Genesis 11:1-32 | Babylon, Babel-off

If you have a Bible, go and grab it and open it to the book of Genesis, chapter 11. If you don't have a Bible, use the pew Bible in front of you. We'll be looking at Genesis, the first book of the Bible, chapter 11. If you don't own a Bible, we would love for you to just keep that Bible that you found in that pew. Feel free to take it home with you and read it. There's nothing that'll bring us more joy than for you to have a copy of God's Word that you can keep and read for yourself and see the goodness and glory of Jesus Christ in his Word.

So we'll be in the book of Genesis chapter 11. And while you're turning there, I just want to say it is good to be back. Europe is very old, and quite frankly, it's just a joy to be back with God's people and to see you all again. Thank you for praying for me during my travels. Genesis chapter 11. I'm going to read the whole chapter, and then we'll pray.

The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.) And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.” Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building. The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore it is called Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth. These are the family records of Shem. Shem lived 100 years and fathered Arpachshad two years after the flood. After he fathered Arpachshad, Shem lived 500 years and fathered other sons and daughters. Arpachshad lived 35 years and fathered Shelah. After he fathered Shelah, Arpachshad lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. Shelah lived 30 years and fathered Eber. After he fathered Eber, Shelah lived 403 years and fathered other sons and daughters. Eber lived 34 years and fathered Peleg. After he fathered Peleg, Eber lived 430 years and fathered other sons and daughters. Peleg lived 30 years and fathered Reu. After he fathered Reu, Peleg lived 209 years and fathered other sons and daughters. Reu lived 32 years and fathered Serug. After he fathered Serug, Reu lived 207 years and fathered other sons and daughters. Serug lived 30 years and fathered Nahor. After he fathered Nahor, Serug lived 200 years and fathered other sons and daughters. Nahor lived 29 years and fathered Terah. After he fathered Terah, Nahor lived 119 years and fathered other sons and daughters. Terah lived 70 years and fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran. These are the family records of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran, and Haran fathered Lot. Haran died in his native land, in Ur of the Chaldeans, during his father Terah’s lifetime. Abram and Nahor took wives: Abram’s wife was named Sarai, and Nahor’s wife was named Milcah. She was the daughter of Haran, the father of both Milcah and Iscah. Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child. Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran. — Genesis 11:1-32 (CSB)

Let's pray. We pray even this morning, as we think about your Word. Help us not to be deceived by this world or things that we may be tempted to value or trust in, but to see your majesty and humble ourselves before you. Pray that you help us to do this now as we listen to your Word. In Jesus' name. Amen.

What's in a name? Yesterday I went to a wedding that was mostly Korean, and looking at the dinner table reservations, it was extremely difficult to find my name because everyone's last names are the same: Lees, Kims, Parks. It was really hard. For a second, I wondered if there were multiple me all throughout the different tables. But the reason why we value names is because they identify who we are. And with who we are comes an understanding of what makes us who we are.

When you hear names like Rockefeller, Mullholland, Roosevelt, what comes to mind? Names carry significance, notoriety, power. This morning, we see an example of humanity gathering together to try to make a name for themselves. In response, God shows that even the best of all human ingenuity and effort is nothing compared to his majesty and his authority. So, we're going to see two things in this chapter this morning. First, we're going to see a name destroyed. You might have heard of the Tower of Babel. It's the same word for Babylon, which is what our translation says here. Second, we'll look at a name redeemed. What is in a name? Well, first, let's look at a name destroyed.

The Tower of Babel: A Name Destroyed

Read with me again from verse one:

The whole earth had the same language and vocabulary. As people migrated from the east, they found a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to each other, “Come, let’s make oven-fired bricks.” (They used brick for stone and asphalt for mortar.) — Genesis 11:1-3 (CSB)

Two weeks ago, we saw God establish Noah after the flood with a new covenant. Echoing Adam, Noah's told to be fruitful, to multiply, to fill the earth and subdue it—to spread out. And you see in chapter 10 the generations of his children following that promise. And it seems like his sons do exactly that: they have kids, they multiply, they seem to be spreading out. Except in the beginning of chapter 11, we realize that that's not quite what happens. Instead of spreading out, humanity decides to settle down. They come down to this valley called Shinar, and they have come up with a new innovation, and it's going to blow your mind: they have oven-fired bricks.

