Sean C. Capparuccia

27 September 2026

Sermon XIV (and last) in the Genesis series

Genesis 11:1–9; Philippians 2:5–11; Psalm 2; John 17:20–26

If you’re following along in this series, you will see that we skipped chapter 10, and it’s not because it has no relevance but that I felt that we needed to get this series wrapped up today and the lineages that you find in chapter 10 are good background information for today’s sermon on chapter 11. So, if you haven’t, I encourage you to stop reading and go read chapter 10 for yourself – it will only take a few minutes….. I’ll wait…..

Just as there is no contradiction between Genesis chapters 1 and 2, but that chapter 2 is simply a more detailed account of chapter 1 from a slightly different perspective, so chapters 10 and 11 go together. In other words, 11 does not chronologically follow 10, but 10, by revealing the genealogy and descendants of Noah, gives us a glimpse into the dispersion that happens at Babel. It also acts as a bridge between Noah and Abraham, which is the next greatest saga in redemption history.

                   Today our world boasts about 206 nations, if we include independent territories. (The U.N. recognizes only 196 nations, but they exclude some of these territories.) Every continent, except for Antarctica, is inhabited, and of course, there is an extreme amount of diversity among people today. Skins colors range from almost totally black to almost totally white, which is really just forms of brown; hair color and texture; eye color; height, weight, shape … so much diversity. But if we look at Scripture, we see that all this diversity came through Noah and his wife, and his three sons and their wives. So, assuming the daughters-in-law are not sisters, that would give us four sets of “parents” involved; or more to the point, four sets of genetic material which has gone into making everyone we see in the world today (i.e., Noah and Mrs. Noah, Shem’s wife’s parents, Ham’s wife’s parents, and Japheth’s wife’s parents.)  So, again, chapter 10 tells us who all these descendants were and where they went, while chapter 11 tells us why it happened.

One Language

I’ll begin by saying that this event happened about 100 years after the Flood, based on the chronology in chapter 10. In his book, Creation to Babel, Ken Ham states that there were probably about 1,000 people by now.[1] And among these 1000 or so people some personalities began to rise, Nimrod being one of them. Nimrod certainly made a name for himself.

The chapter begins by informing us that the whole world used the “same language and the same words.” I like that: not only did they speak the same language, but they used the same words. In other words, there were no regional dialects and vernaculars. It didn’t matter who it was, when someone spoke, you understood what they were saying, and that’s saying something!

Now on the surface everything seems good: “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech” One language; one people; one common good. But notice what happens next. They said, “Let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name for ourselves lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the earth” (Genesis 11:4). The problem isn’t cooperation, here, the problem is what humanity wants to accomplish through that cooperation. In order for this to make sense we need to revisit the covenant and commands to Noah and his descendants. Do you remember what they were supposed to do? God said to multiply and fill the earth. They were supposed to move off and populate the earth, which at this time was all broken up into the continents we have today. But the people, in direct opposition to God and His word said, “We aren’t going anywhere. We like it here and this is where we are staying.” 

Long ago in the city of Babylon, the people they forgot how to pray;

They did what they did and said, “God wouldn’t care!”

and they did everything their own way.[2]

And to prove the point they started to build a great city. (Notice how problems always seem to begin in a city! Rural people just keep to themselves and mind their own business.) And in the middle of that city, they were going to build a masterpiece: a tower that would reach clear up into heaven. Their rebellion against God was so great that they thought they would go right up into God’s personal space and kick Him out of heaven – at least metaphorically. So, they aren’t merely building a tall building, they are resisting God’s command and authority.

And they said, “Brick by brick, we’re gonna build a tower high.

Brick by brick, we gonna build it to the sky!

We won’t need to be anymore on our knees because

One day soon we gonna fly, yeah, one day soon we gonna fly!”

