Didn't Paul Say We Shouldn't Speak in Tongues in Church?
by David K. Bernard
Podcast recording (no venue stated in the delivered transcript)
Kind: teaching
Scripture: Acts 2, Acts 10, Acts 19, 1 Corinthians 14, 1 Corinthians 14:23, 1 Corinthians 12

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/david-k-bernard--didnt-paul-say-we-shouldnt-speak-in-tongues-in-church
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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the short answer is no although there can be some abuses that I've observed over the years but let's let's look at the total context of the New Testament so we find speaking in tongues in Acts chapter 2 120 received the Holy Spirit initially all 120 spoke in tongues I think that's interesting because people asked it is everybody going to speak in tongues when they receive the Holy Ghost couldn't there be other signs or could there be no sign well in the first definitive case 120 of 120 um in Acts 10 when Cornelius and his household received the Holy Spirit they all spoke in tongues so whether it was 20 people there or 25 or 30 we don't know but 100% um in Acts 19 the Disciples of John and Ephesus Paul prayed for them 12 out of 12 received the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues so in that context obviously you can have 120 speaking in tongues at one time you could have a whole house an extended household a house Church everybody speaking tongues you can have 12 disciples all 12 speaking in tongues after they're baptized or when they're baptized so to say that you could never have a group speaking tongues that's clearly false because we have strong precedent that's in the context of people receiving the Holy Ghost and the initial sign of tongues so what what is 1 Corinthians 14 talking about okay let's take the immediate context chapters 12- 14 it's talking about the supernatural gifts of the Spirit in the life of the church and particularly in chapter 14 you're talking about local congregational worship so Paul explains because it appears there were some abuses in Corinth it from the Paul's description it sounds like they would come together in their home to have church to worship and somebody jump up speaking to Tong and somebody else speaking tongues and somebody else and the whole service is going on like that Paul says wait a minute why are you doing this you've got a visitor here that you're trying to win he doesn't know what's going on it doesn't help him at all he can't understand it it looks like you're just crazy people are randomly saying unknown words is that's not the way to have church that's not the way to win people so he says in the church when you come together your main Ministry should be in the spoken language that everybody understands so it blesses everybody and if there's a visitor he hears the instruction or the gospel message that he needs to hear to be saved now he says I'm not saying you can't have uh Supernatural gifts but do it in order so the main focus of the worship service is to minister to the people who are there which means you need to use the known language so he says but there there's a time for singing there there's a time for prayer there's a time for exhortation there's a time for for prophecy and there's a time for tongues but if you're in that context and somebody speaks in tongues evidently God is using that as a sign to the unbeliever so the unbeliever will be attention will be arrested something miraculous going on but in order for everybody whether believer or unbeliever to benefit from it it has to be interpreted so Paul is explaining the gifts of the Spirit there is the gift of tongues and there's a gift of interpretation of tongues which he mentioned in chapter 12 so he says in the church you're you're worshiping you're praying you're singing uh you're preaching and all of a sudden somebody wants to speak in tongues evidently God is trying to speak to the congregation so at that moment you should all pray for interpretation then that person or maybe another person will use the gift of interpretation to give that same message in English or Greek or whatever the language of the people and and so when that happens everybody is blessed uh or if somebody get has a prophetic word which would be in the known language and they speak then everybody's blessed but if no one interprets you should keep silent you shouldn't keep going on and on people shouldn't just keep popping up random leases pray for the interpretation now here's the key point be silent but but he can speak to himself and to God so even though he's not not supposed to dominate the whole service by speaking in tongues out loud to people with no interpretation that doesn't mean there's no tongues he can speak to himself that's your personal prayer and to God so the answer is that to that or the explanation here then when the whole congregation is listening to someone speak you should follow the rules that Paul gives which I'll go through it a minute but when the whole congregation is praying individually for God tongues is perfectly appropri so if we're all worshiping in the midst of a song or at the end of a song or if we're all praying at the altar well then everybody can speak in tongues because you're not speaking to the congregation you're speaking to yourself and to God obviously if you're praying for people to receive the holy ghost following the pattern