Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Right. The accent, the nesting dolls all reveal their homeland.
[00:00:08] That refill, right, the request for refill. Right. That gives them away.
[00:00:15] So here's my question, friends. What gives us away as those who are citizens of heaven?
[00:00:22] What should give us away as those who are citizens heaven?
[00:00:28] That's the question I want us to be thinking about this morning as we turn back in our Bibles to the book of Philippians. So let me invite you to turn there now. Philippians, we're in this letter of Paul to the Philippian Church, chapter one. And we're going to be in verses 27 to 30 this morning, verses 27 to 30. If you don't happen to want to have a Bible with you, we've got red Bibles in the pews before you. You can find our passage on page, I think 980, page 980.
[00:00:55] Now, if you're just joining us, right, just diving into this letter, Paul is rotting away in a Roman prison and the Philippian Church, which he had helped to plant 10 years prior. Well, they send a messenger named Epaphroditus to check on Paul, right? They love him, they're concerned for him, they're trying to support him there in prison. And so they send Epaphroditus to Paul. And then Paul writes this letter and gives it to Epaphroditus. And Epaphroditus returns to back to Philippi with this letter from Paul. And in verses 1 to 11, we see how Paul prays for the Philippians. And then really in verses 12 to 26, Paul gives them a personal update. He knows the church is deeply concerned for them, so he shares about his welfare.
[00:01:40] And we see how Paul's own aim in life, whether in life or death, was to live worthily of the Gospel. That's how Paul wanted to live worthy of the gospel of Christ.
[00:01:53] And this morning we're going to take a turn and we're going to the text does takes a turn down a critical corner and we're going to shift from sort of Paul and his life to the life of the Philippians.
[00:02:05] So Paul has pictured for him what it means for him to live worthy of Christ. And now what will it look like for the Philippians to live worthy of Christ?
[00:02:15] That's really what 127 all the way through 218. That's sort of the big next section. 127 to 218. That's what that's all about. But we're just going to consider those opening four verses, verses 27 to 30 this morning. So please follow along as I read. Philippians 1, verses 27 to 30. Paul writes, Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent I may hear of you. That you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the Gospel and not frightened in anything by your opponents.
[00:02:59] This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God.
[00:03:05] For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake, engaged in the same conflict you saw I had, and now hear that I still have.
[00:03:22] Now friends, believe it or not, those four verses are actually just one long, slightly convoluted sentence in Greek. And if this were an English class, right, your English teacher would be knocking you for this run on sentence. But it's actually quite a.
[00:03:38] It's an elegant way to write in Greek. And thus far we haven't seen a single command in the book of Philippians yet.
[00:03:46] It's all been again, narrative about Paul's life. And now as Paul turns about the narrative of his life, now we move from narrative to imperative. And he's going to start giving commands to these Philippians. And the first imperative is right there at the start of verse 27. He says, Let your manner of life be.
[00:04:06] Paul is calling them to a particular way of life. And that start of verse 27 really serves as a heading for all that follows.
[00:04:15] And then he's going to describe what this way of life is meant to be. There's that. So that in verse 27 he's saying, Live a particular way so that as a consequence, as a result, whether I see you or hear you, and then follow the verbs.
[00:04:31] What is he saying he wants to hear that they're what, standing firm. Verse 27, that they're striving side by side and not frightened by their opponents. Right, verse 27, verse 28. So he starts with a call to live a particular way. And then he says, now the result of that call will be. And then you get a description of what this life looks like. And then in verse 29 you get the reason why they're to live this way. Notice the four that starts right, verse 20, 29. And that reason runs through verse 30.
[00:05:06] And so putting all this together, I think the main idea is simply this. And it comes right from that opening heading.
[00:05:14] Your earthly conduct must reveal your heavenly citizenship. That's Paul's basic Argument. Your earthly conduct must reveal your heavenly citizenship. Now, if you're wondering, hey, wait a minute, where did you pull this idea of citizenship from? I don't see that in the text. Well, if you're asking that question, great question. Hang tight, I'll get there in a minute. But we're just going to walk through the text and those three basic movements. We want to think first of this call to citizenship at the start of verse 27.
[00:05:45] Then second, we'll think about the character of citizenship, right, the life of citizenship. That'll be in the rest of verse 27 and 28. And then conclude thirdly with the case for citizenship. That's verses 29 to 30. So there's the call to citizenship, then there's the character of citizenship, and then there's the case for it. You can think of it a little bit as the what they're to do, then how they're to do it, and then why they're to do it. That's basically the flow of thought we get in 27 to 30. So let's think first. The call to citizenship. The call to citizenship. This is what they are due to do together.
