Philippians 3:20 - Citizenship, Here and There

So the primary preaching diet, if you will, of Proclamation Church is expositional preaching through books or big chunks of passages in the Bible.

If you've never heard the term expositional preaching, or you've heard it but you're not sure what it means, it means that the main point of the text is the main point of a sermon.

The main point of the text, the main point of the passage is the main point of the sermon.

Expositional preaching, the aim of that is to just expose the text.

Expose the text.

What's the word saying?

What's it mean?

Let's just expose it.

What's it mean?

Let's look at it.

Let's look at what God's word says.

That is the main diet of our church because we think it's it helps us to be more biblically shaped.

Helps us to not skip over parts of the Bible that are difficult or awkward.

We're also going through the passages, books, the way that the author intended for them to be gone through.

In the book of Jude or James or Isaiah, they were all intended to teach a unifying message.

So we approach those books as a whole, book.

Now, having said that, there is times, from time to time, occasionally, usually once or twice a year, we'll have a more of a topical series or do a few topical messages.

And sometimes we're still in a text exposing it.

What's the text say?

Right?

That's so expositional.

And sometimes we're using several texts to kind of point to what we think the Bible is teaching about a certain topic.

Well, this morning I am embarking, Lord willing, on a six-week series of topical sermons that aim to help us think biblically about some very important topics.

These are things that the world is very enthusiastic about as well.

They're happy to teach you.

But Scripture should always be our teacher, our guide, and our master.

So we're going to talk through, Lord willing, several topics.

One being politics.

Make sure everyone's excited about that.

Politics, money, time, marriage, and parenting.

It's the aim that these would edify us in a time when there's so much confusion.

We don't know, the world doesn't know what to believe about these things, but they're happy to instruct us.

It's our job as Christians to not take the message of the world and then take the message of the Bible and kind of weigh them and figure out which one makes the most sense, which one should we follow.

But rather, we're to have a biblical framework, a theological framework, a worldview that we then examine the world with.

So we have our Bibles, we're shaped by the Bible, we're informed by the Bible, we're taught from the Bible what we should believe and think.

Now maybe you can't, you're not old enough to vote, or you can't vote, or you're not married, or you don't have kids, but trust me, all these things, all these topics affect you.

It's very important that we understand what the Bible teaches about these things.

If we do desire to be faithful followers of God, thinking biblically isn't something that happens naturally.

Thinking biblically isn't something that happens naturally.

It requires God's word and God's spirit and God's people, the local church, to teach these things one to another.

And thinking biblically isn't something that you just arrive at and then it just perpetuates itself.

It is something that we continually must work at, understand, reason, think, study the scriptures, work things out with other brothers and sisters.

It takes a lot of humility.

We keep pressing, pressing in.

We don't just kind of arrive at thinking biblically and then expect to coast the rest of our sending in messages.

We need to know our Bibles and be submitted to them in order to think biblically.

Okay, so now you understand we're in a topical series.

We'll be in Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

This morning we'll begin in verse 20, and we will go through verse 9 of chapter 4, Philippians 3, 20 through 4.9.

Now, before we turn there or read that together, I want to talk for a moment about this idea that it's going to get into in this passage, about citizenship.

Citizenship is the relationship between a person and a nation to which they belong.

The citizen has a claim of sorts on the nation, and the nation has a claim of sorts on that citizen.

Now, what those claims are is something that people have been arguing and discussing for centuries.

If you're a Christian, and I don't assume that everyone in the room is a Christian, if you're not a Christian, we're glad you're here.

We're glad that you are listening and uh will hear God's word.

We pray that you would repent, follow the ways of Jesus, because in that way there is life.

And only in that way is there life.

If you are a Christian, first and foremost, you are a citizen of heaven.

Heaven has a claim on you that no other nation or place does.

And you likewise have a sort of claim on heaven that unbelievers do not have.

Should I vote?

Who should I vote for?

Does my vote even count?

What's the big deal?

Isn't God just sovereign over all things?

