ACTS: What does it mean to believe?

            The people who gathered to hear the disciples and watch the spectacle that was happening in Jerusalem came with one persuasion in their minds and many of them left with another idea of what they believed. What changed their belief? Understanding what it means to believe might help us trace the change in belief. Is belief just a different perspective on something? Do we just need to see an idea from another angle? Or is there something more profound going on when a person changes what they believe? 
 
            At Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples, thousands of people found something they had not accepted before but now they had such a deep conviction about one particular truth that they completely changed how they would live from that moment on. Here is the story from Luke’s perspective. 
 

Gathering

Acts 2:5-13

5 Devout men from all over the world lived in Jerusalem during this time. 6 When crowd of people gathered to investigate the loud sound and they were surprised to hear the disciples of Jesus speaking to them, each one hearing the words in their native languages. 7 These people looked at one another in amazement, asking, "Aren't these speakers, Galileans? 8 "But we each hear them speaking in our birth language.” 9 Among those who had gathered were Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and some from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, 10 Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, as well as visitors from Rome, 11 Cretans, and Arabs. They were remarking that they were hearing of the mighty deeds of God, and again startled that each one was hearing their own native language being spoken. 12 The people who were hearing these things could not make out what was happening and wondered what this might mean. 13 Not all were impressed and some of the people mocked the disciples saying they were full of sweet wine. 
 
Note that the people were hearing the disciples in their own language, their native tongue, not some common language like Greek, or Peter’s language, Aramaic. Peter spoke in one language, which might not have even been native to him, and as he spoke, the people listening were hearing his words as if he were speaking in their native tongue. We refer to this phenomenon in the Christian Church as “the gift of tongues.” We call it a gift of the Holy Spirit because a person usually does not start speaking a different language without months or years of learning. But this “gift” has not always appeared to be “good” in the church as it has raised troubling questions for some, created major divisions amongst believers, instilled fear in many, and for others, brought untold blessing throughout the history of the church. 
 
Are the languages that people call “tongues” truly languages or just some gibberish made up to make the person feel more spiritual? Do the languages come from God or do they come from the deep psychological reaches of our minds? When angels talk, if they talk, do they speak in similar languages and is the gift of tongues just the ability to speak in the tongues of angels? How do we know if the evil one has not created these “languages” to cause division in the church, making people think they have more spirituality that someone who cannot speak in these languages? 
 
Some people have fears of anything that is not logical, rational, and clearly able to be explained. “If it doesn’t fit with my understanding it must not be real?” Why won’t we accept the explanation that this is a gift of the Holy Spirit? Why does He give it to some and not others? If it is from the Spirit, why does it bring fear and jealousy and division? Why do we have some churches who believe in this gift and some pastors that anyone who speaks in tongues must be influenced by the evil one? Why do some churches practice this gift and others do not? Are the people who speak in tongues just primitive people, ignorant, and lacking cultural awareness or are they open in their thinking and willing to let the Holy Spirit do something beautiful in their lives? 
 
If we have trouble with the gift of tongues, how do we explain the healings and words of prophecy that come to churches that believe in the gifts today? Why do we like some of the gifts but do not want to believe in all that the Holy Spirit has available for us? 
 
So many questions have been raised about the gift of tongues. My personal experience led me through the skepticism of tongues and other gifts for quite a few years. And yet Jesus, in His gracious leading, walked me through some strange experiences and introduced me to some wonderful people who saw the work of the Holy Spirit quite differently than I did. Ultimately, I became comfortable, I began to believe, the Holy Spirit brings gifts to people as they are able to accept them and at the times that the people need them the most, to have the confidence to bear witness to the work of Jesus Christ in this life. 
 
My current conviction is that the Holy Spirit is definitely alive and well in the church today. He continues to dole out gifts to people in the church as they are open and willing to receive, believe, what He has available to them. And that includes the gift of tongues. When this gift is present in a believer’s life or in the life of a particular church, and it is being rightly used, the individuals and churches themselves find deep spiritual blessing come their way. 
 
One of the biggest difficulties that exists in the church today has to do with our desire to limit God, for whatever reason. I remember reading J. B. Phillips’ 1952 book, Your God is Too Small, in the early days of my Christian walk. The main teaching I took away from that book was to never limit God by my current expectations or reasonings. When I start to say that an experience which we hear about in the Bible times cannot be true today, whether it is speaking in tongues or raising someone from the dead, I am limiting God. I have been in the room when the gift of tongues has been a blessing to me and to others present. I have also seen times when the gift has been used in ways I might want to call inappropriate. But to say that God cannot continue to pour out the gifts of the Holy Spirit on the church today is limiting our belief in God and when we limit our belief, we limit God.
 
