Sermon from 6th July 2008
Today, Trevor Tayleur, one of our Lay Readers, preaches based on the passage from Philippians 3:12-21
New Ambitions 2
Those of you who were here last week will have noticed that today’s reading from Philippians is exactly the same as last Sunday’s. Now I was momentarily tempted to preach the same sermon as John did last Sunday in the hope that no one would notice, but decided actually that wouldn’t be a good idea. I would be caught out when I started to sing the praises of Kenyan long distance athletes! But of course the real reason for not preaching the same sermon is that the decision to have two sermons on this passage wasn’t a mistake, but a deliberate one. One sermon isn’t enough to do justice to this passage. And I’m going to build on one of John’s points from last Sunday.
As John explained, Philippi was a Roman colony, and many of its residents were Roman citizens. Being a Roman citizen carried with it many privileges, but Christians have dual citizenship. For the Christians in Philippi, their utmost allegiance wasn’t to the Roman emperor, but to another Lord, Jesus Christ. Christians are also citizens of heaven, and so the Christians in Philippi were to function there as a colony of heaven in a Roman outpost.
When you think of colonies, what thoughts come to mind? Britain was of course once a great colonial power, ruling large parts of Africa, Asia, America and the Caribbean. But today colonialism gets a bad press. When we think of colonists, we think of people who left their home countries, sailed off to far away countries and then took over the land, with scant regard for the indigenous people. The truth is probably a bit more complex than that. Many colonists had good motives, but I think it’s fair to say that colonies were set up to the benefit the home country, rather than the colonies. And that was also true for the Roman colony in Philippi.
Rome fought many wars very successfully, but there was a problem. What should be done with the soldiers when they weren’t needed for fighting any longer? The answer was to set up colonies in places like Philippi, in Greece, and to give the ex-soldiers land there. The original inhabitants mightn’t have liked it, but that was tough. So Philippi attracted ex-soldiers and their families, and developed as a Roman colony. The Roman colonists were Roman citizens, something of which they were very proud, and they tried to model their lives on the way things were done in Rome. And this included worshipping the Roman emperor as Lord and Saviour. And it was in that context, to draw a contrast with Roman citizenship, that Paul wrote in vs 20, “But our citizenship is in heaven.” In other words, we are citizens of heaven.”
What does it mean to be citizens of heaven? I suspect many Christians today misunderstand what being citizens of heaven means. It’s very easy to think that it means that heaven is where we belong, and in this life we’re simply waiting for the time when we can go and live there. But that’s not what Paul meant.
The Roman citizens in Philippi owed their allegiance to Rome, but the last thing that the Roman Emperor wanted was for them to go to Rome and actually live there. Their task was to develop Philippi as a Roman colony, and to strengthen Roman influence and culture there. Something similar happened in the history of British colonialism. The first major British settlement in South Africa took place in 1820. In 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, Wellington defeated Napoleon and his French army, but after the war was over, times were tough in Britain. There was a lot of unemployment, and so the British government persuaded 4,000 people to emigrate to South Africa which had just become a British colony. Their task was to create a piece of Britain on the African continent. They remained British citizens; they still called Britain home, and so did their children and grand-children, but their tickets were one-way. Very few of them ever returned home.
And for those of us who are Christians, citizens of heaven, our task is to establish a colony of heaven here on earth. There is, of course, a crucial difference between the colony of heaven and the Roman colony in Philippi or the British colony in South Africa. The colony of heaven is to serve the local inhabitants and to encourage them to become citizens of heaven as well. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” As citizens of heaven, our job is to do our best to make sure that God’s will is done on earth, to help to answer that prayer.
Thinking again about the Roman colonists in Philippi – what was in it for them? How did they benefit from being Roman citizens? Suppose there was trouble in Philippi, and there was a local uprising against the Roman colonists. Then the full might of Rome would be unleashed; the Roman legions would march in and suppress the rebellion. And indeed that’s what happened in South Africa. The 1820 Settlers faced a lot of opposition from the Africans living in the area where they settled, and the British army was sent in to quash the resistance. The Roman emperor and the mother country were ready to rescue their citizens in the colonies.
