The Multiple Meanings of Glossolalia: Speaking in Tongues - Holy Spirit #12

[Music] part of the problem in studying the Bible is we're reading English it's a huge part of the problem and the subject we're dealing with is already complex enough add this homogenized language called English into the equation and you not only have a difficult subject matter but you've also got a lot of confusion and I want to make the point of why language is so important just by giving you an example of something I chose the word it's it's probably one of the worst words no not foul but worst choices poorest choices you're like Oh which is the word the English word to receive the verb to receive part of the problem is we read things like one of the verses that said they asked you know have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed the problem is manifold first in your King James you're gonna have the word receive receive receive receiving one English word that essentially will be translating at least one gonna try and just go to the roots and not the compounds one two three four possibly five words five different Greek words for one English word to receive if that's not complicated enough the English word to receive is also very complex now we can go to what we understand the word to me Stephen prays and he says for the Lord to receive his spirit I received mail today there's different ideas being just in those two examples being conveyed one is I am in action receiving something versus Stephens Proclamation of asking the Lord from men to God to receive there are different dynamics going on the problem begins first with the word the English word because it's not an English word of course not if you read the Oxford English Dictionary 20 volumes or whatever it is the entries on just the prefix re are overwhelming and we know this is why it's so problematic we know that this re word is of Latin origin so you've almost got to go through the entries to try and make sense of what happened much like when we read the word repent if you take the Latin stream you end up with a very different dynamic English meaning versus if we go back into the Greek and we understand where that is coming from the Twain never meet you have a similar problem here although I don't want to lose sight of the fact that some indeed will convey the meaning to accept some will be to gladly receive all have transitive or intransitive some are active and some are passive but part of my brain then this is what I kind of shy I just shun this whole idea that even though you're gonna say this may be semantics for people to mix the word receive and accept although they may similar they are similar in their meaning but when you hear the phrase tossed around for example will you accept I just that makes me cringe will you accept Jesus as your Lord and save and it makes me cringe because Jesus hanging on the cross did not ask anybody if it was okay if he hung there or if anybody would accept him while he was doing it he did it if one or none or all God so loved the world the idea that we've been asking people for hundreds of years to accept is really kind of disturbing flip that whole idea on its head that while the preaching of Peter is going forward and he's explaining while you crucified the Lord of glory you did this with wicked hands but God raised him up he is in fact conveying these gospel izing he's evangelizing and in the process the switch is either turned on or turned off turned on the lights the eyes the ears and if you will then you may say that individual is able to accept what is being said and receive it gladly but the idea and it's very subtle of some act of volition that you yourself could convince yourself mentally that these things are true I suppose there are cases like a CS Lewis reluctant convert B even their God had to be at work so you understand when I say there's a subtlety in our language frame we come to it we come to acknowledge certain words represent so I back away from using certain terms because they have been conveyed in modern ways in ways that I just cannot accept if we're going to go biblical so I use that word accept but receive if you go back to the Latin start with the prefix the prefix of Latin origin with the general sense of back or again and I asked you well we'll go through a few of the entries not all of them lord help you because we'd be here forever but if if the word receive connoted had a connotation of back or again we would have a problem even just at face value with what does that word mean now if you keep tracing this I'll read a little bit here it says occurring in a large number of words directly or indirectly adopted from Latin or later Romantic origin and on the model of these freely employed in English as a prefix to verbs which is maybe the case in our word I'm looking at to the substantives or adjectives derived from these and man there is just it begins with a whole section of you know entries here if you in a few words adopted from French the prefix has so coalesced with the main part of the word that it's real nature is obscured in some cases this is due to a combination of REE with another prefix such as ad or in and then again we go back to the original sense of back or backwards large number of whoops words formed by its use the prefix acquires various shades of meanings of which the following are most clearly marked back from a point reached I ask you could that even convey one single word that we're reading when we read the word received in the Bible could that convey the word and its meaning and the sense let me say that again back from a point reached back or towards the starting point well it may be very well towards the starting point but it can't be again do you understand what I'm saying so if we