Tag: Genesis 11

“Fractured” (Genesis, part 2) – a new series at Eastbrook Church

Matt Erickson2 Comments

This coming Sunday at Eastbrook Church we begin a new preaching series entitled “Fractured.” This will be the second of a two-part series on Genesis, chapters 1-11. This series explores Genesis 4-11, picking up where our earlier series, “In the Beginning,” left off. Genesis is a book of beginnings, setting the stage for all that comes afterwards not only in that book but in the entire Bible. Each of these messages will explore the reality of a humanity’s fracturing from God and how we see that in each descent of the Fall through these stories. Each of these early stories speak of our need for God and leads us through a season of lament and repentance consonant with the season of Lent. This series is also accompanied by our annual devotional written by members of Eastbrook Church.

Here are the weekly topics for this series, which begins with Ash Wednesday and carries through Palm Sunday:

February 22 [Ash Wednesday] – “Dust to Dust” – text: Genesis 3:19

February 26 – “The Power of Anger: Cain and Abel” – text: Genesis 4:1-17

March 5 – “The Expansion of Evil: Before the Flood” – text: Genesis 4:17-6:8

March 12 – “The Need for Cleansing: The Flood, part 1” – text: Genesis 6:9-7:24

March 19 – “Healing for the Earth: The Flood, part 2” – text: Genesis 8:1-9:17

March 26 – “Faltering at the Finish line: After the Flood” – text: Genesis 9:18-10:32

April 2 [Palm Sunday] – “Confusion Among the Nations” – text: Genesis 11:1-32

Learning to be Silent :: Pieter Bruegel the Elder, “The Tower of Babel”

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Pieter Brueghel - Tower of Babel.jpg
Pieter Bruegel, De bouw van de toren van Babel; oil on panel; 1563.

Sin and temptation are funny things. They often disguise themselves in respectability and inventiveness that catch us off-guard at the last minute. Genesis 11 tells the story of a community’s effort to construct a great tower at a time when humanity shared common speech. The vision statement for the project was: “Building a tower to heaven to make our name great” (see Genesis 11:4). T-shirts and coffee mugs with the vision statement emblazoned on them were distributed all over town and the project commenced with great zeal. The only problem was that this effort was one more in a string of typical human aims to displace God and put humanity in His place. God will have none of it and stops everything before it reaches conclusion. Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s painting shows the colossal effort involved in this project. The architecture intentionally reflects that of the Roman Colosseum, reminding the viewer that both Rome and Babylon were biblical cities representing prideful humanity’s stance against God. Already in the painting we can see some arches beginning to crumble. The tower’s construction cannot hold together architecturally just as pride in communities and individuals pulls against itself, ending in collapse. We’re told in Genesis that God set out to “confuse their language so they will not understand each other” (11:7). This may sounds harsh until we realize just how disastrously far human brokenness and sin can go when gathered together around collective endeavors. We read about it in our history books and today’s news: war and hatred, greed and emptiness, repression and injustice. The journey of Lent reminds us that this is not only true in history and in the news, but also in us. Lent teaches us to lay our pride down and learn to be quiet–even silent–before God.

Arriving One: the final destination of the church

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This past weekend we concluded our series, “One: The Being of God in the Life of the Church,” at Eastbrook Church. To bring this great exploration of unity to a close, I traced the movement from the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9 to the heavenly vision in Revelation 7:9-10. In one sense this is a contrast between humanity divided and humanity united.

You can view the message video and outline below. You can follow along with the entire series here and the devotional that accompanies the series here. You could always join us for weekend worship in-person or remotely via Eastbrook at Home.

“After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (Revelation 7:9-10)

Humanity Divided (Genesis 11:1-9)

  • Human assertion against God
  • God’s confusion upon humanity

Humanity United (Revelation 7:9-10)

  • The gathering of the saints in the new heaven and the new earth
    • The contrast with Babel’s division centered on humanity
    • Here true unity is centered on God
  • The Great Multitude Before God
    • Unified before God: standing together, adorned similarly, crying out as one
    • Identifiable difference: every nation, tribe, people, and language

Moving Toward a Unified Arrival (Colossians 3:1-17)

  • Our focus on Christ and things above (3:1-4)
  • Take off the old self (3:5-11)
  • Put on the new self (3:12-17)

Dig Deeper

This week dig deeper into Revelation 7:9-10 in one or more of the following ways:

  • Memorize Revelation 7:9-10 or Colossians 3:12-14
  • Read Genesis 11:1-9 – the story of the Tower of Babel – and consider what was going on here. What do you think was at work within the hearts of humanity in this story? How does this story echo the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3?
  • If you want to dive deeper into Revelation 7:9-10, consider listening to or watching another preaching series from Eastbrook called “Becoming 7.”
  • Continue with our season of prayer and fasting. Find more info here.

God Calling

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Faith Life Series Gfx_16x9 TitleWhat does it mean to really live a life of faith in our everyday lives? How does it begin and how do we sustain that life?

This weekend at Eastbrook Church we explored these questions in the first week of our series, “Faith Life.” This series is a journey around themes of faith from the life of Abraham. This week, we began by looking at the very beginnings of Abraham’s story in Genesis 11:27-32, as well as the pivotal calling of God he receives in Genesis 12:1-9.

The outline and video file for the message are below. You can listen to the message via our audio podcast here. You can access the entire series of messages from the “Faith Life” series here. You can also visit Eastbrook Church on Vimeo, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

 

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