The City of God and The City of Man

One of my favorite things about being on staff with Campus Crusade is that occasionally I am asked to speak before groups about a variety of topics. I’ve given Russian history lessons to visiting missionaries, I’ve spoken to college students about what it means to go to the world with the Gospel. Often when I am visiting our family in San Angelo, TX a local church will ask me to speak that weekend. It is always a privilege and honor for me to do it. This is a message I have delivered a couple of times to groups in Moscow and in Texas and want to share with you all. I really enjoy the topic and would love your comments on how to improve it or just your thoughts on the City of God in general

Disclaimer – almost everything I write in this is from a variety of Tim Keller sermons which I acquired from his church’s website www.redeemer.com. I also reference the book “Taking Our Cities for God” by John Dawson.

The City of God and the City of Man

The 18^th century Russian author Nikolai Gogol once said - A Russian can not resist a good story.

I love a good story. I love to hear stories, I love to read stories, watch stories. I love to tell stories. Aren’t there some movies you watch over and over again because they are that good? We just watched “The Chronicles of Narnia” recently and I we would definitely watch it again. There is something about the deeper meaning of a story that resonates with our souls and stays with us.

I believe that almost every movie you watch, every song you sing, or book you read is a retelling of the greater story. That story is the one we retell and proclaim each week in church and every day as we go out into the world. I also believe that we are characters in the Great Story that God is telling. It’s the story that began in the Garden and will end in the City, the New Jerusalem. Let me read to you the epilogue of our story.

Rev 21: “And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as the bride adorned for her husband. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away…then came one of the angels saying “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the lamb. And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.”

It’s a city where the streets are paved with gold clear as glass, the gates are made out of solid pearl and there’s no need for streetlamps because God’s very presence, his glory gives it light.

Talk about a hero winning the girl in the end. That is a good story! That is our story. All throughout the Bible we see that God is writing a story of two cities and he is calling us to be characters in both of them.

Check out Isaiah 25:6- 26:6

We’re going to unpack this in a minute but first let’s talk about the city – God loves the city. From smaller cities like San Angelo to big cities like Moscow he loves them and has a plan for them.

What is so great about the city? I don’t just mean big cities, I mean the City in general.

Tim Keller, a pastor in New York City and a great writer says this: “cities have always provided a greater number and diversity of human connections more like you and unlike you than anywhere else. There are more people like you in the city than anywhere else and there are more people unlike you than anywhere else.” Because of this the city is a bastion for creativity and innovation. The city is also a safe haven for minorities and those that live counter-cultural lifestyles. It’s a place where the weak can find safety and support.

It is a general rule of human history that cities set the course of the culture. In fact the early church went almost exclusively to cities. They did this because they knew that the city set the course for the culture. If the dominant theme of the culture was self-focus or pride, or rebellious independence the only way to change that theme would be to change the epicenter of it, the city. Change doesn’t happen from the outside in, rather the inside out. You have to go into the city - move into it - in order to change it. That’s what we are finding in Moscow.

Obviously we live in Russia. To reach Russia you must reach Moscow. In Russia there are roughly 140 million people, a whopping 73% of them live in a city. In Moscow alone there are 12 million people. Why - because Moscow is the financial, political, industrial, economic, educational, religious, cultural and transportation center of Russia. As Moscow goes so goes the rest of Russia. And as Russia goes so goes most of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Moscow, for better or worse, is one of the most influential cities in the world. And we are asking to God to use his people to influence the influential with the power of the Gospel. Our team is specifically focused on reaching the future leaders of Russia, the students of Moscow.

Author and Pastor John Dawson has some fascinating things to say about the City in his book “Taking Our Cities for God”. He points out the obvious fact that all cities have a history and all cities are where they are for some purpose. He goes on to say that often the reason for a city’s founding is later reflected in the spiritual atmosphere or general mood of the city. It is the duty of the Christians in those cities to reclaim their city for God. For example, Omaha, NE was founded as a place to equip pioneers as they headed west. Today the pastors of Omaha have banded together and pray fervently that they would be able to send people out from Omaha, equipped to reach the country and the world for Christ.

Or look at Moscow for another example. Ask anybody in Moscow why they are there and I would bet that 9 out of 10 would tell you they are there to either make more money or get a better life. Which is really interesting to me because that is why people came to Moscow in the first place hundreds of years ago. Why is Moscow where it is? The Moscow River runs through the city and it is actually the headwaters of the Volga river which 800 years ago was like a major interstate highway. There are also hills in the city, which make for good military positions.