[00:06:23] Now, verse 27 opens and you notice that little adverb right there only which is accurate. It's a little understated in the esv. If some of you have other English translations, maybe you've got the Christian Standard Bible, right, It reads just one thing.
[00:06:40] Or if you've got the niv, the world's best selling translation, it reads whatever happens.
[00:06:47] Or the new living translation above all else.
[00:06:52] Or as another put it now, the important thing is this.
[00:06:59] So notice what's happening in all those translations. It's picking up on this precious moment that Paul is seeking to grab their attention.
[00:07:08] So I remember when my son William was first taught how to shoot.
[00:07:13] I didn't know a single thing about guns. But I had a friend when we lived in D.C. we were at church together and he worked SWAT for the FBI. I thought, you know what? If there's someone who's going to teach us about guns and gun safety, it's going to be this guy. So I asked him if he'd come over and if he'd show a few things to my son. And so he agreed. And he came by the house and he walked in with this large black duffel bag. And he sets it by right by the dining room table. And he reaches in and he pulls out like a few Glocks and he pulls out a revolver. And I'm like, just guns Just keeping coming out of this bag. And then the last one he pulls is this fully auto, short barreled M4 with this like military grade optic on it. And at the sight of that last gun, like my son's eyes, like grew to Texas.
[00:08:02] Massive eyes. He was just in wonder and amazement. And I'm thinking, oh no, like this is when I have to step in. Not that I was really worried, boy, he was gonna do something, but I saw the need to get his attention. So what did I do? I leaned in, I got between him and that fully automatic M4 and I just leaned down and I put my fingers right around his chin and I gently lifted his chin up to mine and I caught him right in the eyes. And I said, hey, hey, William, like this is important.
[00:08:30] And I'm seeing all these guns here. I'm like, no, no, I need your attention. I need your eyes right here. This is important, this is critical. You need to listen, you need to pay attention.
[00:08:41] This is important stuff.
[00:08:43] And that's basically what Paul is doing here with this opening. He's lifting their eyes to his eyes. He's getting in their face. He's saying, listen, this is important. You know, if it's a coach grabbing the guy by the face mask, right? The football player grabbing him and like, hey, right in his face, right? This is a little more gentle by Paul, but the same idea. He's getting their attention and he's saying, listen up.
[00:09:07] And then he offers the very first command again of the letter. He says, let your manner of life be.
[00:09:13] Now that let is a little soft. We might even read it as a suggestion. You know, Paul's like, take it or leave it. That's actually not at all what Paul's saying. This is no suggestion. This is an exhortation that Paul's giving to them.
[00:09:25] And this verb here, to let your manner of life be, it actually is all kinds of political overtones.
[00:09:32] So embedded in this word is the Greek word polis. Now, if you know that word, it just means city, right? So Indianapolis just means the city of Indiana. Annapolis means the city of Anne, like Queen Anne in England, metropolis just as mater, mother and city, mother, city. It just means like the principal city of an area. All the fun things you learn when you come to a sermon. All right, okay, so Paul's grabbing that and a derivative of that word that speaks to citizenship.
[00:10:04] And so another way to translate verse 27, Paul's saying, Only live as citizens.
[00:10:13] So he's not using the common Jewish metaphor when Paul wants to say live a particular Way. The way he often would do it, was to use the Jewish metaphor of walking. So if you know Ephesians 4:1, Paul says, walk in a manner worthy of your calling.
[00:10:31] That's very similar to what we have here. But he doesn't use that Jewish metaphor. He uses this loaded Roman metaphor of citizenship.
[00:10:40] He's saying, live your earthly lives as citizens.
[00:10:48] Now, why would he do that? Well, there's a small Jewish population we know in Philippi. It's not large.
[00:10:53] And Philippi, well, the founding members of this church, we also know they were Greek and they were Roman. They weren't principally Jewish. And Philippi itself had this great storied history.
[00:11:03] So many of you know Julius Caesar was assassinated. You may not know that his adopted son, Augustus Caesar, sought to pursue those who had orchestrated and planned his assassination. And he pursued them and he fought them, and he beat them at this decisive battle at Philippi.
