Is "Heaven" Our Real Home?

Hey everybody, I'm Pastor Jeff Durbin with Apologia Church. I want to thank you all so much for watching the content right here on Apologia Studios channel.

What you're about to watch is a sermon, a message from Apologia Church's worship service. And again, I want to thank you all so much for watching, for liking, for commenting, for sharing the sermon itself.

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I am not your pastor. And it's very important as you're watching this, you know that it's

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So thank you again so much for watching these and sharing them. God bless you. If you would, turn in your

Bibles to Philippians chapter 3, Philippians chapter 3. As you get there,

I encourage you, if you haven't heard him yet, to go through at Apologia Studios on YouTube, the past couple of messages.

We spent some time, actually a couple of weekends, a couple of Sundays, on the righteousness of Jesus Christ in which we stand.

We've talked about justification through faith alone and Christ alone, the benefits of that.

We've talked about really the heartbeat of the gospel of the kingdom, really what makes sense of it all.

And that's peace with God. That's the whole thing, peace with God. God is reconciling all things to himself.

And how does he reconcile sinners to himself? He does so through the cross, through what

Christ has accomplished, his perfect life, his death, and his resurrection. And the only way to have peace with God is through faith in Jesus Christ.

He is the only way. So we've talked a lot about that, and I'm going to skip a little section here we're going to come back to, but I'm going to kind of step ahead a few verses to talk about what is an often misunderstood, misinterpreted, misapplied verse, proof -texted.

And so we're going to get into some of the background, and it's my hope as we unpack this that it will change us as a church individually, change us in terms of how we view our families, our vocations, our ministries.

It'll change us in terms of how we actually view reality, the physical world, the spiritual and the physical, how they come together, the eternal destination, the eternal state, what's that all look like.

And so we're in Philippians chapter 3. I'm going to read the text, and then we'll get into it.

Philippians chapter 3, I'm going to start actually ahead in verse 10, in verse 10 from where we left off.

Hear now the words of the living and the true God, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible

I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained this, or I'm already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own, but one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise,

God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.

For many of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even with tears, walk as enemies of the cross of Christ.

Their end is destruction, their God is their belly, and they glory in their shame with mindset on earthly things.

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a

Savior, the 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.

Thus far is the reading of God's holy and inspired word. Let's pray. Father, please bless,

Lord, the proclamation of your word today and your truth. I pray,

God, that you'd bless us as a church. Help us, Lord, to have reverence even in this moment for your revelation, the consistency of your revelation.

God, I'm not fit in myself to give this message, not able to communicate divine truth in the way that it must be communicated, empowered by your

Spirit. Without your Spirit, God, opening our eyes to truth, we're lost.

So, please, God, teach by your Spirit today. Open the eyes of the blind. Open our eyes to the truth.

Fill us, Lord, with zeal for the truth. And, Lord, change the way that we think so that it's in accord with the way that you think, the way that you know.

We pray, God, that you would help us as a church to be part of, Lord, that mission of the kingdom of God, to bring light where there is darkness,

Lord, and bringing all things into subjection to Jesus. I pray that you would speak today by your

Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. So, our citizenship is in heaven.

Have you heard it? Have you heard it? Yeah, it's popular. But our citizenship is in heaven.

It's often one of those things that's proof -texted, and by Christians, you know, many of us have probably said it like that.

Like, we'll see things going to hell around us, and we'll say things, oh, our citizenship is in heaven.

Like, you know, just want to escape this world and get out of here, sort of leave behind the body and go to that higher spiritual realm, and we'll talk about heaven that way.

We'll talk about our citizenship in that way. Like, the goal, really, in the

Christian life, the goal of the Christian message, really the aim, the climax of the story, is that we would get rid of the physical, like, leave the material behind us so we can get to that higher spiritual plane, right, the better place.

We think about the fall, and sin, and corruption, and so we sort of think about the world in the light of that.

We know about the death, and disease, and the decay, and the sin all around us, and so we think, all right, so the goal must be,

I'm saved. I am reconciled to God. So, the ultimate thing for the Christian, the victory, is that sort of departure from our humanity, in a sense.

Like, leave this behind and get out there to that upper story, that higher level. That's what the goal is of all this, is getting out there, right?

Shed this and get there. That's the ultimate. It's interesting to think about what

I just said, and we'll hear people saying things like, you know, heaven is my real home, which there is truth in that, of course, and we'll hear things like,

I'm just passing through, right, or we'll hear things like, I can't wait to get out of here to go to that higher spiritual plane.

It's amazing if we're thinking that way, and we've adopted those mindsets, and those statements that we've adopted.

In reality, what is one of the most persistent heresies in the history of the Christian church, in terms of how we think about the world, the material world, and our own humanity, and our bodies.

In other words, here's what I'm saying. I'm saying this story is much larger than dying and going to heaven one day.

As a matter of fact, that's a part of the story. Yes, we've already been there with Paul in Philippians, yes? We talked about that, right?

To live is Christ, to die is gain. Paul says, I'm hard -pressed between two things, not knowing if I want to stay here with you, which is fruitful labor, or if I want to depart and be with Christ.

So yes, it's true that when we die, we go to be with God, and there is bliss, and all of that is, yes, part of the

Christian story. But it's taking the Christian story, the narrative of history that God has given to us, and it's slicing off the victory march.