Now we in the church, as citizens of heaven, often struggle. We face difficulties and sometimes opposition; some Christians face persecution. We often feel weak and tired. Now, unlike the Roman or British armies, God isn’t going to intervene militarily on our behalf! But the God we believe in is the creator of the whole universe. He is infinitely more powerful than the Roman legions that dominated the world in Paul’s time. He is infinitely more powerful than all the armies of the world combined. But God’s power is a different sort of power, as Paul so graphically describes in verses 20-21. When Jesus was crucified, his body was cruelly tortured and he died. But Jesus rose from death; his body was transformed so that it became astonishingly alive again with a life that death can never destroy. And Paul tells us that Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, will do the same for us. He is going to come from heaven, and transform this world, so that it will be full of his glory and love and of the power of heaven. And as part of that process, Jesus is going to transform our own bodies, to make them like his own glorious body. Knowing this will enable us to stand firm in the Lord, as Paul declares at the start of the next chapter. In vs 1 of Chapter 4 Paul writes, “(T)hat is how you should stand firm in the Lord.”
For the Philippians, standing firm in the Lord meant giving their allegiance to Jesus as their one true Lord, and not to the Roman emperor. When Paul wrote about being citizens of heaven, the Philippians would have realised that Paul was contrasting it with Roman citizenship. And the challenge that Paul was setting down to them was to work out what it meant to give their primary loyalty to heaven, and not to Rome, and how to serve Jesus as Lord, and not the Roman emperor. But in working out what it meant, they also had the promise that one day Jesus will return, bringing the life and rule of heaven to earth in all its fullness. And the challenge for us is to work out what it means to be a citizen of heaven in 21st Century London.
However, Paul has made clear it earlier in the chapter that being a citizen of heaven isn’t just a matter of looking to what Jesus will do in the future. It starts very much in the here and now. “Join with others in following my example, brothers,” Paul writes in vs. 17. And how are Christians to follow Paul’s example? Paul has also described how he gave up the privileges of his birth. A few weeks ago Gill explained how Paul gave up his family, friendships and freedom to know Jesus and his power. In verses 4-11 he describes how he gave up all his privileges to know Jesus. He considered his privileged background as mere rubbish, so that he could gain Christ. Now, most of the Philippians couldn’t follow Paul’s example exactly, as they didn’t share his background. But they had to work out what it meant to owe their primary allegiance to Christ, rather than to the Roman emperor. And we to need to think out what it means to owe our primary allegiance to Christ in a society where there are so many other competing claims for our loyalty.
And Paul also gives a warning. As we try to work out what it means to be a citizen of heaven, we need to take note of Paul’s warning in verses 18-19.” For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”
So, who are these enemies of the cross of Christ? Paul tells us three things about them which show that their ambitions are very different from those of the citizens of heaven. The first is that their god is their stomach. Their appetites dictate their lifestyles. God has made us to enjoy the physical side of life – good food, music, sex, exercise, clothes and sport. God isn’t a kill-joy. He wants us to enjoy life, but within the boundaries he has set. The problem arises when the so-called good things of life become our idols, and displace God. With the economy getting worse, perhaps some of the worst excesses are beginning to subside, but for many people life is simply about pleasure. Just read many modern magazines; their pages are devoted to physical pleasure of one sort or another – sex, perfume, food, drink and jewellery. They are all about the body, about physical pleasure, about self-indulgence. What is our ambition? Is it to put God first, or is it to pursue the pleasures of this world?
The second thing that Paul tells us about these enemies of the cross is that their glory is their shame; they boast when they should blush. I’m sure we’ve all heard people boasting about things when they should really be ashamed – boasting about how much they drunk the night before, or their sexual conquests, or how they conned money out of an insurance company or evaded paying their taxes. They may have achieved their ambitions and think they are very clever, but they have achieved nothing. They are chasing after false idols.
And the third thing about these enemies of the cross is that their minds are locked into this world. Paul writes at the end of vs.19, “Their mind is on earthly things.” This echoes what Jesus said in the Gospels. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What are our ambitions? To get to the top in this life – to make lots of money, to be a celebrity? Or is it to live as citizens of heaven, knowing that it is the things of God that have lasting value.
Our citizenship is in heaven. Or is it? Are we first citizens of heaven, or are we first British citizens, or Kenyan, or South African or Barbadian? Where does our ultimate loyalty lie?
Let’s pray.
