Philippians 3:12-21
Forward-Looking Faith
Illustration: I used to help Dan mow the lawn here at EFC. And you could always tell when I rode the riding mower and when Dan did. If you drove in on Sunday and saw that the lines were squiggly, I rode the riding lawn mower that week. If you saw they were perfectly straight, you knew that Dan had ridden the riding lawn mower that week. I asked him, “Dan, how do you get such straight lines?” He said, “Don’t look at the lines by your tire. You have to pick a target at the other end of the lawn and keep your eyes on it the whole time as you get closer and closer.” In other words, he meant I had to be forward looking; keep my sights on the target ahead.
When you have faith in Jesus Christ, you are forward looking. A man or woman who lives by faith is someone who has an attitude that there is an indescribably, incomparably great future ahead and their sights are set on that target in the future. Faith, in Jesus Christ, is forward looking.
The Bible speaks of this forward looking attitude all over the place. In Hebrews 11, the “hall of fame of faith” you might say, we find a whole host of historical people that were forward looking because of their faith in the Lord.
For instance, verses 8 through 10 say, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Obedience to God’s Word for Abraham meant getting up and leaving everything behind. To do this, it required faith in God’s promise, and a forward looking attitude. He wouldn’t have left it all behind if he didn’t believe God and look forward to what was in store for him. That’s why it says in verse 10, “For Abraham was looking forward…” He had his eyes on the target ahead. He had forward looking faith.
Later in the same chapter it speaks of Moses forward looking faith. Verses 24-27 say, “By faith Moses, whenhe had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.”
Moses was raised in the palace of the king of Egypt by the king’s own daughter. He had the treasures of Egypt as his possession. But, he left it all behind because he saw the greater treasure in Christ. He persevered because He saw the invisible God, verse 27; he was looking forward to a reward in Christ that surpassed anything that Egyptian treasure and royalty could offer. Moses had a forward looking faith.
We find Paul’s writings overflowing with a forward looking faith too. In Romans 8 verses 23-25 he says, “…we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” And we, with Paul, are looking forward to the redemption of our bodies. We all are to be hoping as we eagerly and patiently wait for this redemption that we have not yet received. It’s what we look forward to in faith.
And as we arrive to Paul’s letter to the Philippians we see the fragrance of this forward looking faith throughout. We see it in verse 5 of chapter 1 when Paul looks forward to the work that God will complete in the Philippian believers at the day of Jesus Christ. He says in chapter 2 verses 10 and 11 that there is yet a future day coming where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And in chapter 3 verses 10 and 11 Paul says he wants to know Jesus Christ; he wants to know the power of his resurrection; he wants to know the fellowship of his sufferings; he wants to know more of the surpassing greatness of the righteousness that comes by faith and not by works, and in verse 11 he looks forward to the resurrection from the dead. He looks on ahead with a forward looking faith to that day and event.
Our passage this week is verses 12 - 21 and Paul finishes the 3rd chapter in these verses with a very strong - if not his strongest - emphasis on a forward looking faith.
Why all the stress of looking forward? We get it, Pastor. No we don’t! We live in a NOW society. We live in microwaves, blackberries, fast-food, high speed internet, accelerated college degree programs, cliff’s notes, channel surfing because I don’t have patience to sit through commercials, buy now and pay later - does anyone do layaway anymore??? …………everything is all about now.
There are 5 things we see about a forward looking faith in our passage. Our current Imperfection; Our Pressing on in Christ; Our Putting Away our Past; Our Pattern of living; Our Anticipation.
Imperfect
First, Paul talks about his current Imperfection. Look at verses 12-13. “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.”
We are not yet perfected - we are imperfect still. Paul had been a Christian for almost 30 years at the time he wrote this letter, and he says plainly in verse 12, “I have not obtained all that Christ has for me, I have not been made perfect yet.” In verse 13 he says for a 3rd time, “I do not consider myself to have taken hold of that which Jesus took hold of me for.” In other words, Paul was saying his transforming, his conforming and his growing into Christ-likeness had not been fully accomplished. John MacArthur makes an interesting statement when he says, “Perfection in this life is a goal, not an achievement.”
