The Salty and Shining Christian
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Dismiss children’s ministry.
Please open your Bibles with me to Matthew chapter 5 as we continue to dive into the greatest sermon ever preached, The Sermon on the Mount. As you are turning there, I want you to know how happy I am to see each one of you as we kick off the year 2023. May we turn our attention to God’s Word.
Read Matthew 5:13-16
13 “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
This is the Word of the Lord.
John MacArthur recalls a story told by Woodrow Wilson. Wilson stated, “I was sitting in a barber chair when I became aware that a powerful personality had entered the room. A man had come quietly in upon the same errand as myself to have his hair cut and sat in the chair next to me. Every word the man uttered, though it was not in the least didactic, showed a personal interest in the man who was serving him. And before I got through with what was being done to me I was aware I had attended an evangelistic service, because Mr. D.L. Moody was in that chair. I purposely lingered in the room after he had left and noted the singular affect that his visit had brought upon the barber shop. They talked in undertones. They did not know his name, but they knew something had elevated their thoughts, and I felt that I left that place as I should have left a place of worship.”
D.L. Moody was an American evangelist. He entered the barber shop and changed the complete atmosphere of that room.
This serves as a prime example of what it means to be salt and light as a follower of Jesus Christ. Each and every Christian is salt and light. One cannot be a Christian if he or she is not salt and light of the world. All those who have been transformed by the drawing of the Holy Spirit to salvation are now salt of the earth and light to a dark world.
Jesus had just begun His Sermon on the Mount with the Beatitudes. In the Beatitudes, Jesus outlined the attitudes of the kingdom of God. Specifically, these are the attitudes that followers of Christ should be possessing. Believers are poor in spirit, mourn over their sin, are meek in demeanor, hunger for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted for the kingdom. As these believers display each of these kingdom attitudes, they will be salt and light. This leads us to our main idea.
Main idea: The Christian is a preserving agent in an ever-decaying world and a shining light to a dark world.
(REPEAT MAIN IDEA)
In today’s passage, we will seek to understand Jesus’s teaching on what the believer is.
First, we see...
The Christian preserves the world through holy living.
The Christian preserves the world through holy living.
Jesus seeks to explain this point using an illustration. As Jesus is teaching His disciples as well as the crowd gathered around Him, He specifically is speaking to believers in these verses. He begin this passage by describing believers as salt of the earth.
Matthew 5:13 (ESV)
13 “You are the salt of the earth,
He simply states, “You are the salt of the earth.” Jesus uses an emphatic 2nd person pronoun in this verse. This impacts the way in which we read this verse. We can understand Jesus statement as “You and You alone are the salt of the earth.” This is a declarative statement from Jesus Christ. The Christian and the Christian alone is salt of the earth. Unbelievers are not salt of the earth. Followers of the other false religions are not salt of the earth. Only the Christian is salt of the earth.
In order to understand exactly what Jesus is saying here, we must understand the purpose of salt in the first century. Given that Jesus is teaching prior to the invention of the refrigerator, Jesus uses salt as an illustration to point out preservation. Salt would be used to package meat during the first century. Salt would be rubbed into the meat in order that it would preserve the meat by keeping flies away from it and protecting it from rapid ruin. So, as Jesus calls these disciples and believers salt of the earth, He has in mind that they Christian is the preserving agent in the lost, dying, and decaying world.
We know from Scripture that we live in a decaying world. The world is marred by sin. Since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, sin has entered into the world and plagued the world. From the fall, sin has continued to spread throughout all of the creation. Man continually dives deeper and deeper into sin against God.
R. Kent Hughes writes, “When the world is left to itself, it festers and putrefies, for the germs of evil are everywhere present and active.”
Yet, as Jesus came and gave His life on the cross of Calvary and rose from the grave, those who call upon His name in repentance and faith are saved. They are transformed to have a new heart that desires God. They them are a preserving agent as their witness is seen by others. Much like D. L. Moody, the Christian is noticed by others because he or she has a different demeanor about himself or herself. The Christian is not like the rest of the world. They Christian is different from the world and so different from the world that others notice the difference. The pure in heart devotion to God is noticed. The poorness of spirit is seen. Mourning over sin is frequent. Seeking peace is active within their life. They rejoice in persecution as some look upon them with contempt. The Christian is salt preserving the world. Others seek the difference and it impacts others around.
However, their is a negative aspect to be salt. Notice the second half of verse 13.
