Peter’s Vision, Bacon & Speaking in Tongues – Acts 10

Acts.

Acts.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

Chapter 10.

Ten.

Acts X.

Yes.

Yeah.

Roman numerals.

Which would be appropriate for the era in which this was written.

Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

I'm very excited about this.

This is a good one.

I've got some questions.

I've got some questions too.

I don't know if I have answers.

In Caesarea, there lived a Roman army officer named Cornelius, who was captain of the Italian regiment.

He was a devout, God-fearing man, as was everyone in his household.

He gave generously to the poor and he prayed regularly to God.

Regularly.

That's a hard word to say, fast.

One afternoon, at about three o'clock, he had a vision in which he saw an angel of God coming toward him.

Cornelius, the angel said, Cornel Oh, yeah, I'm on verse one.

I thought for a second I was out of order.

All right, Cornelius, the angel said, Cornelius stared at him in terror.

What is it, sir?

asked the angel.

He asked the angel, and the angel replied, Your prayers and your gifts to the poor have been received by God as an offering.

Now send some men to Joppa and summon a man named Simon Peter.

He sang with Simon, a tanner who lives near the seashore, Simon and Simon.

As soon as the angel was gone, Cornelius called two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of his personal attendants.

He told them what had happened and sent them off to Joppa.

And that's going to set up Peter's vision.

So we got a guy named Cornelius.

He is not a Jewish person.

This is early in the history of the church, but he is a God-fearing man.

He is devout.

He's generous.

He prays.

But he would have been viewed as someone outside of the God-fearing meaning believer.

He believes in the concept of a god and that there's a interaction.

Yes, he's not worshiping at and this is something that isn't often talked about, is you you did have people that went to the pagan temples and worshipped Athena or they wouldn't be described as a god-fearing.

Well, that's that would be paganism.

Right.

But but even in Greek philosophy at this time, there is the concept of a god, like a gr a larger, you know, like logos, the idea of uh logic.

It wasn't like every person in this era believed in even a lot of these people are like, well, that's yeah.

I can never discern how far removed the like story and mythology as an important story in the history of Greek world is like is Zeus just like a helpful way to describe everything and that's that's what's going on?

Or is it like, no, I literally believe that there's an actual Aphrodite.

Yes, it's like Greek, we call it Greek mythology.

Right.

No one even pretends like it's an actual faith system anymore.

Right.

We don't even call it Greek, the was it viewed as Greek mythology to the Greeks?

Or was it Greek faith or for a lot, but but I think for a lot of people it was always mythology.

They they saw it that way to begin with.

So he's a he believes in in God.

And it could be, by the way, it could be that he had been uh he believes in the he's praying to the Jewish God.

That's very popul like to God God because he's a God fearer, but he's not a Jew, so he can't be welcomed into that religion at this point.

Well, because it says he prayed regularly to God, capital G, our God.

So it's very possible that he had had interaction with um with Israelites, the Jewish people.

He could have, he actually technically could have been a convert of Judaism, because there were many people like that who, through their service, they become familiar with the the Jewish people and the Jewish faith, and he could have been a follower of Judaism uh to a certain degree, because it seems like he's not just praying to a God, he's praying to God, and God comes to him specifically.

So it's a cool, cool guy.

Cornelius is going to play a major role in the history of the church, even though he's just kind of here in this moment.

Take it from there.

Cool change of translation.

The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray.

And he became hungry and wanted something to eat.

But while they were preparing it, he fell fell into a trance and saw the heavens open and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth.

In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air.

And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter, kill and eat.

But Peter said, By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean.

And the voice came to him again a second time, and said, What God has made clean, do not call common.

This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once into heaven.

Now, while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what this vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the the men who were sent by Cornelius, having made inquiry for Simon's house, stood at the gate and called out to ask whether Simon was the one called Peter, uh, was lodging there.

And while Peter pondering was pondering the vision, the spirit said to him, Behold, three men are looking for you.

Rise and go down and accompany them without hesitation, for I have sent them.

And Peter went down to the men and said, I am the one you're looking for.

What is the reason for your coming?

And they said, Cornelius, a centurion, uh an upright and God-fearing man, who is well spoken of by the whole Jewish nation, was directed by a holy angel to send for you to come to his house and to hear what you have to say.

So he invited them to be his guests.

The next day he rose and went away with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa accompanied him.

And on the following day they entered Caesarea.

Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.

When Peter entered, Cornelius met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped him.

But Peter lifting him, lifted him up, saying, Stand up, I too am a man.

And as he talked with him, he went in and found many persons gathered.

And he said to them, You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or visit any one of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.

So when I was sent for, I came without objection.

I ask then why you sent for me.

