What Are You Jibber Jabbering About?

I am a Christian.  What this means to me is I believe in Jesus the Christ, the Savior of all mankind.  And as a Christian, I also believe the Word of God, or that the Bible is the inspired work of Him.  It was written by men, over the course of thousands of years, but the inspiration for it came from God, and it is His written Word to all who will believe it.

One of the Christian things I have experienced in my walk with Jesus for the past 26 years is what is commonly referred to as the baptism in the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues.  Jesus told His disciples about this before He ascended to Heaven and sat down at the right hand of the Father. (Acts 1:4-5)  He called being baptized in the Holy Spirit a gift.  Now who doesn't like gifts right?  Yet one thing I've noticed as a Christian is how controversial this one aspect of Christendom can become, which shouldn't surprise any of us, there was quite a disturbance in the city on the day of Pentecost too.

Jesus had told the first disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Father, which they did, and on the day of Pentecost (50 days after the Passover) the Holy Spirit was poured out and those 120 disciples who were in the upper room were filled.

Acts 2:1-13

When the day of Pentecost came, they (the disciples) were all together in one place.  2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them.  4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.  5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven.   6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Aren't all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residenets of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 

10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitiors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs - we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!" 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?"  

13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, "They have had too much wine."

There is something I would like you to notice here, look at verse 5, "Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven." Isn't this interesting?  The crowd who gathered on the day of Pentecost and heard the first disciples speaking in tongues were God-fearing Jews, or the religious people of the day.  Some of those religious people (who didn't understand what the baptism in the Holy Spirit is) made fun of the disciples saying, "They have had too much wine."  It shouldn't surprise us then today when the religious people of our day and time make fun of this gift or belittle it as unimportant.

One thing I've heard people say over the years, is the baptism in the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues is to help us as an evangelical tool so we can witness to people in their own language. They base this from verse 8 where the people talked of hearing the disciples speaking in their native languages. Yet there were no conversions to Christ until after Peter stood up and addressed the crowd. Let's look at that for a second.  Acts 2:14 says, "Then Peter stood up with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd, "Fellow Jews and all of you who live in Jerusalem, let me explain this to you, listen carefully to what I say." He then went on to explain from Scripture about what was happening, and what it was Jesus had done, and in verse 37 it says those who listened to Peter were cut to the heart and asked what they could do.  He then instructed them to repent and be baptized and they too would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  He went on to say this was for all whom the Lord our God will call.

This gift of the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues is for you and me today.  It is a wonderful gift which I can tell you has increased my knowledge of God's Word and has helped me more than I can ever say.  I am truly thankful to God for this in my life.  I hope this has whetted your appetite to learn more.  I'd like to offer you two little books on this subject which can help you to grown in the knowledge about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues.  They are:

  The Holy Spirit: Two Occurrences by David Emigh       Why Tongues by Kenneth Hagin

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at godsfirstknight@yahoo.com.  For the Kingdom and the King, shalom!