Daily Scripture Reading Acts 1:20 - 2:18

There is a debate within Christianity over the definition of tongues. Some people believe speaking in tongues is speaking in a heavenly or divine language, in other words a language that is not used on earth, a language that is only understood in heaven. Others believe speaking in tongues means having the miraculous ability to speak in a language that the speaker never studied.

Today, we will read from Acts 2 and see which of those two concepts was happening the very first time the Holy Spirit gave anyone the ability to speak in tongues.

This is day 2 of reading through the book of Acts. Yesterday, we started at the beginning of chapter one and read about Jesus going back to heaven after His resurrection. After that, the disciples gathered together in Jerusalem, waiting for the Holy Spirit to come, just as Jesus had commanded them to do. Peter stood up in front of the brothers, it was a crowd of about 120 people, and said that Judas had to betray Jesus because scripture needed to be fulfilled. Now let’s pick up reading and see what Peter said next.

Acts 1:20 “For it is written in the book of Psalms,

‘LET HIS RESIDENCE BE MADE DESOLATE,

AND LET NO ONE DWELL IN IT’;

and,

‘LET ANOTHER MAN TAKE HIS OFFICE.’

Notice the word “written”. That word indicates Peter was quoting scripture.

First, he quoted Psalm 69:25. Psalm 69 was written by David. He wrote about the difficulties he was experiencing, and the enemies who opposed him. Several verses in this Psalm are quoted elsewhere in the New Testament drawing parallels between David’s life and the life of Jesus. In Psalm 69:25 David asked that the residence of his opponent would be desolate and empty. Peter quoted that in reference to Judas.

Then, Peter quoted Psalm 109:8. Psalm 109 was also a Psalm of David in which he wrote about being betrayed and opposed by those to whom he had extended love. In Psalm 109:8 David asked that another person take his office. In other words, another person should be in the place of receiving love. Peter applied that to Judas.

Acts 1:21 Therefore it is necessary that of the men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us—

Acts 1:22 beginning with the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us—one of these must become a witness with us of His resurrection.”

Peter quoted the two Psalms to say that they had to choose a person to replace Judas. They had to have twelve apostles.

Notice the phrase “who have accompanied us all the time”. We often picture just Jesus and the twelve traveling around Galilee. However, the group of people that traveled with Jesus was larger than just the twelve. There were men in addition to the twelve who were eyewitnesses of the entire ministry of Jesus.

Acts 1:23 And they put forward two men, Joseph called Barsabbas (who was also called Justus), and Matthias.

Acts 1:24 And they prayed and said, “You, Lord, who know the hearts of all men, show which one of these two You have chosen

Acts 1:25 to take the place of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas turned aside to go to his own place.”

Acts 1:26 And they cast lots for them, and the lot fell to Matthias; and he was added to the eleven apostles.

We see the word “lots” in this verse. Casting lots was a method of using physical items to discern God’s will. This method was used frequently in the Old Testament. Obviously, the disciples used it to determine who should replace Judas. The Bible does not tell us to use lots today, nor does it prohibit using lots today.

I’m not sure what casting lots looked like. I don’t know what items they used and how they went about doing it. However, here is something to think about if you or your church decide to use some form of lots to make a decision. If you are going to cast lots and claim God gave you an answer, then your method of casting lots has to include a miraculous element to it; otherwise, you don’t really know that God intervened in the outcome.

For example, if you have two candidates to be an elder and you flip a coin to choose, you have no proof that God intervened and made the choice because even non-Christians can do that. On the other hand, if you choose your elder by requiring the coin flip to be the same exact result ten times in a row, then you have a miraculous element that somewhat proves God intervened in the outcome because a coin flip will not be heads ten times in a row unless God intervenes.

Acts 2:1 ¶ And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all together in one place.

Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.

Acts 2:3 And there appeared to them tongues like fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them.

Acts 2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.

Notice the word “tongues”. The question is what were the other tongues that they spoke. We will see the answer in verse 6.

Acts 2:5 ¶ Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout men from every nation under heaven.

Pay attention to the word “living” and the phrase “from every nation”. There were Jews in Jerusalem from all over the world, meaning there were many different languages spoken in Jerusalem.

Acts 2:6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were bewildered because each one of them was hearing them speak in his own language.

Verse 6 clearly tells us speaking in tongues meant the disciples were suddenly able to speak languages they had never spoken before.

Acts 2:7 So they were astounded and marveling, saying, “Behold, are not all these who are speaking Galileans?

Acts 2:8 And how is it that we each hear them in our own language in which we were born?

Verse 8 also tells us speaking in tongues meant the disciples were suddenly able to speak in many different languages.

Acts 2:9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,

Acts 2:10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the district of Libya around Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,

Acts 2:11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them in our own tongues speaking of the mighty deeds of God.”

This is the third time we see tongues defined as speaking in known languages.

There are people today in the pentacostal and charismatic movements who believe speaking in tongues is speaking in a heavenly or divine language, in other words a language that is not used on earth, a language that is only understood in heaven.

However, we see in this passage that speaking in tongues meant the disciples suddenly had the ability to speak in languages that were used all over the globe.

Verse 9-11 list some of the places from which the Jews had come. They had come from north, south, east, and west. The places listed include modern day Italy, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Libya, and Egypt.

Acts 2:12 And they all continued in astonishment and great perplexity, saying to one another, “What does this mean?”

Acts 2:13 But others, mocking, were saying, “They are full of new wine.”

Acts 2:14 ¶ But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words.

Acts 2:15 For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is the third hour of the day;

Acts 2:16 but this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

Acts 2:17 ‘AND IT SHALL BE IN THE LAST DAYS,’ God says,

‘THAT I WILL POUR OUT MY SPIRIT ON ALL MANKIND;

AND YOUR SONS AND YOUR DAUGHTERS SHALL PROPHESY,

AND YOUR YOUNG MEN SHALL SEE VISIONS,

AND YOUR OLD MEN SHALL DREAM DREAMS;

Acts 2:18 EVEN ON MY MALE SLAVES AND FEMALE SLAVES,

I WILL IN THOSE DAYS POUR OUT MY SPIRIT

And they shall prophesy.

We see in Acts 2 that when the Holy Spirit gave the gift of tongues for the very first time, he gave the apostles the ability to speak in languages that people from all over the world were able to understand, even though the apostles had never studied those languages.

What are the various definitions of speaking in tongues you have heard over your lifetime?

How do those definitions agree or disagree with the event recorded in Acts 2?

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“Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.”