This is important because there are teachings that say we can achieve sinlessness in this life. I was reading a book recently by Henry Ironside called, Holiness: The True and the False. In it he describes his early years as a teenage minister for the salvation army. During those years he and so many others believed in total sanctification, which meant that they could or had already reached a point in their Christian walk where they no longer sinned. They were perfected. His entire motive for writing the book many years later was to dispel this false teaching.
But, total sanctification is still taught in various church denominations today. Wesleyan Churches; Church of the Nazarene; Free Methodist Church.
When we realize we are not yet complete in Christ, and we are not perfected yet in Him, we are to Press On! We pursue that with all that we are realizing all that we are not yet.
Press On
And that’s the second thing we learn about a forward looking faith. It causes us to press on. It means - to pursue. Paul says 3 times that he is pressing on, or straining forward. Pressing on and straining ahead means to pursue - to chase, or to run after, and to do it with all out maximum effort.
The image that comes to my mind is when you see in the movies a good, action-packed foot chase. The guy doing the chasing is running with all his might, with maximum effort, straining ahead as he keeps his sights on the guy he’s chasing. He may jump over fences, over the hoods of cars, through crowds of people, in and out of buildings, but he is in an all-out pursuit of the goal - the man he is chasing.
That is the kind of energy and the kind of effort that pressing on means for Christians. It’s focusing / using / training / and exerting all your faculties and spiritual muscle toward the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. That is the description of the passionate pursuit of the Christian’s walk. We say our “walk” with the Lord, but, Paul is talking about our “running after” the Lord. How would you describe the effort and energy of your Christian life? Do you pursue Jesus Christ passionately?
Put-Away the Past
Another important aspect of a forward looking faith means putting away the past. Paul said in verse 13, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead.” By forgetting what is behind him he doesn’t mean he can’t remember anymore or that it’s been erased from his memory. He means that he is not controlled by his past, or absorbed with his past.
Paul is talking primarily about his religious merits. He has forgotten them - they are rubbish to him. But, I’m sure he also has in mind his guilt of past sins. He mentions on more than one occasion that he persecuted the Church of Jesus Christ and that he was the worst of sinners.
Many people are stuck in the past from the weight of their guilt. For many, it’s as if there is a day in the past that they have been living in ever since.
Some Christians live in self-condemning guilt and say things like, “I know God has forgiven me, but, I can’t forgive myself.” The problem with us holding on to our own self-imposed guilt is that we can’t give gratitude to God right now for His grace in our life.
What’s more, we can’t press on in spiritual growth when we are still holding ourselves prisoner to the past. We can’t go forward if we’re looking backwards all the time. It’s one thing to come to a sober grasp of the severity of your sin, and the consequences of them, and to cast yourself at the mercy of God - and it is entirely different to continue condemning yourself when God has declared you free in Christ.
When you accept forgiveness from God, but, not from yourself, it is to treat the grace of God as if it were insufficient for your freedom….It is to treat the grace of God as if it were insufficient for your freedom. But listen, God tells you just like He told Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, “My grace is sufficient for you.” And Jesus tells you, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”
Paul murdered Christians and because of that he considered himself the least important of the apostles (1 Cor_____). But, he put away the past, he overflowed with praise and gratitude to God, and he pressed on toward the prize in Christ Jesus.
Another way people don’t put the past behind them is by harboring bitterness.
Pattern
A forward-looking faith will lead to us living according to a pattern of Christ-likeness. Look at verses 17, “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take not of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.”
***Illustration:
Monterey is a coastal town in California, and for many years was a pelican's paradise. Fisherman there would clean their fish and throw the leftovers to the pelicans. The birds grew fat, lazy, and contented.
Eventually, however, the fisherman began to use the offal and there were no longer snacks for the pelicans. When the change came the pelicans made no effort to fish for themselves. They waited around and grew gaunt and thin. Many starved to death. They had forgotten how to fish for themselves.
The problem was solved by importing new pelicans from the south, birds accustomed to foraging for themselves. They were placed among their starving cousins, and the newcomers immediately started catching fish. Before long, the hungry pelicans followed suit, and the famine was ended.
Those pelicans needed an example to follow of how to fish. And just like those pelicans, we as Christians need good examples to pattern our lives after too.
Paul was never hesitant to call on others to follow his example. He says twice to the Philippians to follow his example. First here in verse 17, and then in chapter 4 verse 9 when he says, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice.” Paul had such confidence that his life in Christ was so worth imitating that he said any and all things you saw in me do in your own life.
