"The Great Confession of Faith" (Matthew 16:13-19 - St. Peter and St. Paul, Apostles)

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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, [Jesus] asked His disciples, ‘Who do people say that the Son of Man is?’ … [Then] He said to them, ‘But who do you say that I am?’”(Matthew 16:13, 15).

 

Today, the Church remembers St. Peter and St. Paul for their great confession of faith and for laying down their lives for Christ and His Gospel.

 

In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus finally has the opportunity to ask the question of all questions. First, Jesus asked His disciples about what they had learned about the people’s attitudes toward Him during their recent travels. So, His disciples reported that the people generally recognized Jesus as a prophet of God. They said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets” (Matthew 16:14). 

 

At least some the people recognized that John and Jesus both proclaimed the coming kingdom of God and called the people to repentance. But others thought that the Son of Man must be Elijah the prophet brought back to life. They may have good reason for thinking so, since many were familiar with these words of the Prophet Malachi: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes” (Malachi 4:5).

 

But to this, Jesus said in Matthew 11 that John the Baptist was only the second Elijah to prepare the way for Him, the Messiah. To this, Jesus says, “For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, and if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who is to come” (Matthew 11:13).

 

And others, who were still not sure, thought the Son of Man could be just another prophet of old, perhaps Jeremiah.

 

But these opinions of people did show something promising. They showed that the people generally regarded Jesus very highly as a special man of God. But they did not know Jesus as the One and Only Begotten Son of God, true God with the Father and the Holy Spirit from eternity. 

For all intents and purposes, the people during Jesus’ earthly ministry are not much different from the people of our day who just see Jesus as a great teacher, a prophet, one option among many, but don’t know Jesus as their Savior and the only Savior of the world. 

 

In our Gospel text, Jesus asks His disciples using the plural “you” saying, “But you – you all – who do y’all say that I am?” (Matthew 16:15). Jesus is asking them the question of all questions: “Who am I?”

 

Now, these men had been with Jesus constantly for more than two years. They had observed how Jesus lived and had witnessed His mighty works. They heard Jesus teach them about the kingdom of God and about Himself. So, what did they think? They should know better than anyone else, right? So, did they agree with what they had heard from the public? Or did they have more of an understanding by now?

 

To Jesus’ question, Peter speaks on behalf of the apostles saying, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16). Here, Peter, on behalf of the apostles, is confessing Jesus to be the long-awaited Savior of the world, the Anointed One, the Messiah. 

 

But what does Jesus say to this confession? He says, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17).

 

Here, Jesus is commending Peter for this great confession, but He is also reminding him that no one, not even Peter himself, could have figured that out all by himself. For Peter only knew this truth of Jesus because God the Father had revealed this truth to him.

 

And like Peter, we cannot come to know who Jesus is by our own skill or knowledge. No one can believe by their own reason or strength in Jesus Christ or even come to Him. It is only through the gift of God that we come to faith. For it is the Holy Spirit who called us by the Gospel, enlightened us with His gifts, sanctified and kept us in the true faith. It is the Holy Spirit who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies the whole Christian church on earth, and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one true faith.

 

You see, Peter’s confession was only revealed to him through the Word of God.

 

But what about St. Paul? For today isn’t all about St. Peter. St. Paul, too, did not come to faith in Jesus as His Lord and Savior by his own reason or strength. Remember, Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. He was so zealous that he wanted to hunt down, arrest, and even kill every pesky little Christian he could find. 

 

But, like Peter, God revealed to Paul the truth. Our resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus Christ confronted Paul on the road to Damascus and called him to preach the Gospel that he formerly tried to extinguish. In our Epistle, we heard of Paul’s confession, as he wrote, “I went up because of a revelation and set before them the gospel that I proclaim among the Gentiles” (Galatians 2:2).

 

Again, Paul, like Peter before him, did not come to the conviction of faith in Jesus by a conscious decision, but it was revealed to Him by God Himself.

 

Paul confessed the same Jesus as did Peter – the Son of the living God, the Christ who saves us, who gives His life for us, and who lives His life in us. For both Peter and Paul, this confession would consume and shape the rest of their lives. For both Peter and Paul, they would proclaim this confession of Jesus as the Christ, the Savior of sinners to any and all who would hear it, and even to many who would reject it. Peter and Paul would lay down their very lives for this same confession of Christ crucified and risen for sinners.