The world is pumping a framework to you, a theological political framework, an ideology.

The world's happy to tell you what you should do, what you should think, what you should believe.

Just turn on the news, turn on any kind of social media.

The world's happy to instruct you in these things.

Here at Proclamation Church, we believe the Bible.

We think the Bible speaks to all areas of life.

We genuinely think it's God's word that has been given to us to know God and to walk in his ways.

See, as citizens of heaven, our allegiance is to Christ.

Because the Bible tells us that.

And our attitude and our actions shouldn't prove that point.

Now, since we're in our Bibles in Philippians chapter 3, if you don't have a Bible, we do have some on the welcome table back there.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

You're encouraged to hop up, grab one, and sit down and open to Philippians chapter 3.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Excuse me.

You know, this morning, since I'm going to wade into a kind of a difficult, thorny topic, I might as well just encourage us all the more in the sense of issues.

And I just want to say, I want to encourage you to bring your Bibles to church.

Bring your physical Bibles to church.

Read your Bibles.

I'm not saying you can't read your phone or use a tablet.

All those things are great.

Those are wonderful things.

I'm just saying I want to encourage you, and there's something about being in God's Word physically, learning how to navigate where the books of the Bible are.

It's really important.

Keeps you from being distracted.

And if you have children or there's young people around or whatever, we want people to know that we're not people of the phone or people of the tablet.

We're people of the book.

We're people of the book.

So I'm not dogging, use your phone, all that good stuff.

I'm saying have the Bible, a physical copy, and use it.

Alright.

Now that everyone is primed for this sermon, let's look at Philippians chapter 3, beginning in verse 20.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

This is God's holy and precious inspired word.

But our citizenship is in heaven.

And from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.

Therefore, my brothers, whom I love and long for my joy and crown, stand firm thus in the Lord, my beloved.

I entreat Yodia and I entreat Syntachi to agree in the Lord.

Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women who have labored side by side with me in the gospel, together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.

Rejoice in the Lord always.

I will say it, rejoice.

Let your reasonableness be known to everyone.

The Lord is at hand.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be known to God.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things.

See, citizens of heaven acknowledge their allegiance to Christ.

Their allegiance is to Christ.

In this passage, Paul is seeking to encourage the church in Philippi.

Philippi was a Macedonian city that had special privileges.

Once Rome took it over, Philippi was refounded and Romanized by sending Roman military veterans and high-ranking brass and high-ranking political elites would retire and go to Philippi.

So this city was a kind of a city center, one of the major cities in the area.

The culture was wealthy.

Relative to the people in places around them, they had so much abundance.

They had so much power and they had comfort and ease.

That was their primary aim.

Just as a city, as a culture was comfort and pleasure and sustaining their power.

Naturally, this would just creep into the church.

The same way that our culture and creeps into our church and our life, it just would creep in.

And Paul was encouraging them to remember that their primary citizenship is not Roman but heavenly.

They belong first and foremost to heaven.

He reminds them of this.

If you go back with me actually in Philippians chapter 3, in the beginning of verse 17, you'll get a little bit more of the context.

Philippians 3 · chapter mention

Brothers, join me in imitating, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

For many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you, even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.

So Paul is reminding them.

Your mind is set on earthly things.

You walk as an enemy of the cross of Christ.

Your end is destruction.

Comfort is your aim.

Self-glory is what you toil for.

But you are citizens in heaven.

Your citizenship belongs in heaven because there is a king coming.

From it, verse 20, we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

King Jesus will return.

We await this salvation.

We're not saying, well, well, our only hope is this life.

So let's get all the pleasure in, let's get all the good things in we can that we want to do, let our flesh run rampant, because this is it.

This is our only hope.

No, we are a waiting people.

As Christians, we are a waiting people.

We're waiting for Christ to return.

We're patient.

We're playing the long game here.

Our hope isn't that things are going to turn around in the next election cycle, the next generation.

Our hope is that our king is returning and coming for us.

We're patient.

We have a confidence that the rest of the world does not have.

