Citizenship of Heaven

I want to talk today about citizenship. Citizenship. Most of you are Americans, American citizens, and give little thought that you are one. You live here, you can go to McDonald's, you can buy gas anywhere you want to, you can open up a checking account. Everything is just so ticket-for-grant is so very, very easy. And most of you are free-born. Your parents were American citizens. You never really even considered the fact that you have any kind of papers to prove anything. You have a driver's license, you have a Social Security number, but you're not a citizen in any special way with any special documentation. You were born here and automatically became one. Along with this, you were endowed with the rights of American citizenship, as well as responsibilities that are very clearly spelled out in American law. There are many people who would want to be here in the U.S. and become U.S. citizens.

It is a status that is coveted, that is fought for, that is stolen for, that is smuggled for by many people, many of whom don't make it. And it's considered to be one of the most noble and highest of achievements in the world to become an American citizen. At the same time, we are faced with a crisis of human refugees, human smuggling, and terrible stories, as we have read here of late, of children being separated from parents becoming big news. We have refugees, we have millions of refugees around the world. The latest, or one of the most notable places, is from the war in Syria, where the country has exploded. We had the deputy, direct deputy ambassador to Iraq speak to us last week at the home office. He talked about the situation in the Middle East. He talked about two poles. Egypt has imploded, Syria has exploded, and spreading is a venom of terrorism, of refugees, hapless refugees, all throughout the world, creating a crisis. Then, of course, we have the refugees in Myanmar. The Muslims, who the Myanmar government, which is mostly Buddhist, is not considering citizens, pushing them back to Bangladesh, who doesn't really want them. It's a real crisis of nearly a million people that are becoming homeless. And the pictures of children – little children, little children just being born – is very, very saddening. There are other refugees around the world. There's a great push of populations around the world, as the deputy ambassador spoke of, a push of peoples which used to be from the east to the west, now is from the south to the north, whether it be in the Middle East, peoples from the Middle East, moving up north into Europe, or people in South America, all also through Africa, through our southern American borders. That's the new phenomenon of movements of people around the world. I feel very strongly about this subject. It is one that I think of every single day of my life, because I, too, was a refugee. My parents were World War II refugees, and I lived in a refugee camp after World War II for four years. They came there, escaped from the Russians. Actually, before that, they were German slave laborers. They were teenagers. They didn't know each other at that time. They were slave laborers that the Germans had taken from the east and put them into camps, worked slave camps in Germany. Then after the war was over, the Russians were going to take them back to the country that they came from. But they were being treated as collaborators and as enemies. So they escaped from the Russians, and they escaped to a refugee camp, a United Nations refugee camp in Hanover, Germany. There they married in 1945, and I was born there in 1947. They looked at the Germans and looked and looked and looked for a country for someplace to take them in the world. They looked at Canada, rejected. Australia, rejected. Other European countries, like the United Kingdom, rejected. South America, countries like Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, rejected. And about 1949, after being in that camp for four years, they were given an ultimatum to do something or return back to the Soviet Union. And at the very last second, a sponsor showed up in the United States. It was an acquaintance through my father's father, who had a cousin in Minnesota, whose brother was a University of Minnesota professor. And he agreed to sponsor my parents, who came over in July of 1949. So he came over as a family of three. Boy, am I glad that I wasn't separated from my parents. They talked about the camp itself, children of my age that were born, that many who died, infant mortality was very high, disease and hunger. My parents basically gave me their rations, and I have survived well, as you see. But they were able to get me over to this country. They settled in Minnesota.

My father picked apples, but within a year he was in the Twin Cities of Minnesota, worked as a diesel mechanic, learned the trade. But then later on, became what his family trade was, which was to be a carpenter. He was quite an established carpenter. They had to work, then, towards citizenship in the U.S. Because when we first came over, the journey to citizenship had just begun.

Just being here is only the beginning. I remember when we were called DPs. I remember that term being used derisively by people in our community, in our neighborhood. Oh, this family are DPs. Of course, we weren't the only ones. It was another family that lived at the end of the block that were DPs from the same refugee camp. That meant displaced person. But my parents really studied and had to wait the five years to become green card holders of that period of time, and then get there, apply for citizenship, which was in about 1954.

