In the Beginning: A Tale of Two Cities

It's just been so cool to see the work that Danny has done of making these worship services that we have on Sundays unified and coming together with themes. It's just so beautiful as we were singing that last song—how perfectly it goes with today's sermon. So I'm thankful, and I hope that y'all are thankful as well.

Good morning. My name is Anderson. I'm the pastor resident here at Christ the King, and I hope Thanksgiving was a time where you were able to pause, rest, and find joy. Some of you were able to gather with friends and family over Thanksgiving, and I'm glad that today we get to gather as a whole family. We have our kids joining us in worship, which is such a joy for me to see all of you today.

One thing that I'm going to challenge the kids on—there was one time where I preached a sermon and someone drew a picture of what I preached about. I would challenge y'all: if you want to draw a picture of what I'm preaching about, that would be super helpful for me to remember the truths of who God is. So I'm so glad that y'all are here today.

Today I'm thankful to see the beauty of God and to be able to tell about his beautiful answers to humans' questionable actions. With that, let's go ahead and read the text for today, and then I'll pray. We're going to be reading from Genesis 11:1–9 together.

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. And they said to one another, "Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly." They had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, "Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth." And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man have 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." So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. Therefore, its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the languages of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth. — Genesis 11:1–9

This is God's word. Let me pray.

Father God, you are gracious to us in many ways. And today we get to come and worship your name. We get to hear from your word. We get to hear how Jesus Christ is king. God, let us be a people that are united but diverse. Let us be a people that follow the Spirit and fill the earth with the good news of Jesus. Let today be a day where we walk away with our hearts changed and worshiping more fully. It's in your name we pray. Amen.

Genesis and the Story of Humanity

Today we'll be concluding our Genesis series, and it's also the first Sunday of Advent—it's hope. Through this series, we have seen that there's a great hope for us. Genesis 1 through 11 shapes the whole story of the Bible. And as you're reading through Genesis 1 through 11, it feels like a roller coaster. We read about God creating and wanting to bless humankind, but then humankind decides to take matters into their own hands.

Adam and Eve turn knowledge into a mini god, but God provides. Using sacrifice and worship to get approval from God with the story of Cain—another mini god, but God provides. Seeing man's wickedness in the story of Noah and then seeing the righteous Noah fall into sin and being sinned against after the flood—sin keeps rearing its head in many ways. And even still, God continues to provide. He continues to show mercy and grace to the children of Adam.

Today we are going to look again at how God has beautiful answers to the brokenness of humanity.

So, real quick, kids and adults too—raise your hand if you've heard of the story of the Tower of Babel. All right, good amount of you. Let's do another question. Raise your hand if you've ever built a tower before, maybe out of blocks or drawn it on paper, designed it on your fancy engineering software. All right. And then one more question. Raise your hand if you've ever knocked down a tower before. Okay, now I know who to look out for.

You see, today we are going to look at how God has beautiful answers to the brokenness of humanity. But also, why did these people build this tower in Babel? What were they doing in order to get praise for their name? And through this process of seeing how and why they built this tower, we will see that humans once again reveal their true colors.

Humans' True Colors

So what is this tower?

You know the best way that I can describe it is a multi-tiered pyramid. So instead of thinking of a pyramid with straight edges, think about one layer and then a building up, and then a building up, and then a building up like a staircase until its top is in the heavens or its head is in the heavens. It's a pretty mighty feat to build a tower with its head in the heavens. They were able to take some new technology, some bricks, some mortar, and create a city, a tower, a spectacle.

I mean this is what we do with a basket of blocks, right? What's the first thing that kids and adults do with a basket of blocks? We see how high we can build it. We see how high it can reach, how impressive we can make it. And one thing is for certain, humans continue to do this time after time after time. We take the gifts that have been given to us and we use it for our own gain. We take technology and try to make a name for ourselves by making things big. Bigger screens, quicker internet, more money, more followers, more likes.

Russell Moore says it this way: "Technology is a helpful tool, but it has failed as a god. Economic progress is good for relieving human suffering, but it has shown it can't address our deepest problems. We're connected but divided, thriving materially but impoverished spiritually. Our stairways go nowhere."