start from the Latin perspective you're gonna have a hard time with this and that's why I have a hard time with this because even with the simplest tools if you take the Strong's and you go to the entries of receive received receiveth you've got so many just just in the book of Acts just in the book of Acts for receive and I'm just gonna say the numbers they mean nothing to you right now but just to give you an idea fifty to seventy four 2983 588 4732 1209 now some of these are compounds I know of other words with a PO and they've got prefixes added to them so you've got a root like deer Kumai Apple added which becomes two different numbers but you've got so many numbers representing this one English word that to simply read it and assume that it carries one meaning for us is not good so what does this have to do with our subject matter a lot because we'll get into looking at words and their meanings specifically related to and the one word that we're not going to do it tonight I just wanted to give you an idea that's coming down the pipeline of things we have to look at when people talk about especially from this book receiving the holy spirit because unlike other words that are used and this word is it's a very for the Greek it's it's a very broadly used word and yet it is complex in the way it's used and only the grammar will help sort out what exactly or how we should understand this type of excuse the word reception now whether word to use here and its meaning so I this is the type of stuff I want to pick apart now I chose to start the festival off by talking about this not because I want to study the word tonight in fact I want to look at something completely different now that I've got your attention so if you'd open your Bibles to Acts to please and just so you get a sense we've done word studies before and we've taken the time to write things out and whatnot I want to start introducing some ideas that I feel are extremely important like I used this last few minutes to explain the word at least what we'll end up doing when we look at the word to receive which we're not doing tonight there is great confusion with the subject of tongues and I know for a fact that so many just in this congregation let alone so many people who would just try to sort this out wrestle with this some people have been brought up in a Pentecostal charismatic environment have been around people who speak in tongues they themselves speak in tongues let's put that to one side there are other people who were not brought up in a charismatic environment or Pentecostal environment to them this is completely foreign unknown to them unidentified it's what is this so this is where I want to start and I'm not telling you we're gonna we're gonna have any clarity tonight but I do want to I want to start breaking down some concepts which we can build on over the course of time where we're taking apart this subject okay so what happens on the day of Pentecost we know is like nothing that has happened before unlike anything else and when we read and there appeared unto them cloven tongues it's always good for me to tell you this you know somebody asked me this the other day and it slipped my mind I said I would do it cloven that's another old word that is seldom and seldom appears in our language frame that is to 3dm Marysville dia Marys or monoi that is and dia Marys or monoi gloss I'm Mary Ximena I divided through divisions being divided so cloven being divided and I want you to just put down somewhere in your margin or something tongues plural yes there were multiple people in the room there appeared unto them dividing divided tongues like as of fire each sat upon each of them but plural it's important they were all filled verb and passive with the Holy Ghost and began to speak began to speak the lane netted eyes gloss eyes they began to speak in other languages or tongues again plural as the Spirit gave them utterance this is a different type of word this word apple it's kind of difficult to pronounce Apple 50 gifts they say that five times see I know I have I thought I open this up here to the right page this is figure oh my to speak to other to proclaim however if you look this up I wrote I wrote it out in my Bible we'll see if that's fifty three fifty but that's the compound 669 is the word I want to read this to you to enunciate plainly to declare to say to speak forth utterance the only problem with that is that 5350 and that's where I pick this up from fifty three fifty to utter a clear sound to proclaim to speak and when I look this up in two other tools it left me confused because two other outside of the Strong's to make a generic or unintelligible sound to speak in a way that is not understandable to the listener oh boy just curious some of you have the twenty-sixth translation just curious to see who said what there who done it you're looking at x2 for it just it's too easy to just read like a goony bird just read and so here in the 26 translations as the spirit prompted their utterances according as the Spirit gave them words to utter as the spirit enabled them to express themselves as the spirit granted them to utter divine things was given unto them to be sounding forth gave them power to proclaim his message am i reading in the right place yes and by the way if you read above that and began to speak with other tongues some say in foreign tongues and foreign languages and different tongues in different languages the most important thing here is this that when says the Spirit gave them utterance I happen to think that this word that I just read to you probably carries with it the meaning that I got out of two other reference books rather than the simple definition out of the Strongs and the reason why I say that is if you keep going down this