Weird Stuff in the Bible

Pentecost Fixed What Babel Broke
Genesis 11, Acts 2

Introduction
The Day of Pentecost had a lot going on; it probably had more going on than you even realized. This is one of the most significant stories in the Bible; it’s the birth of the church, recorded in Acts 2. And it says this in
verses 1-4 of that chapter
When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
So we see a lot of unique, strange things happening in these verses. There was wind. It said divided tongues as of fire came to rest on each of them. We’ll try to figure out what that means today.
And then it said that they began speaking in other tongues by the power of the Holy Spirit. Tongues means languages. They suddenly started speaking other languages that they didn’t even know. And this was a sign that the Holy Spirit had come upon them.
So a lot of this are so familiar with this story that we kind of acknowledge it and move on. But wait just a minute. There are many times that the Holy Spirit comes upon someone throughout the Bible and they become capable of amazing and even supernatural things. Samson with his strength. David with his musical gifting. Bezalel as he built the tabernacle. The prophets with their prophesying.
And then you get to the New Testament birth of the church and the sign of the Holy Spirit is tongues; that they start speaking in other languages. Now, isn’t that a little random and weird?
I mean, I find it a little weird. I’m one of those Pentecostals. I’m one of those crazy charismatics. And I think it’s weird.
And I’d like to explore why it’s in the Bible.
Turn to Acts 2, and let’s get weird.
[theme music]

Pentecost
Welcome to Weird Stuff in the Bible, where we explore scripture passages that are bizarre, perplexing or just plain weird. This is Luke Taylor, and today we’re going to be talking about why the inauguration of the church involved this incident where people started speaking in various languages.
And I’m sharing this today because, for one thing, it’s on my list of random topics I’d like to cover on this show. And two, because this past weekend was what is known as Pentecost Sunday, which is the Sunday about 49 days after Easter or Resurrection Sunday in America.
So in observance or in honor of that, I’d like to expound about what was going on during the day of Pentecost in Acts 2.
So what was the result of these tongues being spoken? Well
Verses 5 through 11 say
5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven.
Key point there: every nation under heaven.
6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, “Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born?
So I will pause again. Another key point. All of these people of various nationalities are hearing the apostles speak, and they’re hearing it all in their own language. And who are these people? There’s a significance to the list that I’ll explain later.
9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.”
So the third key point here: they are hearing the Gospel.
And when I say “the Gospel,” I want to define that term. Because some people hear the word “gospel” and they think “Jesus saved us from our sins.” And that’s true, but there’s more to it than that.
The Gospel is the message that the rightful king of the world has visited us and provided our salvation. He paid the price for our sins by dying and then rising again. Afterwards He ascended into heaven and is enthroned on high, and He has provided you an opportunity right now to join His Kingdom. If you will pledge your allegiance to Him, He will grant you eternal life and citizenship in His Kingdom.
Now, you probably agree with that as a summary of the Gospel. It might not sound the way you often hear modern Christians describe it, because we use all these cute phrases like “ask Jesus into your heart” that isn’t even actually a biblical phrase and we kind of personalize it and say giving your life to Christ means not going to hell and finding your purpose in life and that’s all true, but if we make it all about us, we’re kind of missing the bigger picture of what’s going on.
Jesus talked about saving us from our sins, but He talked a lot more about building the Kingdom. So that way I framed it a moment ago is more of the way that the Bible describes it. The Gospel is not just about what Jesus can do for me and saving me from my sins. It’s about the infiltration of another Kingdom- the Kingdom of God- into this world.
I’m going to repeat those two sentences again because it’s so important that you get this: The Gospel is not just about what Jesus can do for me and saving me from my sins. It’s about the infiltration of another Kingdom- the Kingdom of God- into this world.
Now let me tell you about the Kingdom of God. It’s not a nation set by boundaries and borders. You do not lose your national identity when you become a Christian. Your citizenship in heaven supersedes your earthly citizenship, but it does not replace it.
If you’re an American and you become a Christian, you do not stop being an American. God created you and formed you in the womb and had you be born in America and unless God calls you to move somewhere else, you can be an American. Same with any nationality. But once you become a Christian, you have an even more important citizenship in the spiritual Kingdom, and your national identity is not a barrier or benefit when it comes to your spiritual identity.
And that is the big picture of what all these people are hearing when they hear the Gospel being preached to them at Pentecost. All throughout Old Testament history, the way to find God was through Israel. If you wanted to know God, you had to know the God of the Jews. If you wanted to be saved, salvation was through pledging allegiance to the God of the Jews. You joined national Israel because this was the nation where the true Creator God was worshiped.
So the Old Testament understanding of salvation was very much tied to this one geographical location on planet earth and this one specific religion that was mainly followed by this one specific group of people.
And then the Day of Pentecost happens and the Holy Spirit comes upon these apostles and empowers them to be the church. What is the church? The church is God’s task force to infiltrate this world and rescue souls by transplanting them from the kingdom of darkness and into the Kingdom of God- all through the power of the Holy Spirit.
And God does not make this announcement in Hebrew.
God does not make this announcement in the Hebrew language.
All throughout the Bible, God has been speaking almost entirely to this one specific people group almost entirely in one specific tongue. And that was how God operated up until now.
But now that it’s time to share the Gospel, things change. God is not speaking in one language to one people anymore.
God is speaking in all languages to all people. That is what Pentecost means. That is why they’re speaking in tongues.
The Kingdom of God is here. You can be a part of that Kingdom. You don’t have to be a Jew or an Israelite or speak Hebrew to join the Kingdom of God. You can be a Parthian or a Mede or an Elamite. You can speak English or Spanish or Chinese or Klingon. It doesn’t matter. As long as you make your allegiance to God’s Kingdom above all else.

