"The Theological Issue of Speaking in Tongues" sermon by Dr. Bob Utley

I really believe that the Bible is the trustworthy authoritative Word of God I believe you share that with me amen I also believe that we must interpret the Bible in light of its original setting and its original author's intent and not in light of developed denominational traditions now that view has caused me the miseries none of us approach the subjects like I've dealt with the last couple of times without being unaffected none of us are neutral interpreters of the Bible we all bring personal baggage of different kinds we cannot get away from that but we must allow the scripture to have priority over our personal preferences and denominational traditions we must allow the Bible to speak before our systematic theology or our historical positions on subjects Crush inspired text because of something we do or don't do that has developed historically I do not approach these subjects with an attitude that I know I'm smart enough to know I don't but I do approach these subjects as an opportunity as an interim pastor to talk about subjects that probably a pastor is not going to touch if he's smart my approach has basically been that I want to affirm Scripture and I want to share my understanding I want to challenge you and ask you the question why do you believe what you believe in this area and get you to rethink now the purpose of me rethinking please listen here you're going to go to sleep wait five minutes the purpose here is not to radically change what you do our Baptist tradition the purpose is to get you to think through what you believe and really allow the Bible to be authoritative now the problem is that's extremely uncomfortable position because most of us know what we believe without reading the Bible and it comes from years of hearing sermons and years of denominational Sunday School literature and years of mama telling you what's right or wrong and without even knowing it as the Jews did with the oral tradition around the Old Testament Scriptures we begin to mold our traditions in such a way is to protect us from the radical nature of the inspiration of Scripture now I want to discuss and as you know I've been in I wanted I've got something there's a flood of ideas going through my mind I told Peggy I I'm nervous about this because I I want to present this logically so another human being can analyze it not in a desire for you to agree with me but a desire to lay it out clearly so I hope you'll pray for me that I'll be able to do that I try to model in the way I preach the methodology of Bible interpretation that I've been presenting to you on the Sunday night seminars and that is that we must interpret the Bible in context in historical context in literary context examine what the author said and who they said it to so for the last few weeks I've been in a literary context in what I think is a most challenging book the book of 1st Corinthians a book to a troubled church a book to a church that was doing it quote in more Greek ways than it was in the Hebraic ways a book that was written to a group that were proud about their differences from the other churches of Paul and Paul addresses them under several issues and I mentioned last time there are several question this church asked Paul that are usually introduced by the little phrase in English now concerning now concerning spiritual gifts now concerning it up so Paul is answering questions and then trying to bring some order to a church that had gotten rather out of order and the literary context from chapter 11 and chapter 14 basically deals with public worship and I mentioned to you when I dealt with women in God's service last week that we're unsure of the relationship between the Lord's Supper in Chapter 11 and the house churches that are obviously in Corinth from the different factions of I like Paul I like Apollo's I like Peter and possibly even one that said I like Christ so we got house churches flaunting different leaders but we're having some kind of gathered worship service where all the churches coming together and in that setting the issue of women come up that's what I wanted to deal with last time the difference between 11 5 and 14 34 now I want to come back and bring it down a little more narrowly into 12 through 14 which is basically the most definitive passage on spiritual gifts a next week I plan on preaching about spiritual gifts and I hope you will pray for me today I have picked what I think is one of the most controversial issues out of that to deal with it separately and I want to deal with the issue of tongues speaking in tongues now I am an Old Testament professor and I and that's been a blessing for me as I've approached and tried to interpret the New Testament because the New Testament is the only Bible that Jesus and the Apostles had as I look at this issue that's happening in Corinth my mind says there's a wider context than this that must be dealt with I believe that this whole thing starts back in the Tower of Babel in Genesis 10 and 11 we're human beings asserting their independence from God after the fall in Genesis 3 when God said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth human beings say we're staying together and we're going to build a city and we're not moving out from here and in the midst of that God confuses their languages which we know is the as he gave languages to different ones a bit now originally that of course was a judgment on human independence but as often happens with the judgment of God it turns into a blessing because I want to say to you the nationalism that I see in the world today I'm an American I'm an Israeli I'm the Chilean whatever nation you're from there's a loyalty that goes with that and what that is done God dividing the languages has caused us to resist this modern logical movement toward a one world government and one world control of the limited resources of this planet and if you're familiar with eschatology a one-world government I think is the last prophetic