KINGDOM IMPACT

Introduction

-{Matthew 5}

-I read a story about a local bakery in a small, European village that struggled to compete with other bakeries in the area. It was by far the smallest bakery, some would say insignificant. The owner of the bakery decided that if they were to make an impact on the village, changes would need to be made. They began to use only the finest ingredients to make their bread. Sure, it was initially a higher cost, but it was a necessary investment if they were to make their mark. When they began baking with the new ingredients, the wonderful smell of their goods wafted through the streets of the village. The villagers took notice, and soon began to fill the bakery with constant customers.

-The bakery did its business in such a way as to make an impact in their sphere of influence. We Christians are called to do much the same. We can impact this world for the Kingdom of God. But we might say something to the effect that we are nobody special. We aren’t particularly talented or smart or equipped. We might question what kind of impact we really would be able to make. The bakery in my illustration was the smallest, not the best equipped, but it was dedicated to its craft and determined to do what it could do with what it had. We Christians can do the same.

-I mean, consider some of our most beloved people in the Bible. We think that they are some sort of super-saint or something since they are mentioned in the Bible. But in reality, they were nobodies who were willing to be used by God to make an impact. They weren’t anything special until they allowed themselves to be used by God. Abraham was a childless old man from a pagan people until God used him to create a nation. Moses was a runaway stutterer that God used as a spokesman and leader. Peter and John were backwater fishermen that Christ used to upend an empire. I think we’d all agree that they made an impact. And He can do the same with us.

-In the passage that we’re looking at today, it is part of the Sermon on the Mount, right after the Beatitudes. Here, Jesus told His disciples that the life of a member of God’s Kingdom is a life that impacts the world. And so, the lesson that we leave here with today is that the disciple of Christ in some way (whether we think big or small) makes a mark (makes an impact) on the world for God’s Kingdom. And may it lead all of us to leave here wondering how we can make just such an impact.

Matthew 5:13–16 LSB

13 “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out to be trampled under foot by men. 14 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; 15 nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. 16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

-{pray}

-In the Beatitudes (just prior to this passage) we find Kingdom values that will allow us to make an impact on the world in God’s way. In the last Beatitude, Jesus says blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of Christ and His righteousness. But a normal human response would be to do whatever you can to flee from persecution and do whatever is necessary for self-preservation. The natural man would do whatever is needed to not be persecuted. But in Christ, the natural man no longer has a say.

-So, immediately after telling His disciples that they are blessed when they are persecuted because of Him, He then tells them to go out into the world and live in such a way that there is no mistaking who and what they are living for. Take on these Kingdom values, and then go out there into the world and live out those Kingdom values so people know whose Kingdom you belong to. And if it leads to persecution, so be it, because you will be blessed and rewarded. Or to use the language of the passage, go out there and be salt and light. So, what exactly does He mean? Let’s consider some lessons and then some applications. The first lesson to making an impact is to be:

1) A protection against decay

-Jesus says that you are the salt of the earth. Yes, salt in Jesus’ day was used at times for flavor enhancement, but what it was more known for was preservation. In the first century they didn’t have electricity and so they didn’t have refrigeration. In Palestine it was often hot, so it’s not like they had large amounts of ice to try and keep foods at a temperature where they wouldn’t rot. So, how did they keep things like meat from decaying and spoiling? They would cover them with salt. Salt is a natural preservative, and it would preserve the meat until it was time to be used.

-Jesus said that we are the salt of the earth. We are the preserving agent in a world that is constantly decaying. The curse of the fall has introduced sin and evil and wickedness that rots people’s souls and the world around them. How can the decay of evil be thwarted? By those who belong to God’s Kingdom living out their faith openly and publicly and allowing those Kingdom values to influence the world around them.

-When you live for Christ and His Kingdom, you hold back the rotting influence of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Where lust and pride and greed and rebellion threatens to deteriorate the culture and the hearts of those in the culture, us living out the values of Christ holds those influences at bay. We hold back the corruption so that its full force is not felt.

-But in order to be a preserving agent, we need to maintain our saltiness. That means we can’t get watered down. If we allow ourselves to become like the culture and world around us and begin to hold their values rather than Christ’s Kingdom values, we lose our effectiveness. Jesus put it this way in our passage:

Matthew 5:13 LSB

13 ...if the salt has become tasteless, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out to be trampled under foot by men.

-Now, Jesus is speaking metaphorically, trying to paint a picture and prove a point. Jesus isn’t trying to be scientific. Technically, salt is enduring—it will last. So, technically salt doesn’t lose its saltiness. It is possible that Jesus was referring to salt deposits from the Dead Sea. The salt deposits were mixed with so many impurities. And what might happen is that the real salt (the sodium chloride) would leak out and leave nothing but the impurities; thus, it lost its saltiness, its taste.