Matthew 5:13 (ESV)
13 but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
Salt does not have the ability to lose its taste. However, What Jesus is speaking of here is the ability for salt to become diluted. Gypsum would get in with the salt causing food to taste terrible and causing the salt to lose its preserving qualities. It was worthless at that point. People in the first century would then throw it out on highways and roadways to be trampled because it had the ability to kill plants.
Jesus says that those who lose their saltiness are worthless. This is not talking about Christians losing their salvation as some advocate. Jesus is teaching about those who become diluted in sin and lose their effectiveness as believers.
Those who claim the name of Christ and are in sin will find themselves losing their saltiness. They look no different than the world. They talk like the world using the world’s language. They enjoy the passions of the world and hold to the world’s viewpoints and ideologies. They may attend the church, yet they live contrary to the Bible daily. They have lost their saltiness because it is a diluted salt. It is worthless and to be trampled on by men. Likewise, notice the gravity of this reality. It is no longer good for anything. It cannot be restored.
Please understand that our Christian witness matters.
Have you lost your saltiness as a believer? Do others recognize that you are a follower of Christ?
Part of our vision for the next five years is to be the strongest church in Limestone County. This is not a desire to be the biggest church numerically or to have the nicest things within our building. Our desire is to be the strongest in our Christian witness. Our vision is to be a salty church, a church that is a preserving agent in the world. A church that is known for being different from the world and reflecting Jesus Christ.
The way in which we accomplish this is by clinging to Christ. We are not made salty by ourselves. Christ makes us salt of the earth by calling us to salvation in Him. Upon our salvation, we are a new creation called to live a new life.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
We have been purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ. We are a new creation set apart with a new task. Our new task is not to be like the rest of the world. Our task is the ministry of reconciliation. The way in which we carry that out begins with our Christian witness. We are ambassadors for Christ. We represent Jesus Christ to a decaying world.
This means that our conversations consist of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. The Church at River Mills must maintain her saltiness by being devoted to right teaching and preaching of the Word of God. This will enable us to cling to the Lord. Our personal lives should be that of devotion to Jesus Christ. Our mindset should be Gospel proclamation through evangelism. When you go to the grocery store, is the Gospel on your mind? When you go get your haircut, is the Gospel on your mind? When you go to school, is Jesus on your mind? When you go to work, is the Gospel your motivation to work and your message to share? The salty believer has been transformed by Jesus crucified and resurrected and is ready to share that message with others. Likewise, the salty believer lives so differently that others notice. Are others telling the dirty jokes around you? Or, do they wait to share them when you leave? Are you watching the inappropriate movie or show? Or, do you protect your mind from such filth?
Maintaining our saltiness is not easy. Maintaining our saltiness is essential. We must do whatever it takes to be salty believers if we are to impact our world with the Gospel. It begins with the cutting out of sin.
43 And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45 And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. 47 And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, 48 ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ 49 For everyone will be salted with fire. 50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”
John Owen, the puritan preacher stated:
“Do you mortify? Do you make it your daily work? Be always at it whilst you live; cease not a day from this work; be killing sin or it will be killing you.”
This is how we maintain our saltiness. We kill sin in our lives for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ and the sake of making Him known. When we are killing sin in our lives, our Christian witness individually will be strong and our Christian witness as a church will be strong. May The Church at River Mills be a salty church seeking to preserve our decaying community and the decaying world with our Christian witness.
Secondly, we see...
The Christian shines as a light to a dark world.
The Christian shines as a light to a dark world.
Jesus provides an additional illustration to further explain the Christians witness. This time, Jesus uses the illustration of a light.
14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Light illuminates an area in order that others may see. Jesus calls believers lights of the world. This is very interesting because Jesus referred to Himself as the light of the world in John 3. However, Jesus is not only revealing that the Christian is a light to a dark and dying world in order that they may see and know Jesus Christ. The light also brings with it judgment to the world.
18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
Jesus is the light of the world. He came into the world in order to save His people from their sin. Furthermore, as Jesus is the light of the world, people saw Him and still chose darkness or sin over Jesus. The world loves sin. They heard and saw Jesus yet they chose to remain in their sin. These are those who are reprobates. In essence, they reject Jesus Christ and the salvation offered in Him. They love sin more than the Savior.
Jesus came as the light of the world. Notice, He calls believers the light of the world in Matthew 5. Because of our union with Jesus Christ we are are light to the world because of our salvation in Him. We are not light because of anything that we have done. We are light because of Jesus Christ. He saved us and makes us light to a dark world.
8 for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light
We are light because of Jesus Christ. Now, we are called to be light to the world. Like a city set on a hill, we cannot be hidden. Our new life in Christ should be so evident in our lives that everyone notices. It cannot be hidden that we belong to Jesus Christ.
