This week, we re-released this sermon, "Urban and Missional" on the podcast as the last installment of our Best of mini-series. In this sermon, preached in July 2007 as the sixteenth part of the Nehemiah series, Pastor Mark offers one of the most cogent articulations of why the mission of Mars Hill Church is about going directly into the heart of the city. Our view is that Jesus has sent us here. That’s what it means to be a missionary. Jesus says more than 39 times in the Gospel of John alone, he says, "I’ve been sent." "The father has sent me." He’s God, come from Heaven. He’s come down to the earth and he’s come here on a mission to seek and to save those of us who are lost in our sin. So Jesus – our God – relocated, right, just like these people in Nehemiah, just like some of you, he relocated to a place that was very inconvenient for him. Earth is not like Heaven. He was certainly treated better in Heaven than he was on earth. He paid a great price to come and do ministry on the earth. Not only did he live in poverty, opposition, criticism, he also shed his blood and died. He paid the ultimate price to be a good missionary to a culture that initially rejected him, but now people have come to know and love him and a few billion on earth today worship him because of the success of his mission. Jesus says this in John 20:21, "As the Father has sent me" on a mission from Heaven to earth, "so I am sending you." So I send you. So God the Father sends God the Son on a mission to live without sin, to die for our sin, to rise conquering our enemies of sin and death. … I want you to have a sense of why we exist as a church. I want you to have a sense of why we’re doing multiple campuses and multiple church plants. I want you to have a sense of why we send ten percent of our dollars out. I want you to have a sense of why we send hundreds, and by God’s grace, eventually thousands if not tens of thousands of people out into the world. Why? Friends, Jesus Christ is alive. Jesus is actually alive. Jesus died for sin and rose and that Jesus Christ can take away sin. People don’t need to go to hell. They can go to Heaven. They don’t need to be disconnected from God. They can be connected to God. They don’t need to live lives of sin. They can live lives of transforming grace. People don’t need to do anything to merit the love of God. "God demonstrates his love for us in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." The good news is that Jesus is alive and that he is seated on his throne in Heaven. He’s ruling and reigning over all creation. That means that every nation and every city and every neighborhood and every block and every suburban and rural area and every cul-de-sac and every coffee shop and every condo is under the lordship of Jesus,

And there are people there that he loves.

There are people there that he’s willing to forgive.

There are people there that he’s willing to save.

There are people there that he’s willing to befriend.

There are people there that he’s willing to change.

There are people there that he’s willing to be with forever in the New Jerusalem, the great city that he’s created for us.

[Continued …] For more, read Downtown Campus Pastor Tim Gaydos' posts on why we love the city and how we go about it from our recent This is Mars Hill series.