United in Rebellion

Good morning. It is amazing as we think about communication this morning. The Tower of Babel really, as I reflected, the amount of advancements that I've been able to observe. When I was a young man, a teenager, I remember having to make sure I always had quarters so that I could use a pay phone. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's a public phone that you put money in so you could call somebody. Then there was cell phones, and then that kind of irritating noise when you were dialing up the internet, but it was exciting because of what might be in front of you, the whole world. The kind of advancements we've seen very quickly, over just 20 years. Being able to communicate with anybody with a device that's in your pocket right now, across the world. Well, the one thing we see, unlike the story we're looking at today, the ability to communicate more isn't bringing unity, it's bringing more disunity, division, confusion. We're looking at God, His work, the power that we have in communication, and as Brian already prayed, how we often misuse it. If you're new with us this morning, we typically walk through books of the Bible, verse by verse, and chapter by chapter, or section by section. We'll be getting back into Luke next week, where I left off way back in January. This morning we're ending a theological series. We've been in Genesis for the last few weeks, and it's been asking fundamental basic questions. Genesis 1, who is God? Genesis 2, what is man? Genesis 3, what went wrong? Genesis 4, how bad is it? And then Genesis 11, how did it get worse? Some key passages as we look back. Genesis 1 begins with this grand declaration of God. If you just think about the order and the priority of how God chose to begin his revelation It's a grand declaration of his greatness, his power. He spoke things into existence. There was goodness in order. We see in Genesis, the last day, day six, we see Genesis two, the importance of humanity, the importance of us, male and female, image bearers, being able to communicate with one another in God. Genesis three enters a new character. Now the serpent was more crafty, Well, we saw how humanity refused to obey the one restriction. Don't eat from that tree. And then they were expelled from the garden. We see the very first human, Cain, the possible promise fulfiller. Back to Genesis 3.15, after God asked what happened, what happened, what happened, then we see he speaks to Satan in a way that all the humans can hear. I'm gonna have, there's gonna be a child who crushes you. That's the grand promise. That is the gospel promise that the whole Bible is built around. There will be a son who will crush Satan. He will reverse the curse. He will end death. He will give life. And then Cain, the first human born, is a murderer. We're gonna skip over the flood, but there we see humanity has gotten so bad, Decreates and starts over with Noah and then it gets bad again. We're still in sin. We still need a Savior Here we're looking at the Tower of Babel It's it's interesting how it fits within these genealogies if you're there in the text Genesis 10 is a genealogy. We have the power of Tower of Babel and then we get back into genealogy. This isn't purely chronological The story of the Tower of Babel stands out awkwardly in the middle of these genealogies for a purpose, to draw attention. There was once a time when humanity was united. It speaks of how they're dispersed at the end of chapter 10. 11.1 Tower of Babel is designed to show us how it went sideways, why there's 70 nations, why there's all these peoples. They were divided by tongues, which leads to culture, which leads to nations. This morning we're gonna be walking through the text and then thinking through some application. I want you to notice something about this story and just how well crafted it is. There's bookends. It begins and ends with similar declarations. The whole earth had one language and the same words. It ends with God confusing their language and they're dispersed. One people, one language is how it begins. Many languages confuse language and disperse. And if you're looking for the other part of the structure, verse five is the key hinge, that's where the story changes. Our first point, humanity united. Humanity united, verses one and two. Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. Now this sounds fantastic, everyone's together, everyone's united, we're all in one place. There's a way in which what God is doing, what Moses is doing, is explaining what happens next. All people are from Adam and Eve. There's only one humanity. There's only one human race. There's one humanity that all come from Adam and Eve and then all from Noah. Just a hint here, Genesis 9-6 repeats the creation mandate, the creation declaration. We're all made in the same image. We all have the same equal dignity and worth, and this is where we get the command, love your neighbor as yourself, because they're like you. Here they're united. We come into Genesis 4 and we see there's murder in the heart of man. There's anger. There's this loyalty, there's frustration within humanity, but now we have a wonderful picture of world peace. Humanity is united. It does give us a hint of something in that they're going further and further east. And the further and further east of the garden you get, the more rebellious you seem to be getting, the people of God. So first, we see humanity united. This is good in the sense that there's not wars among humans, but now we see the unity in rebellion. Point two, unity