Live to Shine

Our Part

Last week we looked at the beatitudes and how they are to be the character traits of a disciple of Christ! Remember, this whole sermon on the mount is about how we should live as disciples of Christ. This week we will be looking at two main topics. In Verses 13-16 of chapter 5 Jesus gives us a high fly over of our purpose as disciples. In verses 17-20 Jesus lays out how he came to fulfill the law. This is a huge paradigm shift for the Jews! They’ve been living under the Law of God for about 1500 years.

Jesus comes on the scene and lays out a whole different set of expectations. He doesn’t say things like:

blessed are the rule keepers for they shall inherit the earth

blessed are the blameless and pure in action for they shall see God

or blessed are you when others pile compliments on your and puff you up!

That’s what the religious rulers of the day lived for and touted as their “VPR” Validating Performance Record.

Last week we saw as Jesus came in and challenged our human logic with traits like being poor in spirit, mourning, meekness, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, peacemakers, and persecuted.

In verse 13-16 he comes in and lays out a word picture that is well known among Christian circles and yet, we still struggle to cary them out at times.

Matthew 5:13–16 ESV

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.

You’ll hear people say something like, “we are suppose to be salt and light” but do we truly 1) understand what that actually means, and 2) are we remaining salty and 3) what’s the purpose of us living this way?

So, what does this mean to be salt and light.

Salt

I don’t know about you, but I love salt. I put it on just about everything, often times without eve tasting it first. Why, because it makes everything taste better. If that was the only qualifier of what is “salt” in this world, things that make life taste better, I think we could easily fall for the idea that sin could be salt if all it does is make things taste better, or have a more pleasurable experience. No, salt, in this word picture, means so much more than enhancing flavor.

Salt in ancient times was very valuable. In fact Roman soldiers were sometimes paid in salt, giving rise to the phrase “worth his weight in salt”.

Ephesians 4:29 ESV

29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.

Salt had a preserving quality. We know that salt has been used to preserve meat, but really what its doing is slowing the decay of the meat. Christians should have a preserving influence in their culture.

If you ever wonder why a culture of society seems to be decaying, I believe that it is partially due to the fact that Christians have lost or are losing their saltiness.

“Most salt in the ancient world derived from salt marshes, rather than by evaporation of salt water, so it 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.”

in essence, Jesus is saying, we are to be in the world but not OF the world. When we are OF the world we devolve into it and our saltiness is lost. All that’s left are our impurities.

Romans 12:1–2 ESV

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

Light

We, as disciples, are called “the light of the world”. This is both a great compliment and a great responsibility.

Jesus calls himself this same thing in John 8:12

John 8:12 (ESV)

12 …saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

It is a compliment because the only way that WE are the light of the world is because we are found in Christ. We are the light of the world because Christ is in us! The hope of Glory! Christ in us is where the compliment is.

It is a great responsibility because of what He’s called us to. To make disciples of all nations by being witnesses for Jesus, carrying with us this ministry and message of reconciliation!

2. We are light receivers but we are also light givers!

Notice here that Jesus didn’t challenge us to become salt and light. He simply said that we ARE salt and light. We are either fulfilling that statement about us, or we are failing in that responsibility.

Let your light so shine before men: The purpose of light is to illuminate and expose what is there. Therefore light must be exposed before it is of any use — if it is hidden under a basket, it is no longer useful.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden: If you see such a city from a distance, it is hard to take your eyes off of it. In the same way, Jesus wanted the people of His kingdom to live visible lives that attracted attention to the beauty of God’s work in the life.

The idea of a lampstand gives the sense that we are to be intentional about letting this light shine. Even as lamps are placed higher so their light can be more effective, we should look for ways to let our light shine in greater and broader ways.

“The object of our shining is not that men may see how good we are, nor even see us at all, but that they may see grace in us and God in us, and cry, ‘What a Father these people must have.’ Is not this the first time in the New Testament that God is called our Father? Is it not singular that the first time it peeps out should be when men are seeing the good works of his children?” (Spurgeon)

We are the light of the world because Christ is in us. The more we are sanctified the more we shine as a city on a hill and a lamp on top of a lamps stand!

John 17:17 ESV

17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

Psalm 119:105 ESV

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

John 15:7 ESV

7 If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

Distinction- A key thought in both the pictures of salt and light is distinction. Salt is needed because the world is rotting and decaying, and if our Christianity is also rotting and decaying, it won’t be any good. Light is needed because the world is in darkness, and if our Christianity imitates the darkness, we have nothing to show the world. To be effective we must seek and display the Christian distinctive. We can never affect the world for Jesus by becoming like the world.

The figures of salt and light also remind us that the life marked by the Beatitudes is not to be lived in isolation. We often assume that those inner qualities can only be developed or displayed in isolation from the world, but Jesus wants us to live them out before the world.