Lord, Thank you that we are citizens of heavens. Help us to be worthy of our citizenship, to live as your true followers in the colony of heaven that you have put on earth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
New Ambitions 2
Those of you who were here last week will have noticed that today’s reading from Philippians is exactly the same as last Sunday’s. Now I was momentarily tempted to preach the same sermon as John did last Sunday in the hope that no one would notice, but decided actually that wouldn’t be a good idea. I would be caught out when I started to sing the praises of Kenyan long distance athletes! But of course the real reason for not preaching the same sermon is that the decision to have two sermons on this passage wasn’t a mistake, but a deliberate one. One sermon isn’t enough to do justice to this passage. And I’m going to build on one of John’s points from last Sunday.
As John explained, Philippi was a Roman colony, and many of its residents were Roman citizens. Being a Roman citizen carried with it many privileges, but Christians have dual citizenship. For the Christians in Philippi, their utmost allegiance wasn’t to the Roman emperor, but to another Lord, Jesus Christ. Christians are also citizens of heaven, and so the Christians in Philippi were to function there as a colony of heaven in a Roman outpost.
When you think of colonies, what thoughts come to mind? Britain was of course once a great colonial power, ruling large parts of Africa, Asia, America and the Caribbean. But today colonialism gets a bad press. When we think of colonists, we think of people who left their home countries, sailed off to far away countries and then took over the land, with scant regard for the indigenous people. The truth is probably a bit more complex than that. Many colonists had good motives, but I think it’s fair to say that colonies were set up to the benefit the home country, rather than the colonies. And that was also true for the Roman colony in Philippi.
Rome fought many wars very successfully, but there was a problem. What should be done with the soldiers when they weren’t needed for fighting any longer? The answer was to set up colonies in places like Philippi, in Greece, and to give the ex-soldiers land there. The original inhabitants mightn’t have liked it, but that was tough. So Philippi attracted ex-soldiers and their families, and developed as a Roman colony. The Roman colonists were Roman citizens, something of which they were very proud, and they tried to model their lives on the way things were done in Rome. And this included worshipping the Roman emperor as Lord and Saviour. And it was in that context, to draw a contrast with Roman citizenship, that Paul wrote in vs 20, “But our citizenship is in heaven.” In other words, we are citizens of heaven.”
What does it mean to be citizens of heaven? I suspect many Christians today misunderstand what being citizens of heaven means. It’s very easy to think that it means that heaven is where we belong, and in this life we’re simply waiting for the time when we can go and live there. But that’s not what Paul meant.
The Roman citizens in Philippi owed their allegiance to Rome, but the last thing that the Roman Emperor wanted was for them to go to Rome and actually live there. Their task was to develop Philippi as a Roman colony, and to strengthen Roman influence and culture there. Something similar happened in the history of British colonialism. The first major British settlement in South Africa took place in 1820. In 1815 at the Battle of Waterloo, Wellington defeated Napoleon and his French army, but after the war was over, times were tough in Britain. There was a lot of unemployment, and so the British government persuaded 4,000 people to emigrate to South Africa which had just become a British colony. Their task was to create a piece of Britain on the African continent. They remained British citizens; they still called Britain home, and so did their children and grand-children, but their tickets were one-way. Very few of them ever returned home.
And for those of us who are Christians, citizens of heaven, our task is to establish a colony of heaven here on earth. There is, of course, a crucial difference between the colony of heaven and the Roman colony in Philippi or the British colony in South Africa. The colony of heaven is to serve the local inhabitants and to encourage them to become citizens of heaven as well. In the Lord’s Prayer we pray, “Your will be done on earth as in heaven.” As citizens of heaven, our job is to do our best to make sure that God’s will is done on earth, to help to answer that prayer.
Thinking again about the Roman colonists in Philippi – what was in it for them? How did they benefit from being Roman citizens? Suppose there was trouble in Philippi, and there was a local uprising against the Roman colonists. Then the full might of Rome would be unleashed; the Roman legions would march in and suppress the rebellion. And indeed that’s what happened in South Africa. The 1820 Settlers faced a lot of opposition from the Africans living in the area where they settled, and the British army was sent in to quash the resistance. The Roman emperor and the mother country were ready to rescue their citizens in the colonies.