trail you realize there must be a bifurcation in the meaning when we talk about glossa glossolalia there must be a bifurcation in the meaning I brought a dictionary which I'll read from shortly aren't you lucky says they were all filled with the Holy Ghost began to speak with other it that us other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance and this is what we tend to not read carefully and there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven now when this was noised abroad the multitude came together and were confounded because that every room every man heard them speak in his own language and they were all amazed and marveled saying to one another behold are not all these which speak I had to circle a few words they're not all these which speak it means there was a whole bunch of speaking going on Peter will get up later and he'll begin to speak and he becomes them the primary speaker to deliver the initial we'll call it the Pentecostal first preachment of the Gospel message but there are plenty of people there were 120 they all received and I used to make jokes about this you know people that say no women they don't receive any gifts they're just Eve silent well listen there's 120 including the women the Holy Spirit went duck-duck-goose not you but there were a lot of people speaking it was 120 in that Upper Room including women there was a lot of people speaking and what's so remarkable is what these people say not all these which speak galilaeans and how hear we every man in our own tongue let's just think about that for a minute because whatever they were saying they were not remember I just read this and to make a generic or unintelligible sound to speak in a way that is not understandable to the listener however that can't be the sole meaning of that word limited just to that because it says they understood what they were saying in their own tongue and there was no interpreter needed does that make sense to you now later on Paul's gonna talk about something that requires an interpreter patrol carry the meaning I have the definition I've given to this word to a T which would require someone to translate because it would not be understandable to the listener these men understood how is it possible now don't this is the thing that I think a lot of us we we get focused on the speakers and we forget in that very moment that as this event is taking place the listeners who are about to receive who are about to hear some of these their ears have been open prevenient lee at work God is doing behind the scenes before you know don't just think Peter is so great that he opened his mouth and I went that was great can I get one too it's two dynamics runner I said to you I mean I found a little you know receiving revelation all of these things are connected they're not it's not just a one-way this is why I get infuriated with people who say all you know whether they speak of me or they speak of dr. Scott for this because all this person can't preach they don't have they're not annoying and they don't know if you made it they have no and they start going on and think of missile maybe brother or sister the problem is you well that that that individual that preacher says dryest can be no I'm sorry what would you like them to be oily so here it's very clear there's there's two dynamics there is the preparation of those who are speaking and there's also the preparation of those who will receive and and this is a pattern throughout the book and of course some can receive and some cannot but you know we we tend to overlook the preparation of the hearing because we're only really focused on we'll look who they were speaking they were saying they were uttering something happened to activate two things how hear we every man in our own tongue when we were born it doesn't say what type of strange language is this they understood them my example of you know conversing with Dan in French word Dan because I assaulted him with my French I haven't spoken French in a long time well my point is it's not as though they required someone to sing that one did you understand what they were saying yeah I didn't understand where they said no they said we understand how here we in our own when we were born Parthians Medes Elamites dwellers in Mesopotamia Judea Cappadocia Pontus Asia Phrygia Pamphylia Egypt in parts of Libya out of Cyrene strangers of Rome Jews and proselytes Crete's and Arabians we do hear them speak in our tongues now all of these words for tongues same word the wonderful works of God they were all amazed and warned out saying one to another what meaneth this others mocking said these men are full of new wine are the mockers want you to hear ears weren't open you know you got sometimes read between the lines there's more an open this is a really tough subject because it has brought so much contention and all the sign seekers who would love to give you a one fits all definition of this word and it's not it's not easy the entry in this dictionary does do a little clarifying but the rest is gonna be for us to pick through the scriptures and identify and probably the most important thing I'm going to tell you and it's it has become so clear to me as I've studied and picked apart and gone back and gone back God gives gifts to people their gifts now just indulge me for my carnal example you are going to go buy a gift for your little niece or nephew it's a gift you are going now you may ask little Johnny or Jennifer what would you like but if you're not asking them and you're just going to say this is what they this is what they can really use it robot somebody gift and said that this is what they I know they'll really be able to use this right some it's something as simple as a pair of socks they really need socks then you