I remember that very well. At that time, I was seven years old. I remember my parents studying to become citizens. And they studied hard, because at that time, you had to know the English language. And there they were at home, drilling each other with all these words that I was hearing in the English language. They had to know how the U.S. government was organized. They had to know the three branches of the U.S.

government — the executive, legislative, and judicial. That's where I learned it, because I heard them drilling each other. What are the three divisions? What are the three branches of U.S. government? They had to know who the governor of the state was, who obviously the president was. I heard so much about Eisenhower. Eisenhower, Eisenhower, Eisenhower, as I was growing up. And the elections of Eisenhower, Adly Stevenson. My parents watched that. They were so fascinated by that, but they were so excited about becoming Americans. They had to know who the two senators were from Minnesota, and the congressmen.

They drilled, and drilled, and drilled. And they were forever grateful to their sponsor, Dr. Grunowski, at the University of Minnesota, who was a world-renowned etymologist — not wordman, but a bugman, etymologist. Some of the qualifications for becoming an American citizen were as follows. They had to be at least 18 years old. They had to be mature. They couldn't be just kids to whom they granted citizenship. You had to be mature, 18 years old. You could not just on your own as a child seek citizenship. You had to have a permanent resident card, which was a green card, for five years.

And you had to demonstrate continuous residence in the U.S. for at least five years, immediately preceding the date of filing. You had to be shown to be physically present in the U.S. You had to be able to read, write, and speak basic English, which is a qualification or a necessity no longer as necessary. You had to have a basic understanding of U.S. history and government of a civics test. You had a civics test that you had to go through. You had to be a person of good moral character to become an American citizen. And you were also asked questions about the ideals of the U.S.

Constitution. Now, what is it? What's in that Constitution? What's in the preamble? They had to know these things. Then, becoming a naturalized U.S. citizen, immigrants had to take an oath that says in part the following, I hereby declare that I absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to any foreign prince, potentate, state or sovereignty of whom or which I have hitherto been a subject or citizen.

You had to basically say I renounce that king, that government, that country. Now, since that time, dual nationals have been allowed, but at that time you could not be a dual national. You were either an American citizen or nothing. And actually, many immigrants who came over at that time had two philosophies of how they became Americans. My parents had the philosophy that they wanted us as children growing up to know where we came from.

They wanted us to retain our original language. I didn't speak English until I was five years old. In fact, my kindergarten teacher called my parents in, saying, teach this kid English. I could spell my name in Ukrainian with a Cyrillic alphabet, but all the other kids wrote it in English letters.

They were surprised, what is this kid writing? What's this hand-scratching that he has? Because my parents wanted me to understand my roots, where I came from. They said, you'll always learn English. You'll learn it on the streets. And I've learned English. As you see, I can speak it. But also, I'm very glad that I was fluent in Ukrainian from the very beginnings of my life and know my history, and it's certainly paid off by Russian and Ukrainian in my work overseas. Another philosophy was of many who came over, forget your past. We don't want to hear the Russian language at home.

Don't speak Russian. Just forget that we're Russian. You are Americans. I know some children, my peers, their parents told them that we don't even want to hear where you came from. You are Americans. So I was grateful to then, when my parents became citizens, to go with them to the courthouse. And as a dependent, I was also granted citizenship. I still have my citizenship papers at home and have had to use them a number of times.

I was seven years old, had my citizenship papers all no longer and alien. I remember I gave this as a sermon one time, my little four-year-old son at that time was hearing my sermon, and after the sermon he said, Daddy, what planet did you come from? Is my face green or something? He said, nope, nope. Alien is somebody who has come from a foreign area. One interesting thing was that the Soviet government would not let go of its subjects.

If you were a citizen of the USSR, they didn't care what citizenship you acquired. You were still a Soviet citizen, and they had claim on your life. And so my parents could not go back to visit their parents because they would be retained. They said, we know you went. You collaborated with the Germans.

You got to the US through the British and through the United Nations. You're here now. You are our citizens. After my dad's death in 1967, my mother had to go back to visit her mother after 27 years of absence. And she brought along my younger sister, who was 11 at that time, as an insurance policy. And she went there, visited with them, and was able to return to the US. But the Soviet government did not lose grip on our family.

When my mother died in 1984, one of the first things that happened is that I got a letter from a New York law firm. And it said, we represent the Soviet government. We lay claim onto your parents' estate. You know, I was the executor of my parents' estate. Well, basically, we summed our nose at them. But other people who had no heirs in this country, their estates were taken over by the USSR. That government did not want to lose its grip on its citizens. We are citizens, spiritually, of a government that was very spoken of, that was very openly spoken of by the Apostle Paul in his writings.

