Pentecost and Babel

Some my students recently asked me what it was like to preach in front of a church. I told them that it was an awesome responsibility and that you had to take it very serious.
Winston Churchill was once asked, "Doesn’t it thrill you to know that every time you make a speech, the hall is packed to overflowing?"
"It’s quite flattering," replied Sir Winston. "But whenever I feel that way, I always remember that if instead of making a political speech I was being hanged, the crowd would be twice as big."
Well I hope youre not here this morning to hang me and I hope I never offend anyone to that point.
This morning I want us to turn our attention back to Acts chapter 2
Last week we looked at the background of Pentecost and how that feast was fulfilled in the story in Acts 2.
We saw that Pentecost celebrated the giving of the Law and the 2nd Harvest of Barley.
In Acts 2 we saw how the tongues of fire and mighty rushing wind took the people of that day back to the time when the same things happened to Moses on Mount Sinai.
New Law- New life – New Covenant is the key to understand this passage.
Today we are going to focus how the Pentecost event of Acts 2 was a time for God to start putting humanity back together.
Mankind had been fractured by sin and division and hatred but now God’s Spirit is trying to put us back together again.
This is a timely message of Love and Community because we are losing this idea in our country.
Robert Putnam is professor at Princeton University and is also a student of American culture, particularly trying to understand American communities today.
Several years ago, he wrote a remarkable book entitled Bowling Alone. The title of the book is taken from a recent sociological phenomenon. More and more Americans are bowling alone.
Now, traditionally, bowling has always been a group activity. Traditionally, most people who
bowl do so in leagues. Today, as Putnam notes, more and more people come to bowling alleys alone.
But Putnam’s work is not just about bowling.
His research shows that we are becoming increasingly disconnected—from family, from friends, from neighbors and from our communities. This is certainly true in the church.
Putnam’s research on the church today shows that, whereas traditionally many people looked to the church to provide community, today people are withdrawing from group activities.
They are bowling alone.
There are two Scriptures that form the basis of the sermon this morning. The first is taken from Genesis, chapter 11. It is the story of the building of the Tower of Babel.
The narrative is part of a larger framework, Genesis chapters 1-11, which forms the prelude of the history of salvation. These early chapters of the Bible explain the universal nature of our faith.
They speak of Creation (Genesis 1 and 20), the stories of the Fall (Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel) (Genesis2-4), the great flood (Genesis 6-9), and this story of the building of the great tower of Babel.
Lets turn our attention to the OT scripture this morning from
Genesis 11: 1-9
1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, "Come, let's make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth."5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, "If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other."8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel--because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
The Genesis’ account of the Tower of Babel tells us that after Noah’s Flood everyone in the world spoke the same language.
As the population began to grow people moved to new areas.
A group of people moved to the Plain of Shinar. We know it as Babylonia or part of Iraq.
There they decided to build a tower that would reach to the heavens. They wanted to make a name for themselves and they also did not want to be scattered to other areas of the earth.
Some scholars think that these people remembered the Great Flood of Noah.
Apparently they did not believe that God would keep his word. They did not believe in the covenant of the rainbow.
That God promised to not destroy the world again with water. To create a means of escape, they began to build the tower with baked bricks that were sealed together with tar.
Perhaps they were trying to build a stationary type of a Noah’s Ark. They may have been trying to outwit God and escape judgment for their sins.
Other scholars think the Babel People thought they could build a tower and reach to Heaven and somehow become gods.
To become equal with God. How many lost souls do you know who are trying to get to Heaven in some way other than God’s way?
No one comes to the Father except through faith in Jesus Christ the Lord.
Remember Adam and Eve were misled by Satan that they would become like God.
Part of the judgment that God allows sinful humans to endure is to allow them to become their own gods.
On our own man is never good enough, powerful enough, smart enough, creative enough, loving enough, holy enough…to become a god and save himself.
The second story is taken from the New Testament. It is the account of Pentecost that is found in Acts, chapter 2.
On the day of Pentecost, the disciples received a remarkable outpouringof the Spirit of God.
There were tongues of fire. Moreover, each person heard the speech of the disciples in his own tongue.
Peter explained to them that the gift of the spirit was prophesied in the Old Testament book of Joel in chapter 2 verse 16
Acts 2: 1-8
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting.3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them. 5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: "Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans?8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?
Before the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, Pentecost for the Jews was a time to celebrate God giving the Law to the Jews.
The Law on tablets of stone. Pentecost for the Christian is a time to celebrate God placing the Holy Spirit into the hearts of believers.
Pentecost was the beginning of the church age.
There is the “BC Pentecost,” that Jews still celebrate today.
Today, we enjoy the “AD Pentecost,” where God, through the work of the Holy Spirit, writes His law of love in our hearts.
The Holy Spirit enables man to keep Jesus’ new command to love our fellow humans as Jesus loved.
