Citizens of Heaven | Philippians 3:17-21

In Philippians 3, Paul is encouraging the Philippians to commit themselves to Jesus Christ.

He writes in vs. 14, “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

Then he writes in vs. 15, “Let us therefore, as many as be perfect (mature), be thus minded.”

We should all be living for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Our lives should all for Jesus Christ.

Paul was an incredible missionary, but he doesn’t claim to have arrived. He says, “Even after 30 years, I’ve got further to go than I’ve already come.”

So he exhorts them to:

1. Follow Christ

2. Follow Those Who Are Following Christ

3. Watch Out For Those Who Don’t Follow Christ

And that’s what we looked at on Sunday night. Some were trying to have influence in their lives and Paul says, “Careful who has your ear. If they aren’t Christlike, don’t follow them.”

So the word that keeps coming up is Follow. If I was to summarize this passage with one action word, it’s Follow.

And the way Paul ends chapter 3 is to give them a big picture look at why they should follow.

So that’s the simple idea tonight: In the end…

Why We Should Follow Jesus Christ

I. Because we belong to Him

Vs. 20a - Paul is talking about citizenship

The word Conversation means “Commonwealth” (politeuma)

So Paul is talking about where their citizenship belonged.

The people of Philippi would have understood living in one place, but having citizenship somewhere else.

Philippi had been conquered by Rome, so it was technically a colony of Rome.

Which means the Philippians had Roman citizenship, complete with its privileges and responsibilities.

They were ruled by Roman law although they were many miles from Rome.

Their laws were Roman, although they lived their daily lives in a predominately Greek culture.

So they lived in one place, but they were ruled by a government far away. And Paul uses their experience to help them understand their spiritual situation.

A believer’s true citizenship is in Heaven. Our homeland is in Heaven.

Warren Wiersbe wrote, “Just as Philippi was a colony of Rome on foreign soil, so the church is a ‘colony of heaven’ on earth.”

Wiersbe goes on to compare the similarities of the Philippians being citizens of Rome and having citizenship in Heaven. These comparisons were so good I wanted to share them with you:

1. Their names were registered as citizens.

A baby born in Philippi was recorded in Roman legal records.

When a sinner is born into God’s family, it is recorded in heaven.

Luke 10:20 “Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”

Philippians 4:3 “And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help those women which laboured with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and with other my fellowlabourers, whose names are in the book of life.”

Revelation 20:15 “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

If you have been genuinely saved, your name is recorded in Heaven.

It’s a permanent addition to Heaven’s records.

This is one reason why we believe in eternal security. If God writes your names in the official record book in Heaven, it’s not going to be erased just because we sin. Confess the sin, get back on track, but have confidence in your standing as a citizen of Heaven.

2. Citizens speak often of their country.

Have you ever been around someone from Texas? I don’t know why, but Texans have an inordinate amount of pride for their state. It can be slightly annoying, frankly. They can’t stop talking about it.

But if you think about it, people ought to be thankful for their homeland. And when someone comes from a great place, they ought to talk about it.

But who has a better citizenship location than God’s people? Citizens of Heaven should be glad to declare the glories of their future homeland and the glory of their King, Jesus Christ.

We ought to struggle not to talk about where we will live for eternity.

3. The citizens of Philippi where governed by Roman law even though they were several hundred miles away from Rome.

They made decisions in Philippi based on their Roman citizenship. It gave them rights and privileges that others didn’t have.

And similarly for us, we live by the rule of the Son of God in heaven. We should make decisions on earth based on our heavenly citizenship.

Our problem is, we get so caught up in the present that we make decisions based on where we live instead of our citizenship. We get it backwards.

4. They were to be loyal to the country to which they were joined as citizens.

We should be loyal to our heavenly citizenship. That’s where we belong. That’s where we’ve received our greatest blessings. That’s where we will live for eternity.

The world is not our home. We’re just passing through.

And sometimes it’s easy to forget that Jesus died for us. He redeemed us. We are bought with a price. We belong to Him.

If Heaven is where we belong, and it should impact our choices and priorities.

It should cause us to live differently than those who are focused on earthly things. (vs. 19)

How can we claim Heavenly citizenship when our lives and actions and priorities look no different than those who are citizens of earth?

First reason We Should Follow Jesus Christ:

1. We Belong To Him

II. Because He is coming back for us

Vs. 20b - Jesus is coming from Heaven to get us one day.

The phrase “We Look For” means to “Await Eagerly.”

This implies that Jesus is coming here for us, and we are to await for Him by looking for His arrival.

He’s coming. And He’s coming from the place where are citizens. Heaven.

Our Messiah, who currently is in the place where we belong, will one day come and get us and take us to the place where we belong.

There are different opinions out there, but if we take God at His Word, it’s clear that we are looking for a Savior, not signs.

