The Visible Life of the Kingdom

Sermon Title: The Visible Life of the Kingdom

Scripture: Matthew 5:13-16

Occasion: The Lord’s Day

Date: November 30, 2025

PRAY

Introduction – If Our Church Vanished…

In 1940, during the Blitz of Nazi Germany in WWII, London lived under blackout.

Every light had to be covered so enemy planes couldn’t find the city.

Pilots said that on a clear night, one uncovered light could betray an entire neighborhood.

Now imagine this:

If your home, your gospel community, your small group, if our church disappeared tonight…

Would Sanford notice tomorrow?

Would anyone feel the spiritual impact if we were gone?

Would decay spread faster?

Would darkness grow thicker?

That’s the question this text forces on us: What difference do kingdom people actually make in the world?

Jesus answers with two simple, searing images: salt and light.

Big Idea:

Because the King has saved us by grace, His kingdom people must live visibly different lives that slow decay, shine in the dark, and point people to the glory of the Father.

Today’s sermon is titled “The Visible Life of the Kingdom.”

Jesus shows us what that looks like through two main points

Our Salty Identity — who kingdom people are in a decaying world, and

Our Shining Influence — how kingdom people live in a dark world.

The Beatitudes (vv.3–12) told us what kingdom people are like in their character.

Now, in vv.13–16, Jesus tells us what kingdom people are for in the world.

Transition to Point 1: To see the first picture Jesus gives, let’s begin where He begins—with SALT.

Point 1: Our Salty Identity – A Distinct People in a Decaying World (v.13)

Matthew 5:13 ESV

“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.

A. The Call – “You are the salt of the earth”

Exegesis / Explanation

Jesus doesn’t say, “Try to be salt.”

He doesn’t say, “One day you’ll grow into salt.”

He says, “You are the salt of the earth.”

This is identity language.

This is covenant language.

This is Jesus telling weak disciples who they already are in Him.

When His first hearers heard the word salt, their minds didn’t run to food—they ran to worship.

In the Old Testament (Leviticus 2), every sacrifice was seasoned with what Scripture calls “the salt of the covenant.” (Lev. 2:13)

Salt meant faithfulness.

Permanence.

Preservation.

But most importantly, It was the sign that the offering belonged to God.

So when Jesus says to His disciples, “You are the salt of the earth,”

He is saying:

“I am sending you into the world as My covenant people— to preserve what is rotting, to purify what is unclean, to bring the flavor of My grace wherever death has taken hold for my glory.”

This is astonishing.

Jesus looks at a handful of ordinary men—men with no status, no power, no platform—and declares:

“The world cannot survive without what I put in you.”

Salt mattered in the ancient world.

It kept meat from spoiling.

It cleansed wounds.

It brought life to whatever it touched.

And without it, everything decayed faster.

And Jesus says to His church today:

“This is who you are in a dying and decaying world.”

When you pursue holiness, you slow moral decay.

When you speak truth, you preserve what is good.

When you show mercy, you season your neighborhoods with grace.

When you forgive, you shock a bitter world with a better kingdom.

When you hold fast to Christ, the world tastes something it cannot explain—the seasoning of the kingdom heaven itself.

Beloved, you may feel unnoticed.

You may feel small.

You may feel ordinary.

But listen closely:

The King of Heaven has assigned you a role no one else can play.

The world may overlook you, but God has placed His covenant salt in you for the good of the very ground you walk on.

Take-Home Sentence:

If you are in Christ, you are God’s preserving, purifying presence in a decaying world.

Transition:

But Jesus doesn’t stop there—He adds a warning.

Salt that doesn’t act like salt is unthinkable.

And that is exactly His point.

B. The Caution – When Salt Becomes Silly (v.13b)

Exegesis / Explanation

Jesus gives us a sobering “what if”:

“…but if salt has lost its taste…”

Everybody listening knew something:

Real salt doesn’t stop being salt.

But the “salt” they used in the ancient world was often mixed with other minerals.

If rain or moisture washed the real salt out, what was left looked like salt…but had no flavor, no power, no purpose.