Because citizenship in Rome was also a great privilege by people who may have even taken it for granted. And the Apostle Paul himself was a Roman citizen and used it to his advantage if he had to legally defend himself or to protect himself and to be able to go and stay by the rights of citizenship of the Roman government.

He was a freeborn. In other words, his parents had somehow acquired citizenship. Because in Rome, actually a very small percentage of the population were citizens. And you could have citizenship by being freeborn or by paying a certain amount of money or serving so many years the military.

Those were the ways in which you could acquire Roman citizenship. But the vast majority of the Roman Empire were slaves. They didn't have any citizenship at all. They had no rights, literally. Or very, very few rights. In comparison to one who, like the Apostle Paul, was able to travel through the Roman Empire and some of the work that was done was facilitated not only by the fact that Rome was under one currency and under one government where he could travel through all these countries with one currency, but the fact that he was a citizen of that empire.

And could, you know, hop in and drop in in Italy or in Greece or, you know, in Macedonia, in Asia Minor, you know, in every single one of the Roman provinces and have his rights and be counted as a Roman citizen. In Philippians chapter 3, verse 20, the Apostle Paul says the following, Our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, actually, the New Living Translation has translated a little bit more accurately to the intent of heaven. In the New Living Translation, but we are citizens of heaven. Of heaven. God's government, kingdom of God, we're citizens of that government where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly awaiting for him to return as our Savior. This is not a platitude. This is not some glittering words to kind of be an analogy to look, you know, we're citizens kind of like you.

No, we are literal citizens of a kingdom that has its own set of rights and responsibilities. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11, see, when he's writing to the Philippians, Philippi was still a colony. Well, it was a province, too, but it was a colony. But when he wrote to those people and said that we are citizens of heaven, the people saw, oh, wow, that's great. You know, we really have special status with God. We're just not nobodies. We're not just DPs, displaced people. We are citizens of heaven. Ephesians chapter 2, and Ephesus is one of the major hubs of the Roman Empire, serving the Aegean and Mediterranean.

It was more established, but he makes the statement, too, about citizenship. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 11, therefore, remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called circumcision made in the flesh by hands, that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel. Just like we were aliens from being Americans, we were outsiders. Outsiders with perhaps no clear future or process of becoming citizens. But that's what we were without Christ.

We were aliens. We were refugees. We were in camps. And people trying to decide what are they going to do with these people. But also, most importantly, or equally importantly, with not being an alien, that we were strangers from the covenants of promise. All the benefits that come with citizenship. That's what he's talking about here, just like Americans, you know, who have all kinds of benefits. Now, I've traveled overseas. You know, and Americans get in some way harmed, or, you know, there's some issue like that. They go to the American Embassy. The American Embassy tries to do all they can for them.

So this is an American citizen. You know what time people say, oh, really? He's an American citizen? And you know, they start taking action. We had rights. We had privileges. We had promises made to us as Americans in an alienable way. But before that, before we became citizens of the Commonwealth of Israel, we had no hope and without God in the world. So oftentimes when I pray and when I meditate and I think about my life, and I don't know how my life will end, I just know this, I've had a great life, and I'm thankful to God for it.

I'm so thankful of having been brought out from being a refugee physically, but more so from being a refugee spiritually and being part of the citizenship of heaven, of being part of the Commonwealth of Israel, having promises, having rights, having hope. I think in America, at times, we lose sight of that. We take things so much for granted. You know, one comment that was very interesting among our immigrant community is I was a kid growing up. I'd hear people talk back and forth, and these, you know, even my old church, our pastor or our priest, he gave interesting sermons to our congregation, which was former refugees.

He said, you don't know how good you've got it. You know what we were? We were just a spade full of dirt that was kicked over the Atlantic Ocean to North America, and I hope that we realize how thankful we need to be for what we have achieved. Some of the immigrants, as I said, would talk among themselves, and one old lady, she was funny because she always said these outrageous things. She said, you know something that Americans know what their problem is?

They have too much freedom! They can say anything they want to, they can do anything they want to, they don't know what they've got. I just hope that we spiritually know what we do have.