Listen to what he says to other believers in 1 Corinthians 4:16 and 11:1, “Therefore I urge you to imitate me.” “Imitate me, because I imitate Christ.” Then he says to the believers in 2 Thessalonians 3:7, “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example”. There is a sense of obligation here. He says they know better than to NOT follow his example. They know his life, his pattern of living that he exemplified in front of them is the life they are to mimic.
The reason Paul stressed to follow his example was that there were bad examples of Christianity running around. He describes them in verses 18 and 19, “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”
They weren’t pagans and unbelievers, they were people who claimed to be Christians but didn‘t live up to their claim. They were “NO” Christians - that is “Name Only”.
Some people believe these were the Judaizers we looked at in the beginning of the chapter. But that doesn’t add up. The Judaizers prided themselves on their high morals coming from their strict religious living. The people Paul talks about here in verses 18 and 19 are described as loose, immoral, licentious and unrestrained.
They are the example NOT to follow. Their god is their stomach. That means they worshiped their appetites - not just food. They indulged in every physical pleasure and did not restrain themselves from the immoral cravings. These were people who thought being saved was a license to sin. They thought they were off the hook. Their god was their stomach. They became slaves to their lusts.
Furthermore, Paul says their glory was in their shame. The things they should have been ashamed of were the things they prided themselves on. And that’s why he says their destiny is their destruction. This is the eternal judgment outside of the presence of God.
Let me ask you something. Would you consider your life as a Christian worth imitating? I mean, before God, in the hearing and sight of the living Lord Jesus Christ, would you confidently call others to look at you and your pattern of life and call them to copy you in all that you do? Do you have that kind of confidence? Is your conscience that clear? To do that is to live an intentional life for Christ, not an incidental one.
A forward looking faith causes us to have a Christ-centered lifestyle; one that is patterned after the example of Christ and those whom are following Christ themselves.
Anticipation
(Imperfection, Pressing On, Putting Away the Past, Practice)
Living with a forward looking faith means living with an anticipation of Jesus Christ’s return. Look at verse 20, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ”
The word for citizenship used here is only used once in the Bible. It refers to a colony of foreigners. The Philippians understood that because they were a colony of Rome. They were Roman citizens, but, they did not live in Rome. They lived in a city called Philippi that was 800 miles from Rome, but, was considered legally to be Roman soil. It was a Rome-away-from-home you might say. The government, the money, the culture, the food, the language, the food, everything was like Rome and the people were citizens of Rome.
Paul plays on this idea of a colony by saying to the Philippians that their real citizenship is heaven in verse 20. They were a colony of heavenly people living on earth. This is not their home. This is not our home. Go back with me to Hebrews 11, verses 13 through 16:
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them”
The writer of Hebrews says that these patriarch’s in the faith hall of fame knew they were aliens and strangers in this world. They knew they were citizens of another place - heaven. They looked for it, they longed for it, they thought about it … They anticipated heaven.
And that’s what Paul says in verse 20, that we eagerly await a Savior from heaven. Eagerly await is a Greek word that means to stand on your tip-toes and look with expectancy. That’s forward looking faith - looking forward to the return of Christ with a standing on our tiptoes watchfulness.
Conclusion
So we are to have a forward looking faith. And when we do, we realize in our Imperfection we Put Away the Past to Press On towards that Perfection that will come when Christ - who is our Perfection - comes. And we Pattern Our lives after godliness and Anticipate the Lord’s coming from heaven, our true citizenship.
Many years ago, a man visited his longtime friend, a British military officer stationed in an African jungle. One day when the friend entered the officer's hut out in the jungle, he was startled to see him dressed in formal attire and seated at a table beautifully set with silverware and fine china.
The visitor, thinking his friend might have lost his mind, asked why he was all dressed up and seated at a table so formally set out in the middle of nowhere.
The officer explained, "Once a week I follow this routine to remind myself of who I am—a British citizen. I want to maintain the customs of my real home and live according to the codes of British conduct, no matter how those around me live. I want to avoid substituting a foreign culture for that of my homeland."
As Christians we too live for our homeland. We live for that day when our Lord will return to transform our bodies to be like His glorious body. We live now looking forward in faith to all that is ours in our Lord Jesus Christ.
