Matthew 5:1-16

What do you do with all your family pictures? There are some who put their pictures in shoe boxes and store them in the closet. Others, a little more industrious, put their pictures in photo albums. But whether they’re in a shoebox or a photo album, the pictures are stored away. You get them out occasionally to look to view. You recall a special time or laugh at the old styles.

Then there are the pictures you put in a frame and hang on a wall for everyone to see.

We’ve been looking at the Beatitudes on Sunday morning and in our walk through the gospel of Matthew on Wednesdays we are now coming to chapter 5 and the Beatitudes. Since I’m preaching on them on Sundays I’m not going to cover them tonight. Instead we will skip over them and pick up with the next passage.

However, as we think about the Beatitudes we shouldn’t think of them in terms of a check list of activities we need to complete. “Blessed are the poor in spirit. I’m certainly poor. Check. Blessed are those who mourn. Been there, done that.”

Instead, Jesus is giving us a picture of what Christians look like. And this is not the kind of picture that is to be put in a photo album and stored away. This is a picture God wants the whole world to see.

When people look at our lives, what picture are they seeing?

Matthew 5:1-16 VIDEO

Like a picture you hang in a prominent place in your home so that every visitor can see it, you are God’s picture he wants everyone to see. Notice the scope Jesus mentions. You are the salt of what? You are the salt of the earth. You are the light of what? You are the light of the world. Jesus doesn’t limit it to Jerusalem or Israel. He’s not limiting to the community or town we live in. Jesus says we will have influence over the entire world. We have a mission to show the entire world what God is like.

Think about what God is like. There are so many adjectives we might use to describe God, but here are just a few: love, patience, grace, mercy, forgiving, and holy. All of those and more describe who God is and what he is like. Shouldn’t we be sharing that with the world? Does the world see those things in us? Can the world see God through us? We are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

SALT

We’re familiar with the analogy of salt.

Salt is used preserve meet. Without it the meet would quickly turn rancid. With the salt they were able to keep the meet edible for lengthy periods of time. In the same way Christians help preserve the society they are in. What would our country be like if there were no Christians? What would the world be like today? There are many that like to point to how far cultures have improved over the years. Cultures are not as barbaric as they once were. But how many of those improvements are a result of the teachings of Jesus lived out in his followers? We are a preserving agent to the society around us.

Salt is used to flavor food. I like salt, though we don’t use a lot of salt in our food. I have a friend who the first thing he does when he eats out is salt his food. Before he takes the first bite he’s pouring more salt on it than I would use in a month. We just start passing him salt shakers when we sit down because we know he’s going to want one. He likes salt. People may differ on how much salt they like on their food, but salt gives flavor. Christians give flavor to the communities in which they live by their acts of grace and mercy.

Salt creates thirst. The saltier something is the more you want something to drink. Some have said movie theatres deliberately over salt their popcorn so movie goers will buy more drinks. I don’t think that true since they give free refills on the drinks, but both the popcorn and drinks are very expensive. Like salt that creates thirst, as Christians we are to live in such a way that people want to know more about God.

Salt was a symbol of purity in the Roman world. Salt symbolized purity in part because of the process they went through to get the salt. Their primary source for salt was sea water which had to be evaporated in in the sun. Christians are to be pure and holy.

In the Roman world soldiers were sometimes paid with salt. Our word “salary” comes from the Latin word for salt. We get the phrase “worth their salt” from this as well. Because salt was so important it had a great value. Are Christians of value in the culture today?

Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth. We are to preserve, flavor, and add value to the world around us. Our role is not to be against the culture. That’s what we see so much of. That’s what the world sees so much of. The vast majority of teenagers and young adults, when asked about their views of Christians and the church mention what the church is against. We are against many things. For example, we do not favor abortion. We do not favor homosexuality or same sex marriages. However, the world only sees is the things we’re against even though there is so much more that Christians do to help others. Even when the culture is completely against the things of God we are not to be against the culture, we are to enrich the culture.

The Scottish translate the word “savor” by using the more expressive word tang. I like their word. Listen to how it sounds. “You are the tang of the earth.” That adds a little to it since we aren’t used to hearing it that way. Are we a tang to the community? Now listen to the rest of the verse.

“You are the tang of the earth, but if the salt has lost its tang how can it be made tangy again?”

One commentator wrote:

The problem today is too many church members have not only lost their tang as salt, but as pepper they have lost their pep also.