And Cornelius said, Four days ago, about this hour, I was praying in my house at the ninth hour, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing, and said, Cornelius, your prayer has been heard, and your alms have been remembered before God.

Send therefore to Joppa and ask for Simon, who's called Peter.

He's lodging in the house of Simon, a tanner by the sea.

So I sent for you at once, and you have been kind enough to come.

Now, therefore, we are all here in the presence of God to hear all that you have been commanded by the Lord.

I guess we can stop there.

We can stop there, because the next part gets it's really cool.

Yeah.

Um So he sees the vision.

That's not very often that you have a vision.

Well, number one, that you have a vision.

Right.

Maybe it's for some people.

Does he fall asleep or does he have a vision?

This is a trance.

Well, it's a way so the way I've heard that it's different than a dream.

Right.

So a dream is something when you went to bed, you had a dream while you were asleep.

You woke up.

You woke up and you're like, whoa, I remember that dream.

Like and there are lots of dreams in the Bible.

People have dreams.

This is a a waking vision, sometimes I've heard it called, where you are just going about your day and then boom, and it's so intense.

Paul experienced many of these himself, uh, as we'll see.

This is Peter, but like Paul has many of these, and it's almost like um like out-of-body experience type of thing.

Like you are I've never had that experience before.

What it is it comparable to did did that happen with Paul on the road to Damascus, or is that like I'm literally saying?

Well, the other the other men heard the voice.

They hear the voice, right?

So it's not just in his mind, right?

Right.

This isn't just a vision he's being given.

Like the impression I have of a vision is that this is something that takes place within your it's like God is like you see it.

Yeah, God has given it to your brain directly.

It's not tangible.

I I think that that I don't think what Paul experienced on the road to Damascus was a vision.

Um I don't know if it would classify as that.

He had an encounter with the presence of God, it just couldn't be seen by everybody.

Um similar to when the Holy Spirit descends on Jesus at his baptism, right?

You get the impression from the way that story is told that people heard they heard the voice, yeah.

The voice and saw the dove.

Well, I don't know.

The Holy Spirit says that they saw the dove.

Right.

It says something like a dove descended on Jesus, but you very much get the impression.

I always get the impression the way I read that is that people don't see the dove.

Oh, I actually but they hear the voice.

I feel like they saw both.

Maybe.

Yeah.

Maybe we have to go back and read it.

But point is it gets it's hard.

We're as we're gonna discover the entire, as we're gonna discover with this entire chapter, one of my main takeaways, it is hard to categorize.

God and way and God in the way that he works does not always fall into neat and tidy categories.

Okay, so he has a vision.

I think it's it's not common to have a vision, having three, yeah, just boom, boom, boom.

And then immediately when the vision's done, for me, I'd be like, I wonder what that was.

And then just go Hey there.

I'm here from like it's just the the timing of that.

I wonder if this is also God being like, look, you're gonna have to give Peter that vision multiple times.

He's not gonna get it.

He's a hard-headed dude.

Again, again.

So here we go.

Peter goes, and now Cornelius tells him this is what happened.

On the vision, um, I guess my question is like I've always seen this moment, or maybe this moment is like referred to a lot when it's talking about the like how do we apply Jewish law to our lives.

This is the reason we get to eat bacon.

Right, right.

But but is it?

And that's where I guess that's where my question was was like very I think very clearly God is using the this is one of those things where it's like the food isn't about the food, it's about people.

Like he's saying, oh, go be in the presence of these Gentiles.

That's not something I ever called unclean.

So it's like that's that's the the phrase, like, don't call what I call clean unclean.

And that's what's always hit me weird about the, and I'm not someone who's like, we need to be following kosher Jewish food laws or anything.

Right.

I'm just kind of wrestling with it, going, he does God does call those foods unclean in scripture.

And so he's not this moment to me doesn't seem like an undoing of the food laws.

It's illustrating to Peter, who very clearly obviously understands because he says, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean, even though in the vision it was about animals that you're gonna go eat.

And so it's like, this is obviously like God doesn't call those people unclean as a category forever.

This is not this uncleanliness was like a state you get into.

Yeah, no, this I mean, so now we get on the weeds a little bit, um, which is fine.

Like there's a lot of weeds.

Acts is a very weedy sort of uh book.

Um now you're having Gentiles.

This is the first, this is really the start of it.

What's going to become an explosion of non-Jewish people entering the faith.

Um the church is gonna have to figure out, as we'll see later in Acts, what do we do with these people?

And what they do not decide are that these people now have to go through the whole rigor moral.

And they don't, and these people aren't now gonna be required to it's not like Peter's like, well, first thing you gotta know, bacon's off the mail.

Like that doesn't that doesn't happen.

And I think the conversation about circumcision gets to this point.

Circumcision will get to this point.