Jesus uses a strong word here:

“to lose its taste” literally means “to become foolish.” (C.F. Rom 1:22, 1 Cor. 1:18-25)

All Cross references of this phrase… (For my reference. Not to be preached.)

Romans 1:22–23 “Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.”

1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

1 Corinthians 1:20 “Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?”

1 Corinthians 1:21 “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.”

1 Corinthians 1:23 “but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles,”

1 Corinthians 1:25 “For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

He’s saying:

A disciple who blends in with the world is foolish salt.

It looks right, but it has no bite.

No effect.

No distinctiveness.

The point is not chemistry — it’s character.

When God’s people lose their sharpness, they lose their usefulness.

And here is how salt becomes silly:

When we stay silent because speaking truth might cost us.

When we laugh with the crowd instead of standing for the vulnerable.

When our homes look just as angry, bitter, and divided as the world’s.

When we choose comfort over conviction and fitting in over faithfulness.

Every time we choose acceptance over obedience, the flavor of Christ drains out of our witness.

And Jesus says — that is foolish.

A Church can have all the Christian language, all the right music, the right spaces, the right branding…but if there is no repentance, no distinction, no holiness, no compassion, no courage…

The Church can look like salt and taste like dust, Jesus is saying here.

Illustration

Imagine shaking salt onto your food and nothing happens.

No flavor.

No preservation.

Just white powder that looks like salt… but can’t do what salt does.

Jesus says that’s what happens to a church that loses its distinctiveness.

It becomes something the world steps over, not something the world looks toward.

Take-Home Sentence

Compromised Christianity is not just weak — Jesus calls it foolish.

Transition

And when salt stops being salt, Jesus doesn’t shrug His shoulders.

He tells us exactly what happens next.

C. The Consequence – Cast Out and Crushed (v.13c)

Matthew 5:13 ESV

…It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.

Exegesis / Explanation

That’s not exaggeration.

That’s not metaphorical flourish.

That is Jesus telling us what happens when salt stops being salty.

In the ancient world, once the real salt had leached out of a mixture, what was left was useless — dusty, powdery residue.

It couldn’t preserve a thing.

It couldn’t fertilize the soil.

It couldn’t heal or purify.

It actually damaged the ground.

So people did the only practical thing:

They threw it on the footpaths, where it would be stepped on and forgotten.

To Jesus’ original hearers, this imagery carried serious weight.

In the Old Testament, places under judgment became salted wastelands — barren, cursed, unable to sustain life. (Ge. 19, Jer. 17:6).

After battles, conquering armies sometimes spread salt across destroyed cities to ensure nothing grew again. (Judges 9:45)

(For Reference)**Judges 9:45 “And Abimelech fought against the city all that day. He captured the city and killed the people who were in it, and he razed the city and sowed it with salt.”

Jesus is saying this:

When disciples stop living distinctly, they stop being useful.

And when the church stops being the church, it becomes something the world walks over — not something it walks toward.

Even worse than that, it is something the Lord will judge.

And we don’t have to look far for a New Testament example.

The church in Laodicea wasn’t attacked by false teachers.

They weren’t persecuted by Rome.

Their problem was far simpler — and far closer to home for us:

They were lukewarm.

Bland.

Indifferent.

Spiritually tasteless.

And Jesus says:

Revelation 3:16 ESV

So, because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth.

A church that loses its distinctiveness becomes repulsive, not refreshing.

Christ does not cherish lukewarmness — He rejects it.

Now, on the individual level, hear this clearly:

Jesus is NOT teaching that a true believer can lose salvation.

But He is teaching that a false profession — a Christianity without perseverance, without growth, without fruit — will one day be exposed for what it is.

True salt remains salty.

True grace produces perseverance.

True discipleship bears fruit.

Illustration

We’ve all seen it — churches that become obsessed with being “relevant,” cutting holiness for humor, trading reverence for entertainment, chasing applause more than faithfulness.

Pastors dressing like celebrities…

Comedy sketches replacing Scripture…

Live animals walking down aisles to get attention.

But it never works.

The world is not impressed.

It is embarrassed.

And Jesus is grieved.

A church that tries to win the world by imitating the world becomes something the world steps over, not something the world steps into.

