But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:
9 sermons cite this verse
… Now make no mistake about it, our true citizenship is in heaven. Philippians 3.20 says, For we are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are eagerly awaiting for him to return as our savior. Our real citizenship is in that new country we're headed toward. Nevertheless, God has left us here as well, and he's given us certain real responsibilities. We have responsibilities with the family that God's entrusted to us. We have responsibilities at work. And of course, our greatest responsibility, 2 Corinthians 5 20, is to be ambassadors, to be representatives for Christ, to be God's mouthpieces, urging people to be reconciled to God through faith in Jesus. So we actually have two responsibilities, preparing for the next world while living in this world. The Bible talks about that here, there mentality. Again, the Bible emphasizes over and over again that there is our final destination. In Hebrews 11 verse 13, the writer says, we are nothing but strangers and exiles on the earth. In Colossians 3, 2, Paul says, set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on the earth. But here's the ironic thing. The more we focus on there, the more effective we become here. I think of the great Puritan preacher and leader, Jonathan Edwards. He understood that heaven is our true destination. He was consumed as he thought about heaven. At one point he wrote, to go to heaven fully to enjoy God is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Therefore it becomes us to spend this life …
… God's very interested in what happens in government. Should we be interested? Some people will say, no, no Christian should get involved in politics. Philippians 3.20, our citizenship is in heaven. Well, that's true. Our ultimate destination is heaven. But right now, we're not in heaven. We're here on earth. And we have responsibilities as Christians in the affairs of the city, the affairs of government. Let me show you why that's true. In Matthew chapter 5, part of the Sermon on the Mount, remember Jesus explained the two reasons he left us here as Christians on earth instead of taking us to heaven. He used two metaphors to describe what Christians are to do. You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of the world. Salt and light. Light, we know what it is. Sharing the light, the good news of Jesus Christ. But what is salt? In Jesus' days, salt was a preservative. There was no refrigeration. And salt was packed into meat. It couldn't prevent the meat from decaying, but it could delay the meat's decay. …
… no matter how good it is, it's nothing compared to five minutes in heaven. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be awesome. One more eager verse, Philippians chapter 3, verse 20 says, for our citizenship is in heaven from which we, here it is, eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our vile or lowly body that it may be conformed to his glorious body. Oh, that's nice. That's beautiful. And so we want to get excited about that. We want to be reminded that holiness, the motivation of Christ's return, holiness is a very important thing. The Bible says without holiness, you and I will not see God. Did you know that? Now, I want to encourage some of you, when you hear the word holiness, it depends on where you're from. If you're from the East Coast, you think of the Amish. You think of everybody having to wear black, no makeup, with a bun, and we all have beards. You know, not all, the guys have beards, and we make everything out of wood, and that's the picture of holiness. That's not the picture of holiness. I mean, if you want to wear that stuff, that's fine, but it doesn't make you holy. …
… a blessedness in which to praise God eternally. And saying that, we want to look in God's word now to Philippians chapter 3, verses 20 and 21. we find in those two verses some thoughts that address those questions asked in question 57 and 58. Paul was writing this and his focus is on joy and as we see that trace through the chapters of Philippians we come to this portion of scripture that reads but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior lord jesus christ who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body by the power that enables him even to subject all things to himself let's pray again lord we thank you for bringing us to your house tonight how we thank you for your word your word is truth and as we open to it tonight we so ask that our hearts would be open to receive it and we pray that the holy spirit will open our eyes that we might recapture if we have grown dim in our heavenly vision that lord tonight that we would leave here with our focus we're in heaven while we're still on this earth now lord would you grant me your grace and may as our dear pastor prays so often to preach the spirit would preach a better sermon than myself i ask in your name amen in philippians chapter 3 verse 20 and 21 it lends itself to three great truths that we want to look at. …
