Following the Way ofJesus - Series on Matthew's Gospel.
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 6 viewsNotes
Transcript
God’s Kingdom is Here - Be Salt and Light
God’s Kingdom is Here - Be Salt and Light
(Matthew 5:13–16)
In Matthew 5:13–16, Jesus explained in two word pictures the impact that a truly righteous person will have on his or her world.
The entire sermon, including the Beatitudes before and the many teachings after, shows us how to live as “salt and light” in the world as representatives of another kingdom. These word pictures also serve Matthew’s purpose—to encourage believers to change their world (Matt. 28:18–20).
In these four verses the Lord summarizes the function of believers in the world. Reduced to one word, that function is influence. Whoever lives according to the Beatitudes is going to function in the world as salt and light. Christian character consciously or unconsciously affects other people for better or for worse.
Take for example Andrew Murray who was known to live an exceptionally holy life. Among those on whom his influence was the greatest were his children and grandchildren. Five of his six sons became ministers of the gospel and four of his daughters became minister’s wives. Ten grandsons became ministers and thirteen grandchildren became missionaries.
Jesus talks about the influence of His people on the world for God and for good. In His high priestly prayer Jesus said to His Father, “I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.… As Thou didst send Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world” (John 17:15–16, 18).
John wrote, “Do not love the world, nor the things in the world” (1 John 2:15). Christ’s kingdom people are not to reflect the world but they are to influence the world; they are to be in it but not of it.
Many years ago Rebecca Manley Pippet wrote an excellent book entitled “Out of the Saltshaker & into the World: Evangelism as a Way of Life.”
She wrote it for ordinary Christians who struggled with witnessing to their faith - what do you say? When do you say it? How do you say it? What if you get things wrong?
Manley-Pippet says: “Our problem in evangelism is not that we don’t have enough information—it is that we don’t know how to be ourselves. We forget we are called to be witnesses to what we have seen and know, not to what we don’t know. The key on our part is authenticity and obedience, not a doctorate in theology. We haven’t grasped that it really is OK for us to be who we are when we are with seekers, even if we don’t have all the answers to their questions or if our knowledge of Scripture is limited.”
Be who you are when youa re with seekers! I like that! Don’t hide who you are; and don’t try to be someone else. Be authenitcally you! And if you are a Christian seeking to BE LIKE JESUS; BECOME LIKE JESUS and DOING WHAT JESUS DID then listen to what Manley-Pippet says later: “what do you do with a man who is supposed to be the holiest man who has ever lived and yet goes around talking with prostitutes and hugging lepers? What do you do with a man who not only mingles with the most unsavory people but actually seems to enjoy them? The religious accused him of being a drunkard, a glutton and having tacky taste in friends. It is a profound irony that the Son of God visited this planet and one of the chief complaints against him was that he was not religious enough.”
And this was unusual - "The people of Jesus' day thought holy men were unapproachable. But Jesus' work was in the marketplace. He made people feel welcome, and that they had a place. His life was a constant demonstration that there were only two things that really mattered in this life-God and people. They were the only things that lasted forever."
And then the challenge is made by Manley-Pippet: "If you live by the same values and priorities [Jesus] had, you will find evangelism happening naturally. It becomes a life-style and not a project."
Because God is with us in Jesus and because God’s Kingdom is here we should follow His example by making evangelism a lifestyle and we do that by increasingly becoming salt and light in the world!
I. GOD’S KINGDOM IS HERE! - BE SALT!
“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.”
Salt is vital to animal and human life - it plays a crucial role in maintaining our health.
It is the main source of sodium and chloride ions in the human diet. Sodium is essential for nerve and muscle function and is involved in the regulation of fluids in the body. Sodium also plays a role in the body’s control of blood pressure and volume.used in a variety of ways but two things are probably central in his mind.
Chloride ions serve as important electrolytes by regulating blood pH and pressure. It is a crucial component in the production of stomach acid (HCl). Humans excrete salt when sweating and must replenish these lost sodium and chloride ions through their diet.
First, salt preserves from corruption. Before modern refrigeration, salt was the method of choice for preventing bacteria from poisoning food. Think saled beef and salted park barrels taken to sea by ships crew that in some cases served them for months. Salt could literally make the difference between life and death in a time when fresh food was unavailable.
Salt was so vital for this purpose to prevent bacteria spoiling the food rapidly and dangerously.
Indeed salt was so valuable that wars were fought over salt, and entire economies were based on it.
The second function of salt is to add flavour or influence (Col. 4:5–6). Jesus highlighted this purpose when he spoke of the danger of salt losing its saltiness.
