Oh for a Thousand Tongues

Our scripture reading this morning will be from the book of Acts.

Particularly, we'll be reading chapter 10, verses 44 through 48.

Acts chapter 10, verses 44 through 48.

Acts 10:44–48

If you're there, then I would remind you to listen and to pay attention because

this is the holy and inspired Word of God.

While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard

the Word, And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed,

because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles,

where they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God.

Then Peter declared, Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people who

have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?

And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.

Then they asked him to remain for some days. This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God. You can be seated. Let's pray.

Holy Spirit, we pray, O Lord, that you would be with us this morning.

Help us. Help us to understand your word.

And as we do, help us to be drawn to greater and greater fear and love of Jesus

Christ. In whose name we pray. Amen.

So as we close out chapter 10, we're looking at tongues.

And particularly verse 44, it says, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word, fell on them.

What does it mean that the Holy Spirit fell on them and they began to speak in tongues?

This is a sign that we talked about already in Acts chapter two.

So I'll be going back and doing a bit of review from Acts chapter two,

but hopefully building and also digging a little deeper.

As we do it, I wanna introduce you to two phrases.

Some of you may.

If nothing else, you're going to learn two new cool Latin phrases, right?

I think it's important, and I'll give you the Latin, but we'll explain them.

And I think it's very helpful in the book of Acts to just, you know, as you read the Bible,

you have to know some theology, and you sometimes have to know which things

in the Bible are things you would continue to expect happening to you,

and which are things that you would see as historical events connected to what

happened then that you would not continue to expect it.

The way theologians sometimes mark this out as the phrase Historia Salutis,

I said, cool Latin phrase, just means the history of salvation.

And Ordo Salutis, which means the order of salvation.

We normally speak of Ordo Salutis when we're talking about, you know,

we have reform types like to argue about free will and predestination and all that stuff.

So when you talk about someone's conversion, you oftentimes wonder,

how does the Holy Spirit subjectively apply the work of redemption to an individual?

Now, is it that they have free will, and then once they choose their free will,

they decide to follow Jesus, and then the Holy Spirit comes and so forth?

We would like to see the order of events clarified from the Bible by regeneration

first, because we were dead in our sins, and then regeneration brings faith,

and faith brings repentance and conversion.

So, you know, we can argue and they do, trust me.

We can have big Sunday school just on Ordo Salutis.

That would be after the marriage and family study. But ordo salutis just means

the order of salvation in our personal lives as Christ, through the Spirit,

applies it to us subjectively.

Historia salutis is a phrase that just speaks about the history of salvation,

what God has done in accomplishing redemption.

Objective events in the past, like the Red Sea Crossing, the burning bush,

the resurrection, those are events that when we read the Bible,

we see, okay, this is how God accomplished redemption at this particular point in time in history.

Basically, what it helps us to do in the book of Acts and other places,

it helps us to distinguish, when you're reading the Bible, which things are

prescriptive, that is, which things God expects you to keep doing,

and which things are descriptive.

That is, they're just describing an event that happens that you wouldn't expect to happen again.

I would be surprised, actually incredulous, really, if one of you said you had

a burning bush in your backyard. yard like the exact same bush that Moses encountered

and the Lord spoke to you.

No, you wouldn't expect that, would you? Say no, please.

No, because any more than you would expect to, if we had a big church outing

and we went to Caesars Creek and everyone decided we need to go on the other

side of the lake and I walked up with my clerical robe and a staff and said, back away kids.

And they said, well, wait a second, you know, we're going to go to the other side.

You wouldn't expect me to stand over the waters and touch the waters and see

the waters of Caesar Creek, you know, depart and we all go to the other side on dry. Why?

Because that's a one-time redemptive event that happened in the life of Israel

with Moses with their back against Egypt and to the front of them was that Red Sea.

That Red Sea has all kinds of symbolism to salvation and so forth.

You wouldn't expect it because it was a history of redemption in terms of the record of scripture.

Many things are like that in the book of Acts. And I think it's helpful again,

not just that you know a cool Latin phrase now, but the history,

Historia Salutis in Acts is important to distinguish because many things happen

there that we no longer expect to happen.

Why? Well, because they are unique to that point in redemptive history,

and we don't expect it to continue.

The Bible is a book of redemption.

Too many people approach the Bible as if it's a personal spiritual guide for their lives.