[00:11:22] And so, in order to celebrate that battle, and that would lead to Augustus Caesar becoming Augustus the first great emperor, well, what would he do? He would declare this city of Philippi a great Roman colony, and with it, all the blessings and privileges of being a unique Roman colony. And so, in many ways, Philippi was a Rome in miniature, and it was settled principally by retired soldiers.
[00:11:50] And so if you're in Philippi, it feels and looks a lot like Rome. And they took great pride.
[00:11:58] They took great honor in being this kind of a city.
[00:12:02] And so Paul grabs this language because he knows how these Philippians care about their Roman heritage, and he wants to remind them that they have a citizenship even greater than that of Rome.
[00:12:18] So I love how the new living translation puts it, above all, you must live as citizens of heaven.
[00:12:27] That's what Paul's getting at at the start of verse 27. Above all, live as citizens of heaven. Paul's saying, listen, I know of all of your pride in this coveted Roman citizenship you have, but live as this great Roman colony of Philippi, live as worthy citizens of an even greater heavenly homeland. He's turning them to that. He's saying, listen, I know you all take pride. Your names are written in these roles in Rome, right? Citizens of this colony. But remember, your names are actually on an even greater list.
[00:13:04] You are part of the assembly of the firstborn enrolled in heaven. Hebrews 12 by grace. Paul is saying, you've been made citizens of this heavenly city. And the guarantor of this city, it's not Nero, it's Christ, the One who alone is Lord, and the One to whom every knee will bow, not To Nero, not to Roman emperor, but Christ the Lord himself.
[00:13:28] You see in that Paul, what has he done? He's got their attention.
[00:13:31] He's grabbed him by the chin.
[00:13:34] Now, when someone visited Philippi, they would observe all of the customs and the practices. And again, it was Roman miniature.
[00:13:43] And part of what Paul's saying is that when someone visits, Paul's saying, you, Philippians, when someone visits your congregation there in Philippi, and when they observe you, your way of life, when they observe your customs and your practices, and they should be reminded of Christ's kingdom, that's what churches are. That's what Jeremy was praying about in the pastoral prayer a few minutes ago. Churches are outposts of Christ's kingdom.
[00:14:12] Churches are little embassies of heaven in a world that refuses to acknowledge his rule.
[00:14:19] And so, by our life together, by our love together, by our labors with one another, we are called to make known in here what life will one day be like up there.
[00:14:33] That's what Paul's calling them to.
[00:14:35] It's what he's calling us to.
[00:14:38] Friends, that is a glorious call.
[00:14:41] That is an awesome charge.
[00:14:44] And frankly, that's a terribly humbling thing, too, is it not?
[00:14:51] In this season, as ubc, right, we have struggled, genuinely struggled, to live this way.
[00:14:57] Some of us may be thinking, like, if this is meant to be an embassy of heaven, I'm not sure I want it.
[00:15:04] Either heaven's not what I hoped it would be, or we're not what we're supposed to be.
[00:15:12] Now, some of you at this point may be asking the question. I'm a bit of a cynic. Sometimes you may be asking yourself, like, did Brad plan this text for this Sunday?
[00:15:24] I didn't plan it this way. I do think the Lord planned it this way. You know, many of you know when I organize my preaching, I just go through different genres of scripture. I was just in the law. I always go from the law to a Pauline epistle. Right? So that was coming up next. So I finished with my Genesis series. I come to a Pauline epistle. There are three I haven't preached from. Romans, Colossians, Philippians, Romans being covered in bti, Colossians, Sunday night. That left Philippians a couple months ago. I planned it to get through to Christmas, and this text landed on this day. I didn't plan it, but I think the Holy Spirit did plan it for us, and he wants us to hear this word.
[00:16:01] He wants to remind us today of all days of our own heavenly citizenship and to bring what will be ours in the future and to seek to bring that by the grace of God in, into our body in the present.
[00:16:17] Will we do it perfectly? Absolutely not. No question about it. Far from it.
[00:16:23] But what is he doing? He's calling us to press in.
[00:16:26] He's calling us to press on and into one another.
[00:16:30] He's calling us not to lose heart.
[00:16:33] He's calling us not to give up, not to throw in the towel, not to become disillusioned, but to double down and to live together as citizens worthy of our heavenly calling.
[00:16:48] And that's what he is calling us to. And as he called the Philippians to it, he's calling us to do that together.
