[BUMPER: Clip of Dorothy from Wizard of Oz]
There’s no place like home! How many of you have NOT seen that clip before from the Wizard of Oz? Even if you haven’t seen this movie clip before, can we all agree with Dorothy that there’s just no place like home? Listen, you can go on your fancy vacation and even stay at a 5-star hotel but there’s still something special about coming home to your own bed! I remember traveling a lot with Taylor when she was just a baby and Shannon and I used to get the biggest kick in bringing her home and watching her reaction when we placed her back in her own crib. Even babies know that there’s just no place like home.
I want you to hold that thought in your head this morning as you turn to Philippians chapter 3 as we continue on our Joy Ride series with a message titled “This World is Not My Home.” Last week in the beginning of chapter 3, the Apostle Paul built the case that joy does not come from external achievements or religious performance and today, in the last part of chapter 3, he’s going to paint two pictures of joy…the first in a negative light but the second in a positive light.
Philippians 3:17-4:1 (NIV)
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you. 18For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things. 20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body. 1Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!
Have you ever been guilty of a “do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do” style of parenting? You know what I’m talking about…that just as the words are rolling off your tongue (usually in a corrective conversation), you realize just how big of a hypocrite you actually are? Did you know that kids are much more likely to do what they SEE us doing that what we TELL them to do? Fortunately, Paul understood this and the words of his mouth matched up with the words of his life. Remember what he said to the church at Corinth? “Follow me as I follow Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). In his letter to the church at Galatia, Paul said, “Become like me!” (Gal. 4:12). Now here in verse 17 he says, “Join with others in following MY example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.”
Well I told you that Paul paints two pictures in the passage that both have an effect on our joy. The first picture that Paul paints is that:
1. JOY DOES NOT COME FROM EARTHLY THINGS – vs 18-19
Look back at verses 18 and 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.”
These verses introduce us to the enemies of the cross of Christ. The first time I taught this passage, I remember spending a fair amount of time trying to figure out WHO exactly Paul is talking about when he refers to enemies of the cross.
Some teachers believe that Paul was talking about the Judaizers that he had railed about in the beginning of the chapter when he said, “You dogs, you mutilators of the flesh.” If you remember last week, these Judaizers added works – or more specifically, circumcision – to the cross and thus they were the enemies of the cross. So Paul could be referring to the Judaizers.
But I seem to agree with other commentators who think that Paul was referring to a group of Greeks in the church who were more inclined to loose, licentious living than to the legalistic practices of the Judaizers. “Yes we believe in Christ but we want to live anyway we want.” It was enough to JUST believe in Christ and it didn’t matter HOW you lived after that – your Christian life didn’t need to produce good works.
Listen to how that stands in contrast to what Paul describes the salvation process in Ephesians 2:8-10: “ For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
See, Paul always taught that grace plus faith brings us to salvation and that the Christian life then overflows with good works WHICH PRODUCES JOY!
The Judaizers added works to salvation at the wrong point and these Gentile “Christians” subtracted works from salvation at the right point. The Judaizers said you have to have works going in, and the Gentiles said you don’t need works coming out. It’s as wrong to say that there must be works for salvation as it is to say that the cross does not change one’s life and call for a life of obedience. Either way both were acting as enemies of the cross.
Now truth be told, if Paul was here this morning and was to ask, “Who in here identifies as an enemy of the cross?” I don’t think anyone would probably raise their hand…but to insure that none of us gets mistaken as an enemy of the cross, the text seems to identify three different ways that someone could end up in that category. Look back at verse 19: “...their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”
Three ways to identify Enemies of the Cross
a. Their god is their stomach
Some of your versions may say their “god is their appetite.” This means that enemies of the cross live for selfish pleasures. In other words, their only interest is satisfying their selfish desires and appetites. The world of advertising has got this figured about us – that we live for our desires. I heard a statistic once that we spend almost $300 a year for every hour of screen time we average each week. If you average 10 hours a week on television or streaming service with all of its advertising, then you’re going to spend about $3000 a year that you wouldn’t have spent otherwise. The world says grab it now before it’s gone.