It is helpful to look at the differences between the good and the evil, the spiritual and the earthly, the godly and the ungodly…
Let us look for a while and compare Babel and Pentecost.(
These two stories (the tower of Babel and Pentecost) are related in a very intimate way.
The story of the Gifts of Tongues at Pentecost is the reverse of the story of the Tower of Babel.
One is the story of human pride; the other is a witness to the wonderful works of God.
I. BABEL DISPLAYED THE SPIRIT OF ARROGANCE AND PRIDE. PENTECOST DISPLAYED THE POWER OF LOVE.
The Babylonians were so proud that the Lord said they thought that they could do anything that they wanted.
He destroyed the tower to remind them that He was sovereign. They wanted to become gods.
At Pentecost the 120 in the Upper Room wanted to become like Jesus. From that time till now, the church has been characterized by love.
Reinhold Niebuhr saw human sinfulness primarily as pride. For Niebuhr, humans are anxious because they know they are finite.
So we try to deal with our finiteness by pretending to be more than we are. Wealth, power, and knowledge are just some of the ways that we seek to insulate ourselves from our finiteness.
For Niebuhr, pride is always the temptation to see ourselves as good when we are evil.
God Desires a Contrite Heart:
Shortly after the events of September 11, 2001, there appeared in the New Yorker
Magazine an article by John Seabrook entitled “The Tower Builder.” The story related some of
the discussion that took place about the collapse of the World Trade Center in the attacks of that
day. A number of structural engineers had been interviewed concerning the construction of the World Trade Center, when it was built in the 1970’s.
Almost all of the engineers agreed that the building had been built in the best possible way and that the engineers involved in the building had tried to anticipate what would happened if a plane hit one of the buildings.
However, none of them could have imagined the impact of planes the size of the 757 and 767 planes that would one day be built.
The article went on to relate an event that took place in November of 2001. The structural designer of the World Trade Center was attending a conference in St. Louis.
During the question and answer period a questioner asked this engineer if he had any regrets about the design of the building.
When asked this question, the chief structural engineer broke down and wept, saying, that the wished that somehow they had made the buildings stronger.
If only, he said, the buildings could have lasted another hour.
To me, it was refreshing to hear a person express that kind of contrition.
No excuses, no long apologies explaining why he had not done everything he could have.
He just said that hewished the buildings had been stronger.
One of the things that God’s spirit does in our lives is to give us the power to admit that we are sinners.
We make mistakes. “All have sinned” writes Paul to the Romans, “and come short of the glory of God.”
II. BABEL DIVIDED MEN THROUGH LANGUAGE. PENTECOST UNITED MEN THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT PROVIDED GIFT OF LANGUAGES/TONGUES.
The Babylonians were using their common language to empower themselves and to escape the judgment of God.
Today, there are hundreds of language and dialect groups on the earth.
On Pentecost the Holy Spirit enabled the early church to speak in the languages of all of the people who had come from all over the ancient world to celebrate Pentecost.
The language of the Babylonians was being used to build an earthly kingdom of crafty, evil men.
The languages of Pentecost were used to tell the world that Jesus was the Lord, the Messiah
(The languages the Believers spoke were real languages. See verses 4,6,8,11.)
Believers spoke in languages that all could understand and explained that the Promised Holy Spirit had been given to all who would believe. They told the crowd of the need for them to believe in Jesus.
III. BABEL BROUGHT CONFUSION. PENTECOST BROUGHT PEACE.
Our world is filled with people who are confused about the truth.
Many are trying to teach our children that there is no real truth. Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life and that man can only come to God on God’s terms.
Those terms include belief in, faith in Jesus. He promises a peace that the world does not give.
The early church and we live in a world that is full of war, unrest, confusion… In the heart of a Christian is a peace that passes all understanding.

IV. BABEL SHOWS US MAN FULL OF HIMSELF. PENTECOST SHOWS US MAN FULL OF GOD.
As it was in Babylon, the spirit of rebellion, selfishness, greed, and all manner of sin is very strong today.
Man wants to do things his way.
To take things into his own hands.
In the Upper Room the early church obeyed the teaching of Jesus to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit and for power.
When will this world ever learn that there will be no real peace, and justice and mercy for all, until the world begins to do things God’s way?
The Spirit filled church changed their world and continues to change the world, one person at a time.
As Peter preached his famous Pentecost Sermon, individual believers witnessed to individual crowd members of the saving story of Jesus the Messiah.
Babylonians wanted to further their power. Christians wanted to spread the power and love of the Lord.
V. BABEL BROUGHT THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TOWER. PENTECOST BROUGHT THE FOUNDATION OF THE CHURCH.
The people who lived on the Plain of Shinar had to have known of the story of Noah.
They had to have know that there were certain things that God had forbidden.
Yet they did their own thing and tried to get away with their sin. As a result, God poured judgment upon their works.