I have never seen someone raised from the dead, but I remember being in the hospital praying for dear Bessie, at the age of 86, when the doctors had told her she might not make it through the night. Her arm was black almost up to the shoulder and her “life” was growing dim. We prayed for God to intervene, take her home to heaven if that was His wish, or heal her completely and send her out from the hospital to continue to serve Him. The next day, she did just that, and lived for years after with conviction and purpose. I cannot put limits on what God can do in His timing and plan. I need to be opened to letting God do what He wants to do and even trusting that what happens in my life is under the control of God for His and my good.
 
If God wants to give a person the gift to speak in “gibberish” because it strengthens their personal prayer life, why should I doubt that God can do such a thing? Or if God calls on someone to stand in front of a worshipping crowd and speak in words no one can understand, waiting for another person to have the gift of interpretating the message from God, why should I doubt that the God of this universe can do such a thing. Just because it makes no sense to me, I have to be careful to not squelch the Spirit. What if the disciples said that they would not go out of the room, looking so silly with fire on their heads and speaking languages they did not understand? Where would the church be today if every time God called upon one of His followers to go out and do something, they resisted because they might look foolish to others? The church would not be. 
 
Do you remember when Saul was struck by a blinding light on the road to Damascus? God called Ananias, a faithful believer, to go pray for Saul to regain his eyesight. Ananias argued with God, reminding God that Saul had come to wreak havoc in the church of Damascus. God knew what Saul was doing, He knew how Ananias was fearful, and he knew what He wanted Ananias to do. And Ananias allowed his faith in God to overcome his fear. He went and he prayed, and we are glad he did. Saul was healed, his life was transformed, and he went on to lay some pretty solid foundations for the church of Jesus, the Christ. 
 
When it involves the Holy Spirit, we need ask for increased faith to open our heart and our mind. We need to give the Spirit the freedom in our lives to use us to touch the lives of others in ways that will draw them to Jesus. When we quench the Spirit in our life, we live in the fear of what other people might think about us. 
 
Think about it this way. If we bear witness to someone in a way that seems embarrassing to us, they might think we are crazy, or they might respond to the call of the Holy Spirit and turn their lives to Jesus as did the thousands who responded to the disciples on the day of Pentecost. I would rather be embarrassed than to miss an opportunity to help someone believe in the power of God for salvation. We need to allow God the freedom to do what is not rational in our minds, when He chooses to speak to His children and draw the world to Himself. 
 
Explanation
 
14 Peter came to the front of the disciples and raised his voice, declaring to the crowd, "Judeans and all you who live in Jerusalem, pay attention to what I have to say. 15 "For we are not drunk as some of you think, it is only 9 am, 16 but what you see and hear is a fulfillment of the words of the prophet Joel: 17 ‘In the last days, God says, I will send out My Spirit on all the world and your sons and daughters will prophesy once again. Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams. 18 Even the men and women who are bondslaves will receive the outpouring of My Spirit and they will prophesy. 19 And I bring to you signs and wonders in the sky and on the earth with blood and fire and vapor of smoke. 20 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon will become as blood before the great and glorious day of Yahweh shall come. 21 And everyone who puts their trust in the name of Yahweh will be saved.’” 
 
Peter speaks for the disciples. Remember that he is speaking in a tongue, we just have his words translated into English. He describes this event as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel. This is the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit upon all flesh. Up to this time the Spirit had come upon individuals as they were needed to lead Israel in the ways of God. But now, as the first Pentecost after the resurrection of Jesus unfolds, this fresh outpouring of God’s Spirit is now available to anyone. All who call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. All who believe that this is a work of God.
 
Simply put, nothing else is expected of the believer to become a member of the family of God. When we call upon the Lord, we believe He is there. When we believe in God, we talk with Him. When my car breaks down, I call a tow truck to come and help me. All that is required of me is to make the call, which is my admitting I have a need and I acknowledge the person I am calling has the ability to help me in my situation. I would not normally call my barber to fix my car. The tow truck driver does not ask me if I am going to change the way I drive or care for my car before he takes the car to the repair shop. In the same way, God does not require us to change our behavior before we come to Him; that will be the work of the Holy Spirit over time. In truth, we could not make the necessary changes without His help anyway. God knows how helpless we are and calls us just to believe in His love and He will work on making the changes. Like Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you into Fishers of Men.” (Matt. 4:19) All we need to do is follow and he will make the needed changes. 
 
What is involved in believing or following Jesus? What does a person need to believe to be a child of God? Peter will give us a look at the “theology” we need to acknowledge in the upcoming verses. But remember that our role is not complicated. We need to believe; accept the message to be true, trust that Jesus was the Son of God, become satisfied in our hearts and minds about Him. We just need to believe the story. 
 
May Jesus bless you with increasing faith this week. 


Pastor Edd