Today: “The Fallen City”: Living Amid Brokenness, Understanding Judgment, Laboring Faithfully

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1 / Confronting Brokenness

Introduction: The bible begins with the promise of a city and ends with a heavenly city, the New Jerusalem. Explain

• There’s a biblical word for this: shalom. Explain

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Connect: The Scriptures present a tension—one we intuitively feel in our bones: we’re made for shalom, yet it is often not our experience. 

• ILL: Break-in. Explain
  
  • We could say my family’s shalom was violated.

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Pause: What about you? Explain

• This is sin: the violation of shalom. Explain
• Key: Francis Schaeffer referred to humanity as beautiful ruins. The same can be said of cities. 
  
  • We can’t be overly pessimistic of the city, nor can we only be critical. 
  • What’s needed is realism. Explain

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Genesis 11, in particular, helps us to see the city with realistic eyes. Let me briefly show you several things.

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First, the city is a place of spiritual escape.

• In verse 1, there is an almost throw-away phrase, that the people were moving eastward. If we were an ancient reader, we would have immediately recognized: eastward.
  
  • Physical geography
  • Spiritual geography: Babel was simultaneously a continuing escape from God’s presence, yet—as we’ll see through the tower—it was also an attempt to fulfill spiritual desire. 
• ILL: Seattle, the None-Zone. Explain
  
  • Yet modern urbanites claim to be deeply spiritual.
• Key: The city is a place to go to find the things of God without God himself. Explain

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Second, the city is a place of radical independence. 

• Genesis 2: Imago Dei—wisdom is cooperating with this design and with God himself.
• As Ralph mentioned, in God’s created intent, cities were designed to leverage human creativity and interdependence and to serve as places of refuge. 
  
  • Key: In this economy we’re meant to love God, love people, and steward the the things of the city wisely.
• In Babel, the script is flipped. Verse 4: “A city for ourselves … so we can make a name for ourselves.”
  
  • ILL: Seattle boomed because of the Klondike Rush. 
    
    • Key: This DNA is still a part of Seattle. Explain

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APP: It’s easier to use the city rather than bless it. 

• We use the city when we consume it; we use the city when we love things and use people. 
• Key: This is the nature of pride. Explain
  
  • Whose expense is this typically at? Explain
• Why are you here?

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Last, cities are a place of revelation.

• In the ANE, cities were dedicated to a god, and in the city’s center was a temple built in its honor. Explain
• Objection: Interesting—but Seattle and Manchester are not religious cities; we’re highly secular. Explain
  
  • Key: In any city, the most significant buildings are temples to the gods the city worships. Explain

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Pause: Go back to the beginning. Shalom. Rather than building cities dedicated to the Lord and His image, the cities we construct are usually for ourselves and our name. 

• We are shaped by the fallen city; we benefit from it, we participate in it. Explain

2 / Understanding Judgment

Introduction: How does the remainder of the story go? Not just here in Genesis 11 but the ultimate end of the story in Revelation 18. 

• In both cases, God judges the fallen city. Explain

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APP: Is God just in his judgment? Explain

• ILL: University. Explain. Is that what’s happening here?

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Connect: No, judgment is God’s settled resolve against injustice. 

• Key: Remember, sin is the violation of shalom. Explain
  
  • Just as I wanted justice for those who violated my family’s shalom, should we expect less from God?
    
    • Revelation 18. 
• What disturbs us is not that someone else might receive judgment for their sin but that we might receive judgment for ours—and that’s pride. Explain

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Let me put this slightly differently. It’s easy to be caught off-guard by scenes like Gen 11 and Rev 18—they’re stark and dramatic. 

• What’s more disturbing, however, is God’s passive judgment—when God removes his grace and gives us our heart’s desires. 
• So much sin and wickedness are restrained by grace. 
  
  • But what if God lifted his hand and gave us what we wanted? Explain
  • That’s the definition of hell. 

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This brings us to the heart of the Christian message. 

• God judges Babel for violating shalom, and then he immediately begins to provide for its rescue. 
• If you turn one page in your Bible, do you know what happens in Genesis 12?
  
  • God calls Abraham to establish a redeemed people.
  • God provides for the salvation of His people through a son, Isaac. Explain
  • Jesus is the true and better Isaac. Explain

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Summary

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3 / Laboring Faithfully

Introduction: What does it mean to live in-between? To labor amid the “beautiful ruins.” Explain

• “God doesn’t make junk and he doesn’t junk what he’s made.”
  
  • There is an explicit call for Christians to renew the fallen city. Explain. 

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APP: How can we participate in the healing of places like Manchester and Seattle? Explain

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Imagine: We must see what God sees. In any city, the most significant buildings are temples to the gods the city worships.

• Revelation: The lamb, our Lord, at the city center. Explain
  
  • Eyes to see. 

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Bless: Move from consuming to blessing. Explain

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Stay: Manchester will change as Christians stay generationally. 

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Conclusion

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