 

Today, Jesus asks us, this same question: “But you – y’all here at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, who do you say that I am?”

 

And like Peter and Paul before us, God reveals to us the answer. We join Peter and Paul proclaiming, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matthew 16:16).

 

We come to this knowledge not through our own reason or strength, but through the working of the Holy Spirit in us through His Word and Sacraments. And it isn’t enough to just know Jesus as the Christ, but to cling to Him fully by fearing, loving, and trusting in Him above all things. Through the working of the Holy Spirit, He leads us to put Jesus first in our lives. He leads us to self-denial. He leads us to sacrifice our own will for the sake of Christ. He leads us to confess Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God even unto death.

 

Today, you will receive Christ’s very Body and Blood, which strengthens us to lay down our lives to confess this great confession that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God in our day. May His Body and Blood, under simple bread and wine, strengthen you in the forgiveness and life of Jesus. Afterall, “Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven” (Matthew 16:17).

 

Through the Holy Spirit, He has revealed to us that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and that through Him, we have peace with God and life everlasting. May we always be led to confess Jesus as our God and Lord and so remain on this unshakable rock of our salvation that He is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

"Bringing His Healing Power" (Luke 8:26-39)

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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“When Jesus had stepped out on land, there met Him a man from the city who had demons”(Luke 8:27a).

 

A trip across the Sea of Galilee brought Jesus and His disciples to the region of the Gerasenes. This was a region in which many Gentiles lived, those non-Jews. We catch this fact by the tending of the herds of pigs. So, Jesus is entering a territory that typically would not be sympathetic to Jews. He was entering what we may call “heathen” territory. Jesus is far away from any synagogue. Besides the Jews in His own party of disciples, there are no other Jews within many miles.

 

So, what is Jesus going to do in a “heathen” territory? Well, He is going to bring His healing power to an unbelieving pagan.

 

For most people today, we discount the idea of demonic possession. We just think this is something of film and television, but not of real life. But we hear today that demonic possession is not the stuff of movies but is a real-life issue.

 

Let us recall what Jesus said just prior to His bodily ascension into heaven. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always to the end of the age”(Matthew 28:18-20).

 

There is something to Jesus’ words here. He says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him.

 

On this day in our Gospel lesson, Jesus meets a man who is in terrible shape. He is socially isolated. He doesn’t have a proper place to live, but is attracted to living among tombs. Not only that, he has also been wandering around naked. And this is only half of his problems. It gets worse. Far worse. 

 

Not only is he socially isolated, naked, and living among the dead, he is also often bound with chains and shackles so to protect him and others from himself. But when seized by the control of an evil spirit, those chains and shackles don’t stand a chance as he “hulks up” with superhuman strength and breaks those chains and shackles. 

 

After Jesus commanded the unclean spirits to come out of this demon-possessed man, the demon-possessed man said, “What have you do do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me!” (Luke 8:28). Because this man is under the control of demons, he recognizes Jesus. This is a gift that all angels cannot keep quiet. They must proclaim God when they see Him, even if a fallen angel, a demon. It’s a quirk that they just can’t seem to get out of them. They can’t change the essence of their created nature.

 

So, Jesus asks the man, “What is your name?” (Luke 8:30a). And he replied, “‘Legion,’ for many demons had entered him” (Luke 8:30b).

 

For this poor man, he was possessed by a whole host of demons. To get some context, a Roman legion numbered four-to-six thousand soldiers. Did he have that many demons in him? Maybe. But it’s more likely that the demons used that name “Legion” in a general sense to refer to the great number of demons who had gone into this man.

 

So, for this man, he was tormented by a legion of demons. And for a long time, he had worn no clothes, he had not lived in a house, and even shackles and chains could not hold him. The only thing that attracted his attention were living among burial sites.

 

This man was totally helpless against the demons. He was powerless to save himself. He was completely controlled by the power of evil.

