What will th Reign of God be like?
Exodus 3 v 1 - 5
Philippians 3 v 1 – 21
Sermon
In Paul’s thinking, there are two worlds.
There is the present world, and there is the world which is to come.
There is the world as our eyes see it, and there is the world as it is meant to be.
You may say that there is earth, and there is heaven.
Paul says when we live with our eyes fixed on the here and now, we live according to the flesh, we even put our confidence in the flesh,
but when we lift our eyes up and invest our lives in this other world, we live according to the spirit.
Paul doesn’t pull his punches when he says the very same things people find glory in when they live according to their selfish earthly desires, are the very things which will be their shame.
The absolute irony of the gospel of Jesus, is that most of us hope when we die to shake off this world, and sore towards heaven.
But Jesus did it differently.
Jesus left heaven and came to earth.
Philippians 2 says Jesus gave up heaven and stripped Himself of all His heavenly privilege, and became a man, even a servant.
Jesus’ goal in life was not to go to heaven one day,
His objective was to bring heaven to earth.
How often in Matthew’s gospel do we read of Jesus saying, “The kingdom of God is near, it is at hand.”
The Lord’s Prayer asks, “Let your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven”.
What do you think heaven will be like?
Will there be wars?
Will there be poverty and starvation?
Will there be segregation?
Will there be racism in heaven?
Will there be sexism? In heaven, are women one side and men another?
Because if none of those things exist in heaven, the task God puts before every Christian is to work that heaven comes to earth.
God calls us to model our lives on heaven, heaven provides the blue print.
That is what we pray for in the Lord’s Prayer.
Let Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.
Paul says to the Philippian Christians, “Our citizenship is in heaven.” Even though we wait for the resurrection of our bodies, our citizenship is there not here.
I am fascinated by what this actually means if we understand it, because it will impact every facet of our lives.
18 months before I became a minister, I changed jobs and I went to work for a friend of mine Dudley. Before I was offered the job, I had to go for an interview with Dudley and his partner Rob. It was the weirdest experience as I sat in Rob’s office and said, “I need to tell you before I start that all I can offer you is the next eighteen months, and then I will need to resign to go into ministry.”
The next eighteen months were a huge amount of fun, because even though I worked there, everyone knew I was just passing through. I experienced a freedom no-one else in the company experienced. They were all working asif the rest of the life depended on it.
Somehow working there did not define me, what defined me was where I would be in the future.
People would get caught up in little power-struggles and fight for better offices, and I just laughed because this was not the centre of my universe, my life was focused on the future, on what would be.
Friends, you are not going to be here forever.
Most people go through life with there roots in their past.
People go through life blaming their predicament on other people. They say “My parents were this and my teachers did that and that is why I am what I am today.”
But for Christians, our roots are in the future, we are free because we are just sojourners here. As Paul said, “We are already citizens of heaven”.
But while we live on earth, our focus can’t be like it used to be, our focus needs to be like the focus of Jesus, we need to work to bring heaven to earth.
I want to clarify the picture a little by looking at Moses.
Moses is walking through the wilderness with his sheep, when he sees a bush which has caught alight but is not being consumed by the flames. Being nosy, Moses walks over to have a look, and when he gets there God says to him, “Moses, take of your shoes because you are standing on holy ground.”
What made that place holy?
We might be tempted to think there was something special about that little patch of wilderness which made it holy.
But God wasn’t like a genie trapped in a bottle waiting for someone to come along.
That piece of ground was no different to any other piece of ground on earth.
What made it Holy was that the presence of God chose to rest there.
AT that place, heaven touched earth.
What distinguished that piece of land from any other piece in that wilderness, was that God was there.
Muslims have a little understanding of this. When it is prayer time, whether they are in a mosque or a supermarket, they turn towards Mecca, kneel and pray. No matter where they are on earth, for those few minutes, the place they are becomes a place of prayer, it becomes holy ground.
Taking it back to Paul, being a Christian is like standing on a piece of holy ground wherever you are. It is being a citizen of heaven even if you live in the middle of hell.
Let me give you an example of what that means for us.
In 1 Corinthians 7 Paul speaks to Christians who are married to non-Christians. Presumably they have come to faith in Jesus and their husbands or wives have not converted. And the question they have is, “Am I not contaminated by being married to an unbeliever? Should I not leave him or her and be free of this contamination?”
And Paul’s answer is brilliant. He says, “If they want to leave, let them go, but don’t you leave them, because they are sanctified by you.”
ROLL OUT CARPET
ASK SAM TO STAND ON CARPET.
Presence of God sanctifies that space. When I am near, I am on holy ground.
I am not saved, but I am exposed to the presence of God.
In Romans 8 Paul says “there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus”. If you live your life in the presence of the Spirit of God, there is no condemnation.
But Paul speaks of carnal Christians too. He speaks of Christians who have come to faith in Jesus, but they live out of the presence of God. They make their decisions based on the value systems of the world.
They live off the rug.
Paul says they are immature and that they live as enemies of the cross.
These are the people Jesus speaks of in Matthew 25 who say , “Lord, Lord” and Jesus says, “I did not know you”.
When you are filled with the Spirit of God, like with Moses, the presence of God makes the place you stand holy.
Christians bring heaven to earth.
People around you can’t help standing on holy ground, they can’t avoid touching heaven, because the presence of God in you brings heaven to earth.
For Paul it doesn’t matter whether he lives or dies, because he is already with Christ. He realises he is a brand new creation, a new person with a new identity, a new reason for living.
Paul says we are already citizens of heaven.
For Paul becoming a citizen of heaven means all the old things are as valuable cow dung, EVERYTHING MUST CHANGE.
6 Years ago we went to Livingstone, Zambia for 10 days to lay the foundation so they could build a school. If you have gone into another country, you will realise some things very quickly.
The first is that their economy is totally different. At that time one rand was worth 440 Zambian Kwacha. I traded R200 and felt rich as a king. But the reality was it was only worth R200 back home.
Riches in the world will make you feel like a millionaire, but when you step into heaven, you begin to realise that was a false economy and the things that are really valuable are not money and toys.
As a citizen of South Africa, I kept thinking in rand. When I bought eggs or meat or tomatoes, the question for me was, “What does this equate to in South Africa?”
We are foreigners in this age whose citizenship is in heaven. The question which should be foremost on our minds is, “What would this cost me in heaven”.
Let me try to apply that. If I am rude to my wife, or cruel to my children, or dishonest to my boss, what does that cost me in heaven?
I spoke to someone a few days ago who was offered a great salary increase, but at the same time was told to retrench a couple of workers.
In the South African economy, that’s not a bad deal.
But in the economy of heaven that is a terrible deal. This person understands their citizenship to be in heaven, and so refused the increase and pleaded for the two jobs to be saved.
Next week I want to look at some of the implication of being a citizen of heaven, what it means for our value systems.
But to close this morning I would jus like to ask, “Are you living in Christ, are you bringing heaven to earth?”
Or
“Is your life still firmly rooted and bound in the world?’
I will leave this mat here, and if you want to commit to spending more of your life focused on heaven on earth, living on holy ground, living in Christ,
Maybe after the service you want to come and stand here a minute, and ask God to help you to live here.