It's slicing off that big story at the end that makes it all so amazing and so wonderful.

You see, I would argue if our emphasis is there, escape the physical world, get to the heaven, and that's the thing.

That's the ultimate for us, is just get to heaven one day, leave all this behind us, we're actually losing the climactic part of the biblical story that makes it so glorious.

In other words, the biblical story doesn't stop there, going to heaven one day. As a matter of fact, the biblical story is more about getting heaven into earth than you away to someplace a million miles away called heaven.

It's a bigger story than that. As a matter of fact, you already know this. It's part and parcel to everything we believe as Christians.

We're gathering today on Sunday, the Lord's Day. Why? Why not? Friday to Saturday.

Why Sunday? Why? We get together on the Lord's Day because that's what the early church was doing, because they were proclaiming the resurrection, the day

Jesus rose again from the dead. And there it is. Resurrection from the dead.

Jesus didn't just die and come back as a spirit creature. As a matter of fact, he says to Thomas, what?

He says, handle me and see. Spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see me have.

He's got a physical body. Jesus conquered death. And really the joyous aspect of the future that we have to look forward to as the climax is not simply getting away to heaven, that place that's a million miles off, the spiritual plane leaving behind this world and the material and humanity.

Really the thing we're here celebrating every Lord's Day is that Jesus is alive and that he will conquer death ultimately for us.

We're going to rise again from the dead. But we hear that often, our citizenship is in heaven.

You know, I want to just take a sidestep here in terms of a story, personal. Funerals.

I have a very hard time with funerals. You guys know, I've been a pastor for a long time. Many of you guys know

I get very emotional at times. And I try to keep that under control, especially during a time of a funeral, because it's not the time for the pastor to be overly emotional.

It's time for the families to grieve. And I don't want to distract from the grief. So it's always very, very hard.

We've at Apologia Church had to endure death in our congregation a number of times and some tragic, tragic deaths took us by surprise.

I can think of two in particular that took us by surprise and it was just a storm for us as a church.

And what I've had to do as a pastor, I'm just a man and I do struggle with not, you know, containing the emotions.

I have to try to prepare myself days in advance to make sure that I can hold it together for the funeral.

And I've done a lot of funerals. It's one of those things you don't think about when you're in Bible college and when

God is calling you to be a pastor and you're working through all that, you don't really think often, you know, I have to do funerals, but you don't really think about the pain of that process of funerals and how much it really, really just hurts so bad.

And it's interesting, I've done a lot of funerals and I've been to a lot of funerals and we make mistakes at funerals.

We do. If you've ever been to a funeral, even a Christian funeral, you know that we make mistakes at times.

We at times talk about the death that is before us, the body that's before us.

And we talk about it in terms of the final word of the moment is that they're with Jesus.

Like that's the thing at times at Christian funerals. Like the final thing to really be concerned with here, the victory march is that this person is with Jesus.

Like that's the victory right there. And that's a mistake. That really is a dramatic mistake to make at a

Christian funeral. Is it true that this person who is in Christ is with Jesus?

The answer is yes. Yes. And they are enjoying benefits and experiencing things and having intimacy with Jesus that is incomprehensible.

We can't even begin to describe it. That's true. But really the victory march is still to come.

The victory is ahead of us. Yes, they're with Jesus, but the victory is not escaping the body in our humanity and going away to this place where we're citizens of out there.

Recently we had a man camp and I ended up driving up there alone.

And while I was driving, I had to go up to 87 Arizona Avenue to get there.

And as I was driving, I ended up passing by the cemetery where I have two friends that are buried.

And I thought to myself, I should stop by, right? I should stop by and just take a look and just be contemplative and think.

And so I go into this place and it's interesting. Actually, my friends died long.

There's space between when they died. They didn't know each other, but they're actually buried near each other, which is interesting of all the places to be buried.

So I didn't have to go far, right? To be around both their graves. And I was thinking to myself, as I was there at these grave sites,

I was thinking to myself, the victory that we have is ahead of us. And it is full confidence with complete hope that this isn't final, right?

This is physical dirt, physical grass. There's physical gravestones here.

There's wind blowing around me, sun beating down on me. And the victory isn't just that they're with Jesus now.

That's true. Yes, that's true. To be absent from the body is to be present with the

Lord. But as a Christian, the victory that I know is ahead of us isn't simply that we've escaped the material world to go away to this higher spiritual plane.

The victory is, is that all of this is going to be fully and finally consumed in the victory of Jesus.

And these dead bodies are going to be raised like Jesus.

Now watch. Everyone goes, yes, but where? Here, right?

This sun that's beating down in this world with this wind and air and this dirt and this grass and this physical cosmos,

Jesus is going to have victory over it all. There's the victory march. But we tend to think about the future and the material world and our bodies like Gnostics, like Gnostics.

Paul says, but our citizenship is in heaven. You see, this is used as a common excuse.

We proof text this passage from Paul. It's used as a common excuse to abandon involvement in the mission of the church.

Again, people will say things like, heaven is my real home. I'm just passing through or I can't wait to get out of here and go to that higher spiritual plane.

Brothers and sisters, this smacks of pure Gnosticism. And if you're thinking to yourself, why should

I care about that? I don't even know how to spell it. Well, I would encourage you to listen to the last couple of weeks of the

Dividing Line with Pastor James. He's been diving into that quite heavily. Listen to this past week of the

Apology Radio. We had Dr. Sandlin on to talk about Gnosticism. And it's interesting because it all works together providentially to kind of where we are right now in Philippians and the importance of this conversation.

