Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Problem of the City

Episode Date: May 20, 2024

Everyone points to a different reason for why the city has problems. The futurologists will say, “Technology has doomed the city. We don’t need to live in proximity anymore.” The liberals will say, “Racism has doomed the city.” The conservatives will say, “Big government and taxes have doomed the city.” Many Christians will say, “God has doomed the city for its wickedness.” But what the Bible says about the city is far more optimistic and far more pessimistic than anything you’ll find in the newspapers. It’s far more hopeful and yet far more realistic than any of the defenders or the detractors of the modern city. The Bible teaches 1) that God invented the city, 2) why God invented the city, and 3) that God sends us into the city. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 7, 1993. Series: Modern Problems; Ancient Solutions. Scripture: Genesis 11, Proverbs 11. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. Our culture places so much faith in empirical reason, technology, and personal experience that it's easy to wonder, does something as old as Christianity have any relevance to the problems of modern life? This month, Tim Keller invites us to consider how Christianity is more relevant than ever in offering answers to the deepest longings of our hearts. You'll see that our scripture readings are a set of verses from different parts of mainly the Old Testament.

So we have a little bit of a, Today we have a bit of a departure from the norm. Instead of reading one passage, I'm going to read several passages. So, it's a little bit more of a topical thematic address today. The verses are all about the city and what God says about the city. Genesis 11, 4 is about that famous place, that famous time when the people who lived on the plain of Shinar decided they were going to build a tower that reached to the heavens. And they said, come, let us build ourselves a city with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.

Psalm 107 is telling about how when the people of Israel came out of the wilderness, the way God saved them was, they cried out to the Lord in their trouble and he delivered them from their distress. He led them by a straight way to a city where they could settle. Proverbs 10 and 11, when the righteous prosper, the city rejoices. When the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy. Through the blessing of the upright, a city is exalted, but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed. Jeremiah 29 is addressed to the children of Israel who had been exiled into the greatest

city that the world had ever known at the time, Babylon. And this is what God said to them in that terrible, wicked, huge city. He says, build houses and settle down. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. Increase in numbers there. Do not decrease. Also seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, for if it prospers, you too will prosper." Jonah chapter 4 verse 11, at the very end of the book of Jonah, God turns to Jonah and says, but Nineveh has more than 120,000 people who cannot tell their right hand from their left. Should I not be concerned about that great city?" And we're told in the book of Hebrews that all during the books of the Old Testament,

the great patriarchs like Moses and David and Abraham himself were told what their goal was all during the time of their wandering through this life. And we're told in Hebrews 11.10, for he Abraham was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. What does the Bible have to say about the city? Why do we bring this subject up? Because all fall we've been talking about the major problems that we as modern people face. And this one, the problem of the city, is one that very directly affects a lot of us. You know, Daniel Moynihan back in April came and he spoke before the Association for a Better New York and he created an enormous flap at the time because it was an election year and I don't know much about that or what his

purposes were, but I do know what his purposes were, but I do know that what he said put in a nutshell the problems of the city today. Not just our city, but the city. He pointed out that in 1944, 50 years ago when he graduated from high school in Harlem, 150,000 more people lived in New York than live here now. And that year there were 44 homicides with a gun. And And that year there were 44 homicides with a gun. And last year there were 1,500. 150,000 more people. He also pointed out that with 150,000 more people there were 73,000 people on the welfare rolls that year. Today there's a million. And what he was doing, in a nutshell, he was pointing out the problem of the city.

Why the deterioration? Why is it going down? And you know, they'll all tell you different reasons. The futurologists will say technology has doomed the city. We don't need to live in proximity anymore so business is leaving. The liberals will say racism has doomed the city. The conservatives will say big government and taxes has doomed the city. And many Christians, I must admit, will say God has doomed the city for its wickedness. Go ahead, let it stew in its juices and they sort of laugh. What we're going to do today is what we've been doing all fall. We're taking a modern problem and looking to see what the Bible says.