They weren't told they had to be circumcised, they weren't told they had to follow the dietary laws.

And then as time goes on really shortly, and I say time like in the context of the book of Acts, you know, even Paul is not the the the law is served has served its purpose.

Um and so I I I agree with what you're you're saying there.

I do think like it isn't about the food, but it is about the overarching idea of the old boundaries that have come, are coming down.

The old things that the law has served its purpose, and now some of these old boundaries that you have been so rigid about, and it's how you've defined yourself, those are no longer what defines you, right?

This is now a spirit, not a system.

Um and so uh so yeah, yeah.

It you're right, it's not about the food.

It's the food as an illustration for the bigger picture.

But we're gonna see in the as the church progresses here, they're not they're not gonna hold tightly to the food laws.

Right.

They're not gonna hold it.

Being someone, and we've talked about this, I'm sure, at length before in different conversations, but like as someone who's trying to be like, I'm reading the Bible and I'm faithfully applying the takeaways of scripture to my life.

How do you know the difference between like clearly don't kill doesn't get amended?

And it's like, well, that was for a a certain place in time, or don't yeah.

I mean, like there's a basic thing I would say to someone.

Don't overthink it, I should say too, because you can you can almost well, how do I know that that church history matters, right?

Church tradition matters.

So it doesn't matter as much as some people want to make it but but I think when you look at the scope, we're we're really blessed.

We're not these people, we're not the ones figuring it out for the first time.

Okay.

Um we were talking about AI yesterday.

We're kind of like having to figure out well, what is the what's the proper application of this?

Yeah, is AI bad?

Is it good?

It depends, you know, and we're we're the first generation to ever have to deal with that.

Okay, well, they're the first generation dealing with with Christianity.

Um so church tradition and history where it really, really matters, is when we say, well, let's let's look at how all Christians have kind of handled this from the get-go and um and how the early church handled this and how the second generation church handled this.

And you get to the point where you really say, Well, look at if at no point in time, really at no point in time in the history of the church was it ever like you better be eating the the mosaic diet.

Yeah, don't overthink that.

Don't overthink it.

And you're like, well, I think it's important that we do.

It's like, well, you're the first one in a while.

In a long time, this has not been now.

If you have a personal conviction, I dude, the mosaic diet is a phenomenal diet just to eat.

I mean, the food is prepared cleanly.

Um if you ate the mosaic diet today, you would eat a very healthy diet.

And you'd avoid a lot of things that are like not the best like shellfish, really high in cholesterol, right?

Like there's all kinds of things that you could point.

It's amazing.

It's actually a whole different conversation of how like how the mosaic diet shouldn't be like some modern healthy diet.

It's almost no it's a miracle that but it is.

Um but that's where I think to answer your question, when you're reading the Bible, you want to be faithful.

It's good to know the history of the church.

It's good to know the history of your faith so that you don't end up making something a big deal to the point of maybe a stumbling block for you, kind of like meat sacrifice to idols, we're gonna see later.

Um is well, is that Acts or that's gonna be a letter.

Romans or um the idea is like if you're making something a big deal that the previous generation didn't, the previous generation, I had a conversation with someone, really sweet person, um, but they're big on celebrating the Jewish festivals.

And they're like, we should be celebrating the Jewish festivals as Christians.

And their point was Paul celebrated the Jewish festivals and he did.

Um He was Jewish, right?

And that's where my next question was gonna go was for and I I know there's also like this like what is a Jew question like that.

If you're someone who's ethnically a Jew and you come from that band and you would be in the Mosaic Jewish.

Yeah, it's like you're there, but you you believe in Jesus.

A messianic Jewish person, I would say that is that person bound to eat the Jewish diet.

I would say no.

They're free not to, but they're free not to if it's a cultural expression that you want to find.

Yeah.

Sure.

Interesting.

Because I don't think a true messianic Jewish person wouldn't say, um, I am made holy by me following this diet.

Right.

They would it would have to, if you're a believer in the Messiah, you're like, I am made holy by Jesus Christ.

Blood of the Lamb.

Yeah.

You know, I would also not tell them stop eating that diet.

Right.

Like that's it's kind of like the um Sabbath.

Like gathering together is not this law that uh makes you or unclean or clean.

It is, but it's a tradition that is a highly valuable and close to God's heart thing.

Yes.

You want to finish the chapter?

Yeah, because this is where I think probably most of the questions for most people would come.

Sure.

I would I would imagine.

All right.

So Peter replied, I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism.

In every nation, he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.

This is the message of uh good news for uh for the people of Israel, that there is peace with God through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.

You know what happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after John began preaching his message of baptism.

And you know that God appointed, and anointed, sorry, anointed, Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.

And then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, and God was with him.

