Citizens of Heaven (Philippians 1:21-30)

Philippians 1, starting in verse 21.

For me, to live is Christ, and to die is gained.

Now, if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me.

And I don't know which I should choose.

I am torn between the two.

I long to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

Since I am persuaded of this, I know that I will remain and continue with all of you for your progress and joy in the faith.

So that, because of my coming to you again, your boasting in Christ Jesus may abound.

Just one thing.

As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Then, whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel, not being frightened in any way by your opponents.

This is a sign of destruction for them, but of your salvation, and this is from God.

For it has been granted to you on Christ's behalf, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him, since you are engaged in the same struggle which you saw I had and now hear that I have.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you for this morning, and I thank you for your word.

And I ask, Lord, that as we study your word, that you would draw us closer and closer to you, that our eyes would be turned to you, and our hearts would be continually turned closer to you, and that we would be more and more conformed to your needs.

I ask that you would fill me with your spirit to teach your word.

That you would fill the hearers who know you with your spirit to rightly divide and discern what is of you, that we would grow in our faith, that we would grow in our understanding, that we would be encouraged and challenged and exhorted and blessed in your name.

Amen.

Alright, go ahead and have a seat.

So this is uh, as was mentioned last week, this is a tough chapter to break up because it kind of all runs in together.

But if you don't break it up, then you have a really, really, really long Sunday.

So, and it's football season.

So I know that I'm gonna lose half of you apparently after a certain point.

Suddenly everyone gets sick and has to go.

So, with that in mind, this passage directly connects to the previous passage.

Now, when we're looking at Philippi, something that's important to remember is that this is a predominantly Gentile area, and it is a Roman colony.

Roman citizenship is kind of an expectation there.

It is something that is a privilege, something that is something they are proud of.

They're very patriotic.

Also, there is a high number of Roman soldiers who have been granted land to retire there.

So not only is it a Roman colony, but also, to a certain extent, a Roman soldier retirement village.

The Roman Empire has something a little bit unique in that they had courier soldiers.

They didn't just draft people who were farmers and things like that.

They had people who were warriors for life.

And so, if they were lucky enough to survive and then retire, a lot of them ended up in Philippi.

And so it's a very Roman, patriotic, privileged place.

You wanted to be a Roman citizen at this point in time.

There was a lot of advantages that were afforded to you as a result.

So, hang on to that for a moment.

As we're looking here, we see here the preceding verses giving context for what he is saying here.

Because he is talking about in the earlier part of this book, Paul's in prison, and there are people who are preaching the gospel, preaching Christ out of envy and rivalry in verse 15, trying to cause trouble in his imprisonment.

And what is Paul's response to that?

Great! That's fantastic, because both ways the gospel is preached, and he's going to rejoice.

And so we see here in verse 20, my eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but that now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

There's no losing option here for Paul.

And that's what happens when we continue on into the passage today.

He says, For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

So life equals Christ.

Death equals gain.

There's no middle option that's a bummer for him.

So this is Paul's mindset here.

But then he continues in verse 22 if I live on in the flesh, this means fruitful work for me.

I don't know which one I should choose.

I'm torn between the two.

I long to depart and be with Christ, which is far better.

But to remain in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

So he has a dilemma.

Depending on your translation, it may say he's torn or he's hard-pressed.

He's squished between two things.

And so this is the dilemma he's facing here.

So I have a little bit of an image for that.

It is a dilemma that he faces.

Because on one side, he has departing and being with Christ, which is far better.

One side of the scale, Jesus equals better.

This is your Sunday school answer for the day.

Is that Jesus equals better?

But then on the other side, there are many things here.

Fruitful work for Paul.

And then in verse 24, remaining in the flesh is more necessary for your sake.

And then verse 25, since I'm persuaded of this, I know I'll remain and continue for your progress and joy in the faith.

And then verse 26, so that because of my coming to you again, your boasting in Christ Jesus may abound.

So on one side is the end and being with Christ.