I'm going to go to the Bible and find out how the Lord wants to bless me and

lead me and guide me and help me this and that.

When you read the Bible, you really need to step back and say,

this is primarily a book of redemption, a history of redemption.

In it, there are many prescriptions.

And in it, there are many descriptions of things that happen that still help

us, encourage us, strengthen us, sanctify us.

But we don't expect the experience to continue.

This is similar to what's happening here in Acts with the gift of tongues.

With the gift of tongues.

Pentecost is the first place we see the gift of tongues. And so we'll go back

to it. In fact, Pentecost is the referent here.

When we read through Acts chapter 10, you'll notice at least two different times

Acts 10 · chapter mention

that Peter is referring to what has already happened as a definitive work of

redemption and what is now also happening in our story with Gentiles.

For instance, verse 45, it says, and those of the circumcision who believed

were astonished as many as came with Peter because the gift of the spirit had

been poured out on all of them on the Gentiles also.

What's the also? So that is like Pentecost.

So Pentecost is the first defining redemptive moment.

And verse 47 says, Can anyone forbid water that these should not be baptized

who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have? Where is he referring to?

That's Acts chapter 2 in Pentecost. So Pentecost becomes the defining moment

Acts 2 · chapter mention

where the gift of the Holy Spirit comes to the apostles and to the church.

And now it's coming to the Gentiles. Again, a description, a description of

a redemptive event that, if I can convince you, and I hope I can,

you're not going to expect it to continue to happen.

Acts chapter 10, verse 15, as again, I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell

Acts 10:15

upon them as upon us at the beginning.

So the beginning of Acts, we have to go back and remember Acts chapter 1.

Acts 1 · chapter mention

That's why they were waiting, waiting for the gift of the Holy Spirit,

waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit came at Pentecost, manifested himself in amazing ways,

particularly at Pentecost with tongues, with tongues.

Pentecost was a redemptive event in the life of the early church and the apostolic

church that, as we'll see, we do not expect to continue happening,

okay? It's not just that we're conservative, fuddy-dud Presbyterians who don't

want to have any fun in worship.

It's that we read the Bible and say, oh, okay, tongues was a sign.

And as a sign for the apostles and that age, end of the old age,

beginning of the new, we don't expect to continue.

There are things in Acts that we do expect to continue, okay?

Like, for instance, remember from Acts chapter 242? You say,

yeah, I have it memorized.

It says they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching, to fellowship,

breaking bread, and prayers. Those things are not just descriptions.

Those things are fundamental parts of what a church is supposed to be.

Those are the things when I preached about it at the time, said,

we need to do this. We need to be an apostolic church. And I'll continue to reiterate that.

Things like preaching. You'll notice that there's preaching all throughout the

book of Acts. And it's primarily preaching is the means by which God is calling in his people.

Signs are not the fundamental point of it. Signs confirm the preaching.

Are we together, right? The signs confirm what's been said and preached.

The signs are not the issue. The signs are pointing to the things which are

preached. That's why we preach today.

And that's why we still pray. That's why we are a church that was sometimes

described as a means of grace church.

When you come on Sunday, you're not typically, I hope,

wanting a miracle, resurrection, healing service with tongues and signs and

wonders, but rather you want to come together and we want to be devoted to the

apostles' teaching to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and prayer.

Those are the, sometimes theologians call them the means of grace.

The scriptures, right? The sacraments and prayer, simple, basic things.

That's the means by which, that's why you're here.

That's why I'm here. And that's why the church continues its ministry.

So let's look at tongues again.

We looked at it already in Acts chapter two, but I wanna dig down a little deeper

from Acts chapter 10 back to chapter two, connect them together.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Because it's really important that we start to look at Acts and see which things

will continue and which things we would expect to be fading away with the generation of the apostles.

Number one, you'll notice that tongues is not specifically or primarily some

sort of personal experience.

I'm going to say a couple of things that if I would challenge my charismatic

and Pentecostal brothers to say that if I could just have like two things,

two things that you would agree with me that are biblical.

Number one, tongues is not supposed to be some extreme personal experience,

and number two, tongues is a foreign language.

If I could just get my brothers to agree to that, 99.9% of all tongues speaking

in Pentecostal churches would vanish.

Because they're not following what the Bible's teaching here.

So let's look at at least three things throughout the sermon that are going

to be biblical facts about tongues. You already know them.

