Deo Gloria
Sermon for March 16, 2025
Pastor Martin Bentz
Text: Philippians 3:17-4:1
Theme: Stand Firm in Your Faith!
- Keep your eyes on good examples.
- Keep your mind on your heavenly home.
Here we are in the doldrums of winter. Winter isn’t quite over yet, spring isn’t quite yet here. One day it can sunny and 60 degrees and the next day you can get a blizzard with 6 inches of snow. It can be a discouraging time of year. We’re tired of the snow. We’re tired of the cold. We just want it to be spring, and the sooner the better.
Sometimes you and I may experience something similar in our Christian lives. We may go through a period in our lives when we become somewhat discouraged as Christians. We get tired of the ongoing battle with sin in our lives. We can’t even remember the last time we felt well. We get tired of dealing with the problems and frustrations of life. We just get tired of it all and discouraged at times. We just want Jesus to come back and take us out of this sinful world to live with him in heaven. And the sooner the better!
If you have ever felt that way, then listen up. The apostle Paul has some words of encouragement for you today, words to help you through those winter doldrums. Rather than throw in the towel and give up, as we might be tempted to do, Paul encourages us to stand firm in our Christian faith. And he offers a couple of suggestions to help us: #1) Keep your eyes on good examples, and #2) Keep your mind on your heavenly home.
“Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you”(3:17). What Paul is taking about is a role model, isn’t he? A role model is someone we look up to, someone we admire, someone who inspires us and motivates us, someone we would like to emulate and be like. As a freshman in high school or college, you might look up to one of the seniors as your role model. As a basketball player you might look up to someone like Steff Curry or Anthony Edwards as your role model. As an aspiring singer you might look up to someone like Taylor Swift or Michael Buble.
But whom do we look up to as Christians? Who should be our role models, the ones we strive to imitate and follow? Paul says that the Christians in Philippi should imitate him. “Join with others in following my example,” he says. Paul had set a good example for them, a fine example of what it means to be a Christian and to live a Christian life, a fine example of Christian love and humility and patience, a fine example of perseverance in the face of trouble and hardship. “Join with others in following me,” he says, “and take note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.” Literally Paul says, “Keep your eyes on them.” “Keep your eyes on those who live according to the pattern we gave you.” Paul, you see, wasn’t the only one who had set a good example for them. There were people in the congregation who were setting a good example too, people who had taken Paul’s words to heart and Paul’s example to heart and who, like Paul, were striving to live a godly and Christian life. “Keep your eyes on them,” Paul says. “Follow them. Imitate them.” Keep your eyes on good examples.
So who is your role model as a Christian? Whom do you look up to for inspiration and encouragement? Whom do you strive to imitate? Do you look up to someone like Paul? Do you look up to someone like Peter or John, someone like Abraham or Noah or David or Mary? The Bible gives us many examples of godly men and women, many excellent role models we can follow as we strive to live our daily lives. Keep your eyes on them. Follow them.
Maybe your role model is someone in your family, a godly father or mother, a godly grandparent, a godly aunt or uncle. Or maybe it’s someone right here at church, someone who sets a good example of what it means to be a Christian, someone who is loving and kind, patient and encouraging, someone who is very knowledgeable in the Scriptures, someone who is very humble yet not afraid to stand up for what they believe in. By all means, follow people like that. Keep your eyes on people like that.
Of course, you can always look to Jesus as your role model too. He is the perfect example of a godly life, the perfect example of kindness and love, the perfect example of obedience and faithfulness, the perfect example of patience and endurance in the face of persecution and suffering. By all means follow him. Keep your eyes on him as you strive to live a Christian life. Keep your eyes on good examples; and not on bad ones.
Paul refers to those bad examples in the next two verses:
For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things.(vv. 18-19)
There are plenty of bad examples out there, aren’t there, people who can influence us in the wrong direction? Take the sports figures that kids so often look up to. All too often they turn out to be poor role models instead of good ones—O.J. Simpson, Magic Johnson, Tiger Woods. The same is true of many of the stars and celebrities of Hollywood: Liz Taylor, Alec Baldwin, Mylie Cyrus, Sean “Diddy” Combs. You have to look pretty hard these days to find a good role model on TV.
Unfortunately it isn’t only out there in the world that we see bad role models for ourselves and our children. Sometimes we find those bad examples in the church as well. We see pastors and other church leaders who do not set a good example at times, who bring shame and dishonor to their Savior by their words and actions. Likewise we may see other members of the church failing to set a good example. We may see them getting drunk at a party. We may hear them cursing and swearing. We may hear them lying to or about other people. And to be honest, it can be rather discouraging for us when we see them act that way.
