⁴And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance … ^8”And how is it that we each hear them in our own language to which we were born? ¹¹… we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”

Dealing with tongues in depth goes beyond the scope of these essays, but we may address a few things for our spiritual encouragement. God did a wonderful thing on the day of Pentecost. The Christian movement under the movement of the Holy Spirit began with quite a bang! Our Lord was clearly doing something miraculous, as He did whenever He started a new phase in dealing with humanity (e.g., the miracles of Moses and Joshua inaugurating the Exodus, the miracles of Elijah and Elisha warning Israel of coming captivity, the miracles of Jesus in announcing the coming of the kingdom).

Besides the sound of the “violent rushing wind,” we note that the main attention-getter was the miraculous speech coming from the band of Galileans from the upper room. These are the ones who were left in disgrace in the eyes of the world around them, but now, against all sensibilities, they boldly and loudly proclaimed “the mighty deeds of God.” Some interpret this as an “angelic” language that drew a crowd because of the ecstatic behavior of the believers. This thinking arises from an inadequate interpretation of 1 Corinthians 13:1, where Paul writes, “If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels . . .” Every instance in Scripture where angels are recorded as speaking, they were using known human languages, not otherworldly gibberish. Paul was writing to believers, who were immersed in Greek culture, living not far from Athens, where eloquent oratory and rhetoric were exalted. But no matter how lofty the language, even if it sounds angelic, it is irritating noise if there is no love.

The crowd understood the message in their own, very human languages (or dialects). Notice there were Jews from fifteen geographic areas all hearing in their own local dialects or heart-language (vs. 8). The gift of tongues is the ability given supernaturally to speak in a known human language that was previously unknown to the speaker. Tongues cannot be faked or disguised as unchallenged spiritual behavior, for they are verifiably human languages.

God was initiating these early “witnesses” (Acts 1:8) to a fast start in evangelizing the world. These first hearers would return to their countrymen and share the good news in their respective local languages. It was quite a useful gift for Paul as well, as he traveled among many people groups (1 Cor. 14:18). Is it any wonder that he wished all believers had that gift as well (1 Cor. 14:5)?

Lord, enable me to speak in a way that others will hear the gospel clearly.