Sermon Series: Jesus-Everything We Need 

Our Hope 

Philippians 3:20-4:1 

CBC Bishop, August 3, 2003

In a nutshell: Our hope is built on the fact that we are Citizens of heaven; Jesus is coming back for us; We will be transformed into someone who is fit for eternity; which will give us the courage to stand firm when life wants to beat us down.

I. Introduction

A. Catacombs

In the catacombs that wind their way under the city of Rome, are the graves of many 1st and 2nd century Christians. As people have explored these tunnels over the years, three common symbols have been found etched on the stone and earthen walls of these cave-like tunnels: the dove, the fish, and the anchor. -The dove symbolizes the Holy Spirit. -The letters of the Greek word for "fish," ichthus, stand for the words Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. -And the anchor came from the idea that as Christians were going through difficult, harrowing, and insecure times, their hope is what anchored their souls.

B. Goethe List

More than two hundred years ago, the German philosopher, playwright and scientist, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe wrote out what he felt were the nine prerequisites for contented living. According to him, these are the things that really matter in life: 1. Health enough to make work a pleasure: 2. Wealth enough to support your needs: 3. Strength to battle with difficulties and overcome them: 4. Grace enough to confess your sins and forsake them: 5. Patience enough to toil until some good is accomplished: 6. Charity enough to see some good in your neighbor: 7. Love enough to move you to be useful and helpful to others: 8. Faith enough to make real the things of God: 9. Hope enough to remove all anxious fears concerning the future.

Hope is a very important thing for human beings to have. And where we place our hope, and the trustworthiness of what we hope in, will either lead us to be confident or to be anxious regarding our futures.

C. Transition

In the earlier verses of chapter 3 in Philippians, Paul talks about people who set their mind on earthly things. A lot of people do that. In fact, I'd bet that most of the people that you and I make eye contact with on a daily basis have their hope focused on earthly things rather than eternal things.

But I also see a lot of other things in the people that I make eye contact with on a regular basis. I see a lot of discouragement, a lot of despair and a lot of disillusionment. Why? Because if you put your hope in earthly things…things that you have to leave here when you die and go to your final reward…those things will never satisfy. They will never give lasting hope. That's because earthly things can't. They're not designed for that. Human beings need more than this life has to offer. We need an eternal hope to keep us going when times get tough. And the good news is that we have one!

So, in the verses we'll be looking at this morning, the apostle Paul gives us four reminders to help jog our thinking into a more eternal realm rather than an earthly realm when it comes to our hope. If you have your Bibles, please turn to the last few verses of Philippians, chapter 3. We'll start reading at verse 20…

II. Important Reminders

A. Recognize that this world is not your home

The first reminder is found in the first part of verse 20

Philippians 3:20a 20a But our citizenship is in heaven.

First, Paul says, in order to get our minds off of earthly things and onto more eternal things we need to recognize that this world is not our home. He says that our citizenship is in heaven. And because of that, we need to recognize who we are!

The people to whom Paul was writing, the Philippians, lived in a city that had been made a part of the Roman Empire. Because of that, they had been granted Roman citizenship. This was a high privilege at this time in history. It meant that they were given all of the rights and privileges of belonging to the most powerful empire in the world. They were under the protection of Rome. They could travel in safety. They had privileges ordinary people did not have. They couldn't be arrested or thrown into prison without due process. And if you were a Roman citizen, you were very proud of that fact. That was something that caused you to hold your head up high.

And it's the same for us, as United States citizens. If we traveled out of our country-let's say to a third world country, we would not hesitate to identify ourselves as American citizens. In fact, we would probably be easily identifiable as Americans by the fact that we look rich to people of a poorer country. And in reality, we are rich, by their standards. People in poorer countries believe that every American is rich, because we live in the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth.

So, the question is one of citizenship-do you see yourself as citizen of Heaven or do you see yourself as citizen of Earth? Our culture wants to squeeze us into the mold of earthly citizenship. And that pressure wants to get us to focus on things like…, …becoming prosperous, …climbing the success ladder, …pursuing comfort, and …elevating our standard of living. Now, I'm not saying that these things aren't important and that we don't need to think about them, but when they become our focus, then our focus is on the wrong things-and we'll be dissatisfied in the long run.