And I would like to just say by way of introduction that what the Bible says about the city as usual is far more optimistic and far more pessimistic than anything you're going to read in the newspapers. It's far more hopeful and yet far more realistic than any of either the defenders or the detractors of the modern city would be. Now instead of showing you one passage, I'm just going to skip through the Old Testament for a while, which is a little bit harder and therefore I suggest you keep your bulletins open so you can refer to these passages as I go through.

Here's what the Bible teaches about the city. Number one, God invented the city. Now listen to the logic here. In Hebrews 11, 10, we're told that God is building a city. There is a city with foundations whose builder and maker is God. And we're told in Revelation chapter 21 and 22 that when God finally gets the world to where he wants it, when he finally develops the new heavens and the new earth, when he finally puts the world in the shape that it ought to be, it's going to be a city. And all the inhabitants and all the citizens of the kingdom of God will be urbanites. And that's exactly what it says in Revelation 21 and 22. It's a city. It talks about the streets of the city. It talks about the center square of

the city, the dimensions of the city. That's why one writer put it this way. The world to come will be an urban world. All citizens of the new world will be urbanites drawn by bonds of grace from all races, nations and language groups living together in close proximity, members of a city. Now listen to this logic. Most people that read the Bible know that God invented the family. It's not a human institution. It didn't develop in the late Bronze Age, you know, as a human institution. God invented it because God reveals himself as a father and he tells us that we're children.

And we know that the future of the universe is a family. And therefore, though sin has taken the family and turned it often into a place of abuse and pain, we don't abandon the family. We are called to redeem the family and rebuild the family. Got it? God invented the family because he's a father and we're his children. Family, human family is based on something in God, the future of the universe is a family, therefore we redeem and rebuild the family in spite of how sin has debased it. Ergo, God is also building a city. He's a city builder. He's a city architect. He's an urban planner, he's told us. And we are citizens of that city. And therefore, the city is not just a human institution. It is not just a development of the late Bronze Age either.

It is the invention of God. And if sin has twisted the city like it's twisted the family and turned it often into a place of pain and suffering just like it's done into the family, we still don't get rid of the city. We don't laugh at it about it. We don't say, oh there it goes, let it stew in its juices. We as Christians are called to redeem and rebuild the city. You see the logic? You see the reasoning? God invented the city so we don't abandon it. We build it. And let me go one step further here. Not everybody is called to be married. The Bible says so. And yet, to laugh at the deterioration of the family in society would be as stupid as it is wicked because if the family goes so, this society.

And in the same way, I would say not everybody is called to live in a city. No, of course not. You can't say all Christians are to live in cities. Anymore, you can say all Christians are supposed to marry. But the laugh of the deterioration of the city, something that God invented, is as stupid as it is wicked because when the city goes down, so does society. Are you a city builder? Like God is? Are you an urban planner? No matter where you live, you see, you should be seeking to help restore and rebuild the cities. That's biblical. Okay? That's the first point.

God invented the city, number one. Number two, let's go a step further. Why did God invent the city? Now you see, why did God invent the family? Well, people have done a lot of thinking about the family, and they have said, you know, the family is the place where identity is formed. The family is the place where socialization happens, you know, so on. I'm not going to go into that. But why did God invent the city? And if we study the Bible, we will see. I'm sure there's more purposes than what I'm going

to give you right now, but basically there's three purposes, all of which are still in effect and yet they have been harmed and twisted and marred by sin. And these three purposes, unless you understand them, you won't understand what the city does to you and why it does it to you. These three purposes are why it does it to you. These three purposes are that God designed the city, one, to release human potential, two, to shelter the weak, and three, to compel spiritual searching. To release human potential, to shelter the weak, to compel the spiritual searching. Let me show you. Take a look at this very first verse that we have listed. Genesis 11 tells us that the people on the plain of Shinar got together and said, let's build a city and let's build the biggest tower that's ever been built, that we might not

be scattered on the face of the earth. Now what does that show us? What does Genesis and the Old Testament show us? First of all, as I said, one of the purposes of the city is it releases human potential. If you read the Old Testament, you will see that when God created Adam and Eve, when He created human beings, He made them creative. He made us in His image. So we are creative like He is.

