2026 09 20 - Are You Worthy Citizens of the Gospel? - Hoffman

For peace in our end of the day.

Text this morning is part of the second lesson, the episode lesson from Paul's letter to the Church in Philippi. Now, having said that, my focus is on citizenship. And I know that if you look at what is printed out or if you follow on the screen, it doesn't use the word citizen. That's because they want to focus on what that's all about, and that's okay. But it is about citizenship.

And so here's my question to how many kingdoms are you a citizen? Don't answer what you think about how many kingdoms are you a citizen? And what does it mean to be a citizen of the kingdom or kingdoms that you are thinking about, but especially what does it mean to be a citizen of the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven? The New Testament really intersperses those two, understanding both being the same. And finally, how do we live that?

How do we live out as worthy citizens of God's kingdom? The text then really begins in verse 27, although the rest of the text is important for background for what I'm doing. But it begins like this in 27. Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, condemning yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. Then whether I come and see you again or want to hear about you, I will know that you are standing together with one spirit and one purpose, fighting together for the faith, which is the good news.

Don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved even by God himself. For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for him. We are in this struggle together, and you have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it. This is our text.

Let us pray.

Loving Heavenly Father, live in a world that does not know what it means to be the citizens of your kingdom. By your spirit and your word, help us to live a life worthy of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, of being citizens of you, O God, sharing Jesus love and grace with all. Amen.

So my concern here is that too often we get caught up in this world. Martin Luther talked about two kingdoms, the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven. In so doing, we need to understand that those who are who live in the kingdom of God, I assume all of us by faith and trust in Christ, also live in the kingdom of the world, do we not. Do we not live in this world, broken as it is, sinful as it is, confounded daily by the evil presence of Satan? As it is, we live in this world.

So. So we are citizens of two kingdom.

Now, there are a few theologians out there who say three only because they talk about actually living in the kingdom of heaven after Christ returns. But for us, it's really two here right now. Here's the problem. We understand both kingdoms. We live in both kingdoms.

But if you only live in the kingdom of the world, can you and do you know the kingdom of God?

The answer has to be no, unless you know who Christ as Lord and Savior.

So that means that as we look at God's word, especially His Word today, that really does talk about citizenship, we gotta understand something that when Paul talks about it this way, he's talking about it in two manners. One, reminding us that the church in Philippi was the name Rowan Colony, and the people who lived there were citizens of Rome. Who else was a citizen of Rome? Paul was a citizen of Rome. Therefore he could speak with authority and integrity.

But Paul also was a citizen of God's kingdom, more a citizen of heaven.

And that becomes important because it simply says this. You must live lives as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the good news about Christ. Now, Paul talks about that worthiness further on in the book in his letter to the Philippians, but also in his letter to the Ephesians. Ephesians. And the challenge is this.

Are we living in a worthy manner that would reveal that we know Jesus Christ is Lord? Now, for a more practical application to that, I suggest you read Director Dave's memo on the Bulletin Mystery. I do, Reinser. Thank you. And take that as an example of living earthly.

And I'll mention more about that later. So what does that mean? Well, Paul says this later on in Philippians. He says, but we are citizens of heaven where the Lord Jesus Christ lives, and we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior. We are God's chosen people, and that happens.

And we go into his kingdom at our baptism, does it not? And that is when that spirit is poured out upon us. And that is when we come to live in God's kingdom. Now, he uses these terms because of the situation of being both a citizen of Levi or a citizen of Rome and a citizen of God's kingdom. So as he does that, he also reminds us that there are certain requirements and privileges of citizenship.

Now, I could go on and talk about the Roman ones, and we can actually sit down about this little. The kingdom of this world. And specifically talking about this country, there are certain privileges that we have as citizens of this country. Voting, certain right, part of our citizen, freedom to come worship, freedom to express our thoughts, our feelings. So there are some privileges.

But Paul takes a slightly different twist. And he says this. He says, for you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ, but also the privilege of suffering for him. And I know you don't want to hear that, but the reality is this, that we do suffer for Christ and complete human, his suffering. Yes, he died on the cross for all our sin and took that away and rose victorious so that in that victory we could live as he was.

Good citizens, faithful and worthy of citizenship. But we also experienced that. And he kind of reminds us about that by, by saying this. He says, don't be intimidated in any way by your enemies. So that citizenship, that worthiness, is important to see and to believe and to live day by day.

All right, so what does it mean to be a worthy citizen of God? What does Paul mean when he talks about this? Well, here's what he says in Ephesians 2. So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. My old.

My granddaughter, one of my granddaughters likes to remind me that I'm not just a foreigner, I'm an ancient alien.

And I like to remind her. And I said, yeah, but even God has accepted ancient aliens. For which she has no response. All right, having said that, though, that. That you are citizens along with all of God's holy people, you are members of God's family.

