Citizens of Heaven (Philippians 3)

Brief Intro

Good morning. Thank you for having me this morning.

I'm Luis Mercado, son of Luis Mercado Sr., grandson of Millón.

You might've seen myself, my wife Jaci, and our 9-month-old daughter Ruth when we visited some time back.   

Jaci and I are full-time missionaries serving with Youth for Christ International for the Americas Area.  Youth for Christ is a worldwide parachurch organization—that means we're not a church ourselves, but we work alongside churches—to reach young people in their communities and help them become followers of Jesus Christ. We exist to serve the local church.

We've transitioned from serving in the Puerto Rico chapter in Aguadilla to serving the entire Americas Area, which covers Canada, the US, Central and South America, and the Caribbean.

We're currently at 80% of our monthly funding goal. If you'd like to learn more, connect, or even consider partnering with us monthly, I'd love to talk with you at the end of the service today.

Opening

The text we’ll be looking at today is Philippians 3. Philippians stands out for its extraordinary emphasis on joy — the word and its related forms appear sixteen times throughout this brief letter, making it the biblical book most extensively devoted to defining and describing joy. Hold onto that — because by the end of this morning, you'll see where that joy actually comes from.

We would be tempted to examine it as merely continuous happiness, but Paul's intent is much more profound. He's writing about mindset—literally, what we set our minds upon—and conformity. Paul argues throughout Philippians that we are being formed and shaped into something.

Now Paul is writing all of this from prison in Rome. He's a prisoner of Caesar. He doesn't know if he'll live or die. And he's writing to a church in Philippi—a Roman colony.

In Philippi, Roman citizenship wasn't just a status. It was everything.

If you were a Roman citizen in Philippi, your whole life was different. You had legal protections non-citizens didn't have. You could own property, conduct business, build wealth in ways others couldn't. Your children inherited that status. Your word carried weight in court. Your presence at the forum meant something. You were part of the empire that ruled the world.

Your honor—your dignitas—determined how people treated you. If you gained honor, you gained access: to the best jobs, the best marriages, the patronage networks that made survival possible. If you lost honor, you lost everything. Your family lost everything.

And all of this was built on loyalty. Loyalty to Rome. To Caesar as Lord. To the stability Caesar promised. The coins in your pocket had Caesar's face. The temples in the city honored Caesar as savior. The annual festivals celebrated Caesar's victories.

This was the world the Philippian Christians lived in. Roman citizens. Roman honor. Roman security.

And from prison—as a prisoner of Caesar—Paul writes to them: Your real citizenship is elsewhere.

[PAUSE]

Your real Lord is not Caesar. Your real honor comes from a different king.

Paul calls the Philippians — and us — to a radical revaluation: stop building your identity and security on the credentials, status, and loyalties this world offers, and count them as garbage. Your true citizenship is heavenly, your true mind is Christ's own self-emptying mind, and your true gain is Christ Himself — inexhaustible, never fully attained, always worth pressing toward.

[PAUSE]

He does this by first showing his own example—his own credential dump. And then he invites us to follow.

[Read Philippians 3]

What’s the context surrounding Philippians 3?

Now when Paul is writing to the church in Philippi, he has a very specific goal, and we see this in Philippians 1:9-10.

“9 Y esto pido en oración, que vuestro amor abunde aún más y más en ciencia y en todo conocimiento, 10 para que aprobéis lo mejor, a fin de que seáis sinceros e irreprensibles para el día de Cristo,”

Paul's specific goal to the church in Philippi is that their love would abound even more, especially in knowledge — so that they would be able to approve, to discern, the things that are of God, and so walk worthy of the Gospel until Christ returns.

Paul believes that if they grow in love, in the knowledge of Christ Himself, it will lead to real, visible change in the way they live. And he names two things this growth looks like.

First, Paul wants the church in Philippi to have a different mindset. The Greek word here is φρονέω (phroneo) — to have your mind set on something, oriented toward something. It's not just a thought. It's the whole posture of the mind.

Second, Paul shapes this entire letter around us being formed into someone. The word is μορφή (morphe) — form, shape. And the specific form Paul calls us to is found in Philippians 2:5-11 — Christ, who existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but took on the form of a servant.

That form of Christ — the King who serves, who empties Himself, who gives Himself away to bring all things into unity — is what Paul keeps returning to. It's why he tells the Philippians to consider others above themselves in 2:3. It's why he says he'd gladly be poured out like a drink offering for their faith in 2:17. It's the example he points to in Timothy and Epaphroditus in 2:19-30 — men who didn't look for their own interests, but for the interests of Christ. And it's what he calls them to imitate again in 3:17.

