Tag: citizenship

PHILIPPIANS #6: CITIZENS OF THE GOSPEL

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Philippians, Podcast, Religion, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

We are called, first an foremost, to live as citizens of the gospel of Jesus Christ, in a way that shows the rest of the world that Jesus is worthy. That includes being “family” to one another, sticking with each other throughout all the ups and downs, and also it includes suffering as we “fight the good fight of faith.”

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Philippians #6. Philippians 1:27-30

27 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, 28 and not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. 29 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, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. (Philippians 1:27-30, ESV)

Translation is always tricky, because some languages have words that don’t really exist in other ones. In verse 27, “let your manner of life” is one word, “citizen,” but as a verb. It would be sort of like: “Citizen in a way that is worthy of the gospel of Christ.” I draw this out because it was important to the first readers of this letter. Remember, the city of Philippi was a Roman colony. A citizen of Philippi was a citizen of Rome. This was a big deal to most of the people who lived in Philippi. They would have been quite proud of their status as citizens of Rome. But Paul reminds the Christians there that they are, before anything else, citizens of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. The way they are to “citizen” is to be worthy of the good news of Jesus Christ. The New Living Translation does pretty well with this:

27 Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. (Philippians 1:27, NLT)

The CSB also gets at the citizen idea, but most other translations don’t. I think this is very relevant also to Americans in the 21st century. When Philippians was written, the preeminent world power was Rome. They were proud Romans. Today, the preeminent world power is the United States. I know a lot of people are proud to be American. That’s not wrong, in its place. But as Christians, our first citizenship, our primary citizenship is as the people of Jesus Christ. Our first concern should be how to live as good citizens of the gospel. It is not the same thing as being citizens of Rome or citizens of America. If and when there is a conflict between the two, we need to remember that our primary citizenship is with Jesus.

I see both conservative and progressive Christians getting this wrong all the time. Conservatives sometimes think that being American and being Christian are the same thing, and there is no conflict between the two. But at times, the gospel calls us to a different kind of life than America does. Sometimes, people think that being patriotic about America automatically is the same as being a good Christian. At other times, people who are confused about this try to use government to accomplish some of the purposes of the gospel. They want the government to outlaw abortion, and to recognize public prayer and the ten commandments and so on.

On the other hand, progressives also seem to be confused about it. Right now there are a lot of more progressive Christians pointing out that the Bible teaches us to welcome immigrants and foreigners. It does indeed. I do believe we Christians should extend kindness and generosity to immigrants and refugees, because in doing so, we show them practically that God loves them. However, there is a huge difference between showing kindness to refugees on the one hand, and actively interfering with government agents who are lawfully doing their duty. My point is this: Christian nationalism exists on both the right and left sides of the political spectrum. But we are not primarily called to live as Americans who happen to be Christians. We are called to live first and foremost as Christians who happen to live in America. Our true citizenship is in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Should we Christians oppose abortion? Yes. Should we welcome immigrants? Also yes. But I think it is a mistake to start thinking that means that our primary call as Christians is to make our government do certain things. We ourselves, as followers of Jesus, should try to help unwed mothers, to give them options other than abortion. We should also be clear about the Bible’s teaching on sex, with the hope of reducing the number of women who become unwed mothers in the first place. But I’m not sure we’re supposed to get the United States government to do it for us. In the same way, we should welcome people who come here from other places, looking for a better life. We should try to lead them to Jesus with our kindness and generosity towards them. But I think it’s a mistake to try and get the government to do this work for us. In addition, there is no country in the world where people from other places are simply allowed to come in, no questions asked. We should not oppose reasonable immigration laws—that does not seem to me to be part of what it means to be a citizen of Christ’s kingdom.

We are called to live our values as citizens of Christ’s kingdom. What our country does or doesn’t do shouldn’t change our commitment to that. We need to be careful not to think that being a good American and being a good Christian are always and automatically the same thing. In fact, we should expect at times that our way of life looks strange to those who do not follow Jesus.