-But the point that Jesus was making is of what use is salt that doesn’t taste like salt or preserve like salt or do whatever it is salt is supposed to do. It’s no longer good for anything except to be spread out in the roadways to be walked on—which is something that they would do in that time period.

-The point being that if you claim to be a Christian but you do not hold to or live out Christ’s Kingdom values, thus protecting against the rot of sin, then are you really a disciple of Christ?

-Maybe think of it this way. Imagine a ship that slowly develops rust, but the captain and the crew do nothing about it. If they leave that rust untreated, it will corrode, develop holes, and eventually sink. In the same way, our society can succumb to decay and corruption without the salt of Christ’s followers. Our salt will hold at bay injustice, hatred, apathy, greed. Our life as salt can keep the ship of society sailing safely. But if we aren’t salt, then nothing will protect against sin and evil.

-Look at Europe where for the longest time Christianity had a stronghold, but now they are considered post-Christian. At some point in history Christians stopped being salt and now their society is falling apart. If you’ve seen the news lately, Europe is a mess. What happened? Christians stopped being salt, and the rot and decay of worldliness and false religion stepped in. And the rust is about to sink the ship. We may still have a chance in our nation and society and culture, but we better up our saltiness.

-I read this warning somewhere:

Too many Christians today don’t want to preserve anything. We want to blend in. We want to be palatable. We’ve traded our saltiness for sugar syrup, trying to sweet-talk a culture that hates God into liking us....Listen, church: salt that isn’t salty isn’t salt. It’s just grit. And the world has no use for grit.

-Let me ask you: how’s your saltiness? But then Jesus uses a different picture to continue the lesson about making an impact. So, secondly, He calls us to be:

2) A light in the darkness

-Next, in our passage, Jesus calls us the light of the world. In a world that is in the darkness of sin and death, we shine bright so that others may find their way to hope, life, and peace.

-Think about a lighthouse that shines forth light in the midst of a raging storm in the dead of night. It’s light is cutting through the darkness, guiding lost ships to safety. Disciples of Jesus Christ, like that lighthouse, serve as beacons of hope in a culture battling turmoil and uncertainty. As people try to feel their way through the darkness, we shine to beckon people to the source of light and life.

-But here’s the thing, WE are not the source of the light. We are mere reflectors of the light or we might use the picture of being a receptacle of the light. But the light doesn’t originate with us. Throughout the Bible, we are reminded that Jesus Christ alone is the true light of the world.

-The apostle John said this of Christ in the prologue of his gospel:

John 1:4–5 LSB

4 In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5 And the Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it.

-Then Jesus said of Himself:

John 8:12 LSB

12 ...“I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will never walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

-And again:

John 9:5 LSB

5 “While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

-But Jesus isn’t in the world in His physical, bodily form. So, where does His light now come from? It comes through His disciples.

-Think about the sun and moon. The sun is this giant yellow star that gives off light and heat. It is the source. But then consider the moon. The moon seemingly gives off light, but it is not it’s own light. All the moon is doing is reflecting the light of the sun back to the earth. That is why the moon is so much dimmer, and the night so much darker. But there is still light.

-We are the light of the world in that we are reflecting Jesus back to the world. But in our weakness, it’s a whole lot dimmer. And yet it is light nonetheless, and it will guide people to a Savior—Jesus Christ. Paul described it this way:

Philippians 2:14–16 LSB

14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 so that you will be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I will have reason to boast because I did not run in vain nor labor in vain.

-We could combine these verses with our current passage, and what Christ and Paul are saying is that, as disciples of Jesus, we are to live out the Kingdom values found in the Sermon on the Mount so that we stand out amongst a crooked and perverse generation, shining the light of Jesus into the world. And that’s the thing about light, it stands out against the backdrop of pure darkness.

-And, just as He did with the picture of salt, Jesus warns against not living in such a way so as people notice we are different. He says that if someone were in a valley between some mountains, and there was a city on one of those mountains, at nighttime you’d notice it because all the lights in that city would be noticeable. In the pitch black of the valley, the city on a hill would stand out.

-Jesus also says that it’d be ridiculous to light a lamp, but then hide that lamp under a basket. The whole purpose of lighting a lamp is so that it shines in the house and people can see. As ridiculous as that is, it is even more ridiculous for a follower of Jesus Christ to try to somehow hide the Jesus that is in them. The purpose of being a part of Christ’s Kingdom is that His life is noticeable within us and through us. If people cannot see the light of Christ in you, then something’s wrong. As another thing I read stated it:

The world doesn’t need your dimmed-down, watered-down, politically correct version of Christianity. The world need the blazing, unapologetic light of Christ shining through you.

