Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

According to Cornell University, a citizen is a person who, by place of birth, nationality of one or both parents, or naturalization is granted full rights and responsibilities as a member of a nation or political community.

Each of us here is a citizen of a country.

I would assume most, if not all of us, are citizens of the United States.

We each have a social security card which lets people know that we are legitimate citizens of this country.

When we apply for a driver’s license, we must present that card to prove our identity.

Many jobs require us to show our social security card for employment as well.

The card acts a government seal for us.

It provides proof of true citizenship.

But how did we become citizens?

Most of us were born here.

We are citizens because we were born to citizens.

This birth process gives us the full rights as provided under our constitution.

Some of us were adopted into citizenship.

Others may have come here as adult and went through classes to become a citizen.

However, today we are going to be discussing a different kind of citizenship.

The citizenship we are talking about today isn’t one in which you can be born into or even work towards through human effort.

Yes, being born into a Christian family is a tremendous blessing, but you do not get your citizenship seal for being in a Christian family.

You also don’t receive citizenship just because you are a hard worker.

The citizenship we are discussing is being a citizen of heaven.

The blessings and protections provided by the city we are talking about today are far beyond anything we could expect on this side of eternity.

But how do we attain the seal of citizenship of heaven?

And how do we walk on earth once we have attained that seal?

Join me as we read Philippians 3:17-4:1

Prayer

Today we are going to discuss four different ways in which citizens of heaven should walk while on earth..

I. Heaven Bound Citizens Should...Follow Godly Examples (3:17)

Here we see that Paul continues talking to those who are believers as he calls them brothers, Greek being adelphos (a-dell-phose), again.

In fact this is the third time he has used this word in this third chapter alone!

He then encourages them to imitate him as well as other mature believers.

This word imitate can also mean mimic.

And he uses the phrase “keep your eyes on” which is actually just one Greek word, skopeō (sko-pay-o).

This word means to notice carefully or to fix your attention toward.

It is a phrase that encourages diligence in action.

In other words, Paul is encouraging the believers in Philippi to find godly mentors in order that they might diligently study and imitate them.

There is a ton of application in regards to this one verse.

The most obvious is at the heart of our church.

Our church mission statement is (read all together)

A family of believers.

Discipled to make disciples.

Obviously this first part of the mission statement goes right along with Paul’s affirmation that the people he is speaking to are brothers.

This was a common term that stood for those who are believers in Christ.

We are a family of believers.

The next part of our mission statement moves into what Paul is encouraging here.

Discipled to make disciples.

We hear a lot of people throw around the term discipleship in churches.

There are countless seminars and books that have been written about how to do quality discipleship.

The key to quality discipleship is to have a quality family.

And a quality family requires time, effort, communication, and diligence to grow closer together.

As believers, we need to always have people discipling us and always be discipling others.

The most applicable part of this Scripture today is being discipled by others.

Paul encourages believers not to just attach to one person.

He does encourage them to imitate him, but he also mentions other godly examples that they need to follow.

Each believer has sin their life.

We all have strengths and we all have weaknesses.

It is of utmost importance that we find multiple people throughout our lives that we can learn from that can sharpen us in different ways.

And as we grow, we need to take that wisdom and disciple and evangelize to others.

We need to share the Gospel and then help others grow in their knowledge of the Scriptures.

We don’t have to have it all together in order to start discipling someone else.

We just need to be ready and willing to invest time and energy into that person.

We need to exercise humility when they bring up something we can’t answer and then we can go to someone who is discipling us to try to find the answer!

This first point is summarized in the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs 27:17

If we want to see growth in our church family, then we need to be sharpening one another.

This sharpening occurs through doing life together through discipleship and mentoring.

I challenge each of you to think of at least one or two people that you would like to spend some time with in order to be mentored by them and think of one or two people that you think you could invest into by mentoring them.

Finally, I challenge you to step up and reach out to those people and attempt to meet soon.

Sometimes it might not work out.

Sometimes schedules don’t work out, or personalities don’t match up, or something else gets in the way.

But we need to continue pursuing relationships with other believers so that we see spiritual growth in ourselves and others around us.

My final qualification here would be that these relationships should always be men with men and women with women.

I find it unnecessary to expound upon that, but it is great wisdom to keep that boundary in discipleship.

Next we see that...

Scripture References: Proverbs 27:17

II.

Heaven Bound Citizens Should…Flee from Ungodly Pretenders (3:18-19)

Right after discussing who to follow and emulate, Paul jumps into who not to imitate.

He says this with great emotion as well.

He is reiterating to them a warning against false teachers and unbelievers.

We see that it is a warning that he has given them many times since he uses the word ‘often’ here.

Yet, it is one that brings him tears as he speaks of those who are doomed to destruction.

He sees the eternal torment that these people will face if they never repent of their sins.

And it breaks his heart that there are so many who oppose the good news of the Gospel.

He refers to these ungodly pretenders - those who claim to know the way to live but yet live in direct opposition to God and his commands - as:

Enemies of the Cross of Christ

Who are the enemies of the cross of Christ in which Paul was referring to?

We are not entirely sure.

Commentators make plenty of speculations.

One of the most obvious may be the dogs mentioned in Philippians 3:3.

These were the Judaizers who tried to add works into salvation and thus were enemies of the cross of Christ.

However, this does not seem to be limited to them only.

It seems to refer to all of those who deny the power of Christ’s atoning sacrifice.

The cross of Christ as mentioned here isn’t just those who are opposed to two boards that are arranged in a cross-like pattern.

Those who are enemies of the cross of Christ are those who are opposed to the good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We have many enemies of the cross of Christ today my friends.

We must be keenly aware of these people and avoid their cunning and deceptive teaching that can creep into our workplaces, our schools, and even our churches.

This false teaching is nothing more than the false gospels peddled by those who are enemies of the cross of Christ.

Following this intense and direct name for those who oppose the Gospel, Paul gives four different descriptions of these people:

1.

Their Destruction - Their end is destruction (19a)

This destruction is further described in another letter from Paul -