Howdy, Pastor Mark here.
I wanted to say thanks for tuning in and joining us for our sermon series.
We're currently in the Book of Acts.
We're actually going to take a chunk every year after Easter
for the next number of years.
And for those of you who pray for me or for us,
those of you who give to the church, want to say thank you very, very much.
For those of you who'd like to get connected
and be part of the extended Mars Hill family,
go to marshill.com/global, we'll sign you up for a "connect" account.
That'll get you some free resources
and allow you to know what's going on at Mars Hill.
In addition you can also find the study guide for the "Acts" series.
It was put together by a team right here at Mars Hill church.
We've made it very inexpensive.
Any of the proceeds come back to the church, not to me.
And we'd love to have you do a deep study
with us through the Book of Acts.
So we love you, we appreciate you, thank you,
and thanks for signing up for a global account.
Jesus said, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit
"has come upon you,
"and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem
and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth."
What does Jesus' mission look like here?
What's his mission here?
What does Jesus' mission look like here?
What is Jesus' mission here?
How do I know what Jesus' mission is?
Howdy, Mars Hill.
How many of you have attended, visited,
participated in another church other than Mars Hill?
So, many of you.
How many of you, Mars Hill's it?
You're like, "This is where I started, glad to be here."
Glad to have you. Love you.
Glad to have you as well.
What tends to happen is whatever your first church experience is,
that becomes normative for you.
You assume that we're doing it right, and if other churches
are doing it different, then they must be doing it wrong.
And that's not always the case,
but that was at least my experience.
I was raised--some of you know my story.
I was raised Roman Catholic.
I thought, OK, church is very formal.
You kneel and sit and stand and genuflect, and an old--
like, very old--person has to be the preacher.
He's this close to Jesus, so he knows the most, you know?
And that church was supposed to be not very exciting,
not very enthusiastic, not super passionate.
I stopped going to church when I was in my teen years, and then
God saved me in college, and I became a Christian
through the study of the Bible.
And then I had to find a church,
and I had no idea what to look for.
And by God's grace, I ended up in a good, Bible-teaching,
Jesus-loving evangelical church, but it was kind of
a decaf church, you know, like, people would sing
but not really, you know?
There's, like, three kinds of churches:
churches where you sing with your hands at your side,
churches where you sing with one hand up, and churches where
you sing with both hands up. And we were sort of
a hands-down-at-your-side church.
And I didn't know that other churches were not like us until
we had a joint get-together of a lot of churches in the area,
and some churches showed up that were--they called themselves
charismatic or Pentecostal. And they were different.
Before worship, they're stretching, you know,
like, get the hams loosened up, Icy Hot.
You know, like, wow, this is going to get--
this is going to get serious.
You know, they're like, "All right, we're ready to sing;
let's do this."
It's like, "Oh, wow, OK, these guys are plugged in."
I didn't know that it was like aerobics for Jesus.
This is amazing.
And so when it came time to sing, man, they sang.
Like, we sang in our hearts; they sang with their mouths.
They were in it to win it. And they were clapping,
and on beat.
Just pray about that, Mars Hill-- something for us to consider.
They were very enthusiastic.
They'd shout.
They'd cheer.
During the preacher's sermon,
they felt inclined to participate.
"You bet ya!" "Go get 'em!"
"Raise him up!" "Amen!"
"Say it again!"
I was like, "Wow,
this is like the Apollo.
This is like BET.
This is fantastic!"
And then there was a point in the service
where the band stopped playing.
I don't know if the lead guy broke a guitar string or what.
There was downtime, and these folks thought,
"We'll fill it." And they did:
they just started talking out loud very enthusiastically
in a language I had never heard,
and I did not know what was going on.
And everybody was nice, and I talked to them.
They loved Jesus. They believed the Bible.
I just didn't know what was going on.
I thought, "Well, I wonder if we're wrong or they're wrong."
And the answer is--what does the Bible say?
And so, some of you are going to come into Mars Hill like,
"It's not like my old church."
Maybe your old church was wrong, or maybe we're wrong, or maybe
it's flexibility and God is approving of both.
The only way we really discover how the church should be is
not taking our experience and making it normative,
but going to the Word of God and seeing what the will of God is.
So, if you've got a Bible,
go with me to Acts chapter 2, verses 1-13.
We're going to look at the fact of being empowered by the Spirit
to follow Jesus, and we're going to look at one of the most
debated issues in church theology--and that is,
Should we speak in tongues?
What should services look like?
What happens when we come together?
We're going to get into all of this today.
This will be a pretty thorough sermon that we can refer back to
as this issue comes up again in the ensuing weeks and months
and years in the book of Acts.
And let me preface by saying that here's where we find
ourselves in the story:
Jesus is God become a man, lived without sin, went to the cross,
died in our place for our sins as our substitute Savior,
was buried, 3 days later on a Sunday
he rose from death conquering Satan, sin, death, hell,
the wrath of God.
Acts chapter 1 tells us that he appeared for 40 days,
evidencing his resurrection with many proofs.
He then told his disciples,
"Do not go out and start your ministry yet.
You need to wait."
Acts 1:8, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you.
"He will come with power so that you can be my witnesses--
Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth--
your city, your state, your nation, your country,
the nations of the earth. That's what he's talking about.
He then ascended into heaven,
and then it tells us at the end of Acts 1
that for 10 days, they prayed, they studied the Bible,
they prepared their leadership, they prepared themselves.
And today we see Jesus' promise of the coming of the Holy Spirit
being fulfilled in Acts chapter 2.
And this is important:
just as the Holy Spirit descended on Jesus
at his baptism in Luke's Gospel to anoint
and appoint him for ministry,
so here Jesus is going to send the Holy Spirit on his people
so that we can follow in the ministry of Jesus
by the power of Jesus.
Let's read it together beginning in Acts chapter 2,
verses 1-3, where we learn that the Holy Spirit
empowers Christians for ministry:
"When the day of Pentecost arrived,
they were all together in one place"--
so it's a church meeting of about 120 people--
"And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like"--
"like"--and this is important:
the Bible here is telling us something that happened;
it's explaining a supernatural, miraculous event.
But it's unusual.