What is Gnosticism? Just a quick summary. If you want more, listen to Pastor James. Gnosticism, I'll quote

Andrew Sandlin from this week's broadcast. He says, is the oldest, most persistent and dangerous heresy in the history of the church.

It's the idea that the creation, the physical world is evil. Christian Gnosticism, put that around there because those aren't supposed to go together.

But unfortunately, sometimes they do. Christian Gnosticism is the idea that Jesus Christ came to deliver us from the physical world.

That Jesus Christ came to deliver us from the physical world. Now, you might be saying, why do I care about Gnosticism today right now in, where are we at?

Glendale? Glendale? Is this Glendale? Yes. I don't even know where I'm at right now. Glendale. Okay. It's Phoenix. Okay. We're here in the desert.

Why do I care about that right now? Well, I like what Pastor James said recently. I think you described Gnosticism as the most demonic, the most demonic thing in terms of stuff you've dealt with because the

Gnostics know the word of God and purposefully distort it.

And it is pervasive. It's in our thinking. It's all around us. Yeah. It's all the way back in the

Bible itself. Why should I care? Well, you should care because Paul had to deal with it and John had to deal with it.

I'll give you, I'm not going to give you both at the moment, but I want you to see it for yourself to see just how deadly this stuff is and how serious it is to the apostles, inspired apostles.

So to see it for yourself, first century context, look at second John, second

John, very short. My goodness. We have no excuse for not memorizing this. This is, I mean, it's pitifully short, right?

But it shows you how important it is. Quick letter. Very important issue. Make sure you've got this down. This is second letter of John.

And listen to what he says in verse four. He says, I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the father.

And now I ask you, dear lady, not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning that we love one another.

And this is love that we walk according to his commandments. This is the commandment just as you have heard from the beginning so that you should walk in it for many deceivers have gone out into the world.

Those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ, here it is in the flesh.

Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. Watch yourselves so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward.

Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ does not have

God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the father and the son. If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not, and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting.

For whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works. They, of course, gathered in house churches.

So the idea of not letting him into your house was you don't let these deceivers into your congregation. You don't let them be a part of this.

You keep them away. Well, what are the deceivers here? Well, someone who would deny that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, that God himself took on a physical body in this world.

Gnostics couldn't hang with that. Couldn't. This physical material world is evil.

Jesus would not have participated in that. The God of the Old Testament is an evil God. It's a big system.

It's very complex, but here's the nuts and bolts of it. The material world is evil and God doesn't want to have anything ultimately to do with it.

We've got to escape this world and get to that higher spiritual place. Starting to feel it. You're starting to sense that, that tinge of gnosticism that even creeps its way into Christian thought at times in terms of how we think about the world itself.

So why should you care about this? Well, the issues were important enough to the Apostle Paul, the Apostle John to write about it and inspired scripture.

This is an important section of scripture because, again, I believe it's often misunderstood, misinterpreted, misapplied.

Our citizenship is in heaven. I'll read it again. Verse 20, chapter 3, but our citizenship is in heaven and from it we await a savior, the

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.

You see, that's comprehensive. That's comprehensive. That's resurrection. That's very much this world.

The Christian worldview sees the spiritual and the physical as, in many ways, organically linked and together.

When God created the world, what did he call it? Good. And of course, people say, yes, but there's sin and the curse and the fall.

And yes, that's why Jesus is so amazing because Jesus comes to bring about redemption, to subject all things to himself.

Jesus comes and takes a physical body, conquers physical death, walks among his people and promises our physical resurrection in where?

This cosmos. You see, the Christian story is much larger than our escape out of this world to that place called heaven of which we are citizens.

But we think about this passage in terms of our citizenship is in heaven, so that's where we should be thinking.

It's just getting away to that place that's a billion miles away. But in reality, if you look at the text before us, the direction is actually the other way.

Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it, we await what? Jesus, who will transform what?

This body. Right? So the direction is not that way, but where? This way.

Consider that. But when you're looking at a passage like our citizenship is in heaven, it's not like we have this all throughout the

New Testament in terms of like this discussion of citizenship in heaven, citizenship in heaven. So where else do we go?

Well, we have to go into the background. Who wrote this? Where did he write it? When did he write it?

Why did he write it? When you're talking about exegesis, when you're talking about actually drawing out of the text, its meaning, rather than importing your own ideas or perspectives into the text, that's eisegesis, you have to think about proper rules of biblical interpretation.

So for example, asking the question, who wrote this? Who wrote it? And to whom? Who is he writing?

Can you figure that out? It's helpful to know that. Where? Do we know where this person wrote this?

When? When will help you with audience relevance and backgrounds and questions like why?

Like the author, what's he saying? And has he had this discussion before? What's he trying to unpack?

But as you look at Paul saying in the context of the first century, our citizenship is in heaven, we need to be very cautious not to be reading our own modern ideas into what that is, which is what we do.

Let's all admit it. We'll read something in the Bible and what we do is we take our current conception, we'll take our current understanding and we cram that right into the text.

So that must be what he means. But you see the apostle Paul isn't talking about American citizenship, right?