If I gave a quiz from Acts chapter two, I'm sure you would all pass,

but just for the sake of someone who may have missed that sermon,

number one, tongues were foreign languages.

Number two, there were signs of judgment and blessings for the end of the age, okay?

And number three, and there's more than this, but at least this third one,

tongues were a revelation of the mystery of the gospel. That's something I did

not develop in Acts chapter 2 that I want to develop a bit more today.

Acts 2 · chapter mention

So first, there were foreign languages.

We read from Revelation, but there's another passage that I love,

Revelation 7, verse 9. It says.

Revelation 7:9

I'm going to highlight that as we get to the end. It's such a beautiful vision

of the church and the final days of the church in heaven.

Standing before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed in white robes with palm

branches in their hands.

In Acts chapter 2, remember that story that there were people who had gathered

Acts 2 · chapter mention

from all over the world who were Jews from all the different places.

And those places, you'll remember, were places that closely resemble the table

of nations prior to the story of the Tower of Babel.

All these different nations are gathered, but they're also Jewish.

One of the things that happened there, and I want to emphasize this a little

more than I did last time, is that we know they were foreign languages,

real live languages. They weren't like tamadaba, tamadaba, tamadaba.

They weren't this jumbled stuff, babbling.

It says, Acts chapter 2, verse 3, Divided tongues as a fire appeared to them

Acts 2:3

and rested on each of them.

And they were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues

as the Spirit gave them utterance.

And now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven.

At this sound, the multitude came together and they were bewildered because

each one was hearing them speak in his own language.

I want to look at it from two perspectives. Number one, the perspective of the

person speaking in tongues.

And it says here they were they spoke

in other languages now it's interesting you don't always have to know greek

to understand the bible but it helps a little bit sometimes and this is one

of them the word other or another in english is about is the same you don't

know anything about the word unless it has a context there's a specific word

in greek called heteroi or heteros you know it from.

Heterosexual, right? It means another of a different kind.

Okay. I remember first time in my seminary Greek class, the professor was going

over these words, heteros versus alos.

He said they both in English would be translated other or another,

but in Greek, you know, it's either another of the same kind or another of a different kind.

And the illustration he gave was, you know, if you have a cup of coffee,

it's a good one. And you say to the waiter, I'd like another.

If it's good and you've finished it, it's empty, then he'll bring you another of the same kind.

But if you take a sip of your cappuccino and someone made it a Spanish,

I just discovered this in Korea, I never knew there were, a Spanish cappuccino

is filled with cinnamon. You're like, oh, no, I need another.

That means another of a different kind, not the same one.

So we know that these people were speaking not their own language or a prayer

language, but another, a different

language that was actually a language group. How do we know this?

Later, the people who heard it said, they're speaking in our own dialectos, our own dialect.

Two words, tongues and dialect, both referring to specific languages,

not just utterances or strange sounds, but legitimate languages.

A dialect here would be like not just a language grouping.

In Africa where we lived, we lived among what were called the Bantu peoples.

They all spoke Bantu languages, but every single dialect was different.

And the dialect depended on the local place in which you lived,

whether it was Lugisu or Luganda or whatever it was.

That dialect was their local language. And so these people were alarmed and

amazed saying, I can hear in my own local language, my own local language,

the words of Christ, the gospel given to me by this person who's speaking a

different language from his own language.

So we know it's a specific language, and I'm going to try to develop it.

I just, all my life, especially as a missionary, I was fascinated with languages

because languages are such an important key to being able to communicate and

get along and identify things and make sense of the world and understand each other,

especially when you're using, sometimes you can use the same language,

but it means something different.

Everyone who's been married has learned that. Wait a minute,

I didn't mean that. Whoa, so even the same language can have different meanings in the context.

But these people were speaking languages and they were understood.

That's also critical. The people who heard them in their own languages understood those languages.

There was communicability and intelligibility among this language group.

Speaking the languages of other people who were there, it wasn't a heavenly

language. It wasn't a personal prayer language.

It was an actual dialect. It wasn't a language.

And those things are important because even in the Bible, we read the story

in Judges about, you know, how you, you know, this idea of divided languages,

which has divided the world, is very significant.

Remember that story from the Judges where one local area didn't want another local group coming in.

So they said, if you cross this bridge, remember the story, you have to say the word Shibboleth.

However, it was said then. You probably said it wrong. I would have been killed.