[00:16:55] Now he's going to go on to explain what that looks like in the start of the verses. He's really going to talk about it all the way through 2:18.
[00:17:02] But lest there be any misunderstanding of what Paul means when he says live worthy of the gospel of Christ, Paul doesn't mean live worthy so that you become worthy of the gospel.
[00:17:15] That's how the Greeks and the Romans would have thought about it. That's, you know, how the philosophers thought about it, right, Aristotle, right. He taught that doing constituted being. In other words, a virtuous person becomes virtuous by nature of all their virtuous acts. Right? We do things in order to become something.
[00:17:35] And honestly, that's how many view religion, do righteous things. And if you do enough righteous things, you become a righteous person.
[00:17:42] But actually Paul's saying just the opposite here.
[00:17:45] Paul, for him, being actually precedes doing. In other words, Paul's saying, be today who you already are.
[00:17:56] Be who you are. Let your earthly, I should say your heavenly citizenship. Let that heavenly citizenship, let that affect your earthly steps.
[00:18:06] And friends, there's grace for us in those words.
[00:18:10] God's not saying, hey, heaven awaits you insofar as you don't blow it. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, this is yours now, this citizenship, it's yours. This passport into Christ's kingdom. Well, Christ has already won that for you. He's purchased that passport for you.
[00:18:30] Every blessing, every privilege you have that in Christ, an inheritance, as Peter writes, imperishable, undefiled, unfading. And what does he say about that inheritance? It's kept in heaven for you.
[00:18:45] You know, some people, when they know that they have an inheritance that's about to come their way, well, what do they tend to do? Well, they tend to live it up.
[00:18:54] They live as if that inheritance is already in the account.
[00:18:59] Maybe they get out there and they start buying stuff, they max out the credit card because they're living as if that inheritance is theirs.
[00:19:07] Well, there's a sense in which as Christians, we're actually called to do much of the same thing, live today in light of that heavenly inheritance that awaits us tomorrow. But doing so doesn't mean we just live for us. It means we live for Christ. It means we live for him, for him and for the sake of His Gospel. And that's how we live as Christians.
[00:19:28] You know, if you've come and you're not a Christian, I want you to hear clearly that the worthiness that you need to be and any of us need to be in the presence of God is not a worthiness. It's not a righteousness we ourselves can achieve.
[00:19:44] This is what Christ has won. This is what Christ Himself has purchased.
[00:19:49] On the cross, as we've been singing and praying about today, on the cross, Christ bore the sins of all of those who had turned from their sin and trust in Him. He bore them, and then in his death, he buried them. And in his resurrection, he did away with them so that all of us who would trust in him can know that our sins are forgiven in Christ and we can know newness of life with Him.
[00:20:14] So if you've come and you're not a Christian, but you feel the weight and the burden of your own sins, you don't know what to do with them, Christ says, bring them to me.
[00:20:25] Leave them at the cross. I will put away your sins. And the righteousness you need is the righteousness I supply. And that's how anyone enters the kingdom. And if you have not believed in Christ, I pray that this morning you would believe and give yourself to Him.
[00:20:44] But that brings us secondly to the character of our citizenship. The character of our citizenship. This is like the how. How do we live this out? Now Paul's going to actually grab two images. One is a military image and the other is an athletic image. And it's built off these verbs that follow in verses 27 and 28. So they're called out to live their heavenly citizenship. Verse 27.
[00:21:07] And then Paul writes, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear that you are what that you are. Paul says, standing firm.
[00:21:17] Standing firm. That's the military image, because that word was often used of soldiers.
[00:21:23] A soldier who would stand their ground, a soldier who wouldn't budge an inch. Right. A soldier who doesn't yield, yield at all in his position, but rather holds that position at all. Times costs.
[00:21:37] So during the Battle of the Bulge In World War II, there were some 18,000American troops. They were called to hold a critical road junction to stop the German advance. And these are all members of the 101st Airborne, and they're there trying to hold this junction. And yet the Germans surround them and encircle them. 55,000 odd Germans, 18,000Americans. Germans vastly outnumbered the Americans and they had vast more firepower.
[00:22:07] And the Americans were led by this brigadier general named Anthony McAuliffe. And the Germans demanded, once they encircled, the Americans demanded the Americans surrender.
[00:22:17] And so Brigadier General McAuliffe, he wrote to the German commander and he pretty much had a one word reply, and it's a pretty famous reply, maybe you've heard of it. But he just wrote simply this. He said to the German commander, nuts.