tick on the clock of second Thessalonians chapter 2 I think that when you see that now there is some static utterances in the Old Testament connected with the Guild of the prophets I always get tickled when Saul the first anointed king of Israel gets among the prophets I just love this text because when you preach on this in college kids start listening for the first time where it says and Saul took off all his closed and prophesied all day but you can get a bad sunburn prophesying naked all day with the prophets now that's a pretty wild group and these prophetic gilze but that really is that kind of passes away with the coming of the individual prophets but that is a part of the Old Testament the Samuel Kings experience as I come to the New Testament there is a watershed moment that we know is Pentecost Acts chapter two I want to quickly share my understanding of the relationship between Acts chapter 2 and the tongues of Corinth because and this is where I hope to spark some of your interest and I know many of you are theologically trained and I hope that this gives you some fodder to think through this maybe in a new way maybe not as I look at the Pentecost experience what that basically is as an emphasis primarily on the sound of the coming of the wind it's not the force of the wind it's not even the manifestation of a you know five flame that goes to every individual which by the way shows the significant of each individual the hundred and twenty of the upper room men and women together and then somehow the text does not say it they must have moved from the enclosure of the upper room because many people the the proselyte Jews from the Diaspora all across the Mediterranean world came and were there because of the Book of Leviticus demands that all male Jews who can attend the three annual major feast days so the world of proselyte Judaism was there it must have been a a setting and Dallas there was this wonderful painting of this Pentecostal experience that if you ever saw it put it in the temple and that probably is where it was at this point though I think it started in the Upper Room now here we have some kind of manifestation of the spirit that is of sound and of sight and of of the lips and suddenly these people from all over what the Jews would basically call the known world they begin to hear the gospel of the wonderful things of God in their own languages now does that mean that every one of these hundred and twenty we're speaking in a different language the same time I would submit to you if we got even a much smaller number than that they just say twenty people up here and each one we're speaking a different language instead of clarity there would be confusion because of the mixing together of the sounds I personally believe that the tongues of Acts was a miracle not of the lip but of the ear they all heard the wonderful things of God in their own language which makes much more sense to me but what really is important is not that tongues are a known language in Acts but that tongues are a sign not to the unbeliever accept that initial sermon not a sign to the unbeliever but a sign primarily as we continue in Acts every time a new barrier a new geographical barrier a new racial barrier a new a barrier against hostile he's like plug the Samaritans every time that barrier is cracked by the gospel the appearance of the same manifestation that occurs at Pentecost reoccurs it occurs in the Samaritans it reoccurs with the Roman army officer Cornelius even when the Acts council and they're questioning this they they come back and say God accepted them he gave them the spirit how could we not accept them to God is no respecter of persons the whole point being that the manifestation of tongues and acts was God's Way of telling believing Jews that God had accepted a new group so I would not say that the acts experience is necessarily like the experience at Corinth as I look at the experience at Corinth from biblical text it is far more similar to the Greek Oracle's like Delphi where usually a woman not always but vast majority case a woman would speak in utterances human sounds and another priest there would interpret those sounds for the people who were present now it looks to me that the tongues in acts think of me for a minute just think of me I'm gonna get back in the Bible in just a second if the tongues in act were known languages Corinth being a Roman city on the Greek Peninsula we're really the eastern and western Empire met with trade somebody in that port city could speak that language I mean there were people from all over the world in Corinth there was somebody who could translate that language if it was a known language but if you recognize in the Bible we do not need a translator we need a companion gift of interpretation not a translator a companion gift and the person who speaks in tongues does not understand what they're saying without the translator and the church doesn't understand what they're saying without a translator and a translator is as much a supernatural gift as is speaking in tongues so I think that the gift of tongues though the Greek word is spelled exactly the way I think it is a different experience one relates to the Palestinian situation and one relates to the Greek situation now you can certainly disagree and in this area nobody disagrees my mother disagrees with me so get over it I'm more what I get you to think about another possibility than I do of you thinking well this thing is solved now but because I travel the world a lot doing evangelism and because I know in South America in Baptist circles the greatest threat they feel is from the Pentecostal church it is almost a it is almost a tangible fear among Baptist churches in South America but as I have gone to churches the one that sticks in my mind is Norway where the Baptist pastor there who is now the leader the national leader of all Baptists in Norway in his church service the women deacon all spoke in tongues at the end of every service now I'm a young man who did not grow