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In 1938, America was taken by storm by the release of the comic series Superman. And then in the 1950s, it became a TV show. And then decades after, even to the present day in 2017, Superman has been a hit.
It's been in movies, it's been TV shows, it's been in comics. And Superman, as some of you know, came from the planet Krypton. And he had to leave Krypton because the planet was being destroyed. And his parents sent him to planet Earth as a little boy.
And so you could say that Superman was a citizen of Krypton and of Earth. But his primary focus was as being a citizen of Earth. Because his old citizenship, the place where he used to live, passed away.
If you think about it as a Christian, it's kind of like that. We live in a world that is passing away. The Bible says that the Earth in its present form is passing away, along with its desires. And as citizens of God's heavenly kingdom, as Christians, our primary focus needs to be living as kingdom citizens, even though we are also citizens of Earth.
Because just like Krypton, our Earth, the Earth in its present form, is passing away. This world is passing away. And so we need to live as kingdom citizens now. The sermon this morning is titled, United in the Faith of the Gospel.
And the big idea that we're going to focus on is, remember that you are now a citizen of Christ's kingdom. You are now a citizen of Christ's kingdom. And so as we continue our series through the letter of Philippians, we're going to be looking at verses 27 -30 of chapter 1.
So if you have a Bible, please turn with me to Philippians 1, verses 27 -30. And we are going to see the call to live as citizens of God's kingdom now. So follow along with me please as I read Philippians 1, verses 27 -30.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel.
And not be frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation, and that from God. For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in him, but also suffer for his sake.
Engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had, and now hear that I still have. So the big idea this morning is remember that you are now a citizen of Christ's kingdom. You are now a citizen. And this is going to lead to three experiences.
Three experiences. The first is a community of believers united together in gospel ministry. A community of believers united together in gospel ministry. You will see the blanks in your outline. You can fill those out as you'd like.
Last week we looked at three ways that Christ will be glorified in our life. The first is that you should rejoice that God is using your trials to sustain and produce character in you to bring you to final salvation.
The second way we looked at was living a fruitful life for Christ's sake. We saw that you are here to live for Jesus and not for selfish reasons. We learned that living a fruitful life for Jesus is the most joyful life possible.
The third way that you will glorify Christ with your life is by helping serve the church, specifically the local church. And for you, that's Eureka Baptist Church. Now in verse 27, Paul transitions to the type of unity in the faith that is expected as a citizen of Christ's kingdom.
This is what he says in verse 27.
He says,.
Paul is calling them citizens here. And we get the word citizens here from the original Greek language. The New Testament was written in Greek. And it says, literally, only behave as citizens. So that's where I'm getting that from.
I'm not sure what your translation says, but only behave as citizens. And Paul is calling them citizens. So what comes to our mind when we hear the word citizen? A citizen is one who has official and legal residence in a city or nation.
Everyone in this church, the church at Philippi, the people whom Paul is writing to, have been a Roman citizen. But this is not the citizenship that Paul is referring to. Paul is referencing their citizenship in Christ's kingdom.
He is saying, as a citizen, your life needs to look a certain way because of the kingdom that you belong to. So Paul is focusing specifically on their unity in the faith, that they need to be unified as they live as kingdom citizens now.
This can include their agreement in Christian doctrine, the essentials of the Christian faith, and their unity in relationships, as he says that they would be one in mind and one in spirit. Now, the church at Philippi are a community of people that were different than others in the Roman Empire.
And that is because they belong to heaven. The other Roman citizens didn't have a relationship with Christ, and so they were different. We actually have a sermon down the road in about a month that's titled Dual Citizenship, where we're going to focus more on this.
Our citizenship is in heaven and on earth. But we'll get to that in April. Now, for any company, organization, country, or empire to succeed, you need unity. That is something you must have. We have seen this throughout history.
Those in power had enough people behind them, unified, and that made them successful. The unity extends from the top to the bottom. Everybody's on the same page. They're working together for a common goal.
