Good morning, everyone.
I you may all know by now that I generally like to come up with one of two topics.
It's gonna either be Psalms or hyperlinks.
And today it's hyperlinks.
So, wanted to talk about something that is very strange in the Bible.
The idea of cities and their use in the Bible.
If you look back to the very beginning, where do they start?
Where does humanity start?
They start in a garden.
Shortly after they get exiled from the garden where they have access to the tree of life, where they unfortunately have access to the tree of knowledge of bad and good.
But once they're exiled.
Adam and Eve have two children.
Who come into conflict with one another?
And Kane kills his brother Abel.
So when he is exiled, he sent and goes to the land of Nod.
and he has children and his first child's name is Enoch.
And with Enoch, he establishes a city.
He establishes the city that he names after his own son.
He names after Enoch.
Enoch is an interesting name because it almost describes the purpose that Cain has for this city that he established.
He wants the people to be disciplined or trained.
And that's one of the functions of a city.
It's to control people.
It's a city of men.
And if you look at the genealogy that follows the descendants of Kane, you see the establishment of industry.
You see that some people are meant to make and play instruments.
Some people are meant to work metal.
Some people are meant to be stone cutters.
And some people are meant to be murderers.
Kane's descendant, Lamek.
after he murders somebody.
says not only will I be of inch seven fold, but seventy fold.
And eventually through this process, we see when people gather together without the discipline from above, but are disciplined by each other, that they turn to evil.
And by the time Noah has his family,
Every thought was for evil only or the words used to describe humanity.
And we see God bring destruction upon the works of man.
He brings down a flood, which not only destroys these great cities that they've started building for themselves, but it destroys all of their handiwork.
It destroys this idea of industry, this idea of consolidation of power.
And now there's only one family who has brought all of creation through destruction.
so that could be re-established on the earth.
And as soon as the family start growing, through Shem, Ham, and Japeth, they come to a plane.
And in that plane, they say, let us make ourselves a great city with a tall tower reaching into the heavens.
And they do.
They build a city.
where they are able to discipline each other, where they are able to control each other, where they are able to rebuild these industries that they've built before.
In fact, they don't even go to creation anymore to build the stones that they're going to build the tower out of.
They start making those stones themselves, and they build great furnaces, and they start burning bricks so that they can make this great tower that could reach into the heavens.
and God confuses them.
And the place is named Babel because of that confusion.
and they wonder.
the people are scattered across the earth.
So when we see what is the purpose of cities, if you look at it from a secular perspective, the purpose of cities is to consolidate the power over many among the few.
If you think about it, even our government structure today, how many people are generally in charge of a city?
There's usually a mayor, there may be a town council, but it's a very small amount of people who have consolidated power under themselves.
And it seems to be usually to the detriment of all the people who live in the city.
They're there.
Cities are there to consume resources, not create them.
It's a way you can bring people together.
And if you look at a city, where do they have to go to get the resources they need?
The mines aren't in the cities.
The mines are out in the country.
You don't grow vegetables in cities.
You grow them out in the country.
So the food and the material that people consume are forced to be consolidated at the sweat and labor of the people abroad and brought into the cities.
It's to help develop man's knowledge.
If you look at where universities are, you look at where um laboratories are, generally they're in cities.
So it's a way for mankind to build up its own knowledge about mankind, and it's a way to consolidate resources.
There's an interesting uh book by man named Toby Humingway who analyzes the difference between people who live in the country and people who live in cities all over the world.
and the people who live in cities generally operate by almost mercantile philosophy of I need to take from somebody else to increase myself.
Whereas the people in the country know that if you take care of the earth, the earth will give back to you.
And that consolidation of power, that consumption of resources, that desire to have ever expanding greed creates strife, creates these opportunities for man to hurt each other.
So let's look a little further down through the timeline of history.
And we get to Ur, Ur of the Chaladies, famous for where Abraham's from, or Abram at the time.
And if you look at the people who lived in that city, they are not nice people.
When you look at Abraham, Abraham over and over and over, when he's Abram, when he eventually becomes the father of the faithful Abraham, he fails.
And he fails because he lives a life of fear.
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It takes him being willing to sacrifice his son for him to trust God and remove fear.
He had nine opportunities to have faith in God before that.
And it wasn't until that 10th opportunity that we have recorded, that 10th opportunity that he was finally successful in having a fearless trust in God.
If you look at Lot, Lot lived a life of selfishness and greed.