Together we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. The cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord. Through him, you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his spirit. So now it's not just traditionally in the Old Testament Israel, who are part of, who are citizens of Christine.

Now, all who believe in the foundation of Jesus Christ are citizens. And what does that mean? What Paul tells us, very precise, precisely what it means to live a life as a worthy citizen. He says, standing together, not separated, standing together, standing fast, almost as if we are joined arm in arm, hooked together. What it means as well is that there is no division.

We are together as one. And that is important because when we stand together, we are much stronger. And he goes on and he says, with one spirit and one purpose. Well, Paul talks about that one spirit and then one purpose beginning of Ephesians in chapter four, verse four, talks about what? That there's one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, one unity in that spirit of the oneness of God in our lives.

And that's true, is it not? Are we not here or we're going to speak that just a few minutes in the apostles, the unity of that faith. And then he goes on and he finally says this. He says, fighting together for the faith again, it seems almost redundant, but it is. Doing this together and living our lives together, not apart from one another, that's real easy.

Right now we're all sitting here in worship together.

What does that mean when we go out? What does that mean when we're on our own? Stories told about a French soldier who had been out in battle many, many years, and they were in another battle. And as he was progressing, he came across a new recruit who was huddled down in absolute fear. And he couldn't seem to get him going.

So the experienced guy said, come on, let's go together. Let's do something nice together for our country this day. And isn't that what we need to be doing together? Something nice for God's kingdom? Living out that faith day by day?

So how do we overcome that opposition? How do we overcome and are not intimidated? Well, it doesn't talk about it here. The word that I see and hear an awful lot is how are we going to overcome being bullied? How are we going to overcome being made fun of?

Well, you're a Christian, then you do this and you can't do that. We hear it all the time and we hear it all over the place. But how do you overcome that? Well, Paul just said what it means to walk in a manner worthy of a citizen of the kingdom of God.

So while it might be tough and confusing and hard and hurt at times, together we overcome by God's grace and spirit. Now, he doesn't say it here, but Paul talks about it in Romans chapter 12. He says, how do you deal with your enemy? What do you do? You forgive them, you love them as if heaping coals of fire upon them.

So they know that one day, when that final day comes, those who are of the kingdom of God will be with God forever. And those who are the kingdom of the world and do not know him will perish and the fight will be over.

So it's fun, it's tough.

And especially in our world today, it's not easy. There are a lot of things against us, society and culture, social media, the Board, news media, take your pick. Across the board. And yet God invites us to persevere and to overcome so that together we what? We forget love, we have mercy, we pour out God's grace.

And as we do that together, then the grace has this congregation together and people see it, people know it. Again, thanks, director Gabe. Good, good suggestions. You think people in your neighborhood don't know when you drive out on a Sunday morning where you're now? In my neighborhood, they know because they know who I am.

But the other thing they often know I didn't do it this morning because it was too early. But the other thing that I'm often doing early in the morning on a Sunday is I'm walking my dog down the street.

Not many people are at that time of day. But those who are, no, because I tell them, I let them know we could do that too. In fact, we might not ever see the results of being truly, truly a citizen of God's kingdom. And sometimes it's just plain heart.

When I was young and still in college, I spent a summer in my northern Canada working in the oil fields. Now, some of you guys probably, some of you probably worked in some pretty interesting places. That was probably the sweatiest, dirtiest, filthiest job. And I couldn't get the oil smell for once.

One time we had to work all night and break up a pile of concrete using one jackhammer that none of us had ever really needed. Eight hour shift, working all night. Now you got to remember something. I was so far north that it wasn't dark. Gotta remember that during the summer.

And one of the guys that was working with me finally gave up and said, I can't do this anymore. His hands and my hands were swollen. Whispered because of the Jackham. I said, okay, I'll do the rest.

Next time he came to work, he asked me, he said, he said, why you do that? And I said, because you couldn't. You gotta get the job done.

Then I said, ben, you know I believe in Jesus. Why don't you come to church with me on Sunday and see what I'll think about it. He showed up. And for the rest of the time that I was there periodically, he would come and be part of our Bible study.

Why do I tell that story? Because it reminds me that that's God's grace, that's God's mercy. Do I know the rest of the story? No, I do not. I do not know what happened to him.

But I do know for those weeks that we were together, his life was changing. That's how we overcome the opposition of. That's how we live as worthy citizens. That's how we might respond to that French soldier who had all that experience. Because, you see, for you and for me, the battle is on to remain in God's kingdom and to bring people from the kingdom of the world into God's kingdom.

So let's do something about them. Let's do something nice together for God's kingdom. Because that's what he calls us to do. And when we do that, then, yeah, we're good citizens of his kingdom. We are worthy members of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The great news. Amen.

Peace of our God, which is beyond our understanding, keep us in darkness for life everlasting. Amen. I invite you to rise with me at this time as we confess our faith in the words of the Apostles Creed. I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, Christ his only son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Po, was crucified, died.