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Are Christians Today Really Capable of Healing People and Speaking in Tongues? (Part II)
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Think about the Bible like you never have before. You're listening to Christian Questions. Access more audio videos and Bible Study resources@christianquestions.com Our topic is Are Christians Today really Capable of Healing People or Speaking in tongues? Part 2 here's Rick and Jonathan
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welcome everyone. I'm Rick. I'm joined by Jonathan, my co host for over 25 years. Jonathan, what's our theme scripture for this episode?
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First Corinthians 12, 28 and God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing helps administrations Various kinds of
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tongues Are Christians who claim to heal, who claim to speak in tongues, operating within the scriptural guidelines of Christianity today? Or have they taken a giant step over the line of appropriate Christian behavior? In our last episode we observed how the Old Testament established healing as an occasional gift and it was not necessarily granted based on faith. We also observed that Jesus healed the masses and generally did not require faith and following to give that gift. We also saw that the Old Testament speaking in tongues was absolutely speaking in foreign languages and that it was a sign of God's disapproval when foreign languages were introduced. The Apostle Paul verified that speaking in tongues in foreign languages was still a sign, but now it was a sign of approval to unbelievers. In this episode we examine healing and speaking in tongues in the New Testament to understand how these gifts functioned in the early church. So Jonathan, what we thought we would do in this part two of this two part series is just let's go deal with the facts. What are the facts of the matter according to Scripture? So let's look first at the New Testament facts about healing. We're going to list several facts and then go to the Scriptures to show why we see them so clearly. The first fact Faith was rarely a requirement for New Testament healing. Jesus we will see healed out of compassion. Notice there were masses of people healed with Just going to give two examples. So Jonathan, let's look at Matthew 4, 23, 24 and then Matthew 8, 16, 17.
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Jesus was going throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. And they brought to him all who were ill, those suffering with various diseases and pains, demonics and epileptics, paralytics, and he healed them. Matthew 8, 16 and 17. They brought to him many who were demon possessed and he cast out the spirits with a word and healed all who were ill. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet. He himself Took our infirmities and carried away our diseases. Rick, these are two of many times. Jesus healed numerous people. We have no idea of the number.
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We don't. That's the exciting part of this particular discussion is you have no idea how many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds he must have healed. And it's interesting and important to understand. We just picked two here, both from Matthew and Jesus healing work was a sign of fulfilled prophecy. You mentioned this prophecy from Isaiah. It was a sign that the call to the kingdom was there right before them. It was part of the proof we
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what were the Pharisees thinking? They knew the prophecies.
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Yeah, they did. And here you have a sign of prophetic fulfillment. And what did they do? They argued with it. They denied it. They didn't want it to be true. You got to think about that. They had a preconceived agenda and they stuck with that. Let's go a little bit further. The rare occasions when faith was mentioned as part of healing by Jesus. Jonathan, we have four occasions that we know of in the New Testament.
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Well, first, Matthew 9:22, the woman with the 12 year old blood hemorrhage.
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Second, Matthew 15:28, the Canaanite woman's faith on behalf of her daughter.
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Next, Mark 10:52, Bartimaeus pleading for Jesus to heal his blindness.
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And then the fourth one is from Luke 17:19. Remember the healing of the ten lepers? One of the ten lepers, now nine were healed. But the healing of this one was credited to his faith. The other nine, they were just healed.
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So out of the hundreds of people Jesus healed, only four were recognized as having faith.
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Right. So we have four examples in the New Testament and hundreds and hundreds of other examples that don't have faith as a piece. That's a New Testament fact. The faith displayed in these examples shows that some would be drawn higher than just receiving the gift of healing. This echoes the gospel call to truly follow Jesus instead of just appreciating him. And Jonathan, that's an important point because lots of people follow Jesus. Remember, you know, there are people that followed for the food, the food and the miracles. But Jesus was really looking for those who would actually follow him. This showed a difference between two groups of people.
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So what's our conclusion for fact number one?