Have you been in a situation where you saw or experienced
something that was altogether new for you--
you're trying to figure out how to explain it to somebody else,
say, "Well, it's kind of like this and it's kind of like that,
but it's not like this and it's not like that."
When you hear that language, what you're supposed to
understand is that the Bible here is straining to explain
the supernatural in the constraints
of human language.
So it was "like," it was "like a mighty rushing wind,
"and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.
And divided tongues, as of fire"--again,
it's "like" fire;
it's as of fire—"appeared to them and rested
on each of them."
So the timing is Pentecost-- this is a Jewish holiday.
Before this, there was a major holiday
called Passover,
and it was celebrating God's deliverance of his people from
slavery and bondage in Egypt through the shedding
of the blood of a substitutionary lamb,
which all prefigured the coming of Jesus,
our Passover lamb who has been slain,
that through him, it is through his shed blood that we receive
our redemption, our Exodus, our liberation
from Satan, sin, and death.
And they celebrated it and then 50 days later--50, "pente,"--
50 days later, it was Pentecost.
So this is 50 days after the Passover,
and they're meeting in Jerusalem around the temple,
and the presence of God in the Holy of Holies
and the people of God are together.
The first believers in Jesus are gathered as the first church--
about 120--and the Holy Spirit descends on them.
He comes to empower them as he came to empower Jesus
so that they might be on his mission,
and they might be on his mission by his power.
I want you to see that.
And he comes "like" the wind and he comes "like" a fire.
When he comes like the wind,
you and I are supposed to see this as power.
For those of you who have any time in, where I live,
Seattle, you go to a beach during the winter,
it's different than like Mars Hill Orange County.
Mars Hill Orange County can go to the beach during the winter.
"Oh, it's what—-you're wearing a tank top and flip-flops."
In Seattle, no.
Gale-force winds--your face is getting sandblasted off.
If you don't hold on to something,
you will gown down the beach like a tumble weed,
And you have to wear boots and a parka,
and you can only be out for 30 seconds,
no more, OK?
It's because of the gale-force winds, amen?
Some of you didn't know that when you moved to Seattle.
You're like, "Oh, I'm going to go to the beach."
Just once, and then you'll learn your lesson.
And what you see is that the wind comes with power.
It overwhelms; it overtakes.
It's this all-consuming unstoppable force.
God the Holy Spirit is a person, but his power is like that.
I'll give you an illustration.
Some years ago, we had spring break and I thought,
"Oh, it will be fun.
"We'll go down the coast toward Oregon,
"and we'll take the family.
And we'll go stay in a place by the beach." And then I had, sort of,
visions of building sandcastles and family time on the beach.
Well, it didn't work like that.
We got there and the rain was coming down sideways,
the winds were like gale force, white caps, and it was raining,
so we're stuck indoors.
And so, if you live in the Northwest,
what you wait for is something called a sunbreak.
It not really a sunbreak; it just stops raining for a second
and you run outside and pretend like it's a sunbreak.
And so, we did that on a few occasions with the kids,
and finally the kids were like,
"Dad, this kind of isn't awesome."
I noticed that.
What could we do to make it awesome?
What can we do?
And then I thought, "Buy kites."
Let's just work with these gale-force winds on the beach.
So I went and got these very serious kites,
not like a Hello Kitty kite but a real kite,
a couple of real kites.
And I took my kids out to the beach, and it was honestly
one of the most memorable moments of my life.
My kids--and all of a sudden, these dead kites, they're alive.
These dead kites are soaring, and they're dancing.
And I look over, my daughter Alexie, who's now 9--
this was a couple years ago-- she is dancing with a kite.
I will not do anymore dancing, but you can--you're welcome.
You can envision it in your mind's eye: a beautiful
little girl dancing with a kite,
and the kite is dancing in the wind.
And I took photos, and I just thought,
"Oh, this is sort of a sacred moment."
I walk up to Alexie, I say, "What are you doing?"
She said, "The kite is dancing, and I am dancing as well."
The Holy Spirit is like that.
He fills the believer.
He lifts the believer.
He brings life into the believer. And the believer's life now
is one that is dancing with the power of God.
It's like that.
He comes like wind and fire.
We know it's like fire 'cause if their heads were on fire,
this would not be good news, right?
But it's like tongues of fire resting upon their head.
And fire is most appreciated when it is cold and dark, amen?
You and I, we love fires the most when it's cold and dark.
You're out hiking, hunting, camping.
It's dark, and it's cold.
You really appreciate a fire because it illuminates.
You can see.
It brings warmth and life and heat.
The Holy Spirit is like that.
Our lives and our world, they are cold, and they are dark.
And the Holy Spirit comes to illuminate Jesus
and to warm our hearts to love him.
I want you to think of this every time you enjoy a fire.
I'm one who particularly enjoys a good fire.
I love to chop wood.
I love to stack wood.
I love to make a fire.
I love to stoke a fire.
I love to sit by a fire, and my 7-year-old son, Gideon,
he's like his Papa Daddy.
So he has become my fire-starter helper.
And we chop wood together.
We stack wood together.
We build fires together.
We do this in the fireplace during the winter,
and then all my kids hang out.
We visit and play games 'cause there's life and warmth
around a fire. And a fire attracts a crowd;
everybody wants to be there.
The last time Gideon and I made a fire was last night.
It was warm and decent out, and so we built a fire outside,
and we sat outside until it got dark,
and we kept stoking the fire and chopping wood.
And I got to enjoy my little buddy's company because a fire
brings illumination and warmth.
And we particularly enjoy fires, don't we,
when it's cold and it's dark?
And so these are the outward symbols--metaphors--
that the Holy Spirit is using to reveal his internal working.
He fills us like a kite.
He warms us like a fire.
He sets us ablaze for the truth of God,
and he illuminates the world in which we live.
So all of this happens on this day of Pentecost.
So a couple of things I want to share with you briefly
as we examine this together.
Number one, Jesus' mission is not to take us from the world
but to join us in the world by the power and presence
of the Holy Spirit.
Number two, Jesus' mission does not send us to a holy place--
a temple or Mecca-- but instead
Jesus sends the Holy Spirit to make us a holy place,
individually and corporately as God's people.