As Christians, the hope of Heaven should define our lives here on Earth. After all, we are citizens of Heaven. That's our eternal home. That's our destiny. That's where we'll spend eternity. That thought ought to excite us. That alone is cause for great hope.

B. Remember Jesus will come for you!

But there is a second reminder that's found in the second part of verse 20…

Philippians 3:20b 20b And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ,

Not only are we to recognize that this world is not our home, we also need to remember that Jesus is going to be coming back for us someday! One day we will see Jesus, face to face. According to the Bible, either that is going to take place when our life on earth ceases or when Jesus comes back to earth for us, like it says in…

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

In verse 20, Paul uses the phrase, we eagerly await a Savior. In other words, if you love Jesus and He really is the One you're following as the leader of your life, then the natural reaction you're going to have is that you can't wait to see Him face-to-face. Because you want to be with Him. The prospect of heaven and being with someone who loves you as much as Jesus does, should be something that brings excitement and great hope.

Just think of what it means to be with Jesus in heaven. Jesus said, in John 14, that He was going away to prepare a place for us.

John 14:1-3 "Don't be troubled. You trust God, now trust in me. 2 There are many rooms in my Father's home, and I am going to prepare a place for you. If this were not so, I would tell you plainly. 3 When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.

Friends, Jesus has been preparing your eternal home for 2000 years. And if God created the universe in six days, but has been working on your heavenly home for 2000 years, can you imagine what an utterly fantastic place that's going to be?!?!?.

Now the Bible says a lot about heaven. But most of it is symbolic, because it is so hard for our finite human minds to understand the beauty and splendor of something that was created by someone who is infinite. So, we really don't have a clear picture of exactly what Heaven's like. And because of that, people have developed some misconceptions about Heaven. -Some people believe that heaven is like some ethereal Leisure World, where people sit around in their lounge chairs all day, strumming their harps.

But that's not an accurate picture of what Heaven is all about. Heaven will be the most exciting place we've ever been. It's better than Disney World, a cruise or an exotic vacation. It's better than owning a sports car, a motorcycle, or a fancy SUV.

It begins with a marriage feast. Now, for those of you who are married, you know that the marriage feast comes immediately after the wedding. It is a celebration of the beginning of the marriage. And it's no different for heaven. The Marriage Feast marks just the beginning. It is not an end. It's a beginning. We are just beginning an incredible adventure beyond our present imaginations!

1 Corinthians 2:9 No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him." (NLT)

We really don't have an idea of all that God has in store for us.

For instance, in Revelation 20:6 it says…

Rev 20:6 6 Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.

Did you get that? Part of what we're going to be doing is ruling and reigning with Christ. -What does that mean? I don't know! -Over whom will we reign? I don't know! -Over what? I don't know. -Will God create a new world for us to rule? I have no idea. But it's fascinating to think about, isn't it?

We also know that Heaven will bring us perfect peace. There we will enjoy total love, complete joy, and absolute fulfillment.

Still another picture of Heaven is that it is going to have streets of gold. In other words, the stuff that we value most on Earth is just pavement up there. What a fantastic place heaven is going to be!

But our hope is also in something that's in addition to that fantastic place. Look at this third reminder…

C. Realize your body will be eternally transformed!

Philippians 3:20c-21 20c …the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.

The third reminder Paul give is to Realize your body will be eternally transformed.

Now, you may not realize it, but this transformation has already begun. When you and I came to know Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior, the process of transformation-what we call salvation-started. It started internally. And one day it's going to be completed when our physical bodies are finally transformed.

You see, our physical bodies are not made for eternity. The warranty doesn't extend that far!!! They're mortal. That means that they grow old and wear out. They experience pain and get sick. And one day they're going to quit functioning and die.

So, in order to enjoy Heaven and eternity, we're going to need new bodies. We will need eternal bodies. We will need bodies that are immortal. And that's just what we're going to get.

In 1 Corinthians 15 Paul tells us that our bodies will be changed in the twinkling of an eye. In other words, faster than a millisecond, we will exchange this temporary earthly body for a glorious eternal body that will be perfect and immortal.