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The conclusion is Jesus primarily healed out of compassion for the sickness and the brokenness of the human race as a sign of fulfilled prophecy. Nothing more than that. Let's go to our second fact of faith of healing in the New Testament during Jesus's earthly ministry the only God sanctioned healing recorded was by Jesus and, and by those whom he sent out with specific commands. There are only 2 instances of Jesus sending anybody out to heal in the three and a half years of his ministry. First, he sent the 12 apostles out. Let's look at Matthew, chapter 10, verse 1. And then let's go to verses 5 through 8.
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Jesus summoned His 12 disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. These 12 Jesus sent out after instructing them, do not go to the way of the Gentiles, but rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as you go preaching, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out the demons. Freely you received, freely give, you know, healing was a sign that their Messiah had come. The kingdom is at hand. The it's all about Jesus. And again, what were the Pharisees thinking? They knew the prophecies.
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Yeah. And you know, and it's interesting because they're seeing this healing now in this particular instance by more than just Jesus. And they're helpless and hopeless to battle it because you can't change the results. And here it's interesting that Jesus says, go out and do all of this healing. And he says as you preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand. In other words, use the healing as the attention getter for the main message. That's what's happening here in this particular instance. Now the other time Jesus sent others out to be able to heal was when he sent the 70 disciples out. And well, let's take a look at Luke, chapter 10. Let's look at again Jonathan, verse 1. And then let's go to verses 8 and 9.
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Now after this, the Lord appointed 70 others and sent them out in pairs ahead of him to every city and place where he himself was are going to come. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is set before you and heal those in it who are sick and say to them, the kingdom of God has come near to you. So healing was a sign that their Messiah was coming to them again. What were the Pharisees thinking? They knew the prophecies and now there are 70 out there performing these miracles. Rick.
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Yeah, and they come back to Jesus and they're like, they're amazed, like, we can't believe this has happened. This is so remarkable. But the point was not the healing. The point was the message. The kingdom of God has come near to you.
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And so is that the conclusion for our second fact?
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That is the conclusion. That's absolutely, positively the conclusion. You know, the second fact is these others only went out and did healing on two different occasions. And in both occasions, Jesus specifically told them it's about the kingdom, draw their attention, but it's about the kingdom. It's about the fulfillment of prophecy. Let's go to our third fact of healing. In the New Testament after Pentecost, the only recorded healing events by anyone other than an apostle were done by Philip and Ananias, just two individuals in the entire New Testament. First, we have Philip. His healing was done out of compassion in the context of Saul of Tarsus hunting down Christians, which caused the Christians to scatter. So Philip left town and here we find him witnessing in Samaria. Let's look at Acts 8, 6, 7.
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The crowds were giving attention to what was said by Philip as they heard and saw the signs which he was performing. For many who had unclean spirits were coming out of them, shouting with a loud voice. And many who had been paralyzed and lame were healed. So what was the result? Verse 12 tells us that when they believe the good news about the kingdom of God and Jesus, many were baptized to follow Christ. So it was the sign to the unbelievers.
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It was. It was a sign to draw their attention so they could really see the something very, very, very different than anything they had ever seen before. And again, Jonathan, Philip is the only one recorded in the New Testament to do this other than the apostles themselves. You got to ask yourself, what does that mean? And we'll get there. Let's take a look at Ananias. Now, Ananias is the second example. He healed the quote unquote scales from the eyes of none other than Saul of Tarsus, the individual that Philip had previously had to run away from because God had put them there to draw him. Let's look at that example in Acts 9, 17, 18.
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So Ananias, after laying hands on him, said, brother Saul, the Lord Jesus has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit. And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight and he got up and was baptized. In this case, Ananias received a direct command from Jesus in a vision to heal Saul for the purpose of, of selecting the 12th apostle to replace Judas. So what do we take away from the third fact?
