Video Transcript: Reversing Babel

It is Pentecost and Pentecost was a great outpouring of the church and of the  Holy Spirit on God's people. And there are many different aspects to that coming of the Holy Spirit. And today I want to focus on how Pentecost is a reversal of  what happened at the Tower of Babel. So let's begin simply by reading the story  from Genesis 11 of the Tower of Babel. Now the whole earth had one language  and the same words. And as people migrated from the east, they found a plane  in the land of Shinar and settled there. And they said to one another, come let's  make bricks and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone and  bitumen or tar for mortar. Then they 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, lest  we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to  see the city and the tower which the children of man had built. And the Lord  said, behold, they are one people, and they all have one language. And this is  only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will  now be impossible for them to come, let us go down there, and confuse their  language, so that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord  dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth. And they left off building the city. Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused  the language of all the earth. And from there, the Lord dispersed them over the  face of all the earth. Now, the Lord said to Abram, go from your country, and  your kindred, and your father's house, to the land that I will show you. And I will  make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so  that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and Him who  dishonors you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be  blessed. Let's backtrack from the Tower of Babel, a moment all the way back to  the beginning. God created the world and God created humanity. And even  before he did that, he had others whom he had made, who were with him, and  who were his counsel. The Old Testament sometimes refers to them as the sons of God. And God, for instance, says to Job Where were you when I laid the  foundation of the earth, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Already, when  God was making the world, the supernatural beings in the heavenly realms were working with him and observing and praising Him? God said, Let us make man  in our image after our likeness. Why did he say, let us because he is speaking to the Divine counsel to the sons of God, who are already there with him, rejoicing  in his work and collaborating with him. And when you read about the genealogy  of Jesus, it traces it all back all the way back to Adam, the Son of God, What  was God up to when he had these sons of his who were imaging him already in  the heavenly realms and then decided also to make a son who would image him in the earthly realm? Well, when we think about the sons of God who are with  him, in the heavenly realms, the Bible speaks of them as the assembly of the  holy ones, the sons of God, the counsel of the holy ones, and that's why  sometimes the Lord is called the God of hosts. Psalm 89 says, The heavens will 

praise your wonderful deed O Yahweh, even your faithfulness in the assembly of the holy ones, for who in the sky is equal to Yahweh, who is like Yahweh among  the sons of God, a God feared greatly in the counsel of the holy ones, and  awesome above all surrounding him, Oh Yahwehh God of hosts, who is mighty  like you. So by the time in the beginning, when God made the heavens and the  earth and formed humanity, he was not alone, but was surrounded by these  hosts. And yet the Bible never lets us think that these hosts who surround him  are equal to Him, or on a par with him. God is far above them. There's none like  him. He is more awesome than all who surround him. God enjoys company, and then the supernatural and heavenly realms, he enjoys these sons of God the  assembly of the holy ones. And he decided in His earthly realm to make beings  who would also image him and collaborate with him and rule on his behalf in  earthly realms. We were created to be God's imagers. And when you read about the Garden of Eden, the Garden of Eden was designed as a temple, a place for  God to dwell in, when you read that God worked and created for six days and  then rested on the seventh, that rest on the Sabbath was not God taking a nap  after getting exhausted. It was God moving into his temple and enjoying that  great garden that he had made and enjoying it in company with human imagers  that he had made. And so the earthly imagers, Adam and Eve were to be God's  counsel to interact with them and act for God on earth. Just as those heavenly  imagers, those supernatural powers were God's counsel to consult with God,  and to act for Him in heavenly realms. That's what we're designed to be. And  that's who we're going to be. Again, someday, only greater still, people who live  in close communion with God in His sacred space, that he's made a beautiful  garden, a temple, a place to worship. And that's who we are meant to be who  we will be again someday by God's grace in Jesus Christ. And they failed. Adam and Eve sinned, and so that place that sacred space where they could walk with God, and he with them and enjoy His company, that place where heaven and  earth connected, was a place they could no longer be, they were kicked out.  