Citizens of Heaven

Philippians 3:18-4:1

Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. ^18 For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. ^19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. ^20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, ^21 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. Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

(Yelling) “How many times have I told you? If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times!” Does that sound familiar? You either heard it as a child or you say it to your children—or both! Last week we examined the principle of imitation. In verse seventeen, we were commanded to follow Paul’s example and also to take note of those who live according to the pattern of the gospel. Did you find anyone this week?

If verse seventeen is imitation then verse eighteen is repetition: for, as I have often told you before and now say again. This is a more gentle way of saying, “How many times have I told you?” The message that Paul was abut to tell them was something that he had told them many times before—many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Why would Paul repeat this message about enemies of the cross? First, let’s make sure we know who these enemies are and then I’ll give some reasons why Paul talked about them so often.

Their destiny is destruction. The word destiny in this phrase immediately makes me think of the movie Forrest Gump. Do you remember the part where Forrest asks his mom, “Momma, do I have destiny?”Can you imagine his mom answering, “Well, yes Forrest. Your destiny is destruction.” I don’t mean to pick on poor old Mr. Gump, but Paul is not shy about telling it like it is. Enemies of the cross of Christ all share the same destiny—eternal destruction. I’ve got a new age friend who really hates the apostle Paul but loves Jesus. She would no doubt read this verse and say, “See, this is one of the reasons I don’t like Paul. He’s always talking about Hell and damnation.” True enough, but no one spoke of hell and damnation more than Jesus. Jesus said, “For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.”  (Mt 7.13) Jesus used the exact same word that Paul used—destruction.

But how should we think about such people? Most people either don’t know they are going to hell or don’t believe they deserve it, but we do know. You and I have inside information. We know that “wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” We know this in our heads, but how should we feel about this in our hearts? We should feel the way that Paul felt about it—he cried. For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Don’t skip over that phrase—and now say again even with tears. He is instructing us about a proper emotional reaction to a lost and perishing world. It should bring us to tears. Does this mean that we should walk around like Jeremiah, the weeping prophet? I don’t think Paul cried constantly when he thought about this, but he did cry this time. Think about it. Literally, while Paul was writing this part of his letter, he was crying about lost people. He had already told the believers in Philippi many times about the enemies of the cross and he felt that he needed to tell them again, but as the words formed in his mind, just as he put his words to ink on the page, the thoughts of a perishing world brought him to tears. I can imagine the very parchment that was stained with the ink of Paul’s words was also  Paul’s was also stained with his tears.

I don’t think we need to go about crying all the time over those who are destined for destruction, but has it ever brought you to tears? Do you care at all? How do you feel about the unbelievers that you encounter every day? Are they a nuisance? Do they disgust you? I had an awful experience last year. A Christian teenager made a comment about a group of unsaved teens. He called them trash. And the worst part is that I am pretty sure at least one person heard him say it! It was truly one of the most heart-breaking things I have ever heard. Where do you think he learned such a reaction? I am guessing that his parents largely shaped his emotional reaction toward unbelievers. I trust that no one in this room would ever call an unbeliever trash, but how do you feel toward them? What about the person who drives you crazy at work? How do you really feel about him or her? Maybe you have unsaved parents or in-laws who have caused you some difficulty over the years. How do you feel about them? What about the person who ripped you off, the person who did you wrong, the person who cut you off in traffic? Far too many Christians would say, “their destiny is destruction—good riddance!”

Why is it so difficult to have love for unbelievers? Paul’s continued description gives some reasons for this difficulty: their god is their stomach. The word “stomach” here probably represents their various “appetites”. These people had an appetite for all manner of sin. We all know people like this and most of us were people like this. Their god is their stomach. In other words, they worship the appetites of their various sins. And they are always hungry. They are always wanting more. The worship of their appetites is never satisfied.

Then the third phrase: their glory is in their shame. This is relatively simple to understand. The very thing that should have caused them shame was the chief reason for their glory and boasting. This reminds me of Romans 1:32. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. For these people, everything is turned on its head. Their sin was a reason for boasting and their shame was a cause for glory.

