Sermon: From Babel’s Ascent to Pentecost’s Descent

A sermon preached on Pentecost Sunday 8 June 2025 at Immanuel Lutheran Church Buderim.

https://www.youtube.com/live/t5H06LPL81E?si=fvvv4sY0QIMZtJj8&t=2022

Imagine a chaotic whirlwind of sound and fire, people speaking in languages they’d never learned, and a crowd accusing them of being drunk. This isn’t a scene from some fantasy novel. This is Pentecost, as described in Acts chapter 2. But what’s really happening here? And why does it matter to us, today?

To understand Pentecost, we first need to look back, thousands of years earlier, to a story that feels like its complete opposite: the Tower of Babel.

After creation, God had a plan for the people: “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). God wanted his human creatures to listen to him and spread the glory of his name to the end of the earth. The first part of Genesis is a series of stories describing the downward spiral of humanity as they continually disobeyed God’s plan. Adam and Eve eat the fruit, then play the blame game. Cain murders Able. The earth becomes so wicked it must be cleansed with a flood. But even Noah, the spared “righteous one,” brings shame by getting drunk and being seen naked.

Then we have the story of the tower of Babel. “As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.” (Genesis 11:2). Instead of “filling the earth,” the people want to settle. They say to each other, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” (Genesis 11:4). Not only do they settle, but they want to build a tower to reach for the heavens, they want to climb up to God by their own strength, to become gods themselves by their own might. Why? To make a name for themselves! To glorify themselves. This is sin. These stories of sin in Genesis culminate with humanity’s desire to work for their own godhood in their own honour.

It’s easy to point the finger. But we too want to build towers to God. We too want to be our own gods. Theologian Gerhard Forde wisely notes that many falsely believe that “the Christian life must be understood as the task of ascending to heaven by special spiritual exercises.” (Gerhard O. Forde, Where God Meets Man, Augsburg Publishing House, 1972, p. 8). We want to turn God’s Law into a tower: we say that by rightly following God’s commands we will climb higher to heaven, if we follow the right practices, do the right things, say the right words, then eventually we will reach the heavens. (The Law actually has the purpose of showing us the futility of our efforts to build and climb). We sometimes even turn the “Gospel” into a tower: we realise we can’t build or climb high enough, so we falsely say that we’ll climb up as high we can, and then Jesus will carry us the rest of the way. We call this “the Gospel,” when it’s actually a false gospel. This is just an attempt to make the tower scheme work! One still needs to muster the strength to climb the tower to God, which we can’t.

In what ways do you try and build a tower to God? Do you rely on your supposed good deeds to earn God’s favour? Do you believe that certain rituals or practices make God love you more? Do you judge others based on supposed spiritual performance? (Judging others as “better” or “worse” is tower thinking, where some are able to climb higher in the spiritual tower than others — when we’re trapped in this kind of thinking, it usually turns out that we are higher and others lower!). Building a tower to God or Jesus carrying us up to heaven is neither good, nor is it news. It’s not good because the Law still needs to satisfied by hard work. And it’s not news because it’s merely information on how one has to work for salvation.

The truly good news of Pentecost is that God comes down and fills everyone with his Spirit. Seen through the reversal of the cross, Pentecost turns the Tower of Babel upside down: God builds a tower and climbs down to you! The story in Acts uses two symbols for God’s presence coming near: wind and fire. The wind is reminiscent of the Spirit hovering over the face of the earth at creation (Genesis 1:1). Both the Hebrew and Greek words for Spirit also mean breath or wind. At Pentecost God comes so near that his very breath is heard and felt. Likewise in John’s account of the coming of the Holy Spirit we read:

“19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, ‘Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.’ 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.’” (John 20:19–22).

So wind and breath represent God’s very near presence. Fire is also a symbol of God’s presence: Moses sees the bush on fire (Exodus 3), the pillar of fire leads the people through the Red Sea (Exodus 13), Mt Sinai is engulfed by fire (Exodus 19). In the person of Jesus Christ, and through his Spirit, God has come to earth, God has come near. The good news is not that you climb up to God, but that he comes down to you.

Further evidence of God coming near is heard in the phrases “filled” and “poured out.” “All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 2:4). “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.” (Acts 2:17). In the person of the Holy Spirit, God pours himself into your heart, a clump of dirt enlivened by His breath. Imagine God as a watering can and you as a thirsty plant, this is the image of that Pentecost day. God’s presence is poured out into you through the Holy Spirit, and you are filled, just as water is generously poured out on a pot plant.

Being filled with God’s very presence through his Spirit changes people. As we say here at Immanuel Church: “Grace changes people.” Peter preaches that it is not our name that saves, but the name of the Lord. He says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2:21). As changed people, we no longer seek glory for ourselves, but we seek to call on God’s name, to glorify God’s name, to honour God’s work who graciously turns the tower upside and comes down to you. As changed people we want to tell others who God is. We want to tell family and friends this good news. This is what unities us. We are not united by one common language, but united with one common Spirit, one common purpose: to take the good news to the ends of the earth. Remember Jesus’ words at the start of Acts: “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8).

If this is the first time you’ve heard this good news, then pray that you may be filled with God’s loving presence through the Holy Spirit. If you’ve heard this good news before, then pray that you may again be filled with the Spirit and overflow with love, joy, and peace.

So what is Pentecost all about? It’s God demolishing our futile towers that we seek to build. It’s the restoration of fallen humanity. It’s God coming down to earth to us, not us climbing up. It’s God coming near. It’s God pouring his very self into us. It’s God saving us by his name alone, not ours. It’s God uniting us through his presence, promise, and purpose. It’s God sending us to the ends of the earth to proclaim his saving name. At Pentecost, God declares: there are no towers you can build, no ladders you need to climb. Instead, he comes down to fill you and all people with his love, joy, peace, and hope. So, hear this good news. Receive God’s peace. Amen.