David Wells notes in his book “God in the Wasteland” a quote that has stopped me in my tracks this week, but I believe it hits the bullseye of what Jesus is communicating here in v.13:

“The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is not inadequate technique, insufficient organization, or antiquated music; and those who want to squander the church’s resources bandaging these scratches will do nothing to stanch the flow of blood that is spilling from its true wounds. The fundamental problem in the evangelical world today is that God rests too inconsequentially upon the church. His truth is too distant, his grace is too ordinary, his judgment is too benign, his gospel is too easy, and his Christ is too common. (30)”

Take-Home Sentence

When the church stops acting like the church, the world stops taking it seriously — and so does Jesus.

When truth grows faint, when grace no longer stirs wonder, when His judgment no longer awakens fear, when the gospel carries no cost and no cross, and when Jesus is treated as common rather than glorious, the world turns away unmoved.

And in the end, Christ Himself will do the same — for the churches that lose their saltiness He will spit out of His mouth.

Transition

Jesus’ warning is firm:

Don’t lose your saltiness, christian.

It is our collective responsibility at RCS, as a local Church, a local embassy of the Kingdom of heaven, to guard with all vigilance that this church never loses its heavenly flavor.

But He doesn’t stop there.

He moves from the earth to the sky, from the ground to the mountaintop, and gives us a radiant, positive vision:

The Visible Life of the Kingdom is not only salty— it is shining.

Point 2: Our Shining Influence – A Visible People in a Dark World (vv.14–16)

A. The Fact — “You are the light of the world.” (v.14a)

Jesus doesn’t begin with a command — He begins with an identity.

He does not say, “Try to shine.”

He does not say, “Work until you glow.”

He says simply and gloriously:

“You are the light of the world.”

Just as salt spoke to who we are, so does light.

This is not achievement.

This is not personality.

This is not temperament.

This is union with Christ.

Scripture says:

“God is light” (1 John 1:5).

Christ is “the light of the world” (John 8:12).

And those joined to Christ by faith “are light in the Lord” (Eph. 5:8).

So what is Jesus saying?

He is saying: “My own light now shines through you. My life becomes your witness. My brightness becomes your ministry.”

That truth alone could preach — but Jesus roots it even deeper in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament Picture — Light in God’s House

Before Jesus ever said, “You are the light,” God had already told His people what light means.

In the tabernacle, God commanded Moses to place a golden lampstand in the Holy Place — seven lamps, constantly burning (Ex. 25:31–40).

Why?

Because God was teaching Israel something: “My presence is light. My holiness is light. My truth pushes back the dark.”

Those lamps burned day and night, fueled by oil, preaching a silent sermon:

“God is here… and His people shine because He is among them.”

Matthew has already told us that Jesus fulfilled that lampstand when He stepped into the darkness of Galilee (Matt. 4:15–16).

Isaiah 9 said a great light would dawn… and it did — in Christ.

Now Jesus has ascended.

The Spirit has been poured out.

And God has placed His lampstand — not in a temple made with hands —but in His church.

The world has become God’s temple.

The church has become His lampstand.

And Christ turns to His disciples — poor, bruised, unknown, persecuted men — and tells them:

“You are now My light in the world. You are My lamp in the darkness. You are My city on a hill.”

What was once said of Jerusalem is now said of every Spirit-filled church:

A beacon.

A witness.

A city that cannot be ignored.

Beloved, we the Church, are the heirs of Abraham.

We are the new covenant people.

We are salt on the earth and light under heaven — the visible evidence that God has not abandoned the world.

Illustration

In 1994, during the Rwandan genocide, nearly a million people were slaughtered in just one hundred days.

Villages burned.

Neighbors turned against one another.

Darkness covered the nation.

But in the middle of that horror, missionaries and local pastors reported something astonishing:

While towns were filled with fear and revenge, there were small churches that glowed—places where Hutu and Tutsi believers refused to abandon Christ or each other.

They hid one another in their homes.

They shared food.

They prayed together.

Some died together.

One missionary said, “In a sea of death, the church became the only place where people could still find life.”