up in a Baptist Church because I ran from the Lord from the time I was called at 12 until I find his friend to preach around 21 I did not grow up in a denominational tradition because for my mission trips I have met such wonderful Baptists who don't disagree on these things it threw me into some kind of crisis mode what do I believe who do I believe there's so many voices even within one denomination even within a church even within a family that cometh these are these all these issues so dogmatically that he became in my life a real important issue for me to try to allow the Bible to interpret itself to be able to explain to others what I believe and to allow others the freedom to search this out and pray for it and walk in the light they have I guess what offends me more is not somebody's understanding of this or that but the absolute error dogmatism a judgmentalism that comes among christians as if you're the only one that ever thought about this and the way you do it or your tradition does it or your family does it becomes a cry teria for you to judge everybody else by that's really what I'm trying to get at today I have had my feelings hurt really bad by charismatic sand I love them I've told you I'd rather be in a car with a charismatic than a pickle sucking Baptist any day of the week give me a charismatic but the arrogance that comes for them is overwhelming to me I remember sitting in a meeting with a James Robison crusade was going to be in Lubbock and they were having a pre meeting and I went I was gonna support that did a lady was talking to me so friendly she was who you know and and she where do you go to church and I told her and she wouldn't talk to me anymore would even look at me now see there's a group and it's several groups they've said speaking in tongues is the evidence of salvation and the evidence of spiritual maturity there is another group the group that I've grown up with that spiritual gifts accept preaching and giving give them a rash and we don't do it in our worship services and then we start thinking nobody else should do it because obviously we're close to God and we don't do it so they must shouldn't to to ditches to overstatements everybody should nobody should now how do you approach this in a biblical way what would you do is make everybody mad because everybody is in one of these two camps it almost seems like balance Christianity is almost out of style among God's dogmatic denominationally indoctrinated arrogant judgmental modern Western Christians not you but the Baptist in California so I would like to take just a moment to say is there any biblical evidence that tongues are not for everybody I think there is biblical evidence I'd like for you to open your Bibles with me if you're going to argue with me just look at the text interpret the text check out the text would you turn to the I think definitive passage on spiritual gifts with first Corinthians 12 I want to go to Paul's summation beginning in verse 29 and 30 I know that there are many of you here both from Criswell and Dallas and Southwestern who know Koine Greek so I ask you if you feel like that I have misinterpreted this complete please don't pop up and say you big fool without always embarrassing me just come see me afterwards would you in verse 29 and 30 and karne Greek there is a way to show there's a question there is also a way by the particle used to show if the author expects a yes answer or a no answer every one of these questions in verse 29 and 30 have the may particle which means the author expects a no answer and they should be translated like this not all our prophets are they know not all are assuming all other apostles are they know not all our prophets are they know not all our teachers are they know not all our workers of miracles are they know not do all have the gift of healing do they know all do not speak with tongues do they know all do not interpret do they know now why doesn't that solve it it doesn't solve it because human traditions become more important than inspired texts and what we become comfortable with in our families and churches override and Trump our affirmation that the Bible is the only source for faith and practice we say with our mouth I believe the Bible but we'll kill each other over Mother's precondition denominational thoughts my mother gave me Jesus Christ and every bias she had took me two decades work through my mother's biases and then I got my own and got out of them yet I would assert to you that speaking in tongues is a valid spiritual gift it is the focus on the individual it is a gift that helps the individual have intimate fellowship with God is not a communication tool unless it's linked with the interpretive gift I do not believe it's for everybody but it certainly is for some and after this service some of you will come up to me privately and say I speak in tongues and I'm thrilled to death for you I really am thrilled to death for you now if you're a Sunday school teacher and you're going to make everybody in your class speak in tongues then we're going to have a fight because of this text right here it's the agenda driven stuff that drives me nuts I can still remember Peggy Nile is going to be licensed as a Baptist minister first babbys Bel Air I was still I wasn't married I was engaged Peggy and I went to a charismatic healing service in Pasadena Texas that's clear across Houston that's dangerous we went there the night before the lady's name was Gertrude hi sir I don't know if you know her not she's a pretty well-known years ago faith healer well Peggy and I had never been in a church they speak in tongues a lot of people were speaking in tongues falling on the floor we went holy moly it was a businessmen's meeting kind of thing well I have always had a heart for God I'll follow God and here it takes everything of my life and I went down front I told that lady said I'm being licensed a Baptist preacher tomorrow I had no traditions I ran through all those years from God and I said I want you to pray for me whatever