[00:22:35] The American commander, that was his response, nuts. Now, as you can imagine, the German commander is like, I don't even know what to do with that. What is that? What does that even mean?
[00:22:46] Eventually it was explained to him, that means they're not surrendering. And so, not surprisingly, the Germans for four days pounded the American forces, pressed lines repeatedly with attacks.
[00:22:59] But the American lines, the 101st Airborne, they stood firm.
[00:23:04] They held the line, they bent to times they did not break for over 96 agonizing hours, holding on just long enough for General Patton and for his Armored Brigade to come in and begin to break through those German lines and rescue the those American troops and friends. That's the kind of standing firm in the face of great opposition that Paul has in mind. And the you there is plural.
[00:23:31] This is what this Philippian church is to do together in one spirit, Paul says, and with one mind.
[00:23:40] Now, that word spirit can refer to one's inner spirit. It can also refer to the Holy Spirit.
[00:23:48] And when it refers to the Holy Spirit, you put a capital S. Now the esv, obviously, if you see it, it's got a lowercase S. A lot of older translations have that. I actually think there's a good case to be made that Paul's actually referring to the Holy Spirit, which is how the NIV and some newer translations have it. Because when Paul uses this expression elsewhere, like in 1st Corinthians 12, or even in Ephesians 2, or just in a few verses down in Philippians 2, he. He's actually referencing the Holy Spirit.
[00:24:15] And again, it is similar to the argument that we heard Paul make in the scripture reading from Ephesians 2, right in the church, God has done what he's reconciled Jew and Gentile into one new man through Christ, making them what Paul says, making them fellow citizens and now together, united, what do they have? They have access to the Father right through the one spirit. Ephesians 2. That's the holy Spirit. Again, similar language here to Philippians 1, in which case, if it's the Holy Spirit, Paul is reminding the Church that their unity is not first superficial, it is spiritual.
[00:24:58] It is first a spiritual unity bound and tied to the Holy Spirit. It's not finally about their common, shared interests. It's not about desires or preferences. It is actually built about Christ and His Spirit, which they collectively share together.
[00:25:16] So with one Spirit, Paul says, have one mind. They're to be wholly united in person and purpose as Christ and His Spirit are one. And as they possess that Spirit, so they as a congregation, are to be one together.
[00:25:32] Now, friends, sadly, we know churches aren't always united in person and purpose.
[00:25:39] I mean, just think of the verses earlier.
[00:25:42] Paul's in Rome.
[00:25:44] We already thought about the Roman Church. They are not united in person and purpose. The Roman Church, if you recall, they were seeking to afflict Paul the Apostle. They had it out for Paul the Apostle. They were seeking to afflict him. Churches can have differences of opinions, but this unity is what we're to pray for. The this unity, Paul says, is what we're to strive after together, to do our best to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace as our covenant calls us to.
[00:26:15] Friends, this is just a great way for us to continue to pray together as a congregation. We thought a few weeks ago of how God uses prayers to change circumstances. He is sovereign. Yes. And yet he uses our prayers to change our circumstances. And we want to pray that God would use our prayers as we were led by Mike, led by Jeremy, as I trust you've been praying. I've been praying. We've been praying that God would use our prayers to change us, to make us more like what Paul would call us to in Philippians 1.
[00:26:50] Right. This season has revealed we're not as united, not united as deeply certainly, as we had thought or perhaps we had hoped.
[00:27:00] There are gaps in our line.
[00:27:03] Right. We have struggled to stand firm together.
[00:27:08] And if we check our hearts. Right, beginning with mine, and I check my own heart, perhaps some of our unity was more superficial than it was spiritual.
[00:27:18] Perhaps at times we built it more around Christ's servants than Christ himself.
[00:27:23] I'm guilty of that.
[00:27:25] I assume I'm not the only one guilty of that. This verse is a heart check for us. All right. Me, elders, all of us.
[00:27:34] And yet they're not just to stand firm, but notice end of 27. They're also to strive side by side for the faith of the gospel. So here, as we move from the military image to the athletic image, the striving side by side, so military image would resound with, like, former Roman soldiers. This athletic image, which was often used of wrestlers in Greek games. We think of wrestling as an individual sport. For them, it was actually like a team sport. And so this would have been an image used of Greeks wrestling in games. So obviously, Paul's using. He's contextualizing. He's using images for Romans, images for Greeks, and he's saying, hey, listen, fight alongside one another, not against one another.