Number three, Jesus' mission requires that the Holy Spirit
sometimes works loudly and publicly, but other times,
quietly and privately.
Here, the Holy Spirit's going to work loudly and publicly,
but he's not limited to working in that way.
I'll give you another example from the Driscoll home
last night.
Alexie, my youngest daughter
very, very, very rarely has a bad dream
or a night terror or any trouble sleeping.
Last night she did.
She thought she saw something and she was scared,
and so she was crying and she was struggling.
Well, Grace went in and held her and kissed her and loved her and
prayed over her and prayed that the Holy Spirit would comfort
her and guard her thoughts and guard her mind
and guard her dreams.
And the Holy Spirit answered that prayer.
And Grace and the Holy Spirit tucked Alexie in bed
and she slept soundly-- no more problems.
Sometimes he comes like a hurricane,
and sometimes he tucks scared little girls into bed
so they can get a good night's sleep.
Number four, Jesus' mission requires that you, individually,
and we, corporately, be filled with the Holy Spirit.
We can't be who Jesus has made us to be,
we can't do what Jesus has called us to do unless we
are filled by the power and the presence of the person
of the Holy Spirit.
And so, I want you to understand that the Bible talks about us
being baptized in the Holy Spirit.
You're going to read this language.
That happens once at conversion when you become a Christian.
Ephesians 1 talks about being sealed with the Holy Spirit.
All right, this is a one-time event
when you become a Christian.
And then you're going to read it with me in Acts 2
and you're going to read it repeatedly
in the remainder of Acts
and other places like Ephesians 5,
where the Bible talks about
believers being filled with the Holy Spirit.
Filled with the Holy Spirit.
And there is one baptism and there are multiple fillings,
and this is empowering.
So, let's say you're a new Christian,
you want to figure out what your gifts are to serve Jesus.
You're asking the Holy Spirit to fill you and to show you
what your ministry is.
Let's say you're going to get married.
You're asking the Holy Spirit to fill you so that now you
can learn to be a loving and faithful spouse.
You're pregnant and now you want to be parents,
and it's a great season.
You're asking the Holy Spirit to fill you so you can have that
God-given instinct to love and to lead your children
to the glory of God.
You're struggling, you're suffering, you're sick,
you're hurting, you're asking the Holy Spirit to fill you, that
you might persevere and through your sufferings learn more about
Jesus and become more like Jesus.
There are multiple fillings, and there is one occasion
on which the believer is baptized.
That being said, we're now going to look at what happens
as they are filled with the Holy Spirit
to use the language of the Bible.
And what we learn is, first off,
that the Holy Spirit empowers Christian for ministry.
And then secondly, we learn that the Holy Spirit
overcomes gospel barriers.
It's long, but read with me,
Acts chapter 2, verses 4-11:
"And they were all"--what?
"Filled with the Holy Spirit."
So here's a filling.
Here's a moment of filling.
"And began to speak in other tongues."
You heard of tongues?
Kind of controversial.
Churches have divided over it.
Denominations debate over it.
We're going to discuss it.
"As the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now, they were dwelling in Jerusalem"--
they're all together for this feast--
"Jews devoted men from every nation under heaven.
"And at this sound,
the multitude came together"--it's like the wind
was almost like a siren that summoned everyone together--
"And they were bewildered"--
this is something supernatural.
"Because each one was hearing him speak in his own language."
Circle that in your Bible, "language."
When the Bible talks of tongues, sometimes it talks about
the physical organ in our mouth, sometimes it talks about
an angelic, heavenly language.
Sometimes it talks about a known earthly language,
and here it's talking about a known earthly language.
"And they were amazed and astonished, saying,
'Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans?'"
The Galileans were rural folk.
They were country folk, fishermen, and farmers--
not highly educated.
Imagine someone who is not formally educated, from an area
that is far away from a city, comes to a city
and, all of a sudden,
has this capacity to speak in another language
with perfect pronunciation,
no mistakes, and clear articulation.
Say, "Well, that's unexpected.
"I did not anticipate that Uncle Sy knew Portuguese.
I did not see that coming."
All right, it was a miraculous moment.
And then the story continues.
"And how is it that we hear,
each of us in his own native language?"
And then it lists these groups of people--
"Parthians and Medes
"and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia,
"Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
"Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt,
"the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,
both Jews and proselytes"--
Gentiles who had converted to the Jewish faith--"Cretans
"and Arabians--we hear them telling in our own tongues"--
or languages-- "the mighty works of God."
So there are two barriers here.
There are two barriers: one is location, the other is language.
And here's the big idea:
the Holy Spirit absolutely loves Jesus.
The third member of the Trinity
loves the second member of the Trinity,
and the Holy Spirit loves people made in the image
and likeness of God.
And the Holy Spirit, because of his love,
he wants people to meet Jesus,
amen?
That's what we believe, right, Mars Hill?
What's the Holy Spirit doing?
Well, the primary thing he's doing
is introducing people to Jesus,
people that he loves-- introducing them to Jesus,
whom he's always loved.
Now, there are barriers.
There are barriers that need to be overcome
for people to meet Jesus.
One is location.
So the Holy Spirit overcomes location by waiting until
the day of Pentecost when people have come from multiple nations
to one location.
And if you looked at a modern-day map,
they're coming from Iran, Turkey, North Africa, Crete,
Rome, Arabia, Egypt, Syria,
across various smaller parts of the Middle East,
and also Israel, and parts that we would perhaps call
the Holy Land.
So these people are all coming together, and he waits
until they're all in one place.
And if they meet Jesus and are filled with the Holy Spirit
and then return home, they return home as missionaries.
Want you to see, Mars Hill, that we do believe that churches
should be planted everywhere, but we have a particular
affinity for those crossroads where people groups and nations
come together.
Wherever there's an airport, wherever there's a college,
wherever there's a major city, wherever people,
goods, and ideas flow to and from,
we believe that's a strategic place for the gospel
to be preached and for a church to be planted,
because from there, you can reach the nations.
So, for example, over by Mars Hill UW,
the nations have come to the University of Washington,
and if they meet Jesus,
they go home as missionaries back to their
country of origin.
