1 Corinthians 12: 7 But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for what is profitable. 8 For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; 9 to someone else faith [d]by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of [e]healing [f]by the one Spirit, 10 and to another the workings of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the [g]distinguishing of spirits, to someone else various kinds of tongues, and to another the [h]translation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it. 28 And God has [o]appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then [p]miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. 29 Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Are all workers of [q]miracles? 30 Do all have gifts of healings? Do all speak with tongues? Do all [r]translate? 31 But [s]you earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I will yet show you a more excellent way.
Well, today we continue with our study of the spiritual gifts. And I want to keep reminding you of the reason for our studying the gifts. Every believer has a spiritual gift. And that spiritual gift is their responsibility, put in their care, a part of their stewardship, while they are given life in this world. And that is a huge responsibility. Why? Well, it is not a huge responsibility simply because God gave you something and it is only right to use it. It is a huge responsibility because of Jesus Christ.
Think of this; Jesus Christ was the perfect expression of every spiritual gift. Think about it. The gift of pastor/teacher. Who was or is a better pastor/teacher or shepherd than Christ. He is the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. The gift of service. Who has served better than Christ. He became a servant to the whole world. The gift of distinguishing of spirits. Who was better able to tell a good spirit from an evil one? No one. Jesus was the perfect expression of all the spiritual gifts. But guess what, He is no longer physically with us. Do you know what Paul said?
Ephesians 4: 15 but [b]speaking the truth in love, [c]we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being joined and held together [d]by what every joint supplies, according to the properly measured working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Guess what? Christ is the head of the church. That means that we are the body of Christ. And that means that all those spiritual gifts that He did so well are now being lived out through His body, the church. In other words, He left His body in the world, to do what He was doing while He was in the world. We are Christ in the world. And that is a huge responsibility. You are left to do Christ’s work in the world. So, I just wanted to emphasize that importance again today in case you might say, “My gifts aren’t important.” They are vastly important.
prayer
So, if you have that list of gifts in front of you, last week we began looking at the sign gifts; healing, miracles, tongues, and the interpretation of tongues. And I started by grouping together healing and miracles. The definition of healing is given as instantaneous curing of sickness or physical deficiency. Miracles are defined as “powers.” They are acts that manifest supernatural power in the world. They could be casting out demons, power over nature, or multiplying food.
And what we discovered last week as we opened Scripture, is that healing and miracles have been gifts given at different times in the history of the world. During the time of Moses and Joshua there was a span of years where God plagued Egypt, parted the Red Sea, feed the nation of Israel daily with manna, gave water from a rock, guided the nation with a cloud by day, and a pillar of fire by night. But after Moses death, the miraculous began to fade. And after Joshua’s death it was all but gone. God still did miracles, but He did so according to the standard for normal life on this planet. He did so in response to prayer, and according to His will or choice, meaning that He did the miraculous sparingly.
Then later in history, about 500 years later there is another miraculous time period. We found that when God had a new revelation to give, that He accompanied it with the miraculous. This was the time of the prophets represented by Elijah and Elisha. During their lives, God held back rain in Israel for 3 years, He raised the dead, healed leprosy, saved an army from thirst, parted the Jordan river twice, and Elijah was taken up to heaven in a fiery chariot. But after Elisha died, the miraculous faded. God then did miraculous things in response to prayer and according to His will. There were no more people gifted as miracle workers.
So, then we came to the time of Christ, over 800 years later. Of course, during the ministry of Jesus and His disciples, we have an explosion of the miraculous. We had miracle workers walking the world. And I don’t use that term lightly. You see, Jesus and His disciples, and a handful of others were unique in their miracle working power. We get the impression from Scripture that they performed miracles according to their own wills. Listen to a couple of verses.
Mark 7: 31 And again He went out from the region of Tyre, and came through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, within the region of the Decapolis. 32 And they *brought to Him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty, and they *pleaded with Him to lay His hand on him. 33 And Jesus took him aside from the crowd, by himself, and put His fingers into his ears, and after spitting, He touched his tongue; 34 and looking up to heaven with a sigh, He *said to him, “Ephphatha!” that is, “Be opened!” 35 And his ears were opened, and the [o]impediment of his tongue [p]was removed, and he began speaking plainly.