We need to enhance, to elaborate, to develop, to cultivate creation. We need to be productive. We need to feel that. We need to create. Where, if you read Genesis, where are those creative potentials released the most? In the cities. As soon as Adam and Eve and their descendants, as soon as human beings are cast out of the garden, they immediately begin to create cities. Why? Because that's where their creative potential is released.

Think. Cain builds a city and his descendants build cities. And it's in the cities, we're told in Genesis 4, that the first music was composed. It's in the cities where the first metallurgy was developed and the first tools and the first metal craftsmanship. It was the first place it began to advance. Why? It's just common sense. It's in population centers where our creative potential is released. You know, if you're in a town and you're one merchant or one craftsperson or one, you

know, one musician, okay, you can do a certain amount of things, but it's only when you get together. It's the mentoring and the training and the networking and the stimulation and even the competition and the teaming that advances these things. So if you take a look at Genesis 4 and 5, you see that music and the arts and manufacturing and craftsmanship and science and architecture and the arts, they flourish in the cities. Here in Genesis 11, where are you going to find engineering and architecture advancing beyond where it's ever been before?

In the cities, of course, because God built the city to be a place where your human potential, your creative potential is released. Now, before anybody sits there and says, well, that's kind of interesting, but it sounds kind of philosophical and theological. What's that got to do with me? Are you kidding? Everything.

Why do you feel in the bigger the city is, the cityer-ish the city is, you feel this tremendous pressure to produce here. There is nothing like a city to make you reach down and be creative and find your potential. That's why many people have come to New York. Why did you come to New York? So many of you, why did you come?

To release your potential. And the city, you feel the pressure to produce. You feel the pressure to do it. It pushes you, it spurs you onto excellence. Why? Because God created the city to be a magnifying glass, to draw out whatever's in the human heart. It shows it up, it reveals that it pulls it out. But, remember what we said here, every one of the purposes of the city, just like the family, every one of the purposes of the city has been messed up by sin. And therefore, look what the motivation is for these people in Genesis 11.

They come and they decide if we're going to make an advance in engineering, if we're going to make an advance in architecture, we have to build a city, do you see? You have to have a city if you're going to make an advancement, if you're going to release the human potential. But look at their motivation, that we may make a name for ourselves. The Bible teaches that God's divine purpose for the city, that now the city's power to release human potential is driven by a desire for self-glorification. The city's power to release human potential is driven by a desire for self-glorification and therefore now the city, yes it spurs you on to excellence, it spurs you on to potential, but it is exhausting now, it's not ennobling.

Can't you feel it? You see? It burns you out. It sucks you dry. You see? It burns you out. It sucks you dry. Why? Because that's the nature of the city, but it under-sin. The city releases your potential. But at the same time, because of sin, the city draws people who want to make a name for themselves. Why don't you admit it? A lot of you, you came to New York to make a name for yourself. That's just, the Bible has us pegged. And on the one hand, you see the good part, the city is wonderful, the city is the place

of the greatest human achievements. That's the places. It draws out the potential and yet It exhausts you it uses you It spends you it sucks you out and sucks you dry Ah the city how wonderful how terrible that's what the Bible says, but now don't forget. Let's go on Secondly the Bible says the city was also built to be a place of refuge Don't forget, let's go on. Secondly, the Bible says the city was also built to be a place of refuge.

All of the Hebrew words for city, used in the Old Testament, mean an enclosed place. The cities were originally the places that were safe. You see here, these people in Genesis 11, they said, let's build a city that we might not be scattered. If you're scattered, you're vulnerable. If you're gathered, you're strong. And so, if you're scattered, if you vulnerable. If you're gathered, you're strong. And so if you're scattered, if you want strength, you have to gather. And cities were always places where scattered people and weak people could come together and be safe.