When Abraham asked him to pick the land, Lot looked at what land was greener, and he went there, and he settled in the city.
We'll get to that city in just a minute.
But even Abraham's descendants, when you get to Jacob,
Who is interacting with throughout his life?
He's a liar and he's a thief.
And when he goes back to Ur, the city that Abraham's from, he encounters Laban, who cheats and swindles him for 14 years before he's released.
When man has power over another man, we do not do what's right.
We do what's good in our own eyes.
So when we look at the city that Lot went to, when he went to Sodom and Gomorrah, we see men who are depraved.
Men who have given up what is good in pursuit of what is evil.
And from that, we see God render destruction.
that fire comes down from heaven because this place is so evil.
Abraham bargains down how many good people he had to find in the city.
And he only found four total willing to leave.
He bargained down to 10 people.
There weren't even 10 good people in the city.
And I would argue that the four to the left were not exactly good people.
But we see upon their departure, we see one of the problems that human beings have.
We love the evil.
They're told not to look back, but Watts' wife can't help herself.
So here's another city where man does his own thing.
Man lives without dedication to God and brings his own destruction.
A few years later, after Jacob has all of his children, after the tribes are established, after they're saved through Joseph.
They're set up in the land of Goshen.
And there seems to be regime change amongst the pharaohs.
Likely it was the Hittites coming in.
And the people who were once celebrated, who were second in command of the empire through Joseph, are now slaves.
and they spend their time scattered amongst a land called Goshen.
As an interesting callback to what was going on in Babel, these people are building treasure cities for their owners.
Likely Ramesses and I think it's Bethel were the two cities that were being built by Israel, but they were building bricks so that these cities could be constructed.
When they leave, they take the treasure from those cities with them as they go.
As they are released through a series of plagues brought on the people from this bond of slavery, they're made to wonder for 40 years.
And you'll see as you get to these times of wondering where people are cast out of the cities is generally the time that humanity grows up.
When we are left to experience the wonder that God created for us as we wander through the wildernesses.
We become more and more dedicated to God.
We become more and more.
willing to depend on him and not to build through our own devices.
So when we look through these cities, we see the result of what cities bring to mankind.
their way for mankind to consolidate the authority.
And if you look through leaders all throughout history, we're pretty lucky when they're not mass murders.
We're pretty lucky when they aren't willing to build themselves up at the expense of our lives.
We see man's protection.
Man protects what he's paid to protect.
Man does not protect out of his own goodwill for the most part.
And that creates opportunities for human violence.
If look at the city we live in, one of the most violent in the country.
And that is what happens when mankind is brought together, is that we at all levels strive to build upon the devastation of others.
We see control of the people.
We see a consolidation of a very small group of people who feel like they deserve to rule over us.
And we see the difference in man's idea of progress.
and God's idea of progress.
Man's idea of progress is industry.
It is science.
It is...
Knowledge.
But God's idea of progress is we have all the knowledge we need.
We should get better at applying the knowledge he's already given us.
That we should strive to become more like him.
In Romans chapter one,
gives us a pretty good example of what happened when man's knowledge becomes what we strive for.
gonna start in verse 18 of chapter one.
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unguideliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.
Because that which is known about God is evident within them, for God made it evident to them, for since creation of the world.
His indivisible attributes, His eternal power, and divine nature have been clearly seen and being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse.
For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks.
They became futile in their speculation and their foolish heart was dark and professing to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of an incorruptible God for the image
of corruptible man and of birds and of forfeited animals and of crawling creatures.
We often think about that as idolatry, right?
When the Egyptians created gods for themselves, they stuck an animal head on top of a human body, painted it on a wall, or built a statue out of it, and called it God.
But how is that different than the world we live in today?
We call it science today, but it's the same thing.
We worship the God of evolution.
We worship nature itself, ignoring the creator of nature.
And it goes on and lists the things that they were given over to, lust in their heart that their bodies might be dishonored, exchanged a lie for truth and worship the lie, degrading
passions, abandoning the roles that God assigned us from the very beginning, from the garden.
And in verse 28,
And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all
unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice.
They are gossip slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful inventors of evil, disobedient to parents without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving,
merciful and all they know the ordinance of God that those who practice such things are worthy of death they not only do the same but they give hearty approval to those who
practice them could you describe the world we live in any clear
So when we look a little further through the history of the Bible, we see a couple of examples of God's thoughts about cities.