And we apostles are witnesses of all he did throughout Judea and in Jerusalem.

They put him to death by hanging him on a cross, but God raised him to life on the third day, and then God allowed him to appear, not to the general public, but to us whom God had chosen in advance to be his witnesses.

We were those who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.

And he ordered us to preach everywhere and to testify that Jesus is the one appointed by God to be the judge of all, the living and the dead.

He is uh the one all the prophets testified about, saying that everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven through his name.

Even as Peter was saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell upon all who were listening to the message.

The Jewish believers, all uh the Jewish believers who came with Peter were amazed that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles too, for they heard them speaking in other tongues and praising God.

And then Peter asked, Can anyone object to their being baptized now that they have received the Holy Spirit, just as we did?

So he gave orders for them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, afterward, Cornelius asked him to stay with them for several days.

It's cool.

Yes.

I think it's cool too, like for the people that came with Peter, like Peter got the vision.

No one else got the vision.

So no one else had that clarifying moment of like, like, Peter, are you sure the Gentiles really?

Like there's probably some of that.

Yeah, no, it's true.

Like uh, yeah, it's it's good that we don't know how many were there, but it's good that there were other witnesses to this, and it wasn't just Peter coming back later and trying to explain to them.

Well, and that the Holy Spirit, I think that's what I'm getting at, is like the Holy Spirit confirms for everybody in the room, like, hey, they're they're part of this.

And it's like, well, are we gonna not let them get baptized because what?

Like they have the Holy Spirit too.

Right.

You're experiencing you you experience what they experience.

Um, so it's just an interesting, interesting thing.

Do you think that the yours says other tongues, mine says tongues?

Yeah.

We've pointed to this moment as like a, you know, not a translating tongue, but this is like a tongues of angels sort of moment.

Do you think it is that, or do you think it's like there's it's also still a diverse diverse room?

Is there like a they were speaking my language, or I don't think that's typically how that has been interpreted historically.

Sure.

It's more in the unknown languages category, at least as far as how I've always heard it described, even in a lot of commentary that I've read.

Now, I'm not saying that there isn't commentary that would say that this is so if you're listening to this, what we're talking about, like when the Bible talks about speaking in tongues, uh, there's kind of two schools of thought on that.

One is other languages that you can't normally speak.

So I can speak Spanish now, I can speak, you know, whatever.

And then there's this idea that is an idea in the early church, and this is not really disputed, that uh people were speaking um I mean, Paul talks about this, right?

Like I just talked about it a little bit on Sunday.

Like speaking an unknown language, that's for your benefit.

It doesn't do any good to anyone around you because no one knows what you're saying, right?

There's this idea that there needs to be someone to interpret it so that it can build a lot of people.

But that's not the same as like there's no one here who speaks Spanish.

Exactly.

Well, yeah.

Right.

That's not when it's talking about you know, speaking when he's talking about speaking in tongues in that context, because the people were getting all like you know, they were starting to value it too much, perhaps.

Um he's talking about the sort of non-descript non-human description language that is a it appears that someone is able to sort of bypass uh the way I've always described it, it's like bypassing your brain, communing with God, having a conversation with this this you know, spirit to spirit, and maybe your brain doesn't even know what what's happening.

Um that opens up a giant Pandora's box of like all kinds of people who have all kinds of views and all kinds of experience.

People I've I've known people that grew up in churches where they were trained to speak in tongues.

I think you had an experience like that once.

Yeah, well, I was like trying to force to forced to do it.

Like, uh whatever.

You did it, you know what I mean?

Right.

Um, but there was clearly in the New Testament in the early church, there was a common occurrence where and we see it here, where the Holy Spirit comes upon someone, and one of the kind of instantaneous results of that is speaking in tongues.

And to the point where it is proof to the people that are there, to Peter, right and the other Jewish believers oh, they got the Holy Spirit.

So whatever they're doing, they're like, Well, that's you can't do that without the Holy Spirit.

So the whole he's clearly God has clearly given them the Holy Spirit, even though they haven't even been baptized yet.

Um so I had a friend in college that uh he went to Evangel University, which is in Springfield, Missouri.

Evangel is the kind of official assembly of God um college.

And so you know, he was big, he was big into sort of uh charismatic theology, you know, assemblies of God uh is a charismatic denomination.

And they focus heavily I talked about this on Sunday actually, uh charismatic, we think of charismatic as just like you know, people like you, good medical, good personality.

Uh the Greek word that we get char charisma from, um charismata, it means gifts.

And so when Paul talks about spiritual gifts, the Greek word in that he's saying is charismata.

So that means gifts.

It means the abilities and gifts that God gives people.