1 Corinthians 15:50b-55 50b These perishable bodies of ours are not able to live forever. 51 But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. 52 It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye, when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. 53 For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die. 54 When this happens--when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die--then at last the Scriptures will come true: "Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?" (NLT)

In heaven we will have bodies that will never get sick. We will have bodies that will never experience pain or discomfort again. These new bodies will never grow old or die. And these new bodies will house us forever!

Are you excited about this? This is something that you ought to be excited about. The transformation that began with your new birth at the time you asked Jesus to be the forgiver of your sins and you started following Him as the leader of your life, will be completed when you receive your new body.

D. Respond by standing firm

But there's one last reminder to keep us focused on eternal things. It's found in the first verse of chapter 4…

Philippians 4:1 1 Therefore, my brothers, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, that is how you should stand firm in the Lord, dear friends!

Based on being able to… 1. Recognize that this world is not your home; 2. Remembering that Jesus will come for you; 3. Realizing that you will be eternally transformed; now you can finally, 4. Respond by standing firm in your hope in Jesus Christ.

Friends, we've got to get something firmly implanted in our minds…this world is not all there is. There is so much more. Anyone who puts his or her hope in what this world has to offer will always wind up being disappointed. You could become the wealthiest person on Earth and still not be satisfied.

Look at all the money and possessions and power that Odai and Qusai and Sadaam Hussein amassed in the last 20 years. Yet they wanted more-more money, more possessions, and more power. But… -Money will not satisfy the deepest needs you have. -Possessions will not satisfy the deepest hunger you have. -Power will not satisfy the most urgent desires you have This world will never fill up the empty place you have in your heart. Only Jesus Christ can do that. In the words of theologian, F. B. Meyer that I put on the front of your worship folders this morning…

God has set Eternity in our heart, and man's infinite capacity cannot be filled or satisfied with the things of time and sense. (F. B. Meyer)

Friends, in this life we are going to experience both good and bad. We experience…and will continue to experience things like…pain, suffering, struggles, trials, temptations, and tragedies.

There'll be times when we find ourselves in difficult places and we don't know where to turn. Maybe you're there right now. Let me tell you something, if all you have is what this world has to offer, you will despair. -You need a focus beyond this world. -You need a hope that is strong enough to carry you through the tough times. -You need an eternal perspective to give you courage to stand firm. …And all that is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

If you have that, then you are… …a Citizen of heaven; …Jesus is coming back for you; …You will be transformed into someone who is fit for eternity; Which will give you… …the courage to stand firm when life wants to beat you down.

Folks, we have to live from that eternal perspective if we want hope in our lives.

III. Conclusion

A. Wrap-up

This brings us back to where we began, doesn't it? Hope is a very important thing for human beings to have. And where we place our hope, and the trustworthiness of what we hope in, will either lead us to be confident or to be anxious regarding our futures.

In what are you placing your hope? Your answer to that question will determine how you live. It will also determine the amount of satisfaction you have with this life.

If we keep our eyes focused on the fact that this world is not all there is…then our perspective on life will be vastly different than those who have their minds set on earthly things... -We will live for eternity, not merely for the here and now. -Christ's kingdom will be what's important. -We will live on Earth as those who have an allegiance to a higher kingdom. -We will live boldly for Christ. -And we will have a hope that will keep us going even when circumstances want to stop us!

B. Invitation

If you don't have an eternal hope for the future like I've been describing this morning, then there is a good chance that you don't have a relationship with Jesus. Because that's what makes the difference.

But you can-it is a free gift from God. And when you enter into this relationship, all these things that Paul mentions in the verses we've been looking at today, will be yours.

But it starts with agreeing with God…that you are a sinner, without righteousness. And without having your sins forgiven, and gaining a righteousness that you can't earn, you cannot dwell in God's presence in heaven.

Romans 3:23 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Romans 6:23 23 For the wages of sin is death…,

But don't despair. God holds out a free gift to you…

…but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And you take that gift by asking for it with words that reflect this attitude…

"Lord Jesus, I admit that I'm a sinner in need of salvation. Please forgive my sins and come into my life as my Savior. Lead me in my daily decisions so I can turn from any sin and obey You completely. Thank You for hearing my prayer and saving my soul."