We think about American citizenship in terms of, well, if I go on a long trip, a vacation or a holiday, as they say in the

UK, if I go on a trip somewhere and some foreign lands, I'm an American citizen, right?

And so ultimately my home is over there. And so my rights and privileges are over there.

And so really sometimes I may long to go back home to where my citizenship is.

We think about it in terms of that, but it's important for us to ask the question, what did this mean in the first century to a

Roman citizen? Paul was one. And pointing to that, I want you to show you another example of his background.

Go to Acts chapter 22. It's a section where the apostle Paul brings up his Roman citizenship in terms of what's

Paul talking about when he says our citizenship is in heaven. We need to think about it in the context of the first century and Paul's understanding of citizenship.

So the apostle Paul here is enduring a plot to have him killed.

The Jews make a plot and they bind themselves by an oath, neither to eat or to drink, so they've killed

Paul, right? Maybe he needs to go back to seminary and learn how to do evangelism, right?

No, everywhere the Christian faith goes in the book of Acts, there's riots or revivals that break out, right?

Just a side note here, we tend to think about controversy when there's evangelism or standing up for the truth as maybe you should rethink your strategy or methodology because there's controversy and people don't like it.

Well, tell that to Paul, right? I haven't had anybody yet take an oath not to eat or drink until I'm dead, right?

So I need to work harder at more righteous controversy. Now in this particular passage in Acts chapter 22, sorry,

I went ahead of myself there. In Acts chapter 22, that was 23. In Acts chapter 22, we have the section where in verse 22 of 22, it says this, up to this word, they listened to him and then they raised their voices and said, away with such a fellow from the earth, for he should not be allowed to live.

And as they were shouting and throwing off their cloaks and flinging dust into the air, the tribune ordered him to be brought into the barracks, saying that he should be examined by flogging.

To find out why they were shouting against him like this, when they had stretched him out for the whips,

Paul said to the centurion who was standing by, is it lawful for you to flog a man who is a

Roman citizen and uncondemned? When the centurion heard this, he went to the tribune and said to him, what are you about to do?

For this man is a Roman citizen. So the tribune came and said to him, tell me, are you a Roman citizen?

And he said, yes. The tribune answered, I bought this citizenship for a large sum.

Paul said, but I'm a citizen by birth. So those who were about to examine him, withdrew from him immediately.

And the tribune also was afraid for he realized that Paul was a Roman citizen and that he had bound him.

So it's interesting because Paul calls himself a Hebrew, he's a Jew, but apparently he has

Roman citizenship by birth. This is a big deal. Obviously, people are like, hey, I paid a lot of money for that.

He says, well, I've got it by birth. It was a big deal in the first century. He had a lot of rights and a lot of privileges to be a

Roman citizen. There's even examples of how this had been done. Maybe they wore something around their neck.

You kept it close to them in terms of, this is going to keep me safe, it'll protect me. But we're talking about citizenship in heaven in the context of a person who is a citizen of Rome.

And again, we tend to go to this passage and think about it in terms of American citizenship.

But you see, Roman citizenship didn't work like that. And when Paul's talking about this,

I believe our citizenship is in heaven. He's talking about it in a Roman context.

You see, in a Roman context, being a Roman citizen and being in different parts away from the empire wasn't so much,

I long to go back to Rome, where my home is. But if you are a citizen of Rome, you were essentially out colonizing for the culture and expansion of the

Roman empire. So if you were a citizen of Rome and you were eastward or wherever you were, you were out there and you were say colonizing out there, bringing the culture and the empire of Rome into the place that you were residing.

So having citizenship in Rome, being in different parts of the empire, you were part of that culture, that process of bringing

Rome outward, expanding. So citizenship in heaven, I believe, has to be thought of in that context, in the context of the

Roman empire and how they saw citizenship and what that actually meant. Here's my point. I think we have in many ways, not completely, not totally, but we have heaven misplaced.

We have heaven misplaced. You see, what we see in the Bible from beginning to end isn't merely a story about us going away to a place called heaven one day, getting out of here and getting into heaven one day.

But you see, if you look at the biblical story from beginning to end, really the story is majestic and powerful and amazing and victorious.

It's really about getting heaven into earth, heaven into earth. So when we look at the immediate context of Philippians chapter 3, what do you see?

You see that Paul is already having this discussion and it's about resurrection. I'll point it out to you.

In Philippians chapter 3, you're going to see that in verse 10, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible,

I may attain the resurrection from the dead. The context is resurrection. And again, you'll see it in verse 20, but our citizenship is in heaven.

And from it, we await a savior, the 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.

So that's the immediate context. Resurrection. What kind of resurrection? Well, what kind of resurrection did

Jesus have? What was it, everybody? A bodily resurrection. Of course, there is glorification.

Of course, there is transformation. But listen, this is very, very important. Jesus didn't rise from the dead and escape from his humanity.

You won't either. You will not rise from the dead to escape your humanity.

You will be raised as a human being, an image bearer of God in a glorified, resurrected body.

And the context here for the Apostle Paul is that kind of resurrection. But when you think about the author's context, who wrote

Philippians? The Apostle Paul. Does he have this kind of conversation related to the end and the future and resurrection and the world itself?

Does he have it anywhere else? Well, two spaces I'm going to take you to just quickly. Colossians chapter 1.

Colossians chapter 1. The Apostle Paul having a discussion, by the way, that relates very much to the issue of Gnosticism.