Back to Babel
But there is one more thing going on here that I want to share about Pentecost because there’s a layer to this story that we often miss. God is not just opening up the Gospel to all nations and all peoples. God is fixing something that was broke. All the way back in Genesis.
Turn in your Bible to Genesis 11. Some of you may recognize this because this is another well-known story in the Bible: the Tower of Babel. This is the story that tells us where all these languages came from in the first place. Is there a connection between the Tower of Babel story and the Day of Pentecost? Well let’s start reading it and see.
And a lot of you know the story of the Tower of Babel. The people were trying to build a tower to heaven. God didn’t like that very much.
Genesis 11:5-7
5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all 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. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.”
So here’s the first key word I want you to underline in your head. If you write in your Bible, you can underline it in your Bible. And the word is “confuse.”
Verse 8 and 9
8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
Another word you can remember from this passage is dispersed. So the two words I want you to remember are confused and dispersed, and they both appear in
verse 9
9 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.
Let’s look at one more passage real quick and then we’ll put this all together. It’s when this story is being referred to in
Deuteronomy 32:8
When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations,
That is the word Deuteronomy uses to describe the separation of the people. Divided. Highlight or underline it if you want to. In Genesis 11, God “dispersed” the people. In Deuteronomy 32, it says He “divided” them.
Let’s talk about these words. The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, but in the Greek translation- known as the Septuagint- the word confused is “suncheo.” The word “divided” is “diamerizo.” Confused and divided. Suncheo and diamerizo.
Then you get to Acts chapter 2. Here is what we read in
Acts 2:4
Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them.
What does “divided tongues of fire” mean? It’s such a weird phrase, right? Divided tongues of fire. Why not just say “tongues of fire.” To be honest, I’m not even sure what that means. I take it to mean that they had a flame over their heads or on their shoulders or something, but they weren’t burned by it. But I’m not quite sure what tongues of fire means, and I’m even less sure what “divided” tongues of fire could mean.
But guess what this word “divided” is? Diamerizo. So this word is perhaps being used to harken back to an Old Testament story. And then what happened next?
Acts 2:6
And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
The word “confused” there is suncheo. They were suncheo. Confused. The same word from Genesis 11:7.
And, of course, there’s another key word that appears in both of these accounts. These are both stories about languages. Tongues.
Where did all these people go in Genesis 11? The homes they established in Genesis 10. Genesis 10 is called the table of nations. It’s just a list of countries. It’s where the people set up after Noah and the flood and how they started to spread out across the earth.
Fast-forward back to Acts 2. There’s an account there of a bunch of people hearing the gospel in their own language. Their own tongue. And it says which people heard it.
Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia,
And it goes on like that for a few verses. But what are those places and what do they mean? It’s basically another table of nations. It gives the scope of the known world at that time. Representatives from across the world are going to hear the Gospel and take it home in their own tongue.
If you think about it, all these languages that we have were not God’s original plan for mankind. When God created the world and the people to fill it, they had just one language. And that was fine with God up until mankind started using this unity for bad purposes, and God decided He needed to do something about that, so He confused the languages and divided the people.
And now, at Pentecost, for the first time since the Tower of Babel, people all over the world can be unified in one Kingdom. For thousands of years, there has been a language barrier. But God is not going to let language be a barrier to His Kingdom. And now the French speak French and the Spanish speak Spanish and the Indians speak Indian and this created relational barriers between people.
So the way I say it is, Pentecost fixed what Babel broke.
What happened at Babel brought division to mankind on the basis of nationality and ethnicity and language. And then you get to the New Testament and God introduces this new Kingdom that He wants to bring everybody into-not just Jewish people, but He wants to bring the Gentiles into this thing as well.
And God always likes to make a statement when He does a big thing. So why tongues? Why is that a sign of the Holy Spirit there in Acts 2? I believe it was God saying, “the Gospel is for all people. No matter where you’re from. No matter what language you speak. God loves everyone. Everybody everywhere can get saved. Everybody everywhere can join His Kingdom.