of Acts 21019 one or more could speak in tongu so when the focus of the service is not on Proclamation but on worship then it's legitimate for anyone and everyone to speak in SS personally to themselves and to God when the focus of the service is on seeking and receiving the Holy Ghost rather than Proclamation then it's appropriate for anybody who receives the Holy Ghost to speak in tongues but the rules that Paul talks about when you're getting the attention of the church when you're addressing the congregation if you're going to speak in tongues pray for the interpretation and at most two or three and then go on why why that because whatever purpose God has for giving that sign of tongues after two or three times the message has been received the the sign has been established and so then it's time to go on now some people might say well you know if God is moving don't you just have to submit to God well Paul explains the spirit of the Prophet is subject to the prophet so it should be done decently in order I give a good example of that let's say God gives you a word of knowledge that's this person over here is living in horrible sin are you supposed to get up before the church and say this guy is living in horrible sin that would be an abuse of the gift even though it was given by God it's supposed to be used in a proper way so maybe it's used just for you to pray for that person or if you're a leader in that person's life maybe it's used for you to go talk to that person so even when God gives a gift it's still up to us to use it appropriately at the right way at the right time so let's say you're you're bursting with a prophecy or a tongues but the preacher preaching you're supposed to hold your peace and wait for the proper time and usually in our experience there will be a time in the service where even the speaker himself or herself will pause or stop or it will be evident to those with discernment that God is wanting to speak in a different way and even if maybe the speaker or leader of the services misses it it's better to submit to the for the good of the body than to cause disruption distraction contention so the spirit of the Prophet subject to the prophets now uh so having said that it everything should be done decently in order but it's interesting to me the critics here so so we believe we're following this teaching exactly precisely and because we have experience in with people speaking in tongues in church and interpreting tongues and prophesying we know what proper use looks like and we know what abuse looks like and we know how to teach and if necessary take authority when there's improper use so we feel like we're implementing 1 Corinthians 14 exactly but what's ironic to me is the critics who want to say to nitpick here they don't allow speaking tongues at all zero so we we know they're not following the scripture because Paul says don't forbid to speak in tongues and he says I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all and my solution I will sing with the spirit and with the understanding I'll pray with the spirit and with the understanding so multiple times he says you should speak in tongues there's a place for speaking tongues in your personal prayer life and in the life of the church it should be just certain rules so the people that will critique us are actually saying we have no intention of following any of this and we don't practice it it never happens in our church if it did we would stop the person immediately well you don't have any credibility to explain the scripture to us when you're not even trying to follow it and you're actually going against the explicit statements that are there but those of us who have experien in Pentecostal churches yes we've had experiences of abuse but we also know what proper use looks like and we're following the instructions of of Paul in the word of God in proper use of spiritual gifts

so you you must have spiritual discernment so if you as in most cases it's probably a sincere person that the way I would explain many times someone may get a personal blessing and they miss interpret is for everybody MH uh or maybe there could be a rare case where they do have a message but it's not the right time so if you discern the person is sincere and maybe just misunderstanding then you don't want to be confrontational so probably the best thing you listen for a short time for discernment but then you say well let's all pray let's all worship God or let's sing a song or maybe even if they're going on thank you you know I think it's time for us to respond in prayer Pray so you gently transitioned um of course preventive maintenance if that happens you can go talk to the person and say you know next time you know here's some pointers to consider or in just general teaching to the church have as I'm doing now you maybe can pre prevent some occurrences but there might be a rare case where you feel like somebody is demonic or fleshly they're deliberately trying to take over in such cases they're needs to be in rebuke you know sit down right now you're out of order and I have seen that happen occasionally I don't think I've ever had to do that in that way uh but it does require discernment is this person sincere of it's of their human Spirit or they're just out of sync or is this actually um demonic or rebellious or false and that needs to be treated very forthrightly and authoritatively