“So what are you saying, Chris. Do I have to deny myself anything pleasurable? Is that what it means to be a Christ-follower? Where’s the joy in that? See, that’s not at all what I’m saying. God gave us desires. But when desires go wild, they breed discontentment (we saw this last week) and our life then becomes consumed trying to satisfy these selfish desires which ultimately squeeze any resemblance of joy out of our lives!
Here’s an example that we’ve shared before of what I’m trying to communicate – our desires can be compared to fire. Fire serves a great purpose. Fire in a fireplace gives us warmth (and on a side note – if the flue’s not open, fire gives you smoke…but that’s another story). Fire in a combustion engine gives our cars power. Fire in a fire pit allows us to roast marshmallows. But if the fire is left unchecked, it begins to burn out of control and can consume everything in its path. The same is true of our desires – if left unchecked, if left to their own devices, they will burn out of control and consume everything in their path.
There was an example of this very thing in the news just yesterday. Many of you have probably followed (or at least heard of) the recent exploits of “Aunt Becky,” otherwise known as Lori Loughlin of ABC’s sitcom Full House. Earlier this year, Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli were convicted of bribery and wire-fraud related to their involvement in a nationwide college entrance-exam cheating scandal. Loughlin and her husband had paid $500,000, disguised as a donation, to the Key Worldwide Foundation so that the admissions committee of University of Southern California (USC) would believe their two daughters were elite scholar athletes and would accept them as students. (USC has an acceptance rate of less than 15% and is annually listed as one of the most difficult universities in which to get accepted). The scheme was initially successful with both of their daughters being accepted into the private university.
This past Friday, Loughlin and her husband were both sentenced with fines & community service, and both received prison time. But listen to the judge’s words as Loughlin stood before him during sentencing. “Here you are, an admired, successful, professional actor with a long lasting marriage, two apparently healthy, resilient children, more money than you could possible need, a beautiful home in sunny Southern California – a fairy tale life,” Judge Gorton said. “Yet you stand me before a convicted felon. And for what? For the inexplicable desire to grasp even more.”
And until Loughlin and her husband allow Jesus to reorient the affections of their hearts, they’ll never find true joy because their God is their stomach.
b. Their glory is in their shame
In the original language, the world glory could be best described today using the words “to praise” or “to worship” while the word shame stirs up the imagery associated with “disgrace.” In other words, these enemies of the cross worshipped the very things by which they should have been disgraced. Sadly, this is an all-too accurate description of our current society.
Things that used to be shameful are now glorious. How many of you can remember when the raciest thing on TV was Elvis Presley and his swaying hips? Do you remember on I Love Lucy how they always showed Lucy and Ricky sleeping in different beds? There are things on prime time television now that 25 years ago you would have had to sneak into a movie theater to see.
Now listen, it doesn’t take a lot of guts to stand up here and rail against culture – so let’s be careful not to condemn culture without looking in the mirror and examine the things that we may have let sneak into our homes. This past Thursday, I read Romans 13 as part of my morning devotions: 14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. This was a wake-up call for me, in light of studying for this very message, to step back and examine my own life…am I making provisions for the flesh in the things I watch, the websites I surf, the social media posts I gravitate towards? Am I sometimes, even unknowingly, letting my guard down and allowing culture to push shameful things into my view and attention and allowing them to gratify my sinful desires?