new pair of shoes they'll really be able to use this but it's a gift you procured it you gave it now unless somebody's making a list and saying listen I've heard these are the things I want and there's no harm in asking but it's a gift this is the thing that is always boogered by all of these people out there who would like to tell you that this is something that absolutely unequivocally this is the mark or the sign no friend it's not the mark or the sign it's one of many of a diversity of gifts and there couldn't be any more clear explanation than how Paul sums it up we'll get there I'm just telling you right off the bat and I don't want people to think that I am anti glossolalia because i am not but i am pro sovereignty of god and the scripture clearly says that he the holy spirit distributes severally as he wills as he sees fit as he sees this child over here will really use this gift or needs this gift or i will bestow over here and not all are given the same gift they all come from the same spirit not all are given the same gift and you know if you want to challenge me on that i got i have enough repeated scripture to prove the point if it if this idea is crazy put it in line in a linear fashion some are called to the ministry to preach and to teach some are called to a ministry of helps some are called to serve and yet these can all be squished into one thing to say we are well serving in the same dimension but there is a breakdown they're not all the same they will come back ultimately to God God's Word God's house God's people but they're not the same many of people that come into the church and they think wrong I'm tired of listening to him or to her so I'm I'm gonna go start my own church I've told you this before unless God has truly given you a burden or you get called and don't want to be called don't look at me - has to be here I told you you what do you ask me 30 years ago what what my life is going to be 30 years from that time this was not my dream I thank God for the road and the pathway most importantly my life with dr. Scott and my exposure to what true godliness looks like not the hypocrisy and not all the other stuff but I certainly didn't ask for this I'm grateful for it all and I realized the honor that God has given me but didn't ask for it okay back into the dictionary theological dictionary of the New Testament under the entry of glossa and I think I might have missed a section here yep okay we have several subheadings here strict physiological meaning of tongue one organ of taste more particularly of speech that's the break down figuratively it can be used of the speaker second heading here speech a manner of speech third entry an expression which in speech or manner is strange and obscure and needs explanation it'll be the third hitter in our sub categories listed ok the use of glossa in the New Testament and it's background tongue especially as an organ of speech can be demonically bound can be the author of many sins that's out of James striking emphasis on sins of the tongue is characteristic of practical Jewish wisdom though we also meet with similar warnings and other ancient oriental traditions and they become a common place of ethical excitation in the Hellenistic period no one escapes the sins of the tongue though with the thought that no man becomes a sinner through the tongue there is further thought that the offender with the tongue gives rise to fresh evil okay let's jump down to figurative sense the tongue can be the subject of jubilation good and that right there's also a quote here from Acts to three there appeared unto them tongues as a fire which parted one which parted and one of which alighted on each of them that's the translation the tongue is an image for flame the reference is to the heavenly power of God descending on each of the disciples assembled on the day of Pentecost second heading language just given to mean many people this will be used strongly in Revelation so we're gonna Park that thought because it's not even part of the Lucan and acts focus which most of the words that we're looking at are Luke acts related third header this is the one everybody wants to know about glossolalia the particular phenomenon of the word lalanne which is the normal Greek word to speak in glossa or gloss gloss messiahs which we should link with LaLanne glasses kanae's knew of new tongues which they're quoting Matthew 16:17 which is the longer ending and the LaLanne interest glossa which is the other tongues of Acts 2 may be understood only in light of the vivid depiction first Corinthians 14 speaking with tongues like prophecy is a charisma spiritually affected speaking get this and I like this but it's not complete but it says here not to men but to God it makes perfect sense in the form of prayer possibly of praise and thanksgiving and possibly sung it's value is for the individual concerned rather than for the community as a whole in this inspired utterance the noose that is the mind is swallowed up so that mysterious words obscure both to the speaker and to the ears are spoken in the void there is an unarticulated sound as of an instrument played with no clear different ation of notes a different differentiation of notes which is why hold that thought for a minute ever wonder why it should be it should make sense now makes perfect sense though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels and have not love I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal what makes much more sense in light of what I just read yeah kind of thread these things together an impression is left of speaking in foreign languages the controlled use of tongues might thus make it appear that the community is an assembly of madmen yet tongues are a legitimate sign of overwhelming power there