 

We, as poor, miserable sinners are also troubled by demons. Now, we may not be possessed by an evil spirit, but we all have our terrors and vices. We, like this man, can live a life of isolation as we isolate ourselves from God and other people. Behind our “demons” is rebellion against God, and they can take various forms. 

§  Things like: despising God’s Word, by not holding it sacred by gladly hearing it and learning it. 

§  Things like: being angry, stubborn, or disrespectful toward those in authority. 

§  Things like: looking lustfully at someone who isn’t your spouse, or engaging in any form of sexual immorality, including pornography. 

§  Things like: taking pleasure in talking about the faults and mistakes of others. 

§  Or things like people saying that they are “two spirit” or “gender fluid,” which could be simply a fad – a product of our fallen cultural rot, a mental illness, or it could be actual demon possession for which the demons must be exercised out.

 

But we all have our demons, even if we aren’t possessed by an actual demon.

 

And like this man, we are utterly and completely helpless in changing our situation before God and our neighbor. This is our spiritual condition by nature, as we are under the power of the devil. So, when we see God’s Law, all we see is despair. All we see is our failure in adhering to God’s Ten Commandments.

 

But remember, the Word of Christ is authoritative. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him. So, He is able to change our tragic human realities. Jesus changed all things for the better for this man. He clothed him and put him back in his right mind. He restored him.

 

If Jesus can do those things for an unbeliever, what more can He do for you who trusts and clings to Him? So, Jesus transforms us too! Through His keeping of the Law, through His suffering and death, Jesus heals you and all of humanity by grace through faith in Him from the effects of sin, which is death and the power of the devil. In Christ alone, your sins are forgiven and you are restored as a child of God.

 

So, how does Jesus do this for you and me? Well, through what you are hearing now, through the preaching of His authoritative Word, through the proclamation of your absolution, and through His Word in Holy Baptism. In the Divine Service, Jesus clothes us and puts us in His right mind through His Word. Thanks be to God that He has rescued us through Christ’s perfect obedience, and His death and resurrection!

 

But today’s Gospel lesson doesn’t just end with the demon-possessed man being set free of his demons by Jesus. Upon hearing the commotion of the pigs drowning, the people “went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid” (Luke 8:35).

 

These people were filled with terror in the sight of Jesus. For the power of Jesus was graphically obvious – a herd of pigs floating dead in the lake, and a madman now restored to sanity.

 

So, sadly, Jesus is often rejected. They begged Jesus to leave. So, Jesus obliged and sailed away. But Jesus does not forget about the people of the country of the Gerasenes as the now sane man went away proclaiming throughout the whole city how much God in Jesus has done for him. This man becomes a missionary proclaiming the mighty works of God!

 

And Jesus continues to make disciples of all nations, despite continued rejection. He makes disciples as the Word is preached and the Sacraments are properly administered through the end of the age. Jesus continues to transform us from sin and unbelief to forgiveness and faith, even to the end of the age! So, may we join this healed man in proclaiming the mighty works of God through our various callings in life! Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

"If Anyone Keeps My Word" (John 8:48-59)

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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

Jesus said: “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death” (John 8:51).

 

Today’s Gospel reading picks up in mid-conversation between the Jewish religious authorities and Jesus. These Jewish religious authorities have been bombarding Jesus with question after question as to catch Jesus in a lie. But the problem for them is, Jesus only speaks the truth.

 

Earlier in John 8, Jesus was telling these Jewish authorities things that did not fit into their self-made notions of religion. So, Jesus told them that they were of the world, but He was not of this world (John 8:23). Jesus also told them, “If you abide in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free” (John 8:21).

 

Now, in today’s Gospel text, Jesus tells them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death” (John 8:51). To His hearers, they were likely thinking, “Who does Jesus think he is?! Our Father Abraham died! The prophets died! Everyone dies!”

 

So, who does this Man think He is? Well, since the question has been asked, Jesus is the Son of God, the eternal Son of the Father, the One who was with the Father before all things were made. He is the One who became incarnate, who came into our world, who took on our flesh. He is the One who came so that He could sympathize with our weaknesses, our fears, our illnesses. He is the timeless One, the One who existed before Abraham, and yet He also became Abraham’s descendant. He is the One, the only One who can say, “If anyone keeps My word, He will never see death.”