The first cities that God told the Israelites to build were all called cities of refuge. Why? Because God knew the nature of the city that he had designed. God knew that when a person was accused of a crime, why the law of the jungle was somebody who thought you had done something wrong, they'd just hunt you down and kill you. A city of refuge was a place where you could flee and you could get a fair trial. Because the cities are the place of civilization. The cities are the place where the law of the jungle doesn't hold. The cities are the place, God knew, where justice would grow first. The cities are supposed to be the place of refuge.

And now, get this, you say, okay, what's that got to do today? Well, let me apply it again to today. Even now, the city by its nature is a merciful place for people without power. Haven't you noticed? If you are an Anglo middle class family, you don't like the city. Economically it doesn't seem to fit. It's a hard place to live, you don't like it. But if you're anybody else, you see, you have to remember the Anglo middle class family,

they're the ones who actually dominate this country. But if you're anybody else, the city is a more merciful place to live. If you're single, the city is a more merciful place to live. If you're single, the city is a more merciful place to live. You don't feel abnormal here. Why? Because the singles, instead of being scattered, so that in every church there's five little singles that sit over here and feel odd. You come to New York, let us build a city where we, instead of being scattered, we come together and you don't feel abnormal. Look at immigrants. Do you know how unbelievably hard it is for someone from one culture to come into a new culture without a city? You know? Can you imagine somebody coming from

Vietnam and being plunked down in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania? I've seen that happen. It's pretty hard. Cities are merciful places because people who would be scattered come together and you can learn a new culture while at the same time being in an enclave of your old culture. That's why immigrants come to the cities, that's why their families come to the cities. If you have a deviant lifestyle from Anglo-middle-class morality, this is the only place to come. Because you see the cities are places where scattered people come together. If you are poor, can you imagine being a homeless

person and surviving in the suburbs? It can't happen. Cities have always been merciful places for people who don't have power. They still are. And yet, under the influence of sins, we now know that the cities, though they are a refuge, yet they're not. They're places of violence now. They're places without safety. You know, if you want to see this in the most stark possible way, you go back to Genesis chapter four. And in Genesis chapter four, we see that the, remember I mentioned this before, we see that the first music was composed in the city. But the music, the first songs that were composed

were war songs. Why does God allow suffering in the world? How can one religion be right and the other is wrong? Has science basically disproved Christianity? Tim Keller addresses these questions and more in his book, The Reason for God. Drawing on literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning, this book will challenge you to gain a deeper understanding of the Christian faith, whether you're a believer seeking reassurance or you're reading it with a friend who is searching for answers.

When you give to Gospel Alive during the month of May, we'll send you two copies of The Reason for God, one for you and one to give to a friend who is exploring Christianity. It's our hope that through reading the book with a friend, you can have conversations about the claims of the Christian faith. The books are our thanks for your support of this ministry. To receive your two copies of The Reason for God, simply make a gift at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give.

We also encourage you to check out our short podcast series, Questioning Christianity, for people exploring the claims of the Christian faith. To listen to this short series or share it with a friend, visit Gospelonlife.com slash questioning. That's Gospelonlife.com slash questioning. Your gift helps the message of Christ's love go out all over the world, so thank you for partnering with us, because the gospel truly changes everything. Genesis 4 tells us about Lamech, who was one of the descendants of Cain,

who composed one of the first songs. You know what the lyrics were? I have killed a man for wounding me, and I have killed a young man for injuring me. That was one of the first songs. Don't you see the cities on the one hand? they're a refuge and yet they're places of violence. They draw out the potential in you and yet they exhaust you as they do. The city, so wonderful, so terrible. The Bible has us pegged. Oh, don't forget there's one

last purpose for the city. We said the city was built by God to release human potential and then secondly to shelter the weak and then thirdly to compel spiritual searching. This tower that they were building in Genesis 11, what was this tower? Do you know what it was? Let me put it to you this way. All the ancient cities were built around a god. Every ancient city, you can see if you read the Old Testament, most of the Canaanite cities were named after a god, Baal-Meon, Baal-Peyor. Most of the ancient cities of the entire ancient world

