- [Narrator 1] Near the beginning of the story of the Bible,
a man named Cain becomes jealous of his brother
who's getting God's favor.
- [Narrator 2] And God tells Cain,
"Be careful with your anger
because sin is a monster that wants to consume you.
But you can rule it."
- [Narrator 1] Cain gives into the monster
and murders his brother.
- [Narrator 2] And as a result,
God sends Cain into the wilderness.
And there, he builds the first city
in the story of the Bible.
- [Narrator 1] One man builds an entire city?
- [Narrator 2] Well, in the ancient world,
a city was a group of homes surrounded by a wall.
It's for protection.
Cain's afraid that someone might find him and kill him.
- [Narrator 1] Okay, got it. The wall makes the city.
- [Narrator 2] Exactly.
And then the city of Cain
goes on to breed a culture of revenge and violence.
Later, one of the city's warriors
who's like a corrupt king boasts in a song,
"If you threaten or slap me, or wound my honor,
I'll kill you."
This is the mindset at work in Cain's city.
- [Narrator 1] The monster that Cain let within
has now become the monster that people live within.
The city is bad news.
- [Narrator 2] But it doesn't have to be.
The city of Cain is also where music is invented,
along with metalworking and animal domestication.
- [Narrator 1] So cities can be a place
where we create abundance for everyone.
But give the city enough time,
and that monster will eventually take over.
- [Narrator 2] Right, like the next city,
founded by a giant warrior-king
who builds a city with a tower
that reaches up into the heavens to make their name great.
- [Narrator 1] This is Babylon,
which will one day spread its violence throughout the land,
conquering many nations.
- [Narrator 2] Yes, Babylon is the biblical image
of a monstrous, violent human city.
And this is all tragic because the city
is the opposite of the safe garden home
that God originally put humans in.
- [Narrator 1] So ancient cities have imposing walls
for self-protection to keep resources inside.
- [Narrator 2] But the garden is protected by God,
with a spring at its center that flows out into rivers
that share its goodness with all the land.
- [Narrator 1] Babylon has a tower at its center
to reach up to the heavens.
- [Narrator 2] While the garden has the tree of life
at its center,
God's heavenly throne
and presence touching down on the land.
- [Narrator 1] The mindset of the city is self-preservation
and peace enforced by the threat of death.
- [Narrator 2] But the culture of the garden
is peace through generosity
because there's always enough to go around.
- [Narrator 1] Well, let's go back to the garden.
- [Narrator 2] Yes, you would think so,
but the surprise of the biblical story
is that God plans to bring his garden to the city.
- [Narrator 1] Really?
- [Narrator 2] Yeah, let's look at King David
who God appointed to lead Israel.
He chose for their capital city to be
- [Narrator 1] Jerusalem, the city of David, Mount Zion.
- [Narrator 2] Right.
And when David brings the throne of God's presence
up to Jerusalem,
the city becomes an image of God's garden city.
There's abundance for everybody and peace, for a time.
- [Narrator 1] Right, until David becomes like Cain.
He gives into that inner monster
and murders one of his soldiers
so he can take that man's wife.
- [Narrator 2] And so this begins the tragic story
of Jerusalem's corruption
through the kings from David's line.
And while a few kings do try to stop the monster,
most give in.
So the garden city becomes a den of robbers,
full of greed and violence and oppression.
- [Narrator 1] And eventually Babylon,
an even bigger monster, takes them out.
Maybe the garden city isn't realistic after all.
- [Narrator 2] But Israel's prophets maintained hope
that God would one day
create his heavenly city here on Earth,
with streams going out
and the nations streaming in,
gardens and feasts and peace and no more death.
- [Narrator 1] This sounds like more than just a new city.
This sounds like the dawn of new creation.
- [Narrator 2] Yes, it totally does.
And it's actually this hope that brings us
to the story of Jesus.
In Jesus' day, Jerusalem was ruled by a violent King Herod.
And when Jesus began announcing
that God's heavenly Kingdom was arriving here on Earth,
he didn't even go to Jerusalem or its leaders.
- [Narrator 1] Yeah, he went to the hills
and towns of Galilee sharing good news
with the poor and the unimportant.
- [Narrator 2] And then Jesus took his followers
up onto a hill
and said, "You all are the city on the hill
that will shine its light to the nations."
And then he taught his followers the ethic of God's city,
which is the opposite
of the mindset of Cain's city and of Babylon.
- [Narrator 1] Instead of protecting life
and keeping peace with the threat of violence,
- [Narrator 2] Jesus taught his followers to create peace
by sharing generously, even with your enemies,
and to preserve life through love and forgiveness,
even if it costs you.
This is what it looks like
when the heavenly city comes to Earth.
- [Narrator 1] But weren't the prophets expecting
that God's new city would be Jerusalem?
- [Narrator 2] Well, Jesus said that the Jerusalem of his day
was corrupt and headed for destruction,
and this stirred up trouble with the leaders of the city.
- [Narrator 1] So to keep peace,
they used the threat of death to get rid of Jesus.
- [Narrator 2] But when Jesus stood on trial,
knowing that they were going to have him executed,
he said he was about to be enthroned
as King of God's heavenly city.
- [Narrator 1] Wait, you can't become king
by letting your enemies kill you.
- [Narrator 2] Well, you can if you're stronger than death.
In fact, this is the only way to transform the mindset
of Cain's city, to overcome the fear of death
by trusting in the power of God's eternal life
that raised Jesus from the dead.
This is the power that streams out from Jesus
into the world today.
And so the earliest followers of Jesus called each other
to seek the wellbeing of their cities
while trusting that their true citizenship was elsewhere.
- [Narrator 1] You mean the new Jerusalem, the city of God?
- [Narrator 2] Yes.
And when followers of Jesus gather and share together,
they can begin to taste the life
and love of that heavenly city right now, in the present.
- [Narrator 1] And so the story of the Bible
doesn't end with humans
building a city up to heaven.
- [Narrator 2] No.
It ends with God bringing his garden city down to the land.
- [Narrator 1] The heavenly Jerusalem,
full of abundance for all the nations,
with the river of life flowing through its streets.
- [Narrator 2] And at its center is the crucified
and risen Jesus on the throne.
And the city walls will be decommissioned
because the gates of this city will never be closed.
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is to help people experience the Bible
as a unified story that leads to Jesus.
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