This is what successful communities, whether small or big, have in common. They are unified towards the same objectives, towards the same goals. Now, the people of the Roman Empire, 2 ,000 years ago, the Roman Empire was the most powerful empire in the world.
And so they knew what it took to become great. They were unified. Our country right now is very divided. We can see that. If you turn on the news, you can see our country is very divided. But the reason America grew to what it is today is because the people were unified.
The 13 original colonies in the 1600s and then in the 1700s were unified against British control over them. Think of the two world wars that you learned about in history class. Our country fought during the 20th century.
Was our country unified?
Of course we were.
That's why we won. If secular companies, organizations, empires, and nations desire unity and attain it, how much more the Church of God? Think of what a powerful testimony that would have been for the church in Philippi to be fully unified without constant quarrels and disagreements among them.
This would be setting a great example for Christ, would it not? As you know, I've only been a pastor here for about a month. But as I was an associate pastor at Mound Evangelical Free Church and pursuing a senior pastor position, I ran into a church where the news that I heard about the church is that the community doesn't like them.
They had a horrible reputation in the community. And I was thinking, how could that be? Think of how sad that is if a church has a poor reputation in the community. There are secular companies that have a great reputation in the community, but the church that belongs to Jesus Christ has a poor reputation in the community.
And so when I heard that, it alarmed me. But then I thought, you know what, it's not just this church, but there's numerous churches all over our country that have a poor reputation in their community.
And this is a challenge to us. What is our reputation in the St. Croix Falls area? Is it a positive reputation, or is it a negative one? I hope it's, of course, a positive reputation. That's what we need to have.
If we're going to reach people for Christ, if we're going to bring people in, it's so important for us. When they think of Eureka Baptist Church, they think those are good people who love the Lord, and we can trust them.
They're people we can go to in times of trouble. This church is a light in the community. That's what we need to be. Now, if unbelieving communities can have unity, and they do, they reach their goals and are successful, and they have a positive perception in the community, it is a shame if the church does not attain this.
God sets a high standard for unity within the church. He sets a higher standard for unity in the church than secular organizations do. He sets a very high standard. And this text this morning is calling us to live as worthy citizens who live unified together.
Secular communities are always going to have some kind of disunity between some of its people. The unity that God requires within a church is far greater than the unity of a secular company. We should have very few disagreements, very few quarrels in this church, because if we're following Jesus the way we're supposed to be, if we're living the way that we're supposed to be, we will be a unified group all working together as one.
And think of what we can do. Think of the difference we can make in our community if we do that. Now, the body of Christ must be fully unified, and Paul expects this. As he writes to the church of Philippi, he expects this.
He expects this not only for the church of Philippi, but for every church that he came into contact with. And he tells them here in verse 27, he is hoping to hear that they are fully unified, whether he sees them in person or is unable to meet them.
Of course, as Paul writes this, he is in prison in Rome. We learned last week that his desire was to go and see them, and he was planning to see them, but he was saying, whether I see you or whether I am absent, I want to hear this about you.
I want to hear from your people that you're unified, and I want to hear from the surrounding community that you are unified. So to be unified as a church, you are living in a way that is worthy of the gospel of Christ.
You are living in a way that is worthy of your kingdom citizenship that you have now. And Paul later tells us in Philippians 3 .20 that our citizenship is in heaven, even though we are also citizens of earth.
And because of this, we need to live as heaven citizens now. All of us have great hopes for the future of this church, what God might do through us. But one thing I can tell you for sure is that this is only going to happen, the hopes that we have, if we are unified together in our mission to grow together and to advance the gospel in the St. Croix Falls community.
As we remember that we are citizens of heaven, we will live together as a unified community built on the gospel of Jesus Christ. So this is the first experience you will face as you remember that you are now citizens of Christ's kingdom, a community of believers united together in gospel ministry.
This is the experience that you will have if you remember this and live it out. Now the second experience that you will face as you remember that you are now a citizen of Christ's kingdom is that you will have enemies afraid of your courage.