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Okay, this third fact is that these only recorded healing events outside of the apostles were very narrow and very specific. And really, when you think about it, You've only got Philip, who's healing groups of people. Now look, we know other healing did happen in the New Testament because the Scriptures tell us, but the fact that it's not highlighted has to tell us something. It has to tell us it's not one of the highest, greatest, biggest, most strong priorities of your Christian walk. Because we have just Philip and just Ananias and that's it through all the years of the New Testament. Those are the only two examples. Let's go a little bit further. Let's go to our fourth fact of healing in the New Testament. Healing others was not, it was not one of the quote, unquote, greater gifts that the early church was given and that gift of healing would end. Let's look at first Corinthians 12, 27, 28 and then verse 31.
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Now you are Christ's body and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers. Now we begin the lesser gifts, then miracles, then gifts of healing, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues. Verse 31. But earnestly desire the greater gifts and I will show a still more excellent way. We'll look at that more excellent way in a little bit.
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So this is interesting because the apostle is saying, here's how the body of Christ is formulated and you've got apostles and prophets and teachers. Then you have miracles. Then you have the gifts of healing and helps in administrations and various kinds of tongues. So Jonathan is at the lower end of the list. And when the apostle says I am will show you a still more excellent way, he's telling you that you've got these opportunities, but there's something much bigger, something much more important, something much more life changing, something much more transformational. And so that's the way we have to see the gift of healing as it was one of the lesser of the gifts. And we're going to come back to this in a little bit after we talk about tongues. But first, one other scripture on the gift of healing scriptures in James 5, James chapter 5, especially verses 13 to 15, those verses are often used to say, well see, healing happened in the New Testament. It was something very common. Those scriptures are not, are not talking about healing of illnesses. Let's read them and put them in perspective.
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Is any among you suffering? Then he must pray. This word for suffering means to undergo hardship. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises. Is any among you sick? The word for sick here means feeble. Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him. Anointing him with the oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who was sick. This is a different word for sick. And it means to toil, tire, or faint. And the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.
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Okay, so when you read those verses, and I'm glad you dropped the actual definitions in as you read them, these words for suffering, sick, and the second word for sick are about hardships in life. They're about being broken and discouraged. They're not about physical illness. We have to recognize that. And let's accept the Scripture for what it says. That's the key here. Accept the Scripture for what it says, and let's not read things into it that might be exciting. Let's take the word of God at his word.
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What is the conclusion for fact?
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Number four is healing was not one of the greater gifts. And Jonathan, it's a really simple thing. We saw the apostles do all kinds of healing. They were the apostles. Outside of the apostles, you have Philip and Ananias. We have a sense that it wasn't something to be focused on. Yes, there were other healings, but they're not shown to us because we're supposed to focus on something bigger. That's the point. So let's look at the power, purpose, and application of biblical healing.
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New Testament healing was a sign that Jesus had come and the call to follow him was open. According to Scripture, healing did not at all dominate the early church's activities. Once the gospel was established, healing would no longer be a needed sign of discipleship as the written word of God would continue accomplishing the work. You know, this makes sense because as footstep followers, we are to walk by faith, not by sight.
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Exactly. And when you recognize that healing was in the context of unbelievers, that's where it was. Faith healing was not a thing in Scripture, folks. Look at the way the scriptures read. Yes, there were a few instances where faith is drawn in. The vast majority was a gift from God to show them about the kingdom. Take it for what the Scriptures teach. Let's change gears. Let's now go on to the gift of speaking in tongues. And Jonathan, we want to approach it the exact same way. Let's look at New Testament speaking in tongues. Facts. And we're going to look at two facts right up front. First one, the one purpose for the gift of tongues was to be a sign and a witness of the Gospel to foreigners.
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Fact number two, there are only three recorded instances of speaking in tongues in the New Testament.