And some of God's heavenly imagers, the cherubim, mighty heavenly beings,  blocked any entrance for them to that garden temple of Eden. And then, as you  read a little further, in Genesis, you read that some fallen heavenly imagers  again, they're called the sons of God, interbred with human imagers, and they  produce the Nephilim giants. And God sent a great flood to deal with that whole  terrible mess that had come from fallen angelic beings and fallen human beings. And that brings us to the next part of the story in Genesis, God starts over with  Noah and his family. But Noah and his family soon become more and more  people and they're told to fill the earth to be God's imagers throughout the earth  again into to rule it on God's behalf. But they want to hang together. And they  don't want to honor the true God or honor him his way. Humanity sinned at  Babel, and the short version is God scattered the nations. He disowned them,  and he gave them over to the rule of other supernatural beings. I'll explain a little

bit more about that in a moment. But that's basically what happened at Babel.  You say, Well, what exactly was going on at the Tower of Babel, I know when we would read that story, as little kids in a picture book, or think about it in Sunday  school, you'd say, well, the bad thing about Babel was they were trying to build a tower and make it a way for them to walk up to heaven. And then yeah, that  would be kind of a dumb idea, of course, but it's kind of hard to understand why  God would have to come down to thwart that, you know, you could build quite a  ways. And once you get to the top of the Sears Tower, or whatever they call it  now, you haven't quite made it into the realm of God and His angels yet. But  what was going on at the Tower of Babel, and any Israelite hearing that story  would immediately recognize the sort of thing that it was talking about. There  were ziggurats manmade mountains, basically. And everybody knew that  mountains are the places where the gods come to Earth. They're the high spots  of Earth. And that's not where people just go up to get to the gods. It's where the gods come down, to be with the people. And a tower was to be a man made  mountain for the god to come down. And near the tower, they would have a  temple and the god would then come down and his essence you've heard of  idols. They didn't really think that blocks of wood and of metal were divine in and of themselves. But when you made one of those, then a god would Come down, and his essence would come into that image that they make. And they would do  this as a favor to the gods to give them a ladder down to inhabit their image. And then when the god wasn't busy in the nearby temple, he would remain at the top of the ziggurat, or the tower during his off hours, to relax, enjoy himself and and  have some of the food also, that people had prepared for him there. So  basically, the building of this was a man made mountain, so that you could bring  the gods down and get them to do what you wanted. And in this world view that  the people the builders of these towers had, the gods need people, and that's  why they made them, people were to work for the gods and to provide food for  them. And then in turn, if you did a good job for the gods, they do a pretty nice  job for you, too. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. And the Tower of Babel  was the was the supreme representation of that, that attempt to control the god  and God did come down. And he said to the Divine counsel, let's go down. But  he did not come down just to be manipulated by people or to allow them to  make a name for themselves or to ignore His commands as the Supreme Lord,  come, let us go down, he says to others of the Divine counsel, and there  confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.  And from there, the Lord disperse them over the face of all the earth, He divided up the nations, this group that wanted to stay as one wanted to manipulate the  God in their own way, he split them up and divided them. If you read Genesis  10, you read about a whole bunch of different nations 70 nations that the world  was divided into. And then chapter 11, tells you how it got that way. It backtracks a little bit, and tells the story of the Tower of Babel to say how God had scattered

