The King's Church in Ilford
The following is the text of the talk given on 21st March 2010 by Robin Hawkins
"Tongues & Praise"
- Acts 2:1-11/I>
An incident in a Brazilian football match shows us graphically that while there is a time to be on our knees, there is also a time for action. International footballer Roberto Rivelino received the ball straight from the kick-off, and drove a shot from the half-way line: the ball whizzed past the goalkeeper's ear while he was still on his knees in the goalmouth completing his pre-match devotions.
Well, the time for praying and waiting is over. Now the Holy Spirit is coming upon the disciples, and it's time for action! Last week we looked at the Wind & Fire meant. The Wind brings Life, blowing out old ideas and thought patterns, and blowing in - inspiring - us with new enthusiasm and new thinking. (Enthusiasm literally means to be In God - en theos). The Fire brings a purging of sin, and new holiness.
But there was so much more than even this. As tongues of fire hovered over each of them, they began to speak in other tongues or languages as the Spirit enabled them. These were real languages. They were recognised by the many different people groups present that day.
Some people maintain these tongues were special in that whatever language the disciples were speaking, the hearers were enabled miraculously to understand them in their own language. The people who teach this usually have an agenda of wanting to discourage the use of tongues in the church today. So they maintain this event was a special "one-off", "never-to-be-repeated" type of event. However, later in Acts 10:47, Peter describes the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the house of Cornelius as "They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." In other words, it had been repeated - the manifestation of Tongues and praise was already being understood as a sign of people getting baptised in the Holy Spirit.
What was unusual about the Day of Pentecost was that the hearers understood the languages. You had 120 disciples all being given the ability to speak another earthly language that they'd never learned. There are fifteen different language groups mentioned. What I understand to have been happening is that among the 120, there were some speaking Parthian, some Median, Arabic, Phrygian, Cappodocian..etc. There have been incidents in our own time when people have recognised and understood the tongues other people were speaking. Usually, but not always, they've been heard extolling the wonders of God. Either way, such occasions are rare, and definitely not the norm.
Whichever way the miracle worked, it's what it meant that really concerns us at this stage. We have to go back to Genesis 11 and the Tower of Babel, to the time when everybody spoke the same language. We have to see the arrogance and presumption this produced in the heart of mankind who thought they could reach heaven with their tower. This was why God cursed us with different languages, to humble us so that we couldn't understand each other. This is why we have different nations and different languages. But Pentecost reversed this and broke the curse of Babel. God's plan now is to recreate from all the nations, one new family, a new people - people united not so much by a common language as by the Spirit of God inside each of us. That's what unites us, makes us one. I may speak English alongside a lot of my countrymen, but I'm not really united with them. "This world is not my home…" Ironically, it isn't actually language that unites us, it's the Spirit of God in my heart resonating with the Spirit of God in yours. Pentecost was a powerful sign that national barriers aren't important any more. Jesus is making a new people - His Church - and we'll be drawn from every tribe and nation. It's why here as a congregation it's so important that we're seen to be a truly international church. We have 18 nations represented among us. It's not enough! But it's start.
These languages are different from the other spiritual gifts, in that they can be spoken at will. I wish I could heal the sick or prophesy at will, but although I can pray for people at will, I am totally dependent on the Holy Spirit for the outcome. But tongues I can choose to speak any time - which says something about what they're for. They first come to us at a time in our lives when our hearts are full of the wonder of God, but we lack the ability to express it. God, in His wisdom has given us a language in which we can express fluently all that our hearts want say to Him. It's this overflow of Praise on the Day of Pentecost, and often on subsequent occasions.
We shouldn't be surprised by this. The Holy Spirit reveals Jesus to us. He makes us intimately aware of His presence. He enables us to experience His love, and to know ourselves accepted. He gives us assurance that we really are saved. He enables us to know Jesus and speak with Him. All this produces an overflow of joy that in turn leads to an outburst of praise. That's why, during the Charismatic Renewal of the 60's and 70's, there was a hunger and desire to break out of old rigid forms of worship. Some of you don't know what I'm talking about, do you? Let me remind you…..
"Come To The Meeting"
- just so that you know what a blessed deliverance you've had!
Well, people wanted to break out of this formal, dead, style of worship and to use contemporary songs and spiritual gifts that arose out of our new experience of God. That's why there was a flood of new praise and worship music that continues to this day. The same thing happened during the Wesleyan revival of the 18th century. It's said that Charles Wesley along wrote over 3000 hymns, of which only about 300 survive today.
We need to remind ourselves that the songs themselves are only a means to express this praise. The songs aren't the praise. It's what's going on in our hearts that God is really interested in. Praise proclaims the things God has done. As we recount and rejoice in what we know He has done, our vision of God gets greater. Our faith grows for what He will do in the future. But praise is that place where we say "Over to You, Lord. I surrender this situation to you. I don't know how it's going to work out, but You do, and I'm going to trust you in it." When we praise Him for those difficult situations or unresolved tensions, we release them to Him in a way that frees us from worry & anxiety. I have learned that the turning point in major difficulties has come when I praised God for them.
I suspect that at least half of us here do not feel like praising God in your current circumstances. You might be thinking, "Well, that's fine for them but they weren't going through the problems I've got." Dear friends, try to remember the disciples were not a jolly, carefree band of Believers before Pentecost. They were in hiding a lot of them time, terrified of being arrested. They had personal problems, and relational problems. We're not told that praise was part of their prayers before Pentecost, but we are told it was an unceasing note of their prayers afterwards.
We live today as inheritors of the secret they discovered. The same Holy Spirit who released them in praise; the same Holy Spirit who transformed them from men afraid of own shadows into fearless preachers that no amount of persecution could silence - can do the same things for us. Praise needs to come in advance of the solution - then watch God work things out.
Praising is also an irresistible, magnetic attraction for communicating our faith to others. A praising Christian will not lack opportunities to share their faith. It's why, in our meetings, that heartfelt praise and worship is highly evangelistic. We shouldn't be surprised at this: God inhabits the praises of His people - so where and when we're praising Him, He's promised to be there.
If you've not yet given your life to Jesus, I hope you've felt His presence here this morning. You have a choice before you. You can choose to leave this place changed forever, knowing that God is your Father and because of Jesus, he has forgiven you all your wrong-doing. The other option is to do nothing, and spend all eternity regretting that that's what you did - nothing!
For the rest of us, I can only urge to reach out to God and ask Him to re-fill you, re-baptize you with the Holy Spirit. If you've not received the gift of Tongues - and you'd like to, I'm going to invite you forward, and we're going to pray for you….