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Okay, so once again, we're going to take a look at this now. We're going to look at these two facts together. The fact that it was to be a sign and witness to foreigners and that we only have to three instances. Let's touch on these three. The first one we actually touched on in part one of this two part series. It was on the day of Pentecost. And remember they, the apostles, they were given the Holy Spirit and they were able to speak in the languages of those who were listening. This set the pattern for what speaking in tongues would be. It was to communicate the gospel to people who would have not otherwise understood. It was made plain the ability to communicate the good news of the gospel to people of other languages and cultures were, was the sole purpose of speaking in tongues. That's what we're told in Pentecost. What about the next one?
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Well, the second instance was the conversion of the Gentile Cornelius to Christianity. It happened while Peter was preaching about his vision of unclean animals and God's calling being open to the Gentiles. Acts 10:44, 47. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who were listening to the message. All the circumcised believers who came with Peter were amazed because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also, for they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered, surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we did. Can he?
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So you have this dramatic miracle. These are the first Gentile converts. This breaks all of the preset expectations. And Peter goes here and he sees it and he embraces something that would have not previously been embraced. That's why it had to have that vision of the sheet with the unclean animals, because he needed to see it. So let's look at four very specific points here in this instance where speaking in tongues comes up. First, these Gentiles were likely speaking Hebrew, a language they would have had no use for. Why do we say that? Because it says that they were exalting God and so those listening would have heard the exaltation of God. Okay, second bullet point. Their words were just like the words describing Pentecost. In the Pentecost event, it said that they were speaking in tongues and praising God because that's what the hearers heard. So it was a very similar thing, a foreign language praising God.
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The next point, this would have been Proof positive for Peter and the other Jewish Christians that were with him that Gentile and Jewish Christians were equal. That's powerful.
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Yeah.
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What a paradigm shift for them. And lastly, these followers were now equipped to witness the Gospel to foreigners in their own languages and other Gentile languages also.
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So it gave them the ability to spread the gospel because now you've opened a brand new door with brand new few people who were never, ever invited up to this point. It's a wide open invitation to bring the Gospel in.
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And Peter was given the keys to unlock the door of the Gospel to the Gentiles.
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It's a beautiful picture. Remember speaking in tongues in the Old Testament, whenever foreign tongues were introduced, it was a sign of God's disapproval. Here in the New Testament, you can see it's a sign of God's approval and and expansion of the Gospel. Now you have this miracle. Go spread the word. Go spread the word. Go spread the word. That was the point. Let's look at the third instance of speaking in tongues in the New Testament. Third was when the apostle Paul arrived in Ephesus and found disciples who were not fully informed and had been baptized, but they'd been baptized with John's baptism, which is a baptism to repent, a repentance of sins. It wasn't a baptism of sacrifice. Paul witnessed to them about Jesus and then he baptized them into Jesus. Now let's look at what happens in Acts 19:6 to 7.
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And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and prophesying. There were in all about 12 men. Commentator J. Vernon McGee writes, There were many languages spoken there, just as there had been in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. East and west met all along that coast. It was a great city of that day. So the point is the tongues equipped
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them to witness and that's why they were there. And folks, look, to be blunt, to be straightforward, when we want to take that gift of tongues and privatize it, and we're going to see that next, we're going down the wrong road. That's not the scriptural use, that's what we've got right here. So what do all three of these events have in common? The three things are, first, apostolic preaching, second, Spirit begotten followers, and third, an audience that's anxious to learn. Those are three common denominators here. Let's just understand. The one purpose for the gift of tongues was to be a sign and witness of the Gospel to foreigners. It's only used just a few times. Let's go to our third fact on the gift of tongues in the New Testament. The third fact, this gift was sometimes misused and it needed to be kept in its proper spiritual perspective. Jonathan, this is a huge point. The Scriptures tell us it was being misused. So what we need to do is keep the precedence that we just talked about to all of the uses of the gifts of tongues. If they're precedents for those, they've got to be precedent in everything else. Paul in Corinthians clearly lays out a scriptural basis to help with our understanding of the appropriate use of this gift. So let's go to 1 Corinthians 12, 28, 31.
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All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healing, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they but earnestly desire the greater gifts? And I will show you a still more excellent way.