Just as salt prevents or kills bacteria in food, the kingdom servant prevents or confronts corruption in the world - Salt is needed because the world is rotting.
Notice that it is the earth that needs the salt, not the kingdom of heaven. Now salt is not to everyones taste! (You should see the amount mother in law puts on her dinner whether it needs it or not!). Likewise our witness and words and challenge are not to everyone’s tast. After all we represent to some restraint and restriction; temperance and self-control in a world where people celebrate the abandonment of the old moralities that preacher virtue and established moral norms. For many, individual rights, licence; “the right to love who you want” without anyone else suggesting it might not be permissable is the “new morality.”
Salt is designed to be distinctive; to stand out; to make a difference. We make a difference by bringing the Kingdom of Heaven. Think fro example of the 18th Century Evangelical Awakening and its influence in Great Brtiain "… the faithful and divinely empowered proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ … so transformed men [and women] that they in turn became the light of the world. Prison reform, medical care, trade unions, control of perverted...abolition of slavery, abolition of child labour, establishment of orphanages, reform of the penal code – in all these areas the followers of Jesus spearheaded the drive for righteousness."
The kingdom servant who does not live according to his nature as salt is useless to the king’s advancement of the kingdom on earth. That servant is salt that loses its saltiness!
How is it possible? - "Most salt in the ancient world derived from salt marshes or the like, rather than by evaporation of salt water, and therefore contained many impurities. The actual salt, being more soluble than the impurities, could be leached out, leaving a residue so dilute it was of little worth." (Don Carson)
The Greek is μωρανθῇ, from “mwpov” which refers to a stupid person or “dolt”. In Psychology it was used to refer to a person of mild mental retardation having a mental age of from 7 to 12 years and generally having communication and social skills enabling some degree of academic or vocational education. The term belongs to a classification system no longer in use and is now considered offensive. The moreno is someone not “worth their salt.” an expression that reminds us of a time when salt was a currency, particularly among Roman soliders who were paid in salt.
If the kingdom servant did not have a function to perform on earth according to God’s plan, he might as well go straight to heaven upon conversion. But that is not our calling:
We are called to improve; influcne and preserve the world in which we live, To make things beter and good. This is what Jesus intends. Jesus wants us to be useful in our hurting and decaying world. By BEING WITH JESUS and BECOMING LIKE JESUS we start to DO WHAT JESUS DID? So how should we be do this?
First, we should taste of Jesus, so to speak. That's what it means to be salty. That's what it means for our speaking is to be gracious, "seasoned with salt" (Colossians 4.6). Gracious speech is speech transformed by the Holy Spirit. As the Holy Spirit works within and as we spend time with Jesus; His flavour begings to influence and seep through. We begin to taste of him.
Also, secondly, we should spread out all over the world. Good salt needs to be saken out of the saltseller (Remember Rebecca Manley-Pippert's classic book on personal evangelism, 'Out of the Salt-Shaker'_. It's when we're spread around that we make an impact. And the way it is with salt is that a small amount relative to the whole, well spread, has a large impact. Do you feel isolated as a Christian in your particular world? Do you feel insignificant? It's not so!
The reality is that the earth needs the influence of Christ’s church in this age and part of the church’s task on earth is to live according to its new nature—alive, purposeful, hopeful, joyful!
We are not to retreat into the private domain. To fall into the trap of being only ‘sunday Christians” and keep our faith personal and private. Our faith is not meant for that! Indeed if Jesus metaphor is taken seriously, the world will not survive without our message and we should not be contributing to it s detruction by remaining silent and refusing to influence.
What is true is that our churches need to be very strong and very supportive counter-cultural Christian communities in which we can learn to love one another and love God together as disciples of Jesus. We are the salt of the earth. However salty we may be, if we're not spread everywhere, we're useless.
We are the salt of the earth. We mustn't compromise and conform to the world. We mustn't lose our saltiness.
II. GOD’S KINGDOM IS HERE! - BE LIGHT!
“You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.”
The key idea here is that just as salt is needed because the world is rotting; light is needed because the world is in darkness
It’s important to see first that there is something worth thinking about before we truly udnerstand the implication of what Jesus is saying here.
In John 8:12, Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” and yet here Jesus says “you are the light of the world”! How should we undersand this? The Bible gives us the answer to this in Ephesians 5:8 “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.”
In other words, we reflect the light of Jesus. The light that shines out of us is the light of Jesus, that shines within us! “For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”(2 Cor 4:6). The believer has no light inherent in himself. The believer’s light is a reflected light.
1. The light that shines out of us is the light of Jesus, that shines within us!
The picture of light is similar to salt, in that both describe the influence the believer is to have in the world (“world” here is synonymous with earth in 5:13).
