We are continuing in Series 2 as we study the book of Philippians. This is the second episode. 

Background and Recap 

In the first episode, Paul began a significant warning to the church in Philippi. This came as quite a surprise in the text because everything up until that point had been very positive. In fact, it is one of the most positive of Paul's letters. He had a very good relationship with the church in Philippi. There hadn't been any serious problems in the church. They had been very generous to him, helping him financially, and sending Epaphroditus to assist him as he was under house arrest in Rome. In this second series, Paul deals with some significant problems that he was concerned about. In the last episode, the main issue came to light very clearly. His concern was that in his absence, Jewish enemies who opposed his message, would infiltrate into the church in Philippi and spread a different gospel, a different message. Something similar happened in quite a number of different of Paul’s churches. Corinth is a very good example. In the second letter to the Corinthians, Paul speaks about a false gospel, false apostles and a false message coming in and corrupting the Corinthian church. In the last episode, we explained that this message was a message about rules and regulations from the Old Testament that some people were saying had to be applied to the Christians in the New Testament. Paul spent time showing very clearly that this was a profound mistake. There is always a risk for Christians to introduce rules and regulations into their faith that are not stated in the New Testament. Anything stated in the New Testament we should consider very seriously. It guides our behaviour, but other rules and regulations that come in from our culture, or our traditional background, or from the Old Testament laws which are no longer applicable - all those tend to create a legalistic way of thinking about Christianity and obscure the truth - that we have been justified by faith alone, by God's grace through Jesus' death on the cross. 

Paul gave his own story in the last episode, in the first half of chapter 3 - a very moving story of how he had had to abandon his status in the Jewish faith, his reputation and his religious leadership to follow Christ and to leave the way of legalism. Paul ended with some very famous and moving words, which showed his true motivation for his faith and for his ministry. These words appear in Philippians 3:10 and 11. We looked at them briefly in the last episode, and I am going to connect them to this current episode because they are very important in order to understand what Paul is saying in the passage that weare going to study. 

Paul’s Motivation 

Paul's heart comes out here. What is he living for? What is his motivation? He has lived the most extraordinary life; he has done the most extraordinary things – he has taken incredible risks; nearly lost his life on many occasions; and been beaten, punished and imprisoned. Why has he done all these things? What is his true motivation? "I want to know Christ". His primary interest is his relationship with Jesus Christ through the presence of the Holy Spirit living within him. He wants to know Christ as his saviour.  

But more than that, he wants to know ‘the power of the resurrection’ of Jesus. The power of the resurrection of Jesus is the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul believed firmly that the Holy Spirit was able to do supernatural miracles in people's lives - the greatest of which was to bring them to faith - and that the Holy Spirit wanted to intervene in people's lives all the way through, from their conversion until the endof their life and also intervene for unbelievers. He believed, for example, in the power of healing. If you read the book of Acts, you will find Paul brought about many healings through his faith and drawing on the power of the Holy Spirit - healing miracles that attracted great attention to the gospel. Paul was really interested in God's power, and he wanted that power in the Church. We see that in his teachings in 1 Corinthians, in particular.  

 But he also realised, that the power of God also goes alongside the risk of rejection. The gospel will be rejected by some people. He speaks in this passage about identifying with the suffering of Jesus. The main thing he has in mind here is the suffering of rejection. That is something we all find very hard; we hate being rejected by people. Paul recognised that following Christ means that some people will literally reject who you are and what you stand for: it might be a gentle word of rejection; they might just avoid you; they might confront you; they might be violent towards you; they might persecute you; or they might threaten your life. Participation in 'his sufferings becoming like him in his death', Jesus' death was the ultimate sign of rejection. Paul realised that for some Christians, they might die for Christ, and he realised that he himself was very likely to be martyred; at this time,he was under house arrest in prison, awaiting an imperial trial in Rome, which could easily have led to his death. He was willing to go through all these things because of his love for Christ and his hope for the future. 

So, 'somehow', in other words, in some circumstances, 'to attain to the resurrection from the dead.' Paul was not just motivated by what happens in this life, he had his eye firmly on the future. He believed passionately in the eternal future of Christians in heaven with Christ. 