in rebellion. This is verses three and four. And those united there said to one another, come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. And then they said, come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its tops in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. We start seeing a problem. The problem isn't in the new technology, verse three, It's simply saying that there's a new technology advancement, they can now, they have the stuff to build with. Verse four is where it really goes sideways. There's three main actions. They wanna build, they wanna name, they want safety. Notice they build two things, they build a city. Well, a city in itself isn't sinful. They're centralizing society, this is what happens. You start having specialization and centralization in society. Cities themselves are not sinful. Then they want to build a tower. And notice the description of this tower, with its top in the heavens. Okay, we start seeing the first problem. The tower reached the heights of heaven. This is like a ziggurat, a religious structure. Meant to reconnect God and man. we know from many other ancient Near Eastern documents, there's still a reminder of the flawed and of creation. People are still very religious because that's how God designed us. And if anything, man has a sense that there's a disconnect from God. We need to be reconnected, we need to know how to re-access the heavens. So what does man do when they're together in this way? They commit to building a tower with their own strength, with their own hands, with their own power, to get again access that was lost. Now remember, go back to Genesis 2. God was walking and talking with Adam and Eve. There was fellowship because there wasn't sin. God expelled them from the garden because of sin, and since then, man has been disunited, disconnected from God, and the problem here is with their own hands, They want to gain access to God. Let's look at the second thing here. So they're building, they're building a tablet of the heavens. It seems to be a desire to be reconnected in their own way, not God's way. They say, let us make a name for ourselves. This is getting much more clear. We're an academic community, so it's probably clearly understood. You don't call yourself a scholar, right? That's an honor someone just says about you, right? You don't walk around saying I'm a scholar or something. No, somebody else would call you a scholar. Here, this great name, that's not something that man was intended to get, earn, declare of himself. Only God makes names great. We can have fame. We can strive to be well known, but a true great name is something only God gets. I believe we see here the height of rebellion. Pun intended, no laughter. Tower of Babel height, nevermind. Flip over Genesis 12, one to three. If the Tower of Babel is the true high point of rebellion against God here in Genesis one through 11, one and two are the goodness of creation, three through 11 are how we continue to rebel more and more. God's solution of this rebellion is Genesis 12, one and three. Now the Lord said to Abram, go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you, and I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great. God gives great names. We can see here, Abraham, a man of faith, will have a great name. Was he flawless? No, he's gonna completely abandon God in the next section and flee to Egypt. Moses, great name. David, great name. God gives men of faith great names because by faith we can do great things. But the problem with Tower of Babel is there's a desire to gain with their own hands what only God truly gives. They want to reconnect themselves with God. They want to make themselves great. Well, only God reconnects us with himself, and only God gives a great name. challenge to think about here just for a moment. We'll look at this more in the application at the end. But whose name is truly great? What name do we want to associate with the most? What name are we prioritizing the most with our own lives? The third way we see the rebellion. We've seen wanting to have a tower up the heavens. We've seen the desire for a name. The third is really the purpose clause here. We don't want to be dispersed. We want to stay right here, and the rebellion here is against Genesis 1, the creation mandate. Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. Spread the glory of God by being image bearers that move everywhere and are present everywhere, bringing about the good order of God. And they're saying, no, we're going to stay right here in our own safety. You see how focused they are in their own self-sustaining, self-autonomous purpose. Our tower, our name, our safety. We have this under control. Just for fun here, let's think about this because it's all humanity. What would it take for you here to say I'm not going to go with all humanity? peer pressure just feeling right on top of us here, right? What would it take for us? What kind of courage, what would bring about the courage to say I'm not going to build this tower with you all, I'm going to go and I'm gonna worship the true God? It would at least require God declaring I am the true God and you following in faith. Notice verses three and four, come let us make brick, come let us build a city. and then see God's declaration. Verse seven, come let us. There's some wonderful parallelism. We see humanity's rebellion against God, and they want to be their own self-sustaining, self-religious, self-glorifying people. And then verse five, this is a turning point. Point number