Our Citizenship Is in Heaven!

2nd Sunday in Lent, 2/24/13
Philippians 3:17-4:1


Our Citizenship Is in Heaven!
I. That’s our guide for living now.
II. That’s our confidence of glory forever.


They’re called life’s three big questions. I’m sure you’ve heard them before: Who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going? I’m sure there are countless people who spend their lives asking those questions throughout their lives. It must be frustrating to be unable to answer them. It must be confusing to answer them differently as the circumstances of life change.

I’m sure secular therapists spend a good deal of their clinical time helping clients find answers to those questions. Imagine the amount of money spent.

Who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going? By the grace of God through the powerful working of the Holy Spirit, you and I know the answers. Who am I? A child of God by faith in Jesus. What am I doing here? I’m here to serve my Savior, Jesus. Where am I going? I’m going to heaven to live with Jesus.

In this morning’s sermon text, Paul answers all three questions with essentially one word. That word is “citizen.” He says it like this, “But our citizenship is in heaven.” That’s who we are. That’s what we’re doing here. That’s where we’re going. As our worship theme reminds us, sadly, there are those who reject our Savior and his sacrifice for sin. But by God’s grace, that’s not what we have done. By God’s grace, we’re citizens of heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven. Let’s receive Paul’s words of encouragement and confidence as our Lord assures us of that citizenship this morning.

Part I.

Citizenship. That word implies both benefits and obligations. Being a citizen means you enjoy the rights and privileges it brings, but it also means there are certain expectations. Every society in history has formally or informally codified a set of laws or rules by which it abides. Those laws or rules benefit the citizens or members of the society. Things go better for the group when the members abide by the laws or rules. Things tend to get ugly when they don’t. Responsible citizens live like citizens.

While Paul wrote these words specifically for the Christians in the congregation at Philippi, they were meant for all Christians of all time. And this was his encouragement, “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.” Did we hear that correctly? Did Paul just point to himself as an example of living like a citizen of heaven? Indeed he did. But isn’t that sinfully egotistical? Not at all. If you read the previous verses of chapter three, you’ll see that, for Paul, it was all about Jesus. Paul considered everything he had accomplished in life as rubbish. He just wanted to get closer to Jesus every day of his life.

So what Paul was really doing was pointing these people to Christ. He wanted them to imitate Christ. We might put it in one word, to be Christ-like. Well, what does that mean? We can’t be perfect, obviously, as Jesus was perfect, but we can strive to live like he did. Help me describe that. What words come to mind?

One of them is love. Jesus loved all people, even his enemies and those who wished to do him harm. He loved the outcasts and the openly sinful. He loved all people enough to die for all people.

What else comes to mind? He was humble. Paul described that humility in a previous section of this letter. Jesus possessed all power and wisdom and glory from all eternity as the Son of God. But he let it go and humbled himself and became a human being, just like us. And then he humbled himself all the way to death on the cross.

Another description of the life of Christ is that he was caring. As busy as he was, carrying out the most important work in all of history—that work being our salvation—he was never too busy to care for others. He healed the sick and the blind. He showed compassion to those who suffered the death of loved ones. He fed the hungry and freed the demon-possessed. When Paul encourages us to live like citizens of heaven, these are the things he has in mind.

But Paul also has a warning as we live like such citizens. He writes, “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.” Wow! Enemies of the cross of Christ?! These must have been some terrible people. Just what makes a person an enemy of the cross of Christ?

Paul describes them. They’re headed for eternal destruction, not life forever with Jesus. There are many roads that lead there. Basically, it’s every other road besides faith in Jesus. Paul also says, “Their god is their stomach.” In other words, they make their life’s goal to get and do whatever makes them feel good. Worse yet, their glory is in their shame. They flaunt the sins they commit as if that was a glorious thing, when in reality it will lead to eternal shame. In short, their mind is on earthly things. They only think of the here and now. They’re obsessed with material things, fame, fortune, happiness in this life.

We know better than that. The fact that we’re here this morning is proof of it. Our citizenship is in heaven. That’s our guide for living now.

More than one elderly member of our congregation has asked me, “Pastor, why doesn’t the Lord just take me home?” They’re not suicidal. They just want to go to heaven. They think about it every day, many times.

But it makes me wonder, “Why don’t we have that outlook sooner?” The truth is, some of us may go days without giving our citizenship in heaven a thought. And why is that? Because we get caught up in living our life in the here and now. We fail to consider that the thing we’re working so hard on at the moment might not matter at all tomorrow because before then, the Lord will call us home to heaven. And when we get so wrapped up in this life, we get dangerously close to fitting this description, “Their mind is on earthly things.” But that’s not so unique. We face that temptation every day and often fall into it. Disappointing, isn’t it? But we have a Savior from sin. When his own disciples deserted him because their minds were on earthly things, he didn’t stop his journey to the cross. He knew that’s how they would respond. He knows that’s our problem too. But he still won our forgiveness and our citizenship in heaven. Love for him powers our living as citizens of heaven. Our citizenship is in heaven. That’s our guide for living now.

Part II.

It’s not easy avoiding a focus on this life to the exclusion of the life to come. There’s so much out there to attain. And if we don’t work hard, it can all be taken from us. It’s hard to let go and let God. And even when we do, we face daily difficulties and occasional tragedies. So, as we live like citizens of heaven, how do we handle the rough times?

Look to Christ. What should we look for? Paul sums it up in one powerful, glorious sentence, “We eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” What should we do as citizens of heaven facing troubles as we live like citizens of heaven? Look to Jesus who has promised to return. There is a day when Jesus will set everything right for us. It’s the Last Day when he will reveal himself before every person who has ever lived on this earth that he is our Savior.

On that day, our chaotic world will come under his awesome power. Not one person will be able to say anything against him. No one will ever challenge him or us again. Satan and his evil angels will be confined to the hell that God prepared for them.

And then the most astounding thing will happen to each one of us. Paul describes it this way, “[He] will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” It’s the truth we grab onto at every Christian funeral—the resurrection and glorification of our bodies. We’ll have bodies that are no longer subject to age or pain or temptation or trouble. Glorified like Christ’s glorified body. Amazing!

And that, citizens of heaven, is our confidence as we strive to live as citizens of heaven. Each day we enter the struggle of living the Christian life in a world that is increasingly against us. And even when we do succeed in living a Christ-like life, we still face trouble and opposition. What gives us hope in such hopeless situations? The confidence of knowing that eternal glory awaits us. We know that heaven is our home.

Our citizenship is in heaven. That’s our confidence of glory forever.

That’s our goal—resurrection to glory forever. And with that as our goal, really nothing else matters. By the grace of God we already know who we are, why we’re here and where we’re going. It’s all set. But we worry. We doubt. We complain. We long for something better. Forgive us, Lord, for failing to trust you, for failing to find our complete satisfaction in you. By his life and death he does forgive us. Not only that, he has also made us citizens of heaven.

May our Lord remind us of that glorious truth each day as we live for him. Amen.