk about stopping.  prophesies and knowledge spoken about as ‘being done away’ The Greek for is this is katargeo. This means become inoperative. Whereas, when Paul speaks about tongues, he says they will cease, the Greek for this word is pauo this means simply to stop. So whereas, prophesies and knowledge will cease in their effectiveness. The Greek for tongues is a dead stop. The Greek Paul uses in this first is very clear that tongues will stop. Not ineffective, not irrelevant, but stopped. 

 

Okay but what about the next few verses…?

 

Look up: 

1 Corinthians 13:10

"That which is perfect"

Christians who believe that tongues still have a place in the Church today, may say because the perfect has not come yet, then tongues still have a place in the worship of God. But what is the perfect? 

Well, the words “when that which is perfect has come” refer to the completeness of the Word of God. God has perfectly revealed everything about Himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Himself. Take the verse in context, When Paul is speaking about prophesies, tongues and knowledge, he is talking about communicating God's word to His church, through these methods. But now we have the complete and perfect Word of God, there is no need for God to directly communicate through these methods. When God wants to talk to you, He will more often than not bring a Bible verse to your attention!

 

It is also interesting that if you read through the Bible historically, rather than in the order we find it normally, you will find that tongues get less attention as time goes on, as more and more of the New Testament was written, the need for tongues got less and less, until you get to John, the last of the Bible writers, and there is no mention at all! Coincidence? There are no coincidences with God! For example, two later epistles (than Corinthians), Ephesians and Romans, both discuss gifts of the Spirit at length—but no mention is made of the miraculous gifts. By that time miracles were already looked on as something in the past (Heb. 2:3-4).

 

Even where we might have expected Paul to write of tongues in the passage about being “filled with the Spirit” in Ephesians 5:17, he has nothing to say about tongues. 

 

 

Is speaking in tongues proof of the Holy Spirit?

Many will say that you cannot be a Christian until you have spoken in tongues. There is an idea that you get saved and then some time later you receive the Spirit, and speak in tongues, and this is then confirmation that you have been saved. However, this is very dangerous ground to take! There is no such thing as a second blessing, the moment you are saved you are given the Spirit and the deal is sealed. Think, if you got saved whilst dying on a battlefield, would you be rejected from Heaven because you had not had time to receive the Spirit or speak in tongues? Furthermore, Paul says this  

 

“Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? Now eagerly desire the greater gifts.”

 

How can speaking in tongues be a proof our the indwelling spirit if not everybody has this gift?