Mars Hill Rainier Valley's in the most diverse ZIP code
in the United States of America.
People have come from all over the world and they are living
there, and if they meet Jesus, they still know the language,
culture, and have the familial connections back to their
native language and their native land.
So there's an opportunity for them to be witnesses
and missionaries there as well.
In Mars Hill Albuquerque, if people meet Jesus,
there's an opportunity to influence down into Mexico
because many would find their history there.
This is the kind of thing that the Holy Spirit has always done.
He's always liked to show up in places where there are diverse
groups of people because his love is for all the nations.
And he overcomes the location barrier in this way.
Secondly, there is the language barrier, and these people
have different languages.
They can't communicate with one another.
Perhaps you've had this frustration.
How many of you have traveled internationally,
and you don't speak the language?
And it's just really frustrating
'cause it's hard to get anything done.
Or perhaps there's someone that has come to your place
of employment or your education
or your neighborhood and you really want to love them
and serve them and help them,
but they don't know English and you don't know their language.
And it's really hard to figure out how to get that relationship
sorted out because the communication barrier's
a very real one.
That was the case here.
They come from different nations,
and they speak different languages.
So how would the Holy Spirit overcome that barrier, to connect
people with Jesus, because he loves them both?
That leads us into the discussion of something
called tongues.
You heard of it?
How many of you have heard of this debate?
OK, it's a big debate.
It's going to occur repeatedly in the book of Acts
where people speak in tongues.
So let me do one big sermon that we can refer back to later,
and as new people come, we can encourage them to listen
to this sermon.
You may want to take notes on this.
And what I would say, whatever your church experience is,
for a moment, set it aside and let's see what the Bible
has to say and if that doesn't bring us
to a place of agreement.
Let me make this as simple as I can.
And let me say this: when I first became a Christian,
I was totally confused by this issue.
I did not understand it.
I read one book that said people who speak in tongues
are basically demon-possessed.
I was like, "Oh, then I'm against it."
Then I read another one that said, "No,
"they're filled with the Holy Spirit
and they love Jesus the most."
I was like, "Well, then I'm for it."
I'm so confused. I was so confused.
And I studied and read and studied and read.
In the grace of God, I've come in to a position that I believe
is biblical and I believe it is practical and I believe it is
helpful, and it's a great honor to teach you today
after a lot of years of intense study.
And if I could summarize it, I believe that when the Bible
speaks of tongues, it does so in two primary ways:
one that is private and one that is public.
And I believe the confusion happens when the public
goes private or the private goes public.
I believe that's where the confusion occurs.
And so, let me look with you in the Bible
and what we're going to do,
we're going to move from Acts, which is the historical record
of what happened, to 1 Corinthians, where there's
some theological explanation of these things.
1 Corinthians chapters 12-14 are primarily on what
is called spiritual gifts, which includes this gift of tongues,
or languages.
And one more thing I will say: for those who have this gift of
praying or singing or speaking in tongues,
in 1 Corinthians 14:15 it says it manifests itself with praying
and singing. And singing.
It says, "if I speak in tongues or if I sing in my spirit."
OK, I want you to know that sometimes you're going to
experience God in ways that are supernatural,
in ways that are unusual, in ways that are unique.
And what this does is it humbles us.
What this does is it shows us that, though God has called us
to love him with all of our mind, our mind has
certain limitations; we need some humility--
and that God is not just an idea to be pondered.
He's a person to be enjoyed.
And to that end, I want to talk about the first use of tongues
biblically, and that is a private, unknown,
heavenly language for prayer, OK?
Private, meaning something you do with the Holy Spirit,
not necessarily in public.
Unknown--this is not a known language of the earth;
it's a heavenly language;
it's the language of the angels, and this is what some would call
their prayer language.
1 Corinthians 13:1, Paul says, "If I speak in the tongues
of men and of angels."
Here's my question to you:
what's the official language of heaven?
I have not been there.
Apparently, it's some angel language.
See, we on earth have languages so we can communicate.
Angels are created beings who dwell in the presence of God,
and they are ministers and messengers,
and they communicate with one another.
We see in places like Isaiah 6, they actually sing out loud
and they worship God--
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty."
So apparently the angels communicate with God
and one another in a language that is a heavenly language.
Apparently, God's kingdom has a language. Just like
the nations of the earth have primary languages,
so the kingdom of God has a language.
Now, some of you say, "This is very supernatural."
Yes.
OK, we're dealing here in the miraculous.
We're dealing in the supernatural.
We're dealing with the presence of God.
We're getting a glimpse into how things work in God's presence
with the angels.
I want you to have some sense of how majestic and wonderful and
amazing it is that we even get to know about these things.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels,
but have not love, I'm a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal."
What he's saying is, it doesn't matter how gifted you are,
if you're not loving.
He also says,
1 Corinthians 14, verses 2 and 4,
"For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God."
If he was speaking to men, that would be public.
Not speaking to men, speaking to God--that would be private.
God knows what he's saying.
The Holy Spirit knows what he's saying.
If people listened in, they would not know what
he or she was saying.
"For no one understands him"--all right,
this is the language of the angels--
"but he utters mysteries in the Spirit.
"The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself,
but the one who prophesies builds up the church."
He's distinguishing here between public and private use of what
is called spiritual gifts.
These are supernatural endowments and enablements by
the power of the Holy Spirit.
There's lists of them-- 1 Peter 4, Ephesians 4,
1 Corinthians 12, Romans 12-- that list these spiritual gifts.
What he's saying is, some edify us.
They build us up personally.
Others are to be used publicly for the building up of others.
And here's what we want for you: we want you to have a private,
personal, passionate relationship with Jesus.
We want you to have a public congregational, corporate,
passionate relationship with Jesus.
We want you to worship Jesus all by yourself and with us.
That's what he's talking about.
And so there is this private, unknown,
heavenly language for prayer, OK?
For those of you who feel comfortable, how many of you,
you have this gift?
You're like, "I know what we're talking about.
"I pray in tongues.
This is my time with the Lord."
I asked this question of the senior leaders at
Mars Hill Church recently on a training day--
just threw it out there out of curiosity:
"How many of you have a private, angelic,
heavenly prayer language or singing language of tongues?"