Paul added one final description: their mind is on earthly things. Here is how I would paraphrase Paul’s description. They loved the world with all their heart, and with all their soul, and with all their mind and with all their strength. When it came to loving the things of this world—the temporal, the fleshly, the ungodly and the depraved—they excelled at it! They gave it their all. They were not passive about such things. They were not laissez faire about sin. They completely abandoned themselves to worldly pursuits.

This is the reason we have such a difficult time with unbelievers. They love most of the things we hate. I am not talking about the clean cut, pleasant neighbors whose children are well behaved and whose lawn is well manicured. We don’t care if those types of people go to Hell either, but we especially are repulsed by the ones who are rough around the edges, those whose god is their stomach and whose glory is their shame.

I absolutely love Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. If you’ve only seen the Disney or Sponge Bob version, you would never know that Ebenezer Scrooge experiences a genuine Christian conversion. We have the Focus on the Family dramatized version and when Scrooge wakes in the morning and realizes that he has been given a second chance, he yells out in joy, “I repent, do you hear me, I repent.” Scrooge does not speak that line in the original version, but all of his actions demonstrate that that is exactly what happened to him. But prior to his conversion, Ebenezer Scrooge spoke about the poor and destitute with this well-known line, “If they would rather die, they had better do it and decrease the surplus population.” If we are honest, far too many Christians hold to a view like the unconverted Scrooge. We would much prefer that all of the unbelievers go ahead and die so as to decrease the surplus population of earth as well as the surplus population of heaven.

We need a conversion of our attitude toward the lost and perishing. We need to yell out in joy, “I repent. I repent.” True, these people are enemies of the cross of Christ, but Jesus is not their enemy. They are the ones who have declared an all out war on God. Yet he still seeks them. The invitation is still open. The blood of Christ is sufficient for their sins, as it was more than sufficient for ours.

Can I suggest a simple prayer for you this week? Pray something like this. “God, most of the people that I talk to every day are destined for destruction. Lord, why don’t I care? What is wrong with me? Why am I so bothered by them? Why have I never shed a single tear for them?”

Why did Paul feel it was necessary to tell the believers in Philippi about these people? I can think of three reasons. The first was obvious—don’t be like them. Don’t ever desire a life like theirs. Secondly, as we have already stated, cry over them. Love them enough to shed a tear once in a while. Pier story… And the third reason was to compare these earthly-minded people with heavenly-minded people. The transition comes at the end of verse nineteen. Their mind is on earthly things.  But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. This verse always gets an enthusiastic “amen” from Christians, but how true is it? Are we eagerly awaiting the return of Christ? Are we really?

In a week our family is going to the Kalahari in the Dells. We went there for the first time last year and we all had a blast. Our favorite part of the water park is the surfing area where you can body surf and actually surf. This year the Kalahari has added an indoor amusement park. Do you think our kids are eagerly awaiting this trip? ‘Eager’ is too mild of a word for their growing excitement. How does that level of eagerness compare to our anticipation of the return of Christ?

How do we know if we are eager for the return of Christ or not? I would like to list some signs of readiness and eagerness that should be commonplace among believers.

1.Are you are Christian? The majority of the time that Jesus spoke of his second coming he was making sure that people were “ready” in the sense of being in the Kingdom. Jesus told the parable of the faithful servants who await the Master’s return, who are welcomed and rewarded, but those who were not ready for his return are thrown into the place of weeping and gnashing of teeth. In another parable, five of the ten virgins were ready when the bridegroom returned, but five of them were shut out of the banquet with these horrible words, “I tell you the truth, I don’t know you.” Jesus told the parable of the sheep and the goats to make sure that we all know that there are only two types of people—sheep and goats. There are not many paths to God. There are not many religions that will lead to God. You are either a sheep and you will enter eternal life, or else you are a goat and when Christ returns he will say to you, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.” Jesus emphasis is crystal clear—don’t be a goat, don’t be a foolish virgin and don’t be a faithless servant. The number one way you can be ready for Christ’s return is to make certain you are a believer.