Moscow was founded sometime around 1150. The city experienced rapid growth and prosperity. People began to come to Moscow from all over the land of Rus because it was a city of refuge and prosperity. People would flee to the Kremlin to escape the invading hordes and bandits that came from the East. Moscow was a place where people came to find a better life and that is still true today. We pray that God would use Moscow to show Russians and the world what Godly refuge and Godly, humble, prosperity looks like.

What about your city? Why is your city where it is? What major events have happened there that have added to its legacy and how can you as the Christians in your city reclaim it for Christ? What is special about your city that uniquely reflects God’s character? When you find the answer to that question then pray for your city - that it may bless the people in it.

Let’s go back to Isaiah 25.

Here we see two cities. One is called the lofty city and the other is the strong city. And boy does God have some plans for the lofty city. He’s going to trample it down into a pile of dung, lay it low, humble it. But why? Because the lofty city is a city focused on man. It is the City of Man. Keller describes the lofty city as a human social order based on pride, self-salvation and power, not on God. Verse 11 describes the lofty city as a man trying to proudly swim out of a dung heap, trying to save himself by his own efforts. The high walls he built to keep his power safe are now dust.

Every city has character traits of the lofty city. It’s a place where people come to build their own mini-kingdoms, where they come to define who they are and create a safe life for themselves using whatever they can. God never asks us to live a safe life. In fact he promises that if we follow him life will be dangerous but good. The lofty city is characterized by self-creation, self-justification, self-salvation and self-definition. It is a social order of exhaustion and oppression because just as a donkey is led on by a carrot dangled from a stick so will those in the lofty city be led on by their clamoring after success.

But then there’s the strong city, the city that is set on the mountain, the city on a hill. This is the City of God. Check out vs 1-4. God is their salvation. Instead of power, there is peace. This word peace is the Hebrew word Shalom. It doesn’t mean just the cessation of hostility, but rather a flourishing wholeness; a fullness of peace; life the way it was meant to be. Perfect Peace. In 25:6-9 we see that it’s a city of joy. There is feasting with fine, aged wine and rich food. Here there is no exhaustion like in the lofty city, there’s no relying on self for salvation, there is no pride. Rather it’s a city of joy, God-salvation and peace.

So how do these two relate to each other? Usually when we read a passage like this we assume that the lofty city is the world we live in now, and the strong city is the one to come. It sure sounds a lot like the New Jerusalem doesn’t it? But notice verse 1, We HAVE a strong city. It’s already here. How?

Jesus and Jeremiah explain this. Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells the disciples “you are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden.” You are the city on the hill. Or as Augustine described it, you are the City of God. You are the alternate city within the lofty city. You are helping to create an alternate society that looks totally different from the social construct the rest of the world sees. Inside this city work is not exhausting or something to complain about. Work is a joyful thing that gives glory to God. In this city we don’t try to justify our existence, Jesus justifies our existence.

This is what God, through the prophet Jeremiah, charged the exiles with when they were in Babylon. Jer 29:4-7:

“Thus says the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, to all exiles whom I have sent into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: Build houses and live in them; plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your daughters; multiply there, and do not decrease. But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare (SHALOM) you will find your welfare (SHALOM).”

Get involved in reaching the city, seek it’s shalom. As you do that don’t forget that your identity and purpose comes from the Lord. Move all the way in to your city. I don’t mean just geographically. But, experience it, soak it up, be a local and seek to prosper the city, to make it better, to give it lasting peace, the peace of Christ. Seek the welfare, the peace, the prosperity, the Shalom of your city, for in its peace you will find your peace. Don’t make your main goal that of prospering the church or believers. Don’t make yourself the main goal. If you are in your church or your city to get or to gain something for yourself you’re doing it wrong. Make the City of God, the strong city, your goal. In seeking the shalom of the city you will find your shalom.

How do we do this? Verse 3 has the clue “you keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock.” You think you want people to know Jesus? You have no idea - I have no idea - how badly God wants people to know Jesus. It wasn’t our idea to reach Moscow, it is not the idea of a bunch of pastors to reach your city, it is God’s idea and he loves your city more than anybody ever could. He is telling us in his word to trust him for your city as we build the strong city within it. He is telling us to pray to him for the Shalom of the city and to be the light of the world, the city on a hill in this city.

As we wrap up this story I want to point out the climax if you haven’t seen it already. 25:7-9.

Who does that sound like? Is that Aslan, the hero of the Narnia stories? No that’s Jesus, the hero of our story. God swallows up death forever by sending his son. He didn’t commute from the suburbs, he moved all the way in, he sought the peace of the city, then died for it, rose again and with that he swallowed up death forever. Now we get to rejoice and be glad because of it.

The end of our story, the final scene of all humanity is a massive, jubilant, incredible party in the city. That’s a party I want to invite as many people as possible to.