Maybe half or more of the senior leaders raised their hands.
So maybe the majority, or around the majority,
of the senior leaders in Mars Hill Church--
this is their private, personal, passionate worship connection
with the Lord through the Holy Spirit.
You know what's beautiful?
It's never been divisive at Mars Hill.
We've never fought, argued.
This has never been an issue because of spiritual maturity.
There's never a problem with spiritual gifts.
Sometimes the problems are around spiritual maturity.
If you're not spiritually mature,
then the gift becomes divisive.
If you are spiritually mature,
then the gift does not have to become divisive.
Now, what I would say is, we don't believe that those who
have this particular gift have more of the Holy Spirit
than other people.
Some would say, "Well, if you don't speak in tongues,
you don't even have the Holy Spirit."
I actually experienced this not long ago.
At a conference, I had a woman come up, she said,
"Do you speak in tongues?"
I was like, "No, I have never spoken in tongues."
She said, "It's amazing how much you've gotten done
without the Holy Spirit."
I was like, really?
Wow, wow, all right?
I said, "Well . . ." Here's what I would say: everything good,
the Holy Spirit did.
Everything else, I did.
OK, that's my theology.
All the mess-ups--that was me.
Anybody got saved, the Bible got taught,
the gospel moved forward-- that was the Holy Spirit.
We don't believe that we can do ministry
but by the power of the Holy Spirit.
So, for those of you who are in Mars Hill and you say,
"You know what?
This is my gift, or one of my gifts," welcome, we love you,
God bless you.
We see it in the Bible, and we want to affirm that.
For those of you who don't have it, you're like me.
For so many reasons, I apologize for that--but that may not be how
God has gifted you.
And here's what I have said-- I've said, "Lord, you know,
"if you ever want to give the gift,
give me the gift of speaking Spanish."
All right?
'Cause I would love to be able to be bilingual.
OK, now that leads me to the next right use of tongues,
it's the Rosetta Stone spiritual gift.
The second right use of tongues
is a public known earthly language for evangelism.
And this is exactly what we just read
in Acts chapter 2.
These people love Jesus.
These people have not yet heard about Jesus and they speak
different languages.
So the Holy Spirit will allow the people who do know Jesus
to talk the people who don't yet know Jesus so that they can have
an opportunity to come and meet Jesus.
All right, this is a bilingual gift and when we say tongues,
people get confused, so let's just call it languages
'cause the word literally means languages.
And again, with the growing number of people who speak
Spanish, if the Holy Spirit wants to give me this gift,
that would be amazing if I could also preach in Spanish.
But here's how we read it, Acts chapter 2, verse 8:
"And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own"--what?
"Native language?"
Do you see that that's different than the language of angels?
That's an unknown heavenly language.
Here is a known earthly language: Portuguese, Chinese,
English, Spanish. That's what we're talking about,
a known earthly language.
And what this is here, this is God overcoming something that
happened earlier in the Bible and foreshadowing something
that happens later in the Bible.
In the first ten chapters of the Bible,
everybody spoke the same language, and then in chapter 11,
something happened called the Tower of Babel.
You probably heard about it, and it's where everyone spoke one
language and they decided, "We don't need God or his kingdom.
"We can be God with our own kingdom and, in fact,
"we'll build ourselves a tower so we can sit on top of it
like God and rule and reign from the heavens."
Their vision was a global government without God,
in rebellion against God, where people were ruled over
by leaders who thought they were God.
Can you fathom that world?
You're talking about absolute, total oppression of the earth.
And it was made possible because they all spoke one language.
And so what it says is that God judged them,
but it was also an act of love and God scattered them
and he confused their languages.
And Genesis 11 says that's when languages were born
as we know them.
It's to protect people and to love people, because
the only thing worst than conflict between two nations is
one nation that thinks it's the kingdom of God with a ruler,
who thinks he's God and has total control over everyone
on the earth, without any opportunity to unseat them.
So, what happens then is we have the language barrier.
Here in Acts 2,
we see that the way we overcome the language barrier,
the national barrier, the cultural barrier,
is by coming around Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit--
that the nations are not unified just around multiculturalism or
some vague commitment to peace or to mutual understanding
but around Jesus, by the power of the Holy Spirit.
And this foreshadows Revelation 7:9-10
where it says, "In the kingdom of God
"eternally they'll be gathered around the throne of Jesus--
"people from every tribe, language, tongue--
"group of people and that we'll all be singing Jesus'
"praises together.
And he's in the center, and he's on the throne."
And I believe that we'll be singing that heavenly language,
and that the language barriers will be no more.
And so, what's happening in Acts 2 is, the Holy Spirit
is showing Jesus has dealt with a sin problem, and this unity and
reconciliation and supernatural love between people is
ultimately going to be that way forever in the kingdom of God.
How many of you at this point have questions about tongues?
You got a few questions?
Every time we hit this issue,
there's always a lot of questions,
as I said initially, oftentimes because of your
church background and experience.
So, let me take what I find to be the three most common questions
about tongues and answer them in succession.
Number one, can every Christian have the gift of tongues?
If you're from what is called a more Pentecostal background--
of course, they take that from Pentecost,
which we are studying-- then they would say,
"Everybody should speak in tongues, and if you want to know
if you have the Holy Spirit, you have to speak in tongues."
You say, "Well, where do I get tongues?"
Usually the answer is, come forward,
pastor or leader up front will lay hands on you,
and you're going to get the Holy Ghost,
and you're going to speak in other tongues,
and we'll give it to ya right here.
Is that possible?
Should everyone speak in tongues?
Is it even possible for us all to have this ability?
Paul addresses this in 1 Corinthians 12,
verses 8-11.
He says, "For to one is given through the Spirit . . . various kinds
"of tongues"--or languages, heavenly or earthly—"to another,
"the interpretation of tongues"--
the ability to articulate in the other language
what has been said in the foreign language.
"All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit,
who apportions to each one individually as he wills."
Here's what he's saying: somebody can do this
and somebody can do that, but not everybody gets to do
the same thing.
And you don't have to come forward for the leader
in the church, for the pastor to give you the gift
because we don't do that.
Who gives the gift?
Look at this.