And then on the other side is continuing on, not for his own benefit, not for his own results and joy in that, but rather for their sake, for the sake of the Philippians and for these other areas.

So both sides are good.

That's a nice thing.

And I'm really sick of all of you.

He actually sees that as a good thing as well, to remain and to be with them.

But in Paul's mind, at the beginning, you remember me saying that this is largely a Roman retirement village.

Retiring for Paul looks like death.

So that's a little bit morbid, but ultimately for him, being done means being free from this earth and spending eternity with Christ.

Now, to be very, very clear, he's an apostle, right?

I'm not telling you guys that that should be your mindset as well.

But as a whole, here, his job is to continue to invest in them.

So the fruitful work for them, for Paul, is continuing to continue for their progress, for their joy in the faith, and so that their boasting in Christ Jesus may abound, which is really, really cool because he's not looking for the Philippians, he's not saying, I want to continue with you guys so that you can continue to establish my brand, so that we can get bigger here, so that we can, uh so that I can continue to be platformed here.

So that they would boast in Christ as a result.

It's funny because we we think the 21st century eyes, but when Paul visits places, imagine what he looks like when he shows up.

If he has these beatings, these horrible situations, like he may be like limping in and be like, Paul, you got like an eyeball hanging out there.

You might want to just he probably doesn't look good, he probably doesn't sound good, but he doesn't care.

Because his job, his role, his calling, he is convinced of is to proclaim Jesus and to continue forward.

And that's something that I see here that is great in that balance, is he doesn't say one is good and one is bad.

Now, if that was the case, we would look at the letters to the Thessalonians because they had an issue where they were like, what we're gonna do is just wait for Jesus' return.

So we're not gonna work, we're not gonna do anything, we're just gonna sit there and wait to get sucked into the sky.

And Paul's response to that was to be like, how about instead you get a job and mind your own business?

The good t-shirt.

And Paul is not saying that he's just going to sit there.

He has work to do, and it is good, fruitful work.

Such is his relationship with the Philippians.

He actually wants to be there, which is great.

So, with that in mind, uh, something that is important in this passage as well, is we look at the whole book of Philippians, we see in Philippians 1.6 that Paul says, I am sure this that he who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

And then Philippians 2.13, it is God who is working in you to will and to work according to his good purpose.

So Paul is very clear on the point.

Who is the one doing the work in the Philippians?

Yes, Jesus.

God.

He is the one actually doing the work.

Paul is just the vessel.

So that is a nice thing.

It's not like Paul is saying, you guys really need me, because without me, you're gonna have a lot of trouble and you're out of luck.

But rather, he is the vessel for the work that God is doing.

So he's not the end, he's just conduit in that sense.

So here is the key in this section.

Paul doesn't lose sight of his citizenship and reward in heaven.

But he also values the work of his calling on earth at the same time.

So he is striving toward heaven, which is his home, which is his citizenship.

Earth is temporary to him.

That is where he is an ambassador in a foreign nation, being Earth.

But he doesn't just abdicate responsibility at that point, he actually wants to continue forward and continue working in that.

Both are good things at the same time.

So, something also to remember Paul's a Roman citizen.

So he has every advantage that these people have.

He has every privilege, he just doesn't seem to use it.

Which is interesting.

I know that this was talked about last week, but when he uh was uh, and the week before, when he was in Philippi, he was taken, he was stripped, he was beaten, he was thrown in prison.

Those are things you do not do to a Roman citizen.

And all he had to do at any given point was to say, uh Roman citizen here, what are you doing?

And so he was horribly mistreated, unjustly treated, his advantages were not afforded to him.

And how does he respond in prison?

He sulks.

No, he sings.

He is actually sitting in prison, singing, and then the Lord shakes the prison and opens the door, and what does he do?

Nothing.

He doesn't leave, he stays there.

And the result of that is the salvation of the jailer and his family, which is super cool in that.

So Paul is not looking for the way, for the easy way out at any given point, and he sees the good, fruitful work to be done in here.

But the cool thing in that is in Paul's eyes, he can't lose.