 

Jesus goes on saying, “Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad” (John 8:56). So, what exactly did Abraham believe about Jesus?

 

Well, Scripture gives no record of Abraham saying anything about Jesus, but Abraham certainly believed in this very word of promise. Abraham believed it. He kept it. He held on to it. 

Remember how Abraham saddled his donkey and took his son, his only son, Isaac, whom he loved, to the mountain as the Lord had directed him? Remember how he took the wood and laid it on the back of his son, his only son, Isaac? Remember how he built an altar and then tied up his son, his only son Issac on the top of that altar?

 

Abraham held onto the Word of the Lord. Abraham believed and kept the Word of the Lord, and on that day, his son, his only son Isaac did not see death.

 

God did all of this to test Abraham. God did all of this to test Abraham’s faith. And this test of Abraham served as a preview of another son of Abraham, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself.

 

Jesus is the promised Son who carries the wood of His cross upon His back. He goes up Mount Calvary to make the great sacrifice to rescue us from the infection of our sin. He is the beloved Son who willingly bound Himself and laid upon the altar of the cross to deliver us from death. Jesus is the Lamb provided for the burnt offering. Jesus is the Lamb who is offered for us, who willingly caught Himself in the thicket of our sin and wears the crown of thorns upon His head. 

 

So, on Mount Calvary, it is Jesus who provided our deliverance from everything that infects us: sin and death.

 

So, how can Jesus say, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death”? He can say that because He came to see death for us and to give us His life. He came to drink the cup of suffering in order that we may be released from death’s grasp. He came to be our Great High Priest to sacrifice not a sheep or a goat, but His holy precious blood, so that He would purify our consciences.  

 

So, if we keep His Word, by clinging to His Word, we are rescued from the power of sin, which is eternal death.

 

We have His Word. You hear His Word each Lord’s Day. You read His Word through Bible study and devotion. You sing His Word through hymnody and liturgy. Since we have His Word, let us keep His Word. Since we have His Word, let us hold onto His Word with our dear life. Remember, it is Jesus who also proclaims: “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though He die, yet shall he live, and everyone who believes in Me shall never die” (John 11:25-26) and “I am the way, and the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

So, if you cling to Jesus as your Lord, you will live forever. For St. Paul proclaims, “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39). So, nothing ever can take away eternal life away from you as long as you cling to Jesus and His Word!

 

But as poor, miserable sinners, how do we keep His Word? For we are so much better at not keeping His Word as we ignore Him, and listen to false voices and our own hearts. We are so much better at dishonoring Jesus. We so often fear, love and trust in created things rather than in God, the Creator. We so often do not fear God’s wrath by avoiding every sin. We often hold grudges and harbor resentment against our neighbor. We have all lied, cheated, and stole what did not belong to us. We have all sinned in thought, word, and deed by our own fault, our own grievous fault. So, we are all not too good at keeping Christ’s Word.

 

So, if we can’t keep His Word, Christ will keep it for us. Jesus is the One who promises: “Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6:54-55). So, that is the answer. That is how we keep His Word so that we will never see death. We keep His Word through the reception of His Means of Grace, His Word and His Sacrament. So, if you are united to Jesus in His Holy Supper of His true Body and His true Blood under bread and wine, you already have the victory over death, because His risen and glorified Body and Blood gives you His life, now and forever.

 

Jesus gave you faith in His Word through the holy waters mixed with His Word in Holy Baptism. There, you were born of water and the Spirit. There, you were united to Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. There, you were “united with Him in a death like His” so that you would be “united with Him in a resurrection like His” (Romans 6:5). 

 

Again, Jesus says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”Jesus is also the One who sends His called and ordained servants to “forgive the sins of any,” and those sins “are forgiven them” (John 20:23). 

 

 

So, when you hear those sweet words, “As a called and ordained servant of Christ, and by His authority, I therefore forgive you all your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” your sins are removed from you. When you hear those words, you are at peace for Christ has blotted those sins away through His death.