A man is brought to Jesus, they asked that he be healed, Jesus heals him. This is the pattern. Jesus even healed people who were faithless who didn’t even know Him.
Luke 7: 11 And it happened that soon afterwards He went to a city called Nain, and His disciples were going along with Him, [g]accompanied by a large crowd. 12 Now as He approached the gate of the city, behold, [h]a dead man was being carried out, the [i]only son of his mother, and she was a widow. And a sizeable crowd from the city was with her. 13 And when the Lord saw her, He felt compassion for her and said to her, “Do not cry.” 14 And He came up and touched the coffin, and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, “Young man, I say to you, arise!” 15 And the [j]dead man sat up and began to speak. And Jesus gave him back to his mother.
And we get the same sense from the early years of the apostles.
Acts 5: 12 Now [d]at the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were happening among the people,
15 to such an extent that they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, so that when Peter came by at least his shadow might fall on any one of them. 16 Also the multitude from the cities in the vicinity of Jerusalem were coming together, bringing people who were sick [e]or afflicted with unclean spirits, and they were all being healed.
So, once again, we have a time of miracle workers. And I made note last time that just as the miracles began to fade after Moses, and Elisha, so after Jesus’ ascension and the early years of the apostles, the miracles began to fade. After the death of the apostles, we have historical accounts that there were miracles and healings, but no evidence that they were by the hands of single individuals who could minister them at will.
So that leads us to the final question about miracles and healing. We’ve looked at Scripture, we’ve looked at history, now let’s ask a question about our own experience. Are there any gifted miracle working individuals today?
Let’s focus in on healing, since that is the area that most pay attention to. Are there any healers today? Again, remember that we not asking whether God heals today. He does. But what about these supposed healers? I am familiar with a few names from my lifetime who claimed to have the gift of healing. I did a search online. “Christian healers today.”
https://churchgrowthmovement.org/worldwideministries/
“Top Healing Evangelists in the World”
Here’s the list; Benny Hinn, Reinhard Bonke, Nathan Morris, Dag-Heward Mills, Dr. LaDonna C. Osborne, Carlos AnnaCondia, Chris Oyakhilome, Robert Kayanja, Rony Tan, Joel Hitchcock.
Now, we could spend a great deal of time on each person on this list, but here’s a summary of what I found in common with many of these individuals
1. I hadn’t heard of most of them. And that told me something about their supposed healing ministries.
2. Their healings typically only happen in stadium settings. They are not going from city to city visiting the hospitals and nursing facilities.
3. I looked each of them up. And I never found a list of healings. Drop down menu of testimonials. In fact, let me read a bio concerning one individual.
Nathan Morris
“Shake The Nations was launched in 2006, as the Evangelistic Ministry of Nathan Morris. Nathan, who is the Founder and President of Shake The Nations Ministries, became a Christian in 2002 when he had a powerful salvation experience. Since this time, Nathan has been passionately pursuing his call of seeing multitudes reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ all over the world. Since the ministry’s conception in 2006, Shake The Nations has had the privilege of preaching to many thousands of people at large Gospel crusades across the nations of the world. Initial Gospel crusades were held in remote areas of Africa and India. In these crusades, the Shake The Nations team witnessed over 100,000 Muslims and Hindus convert to Christianity. Also, many documented healings took place, with the blind, deaf and crippled all testifying to their healing.”
But I couldn’t find anywhere on or off of his website that described or listed the healings. You would think that there’d be at least one page dedicated to selfies with people who had been healed, since this guy is touted as one of the “Top Healing Evangelists in the world.” I searched his website, I searched other websites about him. What I did find on his website, along with many of the others, were several prominent places where you can give money to the ministry. There’s a prominent “give” button in the top right-hand corner, there’s a donate link, and an interesting “prayer team payment” link. I went there, and apparently for an application fee of $50 dollars and a payment of $700 you can join their prayer team. There was also a snazzy merchandise page where you can buy hoodies, shirts, cups, hats and books. But no list of healings. And that is what I found, or didn’t find, with every person on that list.