Just two days ago, I got to go to the British Museum in London, which is a really fancy way of saying, "we built this building where we kept all the stuff that we obtained during our conquest." And in the ancient Near Eastern exhibit, they actually had bricks not from the first Babel, but from Babylon later on, centuries later, as they tried to recreate this first Tower of Babel in their new kingdom. You could actually see the technology of this brick that they fired in an oven. They had it presented there. It was so cool for me to see, knowing that I was going to preach this sermon this Sunday.

And I just want you to know that bricks change everything. I mean, it's an innovation. And I'm sure none of us spend our time thinking about bricks. But really, if you'll allow me to indulge for a second, they really are a game-changer for people back then, in the time of Babel. It was probably like magic. Because if you think about it, if you want to build a structure that's long-lasting, you would have to build it out of stone. Which means that you would have to find a huge stone deposit, figure out ways to crack that stone in a way that makes sense that could be built together, use tools to break the stone, carry the stone, and then assemble the stone in a manner that could maintain a structure that could hold together. It's an immense task that takes enormous amounts of resources and time to find the perfect stone, line it up, build your house, build your building, and hope that it lasts and doesn't fall apart. But with bricks, all you need is dirt, straw, and fire. And asphalt as mortar acts like glue, and assembling these small little building blocks is way easier. It goes from being this ornate process to basically playing adult Legos. Buildings that would take months or years to assemble can now take weeks. This is an innovation, an absolute game-changer.

Have you ever seen innovation that felt like pure magic to you? You know, whenever we face an advancement in society, it starts to feel normal really quick. But I remember when technology first gets introduced, it feels like pure magic. I remember my parents gathering around this giant behemoth of a computer as they video-called their parents in Korea for the first time with like this 30 by 30 pixel blurry image, being able to actually see their parents' face and react and have a conversation using the power of the internet felt like pure magic, something that was inconceivable before that happens in an instant.

There are times where humanity makes innovations that absolutely change the game. Refrigerators are only about 100 years old. Your smartphone in your pocket has existed less than most of our lifetimes. There are times where these innovations cause us to lean back in awe as what was previously considered absolutely impossible suddenly becomes normal. And I think that's an incredible part of being human. I think God actually designed us to do exactly that: to fill the earth and subdue it. It's no wonder that you and I are able to make unimaginable innovations in farming and technology, in building, and in health. That in the chaos of the wilderness, we've been able to subdue the earth into order with society and technology. I mean, outside is going to be like 90 degrees, and none of us are going to sweat. That is pure magic.

That's exactly what the people here in Babel do. They create magic. The society of Babylon comes because humanity did what it was designed to do: to innovate, to progress, to subdue. The issue that we see in this passage is not with the innovation that they made. The issue is in what they innovated for. You can see that in verse four. Read with me:

And they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky. Let’s make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered throughout the earth.” — Genesis 11:4 (CSB)

The people want to use their innovation, their ability, to do the opposite of what God wanted them to do. In fact, what God wants to do is exactly what they want to avoid. They explicitly say it. They say, "We do not want to scatter throughout the earth." That's the exact same phrase that you see in Genesis 9. God tells humanity, "Scatter, fill the earth." And in Babel, they say, "No, thank you. We are going to bunker down." Instead, they want to use their innovation, their technology, their magic, to construct and build at a rapid pace, to build up, not outward; to consolidate, to build a city and a tower. And to build a city and a tower is more than just an industrial revolution. This is not a game of Civilization. This is not trying to say that the existence of a New York City or Los Angeles is somehow sinful in God's sight. The purpose of this city is that it is an act of mutiny against the God who made them.