Illustration: You can think of it much like the sun and the moon. Jesus Christ represents the sun that is in the sky. He shines and all see Him. The Church, those purchased by the blood of Christ, are the moon. In the darkness, the moon reflects the light of the sun. Our light is not our own. Our light is given to us by Jesus Christ and it shines in a dark world so others will see Christ and believe.
Jesus continues in verses 15-16.
15 Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.
Jesus makes sure His listeners understand. A light is used to provide light to others. It would be pointless to have a light and hide it under a basket. That would hinder the light from getting out. The light is to be put on a stand in order to provide as much light as possible.
The believer is to be a light that shines before others. We are to live out the Christian life in front of others in order that they will see our works for Jesus Christ and come to know Him as Lord giving glory to God the Father.
D. Matyn Lloyd-Jones writes:
“If we find in ourselves a tendency to put the light under a bushel, we must begin to examine ourselves and make sure that it really is ‘light.’”
The work of Christ in our lives beckons us to make Christ known. In our vision to be the strongest church in Limestone County, The Church at River Mills must be a city on a hill. Every person in Owens and West Limestone should know where we stand. The Church at River Mills must be a witness for Jesus Christ to the extent that others know the Christ we preach weekly. They know that when they enter our doors they will hear the Bible preached and not some watered-down gospel that isn’t real.
Our light must shine in our community.
Likewise, it comes down to the individual. To accomplish our vision, we must be a church that is made up of individuals who do not hide the light of Jesus Christ. The light of Christ must shine within us causing others to notice and ask questions. We must be ready and equipped to answer the questions.
15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,
As light of the world, we must be ready for when people notice. This calls for us to know what the Bible says. The church has gone on long enough having folks in the pews who know the Bible on a surface level. It is time for believers to dig in and know what the Bible says in its entirety. We say we believe it but oftentimes we never read it. I pray that The Church at River Mills will be a church made up of members who know the Word and are eager to make it known to others.
I am not saying you have to have a seminary knowledge of the Bible. However, we need to have at least read it. No better time to start than now! (New Year). Also, we have two groups coming up that will take an in-depth look at God’s Word. Join a small group and study the Word together.
Studying the Word is not only for the adults. It is for the children as well. Parents, I plead with you to disciple your children at home. If you feel like you are not equipped, please let me know and I can help you with resources that are available. Baptist Catechisms are great for children as they are question and answer books that help children understand God’s Word.
Being a strong church starts with living the Christian life daily, not just on Sunday. Being a light of the world calls for daily devotion to the Lord.
Conclusion
We have seen how this text applies to us as a church and our vision to be a strong church. Now, how does this impact us individually.
Christians are to be salty and shining. Just like D.L. Moody in the barber shop. When we are present, others should feel Christ presence in us. They should notice the difference. Why? We are to be salty and shining because of the One who came as the Light of the World and preserved us from the unquenchable fire of hell. Jesus is the Light of the world. He came to bear our sorrow, sin, and shame. He came proclaiming the Word and living perfectly. He came to be prepared as the all-sufficient sacrifice. He was hung upon the cross bearing our sin upon Himself and the wrath of God. He hung there on the cross to pay the penalty for our sin and die. Being placed in a borrowed tomb, He rose from the grave victorious over our sins. Now, we can be light in the dark world and salt in a decaying world as we have been purchased by Jesus Christ.
This morning Christian, are you salty and shining? Or, are you salt left in the shaker to never be used and a light to never be exposed?
R. Kent Hughes writes, “We are to become involved in life—in the community, in our schools, in politics, in our neighborhoods, in the world at large.”
We have not been saved to sit idly by. We have be saved for good works that were prepared beforehand. In that, we must be living out our faith in front of others in order that they may come to know Christ. Are you involved with impact. I want to challenge you this week.
For those who work daily, will you go to work and talk with intentionality and the purpose of working for Christ’s glory and pointing others to Him?
For those who are retired, will you think of one way to encourage someone this week? Whether it be a card, phone call, or visit. Will you encourage someone?
Maybe this morning, you recognize that you are not a believer.
R. Kent Hughes states:
“Jesus’ life was such that men and women were made to feel what they could not feel before—their sin, imperfection, and impurity.”
Jesus lived a perfect life that we could not. In doing so, He exposed our sinfulness. We are each and everyone sinners in need of a Savior. As we look to Christ, we see our imperfections and sinfulness. However, as we look to Christ, we see the only One who can save us. He took our sins upon Himself in order that we would be saved. Today, will you cling to Christ? Will you turn from your sin and place your faith in Jesus Christ?
Pray.