Monthly Archives: October 2019

Witnesses for the Prosecution – Acts 2:32-41

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Video of this message is available on YouTube: Witnesses for the Prosecution – Acts 2:32-41

Summary:

“Witnesses” (v. 32) are people who’ve seen or heard some-thing and testify that it’s true.  The disciples had seen and heard “all” the things the Lord did before He died (Acts 10:39-41), and so were good witnesses that it was Him after He rose again.  That’s why the Lord picked them (John 15:27).

But Peter didn’t know what Paul later learned, that He rose for our justification (Rom. 4:24).  So he charged Israel with the Lord’s death and threatened them with His resurrection.  Saying, “The one you killed is alive and coming back to get you!” And the disciples were witnesses for his prosecution.

“Exalted” (Acts 2:33) means to raise or elevate (Isa. 52:13,14).  God “exalted” the Lord “with His right hand” (Acts 2:33) by setting Him at His right hand (Mark 16:19).  To prove that, Peter quotes David (Acts 2:34).  Earlier he quoted a psalm of David where he talked about rising from the dead before his body corrupted (Acts 2:25-31).  Then he pointed out that David’s body was still in the grave, so he must have been talking about Christ.  Now Peter’s quoting another psalm of David, one where he talked about sitting at God’s right hand.  David couldn’t be sitting there if he was still in the grave, so again he must have been talking about Christ.

And if any of the Jews forgot that Psalm 110:1 ended by saying Christ would sit there till God made His enemies His footstool, Peter reminded them (Acts 2:35).  The Jews loved that psalm, for it went on to say that God would conquer the Lord’s Gentile enemies (Ps. 110:5,6).  But Peter was telling them that by crucifying the Lord they had joined the Lord’s Gentile enemies, and now He would return and judge them too!  Just as Psalm 2:1-12 said He would do, to Jews as well as Gentiles.

Luke 20:9-16 predicted this also, a parable the Lord told about the Jews (Mt. 21:41-45).  Of course, He couldn’t return and judge anyone unless He was Israel’s Christ, so Peter went on to say that He was (Acts 2:36). God declared that by setting Him at His right hand in the heavenly Zion (Ps. 2:5,6). The Jews knew Psalm 2 ended with advice to “kiss the Son” that they’d crucified, and that’s what Peter was telling them to do—and put their trust in Him, as the psalm also advised.

Peter called on them to “repent” (Acts 2:38), which means to change your mind about something.  Preachers today quote that to tell sinners to change their mind about their individual sins. But Peter hadn’t mentioned those!  He charged them with Christ’s death, wanting them to repent of that.  He was quoting Joel’s call to “turn” (Joel 2:11-14).

Preachers say baptism isn’t for salvation, but Peter said it was (Acts 2:38) because the Lord said it was (Mark 16:16). That’s just not God’s message for today!  Baptists also disagree with Peter when he said that if you get baptized you’ll get the Spirit in such a way you’ll speak in tongues, for they don’t believe in speaking in tongues.  But all that confusion could be avoided if they’d just realize Peter was talking to Jews and their children (Acts 2:39).  The “promise” was the Spirit (Acts 1:4,5), a promise God never made to Gentiles.  Those “afar off” were Jews who were scattered when Israel disobeyed God (Dan. 9:7).

Peter told the Jews to save themselves from that generation in Israel (Acts 2:40) because they killed the Lord, and so God was going to judge them for the death of all the prophets (Lu. 11:50,51).  He calls them “untoward” because he’s quot-ing how Moses called them “froward” (Deut. 32:19,20). Jews thought they were saved just because they were Jews, part of the nation of Israel, but that generation was “a froward nation” that God planned to provoke to jealousy with “a foolish nation” (Deut. 32:20,21,28).  When the Lord quoted that (Mt. 21:43), most people think He meant to make that nation jealous by giving their kingdom to the Gentiles.  But the Gentiles are many nations, not one.  “The nation” (singular) that the Lord gave it to was His little flock (Lu. 12:32).  Salvation used to be “of the Jews” (Jo. 4:22), but now it was of “the remnant” (Joel 2:32), so they had to get out of that nation and in Peter’s nation, the believing nation (I Pe. 2:9).