That gets me to another common characteristic among these healers.
4. They are all getting very wealthy plying their trade.
5. Many are in trouble because of inappropriate or illegal financial practices.
6. There is evidence of faked healings.
7. There is evidence of false doctrine.
8. In my opinion their ministries are very egocentric.
Now, to be completely above board, I am just making general observations about this group. I did not do a comprehensive or extensive study of each one. There have been some who have investigated certain individuals in the healing business. That is where I got the information, I shared last week that at these healing crusades, the really sick are not invited up to be healed. “the quadriplegics, the brain-damaged, virtually anyone with a visibly obvious physical condition—are never allowed up on stage; those who attempt to get in the line of possible healings are intercepted and directed to return to their seats.”
That quote comes from an April 2001, HBO aired a documentary entitled A Question of Miracles that focused on Benny Hinn and a well-documented fellow Word-of-Faith German minister based in Africa, Reinhard Bonnke.[27] Both Hinn and Bonnke offered full access to their events to the documentary crew, and the documentary team followed seven cases of "miracle healings" from Hinn's crusade over the next year. The film's director, Antony Thomas, told CNN's Kyra Phillips that they did not find any cases where people were actually healed by Hinn.[28] Thomas said in a New York Times interview that "If I had seen miracles [from Hinn's ministry], I would have been happy to trumpet it... but in retrospect, I think they do more damage to Christianity than the most committed atheist."
So, how do we summarize the giving of the gifts of miracles and healings? Well, as far as Scripture is concerned, the last recorded miracle happened around AD 58 with the healing of Publius’ father. (Acts 28:7-10) From that time to AD 96 when John finished the book of Revelation, there is no record of any miracle in Scripture. So, the evidence points to one thing; the evidence of Scripture, history, and experience points to the truth that God gives the gifts of healing and miracle working to individuals at specific times in history when He is revealing something new. And then, after the message is established and codified, written in Scripture, the miracles fade.
So, what about the other two sign gifts? Tongues and the interpretation of tongues.
I. Tongues and interpretation
We are going to follow a similar outline for this discussion as we did for miracles and healing. First, we need to define tongues and their interpretation. Then we need to look at their usage in Scripture. Then we need to consider if they have shown up in history. And finally, we need to look at their usage today.
A. What are tongues and their interpretation?
I wrote a definition for tongues on the sheet I handed out. “Speaking in a known language that you did not know previously.”
the literal meaning of the Greek term “glossa” is "languages."
So, from the start, that is what we are talking about. They were known languages that some were supernaturally empowered to speak, as a sign that the message spoken was from God. Of course, the best example from Scripture is the first time tongues were spoken in the New Testament. It is shortly after Jesus’ ascension, and the disciples are waiting to receive the gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit. And that gift came in a very dramatic way. The 12 were praying, and there appeared tongues of fire over their heads, there was the sound of a “rushing mighty wind.” These followers of Christ left the room they were in, and went outside beginning to preach the gospel to who ever would hear. But they didn’t just preach normally. Acts 2 says this,
Acts 2: 5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own [g]language. 7 So they were astounded and marveling, saying, “Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we each hear them in our own [h]language in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and [i]Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the district of Libya around Cyrene, and [j]visitors from Rome, both Jews and [k]proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”
So, it is obvious from this passage that the languages being spoken were known languages.
Now, some contend today that there is a second kind of tongues: angelic languages. Where do they get that? Remember that in 1st Corinthians Paul was dealing with the church in Corinth that had many problems. They were abusing each other, and they were abusing God’s gifts. They had elevated the gift of tongues above all the other gifts. So, Paul writes chapter 13, the famous love chapter, to tell them that love is the most important thing.