are various kinds that is maybe the most important part of this article because it agrees with the very thing that I tried to say at the beginning don't make this just one definition there are various kinds and that's the problem sort of the people who are completely Pentecostal charismatic they'll see there's just this one thing here that's it that's all that's all she wrote don't even try to go any further know there are various kinds and even in what I just read tongues of men in tongues of angels that should make it clear Paul's even referencing to in splitting them to make glossolalia serviceable to the community however either the speaker or another must be able to give an interpretation in Corinth therefore glossolalia is an unintelligible aesthetic utterance one of its forms of expression is the muttering of words or sounds without interconnection or meaning parallels mobit may be found for this phenomenon in various forms in various periods in places in religious history and the article goes on my point is and there's more the writer of this article goes on to talk about the language of the spirit technical expression for a particular language namely the language of the spirit of miraculous language which is used in heaven between God and the angels you know that begs another very interesting question what language is spoken in heaven if all people of all nations have received the gospel and they go to heaven what language are they speaking don't you hate that that will have to wait to find out but I have a feeling that the seeds of that are planted here in front of us anyway we're back in acts and I was reading and it dawned on me as I've been studying this that just even in the second chapter there is a division of things which need to be understood and the first is the act that main act that occurred the opening day that the day of the harvest of souls that begin to be in which the Spirit gave them utterance this utterance gave them the ability multiple speakers speaking to a diversity of people who could all understand no interpreter was needed stop right there the other thing that happened is that the spirit gave power for service pewter is now standing up to preach this is all about communication speaking and receiving and and this is also another interesting you keep going down the pipeline here each time it says that these were filled with the spirit for example and I go back to the reference about Cornelius and forgive me I have to do this it will even jar some of you to go back and reread and say yeah you're right here Cornelius his household is hearing the word it says that the Holy Ghost while Peter yet spake these words the Holy Ghost fell on all of them which heard the word for they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God they heard them speak with tongues does it does it say here at this moment simply says they heard them speak with tongues does it say that they were forbidden to do so because they needed an interpreter because there's something definitely different and dynamic going on between the act of these that received spoke with tongues and began to magnify God and says and they heard them speak with tongues and it doesn't say they forbade me don't don't speak unless somebody can interpret and we don't there is no there's nothing y'all said on this matter versus what was happening specifically at Corinth and that's why I'm saying it requires just going back and doing a little bit of probing I think maybe we've been a little bit sloppy and reading at times and think well you know you keep going you have the same similar I think actually it's before that event let's see here that's before then there are actually two other events similar verbage being used same thing is true with those who received forgive me for using the word they believed the preaching of Phillip they received the Holy Ghost by the laying hen laying on of hands of Peter and John there is no exact formula I have a library and in my library that I have whole shelf rights primarily charismatic and Pentecostal writers but there's in fact I'm thinking about a couple of Catholic writers Dunn James Dunn is one of those as Catholic writer who's got his own opinion and he's entitled to it and it's very scholarly but it's very Catholic there are people like the Plessy and I mean there's just G not Magee G Davis there's a green everybody's got none there's just endless you know speaking tongues they spoke with tongues you know men on fire I fired we need to approach this without thinking denomination without thinking cultural stamp on what we're told and we need to probe and dig at this and and hopefully at least in these instances what I do is I get you to go back and get you to go and reread something you've read many times and to reconsider perhaps that this is not as cookie-cutter as some people have tried to make you believe that this app this is they heard it they were they were slain in the spirit they were speaking in tongues they were rolling on the ground they were barking like dogs doesn't it say that chapter and verse right are passed away but our accountant who lived up in Orville he stood you know he'd come the husband wife would be up and down here every single week he'd be here for a few days and he'd go back home going he actually went to a church there in in Orville which was wacky wacky Church but he would tell fabulous stories then they really were fabulous stories I would sit sometimes and I would have to bite the inside of my cheek do not laugh because he'd be these fantastic stories of you know on this this brother came in and he he preached they preached the word and the house came down it was it was above above well okay this one particular brother I happen to hear preached one time and I cringed