GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
MARK 16:17
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17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons. They will speak in new languages.
Still speaking in Galilee, Jesus continued his comforting word to his apostles. He promised them signs, miracles, to accompany their preaching. Jesus had already established that miracles were the lowest rung of reasons for faith (“or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves” John 14:11). Sadly, some would not even be swayed by the most spectacular miracles, for Abraham declared: “If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, then they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead” (Luke 16:31).
Jesus will list five miracles in all. The first two are driving out demons and speaking in tongues, or “new languages.” Peter and John drove out demons in Jerusalem (Acts 5:16) and were arrested for it by the Sadducees (Acts 5:17-18). When this happened, they were able to proclaim Jesus to the Sanhedrin. The witness stand might seem like a strange pulpit, but any opportunity to proclaim Christ in public is a moment to be seized.
Paul did the same thing, and with the same result. Paul, Luke and others had traveled to Philippi in Macedonia (northern Greece). A slave girl started shouting at Paul in the streets: “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation!” (Acts 16:17). But she was possessed by a demon, and what she shouted, she shouted from fear and not from joy or faith. Paul drove out the demon in the name of Jesus Christ, and the slave girl’s owners had him arrested because they had been able to make money from her demonic predictions about the future. This brought Paul into contact with the jailer of Philippi, and Paul baptized that man’s whole family in the jail (Acts 16:33-34). Another strange pulpit; one of the many “wherevers” the gospel is preached throughout the world (Mark 14:9; Ezekiel 1:12).
The second of the miracles is “speaking in new languages” or tongues. The plural for “languages” (the same Greek word as “tongues,” cp. Acts 2:4) tells us that this was not some glorious angelic language, but many languages, which is the situation we find ourselves in here in the fallen, sinful world. Ever since the confusion of languages at Babel (Genesis 11:7-9), people have been unable to understand one another’s languages unless they have special training or use more than one language in the home. For the average person, one language is the limit of their linguistic skill, or of their education. The blessing Jesus promises here is that when the apostles would encounter people who did not speak languages that they already spoke (Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek), the Lord would enable them to speak in the other person’s “own native tongue” (Acts 2:8), even though they faced “a people whose language you do not know, whose speech you do not understand” (Jeremiah 5:15).
These were signs “that were necessary to confirm the new word, signs that were added to the glory of the church, signs that are not done physically in the last time of the church, now that Christ is no longer weak. They were necessary as a witness to the Jews, who ought to have recognized the church of God” (Luther, commenting on Isaiah 35:5).
The writer to the Hebrews confirms that what Jesus promised had actually taken place. “How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation? This salvation, which was first announced by the Lord, was confirmed to us by those who heard him. God also testified to it by signs, wonders, and various miracles, and gifts that the Holy Spirit distributed according to his will” (Hebrews 2:3-4). And the Scriptures foretold all of this, for David says: “There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard” (Psalm 19:3).
There are still accounts of things like this happening in our time, although they are rare. The following is my faulty memory of something one of our world missionaries shared about time he had spent in central Africa. On meeting some leading men from a new tribe, our missionary spoke with them for a considerable time, more than an hour, before they promised to return and talk again, delighted about the meeting and hearing about Jesus. When the tribal leaders had gone, a guide turned to our missionary with a curious look on his face. The missionary said, “I didn’t expect them to speak such excellent English.” To this the guide said, “On the contrary. I didn’t expect you to speak their dialect so perfectly!” In fact, the other tribesmen spoke no English at all, and our missionary had never even heard of their language. But as we say with irony, we should also say in fact: The Lord works in mysterious ways.
There is no promise that God will continue to give these gifts today. Now that the church is no longer persecuted (this is what Luther meant when he said, “Christ is no longer weak”), the need is less urgent. The text of the Bible is “written in the script of each province and the language of each people” (Esther 8:9), or at least, all but a few. But that’s not to say that Christ cannot or will not sometimes supply these gifts for those who need them. The blood of Christ has purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation (Revelation 5:9), and the gospel will go out to them all.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Mark 16:17 demons and tongues