Unity in Worship

Just a hundred years after the greatest catastrophe in history and already they are in just about the same state as they were before. But God said He wouldn’t flood the earth again, didn’t He? But the question isn’t “Why would God object to people building a really tall building?” The real question is, “Why is humanity organizing itself in deliberate rebellion against God?”  Listen, in verse 3 they said, “Come, let us make bricks.” In verse 4 they said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city….” “Come.” It is an invitation. It is, in a sense, a seduction. “Come, let us do such and such.” Rebellion loves company. For whom were they building this city? For themselves. For what were they building this tower? To reach into heaven. Beloved, isn’t that worship?

Friends, isn’t that what we do right here every Sunday? Reach into heaven? As Protestants we don’t talk about it much, but that’s what our worship is, it is a reaching into heaven. It is no accident that we have an invocation, and a confession of sin, and an assurance of pardon, and gloria patri, doxology, hymns, reading of God’s Word, offering, and benediction. Did you think John Wesley came up with that or that it is just Methodist or Protestant tradition? No, it reaches all the way back to the 2^nd century where we have the first recorded worship in the Church from Justin Martyr. These are all elements of worship that have pretty much always been in the Church’s worship in one form or another. (I carefully say in one form or another because despite what some people think, there is no one, clearly defined form. Across the globe and across the millennia, Christians have taken these elements into many varied forms. Published “rites” and “forms” are simply standardized liturgies to help churches within a denomination be uniform. There is no “right” or “wrong” or room for legalism.) And even though we only say it at Communion, the words “Lift up your hearts,” and the response, “We lift them up to the Lord,” and, “the Lord be with you” are ancient words. Notice we are lifting our hearts to Him, not bringing Him down to us. Christ is literally now in heaven, not on our altars of sacrifice, and He won’t be back until He comes again, so say the angels in Acts 1. Indeed, worship moves in an upward direction: incense goes up; prayers go up; our songs go up. So don’t let the words here in Genesis 12:4 be lost on you: “we will build a tower whose top will reach into heaven.”

This was about worship. But not about worshipping the God of creation. This was a god of their own making. In fact, in the Hebrew, the words, “reach into heaven” are not found, but the words mean to be “in” or “with” heaven. This more than likely implies that at the top of this tower were depictions of the heavens, or the stars, or even more precisely, the zodiac. You see, ancient religions often centered on the worship of the heavens which was directly rooted in Satan himself which is why astrology is specifically denounced in the Scriptures. But Satan will always try to corrupt the true worship of God and attempt to put himself in the place of worship.  

                   The key to all of it is right here, “Let us make us a name for ourselves…” That, Beloved, is the heart of Babel. In the very next chapter of Genesis we see God calling Abram, who came along 10 generations after Noah. Notice the contrast with what God later promises Abram. In Genesis 12:2 God tells Abram: “I will make of you a great nation… and make your name great.” Babel says: “We will make our name great”; God says: “I will make your name great.” That’s the difference between human religion and biblical faith rooted in grace. Humanity points to itself; the Godly point to Christ.

                   Only Christianity asks the question, “How can I get rid of my sin?” and is able to answer it. All other religions, a form of humanism seek morality without God, meaning without God, salvation without God, community without God, immortality without God, and ultimately glory without God.  And that, my friends, is the religion of natural man. And so, Babel is not just an ancient story, it is the story of the human heart. To seek heaven without bowing before God. In the Bible, all false religion is traced back to Babylon.  Man is by nature a builder and will always be trying to build higher, and faster, and deeper, and better: in essence, trying to be like God.

                   And so, it is somewhat ironic that while mankind is building this tower higher and higher, God had to come down to see it (11:5). They thought they had built something grand but God just couldn’t see it properly from where He was. In other words, God was not impressed.  

                   While the people of Babel were saying, “Come, let us do this and that…” God said, “Come, let us go down and confuse their language” (11:7). And then the Lord “scattered them abroad from there over the face of the whole earth.” 

God knew the people would only hurt themselves

and He did not want to let them go;

So, He mixed up their tongues and He made them babble on

So that Him once again they would know.

