Pastor Michael Neumann

February 28, 2010 

Philippians 3:17-4:1

Our Citizenship is in heaven.

1) Don’t be caught up by this world’s pleasures.

2) Focus on Jesus and heaven’s treasures.

 Citizenship carries with it certain benefits - rights and privileges that others may not have. It may also mean certain responsibility. As citizens of the United States, our constitution assures us of many rights – the right to free speech; the right to worship our Lord and Savior without persecution from the government. We have the right to a trial by a jury of our peers. We have the right to vote and to have a say in how our government operates. There are many rights and freedoms that we as United States citizens enjoy and cherish. In some cases, benefits that others in our world do not enjoy.

 Here in our text, the apostle Paul reminds us that we have another citizenship. We have citizenship in heaven. And just as our citizenship in this country means that we enjoy certain benefits, as citizens of heaven we also enjoy certain benefits. And like being a citizen of the United States affects how we live, our citizenship in heaven affects the way that we live – that is true already now, here in this life on earth. Our citizenship is in heaven. Don’t be caught up by this world’s pleasures. Focus on Jesus and heaven’s treasures.

 Paul encourages us to stand firm and not to set our minds on earthly things. What a real danger that is for us. The list of things that we want is usually a long one. The list of things that we want to do, the place that we would like to see may be just as long. Too often, getting those things we want becomes more important than anything else. Too often, our focus is on some earthly thing – and the Lord gets put off to the side for a while. They may be wonderful blessings that the Lord gives – work, family, recreation. But too easily those gifts from the Lord can take a priority over the Lord who graciously gave them. 

 And our materialistic society is right there encouraging us. Our world says to us – “You deserve it. Look at all that others have – you could and should have at least as much.” It encourages us to “Have it your way.” It rationalizes, “If it feels good do it; as long as no one else gets hurt, its fine.” That is the way that our world thinks. And we are constantly bombarded by that type of thinking. Advertisers on TV and elsewhere would encourage us to such materialistic thinking. How easy to give in and follow their advice. Our sinful flesh wants nothing more than to have and to satisfy its own desires. Such thinking turns our attention away from the Lord and his word. Such thinking is eternally dangerous. How easily we exchange the temporary treasures of this world, for the eternal treasures that the Lord would have us focus on. 

And we often see the evidence of such sin – the church struggles with offerings, struggles to have sufficient funds to carry out all the different types of ministry it would like in order to share the gospel. We see evidence of such sin in our own lives as time for personal Bible reading and prayer get lost in our busy and hectic lives. What does the way that we spend our time and money say about what it most important to us? How hard it is for us to be content, despite the great physical blessings that the Lord has given to us. How easy to look at what others have and covet. Our world tells us that life consists in the things that we possess, and then it tries to make us unhappy if we don’t have certain things. How easily we are led astray by the world. How easily we follow the world’s way of thinking.

So Paul encourages us, not to follow the sinful example of the world, but to follow his example. This is not arrogance or pride on the part of Paul. He isn’t boasting in himself. Paul is speaking the truth in love. Since the Philippians were so dear to him, he couldn’t bear to see them walking down the wrong path. And he wasn’t going to let them without a strong encouragement to follow good examples.

Paul’s example was only good because of his relationship to the Lord Jesus. Paul told the Corinthians, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.” Paul didn’t want people to think about how great he was, he wanted people to know how great God was in his life. After all, this was the same Paul who had confessed that he was the chief, the worst of sinners. This was the same man who had persecuted Christians and tried to destroy Christianity. Paul recognized that it was the Lord who had so dramatically turned him around, just as it was God himself who now kept Paul headed in the proper direction.

So instead of looking around the world for examples, Paul encourages his readers to look within the family of believers. That is good advice for us. Look for those role models who will be positive Christian influences in our lives. The world holds us as heroes those who are self-made; those who are able to do what they want; those who are in authority and are served by others. That is far different from the humble, servant attitude of our Savior who calls upon us to follow him. So look for Christian role models. We too do well to follow the example of Paul and the other apostle’s. There may also be some friend or relative whose example of Christian living will influence our life and help shape our Christian thoughts and attitudes. Finally, we have no better example to follow than Jesus, the “the author and perfecter of our faith.” 