We don’t get 3,000 converts from one message today (Acts 2:41) for the same reason we can’t speak in tongues.  We aren’t filled with the Spirit in the same way they were!

The Cat’s Out of the Bag

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Did you ever wonder how the figure of speech found in our title came to be used for the revealing of a secret?  Some say it goes back to a time when piglets were sold in bags in open-air markets.  In those days, an unscrupulous merchant might sell an unsuspecting patron a bag containing a cat instead of a piglet, and it wasn’t until the hapless patron got home that the cat was out of the bag, and the merchant’s dishonest secret was revealed.  And since cats have always been far less valuable than pigs, the patron was always less than thrilled to learn that the pork he thought he had purchased was only pork substitute!

Well, beginning with the ministry of the Apostle Paul, an infinitely more pleasing secret was revealed!

“Paul… an apostle… in hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began… But hath in due times manifested His word through preaching, which is committed unto me…” (Titus 1:1-3).

If you’re not sure what that word “manifested” means, it is well defined in something the Lord said:

“…nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest, neither any thing hid, that shall not be known…” (Luke 8:17).

So to make something manifest means to make known something that was secret or hidden. 

That certainly applies to the promise of eternal life that God made to a Gentile like Titus!  God promised the Jews eternal life throughout the pages of the Old Testament, and Gentiles who wanted to get saved in those days had to get in on that promise by becoming “proselytes” (Acts 2:10).  But Paul was raised up to reveal that Gentiles no longer had to become Jews to get the eternal life that God promised the Jews.  Paul revealed that Gentiles had their own promise of eternal life, one that God made before the world began, but didn’t let the cat out of the bag until Paul came along.

Humorist Will Rogers is said to have quipped, “Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in.”  If you’ve ever released a cat that somehow managed to get trapped in a bag, you know he’s right!  But there are many who are trying to put Paul’s cat back in the bag.  That is, there are many who hold that Gentiles who want to be saved today must still try to get in on Israel’s promise of eternal life by keeping the Law that God gave them through Moses. Others insist that Gentiles who want to be saved must submit to water baptism “for the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38), as Peter told “the men of Israel” (v.22) at Pentecost.

If you’re an unsaved Gentile, don’t you fall for it!  God promised you eternal life long before the Law was given, and the apostle who revealed this promise says that eternal life can’t be obtained by the “works of righteousness” of the Law (Tit. 3:5).  He further declares that it is “by the washing of regeneration” (Tit. 3:5) that we are saved, and not the washing of water baptism.  The “regeneration” or new birth of which he speaks is yours “by grace…through faith” (Eph. 2:8), faith in the fact that Christ died for your sins, and rose again (I Cor. 15:1-4).

And if you’re an unsaved Jew, things have changed for you too!  Just as Gentiles who wanted to be saved in time past had to look to Moses, the spiritual leader of the Jews, and be saved through the Law, so Jews who want to be saved today must look to Paul, “the apostle of the Gentiles” (Rom. 11:13), and be saved by grace through faith.  That’s how the Body of Christ came to be made up of Jews and Gentiles (I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:28)!

So whether you’re a Jew or a Gentile, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.



Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

Peter Tells the Jews to Listen Up! – Acts 2:22-31

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Video of this message is available on YouTube: Peter Tells the Jews to Listen Up! – Acts 2:22-31

Summary:

“Nazareth” (2:22) was a despised city (John 1:46), but Peter mentioned it anyway.  Never be ashamed of the truth!

God approved the Lord by miracles (Acts 2:22), miracles that would tell the Jews that their God had come (Isa. 35:4-6).  The Jews require a sign (I Cor. 1:22) and the Lord gave them plenty of signs that He was their God!  But the Father did them (John 14:10,11) through Him. God was “with Him” (Acts 10:38) but that didn’t mean He wasn’t God (John 1:1).

How’d Peter know they knew about the Lord’s miracles (Acts 2:22)? They were from all over (Acts 2:5). But His fame got around (Mt. 4:24; 9:1,26,30,31; Mark 1:28; Lu. 4:37).

But the Jews killed Him (Act 2:23). God “delivered” Him to them by His “determinate” counsel, even though His “foreknowledge” told Him they’d kill Him.  But that doesn’t mean God forced them to kill Him to provide the world a Savior, despite what He “determined” (cf. Lu. 22:21, 22).  They should have sacrificed Him in faith, not executed Him in unbelief (Psalm 118:250-27 cf. Mark 11:9).