God has for me I want to do it I am so she prayed for me absolutely nothing happened to me I was so disappointed I'm so glad as I look back on that a time in my life when I had not already been indoctrinated by Bab to disbelief in this that I was open for God to do something if he wanted to and that wasn't his will for my life I'm a teacher I guess when Paul and first Corinthians 14 says I speak in tongues more than any of you I wish all of you spoke in tongues Paul says now he says that because he wants to depreciate the use of tongues in public worship without an interpreter but he says that it's been amazing to me what Baptists are willing to do to spiritual inspired text to get around them because they don't do it often kid people get one I haven't I'm not going to deal with this unless the Lord tells me but this deal about deacons husband of one wife you know it always amazes me that Paul and Jesus can't be a deacon if you're a literalist think about it you got to be the husband of one wife to be a deacon and you're single what do you do punt hire one how much of our assumed theological way of doing church have we got either from proof texting small amount of text and not thinking through the rest of Scripture are doing things that have nothing to do with Scripture but we've grown up in a tradition that doesn't I mean if Paul says this is what I I am a radical devil you know that I know that just get over it I won't be here forever so show me why you can and cuss and pray when I leave I tell Baptist college students why are you a Baptist Jesus can't be a bad because he drinks wine Paul can't be a Baptist because he speaks in tongues why in the world do you want to be a Baptist if Jesus and Paul can't join who are you that's paying for question oh well and here come the nuances and here come the connotations and here comes a theological sleight of hand whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo and then suddenly what my mother said becomes better than what Paul said something Nashville said becomes more significant scripture said I'm not trying to get you to change and start speaking in tongues that is not the issue at all the issue is have you ever looked at the Bible to inform your arrogant dogmatic denominational traditions that's the question we'll be a whole lot happier and loving earth it's not a word but I like it if we just had the humility of some of the ambiguity of Scripture itself where Paul is willing to work with weak Christians and strong Christians and we're not willing to work with anybody that disagrees with us we almost think and I hope you don't that what I believe is what God believes oh please don't take me to lunch because I don't want to go with you so you're the standard huh so your theology is the criteria by which we judge every other person who claims to know Christ yuck last week my spirit just boiled over as I tried to say to you I'm trying to make you think not make you agree as we love is Baptists first Corinthians 14:34 about women being silent the church now we said oh that's a biggie pull that out write it and read five verses below it is a verse we never talk about because it goes against what we think Paul says therefore my brethren earnestly desire to prophesy which in Corinthian context seems to mean communicate the gospel where they're privately publicly teaching preaching sharing and do not forbid to speak in tongues I don't know why some churches do and some churches don't I don't know why the the gifts are not manifested as dynamically today as they were then I often think to myself if I or any other evangelio preacher went to one Hospital in one city and raised somebody from the dead that get a hearing for the gospel but God has chosen not to do that it almost seems like them that God knows that our society has the gospel on every corner and every media and presented over and over and I think God knows that just the manifestation of some of this power would would bring a revival and I'm praying he'll do it I hope you're praying you'll do it I talked to missionaries it is not surprising at all that these gifts are far more manifested in places where the word has never been heard that God confirms the vitality and validity of his word by these miraculous power gifts I do not know why they're not with us more today but my commitment is above all other commitments this is a hill I will die on that the Bible is the authoritative inspired Word of God and it is the only source for faith and practice now if you say amen to that you've got to rethink a lot that you've heard and been given and I guess what I'm pleading to you about is not that we agree about tongues our next week on spiritual gifts with it that we are really ready and prayerfully available to allow scripture to speak to us not little pieces that fit but we have always heard but context historical literary to try to let all the Bible speak and not one verse or one part or one denomination you say well what kind of invitation could you give to this well I pray it nobody speaks in tongues right now because I'll never get an interim pastor it again and Bab his life but I can't control the Spirit of God nor do I want to I want to let him loose Holy Spirit be loose be loose on us be loose on our world Holy Spirit have freedom among your people to draw people to yourself and mold them into the image and likeness of Christ Holy Spirit I pray that your people would turn back to your book and not to their traditions they would love one another not because we agree but because we're your children I pray for the unity of the early church I pray for the reality of inspired text and I pray for love among the Brethren and I pray it in Jesus name in English you

Channel: Free Bible Commentary

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Keywords: bible, bible study, bible commentary, hermeneutics, historical-grammatical, new testament, bob utley, lakeside

Id: bpvl9gH9oTw

Length: 29min 34sec (1774 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 12 2014