three, rebellion disrupted. Humanity was united, they were united in rebellion, and now that Rebellion is disrupted. Verses five through seven. And the Lord came down to see the city, and the tower which the children of man had built. And the Lord said, behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language so that they may not understand one another's speech. Verse five is the turning point. God's going to enter in and change this story. And the Bible is full of fantastic humor, and this is one of the really most humorous points. Humanity, with all their great effort united, is building this glorious tower up to God, and look what God has to do. He has to come down to see it. He's a great, holy, awesome God. He doesn't dwell in the heavens, he created the heavens, but he's high above all things, and he has to come down to see our greatest efforts. Some of it, it makes what we think we can do so small. He has to come down to see the great thing we've done. But then there's also another side statement here, verse six. A very important statement. He has to come down to see it, but notice what he says. Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. Nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. That's an incredible statement. Human beings, right here, being able to communicate. But there's something incredible about God saying it the way he designed us with great power. When we actually unite together to do something, we are capable of amazing things. We have built towers, bridges, airplanes, computers you put in your pocket, health advances, the military weapons. It's amazing what we have created and done. And not always for good. God has given us great power. He's saving us from our own self-destruction in that if we keep moving ahead, united with our great power that he gave us, nothing would be impossible. Will man be able to reach heaven? No. Will man be able to wash away his own sin? No. Is man really a threat to God? No. But is man going to do great evil and remain in rebellion? Yeah. Let's pause here because this impossible, that's important for us to think about. Let's do a little theology of impossible. Let's step back from Genesis 11 and just one Old Testament text and some New Testament texts. Remember that promise in Genesis 12 to Abraham that you'll have a great nation? Well, that means he needs children. Remember Abraham, Sarah is barren, she can't have a child and so the promise has a danger to it. Genesis 18, after they've waited for 20 plus years, God tells Abraham again he will have a child and Sarah laughs. Then he responds, is this too hard for me? Do you think this is impossible that I can open your womb and fulfill my promise? Do you think I am unable to do what I said I would do? Fast forward to Elizabeth, who was barren, and God blessed with a child, and that was John the Baptist. And remember, his name will be great because God said his name would be great. And then we move ahead to Mary. Whenever she receives, you're gonna give birth to God. He's gonna be the king of kings. How will this be? The Holy Spirit will come upon you. Oh, well, that makes all this more sense now. The angel concludes, nothing is impossible With God. When Jesus is talking with a rich young ruler, he talks about how difficult it is for a rich person to be saved. But then he says, it is impossible for man, but with God all things are possible. When we get to Philippians 4.13, I can do all things through him who strengthens me. Now, you know, the Olympics are over, but maybe next year, next three years. No, it's not about that. God gives us strength to persevere through anything. But notice there, there's a way in which God can do all things, and now those who are in Christ, we can persevere because of the strength given to us. And then the key verse for understanding impossibility in man. Hebrews 11, six. And without faith, it is impossible to please him. Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. And without faith, it is impossible to please him. For whoever draws near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Notice the Tower of Babel problem. They're not seeking God, they're seeking their own greatness. They're seeking some God on their own terms. But notice, in faith, without faith, it is impossible to please Him. There's a beautiful promise here that by faith, we actually can please God. By faith in what He has said, by faith in what He has told us to do, if we pursue Him and desire to seek Him, He rewards. Back to the power, power of Babel. We see here two declarations, he has to come down to see it, okay, it's not a threat to him, but there is a concern about what man will do, and then we see the solution, verse seven. Come, let us go down, and there confuse their language, so they may not understand one another's speech. Now this is an immediate attack on the Tower of Babel. Pretty easy. Breaking up the unity is how they're going to disperse. God's desire is for humanity to disperse. And we need to recognize, God's desire is for humanity to disperse into many nations. We just saw, well, if you would have read earlier, Genesis 10. It's a table of nations. All humanity was one. Now humanity is divided. And I think the reason this is good news, we can look at it and say, why are we still under all these difficulties, all the different nations and languages, especially when it comes to missions? If everybody is united to build a temple to God, where is the line of the seed who's going to crush Satan gonna come from? That's the problem. Genesis 3.15, a child has to be