Forward-Looking Faith
Illustration: I used to help Dan mow the lawn here at EFC. And you could always tell when I rode the riding mower and when Dan did. If you drove in on Sunday and saw that the lines were squiggly, I rode the riding lawn mower that week. If you saw they were perfectly straight, you knew that Dan had ridden the riding lawn mower that week. I asked him, “Dan, how do you get such straight lines?” He said, “Don’t look at the lines by your tire. You have to pick a target at the other end of the lawn and keep your eyes on it the whole time as you get closer and closer.” In other words, he meant I had to be forward looking; keep my sights on the target ahead.
When you have faith in Jesus Christ, you are forward looking. A man or woman who lives by faith is someone who has an attitude that there is an indescribably, incomparably great future ahead and their sights are set on that target in the future. Faith, in Jesus Christ, is forward looking.
The Bible speaks of this forward looking attitude all over the place. In Hebrews 11, the “hall of fame of faith” you might say, we find a whole host of historical people that were forward looking because of their faith in the Lord.
For instance, verses 8 through 10 say, “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”
Obedience to God’s Word for Abraham meant getting up and leaving everything behind. To do this, it required faith in God’s promise, and a forward looking attitude. He wouldn’t have left it all behind if he didn’t believe God and look forward to what was in store for him. That’s why it says in verse 10, “For Abraham was looking forward…” He had his eyes on the target ahead. He had forward looking faith.
Later in the same chapter it speaks of Moses forward looking faith. Verses 24-27 say, “By faith Moses, whenhe had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a short time. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward. By faith he left Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger; he persevered because he saw him who is invisible.”
Moses was raised in the palace of the king of Egypt by the king’s own daughter. He had the treasures of Egypt as his possession. But, he left it all behind because he saw the greater treasure in Christ. He persevered because He saw the invisible God, verse 27; he was looking forward to a reward in Christ that surpassed anything that Egyptian treasure and royalty could offer. Moses had a forward looking faith.
We find Paul’s writings overflowing with a forward looking faith too. In Romans 8 verses 23-25 he says, “…we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.” And we, with Paul, are looking forward to the redemption of our bodies. We all are to be hoping as we eagerly and patiently wait for this redemption that we have not yet received. It’s what we look forward to in faith.
And as we arrive to Paul’s letter to the Philippians we see the fragrance of this forward looking faith throughout. We see it in verse 5 of chapter 1 when Paul looks forward to the work that God will complete in the Philippian believers at the day of Jesus Christ. He says in chapter 2 verses 10 and 11 that there is yet a future day coming where every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
And in chapter 3 verses 10 and 11 Paul says he wants to know Jesus Christ; he wants to know the power of his resurrection; he wants to know the fellowship of his sufferings; he wants to know more of the surpassing greatness of the righteousness that comes by faith and not by works, and in verse 11 he looks forward to the resurrection from the dead. He looks on ahead with a forward looking faith to that day and event.
Our passage this week is verses 12 - 21 and Paul finishes the 3rd chapter in these verses with a very strong - if not his strongest - emphasis on a forward looking faith.
Why all the stress of looking forward? We get it, Pastor. No we don’t! We live in a NOW society. We live in microwaves, blackberries, fast-food, high speed internet, accelerated college degree programs, cliff’s notes, channel surfing because I don’t have patience to sit through commercials, buy now and pay later - does anyone do layaway anymore??? …………everything is all about now.
There are 5 things we see about a forward looking faith in our passage. Our current Imperfection; Our Pressing on in Christ; Our Putting Away our Past; Our Pattern of living; Our Anticipation.
Imperfect
First, Paul talks about his current Imperfection. Look at verses 12-13. “Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.”
We are not yet perfected - we are imperfect still. Paul had been a Christian for almost 30 years at the time he wrote this letter, and he says plainly in verse 12, “I have not obtained all that Christ has for me, I have not been made perfect yet.” In verse 13 he says for a 3rd time, “I do not consider myself to have taken hold of that which Jesus took hold of me for.” In other words, Paul was saying his transforming, his conforming and his growing into Christ-likeness had not been fully accomplished. John MacArthur makes an interesting statement when he says, “Perfection in this life is a goal, not an achievement.”