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All right, so you read 29 to 31. We had previously quoted 28. So you put all of that together, the apostles laying out the the importance of how the church is supposed to work. Three quick points here. There is, in Paul's teaching, there is a divide between the greater and the lesser gifts that's established here in these verses. And actually in 1 Corinthians 14:3, it highlights prophecy as one of the greater gifts, tongues, therefore one of the lesser gifts. Second point, the path of spiritual gifts is shown to be a lesser path. They were gifts. They were miraculous. And you know, here's the thing about being a gift like this. You know, the healing or the speaking in tongues, it's kind of cool to be able to do something cool, but being able to do something cool is not necessarily doing something spiritual. And the Apostle Paul is laying out the difference, and he's basically saying, watch yourselves, keep your priorities straight. A more excellent way to does exist than these gifts. And the third point, Paul is teaching by giving his personal experience. I will show you a more excellent way. I have experience with this, and I'm going to share it with you. Paul's going to continue with the more excellent way.
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First Corinthians 13:1 and 2. If I speak with tongues of men and of angels, but do not have love, I have become a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.
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Pause right there for a second, because Paul brings in a phrase, tongues of men and of angels. And this is where a lot of Confusion may begin to develop. This is something that Paul. These tongues of angels. What's he talking about? Something that he may have heard in a vision that he had many years, like 10, 12, 14 years before this. And that's recorded in Second Corinthians, chapter 12. He talks about it, and in that he heard things and he was transported into the future, essentially, and he heard and saw things that he was not allowed to repeat. So basically he's saying, I show you a more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men or of angels, I've heard them, but I can't speak them. He says, if I'm doing that without doing it appropriately, I'm just making noise. That's what he's saying. Let's go to verses 2 and 3.
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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. And if I give all my possessions to feed the poor, and if I surrender my body to be burned, but do not have love, it profits me nothing.
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The more excellent way is that agape, that selfless, benevolent, giving love. And he's saying, that's the point. Gifts are great. It's cool to have be able to do cool stuff, but it's not necessarily spiritual. Watch yourselves. He goes further with this. He goes further with putting it in order. In 1 Corinthians 14, the apostle goes on to explain the challenges of the misuse of the gift of tongues. First Corinthians 14, 1:4.
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And this comes right after the love chapter.
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Right.
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And now we will discover what the more excellent way is as we continue pursue love, yet desire earnest spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God. For no one understands but in his spirit he speaks mysteries, meaning it's valueless. There's no benefit continuing in verse three. But one who prophesies or teaches speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation. One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself, but one who prophesies edifies the church.
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So you can see the difference. There's greater and lesser gifts, and he's comparing them, and he's taking speaking in tongues and saying it's a lesser gift because it doesn't have the capacity to be edifying to everyone around you. And this is referring to speaking in foreign languages. Make no mistake about it, because that's the only scriptural precedent that we have. Without someone to interpret you're just making noise.
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Let's listen to what Paul says in this chapter a little further. 1 Corinthians 14, 17, 19. For you are giving thanks well enough, but the other person is not edified. I thank God I speak in tongues more than you all. However, in the church, I desire to speak five words with my mind so that I may instruct others Also, rather than 10,000 words in a tongue.
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Wow.
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Wow is right.
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Yeah, yeah, he's putting it. He's just putting it out there and saying, look, don't get tied up in doing things that look cool. Get tied up. Be committed to that which is spiritual. And when we look at this third speaking in tongues fact, the gift sometimes was misused and it needed to be kept in order. And it was something that the apostle was very specific about, very specific about appropriate use and inappropriate use. And he called out the inappropriate use and said, don't do that. The fourth fact about speaking in tongues, in the New Testament, this gift had a clear purpose. Once fulfilled, this gift would end. That's a scriptural fact. Tongues had a place in the early church, but its use ended. How do we know its use ended? Because the apostle Paul told us. First Corinthians. Let's go back to chapter 13, verses 8 through 10.
