Initial Physical Evidence

Being a Pentecostal pastor, I frequently am asked about 'speaking in tongues' and why I believe it is the initial physical evidence of when someone is baptized in the Holy Spirit. The following is a little lengthy, but necessarily so in order to convey my scriptural reasoning.

As with any other doctrine that we hold true, we must find our basis for such doctrinal belief squarely rooted in the Word of God. I'm aware that some find it easier to create doctrine to explain away what they either fear or don't understand when it comes to the supernatural - but to do so always puts God in a human box of understanding and eliminates the power in which He gave us to reach a lost and dying world. Paul said the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk - but of power - and many are asking today - where's the power?

To start, we do know that every believer receives the Holy Spirit at salvation:

In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Ephesians 1:13-14 (NKJV).

So to say that every true believer is ‘filled with the Spirit’ would be an accurate statement. But in this dispensation of the Holy Spirit, Jesus makes it clear that while all true believers have the Holy Spirit at salvation - He further indicates that there is another experience a believer can have in the Holy Spirit:

On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:37-39 (NKJV).

The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. John 14:17 (NKJV).

This experience is defined later in scripture as the “Baptism of the Holy Spirit”, or known as being “Filled with the Holy Spirit”.

There are three things we can deduce from John 14:17.

• First, no unsaved person can have the Holy Spirit: “the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him;”
  
• Second, all saved persons have the Holy Spirit already dwelling with them: “…for He dwells with you”. In John 20:22 Jesus breathed on His disciples and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” So we know that all true Christians have the Holy Spirit at salvation.
• Jesus adds a third statement in John 14:17 in which He is obviously referring to a future event that was going to happen to believers: “He (the Spirit of truth)…and will be in you.” Jesus said that the Holy Spirit is now with you, but He will be in you. The word “will” shows a future happening.
  

This is important in the context of tongues as initial physical evidence because Jesus prophesied in Mark 16:17 that some of His followers, among other things would, “speak with new tongues” which was pointing toward the next event about to take place in Acts.

It’s helpful to remember that every single epistle in the New Testament is written to people and by people who understood this experience of being “filled with the Holy Spirit” as the same experience that came at Pentecost (Acts 2:4) and is available to all believers.

In Acts 1, Jesus is making His final statements before ascending to the Father (This statement actually came after the Great Commission). He gave his followers (over 500 present) specific instructions:

And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; “for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Acts 1:4-5 (NKJV).

Here is the future event Jesus was telling His disciples about in John 14. He even referenced this with the statement, “which…you have heard from me.” Jesus also tells us that it will be a baptism with the Holy Spirit. The word “filled” and “baptism” of the Holy Spirit are used interchangeably throughout the New Testament with both terms referring to the same experience – believers receiving another ‘dose’ of the Holy Spirit if you will.

Now as to the main purpose of the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, Jesus gives us the reason in Acts 1:8:

“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”

Clearly the purpose of believers receiving the Baptism in the Holy Spirit is for receiving power. Power to do what? Power to reach the lost world, power to live holy, power to overcome temptation, power to witness. Now after days of waiting or tarrying for this promise, the Bible tells us that 120 believers were gathered together on the day of Pentecost. Suddenly the Holy Spirit descended and we find the first example of believers being filled with the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues in Acts 2:4:

And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.

Five Examples Of Holy Spirit Baptism In Acts

There are five places in the Book of Acts where it describes people being filled with or baptized in the Holy Spirit for the first time. I’ve just shown the first place above (Acts 2:4).

Note that in three of these five examples, it explicitly says that believers who were filled with the Holy Spirit spoke in other tongues. In the other two examples it doesn’t directly say, but additional scriptural evidence points to the fact that they did indeed speak with other tongues when they were filled.

Let’s look at the second example that’s found in Acts 10:44-46:

While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Acts 10:44-46 (NKJV).

Peter was preaching to a group of Gentile’s who were subsequently saved - and then filled, or baptized with the Holy Spirit.

We find a third example in Acts 19:

Then Paul said, “John indeed baptized with a baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe on Him who would come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.” When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied. Now the men were about twelve in all. Acts 19:4-6 (NKJV).

The Apostle Paul met a group of believers (note that they were believers) in Ephesus who had not received the baptism in the Holy Spirit until after they heard about it and were prayed for by Paul.

The final two examples of believers being filled with the Holy Spirit doesn’t directly say they spoke in tongues, but as we shall see, it is strongly implied in other verses. First, let’s look at Acts 8:14-20 at what happened to Samaritan believers:

Now when the apostles who were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent Peter and John to them, who, when they had come down, prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For as yet He had fallen upon none of them. They had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.  And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, “Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money.

Notice in verse 17 the Apostles are seen laying their hands on believers to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. Immediately when this happened a sorcerer named Simon was so impressed by what he saw when the Apostles laid hands on people to receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit – he wanted to buy the gift that he thought the Apostles were giving to people:

Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit.

Now obviously, as a sorcerer, he was used to doing all sorts of parlor magic and tricks. So for him to get excited by what he saw happening to people when they had hands laid on them clearly shows us that something out of the ordinary was happening. Perhaps these people were “falling” under the power of God. Or, more likely, they were speaking in other tongues as they were receiving the “gift of the Holy Spirit” as was the pattern that we’ve clearly seen in Acts 2:4; 10:44-46 and 19:4-6. The evidence here strongly suggests that something out of the ordinary was taking place at the laying on of hands by the Apostles. It would be quite logical to assume that what was indeed taking place was the same thing that caused the men to marvel when they heard the 120 speaking in tongues in Acts 2:11-13:

Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”  So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “Whatever could this mean?” Others mocking said, “They are full of new wine.”
(On a side note, this speaking in tongues being done by those in upper room obviously wasn't a 'sermon' to the hearers around them - Peter obviously had to get up an give a sermon afterward explaining what they heard - but the text itself describes what praying in tongues is - worship that is 'declaring the wonderful works of God').

The last example of someone being filled with the Holy Spirit for the first time in Acts is the Apostle Paul himself. In Acts 9 we see that Paul, then called Saul, was on his way to Damascus to persecute Christians. We know the familiar story of how God literally intercepted him on his journey with a voice from heaven and a blinding light. It was through this experience that He found Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Paul, being blinded from this light, was instructed by God to go to a nearby city and wait for direction. It was then that God spoke to a believer named Ananias (significantly a 'non' Apostle, by the way) to go and pray for Paul that he might receive his sight back. We see that Ananias obeyed and in verse 17-18:

And Ananias went his way and entered the house; and laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you came, has sent me that you may receive your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight at once; and he arose and was baptized.

It was here that Paul received the Holy Spirit. While there is no mention here that Paul spoke in tongues, we do have, however, Paul’s personal testimony that he wrote later to the Corinthian church in 1 Corinthians 14:18:

I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all.

Now where and when did Paul receive this gift? It would once again be quite logical to assume that his experience of being filled or baptized with the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues followed the growing pattern of the other believer’s experience that we’ve read about in the Book of Acts.

Again if we consistently follow the Biblical pattern, I believe that we can safely assume that this gift of speaking in tongues that Paul was testifying about here came when he was filled with the Holy Spirit in Acts 9.