Peter says God the Father raised the Lord from the dead (Acts 2:24 cf. Acts 3:15,26; 10:40; 13:30,34; 17:31; Rom. 4:24; 6:4; I Cor. 6:14; Gal.1:1; Eph. 1:20; Col.2:12; I Thes. 1:10; Heb.13:20; I Pet. 1:21).  But the Bible also says the Lord raised Himself up (John 10:17), and that the Spirit raised Him (Rom.8:11), showing the oneness of the Trinity.

It was “not possible” that death could hold the Lord (Acts 2:24) because “the wages of sin is death” (Rom.6:23) and He was no sinner.  True, God put our sins on Him, but God was “satisfied” with His payment for our sins (Isa. 53:11).  So death couldn’t hold Him—or us!  But Peter didn’t know this, so he says death couldn’t hold Him “for” the Bible predicted that He’d rise from the dead (Acts 2:25-27), and all Bible prophecies must come true (cf. John 10:35; Acts 1:16).

Peter quotes a Messianic psalm of David (Ps. 16:8-11), a psalm that was true of both David and Christ.  The faith of both was so strong, they saw the Father in the grave with the eyes of faith, and so couldn’t be moved (Acts 2:25).  You’d think the Lord would be sad He was killed but He was “glad” (2:26) because His flesh rested in the “hope” of resurrection.

The “hell” they both went to (Acts 2:27) was the paradise side of hell (Luke 16:19-31 cf. 23:43).  The Lord “finished” paying for our sins on the cross (John 19:30) and didn’t have to go to the torment side of hell to pay for our sins.

But if the Lord was “glad” (Acts 2:26) in paradise, why’d He want to be raised from the dead?  It was because His flesh was still in the grave, where bodies see “corruption” (Acts 2:27).  So God showed Him the way out of the grave by the path of life (2:28), a way that unsaved men in the grave can’t find (Pr. 2:2-19).  His hope was to see God’s countenance (Acts 2:28), as was David’s (Ps. 17:15)—and ours too!

Peter probably knew that quoting Psalm 16 would remind his hearers of the similar-sounding Psalm 21:6-9, which predicted that after the Lord rose, He would avenge His enemies.  Peter wanted them thinking about that when he later told them to “repent” (Acts 2:38).

Peter’s argument in Acts 2:29 is that David didn’t rise from the dead before he saw corruption, so either he was mistaken when he said he would or he was talking about someone else. Peter knew the Jews would never admit there was a mistake in their Bible, so they’d have to admit he was talking about someone else—someone Peter identified as Christ (v. 30,31).

David predicted Christ would rise from the dead, knowing God had promised him that one of his descendants would be Christ (Act 2:30 cf. II Sam. 7:12,13).So God had to raise Christ to fulfill His promise that He’d sit on Israel’s throne forever.

But Paul says God raised Him for our justification (Rom. 4:25).  Peter and Paul didn’t preach the same thing!  We must remember Christ according to Paul’s gospel (II Tim. 2:8), not Peter’s!  Finally, Peter wasn’t trying to be unkind in charging Israel with Christ’s death, he was just trying to get them to mourn for Him (Zech. 12:10), as they someday will.

This Little Light of Mine…

Posted on by Pastor Kevin Sadler

“Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God…We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain” (2 Cor. 5:20, 6:1).

In 2 Corinthians 5:20, we learn about our ministry of reconciliation, of God beseeching unbelievers through us, Christ’s ambassadors, to be reconciled to God. A couple of verses later, in 6:1, we read of Paul, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, beseeching believers to “receive not the grace of God in vain.”

We have a privilege by grace to be workers together with God, and we have a privilege by grace to be Christ’s ambassadors. By the grace of God, each person reconciled to God is called to beg people to be reconciled to God. Our reconciliation with God puts each of us into the ministry of reconciliation (5:18).

However, not all in Corinth were doing this. They missed their ministry. “Vain” means empty, useless, fruitless, without effect or purpose. Receiving the grace of God “in vain” is the opposite of 2 Corinthians 5:15: “And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.”