See, these licentious Greeks were boasting in their supposed “freedom” when in reality they were slaves to their lust. The cross hadn’t changed their lives and a “changed life” should be one of the identifying marks of a new believer. They were boasting about the very things that they should have been ashamed of – they’ll never find lasting joy because their glory is in their shame.
c. Their mind is on earthly things
One form this takes in our day is our emphasis on how Christ can make you happy, not joyful, but happy in the here and now. He can give you lots of friends and a happy marriage. He can solve all your problems. So people come to Jesus and find out that they have trials and persecutions, as the Bible clearly promises, so they bail out (we’ve all seen it). Obviously, we all have earthly things that consume our time and energy: jobs, bills to pay, houses to maintain, family problems, health problems, etc. But my point is that a Christ-follower should never put earthly comfort and happiness at the center of this life. We studied this very thing a few weeks back when we studied heaven more closely. We should put Christ and our hope of being with Him in heaven at the center, and that enables us to deal properly with the earthly problems that we encounter here on this side of eternity. Setting our minds on Christ and the things ABOVE, not on earthly things (Colossians 3), is the key to dealing with sin and relational problems. Why don’t we have more joy? Because our mind is on earthly things!
Well, I would imagine that at this point in his letter, Paul had everyone’s attention. And of course, no one wants to be identified as an enemy of the cross…so what now? If joy’s not found in the things of earth, then where do we go from here…because this is all we know? But Paul anticipates this question and so he begins painting another picture that says…
2. JOY IS FOUND IN OUR HEAVENLY CITIZENSHIP – vs 20-21
20But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
…But our citizenship is in heaven. Now this is where I get stirred up and I’m probably going to break all the rules on preaching because I’m going to launch into a quick history lesson (I know I just lost some of you but bear with me while I give you a one-minute background on this passage). So Paul says, “But our citizenship is in heaven.” This analogy would have ESPECIALLY resonated with the Philippians. Philippi was a Roman colony located almost 800 miles east of Rome. Most of the territory surrounding Philippi was under Rome’s control but their residents lacked Roman citizenship. But Philippi was different than these other territories – Philippi was the area that many Roman soldiers retired to and so Rome actually allowed those who lived in Philippi to have legal status as Roman citizens. They were governed by Roman laws and more importantly they practiced Roman customs. Those that owned property in Philippi actually owned Roman soil. In fact, a Roman could travel from Rome to Philippi and feel right at home.
To the Philippian Christians that word would jump out at them. CITIZENSHIP – that was very important because Roman citizenship was coveted…sound familiar? It was a citizenship that was unique from the rest of the world at that time. Roman citizenship allowed an individual to vote and hold public office, to own property, to be exempt from many taxes, it gave them the right to sue someone in court, and it gave them the right to a fair trial in which to defend themselves and even gave them the ability to request that Caesar hear their case. Additionally, Roman citizens could not be beaten or tortured unlike those that didn’t have Roman citizenship. In fact, these are all things that we probably take for granted as Americans.
So Paul is saying to these Christ-followers, as great as it is having “Rome” sewn on the back of your jersey – or to us today, as great as it is having “USA” printed on the back of your uniform – that is second-class citizenship compared to the rights that come with placing your faith in Jesus Christ and being a citizen of heaven. You have a higher citizenship than that of Rome. Just as your ROMAN citizenship greatly affects the way you live, even more so your HEAVENLY citizenship should affect how you live. Paul is saying, “Don’t fall into the trap of living as those around you.” Apparently there were some, even in the church, who professed to be Christians, but whose lives revealed the fact that maybe they were more focused on earthly things than in the reality of their heavenly citizenship.
“20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there.” How much joy could we have if we truly lived out of the reality of being citizens of heaven? So here’s a question I want you to ask yourself – Are you more known for being a citizen of earth than of heaven? What do I mean? Maybe this question will help you understand it better – but let me warn you, it’s not an easy question. In fact, it’s one of the hardest questions to be objective about. Here it is – What do you reserve your greatest passion for? What’s the thing that consumes your thoughts? What’s the thing that consumes your conversations? Let me tell you why that’s crucial – and not because those things that consume our thoughts and conversations are necessarily bad. It’s because whatever dominates my thoughts and my conversations is the greatest indicator of the affections of my heart. And as we just learned, when my affections are pointed towards EARTHLY things, I’ll never experience real joy!
