Joyful Citizens of Heaven
For Meditation (Rick Hutton)
What comes to mind when you think about heaven? Is it fluffy clouds and angels, maybe some of them playing harps? Is it a paradise-like place where everything is perfect? Is it a place that you have to wait to get to after you die and so you just bide your time here? What we think about heaven has a greater impact upon how we live than we may realize.
In Philippians 3:20 Paul states that our citizenship is in heaven, and while we could interpret this to mean that we do in fact have to bide our time until we get to where we belong, we would be missing the point. What Paul was saying to the Philippian Christians, and to us, is that as citizens of heaven we’re meant to live differently in the world where we’re not citizens. We’re to demonstrate what heaven is like by living as a citizen of heaven is meant to live.
If you’ve ever spent time in another culture, you probably noticed that you stood out, or if you’ve observed someone from another culture living according to their culture here you saw that they stood out. This is what we’re meant to do as citizens of heaven so that others take note and see the goodness of God at work in and through us.
This world is not the way it’s supposed to be, it is broken and difficult and filled with struggles, and yet, because of our citizenship in heaven, we can have joy knowing that God’s kingdom is on the move and that he will one day bring heaven in all its fullness to bear on the earth. Until that day, let’s live as the citizens we truly are.
As you prepare for worship this week, think about these things:
What comes to mind when you think about heaven?
How might being a citizen of heaven help us/you to live differently? What makes it hard to live as a citizen of heaven?
Who are some people you observe who are living as citizens of heaven? Do you think people would see you as a citizen of heaven?
Do you find that you’re eagerly waiting for Jesus? What makes that kind of waiting hard? What encourages you in the waiting?
What is one thing that God is inviting you to do to help you stand firm as a citizen of heaven?
Philippians 3:15–4:1
All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. For, as I have often told you before and now tell you 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 set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 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.
Therefore, my brothers and sisters, you whom I love and long for, my joy and crown, stand firm in the Lord in this way, dear friends!