You will have enemies afraid of your courage. Verse 28, And not frightened in anything by your opponents. This is a clear sign to them of their destruction, but of your salvation and that from God. So who is the identity of these enemies or these opponents that Paul is facing here in verse 28?
Earlier in this chapter you might remember Paul mentioned opponents that he had. But what we learned was that those opponents, and I put them in quotation marks because they weren't really his opponents, that they preached a sound gospel but were trying to afflict Paul in the way that they preached the gospel.
They were trying to be more eloquent than him, because remember Paul wasn't that eloquent. They were trying to stand out from Paul. Paul was imprisoned. They weren't. And they were saying, Look, we can share the gospel without being thrown in prison, but you're thrown in prison.
Now these people were preaching a sound gospel. Now the opponents here in verse 28, these are a different kind of people. And one of the other reasons we know that they're a different kind of people is because Paul's opponents were in Rome.
And remember, Paul's writing to the church in Philippi. He's addressing their opponents, not his opponents. So it's important to make that distinction. Now Paul is describing his opponents. Now we can't use the quotation marks when we're describing them because these are unbelievers.
These are not believers. They don't know the Lord, and we know that because of what's described in verse 28. It says here that this is a clear sign to them of their destruction. Now, destruction is never used to describe believers.
It's used to describe unbelievers. And this is referring to final, eternal destruction in hell. And salvation is mentioned too, and this is talking about the salvation that belongs to the church in Philippi.
So these opponents are unbelievers. And Paul is telling them that they have no reason to be afraid of them. Your enemies will try to make you afraid. Isn't that what enemies do? They use fear to establish control over you.
Everyone has enemies. I was joking with Brianna this week that Aletheia doesn't have any enemies, but she will. She doesn't have any enemies because everyone loves her. She's cute. She's five months old.
But the day is coming when you will have enemies, and all of us do. But enemies of Christians are put in an interesting place. They are faced with the reality that those they are trying to oppress have no fear.
And why is this? It's because God is on your side. The one who has more power than anyone is on your side. Romans 8 .31 says that if God is for us, who can be against us? So this turns the fear back on your enemies, the fact that God is on your side.
They are trying to make you afraid, but when they realize you serve the living God, this fear falls on them, and they become afraid. As a citizen of heaven, you should have confidence because God is with you, and he is your protector, not just in this life, but forever.
Even when you die, he's your protector. You are secure in him. The worst thing that an earthly enemy can do to you is kill you. Matthew 10 .28 says,. And do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul.
Rather, fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. The worst that they can do to you is kill you. And then you're in God's presence, and you're safe. And as we saw last week from verse 21, for the Christian to die is gain.
Because when you die, and you fulfill the plan that God had for you in your life, you go to be with the Lord, and it's actually better. Paul calls it far better than your time here on earth. And this ought to inspire courage for you as you face your opponents, realizing that if anyone ever killed you, and it might sound strange that I'm saying this, but a day may come when you are killed for your witness for Christ.
That day may come.
In America, it seems far away, but it may come. So as you follow, and one thing we need to make a note here is that as you follow Christ closer, you're going to have opponents. If you don't follow Christ closely, you might not have any enemies in the Christian, of people who are opposing you.
2 Timothy 3 .12 says that all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Not that you might be persecuted, you will be persecuted. And you know what? The gospel divides. It divides.
Brianna sent, my wife, she gave me permission to share this. She sent a message this week to one of her friends, who is not a Christian. She's one who professes Christ, but doesn't possess Christ. She's not a genuine believer.
And Brianna is really concerned about the way that she's living her life. And Brianna sent her a message, and was very clear in the gospel, and saying, you know, this is what you need to do. You need to follow Jesus.
You need to put your faith in Christ. You need to turn from your sin. You need to leave this. She lives with her boyfriend. You need to leave this relationship and follow Jesus. And Brianna wondered, okay, what's the response that she's going to get?
