re:FORMED - God Transforms - The Rule of Christ - Jeremiah 29:1-9

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If you could open your Bibles up to Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 1 to 9.

Jeremiah 29:1–9

Jeremiah chapter 29 verses 1 to 9. If you've got one of the blue Bibles it's

Jeremiah 29:1–9

page 789. If you've got a phone I can't tell you what page it is or it's up on

screen behind me. Jeremiah 29 1 to 9. This is the text of the letter that the

Prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders among the exiles

and to the priests the prophets and all the other people Nebuchadnezzar had

carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. This was after King Jehoiakim

and the Queen Mother, the court officials and the leaders of Judah and

Jerusalem and the skilled workers and the craftsmen had gone into exile from

Jerusalem. He entrusted the letter to Elisha son of Shafan and to

Jemima son of Hilki whom Zedekiah king of Judah sent to King Nebuchadnezzar in

Babylon. It said this is what the Lord Almighty the God of Israel says to all

those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon build houses and

settle down plant gardens and eat what they produce marry and have sons and

daughters find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so they

too may have sons and daughters increase in numbers there do not decrease also

seek the peace and prosperity of the city of which I have carried you into

exile pray to the Lord for it because if it prospers you too will prosper yes

this is what the Lord Almighty the God of Israel says do not let the prophets

and divine as among you deceive you do not listen to the dreams you encourage

them to have they are prophesying lies to you in my name I have not sent them

declares the Lord thanks very much Chris well do keep your Bibles open if you

have one we are looking currently at a series called reformed which is focusing

on just a number of key things that we believe is a church that shapes the way

that we do think shapes the way that we operate shapes what we say yes to shapes

what we what we say no to and so actually if you are new at City Church

this is a great Sunday for you to come not only for the baptisms but also

because it'll give you a little bit of a window of what this church is really

like if you've been here for a long time then this is going to be a good

refresher to remind us about actually what's our heartbeat here as a community

let me pray and then we'll dive in heavenly Father we do thank you for all

that we've enjoyed so far in the service we do thank you for the baptisms of

Melissa and Charlotte and the testimony of your goodness and your grace to them

and to us as a community Father as we come here to hear this passage unpacked

for us we remember that you are a God who is not distant but one who speaks to

every single one of us and we ask by the power of your spirit that none of us

would leave this place this afternoon unchanged amen let me begin with a

question for some of you who are new it might seem rather intrusive but here's

the question what's the vision for your life what's the vision for your life the

pastor and writer Mark Sayers recently said that in his opinion one of the

biggest problems with current Western culture with people's vision for their

lives revolved around what he called as optimization optimization optimization

is the idea that you are pursuing like a quest just improving a little bit of

this and a little bit of that optimization is when you say to yourself

actually I just want a little bit more control over my inbox I just want a few

less calories I just want a little bit more salary I just want to pay a little

bit less rent now these things are not bad in themselves are they little bits

of self optimization where we just improve things a little bit a little bit

a little bit a little bit a little bit more of this a little less of that

nothing wrong with that per se but what this passage is gonna tell us this

afternoon is if that's optimization is actually the vision of your life a

vision that you turn as a quest that you will pursue at any cost across the world

actually the reward for a life like that a life that pursues only just slight

marginal gains well your reward will be what is known as a wasted life these are

strong words aren't they from this passage that was written so many years

ago but let me tell you a little bit about this passage that Chris just read

it's a letter that was written many years ago to a community like us that

lived in a city look with me at verse 2 we're told that actually the Israelites

who were once living in the southern kingdom of Judah had been conquered by

the great and massive Babylonian Empire and all of their key workers had been

taken captured dragged a thousand miles from Jerusalem all the way to this city

of Babylon the capital of the Babylonian Empire think about it it's a thousand

miles from home you've been dragged and you find yourself living on the fringes

of perhaps the great city of the ancient Near East probably in some sort of

ramshackle shanty town equivalent to I don't know the refugee camp outside of

Calais and this is where you are told by the Babylonian authorities that you need