born in the line of There needs to be peoples so that God would call one person out to be the line of salvation. That's why Genesis 12 is so important. God is saying this is the one line of humanity that goes back to Seth, goes up to Jesus. This is what's amazing about God's promise. Was Abraham a righteous man when God called him? Genesis 24 to, sorry. Joshua 24 two says he was worshiping idols. That's who God called out to be the great father of the faith. It was God's word of salvation to Abraham that saved him. It was Abraham believing in God. He was an unrighteous man. He was a man just like all other nations until God spoke and brought salvation to Abraham. Our last point as we walk through the story. We first had humanity united, now we have them dispersed. Verses eight and nine. The Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. And therefore its name was called Babel, because the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. This is this order we'll book into the story. There's a clear order. They were once united, now they're dispersed. He could have just knocked down the tower. He could have brought a plague. But instead, he confused all the language so that it is by Abraham in Genesis 12, one through three, that he is going to bring about the salvation of all people. The title of the Bible is necessary for the salvation story because The next section is Abraham. And we start seeing the genealogies of the one son, the one son, the one son, who's never the savior, who's never the fulfillment, who's never the right king. Until Jesus Christ comes down. Lives a life we cannot live. He has to come from outside of this fallen world. He is a righteous man, he is sinless, he dies, he rises again, he ascends to heaven, and then what does he do? He sends the Holy Spirit down. And Acts 2 is a glimpse of God actually reversing the Tower of Babel. Read it later if you've not read Acts 2. Everyone heard the gospel in their own tongue. It's a little taste, it's a foretaste, it's a small sample of how God is actually reversing all the problems that we have brought about because of our rebellion. But it's not the final fulfillment. Now that's found in Revelation 7, 9. Revelation, beginning in verse 9, chapter 7. After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes, and peoples, and languages, standing before the throne, before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, to the Lamb and all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God saying Amen blessing and glory and wisdom and Thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever Amen That's unity That is the unity that God has began to work out by giving us the Holy Spirit. That is the unity that we're all longing for and should be expecting when Christ returns, when we're brought up into the heavens in that one song with every kind of human being. The division of languages, ethnicities, nations, sin, all removed. And notice the unity is only found when we're all sitting under the head Jesus Christ, who died, who rose, who restores. We have been dispersed and God is now calling us all back together. I have three applications for us to consider. The first, consider the power of people united. Verse six should really startle us. God is truly concerned about what man is capable of if united. And the problem again is they're united but not for the right thing. They're united not in the right way. I wanna first warn us. Who are we primarily associating ourselves with? Who are we actually committed to in a community so that they can influence us? Children, youth. Let me say this very clearly. Be careful with who you're spending your time with. Paul warns us, bad company corrupts character. As you're thinking about who you're going to spend your time with, as you think about who you're letting influence you, even as a young child, who's going to put things that are impure or pure in front of you? Be picky. Parents, be picky about who your children are spending time with. I can confess the worst things I did was always because I was with other people like me. Knuckleheads. Knucklehead's a theological term for somebody who is foolish. The way foolish people get together and do foolish things is ridiculous in our youth. Friendship requires character and commitment. You're trying to make sure you're committed to a character, and you're looking for people with character who want to be the same kind of person. It's amazing how hard it is to go against the crowd. It's also amazing how hard it is to find a crowd to go with. Parents, based on our commitments, what are we training our children to prioritize? Are we promoting and practicing for our children what is truly worship and what is best? Church, as I look at this declaration of what humans can do when they're united, we look at Jesus' own words. The great high priestly prayer in John 17, one of the great emphases there, our unity, we will be one This is Jesus' desire that we be united in Him, believing what He said, trusting Him for what He said He would do. Acts 2.42, one of the great declarations and descriptions of the church, they're committed to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, prayer and breaking of bread. Ephesians 4.2, walking worthy of the calling of Christ means we're maintaining the unity of the Spirit. We're not trying to create unity, we're maintaining the unity. And in the passage Crawford read earlier, Ephesians 2, that is a grand declaration of unity. Reconciled in Christ because of the work of Christ. We're supposed to be a temple