This is important because there are teachings that say we can achieve sinlessness in this life. I was reading a book recently by Henry Ironside called, Holiness: The True and the False. In it he describes his early years as a teenage minister for the salvation army. During those years he and so many others believed in total sanctification, which meant that they could or had already reached a point in their Christian walk where they no longer sinned. They were perfected. His entire motive for writing the book many years later was to dispel this false teaching.
But, total sanctification is still taught in various church denominations today. Wesleyan Churches; Church of the Nazarene; Free Methodist Church.
When we realize we are not yet complete in Christ, and we are not perfected yet in Him, we are to Press On! We pursue that with all that we are realizing all that we are not yet.
Press On
And that’s the second thing we learn about a forward looking faith. It causes us to press on. It means - to pursue. Paul says 3 times that he is pressing on, or straining forward. Pressing on and straining ahead means to pursue - to chase, or to run after, and to do it with all out maximum effort.
The image that comes to my mind is when you see in the movies a good, action-packed foot chase. The guy doing the chasing is running with all his might, with maximum effort, straining ahead as he keeps his sights on the guy he’s chasing. He may jump over fences, over the hoods of cars, through crowds of people, in and out of buildings, but he is in an all-out pursuit of the goal - the man he is chasing.
That is the kind of energy and the kind of effort that pressing on means for Christians. It’s focusing / using / training / and exerting all your faculties and spiritual muscle toward the prize of the upward call in Christ Jesus. That is the description of the passionate pursuit of the Christian’s walk. We say our “walk” with the Lord, but, Paul is talking about our “running after” the Lord. How would you describe the effort and energy of your Christian life? Do you pursue Jesus Christ passionately?
Put-Away the Past
Another important aspect of a forward looking faith means putting away the past. Paul said in verse 13, “Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead.” By forgetting what is behind him he doesn’t mean he can’t remember anymore or that it’s been erased from his memory. He means that he is not controlled by his past, or absorbed with his past.
Paul is talking primarily about his religious merits. He has forgotten them - they are rubbish to him. But, I’m sure he also has in mind his guilt of past sins. He mentions on more than one occasion that he persecuted the Church of Jesus Christ and that he was the worst of sinners.
Many people are stuck in the past from the weight of their guilt. For many, it’s as if there is a day in the past that they have been living in ever since.
Some Christians live in self-condemning guilt and say things like, “I know God has forgiven me, but, I can’t forgive myself.” The problem with us holding on to our own self-imposed guilt is that we can’t give gratitude to God right now for His grace in our life.
What’s more, we can’t press on in spiritual growth when we are still holding ourselves prisoner to the past. We can’t go forward if we’re looking backwards all the time. It’s one thing to come to a sober grasp of the severity of your sin, and the consequences of them, and to cast yourself at the mercy of God - and it is entirely different to continue condemning yourself when God has declared you free in Christ.
When you accept forgiveness from God, but, not from yourself, it is to treat the grace of God as if it were insufficient for your freedom….It is to treat the grace of God as if it were insufficient for your freedom. But listen, God tells you just like He told Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, “My grace is sufficient for you.” And Jesus tells you, “If the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.”
Paul murdered Christians and because of that he considered himself the least important of the apostles (1 Cor_____). But, he put away the past, he overflowed with praise and gratitude to God, and he pressed on toward the prize in Christ Jesus.
Another way people don’t put the past behind them is by harboring bitterness.
Pattern
A forward-looking faith will lead to us living according to a pattern of Christ-likeness. Look at verses 17, “Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take not of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.”
***Illustration:
Monterey is a coastal town in California, and for many years was a pelican's paradise. Fisherman there would clean their fish and throw the leftovers to the pelicans. The birds grew fat, lazy, and contented.
Eventually, however, the fisherman began to use the offal and there were no longer snacks for the pelicans. When the change came the pelicans made no effort to fish for themselves. They waited around and grew gaunt and thin. Many starved to death. They had forgotten how to fish for themselves.
The problem was solved by importing new pelicans from the south, birds accustomed to foraging for themselves. They were placed among their starving cousins, and the newcomers immediately started catching fish. Before long, the hungry pelicans followed suit, and the famine was ended.
Those pelicans needed an example to follow of how to fish. And just like those pelicans, we as Christians need good examples to pattern our lives after too.
Paul was never hesitant to call on others to follow his example. He says twice to the Philippians to follow his example. First here in verse 17, and then in chapter 4 verse 9 when he says, “Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice.” Paul had such confidence that his life in Christ was so worth imitating that he said any and all things you saw in me do in your own life.
