Scripture reading: Philippians 3:1-11.

Sermon text: Philippians 3:12-21.

“Citizenship.” No matter where you go in the world, people express pride in their citizenship. The modern Chinese, inheritors of 2,200 years of history as a united nation, proudly proclaim their place as the Middle Kingdom, the nation around which Asia revolves. For over two centuries, the British claimed an empire than circled the globe and proudly stated, “The sun never sets on the Union Jack.”

The same holds true for the United States. Although we have a short history in the scheme of civilization, we can claim credit for transforming the world over the past 50 years. Our technological, economic, and military strength after World War II has led many scholars to call the twentieth century the “American Century.”

We’re all aware than within the United States, regional pride sometimes trumps national pride. Internationals soon learn not to use the term “Yankee” to refer to a Southerner. Few people in America can match the pride of a Southerner for his native land.

In the first century world of St. Paul, pride revolved around ethnic identity and Roman citizenship. The Jews proudly considered themselves God’s chosen people and smugly rested in their identity as Abraham’s descendants. Rome ruled the Western world, and anyone holding Roman citizenship enjoyed special privileges and exemptions that provincials could only envy. Few people could claim both Jewish ancestry and Roman citizenship.

St. Paul was one of those precious few. As a citizen of Tarsus, St. Paul had inherited Roman citizenship. As a Jew, St. Paul had inherited the faith of his ancestors. No one had more reason to boast in his identity than St. Paul.

However, in the passage today, St. Paul told the Philippians that he considered his temporal identity as “rubbish” compared to his identity in Christ. When Jesus called him and redeemed him from the kingdom of the world, St. Paul received citizenship in a new, eternal kingdom. Like St. Paul, we, too, received our citizenship by grace from Jesus Christ Himself. Like St. Paul, we must strive for the ultimate prize of our faith. We must leave all behind in our race to bring honor to our new kingdom, the kingdom of God.

Sermon

To understand this passage better, it helps to know the history of Philippi.

Philippi boasted an ancient legacy from the time of Macedonia, the kingdom of Alexander the Great. Alexander’s father, Philip, founded the city to control the local gold mines and the trading routes through the area. Although the city declined after the Romans conquered the Greeks, Octavian and Mark Antony fought a major battle against Julius Caesar’s assassins nearby. After their victory, Octavian and Antony settled some of their soldiers in Philippi. After Octavian’s victory over Mark Antony, in the last civil war, more Roman soldiers settled in the Philippian colony.

The Philippians knew their origins. They knew they descended from Romans; they were Roman to the core, and proud of it. They knew their rights as Romans and proudly let everyone else know those rights as well.

Since we know this history, we can now read chapter 3 and comprehend what St. Paul told the Philippians.

St. Paul began this passage by asking the Philippians to “rejoice in the Lord.” The Philippians had spent their lives rejoicing in their Roman citizenship. However, by their confession of Jesus as Lord, the Philippians had received citizenship in an eternal kingdom. For this reason, the Philippians should rejoice in God’s gracious offer of citizenship in His kingdom and in His forgiveness of their sins.

Next, St. Paul warned the Philippian Christians against those who would try to steal their joy. Many so-called “Judaizers” traveled around the Roman Empire, trying to counter St. Paul’s teachings regarding Gentile believers. These people tried to persuade Gentile Christians to accept the Mosaic Law, including circumcision of male converts. However, St. Paul told the Philippians, “We are the real circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.” In other words, as St. Paul had earlier written the Galatians, Christian citizenship did not rely on physical characteristics; true Christian citizenship relied solely on faith and confession of Jesus as Lord.

As an example of boasting in God, St. Paul used his own experiences. If the Jews could boast of a special relationship with God, and if Romans could boast of citizenship in the most powerful empire in the Western world, St. Paul should have lived in the best of all worlds! He enjoyed the rights of a Jew before God; he enjoyed the rights of a Roman in the world.

St. Paul was born in the tribe of Benjamin, one of the 2 tribes to remain with the line of David after the kingdom of Israel divided in c. 931 B.C. However, he was also born outside Judaism’s home country. Therefore, when St. Paul studied in Jerusalem under Gamaliel, the top teacher of Pharisees, he zealously proved his Jewishness, even to the point of becoming “a Hebrew of Hebrews.” When Christianity began at Pentecost, St. Paul eagerly persecuted the nascent Church, even to the point of putting Christians to death.