[00:28:22] Now in chapter four, he's going to do something pretty remarkable. He is going to call out two women in the church, Euodia and Syntyche, and he's going to call him out right by name, which is a pretty risky thing for Paul to do because this letter would be read before the entire church body.
[00:28:41] Imagine being called out by name from the pulpit, right? But for Paul, the stakes were that high, and he's pressing them and calling them to strive together, right, with one another. You know, one of my favorite movies is the movie Miracle. Maybe you've seen it. It's the story of Herb Brooks, the coach of the 1980s American Olympic hockey team.
[00:29:08] And they were heavily.
[00:29:11] They're just the underdogs. You could say the heavy favorites were the Soviets. They were the great underdogs. And yet, miraculously, in the 1980 Olympics there in Lake Placid, they actually beat the heavily favored Soviets. But for a while, if you've seen the movie, you know, the American team was just a splintered mess.
[00:29:27] They had allowed all of their entrenched college rivalries to divide the squad.
[00:29:33] And there's this famous moment in the movie where everything starts to turn and they finally see themselves no longer as players of Boston University or Minneapolis. Those are the fierce rivals at the time, but as actually members of something bigger than merely their collegiate squads.
[00:29:53] And they're able to put all of those college loyalties aside, and they start to play together for something bigger, for America, for Team usa, as members of that group. And in that, everything clicks and they become an unstoppable force, right? You know the story. They beat the Soviets. They go on to win gold. Miracle on Ice. It's an amazing movie. It's a great story. It's a true story, friends. That's a bit of what Paul's calling the Philippian church to. He's calling us to do.
[00:30:24] To do our best, to put our own personal loyalties aside, our own desires, our own preferences as best we can, as hard as that can be. And calling us to strive side by side with one another, with the one spirit playing and focusing on what Christ would have for us.
[00:30:46] Which is going to mean not withdrawing at times, not retreating, not being the turtle in the shell, as I talked about personally last Sunday night, but doing the hard thing and assuming and believing the best in other people who think differently than we do, and pursuing them and loving them right in the present, in Christ, locking arms, moving forward together, one precious step at a time.
[00:31:13] That's what he's calling them to.
[00:31:16] And to do so, Paul says, for the faith of the gospel, so that together we might make the truth of the gospel known.
[00:31:26] Because that is what Paul understands is at stake.
[00:31:30] And Paul knows that's hard. And that's especially hard when a congregation is under pressure, under attack. Which is why he goes on to say, verse 28, that they're not to be frightened in anything by your opponents.
[00:31:43] Now, to be clear, Paul doesn't exactly define here who the opponents are, but these opponents are likely outside the church. These are not, I don't think, opponents in the church. They're opponents outside.
[00:31:54] Because where this word is commonly used elsewhere in the New Testament, it's referring to those outside the church.
[00:32:00] And recall Paul's preaching in Philippi, like when he originally preached and that church was planted. His preaching caused a riot in Philippi. And it wasn't a riot like within the Jews, principally. It was actually against the Romans. And he was thrown in jail by the Roman authorities.
[00:32:17] Again, these Christians would have lived as Romans and Greeks, as exiles and aliens amongst this proud Roman populace.
[00:32:26] Caesar's birth was literally called gospel good news. He was worshiped as Lord. And yet now these Greeks and Romans are now proclaiming a different good news in a different Lord, and they can no longer bow to Caesar.
[00:32:41] You can imagine the ire of the community that they now receive.
[00:32:46] You know, some of you may remember when the American soccer star, the female soccer star Megan Rapinoe, when she famously knelt during the Star Spangled Banner and singing the national anthem, she refused to stand and sing.
[00:33:03] She didn't honor the American flag, but she knelt. And perhaps you remember the way in which the country responded to her or Colin Kaepernick. You can leave a couple examples. Well, you think of that response and how many were angry at that kneeling and that unwillingness to honor the flag in America. Well, just multiply that by like a couple hundred. That's how this community would have felt about these Christians, given their pride in Rome.
[00:33:32] And Paul is saying to them, don't be frightened.
[00:33:37] And now we're back to another military image. This word frightened was used of horses that would get spooked in battle.
[00:33:44] And when they were spooked, they would like turn into a kind of stampede and they would just run like crazy. Paul's saying, don't get spooked, don't panic, don't run.