were always built around one tallest building. And that tallest building was always the temple of the God that the whole city worshiped. Cities were places that you went to meet that God. Cities are places that will not let you sit back kind of, you know, indifferent, kind of comfortable. Cities drive you to sell your soul to something. Cities always create spiritual turmoil. People are always spiritually searching in cities. And cities always were built around some god. And actually in the Near East, those temples were called the ziggurats. And that's exactly what's happening here in Genesis 11. They know that if they want to build a city, they have to find, they have

to build their tallest building, which would be a ziggurat, to some god in the Near Eastern pantheon. But now look, somebody says, what does that got to do with today? Again, let me bring it down to today. Everybody says, oh's very interesting you say that's theologically interesting, but today cities aren't religious. They're very secular Don't kid yourself the tallest buildings in any city always Are the temples to the God that city worships still and. And to the God that compels you to seek it. Well, 150 years ago, what were the tallest buildings on the skyline of Manhattan? What were they? You know, have you ever seen the old lithographs? They were churches. Today, what are the tallest buildings? Temples to money.

The real God of New York. Temples to power. The city was invented by God originally to be a place where we met him. Cities therefore are inveterately and relentlessly religious. People are stirred up in cities to seek spiritually. Let me put it to you another way. Historical research shows that the early Christian missionaries, after the time of Christ, going through the Roman Empire, totally ignored the countryside. They did not go to the countryside. They did not go to the small towns. Paul was the leader

of this. They went into the cities and only into the cities to preach the gospel. You know why? Let me tell you why. Because they knew, and you know instinctively, that the small towns in the countryside are at places where people are conservative. They don't want to think about spiritual issues. They're not open to new ideas, right? Why are people open to new ideas in the city? Well, remember all the other purposes. The city is the place of creativity. The city is the place of turmoil. The city is the place of stimulation. And in here, people are always asking questions about the meaning of life. It's the nature of the city. When you go into the country, when you go into the idyllic

little towns, the places where we go on the weekends, you know why those places were never places that Christian missionaries went? Because people don't spiritually search there. Why not? Because they're living in the veil of illusion. Those idyllic little towns are places where people can hide from themselves the fact of the rawness of life, of the wickedness of the heart, of the transience of life. You see, those places don't change much and they have zoning laws to make sure that things don't change. Why? Because they desperately, desperately want to believe that life is okay and life can be very nice. Whereas what does the Bible say? The Bible says, time is fleeting, life

is transient, people are wicked, troubles everywhere. The Bible gives you a picture of reality that in the city we recognize and therefore Paul would come in here because these were the places, the cities were the places where people were finally willing to admit life is tough, things are hard, People are wicked. Things are at a crisis. You see, time is rushing on. People in the cities were more in touch with reality than people in the small towns, people in the countryside. And as a result, all the

early Christian growth happened in cities because cities compel spiritual searching. It's always the best place to go with the gospel. It's always the best place. And yet, because the city is so twisted by sin, that on the one hand it opens you to spiritual issues like nothing else does. I've talked to so many people since I've been here in New York who had lived in other kinds of places and they were not at all open to spiritual issues until they came here. They began to feel disoriented and realized they needed a spiritual center and they saw things in their own heart and they saw things in other people that pulled

the wool off of their eyes, pulled the blinders off of their eyes as to what things were really like and they began to say, I need something. Something deep, something profound, something spiritual. That's the nature of the city. And yet the city on the one hand opens you spiritually and then it shows you this incredible array of false gods and heresies and idols such as you never see anywhere else. Ah, the city. So wonderful, so terrible. The Bible has us pegged. Now, if this is all true, if God invented the city, and secondly, God invented

the city with these wonderful purposes and yet they're twisted. So we know we can't ignore the city because the humankind needs the city. What, as Christians, is our response? What does God call us to do? Well, thirdly, God sends us into the city. And he sends us into the city to do four things, which I'm just going to mention very briefly, but I can refer to these various verses to show you. He calls us into the city to love, to preach, to identify, and to bless. Love, preach, identify, and bless. and to bless. Love, preach, identify and bless. Number one, to love. When Jonah was told to go to Nineveh, the greatest city in the world at that time, the New York City of his day, you know, he went in there and he preached like a good prophet should, but he despised the people. He preached in that city, he ministered to the city, but