It's right here in this book I found:
"All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit,
who apportions to each individually as he wills."
The Holy Spirit says, "You're going to be an administrator."
"You're going to be a leader."
"You're going to be an encourager."
"You're going to have the gift prayer language of tongues."
"You're going to have the missionary gift of tongues
"to go out and help people meet Jesus
"you don't even know their language of."
"You have the gift of healing.
"You're going to start praying for sick people,
"and God's going to hear and answer that prayer."
"You have the gift of evangelism.
"You're going to go talk to lost people.
They're going to meet Jesus."
And the whole context in 1 Corinthians 12-14
is that Paul uses his favorite analogy for the church, and that
is, the church is like a body.
And his point is, well, we need our fingers and our toes
and our ears and our eyes and our nose.
And a body's not healthy if it has all of these parts
and none of those parts.
And so it is with the church body.
Everybody should accept the fact that Jesus has sent
the Holy Spirit to give them
whatever ministry endowment--called a gift--
that is best for the church and just be who you are
and do what you are supposed to do, right?
A football team doesn't need 10 quarterbacks.
A plane doesn't need 27 pilots.
It needs everybody to do their part and find their place
and be part of the greater mission.
So it is with Jesus' mission to reach the nations of the earth.
And also, I would say, there is no evidence that
the Lord Jesus Christ ever spoke in tongues.
There's no evidence.
The Bible never tells us.
It does say that he was filled with the Holy Spirit.
I mean, Jesus was perfectly, continually filled, empowered
by the Holy Spirit. But it never tells us
that he spoke in tongues.
It doesn't mean he didn't.
He had private prayer time with the Father.
We don't have any record of exactly what happened there,
but I think we go out to the very, very end
of the limb to say, those who have the Holy Spirit
all receive the same gift, even if we don't see it
in the Lord Jesus
or we don't see it in the teaching of the Bible.
So if you're here and you say, "Well, I have this gift,"
praise God. Not everyone does.
Don't judge them or look down on them or think that you're
more spiritual than they are because you're not.
All right, everybody gets the gift that the Holy Spirit
gives them, and we need to humbly use that for the building up
of the whole church.
Does that make sense?
So, some of you here, you're like,
"I wish I could get the gift."
Well, you can ask. And the Holy Spirit may say yes;
he may say no.
Second question, does Mars Hill Church believe that
the gift of tongues is for today?
OK, there are two positions on this.
One is called Cessationism.
Cessationism teaches that certain supernatural,
miraculous gifts ceased around the turn of the first century
after the Bible was completed in its writing.
The other is Continuationism, and that is that all of
the supernatural, spiritual gifts continue.
Until this day, they have not yet ceased.
Let me say a few things about this, and then we'll look at
1 Corinthians 13.
We agree with a Cessationist that there will come a time
when certain spiritual gifts cease, OK?
For example, the gift of evangelism.
Do you think we're going to need that in heaven?
How many of you are evangelists? You're like,
"I love non-Christians.
When I talk to them, they give their life to Jesus.
It's amazing."
When we get to heaven, the gift of evangelism is not going to be
as needed as it is now.
You're like, "I'm going to go out and find the lost people."
There aren't any. This is the kingdom of God.
Everybody here already loves Jesus.
"Oh."
So, evangelism comes to an end.
So those with the gift of evangelism,
they're going to need to find something else to do, all right?
If you're walking around on the street handing out tracks,
"Do you know the Lord?" "Yes, I do."
"Do you know the Lord?" "Yes, I--"
"I need to find something else to do.
Everyone here knows the Lord," OK?
So, we agree with the Cessationists that certain gifts
will come to an end like the gift of healing.
You think in heaven you're going to be like,
"I'll pray for the guy with cancer.
Oh, that's right-- no more cancer."
You won't need the gift of healing in the kingdom of God
'cause there won't be any sickness.
So, we agree with the Cessationists that yes,
certain gifts, at least, they're going to cease.
They're going to cease.
Where we disagree with the Cessationists and we agree
with the Continuationists is when they cease.
We believe that all of the gifts continue until
one very important transitionary moment
in the history of the world.
We read about it here,
1 Corinthians 13, verses 8-12.
Love never ends, right?
Certain spiritual gifts we're not going to need them
in heaven, but love continues forever.
So even when the gifts end, the love continues.
As for prophesies, they will pass away.
As for tongues, that could be the heavenly or the earthly--
I suppose, at the very least, the earthly.
They will what?
Cease.
And again that position is Cessationism.
When, when does it cease?
When does tongues conclude?
When is it over, right?
What's the expiration date on the box for tongues?
When's it over?
Was it over in the first century
or is it not over yet?
What's the answer?
Well, let's read the book that the Holy Spirit wrote.
"When the perfect comes, the partial will pass away."
The Cessationists then say,
"And the perfect is the perfect Word of God.
"Now that we have the perfect Word of God,
"we don't need certain supernatural, miraculous,
spiritual gifts."
OK, Mars Hill, do we believe that the Word of God is perfect?
Absolutely.
But the perfect being spoken of there is not the conclusion of
the writing of the Bible.
Read with me.
"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face."
Oh, so the perfect has a face.
The perfect has a face.
Well, who are we talking about now?
OK, just so you know, one perfect guy, OK?
Let's all say it together.
His name?
Nailed it. Good job, Mars Hill.
OK, so one perfect guy shows up and we see him face to face--
that's the Bible's language for friendship.
So when do these gifts cease?
When?
When Jesus comes back, when we see him face to face.
So the Cessationists are right:
certain gifts will come to an end.
But the Cessationists are wrong--
that end has not yet come.
And the Continuationists are right--that all the gifts
continue until we see him face to face,
until Jesus comes again.
"Now I know in part; then I shall know fully,
even as I have been fully known."
What he says is between now and then,
we're going to have a lot of questions,
but when Jesus comes back,
it's all going to get cleared up.
It's all going to make sense.
So you struggling, suffering believers,
be persevering believers, and when you see Jesus face to face,
everything's going to make sense.
It's all going to come together.
You just got to hang in there and be patient and live by faith
until your faith becomes sight and you see him face to face.
So, we do believe that the gift of tongues and all of the gifts
continue until this very day.
