Sermon on the Mount: Blessed Be 4

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Intro

Things change when God speaks.

Throughout scripture, we read of moments in history where God had a one-on-one conversation with a person.

Where God had holy moments with His chosen people.

In the Gospels we are given the eye-witness accounts of God no longer cherry-picking specific people in history,

but in Matthew chapter 5, God - in Jesus - sits down on a hill side with men and women of all ages - each having their individual story, and their life, and experience.

And God sits with them, to deliver a new message.

That the kingdom of heaven is near to them - and ready for those who will receive it.

Just like at this special moment in history - we look at today and the reality that

God, the God of Heaven, the Author of all Creation, wants to speak into your life.

God wants to speak into your life.

There may be some of us here today that feel God’s presence more like God’s judgment. Maybe many times, we feel more concerned that if God is speaking to us it’s bringing more rebuke and wrath than real change.

But if you would listen to what He as to say to you today. If you would pay attention to what He’s speaking to you today, it will change your life.

The scriptures say “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks”… The same is true for our Lord - what does He say to you?

SALT AND LIGHT

Matthew 5:13–16 CSB

13 “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt should lose its taste, how can it be made salty? It’s no longer good for anything but to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket, but rather on a lampstand, and it gives light for all who are 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 in heaven.

Mark 9:50 CSB

50 Salt is good, but if the salt should lose its flavor, how can you season it? Have salt among yourselves, and be at peace with one another.”

Jesus is establishing what the Kingdom of God looks like here on earth and as He is speaking He is transforming the hearts and minds first in a way that will ultimately affect our whole life.

Life under God’s reign results in transformed lives characterized by humility, purity, and peace and an inclusion of the oppressed and marginalized.

And as we live out this transformation, as we carry the character traits of almighty Father God, we cannot help but have transformative impact in the world around us.

This is the intention of Jesus declaring His disciples are salt of the earth, and light of the world.

They symbology here is that God’s Church must have an undeniable impact on the world around it and enabling other believers to do the same.

Salt and Light

When salt and or light is applied in their individual applications, it literally changes the world around it.

For example: SALT

FOOD Flavor enhancer Preserver - especially in meat-packing, sausage-making, and fish-curing Binder Stabilizer

CHEMICAL INDUSTRY Used to make baking-soda, sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid, chlorine, etc.

WATER SOFTENING Removes calcium and magnesium compounds from water

ROAD SALT Used for snow melt, breaks down the ice

CLEANING Brightens rugs and carpets, and removes perspiration stains, and cleans fish tanks

HEALTH The human body needs a small amount of sodium to conduct nerve impulses, contact and relax muscles, and maintain water and mineral balances

TANNING Dyeing, and bleaching

Pottery, soap, porcelain enamel

Metallurgical processes - where salt can be used as flux in promoting the fusion of metals

SALT has a LOT of applications - and all of these are examples how disciples of Christ - that is you and me - examples of how we should be changing the world around us for the benefit of Christ. That’s what it says: “so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven!”

To highlight a few parallels in the Church:

Disciples of Christ should be promoters of fusing together in the body of Christ - and for unbelievers to God.

Disciples of Christ should be enablers of others serving God and performing acts of righteousness. God is the potter, and we are the clay - God molds and shapes us into His intended purpose, and we can help each other shine with a luster of good works. God does not want a bunch of terrible looking Christians. He wants Christians to resemble Christ.

He wants the unsaved world to look at us and say “There is something different about you - I need to know what that is”.

We’ve got a problem today of Christians not resembling Christ. We’ve got a problem today of Christians - those who say they follow Christ - that are living life their own way and contrary to the beatitudes Jesus preached.

“The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.” - Brennan Manning

It’s not that people really struggle with who God is - people struggle because of the people who profess Him not living according to Kingdom of heaven principles.

It’s not that people can’t find God palatable, its that people in the Church lose their saltiness and the unbeliever wants to spit the encounter out.

We should be flavor enhancers amongst each other and in our communities - Jesus came to give us LIFE and life ABUNDANTLY. God doesn’t want a bunch of drab, rigid, uncultured individuals.