he didn't love the city. And God slaps him across the face as it were. When God says, I'm not going to destroy Nineveh, oh, Jonah gets extremely angry. Why? Because he hates those dirty Ninevites. He hates, he's xenophobic, he's racist. It's the reason that most people don't like the city. There's so many people who aren't like me. Well, he's racist. It's the reason that most people don't like the city. There's so many people who aren't like me. Well, that's, no matter who the heck you are, that's true. You walk into a city, no matter who you are, there's all these people.

Most everybody's not like me. I mean, that's what a city is. You're not in a city if you look around and everybody looks like you. I don't know where you are, but you're not in a city. So what happens is, what happens? God comes to Jonah and he says, look at Nineveh, 120,000 people who don't know their right hand from their left.

Should I not be concerned over that city? Now the word concerned that God uses there is the word to weep. He says, Jonah, look at what I weep over. I weep over the masses. I weep over the city. God says, when you see with your eye so many people, why don't you weep over them? Why doesn't compassion spring out? He says, Jonah, I saved you by grace. I reached

into the belly of the fish and saved you by grace. Now, your attitude toward the city is an index of whether or not you know you're a sinner saved by grace. Because if you know you're a sinner saved by grace, you would not have the paternalism that you do. You would not be absorbed in your own comforts, all the things that keep you from loving this city. He says, God says, look, I don't think you have my heart, because if you understood my grace, and if you understood my nature, when you look at a city, you would love it instead of hating it.

He says, 120,000 people, almost like God is saying, the bigger the number of people that you see with your eye at one time, the greater your response of love and compassion should be. And he rebukes Jonah for, Jonah preached the city, he just didn't love the city, and that wasn't enough. As my good friend Bill Crispin used to say, the country, he says, is a place where there's more plants than people. And the city is the place where there's more people than plants. And since God loves people far more than he loves plants, he loves the city far more than he loves the country.

When God sees the city, he experiences the love. When he sees the diversity, when he even sees the lostness of it, when he sees the numbers of it, he says, I weep over that. Jonah, do you weep over that? Let me put it to you this way. Jonah came to Nineveh to advance his career as a prophet. You know, it was his biggest stage. God had never called him to preach there, and he preached there, and he survived, and so on. So he came to Nineveh to advance his career. But he didn't love the people that he was preaching to.

He came to use the city, not love the city, not build the city. How many of you have come to New York to make a name for yourself? How many of you come to New York to use the city all the while you loathe the place and you're not going to stay here to build it? Are you like Jonah? God looks and says, are you weeping over the place? Does your heart go out to the place? Do you love the place? If not, do you remember what go out to the place? Do you love the place? If not, do you remember what I've done for you?

Do you have any concept of the grace of God at all? We're called to love the city. And secondly, we're called to preach to the city. You know, Jonah went in and preached. And as I mentioned, I'll just be very brief. Do you know why Paul and those early missionaries were able to turn the Roman Empire around even though they were a bunch of slaves and homeless people? Do you know how they got a hold of the Roman Empire? They stayed in the cities. They did

all the work in the cities. And in the third century, most of the urban centers of Rome, the Roman Empire, were Christian, but the countryside was pagan. But it didn't matter because you see the cities is the place where the media and education and scholarship and science and the arts and business and that's where they're all based. So how the city goes, that's how the society goes. You see, if you win the countryside and you ignore the cities, you've lost the country. If you win the city and you ignore the cities, you've lost the country. If you win the city and you ignore the countries inside in the suburbs, you've won the country. And that's the reason why there's no better place ever

to preach the gospel and to live a Christian life than to be in a city. So you're supposed to love the city, you're supposed to preach the city. Thirdly, you're supposed to identify with the city and serve it. Jeremiah 29 is an amazing passage because God says, here's the Israelites, and they're off in this wicked, terrible place called Babylon.