Did you know that the name Babel or Babylon actually has two meanings? The first meaning is "gate of God." That's what it means. So they construct this city, this tower, and they name it "the gate of God," Babylon. And the reason is not because they're trying to reach the heavens. It's not like they're trying to climb up a ladder to find this giant up in the sky and slay him and kind of take his place. No, it's not so much about trying to reach the heavens. What they're trying to do is they are trying to replace the heavens. They're trying to make heaven on earth. They're trying to establish themselves as a deity. Even the phrase in verse 4, "Let us make a name for ourselves," rhymes with the phrase that God says in Genesis 1, "Let us make man in our image according to our likeness." And later God blesses them and said to them, "Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it." That's how God designed us.

In Genesis 11, it's not God who makes anymore; it's now man. Man becomes the creator. Man is looking up at God, at the one who made them, and said, "Look at me. I'm God now. I make my own name." And by constructing this tower in the heavens, they can assert themselves over their society. They can be their own God. Rule their society in their own way. God no longer needs to be in the picture. Man's increase in power gets them to try to change or flip the order of reality itself, to replace the Lord, shape the world into our own image. And friends, it is so easy for power to slip into pride.

It's exactly what we see happening here. A new promotion has you carrying your chin up a little bit higher than you used to. An award has you feeling really accomplished for the work that you did, but also a little arrogant. Sometimes it's not even conscious pride, but the unconscious pride of assuming that you'll be healthy, assuming that you can make plans for the future that will inevitably come to fruition, assuming that you'll be able to shape and form the world into your image. You don't need bricks to do that. As one Latin poem said on Babel, "Man rashly daring, full of pride, most covets what is most denied, and a little afterwards counts nothing difficult and tries insanely to possess the skies."

What do you live for? Ultimately, there's really only two ways that you can live. All of us are inevitably going to gain and lose abilities, gain and lose power, gain and lose innovations. And that ability, that momentum is going to drive you towards two destinations. Either you will live for yourself or you will live for the Lord. It doesn't matter whether you care about your family, your career, or your humanitarian effort. All of your power will either be directed to things related to you that you chose that you would care about, or the one who created you. If we're being totally honest, our innovations slip into idolatry all the time. It's no wonder that those who increase in power and authority and reputation also tend to increase in pride because pride is a sin that grows stronger as you grow stronger. As you grow, pride also grows. It gets more difficult the more you grow: the more you grow in your abilities, the more you grow in your maturity, the more you even grow in your godliness. Pride gets more difficult, the more blessings that you receive, to the point where we can delude ourselves into thinking that we can manifest our own destiny, to make our own name.

And in response to our pride, that's when the Lord comes into the picture here in verse five. Read with me:

Then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the humans were building. The Lord said, “If they have begun to do this as one people all having the same language, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let’s go down there and confuse their language so that they will not understand one another’s speech.” So from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth, and they stopped building the city. Therefore it is called Babylon, for there the Lord confused the language of the whole earth, and from there the Lord scattered them throughout the earth. — Genesis 11:5-9 (CSB)

And when you read phrases like what God talks about here about nothing being impossible for them, it naturally leads us to ask the question: Is God threatened by man's effort? Is this God being scared of what man will possibly do? After all, he says here literally, "nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them." Is this God being afraid that we will somehow surpass him with the power of ChatGPT or human ingenuity? I don't think so. This isn't about God feeling threatened. It's about man's unbridled, unified opposition to the Lord, opposition against him. As in, if all these people speaking one language are using all of their power and effort to oppose the Lord, then that's all that their effort and energy will ever be used on. They will use all of their plans, their procreation, their pursuits into deluding themselves into thinking that their efforts are achievable. Basically, humanity's destiny would be set in just assembling the city, playing pretend God for the rest of eternity.

And that is what scrambling the languages solves. That's why God introducing multiple languages fixes this particular problem. Multiple languages, confusing the languages of different people, doesn't solve the human heart. It's not like learning French makes you less sinful of a person. What it limits is the cooperation of humanity. It makes it harder, even impossible, for human beings to work together. The world talks often about how divided we are, how humans have a propensity to divide into factions, to misunderstand, to oppose one another. And there is something legitimately sad about that. It wasn't designed to be that way. And you'll see people, philosophers from Karl Marx all the way down to John Lennon, imagining what a world would look like if we were all united as one common man. Let me tell you from Scripture what the world would look like if we were all united under one common humanity: we would look like the Tower of Babel. All of us would be united against the God who created us. Hell is united. They all share something in common: they all hate God. Unity itself is not an admirable goal when you're united under evil, whether it's a swastika or Satan.