Man, let that sink in. Thriving materially but impoverished spiritually. I'm thankful that Doctor Moore uses the word "stairway" because I think this is exactly what these people are trying to do together. They're trying to build a city, build a tower that allows them to climb to the heavens for them to either get to God or to be like him. I mean, this seems to be the center of all sin. We are trying to find God or we're trying to be Him.

But through this story, the foundation of their sin will be revealed. I believe I've alluded to this already, but these people are seeking for their name to be praised. We see this in verse four when it says:

And let us make a name for ourselves. — Genesis 11:4

They were trying to build something in their lives, use technology for their benefit, or maybe even using people and their skills for their benefit. One language, one people, their name needing to be praised.

What is a Ziggurat?

So today's word of the day is ziggurat. It's a fun word to say actually. And this is the name for these tall towers. And in ancient Mesopotamia, when ziggurats were being built, there would be inscriptions that celebrated these high towers. And there was a goal of leaving a name for oneself by manufacturing a lasting monument, having their name be remembered, having their name be known.

For me this reminds me of the movie The Greatest Showman. If you haven't seen this movie, it's a loose interpretation of the life of P.T. Barnum and his traveling circus. And in the movie, P.T. Barnum, he grows up as a poor orphan child. And then he starts to find ways in order for him to be known, to get the approval of other people. He tries to get the approval of his esteemed father-in-law, of critics, of higher society, and I think he's even trying to get approval from himself. He grows up, he takes risks, he takes out big loans and begins to create something out of himself. But through this process you begin to question his motives. He uses money that isn't his, he starts to recruit people and uses their skills for his benefit, the circus. But then that shows that that wasn't enough, the circus wasn't enough. So he creates a concert series and travels around all across The United States in order to try to find a way for his name to be praised, to fit in with the social elite. It seems as if he keeps building and building all throughout the movie just because he wanted to build up his name. To be praised. To feel secure in who he has made himself to be.

What towers are we trying to build in order to make a name for ourselves? Is it our houses or our jobs? Is it status? Is it the opportunity for people to think highly of us? I think deep down we know that we are searching for a way for our name to be praised by people and we will be creative in what we use or who we use to get there.

Do you ever ask yourself, am I significant? Have you ever looked at the foundation of the tower that you are building to see what void you are trying to fill? Can I tell you something? I might be getting ahead of myself in this sermon, but God knows your name. He does. He knows your name. You don't have to tirelessly make a name for yourself when the God of this world knows your name.

Verse four shows us more about humans' true colors. This phrase in verse four is so key:

Lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. — Genesis 11:4

These people have a security problem. They're fearful of being scattered, so they try to build a city where they rely solely on themselves. They could just build a city that has plenty of food, plenty of resources, you name it. Good nest egg.

Maybe this tower is even their flood insurance policy in order for God's judgment to not be able to reach them. I mean think about it. When we heard about Noah and the flood that wiped out the face of the earth, I mean, could be the security that they are trying to get, the safety that they are trying to get. I would do that. Hear about a flood ending a lot of humanity? So I'm going build a tower so that the flood can't reach me.

Kids, I bet if you could, you would build a large fence around your fancy tower so that somebody couldn't knock it down, right? Older brother, older sister, or maybe even younger brother, younger sister, you might want to build a fence around your fancy tower so it doesn't get knocked down. It is in us. We are a people that love security.

I mean here's another example. Did you know that in 2021, 1.28 trillion dollars was put towards insurance premiums in the United States? $1,280,000,000,000. What else do we invest in for our security? How are we using our time, our money, our efforts in order to not be scattered? Look, being wise and investing in protecting ourselves and our families is a good thing, but what happens when we are putting our trust and our work of protection rather than the protection that God has given us?

The question that I really want to ask to these people, the question that I want to ask to us is, do we have a security problem or do we have a fear problem?

You see the reason why building this tower to stay put is such a big deal is because it goes directly against what God is calling His people to.