to be based because if you were one of the Jews who had been taken all the way

from Judah to Babylon you would have found that Babylon would have been a

highly intimidating place to be it was a place of advanced technology it was a

place of temple and palace skyscrapers the way it worked in Babylon was the

higher you built your temples the more your gods would be pleased with you and

say Beetham Tower one of Manchester's largest skyscrapers a homage to the

worship of wealth and commerce would not have been out of place here in the

ancient city of Babylon and so if you were a Jew who'd been taken from your

homeland a thousand miles to Babylon if you found yourself in this unknown and

very strange city well here's the question what would God want them to do

what would God want them to do well I've got two points this afternoon and the

first one's this don't bunker don't bunker you see the first instinct for a

believer who has been relocated to this brand new intimidating city is to

cultivate in their mind a warlike bunker mentality that is when you are so

fearful that the culture around you is gonna squeeze the life out of your faith

that you operate in your head as if there is a two meter concrete wall all

around you between yourself perhaps your family your friendship groups and the

rest of the culture out there you build a massive wall in your mind you hide away

that's a bunker mentality and this is most likely what Jeremiah who wrote this

letter is warning against in verses 8 & 9 look at me at verses 8 & 9 he was warning

against what was most likely a very very popular opinion amongst the Jewish

exiles that they didn't have to wait very long before God would take them

back home it was the type of thing that in the ancient Near Eastern equivalent

of tick-tock reels the message constantly going around that's trending

high would have been hashtag going home soon that's what they would have been

about and you can see the attraction can't you communities often underestimate

in a time of crisis how long it's gonna take to move through it for example do

you remember in 2019 when the government called the first lockdown where we all

had to stay at home and businesses and schools and universities shut the word

going around back in the very first lockdown is we were only gonna be in it

for two weeks we're gonna be in two weeks you remember that apparently it

turned out a little bit different see communities tend to underestimate and

most likely the Jews in exile were saying to themselves look we're only

here for a short time guys look pull up the drawbridge don't unpack your bags

because we're only temporary let Babylon be Babylon and let us be us and look at

what God's response to this war bunker mentality is in verse 9 do you see it

she says lies absolute lies you see this letter could have easily been written to

us today it's this mentality it's like you know I don't think I'll be in

Manchester very long I'm on a short course I've got a short contract

therefore I will just withdraw and I'll do me or it's the idea that you know I

just don't feel very connected in Manchester and so I'll just withdraw and

I'll just do me or it's even saying look I don't really like Manchester it's

nothing like my hometown and so I'll just withdraw and I'll just do me I

wonder if you feel like that the the writer Malcolm Gladwell explores in in

his book the tipping point a phenomenon known as the bystander effect the

bystander effect you see he recounts that back in 1964 in the great city of

New York there was a tragic murder of a lady called Kitty Genovese and the

problem with this murder as tragic as it was is Kitty was screaming asking for

help from her assailant for a long time she pleaded with people to help her the

people would call the police that she was being attacked do you know how many

people heard her cries the report say 38 people heard Genovese is cries for help

but each person assumed that someone else was gonna call the police someone

else would do it someone else's problem and so no one called the police and she

was horrifically murdered the bystander effect you see your attempt to be a good

person by keeping away from the city will actually lead you to become the

very version of yourself that you're trying to get away from the headline

challenge here in our passage from Jeremiah is that in God's world there is

no such phrase as it's someone else's problem no such phrase you see you might

not be the person who's called to fix it but the problem still belongs to you

but let me put it like this when you're leaving City Church Manchester this

afternoon and you go out onto the streets of this city there's a good

chance you may well bump into a homeless person and look you may choose not to

give them money because for various reasons you might think that is not the

best way to help them however this stranger's situation their plight their

distress is still a problem that belongs to you why because you are a citizen of

this city and it doesn't matter whether you were born here or you arrived last

week which makes us think doesn't it how should the believers who were taken to

Babylon how should they treat Babylon it makes us think here we are in Manchester