Unity in Rebellion   

There are over 7,000 living languages right now. And the Bible tells us exactly why that is. You would have to think that if we all descended from two people, whether Adam and Eve or Noah and Mrs. Noah, the whole world should speak one language. There would be absolutely no reason to develop new languages.  Dialects, sure, that makes sense, but not completely different languages with totally different grammars and alphabets. Why did God confuse their language then? Because their unity had become an instrument of rebellion. This is important to grasp. Our culture is so wrapped up in diversity and unity that it is beginning to lose its appeal. So, it is hard to imagine why diversity is a punishment from God for people trying to be in unity. But when we imagine unity apart from God, it can’t ever be good. And the Bible doesn’t teach that diversity itself is a sinful thing, rather, the judgment concerns unity in rebellion.

                   At Babel, according to Answers in Genesis, there could have been up to 70 language families instantly created. And if you have ever study linguistics, it is amazing how languages develop and change over time and place. Which is why you can get a PhD in Old English – because it isn’t the same as modern English!

The nations are scattered, but God has not abandoned the nations. “Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing?” we asked in our Psalm today. Because the nations are doing exactly as Babel did: organizing themselves, taking counsel together, establishing kingdoms, and building civilizations apart from and against God’s will and God’s worship.

And what does the Lord do? “He who sits in the heavens laughs. The Lord scoffs at them.” Then His judgement will come down and He will say, “I have installed My King upon Zion.” The people say, “We will make our name great.” God says, “My Son reigns.” They say, “We will rule this world” And He says, “Every knee will bow.”

                   What could the people do when they could no longer understand each other? I reckon they immediately found the ones who understood them and they went off together. Imagine gathering in a stadium with 1000 other people. Each person has a little slip of paper with a number on it between 1 and 70. Then over the loudspeaker they call all the 1’s, then the 2’s, then the 3’s. So, you get in your group and leave to start a new life together. I hope God at least kept families together, but they had to be separated somewhere.

Then, after God confuses their language and scatters them over the earth, there is a bit of time that passes before God chooses Abram , the son of Terah, a descendant of Shem. He tells him, “In you shall all families of the earth be blessed.” So, what kept them from learning a common language again? Probably geography at first. But you know, the whole world could speak English in 20 years if we wanted to. We send English teachers all over the world and within just 20 years the next generation would speak English and we’d be unified again.  Scary, huh? But there’s an even better way to unity than that, which God gives us in Philppians. He will gather people from every nation into Christ!

Where Babel said, “Let us go up,” Christ says, “I will come down.” He emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave, and being made in the likeness of men” (Phil. 2:7). Let us not forget that Jesus, who is the incarnate Christ, had been king of heaven for eternity past. It was no small thing to set aside His eternal crown and take the form of something He Himself created. Especially after He has been watching how they have acted throughout history. Jesus was the very opposite and undoing of Babel.

Where Babel said, “Let us make a name for ourselves,” Philippians 2 says, “God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name.” When Babel exalted itself, God brought it down; but when Christ humbled Himself, God brought Him up. God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James 4:6; I Peter 5:5). And this same God has promised to work in you as you work out your salvation with fear and trembling. That was the next couple verses in Philippians which we didn’t read, but they are so appropriate. Notice it doesn’t say “work for your salvation” but “work out your salvation.” But God only asks one thing of us really: faithfulness. And that is the answer to Genesis 11, being faithful to God.

Unity in Christ

In our Gospel, Jesus is praying for His disciples and all disciples to come “that they all may be one” (John 17:21). One in language? No.  One in culture? No. But one in mind. One in Him. From every nation, every tribe, and language He calls His disciples. And we here at Trinity are just a small part of that. But, because of the Holy Spirit, we are one with every other disciple on earth. That is an amazing thought. 

Oh there’s always the prayer, “Lord Jesus, You prayed that we would be one but we are so divided; wejus pray that Your people will be united soon. Help us to find unity….”  Have you heard that prayer or something like it? Friends, I’m going to tell you a secret: when Jesus prayed to His Father, His Father heard. There is unity among His people. We aren’t unified under a single denomination; we aren’t unified by a single catechism; we aren’t unified under a human leader, for sure, but all of God’s elect are truly unified under our one true Leader, Jesus Christ, and this is accomplished through the Holy Spirit. Let me remind you that Jesus did not pray that all people, not even all church-going people, of the world be unified. No, He was praying for a very select group of people here. They were “those whom [the Father] had given [Jesus] (the Disciples) (John 17:9); those who had “have received [the words of Jesus] and have come to know in truth that [He] came from [the Father] and have believed that [the Father] sent [Jesus] (the same group) (John 17:8); and He prayed for “those who will believe in [Jesus] through [the Disciples’] word (John 17:20). So, those whom the Father, by His own will, gives to the Son for salvation, and who come to faith by the hearing of the Word of Christ, passed down through the ages from disciple to disciple to disciple, are His people and are in unity with one another – NOW.