It's absolutely what we believe.
Now, what happens is some will come along and say,
"But those gifts are very abused!
"They're misused!
"Tongues and prophesy, these things--
"they're misused and abused,
therefore we should get rid of them."
My answer is, all spiritual gifts have been used
and abused and misused.
For example, the gift of teaching.
There's been a lot of false teaching, a lot of bad teaching,
and the answer is not, "Well, there has been bad teaching,
so let us get rid of teaching."
The answer is, "There's been bad teaching, so let's have
Bible teaching."
If gifts have been misused, they should not be rejected:
they should be used biblically to give God's people
a faithful alternative.
Amen?
So we don't want to just have the gifts;
we want to use them in the way that the Holy Spirit governs,
according to the Scriptures that he has written.
Third question, what happens when the public--or excuse me,
read it again.
What happens when the private use of tongues goes public?
This is where all the confusion comes in.
1 Corinthians 14:27, "If any speak in a tongue or a language,
"let there be only two or at the most three,
and each in turn, and let someone interpret."
So, let's say you've got a private prayer language
of tongues, and all of a sudden, we're together.
It's a meeting, the church is together, and you say,
"I feel like God wants me to speak,
and he has something to say."
The answer is?
Two or three at the most, one at a time.
No, "Ready, set, go--crazy."
Crazy.
Whoo! Right?
Holy Ghost time.
Grab a flag, grab a tambourine, right?
Go!
No, OK?
Two or three at the most,
and an interpreter, because if you're saying something
and nobody knows what you're saying,
somebody needs to interpret and say, "Well,
here's what's being said," to make sure it's not wrong.
And if that's not the case, then go home and enjoy that at home,
OK?
Let me say it this way--how many of you have things you do
in private that don't work in public?
OK, chuckle, chuckle, chuckle.
What will Mark say now?
Something not governed by the Holy Spirit, I'm sure.
It's going to be hilarious,
and we're going to get picketed again.
So, here's what I will do.
I will submit to the Holy Spirit
and just leave that ball on the tee, OK?
But I will tell you a story.
OK, so I was at Starbucks.
I was at Starbucks.
You may have heard of these.
I know there's Mars Hill churches everywhere,
not like Starbucks.
I was sitting in a Starbucks and in walks a young gal,
maybe college, career, just seems like a normal, nice gal,
gets her drink, sits down in one of those big,
sort of oversized like plushy velour chairs.
Takes her shoes off, takes her socks off,
puts her feet up on the chair,
pulls out a toenail clipper--
plink, plink, plink, plink, OK?
OK, is she sinning?
No.
But this is the wrong place, right?
That's what I told her.
I said, "Excuse me, miss."
Literally, as I saw her toenail go flying by.
I was like, "OK, oh, we've now find the line. There it is."
We've crossed it, OK.
"Excuse me, miss."
"Yes?"
"This is a huge planet.
This could be done elsewhere."
The Holy Spirit didn't say that; I did.
But that's what I--OK, true or false,
there are certain things that privately, totally fine;
publicly, not appropriate.
So it is spiritually.
What he's saying here is, if you want to take your private thing
and make it public, well, here, OK, two or three at the most,
with an interpreter under spiritual leadership.
You can't just do whatever you want when the church
all gets together.
OK, give me some other examples.
How many of you in your car, you love to sing Christian music
to Jesus, and you sing it, OK?
And it should never leave your car.
Like, no one else should be included, right?
So, you're home and you're like--
you're just rocking out to Jesus.
And you show up in church, you're like, "Oh, they got a mic.
Yes, they have a mic!"
Not for you. Not for you, OK?
Not for you because that's private, not public.
You're saying, "But I am so edified."
Yes, but we are so horrified that you should just
do that for--Jesus can take it, right?
The rest of us, we just, we don't have that pain threshold,
OK?
And I'll use myself.
I love to study.
I nerd out. I love books.
Right, if the Rapture comes, I'm grabbing all my books
and I'm taking book shelves, Whoo.
I love my books, but you don't need to watch me study, OK?
I'm personally privately edified by study.
If you saw me, I smile,
I'm happy.
Sometimes I'll even break out in song.
I'll pray.
I got my Bible open, I got all my books open--
love the smell of books.
But see, that doesn't need to happen in church on Sunday.
You say, "Oh, Mark's going to study for 10 hours.
"We're all going to sit there and watch him.
"Oh, he flipped another page. He grabbed another book.
What a nerd."
You don't need to--that's me, not you.
That's me, not us.
That's private, not public.
That's personal, not public, right?
You get that?
And the problem becomes, you take your private and you go public.
You're like, "Whoo!
No, go home. OK, yay," OK?
Now, what happens when that doesn't happen?
Well, Paul talks about it in 1 Corinthians 14:18-23:
"I thank God that I speak in tongues."
Paul spoke in tongues, right?
Paul spoke in tongues.
Sometimes I hear this--people are like,
"We don't need things like tongues.
We just need to study the Word that Paul wrote."
But Paul spoke in tongues.
Anyways, "I thank God that I speak in tongues more than
"all of you.
Nevertheless, in the church"-- the public--
"I would rather speak five words with my mind
in order to instruct others"-- to help them--
"than ten thousand words in a tongue.
If, therefore, the whole church comes together"--
here's the public meeting-- "and all speak in tongues,
"and outsiders or unbelievers enter,
will they not say that you are out of your mind?"
Welcome to Out-of-Mind Bible Church, right?
Have you been to Out-of-Mind Bible Church, right?
You thought, "Oh, I'm going to go get my coworker,
"Johnny.
"Johnny, come on, come to church with me.
"Come on, come on, Johnny, here it is.
"Oh, we're going to go out to coffee.
You know, we're going to go out to coffee," right?
'Cause Johnny's like, "What? What?
"Is it happy hour?" Like, what?
"This is great.
"You know, everybody's drunk and crazy.
This is not how I imagined church to be."
And the point here is, you may be personally connected to
the Lord, but what if it pushes other people away from the Lord?
What if non-Christians can't hear about Jesus 'cause of all
the noise we're making?
What if non-Christians can't learn about Jesus 'cause of all
the distractions we're causing?
