The Holy Spirit Humbles You for His Purpose to Save!

If you ask someone for a half inch socket wrench and they hand you a crescent wrench, then the job will not get done. If you ask someone for blush and they hand you concealer, then the job will not get done. If you ask someone for a teaspoon and they hand you a tablespoon, then the job will not get done. If you ask someone for a brick and they just stare at you, then the job will not get done. When there is a struggle to communicate, the job does not get done.

We all struggle to communicate. We all struggle to communicate even when we want to do something good and when we all want the same thing. For example, a group of people who wants to spend time together by going out to eat, which is a good thing, can struggle. Without good communication, this scenario can end badly. If the group does not communicate who is picking where to eat, what day, what time or who is paying, then the scenario can end badly. Our pride makes us want what we want and when someone else wants something different, we either choose to avoid communication with them using the silent treatment or by ghosting them to avoid confrontation, or we over communicate by harassing, yelling and arguing to force our point across. This struggle to communicate does not only occur between people, but between people and God.

The generations of people who were born after the flood communicated a clear message to God. In our Old Testament reading from Genesis 11, we read,

1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech… 4 Then they said, “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.”

The descendants of Noah spoke the same language and came up with a common plan. Their world had been freshly washed and dried giving a fresh start in many ways, so they now looked to their need for food, security and meaning. They chose to settle in a fertile plain where growing crops and raising livestock would be easy. Then, they chose to build a city to protect themselves from the wild animals and the elements. And, finally, they chose to build a tower to never to be forgotten. Now, at first glance, these do not seem like horrible choices. In fact, they probably sound like what most people would do. However, their choices communicated a clear message to God, “We do not need you.”

The people who worked on the Tower of Babel chose not to listen to God. In Genesis 1, we read what God communicated to our common ancestors, the first people, Adam and Eve,

28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

God’s desire for humanity was to be blessed and fruitful, to fill the world, and be the ones to manage the wonderful creation God had made for them. God had given them all they needed to do these things. And since God was their Creator, they were also to worship him, which they did as we read in Genesis 4,

26 Seth also had a son, and he named him Enosh. At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.

Seth was Adam’s son and Enosh his grandson. They along with their families called on the name of the Lord. In other words, they worshiped God. But sin lived in all their hearts causing the world to become so bad that God wiped out the sinful world with the flood except for Noah and his family because they believed in God. Then, after they got off the Ark the generations quickly multiplied, turned back to sin and communicated their lack of faith in God by not obeying his commands to fill the earth and worship him. Instead, they stayed in one place, built one city and built a big tower to themselves without pausing to say, “We should build a place to worship God.” So, God humbled them for their pride, wrong priorities, lack of faith and sin as we read in Genesis 11,

6 The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.

God humbles us to save us. When God prevented clear communication among the people building the Tower of Babel, he stopped them from making themselves the center of the universe. God was stopping them from becoming their own gods. God did this because they were not the center of the universe, nor were they gods. They were sinful mortals who were going to die and face judgment. God humbled them so they would stop looking to themselves and look back to him.

God allows you to be humbled as well. You have experienced frustration because you could not communicate with someone. You have experienced pain because communication stopped between you and a loved one, friend, roommate, classmate, coworker, etc. Your heart and mind are filled with anxiety and stress because the world communicates standards you cannot meet or ones that are unloving, unfair, untrue, impure, etc. The clear message communicated by anyone listening is that people are broken. God’s law is brutally honest about our brokenness and helplessness. But because of his love, God did not leave us struggling to communicate with him and each other in a broken world. He did not leave you with an unfinished tower to mock your attempt at life. He communicated to you by coming to you with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the answer to our failed communication. All the damage done at the Tower of Babel, all the damage done by people so wicked God flooded the entire planet, all the damage done by Adam and Eve falling into sin, all the damage around you that hurts, stresses and depresses, and all the damage you cause is fixed by the Holy Spirit. We read in our New Testament reading from Acts 2 about the Day of Pentecost,

1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

Pentecost was a major festival for the Jews, so Jerusalem was packed with people from all over. It was at this time, when the city was full of people from many places who spoke many languages that God sent the Holy Spirit to the disciples, which Jesus had told them would happen. In our Gospel reading from John 15, we hear Jesus’ words,

26 “When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. 27 And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.”

The Holy Spirit filled the disciples on Pentecost in Jerusalem so that the message of Jesus’ forgiveness of sins would be heard and believed by people of many languages. On that miraculous day, Peter quoted the Old Testament prophet Joel saying,

17 “In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. 21 And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

The message Peter and the disciples preached when the Holy Spirit came on Pentecost was for all people. The message was to save all people. The message was the same as Adam and Eve and Noah believed in. They believed the Savior would take away our sins, restore our relationship with God and give us eternal life.

Communicating humility comes from the Holy Spirit. You do not communicate your humility by going up to someone and saying, “I am humble.” Instead, humility is worked in you by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit works humility in you through the Word of God. God’s Word has the power to cut right to your heart when you are filled with pride; you cannot hide the sinful things you have done, said or thought from God. And when God has brought you to your knees, it is his hand alone that reaches for you. The arms of your Savior that were stretched out on the cross are the arms that grab you in a hug as a child of God. They are the arms that take hold of you as a true sister or brother by the unchanging grace of God. It is the Holy Spirit who lives in you and has given you this gift of faith that connects you to your Savior. The prophet Joel and Peter said, 21 “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” And Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 12, 3 … “no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit.” The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to save you through faith in Jesus.

If you ask someone for a brick and they just stare at you, then the job will not get done. Today, we still struggle to communicate because of what occurred at the Tower of Babel. Genesis is the unchangeable, universal history of all people. This struggle to communicate does not only occur between people, but between people and God. So, the Holy Spirit came to fill your heart with faith. He keeps you connected to Jesus and humble through the Word of God. The gospel is humbling because we see Jesus give his life for prideful people too busy to worry about, acknowledge, love or thank God. The gospel is the good news that God gave you those three things they wanted at the Tower of Babel:

• Food: John 6:35: Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.
• Security: John 10:28 I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.
• Meaning: 1 Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

Communicating Jesus’ forgiveness takes many forms, which is why we have our Personal Member Ministry Program that takes you into God’s Word and applies the Word to you to see your gifts. And some of you may learn another language to tell others about Jesus, while others may learn how to communicate with young children, teenagers, young adults, parents, singles, people with physical or mental handicaps, elderly, poor, affluent, prideful, and even someone from another political party or someone who does not know how to identify. We all struggle to communicate, and we all have sin, but God sent us the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit humbles you for his purpose to save you. Amen.