Stay Salty, Shine Bright

Intro

Last week we began our series looking at the words of Jesus in the sermon on the mount. We saw Jesus open the greatest sermon of all time with a list 8 blessings and 8 qualities that together make up what it looks like to be a part of the kingdom of God. Jesus lays out what it looks like for us as believers to live like we are His. Jesus doesn’t leave it up to us to determine what the culture of the kingdom is he tells us right here.

Now in our reading today Jesus continues introducing the sermon but he shifts from who we are to what we are called to do. It would be easy to look at what Jesus asks of us in the beatitudes think well if Jesus wants me act like that I don’t need to be around people. Maybe the monks had it right we should pull back from the world, and only spend our time around other Christians. But the sermon on the mount isn’t about how we live out our Christian life away from the world it is about how we live in the world as members of the kingdom of God. Jesus makes it clear that we have a role to play in the world.

Matthew 5:13–16 NIV

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

In these verses like the whole sermon on the mount Jesus is talking to believers. and he makes two claims about believers he says you are the salt of the earth, and you are the light of the world. Jesus uses two metaphors here to describe two distinct roles we are to fill in the world.

Before we break down what each means we got to look at the basic truth that lies behind both of them.

1. The Church is Different.

If it wasn’t clear in the beatitudes where Jesus lays out a completely opposite way of living than how the world does. Jesus takes it even further to draw a distinction between believers and those who aren’t.

These two communities the church and the world are distinctly different. We are not to let the lines blur between the church and the world. If we fall into the trap of blurring those lines and indiscriminately throw around terms like we are all the people of God. We are all the children of God. It blurs the lines and misleads people because that is not true.

Yes we are all created by God. but there is line and you are either on one side or the other. As much as we as a culture love to blur lines God doesn’t. God created all of us but we are not all his people, we are not all his children.

God’s people, God’s children are those of us who have put asked God to save us, claiming that when Jesus died on the cross his sacrifice was enough to free us from the death that we deserve, and have then been given the Holy Spirit to enable us to live the qualities that characterize the life he calls us to, and fulfill the roles of being salt and light that he calls us to.

The world on the other hand, was created by God and like us it was good, but when sin entered the world and everything in it was corrupted by sin, and everything started to die. and unfortunately those who choose to stay aboard the sinking ship of this world will also experience a physical and spiritual death. distinctly sparated from God and his people.

In light of this separation Jesus uses the metaphors of salt and light to tell us what our roles should be as people still living in the world but distinctly separate. So what are these roles

Matthew 5:13 NIV

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

Jesus says we are the salt of the earth. Salt is an extremely useful mineral. It has a lot of uses. We mostly use it for seasoning. I love salt probably a little too much when I was a kid when we would go to mexican restaurants and they would bring out the chips I would wait till my parents looked away and an extreme amount of salt on those chips. to the point they eventually started getting my own bowl of chips so i wouldn’t ruin everyone elses.

Jews used salt for seasoning but in a world without refridgerators. salt was most useful as a preservative. if know what your doing meat covered with salt can last weeks even without any refridgeration.

So if we are to be salt on the earth that means we are to do our part in preserving a world that is decaying. There is nothing we can do to stop what has been put in motion everyone around us the earth itself is decaying and dying but we can work to slow the decay. We are to be active in doing what we can in God’s power to show them a better way. To show them with our words and with our lives that there is a better. To do what we can to call our society back from the brink. In our workplaces, schools, and legislative bodies we are to be the voice that stands up and says no, thats not right, that contridicts what God tells me is true. We do what we can to buy time for God to change hearts and minds.

But Jesus gives a warning. He says if salt loses its saltiness it is useless. He isn’t talking about losing salvation here. He is saying if we lose our saltiness we will fail in our mission to stem the tide and preserve the world.

I don’t know how much you all know about chemistry. most likely more than me. before I was called into ministry in middle school I thought I might want to be a pharmacist. Can you imagine me at food city giving you your blood pressure medication. Well I could until I took chemistry, I quickly realized that God was not calling me to that. But one thing I learned is sodium chloride, salt is a very stable chemical compound, which is resistant to nearly every attack. salt can’t really lose saltiness. So what did Jesus mean. Salt cant lose saltiness but it can become contaminated by being mixed with impurities.

salt becomes useless when it gets contaminated which was very common in Jesus’ day before they could refine the salt like we do today.

2. Stay Salty by Staying Set Apart.

Looking at this bowl of salt we could find a lot of uses for this. But what if a little dirt gets mixed in, lets call that hating our fellow believers, maybe some gravel gets mixed in, lets call that we treat sin like it isn’t a big deal, maybe some grass gets mixed in. Lets call that living life to satisfy our own desires, lets mix in us watching everything the world does, having the same bad attitude at work as the world, raising our kids the same way as the world,

Looking at this salt now there is nothing that it is good for. Its lost it’s saltiness its lost its effectiveness all I can do now is throw it away.