the people from that place of Babel. And when God did that, he you don't read  that directly in the Genesis 11 account. But you do read elsewhere in the Bible,  what was going on. It says when the Most High gave to the nations their  inheritance, when he divided mankind, that is at the Tower of Babel, he fixed the  borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. But the  Lord's portion is his people, Jacob has a lot of inheritance, that there's there are  some old manuscripts that say, according to the number of the sons of Israel,  but of course, the Israel did not even exist at the time of Babel. And other  manuscripts have been found that are almost certainly the correct ones that say  that God divided the nations according to the sons of God. And most scholars  take that to mean now that God divided up the nations and assigned them  according to principalities and powers and just gave them over to the rule of  those supernatural beings. But then, as we read, at the beginning, God chose  Abraham, he decided, after scattering the nations and handing them over to  other rulers, he chose Abraham, to start over again, and to have a portion for  himself to have as the people whom he would work with directly, and rule  directly. And those to whom God handed over the nations, those powers turned  out most of them to be rebel powers. So Psalm 82, addresses them. And it uses  the word Elohim. Twice. Elohim sometimes refers to God himself, but it's  actually plural and sometimes refers to the gods, God has taken his place in the  divine Council. In the midst of the gods, he holds judgment, how long will you  judge unjustly? You are God's sons of the Most High all of you. Nevertheless,  like men, you shall die and fall like any prince, arise, oh, God, judge the earth,  for you shall inherit all the nations. So God is speaking to these other powers,  who have, who have dominion over various nations and says, Boy, what's  happening in those nations is unjust, they are judging unjustly and they are  going to be judged by the God of all the earth. So you have basically a situation  where the nations have been handed over to other evil powers. And they've  been divided and they've been disowned. God says, through Moses in  Deuteronomy, he says, Beware lest you raise your eyes, he's speaking to his  own people. Beware unless you raise your eyes to heaven, and we you see the  sun and the moon and the stars and all the hosts of heaven, you will be drawn  away and bow down to them and serve them things that the Lord your God has  alloted to all the peoples under the whole heaven. So at Babel, God and  basically said, you want to do your own thing and worship your own way. I am  just going to give you over to other powers, I'm allotting these things to you, and  that is my judgment, the nations are divided, and disowned, but not forever, and  not permanently. But in the meantime, various peoples and nations, according to the Bible, have these various sons of God or powers and principalities, or  dominions, affecting and influencing them in secret, very powerful ways. And  sometimes the sons of God, the angelic beings are of course carrying out his  purposes, some of the rebels are working against his purposes. But regardless, 

they are having an influence in the affairs of humanity. In Daniel 4:17,  Nebuchadnezzar is addressed, he's become very proud, he has been bragging  about the great Babylon he has built and he is told the sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, these watchers,  these holy ones have decided to take away Nebuchadnezzar's power and his  mind it was a decree of God himself, but then also of the watchers and of the  holy ones. Later on, when Daniel is having a vision, an angel comes to him and  speaks with him. But he says he was delayed for 21 days by the Prince of  Persia. And then at near the end of the vision, he says, Now I will return to fight  against the Prince of Persia. And when I go out, Behold, the prince of Greece  will come. So once again, he's talking about princes in unseen realms, who are  having a huge influence on the affairs of the various nations. So humanity  sinned at Babel, God scattered the nations, he disowned them and gave them  over to other supernatural beings. That was that terrible judgment of Genesis 11. And then God chose Abraham and Abraham's offspring, to carry on his purpose  for creation, to display his glory, to eventually bring blessing to all nations,  because it was not just that he chose Israel to be the exclusive people who  would receive his blessing. But they were once again to be a display of God's  glory to the nations and be a source of God's blessing to the nations in the  fullness of time. And in that, then, just quickly going through the story running  from Babel to Pentecost, God takes His people, and he defeats Egypt's gods,  and brings his people out, when you read of the plagues. God is in conflict with  the gods of Egypt. Sometimes you wonder, when Moses and Aaron turned the  water to blood, or when they threw a staff on the ground and it became a snake,  and it says, The Egyptians did the same thing. And he said, man, what, what  tricks were they pulling? Well, you're misunderstanding the story a little bit,  because the Bible at one point, God says, I am going to judge the gods of  Egypt, the gods of Egypt, are the ones who are doing that. Those powers were  real powers that were doing some things and then as God turned up the heat  after while the gods of Egypt couldn't do what he was doing any more, it was  more than they could do. But it portrays it as God's conflict not only with Egypt,  Egypt, gods and Gods victory over the gods of Egypt, and he brings his people  out, then you read that God and his council came to Sinai, you read in the Bible  that it was through angels that God gave His law. And there's various passages  that speak of it that way, God and His counsel come to Sinai, God made a  covenant with Israel, and he gave the tabernacle as a place where God would  live among them. Then, once the tabernacle and the law had been given, God  sends His people into Canaan and God defeated Canaan's gods. And he  destroyed their giant offspring, what the Bible calls the Nephilim, or the Anakim,  the giants who were in the land, and God gave Israel their land. That's what you  read about in the book of Joshua. But Israel didn't totally destroy the Giants. And they didn't always reject those gods who had ruled over the Canaanite peoples 