Years later, survivors would say,

“When everything went dark, the Christians were the only light left in Rwanda.”

That is Jesus’ vision for His people— that in the darkest places on earth, anyone watching would be able to say,

“There is light & life there… there is hope there… Christ must be among them.”

Take-Home Sentence

In a world stumbling through spiritual night, God intends His church to shine — unmistakable evidence that another King and another kingdom have arrived.

Transition

And to press that truth home, Jesus gives us two pictures — a city that cannot be hidden, and a lamp that must not be covered — because hiding the light God lit is both impossible and unthinkable.

B. The Foolishness — Hiding What God Has Lit (vv.14b–15)

Matthew 5:14–15 ESV

…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.

Exegesis / Explanation

Jesus gives us two pictures everyone in His world understood.

A city built on a hill wasn’t accidental — it was strategic.

You didn’t hide a city; you elevated it so travelers could see it from miles away.

And in a home, a lamp was meant for one thing — to shine.

No one in their right mind lit a lamp and then smothered it under a basket.

You put it high so the whole house could see.

Jesus’ point is painfully simple:

Light is meant to be seen.

A hidden disciple is a contradiction in terms.

Invisible Christianity is not New Testament Christianity.

This doesn’t mean showing off.

Jesus will deal with that in chapter 6.

But it does mean this:

You cannot claim to follow Jesus and keep Him quarantined from your public life.

There is no discipleship that never touches the world.

No Christianity that never shapes how we speak, how we love, how we forgive, how we spend, how we stand, how we live.

If Christ has lit the lamp of grace in your soul, that light is meant to break out into the open — not stay buried under fear, comfort, or compromise.

Illustration

Think of it this way:

It’s like turning on a flashlight during a storm, then shoving it into your pocket… You’re left in the dark, and so is everyone around you.

Jesus says hiding your faith is just as absurd.

He didn’t save you to silence you.

He didn’t ignite you to conceal you.

Take-Home Sentence

It is as unnatural for a Christian to hide their faith as it is to light a lamp and immediately cover it with a bucket.

Transition

So if hiding the light is foolish, what does shining the light look like?

Jesus tells us in the very next verse.

C. The Focus — Good Works for God’s Glory (v.16)

Matthew 5:16 ESV

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.

Exegesis / Explanation

Jesus brings the whole picture home with one command: “Let your light shine.”

Not perform for the crowd.

Not pose for approval.

Not promote yourself.

But simply — live your real life in Christ openly.

Letting your light shine isn’t dramatic.

It’s ordinary faithfulness made visible.

It’s opening the front door of your life and letting people see how grace is actually changing you.

And here’s where many believers hesitate.

Not because their lives feel too ordinary — but because they fear being seen.

We think:

“If I speak about Christ, people will expect holiness… and notice my failures.”

“If I live openly for Jesus, people will see where I still struggle.”

“If the light shines, it might reveal things in me I’d rather hide.”

So what do we do?

We dim the light.

We blend in.

We silence the very witness Christ intends to shine.

But church, hear this — that fear is not from God!

And the lie beneath it is deadly:

“God only uses people who already have it together.”

No — a thousand times no!!

The light Jesus commands you to shine is not the light of your perfection.

It is the light of His grace in your imperfection.

The world does not need flawless Christians.

The world needs honest ones.

People who really repent.

Really forgive.

Really struggle.

Really cling to Christ.

People whose weaknesses make Jesus’ strength visible.

So let the real you — the redeemed you — shine.

Don’t hide because you’re still growing.

Shine because Christ still growing you.

But listen carefully:

If there is no public faith, no obedience, no love, no courage, no witness — the issue may not be fear.

It may be the absence of light.

A fruitless tree is not a shy tree — it is a dead tree.

A hidden lamp may not be hidden — it may be unlit.

So Jesus’ invitation is twofold:

If you’re in Christ — stop hiding.

If you’re not in Christ — come to the Light.

Now Jesus tells us what this “light” actually is:

“That they may see your good works…”

In Matthew, that means the whole life described in the Sermon on the Mount. The ethics if the Kingdom:

Mercy, purity, peacemaking, truthfulness, generosity, enemy-love, quiet righteousness, prayerful dependence.