See, so because it was a, I remember in the civil war in South Sudan,

2013, soldiers who were both in the same uniforms, couldn't quite identify the

tribal marks because they were younger.

They asked a question in Dinka or New Era. If you couldn't answer it, you're dead.

All based on a language differentiation.

Language is so significant in that sense.

And here we have languages, rather than the division that we've seen at Babel,

the way those languages were used to curse and divide and shatter unity among

the people, here we have language bringing people together again.

And so tongues, we said, is a specific language, but it's also something interesting

that people sometimes miss, that in the context of Israel, other languages spoken

in the boundaries of Israel was often seen as judgment.

Tongues are both a sign of judgment and blessing. judgment for the nation of

Israel and blessings for the nations.

I know that at many end times, people concentrate on raptures and tribulations,

but here we see the end of the age signified by a gift of tongues,

which indicates that Israel is under judgment.

You say, well, why would you say that? Well, the great transition of the age

and tongues is a sign of judgment and blessing.

And when Israel heard people speaking other languages in their boundaries,

they often said, uh-oh, it's not good.

Why would they say that? Well, look at their history. When the Assyrians came

in speaking Assyrian, that was not a good sign.

When the Babylonians came in and were speaking Babylonian language, it's not a good sign.

We even did the story of Jonah. Remember, if you studied that, in Sunday school.

Jonah was afraid to go into Nineveh. It wasn't so much that he was really afraid of getting killed.

He knew that if God started speaking in the language of Assyria to the Assyrians,

it meant probable judgment on the nation of Israel.

Paul even says this in 1 Corinthians chapter 14. He says, brethren,

1 Corinthians 14 · chapter mention

don't be children in understanding.

However, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature.

In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips,

I will speak to this people. Huh.

What's he talking about there? Well, he's actually quoting Isaiah chapter 28.

Isaiah 28 · chapter mention

In Isaiah chapter 28, a statement of judgment, he says, for with stammering

Isaiah 28 · chapter mention

lips and another tongue, he will speak to this people. Hmm.

He will speak to whom he said, this is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest.

And this is the refreshing, yet they would not hear.

The prophet Isaiah, and Paul picks up on this because Paul is speaking about the issue of tongues.

He said, look, guys, remember, part of the judgment of tongues,

that is other nations and other languages coming in and speaking them in Israel,

that's judgment from God.

And the prophet Isaiah says they're going to hear people speak in another language and judge them.

Paul even says that speaking in tongues in Corinthians 14 is not so much something

we should be wanting to do all the time unless you have an interpreter.

If you have an interpreter, then someone who doesn't understand the language

will then be able to understand it Otherwise, Paul said it's confusing,

which most charismatic and Pentecostal services are very confusing,

That's they thrive on the confusion But Paul says we don't want confusion.

We want blessings The presence of unknown tongues was a sign of judgment Deuteronomy

28 49 says the Lord will bring a nation against you from afar from the end of

the earth as swift as the eagle flies a nation whose language you do not understand.

The bursting open of new languages, of foreign language inside the boundaries

of Israel was danger for them. They knew that they were under judgment.

When Israel became rebellious, they would be judged and they would be inundated

by unintelligible language.

And that's a frustrating thing. If you've ever been someplace where you don't

speak the language, it's a frustrating thing, period, just period.

Have you ever been someplace where you're the only person sitting at a table

and everyone else is speaking Spanish and they all laugh. You're like...

Did they make a joke about me? It's just, it's sort of this, it has this thing.

I remember being introduced once in South Sudan in Arabic. I don't speak Arabic.

And he said, I think Abuna Jackson. I think Abuna is like Pastor Jackson.

He said, hello, greetings, hello. And then someone asked a question he answered

and they all laughed. And I'm like, what'd he say?

Like, what am I, are you, did he say something bad about me? Funny, I want to know.

Because languages have this inherent sense of dividing and confusing,

especially if you don't know it.

And that's what God is saying. I'm going to bring a language into your culture

that's unintelligible for you, that's inherently confusing.

And not the least of which the Jews hated Gentiles anyway.

So this idea that Gentile languages would be used in the context of Israel to

be speaking the blessings of the Lord was inherently frustrating for them,

even though that was the ultimate purpose of the promise to Abraham and to Israel, to bless what?

The Gentiles, to bless the nations.