As disciples of Jesus we have one great function – we are to be the salt of the earth by living out the picture of discipleship Jesus described in the Beatitudes and throughout the rest of the Sermon on the Mount. If we fail to exhibit this spiritual reality, if we fail to live differently than the world around us, then we will have lost our saltiness. We will have lost what makes us distinctively Christians. And we will have lost what we need to be heard by those around us. It would be like salt losing its saltiness.

I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t make sense. If there is no saltiness there is no salt. In the same way, if we aren’t living as disciples are we really disciples? If we, as followers of Jesus, are going to change the world we have to be pure salt. We have to be the real deal. Our lives cannot be a mixture of impurities. We have to be un-compromised, pure, and authentic. We are the salt of the earth.

LIGHT

We’re also very familiar with the analogy of light.

Light shows the way in the darkness. Again, many point to how many advances our culture has made. We refer to the “dark ages” when people weren’t nearly as “enlightened” as we are now. You’ll remember our passage from last week talked about the people of Galilee living in darkness.

The people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. (Matthew 4:16)

To say that we have light for a dark world can sound arrogant. But the darkness we’re talking about isn’t a physical darkness, but a spiritual darkness. Therefore, it doesn’t matter how many advances society makes without God it will still be in spiritual darkness. Paul wrote,

The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)

People will not want to admit they are walking in darkness. They certainly don’t think they’ve been blinded. But if they don’t know the truth of the gospel then that’s exactly what’s happened.

The world needs to see the light of the gospel. They need to see that Jesus is indeed the King of kings and Lord of lords. Jesus came as a light to chase away that darkness. He came to deal with the darkness which is sin. He came to live a life of faithfulness to the Father. And he came to show us what life is supposed to look like under God’s reign. Jesus came as light to chase away the darkness.

I think we understand that when Jesus says we are the light of the world that we are not the source of the light. We are instead reflectors of the light. We are like the moon in relation to the sun. If you look up at the sky at night when the moon is full it looks pretty bright. But we know there is not light coming from within the moon. The moon is simply reflecting the light that comes from the sun. Similarly, we are to reflect the light of Jesus.

This is not the first time God’s people have been referred to as lights. In the Old Testament God called his people to be lights. God says:

6 I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles, 7 to open eyes that are blind, to free captives from prison and to release from the dungeon those who sit in darkness. (Isaiah 42:6-7)

The problem is they eventually became blind themselves. Later in that same chapter God asks:

Who is blind but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one in covenant with me, blind like the servant of the Lord? (Isaiah 42:19)

God had called them to be a light and to open eyes but they were blind. The light bearers became part of the darkness.

We come to the New Testament and Jesus is described as the true light that gives light to everyone. Jesus refers to himself as light. We read in the gospel of John:

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12)

The one who says that he is the light of the world tells his followers that they light. It is through his people that Jesus now shines. As our lives are conformed to look like him we will show people what he is like. We will be like a city on a hill that cannot be hidden.

I remember growing up outside Atlanta. Georgia has some hills, but nothing like East Tennessee. I remember being able to look towards Atlanta at night and seeing a light on the horizon. I couldn’t see Atlanta, but I could see a glow on the horizon from the light of the city. The only way to hide that light would have been to cut the power to the entire city. That did happen from time to time. It happened one year after an ice storm. But short of that you could not hide the light.

You can hide a single light. You can hide a single flashlight or lamp. But why would you want to? If the light is hidden is does no good. And we are not to hide our lights. There’s to be nothing secretive about our commitment to Christ. We are to boldly live out our faith wherever we go. We are to let our light shine.

That’s the problem I have with monasteries. People go to live alone in quite devotion to God while Jesus calls us to live in community with unbelievers so we can show them the way to God.

We must notice the purpose of the light. The purpose of the light is never to draw attention to itself, but to shine on something. In this case we are to point people to Jesus.

I’ve thought about a question for some time, but I still don’t have an answer. I’d love to hear an answer from you if you have one.

Let’s try an experiment. I have a light for my bike. If I turn it on when the lights are on you can see that it’s on, but it doesn’t add much light to the room. I can shine it in your eyes and it doesn’t do anything. But what if we turn the lights off? Then when I turn on the light it makes a bigger difference.

You also understand that a light shines brightest in the dark. The darker the room the brighter the light shines. If I turn on a flashlight you would be able to see that’s it’s on, but it really would help you much. But if the lights are turned out the light of the flashlight shines brighter.