“But our citizenship is in heaven.” That’s an awesome thought that should really resonate with most of us because when Paul tells us that we are citizens of heaven, he is directing his comments to those he believes to be sincere followers of Christ. So let’s wrap our time up this morning by exploring some implications of what it means to live as a citizen of heaven…namely…
Why should being a citizen of heaven bring me joy here on earth?
a. We have heaven’s resources at our disposal
Every pastor and every counselor will tell you that the greatest tragedy of not living out our heavenly citizenship is when we don’t tap into all of the resources available to us. We have to live with the realization that we have HEAVEN’S resources at our disposal. An American citizen living in a foreign country has only to go the embassy of the United States to get help. The powerful resources of the United States of America are available to us as U.S. citizens. But look at the resources that we have available as citizens of heaven.
Hebrews 4:12 reminds us that we have God’s Word which is alive and powerful. 2 Peter chapter 1 tells us that scripture provides all the answers that we need for life and godliness. And think about the power of prayer that we have at our disposal. Ephesians chapter 6 reminds us that we don’t fight in our own power – that we have the power of prayer and other weapons at our disposal. Then we have Jesus acting as our intercessor (Hebrews 7:25) and we have the Holy Spirit acting as our conscience (John 16) and we actually have angels protecting us (Psalm 91). If those things don’t get you stirred up, then nothing will.
b. My eventual home is in heaven
We will never find complete satisfaction here on earth. There will always be a gnawing at our spirit – and that’s a good thing especially when we understand that this won’t be our eternal home! I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but this place is broken. But God has created within the heart of every true believer a deep longing for home. As Christ followers, we agree with the great prophet Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz - There’s no place like home. 17 years ago, Shannon and I and our two girls moved in with Shannon’s parents for five months while our house was being built. My in-laws worked hard to make us feel at home. We moved into their finished basement and had all the comforts of home. Rachel was only a few months old and the best part of living with my mother-in-law was that she put Rachel to bed every night. But as nice as it was staying with them, it just wasn’t home. We were always worried because it wasn’t our carpet that the kids spilled on, it wasn’t our garage to park in, and it wasn’t my fridge to raid. That’s the way it is in this world for Christians. We may enjoy some of the times here on earth…but it’s not the same as being home. There is a longing within us that will not be satisfied until we are with Jesus. And just the thought of that should bring you joy!
c. The anticipation of future glory
Quick question to make sure you’re still listening: How many of you were born on this earth and this earth is the only place you’ve ever lived? So here’s the tension – God’s placed us on the earth but this ISN’T where we belong. Let me tell you how that works. Yes, God has placed you here and God expects you to have a kingdom impact in the areas that he places you. But even though God has placed you here, you’re still to live with an eternal perspective. When I live with an eternal perspective, it influences how I spend my time, how I spend my money, and how I invest in relationships. And Paul’s life gives testimony to the idea that our joy ultimately flows out of living with this eternal perspective (we learned this in week 2 of this series).
So as comfortable as we may be in this present world, we begin to recognize that this world is NOT our home. We do NOT belong here. The values of the world are NOT our values. The treasures of the world are NOT our treasures.
So why does NOT belonging here on earth bring me any type of joy? It’s because we know there’s something more. We look forward with anticipation to that day when God will wipe away every tear (Rev. 21). We live in the hope of a future glory where He’ll transform this lowly body (vs 21). My desperation to find happiness and contentment is lost in my pursuit of following Jesus. And in the midst of all the current cultural chaos, I can still find peace because I know who holds my future…and that brings me joy!
Albert Brumley was a gospel songwriter that was born in the early 20th century. His most popular creation was a song you may even recognize, I’ll Fly Away. But in 1936 he wrote another song that was really made popular in the 60’s by a country gospel singer known as Gentleman Jim. I can still remember my grandma singing this song as she did the dishes.
This world is not my home I’m just a passing through
My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue
The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door
And I can’t feel at home in this world anymore
“1Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!”
Ladies and gentlemen – Joy has a name, and his name is Jesus!