Today, in Philippians 3, we'll see that same shape — Christ forming His church, His body, into conformity with Himself, as one.

Philippians 3:1-21

In all of these things that Paul has touched upon and is willing to remind them of once again because of their importance, he reminds the Philippians once again to “rejoice in the Lord” in Philippians 3:1.

That is certainly not an appeal of Paul’s to merely an emotion or mood.

The Church of Philippi, is seeing all kind of pressure and Paul gives clear warning to the Philippians: from outside, there is Roman hostility. To call Jesus Lord in Philippi is politically dangerous. The congregation is facing real opposition, likely from Roman citizens who view Christian allegiance as a threat to imperial loyalty. Paul addresses this in 1:27-30 — conduct yourselves worthy of the gospel, not frightened by your opponents, suffering granted to you as a gift.

In v. 2, explicitly we read Paul writing:

“Guardaos de los perros, guardaos de los malos obreros, guardaos de los mutiladores del cuerpo.”

This outside opposition would’ve been making reference to the Judaizers — Jewish Christian agitators demanding circumcision and Torah observance from Gentile converts.

Even from inside, you’ll see throughout the entire letter the danger of disunity. The eritheia, the rivalry, the selfish ambition.

So the joy that Paul makes reference to at the beginning of the chapter is not disconnected from the conflict. Are you in your walk Christ merely making an appeal to positive emotions, or have you learned this joy found solely in Christ in the midst of conflict?

[Slow down, make eye contact, let it land as a real question, not rhetorical filler. Brief pause after "in the midst of conflict?"]

In v. 3, Paul defines what real identity looks like — not credentials in the flesh, but worship in spirit and glorying in Christ. He writes:

“Porque nosotros somos la circuncisión, los que en espíritu servimos a Dios y nos gloriamos en Cristo Jesús, no teniendo confianza en la carne.”

This is a POWERFUL statement in context to the opposition that surrounds this church both internally and externally. When Paul says “we are the circumcision”, he is making a callback to the sign of allegiance to God, to His covenant in the Old Testament.

In light of the previous v. 2, Paul is saying, that those who have put their faith in the Servant King Christ, these are the regenerate, the ones who truly serve God in spirit, who are glorified with Christ Jesus. And he makes an exclusive statement, when he says that we put no trust in the flesh.

What does Paul mean by putting no trust in the flesh?

The Judaizers demanded these new Gentile believers submit to the Mosaic law — Israel's whole system of ceremonial, civil, and moral law.

Now, were these Judaizers doing this out of evil desires? Possibly not! These false teachers did not offer anything of obvious evil, but rather when we look at it through the lens of the Gospel, we see that this manner of going about the Gospel would offer the Gentiles a way to satisfy their own “righteousness”, it would’ve brought about religious fulfillment, and this would’ve been very tempting for a recent convert, therefore what Paul begins to expand upon from vv. 1-3 is a direct counter-offer to this.

This ought to be relieving for us Church. This is the beauty of the Gospel friends. [shift — warmer, softer here] Sin is usually seen as either debt, weight, or a stain in our souls. And so for Paul to counter argue against these false doctrines reassures that as Christ preached, the Gospel is truly for the sick, for the lowest of the low, not for the Pharisee who fasts twice a week, but for the tax collector who dares not to lift his eyes even toward Heaven and asks continuously for God to have mercy on him, the Gospel is for the repentant, and it is not something that we can attain through our own effort, see the Young Ruler.

The Gospel asks for total surrender — because none of us can save ourselves.

[PAUSE — Grand style, weightiest moment so far]

Humanity has been broken ever since the Garden — when Adam and Eve reached to be like God, it cost us everything. Not just our peace with God, but our peace with each other — Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and division has followed us ever since.

[Slow way down and land hard] So God did what we couldn't do for ourselves: He became man in Christ. Where Adam grasped for equality with God, Christ — who already had it — let it go, taking the form of a servant, humbling Himself to the point of death, death on a cross.

[Small pause.]

And because He was sinless, death could not hold Him — He rose. Through faith in Him, we're not only reconciled to God — we're reconciled to one another, united in one body, one new man in Him.

In vv. 4-8 where Paul goes to expound how he was a Hebrew of hebrews: pedigree, practice, and position — Paul had it all, and yet called it garbage.

