St. Luke’s Evangelical Lutheran Church -- Watertown, WI
Pastor Mark Gartner
Sermon for Pentecost -- May 27 and 30^th, 2004

Dear people of God,

How much do you follow the advancements being made in space exploration? Things have certainly advanced over the last 40 years or so. From unmanned flights into space, to men walking on the moon, to unmanned vehicles that are being sent far off into space and landing on and exploring other planets. We would have to admit that things are progressing at a quick pace. Don’t get me wrong – I am all for the advancement of technology and discovery of new parts of God’s creation. But when have things gone too far? Are all of these advancements in space exploration or any other area good? When does a good thing, become something that is harmful? And this is not just something that is happening in space travel. It is happening in the medical fields as people get their hands more and more into life and how it starts and how it ends. It is involved in our media which is able to be in all parts of world in an instant. There are things being discovered every day that are ch! anging the ways that we think and act.

As we look at this world, we certainly can thank God for the benefits we enjoy from these discoveries, but we also need to realize what is important. We need to realize that when any of these advances change the ways that we look at God’s Laws or God’s Word, we need to take a step back and reevaluate our lives on this earth. This morning we are going to take a look at a group people who started to accomplish something that was outwardly big and glorious, but it wasn’t pleasing in God’s eyes

Moses recorded the creation of the world, the fall of Adam and Eve, and the Fall into sin. Cain killed Abel, and the great wickedness on earth moved God to declare, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth" (Genesis 6:7). Because God had a promise to keep, he spared Noah and his family from the judgment. But the flood did wipe all others from the earth.

When the flood of Noah’s day had come to an end, God commanded people to "be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth." (Genesis 9:1). Chapter 10 lists the descendants of Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s sons, and this listing is commonly called the Table of Nations. Most Bible scholars and commentators believe the events in our text occurred approximately one hundred years after the flood. Eight people had seen the judgment of God and his gracious love as he protected his people. But the sinful human heart remained. The text for today shows how sinful people reacted to God’s command to fill the earth and how God reacted to their sin. It also underscores the need for the miraculous outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the first day of Pentecost. That is why we will use the theme:

Sermon Theme: Learn From An Abandoned Skyscraper

"Now the whole world had one language and a common speech." After the flood the people of the world enjoyed a common speech and vocabulary. It is not clear what that language was. What is clear is that this common language produced a great unity. It was a godless unity, but it was a unity nonetheless. The people of the world could communicate very easily with one another and cooperate without any language barriers. This godless unity showed itself, "As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there." They were pulling up stakes and moving as one body. The world population might have been increasing in response to God’s command to fill the earth, but people were not by any means filling different places of the earth. The people’s defiant attitude showed even more in the following verses.

"They said to each other, "Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly." They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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." The people’s building project was both simple and complex. It was simple in purpose but complex in design. They planned on building a huge city with a tall tower, a "skyscraper". All the effort of the building project was for one purpose, making a name for the people. Here we see humanism in all its ugliness. God is entirely absent from the people’s plans and activities. People had replaced God at the center of life. They intended this building project to be a lasting monument to themselves.

More than that, the tower was to serve as a rallying point. Rather than spreading out and filling the earth as God had commanded Noah and his descendants, these people wanted something on the horizon to keep them from straying too far from one another. This desire put them directly opposite God’s intent. They said they did not wish to be "scattered over the face of the whole earth." The Hebrew says it more clearly. They wished to make a name for themselves, lest they be scattered. Such a thought defied God’s design. In short, the building project was an act of defiance toward God and an attempt to elevate themselves instead of God.

Today is the day we celebrate as Pentecost and you might be wondering why this text is being used to talk about Pentecost. While this text doesn’t talk directly about the work of the Holy Spirit, it certainly points out the need for the work of the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Sprit working in people’s hearts we see what a heart of unbelief can do. We see hearts that are directed to work for the fame and fortune of this world. Hearts without the Spirit think that heaven is theirs as they accomplish great things on this earth. The people of Babel are a just an Old Testament version of what we see all-around us today. We are bombarded by the notion that what we can do in this world is more important than what will happen to us for an eternity. God is very clear in his Word about what he wants us to do and accomplish. In our sin and unbelief we sometimes miss where God wants us to place our priorities -- namely in serving and praising our Lord and Savior. Whil! e it may have seemed like the people of Babel were moving along without any major problems, we soon learn what God thought of all of this.

"But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building." It is interesting that Moses used the name for God here that describes him as the God of free and faithful grace. After describing the rebellion and sin of the people, one might expect any name of God other than the one used for grace and mercy. But then that says something about God. It says he wants primarily to deal in mercy even with these sinners. Even his acts of judgment have his saving plans in mind and serve those plans. And, of course, his greatest promise of a coming Savior had not yet been fulfilled.

Moses described God in way that we can understand. The all-knowing God does not need to move closer to see anything clearer. Yet God is said to approach the city to see what was going on. This verse underscores the biblical truth that nothing escapes God’s attention. In life it often appears that the ungodly can do just about anything without God intervening. At other times, of course, God steps into action and makes his presence felt. That clearly was the situation here. The Lord, the merciful God, had great concerns about this building project. God foresaw that a group of ungodly people banding together would only increase in their sinfulness. Sinful people who had shut God out of their lives would bring only trouble on themselves in constructing a great city where unbelief would only increase. They also would be unfit instruments for the saving work the Lord wished to carry out through his people. God’s solution, a loving one, was to force the people to spread out.!

God brought different languages into the picture of world history. There are many guesses and theories about how God worked this miracle. Moses offers no explanations, only results. Workers were unable to communicate with one another. Here is where one can see the gracious God in action. Rather than halting the construction project by sending down fire and brimstone and snuffing out many lives in the process, the Lord spared the people’s lives at this time. God is not looking for people to perish, but everyone to come to the knowledge of the truth. Jesus Christ is the proof of God’s grace. He is the evidence of a loving God. In Christ, God punished the world’s sins.

"So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city." One way or another the Lord made sure that his command of filling the earth was going to be carried out. If people were not intent on doing his will, then the Lord was going to carry out his will in spite of them. This verse is proof that man might think he is in control, but God controls all things. This verse shows that nothing is able to stop the will of God. That truth brings great comfort to Christians living in a time where it seems that less and less people follow Jesus and his Word. God’s actions in this verse affected the world’s view of this building project. Instead of this city reminding people about the ingenuity of humanity, the unfinished project stood as a monument to the futility of godlessness.

"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." Not only did the unfinished city and its tower remind the world of these people’s failure, so did the very name of the site. It meant confusion. The place where people started babbling was appropriately called Babel. The confusion that resulted from many languages forced people to move to different parts of the world. That again fulfilled God’s will, but it made mission work that much more difficult.

That is where the greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Christian day of Pentecost undid what Babel did. Where Babel brought about great disunity through many languages, Pentecost produced a unity among people of different languages by spreading the common message and language of salvation through Jesus Christ throughout the world. God the Holy Spirit poured out his power on those disciples on that first Pentecost, but we also know that his power is poured out on us and this world each and everytime we share his law and gospel in this world. All we need to do is look around us and see that the only thing that matters is a trust in Jesus. This is the eternal success that is not measured by fame or fortune. I pray that God the Holy Spirit will continue to be poured out into our hearts each and every day, and that we will continue to be the tools that spread his saving Word into this world that is seeking the wrong kind of success.

Babel may have started out as something that people thought was gong to make a great name for them, but it only served as a monument of what unbelief really it is. It is an eternal failure. May we always look to the monument that will last forever. The monument of the cross of Calvary which shows the world and us that Jesus has won the victory and that heaven is ours. Amen.