Trust The Holy Spirit Who Builds Real Skyscrapers

I’m sure you all can think of your favorite skyscraper.  One of my first experiences to be in a famous skyscraper was in Chicago when I went to the top of the Sears Tower.  It’s 110 stories tall and the experience was unforgettable.  I wonder how many of you would know what I was talking about if I called this skyscraper the “Willis Tower.”  That’s its name today. 

So, what’s in a name?  How important are titles or names of famous places?  Well, today we go back to the time after The Flood.  Several generations of people have now populated the earth and we learn there were some of those people who really liked who they were.  They wanted the whole world to remember them as Genesis records, “let’s make a name for ourselves.”  So, how did they do?  Do you think the Empire State building is more well known than the Tower of Babel?  I’m not sure, but this I do know:  the Lord was not pleased with those people because the Lord wanted his name to be well known, and not theirs.  This issue certainly remains today.  Sin causes us to build up skyscrapers of pride, selfishness and rebellion against the Word of God.  However, our Lord Jesus Christ died and rose again to save us and sent the Holy Spirit to create and sustain our faith in Christ.  Therefore, on this Pentecost Sunday let’s

Trust the Holy Spirit Who Builds Real Skyscrapers!

Because Skyscrapers Built Without Christ Fail

Now that we are in the month of June vacation opportunities will begin for families.  As a kid I loved going on vacation with my family and one of my finest memories is traveling to Pleasant Lake near Coloma, WI (north of Portage about 50 miles on I-39).  When I Googled it, I found the cabin our family used to stay in.  I saw the place where I got into the boat with my Grandpa and went fishing, where we sat on the houseboat deck over the water, and around the campfires at night.  As I kid I thought, “It doesn’t get any better than this!”  I kinda think this is what happened to the people after The Flood.  Noah and his family exited the ark and God gave this command,

“Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth”

Genesis 9:1  

It was God’s command for people to multiply and fill the earth with people who would fear, love and trust in God.  But, when the generations after Noah started to travel around, we learn this:

“² As people traveled in the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they settled there.” 

This was a rich, fertile area that would make life pretty easy.  Kinda like a kid at Pleasant Lake!  So, the temptation came, “Even though it is God’s will for us to move into the world, why move on?  It doesn’t get any better than this!”

However, this was the problem: they were about to try building a skyscraper without the Lord.  Their purpose for living became the exact opposite of God’s purpose for living.  God wanted his glory proclaimed throughout the world through them, but they wanted to make a name for themselves.

“³ They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used mud brick instead of stone for building material, and they used tar for mortar. ⁴ They said, “Come, let’s build a city for ourselves and a tower whose top reaches to the sky, and let’s make a name for ourselves, so that we will not be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

Yes, their building project would make them feel safe and secure using the best materials available to them.  Their accomplishments would boost them to the height of fame and superiority since their tower would reach into the sky, and perhaps, they thought, into heaven itself!  They would prove to be so skilled and strong they wouldn’t need to rely on anyone else—not even God himself. 

Professor John Jeske, in his People’s Commentary on Genesis, makes this point: “Glory to man in the highest!  That’s turning God’s plan for us topsy-turvy.  That’s rejecting his goal for life and substituting a goal of our own. Sustenance, security and status—these were the life goals the descendants of Noah had adopted.  Satan doesn’t have to persuade us to kneel down in front of an idol, if he can only get us to look at life in terms of ourselves.”

That’s the same world we are living in today.  The devil loves to tempt us to define our own skyscrapers by how much money we make, the car we drive or the house we live in!  We live in a world that loves to build skyscraper idols of materialism and convenience.  How many times have you caved into the big lie that life is all about being happy, and if I’m not happy then I will buy things until I am!  How many times have you been jealous because someone had something better than you and you wanted it no matter what!  These selfish skyscrapers are missing the main supports of Jesus Christ and will come tumbling down over time.  Such skyscrapers stand in opposition to the Lord’s Prayer when we pray, “Thy will be done!” 

Yes, let’s heed the warning Because Materialist Skyscrapers will come Tumbling Down without Christ.  Then let our attention be drawn to the Holy Spirit Who Builds Real Skyscrapers! 