He also believed in the resurrection of the body. This was an important Christian doctrine that Paul taught about explicitly in 1 Corinthians 15. This is Paul's starting point for the passage that we are going to look at now - this passionate desire to know Christ, to know his power, to be willing to suffer for him, and to have the hopethat he will be raised from the dead at the end of time. 

Christian Calling into Old Age 

 Here is a man who many people in the western world would describe as of retirement age. Paul was an old man but look at his energy, his focus, and his motivation. He was pressing on in his Christian journey. He didn't think that he had done everything that he needed to do. He thought that Christ was calling him to other responsibilities - other roles and other works. This is an incredible attitude. His attitude was that the whole of his life was an act of service. He was not going to retire from Christian discipleship; he was going to keep pressing on. He wanted to die in a situation where he had used every ounce of his energy to advance the Kingdom until he reached his last breath.This is a very powerful and refreshing vision of what it means to be a Christian. It goes against much of what we would like, which is to find leisure and ease in the later years of our life. Some people have the ability to do that in some cultures.Paul spoke against that way of thinking; he spoke as though every day matters, right up until your final day. 

I can understand a little of what Paul was saying: I have recently retired having been 34 years in formal church leadership roles, many years as a pastor and yet I feel this sense of calling: things are yet to be done. There are responsibilities, there is ministry to be done; God is calling in different ways, and that applies to all of us. I want to speak to some of you who might be listening to this who have been Christians a long time, or who are older in years. I want to encourage you that what you do at this stage of your life is very important and strategic and that you should invest in the Kingdom, as God gives you the opportunity. The membership of your local church when you are an older mature person, is a very important asset. The responsibility to evangelise never goes away. Some older people who I know who are physically less able, or infirm, or disabled, devote their time to prayer. I know an older man who is well into his eighties - not able to travel in ministry much anymore - but he and his wife have well-attended prayer meetings at their home, praying for revival around the world. He is going to continue doing that for many years to come. Some of us have families we can nurture as grandparents. Some have practical skills that we can pass on to other people and some of us can take roles in churches to support the ministry of younger people. Some of us have the opportunity to encourage people; we have the time and availability to get alongside people and to encourage them in the work of the Kingdom. Some of us can use our homes for hospitality, and for fellowship, and for supporting Christians who are in need. There are many things that we could do. In Paul's way of thinking, there was always something useful to do for the Kingdom at every stage in his life. He did not consider even as an older man that his ministry had come to an end. He was waiting to see what Christ wanted him to do for the next step in his life. His ultimate goal was to reach eternity knowing in his heart that he had done everything he could to advance the Kingdom of God and the gospel during his lifetime. I want to commend this to you; this should be our goal. There is never a time to sit back and say, ‘I've done enough’. There is always more that can be done for the Kingdom. God knows if we have limited physical abilities, limited emotional energy, limited strength but he can give us things to do for his Kingdom. Paul's vision was for every Christian to enter eternity as a totally faithful, fulfilled and active Christian within their circumstances. 

An Example to Follow 

Paul did not consider that his example was extreme, that he was a unique person who we shouldn't copy. Quite the opposite. He says, 'You should treat me as an example and follow in my way of life, and follow other people like me who you see in your church.' Paul believed in the power of example.Much of the Christian Church is built on the power of one person following another person's example. We copy people's behaviour; sometimes we do it consciously, sometimes we are not even aware that we are doing it. Because God has constituted the Church as a family, the spiritual fathers and mothers are very important parts of that Church family and younger people follow their example - sometimes their good example, sometimes their bad example. Paul wanted all the Philippian church to think of his example - his faithfulness over the 10 years since he first arrived in Philippi and preached the gospel to them. He was surprised to be there because he was called by a miraculous vision that he had received very shortly before, when he was in another country. They were very surprised when he arrived, but a miracle happened and a church was formed. Now, 10 years later, Paul is saying to them, 'I'm still as energetic and committed to the gospel as I was when you first heard me preach 10 years ago. Follow my example, be inspired by my example.'  

For me as a Christian, one of the things that has influenced me most is following the example of leaders who have gone before, who I have known, who have discipled me and helped me. It is very inspiring and still inspires me today. If you are a younger Christian, who are those role models that you can follow? If you are a more mature Christian, who are you being an example to? How are you training and helping the next generation? I love training the next generation. We do this in our families too. I remember the days many years ago when I taught my three children how to ride a bicycle. I watched them step by step learning how to ride a bicycle - a few little accidents here and there, a few dangerous moments on the streets - and gradually they became confident. More recently, I have had the joy of beginning to teach my grandchildren how to ride a bicycle and to travel far on a bicycle. 

