Walk Like a Citizen of Heaven

Preached at Cornerstone Church in Cascade, IA on April 19, 2015.

Open your Bibles to Philippians 3:17-21. Today we will pick up where we left off last week and continue our discussion regarding our destiny. If you recall, last week we saw that we, as followers of Christ, are to press on, and strain forward, for the goal of becoming like Jesus Christ. This goal is the preeminent, the supreme, the primary goal for all disciples of Christ. We, the servants, are to become like our Master. This is our purpose, this is our calling, this is our destiny. The reason that I say it is our destiny is because of what is found in Romans 8:29-30.

• Romans 8:29-30“For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.”  
  
  

Before Creation, before the foundation of the Earth, before time itself, the all-knowing, all powerful, eternal Sovereign God knew us, not intellectually, but relationally. And this God all-knowing, all-powerful Sovereign God determined our destiny. What is that destiny? To be conformed to the image of his Son. Our destiny is to be like Jesus. This is what we are pursuing, hunting down, straining towards, Christ-likeness. It is with this foundation under us that we read our text today.

• Philippians 3:17-21 – “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us. 18For many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.”
  
  

The Pattern of Paul

In verse 17 we see Paul say, “Brothers, join in imitating me.” If you were to have read this verse in isolation, you could have mistakenly thought that what Paul is saying is that Christians should aspire to be Paul, that Paul is the goal in which we press on, or strain towards. However, as we have seen, this is not what Paul means by saying “join in imitating me.” For Paul tells us that our ultimate goal should be to become like Christ, not Paul. In fact, this was a point of contention in the Church in Corinth.

• 1 Corinthians 1:11 – “For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there is quarreling among you, my brothers. 12What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.” 13Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?“
  
  

Paul does not desire to have his own disciples, he desires to have brothers. His appeal to his brothers in Philippi is not to become like Paul, but his appeal is to become like Jesus by the pattern in which Paul has lived out. The imitation that Paul is calling the Church in Philippi to practice is a imitation of means, not an imitation of ends. Paul is saying that in your pursuit of Christlikeness follow my example. So what example has Paul laid out for his brothers in this letter? Let us look at some of them now.

• Philippians 1:1 – Paul considers himself, first and foremost, a slave of Jesus. His life is not his own. Jesus is truly His Lord.
  
  
• Philippians 1:3 – Paul loves his fellow partners in the Gospel. He is in constant prayer for them and always thanking God for their presence in his life.
  
  
• Philippians 1:6 – Paul has faith in the powerful grace of Christ to carry all Christians across the finish line into eternity.
  
  
• Philippians 1:18 – Paul rejoices in the preaching of Christ, and Paul himself preaches Christ no matter what his circumstances or the consequences are.
  
  
• Philippians 1:23 – Paul’s desire is to depart from this earth so as to be with Jesus, for Jesus is far better than anything this world has to offer.
  
  
• Philippians 2:2 – Paul finds joy in the unity of the Church around the person of Jesus and by the Power of the Holy Spirit.
  
  
• Philippians 2:17 – Paul is other oriented, living a life poured out for others, like a drink offering upon their faith in Christ.
  
  
• Philippians 2:20 – Paul has genuine, authentic, strong relationships with Christian men. Men that he depends on, men that he loves, men that goes to war with the glory of Christ.
  
  
• Philippians 3:3-8 – Paul puts no confidence in the flesh to save his soul, and counts all of his work to earn salvation as garbage. He stand on Faith alone, Grace alone, Christ alone.
  
  
• Philippians 3:9 – Paul sees Jesus Christ as the greatest treasure in all the Universe
  
  
• Philippians 3:12 – Paul’s ultimate goal in life is to become like Jesus, not that he has obtained it, but he presses on, and strains to become his destiny and be conformed to Jesus Christ.
  
  

When Paul says, “Brothers, join in imitating me” he is appealing to his family to implement an all encompassing pattern of their life that revolves entirely around Jesus. And as Paul does this, he is not doing it as a professor lording over them, but as a sinner with tears in his eyes. What Paul wants more than anything for the Church is for everyone to be moving towards Jesus.

Therefore, the question each of us must ask ourselves is, does the pattern of our life match that of Pauls? Are we entirely oriented around the person of Jesus Christ. Are we his slave? Do we preach Jesus at all times? Is He our Greatest Treasure? Is He our greatest goal? Does our manner of life, match the gospel that we claim to have embraced? Or does our life, instead pattern the world?

Pattern of the World

In our text, we see Paul give two options. You can join in imitating me, and pick up your cross and follow Jesus, or you can walk as enemies of the Cross. Those are your choices. You have to pick one of the other. There is no fence sitting when it comes to Jesus.

So let us ask, who is an enemy of the Cross of Christ. First, we must realize that Paul is not talking about obvious enemies. He is not talking about people who hate Jesus, who deny God, who live radically sinful lives. Are these people enemies of Christ, yes, but that is not who Paul is talking about, because there is no need to warn Christians about those types of enemies.