When believers live for themselves only, rather than for the purposes to which God has called them, that’s receiving the grace of God in vain. Gratitude for God’s grace is to make us want to live for and work for the One Who gave everything for us, Who died for us, and saved us from eternity in the Lake of Fire.

We have a stewardship, a responsibility, a duty as ambassadors for Christ. To receive the grace of God in vain is not teaching that the salvation of the Corinthian believers was in jeopardy; it is teaching that the salvation of other people was in jeopardy.

In these verses, God begs the believer to live as a bright gospel light out of care for people around us and their eternal destinies. Receiving the grace of God in vain is to live a life without aim or meaning. But when the grace of God is received and touches your heart, it gives you purpose, a gospel mindset, and you see the vital importance to be a light and to live for what is important to God. And we know that the souls of people and their eternal destiny is infinitely important to God, because Christ died for all (2 Cor. 5:15). So may we respond to God’s Word by faith and let this little light of mine… shine!

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.



Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

Disciples Who Passed the Sobriety Test – Acts 2:14-21

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Video of this message is available on YouTube: Disciples Who Passed the Sobriety Test – Acts 2:14-21

Summary:

When the crowd at Pentecost heard the Lord’s 120 disciples (Acts 1:15) speaking in different tongues (2:4), some thought they were drunk (2:13).  So Peter corrected them (v.14,15).

It’s important to notice Peter was talking to Jews (v.14), because some say the Body of Christ began at Pentecost.  But the Body is made up of Jews and Gentiles (I Cor. 12:13), so Peter wouldn’t have excluded the Gentiles.  That’s just one of many proofs we’ll see that the Body did not start here.

After pointing out that it was too early to be drunk (2:15), Peter told them that what was happening fulfilled Joel 2:28-32 (v.16).  But that means the Body couldn’t have started here, for “the church, which is His Body” (Eph. 1:22,23) was “a mystery” (Eph. 5:32), and a mystery is something that wasn’t made known to the prophets (Col. 1:26).  Plus, Peter says that Joel called what was happening “the last days” (Acts 2:17).  That means Pentecost wasn’t the first days of the Body of Christ, it was the last days of Israel’s program.

In those days, the kingdom was supposed to come (Isa. 2:2-4).  The last days started with the Lord’s coming (Heb. 1:1,2). You can’t have a kingdom without a king!  And you can’t have the kingdom of heaven without the Spirit, who made it so they couldn’t sin (I Jo. 3:9;5:18).  That’s the only way to get rid of war (Isa. 2:4 cf. James 4:1,2).

The pouring out of the Spirit was also a time when God filled His sons with His word (cf. Pr. 1:23).  It was supposed to change the earth back to Eden-like conditions (Isa. 32:12; 35:1,2).  It didn’t because the dispensation of the mystery interrupted God’s prophetic program.

Some say God brought Israel back to the land in 1948, but He says He won’t do that until He pours out His Spirit again (Ezek. 11:19).  That’s when He’ll put a new spirit in them and cause them to walk in His ways (Ezek. 36:25-27) and stop hiding His face from them (Ezek. 39:29) as He’s done for the past 2,000 years now.  That’s also when they’ll mourn for Christ (Zech. 12:10).

When Peter said God poured out His Spirit on “all flesh” (Acts 2:17), that can mean everyone (Gen. 6:12).  But when Peter tells Jews that God would pour Him out on “your” sons and daughters (Acts 2:17), we know it means all Jewish flesh, all Jews who believed on Christ.

“Dreams” and “visions” (2:17) are the same thing.  They are how God talked to the prophets (Num. 12:6).  That’s how He communicated His Word to them (Num. 24:4).  And that’s what was happening here at Pentecost on all 120 of the disciples who were prophesying (Acts 2:18).

Blood and fire and smoke and wonders (Acts 2:19) are mentioned a combined 58 times in Revelation, the book that describes the Tribulation, so we know the time for the Tribulation had come.  Some of the wonders in heaven included the darkening of the sun (2:20), the beginning of the day of the Lord (Isa. 13:9,10; Rev. 6:12).

But Peter says the sun would be darkened before “that great and notable day of the Lord” (2:20), and the Lord said it would happen “after the tribulation” (Mark 13:24).  But while the entire 7 year 70th week of Daniel is the day of the Lord, the last 3 and a half years are the “great and terrible day of the Lord” (Joel 2:31).  So the sun will be dark after the first half of the Tribulation, but before the second half.