What does he say to them? He says, identify with the prosperity of that city. He does not say, oh, go into the streets and preach the city, hand out tracts in the city and then get out. He says, settle down. He says, build houses, have children, identify with the city, identify with the people of the city, identify with the welfare of the city. Weave yourselves into the city so that you weave wholeness and health into the city. Weave yourselves into the city so that you weave wholeness and health into

the city. Loving and preaching the gospel without doing something about the fact that the schools are crummy, doing something about the fact that there's so much unsafe housing, without doing something about the fact that the streets are safe. If you don't do that, you haven't really done what God wants you to do. He calls Christians to stay in the city and to identify with the city. Are they? We have to be careful here. I'm not saying that God is saying everybody, every Christian that you've got to live inside the city, no. But everybody has got to help rebuild the city in some way. Do you understand? This is a tightrope. We try to do this here at Redeemer without coercion.

All we can do is say, stay as long as you can. Stay, identify as much as you can. You have to work this out in your conscience, but what does it say in Jeremiah 29? Don't just love, don't just preach, identify, serve, pray for the peace of the city. And then lastly, we have to bless the city. Proverbs 11 says, by the blessing of the righteous, the city is exalted. You know what it means to bless somebody?

It means we're not cynical about the city. To bless someone means to have hope for them. To bless someone is to encourage them. What does it mean for our church, for example, to bless the city? Oh yes, it means to love, I'm sure, and it means to preach, I'm sure, and it means to serve and live here, I'm sure. To bless them goes beyond that. It means we get rid of our cynicism about the city, don't you see? Because we know that this city will someday be part of the city of our God. The cities of this world will become the cities

of our God. That's what the world will become the cities of our God. That's what the Bible says. And therefore, we've got to hope that nobody else has got. You know, Dorothy Sayers put it this way. She said, the biggest enemy of the city is this, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, but therefore enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing, lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die. You see, cynicism. I've got nothing bigger to live for than my pocketbook and my stomach and my career.

Those people can never bless the city. They've got no hope for it. They've got no confidence for it. We've got it all. This city will someday be part of the city of God. This city someday will be healed. What it means to bless the city, here's what it means. Follow Jesus.

What did Jesus do? We're told in Revelation chapter 21 that Jesus will live on center square of the city of God. He's gonna be downtown. Did you know that Jesus will be downtown? He is gonna be downtown. Did you know that? Jesus will be downtown. He is gonna be in that new city, the Lamb, the Bible says. He will be on that street, that main street that comes out from the throne of the Lamb. We're told all about that.

Jesus has built this new city for us to live in. You know how he did it? Because he went to an earthly city. We're told he set his face like a flint to Jerusalem. He went to an earthly city. earthly city, we're told he set his face like a flint to Jerusalem. He went to an earthly city and he wept over it, remember? Jerusalem, Jerusalem, he said. If only you knew the things that pertain to your peace, but now they're hidden from you. He went to an earthly city, he wept over that earthly city, he identified with the people of that city, he preached

the gospel in that city and he sacrificed in that city. And as a result, he has built for us a city with foundations whose builder and architect is God. And you know what I'm telling you? When we take the Lord's Supper in one minute, you can take a look, because what you have, when you get the bread, when you have it and you get the cup is a model for city building. You too can build the city of God by going into an earthly city, if not this one, then wherever, and weeping over it and identifying with it and preaching to it and making the sacrifices

that inevitably happen there, and then you'll be building the city of God as well. Are you ready to do that? Come let's pray. Our Father as we take the Lord's Supper Cup and the bread, help us to follow your son Jesus who built a city by coming, weeping, dying, sacrificing in an earthly city. Help us to know that wonderful, wonderful experience of being city builders. Help us to be like Abraham,

looking forward to the city with foundations whose architect and whose builder is you, the Lord God Almighty. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, please rate and review it so more people can discover the Gospel in Life podcast. This month's sermons were recorded in 1993. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to

2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.