In our community in Elizabethton and Carter County there is more darkness than light. There’s still some darkness. There are still thousands who don’t know Jesus. There are thousands that need to hear the gospel. But we still live in an area predominantly Christian. We’re certainly not like Seattle, Oregon where there are more dogs than Christians. The fewer the Christians the more the darkness abounds. The darker the community the brighter the light shines.

Think then of countries around the world where there are even fewer Christians. Take China for example. There are an estimated thirty-two million Christians in China. That includes some groups that we would question, but that’s everyone who call themselves Christians. That’s a lot of Christians, but it’s only 2.3% of the population. There’s very little light so every light shines brighter.

In America there is still 83% of the population that claims to be Christians. Shining a light here is more difficult to be seen. My question is what do we need to do to make sure we are seen?

As the plagues ravaged Europe during the Medieval Age, families would be broken up. Spouses would abandon spouses who were sick. Parents would abandon sick children. Do you know who stayed behind to take care of the dying? Christians. Christians stayed behind even though it meant they too might get sick. They did it because they knew that mercy was their calling and that mercy would be their reward in this life and in the life to come. They were light in a dark and broken world. They were salt flavoring and preserving their communities.

What can we do to be a light that shines in our community? The brighter the light already in the community the brighter the light needs to be to be seen. What do we need to do to shine a light in Elizabethton that will point people to Jesus?

Among other things, first we have to take our faith seriously. If our faith in Jesus isn’t changing our lives we can’t expect the light to shine through us. Second, we need to be praying for the lost around us. Pray for your family members. Pray for your neighbors and the people you work with. If you don’t have a concern for the lost ask God to give you one. And then ask God to give you the names of individuals you can pray for. Third, love the people you are praying for. Listen to their stories. Learn about them so you can celebrate with them. Listen to their questions. Be with them so that you can love them and share your light with them. And fourthly, share the gospel with them. That’s the ultimate goal.

Does anyone remember the cartoon with Wil E Coyote and Ralph the sheep dog? I remember watching that cartoon growing up. If you’re not familiar with it, the cartoon features two main characters: Wil E Coyote and Ralph the sheep dog. Every morning Ralph and Wiley would meet at the time clock which was mounted on a tree. As they clocked in they would great each other and then they would go to their respective departments.

Ralph the sheep dog went to his post on the cliff and took his position as head of the sheep protection department. Wil E Coyote, true to his nature, would slink away in to the forest to plan his strategy as head of the sheep acquisition and consumption department.

As the day wore on Ralph sat patiently at his post with a protective eye looking over the flock as Wil E tried one scheme after another in hopes of making his quota of sheep for the day. However, no matter how hard he tried it seemed that poor Wil E’s plan was always thwarted by Ralph at the last moment. Inevitably as the day drew to a close just before the whistle blew, Wil E would pull out all the stops and slip into his sheep costume and meander into the fold with the hope of finally catching his prey only to realize after his pray was in fact none other than Ralph the sheep dog who had dressed himself up as a sheep in anticipation of Wil E’s scheme. Poor Wil E never caught a break.

Wiley’s sheep costume illustrates a tactic that is used by our enemy the devil. In fact Jesus warns us that Satan will do the same thing.

Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. (Matthew 7:15)

Satan will do whatever he can to destroy the flock. Therefore, it is imperative that we have discerning spirits so that we can discern the motives of those who are among us.

However, I think the greatest danger to the work of the kingdom of God is not as much when wolves come in dressed as sheep, but it is when the sheep go in to the world dressed in wolves clothing. The greater problem in American Christianity is when Christians wear their sheep’s clothing on Sunday only to put on their wolves clothing on Monday.

One of the biggest excuses that many un-churched people use to justify their lack of interest in the things of God is the fact that the church is filled with hypocrites.

I know a man who never went to church. His parents went to church, but he never did. When I talked to him this was the excuse he would give – the church is filled with hypocrites. I think this is only an excuse. The church certainly hasn’t got the market corned on hypocrites. The world has many more hypocrites than there are in the church. However, the claim that the church has hypocrites is often based upon fact.

Hypocrisy is shown in our actions and our attitudes. It’s shown in our speech and our social activities. Unbelievers see our hypocrisy when we cut them off in traffic and they get a close up view of our Christian bumper sticker that says honk if you love Jesus. The world often hears our hypocrisy when we sit together at lunch and share the local gossip about our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

God has called us to be salt and light. We cannot lose our saltiness or hide our light under a basket and remain true to our calling. God has called us to be change agents. He calls us to carry light to the darkness of this world. He wants us to shine his light so that people can see and be changed.