If it bothers you that only half of Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled after Peter said “this is that” (Acts 2:16), the Lord only quoted part of Isaiah 61:1,2 in Luke 4:16-20.  He left off the part about “the day of vengeance” because He added “this day is this scripture fulfilled” (Luke 4:21).  He knew it wasn’t time for that, so He didn’t quote that part.

But then why did Peter quote all of Joel’s prophecy, including the part about the day of God’s vengeance?  It is because he didn’t know that it wasn’t time for the vengeance.  The mystery that interrupted the vengeance wasn’t revealed until Paul.  We know Peter eventually learned the last days had been postponed because he later talked about what “shall” happen in the last days (II Pe. 3:3), and said if you want to learn more about the delay, see Paul! (v.15).

Conduct Unbecoming a Christian

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

“…speak thou the things which become sound doctrine” (Titus 2:1).

The word “become” here means fitting or appropriate. Even if you never served in the military, you have probably heard that if an officer misbehaves he can be charged with “conduct unbecoming an officer.” That serious charge is levied against an officer who has not been conducting himself in a manner that is fitting or appropriate for his rank and position.

And the word become is used that way in Scripture as well. Paul told the Romans,

“I commend unto you Phebe…a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea…receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and…assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you…” (Rom. 16:1,2).

The reason Paul had to tell the Romans to receive a sister in Christ was that women in those days were not always well received in Roman society. That is, they weren’t always as welcomed as a man would be. But Paul says to not receive a sister like Phebe would constitute conduct unbecoming a saint of God.

By the way, this is one of many examples in Scripture that show how those who say that Christianity puts women down are wrong. Christianity lifts women up, as you can see from Paul’s words here, and from the words found in many other places in Scripture as well. If you want a religion that puts women down, and teaches that it is okay to mistreat them, look to Islam, not Christianity.

Of course, having said that, there are Christian men who mistreat women as well, and Paul says that behavior like that isn’t very becoming to men who claim to be saints of God.

The word “becoming” also means to make someone look good. A husband might say to his wife, “That dress is very becoming on you.” At least that’s what he says if he knows what’s good for him, right ladies? But what he means when he says that is that the dress makes his wife look good.

And the Bible uses the word that way as well. Paul told the Philippians,

“…let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel” (Phil. 1:27).

Two of the Philippian women were feuding like the Hatfields and the McCoys (Phil. 4:2), and Paul’s admonition for the church to be “of one accord” (Phil. 2:2) suggests that some in the church were siding with Eudoias and some with Syntyche. As far as God is concerned, that’s conduct that is unbecoming to the gospel! They were making the gospel look bad in the eyes of the lost sinners in Philippi, not good.

So when Paul tells Titus to speak the things which become sound doctrine, he was telling him to speak to believers and tell them how to act in a way that was fitting for someone who embraces the sound doctrine found in Paul’s epistles. He then went on to tell “aged men” how to do that (Titus 2:2), “aged women” (2:3), “young women” (2:4), as well as “young men” (2:6), and even “servants” (2:9).

Beloved, no matter what your age, gender, or position in life, it’s not enough just to believe sound doctrine, and it’s not enough just to teach it. God wants us to live sound doctrine—live it in such a way that makes sound doctrine look good. If that’s the burden of your heart, why not make it the prayer of your heart?

You’ll be eternally glad you did.

To the Reader:

Some of our Two Minutes articles were written many years ago by Pastor C. R. Stam for publication in newspapers. When many of these articles were later compiled in book form, Pastor Stam wrote this word of explanation in the Preface:

"It should be borne in mind that the newspaper column, Two Minutes With the Bible, has now been published for many years, so that local, national and international events are discussed as if they occurred only recently. Rather than rewrite or date such articles, we have left them just as they were when first published. This, we felt, would add to the interest, especially since our readers understand that they first appeared as newspaper articles."

To this we would add that the same is true for the articles written by others that we continue to add, on a regular basis, to the Two Minutes library. We hope that you'll agree that while some of the references in these articles are dated, the spiritual truths taught therein are timeless.

Two Minutes with the Bible lets you start your day with short but powerful Bible study articles from the Berean Bible Society. Sign up now to receive Two Minutes With the Bible every day in your email inbox. We will never share your personal information and you can unsubscribe at any time.