Because Skyscrapers Built on Jesus Christ Flourish

May I go back to the introduction and ask the question again, “So, what’s in a name?”  I would imagine the people building the tower were thinking of some super special name for it like, “Shinar Tower!”  The Lord came to put a stop to it. The Lord God stepped in to stop this humanistic skyscraper.

“⁵ The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the people were building. ⁶ The Lord said, “If this is the first thing they are doing as one people, who all have one language, then nothing that they intend to do will be too difficult for them.”

Now, don’t think for a second that the omniscient Lord God couldn’t see what they were doing.  This is written from the builder’s perspective.  Let’s put it this way, “They got caught with their hand in the cookie jar!” But, I also want you to notice what title is used for God who is coming to disrupt their activities.  THE LORD!  That’s the same Lord God who walked into the Garden of Eden after they disobeyed God’s command.  The SAVIOR GOD is coming to put a stop to sin, and provide a Savior!  The SAVIOR GOD who loves his people cannot be bullied around by evil forces.  They were trusting in their own abilities to build their skyscraper, and the SAVIOR GOD was going to teach them real quick that that they needed to trust in him to build a skyscraper that would last!

The same Savior God comes to us who are all too eager to build our own sky-high self-glory.  It is the natural religion of all people to want to build it ourselves.  That is why Jesus sent the Holy Spirit to Build a Spiritual Skyscraper in our Hearts Based on Jesus Christ that will Flourish!  It is Pentecost and our prayer is for the Lord to save us from ourselves!  That is what the Holy Spirit does!  He uses God’s Word to topple our sinful pride only to raise us up with Jesus Christ on the cross where our penalty of sin is paid, our guilt is removed, and we are raised with Christ!  Paul wrote to the Romans,

“³ Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴ We were therefore buried with him by this baptism into his death, so that just as he was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too would also walk in a new life”

Romans 6

In your baptism the Holy Spirit Built your Spiritual Skyscraper on Jesus Christ.  The Savior God overcomes our hard-hearted rebellion only to Shepherd us gently and safely in gracious forgiveness.  So live what God has made you!  Rest on the Savior God from heaven and place all your hopes in Jesus Christ!

Let’s watch the Savior God go to work. 

“⁷ Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language, so that they cannot understand one another’s speech. ⁸ So the Lord scattered them from there over the face of the whole earth, and they stopped building the city. ⁹ It was named Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.” 

In spite of the rebellion of the people, the Savior God carried out his holy will to stop their sin and scatter them throughout the world.  And just like we are all too often like the people from the Tower of Babel who forget the Gospel, we are also similar to the people at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit used the disciples to proclaim the Gospel in many different languages to bring them into the Tower of Salvation.  Peter proclaimed,

“Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit”

Acts 2:38  

At Pentecost the Holy Spirit went to work through the Gospel in Word, and the Word connected to Baptism to Build A Real Spiritual Skyscraper in Christ that would Flourish!

Since the birth of the New Testament Church at Pentecost the Holy Spirit has proclaimed the Gospel to every corner of the world.  You and I are blessed to be a member of this Flourishing Skyscraper Build on Jesus Christ.  On the back table is a book called, “Christ Through Us.”  It is a pictorial history of the WELS since 1850 that traces the building up of God’s kingdom.  We have been a part of proclaiming the Gospel to children to teach them unconditional love, to friends who are looking for real meaning for life, to society who is afraid of what the future might bring, to all nations who need to hear the Gospel and be saved!  May the Lord continue to use our time, talents, treasures and testimony as the Holy Spirit continues to Build the Eternal Skyscraper of Jesus Christ!

I’m sure all of you can think of a famous skyscraper you have seen.  If they change the name from the Sears Tower to the Willis Tower it won’t make a huge difference in our life.  But, having the Holy Spirit change the name from the Tower of Babel to the Tower of Pentecost is life changing!  It changes us from the desire to build a name for ourselves, and to rather have our lives built on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us celebrate the work of the Holy Spirit today as he continues to save people like you and me—The Real Skyscrapers Built On Our Lord Jesus Christ!  Amen!