 And yet we know that no matter how well we might follow even the example of Jesus, our good works will never earn for us anything from God. We can never be good enough to earn for ourselves eternal life. Our best attempts to follow our Savior’s example are miserable failures.  As the prophet Isaiah writes, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” We need more than an example. We need a Savior. During Lent, we see Jesus willingly go to Jerusalem, to the cross as our Savior and substitute. And so that is where our focus needs to be - on Jesus and heaven’s treasures. Our citizenship is in heaven and that is also where our real treasure is. Jesus encourages us, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

 By nature those treasures of heaven were shut off to us. We were slaves lost in sin. Our only concern was to satisfy our sinful desires. The pleasures of this earth were what we were concerned with. We couldn’t gain the treasures of heaven and eternal life, and by nature we really didn’t even want them.

 But now those treasures do belong to us. They are ours. We have become heirs of heaven and of eternal life. It was all accomplished by our Savior Jesus. Through faith in Jesus, we have become children of God and his heirs. We who were once enemies of God will now receive an inheritance from him.

 A very high price had to be paid to set us free from sin, and to make peace between us and God. For that very purpose, Jesus – who is God’s own Son - came down to this earth and was born a true human. He lived the perfect life that we could not. And he sacrificed that perfect life on the cross as payment for sin to set us free from sin and to make peace with God. Paul sums it all up in this way when he writes to the Galatians, “But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under law, to redeem those under law, that we might receive the full rights of sons. Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts who calls out, ‘Abba, Father.’ So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.” Heaven is ours. God’s will declares that we are his heirs.

 We can be sure that one day we will inherit heaven, in fact the apostle Peter calls it a living hope because it is so certain. But that ultimate glory isn’t something that we fully possess now. For now the glory that is ours as heirs God remains largely hidden. Therefore as Paul says in our text, “we eagerly await a Savior from there.” We are looking forward to the return of our risen and ascended Savior Jesus. Jesus tells us, “In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.” When Jesus returns he will take us to heaven; then we will possess fully that inheritance which is ours.

 Here in our text, Paul gives us some further details about that inheritance. Paul tells us that Jesus, “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” The bodies that we have now while we live on this earth can rightly be classified as lowly. We get tired and hungry. We get sick. We have all kinds of aches and pains. And eventually we will die. All these are the result of sin.

 But on that last day those effects of sin will be done away with. When Christ returns in glory on the last day we will be raised to eternal life and our souls will be reunited with our bodies, even if our bodies have long been in the grave and have since decayed. Job declares, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see him with my own eyes - I, and not another. How my heart yearns with me!”

 While it will be with our own bodies that we will stand before Christ and praise him, there will be one very big difference between our body then and our body now - Christ will transform our body so that it will be like his glorious body. That certainly sounds wonderful, but what exactly does it mean? It doesn’t mean that we will be God, but we will be like Jesus in perfect righteousness. His glory will become our own. Our bodies that are now corrupted by sin will be refashioned, rejuvenated. Sin will no longer have any effect. With our glorious bodies there will no longer be any hunger, or thirsting or pain, no sickness and no death; because in heaven there will be no sin. That will indeed be glorious. That is indeed something which we eagerly look forward to. Praise be to our Savior Jesus that by his death he has made us heirs of such glory in heaven. 

 How can this take place? How can my body be transformed after it has already decayed? Paul gives us a very simple answer when he says it will be, “by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control.” What a comforting reminder those words are for us. Our Savior is in control of everything. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is almighty, all-powerful. There is nothing to great for him to do. By that power he will be able to transform our bodies. That power also assures us that right now, he is in control ruling for our good. We have a loving, all-powerful Savior. We do not need to fear as we eagerly await his glorious return to take us to our home in heaven.  No matter what disasters we see in the world around us, no matter what problems we face in our lives, our Savior is in control ruling all things with one goal in mind – that one day we join him in heaven.

  Armed with that knowledge, Paul encourages us to stand firm. Stand firm despite any opposition we may face. And we can expect that the world will continue to oppose Christ and Christians. The world will continue to tempt us to satisfy our sinful desires. But don’t be caught up by this world’s pleasures, instead focus on Jesus our Savior.  The strength to stand comes from him. He has already made the treasures of heaven ours by his life and death. Stand firm, following the example of the apostles and other Christians who have gone before us. Stand firm as you eagerly await your Savior’s return. Stand firm your citizenship is in heaven.