The fact that we have been called from this world have been given understanding of the mysteries of God. We have hope. Now, when we go interview people on the streets with Beyond Today, as we did for Why Were You Born, and just ask that simple question out in the street, there was hardly one response that was sensible. They were all silly. Why were you born? Do you know why you were born? What's your purpose in life? I don't know. Mom and dad had a role in bed, that's why I'm here. I mean, they just had the silliest and craziest things. There wasn't a single answer that really was one showing seriousness of who they are, who God is, what their purpose is in life. And I take my citizenship, my American citizenship, U.S. citizenship, and my citizenship of heaven very, very seriously. I hope that we can take our citizenship of heaven very, very seriously. Because not only do we have protection, but we have rights. And that's what it gives us. Continuing in Ephesians, but now in Jesus, this is verse 13 of Ephesians 2, but now in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Continuing in verse 19, now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners. See, when he's writing these words to these people, who many of them were citizens and some were not, and some were slaves. You know, like in the church in Rome, those of you who are slaves act this way, and so forth. Paul wrote to quite a diversity of people who became Christians, and probably only a small percentage were Roman citizens. But some were, but some were slaves, and he gave them instructions on how to conduct themselves as slaves, even. But now, as Christians, we are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens, verse 19, with the saints and members of the household of God. Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for our dwelling place of God in the Spirit. Powerful language. We could read through this, we could zip through it, you know, as just words, words, words, words. But these are words of great meaning and depth to citizens, to populations, to individuals they was writing to in the Roman Empire. The apostle Paul tells us that if we are called of God, and if we have elected to respond to that calling with repentance and obedience to God, that we have citizenship in heaven, or of heaven. We're no longer aliens, foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints.

God chose and called Israel. They were His chosen people. And He called them Israel.

He was a nation. But did He just call them out of that nation as His special people?

One of the objections that I've heard from people who read the Bible for the first time and saying, isn't the Bible just a nationalistic book about Israelites or Jews who get special status with God for no particular reason? They didn't even act well. And that God gave them some special status. What about all these other people in the world?

The people of Israel were called to perform a certain very, very special purpose. They weren't called at the expense of the rest of the world, but for the sake of the world.

They were to go out there and to be a light. They were to be the ones that would demonstrate as citizens God's way of life. You know, in one sense I feel like Americans and the British, even though they have greatly abused it, have been very, very influential in the world. Because everybody wants to be like Americans. Everybody wants to do things like they do in America. They hate Americans because they're resentful of the blessings that we have. They want the things Americans have, but they're resentful of the fact that they have it and they don't, and they're poor, and Americans are rich, which they are, which we are.

We are very, very rich. But we have been called as a people, just like ancient Israel, not for at the expense of the world, but for the sake of the world. Israel was called out as a nation with a special calling, election, and to be a very, very distinct community and left in the world to show the world God's way, God's laws, God's mercy, reveal God himself to the world, of which Israel failed. So under the new covenant, we have been called into becoming the citizens of the kingdom of God.

And our job is very, very similar. Jesus Christ said that I've not called you out from the world to become a special community. We've not been called to live in communes just among ourselves and witness to ourselves of a way of life. In fact, Jesus Christ, in his last prayer, in his final prayer to God the Father, God the Father said the following, that I have called them out of the world.

First of all, he said in John 15, this comment about the community of saints. John 15 and verse 18, if the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. Is it very similar to Americans being hated? Being hated not because specifically in think personal, but because of what they represent.

If you were of the world, the world would love its own. If we would do the way they do things in the world, we would live our life in casinos, we would take pleasure, and what the world takes pleasure, have very, very low values and standards were great.

Not being drunkards and being living a lascivious life. But you are not of the world, and that's why you're hated. I remember when I was first called by God, and I felt that God was really working with me. I remember I was with my friends, it was New Year's time, Christmas time, it was at that point that I was making some very, very important decisions. I told them that I could not go to a New Year's Eve party, because I knew it was just a big party to drink.

My girlfriend dropped me, right then and there. My friends turned to me and said, what in the world has gone wrong with you? What's wrong with you? You know, to this very day, I've not seen those people. The world will hate you if you want to do things right, if you change your life, if you really want to do things differently and godly. John 17, verse 14, I have given them your word, these are Jesus' words to his Father, his last impassioned words. I mean, he wasn't going to say something less important than this. He was going to say the most important things to his Father when he prayed.

And the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. They are a special people. I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, which is exactly what Israel was. They were still to stay in the world, surrounded by Moabites, Ammonites, you know, and the people in Gaza, and you know, Ammonites, you know, and the people in the north, Syrians.