1 Corinthians 13:1 If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body [a]to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
Paul mentions speaking with the tongues of men and angels. But you need to know that there are two major camps regarding how to interpret this. The first camp says that some people were and are given the gift of speaking in a heavenly language that is different than any earthly language. The second camp says that Paul is using exaggeration to make a point here. He is chastising the Corinthian believers for their lack of love for each other. They are so caught up in their own gifts, and their own world, that they are self-centered. So, Paul is making a point by exaggeration. He is saying, “I don’t care how gifted you are. Even if you were able to speak with every language of men, and the language of the angels, if you don’t have love, you are like a cow bell, a noisy gong, a clanging cymbal. In other words, you are just making a lot of noise.
He is exaggerating. Listen to his next statement. “Even if you have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and knowledge. You’ve got prophecy to the max. Or if you’ve got faith to the max, and you have so much faith that you can move mountains by your faith, if you have the gift of service to the max, you give away all your possessions, and go to my death, burning at the stake for the name of Christ, if you don’t have love, you’ve gained nothing.
I think the context of this passage is best understood as speaking of “angelic languages” as exaggeration.
So, in defining tongues, the best answer from Scripture is that the languages are known languages of people.
But, even if we allow for languages of angels, Paul did something else in 1st Corinthians that was designed to bring order and cooperation to the Corinthian assembly. Listen to the rules he establishes in chapter 14.
1. If you want to seek a particular gift, seek one that edifies others.
14: Pursue love, yet earnestly desire spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. 2 For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God
4 One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church. 5 But I wish that you all spoke in tongues, but even more that you would prophesy. And greater is one who prophesies than one who speaks in tongues,
19 however, in the church I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others also, rather than ten thousand words in a tongue.
Tongues isn’t even on the top end of the list of gifts you ought to desire. You should desire gifts that will build others up. Today, many who speak in tongues claim that they are speaking an angelic language, and most of the time when they speak it, it is to themselves, it is not to give a message to anyone else, it is to energize themselves.
2. Tongues are for a sign to the unbelieving world, so if they are not understood, they cease to be a sign, because they don’t prove anything.
22 So then tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophecy is for a sign not to unbelievers but to those who believe. 23 Therefore if the whole church assembles together and all speak in tongues, and [l]uninformed men or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your mind? 24 But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an [m]uninformed man enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all; 25 the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that surely God is among you.
This passage states that the purpose for tongues was to be a supernatural sign that the message being spoken was from God. And we can understand that if it is a known language. But if it is just babble, if the unbeliever can’t understand what is being spoken, it loses its purpose. It is no longer a supernatural sign.
3. If tongues are spoken in a service, it should only be two or three people.
26 What is the outcome then, brothers? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has a [n]translation. Let all things be done for edification. 27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three,
This one has been specifically violated because everybody says they are speaking an angelic language, and it is for self-edification. I’ve been to a couple of services where multiple people across an assembly are speaking in tongues, all at the same time. They are not following Paul’s instructions.
4. They should speak one at a time. Take turns.
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn,
And most importantly
5. Paul established the rule that there be an interpreter.
27 If anyone speaks in a tongue, it should be by two or at the most three, and each in turn, and one must [o]translate; 28 but if there is no [p]translator, he must keep silent in the church, and let him speak to himself and to God.
What was the point of all of these rules? To bring order out of the chaos that was happening in the Corinthian church. Their church services just looked like chaos. And they were calling it the work of the Holy Spirit.
33 for God is not a God of confusion but of [q]peace, as in all the churches of the saints.
So, that is the gift of languages. Now, be patient with me. We haven’t even touched the question as to whether it is a gift still given today. But before we get there, we need to define the last of the sign gifts; interpretation of tongues or languages.
What about interpretation of tongues? I’ve not heard this addressed extensively. Every time I’ve ever read a study, or listened to a sermon on these gifts, the lion’s share of time is spent on tongues, and interpretation is just lightly touched, and then we have the closing prayer. But the question that I have, is probably the same question you have. How did the gift of interpreting tongues work? Was there one guy in each church who had the gift? Or did someone speak in tongues, then some random persons stand up and interpret? And, if these are known languages, how did you know for sure if the interpretation was correct? Were there people there who spoke the language that the tongues speaker spoke, and so confirmed that he actually said what the interpreter said he said? Does that make them the interpreters?