What are they gonna take from him?

You can't stop him from preaching.

We saw that last time, and he is chained to the guards, and then all of a sudden he's like, ha ha, captive audience.

This is great.

Let me tell you about Jesus.

Let me tell you about how I was a Pharisee of Pharisees, and then the Lord met me, and then I repented, and now I see the truth of that, and I can go all the way back to the beginning of the Torah and tell you everything about Jesus from the beginning.

And then that guard is questioning his life choices.

So, with that in mind, what's cool is he is clear on his orders.

A Roman soldier would know that, they would understand that.

His mission is for the glory of God, just as theirs were for the glory of Caesar.

So, continuing forward in that, verse 27, he says, just one thing.

It's never just one thing with Paul, by the way.

That's it.

I love it when he says that just one thing is.

Really, Paul?

You know there's gonna be more than he is the guy who was preaching all night, and then a teenager like fell out of the window and died because he was so tired.

And then Paul went and resurrected them, and then got back in and said, as I was saved, and continued to preach the rest of the night.

I would think, and let's not test this theory, that if somebody fell over dead in church, we would probably shut things down for the day.

I do not want to test that theory.

So, verse 27, just one thing.

As citizens of heaven, live your life worthy of the gospel of Christ.

Then whether I come and see you or am absent, I will hear about you that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel, not being frightened in any way by your opponents.

Okay.

He is telling a group where a sizable percentage of them are Roman citizens.

As followers of Jesus, your citizenship is in heaven.

Which we're like, well, yeah, of course, citizens of heaven.

Jesus, duh.

But that's a big deal for people who their Roman citizenship is their advantage in life and their luxury, and the reason they can survive, they can retire and chill out here in the affluent area of Philippi here.

But he is telling proud Roman citizens, some of which are a retired military, your primary calling now is to be a citizen of heaven.

Yet that supersedes their earthly citizenship.

That's pretty radical.

And he tells them live your life worthy of the gospel of Jesus.

Now, for some of us, passages like that make us a little twishy because we're like, what does that mean?

Is that works?

Is that legalism?

It sounds like it could be legalism.

It sounds like it might almost be that way.

He's saying, act like you're called.

He says this often.

Mostly to Gentiles.

Ephesians 4.1, Colossians 1.10, 1 Thessalonians 2.12.

He's telling them over and over and over, live your life worthy of the gospel of Jesus.

Act as citizens of heaven.

Now, what does that mean look like?

Because you can go a whole bunch of different directions on that.

And you can make your list of what that would look like.

Let's just look at what he says.

That could be nice.

Verse 27.

Then whether I come and see you or an absent, I will hear about you, that you're standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel, not being frightened in any way by your opponents.

So, what does a citizen of heaven look like at this moment here?

Here are the military orders.

Stand firm.

How many of you were here when we went through the armor of God in Ephesians 6 a few weeks ago?

Same idea.

To stand, above all, to stand, stand fast.

Here it's standing firm.

In one spirit, in one accord, contending together for this faith of the gospel, and not being frightened in any way by your opponents.

Now when we read Philippians to 21st century eyes, this can get a little squishy.

It's like anybody just get along, be together, we're all one group, this is good, we all have different sides of the parachute, and we're pulling up and down, it's fun.

So these speaking to Roman soldiers.

So I have a little bit of historical context for you for what this could possibly look like.

So say testuto.

Testuto! I mean it's Roman, it's Latin, it's kind of Italian, you have to have a little bit more goosto to that.

So testuto! Okay.

This is a first century carving of a Roman testuto.

No, it's probably an AI-generated picture.

I have no idea.

So but this is what Plutarch has to say about this formation.

You see these shields that we've talked about, like when we went through the armor of God, similar idea.

So, Plutarch in Antony 45.2, that was a good one.

45-1 was a little bit boring, but 45-2 we got a good.

So, however, as the Romans were descending some steep hills, the Parthians attacked them and shot at them as they slowly moved along.