That's part of the reason why it's so important that we recognize that life in this broken, fallen world necessarily comes with divisions. This is part of God's design in response to Babel. We want to be building around the right things, which means necessarily we have to reject the wrong things. That's especially important for us to know as a church. We need to build this church around the right things, which means necessarily we have to reject the wrong things. We want to be united around the gospel of Jesus Christ. We want to be a church where the only explanation for why we would gather together every single Sunday is because Jesus actually rose from the dead and actually forgave our sin. In order to be united around that good news, in order to be united around the gospel, we have to necessarily, by design, be divided, distinguished against things that oppose the gospel, to separate, to distinguish ourselves from sin, from the world, from anything that might conspire against Jesus.

That doesn't mean that we don't want visitors here at this church. If you're a visitor, we're very glad that you're here. But we want to make clear the difference between attending church and being part of this church; between just saying that you follow Jesus versus having a commitment to God and his people in covenant community with a church community. It's part of the reason why we care so much about what we call church membership. All church membership is doing, more than just like a list of names on a piece of paper, is as we look at our church covenant together and the commitments that we made. As we look at the list of faces and names that we pray for and encourage and see week after week after week, we're trying to make clear those who are inside and those who are outside of this covenant community, that you can come inside the walls of this church and claim to follow Jesus and live a radically sinful life, and our church would actually do something about that. That we would make efforts to try to make clear: you cannot claim to follow Jesus and love sin at the same time.

We want to be clear about what our church actually believes and stands for. That we're not primarily here because of a political party. We're not primarily here because of a convenient thing that we prefer or a music style that we would enjoy more. We are here because we profess the same gospel of Jesus Christ. And because we've committed to encourage one another until we see Jesus come again. And if we want to stand for those true and good things, that means necessarily we have to reject bad things: those who profess a false gospel, those who deny what we believe, those who violate the covenant that we have promised to keep. Because if we're united, if we decide to come together as a church community, if our church seems to grow and we're getting hyped on the thought of getting more people together, our unity might actually just be assembling a Tower of Babel masquerading as a Christian church.

I love the immediate contrast here with all of man's efforts that you see in Babel. These bricks that are getting assembled. You can just picture the time lapse of walls being constructed and this city being built, trying to reach the heavens. In the meantime, while man scrambles to construct their anthill, God came down to look at what the humans were building. They're nowhere close to where God is. He has to bend over, crouch down, squint his eyes to be able to see this small Tower of Babel. Because all the power that we can gain for ourselves is nothing compared to the source of all power, the all-powerful, almighty King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

I mean, just imagine if you had a time machine and can go back with the weaponry that we have today to the time of Babel. They would think that you're a god. How much more for the almighty King of Kings and the Lord of Lords who rules the entire universe, who holds all things together by his mighty hand? We can masquerade with our plastic tiaras and pretend to be able to rule the world or be president of the United States or have all sorts of power or ability. Now, all it takes is one decision from God to rid us of everything that we have. Our sandcastle Babels are no match for the waves of God's judgment.

And God confuses all of their language. And the project, this gargantuan project, screeches to a halt in a second. Humanity can still innovate, but they can't cooperate anymore, the same way that they used to. And this name Babylon ends up taking on a new meaning. See, Babylon means "gate of God," but in Hebrew, it also means literally "to babble." I think that's where we get the word babble from. It's incoherent rambling, incoherent speech, literal babbling. They worked and worked until God flipped a switch and it was all over. Babel on, babble off. What kind of name are you making for yourself? What kind of legacy are you building? Where are your efforts focused? What do you live for? Can the best of what you assemble and do with your power stand against the Almighty King of Kings and the Lord of Lords? Because if you invest in the city of man, in the city of yourself, you will find everything that you built your life on utterly destroyed. All the work that you made will be decimated. All the joy that you had completely darkened. The name that you labor to make will be completely erased. All names have to bow before the name above all names. You will say Jesus Christ is Lord, either to your condemnation or to your salvation. But the good news of the gospel is not that you and I have a new chance to build ourselves a name, but that God gives a name to those who are nameless.

