Genesis 11:1-9

If we want to find lasting victory in the Christian life in the midst of this American Babylon, we need to understand the power of pride that undermines God’s design and the power of the Gospel that overcomes our pride.

Outline

  • First, the power of pride to undermine God’s design (11:1-4)
    • Pride seeks satisfaction through self-provision (3)
    • Pride seeks success through self-promotion (4)
    • Pride seeks significance through self-protection (4c)
  • Second, the power of the gospel to overcome our pride (11:5-9)
    • God recognizes their pride (11:5-6)
    • God reckons with their pride (11:7-9)
    • God reverses their pride (Acts 2:4-6, 11-12)

Christ Connections

  • We see the pride of Babel fall in wilderness temptation of Christ. Jesus resists the temptations to self-promotion, self-protection, and self-promotion in Matthew 4. Jesus succeeds where humanity fails by resisting the pull of the power of pride.
  • In Acts 2:4, the Holy Spirit comes and reverses the shattering of their languages. The nations came together because of the power of the gospel poured out by the Spirit of God. That’s exactly how God continues to work in our lives today: God reverses the prideful sin in our life through the power of the gospel.
  • Christ crucifies the pride of Babel in his death. On the cross he resists the prideful pull of self-provision, self-promotion, and self-protection as he’s mocked, brought to the form of a servant, and murdered on a cross.
  • God doesn’t require us to make a way to him. Instead, God has come down to us. Jesus became flesh and dwelled among us so that he could make a way through his death and resurrection to bring us to God

Applications

  • We live in an American Babylon driven by the same self-promotion, seeking to make a name for ourselves. Chasing likes on instagram, chasing views on youtube, chasing promotions at work. One of the clearest ways pride shows up in our lives is through seeking the approval of others.
  • Pride’s pull toward self-protection can cause us to seek self-centered community. What brings Babel together is not a common focus but a common fear and we similarly can create a community known for what we are against rather than what we are for. The result is proximity without intimacy. True Christian community is about who we love, not what we fear.