And so we see here in the gift of tongues in the context of Israel and the gift

to the apostles is this idea that everything in the whole world history or the

epoch or era of history is changing.

An old period of history where there was one language and one nation and one

people in a specific boundary, those days are finished. Those days are over.

Those days are over because God is bringing now an end to the old age and a beginning to a new age.

A new age that says now in tongues there's a revelation of the mystery of God.

So tongues was an intelligible language. It was a sign of judgment and blessing for the Gentiles.

And as a blessing to the Gentiles, tongues was a sign of the revelation of the mystery of God.

The great mystery, Paul talks about this a lot in his theology,

a mystery. What kind of mystery is it that we're talking about here biblically?

What kind of mystery is it? You guys are tired today, I can tell.

I was sick last week. I had an excuse. You guys have no excuse for not being

it. What's a mystery in the Bible?

Sometimes when I heard the word mystery, I always thought like a story about

who did it, you know, a crime mystery.

It was the, you know, it was the butler in the pantry with the wrench, that kind of thing.

That's not the kind of mystery it's talking about here. When it says mystery,

it's not talking about something that you don't know.

But when the Bible uses the word mystery in the New Testament and in the Old,

It's talking about something that was taught in the Old that was covered,

like covered with a veil, not covered completely with a blanket where you couldn't

see it at all, but like a veil.

If you've ever seen a veil that goes over a statue or something that's about

to be revealed, you can still see the outline of what's inside. You can still see it.

It's covered slightly, but you see there's something in there. You can see the head.

If it's whatever it is, you can still kind of make it out, but only slightly.

Now that tongues comes to the New Testament, that veil is pulled off,

and now we see where the promises were always pointing to.

Christianity is not a mystery religion, like we don't have secret meetings,

but mystery is at the center of our religion like that.

That is that there were promises made in the Old Testament and those promises

in the New Testament are now unveiled and open up and we can see them.

And tongues is one of the signs that that mystery or that veil has been pulled away.

The mystery of the coming of salvation, the promise veiled in Abraham.

Remember Abraham was the father of many nations.

Like the Israelites would scratch their head. Yeah, I guess, but let's get to Israel.

Let's get to the temple. Let's get to the land because that's what the promises really are.

But in that phrase, father of many nations, we saw in veiled form that the promises

were never exclusive to Israel, never.

They were for the nations. They were for the Gentiles. And now that tongues

have come, we see that God is actually literally with languages that were once

separated and divided with language miracles, bringing the peoples of the world

together in a new kingdom.

The promises of God were never exclusively limited to Israel, to Hebrew, to that.

Even if you go to the greater Israel project from the Nile to the Euphrates,

even there, the promises were never limited to that small of a place.

But rather they were, here we see tongues laying the foundation for a new period,

a new time, a new people who speak multiple different languages.

Okay. This was always prophesied. So you'll see how it's veiled here.

In Luke chapter two, verse 34, it says, excuse me, how it's unveiled.

For my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared before the face of

the peoples, a light to bring revelation to the Gentiles and the glory of your people Israel.

And Joseph and his mother marveled at all those things which were spoken.

Then Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold,

this child is destined for the fall and rising of many in Israel.

Some will believe, some will fall as the revelation of Christ's salvation comes to the Gentiles.

And again, reminder, review alert, this is in the context of the promise to

Abraham right after Babel.

Genesis 12, remember we said it's very profound, comes right after Genesis 11.

Okay, you are there. Genesis 12 comes after Genesis 11.

The Tower of Babel and the judgment and the scattering of all the nations with

a miracle of languages sends them all over.

But right in Genesis 12, God says, it's not gonna end like this.

The nations will not remain divided and confused and at war and hating each other and divided.

The nations will one day come back together with the promise I made to Abraham.

That was the purpose of Abraham's promise, to be a promise for Abraham and his

descendants and Israel, and now to all the world.

At the Tower of Babel, a few days prior to the flood, man began to mature and

organize in rebellion against God.

And the rebellion against God was formed by this unity of lip and language,

religion, confession, and the language that they shared.

And they were building this city. Remember, it wasn't just a tower.

It was a city with a tower in the middle of it. And the word Babel means gate,

literally gate to heaven.

So they were building this civilization and this community in which they could

come together and were unified and make a name for themselves and build a great

civilization and eventually have a global world order.

That was what they wanted. And God said, that kind of unity is powerful.

