THE HOLY SPIRIT IS MULTILINGUAL
By: Frank Tunstall, D. Min.
“Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken.” Utterly amazed, they asked: ‘Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!’”
“Amazed and perplexed,” the visitors to Jerusalem “asked one another, ‘What does this mean?’” (Acts 1:2-12 NIV).
Holy Spirit spoke fluently each of the eighteen languages present that great Pentecost morning.
The Spirit today also speaks perfectly every language on earth, some 7,151, according to Ethnologue, a leading research center for the study of languages.
The Holy Spirit demonstrated this ability in an amazing show of power. The 120 in the Upper Room were speaking with the correct inflections languages they had never learned. It’s easy to perceive why the numbers of the curious swelled in the Upper Room. A huge crowd gathered in Jerusalem that Pentecost morning. They represented a wide swath of the Roman Empire.
What were they saying?
Luke recorded the people heard the visitors “declaring the wonders of God in [their] own tongues!” (Acts 2:11).
The onlookers were amazed. It’s understandable they wanted more information. A new paradigm of worship was born that Pentecost morning, and only divine genius could do it.
Jesus birthed the church and ultimately bypassed the Jewish worship system. It was about 1800-years-old and went all the way back to Abraham. The Spirit also introduced a whole new practice of adoration and veneration that focused solely on Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God (John 1:29-36). Christ-centered worship illustrated by Jesus with the vine and the branches continues to be the plan of God to this day (John 15:5). Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (John 16:8).
Jesus in His humanity as the Son of Man could not be everywhere at the same time. Simply put, He would not be able physically to serve the needs of His followers and give each one His undivided attention. Further, expecting His followers to come faithfully to Jerusalem for the special feast days, from wherever they were worldwide was unrealistic too.
Jesus in His humanity did reach out to the temple, but it seemed every visit He made ended in conflict. More than a thousand years of tradition certainly helped make the transition to the new order difficult.
The solution of the Heavenly Father was not to assimilate the new paradigm into the first Covenant. The Holy Spirit simply could not build the Lord’s Church around the Jerusalem Temple and its sacrificial system of worship. And, in any case the religious leadership would never make Jesus Lord of the temple, the sole and final sacrifice for sin, and in His own person the center of worship.
Instead of trying to blend with the temple, Jesus bypassed it. [Oh Lord, be gracious to me; I don’t want to be bypassed by the Holy Spirit.]
Jesus’ body is the temple He voluntarily sacrificed. In His own Person, Jesus is the essence of the temple of God. “Destroy this temple and I will raise it again in three days,” was a prophecy that referred to Jesus as the final sacrifice for sin, not to the destruction of the temple (John 2:19-22; Hebrews 10:18; 1 John 2:2). Jesus’ blood that dripped to the ground to the last drop meant God had sacrificed Himself in our place, as our substitute. Jesus did it at no monetary price (Isaiah 52:3; 55:1).
In the paradigm of the New Covenant, the centerpiece is a new kind of temple. “I will put my law in their inward parts,” God said to Jeremiah, “and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33, KJV; Luke 17:21). In the new worship plan, “where [only] two or three are gathered together,” Jesus said, “there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).
Divine genius!
It’s important for us to understand how powerful the Holy Spirit really is. Pilgrims representing about eighteen languages from across the empire were present and heard the one-hundred-twenty fluently giving praise to God in languages foreign to them. But today the ministry of the Holy Spirit includes far more than one-hundred-twenty. The World Christian Encyclopedia, 3rd edition (2020) currently counts 644 million Pentecostals/Charismatics worldwide. The Holy Spirit can communicate with each of them at the same time without ever missing a name, or address, and no one is placed on hold or told to call back tomorrow!
Genius. Divine genius! And you never get a bill!
Peter’s Explanation (Acts 2:14-21).
“This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel; ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days,” saith God,” I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams: And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy….And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved’” (Acts 2:14-21, KJV).
Come Holy Spirit, I need Thee.
Come sweet Spirit, I pray.
Come in Thy strength and Thy power.
Come in Thine own gentle way.Come like a spring in the desert.
Come to the withered of soul.
Lord, let Thy sweet healing power
Touch me and make me whole.By: Heritage Singers