Paul is then making an objection to the doctrine of the Judaizers, while the Judaizers are “ignorant of God’s righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” (Romans 10:3).

Paul writes in vv.7-8:

“Pero cuantas cosas eran para mí ganancia, las he estimado como pérdida por amor de Cristo. Y ciertamente, aun estimo todas las cosas como pérdida por la excelencia del conocimiento de Cristo Jesús, mi Señor, por amor del cual lo he perdido todo, y lo tengo por basura, para ganar a Cristo”

Paul expounds on a loss-gain language here to make the point across that we cannot have our own self-established righteousness through our works and Christ at the same time. Rather Paul deems Christ as more worth it than any of his past achievements put together, so much so that he gives them up freely.

Not because it was worthless, but because Christ was worth infinitely more.

Many of you already know what real loss feels like — sons and daughters in Florida, Texas, Pennsylvania. Parents you drive an hour to see a doctor at times. A power grid we can't trust. Paul doesn't ask this directly, but his own example puts the question to us:

“If it all got taken away tomorrow — the family, the house, the health — would you still have everything that matters?”

[PAUSE— full stop, real pause, don't rush to fill the silence.]

In Paul surrendering his own established righteousness, he then truly “attains” Christ, for Christ will not tolerate self-preservation, when Christ calls a man or woman, He demands all of themselves. Anyone who tries to keep their life, will lose it.

Yet in losing it, in Paul surrendering all these things, himself, he truly comes to be found in Christ and not his own works as seen in v. 9 and this is “por la fe de Cristo, la justicia que es de Dios por la fe”.

This is not sanctification — being shaped into Christ's likeness over time. Rather this is the amazing gift of justification — in one moment, we are united to Christ Himself. His righteousness becomes ours. His victory becomes ours. Even now, we belong to both earth and heaven at once.

And that union with Christ isn't just legal standing — it's a shared life. Paul says in v. 10, we are to be made known “el poder de su resurrección, y la participación de sus padecimientos, llegando a ser semejante a él en su muerte,”.

Notice the shape of what Paul says here — it comes in three parts, one building on the next: the power of His resurrection, the fellowship of His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death. Paul isn't just listing things. He's describing a whole life bound up in Christ — life, suffering, and death all held together, because you can't have the first without walking through the other two.

What this tells us, is that Paul says that not only the Philippians are united to Christ through faith in Him, but every believer, and hence if we are one with Him, we are to experience both His resurrection AND His sufferings and death.

And here's what's worth sitting with: Paul isn't saying he's already arrived. Just a few verses later, in v. 12, he says plainly — not that I have already attained, or am already made perfect.

Knowing Christ isn't a box you check once. It's not a finish line you cross.

It's more like a hunger that keeps growing the more it's fed. Every day there's more of Christ to know. The gain of Christ never runs dry, because the One we're gaining is inexhaustible.

And in Him, Christ, Paul calls us to follow his example as he “olvidando ciertamente lo que queda atrás, y extendiéndome a lo que está delante”. in v. 13.

So what would be the best practical way that I would explain this?

Let me put it plainly: to 'attain' Christ means to stop looking back — not even at your own good works, past or recent — and press forward toward the union with Christ that is both now and to come.

Does this then mean that we also forsake earthly relationships?

Absolutely not! You see the shape and form to which the Holy Spirit is conforming the believer is that of this image where the whole body of Christ is one. And clearly as we’ve seen through Philippians, Paul clearly calls mature believers as seen in vv. 15-16 to “sigamos una misma regla, sintamos una misma cosa”. To unity! Considering others as above ourselves, living as if we were already with Christ in Heaven, united as one body with other believers.

Finally Paul, makes one final call out for the church of Philippi to take notice of, and we should as well likewise, he mentions that the enemies of the cross of Christ are those who “que solo piensan en lo terrenal” as seen in v. 19.

Do you think on the Kingdom to come of Christ and your neighbors as glorified in Him, or are your eyes merely weighed down to this world, this present age?

Paul reassures that Christ, “el cual transformará el cuerpo de la humillación nuestra, para que sea semejante al cuerpo de la gloria suya, por el poder con el cual puede también sujetar a sí mismo todas las cosas”. That is the image we ought to live with day by day. Moment by moment with one another. That is why Paul can make a call to unity within the church of Philippi in chapter 4.

