Title Philippians 03:17-21 Our hometown
Contents
Philippians 3:17-21 Our Homeland
Everyone is busy preparing for Chuseok, our unique holiday. It is even more precious because it is a holiday handed down from our ancestors. Holidays are about finding the roots of our people. Even if I forget about it, I miss my hometown when it comes to holidays. Hometown is the place where our ancestors live. As people live, they miss their hometown. However, there are many people who can't go back even if they miss their hometown. In particular, our nation has 10 million separated families due to the sharing between the South and the North. It is said that 10 million families are unable to go even if they miss their hometown. Jacob deceives his father and deceives his brother, grabs the blessing and runs away. As I ran away, it was difficult to get through a day. In difficult times, the one place I miss the most was my hometown. In Genesis 28, we see Jacob's wretched circumstances and longing for his hometown. Jacob is going to his mother-in-law's house, avoiding his older brother, but this is the first road he takes, and he doesn't know the way well. But there was only one way to live.
It was a way to depend on and ask God. So I make a vow to God. “If God will be with me and watch over me on this journey I am going, and give me food to eat and clothes to wear, so that I can return to my father’s house in peace, then the LORD will be my God, and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house. Of all that you give me, I will surely give a tenth to God. "This is a figure that reveals that the hometown is the place you miss the most when it is difficult while making the vow, "Why are the orphans pitiful? Because they have no home to go to and no hometown to go to. We miss our hometown in this world as well. If we can't go to our original hometown, our hometown, we have no choice but to live as eternally left behind. It is to become a spiritual orphan. Our greatest destination is our hometown.
John 14:2-4 "In my Father's house there are many dwelling places, otherwise I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. Wherever you are, there you will be also."
2 Corinthians 5:1 'We know that if our tent house on earth is torn down, we will have an eternal house in heaven, the house God made.'
2 Timothy 4:7-8 “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith; from now on there is prepared for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day.” The text given to us today says, 'But our citizenship is in heaven, and from there we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ... who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body'. We want to receive grace while thinking of the Word that is given to us from within.
I. I want you to imitate me.
To be a Christian must be recognized by the world as well as within. What are the characteristics of a pseudo? Inside, they die and cannot live among themselves, but outside they are handcuffed. The members of the Early Church were praised by the world as well.
An elementary school principal who had served in the church for 40 years, crying at a retirement ceremony, said, "For 40 years, there is one thing I have always wanted to say to my students. It means to ask students to be like me." However, he said that he never said that and that he had to leave the church. Imitate me and imitate me is a very difficult word to say.
II. Our hometown is heaven.
When Jesus was judged before Pilate, he said that the kingdom of the Lord is not of this world (John 18:36). The New Jerusalem described in Revelation 21 shows the perfect state of heaven. Surely we will enter this country if we believe in Jesus Christ as Lord. "But our citizenship is in heaven, and from there we await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ." The Bible speaks of our relationship with Jesus in many ways. Shepherds and sheep, fathers and children, masters and servants, grooms and brides, kings and citizens.
We are now citizens and family members of the kingdom of God (Ephesians 2:19). At the same time, we look at the city God made (Hebrews 11:9) and live as foreigners and strangers on earth (Hebrews 11:13). Even though I live as a stranger in this world, I am living as a citizen of heaven. So we do not live according to the philosophy or principles of the world, but according to the principles, ideals, and laws of heaven. And we must live by applying these principles and ideals to our lives in this world.
The word citizenship in verse 20 means that we are citizens in the kingdom of Jesus with Jesus as king. At the time when Rome ruled the world, Roman citizenship was of great significance. Roman citizens were very proud. After serving faithfully for 21 years as a Roman soldier, a medal is awarded when discharged. The greatest of the decorations is to become a Roman citizen on the same day. According to historians of Rome at that time, 1/4 of all Romans were Roman citizens, 1/4 were free, and 1/2 were slaves. So when you become a Roman citizen, the two slaves automatically become the property of that citizen. That slave does all the work. Citizens eat and play. I'm worried about how to play, but other than that, I have no worries. Because slaves do all the work. This is a Roman citizen. Roman citizenship is amazing. But what Paul is saying is that Roman citizenship is not the problem. The citizenship of those who believe in Jesus is said to be in heaven. Jesus said that he was a citizen of the kingdom of heaven.
Even a single Roman citizen is great, and a heavenly citizen is far more precious and wonderful. Let's live remembering that we who believe in Jesus are citizens with such citizenship of heaven. Paul also had Roman citizenship, but he wrote these words knowing that there was no comparison with heavenly citizenship.
III. It is a life of waiting for Christ.
Christians live a life of waiting, just like a bride waiting for the groom. In the Old Testament times, we lived while waiting for the coming Messiah. In the New Testament era, we lived while looking at the coming Messiah. From the age of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit came upon Mark's upper room, they are the saints who live while waiting for the promise that the Lord has promised to come. We are people who look to the Lord who will come again and live our lives. It is to live by an eschatological faith.
New Testament scholar AT Robertson used the expression “gunshots of world wars” to refer to this event, saying that we are not fighting the world by force, but rather a war that applies the ideals of the kingdom of heaven. I'm talking country. We also know that there is no perfect heaven in this world. So our eyes must always be open to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is to come from heaven. “…waiting for a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.” As He said, the Lord will come again to save people from suffering and infirmities of the flesh (Romans 8:19; 2 Corinthians 5:4). So our eyes must be open to Christ who is coming from heaven.
Dear saints, Our hometown is heaven. They are the saints who go to heaven. I bless you in the name of the Lord that you will become saints who run without changing until the day they go home.