Most especially, we are not called to live for the things everyone else lives for. The American Dream is not the same thing as citizenship in Christ. A lot of people around us live to earn more money, with the goal of getting all the stuff they want to have, and also gaining financial security and leisure  time. While, perhaps, this can be done in a way that is not sinful, we need to be clear that we are called to seek first the kingdom of God, and to not put our hope in wealth.

6 But godliness with contentment is great gain, 7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world. 8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content. 9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
11 But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. 12 Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:6-12, ESV)

And:

17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19, ESV)

To be clear then, even in the New Testament, there were Christians who had a fair amount of worldly wealth, so simply having it is not necessarily a sin. But all of them (and us) are warned not to set our hopes on riches. Of course, this is exactly what so many people do. They spend their lives trying to acquire more because their hopes and dreams are all tied up with wealth. Rich people are warned to hope only in Christ not in their wealth, and to use their worldly wealth to be generous, and for the purposes of Christ. In that way, we build “eternal wealth.” This is part of being a citizen of Christ’s kingdom, rather than the world. We don’t live for more stuff, more money, or more of the dreams that money can buy. That alone will make us look very different from the people around us.

Now, all of this can sound like we have to behave in certain ways in order to be good Christians. But that’s not the point at all. I mentioned this earlier in the series on Philippians: The way we behave as disciples of Jesus can have an impact on what other people think about Jesus. We should not let our lives or behavior become an obstacle to other people following Jesus. We won’t be perfect of course, and part of following Jesus involves being honest about our failures.

Paul particularly wants the Philippians to be “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.”

Reading between the lines, it appears that there was some internal strife in the church at Philippi. He urges them here to be “of one mind, striving side by side.” In chapter two he tells them to be of one accord, and one mind. He tells them to be humble, like Jesus, and to not insist on their own honor. In 4:2, he urges two women: Euodia and Syntyche, to figure out how to get along. Here, his concern is that they present a unified front to the world, and to fear nothing.

I do think we in the 21st century do not really understand how much the culture was communally oriented in New Testament times. Becoming a Christian sometimes meant that you were now cut off from parts of your community. You no longer worshipped with others at the shrine of a false god. Family members might reject you. Your fellow Christians became your family, your “people.” You did life together with others who were citizens of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

I still wish for all of the churches in our Life Together Churches network to become more like this. We need to look beyond just meeting together once a week. We should be involved with each other’s lives. Our house church should be “our people.” We live in an individualistic culture, so this is a bit of a stretch for us, but I do think that when the church is also our “family,” that is a testimony to those who are not Christians. In fact, Paul says as much. He says that when the Philippian believers stand together, with one spirit and soul, without fear, it is a sign to everyone else of the truth of the gospel.

Next, comes verses 29-30:

29 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, 30 engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have.

This is both scary, and comforting. Suffering is a normal part of what it means to be a Christian. Until about eighty years ago, this would not have been considered a very big deal. Virtually everyone in all of the history of the world until about 1950 understood that suffering is a normal part of life. People outside of the Western world still understand this. However, during the past eighty years, huge advances in modern medicine, and technologies of all kinds, have made life much easier. Unprecedented economic growth has led to an unprecedented quality of life. But we are living in an ignorant bubble, compared to the rest of the world, and the rest of history. What is abnormal is to go through life without major suffering. Today’s “baby-boomers” are the first generation in the history of the world to experience life in that way.

Some Christians, who don’t like the talk about suffering, claim that Paul is talking about persecution. After all, he says that the Philippians are engaged in the same conflict that Paul himself is engaged in. Isn’t that persecution? Not exactly. The Greek word for “conflict” in v. 30 is found in only a few other places in the New Testament. It doesn’t necessarily mean persecution. In 1 Timothy 6:12, and 2 Timothy 4:7 Paul used that word to describe “the good fight of faith;” in other words, in a very broad and general way, the “fight” of being a Christian in an ungodly world. The struggle to hold on to Jesus with so many things pulling us away. In Hebrews 12:1, where it says, “let us run the race set before us,” race is the same word. So Paul isn’t talking just about persecution. He is talking about all of the suffering and trials of this life  which we encounter as followers of Jesus. We’ll look at this again when Paul talks about Epaphroditus. Many people suffer. But if we are followers of Jesus, citizens of his Kingdom, all of our suffering is used to draw us closer to him, and to show the world more about him.