In Colossians chapter 1 verse 15, I want you just to have this section in your hearts, in your minds, in terms of thinking about the world and the future biblically.

Colossians chapter 1 verse 15, talking about Christ. He is the image of the invisible

God, the firstborn of all creation. By the way, firstborn there does not mean first in order of being created, but David was called

God's firstborn. Israel's called God's firstborn. Firstborn is a very Jewish concept.

There was a person who was the heir, the heir, had all the rights and privileges, the heir, the firstborn of all creation.

For by him, this is Jesus now, all things were created in heaven.

Are you ready for the death blow? And on earth, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

And he is before all things. And in him, all things hold together.

In Jesus right now, you are being held together because of Jesus. That's powerful.

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent for in him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

And through him, here it is, listen closely, to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross.

And you who were once alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him.

If indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which

I, Paul, became a minister. You see that? There's the story. There's the story of the future. It is comprehensive.

It is huge, but you see the biblical worldview at play there, right?

You see the spiritual and the physical, all things created by Jesus. Jesus subjecting all things under himself, reconciling to himself all things, whether in heaven or on earth.

You see the biblical worldview doesn't think that the material or doesn't see the material world, material existence as evil or as something that we just want to escape from.

How does the biblical story start? God creates and he calls it good.

And the biblical story starts with God actually walking among us. See, the biblical worldview has heaven and earth together at the beginning.

And we're going to talk about this more in a minute at the end. Very important.

But one more passage, just so you have it. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15, this is one of my faves.

You've heard me say it a lot, but I want you to see it in terms of thinking about the world, thinking about the future biblically.

1 Corinthians 15. Here's what Paul says. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1.

Now it reminds you brothers of the gospel I preached to you, which you received in which you stand and by which you are being saved.

If you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain, for I delivered to you as of first importance what

I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, and that he appeared to, that's

Peter, then to the 12, then he appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, last of all as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.

For I am the least of the apostles, and not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.

But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary,

I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me, whether then it was

I or they. So we preach, and so you believe. So here he is talking about the gospel. He's, the gospel received, delivered.

He's telling in accordance with the scriptures, Jesus dying, rising from the dead in accordance with the scriptures.

Get that point. Jesus' resurrection from the dead is in accordance with the scriptures. It's not a novelty.

It's not a new idea. That means everything in terms of when we talk about where we're headed and how we think about as Christians, Christ's physical resurrection and ultimately our resurrection is a part of God's total story.

So we ought not lop it off and change the focus. And here's what it says in verse 12.

If Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say, but there is no resurrection of the dead?

But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. Then not even Christ has been raised.

And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. And your faith is in vain.

We are even found to be misrepresenting God because we testified about God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise, if it is true that the dead are not raised.

For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.

Then those who also have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.

Don't you like how the apostle Paul talked about Christians dying? Did you catch it?

Sleeping. They're asleep in Christ. Which anticipates what?

One day they're going to awake. Did you get it? See, even that word asleep in Christ says a lot in terms of where the story is supposed to be going, where the emphasis is supposed to be.

But he says this, verse 20, but in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead. The first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order,

Christ, the first fruits, then it is coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end when he delivers the kingdom of God, the kingdom to God, the father after destroying every rule and every authority and power for he must reign.

See, Jesus is reigning now, according to Paul. He must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet.

And here it is. This is the climax. This is the beautiful part. This is the emphasis. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.

The last enemy to be destroyed is death. For God has put all things in subjection under his feet.

That's the story. That's Paul's context. Paul mentions our citizenship is in heaven.

And then he talks about, we await from it, this Jesus who will transform what?

This lowly body. So that's the story. But what's the biblical context?

When we think about heaven and we think about the physical world and we think about our citizenship in heaven, what is the biblical context?

What's the consistent biblical story? Well, he could spend the day going through Genesis 49, 10. To him shall be the obedience of the nations.

The nations will obey Jesus. We could talk about Psalm chapter 2, popular passage where the father tells the son, ask of me,

I'll give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession. There's a warning to the kings of the earth to obey the son or they're going to perish.

We could talk about Psalm 22, the famous passion passage, where after there's the passion of the

Messiah, it talks about all the families of the earth coming to worship the Lord as a result of what takes place in Psalm 22.

We could talk about Psalm 72, which was read before you today. In our daily reading of the

Psalms, you heard Psalm 72, he shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

That's very earthly. Do you get it? He shall have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.

All these kings are going to come bring tribute to Jesus. Psalm 1101, Paul quotes from here in 1

Corinthians 15, that he must reign till what? He has made every enemy a footstool for his feet and then finally, when every enemy is defeated, it says that Jesus is going to deal with death, finally.

And then he delivers the kingdom over to the Father. See Father, it's finished, it's done. We could talk about Isaiah 2, all the nations streaming up to God's mountain, the law going forth from the people of God.

We could talk about Isaiah chapter 9, God's coming as a son, as a child, of the increase of his government, end of peace, there will be no end.

We could talk about Isaiah 10, Isaiah 42, Isaiah 65, Daniel 2, Daniel 7, the kingdom of God, the rule of the

Messiah here on this earth, here with blessings that flow in a physical creation.

We could talk about all that, but I don't want to do that today. I want to talk about the biblical story in terms of we have to think not just in terms of proof texts.