either. The Philistine giants for instance, they remained a threat and King David  and his warriors destroyed Goliath, and other of those giants. And that, again is  somewhat connected with some of the things you read about the sons of God,  or these supernatural powers. And then in the time of David's son, Solomon, the  temple was built as a place again, in God's holy land, to connect earth and  heaven, it was to be an earthly picture of heavenly realities. And as you went  into the temple there, it got more and more holy as you got in, and fewer and  fewer people were allowed access, some could go into the outer courts, as you  got into what was called the holy place, only the priests could go there. And then the most holy place or the Holy of Holies, only one person, once a year could go there. But it was intended as a place where God would dwell in a special way,  and where his presence would be among his people. And throughout that whole  time, Israel has their ups and downs, and probably more downs than ups, and  God's prophets keep calling Israel back to God. Finally, of course, the kingdom  is divided. And both divisions of the kingdom become more and more corrupt,  again, with some ups and downs, the 10 tribes they built their own shrines with  their own golden calves. They were eventually defeated by Assyria and deported and scattered among various nations. Later on the kingdom of Judah was  defeated. And their temple that place where God was among them, their temple  was defeated. And before, before the temple was destroyed, we read that the  glory of God departed from the temple, and that temple was destroyed, and the  Jewish people were exiled into many nations. Later on, some exiles returned,  and they built a temple again, but it wasn't as splendid a temple as before. And  we never read that God's glory came down again in the cloud, and in the fire, to  fill that temple. And even after many came back, many other Jews remained  scattered. And so the nations were not blessed. God's calling of Abraham was  not fulfilled. That second temple was not everything it was meant to be, the Jews remained largely scattered. And the nations were not seeing the glory of God  revealed in the people of Israel. And then Jesus came, Jesus, the Son of God,  the Son of God, not just one of the sons of the gods, but the Son of God, the  second Adam, the prophet like Moses, who had been foretold the son of David,  who would rule over God's people forever, the lion of the tribe of David, Jesus  Christ, the true temple, who spoke of his own body as the temple, the  connection between heaven and earth, He came, and he was faithful to God's  promises. He was the true Israelite, the seed of Abraham. And when Jesus  came, He lived the perfect life that God's imagers were supposed to live. And  when Jesus died, he paid for human sin. And we read also in the Bible, that his  death put to shame the rebels, supernatural beings, his death, took care of our  sin, but it also dealt a terrible blow to those hostile powers, who had been  governing and ruining the nations. And Jesus resurrection was not just the  return of Jesus to life, but it was the launching of a whole new creation, in the  Holy Spirit's life, and in the Holy Spirit's power. And when Jesus ascended to 

heaven after his resurrection, then he had promised that he would send his Holy Spirit and power upon his people. And that's what he did. So that's a real quick  version of the storyline from Babel to Pentecost. And at that time, exile, and  sadness was kind of the main story of Israel, from the time of the destruction of  Jerusalem, up to the time of Jesus, where again, they were under an occupying  Roman force, and many of them were scattered here, there and everywhere.  