Tongues is one of those that is listed many, many times, but in the early church it was creating some struggle uh because people were sort of acting as if it was the most important gift, the most spiritual gift, and it was kind of making church experiences were becoming like a bunch of it was just getting a little nuts.

And Paul has to be like, guys, uh cool it.

And by the way, tongues is not more special than other things.

In fact, if you really want something, you should you should value this one because it's more useful to people.

And it's a the only it's the only gift we have in the Bible that we have a whole chapter of the Bible cautioning people about how they practice it.

We don't have that.

We never have that with administration.

We don't have that with There's a little bit, maybe a little bit like speaking and teaching.

There's like warnings of like don't let a new convert become a leader too quickly.

There's some verses here and there, but we don't have a whole chapter.

There's no example of a gift of the spirit that is causing turmoil.

Sure.

In the in how it is being applied or if it's being faked or whatever it is.

It's the only one where Paul's like, listen, we got to have a conversation about all of that.

So it's an interesting, and it's still to this day.

How have you landed on it as the pastor of a church?

Like what I mean, we've had these conversations before, but like what role does tongues play in the gathered body?

Yeah.

Is that is that only a private question?

I don't think it's only private, but if it's public, it needs to be interpreted.

And do you trust interpretation?

It depends.

I don't think I've ever known someone to interpret anything like that.

I feel like I've heard people make stuff up.

And that's that might be like cynical about it, but No, I I get cynical about it too.

I get cynical about it for a lot of reasons.

Part of that is because I'll just be frank, I mean, some of the most disruptive, difficult, demanding, and high maintenance people that I have ever worked with in the context of church are the people who are the most convinced that they are the conduit, the filled with the spirit people, and they have all the special gifts.

And really what they sort of just demand is free reign to say whatever they want to say, do whatever they want to do.

And if you were ever to say, hey, I don't think that's a good idea, well, you've just said no to the Holy Spirit.

You've quenched the spirit.

Oh my god.

And I've had, yeah, I have dealt with that a couple times to a point of I would say, not trauma, but like it's hard for me.

It's easy would be okay.

It'd be very easy for me just to be like, as a pastor, that's how I deal with it.

It'd be very easy for me in my flesh to just be like, no speaking in tongues ever.

I don't want to deal with this.

We had a in the old days back on behind the stage, there was a box that was called the tambourine disposal box.

Yeah, which is a weird context.

It's just like a random joke about like coming from a church where someone's wringing a tambourine or whatever.

But like you could have that reaction of like, there's no there's a no tongues policy here.

There's so many a lot of when we started, most of the people who came to this church to start it came from a specific church.

Right.

And I guess there were a lot of it was a church that had a lot of tambourines.

And like me, me people in the crowd having tambourines, right?

And like flags waving them around.

And I never had that.

That's not my church experience.

Do you remember those?

What is that?

It was like at the it was like a big fiasco in like 2009 with FIFA, the big like plastic horns that are like really like cheap, but they're so loud that it ruined like the World Cup for whatever reason.

We can't ban these.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So um cynically, I would love to be able to just be like, no speaking in tongues, because a lot of the people I've known that are the most passionate about it are the most difficult to work with.

Right.

And we seem to be doing fine without it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

At the same time.

It's biblical.

It's biblical.

I can't deny that.

I can't deny that there is uh now there's a a branch of of kind of modern Christianity called uh that would describe it as dispensationalism, which would say that yes, this is biblical, but it was only something happening for this specific time.

That the the the gumball machine ran out.

Yeah.

Like that's how I that's how I actually remember it is like you're dispensing the thing.

And so it's like that specific thing in the capsule that was needed for that time, they would say the gumball machine is out.

And I would say like the best analogy I I like that.

Yeah, the gotcha pond dispenser.

Whatever it is.

I would almost look at it like if anyone's ever had stitches and they've ever had self-disol dissolving stitches.

It's like, well, those are gone because they serve their purpose.

Yeah, that's true.

You know what I mean?

That's a better analogy.

Well, no, it's called dispensationalism.

So dis a dispenser is like the perfect thing.

But like it served its served its purpose, and the early church needed something.

The early church needed something to be able to make it clear that this is real, this is happening, it needed like a spark, it needed, yeah, needed some extra juice to get things going.

But we don't need that anymore, which is why those people would say it's why you don't see this happening unless it's some crazy thing.

So you don't subscribe to that idea.

You say that this is still for the modern church.

Correct.

And then on the flip side, I brought this up a minute ago, my friend in college went to Evangel University.

He would have described it as saying, hey, every time God makes a covenant with people in scripture, he gives a sign of that covenant.

So, you know, the covenant of the rainbow is the sign of the covenant, circumcision is the sign of a covenant.

And he would have argued from an assembly of God perspective that speaking in tongues is the sign of the covenant.

