Holy Spirit, Destroyer of Confusion
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Holy Spirit, Destroyer of Confusion
Genesis 11:1-9
Psalm 104:24-35b
Acts 2:1-21
John 14:8-17, 25-27
From the very beginning sin has been the destroyer of all things beautiful and perfect. It destroyed a perfect way of life free from pain, sickness, and death. It has destroyed relationships in particularly the relationship between God and His creation. Sin brings about fear and confusion into our world. It had done so for thousands of years and as a result there has been death in its path through fighting, war, disease, and mental illness. Despite all of this God had a plan as a solution to the problem of sin which would destroy everything he created. Through the destruction of one innocent life, the life of His son the price of all sin was forgiven. Yet there would still be some confusion in the world with the Son leaving the world. Knowing this He did not let us be alone. He sent us the advocate, the counselor, the Holy Spirit to be the destroyer of all confusion.
When God created mankind there was only one language in the world. There was no need for any other language at the time. For the first few thousand years everyone could understand each other no matter where they went. There would be no such thing as being uncomfortable in a neighboring land because of the inability to communicate with others. However, sin was a major problem in the world and the hearts of men and women were bent on every kind of evil. Therefore, God decided to start over with humanity and had a cleansing of the world. However, this would only be a temporary fix as the hearts of man would still be inherently sinful. God commanded mankind to spread out and rule over the earth. However, man being relational in nature congregated together and decided to make a name for themselves by building a tower that would stretch up towards the heavens and would serve as a place for all to stay and live. This idea was created through sin. The only solution to this problem of sin a disobedience would be confusion. It is because they were able to communicate with each other they were able to put their sinful ideas together in their disobedience. Therefore, God confused their languages so that they could not understand each other therefore halting the construction of their tower and spreading the people across the world just as the Lord had planned. This confusion would continue to remain and would become a cause of war and desire for power over others because of confusion and a lack of the ability of communication between languages. The separation of languages also created different races of people which then created a whole different separation of hatred and confusion known as racism. All of this brought about by sin.
It was sin which brought about the confusion of languages but there would be a cure for all of this confusion. The cure came on the day known as Pentecost. Pentecost was known as the “festival of weeks.” It would take place 7 weeks or 50 days after Passover. Pentecost in itself carries the meaning of fiftieth hence it takes place 50 days after Easter. We celebrate this day in the Church in remembrance of the day that the Holy Spirit was given to the apostles of Jesus Christ. They were staying in Jerusalem and waiting just as Jesus told them to wait. They knew what they were waiting for but what they did not know was how it would come and what it would be like. Jesus had promised that he would ask the Father to send the advocate, the Holy Spirit. They were told that the Holy Spirit would teach them all things and would remind them of everything that Jesus had taught them. They knew all of these things but what would happen I believe was completely unexpected to them. Acts 2 tells us that “Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed like tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.” The Holy Spirit enabled the apostles to speak in other languages. There were those in Jerusalem who could hear them speaking in their own language but were amazed because they knew that these men were Galileans. They could hear them praising God in their own language. What was once a barrier of confusion had now finally been destroyed. The Holy Spirit became the destroyer of all confusion both in language and in understanding. What the disciples could not understand once before they now had full knowledge and understanding and were able to preach and share this understanding with others. The barriers of communication had finally been destroyed.
More than just the communication between others was restored. The communication and relationship between God and his creation had been restored. It was the Holy Spirit who told Peter that Ananias and Saphira were lying. It was the Holy Spirit who showed Peter that God shows no favoritism between Jews and Gentiles. It was the Holy Spirit that helped to raise Tabitha from death when Peter prayed. It was the Holy Spirit that took away confusion for the apostles and allowed them to write down the truth so that God’s Word could be shared with generation after generation up to even today. It is the Holy Spirit who has restored the hearts of men so that sin would no longer be their desire in life but instead pleasing the Lord would be the new desire in perfect love.
Sadly, new research shows that many pastors in our world today are not living lives guided by the Holy Spirit. Barna Research has discovered that on average only 37% of pastors have a biblical world view while 62% have what is called a syncretism world view. Syncretism is a view of a blending of world religions. Such pastors believe that Jesus is not the only way to heaven but that other religions have a pathway to heaven as well. These pastors allow the culture to infiltrate their world view and as a result we have some Christians and pastors who support gay marriage and some who support abortion and whatever else is the cultural norm of the times. This is a sign of the end times where people will no longer put up with sound doctrine. However, for these 37% the Holy Spirit lives strongly in them and guides them to preach the truth as Jesus preached and as the apostles preached regardless of the consequences that the world throws at them. Such pastors are censored by social media and are sued by governments to dare to preach a message against the cultural norm of the day. Knowing this problem in our world and in the church helps us to know how to pray and to plan a way and means to correct this problem with pastors. We must pray for Holy Spirit fire to consume the hearts of these men and women and to destroy the confusion brought on by the world and by the plans of Satan. We are living in the end of days and we must be prepared for all that will come through this. We need the destroyer of confusion all the more in a time such as this. My prayer is that you will be filled with the Holy Spirit and that there will be no confusion about the truth of the Word of God in your hearts and minds. Hold fast to the Spirit and be renewed.