We have talked about this at some length recently, but just to remind you of Paul’s teaching in this book, make sure you are not offering anything to God in exchange for your salvation. Remove every good work from your profit column and ask the Lord to cover you with the righteousness of Christ. Repent of your sin and reject anything at all that could earn you favor with God. This is by far the most important way to be ready—make sure you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

But do you think it is possible for a Christian to be ready at Christ’s return but not eagerly awaiting his return? I think it is possible, so there are further marks of someone who is eager for Christ’s return.

2. We won’t be so callous about people entering Hell. If you are eager for Christ’s return, you will not be so caught up in his return such that you don’t care about perishing people all around you. In fact, just the opposite will happen. If you are eager for Christ, you will also be eager to tell more and more people about Christ.

3. You are eager for God’s holiness right now. At his return we will see and experience the perfect holiness and goodness of Christ, but how eager are we for that right now? Are we willing to have the holiness of God regularly fall on us? Do we routinely repent and ask for cleansing from our sin, or are we like the Israelites to who Amos prophesied? Amos began with judgments of several of Israel’s neighbors, starting with Damascus in the far northeast. When the Israelites read of the judgment upon Damascus, I can imagine them saying, “You go Amos. You preach to those people in Damascus. They really need God’s judgment to fall on them. Next, Amos prophesied against Gaza in the far southwest. Then he moved to Tyre in the northwest and Edom in the southeast. Can you see, Amos it was like Amos was drawing a boundary of judgment around Israel. As long as Amos stayed far enough away, the Israelites were glad for God’s judgment. Next, judgment fell on Amnon, which was a little closer, then further away upon Moab, so they breathed a sigh of relief. The next judgment fell on Judah, Israel’s immediate neighbor to the south. At this point the Israelites were probably starting to get a little nervous. All of these judgments are in the first one and a half chapters of Amos. Finally, for the next 4 ½ chapters, Amos directed the full strength of God’s judgment on guess who? The Israelites.

But unlike the Israelites, someone who is eager for the return of Christ is also eager for God’s holiness to fall on them right now. Our loving Father is going to discipline us whether we want it or not, but how much better it will be to respond well to his discipline. How much better to be eager for his purifying holiness right now.

3. Let goods and kindred go. I recently talked with a guy who is feeling a call to go to the mission field. He has no idea where he might go or what he will do, but his first action plan is to seriously de-clutter his life. He went home and made immediate plans to start selling or giving away much of the stuff he has accumulated. He wanted to break the hold of things on his heart. He wanted an eternal perspective about every last possession, whether he held onto it or let it go. I don’t know of this man and his family will ever enter the mission field, but I do know that he is eager for the return of Christ. This man is living out the great hymn of Luther.

Let goods and kindred go

This mortal life also

The body they may kill

God’s truth abideth still

His kingdom is forever.

The tighter grip you have on your stuff, the less eager you are for Christ’s return. As a small child, one of Ryan’s worst temper tantrums happened in a Toys R Us store. He was 1 ½ to two years old and he started playing with those toys that have a long handle attached to drum which rolls along the floor and makes musical sounds. He was enamored with this toy, possessed by it was more like it, so when it was time to leave, you can guess how he reacted. He had an iron grip on the thing and we had to pry it out of his hands and run from the store and he screamed bloody murder. Can you imagine a similar scenario at the return of Christ? Jesus appears to take you with him, but you are not willing to let go of your stuff.

How you give your money away and what you do with the part you keep says everything about how eager you are for Christ’s return. As we enter the unknown financial crisis in our country—the eternal perspective is exactly what we need. Lay offs are happening all around us

Paul said that eagerness for the return of Christ is how we stand firm today—that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

when the one we love the most passes crosses over into death

When our relationships are not all that we want them to be

Rich Maurer

February 15, 2009