Citizens of Heaven: The Politics of Hope and Humility

September 5, 2024
Rob Cattalani

Our society has grown increasingly divided. In a world with less faith, many in the broader culture have made politics their identity. This has divided families, friends, and even churches. As followers of Jesus, politics matter to us because policies are about people, those we are called to love and serve with the gospel. But as we engage the “what” of politics, the “how” must take priority. The “how” of Jesus politics are hope and humility.

These are the guiding values for the citizens of heaven, those who have been sent by God into this world to prepare people, to point them, to the One to come. To do this successfully, we must begin by changing our minds about who we are.

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.

Philippians 3.20-21

We are not a people waiting to go to heaven, but a people eagerly waiting for the return of our Savior and King– a King who is coming to judge the world, but then restore it and give us a new body and a renewed calling to live and reign with Him. You are destined for glory. This is our future– and it should motivate us, assure us, and center us on what is most important.

And they sang a new song, saying:

“You are worthy to take the scroll

and to open its seals,

because you were slain,

and with your blood you purchased for God

persons from every tribe and language and people and nation.

You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God,

and they will reign on the earth.”

Revelation 5.9-10

Secondly, we must work to change our view of the world we live in. As Christians, we do not believe the world is getting better, but neither do we believe it’s only getting worse and that our hope is to escape it. The early Christians believed that God was going to do for the whole cosmos what He did for Jesus at Easter. We are citizens of heaven but expected to live as representatives of the kingdom of God on earth, manifesting Christ’s rule until He returns to fully establish it.

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did the most for the present world were those who thought most of the next. It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one. –C.S. Lewis

We are citizens of heaven but expected to live as representatives of the kingdom of God on earth, manifesting Christ’s rule until He returns to fully establish it.

Finally, as citizens of heaven, we need to engage the world with the values of heaven. People who believe in the resurrection, in God’s making a whole new world in which everything will be set right, are unstoppably motivated to work for that new world in the present. Only God can bring His kingdom to the earth– but our job is to build for that kingdom. Our labor and our service are not in vain in the Lord. God sees our acts of service as seeds of the new world He is bringing.

You are not oiling the wheels of a machine that’s about to roll over a cliff. You are not restoring a great painting that is about to be thrown into the fire. You are accomplishing something that will become in due course part of God’s new world. Every act of love, gratitude, and kindness for one’s fellow human beings spreads the gospel, builds up the Church, embraces and embodies holiness rather than corruption, and makes the name of Jesus honored in the world. –N.T. Wright

Only God can bring His kingdom to the earth– but our job is to build for that kingdom.

In this upcoming eight-week sermon series drawn from the Gospel of Mark, we will look at how Jesus engaged the politics of His day. He did it not by taking a side, but by inviting people to a higher life, to a better story– His story and His life. He lived in a way that has forever changed the world and set the course for His Church. His life continues to challenge us and speaks in important ways to us today.

Resources:

For the length of this series, there will be weekly sermon-aligned guides, Between 2 Sermons videos, and a few special interviews dropped over the course of the eight weeks.

Some small groups are choosing to work through the short book and video course, The After Party: Toward Better Christian Politics, which attempts to outline what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in the context of the politics of our day. Click here to access this resource.

Those looking for a deeper read, in addition to the Bible, may find one these resources helpful (click on any title to learn more):

Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church, by N.T. Wright

Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies, by Michael F. Bird and N.T. Wright

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World, by Tom Holland

Praying with you for our church and our country as we launch this new season together.

Pastor Rob

About The Author

Rob Cattalani

Pastor Rob grew up in Rochester where he came to know Christ in his first year of college. After a couple years at the Xerox Corporation he decided to pursue a Masters of Theology at Dallas Theological Seminary. Pastor Rob was a pastor in Texas for nine years and then served as a missionary in Europe for a year. He answered the call to be Browncroft’s Senior Pastor in 2005, and his favorite part of his job is teaching and preaching God’s Word.

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