Yet, in spite of St. Paul’s joint citizenship, he counted “everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” When St. Paul was born again in Damascus, he found the identity he sought. He no longer felt divided between worlds. In Christ, humanity finds its true identity as children of God. In Christ, ethnic rivalries disappear; that which divides us instead enhances our ministry in God’s name.

St. Paul had once held “a righteousness of my own that comes from the law.” In Christ, St. Paul abandoned this righteousness — one that relied on his own works — and instead embraced “that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith.” When we travel around the nation or world, we seek to give others a good impression of America and the South. When we live in faith before God, we seek to give others a good impression of our true kingdom, the Church. For this reason, we live according to God’s law to demonstrate our relationship with Him and the supremacy of His lifestyle.

St. Paul had studied the Jewish law under Gamaliel to attain the highest standing among Pharisees. After his conversion, St. Paul counted this as nothing; instead, he wanted to “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.” St. Paul wanted to know Christ so intimately that he considered even his sufferings as a means of drawing near to Christ, Who had suffered for him. As Christ had risen from the dead, St. Paul also knew that he would rise from the dead because of his faith in Christ.

This line of thought would have challenged the Philippians as it does us today. The Philippians were accustomed to boasting in their Roman citizenship. They understood St. Paul’s frequent references to the “lordship” of Christ because each year, Roman citizens around the Mediterranean participated in the annual ritual of placing a pinch of incense on an altar dedicated to Caesar and declaring, “Caesar is Lord.” Now, the Philippians heard St. Paul say that Jewish birth meant nothing; Roman citizenship meant nothing. His citizenship in Christ meant everything. If this were true, then the Philippians had to rethink their very core identities.

We, too, must accept St. Paul’s challenge. Many of us in the South take pride in our Southern heritage: Our manners, our speech, and our determination to defend our nation. However, when we are born again, we must count our citizenship in heaven above that of our American citizenship or even our Southern identity.

The Philippians also heard St. Paul say that all other goals in life should also fall before their identity in Christ. In one of the most memorable passages of his letter, St. Paul told the Philippians that “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.” Switching to an athletic metaphor, St. Paul challenged the Philippians to forget their Roman identity and the goals of the Roman Empire and instead strive for the “call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Unfortunately, only the “mature” could really attain this goal. In this statement, St. Paul emphasized the crucial necessity of spiritual growth. This growth occurs in our time as in the Philippians’ time: Through prayer, Bible study, and worship with the congregation. We must join with one another in these activities to achieve the growth God desires in our lives.

Look at St. Paul’s next challenge: “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us.” Can any of us encourage others to walk according to our example? St. Paul lived a righteous life, confident in his identity in Christ and in his fulfillment of the lifestyle Christ required.

In contrast to those who lived contrary to God’s law — those he described as “whose end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things" — St. Paul finished this chapter with the ultimate conclusion of his argument. “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.” St. Paul closed by stating what the Philippians had inferred: Citizenship in heaven surpasses every privilege of Roman citizenship. Citizenship in the kingdom of God makes every privilege of any human citizenship to fade into obscurity. Christ will come again, transforming “our lowly body” into a body that will last through eternity.

This passage carries many important lessons for the Church today and for our congregation specifically.

First, as much as we may boast in our identities as Americans, as Southerners, and other identities, we must live first as Christians. In the case of Southerners, honor often demands that we defend our pride. However, as Christians, we must remember St. Paul’s admonitions in this letter to live humbly before God. Nothing must lead us from humility before God.

I also see another lesson here: The lesson of grace. St. Paul had to admit that although he enjoyed both Jewish and Roman identity, he had earned neither. He was born a Jew of Roman citizenship. The Philippians had not earned Roman citizenship; they were born Roman citizens. None of us have earned the identities with which we were born. Neither do we earn our heavenly citizenship. We receive this citizenship by grace through our faith in Jesus as Lord.

Lastly, St. Paul challenged the Philippians to pursue a prize worth the calling. We spend hours of time in school trying to teach children how to set goals in life. Our culture expects high accomplishments from talented individuals. The Christian life is no different except that God sets high goals for us all. He expects us to defeat pride, greed, and other sins in our lives as we strive to fulfill His calling on our lives. God expects us to live by love, and His Son, Jesus Christ, has given us an example of this love through His death and resurrection. Everyone who fulfills these goals will, through faith, inherit the true prize of humanity: Eternal life with God Himself.

What goals do you have in life? What identity do you value most? Earthly goals hold little eternal value. Pride in earthly identities will end at death. Pursue a prize worth gaining in your new identity as a citizen in the kingdom of God.