Sermon Tone Analysis

Slide-Video

Mankind’s Greatest Accomplishment

On December 24th 1968, the men on board the Apollo 8 mission, Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, and Frank Borman read from chapter 1 of Genesis while orbiting the moon.

Then, on July 20th, 1969, when Apollo11 landed on the moon, Niel Armstrong said, “Houston, this is Tranquility base here the eagle has landed.”

And with those famous words perhaps one of mankind's greatest achievements had been accomplished.

But before Niel Armstrong would step out of the door, Buzz Aldrin celebrated communion in the lunar lander.

He brought along bread and wine and a small chalice given to him from his church.

He also had a 3x5 index card with passages from John 15 written on them.

NASA did not allow him to broadcast communion, probably due to a bit of backlash over the Apollo 8 incident, but instead chose to broadcast a moment of silence.

Then Niel Armstrong stepped on the surface of the moon and said, “One small step for man, and one giant leap for mankind.”

And he was right this was one of man’s greatest achievements up to that point, and still may be today.

So we wonder, Is there anything man can’t do?

The Lord said that there was no end to what humans could achieve, thousands of years ago, in the book of Genesis, chapter 11.

This verse is from the passage about the tower of Babel.

It was the scripture passage we read earlier.

Certainly from the earliest times humans were capable of achieving some pretty huge accomplishments.

Lets start this morning by backing up a few verses and see what is going on here in Genesis chapter 11.

But first let’s begin with a word of prayer.

Prayer

Up to this point we have seen a good creation descend deep into sin and God decided to rid the earth of evil by sending a great flood.

Noah and His family was saved.

Noah’s descendants began to increase, and the world population expanded.

However, here in chapter 11 something goes wrong.

The Problem-Part 1

“...they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.”

Genesis 11:2, says “...they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.”

What is the the problem of that we wonder?

It goes back to the Covenant God made with Noah in Genesis 9.

Then God blessed Noah and said be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.

Part of the blessing God gives Noah is to fill the earth.

Instead of enjoying the blessing and filling the earth, the people decided to stop at the plain in Shinar.

They take was supposed to be a blessing, families, and land and spreading out, and they squander it, for there own purposes.

This command to fill the earth is actually rooted back in creation.

God filled the various parts of the earth, He filled the sky with the stars and birds, He filled the waters with the fish, and He filled the land with the plants and animals.

Then God made man and woman-IN HIS IMAGE, and he blessed Adam and Eve and he said, in Genesis 1:28

See, God could have filled the earth with mankind himself, right?

He could have created people over here, and people over there, and he could have filled the earth with his image bearers Himself if wanted to, but instead, rooted in creation, and re-established with Noah is this idea that as part of the blessing God gives to man is for man to partner with God to fill the earth with the image bearers of God.

SO that they can reflect the glory of God.

Instead ,mankind decides to stop.

They decide to not fill the earth., but to huddle in and remain tight as a single group.

Who needs the rest of the world we are just fine right here on our plain of Shinar.

Whenever we walk outside of--and apart from--- the blessing of God, ---problems happen.

This still happens to people today.

God gave us the blessing of His word, and His instructions for life, and when we decide to not use the blessing that God has given us, not used the option to stay away from from temptation, to not use the way out of sin that God provides, that is when the descent into sin begins.

For example God has given mankind a sacred covenant of marriage where a man and woman can enjoy each other in a sexual relationship, this is a blessing, but when we decide to take sex outside of that blessing God has given, that is when there are inevitable problems.

The problem get’s worse.

The Problem-Part 2-Theft

The people are not enjoying the blessing, they are going to need something to do, so...

So far, that is not a problem.

There is nothing wrong with work.

Work was intended in the Garden, work is fine, creativity is fine, human achievement is not sinful.

Once they stopped focusing on and enjoying the blessing of God, they start focusing on themselves.

The most important thing, is not in what they are doing, but why they are doing it.

Sin takes hold the motivation of the heart, and when that is off, there is sin.

So-that we can make a name for ourselves.

Their motivation is all wrong, their heart is focused on themselves.

God wants people to make His name great.

God is ok with a City.

In fact Jerusalem will be the city that bears God’s name.

This city they want to bear their name.

Part of who God is, Part of God’s character is to display or reveal himself to the world.

God displays himself to the world, through creation-the heaven’s declare the Glory of God, or the whole earth is filled with His glory.

God does things to make His name known, not the name of someone else.

The prophet Isaiah recorded some of God’s words concerning His name. in Is 48:9-11

God says for my own names sake.

Isaiah wrote this long after the Tower of Babel, but this is God’s character being demonstrated here.

The people here were trying to steal God’s name-God’s reputation God’s glory, for themselves.

Saying look how great we are, look at what we can achieve.

However, they would not even be there, They would not have even have the ability to settle in the plain of Shinar, had it not been for God who saved Noah and His family in the first place.

They owe their ability, their achievement to God Almighty not themselves.

They are trying to steal that from God.

What God Intended.

What God had intended is that Husband and wives would have children.

They would raise these children to be image bearers as well.

These image bearers would then go out, into the world and have more image bearers, creating more people in the image of God, filling the world.

It is what God intended.

These image bearers would then bring glory-not to themselves but to God.

These people would bring glory to God.

God intended that humans would tell other humans-God is great.

God intended that human achievement would make God’s name great.

God intended it is not about us, it is for His glory.

The people didn’t do that because sometimes God’s blessing, seems like a restriction, or a mandate.

It seems like a bad thing, limiting, not preserving our own well being.

They want to make a name for themselves, they want to not participate in what God had intended, and they want to steal for themselves the blessing, they want to bring glory to themselves, for what they have achieved.

God’s Mercy.

So then, God, in His mercy puts a stop to it.

Whether they like or it or not, the Lord will not let them make their own name for themselves, and He will not let them steal their glory, so He goes down and confuses their language and He scatters them.

You know I wonder how far they were allowed, to go were they just about done?

Were they on the last floor?

Then God comes down and confuses their language.

It is like getting fired at the end of a horrible shift right?

Like getting fired at 4:55 on a Friday.

I’ll let you decide how that played out.

Today

Sometimes we wonder to ourselves how much does this Old Testament apply to us.

It is not just an interesting story of where languages came from.

People think that to be fruitful and multiply and to fill the earth was a special mandate to populate the planet.

Today, we have plenty of people, and we live under the new covenant.

So this really doesn’t apply, but that is not true.

Although we do live under the new covenant, the Noahic covenant never went away.