When we get to Jericho,
And God shows how much the protection of man matters to God.
They'd literally spent seven days walking around the city blowing horns, and it collapsed around the people who thought it was their protection.
We see when they go in and take over the land of Canaan, albeit poorly in a lot of cases.
They set up cities of refuge.
They set up six cities for the Levi's to protect the people from each other.
Because they know how evil humanity to can get when it's left to its own devices.
We see the kingdom being begged for because the people of Israel can't stand to be different from the other people.
They spend.
centuries living amongst judges, living amongst people that God selected to judge them.
And they can't stand being different than the other nations who are obviously evil, living not just all around them, but oftentimes inside their own borders.
And we see them ask for a king.
And Saul sets up his kingdom in Gibeah.
and his dynasty last one person.
because he devolves into evil very, very quickly.
So we see the dynasty being passed from the tribe of Benjamin to the tribe of Judah through David.
And he establishes a new city, and he wants to build a temple there.
But he's not allowed because he is a man of violence.
And that temple likely incorporating the existing tabernacle
which was God's preferred drawing, a dwelling that could move anywhere the people were.
He never asked for a temple.
But man wants to control God.
And so man is given the ability during the reign of Solomon to build a permanent structure, to build a temple.
And the hopes of this city is that it would become a city based on what God wants.
But it doesn't.
At the end of Solomon's reign, Israel is divided and a new capital is selected in the north and Jerusalem remains the capital in the south.
But Jerusalem never gains the status of being a city of God.
Is the city where the Ark dwelled?
The Ark was the footstool of God.
But it was never a city that man built.
And eventually, we see.
two cities rise up.
We see a city that a prophet is sent to, a city called Nineveh, a city that is full of evil.
And a prophet reluctantly, dreadingly
is thrown up by a sea monster on the shore of Deneva basically to force him to go there, to force him to take the will of God to a people that he deemed were too evil to be saved.
And that city destroys the Northern Kingdom because the Northern Kingdom had been so corrupted that it was unsalvageable.
They had no desire to worship God anymore.
And so Nineveh and the Kingdom of Assyria come in and bring destruction.
to the 10 tribes of the north.
But the Southern Kingdom is still continuing on.
Jerusalem is still hanging on.
And eventually.
The Southern Kingdom is destroyed to the point where only Jerusalem remains and it is finally captured by another city.
A city that we associate with the evil.
All throughout the symbology of the prophets.
And even the Book of Revelation.
The city of Babylon is used.
not as a method of destruction the way Assyria was used, but it's a method of capture.
and it almost works like a sieve filtering the good from the evil.
And over the time of exile, the 42,000 that returned of the millions of Jews that once occupied came.
are a people who are content to serve God.
but we see them reestablish themselves.
We see them through a course of wars, through a course of strife, through a course of rebellion, defied themselves up till the time that Jesus comes.
There are four distinct groups of people.
Now it's probably the most religious and the most willing to serve God that the Jews have ever been.
but we still see them establish areas of control amongst themselves.
We see the Pharisees who've decided that they are the spiritual leaders and they develop laws beyond what the law of God is.
We see the Sadducees who don't believe in much of the spiritual nature of God and they want to record the works of God.
but they don't necessarily believe in things like the afterlife, things like the soul.
We see the zealots who believe in the governmental nature of God and believe that they, through God's power, will be able to destroy the Roman Empire.
And we see the Essenes who are so disgusted with their fellow man that they want to go and live in isolation.
And these are the factions that are set up when we get to the cities of the New Testament.
And here in the New Testament, we see cities that are cities of revelation, cities of refuge, cities of repute, cities of ministry, and cities of the promise.
In Bethlehem, the city where David was anointed, we see the anointed one being born.
We see his birth that was brought about, that it happened in the city of Bethlehem by the circumstances of the Roman Empire needing people back in their home city for a census.
It's purely outside influence that created the opportunity for Jesus to be born in the city where his forefather was anointed.
We see the wise men coming to that city bearing gifts, creating the tension that forces him to flee that city for another one.
We don't know exactly what city it was, but likely it was the city of Alexandria that Jesus fled to in Egypt because there was a large Jewish community there.
So we see him go from a city of revelation in Bethlehem that the anointed one would be born where his forefather was anointed to a city of refuge where he's hiding from the
terror of an insane ruler.
who thinks the only recourse to prevent losing his throne is to kill every child under two years old.