Be fruitful and multiply fill the earth. — Genesis 1:28

And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth. — Genesis 9:1

God continues to call people to be obedient and to fill the earth. But instead of trusting in His provision, instead of trusting that we are in his hands, we take life into our own and live for our security. Are we taking the good news of Jesus to the parks of Raleigh? Are we taking the good news of Jesus to our grocery stores, to our workplaces? Have we shut off the idea that God may want to send us out on a church plant? Have we already shut that idea off to not be scattered? Have we made safety an idol with its head in the sky because of the fear in our hearts? Or can we walk with God knowing that we are secure in Him and get to be blessed by his plans for us?

Does this story sound familiar? We're on the downward spiral once again of Genesis, right? We see this. Moses is trying to tell us something. History is speaking to us. We are hearing echoes of the first sin. Moses is showing us that there's an area, Shinar, it's the same Tigris and Euphrates River Valley that the Garden of Eden was in. We see children of Adam taking a gift from God and using it for their own gain. We see a fear of God and a hiding from his blessing.

We know that God said in his creation, "Let us make, let us make man in our image." And we see in this text they're saying, "Come let us make bricks. Come let us make a name for ourselves."

Drew Johnson says this: "We saw humans in Eden who listened to the serpent and took knowledge into their own hands. God then acts to keep them from further foolishness with the tree of life. We see again humans ignoring God's instructions in creation, be fruitful and fill the earth. They hunker down in a city and seek to be renowned."

Drew Johnson is showing us that these stories are connected. But what we need to realize more and more is that we are connected to these stories. This is our story. Continuing to build towers for our name, our fame, our renown, rather than following his plans and building up the name of the holy, gracious and majestic God. This is our story. These people have a deep problem on their hands. And so do we.

God's Big Pause

But God acts. He does not sit by and allow humans to go their own ways. He acts. He comes down, He scatters, and He confuses, pausing their building efforts. God's big pause. Not like pause, like bear bear pause, but pause like pause the movie. Alright. God's big pause. Verses five through eight.

And the Lord came down and see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. — Genesis 11:5

Okay, real quick. A lot of people comment on the irony of this—that maybe God's mocking these people. Wow, you really built a tall tower into the heavens. Let me come down to see this. Alright, more on this point later. Let's go back to verse six.

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. So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth and they left off building the city." — Genesis 11:6-8

Now we could look at these people coming together in unity to build something and ask the question, why is this such a bad thing? There's unity here. But what we have to go back to is what we discussed in point one, that they are doing so for their own name. And they were disobeying God. We see Adam and Eve were cast out by God to the east of the garden. We see God acting there, and God needed to act with the Tower of Babel as well. And one truth that needs to be stated this morning is that there is punishment for disobeying God's law. There's punishment for disobeying God's law. God and his holiness cannot let sin go unpunished. So He intentionally chooses to scatter and to confuse these people.

One pastor preached about this text in a way that helped me understand this part of the story. You see, one man, one language without anything hindering their self glorification continues to end in more monolithic cultures, more power or even violence. I mean, we know this to be true. Power and violence. Nazi Germany. We know this to be true, 01/06/2020, and we are starting to see it today with this cancel and censoring culture. That power is easily attained when other voices are not being heard. God is concerned about the dangers of human uniformity so he divides, he scatters, he confuses. But God also needs to mercifully limit sin.

Can y'all see the seriousness of verse six? Go ahead, look at it.

"And this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them." — Genesis 11:6

Doesn't this remind you of the wickedness of the time of Noah? That sin was running rampant, that evil was everywhere? God graciously limits people. He limits us so that we don't experience the full wickedness and destruction of our sin. This is mercy. This is mercy.

God's purpose was an act of gracious intervention in order to make sure that humans would eventually be blessed. You know, what we really have here is God implementing a controlled burn. A friend shared an article with me this week about how a lot of the wildfires in California is because underbrush has built up over time. The practice that Native Americans would practice of carrying out controlled burns has been cut off in our history which has led to large underbrush, which has led to large wildfires. God is in the business of controlled burns in order to provide conviction and judgment for humanity so that the fire doesn't get out of hand.

Have you experienced this in your life? Have we experienced this recently? Where God limits the advancement of technology for a bit in order to slow people down from building their towers? Has God pushed pause on the world recently? Of course we've experienced this. I'm sure you are sick of hearing about 2020 and the trauma of that time that it brings up for you. But in March 2020, it could have been a big pause that God was giving us—punishment but also mercy to us as a people. It was an opportunity for us to be limited in the pursuit of building a tower for our namesake. We had to stop. We had to be still.