 Citizenship of Heaven 

In this passage, he draws a very sharp contrast between unbelievers and believers in terms of their destiny and their motivation. ‘Unbelievers,’ he said, ‘are destined to destruction’. They will end up outside of God's eternal Kingdom - judged and excluded. They have set their minds on earthly things. Their goals are personal fulfilment, wealth, riches, and power in this life, Paul had completely renounced such a motivation. He was focused on gaining honour in the next life, not honour in this life.  

He used a very interesting example to describe what it is that helps a Christian understand their true identity and gain real motivation in life: our 'citizenship is in heaven'. Citizenship was a very important issue in the Roman world. Philippi, the very place that he was writing to, was a place set up by the Romans as a special city where they would allow retired soldiers, veterans and retired civil servants to live. They would give them the privilege of citizenship. Generally speaking, people didn't have citizenship in those days. It was a privilege rather than a right. That privilege enabled you to have legal protection in the court, to own property, to vote in local elections, and to hold public office. The Philippian jailer, one of the people who probably read this letter, and was famously converted by Paul on that fateful night in the prison that I described in an earlier episode, was probably a retired civil servant from Rome. He was granted Roman citizenship with the rights that come alongside it. The Philippians knew what citizenship meant. It was something powerful, something important, and something significant. It was a sense of identity, a sense of value; you were valued by the state. If they called you a citizen in the Roman Empire, that was something people really appreciated. Paul himself was a Roman citizen, probably because his father had served in the Roman army and the citizenship was inherited from his father because soldiers were given citizenship usually at the end of their service. 

But Paul said, 'our citizenship is in heaven'. That is where we belong; that is where our rights are; and that is where we get rewarded. The Romans rewarded their citizens: they could own property, vote, and participate in public life, they were honoured, and protected by the law. Paul said our citizenship is heaven - we shouldn't think too much about how valued we are in this world because this is not our ultimate destiny. Many Christians will experience opposition and difficulties in this world like Paul, and like many of the people of his day. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a saviour from heaven.  

Resurrection of the Body 

We eagerly await the transformation of our lowly bodies.  All the way through this passage, there is an interesting theme - the resurrection.What did Paul have in mind? Let us remind ourselves of his teaching about the resurrection of the body. It is a very important part of his understanding of our citizenship in heaven and our eternal salvation. 
  I have a more extended study on this passage in the Collection on 1 Corinthians, which you can look up. Briefly, I want to remind you of the things that Paul believed about the resurrection. The human body, according to Paul, is perishable - it will decay, die, it will suffer from disease, it is in ‘dishonour’ because it is tainted by sin. Our physical body is weak, and it is just an ordinary physical body; there is no difference between your body as a Christian and the body of your non-Christian neighbour; you have the same physical properties in your body. But the resurrection, which takes place when Jesus comes again, which Paul really believed in, will transform our physical being, our body and we will inherit a body that is imperishable - that is permanently physically strong, filled with God's glory in power, and a spiritual body filled with the Holy Spirit. Paul genuinely believed that when he died, two things would happen. First of all, his soul would go to be with Christ immediately, which, as he says in Philippians 1, is far better than living here. He believed that when Christ comes again, he would be clothed with his resurrection body - a physical body that is perfect and eternal. That was his hope. 
 
In other words, Paul believed these things very passionately, but did the Philippians? We need to reinforce our convictions about the gospel, about this life, about the power of God in this life and about the eternal life and resurrection.'Stand firm', said Paul.  

Reflections 

As we conclude, I ask you the question: are you clear about eternal rewards and the resurrection of the body? Is that something you think about and understand clearly? If not, it is really good to reflect on that; study the Collection on 1 Corinthians 15. There are several episodes there which deal with the Christian doctrine of the resurrection. 

Second question, are you pressing on? Is your Christian life static and passive, or have you got goals, things you are aiming to do for God that he has given for you to do? 

My third question is: what has God called you specifically to do in the next five years? Think about that question. See if you can answer it in any meaningful way. If you can't, spend time in prayer and ask God to show you because you, like me, need to follow Paul in pressing ahead with the time available to us in this life.