And so the Lord scattered them with division. But in Pentecost,

we see that with a miracle of the sign of languages, God is bringing them back

together and unifying the peoples of the world.

As such, Pentecost and the gift of tongues to these Gentiles now and throughout

the book of Acts is a once-for-all event.

It's part of the history of redemption, Historia Salutis. It's not a prescription

for something we should continue to be doing. Why?

Because it's laying the foundation for a new time period, a time period in which

all peoples and all tongues and all tribes and all languages will be brought into the kingdom of God.

Remember, Pentecost was a harvest feast. Remember that?

Long morning. Pentecost was a harvest feast.

Right after the wheat feast was the barley feast, and the barley feast was the

celebration of first fruits, of the things that God would bring his blessings.

When they went back into the land and they would harvest the wheat and they

would harvest the barley, they were saying to themselves, with the first fruits

of the Pentecost feast, it's indication that God will give us a harvest that's most magnificent,

a harvest where all his promises will be fulfilled, and all his promises will come true.

Pentecost and the harvest, There are three major festivals requiring pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

It marks the 50 days from the barley harvest to the wheat harvest,

and it was a first fruits harvest.

In Christian theology, the pouring out of the Spirit on Pentecost is considered

the spiritual fulfillment of the harvest, making the first fruits of a global

spiritual harvest. This is magnificent.

Right after Jesus has given the Great Commission, make disciples of the nations.

And we've seen it in the Psalms already where God's father says to the son,

ask of me and I will give you the nations.

You've accomplished redemption. Now the nations belong to Jesus Christ.

All those people who were once scattered at Babel are going to be brought back through Jesus Christ.

It's new beginnings. The gift of tongues resembles a new beginning as Pentecost

marks the beginning of the New Testament, the end of the age for the old and

the beginning of the new. It's foundational event.

And it's the reversal of Babel, which transforms the once confused and divided

peoples of the world who hated each other and killed each other over language,

are now going to be brought back.

And it's a beautiful reversal, not just because I'm interested in languages,

but it's a beautiful reversal.

It brings communion over confusion.

And you'll know we live in a culture where we've tried to have it with this

multiculturalism and all this gobbledygook that we have where everyone can come

in from every direction anyway and we can all just get along. Not possible.

If you're going to have communion versus confusion, you have to have a unifying

principle like they had at Babel.

And now Christ becomes the unifying principle for all the peoples of the world.

Where Babel created misunderstanding, Pentecost allows people to hear the message

and the mighty works of God in their own tongue and confess the Lord with unity with one another.

There's also unity in diversity.

There is, you know, when people say, well, diversity is our strength. No, that's not true.

Diversity in and of itself is not a strength, but unity in diversity,

that's not only a strength, that's the most beautiful thing you can imagine,

where you have genuine diversity.

You'll notice the Holy Spirit doesn't eliminate differences and impose one language.

In seminary, my Hebrew professor said, we will speak Hebrew in heaven.

So this is God's language because that's what the Bible was written in.

Of course, every other person that had another language group said,

no, I think it's going to be French because it's the language of love.

But he doesn't, you'll notice it's fascinating to me when I see Revelation,

and I've always marveled at it, there will be all different people from every

tribe and every language and every people group in the nation,

and they'll all sing with unity. And yet they have different languages still.

I don't know how it works. It's a beautiful mystery. My guess my hope is that

finally i'll be able to understand every language there is in the world People

will be singing in their language and i'll understand it We'll all be in harmony

imagine a harmony of all the different thousands of languages in the world put together,

And people will have moved from self-glory the self-glory of babel to the unified

glory of god in jesus christ all with different languages,

No longer pride, but glory to God. They'll no longer be building a city,

per se, or a tower, but a church.

Made up of what? People from various tribes and tongues and language groups all over the world.

We read from Revelation 5, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its

seals, for you were slain.

By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and

nation, and have made a kingdom, a priest to God, that they shall reign on the earth.

All these different thousands of language groups will be reigning together in unity.

Not confusion, but communion And these languages, I'm convinced that you see

in Revelation And this sign of tongues is to remind us that our own particular

language is not enough It's not enough to, you know, there was a joke Someone

told me a joke as a missionary,

you know You know if someone knows three languages, what do you call them?

They're European If they knew two languages, they're probably,

you know, English If they only know one language, they're American, right?