And some of us had never experienced what it was like to have a lack of security. We didn't know what was about to hit us: fear. What towers of security and praise were stopped for you in 2020? And what was your response? Did you turn to the gifts of the giver or did you turn to the face of the giver?

Either way, did you know that God still wants good for you? He still wants good for you no matter your response. He desires for you to put your full trust and security in him. If you are tracking with me then let me be clear. When God takes something away from you it's only because he has something better to give to you in return or someone better to give to you in return. Our towers were put on pause.

Living Out the Lesson Today

But we can relate to these people of Babylon another way, right? I mean don't you see that we have been scattered and we are speaking different languages? Instead of us being a people that unite and listen to others, we are more and more people that have scattered into our own comfortable people groups. And we have noise cancellation headphones on to those that we don't want to listen to. Are we seeking after comfort, security? Or do we take risk by entering into uncomfortable conversations for the glory of God's name?

Here's an application point for you today. In a world that is only choosing to listen to monotone voices, can we be a people that bring blessings to the nations and listen to people that are different from us? Can we stop neglecting a people group because they are different from us and in return maybe ask to hear their story? Can we stop alienating people based on their vaccination status and listen to why they've made that choice? If we do not listen, then how else are we going to bring dignity to their name and hope for their lives?

I came across some key background information for this text that would have stuck out to the original readers, the Israelites. First off,

Genesis 10:8-10 talks about the descendants of Ham. There's one descendant, a mighty hunter named Nimrod.

Great name. And his kingdom started with Babel in the land of Shinar. Does that sound familiar? There was also another descendant of Ham: Egypt. So the Israelites would have seen that these people of Babel were connected to an unfaithful line and even connected to their former slave masters.

Second, we see that these people came from the East.

Chapter 11, verse 2.

The people that reading this text originally would have remembered that Adam and Eve were cast out to the east of the garden, that Cain was also cast to the East. You see, when people in the Bible go east, they leave the land of blessing and are cast to the land where their hope turns to ruin.

The Israelites, God's people, are being told through the Tower of Babel to not follow after the Babylonites, to not be like the Egyptians, those that made them build tall towers to reach to the heavens. Which seems kind of hard to imagine that these people that were enslaved by Egypt would want to go back to Egypt, but Moses is continuing to tell them, God is continuing to tell them: Don't think that Egypt was good for you. Pursue the promised land. Pursue the land that is flowing with milk and honey. Don't go back to Egypt. Pursue the promised land.

So disciple of Jesus Christ, for you today you need to remember that through this story you are being encouraged just as this original audience. Don't build towers for your name like the Egyptians. Don't go after the glittering lights of the world, but pursue the promised land, the blessing of the church, and the joys of God's plan for you in this life.

And for those that have not trusted in Jesus's work: You need to see that God is graciously tearing down towers that are not good for you. In a time of confusion and people being scattered, you have the opportunity to be united with God, to his family, the church, and let him build a different tower in your life—one that will not crumble.

And the truth of the matter is, for everyone in this room: you cannot do this alone. We've experienced that you cannot do this alone. We all keep building towers; the underbrush keeps piling up. Which takes us back to our example with fires.

I was also able to learn that the Native Americans would use fire to let their farmlands rest. They would burn controlled burns, let their land rest so that the next year when they planted in that field, the harvest would be plentiful. The fruit would taste better. They would redeem the land. God redeems. God creates beauty out of the mess of humans.

God Has Beautiful Answers for a Broken People

Let's start with the punishment of scattering and confusing. How does God redeem this? How does God make this a part of his story of redemption?

So back to The Greatest Showman: you see P.T. Barnum was trying to earn the approval of one media critic over and over again throughout the movie. And the media critic comes to him at this point when his concert series had been ruined, his entertainment center where the circus was performed had burned down. And the critic comes to him and he says about his circus, "P.T., I wouldn't call it art, but putting folks of all kinds on stage with you—all colors, shapes, sizes—and presenting them as equals. Why, another critic might have even called it a celebration of humanity."