Because look at the book of Acts.

Gotcha.

Holy Spirit shows up speaking in tongues.

And he would have pointed to this story as one of the proof positives.

Others would say, well, baptism is the sign of the covenant.

But he would say that, well, there was also baptism before the new covenant.

Right.

And so it becomes a big giant mess.

So you're saying I'm not a good thing.

You're not all all the way over on that side where it's like you need to speak in tongues to be counted as a Christian.

Like this was a specific proof for this specific context, yes.

But it's also something that still applies to the church.

And I think what's hard for us is I've experienced speaking in tongues personally.

So I'm what's that?

Same, but I question it.

Yeah.

And I think that's the hard thing.

I know.

That's I and I think part of it for us is we are we don't have the benefit that they did have of being like bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and all this is new.

And we have the context of thousands of years of people abusing it and which even, you know, like what Paul's writing about when he writes to, you know, the the churches that he writes to that are getting out of control in this, that hasn't even happened yet.

So right now, this is just this new thing, and eventually they're gonna have to be like guys.

There's gotta be like a reckoning with how to handle it and all that.

So that that hasn't even happened yet at this point in time.

So I've experienced it.

I believe it's real, I believe it's useful.

I I have I have benefited from it.

I would say that there have been some really sweet, I think it has enriched my relationship with God, but at the same time, I have a hard time not being cynical and wary.

Like if someone is all about that gift, like my instant reaction is usually like, okay, I gotta kinda like rain rein it in or just like be careful because I've had again, but it's not just because people abuse it.

And my main experience is people who act like it is the, it is, they are, they've leveled up.

Right.

And if you don't have that gift, you're not on there.

So there's obviously like the church gathering, and maybe there would be, I mean, okay, the question is there a church gathering that can handle that?

Like, or is that like a planned thing?

Like, do you plan to speak in tongues?

I guess I've only I've had someone say that, like, I can do that.

Like, oh no, I would say, okay, so again, and this might someone to what degree there's no diagram I can point to in the Bible.

But my experience with speaking in tongues in the way that this has been, I could do it right now.

Right.

I could I could make the sounds right that I could do that.

I could probably write them phonetically out.

Sure.

Because it's not we might be doing it right now and we just understand each other really well.

Everyone listens to the podcast line is just chipping.

That's hysterical.

Jack's like, guys, what were you what was that?

We're like, what we're at least sincerely talking to each other.

Well, what the whole thing?

We go back and watch the video, it's like I mean that would be a really cool miracle.

But I would say that like in my exp I don't know what yours is, but in my experience of speaking in tongues, it isn't I don't I wouldn't say that my tongue's vocabulary is like a hundred thousand words.

Sure.

Kind of a similar same thing, which is then why you might question well, is this just my is this just a default like my brain is dream brain going off.

And I don't think it is either because of how I experienced the and because I was so resistant to it.

I did not want to do that.

Sure.

I didn't want to be one of the those people.

Um so and I think sometimes God may have given given it to I may have had that experience so God could like soften my heart toward the people that did.

As a sign.

As like a repeater.

Yeah, exactly.

Right.

Like you think those people are weird?

Well no.

Um but I have been in a church experience.

So it could be planned, because you could like, we're gonna do this, but I don't, I've never felt like that would be right or good.

Um because you would have to plan for the interpretation as a gathering.

And maybe wise it's maybe I'm just overplanned.

Like, I don't know.

I mean, if there's no interpretation of it, what's the it doesn't serve any purpose.

But we just say don't do that next time.

But like how would you know there's interpretation if it's a spur of the m- I don't know.

I have had one church experience that I saw this in like a pretty cool way.

And then a person got up.

I it was the same church.

I saw one time a person in the middle of the church got up and was saying stuff, but it very much felt like just gibberish.

Like this was a person who seemed kind of off-and they were trying, and the pastor, and this was a charismatic church.

The pastor was like, uh, ushers, I think she needs help.

And they like kind of like, you know, ushered her out.

Right.

Um, by the way, that same church, I say this, uh I I went there when I was in college when I visit my family at one time, and I lived in with them the summer after my freshman year.

I was working at a restaurant just trying to make as much money and live at home.

So one day I was at that same church, talking about ushers, and my I had to be at work like at noon, and the service was it was like 11:30, and it was almost done.

It was like they're about to do the last song.

Right.

So I get up like I gotta go because I gotta get to uh to work.

And the usher was like, he wouldn't let me out the door.

I was like, hey, I've got I gotta be at work, and he's like, You're gonna wait.

And I was like those ushers, they were like security guards basically at that church.

But but then another time I was at that church and a person stood up and started speaking, and I couldn't hear what they were saying.

So I'm not sure if they were saying words in English, but they were but it was just a random person from my perspective.