 

On this Holy Trinity Sunday, Jesus also puts the icing on the cake for us. He says, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). You see, through Jesus, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit is recognized in its fullness. The very Son of God enables us to see the Holy Trinity by Him becoming flesh. So, when we see Jesus and hear Jesus and touch Jesus, we also see, hear and touch the fullness of God. In Jesus, we have the Holy Trinity. And so, we worship one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity (Athanasian Creed).

 

As we confessed the Athanasian Creed earlier, some of you may be thinking about the ending of that creed with its anathemas, its curses. We spoke, “And those who have done good will enter into eternal life” – you may like that. But what did you think about: “And those who have done evil into eternal fire”? What are we to make of that?

 

Well, what does Jesus say? He says to cling to Him. He says to trust in Him. He calls on us to grow in faith. And how do we grow in faith? By keeping His Word. And we can only keep His Word through receiving His gift of forgiveness through His Means of Grace, His Word and Sacrament.

 

“Truly, truly, I say to you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.” You have His Word. So, keep it and hold onto it. For He who promises is faithful: “Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life … Whoever feeds on My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me and I in him” (John 6:54, 56).

 

So, keep His Word as Christ unites Himself with the Father and the Holy Spirit with you in His Supper! Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +

"The Reversal of Babel" (Genesis 11:1-9)

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Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Amen! Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

“[The people] 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” (Genesis 11:4).

 

So, what do we make about this incident we heard about in our Old Testament reading from Genesis 11? Well, have you ever thought, “Why is it that there are so many languages?” You know, it would be so much easier to communicate if we all had a common language! It would also be cheaper! Then I wouldn’t have to pay to learn another language to properly experience life in another country. Well, if you have ever pondered things like that, well, here, you would have your answer.

 

Our reading speaks of a time when all of humanity had a common language. And this is understandable as all of humanity then came from the family of Noah, so the vocabulary they used would have been the same, and the way they spoke would have been the same.

 

But something did change. Their attitudes changed – and not for the better.

 

In our reading, we see a development similar to the one observed in the family of Adam and Eve after the Fall into sin when we saw the faithful descendants of Seth gradually patten their lives after the unfaithful descendants of Cain. And this ultimately brought down God’s judgement of the Flood upon the whole world. 

 

So, what pattern are we seeing at Babel? Well, here we see the Shemites, the line that had received Noah’s special blessing rebelling against God’s expressed will for them. And what was God’s will for them? “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1), which was the same will God had for Adam and Eve before the Fall (Genesis 1:28). So, this was a “sort-of” re-start for humanity.

 

So, it was God’s will that in time the whole earth would be filled with people who would live for His glory, so that from east to west His reputation as Savior would be magnified. But what happened?

 

Well, to start, it began well, as Noah’s descendants spread. But then, didn’t. They found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. At first, they wandered, but then, they settled. The land of Shinar was a well-watered plain that naturally looked good to farmers. The land was fertile. It looked good. So, they decided to settle down. They chose to stay in direct disobedience to God. For Noah’s descendants, it didn’t matter what God said. To God’s will and command, they proclaim: “Why would we ever want to leave? It doesn’t get any better than this!”

 

Now, God wanted any settlement to be temporary. So, what did they do? “They said to one another, ‘Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly’ And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar’” (Genesis 11:3). Instead of living in tents, they built a fortified settlement. Everything they used was for their permanence. Instead of sun-dried clay or stone, they chose fire-hardened brick for their building project, with bitumen for mortar instead of the customary mud. And what was the purpose of this building project: to make a name for themselves.

 

Instead of giving God all the glory, they are glorifying themselves. “Glory to man in the highest,” they proclaim!

 

But it wasn’t just sinful pride that led them to undertake this extensive and difficult construction effort. It was actually the belief in that pride in their accomplishment that would be a unifying force that would hold them together as one people. Their ultimate sin was their cultural identity. They were putting themselves equal or even greater than God Himself. They were in charge now. They no longer obeyed God’s will. 

 

So, by building this city and tower, God’s people are rejecting His goal for life and creating a new goal of their own. They have forgotten that everything they have – food, shelter, and security – are all gifts from God. They are now claiming they have accomplished everything for themselves without any assistance from God, which is not true. For these people, Satan doesn’t even have to work hard upon them, since they have knelt down to the idol of self, which is exactly what Satan wants for them.