The enemies that Paul is talking about are wolves in sheep's clothing. Those people who calim to be Christians, but are not. They are the ones, that are covert enemies, and they are ones that have a potential to lead true Christians in the wrong direction. They are enemies that have their own examples of how to follow Christ, and Paul is telling the Philippians not to follow their example. So what do theses enemies look like?

First, we are told their end is destruction. What does this mean? It means that they are not saved. This is important. In all local churches you will have the saved and unsaved. This is true for Philippi and for Cornerstone. Just because someone attends Church, it does not mean they are going to heaven. Here are some examples.

IN Matthew 7, Jesus tells us directly that there will be some people in the Church who have never been saved.

• Matthew 7:21-23 - “21“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ 23And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’
  
  

And then there is Judas. He was one of the 12, but he was never saved. Listen to what Jesus says in John 17:12 during his High Priestly prayer.

• John 17:12 - “While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.“
  
  

Another example is Ananias and Sapphira. They were a married couple who were part of the early Church, but they were never saved. The ended up lying to the Holy Spirit and God killed them. If you are interested in this story, you can read about it in Acts 5.

The point I want to make is this, don't assume that just because some claims to be a Christian, that they truly are a Christian. You must use discernment before you follow them on facebook, purchase their book, read their blogs. My guess is that on judgment day, many “Christian” authors are going to be saying, “but Jesus, we wrote many books, and made a lot of money in your name.” and Jesus is going to say, “depart from me, I never knew you.”

The second thing we see is Paul describing as enemy as someone whose God is their belly. Who are these people? Most likely these people are Judiazers. Remember them? These are the people who say they love Jesus, but tell everyone that you have to keep the Jewish traditions. One of those traditions were the dietary laws. These people said that unless you eat the right food, or unless you abstain from the right food, you will not be saved. Instead of serving Christ, they are serving their stomachs. They have placed their faith in tradition, not in Christ, and this is why their glory is their shame. They wrongly put confidence in the flesh to eat their way into God's presence, but in the end what that produces is nothing but the shame of their self-centered worship.

Lastly, we see Paul describe enemies of the cross as those who set their minds on earthly things. Now this is where some of you will start to get uncomfortable, for God is speaking directly to you. What does it mean to set your minds on earthly things? Let's use some text to understand this?

• James 4:4 - “You adulterous people!c Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
  
  
• 1 John 2:15 - “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.
  
  
• Luke 14:33 - “So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.”
  
  

What do these text tell us? They tell us exactly what I told you before. Following Christ is not about adding something to your life, it is about laying down everything to grab hold of Christ. If you do not let go of the world, you cannot grab hold of Christ.

• Matthew 6:24 - ““No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
  
  

Many of you are attempting to serve Christ and serve this world. You claim to follow Christ. You claim to be his disciple. You claim to believe in Jesus. You claim to be a Christian, but you spend you days serving this world. Your eyes are focused, not on Christ, but on success, money, the TV, hobbies, your job, facebook, clothing, etc. You claim to love Jesus, but your life displays a love for the world. Christ calls for devotion to him, you are are cheating on him with the world. You have a friendship with the world. You have not renounced all that you have. You are continuing to serve two masters. You have set your minds on earthly things, and the end of of this pattern of your life is not happiness, it is destruction. Many of you who are sitting here are what Christ calls lukewarm Christians, which is really no Christian at all. Listen to what Jesus says.

• Revelation 3:15 - “I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were either cold or hot! 16So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. 17For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.” 
  
  

These people Jesus is speaking to are churchgoers, yet their works, which Christ is intimately aware of, even more than they are themselves, display that they are not followers of Christ, they are wretched, pitable, blind, and naked. These are not characteristics of someone who is forgiven, joyous, enlightened, and clothed in the righteousness of Christ.

Walk Life a Citizen of Heaven

And Paul is telling us not to follow their lead, don't be lukewarm. Resist the temptation to purchase cheap grace. Refuse to be a friend of the world. Do not follow them into the pit of their destruction. Do not walk as an enemy of Christ, but instead walk as a citizen of Heaven.

Live your life as if this is not your home, as if you are a sojourner just passing through. Do not put your hope in the things of this world, put you hope in God. Live as if you truly believe. Live as if Jesus is your greatest treasures. Live a life that is worthy of the Gospel that you have received. Live as if you have no fear. Live radically for Jesus Christ. Live like Paul lived who said, “To live is Christ, and to die is gain.” We must never forget what lies ahead of us and is spoken in verse 20 and 21, “the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself.” This is what we are moving towards, so imitate Paul's pattern of life and become what you already are.

The reality is this, every Church has a culture. What will be ours? Will we be lukewarm? Will we be friends with the world? Will be be enemies of the cross, or will be imitate the pattern of Paul and walk like citizens of heaven.