while he was preaching I actually I had white knuckle syndrome like I was in a plane that might be crashing but mine was fear that the Lord was gonna strike me dead for listening to what I was hearing because it was pretty bad it wasn't found it was complete like whoo I just remember watching this brother preach in the veins on the side of his neck it was really worked up in veins were just popping and his face was red he was very driven with his message but man made no sense and it wasn't scriptural at whatsoever and this is the same person that say oh yeah this brother preached the house down I have these people after they heard the preaching they were slain in the spirit no they were probably laying on the floor sick please no man don't hurt me I wasn't listening I was square but is to tell fabulous stories and how you know I think this people would be you know the favorite expression was slain in the spirit honey they're rolling on the ground they're laughing he was the same individual by the way that would instigate he'd want to get people to get every time he came with me wherever I was preaching he would instigate people to get up and do the Jericho March and people who do not want to get up they don't want to walk around the church to the music and by the way this man did not have rhythm either they didn't want to follow him and he would not let them stay seated now this isn't that the work of the spirit right there get up I said get up come on get up that's really the spirit working right but you might tell these incredible stories but all nuttiness not rooted in Scripture and I told you the reason for doing this is to clarify something order comes clarity comes and you'll find something astonishing every time that the word is preached by someone who's been called to preach from the book of Acts onward unity unity division will always come because it'll always be people who oppose but to those who are listening you'll find there's always this unified body of listeners and Paul even describes is keeping the bond the spirity spirit of unity the bond of the spending pieces are like bond the spirit of unity in terms of what the listeners are able to have which dovetails into what he talks about when he speaks of the fruit of the Spirit and he begins with love agape you tie all these things together and you realize that there's there's this wonderful operation that's been poured out which is exactly if you read the words that he's talking about from Joel when he says these men are not drunk as you suppose but this is that which was spoken of by the Prophet Joel God would pour out his spirit upon all flesh and it begins there and again people will probably go wow I can't believe you're saying this it begins there but if you read what Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost he's also talking about a time that has not yet happened because he's referencing the beginning of the time of the pouring out which began at Pentecost but he's also talking about the end of time when the moon and the Sun and elements that have not yet ceased to be as we know them and there's a whole thing that's being said by him there that even the people who are very dogmatic in their theology about what the spirit where the Spirit of God will be and where Christ will be and where all these diversities will be towards the consummation at the end of the age well if what Peter is referencing which was spoken of by the Prophet Joel the beginning is occurring on the day of Pentecost he's also saying a mouthful about what will happen up until the time that the moon and the stars and the Sun cease to be as we know them now and that my friends you can read that for yourself and I won't even go there tonight because that's a whole different subject but the subject I will continue on ok is the subject of the glossolalia just kind of open the door tonight to kind of make us see this is not just one one definition one stream of thought multiple things must be defined each passage not so much just Acts but looking at what goes on in Corinth will be extremely helpful to see that there are multiple things being said and if there's any one thing that I can tell you Paul says that he said I speak I speak in tongues more than you all but read on because he doesn't say and I encourage you to note that that's the mark he says there's a big however there he also says he'd rather speak a few words that are understood and known than many unknown so if if that's the seal of things and that's the stamp of things as some have promulgated then we have a problem but that's not exactly what the scripture says so I wish to keep going on this to make it clear get rid of some traditions I do not want to be saddled with I'm looking for the truth that's my quest I'm not looking to have somebody else's traditions in somebody else's ways I'm looking for what's in here and that doesn't mean that I live some perfect life and I walk on the straight now I'm just looking for the truth and if you're interested in journeying along with me then keep tuning in get on the telephone [Music] [Music]

Channel: Pastor Melissa Scott, Ph.D.

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Keywords: Speaking in Tongues, Multiple Meanings of Glossolalia, Glossolalia, Acts 2, holy ghost, holy spirit, new testament, the baptism of christ’s suffering, the foundation of the baptisms, the person of the holy spirit, bible, christian, eugene scott, faith, faith center, faith center glendale, god, jesus, melissa, melissa scott, pastor melissa, pastor melissa scott, pastor melissa scott exposed the truth, pastor melissa scott phd, the bible, understand the bible, understanding the bible

Id: qPScusxK97E

Length: 54min 6sec (3246 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 23 2018