Two Minutes with the Bible is now available on Alexa devices. Full instructions here.

The Apostles Spoke With Forked Tongues! – Acts 2:4-13

Posted on by Pastor Ricky Kurth

Video of this message is also available on YouTube: The Apostles Spoke With Forked Tongues – Acts 2:4-13

Summary:

“Cloven” (v. 4) means divided.  The Spirit divided their tongues by giving them the power to speak in other languages as part of the “taste” of the kingdom that He was giving Israel (Heb. 6:4,5).  It would be heavenly not to have to worry about serpents, poison or illness (Mark 16:17,18).  But what’s so heavenly about the gift of tongues?  Well, Jewish disciples will need the gift of tongues when the Gentile nations look to them to teach them about God (Zech. 8:23).

When it says, “every man heard them speak in his own language,” it sounds like the disciples spoke their language, but people heard them in their language.  But that would be the gift of ears, not tongues.  The disciples were filled with the Spirit (Acts 2:4), not the Jews to whom they preached.

“Confound” (v. 6) means amazed (v. 7,8).  The people of the lands in Acts 2:9-11 all spoke known human languages, and not the gibberish that passes for tongues today.  Since there are more than 12 tongues mentioned, this suggests all 120 believers spoke in tongues (Acts 1:15), not just the 12.

If you could speak in tongues, wouldn’t you preach the gospel? Instead, the disciples talked about “the wonderful works of God.”  They might have done that to draw a crowd so they could hear Peter’s message.  Or it could be that they were being sneaky!  That exact phrase “wonderful works” is only used 8 other places in the Bible, and half of them are in Psalm 107, where it says God stills the wind and waves (21-31).  Aren’t those the wonderful works of God you’d talk about, ones that would identify Christ as God (Mark 4:36-39).

When it says some thought they were “full of new wine,” wine is a type of the Spirit in the Bible.  The Lord taught that the new wine of the Spirit couldn’t be put in the old bottles of the apostate leaders in Israel (Lu. 5:37,38), it had to be put where God put it, in the new bottles of the new leaders in Israel, the little flock of the Lord’s followers (Lu. 12:32).

Our Pentecostal friends know they can’t speak in legitimate languages, so they insist that they speak in the tongues of angels (I Cor. 13:1).  But angels in Scripture are never said to have their own language.  An “unknown tongue” (I Cor. 14:2) is just a language that someone didn’t “know” (cf. Jer. 5:15).

We know the tongues in Corinth were the same human languages they spoke at Pentecost because Paul says that if they didn’t interpret their languages that “learned” men couldn’t understand them (I Cor. 14:13,16).  That means that learned men could understand them.  Learned men can often speak more than one language, but they can’t speak angel. 

Tongues in Corinth were also given for a different reason.  At Pentecost they were given to the Jews as a sign that God was about to offer them the kingdom in which they’d teach the Gentiles in their own languages.  In other words, it was a sign of God’s blessing.  But once the Jews rejected their kingdom, tongues were given to the Gentiles as a sign God was judging Israel, not blessing them.

To explain the gift of tongues to the Corinthians, Paul quoted Isaiah to say, “with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people” (I Cor. 14:21).  That’s not a gift of tongues that God gave to the Jews to teach the Gentiles.  That’s a gift of tongues He gave the Gentiles to speak to the Jews.  That’s what Isaiah meant.  God had spoken to Israel in Hebrew through the prophets, and they didn’t listen, so He threatened to speak to them through the Gentiles by letting the Gentiles conquer them (Isa. 28:11).

That’s what God was doing in Corinth.  He gave the Jews’ gift of tongues to the Gentiles next door (Acts 18:11) as a “sign” (I Cor. 14:22) He was judging them for rejecting Christ

Doesn’t God still want the Jews to know that He is judging their nation?  If so, why isn’t He still giving the gift of tongues?  The answer is that God is using His Word to tell them this today, in the dispensation of grace.  That’s why tongues and prophecies ceased when the Bible was complete (I Cor. 13:8-10).  God no longer needed prophets to speak through, He had His Word to speak through.And He no longer needed to give the Gentiles the gift of tongues as a sign He was judging Israel.  He now has His Word to do that too.