Then the shield-bearers wheeled about, enclosing the lighter armed troops within their ranks, while they themselves dropped on one knee and held their shields out before them.

The second rank held their shields out over the heads of the first, and the next rank likewise.

The resulting appearance is very like that of a roof.

And it affords a striking spectacle and is the most effective of protections against arrows which glide off from it.

Pretty cool.

And this is the picture of that rendering of that.

I mean, I get that he is like probably the leader of this, but I question his life choices here having his head that far up.

Think about that picture, think about that imagery, and I'm gonna read this again.

I want to hear that you are standing firm in one spirit, in one accord, contending together for the faith of the gospel, and not being frightened in any way by your opponents.

What would happen if this guy just decided, I want to go over there?

Well, keep it dead.

What would happen if half of them are like, you know what?

I think it's the time to retreat, while the other half are advancing.

Again, real bad.

They have to be of one accord.

They have to be working in the same direction for the same goal in order for that to work.

If they are not united, it doesn't work.

There may be some spiritual application here.

As citizens of heaven, Paul is calling the Philippi here to be united in Christ.

In that role of proclaiming Christ, of living as if we were bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus and telling others about that same victory that we have in him.

There's also the defensive aspect of that.

We saw that when we were in Ephesians 6, of the uh being able to save off the fiery darts of the enemy.

And here you have that imagery in that passage from Plutarch about how this is so effective of arrows just glancing off and not getting in there, not presenting a target in the same way.

They thrive when they are together, they thrive when they are united, and they thrive when they are disciplined.

Trained for this, if that makes sense.

So he's telling them hold the line, stand firm in one spirit, in one accord.

For what purpose?

Contending together for the faith of the gospel.

That is the goal, that is the calling, that is the direction they are going.

And then there's a statement of not being frightened in any way by your opponents.

Fear is the enemy of your front line.

Terror is what can split discipline and divide in that way.

I get, I don't know if this is actually historical, if it's not, you guys can have that argument.

I don't know.

But you look at the at the Vikings when they are uh going to war against the early uh English, and they have the berserkers.

Oh yeah, they're just crazy kids.

Exactly.

Sole purpose is to incite terror, to uh break the line, to cause a decline in morale.

Their one job is to freak out the other army.

So this is why I would say that we see in 1 Peter 5 that the uh the enemy uh problems about like a roaring lion seeking who he may devour, seeking to frighten and intimidate.

And it's because as soon as the line breaks, then we have problems.

So he's telling them not being frightened in any way by your opponents.

What keeps us from being frightened?

Um confidence, experience, and togetherness.

If I can put it that way.

Also, I am equipped to deal with this adequately, and also I am not alone.

The number one tactic of the enemy often is to try to tell you you are alone, to try to isolate you.

In the flock sheep metaphor, to try to get one sheep off by itself.

So, Paul is saying, stay together, everyone.

And then here's an interesting statement not being frightened in any way by your opponent.

This is a sign of destruction for them, but of your salvation.

And this is from God.

So, what is a sign of destruction for your salvation?

Well, the immediate context looks like you're not being frightened by your opponents.

The bigger context is being willing to live, to contend, to suffer for the gospel.

And the biggest context is the gospel.

Jesus.

So here's the thing.

Many fights end very quickly when the person being attacked is not concerned.

I'll put it that way.

If if there is like uh if there's actually a fight and the other person is relaxed, that is terrifying.

If they don't go into fight or flight mode, but they actually go into like, this is my moment, I'm comfortable here, that's a good time to run.

So when we are not frightened, does that show how awesome we are?

No.

Does that show that we have the secret sauce to prevent us from being afraid?

No.

Our confidence comes from God.

The light of fear comes from our faith and our trust and our hope in Him, which is bolstered by faith in community.

So, with that in mind, if we are being assailed by the enemy, by the flesh, by the world, not being freaked out is a really good sign that the Lord is at work, that the Lord is making a new creation there.

If we, as Paul here, is suffering and joyful about it, that is a sure sign, number one, of the work of the Lord.

But number two, there is nothing they can do to him.