We want you to sing and raise your hands and cheer
and be enthusiastic and passionate 'cause the Bible
talks about all of those things.
We want to always make sure that Mars Hill is a place that
non-Christians and visitors are welcome and that the Holy Spirit
will be able to teach them about Jesus,
whether it's our Community Groups
or our Sunday services.
And if you say, "But I have something I feel like
I need to say," then run it by an elder.
Get permission from a spiritual leader.
We don't just believe in spiritual gifts;
we believe in spiritual leadership as well.
And then he closes by telling us what happened when
the Holy Spirit showed up, and that is that the Holy Spirit
is received and rejected.
Acts 2:12-13, "They were all amazed and perplexed,
"saying to one another, 'What does this mean?'
But others mocking said, 'They are filled with new wine.'"
When the Holy Spirit comes and he teaches about Jesus
and he reveals Jesus, some people receive it.
And you're going to see next week, 3,000 people are saved.
It's an explosion of conversion.
While some receive Jesus, others reject him.
"These people are crazy. Christianity makes no sense.
I'm not interested. Leave me alone."
Friend, here's my question to you:
have you received or rejected Jesus?
Have you received the Holy Spirit's conviction
and instruction, or have you rejected
the Holy Spirit's instruction and conviction?
Don't get distracted by the tongues.
The big idea is this: the Holy Spirit is absolutely,
unequivocally, fully, thoroughly,
totally committed, that whatever means are required,
that the message of Jesus would get out with power.
And if a language is in the way, he will work
through the language.
If geography is in the way, he will work through the geography.
If people are in the way, he will move those people aside.
He will literally move heaven and earth to get the news
of Jesus to lost people so that they have an opportunity to turn
from sin and to trust in him.
And Mars Hill, hear me in this: it's not about the tongues.
It's about people hearing about Jesus.
Everybody needs to hear about Jesus,
and the Holy Spirit sets a fire in the children of God,
and he unleashes them on the earth
so that people would hear that Jesus is God,
that Jesus is good, that Jesus has lived,
that Jesus has died, that Jesus is risen, that Jesus is saving,
that Jesus is serving, that Jesus is coming again to judge
the living and the dead.
And this message absolutely has to get out, and the ministry
of the church is to get this message out.
And Mars Hill, I invite you to join me and to require
the presence and power of the Holy Spirit
to work through us.
If there is any, any opportunity for us to speak, to share,
to teach, to talk about Jesus, to do it and to overcome
whatever barriers might get in the way so that people
can receive him
and join us forever as the glad family of God,
amen?
That's what it's about.
Acts is the book of the acts of the Holy Spirit,
and he wants to work through us as he has worked through people
for thousands of years.
In a moment, we're going to sing.
Feel free to sing with great gladness and joy.
We're going to take Communion in remembering the broken body,
shed blood of Jesus.
First, we're going to collect our tithes and offerings,
and this is our way of saying
we want to help the message of Jesus get out,
more churches, if we have to use technology,
if we have to buy a building, if we have to increase the staff,
whatever we got to do, we got to get this message out,
amen?
The world needs to hear about Jesus, that's why we give.
And as you are giving, I want to share with you some of what
the Holy Spirit is doing in Ethiopia.
A portion of our income is going to help church planting
in Ethiopia and India.
Jesus said to be his witnesses to the ends of the earth.
And here's the good news: the Holy Spirit's working
among other nations and other people groups
and other languages and other cultures
to do the same thing that he always does--
take people whom he loves and introduce them to Jesus,
who loves them.
So I get to share that with you now.
[speaking foreign language]
When I was going to school,
there was an evangelist named Samuel.
He greeted me and he asked me if I know the Lord.
Because my background is the Coptic traditional church,
I said, "Yeah, I know the Lord.
Who is the Lord you are talking about?"
The evangelist Samuel told me that
"The Lord Jesus Christ is not in you yet."
Then I just said, "Yes!
If the Lord Jesus is coming into my heart, let me receive!"
[speaking foreign language]
Hi, yeah. Hello?
Yeah, this is Werku Golla from Wollega.
How are you doing?
Pastor Werku, where are we going?
We are here now in the northwest part
of the country in Wollega,
and now we are going to the other side--
about 120-kilometers drive.
Our church planters have been sent to this area,
and the Lord has brought many people to his kingdom.
I didn't think that I would move from Kelafo,
but the Lord spoke to my heart and told me
I needed to move to this area.
After a while,
I decided to rent a house, saying this would be the church.
This would be the church, and she rented the house to start
the church without anybody, only by herself!
Total faith. Praise God.
Praise God.
There was an evangelist in Yazo, and one day I invited him
to just come and pray here.
So, we'd go to the rented house and we'd pray there,
"Lord, bring the . . ."
We would go to the rented house and pray,
"Lord, bring the people here."
So that evangelist, he understood the desire
of my heart and
the burden that the Lord has laid in my life.
So in that year, nobody was there but me,
the evangelist and his wife.
We did our best to share the testimony of Jesus Christ
to over 1,000 people.
In the same year, 30 people received the Lord.
So, how many today, how many people call this church
their home?
We are about 120 people.
We're becoming many in number,
so I appealed to the local officials
to give us a piece of land to have a place
to build the church.
The local officials, they gave us a piece of land
that we will visit now.
And you were telling me earlier how important it is
for the husband and the wife to both be called by Jesus,
and the husband leads, but the wife is supporting,
and how important that is in these churches
as you've blended them, right?
Oh, yes.
That's our general policy, you know?
He has to--he's here with his wife.
People were just scoffing [at] us because we were few.
She was only the person when we came here.
But gradually the Lord has brought many people.
And he's not building a wooden house
but the building of the living house of the Lord.
People have to liberated from the bondage of sin and Satan.
If the Lord opens the door, it is a great privilege for
the expansion of the good news about Jesus,
about salvation is in Jesus Christ only--and only.
This is what I want to see!
This is what I want to see all over Ethiopia!
This is what I want to see all over Ethiopia--
to be expanded like this.
Let the praises come to you, Lord,
with our both hands, with our both hands to you,
Lord, with our both hands.
Let the praises come to you, Lord, with our both hands,
with our both hands.
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