built up together. Stones leaning on other stones. Ultimately leaning on Christ alone. Praying up to the Father by the Spirit. Let me think about this. I hear lots of folks saying, I'm trying to find community. And I have bad news. You actually can't find it. But you can commit to it, and it'll build it. If you're just looking to casually walk into a group of other adults, OK, in third grade, that's possible. You walk in, kids don't know anything. They just enjoy hanging out together. We're not kids anymore. You just don't walk into a room and say, I'm going to find community. No, you work at it. You commit to it. You practice it. If you really want commitment, or you really want community, it's gonna require commitment, presence, and practice. I challenge that unity because united in Christ for the purpose of God, can you imagine how expectant we should be about what He would do? For His glory, for our good. If these rebels are capable of all kinds of things because they're united in just the one language, we're united in the Spirit. We're united by the power of Christ. We should be incredibly expectant of what God would do. Our second point. God comes down to help. This is over and over again. When Adam and Eve are trying to cover themselves, God comes into the garden and they hide, but he comes to them, initiating salvation. When Cain murders Abel, God comes. When the whole world's in rebellion, God comes. God continually descends to us to help. The earth is our dwelling place. The God who is holy, holy, holy, the God who is above all creation, the God who spoke us into existence, he enters in to our actual place so that he could help us. And the ultimate descent is Jesus Christ, who gave up the heavenly dwelling, who gave up all the trappings of glory to enter into a womb to take on a nature lower than his glory in nature. to walk among us, to be truth in the midst of our lies, to shine light into our darkness, to give life after we murdered him. God comes down to help. It's a glorious theme throughout scripture, but he comes down to help. He comes down to meet us in our depravity, in our sin, to do what? To lead us back up to God. Ephesians 2 passage, verse 18. We now all have the same access to the Father in the Son by the Spirit. The people of the Tower of Babel, they at least get something. We want access to God. Christian, you have access to God. If you are a believer in Christ Jesus, you have access to the God who created all things. We even get to call him Father because we've been adopted in Christ. How eager are we to receive all the blessings that come down to us in Christ? How eager are we to ascend back up to God in the name of Christ? His ear is bent. His arm is ready. His spirit indwells us, urging us to pray. What's keeping us from regularly entering into the presence of God? That Christ is open for us. What busyness, what sin, what concern? Christian, enter boldly as we prayed earlier with the songs of Charles Wesley. Arise, my soul, arise. Our last point. Going back up, they wanna make a name for themselves, but only God gives a great name. This morning we're gonna celebrate a baptism. And we're really celebrating here the name of Christ, and that when we believe in Christ, that name is on us by God's grace. He puts that name upon us so that we're now united with Christ in a covenant, and all the blessings of Christ are ours. We're redeemed by that name. We're justified by that name. We're restored, sealed, forgiven, We're loved. A beautiful picture of the gospel in the name of Christ is that we're adopted. We have a seat at the table. We know we're loved. We know our purpose. We know God as our own father. In the name of Christ, that's the great name. That's the name that matters most. Believer, God has given us the greatest gift, his own son. Blessed is everyone who receives the blessing in the name of Christ. The question is, is that the name we're really most committed to? Is that the name we're building our lives around? There's plenty of other names that we build our lives around. We love our sports teams, they have a name. We love our company, it has a name. There's plenty other names that we are tempted to build our lives around that's going to take us away from the one true, great, glorious name. As we end, we are ending with a baptism today. Church, we're bestowing on Lindsay the name of Christ. That doesn't change her status with Christ. She's been sealed. By her own profession of faith, she was saved. But now we as a church, we're gonna hear her testimony. We're gonna say amen. We have said amen. And baptism is confirming for her and helping her make a public testimony. This is the name. This is the great name. This is the name I have been saved by. This is the name I want to live for and proclaim as the great name. Will you pray with me? Father, we thank you that you have shown us how we've become divided. You confused the languages. You brought about the nations. And even when those nations were all raging against you, you provided grace. You kept your promise. You sent your Son to die for us, to rise again, and now we get to proclaim and enjoy his name. Father, I pray that we would long to know every blessing that comes to us in the name of Christ. I pray that we would long to come into your presence, into your holy of holies, now that we have that name of Christ. Forgive us for every way we get distracted from worshiping you and worshiping you alone. Help us, Lord, now as we celebrate what that name means, what that name does in baptism. In Jesus name we pray, amen.