Housekeeping/Mailbag
[mailbag: Phil: Ever since coming to awareness of the Nephilim and the sons of God, I've always thought the ancient Greek/Roman and Egyptian "mythological" gods and hybrids were actually real, and were possibly wiped out by the flood. Perhaps their disembodied spirits are the demons that plague the world today. I'm also a huge superhero fan, and there's a lot of commonality there too - and well, they're not real at all. So it's entirely possible that the ancient mythologies were what superheroes are today. Not sure!
Me: That is a thought I’ve had many times myself!
Mailbag: Do you think there is still today angels amongst us from time to time…I’ve heard some stories regarding random encounters with strangers who saved ppl from certain harm then were just gone or told them something they needed to hear without knowing the person…I believe so, but just curious on your thoughts
Me: Absolutely. Hebrews 13 says we can entertain angels unaware. That means we can meet angels and not know it. I grew up hearing stories of this from a book called Where Angels Walk. A more recent book was “…And the Angels Came” by Dr. Larry Brothers, which is focused exclusively on angelic visitations and miracles that happened during the time of the tornado that hit Joplin, MO, in 2011. It has many stories like what you said.]
Speaking of stories: next time on this podcast, I’d like to study a couple of stories about Jesus. Because Jesus, in case you didn’t know, is pretty weird. If you don’t think so, you must not have been paying much attention to Him. So tune in for the next couple of episodes as we study Jesus, and make sure you’re subscribed so you can get them!
What weird stuff in the Bible do you want to know more about? weirdstuffinthebible@gmail.com

Closing Thoughts
So in closing, the Kingdom of God is for everybody everywhere. He used Pentecost to set something right that got messed up at Babel. That’s why speaking in tongues and getting all of these people of various nationalities saved was the first item on God’s agenda when God started the church. And I think that’s a pretty good goal for our churches as well.
Maybe you help sponsor a missionary to accomplish this goal, and that’s great. And if you walk into church this week and there are people in there who have a different skin color or a different accent or a different background than you, I hope that won’t make you uncomfortable.
Because if so, you’re gonna be very uncomfortable up in heaven where John in
Revelation 7:9 says he saw:
a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb
So if you think that sounds weird, I hope you’re a little more weird today, too. Thanks for listening, God bless you for sticking around until the end, and we’ll see you next time.