You, brother and sister, should have a confidence that the rest of the world does not have.

They are.

And Christians will most likely face a lot of suffering.

But even if those times come or when they come, we're a confident people because our hope isn't in this world.

It's that we have a king, Jesus, who is coming back for us.

So we're a patient people.

We are intentional because we're waiting.

Doesn't mean we're just sitting back and twiddling our thumbs, kind of calling out the sinful, wicked people, and judgment day's coming.

I'm just gonna pop some popcorn and wait.

It's not what we're called to do.

We're called to be an intentional people, living our lives, pouring our lives out for Christ here and now, obeying Him.

As we wait, we're intentional.

That God might be glorified, that those who are lost might be found.

We're awaiting people, we are patient, we're intentional, and we are hopeful.

Again, our hope isn't tied to the things of the world.

We can be intentional and we can be patient because our hope is in Christ.

So we wait.

We wait for the transformation.

So we believe as Christians, when Christ saves you, when you're born again, something happens.

You're made a new creation.

We call that being born again, if you've heard that term.

The Bible also calls it regeneration.

We're made new.

He's taken a heart of stone out of us and he's put a heart of flesh in us that longs for the things of the Lord, that contends for the things of the Lord.

It's not perfect, it still struggles with sin.

But our desire ultimately is for the things of God.

He's transformed us in our heart.

And we wait for the day when he will transform our lowly bodies to be like his glorious body.

That we, that the burdens of this life, the sickness, the insecurity, the difficulty, the loss, the suffering that we face in our bodies, us like him with glorious bodies.

You know, when I was young, still am pretty young, I like to think I am, but as I get a little bit older, I start to feel like I'm just age is like a thing a little bit.

When I was young, this passage didn't mean a whole lot to me.

The promise of a new and glorious body like Christ.

It was like, yeah, that's gonna be cool.

Like I'm down with that.

Maybe I'll be a little bit taller, you know?

I don't know.

But as I get older, as I just feel my body beginning to decay more, and as I see around me, people I know and love suffer.

Dying, losing their children, losing their loved ones.

This is a sweet promise.

That there is a day coming when what the Lord has done in our soul, transforming us, he will then also do with our bodies, giving us a glorious body as he has one as well.

And he does this by the power that enables him to subject all things to himself.

All things subject to Christ.

There is nothing, there is nothing that is not subject to Christ.

I was gonna say, wrap your mind around that, but you can't.

There is nothing that is not subject to Christ.

So we wait for a king who rules all things perfectly and has everything under him.

Everything is subjected to him.

And Paul reminds them in verse 1 of chapter 4 of his love for them.

Therefore, because of this, in light of this, my brothers whom I love and long for, my joy and crown stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.

Now, I just want to say, I'm not Paul.

You didn't know that.

And you're not the church in Philippi.

But this is my heart for you proclamation church.

That you would run hard after Jesus, that you would understand the crown, the glory that awaits you at the end of this life, in the beginning of the life to come with Christ.

My longing and my joy is wrapped up with you faithfully following Christ, that you would not get distracted and run off course or be put off course by the world telling you what's right and wrong, or how you're to believe, or what you should think, but that you would faithfully follow Christ, that you would run hard after Jesus, not being undone by the things of the world.

I want to encourage you.

Part of standing and running and holding fast to Christ is knowing and understanding that He has put you in a place to faithfully follow him and to obey His word.

So don't let the world pull you off track.

Don't let political cycles or candidates tell you what you should be believing or thinking.

God's word tells us how we're to faithfully follow him.

It's good to understand the Lord.

The Lord reigns, is subject.

Everything is subject to him.

Paul's heart for the church here, his laying out his heart, his desire for them.

That they would stand firm in the Lord.

That as the winds of the culture, the temptations of the day, the pride of life begin to creep in and begin to kind.

Pull at them, that they would stand firm, trusting God, trusting his word, that what he says is true.

When he says, follow me, that when you lay down your life, in that you will find life.

That when you obey God's word, in that there is freedom, there is joy, there is pleasure forevermore at the right hand of God.