A Name Redeemed: God's Promise to Abram

Which brings us to our second point: A name redeemed. For the sake of time and maybe your ears, I will not read verses 10 through 30, but I do want your eyes to scan down and see all the things that Moses writes here in this last genealogy that you'll see in Genesis for a while. Some of you might be relieved that's the last genealogy that we're looking at for a while. But this genealogy is not like other genealogies. The pattern is similar to genealogies like Genesis 4, but the refrain, the rhythm of this genealogy is different.

If you remember from Genesis 4, the phrase that comes up over and over and over again as you read through the chapter is the phrase, "then he died." And you don't see that at the forefront of this genealogy. Look at verse 10, right? Start scanning down through verse 15, verse 18, all the way down to verse 30. There is a word that comes up over and over and over again in this genealogy. What is it? "Fathered." That's the phrase that comes up over and over and over again: "fathered." Not that they were a father, but that they fathered. They had kids. That's the emphasis of this genealogy. Every character had kids. They fathered other sons and daughters. Shem fathered Arpachshad. Arpachshad fathered. Shelah fathered. But suddenly, at the end of this chapter, the genealogy just stops with an absolute thud, because Abram cannot father. "Sarai was unable to conceive; she did not have a child." And the rhythm stops.

All of this momentum, the passing of the centuries with father after father after father, crashes at the feet of infertility. The pain of infertility in Genesis is more than just the pain of not having a child. And I know plenty of families have struggled with infertility; it's a heartbreaking thing. But in Genesis, it's not just not having the ability to bear kids or have a future for your own family. It's the pain of not being able to continue your family's name. It's a dynasty issue, a legacy issue. To not be able to carry on what was before, to leave no legacy, nothing to remember you by. Once you're gone, you are gone forever. There is no genealogy, no list to connect you to the future. It gets to Abram and Sarai, and then the list stops. You're done.

Not only that, these people are in a really pitiful situation. Look at verses 31 through 32 again:

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot (Haran’s son), and his daughter-in-law Sarai, his son Abram’s wife, and they set out together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan. But when they came to Haran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years and died in Haran. — Genesis 11:31-32 (CSB)

These people not only don't have kids, they don't even have a land. They don't have a place that they could call home. They were moving, and then they stopped in the middle of their Oregon Trail game and just settled down in the middle of nowhere. I don't know where Haran is. They are sojourners in a strange land. They have no name, no land, and all that means, they have no hope. Abram is about to get blotted off of the face of the earth. And Genesis should end at the end of chapter 11, doomed to die away from home.

Have you ever felt like that before? I've joked with people that sometimes I can relate to Charlotte in Pride and Prejudice: "I'm 27 years old, I have no money and no prospects. I'm already a burden to my parents, and I'm frightened." You ever feel like that? You look back on your life, and you can't explain why things happened this way. You hear other people, even Christians, share testimonies about God's grandiose purpose leading to their ideal marriage or their ideal job or their ideal life, and you just feel stranded. "I can't explain why God did what he did."

Maybe you had every dream that you could have dreamed of, and you saw it crumble, just like Babel, in front of you. What hope do we have when we've lost all hope? What good is a name with no money, no ability, with nothing? The only hope that you could have is a hope that God gives you. And that's exactly what God loves to use. Look at what God tells Abram in the very next chapter, in the first three verses there of chapter 12. Read with me:

The Lord said to Abram:Go from your land, your relatives, and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, I will bless you, I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt, and all the peoples on earth will be blessed through you. — Genesis 12:1-3 (CSB)

Tower of Babylon: the men, they kept telling each other, "Let us, let us, let us." In Genesis 12, God tells Abram, "I will, I will, I will." Because Abram's name wouldn't come from what he does, but what God does. Turning Abram into more than just a city, more than just a tower, but turning him into a nation, more than just a name, but a blessing. A blessing that will spread throughout all the earth, that will spread as wide as humanity scatters. That he would be a great name. And the name wouldn't be Abram's. It wouldn't even be Abraham, as he gets named later. But it would come from Abraham's seed, from the children that he fathered, ultimately from Jesus Christ.