And the pastor just kind of paused and he seemed very thoughtful, like he was like discerning.

And he said, Hey guys, you know, sometimes the Holy Spirit has a message that he wants to give, and he doesn't want to use the person on stage, he wants to use someone else, and that's what we just experienced.

And so now no one interpreted, so I'm guessing it it was said in in maybe in English, sure, and everyone understood what he said.

I couldn't hear it.

But he was he was recognizing it as a spirit, it was not a distraction.

It was like, oh, that was probably and I remember being in the room and feeling like even though I couldn't hear what was said, I felt I felt like the Holy Spirit had done something.

You know what I mean?

It did feel and it wasn't crazy, it wasn't chaotic, it wasn't um that's the thing.

Like through the spirit is peace, right?

It's not chaos.

Right.

And so every time the Holy Spirit moves, like it doesn't mean it's a good thing.

Yeah, I mean you look at the prophets throughout uh the Old Testament, and it's like they weren't like normal people.

They weren't like standing in line to be like, well, I've got to submit my official uh word like to the city council.

No, they're like doing performance art.

Yeah, and like everything I'm tied up naked and like everyone would have thought they were nuts.

Yeah.

And even some of them are like, God, don't make me do that.

You're right.

Fine.

Yeah, so um, this is a giant this the tongue's conversation.

What I would say to wrap it up is it is clearly, it's gonna be spoken over about many times in the New Testament.

It's something that was definitely happening.

And it was a new thing that was happening.

Like this isn't something that is, there's not another context for this.

This is new.

Right.

So if you're this isn't a Jewish practice that is now the Christians are doing it.

This is like a new thing.

And it's a sign to these people that the Holy Spirit has has moved.

Um, and maybe it just hasn't happened enough that anyone could even fake it and copy it because it's such a new thing.

Well, and I think that that it it being a sign, I think is the important takeaway, you know, as we've seen it twice now in scripture in the book of Acts.

It's like, hey, wait until I show up and I'm gonna send you the helper.

And they recognize that moment of speaking in tongues as a sign that that that that has been fulfilled.

The waiting is done.

Like that was this is the purpose we all stayed in Jerusalem for.

And then this is like the new the next step is the Gentiles are gonna have to be integrated somehow.

Yep, and you're gonna have to figure out how that is.

And the sign of the tongues is a way to say, like it's a validation of them.

Where I love I love the order this happens in.

So this is something just like a small thing.

Because they get filled with the Holy Spirit, they speak in tongues before they're even baptized in the name of Jesus.

Right.

And we have a typical order, like, you know, usually you decide to follow Jesus in your heart, you get baptized, and then you know, as you grow in your faith, spiritual gifts, that kind of stuff.

But here it's like out of order.

Right.

And I just I really like this because I'm a big um when I was in college, I had for a minute, I was diehard Calvinist for a minute, like five-point Calvinism.

Tulip.

Do you know what the tulip stands for?

Total depravity.

Un something grace.

Uh no, irresistible grace is I.

I.

Yes.

Um L.

Nope.

L is limited atonement.

P is predestination.

Uh no.

I don't know.

No.

Let's let's do this.

I didn't have this tulip phase.

I had it.

It was a short phase for me.

And I could have told you what this is.

Uh very, you know, I just want to give context when I tell people, okay, okay, here we go.

Uh total depravity, unconditional election.

I'm the U.S.

election.

Right?

God chooses specific people to be saved before the creation of the world.

So that's your predestination.

L is limited atonement.

Jesus died specifically for those people, not for everybody.

I is irresistibility of grace.

So when you're the chosen, you have no when he calls you, you can't you there's no way a chosen person could reject.

Right.

Which is just gets you into like some weird paradox of correct like so.

If someone rejects Jesus, they were never chosen to begin with.

They weren't, they weren't someone that he even died for.

Right.

Okay.

And then the P is the perseverance of the saints.

Um, so anyone truly saved will never lose their salvation.

Like you can't, no real apostasy.

Right.

So I got into Calvinism.

Uh because it I was in college, all my professors were basically just you know, dog on Christianity, make the Bible seem crazy.

Even like in communication classes, it didn't even make sense.

And so there was something attractive to me about the the like approvability.

Yes, and just answer for everything, and everything is defined.

And I I didn't stay in that very long because I don't every time I read Jesus or I really think about Jesus, he always does something or says something that kind of breaks the box a little bit.

You just there's something that, like, ah, it's like I want to put him in this neat and tidy and everything.

And I I do believe in having your faith worked out and having solid theology, and there's things that that's clearly out of the line.

That's clearly out.

But every time, like tulip is such a packaged, like five points, covers everything.

Um but then like the rich young ruler, right?