That they would stand firm.

This isn't an easy task.

Be great in some ways.

I think we idolize Christians who suffer or who are in great persecution.

Because it takes all the decisions and all the things that get kind of fuzzy, and well, I'm a Christian, should I do this or should I not do that?

And it just kind of narrows them all down.

It simplifies life when you you lived in a persecuted culture or in great suffering.

Because it's just endure.

That's the call.

Endure.

Wake up, endure.

But we live in a place, in a time, when we have responsibility.

We have authority as Christians and as people in our culture, we have sway, we have power to do.

And using these things, using these things for good is what Christians are called to do.

Now the tension is how do we do that?

Do we abstain from the political system and culture and just say, man, that's just a big mess.

Let's pull out of that and let's just do the Christian thing over here and not get engaged?

Do we go all in and say, man, politics, that's the way.

That's the way we're going to transform the culture.

That's the way we're going to bring about the things of the Lord.

It's a difficult thing to navigate.

Scripture doesn't say, vote for this candidate, be a part of this movement, do these things, Christians who are citizens of America, is that we have a responsibility to participate.

No one, no one in our culture as a citizen here, gets to kind of abdicate.

So I would say this clearly: your ability to vote has been given to you by God, and you're responsible for using that ability.

If you don't believe me, turn to where we just read Jimmy read in Romans 13.

In Romans chapter 13.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

Go back in your Bible a little ways.

You get to Acts, you've gone too far.

Pass the Corinthians.

Romans.

Paul is writing to the church in Philippi from Rome as a prisoner of Rome.

Paul had been a prisoner of Rome several times.

He writes the letter to Rome, to the Christians there who are suffering under persecution.

See what he says in verse in chapter 13.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God.

And those that exist have been instituted by God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed.

And those who resist will incur judgment.

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?

Excuse me, I lost my place.

The one who is in authority, then do what is good, and you will receive his approval.

Verse 4.

For he is God's servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.

For he is the servant of God, an avenger of who carries out God's wrath and uh wrath on the wrongdoer.

Therefore, one must be subject not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.

For because of this you also pay taxes.

For the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.

Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

What makes this so difficult is that we live in a republic.

We live in a nation governed by the people of the nation.

Now I'm not a big uh history buff or civics teacher.

There's a little thing called the Constitution, and that's something that governs us, and it says the people have the authority.

They're the governing authority.

So when it talks about the government having a sword, every citizen has a hand on that sword.

So this is what I mean when I say God has sovereignly placed you in America.

If you're a citizen here, he's instituted a governing system here that says the people, the citizens are responsible for the government.

So you have a responsibility to lead, to serve.

Because you are the government.

It's true.

If you think that you can just sit out and say, you know what?

I just don't care.

I don't get it.

It just seems silly.

I don't want to get involved.

I don't care.

Again, if you're a Christian and you're a citizen of America, you don't have that right.

The heavenly kingdom has a claim on you.

And you're responsible before God to participate.

Now, with that, the real hard part.

Well, how?

How do I participate?

I do not think the Bible is teaching that you have to vote for a particular person.

I think you have the ability to abstain, to say, listen, I can't go this way and I can't go that way.

I'm gonna abstain.

One of the difficult things for us as Christians in our day and age is understanding that no party and no politician and no initiative, no bill, no issue truly represents Christians or God's decrees or what the Bible says.

So we're trying to be Bible people, following God's word.

And here we are, we find ourselves in this country, in this nation, with this system of governance.

And the way it is right now, we have a few options on how we're to wield our authority.

And you need to think about that and pray about that.

You do not have the option to just abstain and say, I'm gonna wash my hands of that.

I know it doesn't make sense.

Jesus wouldn't, he wouldn't, he wouldn't want me to do this because it's just confusing, and and no one here loves Jesus and no one's for Jesus.

I understand the draw there, the apathy.

Wanting to say, listen, I just, it's all a mess.

Nothing's good.

It's all wicked.