The outside world was able to see something beautiful about this circus. A celebration of humanity. But P.T. learned that the critic's opinion of him didn't hold up for him. That there was still something that was holding him back, that he still dwelt in his despair, his shame. That the show that he built and the people he used was for his gain, for his name. His shame was too much for him to bear.

But there's this beautiful scene where P.T. is sitting at a bar and the people that were in the circus—they come into the bar. They were outcasts of society and there, even though there were differences—different talents, different pains—from all these people, they offer forgiveness to him. And they remind him that a family had been created of his creation and that he was a part of that family. They all have shame, but they offer forgiveness to him. And just like them, he needs to come back home. Come back home to the family that he was a part of.

Oh, how sweet it is to be met with love, forgiveness, and acceptance by brothers and sisters that share a common unity of being a broken people. All of us searching to be close to God, all of us looking for security, for praise—the family of God, the church, gets to help one another clear out the underbrush.

And we get to say together, we get to sing together, Abba, Father, forgive me. One voice together recognizing our shared humanity, our shared need for the Father's name. The other part of this beautiful family, this new people is that we are unified, but we're also diverse. We have different backgrounds. We have different stories. We have different talents. God wants to unite this family under one name, but he wants to keep the diversity, the languages, the different cultures, because it shows just how powerful and beautiful he is.

Trevin Wax says this: "At the end of time God is not going to obliterate all languages. He sees the diversity of languages as a part of the beauty of his creation. Every tongue, tribe, and nation will praise God. The different languages won't go away. They'll all be in service to praising King Jesus."

It's amazing to consider how God will transform even the effects of our sin and somehow put them in service to praising King Jesus. Isn't that something that you want to be a part of now? A multitude of voices singing and praising the name of King Jesus?

We are being knitted together into a holy temple in the Lord, a dwelling place for God by the spirit. — Ephesians 2

We get to be a traveling circus that goes together with the greatest joy, the greatest name, the greatest praise of King Jesus. That is something to be a part of. Will you join us?

How God Responds to Our Tower Building

But how are we able to be a part of this family? What does God do with our continual tower building? He came down.

Verse five, and the Lord came down to see the city. Verse seven, come, let us go down. — Genesis 11:5, 7

I know earlier I said that some people were saying that him coming down was mocking them, but I think it's a father coming to his children, coming down to them because he loves them, because he cares for them. He's coming to their level and saying, this is not good for you. It's killing you. He comes down to save.

Philippians 2:8 shows us that Jesus humbled himself by becoming human, humbled himself to death.

He came down to this earth. He put on flesh to show his care, to live perfectly without sin and then takes the ultimate punishment of sin on the cross. He takes the ultimate punishment of sin so that you don't have to. Do you see this mercy? Do you see this love?

Jesus as the Gate

You know, we haven't hit on verse nine that the author is pointing out the place being called Babel. Babel actually means gate of the gods. The plain in the East where the people were disobedient, were confused, and were scattered. That place was called Gate of the Gods. Jesus Christ is the gate to God.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, East of Jerusalem, Jesus made the decision to be obedient to God's call in his life, to leave the land of blessings so that your hope would turn to reality. This gate, this Jesus, is even more beautiful because he is not saving a singular monolithic people. This good news is so big, so beautiful that it lets all people come in. You just have to pass through him. You have to trust him.

Jesus says in John 10:9, "I am the gate. Whoever enters through me shall be saved. They will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life and have it to the full."

Will you come through this gate? Will you find security in this gate instead of building your own gate to climb up? Will you see that this gate came down to you? This truth is beautiful. This truth is real. What will you do with it?

A Call to Action

From now on, will you be a part of the family of God that desires to walk with you through the rubble, that wants to help you clear out the underbrush? From now on, will you stop trying to find ways to get up to heaven but realize that Jesus came down to you so that you would have eternal security in him. From now on, let us make God's name great in this city.

God, your name is great and it is worthy to be praised. God, would we see that you are a gracious, merciful, loving God and that we would put hope in your name. Help us as these towers come down to have people in our lives that meet us with grace, that meet us with humility so that they can point us to the great person of Jesus and point to the great love that you have for us. In your name we pray. Amen.