Americans just learn English. That's all we ever know. We don't really think

much about languages because honestly, as the center of a worldwide empire, we don't really need it.

Like a Roman in the ancient days, you needed Latin and that's it.

But there's something important, and I'm not just trying to push language learning

on you, although it's awesome, but this idea of multiple different languages

means that one language isn't enough.

It's not enough to express the glory and the beauty of the Lord.

All the tongues and languages of the world will be praising the Lord together.

And it will be as if this language will express one thought and this one another of the same thing.

And yet they'll both be shining lights on the magnificent beauty of the treasure

of God, like looking at a diamond from multiple different facets and directions in every possible way.

And all the thousands of languages will not be enough still to express the incredible,

immeasurable glory of God in salvation through Christ.

One of the things you can do.

It's not a homeschool homework assignment. I know I'm the pastor. I'm not allowed to do it.

But if you are learning a language, one of the cool things to do,

I remember doing this when I was in seminary, not just with Greek,

but with other languages.

If you're learning Spanish, young people out there or French or German or whatever

your parents are making you take, it's fun sometimes to take an English Bible

and set it right down beside your Spanish Bible or your French Bible.

Read the same passage in English and then read it again in Spanish.

And you'll say, well, they're saying the same thing. yeah they're saying the

same thing but slightly differently in an angle that magnifies the same truth

and and as if it's shining a light and magnification on it look at john 3 16

for god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son in spanish it

says de tal manera amo it's like.

Such a manner, in such a way. It says this, for God so loved the world.

That's how I learned it as a kid.

But then you look at it in Spanish, for God loved the world in this kind of

manner, in this way, which adds slightly something to what you already knew.

There's something about the magnificence of many languages saying the same thing

that highlights and spotlights something that you couldn't say with just one

word, especially when you're dealing with a language in which you look at a

word and there's really no good translation for it in English. I love that.

You learn a Lord, what do you say for this? Well, we say this.

Oh, how do I translate that? There's no English word for it.

And you say, well, that's difficult. No, that's magnificent.

That means there's something about the world that God knew more languages were

needed to express his glory and magnificence and the beauty of that truth.

And here we see with the gift of tongues, God is reminding us that every tribe

and every nation of the earth will be speaking with multiple different languages

about the same blessing.

That's why we're reminded of that song we'll sing as closing.

Oh, for a thousand tongues to sing.

I think if you think of it as, you know, wouldn't it be great if you could sing

the same song in Arabic, Spanish, Chinese, German, Latin, etc.

And still be understanding together and still be brought in unity together with

the glory of salvation to Christ.

One theologian said this, and I quote, he says, Babel is no match for Pentecost.

The nuances of thousands of language will never be enough to capture the glorious

nature of salvation through Jesus Christ.

That's what we have with this gift of tongues, where God is saying,

and remember, by the way, Acts chapter 2 was, yes, a sign of the reversal of

Acts 2 · chapter mention

Babel, but now we have what? We have Gentiles coming in.

These are real-life Gentiles. They're not just Jews. They're God-fearers.

They never became Jews. That's why they were in such a quandary,

like, well, I know it came to us and we saw that, but these are Gentiles.

That means that God is bringing all different tribes and tongues and peoples

together according to his glory.

These are Gentiles. The gift of tongues is a reminder that judgment on Israel,

Israel's finished now, but the church is not. The promises made to Israel are never finished.

They're forever, and they find their glory in the multiple expression of the thousands of tongues.

And I think by the time we reach heaven, billions of people,

imagine billions, billions of people singing praise to God in multiple languages,

adding to that beauty and glory of the Lord. I'll close with this.

Revelation 21, reminding us of all these nations, it says, the city had no need

of sun or moon to shine on it for the glory of God gives it light and its lamp is the lamb.

By its light will all the nations walk and the kings of the earth will bring

their glory into it and its gates will never be shut by day and there will be

no night and they will bring into it the glory and honor of all the nations.

Amen. Let's pray together.

Lord, how we thank you for the gift of tongues, for its glory and its might

and forecasting for us all that you are going to do.

With bringing the nations shattered with division and tribalism and strife,

even our own nation, Lord, suffering so much from tribalism and division and

balkanization and all the confusion that comes with us.

Lord, unite the peoples of the world together in Christ and help us to live

for that, help us to long for that, to pray for that, and to serve you with

that vision and that hope in our mind.

For we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.