8 June 2014
Text: Acts 2:1-21 (Gen 11:1-9, John 14:23-31)
In the name of +
Jesus. Amen.
We
humans were created in the image and likeness of God. And we, along with all of God’s creation,
were good, perfect, and exactly according to our Creator’s plan and
handiwork. Like Him, we have a
mind. Like Him, we have the ability to
reason. Like Him, we have a tendency toward
the creative.
And
the Lord God put our perfect ancestors in a perfect garden, and all was perfectly
good.
But,
with our minds, we chose to rebel. With
our reason, we chose to circumvent His Word.
With our creativity, we found a clever way to seemingly swap places
between creature and Creator, and it all went terribly wrong.
Through
sin, we brought misery and suffering, bitterness and strife, decay and
death. We broke communion with God and
we estranged ourselves from the rest of His once-perfect creation that we
ruined.
And
even when our ancestors were given a second chance after the flood, when the
Lord God commanded us to spread around the world to repopulate it for the good
of all creation, instead with our minds, we chose to rebel. With our reason, we chose to circumvent His
Word. With our creativity, we found a
clever way to seemingly swap places between creature and Creator, and it all
went terribly wrong.
Our
ancestors refused to scatter, having discovered a technological innovation
called “bricks.” Our forefathers resolved
to build a skyscraper to heaven, seeking to ride technology up past the place
where the Creator dwells.
“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 the Lord confused the language of all the
earth. And from there the Lord dispersed
them over the face of all the earth.”
Thus
the curse of Babel. Thus the divisions
between man. Thus the misuse of
technology that made our lives worse, not better. The confusion of languages has brought on war
between nations, violence between ethnic groups, hatreds between countrymen,
friction between neighbors, and even generational hatred.
We
are suspicious of those who don’t speak like we do, look like we do, share our
customs, culture, and use of words. Not
only is our communion with God broken, but our communion with man is in
tatters. Moreover, technology, while in
fact making our lives better in many ways –has also been used to incinerate
human beings by the thousands, to destroy children in the womb, to promote
pornography and hatred and misinformation and false doctrine. Technology is used by totalitarian
governments to control and oppress. And
today, many seek to use technology to manipulate the genetic building blocks of
human life. And this too will all go
terribly wrong.
The
problem of war and hatred and rebellion against God can’t be fixed by Google
Translate or by learning one another’s languages. They can’t be fixed by more technology. The problem is sin, and sin requires
atonement. Sin requires forgiveness and
salvation. Sin requires a Savior, and
that, dear friends, is what God gave us: our Lord Jesus Christ, the very Word
of God, by whom all things were made.
His atonement at the cross has paid for the sins of Adam and Eve, of the
world before the flood, of the builders of Babel and of the nuclear bomb, of
our own rebellion against God, our own excuses and reasons and justifications
to sin, our own enthrallment with technology instead of our submission to God.
The
Lord Jesus came into the world to save the world. And this is good news indeed. But now has come the time to spread this good
news. The apostles were ordained into
the preaching office and told to make disciples, baptizing and teaching, to be
His witnesses to the very ends of the earth.
But
how is a witness to testify when he can’t speak the language of the
hearer? How can the confused babble of
many tongues be overcome so that the world can hear this Gospel it so
desperately needs?
This
is what Pentecost is all about, dear friends.
The Lord didn’t train these first preachers of the resurrection of Jesus
to speak Parthian and Mede, Elamite, and the various dialects spoken by the
residents of Mesopotamia. He did not
empower them through technology. Instead,
He sent His Holy Spirit to them and miraculously gave them the gift to speak in
foreign languages, speaking in “other tongues as the Spirit gave them
utterance.” And in the midst of the
babble of languages in Jerusalem, “each one” of these foreigners “was hearing
them speak in his own language.”
The
confusion of tongues yielded to commonality of language. The sin of worshiping a false god was healed
and forgiven by the grace of the True God.
The idolatry of the stone tower was defeated by the atonement of the
wooden cross. The wages of sin were
overcome by the gift of God.
And
by this miracle, the good news, the Gospel, went into the world, far and
wide. The Church’s proclamation spread
like fire, even as tongues of flames appeared to rest on these first witnesses and
proclaimers of Jesus in Jerusalem. And
as the good news spread, churches were established among every tribe and
tongue, and the Word of God proclaimed in languages across the globe – even in
languages yet to be born, such as our own English language.
And
while today ethnic strife and war continues to plague our existence, consume our
old sinful Adam, and threaten our decaying and fallen world, the new Adam takes
joy in the saving Gospel that transcends space, time, ethnicity, and even
language itself. The Church, God’s new creation,
by the very work of this same Holy Spirit, knows no boundaries, calls no
language its own, includes people of every ethnicity, and excludes no race nor
tribe nor tongue.
And
with the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, the Lord’s promise has been
fulfilled: “The Holy Spirit… will teach you all things and bring to your
remembrance all that I have said to you.”
For
this is what our Lord Jesus brings us, overcoming sin and division and guilt,
defeating death and the devil, and calling us back to communion with God and
with men by means of the Holy Spirit: “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give
to you. Not as the world gives do I give
to you. Let not your hearts be troubled,
neither let them be afraid.”
Dear
brothers and sisters in Christ, Pentecost is truly a feast of victory, a
triumph over sin and its consequences, a celebration of the true diversity of
the one true faith – not the phony politically-correct “diversity” of the
world, but true unity of faith and life that transcends tribe and tongue and
space and time. For in the events of
Pentecost, we see the Son’s redemption being proclaimed by the work of the Holy
Spirit, to the glory of God the Father.
For
it is our crucified Lord who, with His mind, gladly obeyed; with His reason, chose to fulfill His Word; with
His creativity, found a clever way to swap places between sinful creature and
sinless Creator, a happy exchange of our sinfulness for His righteousness.
And
in the coming of the Holy Spirit, it all went terribly right. Our Lord repeats it to us again, dear
friends, in every language and to Christians in every metropolis and settlement
on the globe: “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you.”
Peace
be with you! Amen.
In the name of the
Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
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