Jesus, it says about the rich young ruler that Jesus looked at him and loved him.

And then he calls him to be his disciple, and he it's the exact same thing as the fisherman.

It's the same, we've talked about this before, same pattern.

Uh he says, you know, to the fisherman, he says, put your nets down, I'll make you fishers of men.

To hit the rich man, he says, sell all your possessions, I'll make you rich in heaven.

It's the same exchange, kind of earthly thing for heavenly thing.

And it's the exact same words, now come follow me.

It's like an imperative.

It isn't like, think about it, get back to me.

He says, now come follow me.

And the man walked away.

And would a hardcore Calvinist kind of take the track of like that person's rejection acts as a illustration toward, you know, even like can I just read that story and I go, no.

Right.

He rejects him.

Jesus literally loves him, right?

Calls him to let go of his thing, follow him.

It's the same exact thing as he says to Peter and the others.

Yeah.

And the man rejects him.

So I looked at that and go, is irresistible.

Like, can you resist the Holy Spirit?

Can you really I you know there's always this little things that poke holes in it?

And I and I what I love about the act story here is that, you know, if if you are a dispensationalist, well, you're not that's an that's an observation you have, that's observational.

That's not because the Bible ever says there's no scripture where says, and now that's done.

Right.

And we don't, and maybe they do apply that backwards into scripture toward those, you know, like those uh seasons where it's like, and God spoke very little during this season or whatever.

It's like we don't why don't we apply that same logic or where it's like, oh, I don't see healings all the time like I do in Acts?

It's like, well, maybe there's a different mode or season or whatever it is.

There are places in the world though where it is where people say, like, I mean, right now, great example, actually very applicable right now.

We are living in a time where more people have come to Jesus in the Islamic, you know, for Muslim faith background than at any point in history.

And I remember I was listening to a message over 10 years ago by uh a pastor who I wouldn't even associate with this kind of world.

And he was talking about like in sort of the miraculous stuff, you know.

But he was talking about a person that he had met who had uh chosen to follow Jesus and they grew up uh Muslim.

And he asked him just right out of the, he said, Did you see Jesus?

And the person was like, How did you know that?

And the pastor said, Because I found that in all almost all the people I meet Muslim background who choose to follow Jesus, Jesus appeared to them.

And they were like, That is exactly my experience.

And there is a documented mass documentation of people who are grow up in Islamic countries, encounters of Jesus, and Jesus appears to them very much like Paul.

They don't go blind, but he's like, hey, and they go, okay, and they can't deny it.

It's not just a I was convinced, I was you know, someone witnessed to me.

And so the dispensationalist stuff says, well, number one, you don't you don't believe all the gifts of the spirit stopped.

You wouldn't apply this to preaching.

Right.

Yeah.

You only apply it to speaking, the the ones that, you know, healing and all this other stuff.

So I like that the I like that it's out of order.

I like that it's a little odd, that it's a little bit like, uh, because I think we need things like that in our faith that just keep us from ever saying, I've got my theology completely figured out.

That doesn't mean we're susceptible to any false teaching and any crazy, silly someone says, well, you know, I'm open to everything.

No, I'm not open to everything.

But you're open to God continuing to sh to refine how you understand him.

Yes, and there's But it's gotta come from Him.

It's gotta come from Him, and there's gotta be a biblical precedent for it.

Like that, okay.

Um And so no, I can't deny there's a biblical precedent for this.

So if someone spoke in tongues in front of me, um my first reaction might be like, ah, weird.

But my my spirit should have a genuine desire to discern whether or not this is the Lord speaking and moving versus.

Yeah, so the first Thessalonians 5, like don't detest prophecy, but test everything and hold on to what is good.

And I have had times where I've been around people speaking in tongues and it like made me want to punch them.

Yeah.

Like I actually had this experience once.

Someone was sitting next to me, and it was like everything inside of me wanted to be like, stop.

And it wasn't- You don't think it was a fleshly punching.

I don't and I think that was a holy punch.

I didn't punch them, but it was like it bothered me to a degree that didn't make any sense to my brain.

It was like something inside of me was like, it because I think it was fake.

Right.

And it was like something about the faking of a sp of the spirit of God.

That's different.

It was like Yeah, that's a different level.

Yeah, yeah.

Well, cool.

So Acts chapter 10.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

God does mysterious things and surprises you, uh, and you can eat bacon.

Maybe.

Maybe, maybe you can maybe, maybe not.

Now I gotta think about that because I never really thought through it that deep.

All right.

Oh, and if if not, just repent.

You're good.

Yeah, you good.

You're covered.

You're covered.

But I've eaten a lot of bacon.

I've eaten so much.

I'm so sorry.

Oh man.

Okay, goodbye, guys.