The Name Above Every Name: Jesus Christ

You see, the good news of the gospel, the good news that we follow, that we have when we trust in Christ, is not about us ascending to God. It is not about us picking up our tools and assembling a city where we can ascend to the heavens, be on our ladder of good works and ability. The good news of the gospel is not about our ascension to God, but God descending to us. Not to scatter us, but to humble himself for us. Turn your Bibles to Philippians chapter 2, verses 6-11. If you understand this theme of name, of significance, of title from Genesis, Philippians 2:6-11 takes on a whole new meaning. This is Paul meditating on Christ.

He says this in verse 6:

who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself by assuming the form of a servant, taking on the likeness of humanity. And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death— even to death on a cross. For this reason God highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow— in heaven and on earth and under the earth— and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. — Philippians 2:6-11 (CSB)

Jesus was in the highest position in the heavens, equality with God. It doesn't get higher than that. The most power, the most prestige. And Jesus humbles himself to the point of death. The son of Abraham, this promised seed, dies for sinners like you and I. Spat on, beaten, mocked, the most dishonorable death that humanity could possibly imagine. Everything that we did in our power should have decimated this man into oblivion, a no-name prisoner. Except Jesus rose from the dead. And he conquered sin and death forever. In his humiliation, he unlocks the very grace that you and I need to be able to find everlasting life in him.

And it says here in the book of Philippians that for this reason, "at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Because while every other name will fade with the ages, only one name will remain: Jesus Christ. Friends, the irony of building a name for yourself is that it won't last. At best, you will end up in the British Museum. And I'll be honest with you, it was pretty boring. There's nothing that you or I could do in this life that would have lasting significance, any real meaning. But the good news of the gospel isn't about making yourself known. It's about whether or not Jesus knows you. He's the only name that matters. And his name being great, being highly exalted in the heavens, is the best news for no-names like you and I.

Because the good news of the gospel is more than just us being forgiven of our sins. It's certainly not less than that. It also means far beyond that. The good news of the gospel, us being reconciled to God through the payment of Christ's death, means that God adopts orphan sinners like you and I. He unites us to himself. He brings us into his family. And if Jesus knows you, if he knows you as his child, if God the Father has embraced you in his arms because of the grace found in Jesus Christ, who else do you need to know you? What other significance do you need? What other pressure is there to be great or to exalt yourself? Christians, we know that at the very heart of our faith is a truth that if we want to be exalted, the only way up is to go down, to humble ourselves like our Savior, to trust in his saving work.

That's exactly where salvation starts. It's us letting go of our grip of trying to be good enough and leading ourselves entirely into the arms of our Savior, trusting that he is strong enough to hold us. If our church increases in greatness or in notoriety or in prestige, it will not be seen by having full pews. It won't be seen by some newspaper report. It will be seen in the way that we humble ourselves, the way that we pray for each other, our love for one another. Because when we humble ourselves, when we decrease so that he may increase, we make ourselves more like the greatest name of all time.

And when you stand before the throne of judgment, when you stand before that throne and the train of his robe fills the temple and the pillars shake and the angels cry, you will not have to hide behind the facade of some phony name that you made. But you can stand boldly in the name of Christ, and you can look before God the Father and say, "Your son Jesus Christ, he knows me." Because Jesus himself said in Revelation three:

“In the same way, the one who conquers will be dressed in white clothes, and I will never erase his name from the book of life but will acknowledge his name before my Father and before his angels. — Revelation 3:5 (CSB)

Imagine that: at death, rising to judgment before his holy throne at the entrance of heaven, and your Savior looks at you and says, "I know you. I saved you. Welcome home." Let's pray. I pray, Lord, that we would not desire anything else. Every stone will be toppled over. Every feat of man will be utterly crushed by your power and your might. But your son will reign forever. So I pray, Lord, that you would help us to trust in Christ's saving work, in your great love for us in sending your son. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.