Now we in the church, as citizens of heaven, often struggle. We face difficulties and sometimes opposition; some Christians face persecution. We often feel weak and tired. Now, unlike the Roman or British armies, God isn’t going to intervene militarily on our behalf! But the God we believe in is the creator of the whole universe. He is infinitely more powerful than the Roman legions that dominated the world in Paul’s time. He is infinitely more powerful than all the armies of the world combined. But God’s power is a different sort of power, as Paul so graphically describes in verses 20-21. When Jesus was crucified, his body was cruelly tortured and he died. But Jesus rose from death; his body was transformed so that it became astonishingly alive again with a life that death can never destroy. And Paul tells us that Jesus, our Lord and Saviour, will do the same for us. He is going to come from heaven, and transform this world, so that it will be full of his glory and love and of the power of heaven. And as part of that process, Jesus is going to transform our own bodies, to make them like his own glorious body. Knowing this will enable us to stand firm in the Lord, as Paul declares at the start of the next chapter. In vs 1 of Chapter 4 Paul writes, “(T)hat is how you should stand firm in the Lord.”
For the Philippians, standing firm in the Lord meant giving their allegiance to Jesus as their one true Lord, and not to the Roman emperor. When Paul wrote about being citizens of heaven, the Philippians would have realised that Paul was contrasting it with Roman citizenship. And the challenge that Paul was setting down to them was to work out what it meant to give their primary loyalty to heaven, and not to Rome, and how to serve Jesus as Lord, and not the Roman emperor. But in working out what it meant, they also had the promise that one day Jesus will return, bringing the life and rule of heaven to earth in all its fullness. And the challenge for us is to work out what it means to be a citizen of heaven in 21st Century London.
However, Paul has made clear it earlier in the chapter that being a citizen of heaven isn’t just a matter of looking to what Jesus will do in the future. It starts very much in the here and now. “Join with others in following my example, brothers,” Paul writes in vs. 17. And how are Christians to follow Paul’s example? Paul has also described how he gave up the privileges of his birth. A few weeks ago Gill explained how Paul gave up his family, friendships and freedom to know Jesus and his power. In verses 4-11 he describes how he gave up all his privileges to know Jesus. He considered his privileged background as mere rubbish, so that he could gain Christ. Now, most of the Philippians couldn’t follow Paul’s example exactly, as they didn’t share his background. But they had to work out what it meant to owe their primary allegiance to Christ, rather than to the Roman emperor. And we to need to think out what it means to owe our primary allegiance to Christ in a society where there are so many other competing claims for our loyalty.
And Paul also gives a warning. As we try to work out what it means to be a citizen of heaven, we need to take note of Paul’s warning in verses 18-19.” For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”
So, who are these enemies of the cross of Christ? Paul tells us three things about them which show that their ambitions are very different from those of the citizens of heaven. The first is that their god is their stomach. Their appetites dictate their lifestyles. God has made us to enjoy the physical side of life – good food, music, sex, exercise, clothes and sport. God isn’t a kill-joy. He wants us to enjoy life, but within the boundaries he has set. The problem arises when the so-called good things of life become our idols, and displace God. With the economy getting worse, perhaps some of the worst excesses are beginning to subside, but for many people life is simply about pleasure. Just read many modern magazines; their pages are devoted to physical pleasure of one sort or another – sex, perfume, food, drink and jewellery. They are all about the body, about physical pleasure, about self-indulgence. What is our ambition? Is it to put God first, or is it to pursue the pleasures of this world?
The second thing that Paul tells us about these enemies of the cross is that their glory is their shame; they boast when they should blush. I’m sure we’ve all heard people boasting about things when they should really be ashamed – boasting about how much they drunk the night before, or their sexual conquests, or how they conned money out of an insurance company or evaded paying their taxes. They may have achieved their ambitions and think they are very clever, but they have achieved nothing. They are chasing after false idols.
And the third thing about these enemies of the cross is that their minds are locked into this world. Paul writes at the end of vs.19, “Their mind is on earthly things.” This echoes what Jesus said in the Gospels. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What are our ambitions? To get to the top in this life – to make lots of money, to be a celebrity? Or is it to live as citizens of heaven, knowing that it is the things of God that have lasting value.
Our citizenship is in heaven. Or is it? Are we first citizens of heaven, or are we first British citizens, or Kenyan, or South African or Barbadian? Where does our ultimate loyalty lie?
Let’s pray.
Lord, Thank you that we are citizens of heavens. Help us to be worthy of our citizenship, to live as your true followers in the colony of heaven that you have put on earth. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
posted by Parish Administrator at 12:17 pm
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