And we see him leaving there and going to another city, a city of repute.
And there we see in the city of Nazareth, which was a small village on the almost like a work village that was supporting a city called Sephoris.
Sephoris was famous not just as a trade, but it was almost a
Lost the word.
Resort.
It was a city where people came to enjoy life, enjoy the circuses and the Coliseum and gamble and live a deprived life.
So what it talks about, can anything good come from Nazareth?
That's what is associated with Nazareth.
That it's a city of.
prostitution and gambling and drunkenness.
Probably a lot of work for Joseph and Jesus as carpenters as makers to feed and keep that city um Beautiful the city of Sephora And then from there from Nazareth we see Jesus go to
a city of ministry We see him arrive in Capernaum where he meets a lot of his apostles Where he?
starts his ministry
in earnest, where people from all over the country flock to him to see this man that is the greatest teacher deliver a message of hope beyond anything they could have hoped for.
but even the city of Capernaum, which becomes the city that kicks off the ministry of Jesus.
is called out by Jesus.
Matthew chapter 11.
um And you Capernaum will not be exalted to heaven, will you?
You shall descend to Hades, if the miracles that occurred in Sodom would have occurred to you, it would have remained to this day.
Nevertheless, I say to you that it should be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and the day of judgment than for you.
We see the city of ministry, the city where the literal word of God is delivered from the mouth of God.
We see miracles, and yet the city doesn't embrace.
small groups within the city embrace Jesus.
Groups that come from all over that build the crowd of 5,000 are what flock to Jesus.
And finally, we see Jesus travel to another city.
We see him praised on the way in, riding a donkey.
And we see three distinct things.
in the city.
We see the enactment of man's Man's wish is to kill God.
so much that they're willing to let a murderer and committer of treason out in his place so that they can put God on a hill that looks like a skull, mock him, and kill him.
we see God's God's wish from the very beginning.
that he could save man, that he could set up a course of events and guide the world and humanity to bring salvation.
And we see Jesus' wish.
in Matthew chapter 23.
Starting in verse 37, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her, I have often wanted to gather your children together the way a hen
gathers her chicks under her wings and you are unwilling.
Behold your house is being left to you desolate.
For I say to you from now, you shall not see me until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Jesus wanted to save them all.
So now, we'll take just a second to look at the cities of God and how they're different than the cities of man.
The cities of God are focused on God's authority, not focused on the authority over others.
They are focused on God's protection.
They live in a world of faith and fearlessness through that faith.
They're focused on the peace that God brings.
Not peace through a gun or peace through control, but peace that comes from serving Him.
where the people are controlled by themselves.
and where growth is measured in love.
We see a small version of God's city in what we're doing right now.
in God's church.
and that we are a small group who is focused on elevating each other in service to him.
We see it in the mutual benefit we bring each other through being able to study his word, through being able to grow together as a group.
And we see as a counterpoint to that, the city that we called Rome, that tried for centuries to destroy the church, to destroy the city of God.
We see it through
all of history where God's Word is suppressed.
Not just by a Rome who killed Peter, who killed Paul.
but through man trying to develop his own city inside the kingdom of God, creating denominations, creating strife, man trying to exert his control the same way the Pharisees
and the Sadducees and the Essings and the Zealots did.
But in the end, we see God's city in the last book of the Bible.
Revelation 21.
I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there was no longer any sea.
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride, adorned for her husband.
I heard a loud voice sing for the throne.
Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and he shall dwell among them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be among them, and he shall wipe away every tear from
their eyes.
And there will no longer be any death, and there shall no longer be any mourning or crying or pain, for the first things have passed away." Skipping down to verse 21.
At the 12 gates there were 12 pearls, each one of the gates was a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold like transparent glass.
And I saw no temple in it, for the Lord God, the Almighty and the Lamb of God, are his temple.
And the city has no need of the sun or of the moon to shine upon it, for the glory of God has illuminated it, and its lamp is the Lamb.
And the nation shall walk by its light, and the kings of earth shall bring their glory to it.
the daytime, for there shall be no night there.
Its gates shall never be closed, and they shall bring the glory and honor of the nations to it.
Nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." That's where we're
heading.
We have a small glimpse of it.
in this city of God we're dwelling in today.
But how great a city are we looking forward to, to be one day.
that if there's anybody who needs prayer or needs become a part of God's kingdom, please come forward as we stand and sing.