He changed their language and scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
On the day of Pentecost, God began to build his church on the Rock, Christ Jesus.
He is our Foundation. He is our Rock.
The Babylonian Tower and the Jewish Temple had been built with hands.
Constructed by man.
On Pentecost the believers in Jesus became temples of the living God. Temples not built with hands.
Their hearts were just as full of the Spirit of God as the Holy of Holies in the Temple was full of the Spirit of God.
On the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, the veil of the Temple was torn apart from the top to the bottom. God reached down and symbolically said,
“Through my beloved Son, Jesus, man can come into my presence.”
Through Jesus, and only through Jesus, man may become holy. Jesus is our sacrifice and our high priest.
VI. BABEL SCATTERED MAN OVER THE FACE OF THE EARTH TO TELL THEIR CHILDREN OF GOD’S POWERFUL WRATH. PENTECOST SCATTERED BELIEVERS OVER THE FACE OF THE EARTH TO TELL THE WORLD OF JESUS AND HIS POWER TO SAVE.

Can you imagine those who lived in Babylonia telling their children about how it used to be and how God had brought judgment?
Telling them of the Flood’s destruction and the destruction of the Tower?
Most people know about the wrath of God and are afraid to meet Him as Judge. Few know His love.
God is love. He wants to have a personal love relationship with you.
After Pentecost the resident believers stayed in Jerusalem, the rest scattered back to their home lands, to the uttermost parts of the earth.
On the trips home and when they got home, they told everyone in languages that they could understand, of the prophecies, love, miracles, teachings, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
They told people that he would one day come again and that they needed to repent, believe, love, and be ready to meet Jesus.
They told the God-fearing of their need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Have you been filled with Him?
The people of the Tower did not want to be scattered.
The early church did not want to be scattered either: But when they were, they took the gospel story with them and shared it with all that they met
.(Many were scattered by persecution.)
Willingly they sent out missionaries, teachers, evangelists, and pastors. Out of their fearlessness the church was built and is being built.
Application:
1) Our language - God used the symbolism of speech to show unity among humans as well as disunity.
How do we use the gift of speech today?
A father’s two daughters were begging him for permission to see the latest movie, which happened to be rated "R," with their friends. When he denied their request, their pleading only intensified.
"It’s only rated R because it has just a little bad language and just a few scenes that are bad," they reasoned.
Later that night, the father baked some brownies for his daughters. They dug in and commented on how much they enjoyed them.
"You like them, huh?" he responded. "Oh yes. They’re great," answered his daughters. "That’s interesting because I used a new recipe," he said, matter of factly.
"Oh yeah? What is it?" they asked.
"Well, I’ve always heard that, if you add a little dash of dog droppings to the brownies that it gives them a distinct taste that people love," he answered, straight-faced.
The daughters immediately stopped chewing and their faces transformed from enthusiastic smiles to panicked looks of confusion. "You’re kidding!"
cried one as she spat her brownie out on her plate. "What in the world are you thinking?" complained the other.
The father explained that he would never serve such a dish because even just a small amount of some things is completely unacceptable.
He went on to explain that God views sin in much the same way. It doesn’t matter how little it is, it still is so distasteful that God cannot look upon it.
The girls agreed with their father that rated "R" movies were not for them.
God has given us a new language to speak – this new language is based on His Word
Ephesians 4: 29
29 Let no corrupt speech proceed out of your mouth, but such as is good for edifying as the need may be, that it may give grace to them that hear
Our speech is under the dominion of God – nothing corrupt should come from our mouths.
We should speak only to edify and give grace to others.
Our speech should only be the type that builds up our brothers and sisters but doesn’t tear down.
It is amazing the wonderful gift that God gave us in our speech and the question we must ask, is our speech bringing division like Babel?
Does our speech show our autonomy before God or do we even submit our speech to God.
James tells us a good bit about our speech.
James 3: 3-10
3 Now if we put the horses' bridles into their mouths that they may obey us, we turn about their whole body also. 4 Behold, the ships also, though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, are yet turned about by a very small rudder, whither the impulse of the steersman willeth. 5 So the tongue also is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how much wood is kindled by how small a fire! 6 And the tongue is a fire: the world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the wheel of nature, and is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beasts and birds, of creeping things and things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed by mankind. 8 But the tongue can no man tame; [it is] a restless evil, [it is] full of deadly poison. 9 Therewith bless we the Lord and Father; and therewith curse we men, who are made after the likeness of God: 10 out of the same mouth cometh forth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
The question comes up this morning, is the same mouth that we sing praises to God with spewing curse words and foul language during the week.
If this Is so, then we must stop this.
James tells us that this is absurd to think that blessing and cursings should come out of the same mouth.
How do we honor God with our speech?
Are we praising God with it?
Are we speaking love and edification to each other?
Are we preaching the gospel with it?