That is why our joy is not be found here on earthly things, but on the Kingdom to come, on Christ Himself. That is the joy Paul finds in the midst of pressure, of potential death!

This is why we can pour ourselves out for others, considering them more important than ourselves. Not out of moral reformation. Not out of gritted-teeth self-will. Not out of fear of judgment. It's out of Christ's own righteousness, His character now lived out in us — the new self we have in Him.

Ultimately, this is why we must live as one body — because Christ has made us new, and submitted all things to Himself.

To Himself.

Are you submitted to Christ?

[LONG PAUSE]

Conclusion

That question isn't just for you this morning. It's one I've had to sit with myself.

Because here's what I only saw clearly this week, reading on into chapter 4: Paul doesn't let "rejoice in the Lord" stay a private feeling. Just a few lines after he commands it — twice — he names two women, Euodia and Syntyche, and pleads with them to agree with each other in the Lord. Why there? Why then?

Because unresolved conflict between believers is what it looks like when someone is still gripping what chapter 3 already called garbage — their own standing, their own being-in-the-right, over the surpassing worth of knowing Christ together. You cannot be reconciled to Christ and stay unreconciled to your brother. The joy Paul commands and the peace that follows it in chapter 4 aren't separate from what he's already said — they're the visible fruit of it.

So this morning, before I ask anything of you, I have to do what that logic demands of me first.

For those of you who don’t know, I grew up here in this congregation, in at least two of the buildings this body had the privilege to occupy, and I came to truly surrender my life to Christ in 2020, in the middle of COVID-19, that is when I truly experienced the regeneration of the Holy Spirit as scholars will put it.

And during that time of having a zeal for the LORD, and His Gospel, I wanted nothing more than to be involved with the expansion of the Kingdom and His church. This led me to get more involved here at church, and most likely due to the course of history and culture here in Puerto Rico, I felt a lot of discomfort with perhaps some blind adherence to cultural convictions or taboos, that I found in conflict with Scripture as I would interact with brothers and sisters every now and then. Now, every believer in Christ is not Christ Himself — we ought to extend grace to one another in spite of our flaws. I did not truly do so.

By the time, that I go on to study in Aguadilla, and pursue a church home for the first time out on my own search, not as a inherited church home as I’m serving with Youth For Christ, I come to find myself with a heart posture of “myself” and “the others from Hatillo”.

Though embarrassing to admit, my heart gave itself away to dissensions, factions, divisions, even if internally.

And I have come to learn very painfully, through fallen leaders within the body of Christ, and spiritual warfare that the Word of God stands true when it says:

“Y manifiestas son las obras de la carne, que son: adulterio, fornicación, inmundicia, lascivia, idolatría, hechicerías, enemistades, pleitos, celos, iras, contiendas, disensiones, herejías,  envidias, homicidios, borracheras, orgías, y cosas semejantes a estas; acerca de las cuales os amonesto, como ya os lo he dicho antes, que los que practican tales cosas no heredarán el reino de Dios.”

Galatas 5:19-21

This is the same gripping I just described — dressed in different words, but the same refusal to let go of self for the sake of Christ and each other.

For those of you who don’t know, “contiendas” apuntan al interés propio y a la ambición egoísta —sin duda, en detrimento o a costa de los demás— como una obra basada en la carne. “Disensiones” or “Divisiones” describe el estado que se deriva de las emociones y actitudes mencionadas anteriormente, las cuales dividen y rompen las relaciones en la Iglesia.

Those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So church, I humbly as your brother in Christ ask of you to please forgive me if at any point our unity has seemed breeched by how I’ve gone about our relationship.

I do not ask for your forgiveness out of fear of not inheriting His Kingdom, but because I love you dearly and I am a part of the body, I am not the head, therefore who am I to tear the body of Christ after He gave it be brutally torn already at Calvary?

With that also being said, I will not call the members to come forth if they’re in desire for prayer, though I’ll gladly pray for you if you are in need of prayer. But I would much prefer, and would like to ask the members of the church, if the LORD truly leads you to or you feel convicted to do so, to please stand up, and find at the very minimum one person that you can ask for forgiveness here at Church this morning.

I would like for you to find one person you feel you have wronged, whether directly or indirectly, confess that to your brother or sister, and be reconciled in Christ. Not to observe your own righteousness, but because we are to be one, and consider one another above ourselves.

[PAUSE]

This is what it looks like to have our true citizenship, our true mind, our true gain — lived out, right here, between us. This is what it looks like to actually rejoice in the Lord.