LIGHT ENABLES US TO SEE! This is a common theme throughout the Bible (e.g., Isa. 9:2; Matt. 4:16; John 1:4–5, 9; 12:46; Phil. 2:15; 1 Thess. 5:5) however, when applied to the believer’s influence it speaks of the beleiver’s function to make reality or truth visible, thereby giving direction and guidance by what is seen.
By shining the LIGHT of Jesus into the lives of people we offer hope in their darkness. Think about the lonely; the disadvantaged; the distressed; the depressed; the obsessed. The world can be very black for some and we beleivers need to bring the light of Jesus and let it shine into the lives of others to bring hope and healing.
Our calling is to show the lost the way to hope and peace through Jesus. Light enables people otherwise in the darkness to see the reality of the truth that is in Jesus. Jesus is the truth. He is reality. People need to see the truth that is in Jesus as the light and illumination of the Holy Spirit enlightens the mind and the heart so we know the gospels are ture and that Jesus did not just die for the world but that He died for me! - Gal 2:20.
2. The light that shines out of us can be hindered by our darkness!
If you’ve had babies and toddlers waking too early in the long summer months you buy yourself some “black out blinds” as ordinary curtains won;t do! Sometimes our unfaithfulness and disobedience proves the black out blinds that keep out the light of Jesus!
When Jesus says “you ARE the light of the world” he is empahtically stating that all you need to do is let your light shine. It is the nature of a kingdom servant to be light in the world. Any believer who fails to function as light is going against his nature as God’s new creation.
Believers are to make certain that nothing comes between them and their source of light - Phil. 2:13–16 “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life—in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.”
3. The light that shines out of us will bring glory to God!
Jesus speaks of ”a city on a hill (5:14) and the lamp … on its stand (5:15) which are designed to fulfill their function by being elevated, so their light can be seen by many people over a broad area. He then explained the application of this principle in Matt 5:16.
The light represents our “good deeds”, which must be done with such integrity that all who see have no choice but to praise to our Father in heaven. The term translated praise means “to make manifest or visible.” When we shine our light before others by living righteously, we are making visible the character of the Father.
This sometimes raises a quesion in peoples mins when they comapre this with what Jesus says in Matthew 6:1–6, Be careful not to do your acts of righteousness before men, to be seen by them. However, we simply need to observe that the issue has to do with who is glorified by the “good deeds”. In one case Jesus is speaking of “good deeds” which draw attention to God but in the other where the good deeds are intended to draw attention to self and of course there is a world of diference between the two!
It is the Christian’s commission to live in such a way as to make God visible in a world that is blind to him.
The Christian’s life and influence is to be visible and obvious, not secret or hidden. We must not camouflage our devotion to Christ, but humbly do all we can to allow its truest colors to be seen where we live. Don't keep quiet. Like a city on a hill – like Jesus on top of that mount, teaching the crowds of his disciples, we are to tell what we've found and what we know about him. Philippians 2.14-16: "Do all things without grumbling or disputing, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, holding fast to the word of life…"
And why? Well there are a number of answers to this question but one important answer is stated here. God is our “Father in Heaven” and we want to honour Him! And this is the first time the word Father is used for God Matthew calls God Father. It is a wonderful, new emphasis on personal intimacy for the believer. Matthew used this word 45 times and while the fatherhood of God was not unknown in the Old Testament, here it is endowed with a very personal sense> Jesus called His father “Abba”, a beautiful word and one that expressed a tender, intimate relationship that Jesus enjoyed and wanted us all to enjoy! (Mark 14:36; Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6).
The king wants his people to know that his kingdom involves a deeply personal relationship with God. It is so much more than a religious or organizational connection, we are “a royal priesthood and a holy nation. A people belonging to God, that we God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.”(! Peter 2:9).
I started with Rebecca Manley-Pippet so let me end with her: "Jesus . . . wants us to see that the neighbor next door or the people sitting next to us on a plane or in a classroom are not interruptions to our schedule. They are there by divine appointment. Jesus wants us to see their needs, their loneliness, their longings, and he wants to give us the courage to reach out to them."
Rudolph Stier said, "The good word without the good walk is of no avail." We want to be salt and light in the world o make God visible in a world that is blind to him.
God is with us in Jesus. The Kingdom of Heaven is here! Let us be salt and light. Let us carry our mission into the world of our home; work and neighbourhood, tomake disciples for Jesus,
I know we will be nervous and we will fear that we know very little and might get it wrong but Jesus will help us and the Holy Spirit will give us words and wisdom - "The presence of Christ brings us his power and ability to use our limited resources in limitless ways." (Rebecca Pippert).