We have to think in terms of God's total story. Where is it going? Where are we supposed to think?

How are we supposed to emphasize? And I'll just do it in blips. Hopefully we're not here till 9.

Genesis, the creation itself. We already did this. Stay with me now. You already know this.

This is where it starts. And I'm telling you, when I say that there's something broken in terms of how we think, not totally.

Yes, it's true. Reconciliation, peace with God, eternal life, going to heaven when we die. Yes, dying and being with Jesus, all true.

But we've sliced off a delicious part of this meal, right? We've taken the whole part off and just cast it away.

So we're losing what the Bible says is the best part of the story. But when God creates in Genesis, there's a creation.

And God calls it what? He calls it good. And you remember that in the story of the creation, that's a real story of creation.

It's not mythology. It's not just poetry. It's a real story of creation, of God putting his image in the garden, of God commanding something, of them falling into sin, one being deceived, one sinning with a high, high hand, death entering into creation, separation from God, that broken relationship with God.

And of course, physical death as a consequence. But we know that in that creation story, it's interesting, isn't it?

God's walking among them in the garden. Do you think about that? He's there, right?

Interacting with his creation. He's with them in the garden. They have this very personal relationship and contact with God in a way that none of us have ever experienced.

And they had it at the beginning. There in Genesis is that organic link between the spiritual and the physical world.

Isn't it amazing how the Gnostics despise the idea of the material world and God having anything to do with it in a biblical story?

At the very, very beginning of the story, God is there interacting. He is with us. But in that beautiful part of the story, we have

God walking among his people. But then the story continues on, doesn't it? It continues on with God now interacting with his people, bringing promises about the

Messiah, bringing promises about salvation itself. God even covering them in the skin of the first sacrifice, pointing, of course, towards Jesus.

But God is interacting. He's making promises. It's building this story. And then God has

Israel. And think about this. This is really amazing. I've always thought this is very interesting. When secularists or atheists will read the

Bible, they'll read the story of, say, like the tabernacle and a temple and God being very specific about the building and what it's supposed to look like.

And you've got like the holy of holies, and there's a veil, and there's a priest. And then you've got things he has to do on Yom Kippurim.

Did I say it right? Yep. Okay, good. All right. The day of atonement's right where he gets up and he has to have a sacrifice for himself first, because he's a sinful priest.

And then he has to have the sacrifice for the people. And secularists read that and they say, oh, that is like caveman spirituality.

Like that is absolutely stupid, building a temple, having a sacrifice, all these things.

It's just this rudimentary part of human experience that we just need to cast off from us.

But isn't it amazing? Isn't it amazing that at the very beginning of the story of God interacting with his people, what he was doing is he was giving his people these dress rehearsals.

He was giving to his people these things to do that were actually testifying to something so much greater.

And here's the crazy thing. We've got to confess to this. They had no idea what was going on. Can we be honest about that?

Like they're saying God says, and I'm going to do, right? Like I understand there has to be a sacrifice, shedding of blood.

I get all that. I think they understood some elements of temple, holy of holies. We can't go there.

That's God's space, right? There's a separation. It's scary. It's real scary to go in that place because I'm a sinner.

God is holy. They got it. They knew what it meant to be separate and holy. They got what this stuff was training them for.

But can we be honest? They didn't fully grasp the incomprehensibility of it all that this all was pointing towards Jesus.

The temple, the holy of holies, the sacrifice, the priesthood, they could not have even planned it that amazingly.

God was telling a larger story, but did you get it? As God is interacting with his people, with Israel, what's he do?

He says, oh, you build this holy of holies. I'm going to be there in your midst.

What do you have there? Even in the story with Israel, what do you have? You have God giving his people this portrait, this picture of where he is at, his space among his people.

He is among his people. Now, of course, there, there's the holy of holies and the people separated from God.

They're enacting, they're reenacting all of the problem of sin and curse and the fall and sacrifice, all of that.

But did you notice that even in the story of Israel, you have a building of a tabernacle and a temple among them, a place where God's space, heaven, is on earth, our space, where they meet, the physical and the spiritual together.

Do you notice that in the gospel of John, as you move through the story into the gospel of John, John chapter 1, verses 1 through 18, by the way, gospel of John, my favorite gospel.

I always tell people who are new believers, you need to read the gospel of John, read a lot.

But in John chapter 1, you have John opening up and he opens it up like the beginning of the Bible. It says, in the beginning, in Genesis, and John opens it up and says, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was

God. The same was in the beginning with God. And he says that all things came into being through Jesus and without him, nothing's come into being that's come into being.

And then what does it say, that epic verse? It says, and God became what?

Flesh. He took on flesh. He was part of the material creation in the world.

Heaven came into earth. God became flesh and he tabernacled among us.

Do you see it? Do you see it? It's all pointing to that same story, heaven and earth together, heaven coming into earth.

But John tells us about the incarnation where God becomes a man. John, of course, also has in John 20, 14 through 15, that beautiful thing.

It's just a one -off. I want you to see it. I talked about it this week on the show. I want you to see it.

It's one of my favorite things. And it's amazing because there's not a lot of explanation, but I think it actually explains a lot.

In John 20, verses 14 through 15, this is, of course, that scene in the garden.

The son of man has been killed. He's buried in a garden tomb. And there's this amazing moment.

Let's start in verse 12. And she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.