Christians should be a JOY to be around - carrying the characteristics of a merciful, loving, and HOLY God - that projects and promotes humility, purity, and peace.

God’s design of the Church is to be seen and witnessed - the good good heart of God resulting in good good works in the world so that the world can know God.

God’s design of a Church worth its salt is one that is a preserving agent. Back before freezers and refrigerators, people used salt to make food last longer.

The salt would bind with the food and provide a protective layer that preserved it from exterior elements.

As much as Jesus was telling the Church to be salt of the earth, He is also telling the Church to be intentional in preserving each other- the saints of God.

God’s design of a Church worth its salt is one that has a backbone.

One that stands up to injustices. One that stands up to disunity. One that stands up against the world trying to bring in the world’s mess into the doctrines and beliefs of Christ’s teachings.

What do you mean?

I’m talking about being the Church that stands against every evil satan tries to infiltrate the church.

I’m talking about being the Church that stands against sexual immorality - to include the ideologies of pornography, promiscuity, and the LGBT+ policies.

I’m talking about being the Church that stands on the sanctity of marriage.

I’m talking about being the Church that stands against killing babies - unborn or born.

I’m talking about being the Church that stands on the sanctity of life.

I’m talking about being the Church that stands against fear-mongering and blood-thirst - even if its disguised as “fun”.

I’m talking about being the Church that stands against every “high minded” thing that raises up against the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

I’m talking about being the Church that is merciful and humble.

I’m talking about being the Church that abhors backbiting and insulting behaviors with every intention to subjugate another human being.

I’m talking about being the Church that stands on peace and unity.

I’m talking about being the Church that’s ready to acknowledge idolatry and false gods.

I’m talking about being the Church that puts its foot down on the solid rock of our salvation that is Jesus Christ and will not bend a knee to any other idol supposed deity.

I’m talking about a Church that reflects Christ and all His glory so that the world can know there is a God who is righteous, pure, and holy whose Heart is after every man, woman, and child to know Him and how much He loves them.

I’m talking about a Church that is preserving this world one more day, if not one more hour, that someone can be transformed into the likeness of Christ - who once did not know Him, but now does know Him - and is completely transformed for eternity, and whose life story has been redeemed by the Blood of the Lamb.

I’m talking about a Church that is full of God’s Holy Spirit, and is led continuously by the Holy Spirit, to be salt and light in this lost and fallen world.

And the only way this Church can be that is to remain holy and blameless before God and man - not giving a foothold to the devil.

This kind of Church is meant to be seen! This kind of Church is meant to be in the work places, in the streets, in shopping areas, in the communities. This is God’s way of trying to reach the world around us - its you and me!

Salt that is flavor and preserver.

Light that shines brightly and draws attention to.

Both examples working in a way that brings glory to God in heaven.

And both examples of what happens when the Church stops being that.

Salt that loses its savor…is dirt.

Light that no longer shines…leaves people in darkness.

CLOSING

What is God’s intention with this part of His sermon?

It’s to tell the Church what kind of Church He’s talking about.

A Church that lives a life of repentance is going to be quick to respond to this Word and repent for what we’ve not been - as salt and light.

Genesis 1 - God said, “Let there be Light”, on in our timeline, God would bring about the Light of men when He comes as Emmanuel.

And every time someone comes to understand the gospel - there’s a fresh new flash of light - illumination from God in the heart of man.

And that light shines within man - and shines out the darkness.

Scripture notes how the darkness cannot overcome the Light. Which is not just theologically true, it is also scientifically true. It is impossible to increase darkness. Darkness is simply the removal of light.

So as we look out into the world today, if you’re thinking the kingdom of darkness is increasing, it can’t. It would have to be that the light isn’t shining in one area that you knew it was before.

Proverbs 4:18 CSB

18 The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, shining brighter and brighter until midday.

Philippians 2:12–16 CSB

12 Therefore, my dear friends, just as you have always obeyed, so now, not only in my presence but even more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13 For it is God who is working in you both to will and to work according to his good purpose. 14 Do everything without grumbling and arguing, 15 so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, 16 by holding firm to the word of life. Then I can boast in the day of Christ that I didn’t run or labor for nothing.