Fulfilling the Law and Prophets

Matthew 5:17–18 ESV

17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. 18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets: Jesus here began a long discussion of the law, and wanted to make it clear that He did not oppose what God gave Israel in what we call the Old Testament. He did not come to destroy the word of God, but to free it from the way the Pharisees and Scribes had wrongly interpreted it.

To fulfill is to satisfy, finish, to make full and complete the law. To accomplish what the law could not do by itself.

I did not come to destroy but to fulfill: Jesus wanted to make it clear that He had authority apart from the Law of Moses, but not in contradiction to it. Jesus added nothing to the law except one thing that no man had ever added to the law: perfect obedience. This is certainly one way Jesus came to fulfill the law.

“FOR TRULY I SAY TO YOU” Truly is basically Jesus signature of authority. He’s basically saying the same thing that the prophets said. “Thus says the Lord”.

One jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled: The jot and the tittle were small marks in Hebrew writing. Jesus here told us that not only the ideas of the word of God are important, but also the words themselves — even the letters of the words — are important. This shows us how highly God regards His word.

“Though all earth and hell should join together to hinder the accomplishment of the great designs of the Most High, yet it shall all be in vain-even the sense of a single letter shall not be lost. The words of God, which point out his designs, are as unchangeable as his nature itself.” (Clarke)

Till all is fulfilled: This is true in a three different senses.

It is the assurance that Jesus Himself fulfilled the law by His perfect obedience.

It is the assurance that Jesus Himself fulfills the law in us by His perfect obedience (Romans 8:4).

Romans 8:1–4 ESV

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

It is the assurance that God’s plan will never be set aside until all things are fulfilled at the end of the age.

Our Response to Jesus Fulfilling the Law

Matthew 5:19–20 ESV

19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. 20 For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments: The commandments are to be obeyed as explained and fulfilled by Jesus’ life and teaching, not as in the legalistic thinking of the religious authorities of Jesus’ day. For example, sacrifice is commanded by the law, but it was fulfilled in Jesus, so we do not run the danger of being called least in the kingdom of heaven by not observing animal sacrifice as detailed in the Law of Moses.

Whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven: The Christian is done with the law as a means of gaining a righteous standing before God. One passage that explains this is

Galatians 2:21 ESV

21 I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.

However, the law stands as the perfect expression of God’s ethical character and requirements.

The law sends us to Jesus to be justified, because it shows us our inability to please God in ourselves. But after we come to Jesus, He sends us back to the law to learn the heart of God for our conduct and sanctification.

c. Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven: Considering the incredible devotion to the law shown by the scribes and Pharisees, how can we ever hope to exceed their righteousness?

The Pharisees were so scrupulous in their keeping of the law that they would even tithe from the small spices obtained from their herb gardens (Matthew 23:23). The heart of this devotion to God is shown by modern-day Orthodox Jews. In early 1992, tenants let three apartments in an Orthodox neighborhood in Israel burn to the ground while they asked a rabbi whether a telephone call to the fire department on the Sabbath violated Jewish law. Observant Jews are forbidden to use the phone on the Sabbath, because doing so would break an electrical current, which is considered a form of work. In the half-hour it took the rabbi to decide “yes,” the fire spread to two neighboring apartments.

We can exceed their righteousness because our righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees in kind, not degree. Paul describes the two kinds of righteousness in:

Philippians 3:9 ESV

9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

Though the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees was impressive to human observation, it could not prevail before God. So then, we are not made righteous by keeping the law. When we see what keeping the law really means, we are thankful that Jesus offers us a different kind of righteousness.

Ultimately, as disciples of Christ, We must remain faithful to the Lord, living lives of spiritual worship as we live as an act of worship to God! A life lived any other way has lost its saltiness or is put under a basket and lost it’s effectiveness and is good for nothing!

1 Peter 2:11–12 ESV

11 Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. 12 Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

Here Peter describes how our living honorable lives, surrendered to Christ, being salt and light to a watching world, all of that, has the goal of bringing others to a saving faith in Jesus. He describes evildoers seeing our good deeds and glorifying God on the day they see Him.

How we live our lives in front of others is way more important than we may think. It’s not important because of our need to be in good standing, because if we truly belong to Jesus, we have a righteous standing before God. It’s important that we live a life as salt and light so that others will come to faith in Jesus Christ! Our life is our witness. It will either tell the truth about God and attract others to Him, or it will prove to them, at least in their minds that this is all a sham!

The jews of the day saw this hypocrisy in the Pharisees and Scribes. Jesus gives us a righteousness that changes us from the inside out. Our witness is literally allowing Christ to shine in our lives as we surrender to Him!

Communion