They said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they've laid him.

Still thinking he's dead. Having said this, she turned around and saw

Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping?

Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, sir, if you've carried him away, tell me where you've laid him, and I will take him away.

Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, which means teacher.

So I do think it's an amazing part of John's story. That John mentions, of course, that we have

God becoming a man, tabernacling among us, walking among us. God living the perfect life, promising eternal life, dying for sinners, and then physically rising again from the dead.

But John has this part of the story where the second Adam, Jesus, has victory over death in a garden.

Where did death start in human experience? Where did it start? In a garden.

You see, the first Adam failed as the image of God. He failed, sinned against God, violated his relationship with God, sinned against God with a high hand.

God tells him, be fruitful, multiply, take dominion, subdue the earth, and the first Adam fails in the vocation that God gave to him.

The second Adam, Jesus, the perfect image of God, obeying God completely, dies, and then conquers death in a garden where death began.

And I do think that it's interesting that this little line here that John mentions, she actually had mistaken

Jesus for a gardener. Now, I know that there's not a lot of explanation here, but I think that it's interesting that John mentions that.

Jesus conquers death in a garden, the second Adam in a garden, victory over death, and that she suspects that he's the gardener.

Now, I mentioned this week as we were talking through some of these things on the show that I've got a lot of delivery people coming to my house right now.

Do you? Amazon Prime, they rule the world right now, right? We have a lot of delivery people.

You've got food delivered to your house right now because of the Rona. You've got packages delivered to your house.

I mean, it's a very big industry. Delivery is massive now, right, to the house. But when you have someone walking around your yard right now, there are certain identifying marks that help you to see who is this in my yard, right?

For example, if you have a person pull up and they've got Domino's Pizza on their car and they're carrying a pizza box,

I suspect that they're the pizza boy or girl, right? Or if they pull up in the

Amazon truck and they're wearing the Amazon shirt and they're carrying packages, I say, oh, you must be with Amazon, right?

Like, I suspect you're with Amazon. I suspect you're probably the delivery person. Well, why does she think that Jesus was a gardener?

What was he doing? What was the second Adam doing after defeating death in a garden, which is where it started?

What was he doing there that made her think that he was probably the gardener? I personally think that Jesus was working the ground.

This is a large biblical story, a large biblical story. Adam dies in the garden.

He's told to take dominion. Jesus is raised in a garden and Psalm 72 says he shall have dominion.

Where? In this world. In Revelation chapter 21, we can't go into this altogether in detail, but I just want you to see it.

Go to Revelation 21. Every time we go to Revelation, everyone gets excited. What does it mean?

Revelation 21, I do think that there is more happening in Revelation 21, but I just want you to see it in terms of the comprehensive biblical story and how we should think about citizenship in heaven and the kingdom of heaven.

It says in chapter 21, verse one, then I saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.

I think there's very, very symbolic language here. We have to understand what this meant in Jewish thought, but I want you to see what the aim is here.

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned for her husbands.

So the new heavens and new earth is called the bride coming down. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, behold, here it is.

The dwelling place of God is with man. The dwelling place of God is with man.

He will dwell with them and they will be his people. And God himself will be with them as their

God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more. Neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore for the former things have passed away.

Isn't it interesting at the beginning of the biblical story, you have God creating, calls it good, material world and the spiritual together organically, comprehensively, beautifully.

And of course, sin enters into the world and God promises redemption. Paul's depiction of the future is its total victory.

Every enemy is defeated and the last enemy is going to be death. Finally defeated physical resurrection.

We will be raised like Jesus was raised. But again, the Bible ends with the same portrait,

God with us. God with us.

You see the story in scripture is not that we shed our humanity and we leave behind the physical cosmos because I guess it all failed.

It was a failed project and God throws it into the trash heap. The story is that Jesus actually conquers it all.

Jesus is God as a man coming to be with his people to redeem them and to have victory over everywhere the curse was found.

He shall have dominion. So I want to actually argue this passage here by the apostle

Paul, our citizenship is in heaven is not so much to get us thinking about abandoning the physical world and everything here so we can go to heaven, which is our real home.

But our citizenship is in heaven should be thought about in first century Roman citizen terms is that we are here in this world colonizing it for Jesus.

We are bringing the culture of Christ and heaven into this world. I think we have heaven misplaced and we're losing a great part of the story.

So what? Well, this is important. This is important. If you think about the biblical story and narrative in the future, the way the

Bible talks about it, you bring the kingdom of heaven and the culture of Christ into the world with every person you preach the gospel to and when to Jesus, every baby you save from murder at an abortion mill, every orphan you adopt, every poor mouth you feed, every injustice you stand against, every homeschool lesson you disciple your children with, every business you start for the glory of God, and every worship service you participate in.

You bring heaven into earth and the culture of Christ, the kingdom of Christ into this world.

Jesus will have dominion. He is reigning now. It's hard to see, isn't it?

Isn't it sometimes? Times like this when it's difficult and there's conflict and debate and argument and death and disease and decay, man, it's hard sometimes to see the reign of Christ.

It is hard. Yeah, it is. It's a fallen world and sometimes you just, you can't see it, right?

You're thinking just with earthly eyes, just seeing what's in front of you. You're not thinking about things the way that God says that they are, but God's word tells us that the future is going to be a future of victory because of Jesus' work.