It is normal to suffer as we “fight the fight of faith,” living as Jesus-followers in a world that has largely rejected him. This is part of what it means to be a Christian, period. But it is also good news.  There isn’t something “cosmically wrong” when we find ourselves in suffering—this is normal. And thousands of generations of Christians before us have suffered as they follow the Lord, and in doing so provided us with courageous examples.

Let the Holy Spirit speak to you right now through these scriptures.

Revelation #4 GOD’S WORD OVER OUR CIRCUMSTANCES

On By Pastor TomIn Bible, Bible Teaching, Christianity, Jesus, Podcast, Religion, revelation, Sermon, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Hands cupping sun

God has made it so that our identity is that we are truly loved children of God. He has changed our nature from true sinners into truly forgiven and made truly righteous. Our citizenship is in heaven, and our work is as priests of God in everyday life.

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Revelation #4.  Revelation 1:5-8

This is one of those passages that is almost a sermon in itself. I urge you to read verses 5b – 8 out loud, and just listen to the words, and let them sink in. Do that, before you read on.

Now let’s look at verses 5b-6, phrase by phrase:

He who loves us

The Father, who is past present and future; the Son who was martyred for us, was raised from the dead so we could follow, who is ruler over all the earth; The Spirit who is at work in every corner of the world – This majestic, awe-inspiring, all powerful being loves us. We have His attention, his concern. He has chosen to place value on us, in fact, He decided that we are worth dying for. As I undergo uncertainty and struggle and suffering, this word says to me “Don’t ever doubt that I love you. You are precious to me. I have decided it that it is so, and it will not change, no matter what your circumstances look like.”

This is the rallying cry of the entire of Bible.  GOD    LOVES    US.  This is the most important thing we can ever learn. Elsewhere, Paul puts it like this:

31What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything? 33Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the One who justifies. 34Who is the one who condemns?

Christ Jesus is the One who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us.

 35Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 37No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us.

 38For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, 39height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord! (Rom 8:31-39, HCSB)

He has set us free from our sins by His blood.

This is the part that our culture has lost. People all around us are willing to say that God loves us. They also mean (though they don’t say it directly) that God ought to love us, that there is no reason that He should not. It’s almost as if our culture thinks that is what He owes us. This, of course, takes almost all of the power out of God’s love. If He automatically “has to” love everyone, then His love is no more remarkable than the rising of the sun, or the falling of rain. We aren’t particularly special to God if this is true – it’s just a general, impersonal truth.

But that is not the case at all. The Bible teaches that all have sinned, and caused a rift between us and God (Romans 3:23, 1 John 1:8 & 10). That sin is not just a mistake or a weakness – it is a moral evil.

14Rehoboam did what was evil, because he did not determine in his heart to seek the LORD. (2Chr 12:14, HCSB)

Rehoboam, son of Solomon did not determine in his hear to seek the Lord. Therefore, what he did was evil. This is the consistent description of sin in the Bible. It isn’t some little mess up. It isn’t just human failing. It is most definitely not morally neutral. Sin is a moral evil. The root of sin is to turn away from God. Since God is the purest and highest good, anything that turns away from Him is evil. Every single book of the Bible affirms this in many ways.

We have all turned away from God, committed moral evil against Him. Yet his love is so great, that

He sacrificed himself, shed his own blood to atone for the moral evil that we have all done. He chose to love us. Romans 5:6-11 puts it like this:

6For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. 7For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! 9Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. 10For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life! 11And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now received this reconciliation through Him. (Rom 5:6-11, HCSB)

This reconciliation is offered to all, but not everyone chooses to receive it. It isn’t universal, since many people reject the idea that we are sinners, that we need forgiveness, and that Jesus has provided it for us.