Have you ever run into another Christian somewhere and just hit it off immediately for a short while?   I remember being in a store once, I was alone for some reason, and I just prayed that God would send me a brother or sister to talk to. I mean it was immediate; this guy comes around the corner and said something, I don’t even remember now what it was, but we were like best friends for 10 minutes! He was my brother, and I was his. Guys, God is like that. As believers we are never alone. Test God in this sometime.

Worship  

                   In Revelation 7, John gives us a picture from heaven of a multitude of believers, “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, ‘Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!’” (Rev. 7:9-10).

                   Here, gathered together in unity of worship and purpose and mind are the multitudes who were blessed by Abraham’s obedience, by Christ’s obedience, and no doubt there will be some there because of your obedience.

                   So here we see once again the redeeming power of God in Christ Jesus. Babel is redeemed. Where many languages were caused by man’s disobedience, at Pentecost the Holy Spirit miraculously proclaimed the Gospel through those languages. At Babel the people tried to ascend to the heavens, at Pentecost the Holy Spirit, like Christ, came down; at Babel the people were scattered, at Pentecost the people are gathered. And in Revelation, at the end of time, all God’s people will be gathered around His throne in worship. This is redemption.

                   And so from these passages we see that God is sovereign over all His creation, even when His creation is in active rebellion against Him. Sinners will always try to usurp God’s authority and power, and with the help of Satan, who has a little bit of what we would call power, they can seem to get pretty far in this world. But as soon as God says the word, no one goes any farther. He makes the seas come only so far inland, and He allows evil to only go so far.

Peace and Holiness

                   Will there ever be peace on earth? You would think that with all the technology we have and the communication we have, peace could be possible. But people are always saying “peace, peace” when there is no peace. Until Christ come again only false peace can exist across the globe because there will always be evil people who will try to take what isn’t theirs. People will always try to take money that isn’t theirs; property that isn’t theirs; will covet others people’s wives and husbands and children; will try to take land that isn’t theirs (and the resources that are in that land.)  Friends, wars will not cease until He comes again. And even though technology can help us do some things faster, it cannot make us holy. Knowledge can increase without wisdom increasing. So be careful where you place your trust and spend your time.

                   Before ending I would remind you of our mission statement as printed on the bulletin, which I hope we can all have memorized: Our mission is to be disciples of Jesus Christ and to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the glory of God and the salvation of the world. And as Global Methodists, we exist to not only make disciples, but to spread scriptural holiness across the globe. Friends, I ask you, are we doing that? Is Trinity doing that and are each one of you doing that? Together, we bow before our Lord and Savior and together we confess His name: the name which is above every name. Not just a name, but the name.  

The tragedy of Babel is not that humanity had to learn different languages. The tragedy is that humanity wanted the glory of heaven without the God of heaven. And the good news of the gospel is that God has not left the nations scattered forever. He has sent His Son, whose name is above every name, and one day people from every language and every nation will stand together and worship Him.

And now the world is full of language, color and life

And God is still sitting high on His throne.

And with hands up-raised, we will declare His praise

And make the name of Jesus known.

And we’ll say “brick by brick, we’re gonna make that tower fall,

Until the name of God is understood by all;

Every people, every nation will be down on their knees

Until we see Him standing in the sky, then His people gonna fly.”

–Amen.

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[1] Ken Ham, Creation to Babel (Green Forest, AR: Master Books, 2023), 231-232.

[2] Lyrics here and throughout are from “Babylon” by Sean & Lara Capparuccia, 2012.