[00:33:53] So some of you will know Alexander the Great's horse was called Bucephalus, and it was this amazing war horse because this horse was calm under fire and fearless. There's actually still a city in Pakistan named after Bucephalus. Right. Interesting side note again, cities. You're having wonderful news on cities this morning. At any rate, Paul's saying, hey, like, be like that war horse. Like, don't panic, don't run, hold your ground, be fearless.
[00:34:23] You're a citizen of heaven.
[00:34:26] Don't be intimidated. God is in control. That's what Paul's saying.
[00:34:30] And when Christians can stand united, arm and arm, and as that outside pressure mounts on them and they don't break, break and they don't crack, Paul's saying all of that serves as a sign, a kind of two way sign, a sign of your opponent's destruction.
[00:34:50] But he says of your salvation.
[00:34:54] You know, I don't know if you've ever faced opposition from the outside against the gospel and against your own profession of faith, but if you have, I bet there's something in you when that happened, something when you face that mounting opposition that actually confirmed the truth and the goodness of the gospel to your own soul.
[00:35:16] So I remember interviewing for jobs at the end of college. So it's my senior year and I'm interviewing and I've gotten to the last round, the final round for an investment banking job at Credit Suisse First Boston in New York City. And I'm heading up for that final interview and my uncle is a managing partner in London and I send him my resume. I tell him I'm headed up. He looks at my resume. He gets back to me and says, hey, Brad, all that stuff with crew, like Kemp's crusade for Christ at the time, all that stuff you got to take off, all that Bible study stuff, you got to take that off. They're not going to hire you with that on your resume.
[00:35:50] And so I thought, ah, okay, what do I do?
[00:35:53] I could take it off. I mean, there's not everything is on a resume, right? So I mean, I could remove it, but at the same time I'm like, ah, that's so much of who I am.
[00:36:03] And in my own conscience I felt like removing that, taking that off of my resume just so that they would perhaps receive me or think something differently about me. I just didn't feel comfortable doing it, so I just left it on and I went to that interview. And there were a whole round of interviews that day. Needless to say, I didn't get the job.
[00:36:22] I didn't get the job. And it was fascinating because everyone would look at my resume, they'd ask me all kinds of questions about resume, but there is one section no one would touch. And it was all that Jesus stuff, all the Bible study stuff. And I'll never forget the very last interview, the guy got a little belligerent.
[00:36:39] And we're sitting there and in the middle of the interview, toward the end of the day, he just got up and he just walked out of his office and he turned off the lights.
[00:36:47] I'm just sitting in there in a dark office and I'm like, is he coming back?
[00:36:52] What's the plan here?
[00:36:53] Well, he didn't come back.
[00:36:55] So after a few minutes I'm like, well, I think this is over. I think I got my answer. And I just found my way to the elevator and took it to the bottom and just found my way to the subway and took the train back to campus. And that was it. That was the end of it. Didn't get the job. But you know what?
[00:37:10] Weirdly enough, if that's why I didn't get the job, that actually served my soul really well, if I was going, if that was how I was going to suffer for Christ, which is very miniscule in comparison to how many do. But if that's how Christ intended me to suffer for him, well, I was buoyed by that. I actually was encouraged by that. I was reminded in that moment that I'm with Christ.
[00:37:36] God has me, I'm His. This is going to be okay. At the end of the day, I got a job that I was plenty happy with in another part of the country, right? It worked out fine. But that's often how God uses suffering when we stand with him and hold fast to Him a kind of sign that I belong to Him. And that was enough.
[00:37:55] But why live this way, right? We thought about the call, we've thought about the character, the life of our citizenship. Thirdly, the case for citizenship the case. This is the why. Why live this way? Well, Paul tells us, verse 29. For he says, or because it has been granted to you.
[00:38:13] That word granted is literally graced or favored.
[00:38:18] And notice it's passive, meaning Paul saying, we've been graced or favored by someone else.
[00:38:26] Namely Paul saying, God himself, he's the one who's graced us. And how in these verses has God graced us? Well, he's favored us that you should not only what, believe in him, but, but also suffer for him.
[00:38:42] So Paul's saying live this way because it's God's will that he grace you with two gifts, salvation and suffering.
[00:38:53] That's the why, because he's graced in his will. These two gifts to you.