Some say we’re looking for the antichrist and signs of the tribulation, but according to this verse and others in the NT, our job is to look for the Savior.

Titus 2:13 “Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;”

We are not looking for the tribulation, we’re not looking for signs, we’re not looking for prophecies. We are looking for the return of Jesus Christ.

We have hope that the Lord will return and take us to Heaven.

1 Thessalonians 1:10 “And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.”

1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 “For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

And when He returns for us, He will transform us. He’ll give us new bodies.

Vs. 21a - Jesus isn’t just coming to get us. He’s coming to change us.

The phrase “Vile Body” simply means Humble

Shall Change means to transform from one state to another.

Fashioned Like Unto means Conformed to (symmorphos). We get our word “metamorphosis” from the root of this word.

This is actually the same phrase used in Vs. 15 - “Being made conformable unto his death.”

Here it is “fashioned like unto.”

So Christ has already transformed our spirits in salvation. We were changed from dead in sin to alive in Christ. There’s already been a spiritual transformation. But we still reside in humble bodies. Bodies that are prone to sin.

But the promise is that Christ will one day take our humble bodies, bodies that are fit for life on earth, and transform them into bodies fit for Heaven.

What will be the difference?

Well, humble bodies are subject to disease. Our new bodies will not be.

Humble bodies are subject to be defective. Our new bodies will not be.

Humble bodies are going to die. Our new bodies will not.

Humble bodies deal with sin and its consequences. But our new bodies will not be subject to sin because we will no longer have a sin nature. We won’t sin anymore.

As glorious as some of our bodies are, they can’t touch the body that Christ will fashion for us at His appearing.

He will change our bodies to be like His. And it has to happen, because these bodies aren’t fit for Heaven.

1 Corinthians 15:50–54 “Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”

1 John 3:2 “Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”

Vs. 21b - This transformation from a limited, lowly, humble body to a new, glorious, perfect body, will take place by the supernatural power of God Himself.

The same power that God has granted the caterpillar to become a beautiful butterfly will be applied to these bodies.

The same power that Jesus Christ uses to subdue the universe will be applied to the transformation of our bodies.

And you might think, “Why would Paul emphasize the future to encourage people to live for Christ?”

Well, imagine the lives they lived. Their lives weren’t easy.

Think about the pain they lived with due to a lack of medication.

The discomfort of their living conditions.

The difficulty of toiling every day to earn food enough to eat.

The weariness. The hardships.

Not only that, the pain of persecution believers faced back then.

It’s no wonder Paul said, “Let me give you some hope. Jesus is coming back. And you will one day be rid of all that is hard and painful and difficult. You will be transformed and have a new body living in that place where you’re already a citizen.”

There is Hope in the coming of Christ. His return gives us the mindset of hopefulness.

Warren Wiersbe, “There is tremendous energy in the present power of a future hope….The spiritually minded believer does not live for the things of this world; he anticipates the blessings of the world to come. This does not mean that he ignores or neglects his daily obligations, but it does mean that what he does today is governed by what Christ will do in the future.”

What Christ has promised is as good as done.

So if we were to summarize what Paul is exhorting them to do, He’s saying “Here’s what following looks like”

Following Christ means living like you belong to Him and eagerly looking for HIs return.

We have the rights and privileges of citizens of Heaven. If you’re grateful for that, like like it.

We have a future that is as good as done through Christ’s promises. If you anticipate that, live like it could happen any moment.

The reason we don’t follow Christ is because we’ve forgotten what He’s done for us and that He is coming back for us.

Your appreciation of what you have in Christ should be your most prized blessing.

I read something former British Prime Minister Tony Blair wrote about:

He wrote, “A friend of mine whose parents were immigrants, Jews from Europe who came to America in search of safety, told me this story. His parents lived and worked in New York. They were not well off. His father died when he was young. His mother lived on, and in time my friend succeeded and became wealthy. He often used to offer his mother the chance to travel outside America. She never did. When eventually she died, they went back to recover the safety box where she kept her jewelry. They found there another box. There was no key. So they had to drill it open. They wondered what precious jewel must be in it. They lifted the lid. There was wrapping and more wrapping and finally an envelope. Intrigued, they opened it. In the envelope were her U.S. citizenship papers. Nothing more. That was the jewel, more precious to her than any other possession. That was what she treasured most.”

https://www.preachingtoday.com/illustrations/2010/october/7101810.html

Do we treasure our citizenship?

Or have we forgotten where we belong?

The less we value our citizenship, the less likely we will reflect it in our lives and choices.

Conclusion:

Do our attitudes reflect a citizen of Heaven or a citizen of earth?

Do our words reflect someone that belongs up there or down here?

Does our dress reflect someone representing Jesus Christ or the culture?

Do our entertainment fit the expectation of someone who will one day live with Jesus Christ for eternity?

Jesus is coming back to transform us. If He returns while I’m doing this, will I be ashamed or happy at His appearing?