Listen to what he says to other believers in 1 Corinthians 4:16 and 11:1, “Therefore I urge you to imitate me.” “Imitate me, because I imitate Christ.” Then he says to the believers in 2 Thessalonians 3:7, “For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example”. There is a sense of obligation here. He says they know better than to NOT follow his example. They know his life, his pattern of living that he exemplified in front of them is the life they are to mimic.
The reason Paul stressed to follow his example was that there were bad examples of Christianity running around. He describes them in verses 18 and 19, “For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.”
They weren’t pagans and unbelievers, they were people who claimed to be Christians but didn‘t live up to their claim. They were “NO” Christians - that is “Name Only”.
Some people believe these were the Judaizers we looked at in the beginning of the chapter. But that doesn’t add up. The Judaizers prided themselves on their high morals coming from their strict religious living. The people Paul talks about here in verses 18 and 19 are described as loose, immoral, licentious and unrestrained.
They are the example NOT to follow. Their god is their stomach. That means they worshiped their appetites - not just food. They indulged in every physical pleasure and did not restrain themselves from the immoral cravings. These were people who thought being saved was a license to sin. They thought they were off the hook. Their god was their stomach. They became slaves to their lusts.
Furthermore, Paul says their glory was in their shame. The things they should have been ashamed of were the things they prided themselves on. And that’s why he says their destiny is their destruction. This is the eternal judgment outside of the presence of God.
Let me ask you something. Would you consider your life as a Christian worth imitating? I mean, before God, in the hearing and sight of the living Lord Jesus Christ, would you confidently call others to look at you and your pattern of life and call them to copy you in all that you do? Do you have that kind of confidence? Is your conscience that clear? To do that is to live an intentional life for Christ, not an incidental one.
A forward looking faith causes us to have a Christ-centered lifestyle; one that is patterned after the example of Christ and those whom are following Christ themselves.
Anticipation
(Imperfection, Pressing On, Putting Away the Past, Practice)
Living with a forward looking faith means living with an anticipation of Jesus Christ’s return. Look at verse 20, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ”
The word for citizenship used here is only used once in the Bible. It refers to a colony of foreigners. The Philippians understood that because they were a colony of Rome. They were Roman citizens, but, they did not live in Rome. They lived in a city called Philippi that was 800 miles from Rome, but, was considered legally to be Roman soil. It was a Rome-away-from-home you might say. The government, the money, the culture, the food, the language, the food, everything was like Rome and the people were citizens of Rome.
Paul plays on this idea of a colony by saying to the Philippians that their real citizenship is heaven in verse 20. They were a colony of heavenly people living on earth. This is not their home. This is not our home. Go back with me to Hebrews 11, verses 13 through 16:
“All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country—a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them”
The writer of Hebrews says that these patriarch’s in the faith hall of fame knew they were aliens and strangers in this world. They knew they were citizens of another place - heaven. They looked for it, they longed for it, they thought about it … They anticipated heaven.
And that’s what Paul says in verse 20, that we eagerly await a Savior from heaven. Eagerly await is a Greek word that means to stand on your tip-toes and look with expectancy. That’s forward looking faith - looking forward to the return of Christ with a standing on our tiptoes watchfulness.
Conclusion
So we are to have a forward looking faith. And when we do, we realize in our Imperfection we Put Away the Past to Press On towards that Perfection that will come when Christ - who is our Perfection - comes. And we Pattern Our lives after godliness and Anticipate the Lord’s coming from heaven, our true citizenship.
Many years ago, a man visited his longtime friend, a British military officer stationed in an African jungle. One day when the friend entered the officer's hut out in the jungle, he was startled to see him dressed in formal attire and seated at a table beautifully set with silverware and fine china.
The visitor, thinking his friend might have lost his mind, asked why he was all dressed up and seated at a table so formally set out in the middle of nowhere.
The officer explained, "Once a week I follow this routine to remind myself of who I am—a British citizen. I want to maintain the customs of my real home and live according to the codes of British conduct, no matter how those around me live. I want to avoid substituting a foreign culture for that of my homeland."
As Christians we too live for our homeland. We live for that day when our Lord will return to transform our bodies to be like His glorious body. We live now looking forward in faith to all that is ours in our Lord Jesus Christ.
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