In the middle 1800s, Charles Dickens authored a novel entitled “A Tale of Two Cities.”
It is a story of corruption, of abuse, of the desires of men. It is a tale that ends in one of the main characters standing trial for the deeds done in his life.
Today we will examine a story of three different cities that have touched the hearts of God and man alike.
City one. “He beheld the city, and wept over it.” Luke 19:41
City two. “His spirit was stirred when he saw the city wholly given to idolatry.” Acts 17:16
City three. “I, John, saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.”
Revelation 21:2
Here in these verses are three distinctly different cities.
The first is Jerusalem. The second is Athens, Greece. The third is a city “whose Builder and Maker is God.”
Why did Jesus weep over the Jerusalem of his day?
Jesus said in Luke 13:34-35 “I would…ye would not…ye shall not.”
Jesus wept over it because it was a city that knew the truth yet wanted none of it.
What stirred Paul to weep over the ancient city of Athens?
In Acts 17:22-23 we find the answer, it was a city that wanted the truth, it knew the truth was available, yet did not have the truth.
Modern Christendom is full of cities that have the truth but do not want it.
The non-Christian areas of the world are full of cities that want the truth but do not know it.
Jesus wept openly over the former and the Apostle was “stirred” painfully by the latter.
Have you and I shed tears over the cities of Christendom, that shun the truth for a fable, have we even shed tears for our own city that has the truth yet discards it as inconvenient.
Have we ever had a heart rending compassion for those cities which want the truth but do not know of it?
Have we ever envisioned the multitudes upon multitudes of peoples in the cities that have never and may never hear the truth because of our unmoved hearts.
Have you ever shared the gospel in your own city?
I can say with absolute certainty that there are many in your city and inmine who have never heard the truth.
The third city is perfect as it contains no pride, no lust, no lies, no selfish motives.
It is the city that we will enter into as part of reward for our service to the King.
Will we go in alone or will we be wise enough to take others with us?
No one will enter the third city unless they have accepted the truth, and they cannot accept unless some one tells them.
If not you , then pray tell who.
Oh, for more broken hearts and stirred spirits and the tears that flow from them!
When our tears begin to flow, we begin to do some remarkable things.
We begin in a new way to pray, to give, to go, to help, to sacrifice.
Some how we must interpenetrate the first two types of cities with the saving truth, the truth that is Christ Jesus.
Often it is far from inviting. Sometimes it can be frightening.
But it is always rewarding, in the present and in the Kingdom to come.
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End note:
I have been fortunate enough to know men and women who go to the cities in many nations, who will preach the gospel of salvation in Christ, to those who inhabit the cities that know and deny, and to those cities whose inhabitants have never been presented the truth.
If your heart leads you to help, I will gladly introduce you to one of them. Just contact me and with your help we can change a city, a nation, and perhaps a world.
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