Meaningless, meaningless.

What's the point?

I understand the pool to be apathetic in that sense.

I just don't think the Bible lets us be apathetic.

Think you need to think and pray and trust the Lord.

Say, Lord, you've given me a responsibility.

How do I use it well?

And to the degree that you're using it well, you're convicted, and your conscience allows, praise God for that.

Praise God for that.

But then there are other people who will find their hope.

As if any kind of fallen, broken system can transform culture.

As if anything other than Christ, other than Christ can transform lives.

And there are people in our families, in our churches here, this is you, who you're just being undone by the politics in our nation.

You're losing sleep over what you're listening to and watching on the news or reading on social media.

You're undone and you're beside yourself with the wickedness that is ravaging the land.

And what you're doing with that is you're then hoping that some candidate or some party who's not following the ways of God can somehow bring about godliness.

And that too is an empty hope.

And that too will fail.

Now you might say, well, feels like we're in a lose-lose situation.

And that would be true if Jesus weren't real.

That would be true if Jesus didn't tell us how this is going to play out.

In John chapter 5, 1 John, excuse me, 1 John 5, 19, it says, the whole world is under the sway of the evil one.

John 5 · chapter mention

That's every political party, every candidate who's not born again following the ways of the world, they're all under the sway of the evil one.

But here we are as Christians seeking to use the sword or use the authority, excuse me, that God has given us for good.

So don't be apathetic.

Don't just check out.

Say, well, it doesn't matter.

God's not going to say, well, what when you stand before the Lord and you give an account for your life, which will happen.

He's not going to say, did you live in a district that counted the votes or not?

Did you think it was rigged or not?

He's going to say, did you use the authority I gave you?

The best way you knew how.

Was it in alignment with your conscience, with God's word?

So I want to encourage you, brothers and sisters.

As there is an election coming, think well about these things.

I'm not telling you who you need to go and vote for.

I think you need to work that out with God's Spirit and God's Word.

I'd love to talk with you about that if you want to talk about that.

Happy to talk, to engage.

I think one of the worst things we can do is just sit back as Christians and say, it's too far gone.

It's too far gone.

Because we have a letter from a guy in prison telling the church how they're to live in the midst of a culture that hates them and hates their God.

To engage.

So hear me, brother and sister, don't be undone by all this.

Do not lose hope.

Don't think for a moment that God is not sovereign.

And don't think that God hasn't placed you where he has, given you the authority and the means and the ability he has for you just to step back and say, it's too far gone.

Praise God that he has been faithful to us.

He did not do that with you, and he did not do that with me.

I know there still leaves a lot left to be worked out.

Lord willing, next time we'll talk more through this passage in Philippians.

I want you to know that God is good and he's sovereign.

As Christians, we have a duty and a responsibility.

And first and foremost, we're citizens of heaven.

Heaven has a claim on you that no one else does.

And you will not stand the end of your life before me or all your friends or political people or anything.

You will stand before God, and you will give an account for your life.

So let us be faithful.

Let us take our consciences and God's the wisdom of God's word and his people, and let's discern what we are to do.

How should we think about these things?

But let us first and foremost, so the whole world knows, let us be faithful citizens of heaven.

That we would rejoice with the Lord, that we would contend for one another to stay firm, to stay the course.

Paul's heart is breaking as he's writing to the church in Philippi saying, there are brothers and there are people who you know who I've talked to you about, who we thought they were critics.

They're enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their belly is their glory, their shame, their God is their belly.

Don't let that be you.

Don't become become so complacent in the culture.

Don't be so enmeshed with the ideology of the day, where you forget that you are first and foremost a citizen of heaven.

That when Jesus Christ came to this earth and died, paid the price for your sin, he didn't do that so you could just live a mediocre life, just kind of living out your own pleasures and doing what you wanted to do.

But he did that so that you would be a faithful follower of Christ as a citizen of heaven.

That you would contend, that you wouldn't be transformed, that you would stand firm in the Lord.

So, church, let us stand firm in the Lord.