But even then, God was up to something. Israel's exile was a punishment for  sin. But God is very good at doing more than one thing at the same time. He  was punishing the Israelites for their sin, but he was also all along, using even  that exile to get ready to bless all the nations. Many Jews were in Jerusalem  during the Pentecost feast, devout men from every nation under heaven. And in  one day when the Holy Spirit came upon the church, you had this ready made  group of people who had been Jewish exiles and knew the languages of many  nations and understood the cultures of many nations gathered in one place in  Jerusalem. And when the Holy Spirit came in power on the apostles, he had a  ready made culturally trained mission force, waiting to hear the message and go back to their many nations with good news of blessing for the nations. In one  day, the Holy Spirit made them an army of 3000 messianic missionaries, who  were familiar with many cultures. When the day of Pentecost arrived, Pentecost  was seven weeks after Passover. They were all together in one place, and  suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it  filled the entire house where they were sitting. It filled the house. That phrase is  something that was used when God's glory came down upon the tabernacle and filled the house. Or when it came down on the Temple of Solomon, it filled the  house of God. And here the Holy Spirit comes down and fills the house.  Because this is where God's new temple is where Jesus followers are gathered,  Jesus Himself spoke of himself as God's new temple. And then his people  become God's new temple. And the Lord fills the house and divided tongues as  the 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. When you read in the Old Testament, when God would appear  and come with his holy ones of the Divine Council, fire would often be present, it certainly was on Mount Sinai. It was in Ezekiel's vision of the Lord of hosts,  surrounded by the cherubim and the angels and the wheels of fire. But here, the tongues of fire come, and they divide and rest on each of the disciples. Here  again, you see the pillar of fire in the Old Testament, which is over the nation of  Israel. But here, the fire comes to each one individually. And God's Holy Spirit  comes in a new and wonderful way, inhabiting and empowering each of his  individual people. And they begin to speak in other tongues as the Spirit helps  them. Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every  nation under heaven. And at this sound, the multitude came to gather and they  were bewildered because each one was hearing them speak in his own 

language. And they were amazed and astonished, saying, are not all these who  are speaking Galileans and how is it that we hear each of us in his own native  language, Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia,  Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia. Egypt in the  parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and  proselytes, cretins and Arabs, we hear them telling in our own tongues, the  mighty works of God. And if you study this list, you see that it moves from east  to west, and covers roughly the same territory as the nations described in  Genesis 10, the nations who had been split up at the Tower of Babel incident  God has people from all those nations hearing in their own language, the mighty works of God. And all were amazed and perplexed saying to one another, what  does this mean? But others mocking said, they're filled with new wine, they're  drunk. And then Peter gets up and gives his great Pentecost sermon, and  speaks of the resurrected Lord and the death of Christ for the sins of the people. So Pentecost reverses Babel. at Babel, people built a man made holy mountain, a stairway for gods to descend to their temple and to their image and for them to control the divine. on Pentecost, God's Holy Spirit enters his true image, and  temple, the people of his church who are headed by the Lord Jesus Christ. So  we are, that's why it's wrong, to make images, to try to manipulate God or for  God to come down and live in images. We are those images. And we are meant  to be filled with his Holy Spirit, and to image him. And on Pentecost, God  launched that and ever since he has been sending his spirit into people from  every nation. at Babel, people wanted to control the god and they wanted to  make a name for themselves. on Pentecost, God fills the people and takes  charge of them, and He glorifies the name of Jesus. Babel was the great  symbiosis. That's something that scholars of ancient religions speak of. If you  study biology. Sometimes you read about symbiosis animals that kind of work  together. One helps out that the other animal then the other animal helps this  one they do each other favors, so to speak symbiosis the gods created people  to feed and care for them. And if we satisfy the gods, they'll also care for us.  That's pagan religion all the way. You push gods button the correct button on the gods and they'll do what you want. Pentecost, on the other hand, was God's  covenant of grace. God doesn't need us. But he offers his love in Christ as a  free gift. And then he calls us to rule and to care for creation on his behalf. So he has gifts for us and a purpose for us, but he's not desperate for our help, and  we're not paying him or controlling him in order to get what we want. at Babel,  God comes down to judge and to weaken the efforts of those rebel humans to  divide them up. on Pentecost, God comes down to bless and to empower  believing humans. at Babel, God confuses. He blocks sinful rebels from  speaking the same language, in their idol building and in their pride on  Pentecost. God doesn't confuse He enlightens, the Spirit enables Jesus's  disciples to praise and to preach in other languages, and the hearers. 

