We Are One
Sermon Notes
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.
5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” 12 Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
13 Some, however, made fun of them and said, “They have had too much wine.”
(Acts 2:1-13)
The Birth of the Church
We’re in a sermon series intended to answer the question, “What is a church?”
Not just “the Church” but a local expression.
We’re asking this because we want to be what God created us to be.
The natural starting point in addressing this question is the passage I just read, the Day of Pentecost
This explosive moment is…
The birth of the Church: as small, private prayer gathering of confused, scared people became city-wide event became a movement that would change the course of human history
The beginning of a new age in history (the fifth and final act of the play)
But, as much as this is the beginning of new chapter, a new act, we have to remember that it’s still the same story, the same play. And, if we want to fully understand what’s happening here, we have to go back a bit in the story. What’s happening at Pentecost is a new beginning, but it is not totally unprecedented.
It is consistent with the story of God.
Everything that happened that day would have reminded everyone experiencing and everyone observing of a couple other stories.
The main story happened at Mount Sinai, but we’re going to chat through that next week (three weeks total in Pentecost)
The other story that Pentecost brings to mind is found in the book of Genesis, chapter 11.
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 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.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 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. 9 That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
(Genesis 11:1-9)
Babel
Why this story reminds me of Pentecost:
In both stories God descends (comes down) to intervene in human history.
In both stories languages are involved.
But that’s where the similarities end. Everything else about these two stories are complete opposites.
At Babel, He stopped people from accomplishing something historic, but at Pentecost, God empowered for a monumental task,
At Babel, He made people not understand one another, but at Pentecost, He made sure that everyone could understand.
At Babel to divide, but at Pentecost, God came down to unite.
I’ve often wondered about the division thing at Babel.
The Bible seems to teach us that unity is a virtue.
How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity! (Psalm 133:1)
So why didn’t God support unity here?
Babel teaches us that unity, in itself, is not a virtue, there is such a thing as unhealthy unity. Here’s what unhealthy unity looks like.
It is Godless.
The primary motivation is ego.
Technological advancement had then feeling themselves: with this new tool, we can accomplish something special.
No humility, no dependence on God.
But, I don’t believe pride was their only, or even their primary, issue.
It is homogenous.
Based on the principle of “sameness” (sameness is not the same as unity):
Same language
Same city
This kind of unity requires conformity: requires everyone to speak (and think and act) the same
It is centralized.
One location for all people
Based on fear: this is always the primary motivator for imperial sameness
God is not interested in this kind of unity.
Pentecost unity is a different thing entirely
Where Babel’s unity is Godless, Pentecost unity is rooted in humble dependence.
Prayer is primary expression of this dependence.
Seek Week
The kind of unity that Jesus is interested in:
“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)
Where Babel’s unity is homogenous, Pentecost unity is diverse.
At Babel, moved from one language to many.
At Pentecost, He did not move back from many to one.
In fact, most everyone there that day would have been at least conversant in a common language, Greek.
But God had no interest in returning to homogeneity.
What we have instead is the beginning of the Church being a multi-lingual, multi-cultural experience.
God loves diversity.
He does not desire uniformity, sameness. Instead, He so values diversity that He doesn’t even demand that we align ourselves to Him (some heavenly language or practice), but instead He contextualizes Himself to us.
He translates Himself to us. This is what the incarnation is all about.
God desires that people of every language hear the Gospel in their heart-language
And He desires that our community be made up of wonderous diversity.
Section from Empowered on diversity
This is the only way that real transformation happens in the world.
He translated Himself to us. This was the expression of His love for us. And, He wants us to share this same love with one another.
This is what we’re doing here today.
Where Babel’s unity was centralized, Pentecost unity is spread out.
Centripetal vs. centrifugal force
“Christians are like manure.”
God crossed boundaries to unify us to Himself and He expects that we will do this to unify others to us and to Him.
Babel was based on the idea that we need to ascend to the heavens to achieve transcendence.
Pentecost shows us that God descends to us, and that’s where we find meaning.