The influence that we are called to have on society to preserve it the best that we can our ability to do that is dependent on us being distinct from the world, not identical. If we become so assimilated that people can’t tell that we are different, we are no longer good for the role that our savior has for us in this world. We got to stay salty by staying separate.

Matthew 5:14–16 NIV

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Jesus says we are the light of the world, We are to be a reflection of the light of our savior that points people to Him. Jesus uses the example of a town being built on a hill. You cant hide a city thats up on a hill cause the light from that city even with the lamps they had back then would be visable all around. We are to be that city on a hill. I’ve always thought of meaning we serve the function of a lighthouse. We shine our light as a beacon to warn people of the danger of the darkness and to point people to the one who can rescue them even in the darkest most intense storms.

That is our role. We are to do good deeds to be a light that points not to ourselves, but to be a light that glorifies God. That cuts through the darkness of this world so that people see he is where there they can find rescue.

But when we look at Jesus’ words here we see just like the salt is useless if it isn’t salty. the light is useless if it is hidden. He says people do not light lamps to put it under a bowl.

I don’t know if your house is like my house but lights get left on all the time. I will walk downstairs after everyone else is asleep and I will find every single light in our living room and kitchen is turned on. and I have to go full dad mode and get them turned off.

That would never have happened in Jesus’ time. They had lamps just like the one sitting right here. They were oil lamps. Meaning if you were going to light a lamp it was going to consume oil. and oil in Jesus time was very valuable. So you had to be smart about how and when you used it. that is why many of the houses they lived in were one room homes, so they could put a lamp up on a stand and even a small one like this could illuminate the entire house.

Their light was valuable to them because it had a cost.

3. Your Light is too Costly to Cover.

If Jesus is comparing us to an oil lamp that means there needs to be a source of that, and it certainly isn’t us. The fuel that gives us the power to live differently from the world to point to one far greater than ourselves, to deliver the good news of rescue to the world around us, the fuel that powers our light is the blood of Jesus.

It is only because of Jesus sacrifice on the cross that we find not only salvation but to live the good life Jesus described in the beatitudes. Without the blood of Jesus we have no salt, we have no light, we have no life.

And now he calls us to be the light in the world that will point our friends and family to the rescue that they so desperately need. You the church are Jesus’ plan a plan b and plan c to shine in the world to point people to Him. There is no other plan.

That plan doesn’t work the way God designed it if we live our lives hidden. If we live our lives hiding our light under a bowl we fail in the role that Jesus has given us to play in his great story of redemption. People will not get the rescue they need if you live your life hiding your light.

And to live with our light hidden also shows that we don’t value the cost that gave us our light. To live with our light hidden shows we don’t value what it took for Jesus to purchase our salvation and our light.

It cost him a death that the Romans intentionally made as painful as possible, it cost him bearing the weight of every one of your sins on himself. All so you can be redeemed and be the light that this world so desperately needs. and for us to leave that light covered is to look at all Jesus did for us and say im good. It’s not that valuable I can leave it burning but keep it hidden.

The light that you posses as a believer is valuable because of how much it cost.

Conclusion

We are not called to stay hidden behind the walls of our churches or groups of friends that are only made up of other believers Jesus calls us to go out into the world and fulfill the roles of salt and light by doing what we can to preserve the world the best we can by showing them a better way to live, and carrying for the needy, while all the while shining brightly to point people to the one who can save them.

My challenge to you to today is to consider first how salty are you? are you staying seperate from the world so you can change the world. or have you let outside influences hinder your effectiveness. What do you need to cut out of your life so that you can do what Jesus is calling you to do?

Also I want you to consider is your light visible? Is your light shining brightly on a lampstand for all to see or have you hidden it? Maybe you haven’t hidden the fact that your a Christian but you have hidden your light by not visibly living out the Christian life that Jesus calls us to. Where are the areas of your life where you have hidden your light?

the oil for light is the blood of Jesus. and it is too precious to keep hidden. Let your light shine.

There has been a lot of visuals today and we are going to end with one more visual. We are going to take communion we are going to take time focusing on how precious the broken body and shed blood of Jesus is. After you go through the line and are sitting in your seat spend time just you and Him. be honest with him and confess the areas of your life you haven’t been seperate from the world, confess to him the areas of your life that you are keeping your light hidden. and thank him for his sacrifice that has set you free and given you a light to shine.

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV

For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

1 Corinthians 11:23–26 NIV

In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.