And her friend did respond, but it wasn't the response that she wanted. She wanted to say, you know what? You're right. I need to follow Jesus. That wasn't the response that she had. But the reason I bring this up is because this was a friend a number of years ago.
They were so close. They spent a lot of time together. But as Brianna has pursued Christ more, their relationship has been divided. Because Brianna has pursued Jesus and her friend has not. The gospel divides relationships.
It divides families. It divides friends. And Jesus said this in Matthew 10. This is interesting, what Jesus says here. Matthew 10, verses 34 -39. He says, Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth.
I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father. And a daughter against her mother. And a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household.
Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. So the gospel divides. Those who are following Jesus, your relationship with unbelievers, it can't be the same that it once was.
And that's just a reality that you have to face. As you go hard after Christ, and they don't do that, it's going to change your relationship. It doesn't mean you can't still be friends with them. But they oppose you in some way.
They do. And in that way, they are your enemy. Because they oppose Christ. The gospel divides. So when your opponents realize that you serve the living God, they will realize how big of trouble they are in if they continue on the course that they are on.
Because as I mentioned, as Paul writes here in verse 28, this is a clear sign to them of their destruction. When they realize that you serve the living God, then they realize, oh wait, I'm in trouble because that means God is against me.
And hopefully, hopefully they repent. Hopefully they believe in Christ and begin to follow him. Now the last phrase, that from God, if you look at verse 28, he says, but of your salvation and that from God.
That from God, it tells you that the destruction comes from God. The destruction that God pours out in hell. And not only the destruction, but your salvation. That is from God also. And you know what, this ought to give you comfort.
Because not only, God is over everything. This is all from God. You find your comfort in knowing that God is over your problems. He's over the problems of your enemies against you. And he's going to secure you.
He's going to bring you to salvation. Knowing that this is from God, as the end of verse 28 says. And as you endure persecution from an enemy, it shows you something. You are on God's side. And salvation belongs to you.
And you are eternally secure. And your opponents can do very little to you. So this is the second experience that results from being a kingdom of Christ's kingdom now. A citizen of Christ's kingdom now.
The third experience that you will go through as a citizen of Christ's kingdom is that you will endure suffering. And this kind of piggybacks on our topic last week. When you preach the New Testament, you see a lot of suffering.
And so there's a lot of sermons that are surrounded with the topic of enduring and persevering through suffering. Look with me please at verse 29 and 30. As Paul writes here, We learn from Scripture that grace is not only a gift from God, but that faith is also a gift that God has given you.
Ephesians 2 .8 says,. And this is not of your own doing, but it is the gift of God. So both grace and faith are a gift. In addition to this faith that God gives you, his plan is for you also to suffer.
It's a gift that's been given to you. We don't have to think of suffering as a gift, but this verse tells us it's a gift. It has been granted to you. It has been given to you as a gift that you should suffer.
And the suffering that you endure is for his sake, as verse 29 says. God uses every kind of suffering for your good, whether it be health, tension in relationships, mental battles, Satan sending all kinds of challenges your way.
God uses these for your good. This passage is specifically referring to persecution. In the context here, it's referring to persecution from your enemies. And this is what the church in Philippi were facing, and this is what you will face too.
The early church faced persecution, and the church of Philippi was no different. There are churches all over the world today that face persecution. Even in America, we face persecution. What we often face as Americans is different than physical harm.
But you will face opposition. People will look down upon you. There's no question about it. Maybe you've been called a religious fanatic, a Bible thumper, an ignoramus, who doesn't know what they are talking about.
That's what people say about you. Think of academia. Harvard, Yale, Princeton, all the universities. Brilliant Christians in the science community have been marginalized because they do not believe in evolution.
Has anyone seen the movie Expelled? That's what that's about. These scientists in secular universities are being fired because they don't believe in evolution. Bill Nye, the science guy, some of you remember him from your school days?