how should we hear this afternoon treat Manchester well come with me to our

second and final point get your hands dirty get your hands dirty in the 1950s

there was a very clever guy called Reinhold Niebuhr and he wrote a very

famous book that outlined different positions that believers had towards

engaging with the culture around them and his definition of culture let's get

a bit nerdy on this shall we it's gonna be nerdy his definition of culture was

it is the social life of humanity it is the environment created by human beings

in areas of language or habits ideas beliefs customs social organization

inherited artifacts and technical processes and values and what Niebuhr

did is he labeled the reforms position this is the reformed series we're

looking at that's why I'm saying this he labeled the reformed position that was

exhibited by people theologians like John Calvin who you might have heard of he

labeled it as the Christ transforming culture position what is that well

number one it emphasized the goodness of creation that God actually made a really

good creation and number two believers affirm what can be affirmed in the

culture and they seek to transform all that is corrupted by sin and self-destruction

and selfishness in the culture you see that's that's the Christ transforming

culture position you look at culture is a good thing gifted by God you like to

celebrate the stuff that you can say no that is true that reflects the God of

creation this revealed in the Bible but anywhere you see the consequences of sin

of brokenness in the world actually you as a believer choose to do something

about it an example of that would be on July the 31st 1562 in a church a little

bit like this and a pulpit a little bit like this John Calvin I haven't got a

picture of him but you need to imagine a man whose beard would have been as

luxuriant as someone who would fit into any northern quarter kind of micro

brewery that's John Calvin you're not going to hear that definition from Ralph

but you'll hear it from me John Calvin preached in a pulpit just like this to

his community in response to the powerful princes of his day who ruled

with selfishness and ruthlessness and greed and abuse of power he said this

justice and judgment is a universal rule which applies to everyone it means

governing oneself so as to treat everyone fairly and properly and it means

standing against and resisting evil whenever it is necessary to relieve the

poor the afflicted people in other words this is God's world this is God's world

and until he returns to make all things right and all bad things untrue until

then until that moment our role as believers is to repair the areas of our

culture that are broken or distorted by sin that is our rebellion against God in

other words the Christians duty is to get their hands dirty what does that

mean it means that they the Christian they leave the bunker it means that they

identify which aspects of the culture they can enjoy and they celebrate those

things because they are a wonderful things that tell us something of the

very goodness of God and then they identify areas of their city where

things are wrong and broken and not consistent with the way that God has

asked us to live and they seek to do something about it that's what that

means the writer Whitney Hopler says this and I like this quote it kind of

gets me kind of excited which is why I want to share it with you this this if

you want to make a powerful and lasting impact on the culture you've got to do

more than just consume it critique it condemn it or copy it the only way to

truly change the culture is to create something new for it something that will

inspire people enough to start to reshape their world it's not good like

it well this is the reformed understanding of how we should engage

with the culture this is what verse 7 means in our Bible look at verse 7 seek

the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile pray

to the Lord for it because if it prospers you too will prosper flowing out

of that verse out of that verse is the idea the belief that justice should be

for all the belief in the goodness of social action the belief in the value of

volunteering or the charity sector they're all rooted these things that

many of us just take for granted they're all rooted in past Christians who walked