-How bright is your lamp, church? Then there is one final lesson about making an impact. Thirdly, we are to be:

3) A guide to God’s glory

-Jesus says in our passage:

Matthew 5:16 LSB

16 “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

-Jesus is giving us our purpose here—you being salt and light is to lead to one thing—God’s glory. People ought to see your saltiness and your light and it attract them to God so that they will give God the glory. And of course, the most glorious thing would be for them to come to faith in Jesus Christ and they too become member’s of God’s Kingdom. But everything you do points to God in Christ.

-This goes against our natural tendencies, because when we do things, we want people to notice that we are the ones that did it. We want to be the ones that shine. We want to be the ones that people are looking at. We want to get the credit and glory and honor. We think that if we’re going to put the effort into something, then we ought to be the ones to enjoy the rewards.

-But here’s the thing, God didn’t send His Son into the world to die for sinners so that we would then turn the spotlight on ourselves. There’s nothing we’ve done to take credit for. We didn’t send Jesus. We didn’t die for sinners. We can’t even get out of our own sin on our own.

-Just think about how mad you get at school or at work when somebody else gets the credit for your hard work. At school you’re partnered up with someone for a school project and they’re slack on their part, so you end up doing most of the work. But then you turn the project in and your lazy partner starts talking about all that they did. They didn’t do anything, and yet they seek the glory.

~At work you work hard to get the report done and handed in, but your boss gives the praise and the raise to a coworker who didn’t do anything.

-So, who are you, oh Christian, to take any sort of credit for anything you do? Christ saved you by grace through faith. God brought you into His Kingdom. He led you from darkness to light. He broke the chains of your sins. And you think that when you do your duty as a servant of the Lord, that somehow people should see you and what you did? No. What we do is so that people will see our Savior. You don’t get the applause. God gets the applause.

-Jesus says that when you are salt and light and you do good Kingdom work, it’s so that when people see you they don’t actually see you, but they see your Father who is in heaven. When you help somebody out, when you live with integrity, when you show love to the unlovable, people ought to see that it is the Jesus in you that is doing it, and give glory to your Father in heaven. If your salt is tasteless or your light is hidden, you’re stealing glory from your God.

Conclusion

-Before I close, I want to talk about some quick applications:

a) You make impact through your gifting—The Bible tells us that each disciple of Christ is gifted by the Holy Spirit in certain ways for Kingdom work. So that means that the way we impact the world for the Kingdom is dependent on how God has gifted us. The way that I am salt and light will look different from the way that you are salt and light. I will be salt and light according to my gifting, and God will make an impact through that. You are salt and light according to your gifting, and God will make an impact through that.

~We can’t judge people if the way they are salt and light is different from us. If you are using your gifting in the power of the Holy Spirit so that people give glory to your God in heaven, God will bless that and you will be making an impact. That also means that just because you don’t see the immediate results of your impact doesn’t mean that you haven’t made an impact. We won’t know until eternity how God used even the smallest things we have done to do great things for His Kingdom.

b) Live with purpose in your sphere of influence—God has placed each of us in unique places and in unique roles in order to make an impact through those areas. God has given you the family, the friends, the neighborhood, the school, or the job you have for you to be salt and light there. That means you have opportunities to make an impact that other people do not. I don’t live in your neighborhood, I don’t have your job, I don’t go to your school, I don’t have your circle of family and friends. But you do. Go be salt and light where God has placed you.

c) Maintain your distinctiveness from the world—Jesus gave warnings against being tasteless or hidden. You can only be salt and light when you stand out from the world, not when you blend in with the world. When you compromise with the world or get too buddy buddy with the world, you lose your distinctiveness, which means you lose your impact. Yes, there is the possibility of persecution, but at least you will suffer for something eternal rather than give in to the temporary pleasures of the flesh.

-When I was a kid, we lived right next to a river. So, my friends and I were always playing something by the river. A lot of times we’d just throw stones into the river just to see what kind of splash we’d get. There were a lot of little rocks, and they’d just make a little plunk. There were a lot of medium-sized rocks that’d get a bit bigger ripple. But when we found really big stones as kids we thought we’d hit the jackpot. We’d lift those things up and heave them in, and watch as water flew everywhere, and the ripples just seemed to go for miles.

-It makes me wonder what kind of impact we want to make for the glory of God. Do we want to be like a small pebble whose effects are barely noticeable? Or do we want to be a huge boulder such that nobody can miss that we live for Jesus.

-Christian, come to the altar and ask God for opportunities to be salt and light, and pray that, even where He has you in life right now, you can make an impact. Or maybe you are looking for a church whom through whom you can make an impact...

-But if you are not born again, you aren’t salt or light. You are in spiritual darkness and death. Believe in Jesus Christ today and receive His light and life...