18For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things. (Philippians 3:18-19)

We must believe that we need forgiveness for sin, and receive it in faith. When we do, He sets us free from those sins. They don’t have to have any more power in our lives.

And made us a kingdom

This part would be easy to skip over, but it is very important. We, who have received God’s forgiveness and love through faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus are a kingdom. This is one of the major themes of the book of Revelation. What it means is that we are first and foremost citizens of God’s kingdom. My allegiance to the Kingdom of God is greater than my allegiance to any earthly country, society or group. This has always been true of God’s people. The author of Hebrews writes about early heroes of the faith:

13These all died in faith without having received the promises, but they saw them from a distance, greeted them, and confessed that they were foreigners and temporary residents on the earth. 14Now those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. 15If they were thinking about where they came from, they would have had an opportunity to return. 16But they now desire a better place — a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. (Heb 11:13-16, HCSB)

I shared Philippians 3:18-19 above. But the next part is for those who do receive the work of Jesu through faith:

18For I have often told you, and now say again with tears, that many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their end is destruction; their god is their stomach; their glory is in their shame. They are focused on earthly things, 20but our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. 21He will transform the body of our humble condition into the likeness of His glorious body, by the power that enables Him to subject everything to Himself. (Phil 3:18-21, HCSB)

This also means that my fellow-citizens of heaven are my co-patriots, even before my fellow-citizens of any earthly country:

19So then you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints, and members of God’s household, (Eph 2:19, HCSB)

In my travels overseas, I have seen this again and again. It is a powerful experience to worship in a foreign land with people from dozens of other countries. It demonstrates the reality of the fact that we who believe are first and foremost citizens of Heaven.

– Priests to His God and Father

We are a kingdom, and not only that, we are a kingdom of priests. I know that sounds boring to most people. However, at the time this was written, the concept of a priesthood was very different from today. Priests at that point in time could marry and raise families (in fact they were expected to). There are several important things about the priesthood that I think John wanted us to understand, and they may not be the things we expect.

First, is that it was priests – and only priests – who were allowed to go into the sanctuary where they believed God’s presence lived. Since Jesus, however, we are all priests in the sense that we can all enter into the presence of God. You don’t need a pastor to mediate between you and God anymore. He has made you a priest in the sense that you can be in God’s presence without someone else making a sacrifice on your behalf.

Next, it was priests who were set aside to serve God. But now, we are all called to serve God, even if we don’t do it officially by vocation. Peter writes about this, in his first letter:

5You yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1Pet 2:5, ESV2011)

9But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. (1Pet 2:9-10, ESV2011)

You are no longer ordinary. Through Jesus, God has made you holy and set you apart, like a priest. True, He calls relatively few people to serve Him with their full-time jobs, but He calls each one of us to serve Him with our full-time lives. I’ve been to parties – especially here in Nashville among music-industry people – where someone says to me, “You’re the first pastor I’ve ever spoken to.” That makes me sad, and not just because of the bad grammar. However, those people have probably spoken to other Christians with whom they work. Many, many people will never talk to a pastor like me, but they work alongside people like you. You are all servants of God. By your actions, prayers and by what you say, you serve God among people in ways that full-time ministers often do not. You are a priest where you work, and in your family, and in your neighborhood.

Some other things about priests. You no longer need someone else to mediate your relationship with God. You can (and should) pray to him directly – you don’t need to have a pastor to pray for you, though most of us are happy to agree with you in prayer. You can (and should) read the Bible yourself. Though it is important to check your interpretations against trained Bible teachers, most of the Bible is easy to understand, at least in the most important points. You will nourish your soul by reading it for yourself.

I will leave you to meditate on verses 7-8 yourself. They reiterate the certainty that Jesus will return in power and that God is in control of all history, past, present, and future.

What is the Lord saying to you today? Which of these phrases will stick with you through the coming week? Ask the Holy Spirit to keep applying His Word to your life now.