They have nothing.

And so that idea I would see here is that their fearlessness in the face of opposition demonstrates the heavenly citizenship and salvation.

And it illustrates how Jesus has conquered sin and death and given us a better inheritance.

And it also foreshadows the defeat of the opponents of the gospel.

All together.

It's like a gospel message, all in one, when it's demonstrating that we are not scattered in the face of difficulty, in the face of suffering, in the face of opposition.

When we can actually stand firm in the gospel, when we can stand together in the gospel, it is this that is a living demonstration that those who are opponents of the gospel have an end date that is approaching, but then also is a demonstration of the work that has come from God, the salvation that's come from God.

I would personally have preferred that the chapter ended there.

And I would have been like, cool, awesome, let's go, let's go home, we got this.

But there's the verse 29 to deal with, where it says, It has been granted to you on Christ's behalf not only to believe in him, yay, but also to suffer for him.

Crickets.

The people who are hearing this letter in Philippi as it's being read to them, are probably like those who are starting to drift off, or like, wait, what?

Uh could you read that part again?

It has been granted you to bestow freely, to give graciously.

This is not God giving you a second helping of vegetables.

It is giving you the good stuff.

The dessert.

I like the vegetables, but that's not the point.

So it has been gifted to you not only to believe in him, but what comes with that is suffering for him.

Since you are engaged in the same struggle that you saw I had, and now hear that I have.

The same struggle.

What struggle is happening?

Well, the world is opposed to the gospel of Jesus.

How do I know that?

Because before he saved me, I was a part of the world.

And I was opposed to the gospel of Jesus.

That's how that works.

And so that's interesting.

And so the opposition to the gospel of Jesus is not going to stop until his return.

That is something that is going to be maintained, something that is going to continue until the end, so we shouldn't be necessarily be surprised by that.

So having that said, thank you.

You saw nothing.

Thank you so much, Pastor Christian.

So having that said, this is not something that we should be surprised or frightened or shocked by.

And by extension, they shouldn't be surprised that Paul's in prison.

They shouldn't be surprised that he's been beaten.

They shouldn't be surprised he's in bad shape.

He's like, this is part of the deal.

This is how the gospel works.

This is actually for the furtherance of the gospel, which is awesome.

So this struggle, this back and forth, this we saw here in verse 20, you know, the their opponents and the destruction, and then them being citizens of heaven, it can be encapsulated in Philippians 3, 18 through 20.

I have a slide for that.

For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their stomach, their glory is in their shame.

They are focused on earthly things.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly wait for a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.

So on one side, you see the depiction of these people whose uh if they choose to reject Jesus, their end is destruction, and everything about this earth is everything they hold on to, focused on earthly things.

But here, we are called to be citizens of heaven and eagerly await our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so as a result, suffering is a part of the gig.

That's a part of what to expect.

Now, uh, I will say that we live in a context where that sounds foreign.

There are people around the world who are followers of Jesus where this is their everyday life.

And you see uh Christians in different areas.

You look at Afghanistan, you look at Nigeria, you look at other places where Christians being tortured and murdered is part of the gig.

We call persecution different things in our world.

But we live in this world.

We live in our context.

You know, that's a that's I don't know what else to do about that except to deal with the fact that we live in this context and we don't have to deal with that everyday uh persecution in that way.

But all the more reason to be bold and all the more reason to be steadfast, right?

A lack of struggle does not mean we can retire.

All the more reason to keep rolling.

So, with that in mind, he's saying, he is calling the Philippians, many of whom are probably quite comfortable, probably quite affluent, probably have all the advantages afforded to them in the Roman Empire, and many who are retired after a difficult life.

And he's telling them the job's not done yet, the work isn't finished yet.

And he's telling them join me in suffering.

That's a tough call right there.

That takes the work of the Holy Spirit to jump on with that.

So here's the thing.

He has this confidence because of the better reward that he sees.

So I have a slide for a couple more verses than Philippians.

It's hard because it's hard not to preach the whole book every time you teach a passage of this book because it's so cohesive.

