Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20090503.htm
THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Acts: The Continuing Earthly Ministry Of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Part VI: The Ministry Of The Universal Church In Its Spread To The Ends Of The Earth, Acts 8:26-28:31
E. Christ's Use Of The Apostle Paul To Spearhead Worldwide Outreach, Acts 14:4-28:31
19. Christ's Use Of The Tongues Gift To Show Who Is Included In The Church
(Acts 19:1-7 et al.)
- Introduction
- Four times in the book of Acts, in Acts 2:1-12, Acts 8:14-17, Acts 10:44-46 and Acts 19:1-7, people received the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues after salvation, events that cause Charismatics to seek to speak in tongues today in the belief that only then do they receive the fulness of the Holy Spirit!
- However, viewing the circumstances involved reveals these events occurred to signal which new groups of believers were to be included in the Body of Christ, and that such events are unwarranted today:
- Christ's Use Of The Tongues Gift To Show Who Is Included In The Church, Acts 19:1-7 et al.
- Before studying Acts 19:1-7, we note the events of the coming of the Holy Spirit with tongues in Acts 2, Acts 8 and Acts 10 revealed God used them to show new groups were becoming part of the Church:
- In Acts 2:1-12, God signaled believing Jews were being spiritually put into the Body of Christ:
- The people given the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues on the Day of Pentecost were Jewish: they comprised the one-hundred and twenty disciples of Jesus in His earthly life in Acts 1:13, 15.
- Thus, the Acts 2:1-12 events signified that Jews who believed in Christ were part of the Church.
- In Acts 8:14-17, God signaled believers of mixed Jew and Gentile lineage were part of the Church:
- The Acts 8:14 believers were Samaritans (Acts 8:14), folk with a despised mix of Hebrew and Gentile lineage who had held to an errant syncretism of Judaism and paganism (2 Kings 17:24, 41).
- Thus, when these Samaritans believed in Christ, to show other Jewish Christians that these folk were not to be kept out of their fellowship as before (John 4:9b), the Apostles in Jerusalem came to Samaria and laid hands on them, praying that they might receive the Holy Spirit, Acts 8:14-16.
- They received the Spirit [as apparently signified by their speaking in tongues], Acts 8:17 implied.
- In Acts 10:44-46, God signaled full-blooded Gentile believers were part of the Body of Christ: Peter's presentation of the Gospel was believed by the Gentiles in Cornelius' home, and as soon as they had believed it, God gave them the Holy Spirit to where they spoke in tongues to signify that God now included believing Gentiles in the Body of Christ!
- However, in Acts 19:1-3, Paul encountered Old Testament believers in God who had been instructed only in the teachings of the last Old Testament Prophet, John the Baptizer !
- Thus, God needed to demonstrate that they, too, upon exercising faith in Christ, were to be seen as part of the Body of Christ, and that with the coming of the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues, Acts 19:1-7:
- When Paul met these followers of John the Baptist at Ephesus and asked if they had received the Holy Spirit when they had believed, they said they had never heard of any Holy Spirit, Acts 19:1-2. They explained upon Paul's further inquiry that they had been baptized only unto John's baptism, Acts 19:3.
- Paul then reported that though John had baptized with the baptism of repentance for Israel to prepare them to believe in the Messiah, the Messiah had indeed come, and that He was Jesus Christ, Acts 19:4.
- Hearing this, these disciples of John believed in Christ, and were baptized as Christians, Acts 19:5.
- Paul then laid hands on these believers that they might receive the Holy Spirit, and God answered by equipping them to speak in tongues and prophesy as proof that such Old Testament believers also became part of the Body of Christ when they put their faith in Jesus Christ, Acts 19:6-7.
Lesson: The events of the coming of the Holy Spirit with tongues occurred in the Book of Acts ONLY to SIGNAL that a NEW KIND of GROUP of BELIEVERS had BECOME part of the CHURCH.
Application: The events marked by speaking in tongues in Acts 2, 8, 10 and 19 reveal that every person who trusts in Christ, be he Jewish, partly Jewish, Gentile or an uniformed Old Testament believer, is part of Christ's Church. Thus, no believer now needs to gain the gift of tongues and the Holy, for by faith in Christ, he already has the Holy Spirit WITHOUT TONGUES, 1 Corinthians 12:13, 29-30!