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Love never fails. But if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away. If there are tongues, they will cease. If there is knowledge, meaning without study, it will be done away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away. So in verse 11, Paul says, put away childish things. In other words, grow up.
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It's cool to be able to do cool stuff, but it's not necessarily spiritual. And Paul is saying, you need to grow up. You've had these gifts. They serve a purpose, but when you start to abuse them, they don't serve a godly purpose whatsoever. And it's interesting, he says, the prophecy, the gift that he kept saying, work on that. That's teaching without having studied before, he's saying, do that. He says, that's going to cease. And so when. Well, it says, when that which is perfect has come. The word for perfect means complete. What's he talking about? We believe unequivocally that this is referring to God's holy word. From Genesis to revelation, with the whole written word in place, the miracles would no longer be needed, because now you've got God's word that is available, that can be put in front of you. That's the power of what we have. And so we can see that the gifts were for their to bridge a very small, very timely gap. And when that gap was over, the gifts went away appropriately. So again, Jonathan, let's begin to put this together. The power, purpose and application of biblical speaking in tongues.
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The New Testament message of the gift of tongues is clear. Speaking in tongues was always the miraculous ability to speak a human language that was unknown to the speaker. This gift was a sign of God's approval of the gospel going out throughout the entire world. It was always to be used only for the furtherance of the gospel. This was a necessary but lesser gift.
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It was important, it played a role. But when the role was over, it went away. Just like the gift of healing, it makes so much sense when you see how these things fit into their perspective. So, Jonathan, let's now, as we wrap this all up, let's look at the big picture. Healing and speaking in tongues were both signs of God's plan unfolding right before the eyes of everybody that was witnessing them.
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Jesus showed us a microcosm of a great reality to come. In the earthly kingdom, there will be a healing for all.
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And that's important because you have this gift of healing. And you know what? People who were healed got sick again. Nobody was exempt from that. But the healing that the scriptures from the Old Testament provide and Revelation provides is a bigger healing. This healing that they were given gave a glimpse of what prophecy foretold. Let's look at two prophecies. Let's start with Isaiah 35, 5, 6.
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Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer and the mute tongue shout for joy. Water will gush forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. And now Revelation 21:4. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.
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So Jonathan, when you take that one Old Testament prophecy, and there are a load of Old Testament prophecies on this, we just picked one. And this revelation scripture, that's why that which is perfect, that which is complete Old Testament all the way to revelation. Incidentally, Revelation 21:4 is near the end of the book. It gives you the hint, it gives you the sense, it gives you the promise of what's to come. These things are passed away. The tears and the death and the sorrow and crying are things of the past. So the gift of healing was to give a Glimpse of what would be permanent in God's kingdom. I mean, that, that's just. It's a mind blowing thought. That's why it was there. The gift of tongues. This is even more cool, I think. Just stay with me on this, okay? The gift of tongues gave a glimpse of the pure and complete communication that God had in store for all of humanity. You say? Okay, wait, wait, wait. Hang on. Listen to these two scriptures, Jonathan. Let's start with Habakkuk 2:14.
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For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And lastly, Zephaniah 3, 9. For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord to serve him with one consent. One pure language will be the great reality in God's kingdom on earth.
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Think about that for a second. Because remember in part one, we talked about the Tower of Babel where the languages were confused. There was one language at the beginning. God spoke to Adam. Adam understood. You had that one language at the beginning. And what this is saying, these two prophecies in Habakkuk and Zephaniah, they're saying that the knowledge of God will cover the earth and there's one pure language. So the miscommunication and all of the frustration of not understanding is gone. So the ability to speak in tongues was to say, you too, no matter where you're from, can understand the gospel. In the coming times, when the time of the kingdom is here, all of humanity will understand the gospel in its entirety and it will end up being one pure language. So the gift of healing and the gift of tongues were signs to show the glory of God's kingdom on earth. Think about it, folks. We love hearing from our listeners. We welcome your feedback and questions on this episode and other episodes@christianquestions.com coming up in our next episode, how does our free will work in God's plan?