But here, Philippians 1 20.

My eager expectation and hope is that I will not be ashamed about anything, but now as always, with all courage, Christ will be highly honored in my body, whether by life or by death.

And then Philippians 3, 7 through 8.

Everything that was a gain to me, I have considered to be a loss because of Christ.

More than that, I consider everything to be a loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.

Because of him I've suffered the loss of all things, and consider them as dumb, so that I may gain Christ.

Paul is fully convinced of the better reward that we have in Jesus.

And that is not just a later thing.

It's a thing he is living and walking in now.

He is so convinced of this that he wants to tell everybody about this, and he is undeterred in doing so.

Now, I want to again reiterate, Paul is an apostle, a capital A apostle.

There were not that many of them then.

There are none of them now, and although the gifting is still alive and active.

But with that in mind, I'm not telling you guys to drop everything, go preach, go travel, suffer, and die.

I'm not telling you not to, if that's what the Lord calls you to.

But ultimately, where has he placed you?

Where has he placed us?

Are we making the most of that?

Now, I want to caveat that as well, because then when we say that, suddenly, what happens?

We start to feel guilty.

I could have done better.

I could have done more.

That person left and I didn't jump them with the gospel.

What I ask is that we just live as citizens of heaven with eyes open, looking for those opportunities.

Letting the Holy Spirit guide us and motivate us in that.

But we can't strive together if we're alone.

We can't strive together if we're asleep.

But rather being alert and continuing faith in community in that.

But just as we as we're wrapping up here, we talked a lot about standing together.

We had a cool picture of that, we had the imagery of that with the Roman Empire.

Um, we are hardwired as humans to gather together, and not all gathering together is good.

Please see the Tower of Bell.

So there is a hardwiring of that.

And so all gathering together is not necessarily for the progression of the gospel.

We need to look and go, is what is are are our passions, our motivations, the our thoughts captured, our attention captured by being citizens of heaven and by the gospel of Jesus.

Because I would submit to you that in our context, in our day and age, the best tactic the enemy has is to cause us to get off course and be distracted by another good thing that's not the ultimate thing.

So, with that in mind, are we having that said, are we striving together for the gospel?

As we saw him here as citizens of heaven in verse 27.

Uh, together is an important word.

Together's hard, together's scary, together hurts.

And uh that's because we are, in fact, uh sinners.

But it's still good to do community together, to strive together, to ask one another for prayer, to see how we are doing, to check in with one another, to encourage one another.

So finally, just remember who does the work.

The one who wills and does for the good work that's being done here is God.

We cannot manufacture that.

We can do all the striving and all of the working together and all the functioning together, and it's still not bear fruit because it is God who does the work.

And there's confidence, confidence, and comfort in that because the pressure's off.

But with that in mind, may we continue to live in such a way as we saw in this passage, where we see the glorious inheritance we have as a result of Jesus for those of us who have put our faith in him, and yet we also see the good work in front of us and that we do it together because many hands make light work.

Let's pray.

Lord, I thank you so much for your word.

I thank you for your goodness.

I thank you that you have done the work of salvation, that you have triumphed over sin and death through the blood of Jesus.

That when we were your enemies, you reconciled us to you, not by our works and not by our ability, but by the work of Jesus on the cross.

And I thank you that that gift was afforded to us simply by receiving it, by accepting it, by putting our faith in it, by putting our trust in you.

And for those who don't know you, who haven't put their faith in you, I ask today would be the day that they do so.

Just simply by accepting that gift and asking you to make them a new creation.

For those of us who know you, who have put our faith in you, I ask, Lord, that we would be excited for the work you have called us to, that we would not fall for any of the enemy's traps.

That would cause us to be slack, that would cause us to be frightened, that would cause us to turn it into an exercise.

But rather that we would just keep our eyes on you, that we would actively be following you in all things, that we would be willing to do so together.

I ask, Lord, just that you would be glorified in us, that you would continue to do the good work that you've called us to.

In your name.

Amen.