understand and accept the gospel, that's probably the most striking and obvious  parallel between Babel and Pentecost is the one place the languages are  confused. And in the other place, where they were confused and speaking  different languages, all of a sudden, they're understanding each other. Again, at  Babel, God divides one group into many nations and scatters them. on  Pentecost, God gathers many nations into one church and unifies them, God  does intend for humanity to be together to be united again, but on his terms, and not on our terms, so at Babel, he scatters at Pentecost, he unifies at Babel, God hands all the nations over to the rule of lesser supernatural beings. And then he  starts over with Abraham in Israel. But on Pentecost, God calls the nations away from those evil powers and their dominion. And he offers the nations His  presence and His covenant promises. So when you see what's going on,  through the whole history of redemption, and then in the coming of the Holy  Spirit, you read the various parts of, of the Old Testament record, and you see  how the Holy Spirit redoes it. In Genesis, God forms man from the dust of the  ground and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life. And on Pentecost, God  again breathes into those imagers, and the very word spirit means the breath.  And that's why we sing, breathe on the breath of God fill me with life, anew  that's what God is doing on Pentecost is he's doing Eden all over again, in a  new way, and breathing into those who are meant to image him. He undoes  Babel, instead of confusion, he gives communication instead of division, the  Holy Spirit brings unification. And yeah, there is a a sending kind of light Babel,  where they're scattered again, as those 3000 from many nations are scattered,  and as God's apostles are sent out, but this time, it is not a scattering of curse,  but a scattering of blessing to bring good news to the ends of the earth. He  chose Israel to be a blessing to the nations. And when God sets his mind on  something, it happens, it didn't look like it for a long time, Israel failed again and  againand again. But then through Jesus Christ and the coming of the Holy Spirit, that chosen nation became a blessing to all nations, and included all nations.  God says to Gentiles, to people of many other nations, now you are a chosen  people, a royal priesthood, the identical words that he said to Israel, because  now everybody who belongs to Christ is Israel, and Abraham's seed. at Sinai,  God wrote on stone, the commandments with the very Finger of God, but he  had promised already in the Old Testament, I'm going to make a new covenant,  a new deal. And I'm going to write my law on your hearts and send my spirit to  live in you and give you a new heart and a new spirit. And so that's what's going  on is the Holy Spirit is doing an a do over of Sinai as well. And now he's not  writing on the stone. He's writing right in here. And he's giving power right in  here to love and obey him. No longer Is there a temple of stones and jewels and other things? Jesus is the temple. The church is the temple, individual believers  are spoken of as the temple of God, you are God's dwelling place, and even  exile, that terrible judgment that scattered Israel was God's preparation to have 

a ready made mission force. And now scattering and being sent out is not a  curse, but it is God's way of reaching many, and then unifying them again, in  Jesus Christ and in one body. And so, a key word is everyone. Jesus, of course,  said whosoever, you know, whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have  eternal life. And Peter has that everyone or whosoever, in his sermon, he said,  he quotes the prophet Joel. In the last days, I will pour out my spirit on all  people, people of every kind. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord  will be saved, 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, the promises for you and your children, and for all who are far off, for all  whom the Lord our God will call Babel scattered people far off. But now, the  good news is for all who are far off as well, everybody whom the Lord calls and  brings into his covenant. And so today, we are the heirs of that it's important to  know your own story. It's important to know the big story of the Bible, to know  the great events of Pentecost, Pentecost only happened once. It doesn't  rehappen every day. In one sense, there was one day when God gave that great outpouring of the Spirit, and gathered that ready made mission force of 3000,  and persuaded them of the truth of the gospel, and communicated them