out of the bunker and decided that they were gonna get their hands dirty in

their city where God had placed them well here's the question right does that

mean that all of us need to become political activists or social reformers

or social entrepreneurs well here's the thing perhaps some of us that is

absolutely true and that is exactly what you should be seeking to do with your

life but look at the really really surprising instructions God gives to the

exiles in verses 5 and 6 this is how God wants them to particularly the majority

to transform the megapolis of Babylon look at me verses 5 and 6 this is

remarkable I read to you build houses and settle down plant gardens eat what

they produce marry and have sons and daughters find wives for your sons and

give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters

increase in number there do not decrease that's the instruction for

transforming your city but you might be thinking yeah Matt but that just sounds

like normal stuff it's hardly up there with Emmeline Pankhurst's war cry do you

remember that the woman who brought women's suffrage to a national volume

she said I'd rather be a rebel than a slave that's kind of pretty triumphant

kind of yes raw gut-wrenching stuff what Jeremiah verses verses 5 and 6 seems to

say is it just do normal life well actually for the believer these ordinary

things are part of God's extraordinary plan let me explain let me ask you this

question do you verses 5 and 6 which you read in your Bibles don't they remind

you of something don't they feel a little bit familiar somewhere else in

the Bible is there not a kind of slight sense of deja vu when you read verses 5

and 6 well let me explain verses 5 and 6 take us right back to Genesis chapter 1

Genesis 1:26–28

verses 26 through 28 you see this letter isn't just a letter for those who were

in Babylon all those years ago actually the principles of this letter are for

us today because they were baked in to the very DNA of God's good creation look

with me at Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 I think it'll come up on our screen it

Genesis 1:26

says this God's just made everything and then God said let us make mankind in our

image and in our likeness so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and

the birds and the sky over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all

the creatures that move along the ground do you see the job description of being

a representative an image bearer of God in the world is to rule over all things

or created things now we're slightly uncomfortable with that word rule aren't

we but actually this word rule doesn't suggest being a tyrant that's not what

this is about it's rather saying your role is to be a really careful steward

of God's good gift of creation it's his world and he's given it to you to look

after take care of what God has provided develop it nurture it cultivate it so

that it flourishes in other words we are told that wherever we are placed in the

world that we had to be culture makers that doesn't matter whether you are a

cleaner or whether you are a Da Vinci esque painter you are a culture maker

and this is what you're called to do represent God in the corner of the world

that he's given you to look after and then he says that the way to do this

extraordinary work of representing him in the world is in verse 28 of Genesis

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1 be fruitful and increase in number fill the earth and subdue it now

that word subdue we're uncomfortable with that word subdue but really it's

garden language it's like a gardener who prunes back the weeds in order for the

garden to flourish or subdues the tree fungi say the fruits can bud blossom and

provide that's what that word subdued me but note the phrase be fruitful and

increase in number that is a shorthand phrase for do the normal things of life

just do the normal things of life be fruitful in your work so that you can

eat and that you can create an environment where a community made up of

units of families and of friends can flourish that's what this is talking

about well hang on Matt does that mean a few of us are gonna make our mark in the

