A Special Sign for the Early Church

Acts 2:1–13
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There were three great Jewish festivals to which every male Jew living within twenty miles of Jerusalem was legally bound to come—the Passover, Pentecost, and the Feast of Tabernacles. Pentecost was so called because it fell on the fiftieth day, a week of weeks, after the Passover. At least as many came to the Feast of Pentecost as came to the Passover. On the day of Pentecost all the Lord’s followers were together in one place (v. 1). Warren Wiersbe said, “We are not going to move the world by criticism of it, nor conformity to it, but by the combustion with it.” The coming of the Spirit was by a mighty wind or a roar, fire, and a tongue upon each head (vv. 2-3). The disciples began to speak in real languages which were understood by those from various lands (v. 4). The miracle was the giving of the ability to speak these languages.

At Pentecost all these people heard the disciples speak the wonderful works of God in their mother tongue (vv. 5-11). The people who heard this were perplexed and amazed at what they were witnessing and tried to say that the disciples were drunk (vv. 12-13). Again, we need to note that they were speaking in a known lang­uage, and not an “unknown tongue.” The only tongues speaking the Bible knows anything about are established languages of the day, spoken supernaturally as the Holy Spirit gives utterance. Unless we are instructed otherwise in Scripture, we must assume that when “speaking in tongues“ is mentioned in Acts or I Corinthians, it refers to an identical exper­ience where believers were praising God in languages that are known. This leaves no room for tongues speak­ing as it is often practiced in churches today.

Application

We know that God wants every man to hear the Gospel in his own language (II Peter 3:9). I need to keep asking the Lord what part I am to play in His program to accom­plish this.