God's word tells us that right now what's happening is that Jesus is reigning today on that throne and that all the promises of the kingdom from the

Old Testament about Christ's victory over the world are all happening right now and that every enemy is going to be put under his feet and that ultimately the last enemy will be death, your death.

Isn't it crazy? Today, everybody, all these stupid decisions being made, and I think I can be free to say that now.

A month ago, we had to be very cautious. Now I can say, see, all the stupid decisions that have been made are made because, ready?

Fear of death. We're not thinking, our governments don't think with a consistently

Christian worldview, do they? Because they don't think with a Christian worldview, they don't think about the future the way that God says that it is and they don't think about the world with Christian presuppositions.

People are afraid of death. Death for them is the ultimate, that's all there is, this life, and if you die, that's it.

So do everything you can to stop death, even if it means causing more death all over the world.

Death, we just got to stop death, death, death. Jesus defeated death. That's our story.

That's what he promises for all of us. And so the hope we have in Christ is that ultimately,

I'm gonna die. I won't be here anymore. And listen, if it happens tonight,

I hope it doesn't, but if it happens tonight and next week, my body is here and you're doing a funeral,

I want you all to have as the victory march that this is just sleeping.

It's just sleeping. And there is going to be an ultimate day for me and for all of us where this is finally defeated and we reign with Christ together with one another on this earth.

What are your plans? You ever think about that? Like start making plans for heaven, make dates for heaven one day.

Like I said this week, like, you know, I have this thing, I want to ride a giraffe up a mountain, right?

I want to ride a giraffe of mountain. And Andrew Sandlin said, I'm going to hold you to it. I said, well, you're going to do it with me now.

That's a date, right? Stellar was asking me like before, he's like, what, what are we going to do in heaven one day?

And I said to him, I said, what do you like to do now? Oh, I like to hike. I like to, I like to go swimming in the ocean.

And I said, well, that's of course what you're going to do. Like this is all going to be completely renewed.

He's making all things new. And so what are you going to do with a resurrected body in heaven? I mean,

I think there's a lot of things we just can't fully understand about how amazing that's going to be. But remember the victory marks, the big part of the story is that all of this is going to be finally, finally done away with in terms of sin, disease, decay, and death.

And we are going to be with God on this earth forever.

Isn't that amazing? And so my question to you is this, how are you bringing the culture of Christ and the kingdom of heaven into the world around you?

Does it change the way you think about your vocation? Does it change the way you think about being a mom at home, raising children, right?

Oh man, that's huge. That's massive, right? And like, we talk about that a lot. Like, the world just disses the whole thing of being like a mom at home, like homeschooling mom sort of thing.

That's like the most amazing vocation ever. Why? Because you're raising, like N .T.

Wright, not N .T. Wright, N .D. Wilson says, you're raising what? Little heroes.

Like you're raising the next generation of heroes. That's one of the most incredible things.

Or how about if you're doing a business in this world? You're creating a business. You're building something for the glory of God.

Well, if you're doing it for the glory of God, according to Christian principles, according to God's standards, you're bringing that culture of Christ into this world.

It's everything. It means everything, right? Think about it in these terms. And if you want more on this, listen to the show.

We did this last week and I'll end with this. We need to stop thinking about vocation, like ministry vocation, as this is the ultimate.

Always listen. When I have young men come to me and say, pastor, I feel called to ministry.

I think God's called me to be a pastor. The very first thing that your elders try to do here at Apologia Church is talk you out of it.

We try to talk you out of it because this, if you do it faithfully, is not an easy life.

It is a life filled daily with tragedy and difficulty and glory. And it's every hour changing.

Tragedy, amazing. Tragedy, amazing. It is a very, very hard life. I remember in Bible college,

I know I'm going off here, but this is so funny to me. I remember this forever. I was in the Bible college at lunch with a bunch of potential pastors, guys telling me to be pastors.

And I remember one of the guys, I'll never forget what his face looked like and where he was sitting when he said it.

He said, isn't it going to be great when we're pastors one day, guys? Isn't it amazing just to be able to spend all day studying

God's word and just like with Jesus and just telling people about Jesus? Isn't that going to be amazing?

He's deluded, completely deluded. So the first thing we're trying to do is we try to talk you out of being a pastor, right?

Because I think you're thinking about it wrongly if you think as a young man that this is the ultimate, right?

This space up here being this in this role, being the pastor, you're the closest to Jesus.

You have the most spiritual stuff about you and like that's the ultimate. Be the pastor behind the pulpit.

Guys, this is just one aspect of God's kingdom, just one, just one. And your vocation as a

Christian, as you labor for the glory of God, as you build for the glory of God, as you bring the culture of Christ and the kingdom of Christ into this world and every nook and cranny, it's as important and as valuable as this right here.

Did you catch that? Think about your vocation and your life in a much different way. Your citizenship is in heaven, so go bring the culture of Christ and the kingdom of heaven throughout this world.

Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless, Lord, the word that went out today. And I pray, Lord, you would use the words from your word to transform us, to change us.

And I do pray that you would allow what was said today that was in accordance with your word to be something that changes the way that we think about this world and the future.

Help us to not think like Christian Gnostics. Help us to think about the world that you've created it, as you created it, and the future as you've told it.

Help us to think about all of that in a way that's pleasing to you and that is consistent with your revelation in such a way that it changes things around us for your glory.