These works do not save you.

They are not the root of salvation — Christ is.

They are the fruit — the visible evidence of invisible grace.

Purpose: The Father’s Glory

Jesus makes the target unmistakable:

“…and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

When kingdom people live kingdom lives, the world catches a glimpse of the King. (Repeat!)

A watching world may not grasp our theology — but they cannot ignore our transformation.

Someone once said,

“The world takes the measure of our Savior by the conduct of His people.”

Imperfect words — but the truth is close.

Jesus Himself says your visible faithfulness is meant to lift people’s eyes not to you — but to your Father.

And this is the heartbeat of the Christian life.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism ask the question:

“What is the chief end of man?”

And the answer is:

“Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.”

That is the aim of every good work.

Every act of mercy.

Every costly obedience.

Every quiet step of faithfulness.

So when Jesus says, “Let your light shine…”

He is not calling you to brand yourself —but to magnify your father who is in heaven.

Not to impress the world with your flawed moral goodness — but to amaze the world with Christ’s perfect righteousness.

This is the summit of the passage.

The apex of the Christian life.

We shine so that Christ is seen.

We shine so that Christ is known.

We shine so that Christ is glorified in every nation, tribe, and tongue.

That His glory would flood the earth as the waters cover the sea. (Hab. 2:14)

Take-Home Sentence

Your everyday obedience is not about making a name for yourself — it is about making much of your Father in heaven.

Others should see your works, and want what you have.

Friends, here is the bottom line:

Who you belong to determines how you live.

What you treasure will always shape what you do.

Whatever holds your heart will direct your life.

What’s inside you will always show up around you.

When your christian life overflows in mercy, peace, forgiveness, truth, compassion, and generosity.

A life this salty and bright demands explanation.

And when your life shines like that, people can’t help but ask you — they have to!

They will ask:

How do you live like that?

Why do you love like that?

What makes you so different?

And our answer should be as simple as it is profound— not a spotlight on us, but a reflection back to Him:

“It’s not me. It’s Christ in me. All I have is Christ.”

As the song we often sing here “All I have is Christ” goes,

Now, Lord, I would be Yours alone And live so all might see The strength to follow Your commands Could never come from me O Father, use my ransomed life In any way You choose And let my song forever be My only boast is You

Hallelujah! All I have is Christ Hallelujah! Jesus is my life

Conclusion – The Final Question Answered

So we return to the question we began with:

If our church vanished tonight… would Sanford feel the difference tomorrow?

Jesus says it should.

Because when His people live as salt, decay slows.

When His people live as light, darkness recedes.

When His people live the Visible Life of the Kingdom, a city can’t ignore them — and a world can’t explain them.

So here is Christ’s call to Restoration Church:

Do not be bland in a rotting world.

Do not be hidden in a dark world.

Live as who you already are — salt of the earth and light of the world.

Let your homes be salty.

Let your workplaces be bright.

Let your conversations, your courage, your purity, your mercy, your peacemaking make people say,

“Their God must be real… and glorious.”

It’s like standing beside a rocket launch — you can’t help but be moved.

The sheer power shakes you to the core, and your eyes are irresistibly drawn to the blazing beauty and force lifting off before you.

That’s what it should be like when people are around you, Christian — and what communities should feel when a faithful church is planted in their town, or when an existing church shines with the light of Christ.

This is why we are sending out Austin and Alicia in the days to come: to bring the salt and light of the kingdom wherever the Lord may plant them.

And if you are here today still in darkness, unsure, unbelieving — the same King who calls His people salt and light now calls you to step out of your darkness and come to Him, the true Light of the world.

This is the reason for which he came:

To call you out of your darkness and into his marvelous light. (1 peter 2:9)

Church, this is our moment — in 2025 and in every year the Lord gives us — to stand as a visible outpost of the kingdom in Sanford, a people our city cannot ignore because the Savior shining through us cannot be eclipsed.

So hear the words of Jesus to you today who are beloved in Christ:

You are the salt of the earth.

You are the light of the world.

Now, in the power of the Spirit, go live the Visible Life of the Kingdom.

Amen.