1. Grace, mercy, and peace to you from God our
Heavenly Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Happy Pentecost to all of you this day! On
Pentecost we see that God’s mission is to gather his people scattered
over the the earth to the Church established by Jesus. Pentecost is God’s way of ending the babble
that occurred at Babel in Genesis 11. Within the Christian Church the Holy
Spirit uses God’s Word and Sacraments to open our sinful eyes to see our sins
against God and our neighbor and our need for a Savior. God’s will is the
salvation of all men as we see in our reading from Acts 2. The message is taken from Genesis 11:1-9 and
is entitled, “Pentecost Ended the Babble
at Babel,” dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2. The
quest to build the world’s tallest building has an ancient history. For almost
4000 years the Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt, held the title. Then there was the
Lincoln Cathedral in England, finished in 1311. Much later, the Washington
Monument, the Eiffel Tower, and then the Empire State Building. In recent
years, the quest to be tallest has become so competitive that an organization,
the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban
Habitat, has become the referee. This organization now recognizes title
holders in several categories.
3. In
many ways human beings have sought to impress with their achievements often
without giving credit where credit is due, to the Architect and Builder of all
things, God our Heavenly Father. But towers come down, not only in New York,
but also in England, where the spire of the Lincoln Cathedral was destroyed in
a storm, and even in Egypt, where the Great Pyramid has lost more than 25 feet
to erosion. Human achievements are always passing. But, the work of 12 confused men and a
handful of others not only brought 3000 to faith in one day but also built a
Church that will stand until the end of time, because it wasn’t the work of men
but of the Holy Spirit and of the Son and of his Father.
4. After
the flood God had commanded the peoples to be fruitful and multiply and to
scatter across the earth, but they decided to move to Nimrod’s city of Babylon
and settle there (11:8–12). This move was a rebellion against God’s command
that the people scatter and fill the earth.
The “tower” that they built at Babel was what is known as a “ziggurat.”
A ziggurat was like a pyramid. At the top was a special shrine dedicated to a
false god. The people weren’t trying to climb up to heaven and dethrone
God. Instead, they hoped that the god
they worshiped would come down from heaven to meet them.
5. The
tower of Babel was a declaration of war against the Lord. To begin with, the
people were disobeying God’s command to scatter and repopulate the earth.
Motivated by fear and pride, they decided to build a city, a great ziggurat,
and stay together. But, they also wanted to make a name for themselves. Their
mission was the devil’s lie in Eden: “You
will be like God” (Gen. 3:4). The
people had several things in their favor. They were one people group (11:6) and
spoke one language. They were motivated by one spirit of pride to make a name
for themselves. “Glory to man in the highest!” That’s turning God’s plan for us on
top of itself. That’s rejecting God’s goal for our lives and substituting a
goal of our own. Food and shelter, security, status—these were the life goals
the descendants of Noah had adopted. Satan doesn’t have to persuade us to kneel
down in front of an idol if he can get us to look at life only in terms of ourselves.
6. God
in heaven is never perplexed by what people do on earth. Babel’s conceited “Let’s go up to heaven!” was answered by
heaven’s calm “Let’s go down!” “He who sits in the heavens shall laugh; the
Lord shall hold them in derision” (Ps. 2:4, nkjv).
Of course, God doesn’t have to investigate to know what’s going on in His
universe. The language is used only to
dramatize God’s intervention.
7. It
doesn’t surprise us that the Lord came down.
“I am the Lord,” he has told us.
“I will not give my glory to another” (Isaiah 42:8). God’s judgment here,
unlike the flood, wasn’t visible. God simply made some changes in the minds of
the builders. They could no longer understand one another. That meant that they
could no longer work together. Worse yet, they no longer trusted one another. The
spirit of friendliness and confidence was replaced by ugly suspicion, and they
had to move away from their dream home. The settlement they had hoped would
bring them fame became known as Babel (“confusion”). It’s our Savior who says, “Do not be deceived: I will not be mocked.”
He’s absolutely unwilling to let people wipe their feet on His great, good plan
for this world.
8. Martin
Luther called God’s action at Babel a greater judgment than the flood. That
judgment wiped out only a single generation of humanity. Confusing the
languages at Babel has caused confusion, suspicion, and hatred in every
generation since then, down to our broken, disorderly world. Why is nation
pitted against nation and individual against individual? We have an answer
here.
9. The
story of Babel isn’t just ancient history, because Babel and Babylon present a
spiritual challenge to every believer today.
Babylon became a great city and empire. In 606–586 b.c., the Babylonian armies attacked and
captured the kingdom of Judah, burned the temple and the city of Jerusalem, and
took thousands of Jews captive to Babylon for 70 years. God used the cruel and
idolatrous Babylonians to chasten His own disobedient people. But in Scripture, Babylon symbolizes pride,
moral corruption, and rebellion against God. The biblical contrast is between
the earthly city of Babylon that rebels against God, and the heavenly city of
Jerusalem that brings glory to God. Babylon represents the world system that
opposes God, hates Jesus, and appeals to the baser appetites of human nature.
Babylon is the opposite of the heavenly Jerusalem which is the city of the
saints (Heb. 12:18ff).
10. “Every
generation builds its own towers,” writes psychotherapist Naomi H.
Rosenblatt, and she’s right. Whether these are actual skyscrapers or mega corporations,
the idea is the same: “We will make a
name for ourselves.” God’s people can’t escape being in the world, because
it’s in the world that we have our ministry, but we must avoid being of the
world. We’re not here to build the arrogant towers of men. We’re here to help build the church of Jesus
Christ.
11. What
humanity can’t achieve by means of its “proud
towers,” Jesus Christ has achieved by dying on a humiliating cross for us. All
who trust Jesus Christ are one in Him (Gal. 3:27) and will share heaven
together, regardless of race, nation, language, or tribe (Rev. 7:9). While the
world is trying to bring everything into one, inwardly it’s tearing things
apart. But the Holy Spirit is using the church as an agent of reconciliation to
bring things together in Jesus Christ (Eph. 1:10; 2 Cor. 5:14–21). Pentecost
ended the babble at Babel, for the people present in Jerusalem at Pentecost
heard the praises of God in their own languages (Acts 2:1–12). And the day will
come when people from every tribe and nation will worship Jesus Christ (Rev.
15:4) and the judgment of Babel will be done away (Zeph. 3:9).
12. Will we
identify with Babylon or Jerusalem, the worldly prostitute or the heavenly
bride? That’s where the greater
outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost ended the babble at Babel.
Where Babel brought about disunity through the different languages, Pentecost
produced a unity among people of different languages by speeding the common
message and language of salvation through Jesus Christ throughout the
world. At Pentecost God says to us, “Though your sins are like scarlet, they
shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like
wool” (Isa. 1:18). Jesus says, “Come
to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt.
11:28).
13. What’s
the result when we who hear God’s invitation to come to him? Our sins are
washed away. Our burdens are lifted. Our spiritual thirst is quenched. The
effects of the curse are overturned and the proper desires of the human heart
are provided for. The curse at Babel was the confusion of languages, but God
brings blessing from the curse. He gives understanding in spite of the language
barrier and even promises at Pentecost that the nations will worship together.
The Babylonians wanted a city. Their city couldn’t stand. But God provides his
people with an everlasting city of heaven. Nimrod’s people wanted a name. But
to those who stand with God, the LORD promises in Revelation 3: “Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in
the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the
name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is
coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new
name. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches”
(Rev. 3:12–13). Pentecost ended the
babble at Babel, thanks be to God. Amen.
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