Matthew 9
Mathew • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 1 viewan explanation of how we can be salt and light
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Salt and Light
Salt and Light
Last week we began the sermon on the mount with the beatitudes. We learned that the beatitudes were a list of qualities that we should possess in order to attain a blessed life. From here on in the sermon Jesus begins to expand on this premise of how to live a blessed Christian life and begins by giving us what a Christian is to the world. Let’s look at verse 13
Salt
Salt
Matthew 5:13 ““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.”
For this passage of scripture I want to help you guys to understand what I do when I prepare a sermon. You see what I do when I find the meaning behind scripture is not really special. It is something that anyone who wants to invest the time into it can learn to to do just like interpretting any other literary work. So, when I look at a passage like this the thing that obviously sticks out to me is the analogy of salt. Jesus chose to compare His followers to salt, but did not expand on that premise. So, if we are to be like salt then we need to understand salt and how it works. Jesus is saying that somehow the qualities that salt possesses we should also possess. I had always interpreted this scripture partially in this light, but when I studied for this sermon I read Matthew Henrys commentary on it and he expanded on what I already had thought of and I would like to share his interpretation of the text with you.
Qualities of Salt
Qualities of Salt
Seasoning
Seasoning
What does salt do that we can somehow mimic in our lives? The first thing that I think of when I think of salt is the flavor that it has. I love some salty McDonalds french fries. Salty food is a major craving for me. When I cook salt is just an automatic ingredient. I just immediatly assume to put salt into everything that I cook. Salt is one of the most used seasonings in life and brings out flavor in food. So to should we be seasoned with the Gospel. We should be salted down with the truth of Gods word so that everywhere we go it is flowing off of us so that we may season those around us and they may be seasoned as well. It enhances our lives and so to should we be enhancing the lives of those around us, doing good works and spreading the truth.
Preservative
Preservative
Something else about salt that we don’t think of as much today is that it is a preservative. You see salt slows the decay of meats and that is how we started using salt. We would cover meat with it to travel and then when they ate it later they realized it made the meat taste better. But, its original purpose was to slow the decay of the meat. In the same way we have a purpose here on this earth to slow the decay of the world around us. We cannot truly stop the decay just like salt cant totally stop it, but we can work to purge sin from the world around us and help our friends and family to cut the evil out of their lives so that they rot of sin will be slowed in their life.
Powerful
Powerful
Another thing about salt that anyone who cooks will know is that a little bit goes a long way. When you are cooking it is very easy to over salt your food or put too much in because it really only takes a little bit of salt to make a huge change. In the same way the power of a group of believers is great and just a handful of Christians in an area have the ability through God to change the whole community. Now you probably think that analogy is busted because you can have too much salt, but you can’t have too much Jesus can you? No, you can’t have too much Jesus, but you can have too many people clumped up in one spot which brings us to the next quality of salt.
Spreads
Spreads
When you sprinkle salt into a soup or even just some water it doesn’t just stay all together, no it spreads out and mingles into the substance around it and changes that substance nearly irreversibly. As Christians we are not called to all clump together in one little camp somewhere apart from the world and hide away, no we are called to disperse into the world not to conform to the world but conform the world to us. It is good to have church and Christian friends so we can be refreshed, but we can’t spend all of our time with believers, we need to be out in the world trying to make a difference and make a change for the better. Just like salt we need to mingle in with those around us but also like salt we need to be sure that it is us changing them and not the other way around. If you put salt into your soup there is no way to get that soup unsalty without destroying the soup. That soup will forever be salty now. We should be making permanent changes in the world around us impacting the lives of those who are walking beside us every day.
Now the rest of this verse I want to be clear on that I do not know the full implications of what verse 13 is saying. I have studied and studied and seen a lot of different answers but I will tell you what I think could be true and no pun intended but I want you to take it with a grain of salt. Research this verse yourself and determine what you think it means.
So, the end of this verse is what happens if salt loses its taste. How can it be restored? It cant and should be thrown out. Now in researching for this like I said if I am looking at an analogy in scripture then step one is to understand the physical qualities of the object in question then apply it to spiritual so what I researched was how does salt lose its taste and heres the thing, it is scientifically impossible for NaCl salt to lose its taste. Pure salt is apparently an extremely stable compound and does not break down.
Here are two options for what this means then, option one is that the salt it is reffering to in this passage is not pure NaCl salt which is very likely. In that time period they did not have salt mines like we had here in winnfield, most of their salt was more scavenged from the sea shore or marshes. Their salt would have been contaminated and over time would have broken down potentially. In which case it is likely saying that if you lose your fire for God your willingness to be salty then you cannot gain that fire back.
I do not personally think that this is the proper interpretation of the scripture. I believe that God of course knew that salt could not loose its taste and was using this to say it is an impossibilty. We will go through stages in our life of being either more or less salty, but once the Gospel has come into our lives it is their to stay and we will forever remain changed and have at least a grain of that salt left in us.
Light
Light
Now with that verse out of the way let’s move on to light.
Matthew 5:14–16 ““You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. 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. 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.”
Again with light think about the physical world applications. Across the world people are born scared of the dark. We all want to be able to see what is around us it makes us feel safe and secure. Now, take it to the spiritual world. The world around us is in the dark. Many of them have no clue what they are doing wandering through life with no real direction or goal in mind. Stumbling in the dark. We as Christians are a hope to those people we are a guiding light to direct them to God. Think of it like a light house. At first we are a beacon of light in the distance showing that land is close by. This means that we are showing Christ through our actions. People can look at us and what we do and say and see that there is something different in us that makes us stand out and makes people have hope and faith that there is good in the world.
Then as the ship draws nearer the light house is an illuminating guide showing them a path through the rocky shores and into a safe harbour. When people take notice of our actions they are bound to draw closer to us and try to figure out what is different. We then use our words to teach them about Jesus and what He has done for us and what He can do for them so that they can possess this light as well.
I love the two analogies that Jesus uses here of the city and the lamp. The meaning behind the lamp is one that is more commonly thought of. It means that we should not intentionally hide the light that Jesus gives us and we should allow it to illuminate the dark world around us, but the city says that the city on the hill CANNOT be hidden. Not that we shouldnt hide it, but that we couldn’t hide it even if we wanted to. If you are a true believer in Christ well there is going to be evidence in the way that you lead your lives. I am not saying that you will be perfect or that your light will shine brightly every day, but that light will always be there. That impact that Christ made on you is always there waiting for you to feed it and grow your light so that the world around you can find Christ as well.
Finally, Jesus ends this analogy by reminding us of who the light is directed towards. The good deeds that we do and the words that we say are to bring no glory to ourselves, but to direct all glory to God. We should not become arrogant and think that we are better than we truly are. We are still lowly sinners saved by the grace of God, we are just one blind beggar leading others to the water. It is God that deserves all honour and glory for anything that we accomplish in our lives.