 

So, what does God do? He doesn’t leave them to their own demise, He comes down saying, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do” (Genesis 11:6).

 

God is bringing judgment in order to save us from ourselves. For if the human race remained united in self-interested pride, there would be no limit to their rebellion against God.

But unlike at the time of the Great Flood, God’s judgment isn’t even visible. God simply made changes inside the minds of the builders. Through these changes, God’s people could no longer understand one another’s language. So, this meant that everything came to an abrupt stop. They were confused. They were puzzled. They became suspicious of each other.

 

The spirit of friendliness and confidence they once had was now replaced by confusion and suspicion as they just “left off building the city” (Genesis 11:8). They had hoped to make a name for themselves and bring fame to themselves, but all they accomplished was moving away from their dream home.

 

God would not let His will be neglected. He would not be overlooked. He would not be mocked. So, He is unwilling to let people wipe their feet on His great plan for this world. He will have them “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1).

 

For Martin Luther, he called God’s action at Babel a much more horrible judgment than the Great Flood. Yes, the Great Flood was devastating, but it only wiped out a single generation of humanity. But the confusion of languages at Babel has had a greater consequence. It has bred confusion, suspicion, and hatred in every generation since then, and all the way to today’s broken and disordered world. So, why are so many nations pitted against each other? Why are we so often at war with one another? 

 

Now, we can easily point back to Adam’s sin in the Garden, but with Noah and his family, we had a “sort-of” restart of humanity. And so, after God again created everything good, our sinful nature would rear its ugly head again at Babel. So, besides Adam’s Fall into sin, the answer to why there is so much confusion, suspicion, and hatred today is because of the events at Babel. You could say, Babel is like a second Fall of man. Although Noah and his descendants remained sinners during the Flood.

 

But for us here today, there is another practical result from the events at Babel. And this is what we are celebrating today. When the day of Pentecost arrived – fifty days after the Passover Sabbath, the people whom God scattered at Babel, He brought back.

 

“And divided tongues of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance”(Acts 2:3-4) … and “devout men from every nation” (Acts 2:5) heard Jesus’ apostles speak “in his own language” (Acts 2:6) … “the mighty works of God” (Acts 2:11).

Just days earlier, Jesus commissioned His apostles to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded” (Matthew 28:19-20), but on this day in Jerusalem, people from all over the world were gathering around them celebrating the Pentecost.

 

So, just like everything else, it is the Holy Spirit who equips them and us. So, the Holy Spirit equips the apostles to proclaim God’s saving work in many languages. The confusion of languages that resulted at Babel when humanity tried to glorify themselves was reversed at Pentecost. So, on this day nearly 2,000 years ago, the Holy Spirit moved these men to glorify God in languages that were understood by all who heard. 

 

Today, on this Day of Pentecost, is a great day to proclaim the work of the Third Person of the Holy Trinity: the Holy Spirit, aka: the Holy Ghost. 

 

Often, the Holy Spirit is the third wheel, the forgotten Person of the Trinity. In fact, we don’t always know what to call Him: Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost! But may we never forget about Him! You see, He is vital to yours and my faith. Without the Holy Spirit, you would not know what Jesus has accomplished for you. It is through the Means of Grace that the Holy Spirit reveals and preaches as He illumines and enkindles hearts, so that we come to right understanding the gifts of God. For where Christ is preached, the Holy Spirit creates, calls, and gathers the Christian Church.

 

And this reversal of Babel still occurs today with each time God’s Word is proclaimed to those who have not heard the mighty works of God as the Holy Spirit continues to create saving faith in the mighty works of God accomplished in Jesus.

 

So, as followers of Christ, our goal is not to make a name for ourselves, but to glorify the name of Jesus through our lives, since through repentance and faith in Him, He has given us pardon for yours and my sins through His atoning death and resurrection, and has taken His rightful place above all things by His ascension. Through Christ’s victory over sin and death, He forgives your pride, your self-centeredness. Today, Jesus intervenes in our lives as He comes offering you forgiveness through His Word and Sacraments. He comes to give you the gift of life and salvation! Amen.

 

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding,

 keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.  

+ SOLI DEO GLORIA +