to each  of them in their own language. But he does, that was the launching point. And  he does something similar, where he keeps sending people out, keeps  translating his gospel into new cultures, and into new languages. And so when  we live today, in the light of the Holy Spirit's reversal of Babel, we want to have  the big picture as well as the individual picture, the individual picture is what the  Holy Spirit does in the individual heart. And we should delight to think on that  and to rejoice in the presence of the Holy Spirit. But in light of the big picture, I  want to highlight three things. First, in light of the reversal of Babel, worship,  enjoy being God's temple in Christ, having him dwell within you dwell within his  church, and dwelling within people of every nation. This means that God is to be glorified. It also means that people who are very different from you are to be  welcomed in Christ. It is a constant problem for people to despise those who are quite different from them, or who come from a nation or background different  than they come from, but worship, when you know the true and living God  unifies. And you realize that, that people from every nation and tribe and  language are gathered before God's throne in worship. Another way that we live  in light of the reversal of Babel is by witness, you live by the Holy Spirit's inner  law, he comes to live within you, he writes his law in your heart. And so part of  your witness is living to the praise of God, according to the law. He's written on  your heart, Israel was designed to be a light to the nation's first of all, just by  being different. By being glorious. By being light. God said to Israel, I've made  you a light to the nations. And Jesus says to his people, you are the light of the  world. And you are that, first of all, just by being like God and imaging him in, in  true righteousness and holiness, living by the inner law. And then he gives gifts, 

abilities, and the Spirit gives power to call others you'll be my witnesses, Jesus  said to His disciples, but he first said, you need power from on high to do that.  And when you receive the power from on high, then you have the power to call  

others to Christ. And finally, in reversing Babel, there is warfare. And that means  there are principalities and powers, who don't like losing and who resent  territories that they once had being taken away. And so warfare involves joining  God's armies and fighting spiritual forces, whose claim on any realm has been  broken by Jesus victory whether it is Satan himself, or other of the rebel sons of  God, who want to hang on to territory, they will try to have their way in various  aspects of life and among various peoples, and they will try to lie to you, and still have you think that God doesn't have the full claim on your life. But the Bible  says that Jesus victory has disarmed the powers, the elemental spirits. And so  the only claim they can continue to hold on you is if you believe their lies. When  you stop believing the lies, and know the truth, then you can live in freedom, and live under the True King. And then you can enter into your true inheritance. It is  you and I, and God's church, who are meant to rule the affairs of this world. And  so we must now prove faithful in small things. And God will put his people in  charge of greater things, but never ever believe the lies of unseen forces that  they have the right to, or only God has the right to. So worship, witness and  realize that you're still in for a fight. And you must realize that the one who is in  you, is greater than all of those powers that are in the world. Let us pray  together. We praise You, Father, for your great and sovereign ways for your  plans, that stretch from everlasting to everlasting for the different dominions and  beings that you have formed and created. And we thank you for making us to be your imagers here on Earth and for redeeming us through Jesus Christ and  filling us with your Holy Spirit. To restore us again, to image you to be like you  and also to consult with you and to govern on your behalf. And Lord, sometimes  that sounds like an it's unrealistic and an overwhelming mandate, but we pray  that we may even now begin in our own little spheres of influence, to live for you by the power of the Holy Spirit, and find those expanding more and more we we  know from the scriptures again and again, that things that seems small,  insignificant, even a defeat are turned by you for your purposes. And so work  your purposes in us, not by our might or power, but by your spirit. through Jesus  Christ our Lord, we pray, Amen.