[00:38:59] Now, honestly, the salvation part, we understand that, right? Salvation is a gift of God. He blesses us with it. Ephesians 2, by grace you've been saved, not by works. Right, we get it. But suffering, For Paul to say suffering is a grace gift that comes from God, well, that's the gift we'd like to regift, right? That's the gift we'd like to return.
[00:39:24] We don't think of suffering as a grace gift of the Lord.
[00:39:29] Now, Paul's not saying that we're to seek suffering.
[00:39:33] He's not saying we're to inflict suffering upon ourselves as if somehow suffering will purge us of sin or purify us of sin. I know some teach that. That's not what Paul teaches. In what sense is suffering then a grace gift?
[00:39:46] It's because Paul understands that suffering, when we suffer for the Gospel, it is that which helps to conform us to Christ.
[00:39:55] That which helps to draw and bring us and unite us and make us more like Jesus. And he's going to pray later, an astonishing prayer in Philippians 3, verse 10. He's going to pray that he would know and experience the fellowship of his sufferings. Christ's sufferings being conformed. Paul says to Christ's death.
[00:40:16] Paul prayed for that.
[00:40:19] Friends, I don't know about you, but I don't pray that way. Not like I should.
[00:40:24] I assume I'm not alone in that.
[00:40:27] You know, ancient pagan philosophers thought of suffering as something to extinguish.
[00:40:33] Paul says suffering for Christ as a Christian is what we must embrace.
[00:40:39] But if we're honest, we often think more like pagans than Christians, right? We want the crown without the cross. We forget that this life is a cross shaped life.
[00:40:51] You know, I confess I don't often laugh when I read Calvin, but I actually laughed Reading Calvin this week because he wrote of these verses, he says, oh, if this conviction were fixed in our minds that persecutions are to be reckoned among God's benefits, what progress would be made in the doctrine of godliness?
[00:41:14] For it is the highest honor of divine grace that we suffer for his name either reproach or imprisonment or, or miseries or tortures, or even death. For in that case he decorates us with his insignia.
[00:41:32] But more will be found who will order God and his gifts to be gone rather than embrace the cross readily when it is offered to them. Woe then to our stupidity.
[00:41:46] I think of Calvin as all high and mighty in his theology.
[00:41:49] Calvin basically said, don't be a stupid Christian. That you could summarize it right there. Don't be a stupid Christian. Friends, it's easy to be a stupid Christian. That's the difficulty. It's easy, easy because suffering isn't easy.
[00:42:02] But we will not become more like Christ until we learn to suffer with Christ and for Christ.
[00:42:08] Right again. A cross shaped life. That is what Paul is calling them to the cross being the symbol, right? The symbol of the Christian life. Friends, it's not a recliner.
[00:42:20] It's not a Rolex, it's not a flat screen. It's not a first class ticket. It's not plush golf courses like posh galas. It's not that those can be a part of the Christian life. I'm not saying any of those things inherently are wrong, but they are not the thing to which we aim and strive after in the Christian life.
[00:42:42] And far from a sign that suffering is God's abandoning of you, Paul is saying this is Christ and a sign that he is with you.
[00:42:54] It's the road Paul walked and it's the road he calls us to walk with him. That's where he closes. In verse 30 he's saying, Listen, be comforted, because recognize the same thing to which Christ calls you is how he has called me. Me. We're partners in this together, friends. We open by thinking of all the ways in which our earthly citizenship can be obvious, right? We don't need a passport.
[00:43:18] We don't need a passport, right? The kilt, the accent, the request for ice and a free refill, right? That often tells everyone where we're from. It's a dead giveaway, friends. What should be the dead giveaway?
[00:43:32] That we're citizens of heaven.
[00:43:36] Paul says it's our earthly conduct.
[00:43:39] It's our earthly conduct in here that reveals our heavenly citizenship.
[00:43:45] How like soldiers, we stand firm at our post united in the one Holy Spirit, serving together with one mind.
[00:43:53] How like an athlete, we strive arm in arm, side by side with one another, where we're able to lay aside personal loyalties that often define us. Lock arms about something bigger and greater. Living, laboring, loving one another after Christ as we keep him central.
[00:44:13] So that when opposition from the world comes, and it comes, we don't bolt like a panicked horse because God has graced us not only with salvation but suffering, that we may become like him in order that we may one day be with Him.
[00:44:31] That is the heavenly citizenship he calls us to.
[00:44:35] Friends, is this what we aim to be?
[00:44:40] Is this what the world will begin to see?
[00:44:46] Let's pray.