But if we’re going to be honest, then we also have to admit that there have been times when we were the ones who set the bad example. Dad, Mom, where did your children learn to curse and swear? Did they learn it from you? Where did your son or daughter learn how to drink? Did they learn it from you? Where did they learn how to rip on other people and put others down? Did they learn it from you? Teens, where did your younger brothers and sisters learn how to lie? Did they learn it from watching you lie to Mom and Dad? Where did they learn how to be disrespectful and talk back? Did they learn it from watching you? Where did they learn about bullying other people and intimidating other people? Did they learn it from you?
We all have set a bad example at times. We all need to hang our heads in shame and ask for our Savior’s forgiveness. And ask for his help as well, his help in setting a good example for our children and our families, a good example for our neighbors and our friends; his help in being a positive role model, one that others can look up to and follow. “Lord, help us to set a good example and to follow good examples, that we might always stand firm in our faith.”
Paul’s second suggestion to help us stand firm in our faith is to keep our minds on our heavenly home. Notice again what he says, beginning in v. 20:
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.(vv. 20+21)
Already at an early age, often by kindergarten or 1st grade, we learn our address and phone number—426 W. Church Street, Belle Plaine, Minnesota, 779-324-9175. That way if we ever get lost, we can always tell an adult and they can help us find our way home. As we get older, though, do we sometimes forget our address? Do we sometimes forget where our real home is? Paul reminds us in v. 20: “But our citizenship is in heaven.”
The city of Philippi was a Roman colony. Back in Paul’s day it was not uncommon that after the Roman army would conquer a particular territory or country, the general would reward his troops by giving them a certain area of land or a certain city in which to live. That area or that city would then become a Roman colony. All the people who lived there were considered Roman citizens even though they lived hundreds of miles away from Rome and outside the country of Italy. And just like the people back in Rome, they enjoyed all the rights and privileges of Roman citizenship. You and I are citizens, not of Rome, but of heaven. Of course, we don’t live there yet. But one day we will. In the meantime, though, we form a kind of colony, a colony of citizens who live here on earth but whose real home is in heaven.
How did we get to be part of this colony of heavenly citizens? Well, it wasn’t because we fought so bravely in God’s army and helped defeat the enemy and the general decided to reward us for our faithful service. Truth is it was the General who fought for us. It was he who defeated the enemy for us. It was he who conquered sin and death and the devil by his own suffering and death and his glorious resurrection. No, we did not earn the right of citizenship. Our General, Jesus, gave it to us as a free gift of his grace, to all those who trust in him as their Savior. As Paul states in Ephesians ch. 2, we are no longer foreigners and aliens, “but fellow citizens with God’s people and members of God’s household”(v. 19).
Paul also tells us what we, as citizens, have to look forward to: “And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ”(v. 20). In a way we’re kind of like the students in school, looking forward to spring break. We can hardly wait. We’re like the teenager whose 16th birthday is less than a month away. We can hardly wait. We can hardly wait for the day when our Savior will return, when he will bring this wicked world of ours to an end and take us to live with him in the Father’s house.
But we won’t be going just the way we are. He’ll have to make a few changes first. As Paul says in v. 21, he “will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.” Imagine not having to wear glasses anymore or bifocals. Imagine not needing a hearing aid anymore. You can just take it out and throw it away. Imagine not getting sick anymore or battling the flu bug every winter. Imagine not having back aches anymore or headaches, no more arthritis or diabetes. That’s what it will be like when our Lord and Savior returns. Our bodies will undergo an amazing transformation. Using his almighty power, he will change our lowly, mortal bodies into something better: perfect bodies, glorious bodies, bodies fit for heaven. And then he will take us there, to our real home, our eternal home, to live with him forever.
Don’t forget that in your day to day life. Remember that when you’re struggling with sickness or pain. Remember that when you become discouraged because of the problems and frustrations of every day life. Remember that when you face opposition or hardship because of your Christian faith and you begin to wonder if it’s really worth it. Remember that this is not your home, that your real home is in heaven. And we’re eagerly awaiting a Savior from there. Keep your mind on your heavenly home, and stand firm in your faith.
Next time you find yourself in those winter doldrums, remember Paul’s words of encouragement here in Philippians chapters 3+4. First of all, look for a few good role models to follow, people who set a good example of a Christians life. Keep your eyes on them and imitate them. And secondly, be sure to keep in mind that while the winter of this life isn’t over yet, heaven, your real home, is just around the corner. Stand firm in your faith. Amen.