Before I go further, let me say something. I do not say the things that I say about tongues with any animosity toward believers in charismatic churches. I believe there are genuine believers in many charismatic churches. But we differ on our interpretation of Scripture. Now, I believe I have been faithful in correctly handling the Word of God. That doesn’t mean I have any ill will toward those brothers and sisters. I say this because in looking at the gift of interpreting tongues we have to come to a definition of it. And I think most of us struggle with a definition of this gift because of our experiences.
I think we struggle with these questions because, as I’ll get into later, I believe these gifts have ceased. So, if they have ceased, none of us have experienced how they were exercised in the 1st century church. All we know is what we have experienced in modern charismatic churches. Where have I experienced someone speaking in tongues? In some charismatic service. Now, I have to say that my experience is very limited. But this is what I have seen.
Usually, the speaking of tongues, that I have heard, has been during a charismatic worship service. And, from my experience, none of Paul’s rules were followed. In those contexts, it seemed like people just spoke in tongues at random times, not just two or three people, often multiple people across an assembly, and mostly without interpretation. I’ve heard preachers speak in tongues during their sermon, and if there was an interpreter, it was the preacher himself. I remember one time that there was an attempt at providing an interpretation, and the interpretation seemed to just be an off-handed remark. “God says that we are all blessed.”
In other words, in my experience, the modern exercise of what is called tongues, has lost the one thing that made it a sign gift in the 1st century. It was a sign that God had given a supernatural message to someone. And how could I say for sure that that person speaking in tongues had received a message from God? Because they spoke in a known language that they didn’t previously know. And the interpretation was validated by people who interpreted, and others who knew the language.
That’s why I think we also need to define the gift of the interpretation of tongues. If we begin with the Scriptural command that the tongues had to be interpreted, that they were known languages, and that there was someone who was known to be gifted as an interpreter, I think we get a good picture of what was supposed to happen in these early church settings.
First, remember that in these first churches, they didn’t have the New Testament yet. So, any word that they got from anyone could only be confirmed as from God if it agreed with O.T. Scripture, and if it agreed with the oral witness of the apostles, or if it was a word in tongues that was a verifiable language that the speaker didn’t know and was verifiably interpreted.
So, regarding the third word from God, what came through tongues, really the only setting that makes any sense for speaking in tongues was when there were people gathered who spoke different languages.
Let me try and paint this picture. Let’s say that there is a church assembly gathered in some community in the Roman world. Now let’s say that there is a visiting group in the assembly who speak an Arab language. So, worship begins, the Old Testament is read and interpreted. Maybe one of the letters, or portions of the gospels were read and interpreted. But then some known person, maybe a Jewish person, gifted with speaking in tongues, opens his mouth, and preaches a message in Arabic. Now, who understands him? The visiting people in the assembly that day who speak Arabic. So, some hear the message, and are in awe, because here is this Hebrew speaking flawless Arabic. But what about the people who are there who don’t speak Arabic? They don’t know what is going on. They don’t know what is being said. And so, someone else stands up, who is known to be specially gifted with interpretation of tongues. He was a known person, who also did not know Arabic. And he interprets what was said by the tongues speaker, so all the assembly also hears and understands the message.
And I think it would have been like one of our bilingual services. The preacher preaches a sentence, the interpreter translates that sentence, so all people present understand the message.
And here is the important point. This is a verifiable miracle. Everybody in that assembly knows that this Arabic language happened supernaturally. In this circumstance, it was apparent to everyone that something supernatural was going on. Everyone is hearing the message in their language.
And I believe that is how you define what was happening in the early church. And it also explains why none of us have ever experienced that.
Well, we are going to stop there for today. Next time we are going to look at the question of whether tongues is a permanent gift, or if it has ceased.