I remember him. He debated Ken Ham from Answers in Genesis. This is the ministry that built that ark in nearby Cincinnati. Bill Nye doesn't call the scientists who work with that organization scientists.
He doesn't think they're real scientists. And that's silly because these are brilliant people who love the Lord and also love science. And by the way, Bill Nye and these secular scientists, they're using science as an end, not as a means to an end.
What I love about Answers in Genesis, this organization, is that they use science as a means to an end. The end is the glory of God. You study science, the discovery of the natural world, the whole purpose of it is to point to our Creator.
It gives glory to Him. And what these secular scientists are doing is they worship science. And it's not meant to do that. It's pointing to something. It's pointing to God, and God is screaming at them.
This is for God's glory, not for the glory of science. There was a University of Minnesota professor, one of my friends told me about, he thinks that Christians should have no position, a high position in public life because they're the scum of the earth.
They should only be digging ditches. That's it. They shouldn't have any prominent positions. And that's really sad. But this is what you will face. All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
As you follow Jesus closer, this is what's going to come your way. Remember what Jesus said? He says, if they hate you, just remember, they hated me first. And the reason that they hate you is because they hate me.
And so be encouraged by that. 1 Peter 4 .14 says that if you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed. God's favor is upon you as you are insulted for the name of Christ. It's a great way to suffer.
Suffering because of your association with Jesus is the best way to suffer. Because you know that you are in God's will, and God is over it, and God is blessing you through it. As you follow Christ closely, a life of suffering and opposition will continue throughout your life.
And Paul says that here. He says, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. Paul had constant problems. Problems that he had two years earlier weren't problems anymore, but now he had new problems.
And that's how it is for believers. You're going to face trials. And the reason I preach a sermon like this, I'm preaching the text here. The reason I preach a sermon like this is because we don't want to sugarcoat the Christian life.
It is the best life possible. But there are trials. And your hope is in the future when the trials are no more. And you're brought into God's presence forever. And you're forever secure in Him. And you're in His presence where there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore, as Psalm 1611 says.
So you will face this opposition. And so that's why I bring this sermon to you today. Just to warn you so that when it comes, you are ready. So this is the third experience that you will face as a kingdom of Christ's kingdom now.
You will endure suffering. And God will be the one who pushes you through it. So remember that you are now a citizen of Christ's kingdom. Not sometime in the future, but now. And also in the future. This leads to three experiences.
A community of believers united together in gospel ministry. You will have enemies afraid of your courage. You will endure suffering. At Eureka Baptist Church, as we look forward to the future, these experiences will be characteristic of our church.
If we remember that we are citizens of Christ's kingdom and we live it out. Some of it is pleasant, like being united together. And knowing that no one can harm us because God is with us. But being a citizen of this kingdom, sometimes it is not pleasant.
When we know that God is pushing us through this suffering and the trials that we face. But we know that even the unpleasant parts of being a citizen of God's kingdom, is that it is short-lived. The trials are short-lived and temporary.
And you will be in the place where it will only be pleasant one day. As Paul said in Philippians 121, to be with Christ is far better. And that ought to fill you with tremendous hope. So as we wrap this up here and move towards next week.
We finished off Philippians chapter 1 today. And next week we are going to begin Philippians chapter 2. As we look at the humility of Christ and the model that he set for us. And the model that we need to live out as well.
Let's pray. Father, I pray that we would live as citizens of this kingdom now. In the future, yes. But it is not just in the future. We are citizens of Christ's kingdom now. And so help us, Lord, to remember that.
And as we remember that, Lord, we will be unified. We will face suffering. Our enemies will be afraid of our courage. These are three experiences that will lead to being citizens of Christ's kingdom now.
And so, Lord, I pray that we would see this in our lives. Because if we see this in our lives, then we know that we are living as kingdom citizens now. And we know that we are living out 2 Timothy 3 .12.
All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. And so, Lord, give us courage. Give us strength. Fill us with the hope that we have in Jesus. Fill us with your joy. And we ask this in Jesus' name.
Amen.