world and then for the rest of us the majority of this is just business as

usual actually no did you notice the instructions come back with me to the

Jeremiah letter did you notice the instructions from God in the letter

emphasized that it's transformation over a long period of time did you see that

it's growing gardens it's having children it's seeing them marry it's

seeing grandchildren come forward even the very idea of changing systemic

structures in our society all of those things take a very very long time right

this is nosebleed application coming up okay so seatbelts on if you were asleep

now's the time to kind of poke your friend meaning the application for the

Jewish exiles who were longing to book an uber to Babylon Airport to go home

the application is this put down roots and stay long enough to really make a

difference as an image bearer of the God of the universe don't you see the

messenger what might that mean for us okay what might that mean for us here in

Manchester well it might mean it might mean Manchester okay I love this city

it might mean Manchester but equally this could be applied somewhere else in

the world could be applied somewhere else in the world but wherever it is the

application for us here this afternoon is swim against the tide of culture

that sees actually just a vision for self-improvement that means

continually moving continually up routing continually living a superficial

involvement wherever you are go against that tide don't do that don't do that

rather find a place could be Manchester could be somewhere else find a place

where you can make a deep difference to that location to that neighborhood to

that community to that institutional culture find a place do you feel how

radical this letter would have been to the Jews in exile because do you feel

how radical it is for us in this room this afternoon this is utterly

countercultural you see if you are sitting there thinking well if I'm in

Manchester and I'm looking to build a garden of healthy culture in this city

where do I go what do I do is I wait for Jesus to liberate me not from exile in

Babylon but actually liberate me to the new creation where there'll be no more

tears no more death no more crying in pain what do I do as I wait for Jesus to

come back well here's the thing why not look at the fact that this city has 50%

of its children that live beneath the poverty line do you want to start there

what about this fact that this city has a challenge with people who do not have

a place to live but on the streets of this city in huge vulnerability and

danger do you want to do something with that what about the fact that loneliness

in this city is a bigger epidemic that is more dangerous than COVID ever was

loneliness do you want to do something with that do you want to do something

with the fact the next to London Manchester is the second fastest

growing city in the UK do you want to do something with the fact that 97% of

the 2.8 million people who live in our great city if Jesus was to come back

today they would find that an absolute tragedy because they do not know him do

you want to do something with that seek the peace and prosperity of the city to

which I have carried you into exile the Christian cultural thinker very famous

guy called Francis Schaeffer he also had a remarkable beard you should Google him

this is a really good quote from Schaeffer I like this one he says this no

work of art is more important than the Christian life and every Christian is

called to be an artist in this sense the Christians life is to be a thing of

truth and also a thing of beauty in the midst of a lost and despairing world so

let's be practical for applications your relationships are more important than

your career trajectory it's number one parents don't let your children's only

connection contribution to this city be the fact that they're educated in it

number three youth if you're a teenager you need to know that God has not given

up on your year group so you don't give up on it either

number four when you leave your job whenever that may be the priority is not

to be remembered as you were the best or whatever you did the priority is to be

remembered that you were the one who cared the most here's a bonus fifth if

you use online dating where that other person lives is not an incidental detail

it has the potential to be a deal-breaker for you now you might come

back to me okay you might come back to me you might say yes Matt but look I

would say yes but if I did all of those things if I lived like that then life

would be hard and then I would turn to you and say yes it would be hard but why

do you think it would be hard and then you might turn to me and say well it

would be hard because it would mean that I might need to put others before myself

yeah yeah you see in most cultures most cultures around the world the most

powerful people drink champagne in the security of very lovely high-walled

palaces whilst they send all of their minions to the front lines to risk their

lives doing dangerous things getting their hands dirty for the sake of their

country but not so with the God of Christianity he took on flesh to become

one of us he refused to bunker in a palace but be born in a stable do you

remember that to be born in a minimum wage family whereby school age he'd

already been a refugee he had already touched the poverty of the most

vulnerable of our world and as an adult he refused to bunker down and just be a

celebrity he touched the leper he touched those who were sick and he

touched those who were forgotten to welcome them by his 30s he refused to

bunker down in power or prestige or just pleasure and he touched political

injustice he himself was a victim of physical abuse he touched loneliness and

ultimately he touched death but Jesus look Jesus is more than just a good

example to us he came to give us the one thing the one thing we need in life more

than anything else he came to give us a restored relationship with our Creator

so that we would always know that we have ultimate value in life this is

secondly he came to give us forgiveness from sin and shame meaning that we were

given the ultimate freedom from the horrors of our past no longer had to

have a grip on us and thirdly he came to he came to give us the promise of a

place in the new creation it is the ultimate gift of security from the

dangers of this world why did he do that and why does that make a difference to

us here today because only when you have received the greatest gift that life

can give you then you can be prepared to give away your life for others only

when you can see where you belong in God's great big plan for the world can

you pursue with unfailing resilience a vision that will transform whichever

corner of the world our God has placed you in let me go back to that vision of

optimization I wonder if you're living life to have a slightly better quality

of skin slightly better social life play slightly less tax have a slightly bigger

house a slightly faster car a slightly nicer holiday a slightly more educated

family a slightly better romance life

if that's you I wonder if your vision is too small let's pray

heavenly father we do thank you that you are a good God and that Jesus became

one of us became rooted gave his life away so that we would gain everything

not so that we could hoard it in a bunker until you return but say to model

the generosity that we have received that we might leave the bunker and go

out in the city to get our hands dirty in order to transform it for your glory

amen