Christchurch Men's Meeting - Sunday 28th October 2007

City Dwellers: The City in God's Plan and Purpose for the World

Rev 21:1f. Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband...

Introduction
A few years ago I received a job offer from a company in Berkshire. My wife and went to look at houses. We went from village to village. We looked at houses in a tiny villages.
But when I looked at these villages: there was little "life", often no center and sometimes no pavements! All of a sudden, we began to long for the city with it's busy-ness, people, opportunities,...

Some questions: Is the city your ideal? Are your dreams urban? Can you not wait to get into the city? Would you choose to live here, in an urban space?

I want us to think about the city biblically: what is God's purpose with regard to the city? What should our strategy be as city-dwellers? How can we love the city? What would it take to make us city-positive? What are our dreams for London, in terms of Christ and His kingdom?

Big cities are here to stay: in the future more and more people will gravitate to the major,
global cities of the world – 80% of the world's population by later this century.

How can we think biblically about the city?

I. The City as God's Purpose in History.
The Bible starts in a garden, but ends in a garden-city. This is story of development and maturity.
God created man, and created a garden-sanctuary from which he, with his helper, was to spread out and fill and civilize the undeveloped world that God had given him.
The Cultural Mandate in Gen 1:26-28 was man's marching orders to build civilization, which meant the construction of cities.
Meredith Kline: "'The city is not to be regarded as an evil invention of ungodly fallen man... The ultimate goal set before humanity at the very beginning was that human-culture should take city-form... The cultural mandate given at creation was a mandate to build the city. Now, after the fall, the city is still a benefit, serving humankind as refuge from the howling wilderness condition into which the fallen human race, exiled from paradise, has been driven... ('Kingdom Prologue').

Eventually, the garden was to become a garden-city, a temple-city.

What is the city?
Cities are places of refuge and safety – city means "he lies, recumbent" i.e. a place of safety.
Cities are places of justice – the elders at the gate, the Cities of Refuge.
Cities are centers of prosperity and development of culture, of government, commerce, arts and higher civilization.

The city stretches us: in the city there are more people like you, who are better at what you do then you are. That challenges you.
In the city there is more intense life and a higher development of technology, culture and civilizations. Civilization flows out of the city to the rest of the nation.

Abraham
When Abraham was called out of Ur, he was called out to pursue a heavenly city (Heb 11:10) For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God"..
This does not mean an "other-worldly city", otherwise, as Rushdoony notes, why leave Ur? The city and land that Abraham received in promise was a "place" here. Therefore, later in Heb 12:22-23 this is made clear, "But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. "

When we pray the Lord's Prayer we pray for the manifestation in history of the City of God - "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven." Matt 6:10.

This develops through the whole Bible: the Garden Sanctuary leads to the Tabernacle, then the Temple in Jerusalem, the post-Exile Temple and then the New Jerusalem (= the church).

In Rev 21-22. we have the final picture:-

1. The New Jerusalem is the people of God – the fact that it is lowered from heaven means that the church is God work, it cannot grow out of the fallen and rebellious world of sinful man.
2. Moreover, it is a cultural center: the wealth of the nations is brought into it... (v24. .. and the kings of the earth bring their glory and honour into it". And v26.).

Some Conclusions:
1. The development and maturity of God's kingdom, through Christ, are the central message of the Bible;
2. It means that the development of culture and civilization under God, is also central.
3. Therefore, we see that the city is central to the story. God's kingdom is, to borrow St. Augustine's title, the City of God.
4. Therefore, the city is good, it has always been God's goal and purpose for mankind.


II. Sin and the City: The City of Man.
But there is an alternative and competitive line, that runs in parallel with this since the Fall.

The line of Cain, Babel, the seed of the serpent.

1.In Gen 4:17 Kayin(Cain) knew his wife; she became pregnant and bore Hanokh(Enoch). Now he became the builder of a city and called the city's name according to his son's name, Hanokh. (Schoeken Bible). The city in Nob.
So the rebel-murderer Cain is banished and what he does is establish a city culture apart from the faithful line of Abel/Seth.
This line leads to Lamech the polygamists and rebel ( vv18ff). The city can be a way of defining man's rebellion against God.

2.Then after the Flood, we have the Tower of Babel – a city in the plain of Shiner (Gen 11).
Once again this is a place of rebellion – 10:4f "Let us build ourselves a city and a tower, ...v8. " they are scattered to prevent them building the city...
This was their rebellion against the mandate to spread out and fill the world with civilization.
This shows us that the city can become a place of pride and self-exaltation because of the great achievements possible there.

Because the city can be a place of rebellion. You can lose yourself in the city, but not in the village. Hence there is more violence, strife and upset.
Therefore, the city is fallen and becomes a place of rebellion


III.Our strategy for the City?
How should all of this shape our strategy for London? (most of this is "stolen" from Tim Keller).

1. In NT we find that Paul focuses and heads for the cities of Asia Minor: Corinth: Thessalonica, Ephesus, Colossae, Rome etc.
Therefore, to disciple the nations (lit. make disciples of the nations as nations) we must have a strong emphasis on the evangelisation of the city.
According to Rodney Stark by 300AD 50% of the urban population of Asia minor was Christian, whilst 90% of the rural was still pagan. The early church was urban.

2. If the cities are centers of power, influence: i.e., government, cultural leadership, education, science, business, media and entertainment - why would you not start there?
London's population is c 7.5m. That means almost 15% of a population of UK live here – and it's the 15% that lead the rest.
Knowing this, where would you put your effort for the gospel and the Kingdom?
In other words, the whole nation is shaped out of the culture of the city – the city sets the pace for the rest of a nation.
Therefore, to influence the nation, we have to be in the city, evangelizing the city, transforming the city.
3. That means we must engage with it culturally – Paul walked around the Aereopagus before he preached; he strove to understand the place and then fashion his message accordingly;
Modern cities are global cities: the world comes here. You can reach the world from London.
4. Engage with it holistically: the city attracts minorities, new arrivals and the poor feel "safer" there, the ministry of the church needs to be a word and deed ministry.
Our goal is to make London, to make Leyton, Waltham Forest a a better place.
We evangelicals in more recent times have not been good at that.
As C. H. Spurgeon said, if you want to give a poor man a tract, make sure you wrap it up in a sandwich!

Conclusion
God's future is urban – the nations are to be discipled, and that means the great cities so the world need to be transformed by the gospel.
Don't fear the city, remember its key place in God's plan. Love the city and serve the city.