And they were to be a light to these people. He didn't take them out. He didn't take them into a special place so they could just look at each other and live off of one another. They were to be a light to the world, just as Christians are and the way that Jesus Christ concludes his prayer to his Father.

I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but they should keep them from the evil one. You know something? There's nobody who hates us more than Satan and devil when we start making decisions right, when we start living a life of fulfilling God's purpose. When we really know God, you know, people say, do you know the Lord? Yes, I do! I know the Lord. I know what he wants for me. I know my purpose. I know why I was born. Christ says, I do not pray that you should take them out of the world, but that you should keep them from the evil one.

And that's one of the things we should be praying for every day, because that's part of the sample or the model prayer that Jesus had instructed his disciples to pray in some form or fashion when they prayed to him. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. We are not citizens, literally, of the devil. We're citizens of the kingdom of God. We have freedom as citizens. One of the things that's in the Constitution is the equality of mankind, although it wasn't really fully equal. Equal as it should have been originally. Still, people were slaves until the Emancipation Proclamation.

But nonetheless, there was a dignity of mankind that was ascribed in the Constitution. Many immigrants who came over to the United States not only came over because of famine or war, but they came over because of religious oppression. And this truly became a country of freedom. And we should use our freedom properly, just as the Apostle Paul used his citizenship properly to be able to further the Gospel in the areas of the Roman Empire. And while it was God who called people, while it was God that brought them to Jesus Christ, God the Father, still it was His example and His work, His being stoned, His being preached at, Him being shipwrecked, Him being hungry, He was still able to do the work.

And along with that responsibility, we have subjection to the jurisdiction of heaven, just as we are American citizens, we're subject to American law, to a new king, so to speak. We respect and honor the laws of this land. We don't adopt Sharia law. We don't live by other codes secretly. We live by American law. Well, spiritually, we live by that higher code as well. That's what we're subject to. That's what we should understand and practice and live and be able to export.

So the subject of citizenship is one that certainly has been one very, very much on my mind of late, especially when I see the pictures of the little children of these dozed, dazed families on rafts that are sinking and are coming into one port after another and being turned away. It is such a sad story. It is such a sad story, not only because of those people, but that's what this world is.

This world is people, our people, who are drifting that don't have a home, that are dying and sinking, they are refugees. We, as Christians, have a citizenship, have a home. We have a responsibility.

We have a duty. We have a mission. And I do hope that we can inspire this mission throughout the church about what we are to be doing. People oftentimes ask me, what is the mission of the church? In fact, they even ask me more specifically, Victor Kubik, what is your mission? You don't know what my mission is? I don't have a personal mission. I have Colossians 1. I have Ephesians 1. I have chapters in the Bible that give me direction, that show me who's who, who I am, who God is, what my purpose is. So certainly, brethren, let's, in this years that we have left before Christ returns, Dr. Ward read some very grim stories about world news. Right now, between August 6th and August 9th, were that period where 73 years ago, two atomic bombs were detonated that killed 210,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No bombs, nuclear bombs, have gone off since that time because everybody's still with an itchy trigger still doesn't know how to handle the 20,000 or 100,000 warheads that are out there all more powerful than Hiroshima or Nagasaki. But this earth is armed to the teeth.

How much longer? 73 years have gone by since any kind of nuclear use towards populations.

But the nuclear arsenals are far greater and under the control of many more nations, some whose leaders are just nuts. And that's the kind of world we live in. We should take this very, very seriously as how we do our gospel. So, in my state right now, I look at the vision of the church. I take a look at the mission of the church. I take a look at the responsibilities of our ministry. I take a look at the responsibilities of those who are presenters, who have the media.

And I've called the media people to myself, and I've talked to them very, very openly.

So we've given you a big studio right now. You have all the tools that you have. We have opportunities right now on WGN. We need to make a breakthrough in the mission that we have. We need to really focus our attention of those who do that work on what they're supposed to be doing. Should focus the work of the ministry on doing the work of the ministry, because that's what they're supposed to be doing. Every one of us, as individuals, and when you read the vision statement and the mission statement, do their part in preaching the gospel and bringing along many sons and daughters towards the kingdom of God, which is our vision and our mission is to proclaim the gospel and to care for those whom God has called. I'd like to quote Romans 1.7. I could many other passages in conclusion. But the apostle Paul used statements like this over and over again in his writings to give final encouragement. The signatures of letters were at the very beginning, so actually this is part of the signature to the letter. I'll conclude with these words, grace to you, and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.