… The how. Philippians 3, verse 20, 21. For our citizenship, the word in Greek is politics. Huh. You said I don't get involved in politics. Oh, yes, you do. For our politics is in heaven. Here's the way I look at it. If my politics is in heaven, I'm waiting for my king to return. In the meantime, I'm going to go about doing the best thing possible to honor God. And so I like to look at it this way, trickle down politics. See, our politics doesn't come from a party. Our politics comes from God. And when we walk around, we bring the kingdom of God in whatever we say, do, or how we live. Is it perfect? No. We live in a fallen world. But we are representatives of the king. No king. You know those people who know King's Day? They got a big shot coming. The king is coming. The king is coming. What will they do? From which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our vile body that it may be conformed to his glorious body. …
… and Philippians chapter 3. Look at Philippians chapter 3 verse 20 and 21. you might underline these showing us the purpose of God in the Bible our citizenship is in heaven Philippians chapter 3 verse 20 and we eagerly await a savior from there the Lord Jesus Christ who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies so they will be like his glorious body we can continue on Colossians chapter 3 verse 10 talks about how we're putting on the image of Christ, the new man, day in and day out. 2 Peter 1, verse 3 and 4 talks about how we are maturing into the image of God. 1 John 3, verse 2 says that one day we will be like him. We will be transformed into his presence. This is the whole agenda, the whole purpose of the Bible. Don't miss it. To show us the glory of Christ and to bring us, transform us into the image of Christ. …
… The first one is this. You'll discover a heavenly longing, a heavenly longing. The Bible says this in Philippians chapter three, verse 20. It says, but our citizenship is in heaven and we eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that word citizenship is a very key word there. It's a powerful word. Paul was very strategic in why he put that word citizenship. This wasn't random. Paul was writing to the city of Philippi. Philippi was a Roman colony, and they were obsessed with Roman culture. They were obsessed with Roman citizenship, and they were mostly made up of retired Roman soldiers. And so Paul is really tapping into their civic pride when he says this and he flips it on them. Paul's saying, look, your truest identity is not political, it's not cultural. Your truest identity is stamped heaven. Paul is speaking directly to the audience here saying that the most important citizenship that you can have is one that God has given you. …
… beautifully dressed for her husband. Notice too, and I'm not going to read all these verses, but Philippians chapter three, verse 20, says that we're citizens of heaven. I talked to you a couple of weeks ago about our whirlwind trip. We were gone for about, I don't know, almost a month speaking. It was fun. People were like, did you have a good time? Well, yeah, we did. I had one free day out of all those days where I could just chill. So I'd say it's fun. I'm doing what God wants me to do. And we flew from here to St. Louis, St. Louis to Boston, Boston to Washington, D.C., Washington, D.C., to Cape Town, Cape Town, to Johannesburg, Johannesburg, to Kruger National Park, Kruger National Park, back to Johannesburg, Johannesburg to Dubai, and Dubai, back home to Dallas. We wore our passports out. That's what I'm trying to say. Have you ever thought about a passport? What is the passport? Well, it identifies where you live. It identifies your citizenship. But the Bible says we're strangers and aliens here. Those of us who are believers, because this is not our home. Really? It's not. Heaven is our home. So I beg you, if you're not a citizen of heaven to, to, to make that decision. And you make that decision by being, the Bible says born again, we're born again into the family of God. …
I already have standing in the future city of God. I am already a citizen there. Our citizenship is in heaven. So we eagerly await a savior from there. Remember the one who went to his father's house and prepared a room for us so that when he returned for the bride, we would be ready we would be watching. We would go with him now to the room that he's prepared in his father's house for us. We have a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, that's why I'm confident, will transform our lowly bodies. Man, you think, you know, this body's cool, so that they will be like his glorious body. This is the greatest story of all. But what does it hinge on? Thank you. Yes, somebody almost clapped. Let's do clap. I mean, this is amazing. This is what's happening. This is our future. But look at the heart of it. Our citizenship is in heaven. …